Deadline (Sandra Brown)

the strongest fiber. It could be a worthwhile piece.”
    “Written by the best.”
    “Awww,” he drawled and eased her cheek off his chest so he could whisk a kiss across it. But when he tried to kiss her in earnest, she resisted. “What?”
    “You said of this house ‘when we’re here,’ and that Eva had invited us for Thanksgiving. Come Thanksgiving, will we still be an us?”
    “I’m counting on it. You’re not?”
    “Yes. Yes . Definitely.”
    “Good to know.”
    “But how will it work? The boys went back to school this week. I was planning to buy a house with a yard and a dog. George embraced the idea of having a room at the museum devoted to PTSD. If we get it past the board, I want to oversee the project. I’ll want to be involved if Daddy’s house is enshrined.” She looked at him ruefully. “And you live in Virginia.”
    “Right. We’ve got some stuff to sort out, but they’re practical matters. Nothing insurmountable. So long as I meet deadlines and attend an occasional editorial meeting, my job is more or less portable.
    “I may read Flora’s diary, or not. I’ll draft a story about Hawkins and then decide if I want it to be published. If not, I’ll write about something else. And when the boys get old enough to learn about their lineage, we’ll explain it. They’ll come to terms with it just as I have. We’ll help them with whatever problems arise. The point is, we don’t have to figure it all out today. We can’t figure it all out today.”
    Placing his lips against hers, he whispered, “We’re past the heavy stuff, Amelia. By comparison, the rest of it will be a breeze. Let’s let up on ourselves for a while. We’ll make decisions on an as-needed basis, love each other like crazy, and live one day at a time.”
    She smiled against his lips. “Sounds like a plan. I’m especially fond of the part about loving each other like crazy.”
    “Yeah, I like that part, too.”
    He cupped the back of her head and was settling in for a long, deep kiss, when she groaned, “We’ve got company.”
    Hunter and Grant, still in pajamas, were racing toward them, their bare feet thudding on the boardwalk.
    Amelia yelled at them to be careful of splinters but the caution didn’t slow them down. Gleefully shouting his name, they ran pell-mell toward them.
    She gave him a dubious smile. “Are you sure you want to take them on?”
    “That’s one decision already made.”
    He wrapped his arms around her waist, so that when the boys tackled him into the sand, she went with him.

Novels by Sandra Brown
     
    Low Pressure
    Lethal
    Mirror Image
    Where There’s Smoke
    Charade
    Exclusive
    Envy
    The Switch
    The Crush
    Fat Tuesday
    Unspeakable
    The Witness
    The Alibi
    Standoff
    Best Kept Secrets
    Breath of Scandal
    French Silk

Thank you for buying this ebook, published by Hachette Digital.
     
    To receive special offers, bonus content, and news about our latest ebooks and apps, sign up for our newsletters.
    Sign Up
     
    Or visit us at hachettebookgroup.com/newsletters

    For more about this book and author, visit Bookish.com.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
     
    Copyright © 2013 by Sandra Brown Management, Ltd.
Cover design by Diane Luger
Cover design and photo illustration by Shasti O’Leary Soudant
Photo of sky © Peter Finger/CORBIS/Agefotostock
Photo of house © Tiffany Zettlemoyer
Cover copyright © 2013 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
     
    All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
     
    Grand Central Publishing
Hachette Book Group
237 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10017
hachettebookgroup.com
twitter.com/grandcentralpub
     
    First ebook edition: September 2013
     
    Grand Central Publishing is a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
The Grand Central Publishing name and logo is a trademark of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
     
    The Hachette Speakers Bureau provides