Kiss and Tell Read Free

barely six A.M., but she was awake and knew she wouldn't go back to sleep now. Grizzly light filtered through water-smeared, uncurtained windows. Branches snapped and whipped in the high wind, showering pine needles and leaves against the panes. Trees bent under the storm's onslaught.
    The wind had picked up late last night after she'd finished the lukewarm coffee in her thermos, and she and Duchess had shared a solitary dinner of cold canned stew. Now the wind howled outside like a banshee, screamed through the trees surrounding the cottage, and sneaked through the crevices between the shingles and wood siding. It sounded lonely.
    Grammy had adored bringing all the kids up here with her for weeks at a time. When Grandpa was alive, the two of them had lived in nearby Gray Feather. He'd built the cottage for weekend getaways. The half dozen small houses between the river and the ravine were used as summer vacation homes. No one lived here all year round. They were miles from civilization and help.
    Marnie had consciously pushed aside years of warnings and cautions when she decided to come up here alone. Her family tended to be overprotective. But there was no need. She was as healthy and fit as a woman her age should be.
    Another thing she wanted to change. That constant niggling worry on the edge of her subconscious. To hell with it. She wanted to live, to experience life to the fullest, to gorge herself at life's banquet.
    And in the next couple of days she would decide just how she was going to do it.
    Then she was going home to implement her plans.
    By the flickering firelight, she looked around the small, empty room with a pang of nostalgia. Although her grandmother hadn't returned to the mountains for many years, the little house still held the warmth of memories that would keep Marnie wrapped in her love for the rest of her life. Her grandmother would have wholeheartedly approved of what she was doing.
    The shrieking wind reminded her of vacations spent here with her family, telling ghost stories sprawled on the floor before a roaring fire, roasting marshmallows. Snuggled inside her sleeping bag, Marnie pictured the little cottage as it had been when she and the boys had come up here with Grammy for vacations.
    The furniture, handcrafted by her grandfather, was gone. The quilts and framed needlework hung in Marnie's own house in Sunnyvale. Now Grammy's cottage was just a small, empty wood building tucked away under the trees in the mountains, filled only with happy memories.
    Grandpa had passed away, and a year later her mother had died in a senseless car accident. Marnie had been six. Grammy had come down off her beloved mountain to take care of her and her brothers. Grammy was the only mother Marnie had known, and she ached with her loss. She would have given anything right now to have Grammy with her, just for a little while. She could have benefited from a little grandmotherly wisdom.
    Martha Washburn had been a shining example. She'd been strong. Independent. Courageous.
    She'd shaped who and what Marnie had become. She'd fought tooth and nail to free her granddaughter from her father and brothers' overprotectiveness and tight control. She'd tried to make Marnie's life normal.
    They hadn't always agreed, but Marnie had loved her cantankerous grandmother fiercely and with all her heart.
    Getting involved with some guy wasn't the solution to her problems. She'd proven that. Years ago she'd started looking for someone . Someone...tame. Someone who was the opposite of her macho brothers, who drove her nuts bossing her around. They weren't settling-down kind of men. As much as she adored them, she'd wanted something different. Someone housebroken. Someone with a normal job and a regular hobby. Yet in each case, the men she'd thought she could share some kind of life with had ended up being wrong for her. There'd been no spark. No electricity. No sizzle.
    Thinking she needed a man to complete her life had been the