Moment in Time Read online

  Table of Contents

  Moment in Time

  Copyright © 2015 by Lisa Mondello

  Blurb

  Ebooks by Lisa Mondello

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Dear Reader:

  Ebooks by Lisa Mondello

  Moment in Time

  by Lisa Mondello

  * * *

  Published by: Lisa Mondello

  * * *

  Copyright © 2015 by Lisa Mondello

  ISBN: 978-1-940512-12-9

  License Notes

  This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people unless it is part of an approved lending program from an authorized retailer. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or downloaded it free from an unauthorized distributor, then you are stealing the author’s work. You must delete it from your device and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work and copyright.

  Blurb

  From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Lisa Mondello, a new adult erotic contemporary series SUMMER HOUSE SERIES.

  MOMENT IN TIME

  This summer isn't about dying. It's about living. Jenna Traynor has been given her life back. After two years of chemo and missing out on college life, she is in remission. Spending the summer working on Nantucket Island is a good place to start life again. Hot guys everywhere, fun times at the clubs, long walks on the beach and beautiful sunrises and sunsets over the ocean from her back porch. Living life again was the plan. And then she met Bobby...

  On leave from the military, Bobby Callahan needs one thing: a quiet beach to run and train so his leg will get strong enough for him to return to his post. For the past three years the only thing that made him get out of bed was the military. He'd joined the service to get away from sympathetic eyes and worried faces. He didn't count on meeting a girl like Jenna whose thirst for life made him break out of the walls he'd so carefully constructed around himself. And once he realized she had his heart, he knew he never wanted to let her go. And then fate stepped in...

  This series is a New Adult College Romance series that contains sexual situations that are graphic and explicit and not intended for readers under 18 years old.

  For more information about the SUMMER HOUSE SERIES visit http://summerhouseseries.blogspot.com and sign up for my newsletter http://eepurl.com/xhxO5

  Ebooks by Lisa Mondello

  DAKOTA HEARTS

  Her Dakota Man book 1 of Dakota Hearts

  Badland Bride book 2 of Dakota Hearts

  Dakota Heat book 3 of Dakota Hearts

  Wild Dakota Heart book 4 of Dakota Hearts

  His Dakota Bride book 5 of Dakota Hearts

  Dakota Wedding book 6 of Dakota Hearts

  His Dakota Heart book 7 of Dakota Hearts

  Dakota Cowboy book 8 of Dakota Hearts

  One Dakota Night book 9 of Dakota Hearts

  Dakota Homecoming book 10 of Dakota Hearts

  TEXAS HEARTS

  Her Heart for the Asking - book 1 Texas Hearts

  His Heart for the Trusting - book 2 Texas Hearts

  The More I See - book 3 Texas Hearts

  Gypsy Hearts - book 4 Texas Hearts

  Leaving Liberty – book 5 Texas Hearts

  His Texas Heart - book 6 Texas Hearts

  Texas Hearts Box Set (Books 1-3)

  FATE WITH A HELPING HAND

  All I Want for Christmas is You - book 1

  The Marriage Contract – book 2

  The Knight and Maggie’s Baby – book 3

  My Lucky Charm - book 4

  Tempting Fate Box Set (books 1-3)

  SUMMER HOUSE (Coming 2015)

  Moment in Time book 1 Summer House Series

  Moment of Impact book 2 Summer House Series

  Moment of Truth book 3 Summer House Series

  Moment of Trust book 4 Summer House Series

  Material Witness - book 1 (**Named one of Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2012)

  Nothing But Trouble (Contemporary Western Romance)

  Chapter One

  Jenna

  Life has a funny way of jumping off the rails when you’re not looking.

  Too bad I wasn’t looking.

  I don’t know exactly when it happened. Being told I had cancer definitely got my attention. But hearing I was cancer free, at least for the time being, did a lot to change the way I view the next however many days or years I have left to live. As in, I’m not looking that far ahead. I’m living in the here and now. Because after two years of the Grim Reaper knocking on Jenna Traynor’s door, I just want to live again.

  That’s what this summer on Nantucket is all about.

  I drop my iPhone in the duffel bag I’d bought while scouting colleges before I’d gotten my diagnosis two years ago. I only needed a few things for now, so I drop in an extra pair of sandals and cut off shorts.

  Nantucket Island. I’ve lived in Massachusetts for years and I’ve never been. This summer isn’t about doing a drive-by. It’s about living, feeling, experiencing.

  My parents hated the idea. That made it all the more appealing to me.

  I zip the duffel closed as excitement races through me. No chemo. No poking and prodding. I may even come back home with hair that touches my shoulders. I touch the short crop of sandy blond hair that is finally coming in, just thinking of what Jared would say if he saw me with hair again.

  “Jenna? We’re going to be late,” my mother called from downstairs.

  “I’ll be down in a minute!”

  “You’re going to miss the ferry!”

  I groan and grit my teeth. This I won’t miss.

  Lifting the duffel, and feeling satisfaction that my strength has come back enough that it didn’t have me falling forward under the weight of it, I head downstairs. It was going to be a long ride to Hyannis.

