Talk of the Town Read Online Free Page A

missing from his life was a wife. That should be easy, too, but it wasn’t turning out that way, and that was driving him nuts.
    That empty place in him burned bright. He wanted a marriage like his parents’ marriage. His youngest sister had gotten married last year, and at all the family functions it pained him to watch the happiness marriage was bringing both his sisters and his parents. That wasn’t fair, and he hated the feeling. Plus everyone had that tone—that look in their eyes. Who can we get for Sam? Damn, that was annoying.
    Sam was determined to create a life for himself here in Paradise. This community had given him a great deal. He was here to give something back. In Paradise his actions would have a positive impact. He liked that idea. And part of that life should include a wife and family.
    Sam thought about his parents, off on another one of their art tours. Every trip they made was like a second honeymoon. He saw the love between them still alive and well even after all theseyears. There was a special glimmer when they looked into each other’s eyes. Sometimes his dad would take his mom’s hand in a spontaneous gesture of affection and press it to his lips in a gallant kiss. He’d be so lucky to find a woman to share that kind of enduring love with. Maybe he was asking too much in this day and age.
    Of course, there was Lynnette Stivers, his old high school girlfriend. Everyone had expected him to take back up with her. She seemed perfect. So perfect it made his teeth hurt. Sam knew she’d had her sights set on him coming back to her.
    During his first days back in town she’d shown up at the office with a picnic lunch and helped him unpack his legal books. That was quite the picnic. Perfect fried chicken, red potato salad, cold hand-squeezed lemonade, red-checked tablecloth.
    He didn’t notice till too late that he was dessert. He smiled to himself. She’d sure made a lunge at him. It’s damn hard to pull a woman off you if she’s got her mind set on it.
    He’d done a pretty good job of it, though. Gave her the old let’s-be-friends speech and helped her back into her perfectly pressed oxford button-up blouse. Amazing the way that thing didn’t wrinkle when she’d practically ripped it off.
    Lynnette, with her ponytail pulled so tight itsqueaked. Sam actually wished he could fall for her. Even in high school during their senior year and at the prom he remembered wishing he felt something more for her.
    He’d changed since high school, since law school and doing time as a public defender in Philadelphia. Now he knew that whatever Lynnette appeared to be, it left him empty on his end. And that wasn’t what he wanted in a marriage.
    Thank God he’d never slept with her in high school. At least he’d had the sense that if he really didn’t love her, he shouldn’t have sex with her, a rare moment of clarity for an eighteen-year-old.
    He reached for the binoculars on his file cabinet and focused on Paradise High School. It still gave him a great feeling. He’d spent the best years of his life so far in that building.
    There was a big banner across the front of the building that read: HOMECOMING OCTOBER 4, 2003.
     
    Lynnette should get a clue. Tom Blackwell would marry her in a heartbeat. He’d been in love with her since their junior year. As it was, if Sam so much as raised an eyebrow in her direction, she’d be cooking him dinner every night and darning his socks. Scary.
    So he would keep his eyebrows very still around her.
    Seemed like everyone in Paradise knew he wanted to get married, and they’d made it their business to get involved. It was a hobby for the whole damn town.
    He moved his view to Main Street. There was Mrs. Williamson headed into Esther’s Fabrics. She had her own key just in case she needed quilting supplies on a Sunday. That was trust for you. You’d never see that in a big city.
    She’d set him up with her niece, Ada. One-eyebrow Ada. Not that her appearance