The Summer Sisters (Juniper Springs Book 2)

by Sara Richardson

  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.

  Copyright © 2021 by Sara Richardson

  Reading group guide copyright © 2021 by Sara Richardson and Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  Cover design by Mimi Bark. Cover photographs © Shutterstock.

  Cover copyright © 2021 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.

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  Forever

  Hachette Book Group

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  First Edition: July 2021

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  The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Richardson, Sara (Romance fiction writer), author.

  Title: The summer sisters / Sara Richardson.

  Description: First edition. | New York : Forever, 2021. | Series: Juniper Springs ; 1 |

  Summary: "The Buchanan sisters share everything – even ownership of their

  beloved Juniper Inn. But their mother and Aunt Sassy won't even stay in the same

  state, and no one knows the story behind the sisters' decades-long feud. When

  youngest sister, Rose, plans the inn's grand reopening for the same weekend as

  Sassy's 70th birthday's party, a family reunion seems unavoidable. Only Rose needs

  help from a certain handsome, if surly, hardware store owner to pull off an

  extravagant celebration. The sparks between them are undeniable, but Rose can't

  help suspecting he's hiding something from her . . . After a heartbreaking end to her

  marriage, Dahlia Buchanan and her kids have built a new life in Colorado. She's

  started flirting with the town doctor, but how does she know she's ready to open her

  heart again? When her youngest daughter cleverly maneuvers her to Juniper

  Springs on her estranged sister's birthday, Lillian Buchanan has no choice but to

  finally face her once-beloved sibling. But some wounds are just too deep to heal.

  And what will her daughters do when the family secrets she's tried so hard to hide

  come flooding into the open?"– Provided by publisher.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2021006604 | ISBN 9781538718254 (trade paperback) | ISBN

  9781538718247 (ebook)

  Subjects: LCSH: Domestic fiction.

  Classification: LCC PS3618.I3452 S86 2021 | DDC 813/.6--dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021006604

  ISBNs: 978-1-5387-1825-4 (trade paperback), 978-1-5387-1824-7 (ebook)

  E3-20210614-DA-NF-ORI

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter One: Rose

  Chapter Two: Dahlia

  Chapter Three: Sassy

  Chapter Four: Rose

  Chapter Five: Sassy

  Chapter Six: Dahlia

  Chapter Seven: Rose

  Chapter Eight: Sassy

  Chapter Nine: Rose

  Chapter Ten: Dahlia

  Chapter Eleven: Sassy

  Chapter Twelve: Rose

  Chapter Thirteen: Dahlia

  Chapter Fourteen: Sassy

  Chapter Fifteen: Rose

  Chapter Sixteen: Dahlia

  Chapter Seventeen: Sassy

  Chapter Eighteen: Rose

  Chapter Nineteen: Dahlia

  Chapter Twenty: Rose

  Chapter Twenty-One: Sassy

  Chapter Twenty-Two: Dahlia

  Chapter Twenty-Three: Rose

  Chapter Twenty-Four: Sassy

  Chapter Twenty-Five: Dahlia

  Chapter Twenty-Six: Rose

  Chapter Twenty-Seven: Sassy

  Chapter Twenty-Eight: Rose

  Discover More

  Reading Group Guide A Letter from the Author

  Questions for Readers

  About the Author

  Also by Sara Richardson

  Praise for Sara Richardson

  To my wonderful editor Amy Pierpont

  It’s a joy working with you!

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  Chapter One

  Rose

  Don’t do this to me, Tony.” Rose Buchanan popped out of her chair and stepped around the antique desk that was three sizes too big for her cramped office, ready to fall on her knees and beg if she had to. “Please. Don’t walk away. We can work this out. I know we can.” Desperation flared in her chest, nearly squeezing out a panicked squeak. They had to work this out. She couldn’t lose him…

  “Not this time.” Tony held his ground, arms crossed so tightly over his barrel chest that the shoulder seams of his plaid shirt separated. He widened his boots into a stubborn cowboy’s stance. “I told you, Rose. One more surprise and I’m outta here.” The man’s gray-green eyes had always had their own weather system, and right now they were downright stormy. “It’s too much. I’m done.”

  “You can’t be done.” She cast a fleeting glance at the door. Six months ago, she might’ve had too much Southern pride to block him from leaving, but trying to renovate an old run-down resort in the Colorado mountains had shaken the decorum clean out of her.

  Tony might be twenty years older than her. He might be gruff and moody. He might wear his jeans low enough to make you avert your eyes whenever he bent over, but he was still the contractor of her dreams, and she wasn’t about to let him walk out that door.

  “I’ll double your pay.” She imagined her eyes were bulging as big as his were right now. Double his pay? Ha! Apparently, old habits die hard. That was something she would’ve said in her past life.

