THE PATH TO SUNSHINE COVE
Author: RaeAnne
Thayne
ISBN: 9781335665430
Publication Date: March
30, 2020
Publisher: HQN Books
BOOK SUMMARY:
She knows what’s best for everyone but
herself…
With a past like hers, Jessica Clayton feels
safer in a life spent on the road. She’s made a career out of helping others
downsize—because she’s learned the hard way that the less “stuff,” the better,
a policy she applies equally to her relationships. But a new client is taking
Jess back to Cape Sanctuary, a town she once called home…and that her little
sister, Rachel, still does. The years apart haven’t made a dent in the guilt
Jess still carries after a handgun took the lives of both their parents and
changed everything between them.
While Jess couldn’t wait to put the miles
between her and Cape Sanctuary, Rachel put down roots, content for the
world—and her sister—to think she has a picture-perfect life. But with the demands
of her youngest child’s disability, Rachel’s marriage has begun to fray at the
seams. She needs her sister now more than ever, yet she’s learned from painful
experience that Jessica doesn’t do family,
and she shouldn’t count on her now.
Against her judgment, Jess finds herself
becoming attached—to her sister and her family, even to her client’s
interfering son, Nate—and it’s time to put everything on the line. Does she
continue running from her painful past, or stay put and make room for the love
and joy that come along with it?
BUY LINKS:
Sneak Peek Excerpt:
Chapter One
If
not for all of the emotional baggage cluttering up her Airstream, this wouldn’t
be a bad place to park for a few days.
As
Jess Clayton drove through the quiet streets of Cape Sanctuary on a beautiful
May afternoon, she couldn’t help being charmed anew by the Northern California
beach town vibes.
She
had been here before, of course. Several times. Her sister lived just down that
street there, in a large two-story cottage with gables, a bay window and a lush
flower garden. Rachel loved it here. Every time Jess came to town, she was
reminded why. What was not to love? Cape Sanctuary was a town defined by
whimsical houses, overflowing gardens, wind chimes and Japanese fishing balls.
And,
of course, the gorgeous coastline, marked by redwoods, rock formations, cliffs.
She drove past Juniper Way, her sister’s
street, but didn’t turn down. Not yet. She would see Rachel, Cody and the kids
soon, after she was settled.
They were the whole reason she was here, after
all. She didn’t see her nieces and nephew enough, only on the rare holidays and
birthdays that she could arrange a visit. When a prospective client reached out
from the same town as Rachel and her family, Jess saw it as a golden
opportunity to spend more time with the kids.
And
her sister, of course.
She sighed as she made her way to her
destination, Sunshine Cove, still a mile away, according to her navigation
system.
Rachel was the reason for all that baggage she
was towing along. Jess loved her younger sister dearly but their relationship
was like a messy tangle of electric wires, some of them live and still
sparking.
She
would be in Cape Sanctuary for two weeks on this job. Maybe she would finally
have the chance to sort things out with Rachel and achieve some kind of peace.
The
road rose, climbing through a stand of redwoods and coastal pine, with houses
tucked in here and there before the view to the ocean opened up again
.
In five hundred feet, your destination is on the right: 2135 Seaview Road.
She
couldn’t argue with Siri on this one. That was a spectacular view. The Pacific
glistened in the afternoon sunlight, with only a few feathery clouds above the
horizon line. She turned at the orca-shaped mailbox Eleanor Whitaker had told
her to seek. Through more coastal pine, she could see the house. She recognized
it from the pictures her client had sent. One level, made of stone and cedar,
the house looked as if it had grown out of the landscape fully formed.
She
knew the house was more than five thousand square feet, built at the turn of
the century by a wealthy ranching and logging family in the area. It featured
seven bedrooms and eight bathrooms, all of which she would come to know well
over the next two weeks.
From
the picture Eleanor had sent, Jess knew Whitaker House was beautiful. Elegant.
Comfortable. Warm.
The kind of place where Jess had once dreamed
of living, free of shouting, chaos, pain.
She could see, tucked into the trees
overlooking the ocean, a smaller house on the property that was almost a
miniature of the big house, with the same cedar and stone exterior as well as
windows that gleamed in the afternoon sun.
A
big dark blue pickup truck was parked there but she couldn’t see anyone around.
