Dancing in the Moonlight - Harlequin.com

RAEANNE THAYNE
103
The three Dalton boys had been a part of her life as
long as she could remember. She didn’t remember much
about Jake’s older brother, Wade, simply because the
age difference between them was wide—six years. But
Seth had been her age and they’d shared classes together
from kindergarten on.
Jake, on the other hand, had only been three years
older than her and Seth but he had always seemed closer
to Wade’s age than theirs.
She remembered him as quiet, studious, never
without a book open in front of him.
While they waited for the bus at the little enclosed
bus stop her father constructed at the end of their driveways,
she and Seth would sometimes play tag or catch.
Jake rarely joined in, though she knew he was athletic
enough. He had been an all-state baseball player and she
knew he worked just as hard as the other brothers on the
Cold Creek ranch.
He had been a quiet, serious boy who had grown into
a dedicated physician with quite a fan club.
She sighed and shifted her leg to a more comfortable
position. She could sense her feelings about him were
subtly changing and she wasn’t very thrilled about it.
It had been much easier to dislike him on principle than
to face the grim truth that a man like Jake Dalton would
never be interested in her now. Before her accident, maybe.
She knew she wasn’t ugly, and she used to be funny and
smart and interesting before her world fell apart.
The bombing in Kabul had changed everything. She
was no longer that woman, the kind of woman who
could interest a man like Jake Dalton.