  “Today would have been her birthday,” my mother said wistfully. I don’t have to ask who or what she was talking about. I don’t bother answering anymore. We don’t have time for it and I sure as hell don’t want to get into it. But Mom knows that, which is why she brought it up. It was just like my mother to remind me of things I didn’t want to remember.

  “Did you pack everything?” she finally says.

  “If I forgot anything, I’ll get it on Nantucket.”

  “You’ll pay and arm and a leg on the island. We can stop on the way.”

  “I thought you were worried about me making the ferry? We might hit traffic on the Sagamore Bridge. If something costs too much, then I won’t really need it. All I need is a bathing suit and clothes for walking around. I’m getting a uniform for work.” My mother heaves a sigh. “I wish you would change your mind. You’re father and I—”

  “Yeah, let’s not go there,” I say as I climb into the front seat and slam the door. “I’m going. I just want to get this summer started, Natalie.”

  My mother shoots me an angry look. “We talked about that.”

  “I’m twenty. Why can’t I call you by your name?”

  She guns the engine and looks straight ahead. “Because, I said so.”

  * * *

  As Nantucket Island came into view, my excitement was enough to keep the slight nausea I’d been feeling for the last hour at bay. Cancer had done a job of derailing any plans I’d had. It had been enough of an excuse for Jared to run away. And it had given me a heartache I never want to know again. Okay, cancer had scored some p
oints. But I was far from checkmate. This summer was not about losing. It was going to be about living. And I’m determined to drink in every bit of living I can. My cell phone rings, pulling me for the destination in front of me. I grab my cell and see that it’s my mother.

  “You left me two hours ago, Mom,” I say as I answer the phone.

  “You forgot your meds. I knew you’d forget something.”

  Her voice is exasperated. But then Natalie Traynor is always exasperated.

  “I have my meds. I just didn’t take the full supply for the summer.”

  “You’re going to run out!”

  “There are pharmacies on Nantucket, you know.”

  “Your father called again. He’s not happy with me for letting you go.”

  “You didn’t let me go. I’m twenty and I decided. Besides, he lost all privileges to having any say in my life when he took off.”

  “Be fair. He’s still your father. And even though he left when you were two, he was still a presence in your life.”

  A once a month presence, I recall. How many people could actually count how many days in their life they’d spent with their father? But I know how much that pisses Mom off when I say it, so I keep quiet.

  “We are just about into Steamboat Wharf. I have to go.”

  “Call me when you get settled at the Summer House.”

  I press the button to end the call. I know she’ll call me long before I get to the Summer House. I look at my phone and then turn off the power.

  * * *

  Bobby

  How the hell am I going to find this girl? When Aunt Bev sent me to pick up one of her girls, the least she could have done was give me a description. I look at all the beach girls coming off the ferry and they all look the same. Most are paired up with someone else. How old was this girl? Twenty? I’d already seen about fifty girls that age.

  This is going to be a long summer if I have to cart Aunt Beverly’s summer girls around without even knowing what they look like. I don’t know why I let her talk me into coming here on leave.

  Leave. This summer was hardly the kind of leave most military personal looked forward to. If it weren't for the damned shrapnel in my leg and the muscle damage I’d sustained, I’d still be serving overseas, away from the probing stares of family who want to make sure I'm doing okay. The only thing that made me okay was doing my job. If spending the summer walking and running on the beach helps heal me, then I’ll be headed back to my squad to finish out my tour.

  But first, there were a whole list of girls coming in from the mainland over the next few days and Aunt Beverly wanted me to drive them to their home for the summer.

  The sun was beating down on me relentlessly as I watched the faces of each young girl who stepped off the ferry. My leg was aching from my morning workout on the beach. A thick weathered post had my name on it. Easing myself onto the hot, flat surface, I felt the pressure in my leg dissipate.

  My eye catches a girl standing on the deck of the ferry, looking around the dock area as if she’s meeting someone. She’s wearing a pair of shorts that emphasize her long legs and show off creamy thighs that would make any man drool. Her red shirt is too big for her frame and billows in the wind, making it hard to see any female assets she may have, not that it mattered to me. This island was littered with pretty girls. She glanced around at the people in the crowd who were moving toward the parking area.

  She was definitely looking for someone. That someone could be me.

  * * *

  Jenna

  There was a super-hot guy sitting on a wooden post at the end of the dock as I walk off the ferry. He looks lost. Or maybe he was just looking. His eyes quickly graze the faces of all the young girls walking by. I walk slow and let the people who are sick of being on the ferry rush past me until I can hear the click of my sandals hitting my heels as I walk down the ramp to the dock. When he catches me looking at him, his smile grows wide.

  “Jenna Traynor?”

  I hope my face doesn’t show my surprise, but I’m sure it does. “Yeah, how’d you know?”

  “A lucky guess. My aunt sent me here to pick you up.”

  Mr. Hottie was here for me? Nantucket was looking damned good already. I hitch my duffel bag over my shoulder.

  “Is that all the luggage you have?” Hot Guy asks.

  “It’s all I need for now. I have a few boxes coming. I mailed them off yesterday. They should be arriving tomorrow.”

