Danny's Girl

by Sandra Chastain

Genres: Women's Fiction; Romance; Contemporary Romance

Synopsis

In a stirring, sensual novel from Sandra Chastain, high-school sweethearts reunite—only now the stakes are higher and the tension is off the charts.
 
“Meet me at our place at midnight,” the note says, just like when they were kids. But Katherine Sinclair isn’t seventeen anymore, and she knows firsthand the dangers of trusting Danny Dark. Ten years ago, he stood her up after graduation, leaving Katherine alone, confused—and pregnant. Giving the baby up for adoption allowed her to go to college and eventually become mayor of Dark River. Seeing Danny again means risking everything—even if his raw masculine presence still gives her chills.
 
Dan is no longer the bad boy everyone in town remembers. But when he lays eyes on the beautiful blond mayor, suddenly Dan Dark, globe-trotting hot shot, becomes Danny again. And in his heart, he realizes that Katherine Sinclair is still Danny’s girl. But Katherine has been keeping a secret that will test the depth of his love: She’s raising the son Dan never knew about, following the death of his adoptive parents. And now Katherine doesn’t need a bad boy in her life. She needs a powerful, passionate, full-grown man.
 
Includes a special message from the editor, as well as excerpts from these Loveswept titles: Trying to Score, Long Simmering Spring, and Scarlet Lady.

Release date: July 8, 2013

Publisher: Loveswept

Print pages: 192

Sample

One
 
Meet me at our place at midnight.
 
There was no postage mark on the envelope. It hadn’t been mailed.
 
There was no signature on the note. Katherine Sinclair didn’t need one.
 
Slowly Katherine crumpled the letter in her hand, the crackling of the paper jarring the stillness of the morning.
 
Beyond the porch she watched Mike as he stood on the diving board fearlessly forming his nine-year-old body into an arched curve before giving up and plunging into the pool crossed-legged and bottom first. Surfacing, he glanced up, as he often did, just to see if she was watching, and gave her a big grin.
 
When he pulled himself from the water and headed back to the board again, she felt a swell of love wash over her. Mike—her son, the son who had been lost to her for most of his life—was hers again, even if he didn’t know yet that she was his mother.
 
Now Danny was back. Fear shot through her, along with the quivery feeling that she was being watched by secret eyes from the shadows beyond. She forced herself to sit in the sunshine and continued to rock evenly, rhythmically, steadfastly refusing to think about the change in direction of her life.
 
First had come the message from the attorney that Mike’s adoptive parents had been killed. Now six months later, after she’d at last found the son she’d given up when she was seventeen, she’d received this cryptic message from his father.
 
“What’s wrong, Katherine?”
 
Katherine looked over at her Aunt Victoria, who was sorting the remainder of the morning mail.
 
A long silent moment passed before Katherine could answer. She wasn’t prepared. She hadn’t expected to see or hear from Danny again.
 
“Danny Dark’s come home. He wants to see me—tonight.”
 
Katherine stood and walked to the end of the sun room. She stared out into the garden, absently threading her fingertips through her hair, reducing the neat, swept-back style into a tousled mass of silver that flared about her face. She looked as if she were six years old again, flying through the afternoon on her bicycle.
 
To Aunt Vic’s credit she didn’t push for details, nor did she elaborate on her thoughts. Aunt Vic. If it hadn’t been for her ten years before, Katherine might not have had the strength to survive the decision to let her baby be adopted.
 
Though it had seared her heart with an open wound that had never fully healed, Katherine had been convinced, even then, that providing a stable home with two loving parents was the right thing for her son. Making the choice to give him up had nearly destroyed her spirit, but she’d done it. She’d made a life for herself, too, a secure, controlled, lonely life—until she’d been given another chance.
 
There’d never been a question in her mind about bringing Mike home. She just hadn’t been able to find a way to explain to him that the parents he’d always loved weren’t his real family at all. It was still too soon.
 
“Well, I’m not going to meet him, Aunt Vic. I can’t. Who does Danny Dark think he is? Ten years ago I waited for him. He never came then, or in all the years since. Now he just waltzes into town and expects me to come running to him?”
 
“Presumptuous of him,” Victoria agreed, “but then he always was sure of himself with you, wasn’t he?”
 
“Well, not this time.” Katherine gave a small sigh. “I have no intention of meeting Danny Dark by the river at midnight. I have no intention of meeting him at all.”
 
