That Runaway Summer

That Runaway Summer
Darlene Gardner

For Jill Jacobi, who's on the run with her younger brother, Indigo Springs is the perfect place to hide. So no matter how powerfully attracted she is to the kind veterinarian, Dan Maguire is a risk she can't afford to take.Except every instinct is telling her he's a man she can count on. And Dan seems so sure that they'd be right together. It's tempting to lose herself in her own growing feelings for this tender, handsome man. If she could only trust him with her secret…Lies brought her here. Will lies keep them apart?

“You and I are friends.”

Jill’s voice trembled.

“I want to be more than your friend,”

Dan said.

“But we agreed—”

“I didn’t agree to anything,” he interrupted. His gaze still held hers. “My feelings haven’t changed. I want to see where our attraction leads us.”

Denying she was attracted to him would be fruitless. Even if she hadn’t already admitted as much, he might be able to tell that little goose bumps had popped up on her skin where he’d touched her.

“We’ve already been over this,” she said, “and I’m not staying in Indigo Springs.”

Dear Reader,

Almost everyone is familiar with the fable about the boy who cried wolf. In That Runaway Summer, Jill Jacobi’s ten-year-old brother is a variation of that boy. Except when he comes to Jill with a fantastic tale others have discounted, she believes him. She even goes on the run to protect him.

Jill and her brother wind up in Indigo Springs, which may well be the end of the road for them. I know it is for me. That Runaway Summer is the final installment in my five-book series set in the scenic Pocono Mountain town that isn’t nearly as tranquil as it looks. Then again, if it were, visiting there wouldn’t be quite as interesting!

Until next time,

Darlene Gardner

P.S. Visit me on the Web at www.darlenegardner.com.

That Runaway Summer

Darlene Gardner

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

While working as a newspaper sportswriter, Darlene Gardner realized she’d rather make up quotes than rely on an athlete to say something interesting. So she quit her job and concentrated on a fiction career that landed her at Harlequin/Silhouette Books, where she wrote for the Temptation, Duets and Intimate Moments lines before finding a home at Superromance. Please visit Darlene on the Web at www.darlenegardner.com.

To my parents Mary and Charles, because their love story has lasted through more than fifty years of marriage.

CONTENTS

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

EPILOGUE

PROLOGUE

“HE’S HIRED a private investigator to track you down.” Her mother’s voice was breaking up, not entirely due to the scratchy reception.

A shuddering sound reverberated, so raucous it seemed to shake the cramped living room in the furnished apartment Jill Jacobi had rented six weeks ago. Her eyes flew to the door as if her pursuer would burst through any second.

But it was the air conditioner sputtering and rattling before finally blasting her face with semicool air.

“Did you hear me?” Her mother’s familiar Southern drawl came over the phone, the connection clearer now. “He said if you called me I should tell you it’s only a matter of time before his private investigator finds you.”

Jill’s knuckles showed white on the prepaid cell phone. She loosened her grip and reminded herself she could find a kernel of good in even the worst news.

He hadn’t called in the cops.

“Don’t worry, Mama,” she said, her tone deliberately light. She parted the pretty yellow-and-white-gingham curtains she’d hung to brighten up the room and studied the Columbia, South Carolina, street below. A few cars passed by, but the businesses were closed and the sidewalks empty. No one was watching the apartment building. “A private eye can’t find me.”

“How do you know that, darlin’?” Her mother sounded worried, the way she had every time Jill checked in. Then again, her mother had been anxious about something or other since her divorce from Jill’s father. That had been a full two decades ago when Jill was eight. “Private eyes are like bird dogs. You don’t know the first thing about throwing one off a scent.”

Jill was more savvy than she’d been in the last town, when she’d taken into her confidence the friendly young mother who lived next door. She’d barely escaped Savannah in time after discovering her so-called friend had tried to exchange her whereabouts for reward money.

“I know a little something about covering my tracks, Mama,” Jill said. “I withdrew all the money from my bank account, I don’t list my address anywhere and I don’t use credit. I’m even using money orders for my car payments.”