Summer Of Joanna

Summer Of Joanna
Janice Carter

Who is the real Joanna Barnes?To Matt Sinclair, Joanna Barnes was the woman his father married six months after his mother died. Two years later, his father had been on the verge of divorcing Joanna when he'd suffered a heart attack. Most of his assets were gone–and several important papers were missing.To Kate Reilly, Joanna Barnes was the woman who'd befriended her one summer when she'd been an unhappy 11 year old. The woman who'd sent Kate a birthday card each year with a reminder that the two of them would meet on Kate's 30th birthday. A meeting Joanna doesn't make.Then Kate reads Joanna's obituary in the paper. The police are calling her death a suicide. Kate insists that Joanna would never have broken her promise. Matt's not so sure.But Kate and Matt put aside their differences as they uncover a world of intrigue, betrayal, and danger. Gradually the summer of Joanna becomes the summer of Kate and Matt….

“Joanna Barnes was married to my father.”

Matt Sinclair folded his arms and stared across the parking lot. “They were married for two years. I was only seventeen at the time. Pretty much out of the picture, thank God.”

“Obviously you didn’t care for her,” Kate said.

“Frankly, no. Sorry if that offends you.”

Kate inhaled deeply. She hadn’t come to Joanna’s funeral for any kind of confrontation. All she’d wanted to do was pay her last respects to the woman who’d once saved her life.

“I do—did—care for Joanna,” she said, “and I don’t believe in speaking ill of the dead. Especially at a funeral.” She brushed past him to head for her car.

“Those are fine sentiments,” he replied, raising his voice as she kept walking. “And you’re welcome to them. But Joanna Barnes ruined my father. I’ll never forgive her for that.”

Matt watched her car zip out of the parking lot and disappear down the quiet, tree-lined road. He didn’t like the uneasy feeling in his gut when he recalled the hurt in her eyes. As if she couldn’t comprehend why he was attacking somebody she cared about.

But that somebody was Joanna, he reminded himself. The last person on earth to deserve such fierce loyalty.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Reading and writing have been lifetime passions for Janice Carter. She wrote her first novel at age twelve in school notebooks. As a teenager, she wrote daily serializations of romance novellas for her classmates. “Publishing a novel was always a dream,” she recalls. “But for a long time, the business of living got in the way of writing. I traveled around the world and saw many exotic sights. I married and had two amazing daughters. There was little opportunity or inclination on my part to write until one autumn I impulsively decided to take a romance writing workshop at a local college. I was hooked! That year I began to write my first romance novel and sold it two years later to Harlequin Intrigue.”

Janice lives with her husband and two daughters in Toronto, Ontario, where—during the year—she works as a teacher-librarian in an elementary school. Her summers are spent on a small island on Lake Ontario where she has her morning coffee and watches great blue herons fish off the rocks. Then she adjourns to her “writing room” and indulges in her favorite occupation.

Books by Janice Carter

HARLEQUIN SUPERROMANCE

593—GHOST TIGER

671—A CHRISTMAS BABY

779—THE MAN SHE LEFT BEHIND

887—THE INHERITANCE

Summer of Joanna

Janice Carter

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

For my beautiful daughters, as always

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

With much appreciation to my editor of many years, Zilla Soriano, for her intuitive good sense and gracious guidance.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE (#uea157b13-e813-5490-ba12-abdc5fee8d44)

CHAPTER TWO (#u51d9fcfd-7106-5149-9f29-68b405c2a68b)

CHAPTER THREE (#ub7b30c86-5fe1-5c2b-b4ca-af2ca96a8cce)

CHAPTER FOUR (#u18c108b7-acc7-5560-8bbe-41c8f69935a6)

CHAPTER FIVE (#u65d02481-82e4-5d91-881c-c9e7c819fa8e)

CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER THIRTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER FIFTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER SIXTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER NINETEEN (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER ONE

SHE COULDN’T TAKE her eyes off the coffin.

It sat, resplendent beneath a spray of leaves and white lilies, in the very middle of the raised dais in front of the altar. Kate closed her eyes, fighting the pain that swelled up from the pit of her stomach. Just get through this, she reminded herself. Then give in to grieving for Joanna when all the questions have been answered, especially those beginning with why. Until then, stay calm, in control and, most of all, stay angry.

The organist segued into another interlude as mourners continued to slide into the pews. Kate raised her head, glancing left to the center aisle. The church was filling up. Joanna would be pleased. Or so Kate imagined. For how much could she say about someone she hadn’t seen for nineteen years? Kate lowered her head again and squeezed her eyes shut, bringing back that sultry July day at Camp Limberlost. The day she’d met Joanna Barnes.