Sunshine and Shadows

Sunshine and Shadows

The Keeping Secrets Series

Book Three

by

Pamela Browning

Award-winning Author

SUNSHINE AND SHADOWS

Reviews & Accolades

"Pamela Browning.... creates multifaceted characters and fascinating plots with unexpected twists."

~
Romantic Times

Published by
ePublishing Works!

www.epublishingworks.com

ISBN: 978-1-61417-437-0

By payment of required fees, you have been granted the
non
-exclusive,
non
-transferable right to access and read the text of this eBook. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented without the express written permission of copyright owner.

Please Note

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

The reverse engineering, uploading, and/or distributing of this eBook via the internet or via any other means without the permission of the copyright owner is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author's rights is appreciated.

Copyright © 1992, 2013, 2015 by Pamela Browning. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.

Cover and eBook design by eBook Prep
www.ebookprep.com

Dear Reader,

Everyone's life features some of the good, some of the bad.

Sunshine. And shadows.

Sometimes it takes love to make us understand that we're not in the shadows anymore. It helps when we find that one special person who makes everything all right.

That's what happens to Lisa and Jay. Finding each other is a miracle, and love is a gift. I enjoyed writing their story, and I hope you'll enjoy reading it.

Please look for the other three books in the Keeping Secrets Series:
Through Eyes Of Love, Ever Since Eve
, and
Touch The Stars
. In each book, the characters have a secret to keep, and to reveal it would mean that they could lose the most important person in the world. The choices they make will change their lives forever.

With love and best wishes,

Pamela Browning

www.pamelabrowning.com

This book is for Cameron and Caroline, who bring sunshine into my life.

Prologue

June, 1990

The shadowy refuge of the banyan tree in the park across the street from their neighboring houses was an oasis in the simmering heat of a South Florida summer; Megan O'Rourke and Lisa Sherrill, both age nine, found a grassy niche among the cool curving roots where they could sort through the basket of flowers they'd picked in Megan's backyard.

"One for you, one for me," chanted Megan as she doled out the pink-and-white phlox and the larger cerise hibiscus blossoms.

"There's one hibiscus left," Megan announced. She thrust it toward Lisa. "Here, Lisa, you can have it."

Lisa added it to the heap in her lap. Then, tongue held firmly between her teeth, she strung the phlox on long weedy stems that they had picked for the purpose. Three stems twisted together made a crown, and four made a necklace. Megan's crown swooped rakishly over one eye, and her hair sprang up through the center in a fluffy red pouf.

"I love pink and white," Megan confided, her earnest face dappled with sunbeams streaming through the leaves overhead.

"Me, too," Lisa said dreamily. "When I get married, I'm going to have a big wedding. My bridesmaids will all wear pink dresses and pink hats and pink shoes." A born daydreamer, she could see every detail of her wedding in her mind's eye, and it was beautiful.

"Oh, I want a big wedding, too," Megan said. "Say, I have an idea—let's have a wedding today. We can make bride and bridesmaid dolls, and the hibiscus flowers can be their skirts."

Lisa pushed baby-fine strands of blond hair out of her eyes and painstakingly dug a dozen wood Popsicle sticks out of the pocket of her shorts. "I've been saving these all summer," she explained to Megan. "They can be dolls' bodies."

"And we'll draw faces," Megan said in delight. She held up a stubby, tooth-marked pencil.

Lisa, who at nine was possessed of a baby face that was still endearingly round, was twisting a piece of thread around the waist of her second bridesmaid doll, when her lower lip began to quiver.

"I just thought of something, Megan," she whispered. "We won't get to come to each other's weddings."

"Oh," said Megan, her face falling. "I almost forgot you're moving to Stuart."

"Maybe it's not too far," Lisa said, mostly to console Megan. "It's only fifty miles. Anyway, Daddy said we might move back someday." This was another dream, a more serious one.

"Fifty miles isn't next door, and someday may be never," was Megan's mournful reply.

"Well, no matter how far away I live, you'll always be my very best friend. I promise," Lisa replied with an air of forced cheerfulness.

Megan brightened. "I promise, too. In fact, let's swear that we'll be in each other's weddings. I want you to be my number-one bridesmaid."

"Maid of honor, you mean. And I would never have anyone but
you
for
my
maid of honor, Megan. I will never ever have a best friend as good as you as long as I live."