Great Catch (Lake Manawa Summers Book #2) , livre ebook

Baker Publishing Group - Lorna Seilstad

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184 pages

English

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It is the beginning of a new century at Lake Manawa Resort in Iowa, but some things never change. When 22-year-old Emily Graham's meddlesome aunts and grandmother take it upon themselves to find her a husband among the resort guests, the spunky suffragist is determined to politely decline each and every suitor. She has neither the time nor the need for a man in her busy life.Carter Stockton, a recent college graduate and pitcher for the Manawa Owls baseball team, intends to enjoy every minute of the summer at Lake Manawa, Iowa, before he is forced into the straitlaced business world of his father. When Emily crashes into Carter at a roller skating rink, neither could guess what would come next. Will Carter strike out? Or will Emily cast her vote for a love that might cost her dreams?The perfect summer novel, A Great Catch will enchant readers with its breezy setting and endearing characters.

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Publié par	Baker Publishing Group
Date de parution	01 mai 2011
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781441232694
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0202€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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© 2011 by Lorna Seilstad
Published by Revell
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.revellbooks.com
E-book edition created 2011
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
ISBN 978-1-4412-3269-4
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
Scripture is taken from the King James Version of the Bible.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Published in association with the literary agency Books & Such, 52 Mission Circle #122 PMB 170, Santa Rosa, California 95409.
To my father,
who taught me to love
history, family, and the Lord
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Proverbs 3:6
1
Lake Manawa, Iowa, 1901
Three blind mice.
Three little pigs.
Three days in the belly of a whale.
Emily Graham stifled a moan. Some of the worst things in life came in threes, and she was facing her favorite meddlesome trio right now.
“The right to vote won’t warm your bed at night, dear.” Aunt Millie poured fresh lemonade from a crystal pitcher into four glasses, then blotted her round face with a handkerchief. Even though the table, complete with an heirloom lace tablecloth, sat in the shade of the Grahams’ cabin at Lake Manawa, the late May heat brought a sheen to her aunt’s crinkled brow.
Emily pressed the glass of lemonade to her cheek and watched the sailboats on the lake lazily glide across the rippling surface. “As hot as it is, the last thing I want is a warm bed.”
“Honestly, what are we going to do with you?” Aunt Ethel, rail thin, stiffened in her chair, and Emily imagined her aunt would launch into a tirade concerning Emily’s character flaws at any minute.
Aunt Ethel turned toward her older silvery-haired sister, Emily’s grandmother. “It’s your fault, Kate. You filled her head with all those ridiculous notions of changing the world, women voting, and all that other nonsense. Now look at her. She’s twenty-three years old, and she’s still not married.”
“I’m twenty-two, Aunt Ethel.”
“But your birthday’s just around the corner.”
Emily rolled her eyes. “It’s six months away.”
“So sad. Almost a spinster.” Aunt Millie shook her head and smoothed her apron. “If we don’t do something soon, no man is going to want a woman that advanced in years.”
“I guess it’s up to us.” Aunt Ethel tsked and patted Emily’s hand. “Even though you’re no great catch, don’t worry, dear. With the three of us on the job, we’ll have a man on your arm in no time.”
“Three?” Emily felt a millstone sink to the pit of her stomach. She turned to her grandmother. “I thought you were on my side.”
Grandma Kate smiled. “I am. That’s why I’m going to help. If I leave it up to your aunts, they’ll have you married off to some spineless simpleton you’d have henpecked in a matter of days, or some bald, solid member of the community that every other bright girl has already discarded.”
“Do I even want to know what these two have in mind?”
The corners of Grandma Kate’s crinkly mouth bowed. “Probably not.”
“Trust us, dear. We have your best interests at heart.” Aunt Millie held out a plate. “Prune cake?”
“No thank you.” Emily checked the watch hanging on the chain around her neck. “I have to go now. I promised to meet some friends to go roller-skating.”
“You’re not going out in that abysmal outfit.” Aunt Ethel’s face pinched. “It’s hardly proper.”
Emily held out the sides of her sporting ensemble, complete with a shorter-length, divided moss-green walking skirt. “I can’t very well skate in a full skirt. I’d kill myself.”
“You probably will anyway,” Aunt Ethel said solemnly.
“Ethel!” Grandma Kate shot her a warning glance. “It’s not Emily’s fault she struggles a bit in the art of gracefulness.”
“A bit?” Aunt Millie chuckled. “That’s like saying I’m a bit old.”
“Aunties, Grandma, we’ll talk about all of this later.”
Aunt Ethel squeezed Emily’s forearm. “No need to thank us, dear. It’s our pleasure to help.”

