On Shadow Beach
“I wanted you from the first second I saw you.”
Lauren’s heart sped up at the look in his eyes. “I never knew why. I was so not your type. Before me, you went with all the beautiful, wild girls.”
“You were different.”
She waited for him to elaborate, but Shane remained silent. “Different how?” she prodded, annoyed with herself because she shouldn’t care.
He thought for a moment. “Honest. Genuine. Real.”
“You make me sound like a Girl Scout,” she complained.
“I don’t think what we did together was in any Girl Scout handbook,” he said lightly. “In fact, being on this beach with you reminds me of the night we—”
“Don’t go there,” she warned.
“Why not?”
“Because I’ve already been there today,” she confessed.
“Really?” His brown eyes sparkled wickedly. “It was a good night.”
“Yes, it was,” she admitted, meeting his gaze, the delicious heat of their memories dancing between them. Her fingers bit into the hard rock she was sitting on, as she forced herself not to get up and fling herself into his arms and see if it was as great as she remembered. “Stop looking at me like that,” she ordered.
“You’re looking at me the same way. It’s still there, Lauren—no matter how much we want to deny it.”
Praise for the first novel in the Angel’s Bay series
SUDDENLY ONE SUMMER
“This book has it all: heart, community, and characters who will remain with you long after the book has ended. A wonderful story.”
—
New York Times
bestselling author Debbie Macomber
“
Suddenly One Summer
delivers a double whammy to the heart. Ms. Freethy cuts to the core with her depiction of a woman in jeopardy and a man who no longer believes that life has anything to offer. . . . A story that will keep you spellbound.”
—
Winter Haven News
(FL)
“A large cast of townspeople adds to this intriguing, suspenseful romance, which is the first of Freethy’s Angel’s Bay novels. Freethy has a gift for creating complex, appealing characters and emotionally involving, often suspenseful, sometimes magical stories.”
—
Library Journal
“
Suddenly One Summer
transported me to a beautiful place and drew me into a story of family secrets, passion, betrayal and redemption.”
—
New York Times
bestselling author Susan Wiggs
“Angel’s Bay, brimming with old and new relationships, some floundering and others new with hopes and dreams, promises many poignant and heartwarming stories.”
—Fresh Fiction
“Freethy has written a suspenseful and captivating story, weaving in human frailty along with true compassion, making every page a delight.”
—Reader to Reader Reviews
“Angel’s Bay is a place I’ll want to visit time and again. . . . Freethy has done a beautiful job of weaving a compelling story while having the patience to fully develop characters who will become our friends, characters with whom we will share joys, sorrows, and all of life’s adventures.”
—Romance Novel TV
“A well-written, captivating story, with good pacing that will leave you satisfied as it unfolds. There is a little bit of everything—romance, mystery, and inexplicable events—a fascinating story sure to make your summer reading a pleasure.”
—Romance Reviews Today
And for award-winning author Barbara Freethy
“Barbara Freethy delivers strong and compelling prose.”
—
Publishers Weekly
“Fans of Nora Roberts will find a similar tone here, framed in Freethy’s own spare, elegant style.”
—
Contra Costa Times
(CA)
“Freethy skillfully keeps readers on the hook.”
—
Booklist
“Freethy’s star continues to gain luster.”
—
Romantic Times
A
LSO BY
B
ARBARA
F
REETHY
Suddenly One Summer
Now Available from Pocket Star
And look for the next book in the Angel’s Bay series
In Shelter Cove
Coming soon from Pocket Star
On Shadow
Beach
Pocket Star Books
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2010 by Barbara Freethy
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First Pocket Star Books paperback edition April 2010
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Designed by Jill Putorti
ISBN 978-1-4391-0157-5
ISBN 978-1-4391-2698-1 (ebook)
In memory of my mother,
who shared her love of reading with me,
and is surely an angel now.
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Don’t forget
to click through after
ON SHADOW BEACH
for an exclusive sneak peek
at IN SHELTER COVE
and Barbara Freethy’s next heartwarming tale
THE WAY BACK HOME
Available from Pocket Books July 2012
CKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to my writing friends with whom I enjoy lunches, chocolate, and lots of wonderful, sometimes crazy, brainstorming sessions. You know who you are and how much you mean to me. Thanks also go to my wonderful editor, Micki Nuding, whose enthusiasm and support are always appreciated, as well as to my astute and insightful agent, Karen Solem.
Thanks to my family for their never-ending support and to my tennis friends, who keep me sane and fit by running me around on the tennis court. I couldn’t do it without all of you!
NE
Just like before, the front door was ajar, every light in the house was on, and a game show played on the television. Lauren Jamison put down her suitcase, feeling uneasy.
Thirteen years had passed since she’d been home, but the living room looked the same: the brown leather recliner by the fireplace where her dad read the paper every evening, the couch her sister, Abby, used to curl up on and write in her journal, the table by the window where her mother and little brother, David, played board games. The furniture remained, but all of the people were gone. All except one.
“Dad?” she called.
The answering silence tightened her nerves. She needed her father to appear, to remind her that this
wasn’t
like before. Because thirteen years ago she’d
returned home late one night, an innocent seventeen-year-old, and found the front door open, lights blazing, and her mother sobbing hysterically. Nothing had been the same after that.
The whistle of a teakettle drew her toward the kitchen, but the room was empty. She turned off the stove and moved into the hall, checking each bedroom. Her father’s room was cluttered with clothes. Only the faded floral curtains betrayed her mother’s once important influence on the décor. David’s bedroom had been turned into an office that was covered in dust and papers. The room at the end of the hall had belonged to her and to Abby.
The door was closed, and Lauren’s steps slowed. Her father might have redone the room, boxed up Abby’s things and given them to charity—or the room might look exactly the same as it had the night Abby died. Her heart skipped a beat.