Stranger on the Shore Read Free

she might be able to pull it off.
    As a plan, it wasn't the best, but was the only one she had. She would keep her eyes downcast and her face averted as much as possible, help Jimmy Joe uphold his honor, then get the heck out of there. The man asking questions about a schoolteacher from St. Louis wouldn't expect to find her disguised as an urchin wading along the lakeshore.
    She hesitated again at the top of the bluff. Even protected by distance and the camouflage of the thicket, she was barely able to control her racing pulse. She took another deep breath. This was for Jimmy Joe, she reminded herself, as she stepped out of the underbrush.
    There was no ladylike way to get to the bottom of the slope, but she wasn't supposed to be a lady, anyway. She sat down with studied nonchalance and pushed off with her hands, giving a perfect imitation of Jimmy Joe's earlier descent on the seat of his pants. One small moan escaped her when she came to an abrupt halt at the bottom of the bank. Her head snapped back, allowing her eyes to connect with those of the fisherman.
    His eyes were brown, the color of rich, newly turned earth. They were also wide with surprise, and locked with hers in a gaze that seemed to look into her soul. Again, she controlled a shiver, lowered her lashes and scrambled hastily to her feet.
    Jordan had waited in barely concealed anticipation for the mysterious cousin to emerge from her hiding place. The possibility that this cousin with the sight might be the woman he was looking for was more than he dared hope. Although he wasn't sure what he'd been expecting, it certainly wasn't this slip of a girl now standing in front of him.
    She was small—actually not much taller than the boy. And shy. She was careful to keep her gaze lowered. From what he could see of her averted face, there wasn't a lot of family resemblance between them. Of course, both were sunburned, which suggested the same fair skin. Then, there was the matter of the red hair—not that the two shades of red were anything alike. Jimmy Joe's was that deep flame color often described by writers, but rarely seen. The girl's wasn't really red. It was more of a sun-streaked rose-gold.
    Sarah shifted uneasily under his intense scrutiny and placed one foot slightly behind the other. Copying a gesture she had seen Jimmy Joe make earlier, she deliberately dug her toe into the dirt.
    "I told you I weren't dressed for strangers," she said to Jimmy Joe, "and you weren't supposed to tell about Scarface." She tried to sound petulant, but not too angry. She couldn't overact, or Jimmy Joe would give her away.
    "I'm sorry, Cissie. I just—"
    He looked so woebegone, Sarah had to steel herself to keep from giving him a reassuring smile and a hug. It wasn't the first time she was thankful that Jimmy Joe still called her by the nickname he'd given her when he was a baby. Besides, she wouldn't have minded his call for help if it hadn't been this man. And that certainly was not Jimmy Joe's fault.
    "It's all right," she said. "This one time, anyway. Go find some worms and I'll help you prove it to his face."
    Jimmy Joe's grin lit his face. "I'll find some," he called over his shoulder, already running down the shoreline.
    "Well, Cissie," the man standing beside her said quietly, "what do we do now?"
    Sarah kept her head carefully lowered. "Wait for Jimmy Joe to find some worms."
    "And then?" he asked, his voice both coaxing and demanding. If his motive had been for her to look at him, this time it worked. Instinctively she glanced up. Again, his gaze locked with hers, a heated probing look so intense it seemed to burn the air from her lungs. "And then," she said, her voice coming out almost breathlessly as she again lowered her eyes, "I'll feed that old fish."
    Jordan was confused. Jimmy Joe's cousin looked to be about sixteen, small and gawky to the point of awkwardness. But his second glimpse of those mysterious green-blue eyes had strengthened his first impression. They