After buckling the metal roller skates to her boots, Emily pulled the straps tight and dabbed her upper lip with a handkerchief. Patrons of the roller-skating rink, the newest addition to Lake Manawa’s Midway and ever-growing resort, lined the bench beside her.
“I can’t believe you two talked me into this again.” Emily set her feet on the paved brick sidewalk, shook the wrinkles from her skirt, and smiled at her two dearest friends, Lilly Hart and Marguerite Andrews.
“You’re the one who said we should challenge ourselves to grow.” Lilly, formerly Marguerite’s personal maid and still her best friend, grabbed Emily’s hand and pulled her to her feet.
“I said we needed to challenge our minds, not break our necks.” Emily wobbled, and Marguerite caught her arm.
“Careful.”
“You both realize that you are putting yourselves at great risk. It’s common knowledge I could trip over a chalk line drawn on the sidewalk.”
“You were a little shaky when we started last time, but you caught on just fine.” Lilly kept a firm hold on Emily’s elbow. “Besides, teaching you to skate is the best excuse Marguerite and I have for getting a break from our children.”
Keeping a hand on the door frame, Emily rolled in behind her friends. Her lips turned downward as the excitement soured. “Did you have to ask your husbands for permission to come today?”
“Tate takes a long afternoon nap, so Trip doesn’t mind.” Marguerite paused to give the clerk her coin. “Did Ben give you any trouble about coming today, Lilly?”
“Nothing I couldn’t handle. Besides, Levi’s with my mama.” She deposited her nickel on the counter. “And probably being spoiled rotten.”
Emily fished a coin from her chatelaine purse attached to the wide belt at her waist. “I can’t imagine having to ask a man if I can go somewhere. How utterly degrading.”
Marguerite stepped onto the smooth wooden floor of the rink. “That’s what I used to think.”
“And now she’s just a plain old married woman.” Lilly laughed as she followed her onto the floor.
“And you’re not?” Marguerite countered. “Emily, it’s not that I ask permission, really. Trip and I share our lives. It’s more of a common courtesy.”
Emily eased out onto the rink, pausing to adjust to the feel of the wheels on her feet. “But what if Trip told you no? If he said he didn’t want you to go, would you be here?” She wavered on the uneven floor and narrowly avoided the boy in front of her. His brows knit in anger, and she shrugged in apology. Why did skating and speaking at the same time have to be so difficult?
“The right answer is probably ‘no,’ but I can’t honestly say I’d obey him. I’m not sure what I’d do.” Marguerite smoothed a crinkle in her skirt.
“I am.” Lilly spun backward with ease. “You’d be here now and fight with him later.”
“That’s why I’m not sure marriage is for me. Obey? Even the word irritates me.”
Lilly laughed. “You just need to find the right person—like we have.” Emily started to lose her balance, and Lilly caught her hands. “Relax. Don’t fight it. Think of the skates as wheels on your feet.”
“Remember, I’m not graceful on my feet without the skates.”
They giggled, and Marguerite linked her arm in Emily’s. “You’re your own worst enemy. Smile. Act like you’re having fun.”
“It would certainly be acting.” Emily adjusted her hat, set askew by her last near fall. “I’m holding you two back. Why don’t you two go skate together awhile and let me practice on my own for a few minutes?”
“We couldn’t do that.” Lilly twirled in a circle.
“Please. It’s hard for me to talk and concentrate on the task at hand. I need about ten minutes to get used to this.”
“Are you sure?” Marguerite worried her bottom lip between her teeth.
Emily reached for the wall to steady herself. “Yes. Please, I’ll do better on my own. I certainly couldn’t do worse.”
“Ten minutes,” Lilly said. “And no hugging the wall.”
Like birds set free from their cage, the two friends sped off. Lilly skated with such ease she made it look as if she’d been doing it all her life, and Marguerite looked angelic floating around the rink with her blonde hair surrounding her head like a halo. Emily felt a stab of jealousy but pushed it away. It wasn’t their fault she’d been born without an ounce of athletic prowess.
She let go of the wall and shoved off, determined to master at least one lap around the rink. It might not be fair that fear pulsed through her every time another skater whooshed by, but that wouldn’t stop her. It never had before.
Despite her worries, her wobbly legs seemed to solidify as she rolled down the length of the maple floor. The soft thunk , thunk , thunk of her skates passing over the boards caused her confidence to grow. She rounded the first corner by pressing her hand to the wall and grinned. Perhaps she’d get used to this yet.
Relax. Don’t think about the skates.
Maybe if she concentrated on something else, like the Council Bluffs Equal Suffrage Club. With the recent failure of the Iowa legislature to amend the state’s constitution, the women were despondent, tired after losing a hard fight. As their local president, she needed something to rally the troops—something they could put their wholehearted efforts into. They couldn’t quit before they’d won the right to vote. She wouldn’t let them.
Would a husband complicate all she hoped to accomplish? Marguerite and Lilly had been able to participate in the fight, but having young children affected the amount of time they could commit to the cause. As a single woman, she was free to give the effort her undivided