The Lake House Secret, A Romantic Suspense Novel (A Jenessa Jones Mystery) Read Online Free Page B

times she had replayed it in her mind during the first few years following their break up.
    After a while she had managed to think of him less and less, until the last couple of years she hadn’t thought of him at all—until today. She’d have to figure out a way to be in that man’s presence without going ballistic.
    “Can we pu-leeze change the subject?” Jenessa begged, popping the last of the bagel into her mouth.
    ~*~
    As the afternoon flowed into the early evening, Aunt Renee ordered take-out from a local restaurant that specialized in fresh and organic food, requesting that they deliver the meals, which was not their usual custom. But Renee Giraldy could be convincing, and after promising a sizeable tip, her doorbell soon rang with her delivery.
    Sara and Ramey unpacked the food and set plates and glasses out on the casual dining table between the kitchen and the great room. As Aunt Renee filled a crystal pitcher with water and ice, Jenessa grabbed the napkins and utensils and set the table. Each did their part and dinner came together like clockwork.
    Jenessa enjoyed the meal with her family, something she had not done in a very long time. Even though it was not under the best of circumstances, it felt warm and comfortable—a far cry from the years of eating frozen meals out of the microwave, alone in her apartment, sometimes consuming them over the kitchen sink or grabbing bites while working on a story on her laptop.
    She had concentrated on her education, and then on her work. She hadn’t taken the time to make many friends in Sacramento, even among her co-workers at the newspaper, focusing more on her job as an investigative reporter. Working her way up from covering weddings and social events, she had proven her ability to write and to dig for the truth while producing compelling human-interest stories.
    And as pretty as she was, Jenessa had shied away from getting too deeply involved in romantic relationships—not in college and not after. She had dated a number of men over the years, but as soon as she noticed they were getting serious, she found some way to demolish the relationship.
    She had given her heart to one man, Logan Alexander, and it had turned into a disaster. For her own emotional protection, whether purposely or subconsciously, she protected herself from going through anything like that again.
    When she was seventeen, Jenessa had loved Logan so completely, so intensely, she’d thought she might burn up and disappear in a cloud of smoke. And he had loved her, or at least he’d said he did. But he broke her heart and ruined her life, and she didn’t ever want to feel that way again.
    Coming home to Hidden Valley, would she finally be ready to open her heart to another man?

Chapter 4
    Dinner was almost over. Aunt Renee brought another pitcher of ice water to the table and offered to pour.
    “No more for me,” Jenessa said. She finished her Caesar salad with grilled chicken and sourdough rolls and couldn’t remember when anything had tasted so good. “I should get going pretty soon. I want to go through Dad’s desk and his filing cabinet before I go to bed. Maybe I can find his funeral and burial instructions.”
    Sara and Ramey decided they would stay over at Aunt Renee’s so none of them would have to be alone that night.
    Ramey was single, having not married yet. Actually, she had hardly dated, but she remained hopeful and optimistic. Jenessa always thought what Ramey lacked in beauty she made up for in sweetness and charm.
    At the moment, Sara was single too. She was usually kind, always beautiful and carefree, blessed with dark honey-colored hair and familial soft green eyes, looking more like Aunt Renee than she did her own mother. She was a little shorter than Jenessa, with a slim, petite build.
    Sara had married at twenty-one and, much to her parents’ dismay, she was divorced by twenty-three. In the last couple of years, she’d had a string of boyfriends, but as far as