One of Laura Marie Altom’s Best-Loved Stories
Single-mom-to-be India Foster has never fit in. So when she’s temporarily mistaken for a guest at the high school reunion she’s coordinating, she gets a taste of the life she’s only ever dreamed of. A life filled with friends, fun—and fireworks with a handsome hometown boy, Graydon Johnson! Too bad the snowboarder is leaving Silver Cliff just as soon as the reunion’s over, because India’s determined to put down roots in the remote Colorado town.
Party-boy ways and a bad marriage behind him, Graydon’s got a second chance to be the father his own son deserves. He’s not looking for love—until he falls hard and fast. Even though he’s transitioned from competitor to coach, Graydon’s career still involves plenty of travel, and India’s made it clear she needs a solid foundation to raise her baby. So Graydon will have to prove he’s the man to help her build it.
A summer gift for readers
of Harlequin American Romance
Novellas from three of your favorite authors
The Preacher’s Daughter
MARIN THOMAS
A Baby on the Way
LAURA MARIE ALTOM
A Reunion Romance
ANN ROTH
About the Authors
Marin Thomas grew up in Janesville, Wisconsin. Like many small-town kids, all she could think about was how to leave once she graduated from high school. Little did she know that her six-foot-one-inch height would be her ticket out. She accepted a basketball scholarship at the University of Missouri in Columbia. After two years, she transferred to the University of Arizona at Tucson. There she developed an interest in fiction writing and obtained a B.A. in radio-television. Her husband’s career has taken them to Arizona, California, New Jersey, Colorado, Texas and Illinois, where she currently calls Chicago her home. Marin can now boast that she’s seen what’s “out there.” Amazingly, she’s a living testament to the adage “You can take the girl out of the small town, but you can’t take the small town out of the girl.” Her heart still lies in small-town life, which she loves to write about in her books. You can visit her at www.marinthomas.com or e-mail her at [email protected].
Bestselling, award-winning author Laura Marie Altom knew it was time to try her hand at writing when she found herself replotting the afternoon soaps. When not immersed in her next story, Laura enjoys an almost glamorous lifestyle of zipping around in a convertible while trying to keep her dog from leaping out, and constantly striving to reach the bottom of the laundry basket. For real fun, Laura’s content to read, do needlepoint and cuddle with her kids and handsome hubby. You can contact her at P.O. Box 2074, Tulsa, OK 74101, or e-mail her at [email protected]. Or you can visit her at www.lauramariealtom.com.
Ann Roth has always been a voracious reader of everything from classics to mysteries to romance. Of all the books she’s read, love stories affected her the most and stayed with her the longest. A firm believer in the power of love, Ann enjoys creating emotional stories that illustrate how love can triumph over seemingly insurmountable odds. Ann lives in the greater Seattle area with her husband and a really irritating cat who expects her breakfast no later than 6:00 a.m., seven days a week. You can write Ann by snail mail at Ann Roth, P.O. Box 25003, Seattle, WA 98165-1903, or e-mail her at [email protected]. Or visit her Web site at www.annroth.net to enter the draw for a free book.
Summer Lovin’
MARIN THOMAS
LAURA MARIE ALTOM
ANN ROTH
Table of Contents
THE PREACHER’S DAUGHTER
Marin Thomas
A BABY ON THE WAY
Laura Marie Altom
A REUNION ROMANCE
Ann Roth
THE PREACHER’S DAUGHTER
Marin Thomas
Dear Reader, Remember your first crush? I do. After graduating from college, I ran into the guy I’d worshipped from afar in high school, and my first thought was—yuck, I’m glad I moved on!
But such is not the case for the hero and heroine in my story. For Jake and Amanda, the feelings they had for each other in high school haven’t weakened over time. In fact, they’ve strengthened, keeping them from moving on with their lives and finding someone new to love.
Now fate—or rather, a class reunion—brings them back together after a twenty-year separation. I hope you enjoy watching Jake and Amanda sort out their rocky past as they discover that time and distance have turned their high school crush into real love.
