Once More, At Midnight

by Wendy Warren

• ISBN13: 9780373248179
• ISBN10: 0373248172
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-03-01
• Publisher: Silhouette

Summary

Her acting career over before it began and her bank account drained, Lilah Owens returned to her tiny hometown of Kalamoose, North Dakota, with the one thing she did have, a big secret in the form of her eleven-year-old daughter. Not five minutes in town, she ran into the unbearably handsome, hardscrabble boy she left behind but never forgot. Only now Gus Hoffman was all man, owned most of Kalamoose, had a fancy fianceacute; and had no idea that he was a father!Gus knew the beautiful woman he'd loved and lost was hiding something--and that meeting once more at midnight, the way they used to, would reveal her secrets. But could Gus handle the truth--and his still-burning passion for Lilah?

Excerpts

"It's-too-hot-This-place-smells-I'm-hungry-I-have-to-pee-You-drive-too-slow." It's incredible,Lilah Owens thought, fingers curling around the steering wheel of her old Pontiac.The kid can complain without punctuation. She looked at her passenger, trying to be patient, be-cause the eleven-year-old had been through a lot in the past several weeks. Then again, so had Lilah. That, coupled with the fact that she was also hot, hungry and had to pee, tended to blunt her compassion. She took a deep breath, as deep as if she were about to belt a song, and answered back, "If-you're-so-hot-suck-on-some-ice-We-just-drove-past-a-sheep-ranch-so-what-do-you-expect-You-ate-an-entire-bag-of-Funyuns-five-minutes-ago-You-can-pee-when-we-get-where-we're-going-And-this-car-is-moving-as-fast-as-she-can-If-you-don't-like-it-get-out-and-walk." She felt fairly pleased with herself until her passen-ger's small fingers reached for the door handle and tugged. True to form, her stubborn Sunfire did not give in easily. Eventually, though, the rusty car relented and the door swung open. On the highway. At the Pontiac's top speed of forty miles per hour. "Are you crazy?!" Lilah lunged across Sabrina's caught the handle on the first try, pulled with all her might and managed to shut them in tight again, locking the door for good measure."Never do that again,"she said, glaring at Bree with fury and disbelief. "Do you want to get us killed?" Bree shrugged with apparent lack of concern. Lilah tried to breathe past the pounding of her heart and wondered, not for the first time, if they would ac-tually survive this road trip. The tension had mounted with each mile they'd traveled from California to North Dakota. Looking out the windshield, she dropped her usual cynicism and for a moment allowed herself to imagine there was a heaven somewhere behind the blindingly hot summer sun. I know, I promised to act like a mother, Gracie, . Silently, Lilah spoke to the friend who had passed on a month earlier and, who, if there was a heaven, certainly deserved to be there.But I may kick Sabrina out of the car myself. Grace McKuen had been a perfect friend. Perfect in every way, except in her estimation of Lilah's abil-ity to take care of a child. Four months ago, Grace had kidney transplant. A month later she and her daughter, Sabrina, had moved in with Lilah. Two months after that, Gracie was gone, and Lilah Owens, singleton, had become, Lilah Owens, instant mother. Add hot water and stir. Now she knew what she'd merely guessed at before: motherhood was only slightly less daunting than skydiving without a parachute. "I saw a sign that said "gas and food, two miles,'" Bree insisted, still using the tone of voice that made Lilah want to open the door and step out of the car her-self. "That was probably a mile and ninety-nine one hundredths ago, so like it would kill you to think ofsomeone else for five seconds?" Lilah brought a smile--the sweetest one she could muster--to her face. Perhaps if she pretended she was Florence Henderson onThe Brady Bunchshe could respond without doing Bree harm. "I told you, Sabrina--"you little pisher"--I lived in this area for seventeen years. The only gas station on this road closed in 1989. So, you'll have to wait until--" "Oh, big wow, you lived here seventeen years," Bree interrupted. "You'rewayolder since then. They could have built, like, a nuclear sub station by now." "So," Lilah continued, "you may have misread the sign." "Asi-i-i-f.If I misread the sign, what's that?" She pointed, and Lilah followed the direction of the skinny arm, mostly so she wouldn't have to make eye contact. She squinted. Ohmigod. On their side of the quiet two-lane highway, no more than fifty yards ahead, was a large sign that read Union Gas and Minimart. A gas statio