Family Secrets

Family Secrets
Ruth Jean Dale

The Lyon Legacy:Family means everything…and family depends on love.EVERY FAMILY HAS ITS SECRETS, AND THE LYONS HAVE MORE THAN MOST.Sharlee is the black sheep in the Lyon family fold. When she finished college her parents and grandparents expected her to join the family business, move back to the family home and do just what the family wanted. But Sharlee had her own ideas and decided to leave New Orleans, the Lyons and the man who broke her heart far behind.Now the family wants her back, needs her back–because her elderly grandfather's last wish is to see her reconciled with her parents. So they send Devin Oliver after her. What the Lyons don't know is that Dev is the last person Sharlee wants to see. She's never forgiven him for betraying her. And she doesn't trust him now–especially once she realizes Dev and her family will do anything to bring her back.Besides, she can't go home–it would make keeping her own secret much too difficult….

“There are a lot of ways to get to somebody, Sharlee. Once...” (#udd02a4f4-adbd-5fb4-88d5-c6d4d824ce34)Letter to Reader (#ua6a046b5-cfd9-5bcf-96cc-4987f81df55b)Title Page (#u4abd3fe9-105b-50fb-b604-7b08a6b2d908)Dedication (#udb7a41b8-5f77-52a4-9b67-c9ccb96d5022)PROLOGUE (#ucda2d76d-e5c9-5f16-bc7b-49804d50c615)CHAPTER ONE (#u676a1580-00b3-53bd-a866-22f8e3d62d12)CHAPTER TWO (#u920a6de2-15a9-5d87-b067-e1862370f960)CHAPTER THREE (#uf3515e14-669d-58c3-90fd-b66c0d686580)CHAPTER FOUR (#u2482aa43-8a8a-56b2-8cea-e0efe2c7f31f)CHAPTER FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER THIRTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER FOURTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER FIFTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)EPILOGUE (#litres_trial_promo)FAMILY FORTUNE (#litres_trial_promo)Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

“There are a lot of ways to get to somebody, Sharlee. Once...”

As Dev moved toward her, she wanted to run, to turn around and bolt into her bedroom and slam the door. But she knew she had to face him down. “I don’t want to hear about ‘once.’ What’s past is past.”

“Aren’t you the least bit curious?”

“About...?” Oh, she was handling this just fine!

“Whether any of the old feelings still exist. If It’ll be the same...worse...better.”

He was taking control away from her, and she had to get it back. “Why don’t we find out?”

She put her arms around his neck—careful of the glass she was holding. And with all the insolence she could summon, she pressed her lips to his.

For an instant she was in control. Then he came to life, and she tasted trouble. There was no way on earth she could resist the deluge of memories or the stunning sensations that made her right hand relax....

“What the—?” He jumped away from her as if burned. “Did you do that on purpose?”

It took her a moment to realize the ice and liquid in her glass had soaked him. Did she do it on purpose? No way had she been thinking straight enough to plan such a revenge. Of course, there was no reason he had to know that....

Dear Reader,

Sometimes it seems as if I know the Lyon family of New Orleans better than I know my own. Although the Lyons are fictional, I’ve lived with them so long and so intimately that I find myself thinking of them as if they were real. I’ve even explored the Lyon family tree using genealogy software, while struggling to reconcile dates and events that stretch back to the last century.

I don’t know nearly as much about my own family, but perhaps the Lyons will inspire me to remedy that situation. If I ever find the time, I’d like to join those legions who are making genealogy so popular today.

But if that does happen, I doubt I’ll find the same kind of excitement at home that I found at Lyoncrest. I’m fairly certain none of my family’s secrets can rival those of this fictional clan. Of course, I had a little help from Peg Sutherland and Roz Denny Fox, who have Lyon stories of their own to tell....

Once you’ve read Family Secrets, Family Fortune and Family Reunion, you’ll know all about the Lyons, too. We only hope you like them as much as we do.

Sincerely,

Ruth Jean Dale

Family Secrets

Ruth Jean Dale

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

This book could only have happened with “a little help from

my friends.” First and foremost, there’s Peg Sutherland and

Roz Denny Fox, terrific writers, all-around swell human

beings and great fun to work with. And for research

assistance, I’m indebted to Robyn Brownley Fennesy

and Tricia Kay, who answered my distress call.

On behalf of me ’n Neva Dalcour, “Thanks, y’all!”