Happy reading!
Marin
For My Sister Amy Not all daughters are blessed with a mother who loves them as unconditionally as our mother loved us. We must honor her memory by loving our own children the same way. Trust in Mom’s love to guide you through the rest of your life. Be brave. Be strong. Be confident. And you will make Mom proud.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter One
Silver Cliff, Colorado. Population 2,307.
The one place Jake Turner had promised himself he’d never return to after his high-school graduation. Yet here he stood in the middle of a Fourth of July barbecue in the city park. Not quite in the middle. More like off to the side—far side. Safely hidden in the shadows of a grouping of birch trees.
The town had changed in the twenty years since he’d sped off on his secondhand motorcycle, but the people hadn’t—the pointed stares and burning glances evidence that a two-decade absence had done nothing to alter his bad-boy reputation.
His gut twisted with the urge to run. He wouldn’t. Not this time.
A multiyear class reunion, the news that his former alma mater, Silver Cliff High School, was closing its doors and an opportunity to shove his good fortune in his fellow classmates’ faces had lured him back for a final goodbye to his childhood home. Jake, voted Least Likely to Succeed, had succeeded. Bigtime.
In truth, his adolescent desire to thrust his accomplishments up the snouts of those who’d scorned him and his mother embarrassed him. But the once-tortured teenager yearned to brag that the town lush’s son had become a self-made multi-millionaire.
Those reasons aside, Jake was man enough to admit the main motive for his decision to attend the class reunion was Amanda Winslow—the preacher’s daughter. The one person who’d actually cared whether Jake earned his high-school diploma.
The only female who’d crossed his mind daily for twenty long years.
For the past half hour he’d searched for Amanda in the swarm of people milling about the park grounds conversing, eating barbecued pork and getting wasted on beer and wine coolers. Over a thousand people were expected to descend upon the small mountain community for the upcoming weekend festivities, and it appeared as if half those people had shown up for the Fourth of July picnic.
Years ago a celebration of this size would have been impossible. Now the increase in B&Bs and motels popping up along the outskirts of town and the recent sale of the high school to a developer who planned to convert the building into high-end condos were evidence that the once-sleepy hollow catered to an exploding tourist population.
Jake didn’t give a damn that the town was growing. And he couldn’t care less what happened to the high school. If it were up to him, he’d slam a wrecking ball into the eighty-year-old building, which housed nothing but bad memories—except one. Amanda.
“Say, is that you, Jake Turner?”
Jake’s muscles tensed. “Who wants to know?” He glanced over his shoulder. Thad Trevechy. Aka Einstein. Five feet seven inches of pure scientific brilliance. The teen whiz kid had been the star
student in Jake’s chemistry class. “Trevechy.”
“Hey, you remember me.” Einstein stepped forward and shook Jake’s hand.
“Haven’t changed much,” Jake commented, struggling not to stare at the two front teeth protruding from the man’s mouth.
“Yep.” Trevechy grinned. “Still short and still got buck teeth.” He rolled his upper lip back and sniffed like a rabbit. The man had a hell of a sense of humor and could laugh at himself—a trait Jake had yet to acquire.
Trevechy lifted a foot off the ground. “These help.”
Circa 1978 platform athletic shoes. “Where’d you find those?”
“Secondhand store in Denver. I got a dress pair for the dinner Saturday. The wife towers over me.” Trevechy pointed to a woman checking IDs at the beer tent. “That’s Valerie. I rescued her from a life of sin thirteen years ago.”
No way could Jake allow that comment to slip by. “What kind of sin?”
“Prostitution.”
“You don’t say.” Jake schooled his features.
“Val used to work Colfax Avenue in downtown Denver.”
An image of Einstein trolling the seedy street, searching for a woman to relieve him of his virginity, flashed before Jake’s eyes.
