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About Key to Love
When architect Elise Springer’s father is injured, she immediately leaves San Francisco to care for him. The last person she expects to encounter in her Pennsylvania hometown is her childhood friend Lucas Fisher. Lucas is investigating his brother’s death, and Elise can’t resist lending a hand.
Lucas longs for the close family ties he never had. He’s back in Scranton to set up a classic car restoration business and build a future. The torch he carries for Elise burns brighter than ever, but before he can declare his love, he must obtain the legal rights to adopt his nephew—and prove his brother’s death was no accident.
As they unearth clues pointing to find a murderer and a missing stash of money, Elise faces a dilemma. Is her career on the West Coast the key to her happiness, or is it an animal-cracker-eating four-year-old and his handsome uncle instead?
Excerpt
Lucas Fisher stood inside Whitman’s Paper and Paint Store, surrounded by the pungent scents of vinyl wallpaper, turpentine, and paint, and wondered how he had allowed himself to be tricked into abandoning his work at the garage. However, nothing had prepared him for Whitman’s Paint and Paper. It was like stepping onto another planet.
“What are we looking for again?” He watched her leaf through the pages of a pattern book with a speed that defied logic. “Blue dogs?”
“Ah, French blue, something like this.” She paused only long enough to point to a flower so small the average person would need a magnifying glass. She flipped the page before he had a chance to commit it to memory.
Lucas rubbed his bleary eyes with the palms of his hands. Every pattern had begun to look like the next, melting into a haze of swirling tones. God, he needed an aspirin and a beer. “You’re absolutely sure this wallpaper exists?” He squinted at her with a skeptical look, and she nodded, her fingers nimbly turning the pages of yet another book.
“Uh-huh”
“Oh, terrific. There are at least five hundred books here, and we’ve been through what? Two dozen? I imagine you have someone lined up to hang the dang rolls?”
“Uh-huh, you and Fritz. But only if you’d stop talking and help me find it.”
“Me and your brother?” His voice came out in a hysterical wail. “Get serious, Liz, I’ve never wallpapered a room in my life.” Hell, he couldn’t wrap a Christmas present unless it was packaged in a box with four crisp corners and there were yards of paper to waste.
“Neither has Fritz, but he’s watched my mother do it many times. It’s a piece of cake.” Her hands continued flashing through the pages.
“Piece of cake? Are you sane? Unless Fritz has flashbacks, we’re doomed.” Lucas slumped down wearily onto a nearby chair and cupped his face in his hands.
About the Author
Judy Ann Davis began her career in writing as a copy and continuity writer for radio and television in Scranton, PA. Throughout her career, she has written for both industry and education.
Over a dozen of her short stories have appeared in anthologies, and literary and small magazines, and have received numerous awards. Nineteen of them are now collected in Upon On the Roof and Other Stories.
Her first novel, Red Fox Woman, published in 2010, is a western, mystery, and romance and was a finalist in the International Book Awards and USA Book News Best Book Awards. Its stand-alone sequel, Under Starry Skies, was released earlier this year.
When Judy Ann is not behind her computer, you can find her looking for anything humorous to make her laugh or swinging a golf club where the chuckles are few. She is a member of Pennwriters, Inc. and Romance Writers of America. She lives in Central Pennsylvania.
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