Jess
pulled her own rig over to the side of the driveway in case anyone needed to
come in and out, then scouted around for a place she could unhitch.
From their phone call earlier that morning as
she was driving, she knew Eleanor wouldn’t be here, that she had taken her
teenage granddaughter into a nearby town to an orthodontist appointment and
then to catch a movie they had both been wanting to see.
Make
yourself at home and set up anywhere that works, Eleanor had said.
As
she cased the property, she instantly found the spot a hundred yards from the
house that would give her a perfect view of the water, almost as if it had been
created exactly for her twenty-four-foot 1993 Airstream, affectionately
nicknamed Vera by Jess’s business partner.
This
job was meant to be. She had already bonded with Eleanor Whitaker over their
weeks of email and phone correspondence. This view sealed the deal.
When
she was done working each day, she could go to sleep to the restful sound of
the ocean. She climbed back in her pickup and backed the trailer with the ease
of long practice. Some people struggled with trailering but Jess didn’t. The
seven years she had spent as a driver in the military still served her well.
When
the Airstream was in a good spot, she hopped out and was reaching in the back
of the pickup for the chocks when an angry male voice drifted across the
manicured lawn to her.
“Hey.
This is private property. You can’t park that here!”
She
instinctively wrapped her hand around the chock. Angry male voices always
brought out the warrior princess in her. She could blame both her childhood and
those years in the army when she had to go toe to toe with people twice her
weight and a foot taller.
The
chock was heavy and could do real damage in the right hands.
Hers.
“I
have permission to be here,” she said, her voice cool but polite.
He frowned. “Permission? That’s impossible.”
“I
assure you, it’s not.”
“This
is my mother’s property. She would have told me if she had given somebody
permission to camp here.”
Ah. This must be Nathaniel Whitaker, Eleanor’s
son. Her client had mentioned that he lived in another house on the property
and would probably be in and out as Jess went about her work.
Hadn’t Eleanor told him Jess was coming?
She
relaxed her grip on the chock but didn’t release it. “You must be Nathaniel.
Eleanor has told me about you.”
Her
words didn’t have an impact on his expression. If anything, his glower
intensified, his frown now edged with confusion that she knew his name.
Despite
his sour expression, she couldn’t help noticing he was an extraordinarily
good-looking man. Eleanor hadn’t mentioned that her son had dark hair, stormy
blue eyes, a square jawline. Or that his green T-shirt with a logo over the
right breast pocket that read Whitaker Construction clung to his muscles.
Jess
found it extremely inconvenient that Nathaniel Whitaker happened to hit every
single one of her personal yum buttons.
“Who are you?” he demanded. “And how do you know
my mother?”
Ah. This was tricky. Eleanor was her client.
She must have had her own reasons for not telling her son Jess was showing up.
Jess felt compelled to honor those reasons. Until she could talk to the woman,
Jess didn’t feel right about giving more information to Nate than his own
mother had
.
“My name is Jess Clayton. Your mother knows I planned to arrive today. I have
her permission to set up anywhere. I thought this would work well.”
Beautifully, actually. The more time she
looked around, the better she liked it. A twisting path down to the ocean
started just a few yards away, leading down to what looked like a protected
cove.
“Set
up for what? Why are you here?”
“You really should ask your mother,” she said.
It would be so much better if he could hear the explanation from Eleanor.
“I just tried to call her when I saw you
pulling in. She’s not answering.”
“Probably
in the middle of the movie. She told me she and Sophie were going to a matinee
after the orthodontist.”
If she thought this further knowledge about
his family would set Nate’s mind at ease, she was sadly mistaken. His gaze
narrowed further. “How the hell do you know my daughter had an orthodontist
appointment?”
“Your mom happened to mention it.”
“Funny, the things my mother told you. I talk
to her several times a day, every day, and she hasn’t said a word to me about a
strange woman setting up a trailer in the side yard. Tell me again what you’re
doing here?”
She wanted to be finishing her trailer
setup so she could unhitch and go into town for groceries. She would rather not
be engaged in a confrontation with a strange man, no matter how hot, who didn’t
need to know every detail of his mother’s life.
Why
hadn’t Eleanor told him already? It’s not as if the woman could keep their
efforts a secret for long.
Still, it was not up to Jess to spill
the dirt.
“I’m
afraid that’s between me and your mother. You really need to get the answer to
that question from her.”