THE LYON FAMILY

PROLOGUE

New Orleans, Fourth of July 1999

SHARLEE INCHED HER WAY through the crowd toward the door of the rehearsal hall at WDIX-TV, trying to look inconspicuous. If she were to make a clean get-away, the time was now, while the place was still mobbed by friends, family, employees, media and Very Important People celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the station established by her grandparents, Paul and Margaret Lyon. No one paid Sharlee the slightest heed, which was exactly the way she liked it.

She hadn’t wanted to come to this overblown extravaganza in the first place but there’d been no way to avoid it without making relations with her family even more strained. Neatly lifting a glass of champagne off the tray of a passing waiter, she managed a mechanical smile for her father, briefly visible across the room. Fortunately her mother was nowhere in sight.

Why couldn’t her parents understand that she, at almost twenty-five, was an independent woman who could make her way in the world without benefit of the Lyon name? She felt so strongly about this that at her job as a newspaper reporter in suburban Denver, she went by a nickname bestowed on her many years ago by a lost love—Sharlee—and her middle name, Hollander. Charlotte Lyon had been “gone” from the family nest since she left for boarding school almost nine years before.

Yet here she was, pretending for the sake of public relations that she actually belonged to this illustrious clan. Her grandfather, Paul Lyon, was an icon once known throughout the South as the Voice of Dixie; her father, André Lyon, was a devoted family man and pillar of the community who had taken WDIX-TV to new heights. Her grandmother Margaret and mother Gabrielle had both played important roles at WDIX while at the same time raising their children, loving their husbands, nurturing their community and doing it all with perfect public grace.

At least, Mama had done it all until the birth of her only son seven years ago. At that point, Gaby had “retired” to stay home with Andrew Paul, universally called Andy-Paul. Also living at the family manse in the Garden District were Sharlee’s sister Leslie, her husband, Michael McKay, and his daughter, seven-year-old Cory. Leslie’s first pregnancy had been revealed only minutes earlier, to the delight of the family.

Sharlee hated envying anyone anything, but this time she couldn’t help herself. Just what she needed: an older sister who had it all, including the approval of the entire family, and an adorable little brother to carry on the Lyon name.

Her arm was inadvertently jostled, making her champagne splash over the rim of her glass. She turned to see who the guilty party was and found herself standing behind two courtly old gentlemen deep in conversation. Her grandfather and his brother, Charles, both in their eighties. She edged closer, her curiosity roused by the almost conspiratorial tone of their voices.

“So now the history of the Lyons is an open book,” Paul was saying cynically. “The truth, the whole truth...”

To which granduncle Charles replied, “I was there, brother dear. There are more secrets in this family than candles on that cake—and someday they’ll all be revealed.”

Sharlee frowned. What on earth were they talking about? What secrets? As far as she knew, all the other Lyons were models of decorum. Would that she could say the same about herself! But now Granduncle Charles was suggesting something altogether different, and she waited for Grandpère to refute him.

And waited.

And began to wonder. Could it be true? Secrets—perhaps Charles was talking about his own branch of the family tree.

He and his son, Alain, were not only active in Lyon Broadcasting but owned one of the most elegant French restaurants in New Orleans. She’d just eaten several cheese-and-shrimp-stuffed mushrooms from Chez Charles, reminding her of one of the few things she missed about New Orleans: the food. All of Charles’s descendents had moved dutifully into one or the other of the family businesses, and participated in such endeavors as this grand anniversary celebration.

Unlike Sharlee, who’d vowed early on to go her own way and had proceeded to do so, consequences be damned.

She had long since concluded that she was the only person in the family with a wild streak. In her teens she’d been the kid who got suspended from school for practical jokes, who got into curfew trouble with the cops, who sneaked out of the house to meet boys, who got caught drinking by the nuns. She was also the one who was arrested in campus demonstrations at college and who got into a humongous confrontation with her mother on her twenty-first birthday, which resulted in her decision to take a job in Colorado, instead of moving back home after graduation.

The result of all this rebellion was her parents’ refusal to release her trust fund on schedule. Their lack of faith actually hurt more than being deprived of the money—although money was nice, too, she recalled.

This waltz down memory lane was getting her nowhere. She had a plane to catch, people to avoid. Even so, the conversation between the two old men had sent her reporter’s instincts into high gear. Perhaps if she lingered for just a few more minutes, she might hear a few interesting, perhaps even scandalous, tidbits about the Lyons....