  Back in Savannah, she could’ve tripled his pay without the subtle eye twitch she was experiencing now. Back in Savannah, she wouldn’t be two months behind on a renovation project that might break her. Back in Savannah, she’d likely be spending her entire summer hanging out by the country club pool, sipping on sweet tea while she gossiped with other high-society wives.

  But she’d walked away from that life. She’d walked away from her future as Gregory Cunningham’s wife so she could transform Aunt Sassy’s quaint Juniper Inn into a mountain resort that actually made money instead of literally flushing it down a toilet with faulty plumbing.

  Since the renovation on the Juniper Inn’s cabins had started, they had encountered every setback in the book—unstable foundations, rotted pipes, defective wiring. And now—the final straw for Tony—a leak in the roof of the cabin they’d finished working on two days ago.

  Sweet Lord, this place had better make money soon, or both she and her sister Dahlia would have to resort to panning for gold in the river outside.

  Rose peered up at Tony’s face. His frown had defi
nitely started to budge. Money had a way of talking, but she couldn’t back up the promise. “What I meant to say was, I will pay you and your crew a generous bonus when this project is done.” That was the other thing renovating a mountain inn had done for her—it had made her an expert in backpedaling. She had yet to make one dime on this place, but she’d nearly spent their entire rehab budget already, and her sister was a single mom with two mouths to feed. There were others to consider too. Her other sister Magnolia and brother-in-law Eric had invested. And Colt, the man her aunt had helped raise since he was a teenager. They’d all put her in charge of this project. If she failed, she would let them all down. “We can negotiate a percentage based on the reservations that come in next month.” She couldn’t pay Tony more money until they made more money.

  “This project will never be done,” Tony informed her. He could obviously read between the lines of her amended offer. “You’d be better off selling it right now, Rosie. The place is so old you’re gonna keep havin’ one issue after another. The land would be worth a whole lotta money.”

  “I can’t sell.” That was the bottom line. She’d given up everything for this. So had her sister. Dahlia had moved her two children from Minnesota to help Rose manage the place. And what would Colt think if she gave up? When she’d first met him last Christmas, the man had treated her like she didn’t belong in Juniper Springs. He’d thought she was flighty and capricious. But spring had been lonely around here with Dally back in Minnesota, and Rose had found herself talking to the man more and more—seeking him out for his opinion on this design for the Mistletoe Cabin and that design on the Gingerbread Cabin. Before Colt left to accompany Sassy on her trip, she’d promised he would return to a beautiful new resort that was ready to open. She couldn’t let him down. “I’m not selling.”

  “Well then, you’re gonna hafta find another contractor.” Tony took a lumbering step in the direction of the door. “I’m already behind on three other projects because of this disaster. I can’t keep putting off my other clients.” He made it out the door in two fast steps. “See ya later, Rose.”

  “Wait!” She fled after him, stumbling through the living room of her aunt’s house, and finally caught up to him on the expansive front porch. “Just give me one more week. You can send some of the crew over to the other jobs, and I’ll pitch in on the roof work.”

  That stopped the man midstride. He shifted to face her, amusement written all over his face. “You? Rose Buchanan is going to climb herself up onto a ladder and repair a roof?” He eyed her white eyelet capri pants and the Jimmy Choo wedge sandals she wore on her feet.

  Was it her fault she hadn’t found the time or money to invest in a new, mountain-appropriate summer wardrobe?

  “Yes.” Rose set her chin. “I will personally climb up on that ladder and repair the roof myself.” She straightened her backbone and met his eyes with a look that dared him to laugh like he obviously wanted to. Gumption might be all she had left of her Southern roots, but that was all she needed to save the Juniper Inn. Okay, well, gumption and maybe a few miracles.

  “One week,” she repeated. They had to have the cabins done by then anyway. Next week, they were supposed to welcome their first guests with a grand reopening celebration that would also coincide with Aunt Sassy’s seventieth birthday.

  The Cleary family had been coming to the Juniper Inn for three generations before the place had fallen into disrepair, and the family had wanted to be the first to stay at the new and improved resort, so they had rented out the cabins for their children and grandchildren, and there would even be a few great grandchildren.

  Everything was set. Deposits for the cabins were already made—that was the only thing keeping them afloat right now. She wouldn’t be able to pay back the money, even if they weren’t able to open their doors in time.

  The familiar stress knot pulled tighter in her stomach. “Seven days. That’s all I’m asking. You tell me what to do, and I’ll do it.” She would roll in a mud puddle like a hog in her white capris if that’s what it took.

  “Fine.” The word came out in a thundering sigh. Tony pointed a stubby finger at her. “Seven days. That’s it. And half my crew is going to start on the upgrades to the town hall, so you’d best be ready to work hard.”

  “I’m ready.” She’d been working hard ever since she’d returned to Juniper Springs last Christmas. This would only add a little more grit and grime to her daily routine.

  “And do yourself a favor,” Tony added, trudging down the porch steps. “Get a pair of jeans. None of them fancy things with the glitter or whatever the hell they put on them, either. A pair of real jeans.”

