Lover's Lane Read Online Free PDF Page A

cued, her pageboy bounced and her megawatt smile intensified. If she’d leapt into the air and executed perfect splits in the middle of the office, it wouldn’t have shocked Carly a bit.
    “I owe you one.” Carly smiled. It was impossible to resist Tracy’s charm.
    “Payback is hell. . . .” Tracy laughed, cut off when the phone started ringing. She waved good-bye as she slipped on the headset. “Potter A#1 Realty, Tracy Potter speaking. How may I help you?”
    Carly stepped outside, reassured that Christopher would be well taken care of and that he’d be waiting next door at Etta’s when she finished at the gallery.
    She closed the door, instantly reimmersed in the sound of passing cars and music from a steel drum that floated across from the park where a young man with Rastafarian dread-locks hammered out a reggae beat.
    Without warning, she shivered and slowed down. Her gaze was drawn across the street where she caught sight of a man sitting alone at a table in front of Sweetie’s Bakery, the only customer taking advantage of the warm spring sunlight spilling over the sidewalk.
    Broad shouldered, with hair that glistened blue-black in a stray shaft of sunlight, he wore jeans and a scuffed leather jacket and sat hunkered down over a map spread across the small table. The corners of the map fluttered in the breeze as he clutched a tall paper coffee cup in one hand.
    She didn’t recognize him as local. Just then, as if he sensed her stare, he suddenly glanced up. Their eyes met— or maybe not—she couldn’t tell from this distance. The usual warning bells that she still experienced at the sight of any interested stranger went off in her head, but this time she couldn’t look away and couldn’t move on.
    He dwarfed the café chair he was seated on. His shoulders were broad, encased in softly worn brown leather.
    She watched him for what seemed like an eternity but in reality was only a heartbeat until the man turned his attention back to the map and broke the spell. She watched as he used the cup to anchor one side and then press out the creases with his other hand.
    When it appeared he wasn’t paying attention to her, her suspicion slowly settled back into the shadowed corner of her heart that it never completely left.
    Maybe he hadn’t really noticed her at all. Maybe he had just paused to look up, his thoughts elsewhere. Whatever. He was preoccupied with the map again.
    There was absolutely nothing to worry about.
    She started down the street, breathing easier with every step, convinced there was nothing suspicious about a handsome stranger looking her way.
    After all, she was a woman. Men looked at women constantly. They were genetically incapable of not looking.
    Headed for Christopher’s school two blocks away, an old habit born of self-preservation made her pause and look back before she finally turned the corner.
    The dark-haired stranger was still at the table sipping coffee, but now he was intently watching Ben, the homeless wino who fed the gulls and pigeons in the park.

4
    IF A CAR HAD JUMPED THE CURB AND MADE A DRIVE-THRU out of Sweetie’s Bakery, Jake wouldn’t have taken any harder a hit than he had when he suddenly realized the woman he was searching for was standing right across the street.
    At least he thought it was her, but since he’d never actually seen Caroline Graham in the flesh, he couldn’t be absolutely sure.
    Trying to handle a cup of scalding coffee banded with a flimsy corrugated protector, he had stepped out of the small coffee shop with its bright blue awnings and café tables and decided to sit and people watch, to take in the rhythm of the town before he checked into the B and B.
    He’d just sat down when he saw her step out of the real estate office across the street. Astounded, he recovered quickly enough to pretend to be absorbed in the Chamber of Commerce map he’d picked up at the gallery.
    Just outside the realty office, she paused and looked directly at him.