Where does she belong?
Now that the “real” daughter of her adoptive parents has returned, Eve Lawson can’t help feeling edged out. It’s a familiar isolation she sees all too often in her social work caseload. And her unstoppable attraction to divorced cop Ben Kemper only complicates things further.
They’re on opposite sides of a murder case, but their connection is still stronger than their doubts and fears. Eve is too close to the sexy single dad to walk away without a shattered heart. It’s up to Ben to take a risk of his own and show Eve a family and love that will never let her go: his.
“I should have asked for your phone number six months ago.”
Eve blinked. “But...we hadn’t met.”
“I saw you on TV. The press conference. I...commented to Seth on what a beauty you were. I kind of wonder now if the Thanksgiving and Christmas get-togethers weren’t engineered for us to meet.”
“That never occurred to me.” Was it possible Ben liked her looks better than her sister’s? Because of his daughter, she’d assumed his
ex-wife was another blue-eyed blonde, but...maybe not.
“Better late than never,” he murmured, and stepped closer. He tipped her chin up with one big hand, bent and brushed his lips over hers.
The soft contact was tantalizing enough to have her rising on tiptoe to try to sustain it.
“I’ve been thinking about this all evening,” he said huskily, and nipped her bottom lip before stroking it with his tongue.
Eve wrapped her arms around his neck and let her lips part, astonished by her instant, powerful response. His tongue slid over hers, teasing more than commanding. The lighter he kept the kiss, the more she wanted deeper, hotter.
Sibling rivalry is pretty near universal. And what kid who has siblings doesn’t, at some point, suspect that Mom or Dad loves a sister or brother better?
In Eve’s and Hope’s stories, I created a massive case of sibling rivalry. Ironic since Hope never even suspected she had a sister (until she came home to find she’d been replaced), and Eve was twenty-eight years old when she finally met her “sister.”
And while Eve may have felt petty all those years nursing resentment for the perfect daughter whose disappearance had shattered her adoptive parents’ lives, she had plenty of justification for her feelings.
Parents of abducted children do cling to the belief that their missing son or daughter lives and will someday come home. They try to keep the child alive in their hearts. They create what, to the other daughter, might appear to be a shrine.
And poor Eve, falling in love with a man who ends up replicating some of her deepest fears!
Some emotions can be hard to empathize with, but not this one. Nope, I’m betting you won’t have any trouble understanding Eve’s struggles.
Let me know what you think—I love hearing from readers at [email protected], or look for me on Facebook.
Janice
In Hope’s Shadow
Janice Kay Johnson
An author of more than eighty books for children and adults, USA TODAY bestselling author JANICE KAY JOHNSON is especially well-known for her Mills & Boon Superromance novels about love and family—about the way generations connect and the power our earliest experiences have on us throughout life. Her 2007 novel Snowbound won a RITA® Award from Romance Writers of America for Best Contemporary Series Romance. A former librarian, Janice raised two daughters in a small rural town north of Seattle, Washington. She loves to read and is an active volunteer and board member for Purrfect Pals, a no-kill cat shelter. Visit her online at janicekayjohnson.com.
Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
EVE LAWSON WONDERED whether her fellow social service caseworkers ever met with one of their kids on the sidewalk outside a foster home. Especially on a bitterly cold February day.
They’d probably all agree with her that you did whatever was necessary. And the truth was, Joel had looked relieved when she asked him to walk her out to her car.
Hoping her shivers weren’t obvious, Eve wrapped her fleece scarf more snugly around her neck and leaned against the fender of her car, feeling the chill of the metal penetrating even through her wool peacoat.
However alone they were out here, she was unsettlingly aware that they were being watched.
“So what’s going on, Joel?” she asked.
She had been Joel Kekoa’s caseworker for the past three years. He’d been fourteen years old when they’d first met, sullen, hulking and clumsy. The first thing she’d had to do was move him to a new foster home at the request of the previous foster parents, which left him feeling rejected again. Something she understood too well. The one bright spot she’d been able to see then had been his performance in school.
The move had been positive, though. He and the new foster father, Rod Carter, had bonded right away. Joel had seemingly grown into his extra-large body not long after, starring as an offensive guard on the football team these past two years. Eve had gone to a few games to cheer