Your Bed or Mine? (Harlequin Blaze Series #379)

Huge snowflakes drifted down through the night sky, spattering against the windshield of Caley Lambert''s rental car. She watched through tired eyes as the wipers slapped them away, the rhythmic sound lulling her toward complete exhaustion. Her eyelids fluttered and she felt herself drifting, then reached down and opened the window.The chilly night air was a slap to the face and Caley drew a deep breath. The flight from New York had been late getting into Chicago and by the time she''d arrived, the airport hotel had given away her room. Left with nowhere to sleep, she''d decided to drive the two hours to her parents'' lake house rather than waste time searching for a room.It wasn''t so much an urge to get home that sent her into the midst of a snowstorm, but the fact that Caley just hated wasting time. After eleven years of living in Manhattan and seven years of working the cutthroat world of public relations, she''d learned to be very efficient with every minute of her day. She didn''t waste time on anything that couldn''t get her ahead in the world professionally. She worked out because the gym was a good place to network. She belonged to seven different professional organizations because all those names looked good on her rÉsumÉ. And she had worked sixteen-hour days for seven years because that was the way to get herself a partnership."So what am I doing in North Lake, Wisconsin?" she muttered.Her younger sister, Emma, had called a few weeks ago, insisting that Caley come home for the week before Valentine''s Day. Emma had a very special event planned at the lake house, but she refused to give any details, only that every one of the Lamberts should be in attendance. Caley''s parents had been married on Valentine''s Day thirty years ago, so it hadn''t been difficult to guess at the purpose of her sister''s plans.An electronic version of Mozart''s "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" interrupted Caley''s thoughts and she glanced over at her cell phone sitting on the passenger seat. Snatching it up, she looked at the caller ID, then tossed it back onto the seat. Brian. He''d called at least twenty times since she''d left New York for a business trip in San Francisco a few days ago. So far she''d avoided answering.She and Brian had been exclusive for nearly two years and he''d planned to come to North Lake with her and meet the family. But at the last minute, he''d canceled, begging off because of work commitments. It was at that moment Caley realized her relationship with Brian had become a waste of time. Between out-of-town business trips and busy schedules, they''d spent three nights together in the past month--not much considering they lived in the same apartment.She squinted through the snow, searching for the sign pointing to West Shore Road. There was a time when she''d known every inch of the tiny town of North Lake. She''d spent every summer of her life here until she''d gone to college.Even after years of being away from this place, and in the midst of a chilly winter night, she felt a familiar sense of excitement course through her. She remembered the frantic packing the day after school let out for the summer. And then came the ride from Chicago to the lake in an overstuffed minivan, her mother behind the wheel. Her older brother, Evan, always sat in the front and controlled the radio while Caley sat between her younger siblings Emma and Adam. The youngest, Teddy, was wedged into the far back seat between the suitcases and the boxes of kitchen supplies. Her younger siblings had always worn their swimming suits on the ride up so they could jump out of the car and into the lake without having to change.But Caley had always had other things on her mind. With each mile that passed, she''d grown more excited, the anticipation building, the nerves fraying. What would he look like? Would he be exactly as she remembered or would he have changed? Had she changed? Would he see her differently? Would this summer fiHoffmann, Kate is the author of 'Your Bed or Mine? (Harlequin Blaze Series #379)', published 2008 under ISBN 9780373793839 and ISBN 0373793839.