Janice Johnson - From This Day On

A new beginning…from this day on

Jakob Nilsson has tried to keep his distance from Amy. Like a forbidden temptation, he’s always known his weakness where she’s concerned. Then an unexpected weekend brings them together. Despite the torture of being so close to her, Jakob is glad he’s there…especially when the opening of a time capsule reveals a confession that upends Amy’s world. Nothing is the way it was.

But that revelation also means the barriers between Jakob and Amy are gone. Finally he’s free to pursue the woman who has always fascinated him. The challenge now is to convince her to look beyond their past. And to consider a future that includes him.

“I’m staying.”

Jakob reined in the thoughts that reared up at the image of sleeping under the same roof as Amy. She didn’t need that now. What she needed right now was a friend. That might be all she’d ever want from him.

“You really don’t have to stay, you know.” She looked at him, her eyes dark, the gold highlights subdued. “You’ve done what you came to do. I’ve crawled out of my depression. I’ll call Mom tonight and confront her. I promise.”

“And I’m going to be here when you do.” He wasn’t going to let her drive him away. “If you don’t want me to listen in, I won’t. That’s your choice. But when the call is over, you shouldn’t have to be alone.”

The chin came up again. The defiance was back in her eyes. “I’m used to doing things alone.”

“Maybe so.” He held out a hand. “But this time you don’t have to.”

Her stare fell to his hand as if it was the snake in the Garden of Eden. Tempting, but also terrifying.

They’d touched so rarely. He waited to see what choice she would make.

Dear Reader,

I was actually a history major in college. And, yes, I’ve written a few historical novels along the way, but what’s come to intrigue me most is the more recent past. I’m always fascinated by what moves people to act the way they do. I’ve come increasingly to believe that most of our behavior, not to mention those extremely influential little voices we all have in our heads, has roots in our childhood. If, say, you’re getting out of a bad marriage but grew up in a stable, happy home, do you quit trusting all men? Not usually. Turn it around, though, so that Dad was unreliable, cheated on your mom, failed you when you needed him—then probably you never did really trust men.

The logical corollary is that our parents are the people they are because of their childhoods. And so often, we don’t know our parents as well as we think we do. Heck, it’s not like any of us tell our kids everything, either! Even when no one is trying to hide anything in particular, a lot goes unmentioned. Sometimes those mysteries would help us understand a parent better, and by extention ourselves.

My own father is gone now, and my mother’s memory is failing, which means there’s a lot I’ll never know about them. It’s gotten me thinking more than ever about the questions I never asked.

The time capsule was the perfect story idea for me. Lots of innocent stuff went in it, but also a few real secrets. In the case of my heroine, the mysteries of her past and her mother’s have kept her from being able to imagine sharing her life with anyone. But here’s a secret her mother never wanted her to know, one that shatters their already difficult relationship and remakes it into something that might be better…or might not. This particular secret also produces a shocking change in Amy Nilsson’s relationship with a man she had never imagined herself loving...

Hope you enjoy the book and come to care about these people as much as I did!

Janice Kay Johnson

P.S. I enjoy hearing from readers! Please contact me through my publisher, Harlequin Books, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, ON M3B 3K9, Canada.

From This Day On

Janice Kay Johnson

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The author of more than seventy books for children and adults, Janice Kay Johnson is especially well-known for her Harlequin Superromance novels about love and family—about the way generations connect and the power our earliest experiences have on us throughout life. Her 2007 novel Snowbound won a RITA® Award from Romance Writers of America for Best Contemporary Series Romance. A former librarian, Janice raised two daughters in a small rural town north of Seattle, Washington. She loves to read and is an active volunteer and board member for Purrfect Pals, a no-kill cat shelter.

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

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

CHAPTER ONE

WELL, THAT WAS WEIRD.

At first only puzzled, Amy Nilsson flipped the crisp white envelope over, as if the backside would offer any illumination. As she’d expected, the only printed information was on the front: a return address of Wakefield College in Washington State, and her mother’s name and address. Her mother’s full name, Michelle Cooper Doyle, followed by Class of 1980.

To the best of Amy’s knowledge, her mother had graduated from the University of Oregon. If she’d ever attended any other institution, she hadn’t said so. She’d never so much as mentioned Wakefield.

Mom’s mail had become one of Amy’s responsibilities when she moved into her mother’s house to care for it while she and Amy’s stepfather were abroad for two years. Ken Doyle, her stepfather, had accepted a visiting professorship at the University of New South Wales in Australia.

Probably it was dumb, but Amy had been convinced that living in Mom’s house, living her life, in a way, would give her insight into who her mother was. And how pathetic was it to realize your best chance of getting to know a parent was in absentia? Michelle Cooper Doyle was so closed off emotionally, she felt increasingly like a stranger to Amy. And yes, the whole living-in-the house strategy was working to some extent—she inadvertently made small discoveries almost daily about Mom.

Sadly, the mail had been a huge disappointment so far. Mom was handling bills online. What little came for her was junk. A gardening magazine seemed to be her sole subscription.

But now, something out of the ordinary. A real clue.

Maybe, Amy cautioned herself.

The scent of fresh-brewed coffee filled the kitchen. She dropped the handful of mail onto the table atop the Oregonian and concentrated for a few minutes on pouring coffee, dressing it up with sugar and one percent milk and toasting a bagel. She felt like a kid eyeing packages under the Christmas tree. Anticipation was half the fun. Amy wrinkled her nose, thinking it. Sure, right. In her experience, gifts were as often socks or underwear as they were anything fun or exciting. Chances were, this package was nothing but a solicitation for money.

Yes, but why ask her mother if she had no connection to the college? And...why did someone there think Mom had attended?

Then she sat back down in the dining nook, where she could see her mother’s rose garden through small-paned French doors. Amy had sworn, cross her heart and hope to die, that she would take care of the garden in exchange for living in the house.

She briefly admired the roses, still in full bloom and looking pretty darned good, if she did say so, thanks to the soaker hoses she was religiously turning on every evening, as well as the last application of manure tea. Making it was one of her newly acquired skills.