Secrets of a Summer Night (Stone Gap Mountain)
Read Secrets of a Summer Night (Stone Gap Mountain) Online
Authors: Kay Stockham
Tags: #EMT, #forbidden romance, #May/December romance, #Stone Gap Mountain Novel, #Contemporary Romance, #Blind Man's Bluff
SECRETS OF A SUMMER NIGHT
by Kay Stockham
SECRETS OF A SUMMER NIGHT by Kay Stockham
Electronic and print editions published by Kindred Spirits Publishing, October 2012. © 2012 by Dorma Kay Stockham.
Cover Art by Kindred Spirits Publishing © 2012.
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction, in whole or in part in any form. This story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
For more information about Kay Stockham, please visit her
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or at one of the following:
@KayStockham (Twitter)
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Dear Reader,
SECRETS OF A SUMMER NIGHT is the story of secondary characters featured in BLIND MAN’S BLUFF, my first full-length Stone Gap Mountain novel.
Yes, I do plan to write more books about this assortment of friends. One of the things I love most about being a writer is that certain characters demand a story of their own, and several of the characters you’ll meet here will be featured in future books.
Please take a moment and visit my website to sign up for my newsletter. It’s the most efficient way of learning about new releases, as well as contest news, first-glimpses at excerpts, etc.
And for those of you who have contacted me to ask for more books, THANK YOU. Those notes are
my
inspiration.
God bless,
Kay Stockham
@KayStockham (Twitter)
Kay Stockham Fan Page (Facebook)
Kay Stockham - Pinterest
“Blind Man's Bluff is a book that grabs hold of your heartstrings and keeps you turning the pages until you sigh with contentment at the end. Strong characters, a fabulous story! In my opinion, you can’t go wrong, a definite ‘keeper.’”
~ Best-selling Author Catherine Anderson
“Kay Stockham’s stories are at once sweet and sexy, deeply emotional, and sprinkled lightly with suspense for good measure. Everything you could want in a book and more.”
~ Award-winning author Toni Blake
Other Titles by Kay Stockham:
Blind Man’s Bluff
Secrets of a Summer Night
Hannah's Choice - The Power of Love Anthology
Older man. Younger woman. The story is as old as time. And if the man is your father’s best friend…
With everything working against them, can it really be love?
“Hello, beautiful.”
Laney Wyatt glanced up from the landscaped, cobblestone path to see none other than Rand Mitchell watching her from within the shrubs decorating the side of his beautiful house.
His deep voice and bold gaze always unnerved her and today was no exception. Thankfully, the sight of the blood trickling onto his shirt from a cut on his forehead reminded her of why she was there and sent her into EMT mode.
His chin was scraped and raw, a white line of pain encircled his mouth, and there was no disguising the cuts and gashes on his arms, chest, and what she could see of his ribs. Still, he attempted to fix a smile on his insanely attractive lips, and her heart tripped when he aimed that shameless grin in her direction.
“I don’t suppose you won’t mention this to your father?”
“Patient confidentiality. My lips are sealed.” Dressed in shorts, steel-toed work boots, and a faded shirt open across his broad, finger-tempting if now damaged chest, Rand was a guy’s guy. He reminded her a bit of Tom Selleck, all muscled and firm and hairy but without the mustache.
Because it would be sinful to cover such a face.
“Don’t move, especially not your head. Just answer my questions verbally, okay? You fell off the roof?”
“Yeah. The ground really wanted to meet me. I would’ve driven myself to the hospital but...”
“But you fell off a roof,” she repeated, ignoring the bushes pulling at her clothes to kneel beside him on the mulch. Hopefully it had softened his fall. “Jim, we need a collar and the backboard!”
Her partner dropped the supply kits within arm’s reach and quickly retrieved the neck brace, swearing under his breath when a barberry bush took a hunk out of his inner forearm. Since Jim was now bleeding as well, she grabbed the collar and carefully placed it around Rand’s neck.
“That’s not necessary.”
“Let the doctors decide,” she ordered, unable to look at Rand directly because she’d always,
always
had a major, OMG crush on her father’s friend. Worse still was that over the years, the crush had turned into fantasies that weren’t sweet and innocent at all.
Laney forced herself to focus on getting Rand’s stats, glad she could count on her training even though he made her feel like a virginal schoolgirl talking to the football jock for the very first time.
Rand was speaking, so his airway was clear, and he was able to carry on a coherent conversation. She checked his pulse next. Strong and steady, if a little elevated, probably due to his pain.
“Do you always wear perfume when you’re on duty?”
His electric-blue eyes held a curious gleam, and the question brought a flush to her face. “No sign of concussion,” she said to Jim when he returned from the squad carting the backboard. “Any chest pain?”
“Are you asking because I’m old?”
If he was ‘old,’ she’d eat her shoe. Apparently owning a roofing business meant staying in shape and keeping a tan, at least when the owner worked as hands-on as Rand obviously did. She reevaluated her initial description. He was Tom Selleck, the Marlboro Man, and every old-school sex symbol combined. “I’m asking because I’m supposed to. Where do you hurt?”
“I’m fine.”
She raised her eyebrows high. “You are, eh? Then why call us?”