“Katherine, I don’t mean to interfere, but don’t you think you ought to tell him what’s happened? I mean, about Mike?”
 
“Absolutely not, Aunt Vic. For so many years I wanted to tell him, but he forfeited the right to know. He doesn’t deserve the truth. Oh, Aunt Vic, why did he have to come back now. I haven’t even figured out how to tell Mike that I’m his real mother. Meeting Danny will only complicate the situation.”
 
“You’re right, of course. Sneaking out to meet Danny in the middle of the night would be as foolish now as it was then. Why not meet him in your office? That is, if you care what he has to say.”
 
If she cared? The irony of Aunt Vic’s words was lost in the unsettling thought of seeing Danny again. A shiver of fear and unrestrained excitement ran over her, followed by desperate anguish. If the wild pumping of her heart was any measure, meeting Danny would be a mistake, wherever it happened.
 
Why had he come back? Why hadn’t he sent that note ten years ago? She’d waited for his letter, watched for it until her eyes ached, until her mind refused to find excuses for its absence any longer. When she’d needed him most, he hadn’t been there for her. Now, with no warning, he’d suddenly appeared.
 
Katherine smoothed out the note, refolded the paper, and slid it back into its jacket, as if by closing it away her senses would be controlled. Unless Danny had business in Dark River, they didn’t have anything to say to each other. And business was discussed in an office, not in a secret place at midnight. It was years too late to believe there could be anything else between them. She wasn’t seventeen anymore.
 
“Well,” Aunt Vic went on indifferently, “if he’s in town, I don’t see how you’re going to avoid him. Maybe it would be better for you to call the shots.” She tucked the remainder of the mail into her apron pocket. “I say the mayor of Dark River, Georgia can make her own choices. Though, if she is going to meet with the Garden Club for lunch, she’d better get a move on.”
 
“Ugh! More chicken salad and Jell-O.” Katherine drew her attention back to the present.
 
“'Fraid so, darling. When they voted down my suggestion to change to tacos and tequila, I resigned. Personally, I thought that a little change would be good for the soul, to say nothing for the rest of the body.”
 
“Aunt Vic!” Katherine ignored her aunt’s remark. “Steak and french fries with the Jaycees tomorrow is about as lively as it’s going to get in this town, I’m afraid. At least steak and potatoes are safer than cupcakes and soda pop.” Katherine started to drop the note in the wastebasket, then drew her hand back.
 
“What are you really scared of, Katherine?”
 
Of Danny Dark, she almost said, then stopped in midstep and bit back the reply. “Of myself, Aunt Vic. I’d better get going.” Katherine crushed the paper even smaller in her hand and went to the door, calling out, “I’m leaving for the office, Mike. See you later.”
 
“Sure, Katherine,” he said with a broad grin and a wave.
 
Katherine took one last look at her son and was filled with pride. Mike was a tough kid, just like his father. He was handling the death of his adoptive parents well. He’d been surprised when Katherine had explained that she was a close friend of his mother and that it was his parents’ wish that he come live in Dark River. After a few weeks Mike had seemed to adjust, and now Katherine couldn’t imagine life without him.
 
In the beginning Katherine had been afraid that the shock of learning she was his birth mother might be too much for the grieving boy. Then, later, the task of telling him had become more difficult. Every day he claimed a bigger chunk of her heart, and every day she felt her fear of losing him grow. At night she sat by his bed, just listening to the sound of him breathing—this son she’d almost lost.
 
Had Danny returned to claim Mike? She’d fight for him with her last ounce of strength!
 
Katherine Sinclair wasn’t a frightened young girl now. She was the mayor of Dark River, and she’d outgrown cupcakes and soda pop a long time ago—and the boy who’d brought them to private picnics on the bank of the river.
 
And she was too grown-up to attend the monthly Garden Club luncheon wearing sandals and a sundress, even if it was June-hot and humid. As the mayor she had an image to maintain. And this day, especially, she felt a need to present an official face to her small town.
 
Thirty minutes later she was headed toward the Dark River Inn. As she drove she cast her eyes toward the old houses that lined the shady road. Though Dark River adjoined the city of Savannah, it was and always had been unique. Graceful old live oaks sent bent arms skyward, draped with wisps of Spanish moss. Rich black dirt nurtured flowers in exotic gardens alongside streets peopled with families that had lived there for generations. Bordered on the east by the Atlantic and on the west by Dark River, her town was a tiny pocket of the past, clinging to tradition, changing little in more than two hundred years.