Everybody Knows (Sunnyside #1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

on a rail first.
    All the women here had their hair done at the
Sheer Delight or the Cut ‘n’ Curl, and nobody here had hair that glowed in the
sun with red and gold highlights or swung sleekly around her shoulders like
tousled silk begging to be crushed.
    In Sunnyside, people bought their everyday clothes
from Wal-Mart and their good clothes from JCPenney. Undoubtedly, Harper Simmons
had never set foot in any store with such commonplace names.
    No matter how much he wanted to strip her out of
that cling-on designer dress, leaving her in nothing but those do-me heels and
whatever teeny tiny transparent scraps she might consider underwear, he had to
remember his goal. His Plan. His Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free Card.
    Apparently, the breath-taking, but misguided
Harper Simmons had chosen to come here. She wanted to stay for reasons of her
own. Whatever she wanted to find here he couldn’t fathom, but it wasn’t what he
needed, which was to get far away as soon as possible. Leaving the weight of
his past behind.
    Which made him the most ungrateful, hard-hearted,
deceitful bastard that ever lived.
    The good people of Sunnyside had supported him in
every pursuit in his entire life, but that support carried a soul-sucking
responsibility that left him hollow and resentful. They had too much knowledge
of his past, too much involvement in his present, and too many expectations
about his future.
    So he could lust after this high-maintenance
beauty, breathe in her expensive perfume, and feel the temperature around him
elevate from too-hot-for-comfort to incendiary passion just because she stood
too close and batted those long, sweeping lashes up at him. He could picture
her sizzling and sweaty with her hair tangled and her skin flushed and her
lips—oh, God, yes—he could picture her lush lips trailing down his stomach in a
steamy path.
    He could picture all of that, clear as sunrise.
But even if she were agreeable to a brief but satisfactory romp as his own
personal sexual playground—which was a freaking big if —he wouldn’t suggest it. Not here. Not now. Maybe not ever.
    Probably not ever.
    For her own good and his.
    He didn’t want or need more ties to this place.
The town would judge the idea of the new librarian having an affair with anyone
harshly, but especially with him. They had other plans for him.
    The frustrating result of those combined
roadblocks had him gripping her shoulders and firmly moving her away from their
nearly chest-to-chest contact to a much safer arm’s length away. A distance
that allowed him to cool down and get his head on straight. The head on his
shoulders, not the other stupider one that was screaming “closer, closer” and
didn’t want to co-operate.
    But it would. It definitely would as he pinned on
his professional expression and planned to put her in a safe place far, far,
away from him. He firmly ignored the way the expanding space between them
transformed her expression from flirtatious to guarded to neutral.
    “Like I said, my family’s out at the farm, so you
can’t stay with me. But my sister has her own place here in town. I’ll check
with her first. But I’m sure she wouldn’t mind if you stayed there while she’s
gone.”
    Harper grinned ruefully. “Nearby?”
    “Two doors down on the street behind us.”
    “Just one question.” She looked up at him.
    He nodded the go-ahead.
    “Umm, I appreciate the help and I’m not sure how
to ask, but... who are you?” She laughed, a throaty little chuckle that sounded
low and intimate, and just like that, the heat index surrounding them surged
upward again.
    Shoving his hands into his pockets, he took
another step back, increasing the distance that prevented him from pulling her
into his arms and kissing that happy, succulent mouth. The impulse to do so
blindsided him, but he held firm.
    “Malcolm Newcomb was supposed to meet me here,”
she continued, “and you are definitely not Malcolm. The Pippa Welcoming
Committee said that