Sanctuary Island Read Online Free PDF Page A

the streaks of punk-rock red highlighting her brown hair. “What’s his name?”
    “Yep, he’s a gelding. I call him Voyager. Do you ride?”
    Merry shook her head, hand still outstretched and that enchanted look turning her pixieish face soft and dreamy. “Never had the chance to learn.”
    Ella squeezed an arm around her sister’s shoulders, a pang hitting her heart.
    “It’s not too late,” the man observed, watching them. “I’m sure your mom would love to teach you. Or I could.”
    Time to take control of this encounter. Sending the rider a frosty smile, Ella said, “Oh, I think we’ve taken up enough of your no doubt valuable time. Just tell me how to get to Jo’s house, and we’ll be out of your hair.”
    With a reluctant sigh, Merry gave the horse’s nose one last stroke and said, “Guess I’ll start the ten-minute process of squishing this blimp of a body back into the car. Nice to meet you and Voyager.”
    Ella waited until Merry was in the car before whirling to face the unnamed stranger who felt he had the right to meddle in their relationship with their mother.
    “Look. I understand you’re a friend of Jo Ellen’s,” Ella said, striving to keep her voice even. “But that doesn’t give you the right to pass judgment on me or to put ideas in Merry’s head about what this visit is going to be like. You don’t know us. You don’t know our family history, and frankly, it’s none of your business, anyway. So tell me how to get out of here, and hopefully that will be the last we’ll see of each other.”
    He studied her for an endless moment, the heat in his green eyes taking away the chill of the storm-washed morning air. There was something new on his face, an expression she couldn’t read, as he stared down at her.
    A pulse of feminine awareness pulled at Ella’s consciousness, but she didn’t allow herself to break eye contact.
    “You’re right,” he finally said, his drawl slow and rough as honey over gravel. “I don’t know you, but I do know your mother. And if you’re here to break her heart, then the only directions I’m going to give you are for how to get back to the mainland.”
    *   *   *
    Fire kindled in her blue eyes—that same clear blue she shared with her mother and sister. Grady Wilkes stood his ground in the face of Ella’s shocked anger, but it wasn’t the easiest thing he’d ever done.
    After five years on Sanctuary Island, surrounded by friends and family, he was a little out of practice when it came to dealing with strangers.
    And despite how much Ella and Merry looked like their mother—from their wavy dark hair right down to the fact that their mouths were made for smiling—and despite the fact that he’d never seen Jo Ellen happier than the day she found out her daughters were finally accepting her standing invitation to visit, Grady was worried about his friend.
    Jo wanted so badly for this to work out, and he understood better than anyone that guilt and regret could make a person do crazy things. It was a tough situation, because Jo definitely had plenty to feel guilty about, and Grady realized her daughters had every right to hold a grudge.
    But he didn’t want to see Jo get hurt.
    Blood ties don’t make a family. Family are the people who are there for you when you need them most.
    Even though she’d turned down every one of his uncle’s marriage proposals, Jo Ellen Hollister was the closest thing to a mother that Grady had left. And he’d do whatever it took to protect the vulnerable heart she tried so hard to hide. Getting taken in by a pair of opportunistic scam artists who hadn’t shown any interest in her until she inherited Windy Corner and the valuable land it sat on—that would kill Jo Ellen.
    “Sorry to disappoint you,” Ella tossed out, crossing her arms over her chest in a way that had his eyes skimming over her curves without any help from his brain. “But we’re not leaving. Not until Merry has the chance to work