At Last (Lucky Harbor) Read online

  Hope you enjoy watching these two warily circle each other on their path to true love. Like me, neither of them takes the easy way. I mean, what’s the fun in that?

  Our family had a great summer at that lake, and it’s a great summer for me this year too with not one, but three Lucky Harbor novels. So if you enjoy AT LAST, don’t miss sexy Special Ops soldier Ty Garrison in Lucky in Love and handsome doctor Josh Scott in Forever and a Day, coming in August.

  Happy Reading—all summer long!

  http://www.jillshalvis.com

  http://www.facebook.com/jillshalvis

  From the desk of Molly Cannon

  Dear Reader,

  There used to be a bar way out in the country where my husband and I would go with a bunch of our friends to dance on Saturday nights. We’d drive for miles and miles down these dark, unlit roads, and then in the distance we’d see the glow against the night sky from the pole lights in the parking lot. We’d pull in, the gravel crunching under our tires, and the place would be packed. After we found a place to park, we’d scramble out of our cars and head inside. The sound of country music and the smell of beer would hit us like a wave when we walked in the door. And the building—it was gigantic, a big, barn-like place—but we’d find a table and settle in for a night of two-stepping, drinking beer, and hanging out with our friends.

  As I danced, I couldn’t help but do a little people watching. The women would all be dressed to the nines in their dancing outfits, trying to catch someone’s eye. The men would be on the prowl but doing their best to play it cool. I’d keep my eye on the blonde woman in the yellow dress: She’d come with one guy, but she danced with another one all night long. Or the tall, stern-looking cowboy at the bar who never took his eyes off the short, dark-haired girl in the pink shirt for a single second. She huddled up with a group of girlfriends, so I wondered if he’d ever work up the courage to ask her for a dance. There might be a couple arguing in one corner, and a couple kissing in another. It was always quite a show: love, lust, broken hearts, maybe some cheating, and a lot of hanky-panky—all played out to the quick-quick, slow-slow beat of a country song. That dance hall is gone now, and the countryside has been swallowed up by neighborhoods and paved roads with streetlights, but I haven’t forgotten the nights I spent there.

  So it’s no accident that the first scene of my book AIN’T MISBEHAVING takes place in a parking lot. Not just any parking lot, but the parking lot outside of Lu Lu’s, the local watering hole in Everson, Texas. When Marla Jean Bandy decides it’s time to quit spending nights home alone after her divorce, when she decides it’s time to bust out and have some fun, Lu Lu’s is just the kind of place I thought she needed. Decked out in a tight red dress and her best cowboy boots, she’s ready to get back out there and have a good time… until Jake Jacobsen, a childhood crush, shows up and tries to run interference. Marla Jean is about to find out that a parking lot on a Saturday night can be full of delicious possibilities.

  I hope you enjoy AIN’T MISBEHAVING and have fun getting to know Marla Jean, Jake, and all the meddlesome, well-meaning folks in Everson, Texas.

  Happy Reading!

  www.mollycannon.com

  Facebook.com

  Twitter @cannonmolly

  Contents

  Welcome

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  A Preview of Forever and a Day

  Also by Jill Shalvis

  Praise for Jill Shalvis and Her Novels

  The Dish

  Copyright

  Copyright

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright © 2012 by Jill Shalvis

  Excerpt from Forever and a Day copyright © 2012 by Jill Shalvis

  All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected] Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  Forever

  Hachette Book Group

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  First e-book edition: June 2012

  Forever is an imprint of Grand Central Publishing.

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  ISBN 978-1-4555-0373-5