Read Online Sooner or Later by Elizabeth Adler - Free Book Online

that’ll take care of things.”
    Dan looked at the name: Ellie Parrish Duveen. It hada familiar ring to it. She was looking expectantly at him and he said, “Don’t I know you from somewhere?”
    “The cafe. You came in for eggs, no coffee.”
    “But I know your name. I used to live around here when I was a kid. Didn’t you go to surf camp one summer?”
    She stared suspiciously at him. “A long time ago.”
    “I think I taught you to surf. You were just a little kid, long and stringy with a mop of red hair. I remember now, it was always getting in your eyes even then.”
    Ellie inspected him warily for a minute. Of course, how could she forget … he’d been the heartthrob of the beach….
    The big wide smile lit up her eyes as she remembered. “We called you Danny Boy. I think I even had a crush on you. All the girls did, even though you were an older man.”
    “I was eighteen years old. And you must have been about eight or nine.” They looked at each other, smiling. “How time flies,” he said finally. “And how about that
Danny Boy?”
he added, wincing.
    “I seem to remember your Irish eyes were always smiling then,” Ellie retorted smartly. “What happened since, to make you so angry at the world?”
    He shook his head at the female way she’d just managed to twist things round. “No man’s eyes, Irish or otherwise,
smile
, when his brand-new vehicle has just been severely dented by another driver. Female and old acquaintance notwithstanding.”
    She laughed then, a soft rich sound that reminded him again of melting chocolate. “Couldn’t fool you on that, huh? I just thought I’d give it a try. It always works on
Seinfeld.”
    “This is real life, Ellie Parrish Duveen,” he remindedher, busily writing down his new address for her, and the name of his insurance company. “Business is business.”
    “Tell me about it.” She sighed dramatically. Then she read his address. “Running Horse Ranch,” she remarked, surprised. “It’s been on the market for years. Don’t tell me you bought it?”
    “Yup. Why?” He was beginning to suspect he knew the answer.
    She hesitated, avoiding his eyes. He obviously hadn’t heard about the jinx. “Oh, no reason. It’s really pretty around there.” She glanced at the traffic circling them. “We’d better get going. It was nice to meet you again, Dan Cassidy. Good luck with the winery. Maybe I’ll be able to buy some wine from you before too long.”
    “I’ll take you up on that,” he promised as she got back into the Jeep. He eyed her through the rearview mirror as he drove off. “Cute” was definitely the wrong word. If she hadn’t wrecked his new van, he would have called her beautiful. He sighed regretfully, then put her out of his mind and drove to the cottage he’d rented at the beach. Just until he got his property in shape. It shouldn’t take long, a month at the most.
    It wasn’t until later, sitting alone on the deck of his newly rented beach house, enjoying the view of the ocean, that he remembered who she was. One of the mega-rich Parrishes who lived in a palace up on Hot Springs Road. Lottie Parrish had been one of the society leaders in the area, head of all the smart committees, opening her fantastic house for charity balls and garden parties. He seemed to remember talk of a butler and uniformed housemaids and a French chef.
    He wondered why Ellie was driving the beat-up old Jeep when she could easily have afforded a new Mercedes if she’d wanted. He guessed she enjoyed playing at being a regular working girl, like everyone else. Except, rememberingher opal eyes, and her voice, soft as poured chocolate, he thought that Ellie Parrish Duveen definitely was not like everyone else.
    The next evening he was out on his deck overlooking the ocean. He’d put in a long, hard day walking his property, all forty dried-out acres of it. He’d been told that a manager was supposed to be looking after the place for the previous owner,