âWere you in on this?â
He took a step back. âWhat do you mean?â
âDid you know Seb was going to leave the Beacon to both of us?â
Her outrageous accusation chased away all thoughts of offering comfort. âNo. If youâre suggesting I somehow influenced him, youâre dead wrong. Why would I want a mess like this?â
âHalf owner is better than being totally cut out, isnât it?â
âNot if I have to work with you,â he ground out.
Dear Reader,
I love visiting small towns and making up stories about people who might live there. What are their lives like? What are their hopes and dreams, their joys, their disappointments and tragedies?
Evaâs Deadline is such a story. The drama takes place in Willow Beach, Washington, a fictitious town on Washingtonâs coast. Many times Iâve driven the same route that my heroine, Eva Sinclair, drives as she travels from her new home in Seattle to her hometown of Willow Beach. But, unlike Eva, I have always made these trips in happy anticipation.
Eva makes the trip to Willow Beach not for a vacation, as I have done, but because her father, Sebastian Sinclair, has suddenly passed away, and so for her, the trip is a sad one. The one saving grace is that she will soon be back in Seattle, where she can continue her promising career as a writer for a prestigious magazine.
Imagine her distress when Eva learns that her father had found a way to keep her in Willow Beach. Why, she wonders, would he do this, when he knew that what happened there eleven years ago caused her so much pain?
Mark Townsonâs life has also been changed by Sebastianâs death, for it throws him and Eva together in ways that he finds difficult, if not impossible, to accept. But Mark loves his life in Willow Beach, and his job as editor of Sebâs newspaper is the fulfillment of a dream heâs not about to abandon. But, like Eva, he has a past that haunts him.
How these two deal with their challenges and, oh, yes, manage to fall in love, too, is what I envisioned happening in Willow Beach. I hope you enjoy reading the story.
Visit my website at www.lindahopelee.com. Email me at [email protected] or write to me at P.O. Box 238, Edmonds, WA. I am also on Facebook and Twitter (@LindaHopeLee).
Linda
LINDA HOPE LEE lives in the Pacific Northwest. She likes traveling to new places, especially to small towns that might serve as settings for her novels. In addition to contemporary romance, she writes in the romantic suspense and mystery genres, as well. When she is not writing, sheâs busy creating watercolor paintings or drawing in colored pencil or pen and ink. Another pastime is photography, which she uses as inspiration for her art and for her stories. She also collects childrenâs books and anything to do with wire-haired fox terriers.
CHAPTER ONE
âIâM SORRY TO BRING you bad news,â Mark Townson said, âbut your father is dead.â
âWhat?â The pen Eva Sinclair held slipped from her fingers and clattered onto her desk. When sheâd answered the phone, the last person sheâd expected to hear on the other end of the line was someone from her hometown. âNo, no...â
âIâm afraid so.â
âWhen? How?â
âEarly this morning. When he didnât show up at the office or answer his home phone or his cell, I came over here to his house. I found him and called nine-one-one.â
âDo you know what happened?â
âNot for sure. He was slumped over the kitchen table where heâd been eating breakfast. My guess would be a heart attack. Iâm sure someone official will be in touch with you soon. I just thought you should know right away.â
âYes, but a heart attack... I didnât know he had a bad heart.â
âI suspect thereâs a lot you didnât know about him.â
His reproachful tone stung. Yet, the statement was true. She hadnât spoken to her father more than three or four times in the past five years, and those occasions had been short and strained.
âHe told me about your, uh, disagreement,â Mark Townson said. âAnd that you chose moving to Seattle over staying in Willow Beach and working for him at the Herald.â
The Willow Beach Herald. Why would she want to write for a small-town weekly newspaper when she could work for a prestigious magazine like Seattleâs Best? But, of course, that wasnât the only reason she didnât want to stay in Willow Beach.
She wondered how much Mark Townson knew about the reason for her leaving. Not the entire story, sheâd bet, because her father didnât like to talk about the past any more than she did.
What Mr. Townson knew or did not know was not important now. His shocking news took precedence. At the age of fifty-two, her father, Sebastian Sinclair, was dead.