Nantucket Romance 3-in-1 Bundle Read Online Free PDF Page A

resurrected a wistfulness for a time that was no more. A time when play reduced the hours between sunrise and sunset to mere moments. A time when companionship validated long silences. A time when safety was as close as his embrace.
    Sam had always missed him. Always when she described him to Caden, always when she stood on a Boston pier, looking across the vast ocean, but she hadn’t known the depth of her yearning until now. Hadn’t known the utter darkness of her world until the sudden presence of his light.
    Her breath left her lungs, delivering his name. “Landon.”

Four
    S am stared at Landon, the clump of weeds in her hand forgotten. They say when you die, the moments of your life play out like a movie in fast forward, and she knew what they meant now. But she wasn’t about to die. She felt more alive than she ever had, and the reason was the man standing a few feet away.
    “Sam. It’s been a long time.” He pulled his hands from his pockets.
    For a moment, she thought he would step forward and embrace her, but the years slipped between them.
    “Eleven years.” The moment the words were out, she wished them back. Was he remembering the last time he’d seen her, at his brother’s funeral? She spoke quickly as if to run an eraser across her previous words. “How are you?” It was something she’d ask a stranger.
    “I’m doing all right. Graduated and came back to the island.”
    “Just like you always planned.”
    He shifted, and a street lamp flickered on, illuminating the side of his face and casting shadows over the other side. She was acutely aware her own face was in the light now, and she felt strangely exposed. She brushed back the hair that had come loose from her band.
    “Just like.” The corner of his mouth tipped.
    Time stretched out like the shore along Madaket Beach. She wondered who he’d married, but she didn’t want to know. She wondered if he ever thought about her, but she was afraid to ask.
    Sam dropped the weeds, letting them fall at her feet, and brushed the dirt from her hands.
    “Where do you live now?” he asked.
    She heard the unspoken questions. Where’d you disappear to elevenyears ago? Why did you leave without a word? The proverbial elephant was in the room.
    “Boston.” She supposed it didn’t matter if he knew where she lived now. She supposed it didn’t matter now if he knew she’d been pregnant when she left the island. So long as he didn’t know who the father was.
    He nodded slowly, and Sam knew he was wondering what the draw of Boston was. Her plans, as he well knew, had been to teach tennis for another year after high school to bulk up her savings for college. She was going to take two years at Cape Cod Community College and graduate to a bright future in environmental technology.
    Now she was a commercial cleaner living in a neglected apartment with her fatherless adolescent. Wasn’t life funny?
    “What are you doing there? What’s your life like?” He aimed a full smile at Sam, and she felt its impact. “I want to know everything.”
    His warm eyes tugged at Sam. “I don’t know where to start.” He was too young to have laugh lines, but he had them anyway. His face had matured, time carving the angle of his jawline and the planes of his face.
    “Where do you work?”
    Sam shrank at the inevitable question. She was a far cry from the person she’d planned to become. Once, she’d planned to change the world. Now she changed toilet paper rolls in corporate restrooms.
    “I work for K&D Services, a commercial cleaner in downtown Boston.” She could have stopped there but didn’t. “I clean office buildings.” It came out like a dare.
    He searched her face, and she knew he saw right through her. She was silly for trying to pretend she was proud.
    “I heard Emmett died.” He cocked his head. “I didn’t think you’d come back.”
    She was grateful for the turn in topic, even if it wasn’t her favorite subject. She shrugged. “The house