Page 1 of A Soft Kiss in Summer
ChapterOne
It wasn’t often someone got the jump on Josiah Lincoln, but he nearly came out of his skin when the door to his office flew open with such force, it banged against the wall.
He sprang from his chair and reached for his gun, pulling it from the holster as Violet Campbell ran into the building and slammed the door shut, leaning against it while panting for breath.
His heart took several long moments to return to a normal beat.He holstered his revolver and sat back down, staring at her as if he’d never seen her before.The woman had always been peculiar.Beautiful, but peculiar.Her behavior now only confirmed it.
Her eyes were a bit too wide as she started laughing, but the look on her face told him she didn’t find whatever she was laughing at funny.
She leaned over and looked out the window beside his desk.When she straightened and slumped against the door, he glanced out the window to see what she’d been looking at but saw nothing unusual.
After several long moments of silence, he tilted his head to look at her.“Violet….care to tell me what’s going on?”
“Nothing much,” she said.“Just hiding.”
“From who?”
She laughed again.“My worst nightmare!”
Her hair was in a riot of russet curls today and her cheeks were stained a bright pink.She’d closed her eyes, her long lashes laying against the freckles he knew dotted her cheeks, and for once, he stared at her like she used to stare at him.
He’d lost count of how often he’d caught her peeking around corners at him or staring over at the jail when he’d first taken the job as Marshall in Silver Falls.Her attention to him was so obvious that he’d thought she was hiding some crime he should know about.
He’d found her behavior odd until some lonely voice in the back of his head started whispering that maybe she was staring because she was interested.
In him.
Romantically.
He shut that line of thought down quick-like and ignored the voice whenever it popped into his head but seeing her now, looking like a vision in pale green, her hair wild and her face flushed a pretty pink, some secret part of him mourned the loss of her attention.He didn’t find her staring at him like he used to and there were days he was so bored, he’d been tempted to ask her why.
Tilting the chair to balance on the back legs, he glanced out the window again toward the mercantile her family-owned.He didn’t see anyone, but Violet was no doubt hiding from someone.
When she sighed, his attention was drawn back to her.He noticed her full bottom lip as she worried it with her teeth, and he admired her in a way he probably shouldn’t have.Of the three Campbell sisters, Violet was by far the most alluring.
Daisy was quiet and barely looked at anyone, let alone spoke to them.She was nearly deaf, always shy, and so introverted she tried to blend into her environment without being seen.
Rose, on the other hand, was loud, prickly as a grizzly bear, and mean to boot.Despite her flaws, she’d married Graham Hart, a man she’d seemed to loathe on sight, as he did her.But they made it work.Somehow.
But Violet…she’d always been soft-spoken, or she had been whenever he saw her around others.He’d thought of her as a sweet little flower, one that drew his gaze more often than not.
Her dark auburn hair, which she had left down today, hung in soft curls clear to her waist, and he knew it flamed red when the sun hit it.
Her vibrant blue eyes seemed to take in everything around her, even him.Or they used to, but not so much anymore, and he tried to tell himself he wasn’t disappointed by the fact.
When she continued to do nothing but stand there, he asked, “What’s wrong, Violet?”
She made a sound that he’d almost say was a whine before she made a face that told him she was disgusted about something.“Oh, nothing much,” she said, throwing her hands into the air and rolling her eyes.“Except for life as I know it is coming to an end.”
He couldn’t help it.She was being so dramatic, he laughed.
“It’s not funny.”She did whine pitifully then.“I’m in serious trouble here, Josiah.”
He couldn’t remember if he’d ever heard her say his name quite like that before.It was soft and raspy and way too pleasing.
He’d lived in Silver Falls for nearly two years now and he talked to almost everyone anytime he saw them, but for some reason, he and Violet didn’t cross paths much, so hearing his name from her lips was always oddly pleasing.
He leaned forward and crossed his arms in front of him on the desk.“Come sit down and tell me what’s wrong.”
