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

Ignoring her comment, he asked, “When are you coming home?”
    A heavy silence followed his question, and he knew the answer before she gave it. Ever since she’d gotten her real estate license three years ago, she’d become consumed with her career and the next big deal that was always just around the corner.
    “I can’t make it up there this weekend, Joe. I have to cover an open house on Sunday.”
    “Rachel—you promised you’d start tying things up in L.A. We need to be together.”
    “I know that, but it’s busy here, too. And I’m making a lot of money right now, money for us, for our future. I’m making more than you. It would really be better if you just quit that job and came home. I ran into Mitchell the other night. He said the department would take you back in a second.”
    “That’s not what I want and my home, our home, is here.”
    “What if I need you to come back for me?” she asked.
    “What if I need you here?” he countered. “This is a good town, with great people, and there’s plenty of real estate to sell up and down this coast.”
    “You’re wasted there, Joe. You’re too good, too smart, to be a small town chief. I know you needed a break, and maybe going back to the department isn’t a good idea. But there are cities closer to my business than Angel’s Bay.”
    “This isn’t a break for me. It’s where I want to be.” He’d known that the second he’d walked into the small two-bedroom house his Uncle Carlos hadleft him. For the first time, he’d felt like he belonged somewhere. He’d told Rachel that more times than he could count, but it never seemed to sink in. She didn’t understand how he could want to live in an isolated town that was miles away from everything familiar.
    “It’s where you want to be right now,” Rachel said. “But that will change. I know you, Joe. You crave excitement, danger. You can’t bury that side of yourself, no matter how hard you try. You’re going to want more.”
    “I know I’m asking a lot of you, but I think if you gave Angel’s Bay a chance, you’d really like it here. This place is beautiful. It’s a great community in which to raise a family. We can make this work.”
    “I want to make it work, Joe,” she said, her voice softening. “I do. I just don’t know how right now.”
    “I don’t, either,” he admitted. “But I know we can’t do it if we’re apart. I’d really like it if you could get up here for at least part of the weekend. A lot of people have been asking about you. They want to meet you. I’ve received a dozen invitations to dinner that I’ve been stalling on. If you give this place a chance, I think you’ll like it.”
    “I’ll try. But I have to go now. I’ll speak to you later.”
    He heard the click before he had a chance to say good-bye, to tell her he loved her. There had been fewer and fewer of those moments since they’d moved to Angel’s Bay. Actually, he’d really been the one to move. Rachel had only spent a half dozen nightsor so in their home overlooking the ocean. Perhaps he needed to consider the fact that one of them was going to have to give in, and it might have to be him.
    He looked up as a tentative knock came at his door. “Come in.” He was surprised when Charlotte Adams walked in, and a little rattled as well. He was attracted to the beautiful doctor with the honey gold hair, intriguing light blue eyes, and sun-kissed skin. It was an attraction he was hoping would go away. He certainly didn’t intend to do anything about it; he was married to Rachel. And despite their problems, he intended to stay that way.
    “Sorry to bother you,” Charlotte began, “but I’m concerned about Annie. Have you gotten any more information on her family situation?”
    “Have a seat.” He waved her toward the chair by his desk and picked up the fax he’d received a few minutes earlier. “Annie’s father is Carl Dupont. He’s an ex-marine, did a couple of tours in