  “Will do,” Rose called cheerfully to his retreating back. She held her smile in place until Tony drove away in a cloud of dust, and then she let her posture wilt. For her, gumption tended to come in waves, and this one had quickly receded.

  Leaning her forearms against the porch railing, she drew in a deep breath while she gazed out at the land that had provided a backdrop for her most cherished memories. There was no place in the whole world quite like the Juniper Inn. The facilities themselves weren’t much to look at—though Tony and his crew had managed to spruce up the log exteriors of each of the eight small cabins scattered around the property. But it was the clusters of aspen and juniper trees, the sparkling pond down at the bottom of the hill, and the glimpses of the mountain peaks still dusted with snow even in July that made this place special.

  She and her sisters, Dahlia and Magnolia, had grown up coming here in the summers and then again for long trips at Christmas, before their mother had a falling-out with Aunt Sassy. After that, the sisters hadn’t spoken to their aunt in nearly eighteen years. Then out of the blue, Sassy had invited the three of them to spend Christmas here last year, and they’d all jumped at the invitation. It’s like Sassy had known—the sisters needed an escape; they needed the Juniper Inn.

  Rose had been as shocked as her sisters when Sassy told them she wanted to give them the resort. At first, she had assumed they’d simply have to sell it. But the more time she’d spent here, the more she’d wandered the land and laughed with her sisters and sipped hot cocoa from the same mugs as she had when she was young, the more she’d realized how deeply this place was a part of her—more a part of her than any home she’d ever lived in. She couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.

  But her brain cells must’ve been compromised by the high-altitude air, because sitting by the pool in Savannah was sounding a lot better than experiencing failure after failure at the moment.

  A distinctive woof! sounded from the woods on the other side of the pond and brought a smile back to Rose’s face. She watched her fluffy white rescue dog Marigold bound up the hill—all clumsy paws and disheveled fur and sloppy grin coming straight for her.

  Rose braced herself for impact. She hadn’t quite figured out how to stop her dog from putting her paws on people’s shoulders and giving their faces a good lick to greet them properly. She had to admit she hadn’t tried too hard. Even when the dog had muddy paws, there was nothing better than big ol’ hug from Marigold.

  Her dog licked her cheek about twenty times while Rose laughed. “I just saw you a half hour ago, you know.” But that didn’t matter to Mari. She was always this happy to be reunited, whether it had been ten minutes or four hours.

  “Okay, okay.” Rose gently nudged the dog down. “I see you’ve been digging in the mud again.” Which meant she now had one paw print on each shoulder.

  The dog peered up at her with a guilty grin, and Rose couldn’t scold her. “How do you always know to come running just when I need you the most?” She scratched behind the dog’s ears. There’d been a time Rose had been terrified of dogs, but last Christmas Marigold had wandered onto the property and into her heart. Maybe Marigold was what had started the avalanche of changes in her life in the first place. “Change is good,” she told the dog. “But it’s also hard and painful and terrifying.” Especially when she wa
s trying to figure out who she was in the midst of this new life she found herself in.

  The dog’s ears perked as though she sensed something. Rose heard it too: a car making its way down the drive.

  Her sister’s Subaru rounded the bend, and Marigold took off again, heading to greet Dahlia, Maya, and Ollie—the sweetest nine-year-old niece and five-year-old nephew in the whole world. Not that she was biased.

  Her sister got out of the car and hugged Marigold. Even though she’d only been in town about a month, Dahlia already looked the part of the elegant mountain inn owner, wearing a pair of sensible dark jeans and a blue T-shirt with exactly the right amount of lace trim. Her shoulder-length strawberry-blond hair had lightened over the summer, and her blue eyes seemed to shine a little brighter than Rose had remembered seeing them in a long time.

  “My turn,” Ollie called, even though the dog was almost as big as he was.

  “Auntie Rose!” Maya beelined straight up the porch steps. “Do you like my new cowgirl boots? I bought them with my own money.” Her niece lifted her foot off the ground and showed off all angles of the impractical red leather boots, the little fashionista. She was a girl after Rose’s own heart.

  “I love them. Do they happen to have any in my size?”

  Dahlia laughed as she made her way up the steps behind her daughter. “I’m pretty sure you already have a pair of red cowgirl boots in that massive closet of yours.”

  “The stitching is different. I like yours better.” Rose planted a kiss on her niece’s cheek and winked at her sister. Dally had always had a much more practical sense of style. Maybe it came with being the oldest of three sisters. She’d always been like another mother to Rose, for better or worse.

  Most days Rose envied her sister’s analytical and industrious approach to life. She used to want to be just like her older sister. If she was more like Dahlia, maybe the Juniper Inn project wouldn’t be over budget and still nowhere near finished. Rose hadn’t wanted to bother her sister with the details while she was in the process of moving and settling in, so she’d kept her updates generic, but she wasn’t sure how much longer she could protect Dally from the truth.