Someone Like Her

Someone Like Her
Janice Kay Johnson

It’s like coming home Finding his mother is the only reason Adrian Rutledge would set foot in this backward place. In fact, he can’t get out of town fast enough. At least, that’s his attitude before Lucy Peterson works her magic on him. The café owner is nothing like what he thought he needed, yet she’s all he wants.Then his job pulls him back to the city and Adrian slips into the life he once worked hard to achieve. And while it may not fit the way it did, he can’t simply abandon it. Or can he? Because suddenly he’s tempted by everything Lucy’s offering.

“I’m sorry,” Lucy whispered.

“About?” Adrian asked as he paused in his task of sorting through the box.

“Misjudging you.”

He met her gaze, his expression unreadable. “Are you so sure yet that you did?”

She nodded. “Pretty sure.”

After a moment of searching her face, he said, “Thank you for that, then.” He stood and held out a hand. “I know you don’t have all afternoon. Shall we move on?”

Lucy stared at his hand, absurdly afraid that if she laid hers in it, she truly would be sorry.

Because touching him might be dangerous to her peace of mind.

Available in May 2010from Mills & Boon®Special Moments™

Once Upon a Wedding by Stacy Connelly & Accidental Princess by Nancy Robards Thompson

The Midwife’s Glass Slipper by Karen Rose Smith & Best For the Baby by Ann Evans

Seventh Bride, Seventh Brother by Nicole Foster & First Come Twins by Helen Brenna

In Care of Sam Beaudry by Kathleen Eagle

A Weaver Wedding by Allison Leigh

Someone Like Her by Janice Kay Johnson

A Forever Family by Jamie Sobrato

Someone Like Her

BY Janice Kay Johnson

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

Janice Kay Johnson writes novels about love and family – about the way generations connect and the power our earliest experiences have on us throughout life. Her 2007 novel Snowbound won a RITA® Award from Romance Writers of America for Best Contemporary Series Romance. A former librarian, Janice raised two daughters in a small rural town north of Seattle, Washington. She loves to read and is an active volunteer and board member for Purrfect Pals, a no-kill cat shelter.

Table of Contents

Cover Page (#ua59cb3b5-ac3e-5170-afa4-c493a0cc5270)

Excerpt (#uc0cf7416-c8ba-5e0e-ab2d-dc3f3c068e68)

Other Books By (#u87a56972-cdc4-55a7-9f7f-aef9993cff85)

Title Page (#u41d2b895-a330-5240-a7df-cdaa14ca1898)

About the Author (#ub0242a62-d898-5ed4-bf1e-cae5b7eee4fb)

CHAPTER ONE (#u33d2a6d3-4071-5fdc-9010-a53cc1c77188)

CHAPTER TWO (#u1bc27bbb-9ebc-5ac3-ab64-6dacf1c56ca9)

CHAPTER THREE (#u1741e552-f266-5994-91bd-41c3af7991d3)

CHAPTER FOUR (#u7e1e35ab-a472-58dc-bf74-824e45c2b7c1)

CHAPTER FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)

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)

Preview (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER ONE

“EVERY TABLE FULL except the reserved one, and it’s a Tuesday.” Carrying two glasses of iced tea, Mabel paused to grin at Lucy Peterson. “Those new soups are a hit.”

She continued into the crowded dining room of the café. Lucy, who had just finished ringing up a customer, looked around with satisfaction. Mabel was right. Business kept getting better and better.

The bell over the door rang. Lucy’s head turned as her guest slipped in, her carriage confident, her gaze shy. The hat lady.

Last time Lucy had seen her, the day before yesterday, she’d carried herself decorously and yet with regal authority. The pillbox hat had said it all. She was often Queen Elizabeth—the second, she always emphasized. She didn’t actually look much like Queen Elizabeth II, being slender rather than matronly in build, with hair that had been blond when she first appeared in Middleton, perhaps ten years ago. Now her hair was primarily white, as wispy and flyaway as the woman whose head it crowned.