“I belonged to a Bible-study group in college and we were sharing the word of the Lord when Val asked me for a prayer sheet.”
Trevechy gazed at his wife like a lovesick puppy. “After we prayed together and she agreed to accept the Lord as her savior, I proposed. Then I brought her back to Silver Cliff and Preacher Winslow forgave Val for her seven sins.”
“Seven sins?”
“She’d just begun her career when we met. There wasn’t a whole lot of sinning to forgive. Afterward, the preacher baptized her and married us.”
Jake would have loved to be present when Trevechy had shown up on the preacher’s doorstep with a hooker on his arm. Jake had had his share of run-ins with Amanda’s father. Over the years he’d been the recipient of sermons and stern warnings. In one ear and out the other—until he’d returned home one night the summer before his senior year and found Amanda’s father in bed with his mother.
Jake’s mother had been no innocent. She’d been a drunk and, yes, sometimes a whore. But the one person in their community who should have offered sympathy, protection and forgiveness abused her in an inexcusable way.
Little did Amanda realize that she’d offered Jake the perfect opportunity for revenge when she’d insisted on tutoring him their senior year. He’d had one goal in mind—lure the preacher’s daughter into his bed and ruin her. He hadn’t counted on falling head over heels for Amanda. They’d almost had sex once, but a guilty conscience had stopped Jake. He hadn’t been able to hurt Amanda in such a cruel way.
Several times he’d been tempted to expose Amanda’s father—but what purpose would it have served, other than destroying her family? He’d had to leave town after graduation. Had he stuck around, he had no doubt Amanda would have landed in his bed and ended up hating him. “Glad things worked out for you, Trevechy.” At least someone was happy with their life turned out.
“Val opened a new business a few years ago. The Loving Hands Daycare.”
Swallowing a groan, Jake choked, “What do you do for a living?”
“I’m an engineering professor at the University of Colorado in Boulder. I teach correspondence courses through the cable TV network and the Internet.”
“Sounds interesting.”
“The hours are great. Plenty of free time to help Val with our kids.” Trevechy stuffed his hands into the front pockets of his plaid golfing shorts. “What’s your story? You skipped town right after graduation.”
“Went to California and hired on with a software company.” Jake rolled his shoulders under the weight of the lie. He didn’t work for the company—he owned it. “The class reunion gave me an excuse to tie up a few loose ends.”
Trevechy chortled. “One of those loose ends is still around, if you’re interested.”
Memories lived on forever in small-town minds. Jake supposed everyone assumed he’d had a crush on the petite, soft-spoken blonde after their public kiss following their high-school graduation ceremony.
“Amanda was scheduled to help with the reunion registration early this morning. Did you stop by the Silver Palace?”
“Not yet.” Whether Jake remained for the weekend of festivities depended on Amanda.
“My wife and Amanda are good friends. Valerie walks the day-care kids to the library once a week for story time.” When Jake didn’t comment, Trevechy carried the conversation by himself. “Amanda also tutors.”
The tutoring comment triggered memories of Amanda… “C’mon, Jake. Stop goofing off and solve the math equation.”
When Amanda had learned that their class might be the first in the history of the school to fail to graduate all its students—meaning Jake—she’d decided to tutor him. After the way her father had used his mother, Jake had wanted nothing to do with the preacher’s daughter. When he’d rebuffed her offer, she’d nagged him in detention every day.
“I don’t need your help, Ms. Brain.”
“Yes, you do.” She’d leveled a glare at him.
“Go find another charity case.”
“Sorry. I handle one charity case at a time.” Amanda had been so sweetly determined that Jake had been left momentarily speechless.
“What if I refuse?”
“Then I’ll sit here until you change your mind.”
Amanda’s resolve offered him the perfect opportunity to seek revenge against her father, but he had to be sure she was in for the long haul. “People will talk.”
“Gossip doesn’t bother me.” That she didn’t appear concerned his mother was a drunk and the only person in town receiving public assistance baffled him.
