“You’ve found it.” Her calm voice betrayed none of her annoyance.
“Thank God. I was beginning to feel like Robinson Crusoe.”
“This is one of the most deserted stretches of beach on the island,” Lani acknowledged. “That’s why Nate picked it. He values his privacy.” She didn’t add that the beach’s remoteness held the same appeal for her.
“I know about his penchant for being off the beaten track,” Donovan said. “His house on the Oregon Coast is even more remote than this place. You practically need a mountain goat to climb up that road of his… I’m forgetting my manners. I’m Donovan Quinn.”
He’d taken off the aviator sunglasses, revealing deep shadows beneath midnight-blue eyes. “Introductions aren’t necessary, Donovan. Despite the fact that you seem to have taken to dressing like an undertaker, I had no problem recognizing you.”
Donovan shaded his eyes with his hand as he looked up at her. There was something naggingly familiar about the redhead. They’d met before, he determined, but as demanding as his life had been, especially the past few months, what with Tess’s stalker, followed by his partner’s suicide, Donovan couldn’t imagine forgetting this woman.
Although her eyes were hidden by an oversized pair of shades that reminded him of Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s , it was her fiery hair, pulled up into a messy knot atop her head, that rang a distant bell. He forced his mind to concentrate, to remember.
Eventually, a hazy vision stirred. One of a fourteen year old with a mouthful of braces who’d surprised her older brother with a visit one long-ago winter vacation. A teen who’d been less than pleased to discover that she would be sharing that brother with an outspoken rookie cop.
The friendship between the novelist and the patrolman only six weeks out of the police academy had begun purely by chance. Nate had been researching his second novel, and since his protagonist was a Portland patrolman, he had arranged to spend his nights in a cop ride-along program.
After a week of boring, routine calls, they’d gotten involved in a hair-raising adventure. The high-speed chase of an armed robbery suspect, which made every police movie they had ever seen pale by comparison, had ended abruptly at a warehouse by the docks where the suspect took an elderly night watchman hostage.
The standoff had gone on for hours before Donovan was able to convince his superiors that he had learned his way around every inch of this particular warehouse while working on the loading dock to put himself through Portland State.
As dawn had broken on the horizon, his heart beating wildly and his body pumped with adrenaline, he’d crept stealthily through the shadows, ultimately freeing the watchman and apprehending the perpetrator, who’d still managed to put a twenty-two slug in Donovan’s shoulder before being handcuffed.
The following week, the rookie cop had been rewarded with a departmental commendation, Nate had enough material for ten books, and the kid sister had returned to Orchid Island in a teenage huff.
No. It couldn’t be her.
“Lani?” he asked hesitatingly, still having problems processing the idea that this hot female could be Nate’s skinny, redheaded, smart-mouthed kid sister.
“Got it on the first try. Congratulations. I was wondering how long it’d take for you to make the connection.”
“How could I forget you?” he hedged, unwilling to admit that he hadn’t immediately recognized her. That admission would lead to the less-than-complimentary implication that Lani Breslin had changed dramatically over the past fifteen years.
“How indeed?” she asked with a shake of her head. “Especially after I ruined your holidays.”
“You weren’t that bad.” Okay, that was a lie. She’d been a petulant pain in the ass even as he’d done everything humanly possible to welcome her to Portland.
He’d offered to take her to the zoo on his day off, but she’d professed an allergy to wild animals. The Japanese Gardens were out, as was a Trailblazers’ game since she had no interest in basketball. And FYI, according to Nate’s sister, The Nutcracker , which he’d also suggested, despite having preferred to be zapped with his own Taser than spend a Sunday afternoon at the ballet, was for little kids.
“Besides, it was only natural that you’d resent Nate spending so much time with a stranger after you’d flown all the way across the Pacific to be with him,” he said.