Standing, Faith took off her leather apron. Like the long wooden workbench, it bore the scars of much use. The process of creating jewelry was as grubby as the result was elegant. That was something her ex-fiancé, Tony, had never understood or wanted to understand. He was lazy by nature, so the idea of someone spending her life wearing goggles and hunched over tools that marked her hands as often as the workbench offended him. Especially when her parents were wealthy enough to carry her around on a silk pillow fringed with diamonds.
Faith shoved aside the unhappy memories. Anthony Kerrigan was the worst mistake she had ever made. The important thing to remember was that Tony was right where he should be: in her past.
Sooner or later, he would get the message. Then he would stop calling her and “accidentally” bumping into her. But until then . . .
With a muttered word she reached for the phone and punched in a familiar number. Kyle answered on the second ring.
“Sorry,” she said hurriedly. “I know I’m late. Do you want me just to lock up and come home?”
“Alone? Not likely, sis. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
“It’s not necessary. I could just—”
She was talking to herself. With a disgusted sound she hung up. She had fought having a Donovan International guard assigned to her shop, but she had lost. Part of her understood that it was a sensible precaution, if not for Tony then for the rash of muggings and burglaries that was plaguing Pioneer Square.
But another, less sensible, part of her resented being dictated to by large, overbearing males. Even if they were her brothers instead of her bullying, ham-fisted ex-fiancé.
“No, don’t go there,” Faith told herself through her teeth. “You already know that you made a mistake. Beating yourself up about it won’t teach you anything new.”
Sleet spattered and clung to the windows, sliding down in streaks of winter tears. Faith watched the random trails for a few moments and thought about what life would have been like if she had found a good man to love, like her twin sister Honor had. She wondered what it would be like to hold her own child during the day and be held by a man who loved her at night.
“Don’t go there, either,” Faith said aloud, because the silence was overwhelming.
Maybe she would get lucky someday. Maybe she wouldn’t. Either way, she would still be a good person who had a flair for jewelry design and a family who loved her. She had nothing to whine about and a lot to celebrate.
As Faith locked up the workroom, she played with ideas for a piece of jewelry for her mother’s fortieth wedding anniversary. A present for The Donovan, her father, was a much bigger problem. She hoped her brothers had an idea.
She hoped, but she didn’t expect much. Her brothers were, after all, men.
Difficult, in a word.
About the Author
Elizabeth Lowell’s many remarkable historical and contemporary novels include New York Times bestsellers, Forget Me Not, Only Love, A Woman Without Lies, Autumn Lover and Winter Fire. Her latest major accomplishments, Amber Beach, Jade Island, and Pearl Cove were instant New York Times bestsellers. Ms. Lowell has more than fifteen million books in print. She lives in Palm Springs, California, with her husband with whom she writes mystery novels under a pseudonym.
BOOKS BY ELIZABETH LOWELL
Amber Beach*
Autumn Lover
Beautiful Dreamer*
Desert Rain*
Eden Burning*
Enchanted
Forbidden
Forget Me Not*
Jade Island*
Lover in the Rough*
Midnight in Ruby Bayou
Moving Target*
Only His
Only Love
Only Mine
Only You
Pearl Cove*
Remember Summer*
To the Ends of the Earth*
Where the Heart Is*
Winter Fire
A Woman Without Lies*
*Available as a PerfectBound e-book.
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
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http://www.harpercollins.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
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HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand) Limited
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http://www.harpercollins.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
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London, W6 8JB, UK
http://www.fireandwater.com
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
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http://www.perfectbound.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of either the author or the publisher.
PEARL COVE. Copyright © 1999 by Two of a Kind, Inc. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of PerfectBound™.
PerfectBound™ and the PerfectBound™ logo are trademarks of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
Mobipocket Reader edition v 1. December 2001 ISBN: 0-0607-7065-1
First Avon Books hardcover printing: June 1999
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