Harlequin Heartwarming May 2016 Box Set (24 page)
Read Harlequin Heartwarming May 2016 Box Set Online
Authors: Rula Sinara
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We hope you enjoyed this Harlequin Heartwarming title.
You've got to have heart....
Harlequin Heartwarming
celebrates wholesome, heartfelt relationships imbued with the traditional values so important to you: home, family, community and love.
Enjoy four new stories from Harlequin Heartwarming every month!
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ISBN-13: 9781488009044
Through the Storm
Copyright © 2016 by Rula Sinara
All rights reserved. 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 publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either 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. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and ⢠are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and in other countries.
Preserving nature. Growing love. Can they do both?
Grace Huber has no interest in taking over the reins of her father's successful development company. Instead, she's busy building a dream of her own: a “green” housing community in Wisconsin's Sparrow Lake. Educator and conservationist Caleb Blackthorne is not only on the same page, the handsome single father tempts goal-oriented Grace to take time out to smell the flowers. But Caleb's rebellious teenage daughter keeps throwing obstacles in their path. And when Caleb's long-gone ex-wife shows up, along with rumors of ghostly sightings that threaten the future of Green Meadows, Grace fears she may lose all the things that matter most to her.
Caleb looked at Grace. “I don't want to lose you.”
“You won't.” She smiled, but he still felt the tension between them. It had been a long day.
“Things might get even messier,” he warned. “I hope you'll bear with me.”
Grace stepped toward him. “If you're honest about your intentions, you won't be able to get rid of me.”
“I'll take that as a yes.” And he drew her closer to kiss her.
Her lips were soft and she wound her arms around his neck. For a moment, the day's problems and irritations melted away. Grace felt so good in his arms. He wished they never had to return to reality.
Dear Reader,
In
Home for Keeps
, a couple
characters are frustrated by parents who don't support them in working at what
they love in life. Both of us, the coauthors of this story, were warned by our
protective parents that making a living in a creative profession was
impractical.
Patricia wanted to work in theater...then in television
production...then as a romance writer. Because she'd had similar youthful
desires, her mother empathized. Even so, she urged Patricia to get a teaching
degree so that she always had a job. Patricia didn't exactly follow that dictum,
but she did work in educational television for nearly two decades, even as she
wrote romances and became a published author...and eventually, a college-level
fiction writing teacher, as well.
Linda wanted to be an artist and a writer. Although nobody
else in her family had graduated from college, they urged her to pick up a
teaching degree as a backup plan. She started out as a high school art teacher,
went on to write romances and then got into teaching writing at the college
level. Throughout, she has done artwork and used the creativity she developed in
art classes to make life more interesting.
We believe that people should do what they love...
and
that it never hurts to have a practical option to
earn a living. Hopefully, you'll see something of yourself or someone you love
in Grace and Caleb's story.
Good reading!
Lynn Patrick
Home for Keeps
Lynn Patrick
Lynn Patrick
is the pseudonym for
two best friends who started writing together a few decades ago. Linda is a
professor with a reading specialty, and Patricia writes as Patricia Rosemoor.
Together they enjoy creating worlds that are lightened by the unexpected, fun
and sometimes wonderful vagaries of real life.
Books by Lynn Patrick
Harlequin Heartwarming
Harlequin Superromance
Good Vibrations
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PROLOGUE
J
UST
AS
N
ELLIE
M
ARTIN
opened the kitchen door to empty her garbage, her glasses slipped down to the tip of her nose. Stopping to punch them in place, she jerked when a ball of fur streaked through her legs. Her fifteen-year-old cat had just gotten out! There she went, all twenty pounds of her tottering straight into the dark.
“Olive!” Trying not to panic, Nellie dropped the garbage bag and followed.
She'd moved from a two-story home to a first-floor apartment in Sparrow Lake's new green community only a week ago, and her cat had never been outside here. Oh, dear, what if she got lost?
Her pulse pounding, Nellie yelled, “Olive, you naughty girl, you come back here!”
How could such a rotund cat move like that? With her arthritic knees complaining, Nellie couldn't move fast enough to catch up to the old girl. And where did Olive think she was going anyway? The area outside the apartment building was woodsy. Wisps of fog rose from the ground, making it a little scary at night. Imagining a coyote darting from the dark and snatching her beloved pet for dinner, she forced her legs to go faster. Even so, the cat slinked around a tree and then simply disappeared.
“Olive, sweetheart, please!”
Where had she gone? Nellie's heart was in her throat as she slowed to scan the area. Nothing! Then through the fog, she saw movement.
“There you are,” she muttered, heading in that direction.
But the shape ahead turned into something other than a cat. A pale, floaty figure shot from one tree to another.
Oh, dear, it looked like...like a...a...!
Starting, Nellie couldn't take her eyes from the vision, not until her foot hooked on something hard and heavy. Then she went flying, arms waving, but unable to regain her balance.
“Ohhhhhh!”
Landing on both hands and knees, Nellie saw stars from the pain. She couldn't see anything else because her glasses had flown off her face and everything was a big blur. She gasped for breath. Tried to move. Sobbed from the pain as she felt around for her glasses.
Sobbed some more for the loss of her cat.
“Oh, Olive, how am I ever going to find you now?”
“Meow...”
Nellie's eyes widened. “Olive?” She found her glasses and put them on just as her cat strolled up to her and gave her a full-body rub.
Grabbing Olive, Nellie kissed her head and clung to her furry companion with all her strength. Now all she had to do was figure out how to get to her feet without letting go. If she put Olive down, the naughty girl might take off again.
Fog swirled around them both, reminding Nellie of the distraction, the cause for her fall. She knelt there, cradling a now-purring Olive, her gaze scanning the area. She saw nothing amiss...yet...
Could the rumors be true?
Did a ghost really haunt the new development?