  His mouth lifts slightly on one side. “Don’t count on it. Mail is slow on the island. Even during the summer. I’m Bobby.”

  He hops off the post he’s been sitting on and walks over to me. No, limps over to me. He’s definitely favoring his left leg.

  He extends his hand and looks at my duffel bag. “Why don’t you let me take that?”

  I push the strap of the duffel higher on my shoulder. “Nah, I have it.”

  He glances down for a moment and then looks at me. His eyes are bright blue but a little more frosty than they’d been when he was sitting on the post.

  “I’m perfectly capable of—”

  “Carrying my bag?” I interrupt. “Yeah, I get that. But so am I.”

  Bobby gives me a skeptical glance. I know he’s thinking I’m some bitch feminist like you see on talk shows who need to prove themselves. Yeah, I need to prove something, but not to this guy.

  “I had cancer,” I blurt out. And then I wish I hadn’t because Bobby suddenly gives me that horrible look that I see from everyone who learns about my illness. It’s as if I have cooties. I hate it. “But I don’t anymore. At least, that’s what the doctors tell me. I’m just tired of people treating me like a china doll. Besides, carrying the weight helps build my strength.”

  I’ve said too much, but unlike so many people who give me that you-poor-girl look, Bobby's lips lift to a grin as he puts up his hands and he takes a step back. “Say no more. I’m parked this way.”

  I follow him to the parking lot where he hits the remote on his keychain and the lights of an SUV start flashing.

  Watching him as he moves, I decide this guy is more than hot, he’s gorgeous. Most of the guys I knew in high school were still scrawny, including Jared. I’d missed meeting all the college boys my friends talked about during my chemo days. While they were out clubbing and party hopping, I was getting pumped with chemicals that made my hair and eyebrows fall out, and killed the one dream I had, and along with it, the chance of ever having it.

  But Bobby wasn’t a college boy. He was definitely a bit older. And he sure as hell wasn’t scrawny. My fingers were itching to travel over his six-pack, which I clearly saw underneath his T-shirt when he’d been sitting on the dock. Even though his hair was short in a buzz cut, I could tell it was probably dark when he let it grow in.

  Bobby opened the back of the SUV and reached for my duffel. It was stupid of me to hold onto it any longer. I’d made my point and embarrassed myself in the process. But if Bobby was still thinking of my bitch moment on the dock, he didn’t let on. He took the duffel in his hands and I remembered the one thing I’d packed that had me stirring where I stood. Thoughts of Bobby, hot and sweaty, fill my head and I feel my cheeks flame hotter than the sun beating down on my head.

  #

  Chapter Two

  Jenna

  We drove along the coastal road for a few minutes in silence. I focus my attention on all the mansions on the beach that are partially hidden by scrub pines and shrubs. I wanted to see them. They were so unlike the modest house I live in outside of Boston.

  Bobby has put on a pair of dark shades that shield his blue eyes from me. Every once in a while he glances in my direction and then turns away before I could tell if it was me he was looking at or something else out on the road.

  “Do you live in one of these?” I finally ask.

  The surprised look on his face as he glances at me is laughable. Then he chuckles. “Me? Not even on a good day. You can’t touch this real estate.”

&
nbsp; “So where do you live?”

  “Right now my address is the Wayside Inn in Sconset. After this summer, who knows?”

  “A drifter.”

  He shook his head. “On leave from the military. I go where they send me.”

  The limp took on a new meaning.

  “I’m supposed to be working at the Wayside Inn this summer.”

  “I know. My aunt looks forward to this every summer.”

  “She does?”

  “Yeah. No kids. Never married. So she treats the Summer House girls like her own.”

  He laughs as he looks at me and it dawns on me that I’m making a face.

  “What?”

  “Don’t worry,” he says with a shake of his head. “She only gets into my business. She’ll stay out of yours. Mostly. She rents out the five beach houses on the island that she got when my uncle died. He’s the one who had money. Now it’s all hers.”

  “And she has no kids to spend it on.”

  He chuckles. “Exactly. She manages the Wayside Inn, which she owns and then she rents out the other houses on the island. It keeps her busy. She only rents out to girls.”

  “Really? Why?”

  “She rented The Cliffs House out to college guys a few years back and they wrecked the place. She spent the whole winter repairing the mess. So now it’s only girls. Some of them come back every summer, so they’re like family to her. She’s not going to be a house mother, if you’re afraid of that.”

  Relief washes over me and I look out the window at the mansions again so Bobby won’t see. “I’ve spent too long having people hovering over me.”

  “I get it.”

  “Do you?”

  “Yeah. I had to join the military to get away from that.”

  I laugh, wondering if he’s serious. “That’s a bit extreme.”

  But Bobby isn’t laughing. “Yeah,” he says quietly, keeping his eyes on the road ahead.

  “So Beverly is your aunt, huh?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Do your parents live on the island, too?”

  “No, they’re back in Stockbridge.”

  “So you’re homegrown Massachusetts?”

  “Something like that. But I haven’t spent a whole lot of time here…until recently. Where do you call home?”