Read Online Her Summer with the Marine: A Donovan Brothers Novel (Entangled Bliss) by Susan Meier - Free Book Online

squirming in the silence that followed. He and Devon had enlisted in the marines immediately after high school. But Cade had been smitten with Lonnie Simmons, prettiest girl in his class at Harmony Hills High. She’d finally noticed him their senior year, and almost immediately after they began dating, she’d gotten pregnant. Cade was supposed to marry her after they graduated. But the day of their wedding, he’d seen DNA test results that proved Lonnie’s baby wasn’t his—and she’d known. He couldn’t tell anyone the doctor had shown him the results or Doc would lose his license. The whole town believed he’d deserted her when he’d left her at the altar. If he came back, he faced a shitstorm.
    “I’ll be home,” Cade growled. “Eventually. So what’s up with you and the McDermott girl competing again?”
    Finn cursed. “Devon’s got a big mouth.”
    “Come on.” Cade laughed. “You used to be able to take teasing better than this.”
    “This isn’t funny. Her dad is sick. She hates her family’s funeral home. She works in Pittsburgh. There’s no reason for her to be here.”
    “Except she is.”
    He slipped on a pair of sweatpants. “Right.”
    “Don’t let her get in your head, little brother. You’ve been working that town for its business for six months.”
    Dressed now, he picked up his phone and took it off speaker. “I have.”
    “And you were doing well.”
    He turned off the master bathroom light and walked into his bedroom. “I was. I was getting the advance business—prepaid funerals. A much better way to earn a living than sitting around waiting for people to die.”
    “So go back to doing what you were doing.”
    “Right.” He sat on his bed and ran a hand down his face. He did have a few ideas. And he’d never so easily let Ellie McDermott walk all over him.
    So she was in advertising? So she had a few tools he didn’t? He could be every bit as crafty as she was.
    …
    Late Wednesday night, Ellie turned off the highway and drove the next five miles on back roads that wound through the mountains of west-central Pennsylvania. Having had three full days to get the Tidy Whitiez campaign going in the right direction, she felt comfortable, relaxed. After two nights’ sleep in her own bed, her energy was back—and her optimism. No blond-haired, blue-eyed charmer was getting the better of her. She was ready to run McDermott’s.
    She winced. Just as soon as somebody died.
    The closer she got to Harmony Hills, the more signs of civilization. Houses. Telephone poles. Billboards.
    The new electronic billboards sort of surprised her. She saw them regularly in cities, used them for her own ad campaigns. She simply wasn’t accustomed to seeing them in the trees of the forest that lined the rickety road to Harmony Hills.
    Especially not one with…
    She leaned forward, narrowed her eyes.
    Were those angels?
    The closer she got to the billboard, the clearer it became that they were indeed angels. In fact, the billboard pictured Finn Donovan flanked by angels. Donovan’s Funeral Home…let us lead your loved ones home.
    She pulled her car to the side of the road, screeched to a stop, and got out, staring at the brightly colored electric sign that rotated to an advertisement for the town mechanic, the used car dealer, the diner, someone’s birthday, and finally back to Finn.
    Her mouth fell open. Every version that rolled by had an even stronger message.
    We’ll carry your loved ones home.
    We’ll escort your loved ones to the pearly gates.
    In your time of need, let us carry the burden the way less-experienced proprietors can’t.
    Oh, for God’s sake! That was a jab at her! Which was probably exactly what he’d needed to counter the plea in her brochure. But that didn’t mean she had to like it.
    The screen flipped again. The town mechanic, the used car dealer, the diner, someone’s birthday, and back to Finn.
    She looked closer…
    Was one of those angels flanking him Barbara