He shrugged, grimaced at the move, and when his blue eyes locked on hers again she forgot to breathe.
Pull it together, Laney. He’s just a man.
But he was
the
man. The one who made her heart go crazy every single time he came around. He’d teased her as an awkward teenager, flirted with her at her father’s bar as every guy had a tendency to do, but at some point in time, her feelings for Rand had changed in a major way.
“My right shoulder. I think it’s dislocated. Every time I move I... get a little dizzy.”
Which was obviously a big deal for him to admit. But easy enough to-- Wow. Yeah, definitely dislocated.
Because he was propped awkwardly against the side of the house, she hadn’t yet noticed. Good news was that appeared to be his most serious injury. His circulation was good, stomach soft beneath hard, toned abs that flexed when she touched him. “You’re right about the shoulder. We’ll get a wrap on you for transport to help hold it steady, but the doc will have to reset it.”
It was a struggle to speak in a normal tone, especially when she had her hands all over him and his hot, hot body. That really ought to be part of the training. How to not get distracted when the patient was
fiiiiiine.
“I’m never gonna live this down. I’ve never fallen off, not in all the years I’ve been roofing.”
She smiled at the depressed tone. “Just think of it as taking a mini vacation and getting a tour of the ambulance and hospital.”
“And getting to spend time with you?”
Air froze in her lungs, and before she could think of a witty reply, Jim and the other two EMTs on duty appeared.
“Good to go?” Jim asked.
“Yeah,” she said, more than a little breathless and kind of dizzy herself—all from Rand’s comment and nearness.
“You’re coming with me, right?” Rand asked. “To hold my hand?”
Her work buddies looked at her in amusement. It wasn’t the first time she’d gotten hit on by a patient, but typically the men were either elderly or drunk.
Laney ignored her squad partners, knowing she’d catch some ribbing later for Rand’s flirting, and huffed out a laugh. “They’re my ride. I have to go with you.”
Sometime that evening Rand opened his eyes and stared at the white wall across from him, trying to remember what the hell he’d done to hurt so much. It came to him seconds later, right before he realized he wasn’t alone in the room.
“Hey,” Laney said simply.
“You’re looking better.”
She smelled like smoke. Not cigarette smoke but— “What happened to you?”
She shifted in the chair and shrugged. “Fire run.”
“Anybody hurt?”
She shook her head and got up, moving close to his bed.
“No. I had to come back for some paperwork and wanted to stop by and check on you. You were sleeping so peacefully I didn’t want to wake you.”
“You should have. It’s not every day I get to see your pretty face.” Even in the dim light of his hospital room, he saw the blush that flooded her face with color. For a woman who had spent the last few years bartending for her father, Rand found it amazing she could blush at all given what she had probably seen and heard. “You’re missed at The Ace.”
“Dad just misses the cheap labor.”
“I wasn’t talking about him,” Rand said, the words more revealing than he’d like.
Over the years, he’d watched Laney grow from a gangly young woman into a knockout beauty who turned every man’s head between the ages of nine and ninety. But he was almost fifteen years her senior and too old to be thinking about his friend’s eldest daughter in such a way. It wasn’t right. And there was the small fact that Frank would kill him, no doubt about that.
So why was it every time he saw her, he felt like someone slammed him in the gut with a wrecking ball? He was too old for her, and he would never be able to face his friend if Frank found out. “Frank still giving you a hard time about quitting the bar?”
“He wouldn’t be Dad if he didn’t,” she said dryly. “Emma’s been picking up my hours, but I’ve gotten several calls from Dad about how I left him in the lurch despite giving him six months’ notice.”
Buddy or not, Frank could be a stubborn ass when he wanted to be, yet another reason Rand didn’t want to tangle with Laney’s father over something so personal.
He’d thought about asking Laney out more than once—mostly after a few drinks at The Ace with Laney smiling at him from the other side of the bar—but he didn’t want to cause a ruckus in her family, or ruin a long-time friendship.
Fifteen years’ age difference was a big gap to span—full of baggage, one failed marriage, and more than a little awareness that he wasn’t in his prime and should focus on women his own age. “Frank will come around in time. You make a great EMT.”
“Thanks. Well, I should go and let you rest. Maybe I’ll stop in again if you’re still here.”
“Doc said I’ll be released first thing in the morning.” None too soon, either. If not for the painkillers and the fact he lived alone, he could’ve been released, but his doc wasn’t one for taking chances that he’d reinjure himself.
“Good for you. Just take it easy, okay? That was quite a fall. You could have broken your neck.”
She stepped close enough to the bed for him to snag her hand. “You sure you’re okay?”
She made a sound in her throat.
“I’m fine. Just a long day.”
Something about the way she said it made him think it was more, but she wasn’t going to offer up any information. And he didn’t have the right to ask.
He squeezed her hand and brought it up to his lips, brushing his mouth over her knuckles because he might not have the opportunity to touch her again. “Thanks for coming to my rescue.”
“Any time. Call the station if you, um, need anything. You know, with the insurance reports or… such.”
She pulled her hand from his and was out the door before her words had time to really sink in.
Or such?
Minutes later, he still stared at the door where she’d disappeared, wondering if he had imagined Delaney Wyatt’s visit to his room or the emphasis of her
or such
.