“Please, Jake. Just try. For me.”
He couldn’t say for certain whether it was his need for vengeance or her sincerity, but he hadn’t been able to resist her plea.
Each F Jake earned caused Amanda to dig in her heels and push harder. Her gutsy I’m-not-quitting-on-you attitude had won his admiration, further screwing with his evil intent to destroy her father. By the second quarter of the year, he’d quit skipping school and had handed in all his homework on time. Their combined efforts had paid off—Jake had graduated.
Dragging his mind away from memory lane, he murmured, “Amanda must be good at what she does if she’s been head librarian the past five years.” He could easily picture the blonde sharing her love for learning and reading with children.
“How’d you know she was head librarian?”
Refusing to confess he’d spied on Amanda over the years, Jake lied, “Can’t remember where I heard it.”
When Jake had ridden away from Silver Cliff, he’d intended to forget the place and everyone in it. But his attempts to purge Amanda from his thoughts and heart had failed. Four years after leaving town he’d subscribed to Silver Cliff’s weekly Jotter—aka gossip tabloid.
Through the paper he’d learned that Amanda had graduated from Colorado State University and been hired as an assistant librarian for Silver Cliff’s library located in the basement of town hall. Five years ago, an announcement appeared in the Jotter that she’d been promoted to head librarian.
The one piece of news he’d expected—dreaded reading—had never materialized. As far as he knew, Amanda had never been engaged or married. Jake planned to learn if what he’d felt for her all those years ago had been a simple high-school crush or something deeper. He suspected the something deeper was the cause of his tightly wound body.
“Weatherman says we might hit eighty this afternoon.”
C’mon, Amanda. Rescue me from Einstein.
“Well, aren’t you a sight for sore eyes—Jake Turner, as I live and breathe.”
The sound of the familiar voice sent Jake’s heart into an uncontrolled spin. He shifted, his gaze colliding with the woman who’d haunted his memory
for twenty long years. She’s breathtaking. For a fraction of a second, time stopped and he and Amanda were back in high school.
If possible, she was more beautiful than he’d remembered. Twenty years had lent her heart-shaped face an appealing air of maturity and confidence. The wind caught her honey-blond hair and his hands trembled with the memory of sliding his fingers through the silky strands. Her incredible blue eyes, wiser with age, pulled him in as they had when they were teenagers. If not for the faint lines fanning from their outer corners, she could pass for a college coed.
Tongue-tied, he stumbled over the words, “You haven’t changed a bit, Amanda. You’re prettier than ever.”
Pink tinged her cheeks. “You’ve grown an inch or two since high school.” She edged closer, bringing into light the differences in their height. At six-three, Jake towered over Amanda’s five-foot-six-inch frame, making him feel the urge to protect and shelter her. A ridiculous notion, considering how the woman possessed more resolve than anyone he’d ever met.
“Hello, Thad,” she greeted Einstein, who stood to the side, an amused expression on his face.
Trevechy cleared his throat. “Time to check in with the boss.” Waving, he walked off toward the beer tent, leaving Jake alone with Amanda and a bad case of the nerves.
“There’s something different about you, but I can’t—”
“The glasses,” she interrupted, fluttering her light brown lashes. “I wear contacts now.”
Was she flirting with him? Pulse thundering, he teased, “I was fond of those owl-rimmed spectacles.”
Sultry laughter grabbed Jake by the gut and yanked. There was no doubt in his mind that his feelings for Amanda all those years ago remained alive and strong. “Don’t worry. You still look intellectual, Ms. Brain,” he added with a grin.
*
AMANDA LAUGHED good-naturedly. Twenty years had mellowed her reaction to her high-school nickname—Brain. Heavens, how she’d hated that moniker. So what if her IQ bordered on genius? Jake Turner had always held a special place in her heart because he’d been the first guy to see her as a flesh-and-blood human and not a robot or computer. And he’d been her first crush. A crush she suddenly was certain she’d never gotten over.
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