Larkspur Road
P
RAISE FOR THE NOVELS OF
J
ILL
G
REGORY
“Entertaining from the first page to the last, with a romantic relationship that sizzles and touches the heart.”
—Catherine Anderson,
New York Times
bestselling author
“Jill Gregory gifts us with a perfect romantic suspense story complete with complex and vivid characters, family intrigue, a fast-paced plot, and unexpected twists and turns.”
—Fresh Fiction
“Gallops out of the starting gate…Gregory expertly weaves the various plot threads together, creating a tight, well-balanced story that packs an emotional punch.”
—Publishers Weekly
“A transfixing blend of fiery romance and spine-tingling suspense.”
—Booklist
“For tales of romance and adventure that keep you reading into the night, look no further than Jill Gregory.”
—Nora Roberts
“A first-rate romance. Gregory…writes the stuff that romance readers yearn for. If you haven’t yet read her, you’re missing out on a great treat.”
—Oakland Press
“Riveting…The ultimate seductive read…Unforgettable.”
—Gayle Lynds
“A page-turner extraordinaire.”
—Douglas Preston
“Stirring and imaginative. A tense, intelligent, and surprising thrill. Drum tight in execution, fueled by imagination, the plot is as sharp as a broken shard of glass.”
—Steve Berry
“With her usual style and gift for characterization, the always great Gregory gives readers a tale of intense emotion spiced with the thrill of danger.”
—RT Book Reviews
“The excitement is palpable. The story is priceless.”
—M. J. Rose
“Convincing characters and a rapidly moving plot… Enjoyable.”
—Library Journal
Berkley Sensation Titles by Jill Gregory
SAGE CREEK
LARKSPUR ROAD
THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
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Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
LARKSPUR ROAD
A Berkley Sensation Book / published by arrangement with the author
PUBLISHING HISTORY
Berkley Sensation mass-market edition / May 2012
Copyright © 2012 by Jill Gregory.
Excerpt from
Sage Creek
by Jill Gregory copyright © 2011 by Jill Gregory.
Cover design by Rita Frangie.
Cover art by Hugh Syme.
Interior text design by Kristin del Rosario.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or
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375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
ISBN: 978-1-101-56897-2
BERKLEY SENSATION®
Berkley Sensation Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
BERKLEY SENSATION® is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
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If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is
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ALWAYS LEARNING
PEARSON
To my family, with love
A huge thank-you to Leslie LaFoy, friend and quilter extraordinaire, for so generously sharing her time and expertise. Leslie, you’re not only a marvelous quilter, you’re a lovely friend and a patient teacher. Thanks for your invaluable help! And to Marianne Willman, my dear and wonderful friend, thank you for your wisdom and insights, and most of all, for your treasured friendship all of these years.
“When will we get there? To Sage Ranch?”
The sleepy, but still wary voice of the boy in the passenger seat broke the silence of the moonless Montana night.
Travis Tanner glanced at his scrawny ten-year-old adopted stepson. Then back at the long, empty road leading them to Lonesome Way and his family’s ranch. The vast darkness of the June night nearly obliterated the peaks of the Crazy Mountains in the distance—but not quite. A few stars gleamed, despite the clouds, illuminating the faint outline of hefty granite peaks spiraling up, dwarfing the road, the trees, and certainly the black Explorer and its two passengers driving down that lonely road.
“Soon,” Travis said quietly. “We’ll be there soon. Another twenty minutes, half hour, tops.”
It was almost midnight and Grady had been sleeping since ten o’clock. But now the brown-haired boy with his mother’s green eyes looked like he was going to be awake for the duration. Awake and uneasy.
“You need a pit stop?” Travis asked as the Explorer sped past a coyote stealing furtively through some brush at the side of the road. “There’s a gas station coming up just outside of Lonesome Way.”
“I’m okay,” Grady mumbled. His voice sounded low, defensive. And just a tad sulky. Which matched the expression on his face ever since Travis had picked him up at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix the previous afternoon, after Val plopped him on a plane in L.A.
The poor kid didn’t know what to expect, Travis reflected, his jaw tightening. One minute he’d been in L.A., in his big fancy new house with an Olympic-sized swimming pool, cabana, guest house, game room, and thirty-seat home theater, and the next he’d been shipped off for the summer with his adoptive father, who was no longer even married to his mother—and was on his way to a remote ranch the kid had been to only once in his life and probably didn’t even remember.
Travis had been stunned when his ex-wife called him, her voice high-pitched and shaking with tension as she yelled that she and her new husband were at the end of their rope and couldn’t handle Grady anymore, that they needed a break. She’d said Grady had failed a class at school and would probably need to repeat fifth grade. He hadn’t bothered doing homework, he’d skipped classes, he’d mouthed off to teachers. Worse, he’d been getting into fights and had even been suspended for the last two weeks of school before summer vacation started.
“Drew’s really angry—and I just can’t take it anymore. The two of them…they just don’t…Travis, you’re his father legally, and I need you to take him for the summer! I really can’t deal with any of this right now. Drew and I—we’re having a big party here in a few weeks—one hundred guests—and I’m at my wit’s end. There’s so much to do, and Grady, he’s so difficult—I just can’t handle—”
“I’ll come get him,” Travis had said instantly. Not for
Val’s sake, that was for damned sure, but for Grady’s. He’d first met Val’s son, then four years old, when he picked her up for their second date. Val’s first husband, Kevin, had died of cancer two years before, when Grady was only a toddler.
The Grady he’d met that night had been a tiny fast-motion machine, a tousle-haired, pug-nosed imp, precocious, funny as hell, and possessing a sweet smile that had burrowed its way into Travis’s heart. A year after he and Val tied the knot, Travis had legally adopted his stepson and had loved being a father to him, even after things went south between him and Val.