Her Shot at Love

By Lori J Mitchell

Lillian Andrews has run away from her life in Sacramento, California to start over all alone in the Central California mountains. Lillian is befriended by her neighbor Dee Dee and Dee Dee's twin neices. The twins come with a too sexy to be real father. Though there is an undeniable attraction between Lillian and the gorgeous Drew Stewart, Lillian can't help but worry if their budding relationship can withstand the secret she is trying so desperately to hide from her new friends.

Forced to confront her past Lillian returns to Sacramento to put the past behind her so she can plan a future that she hopes includes her handsome neighbor Drew and his daughters.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lori J Mitchell
• Release date: Mar 19, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301117833

Book preview

Her Shot at Love

by

Lori J Mitchell

Smashwords Edition

Her Shot at Love

Copyright 2013 Lori J Mitchell

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This book is dedicated to Dave Snelling. My favorite shooting partner and romantic partner. Thank you Dave for being my best friend and biggest supporter.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

About the author

Other books by Lori J Mitchell

Connect with me online

Chapter 1

I can’t bring back the dead now, can I? Lillian Andrews stood in the grocery store’s parking lot in Mountain Vista, California, contemplating her life, her move to this obscure town, while staring at the twin little girls.

The woman with the little girls headed her way, with the twins bouncing along beside her. Excuse me. I don’t think I thanked you enough for helping Jilli find us. I couldn’t help but notice you are new around here. It’s a small town and everybody knows everybody else, and well, you’re new. I’m sorry I didn’t get your name.

Lillian held out her hand. Lillian Andrews.

Dee Dee. Nice to meet you. She gave Lillian’s hand a firm shake. Thank you again for helping Jilli find us. She tends to wander off when we’re shopping. So what brings you to our little town?

I’m going to reopen the Trap and Skeet Club down the road a bit."

A gun club huh? That’s an unusual proposition for a woman to take on, besides the fact that that place has been abandoned for years.

Lillian laughed. You’re telling me. I’ve already chopped enough weeds to feed a small nation.

The girls and I would like to thank you. Would you mind if we baked you some cookies and brought them by?

Lillian noted how the friendly woman’s smile was genuinely open. I’m pretty much there all the time, unless I’m out running errands that is.

Are you staying out there?

Yes, I’m using the space above the club house for an apartment. It already had a bathroom and kitchenette in it. I plan to live up there and run the club on my own.

Are you sure that’s safe? I mean a woman all the way out there by herself?

"I’ve been living alone in the city and traveling around the world all alone for so many years, that I am used to taking care of myself, and am actually looking forward to the solitude of living so far off the beaten path.

Well then, when we finish some baking we’ll swing by.

Thank you. I’ll look forward to it.

Not to mention she yearned for new friends. These past few years had left a relentless emptiness in her life, and she couldn’t wait to fill it.

*****

Lillian spent the rest of the morning weed whacking around the old trap and skeet houses. While working she kept her mind occupied making mental lists of all of the supplies she was going to need, and trying to postpone thinking about how much those supplies were going to cost her. After finishing a row of skeet houses she stopped and fixed herself a grilled peanut butter sandwich. Sitting on the porch enjoying her sandwich, she spotted a trail of dust coming up the road.

Stepping out from under the shade of the sagging porch and shading her eyes from the glare of the early afternoon sun, she watched an older model SUV come up the driveway. The car pulled to a stop. Dee Dee got out, opened the back door and pulled out a covered tray.

That was fast. Lillian smiled happily at the woman.

Dee Dee shrugged her shoulders. It doesn’t take long to bake. It helps to have activities to keep these little bundles of energy occupied.

Dee Dee handed her a tray and bent down to retrieve some more. They walked into the large kitchen area of the club house together and sat the trays down.

I haven’t been here in years, Dee Dee said as she looked around the dusty room. I remember coming here with my daddy when I was a kid.

Really?

Oh, yes. Even though I was just a little girl I enjoyed tagging along and watching my dad and his friends shoot a few rounds and then he’d buy me a pop and they would sit around puffing on their cigars and debating the merits of 7 ½’s or 8’s and swapping reloading recipes. In more recent years my brother used to bring the girls out here and they would play with stray kittens, or watch the old TV in the clubhouse while he was shooting. Everybody used to come out here as much for the socializing as for the shooting.

That’s one of the things on my list of supplies, Lillian said. I want to get a giant flat screen TV to put up in the fireplace room. I want it to be more than just a trap and skeet club, I picture it as a place where families can come and spend time together. Along with the TV I’m thinking about putting in a horseshoes game and picnic tables. I want to put a stage out in the meadow so we can hold functions out here too. Everybody gets so busy with their own lives that sometimes quality family time suffers…and I’ve gotten carried away. Haven’t I?"

It’s hard to picture this place up and running again.

I admit it’s got a long way to go. I want to set up a snack bar and grill so people can buy food if they don’t want to bring their own picnic. They sat the basket down on the table in the club house, I was just eating lunch. Would you like to join me?

I don’t want you to go to any trouble.

It’s no trouble I have plenty to share and you’ve came all this way to bring the cookies to me.

Oh, it’s not too far. I only live a mile or so up the road. We’re practically neighbors.

Dee Dee regaled Lillian with tales of the people in town. She caught her up on all of the local gossip, and told her all of the history of the area that only a long time resident would know. Like the time Mrs. O’Leary’s cow knocked over a lantern and burned down the barn. I thought that was how the Great Chicago fire was started, Lillian asked remembering this from her high school history class. Could have been, Dee Dee replied without batting an eye, but ours was first.

She made Lillian laugh several times with the tales of some of the shenanigans of the local youth, some of whom thought it would be funny to flash a full moon down Main Street but forgot the passenger side window was rolled down. Thank goodness, the car was traveling at cruising speed. Or the time it snowed an unusual amount for this low in the foothills and a group of kids decided to build a snowman to direct traffic at the one intersection in town with a stop light.

Lillian couldn’t help but flash images of American Graffiti and Happy Days. But, she asked herself, isn’t that why I moved here in the first place? If there was such a thing as time travel, Lillian wanted to be the first to step into the capsule, set the clock back a few years to the day before her life changed forever.

Auntie Dee Dee! Auntie Dee Dee! Come quick. Jilli is stuck and the baby kitties are crying! Jackie came running to her Aunt Dee Dee.

Dee Dee rose to her feet in a relaxed fashion that attested to the fact that she was used to Jilli being stuck and Jackie coming to the rescue. She smiled ruefully in Lillian’s direction and said apologetically, Jillian tends to be too curious for her own good. She manages to get herself into trouble. Thankfully Jackie takes her role as older sister, if only by a two minutes, seriously and rescues Jilli from whatever scrapes she manages to end up in.

Lillian and Dee Dee followed Jacqueline back toward a skeet house with the door broken off, where they found Jilli wedged upside down between the wall and the machine that throws the clay targets out the window for the sportsmen to shoot.

Lillian reached the little girl first and pulled her upright and away from the machine. In her little hands she had two tiny orange kittens mewing their little hearts out.

We heard the kitties crying and we came to find them. They don’t have a mama and I think they’re hungry. Can we keep them Auntie Dee? Can we please? Me and Jackie will take care of them all by ourselves. Please?

Dee Dee reached across to stroke her niece’s hair coming loose from its ponytail and down to touch the tiny kittens being cradled so lovingly in the little girl’s hands. Oh baby, I wish I could let you keep them, but you know your Daddy is allergic to cats. The last time you two brought a cat home he had to go to the hospital and get a shot. Remember?

Jackie’s little lip trembled with the effort to hold back tears. "But we love them and they need us. Who is going to