First Impressions by Nora Roberts(2).pdf

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First Impressions
Nora Roberts
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
Dear Reader,
It’s that time of year again! Time for a fresh blanket of snow to make
everything look beautiful, and time for another charming holiday
delight from Silhouette Books! We are pleased to bring you this gift
hardcover edition of First Impressions, a classic tale from New York
Times bestselling author Nora Roberts about how appearances can be
deceivingand how two people find someone to love them for who
they truly are.
First Impressions is a story about a woman determined to do a good
deed … only to have her kind offer of work thrown back in her face by
the rudest unemployed man she’s ever met. It’s also a story about a man
determined to retreat from the world … only to have his best intentions
turned upside down by one of the most caring and beautiful women he’s
ever met. And in the end they both learn that first impressions aren’t
necessarily what they seem …
We hope you and yours enjoy a safe, wonderful holiday season, and
that the New Year brings you all that you wish for!
Happy holidays!
The Editors
Silhouette
Books To
Georgeann,
neighbour and
friend
The morning sun shot shafts of light over the mountains. It picked up the
hints of red and gold among the deep green leaves and had them
glowing. From somewhere in the woods came a rustling as a rabbit
darted back to its burrow, while overhead a bird chirped with an insistent
cheerfulness. Clinging to the line of fences along the road were clumps
of honeysuckle. The light scent from the few lingering blossoms wafted
in the air. In a distant field a farmer and his son harvested the last of the
summer hay. The rumble of the bailer was steady and distinct.
Over the mile trek to town only one car passed. Its driver lifted his hand
in a salute. Shane waved back. It was good to be home.
Walking on the grassy shoulder of the road, she plucked a blossom of
honeysuckle and, as she had as a child, drew in the fleetingly sweet
aroma. When she crushed the flower between her fingers, its fragrance
briefly intensified. It was a scent she associated with summer, like
barbecue smoke and new grass. But this was summer’s end.
Shane looked forward to fall eagerly, when the mountains would be at
their best. Then the colors were breathtaking and the air was clean and
crisp. When the wind came, the world would be full of sound and flying
leaves. It was the time of woodsmoke and fallen acorns.
Curiously, she felt as though she’d never been away. She might still
have been twenty-one, walking from her grandmother’s to Sharpsburg to
buy a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread. The busy Baltimore streets, the
sidewalks and crowds of the last four years might have been a dream.
She might never have spent those four years teaching in an inner-city
school, correcting exams and attending faculty meetings.
Yet four years had passed. Her grandmother’s narrow two-story house
was now Shane’s. The uneven, wooded three acres of land were hers as
well. And while the mountains and woods were the same, Shane was
not.
Physically, she looked almost as she had when she had left western
Maryland for the job in a Baltimore high school. She was small in
height and frame, with a slender figure that had never developed the
curves and roundness she’d hoped for. Her face was subtly triangular
with its creamy skin touched with warm color. It had been called
peaches and cream often enough to make Shane wince. There were
dimples that flashed when she smiled, rather than the elegant
cheekbones she had wished for. Her nose was small, dusted with
freckles, tilted up at the end. Pert. Shane had suffered the word
throughout her life.
Under thin arched brows, her eyes were large and dark. Whatever
emotion she felt was mirrored in them. They were rarely cool.
Habitually, she wore her hair short, and it curled naturally to frame her
face in a deep honey blond. As her temperament was almost invariably
happy, her face was usually animated, her small, sculpted mouth tilted
up. The adjective used most to describe her was cute. Shane had grown
to detest the word, but lived with it. Nothing could be done to alter
sharp, vital attractiveness into sultry beauty.
As she rounded the last curve in the road before coming into town, she
had a sudden flash of having done so beforeas a child, as a teenager,
as a girl on the brink of womanhood. It gave her a sense of security and
belonging. Nothing in the city had ever given her the simple pleasure of
being part of the whole.
Laughing, she took the final yards at a run, then burst through the door
of the general store. The bells jingled fiercely before it slammed shut.
“Hi!”
“Hi, yourself.” The woman behind the counter grinned at her. “You’re
out early this morning.” “When I woke up, I discovered I was out of
coffee.” Spotting the box of fresh doughnuts on the
counter, Shane rolled her eyes and headed for them. “Oh, Donna, cream
filled?”
“Yeah.” Donna watched with an envious sigh as Shane chose one and
bit into it. For the better part of twenty years, she’d seen Shane eat like
a linebacker without gaining an ounce of fat.
Though they had grown up together, they were as different as night and
day. Where Shane was fair, Donna was dark. Shane was small; Donna
was tall and well rounded. For most of their lives, Donna had been
content to play follower to Shane’s leader. Shane was the adventurer.
Donna

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