With This Kiss Read Online Free PDF Page A

child, her arms hadbeen warm, and he’d loved to sit with her while she read him books and told him fairy tales before bed. They’d once been so close.
    But he hadn’t been a child for a very long time.
    And he knew better than to believe in fairy tales.
    “It really is good to have you home, honey. We’ve all missed you.”
    He’d missed being home, missed the lake, the mountains, the clear air. But he hadn’t missed the way the knot in his gut tightened, grew, whenever he was here.
    He needed to find out where his brother had gone and bring him home so that things could go back to the way they were, as quickly as possible… and Sean could leave Emerald Lake again.

Chapter Three
     
    W as it kind of tense down there or was it just me?”
    Carefully sewing the hole shut on Andi’s dress, Rebecca pulled a pin out from between her lips and slid it into the strawberry-shaped cushion.
    “Sean didn’t know that Stu and I split up,” she explained to her clearly confused friend. “He came here expecting there to be a wedding tomorrow.”
    Andi whistled softly. “And of course Elizabeth had to get right in the middle of it.”
    Rebecca bit her tongue. She might not be about to marry into the Murphy family anymore, but she still didn’t feel right saying anything about how uncomfortable Elizabeth made her feel, even though Stu’s mother had never been particularly warm and embracing.
    “She’s just concerned about her son.”
    “I know she is. We all are.”
    Rebecca was hoping Andi would drop it. But she’d come to know her friend well enough in the last six months to know better. Andi’s laser focus had made everything she’d ever touched a huge success. Only lovehad eluded her for a decade. Thankfully, though, her friend had found true love in the end.
    “I just don’t get it,” Andi finally said. “You’re every mother’s dream daughter-in-law, you know?”
    The thing was, Rebecca had noticed Elizabeth acting strange around Sean, too. Completely different from how she behaved around Stu. His mother had always taken care of Stu, almost to the point of being overly nurturing. With Sean, she’d seemed tense. Worried.
    Not knowing how to fake either a smile or an easy response, Rebecca pretended to be busy tying off the thread on Andi’s silk gown instead.
    “I haven’t seen Sean in years,” Andi mused as Rebecca finished up. “He and Stu were always close. I’m surprised he didn’t know about the wedding being off.”
    “Me too,” Rebecca admitted.
    That was all she was going to admit. Not that her reaction to looking up and seeing Sean staring at her had been more powerful than any reaction she’d had to another man.
    Ever.
    Even realizing he was Stu’s older brother hadn’t been enough to stop feeling like fireworks were constantly shooting off in the middle of her stomach when he looked at her.
    “He hasn’t gotten any worse looking, that’s for sure. Back in high school, pretty much everyone had a crush on him.” Andi smoothed her hand over the fix-it job Rebecca had done with needle and thread as she said, “I swear the scar he got on his face after the car accident only made the girls want him more. Must have been all that danger and mystery swirling around him, I guess.”
    Rebecca had almost dropped the box of pins at the thought of Sean being in a car accident, even though she didn’t know him at all.
    “He had a scar?”
    Andi shot her a strange look. “He still does.”
    “I didn’t see it.”
    “It’s on his left cheek. Lower down. It’s hard to miss.”
    Rebecca tried to think back to those moments when he’d been holding her close, questioning her about Stu. But all she could see in her mind were his eyes staring into hers, all she could feel were those butterflies scooting around in her belly.
    Not wanting to give away too much to Andi—who she’d learned noticed everything around her—Rebecca turned to put her needle away in her sewing box, making sure to let