Read Online Suddenly One Summer by Barbara Freethy - Free Book Online Page A

Police Department was housed in a two-story, one-hundred-year-old building that had more character than modern conveniences, but Joe liked being tied to the past, liked sitting in the same chair that so many men before him had used. Part of the reason he’d moved to the small town was to feel a sense of connection to the community he served. Unfortunately that community was on hold at the moment, and his personal life was taking center stage.
    Checking his watch, he adjusted the phone at his ear as he half-listened to his wife’s latest real estate deal. If there was one thing Rachel did better than anyone else, it was talk. He’d known that from the first moment he’d met her during their sophomore year in high school. He’d fallen in love with her before he knew her last name. She was everything he wanted, a raven-haired beauty with perfect skin anda dazzling smile, who was not only beautiful, but kind, compassionate, and at the time perfect. She lived in a two-story house with a front porch swing. Her father was a well-known doctor, and her mother was a housewife who volunteered at the school and organized fund-raisers. Rachel had a life completely different from his own.
    Half Mexican, half Irish, he’d grown up one of six kids in a chaotic working class family on the turbulent streets of Los Angeles. His mother had worked as a waitress, his father as a supermarket manager. They’d wanted him to go college, become a lawyer, a doctor, or an engineer. And he’d tried to go that route. He’d graduated with a degree in political science and had been accepted to law school, but deep down he’d always known that he really wanted to be a police officer. That was probably the first crack in his relationship with Rachel. She’d been disappointed when he dropped out of law school; she’d envisioned living in a house like the one she’d grown up in. But she’d come around and supported him when he entered the police academy.
    Over the years, things had slowly changed between them. He worked long hours and what he saw on the streets spilled over into their relationship. Rachel started to make plans that didn’t include him. She had friends he didn’t know. She spent time at her parents’ tennis club and seemed to be more interested in working on her serve than on getting pregnant. When it was time to get a house, he’d wanted to buy a small place they could afford. Rachel hadtalked him into accepting a big house near the club as a gift from her parents.
    To this day, he didn’t know why the house bothered him so much. It had been an incredibly generous gift and he adored Rachel’s parents, who’d welcomed him into their family with open arms. But the house hadn’t felt right, and the extra rooms had only seemed to provide more space in which he and Rachel could grow apart: a distance that had deepened to a critical point when he’d decided to quit his job and move up the coast, hours away from their life, their friends, and their families.
    “Joe, are you listening?” Rachel demanded, interrupting his thoughts. “You never listen to me anymore.”
    Maybe because what she talked about now bored him out of his mind. But that wasn’t being fair to her. No doubt he’d bored her more than a few times with cop talk. Actually, that wasn’t true. One of her biggest complaints was that he didn’t share his job with her. She didn’t understand that he had to compartmentalize his life or he’d never survive.
    “Joe,” she repeated with irritation in her voice.
    “Sorry,” he said quickly. “I’m a little distracted.”
    “Yeah, I get that.”
    “It’s going to be a busy weekend up here. We have a lot of tourists in town for the summer festival, not to mention fanatical angel seekers camping out on the cliffs. Last night we had an attempted suicide off the pier.”
    Rachel sighed. “Wow, tourists, angel seekers, and a jumper—sounds like a hotbed for police activity.”
    When had she become so sarcastic?