A lakeside summer, a new beginning...
Samantha Fremont has been struggling with the weight of her mother’s expectations for years. But now that her mother has passed away, it’s time for Sam to be bold and finally establish the fashion design business she’s always dreamed of. And the perfect opportunity has fallen into her lap. Her friend’s getting married and has asked Sam to create her wedding dress...if only she can avoid the bride’s infuriating brother, who’s temporarily the boy next door.
Ian Summerhill knows a sabbatical in Haven Point is exactly what he and his children need to recover from their mother’s death. His romantic relationship with his ex-wife may have ended years ago, but caring for her throughout her illness broke his heart. All he wants is to watch his little sister walk down the aisle and to see his kids smile again. And somehow his lovely new neighbor is instrumental in both. But as their uneasy truce blossoms into a genuine friendship and more, Ian has obligations in England he can’t ignore—and a secret that threatens the fragile trust he and Sam have built.
Praise for RaeAnne Thayne
“[Thayne’s] books are wonderfully romantic, feel-good reads that end with me sighing over the last pages.”
—#1 New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber
“Emotional and deeply satisfying.”
—Sarah Morgan, USA TODAY bestselling author, on The Cliff House
“Entertaining, heart-wrenching, and totally involving, this multithreaded story overflows with characters readers will adore.”
—Library Journal on Evergreen Springs (starred review)
“Deliciously flirty and totally engrossing.”
—Library Journal on Sugar Pine Trail
“Serenity Harbor is riveting to the very end.”
—BookPage
“RaeAnne Thayne is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.... Once you start reading, you aren’t going to be able to stop.”
—Fresh Fiction
“Endearing small-town residents and bratty cats add humor to this heartwarming, steady-paced holiday romance.”
—Publishers Weekly on Sugar Pine Trail
Also available from
RaeAnne Thayne
and HQN
The Cliff House
The Sea Glass Cottage
Haven Point
Snow Angel Cove
Redemption Bay
Evergreen Springs
Riverbend Road
Snowfall on Haven Point
Serenity Harbor
Sugar Pine Trail
The Cottages on Silver Beach
Season of Wonder
Coming Home for Christmas
Hope’s Crossing
Blackberry Summer
Woodrose Mountain
Sweet Laurel Falls
Currant Creek Valley
Willowleaf Lane
Christmas in Snowflake Canyon
Wild Iris Ridge
For a complete list of books by RaeAnne Thayne, please visit www.raeannethayne.com.
Look for RaeAnne Thayne’s next novel
Christmas at Holiday House
available soon from HQN.
RaeAnne Thayne
Summer at Lake Haven
Table of Contents
Summer at Lake Haven
A Haven Point Beginning
To my wonderful readers, who have made writing each Haven Point book a joy. Thank you!
Summer at Lake Haven
Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
EPILOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
TWO STRANGE CHILDREN were playing on her dock.
Frowning with concern, Samantha Fremont looked out the window of the house she had lived in all of her twenty-eight years, on the shore of Lake Haven in the small, picturesque town of Haven Point, Idaho.
She didn’t recognize them. Who were they and what were they doing on her property? From here, she could see the trespassers looked to be a girl of about eight and a boy a few years younger. They were dressed in summer wear that even from here Sam could tell was costly, even designer quality. A sundress for the girl of a pale peach cotton dotted with white flowers, and khaki shorts and a blue striped shirt for the boy.
She looked out at the water and then back at the dock. The children were still there. Not a mirage, then, induced by a combination of too much work and too much time spent hunched over her sewing machine or looking at fashion magazines.
Most likely, they were renting the house next door and didn’t realize the dock stretching twenty feet out into Lake Haven belonged to her house, not theirs.
Her mother would have had a fit. Linda had hated that the house next door had been turned into a vacation rental after the previous owner, a kindly older woman, passed away. She had complained to anyone who would listen about the noise level, strange people coming and going at all hours of the day and night, the lack of respect she claimed the short-term tenants showed for the established neighborhood.
If she had been here to see those two children out on the dock without any sign of supervision, Linda would have marched out there, grabbed them both firmly by the hand and trotted off in search of their absentee parents. Once she found them, she probably would have spent the next half hour haranguing said parents about the importance of teaching children to respect the property of others and the dangers inherent in allowing children to play next to a large body of water without adequate supervision.
But her mother wasn’t here anymore.
The little spasm of hurt in her chest was as familiar to her now as her favorite pair of scissors. For all her mother’s crankiness, the house didn’t feel the same without her. Five months had passed since Linda Fremont died of a massive heart attack in her sleep. Five months without her tart tongue or her pessimism or her dire prognostications.
Sam wouldn’t have believed it possible but she still missed her mother.
Betsey whined and she looked at the large pen where three puppies were crawling all over the little Yorkie/shih tzu cross lying on her side.
Her mother would have had a fit about the dog, too. Despite pleading, cajoling and, okay, even a few outright tantrums, Sam had never been allowed to have a dog. Or a pet of any sort, really. Linda would never budge.
Dogs were too much of a bother, her mother had always said, and cats were too sneaky. As Sam wasn’t a fan of reptiles or rodents, she had contented herself as a child with pretending her stuffed animals were real or that her friends’ dogs were really hers.
Months after her mother’s death she had still been lost and grieving
