Right On Time by Robin Brande

Author:Robin Brande [Brande, Robin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ryer Publishing

Heart of Ice

BONUS PREVIEW

Heart of Ice

“It’s not too late.”

Annie smiled. “I’m going.”

Her cousin Shannon took another bite of airport hamburger and shook her head. “I can’t believe it. The first impulsive thing you do in your life, and you don’t even invite me along.”

Annie stole a cluster of fries. “Well? Want to come?”

“To the North Pole? No, thank you.”

“It’s not the North Pole. It’s Iceland.”

“Yeah, listen: Ice-land.”

“It’s a trick,” Annie explained. “Greenland is ice, Iceland is green.”

“I don’t care. You’ll freeze.”

“The lowest it will be is forty degrees. I’ve got clothes for that.”

“And not much else if that’s all you’re taking,” Shannon said, pointing to Annie’s single carry-on bag.

“I don’t need much. I don’t plan on going anywhere.”

“Forty degrees? That’s freezing for you. You hate the cold.”

Annie shrugged.

“What,” her cousin asked, “has gotten into you?”

“I’m just going,” Annie answered. “I’m not going to worry about it.”

Shannon shook her head. “I leave you alone for a week—”

“See? That’s what happens when you go on vacation and don’t write.”

“They don’t have e-mail in the woods.”

“Your loss. I would have told you about it much sooner—yesterday, at least.”

“Did you really just decide?” Shannon asked. “Just like that?”

“Yep. I know—it’s not like me. Strange, huh?”

Shannon eyed her cousin skeptically. “Is there more to this than I know?”

“Like what?”

“It’s the Mark thing, isn’t it?”

“No, it’s not.”

Shannon raised one eyebrow. “Oh, that’s right—I don’t know you.”

Annie couldn’t help chuckling. Although she didn’t see her cousin often enough anymore, Shannon was still like a sister to her. They had both grown up as the only girls in households full of boys. From the time they were infants until they graduated from high school they spent part of every summer together, a united front against their brothers, an exclusive two-girl club for sharing secrets and sympathy.

When Annie’s mother died a few years ago, Shannon had taken the red-eye from Minneapolis to Phoenix, then rented a car and driven to Tucson, just to sit quietly by Annie’s side and listen to her cousin cry. When Shannon’s marriage had fallen into ruin, Annie flew up to help Shannon move to an apartment and rearrange the pieces of her life.

They were both 31 now, both single again. They shared their mothers’ good looks: ivory skin, gray-green eyes, dark brown hair that Shannon kept in short, soft curls and Annie wore in a sleek page-boy cropped at the neck.

“So,” Annie said, seizing control of the conversation, “did you have fun with...what’s his name?”

“David. Fun, but not so fun.”

“Not a camper, huh?”

“Not in the least.”

“But I’m sure he has other fine qualities.”

Shannon chewed thoughtfully. “Some.”

“Shan, do you really think taking a guy backpacking for a week is a fair test of his qualities as a boyfriend?”

“Yes. How am I going to know if a man measures up unless I can see him make a campfire?”

“That’s your brothers talking.”

“But they have a point.”

“So he failed the test, huh?” Annie asked.

Shannon jutted out her thumb and flipped it over. “Cute, but inept.”

“Out he goes?”

“Out he goes.

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