Kiss the Moon

Kiss the Moon by Carla Neggers Read Free Book Online Page B

Book: Kiss the Moon by Carla Neggers Read Free Book Online
Authors: Carla Neggers
Tags: Suspense
work, and she couldn’t believe she’d screwed up again. Damned near running out of fuel. How stupid. She wanted to blame the reporters, the hoopla over her discovery in the Sinclair woods, the anticipation of having to explain herself to Brandon Sinclair’s investigator—but that wasn’t it. This sort of thing had been happening before she’d wandered into the woods and found a forty-five-year-old plane wreck. She and her father had been at loggerheads for weeks over her inability to concentrate.
    Maybe it was just spring fever, she decided.
    Whatever it was, she was grounded and off to town with a Sinclair—and at the Sunrise Inn, no less. And it was her suggestion. Lord, what a day. But the only cure for it was tea and scones, despite the risk of running into Harriet, who’d wanted to meet a Sinclair her whole life. Considering her impulsiveness of late, Penelope supposed she should never mind Harriet and worry about herself instead. With that black Sinclair gaze probing her from across the table, she could blurt out everything. Clearly, he’d come to Cold Spring to find out if she was lying. If he concluded she was, he’d have the truth from her. It was that quiet, natural arrogance, she thought. She could sense it, even as they roared down Main Street in her truck. He’d simply get her to tell the truth, and he knew he would.
    The Sunrise Inn was tucked onto a point that jutted into the lake just off Main Street. Harriet and Penelope’s mother had bought it twelve years ago and painstakingly turned the relatively simple Queen Anne into a charming, popular lakeside inn. It was painted deep brown and had a curving porch that overlooked the lake and a smaller screened porch that looked out on one of the inn’s many stunning, award-winning gardens. Of course, at this time of year all the gardens were covered with mulch and melting snow, and the porch furniture was in storage.
    “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t mention you’re a Sinclair,” Penelope said as she lurched around a pothole. “It’ll just complicate things—and for heaven’s sake, don’t mention that episode at the airport to my mother, if she’s here. She hates planes. If I come home alive, that’s all she needs to know. She’s still having fits about having to call a search party on me this weekend.”
    He turned to her. “Do you like living life on the edge?”
    “I don’t like it. It just sometimes turns out that way.”
    She led him up a brick walk. Since the house faced the lake, the inn’s main entrance was at the back, up a set of stone steps. A spring grapevine wreath graced the door, its pretty dried tea roses, larkspur and pepper berries a colorful contrast to the snow, mud and patches of sopping, grayish grass. Inside, stairs curved up to the right, and the wide entry opened into a sitting room with a fireplace and the front desk. Immediately to the left, off the entry, was an elegant parlor, almost completely Harriet’s doing with its dark wood and damask fabrics. She’d added an 1893 rosewood upright piano, a dozen needlepoint pillows, even an easel for drawing.
    Penelope immediately felt the heat of the sitting room fire and smelled apples and cinnamon and something faintly tangy—oranges, perhaps. Harriet always liked to keep something fragrant simmering, and if there was snow on the ground, there was a fire in the fireplace. She was convinced her guests wanted fires.
    In borderline temperatures like today’s, that meant it got toasty fast. Penelope unzipped her flight suit about six inches. She’d worn a black T-shirt underneath, a mistake on a day filled with lies, reporters, a flying screwup and Wyatt Sinclair. She groaned. “It’s hot in here. I can’t believe Harriet has a fire going. It’s almost fifty degrees outside.”
    Sinclair cut her a quick smile. “Downright balmy, isn’t it?”
    “Compared to the eighteen degrees it was two weeks ago, yes. I’m suffocating.”
    She grabbed what was left of

Similar Books

When in Rome

Ngaio Marsh

A Pint of Murder

Charlotte MacLeod

Thief of Souls

Neal Shusterman

Ruby Falls

Nicole James

The Journey Home

Michael Baron

The Jonah

James Herbert

Turn Towards the Sun

Jennifer Domenico