Read Online Suddenly in Love (Lake Haven#1) by Julia London - Free Book Online

drifting in through the windows. His room smelled like dirty socks and beer, and he blinked, looking at the clock next to the bed. It was seven in the morning. He shoved his hair out of his eyes and stumbled to the windows. Below him, a ground crew was fanning out around the thicket his mother was determined to cut back.
    And there was Mom, pointing to things to be cut and edged and generally made loud.
    Just to annoy him.

Five
    Aunt Bev had called at o-dark-thirty this morning, and it had scared Mia to death. She’d assumed something had happened to Grandpa, but it turned out that it was nothing more alarming than some of the pictures Mia had t aken at the old Ross house had gone missing in Aunt Bev’s cluttered office.
    “I know what happened,” Aunt Bev said. “That goofy kid at Cranston’s screwed it up. He’s one pair of boxers short of a full load of laundry.”
    “I don’t think that’s a saying—”
    “So here’s what you do, kiddo,” Aunt Bev said, pushing on. “Go ahead and stop by Cranston’s and ask that goofy kid to check again.”
    “Okay, but Cranston’s doesn’t open until nine—”
    “Just do it as quick as you can. I need to get this bid up to the Ross house as soon as possible. Oh, and pick up some Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups while you’re there.”
    Quite honestly, before this gig, Mia had never truly appreciated what a head case Aunt Bev was. Sure, Bev’s daughter, Skylar, had always complained about her, but Skylar was one of those troubled teens who ran away and smoked dope and generally could not be trusted to be accurate about anything. Once, Skylar had breezed in unannounced to Mia’s place in Brooklyn. Mia hadn’t even known Skylar was in the city; the last she’d heard, her cousin had taken off in the night with some guy she’d met in Black Springs and had ended up on the West Coast. That was Skylar, always taking off for something bigger and better, preferably something that didn’t require her to work. Inevitably, she had to come home when the bottom fell out of whatever scheme she was involved in and try again.
    She’d shown up in Brooklyn with an overnight bag and a joint that she’d smoked at the open window. “My mom is bananas,” she’d said. “She’s disorganized and thinks everyone else is to blame. And I’m an easy target for her.”
    “Really?” Mia had asked, shaking her head to Skylar’s offer of the marijuana. Mia never went near drugs after what happened to her that summer. It was one of those family stories that everyone tacitly agreed not to mention again, but Mia had never felt the same about Skylar since.
    “I know, I know, Mom seems so nice,” Skylar had sighed. “And she runs a very successful business, so you wouldn’t think she’s that disorganized. But she’s a mess.” Skylar had lifted her chin and blown smoke out the window. “She drives me crazy.”
    The next morning, Skylar was gone, off to bigger and better things.
    Turned out, Skylar was right—Aunt Bev was a little nutty. For the last two days, she’d been locked in her office at the storefront, finishing up the bid for the Ross house. Mia had heard nothing but the whir of the adding machine and Aunt Bev muttering under her breath.
    Mia had manned the counter. Which meant she’d been reading a lot of magazines. It was excruciatingly boring.
    Anyway, Mia got herself up and made her way to Cranston’s. As the kid with the bobbing Adam’s apple and big brown eyes went in the back to look for the missing photos, Mia perused the magazine rack. “William Steps out behind Kate’s Back!”screamed the National Enquirer , complete with a picture of the Duchess of Cambridge looking like she might be ill at any moment. “Why Everett Alden Disappeared from the Alternative Rock Scene,”said the top of the cover of Rolling Stone . Mia couldn’t see the picture that accompanied that headline because in the slot below it was Us Weekly , and Chris Pine was on the cover.