Page 2 of First Love

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The phone rang and Nadine sent up a silent prayer for her confrontation with the teacher. John was always having trouble in school. He, more than Bobby, had shown open defiance and anger since her divorce nearly two years before.

“Hello?” she answered as the theme music for the boys’ favorite cartoon show filtered in from the living room.

“Mrs. Warne?” The voice was cool and male. Principal Strand! Nadine braced herself.

“Yes.”

“This is William Bradworth of Smythe, Mills and Bradworth in San Francisco. I represent the estate of Hayden Garreth Monroe III….”

Nadine’s heart nearly stopped beating and her stomach curled into a hard knot of disgust. Hayden Garreth Monroe III had been the catalyst who had started the steady decline of her family. She’d only met him once, years before, but the man was brutal—a cutthroat businessman who had stepped on anyone and anything to get what he wanted. Including her father. In Nadine’s estimation, Monroe was a criminal. She felt little remorse that he was dead.

“What do you want, Mr. Bradworth?”

“Your name was given to me by Velma Swaggart. I’m looking for a professional to do some housekeeping.” At this moment in time, Nadine would gladly have strangled her aunt Velma. Just the name Monroe should have been enough of a clue for Velma to come up with another maid service. “So I’m willing to pay you the going rate to clean the house at 1451 Lakeshore Drive,” Bradworth continued, and Nadine held back a hot retort.

Instead she stretched the phone cord taut so that she could look through the window and across the lake. Far in the distance, on the north shore, surrounded by tall redwood and pine trees, the Monroe summer home sprawled upon an acre of prime lakefront property.

“The job would entail a thorough cleaning and I’d want a report on the repairs needed. If you could find someone in the area to fix up the place, I’d like their names—”

“I’ll have to think about it, Mr. Bradworth,” she said, deciding not to cut the man off too quickly, though she would have liked to have sent him and his offer packing. But right now, money was tight. Very tight. Aunt Velma knew that she was hungry and Velma had probably swallowed her own pride in giving out Nadine’s name.

There was a deep pause on the other end of the line. Obviously Mr. Bradworth wasn’t used to being put off. “I’ll need an answer by tomorrow afternoon,” he said curtly.

“You’ll have one,” Nadine replied, and silently cursed herself for looking a gift horse in the mouth. Who cared where the money came from? She needed cash to fix up her car, and Christmas was coming…. How would she afford to buy the boys the things they needed? But to take money from old man Monroe’s estate? She shuddered as she hung up the phone.

Her eyes clouded as she walked out the back door and along the path that skirted the house and led down to the dock. A stiff, November wind had turned, causing whitecaps to form on the lake’s usually smooth surface. She remembered the old legend of the lake, conceived by local Native Americans but whispered by the first white settlers. The story had been passed down from one generation of white men to the next, and she wondered how much of the old myth was true.

Rubbing her arms, she stared across the graying water, unaffected as raindrops began to fall. The Monroe estate. Empty for nearly thirteen years. A splendid summer home, which Nadine had never had the privilege of visiting, but which had gained notoriety when it was discovered that Jackson Moore and Rachelle Tremont had spent the night in the house on the night that Roy Fitzpatrick was killed. Jackson had been the prime suspect as Roy’s killer and Rachelle had been his alibi. She’d ruined her reputation by admitting that they’d been together all night long.

Few had gone back to the house since. Or so the gossip mill of Gold Creek maintained. Nadine had no way of knowing the truth.

She thought for a poignant moment about Hayden, the old man’s son. Named for his father, born and raised with a silver spoon stuck firmly between his lips, Hayden Garreth Monroe IV had been more than a rich boy. At least to Nadine. If only for a little while. Until he’d shown his true colors. Until he’d proved himself no different than his father. Until he’d used money to buy off her affections.

Nadine bit her lower lip. She’d been such a fool. Such an innocent, adoring fool!

Her Reeboks creaked on the weathered boards of the dock and the wind blew her hair away from her face. Shivering, she rubbed her arms and stared across the lake to the wealthy homes that dotted the north beach of Lakeshore Drive.

To the west, the Fitzpatrick home was visible through the thicket of trees, and farther east, the roofline of the Monroe summer home peeked through the branches of pine and cedar.

“Damn it all,” she whispered, still cursing the day she’d met Hayden.

Meeting him…riding in his boat…thinking she was falling in love with him had seemed so right at the time. Now she knew her infatuation with Hayden had been a mistake that would remain with her for the rest of her life. She could recall their short time together with a crystal-clear clarity that scared her.

As raindrops drizzled from the sky, she let her mind wander back to that time she’d told herself was forbidden:when she’d been young and naive and ripe for adventure, and Hayden Garreth Monroe IV had shoved his way into her world and turned it upside down….

BOOK ONE

Gold Creek, California

The Past

CHAPTER ONE

“YOU MAKE SURE you pick me up at quittin’ time,” Nadine’s father said as his truck bounced through the gravel lot of Monroe Sawmill, where he worked. He parked in the shade of the barking shed, twisted his wrist and yanked the key from the ignition of his old Ford pickup. The engine shuddered and died, and he handed the key to his daughter.

“I won’t be late,” Nadine promised.

Her father winked at her. “That’s my gal.”


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