“Sorry, ma’am, but that’s not good enough.
Right now, you’re trespassing. If you don’t move this out of here, I’m calling
the police. The chief happens to be a good friend of mine.”
“Yes,
I know.” Done with this discussion, Jess reached down to wedge the chock behind
the passenger-side wheel. “You play poker with him every other Friday night.
Your mother told me.”
“What
else did she tell you?” He had moved beyond suspicion to outright hostility.
She probably shouldn’t have said anything about the poker. She certainly
wouldn’t want someone she didn’t know poking into her business. If he hadn’t
been so blasted good-looking, she might have been able to handle this whole
thing better.
She
forced a smile, trying to take a different tack. “I assure you, Eleanor knows
I’m coming, as I said. She told me to settle in and make myself comfortable
until she gets home. You can try calling her again.”
Or you can accept that maybe I’m telling
the truth and give me a break here. I’ve been driving for hours. I’m tired and
hungry and I would really like to make a sandwich, which I can’t do with you
standing there like a bouncer at a nightclub in a bad part of town.
“I’ve
tried multiple times. She’s not answering. You’re probably right, her phone is
probably on silent.”
“Look, when Eleanor and Sophie come back from
the movie, she can tell you what’s going on. Until then, I would really like to
finish setting up here.”
“No
matter what I say?”
She didn’t want to challenge him but she was
starving.
“This
is your mother’s house and she invited me here,” she said simply. “It will be
easy enough to prove that once Eleanor returns. If I’m lying for some unknown
reason and just happened to make an extraordinarily lucky guess about your mom
and a daughter named Sophie who had an orthodontist appointment today, you and
the entire Cape Sanctuary police force can boot me out.”
He didn’t look at all appeased, his features
still suspicious. She couldn’t really blame him. He was only trying to protect
those he loved. She would probably do the same in his shoes.
“Would you like a sandwich?” she said, trying
another tack. “I make a mean PB and J.”
For
the first time, she saw a glimmer of surprise on his expression, as if he
couldn’t quite believe she had the audacity to ask. “No, I wouldn’t like a
sandwich.”
“Suit
yourself. I’ve had a long day already and I’m ready for some food. And I need
to see how Vera survived the drive.”
As
she might have expected, his frown deepened. “Who is Vera?”
She
patted the skin on the Airstream. “It was, um, a pleasure to meet you,
Nathaniel.”
“Nate,” he muttered. “Nobody but my mother
calls me Nathaniel.”
“Nate,
then.”
She
nodded and without waiting for him to argue, she slipped into the trailer and
closed the door firmly behind her.
The curtains were still closed from the drive
and she didn’t want to open them yet to the afternoon sunlight. Not when Nate
Whitaker might still be lurking outside.
Instead, she sank onto the sofa that doubled
as her office, dining room and guest space, astonished and dismayed to find her
hands were shaking.
What was that about? She had a familiar
itchiness between her shoulder blades and could feel a little crash as her
adrenaline subsided.
Nate
Whitaker wasn’t a threat to her. Yes, he might be angry right now but he
wouldn’t hurt her. She already felt like his mother was an old and dear friend.
Eleanor surely couldn’t have a son who was prone to random violence.
Instinct told her he wouldn’t physically hurt
her, yet Jess still had the strangest feeling that Nate posed some kind of
danger to her.
Ah
well. She likely wouldn’t have much to do with the man. She was here to help
Eleanor, not to fraternize with the woman’s gorgeous offspring.
She
only had to make sure she didn’t lose sight of her twin objectives here in Cape
Sanctuary—spending time with her sister’s family and helping her client—and she
would be fine.
Excerpted from The Path to Sunshine
Cove by RaeAnne Thayne Copyright © RaeAnne Thayne. Published by HQN Books.
Author
Bio: New
York Times bestselling
author RaeAnne Thayne finds inspiration in the beautiful northern Utah
mountains where she lives with her family. Her books have won numerous honors,
including six RITA Award nominations from Romance Writers of America and Career
Achievement and Romance Pioneer awards from RT Book Reviews. She loves to hear
from readers and can be reached through her website at www.raeannethayne.com.
Social Links:
Twitter: @raeannethayne
Facebook: @AuthorRaeAnneThayne
Instagram: @raeannethayne
No comments:
Post a Comment