Falling in Love on Sweetwater Lane

Contents
 
 
 Cover
 Title Page
 Copyright
 Dedication
 Acknowledgments
 Prologue
 Chapter One
 Chapter Two
 Chapter Three
 Chapter Four
 Chapter Five
 Chapter Six
 Chapter Seven
 Chapter Eight
 Chapter Nine
 Chapter Ten
 Chapter Eleven
 Chapter Twelve
 Chapter Thirteen
 Chapter Fourteen
 Chapter Fifteen
 Chapter Sixteen
 Chapter Seventeen
 Chapter Eighteen
 Chapter Nineteen
 Chapter Twenty
 Chapter Twenty-One
 Chapter Twenty-Two
 Epilogue
 Discover More
 Teaser
 About the Author
 Also by Belle Calhoune
 Looking for more second chances and small towns?
 
 
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 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 © 2023 by Sandra Calhoune
 Cover art and design by Elizabeth Turner Stokes
 Cover images © Shutterstock
 Cover copyright © 2023 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
 Hachette Book Group supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.
 The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
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 First Edition: February 2023
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 ISBN: 9781538736050 (mass market), 9781538736043 (ebook)
 E3-20221025-DA-NF-ORI
 
 
 
 
 
 
 For my forever friend, Cheryl Paris Chandler. No matter time nor distance, you’ll always be in my heart.
 
 
 
 
 
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 Acknowledgments
 
 For all the readers who asked for Nick’s story. Thanks for the encouragement and love.
 With deep gratitude to my agent, Jessica Alvarez, for your wise counsel and listening ear. I appreciate our partnership.
 I’m indebted to my editor, Madeleine Colavita, for always being so in tune with the story elements and for asking the hard questions so the finished product can sparkle.
 And for my friend Jessica Keller. You are such a wonderful single mother, and like my hero Nick, you work hard to make the world a precious place for your child.
 
 
 
 
 
 Prologue
 
 
 
 
 Harlow Jones sat in the back seat of her family’s station wagon, looking out the window as the two-story colonial house faded into the distance. Hot tears stung her eyes as she whispered words of goodbye to the only home she had ever known. “I’ll never forget you.”
 They had packed up all of their belongings and a bunch of muscled movers had put them in the back of their U-Haul. It didn’t seem right that they were leaving an empty house behind.
 She would always remember the sleepovers in her petal-pink bedroom, playing double Dutch in the driveway, hide-and-seek with Malcolm, and the great oak in the backyard. She’d fallen out of that huge tree on her sixth birthday. Harlow smiled at the memory of the hot-pink cast on her arm. She had worn it for weeks and been the hit of her first-grade class. Everyone had thought it was so cool. Her entire class had lined up to sign their names on it.
 Her brother reached over and squeezed her hand, whispering, “Don’t worry, Harlow. We’re going to have an even better house in Philly.” Harlow looked over at Malcolm. He was smiling at her in a fake way that didn’t make it all the way up to his eyes.
 She didn’t care about a better house. It still wouldn’t feel like a home to her. Leaving Chestnut Ridge hurt her heart. Her friends were here. Janie Duckett and Devikah Kumar had been her best friends since nursery school. Best friends didn’t grow on trees. She didn’t want to even think about going to a new school or making new friends. She’d been the spelling bee champion at Chestnut Ridge Elementary for three years running. Now Billy Dempsey would get the title. She hated him. He was an awful boy who’d said terrible things about her father.
 But he hadn’t been the only one. That was one of the reasons they were leaving Vermont. Her daddy had been accused of stealing lots of money from his work. And now he was dead. Nothing would ever be the same again. All her mother ever did now was cry and talk about how much she hated Chestnut Ridge. Harlow still loved this town, even though she’d lost her father and now her mother as well. Her mother didn’t laugh anymore or make lame knock-knock jokes. And her father was just gone in a car wreck. Harlow hadn’t even had a chance to say goodbye to him.
 Malcolm kept pestering her to play I Spy to kill time until they reached Pennsylvania. She finally gave in, her mind scrambling to find objects as the vehicle raced down the highway. An American flag. A water tower. A helicopter flying low. A pink house.
 “I bet that made you feel better,” Malcolm crowed once the game was over.
 “I do,” she said, lying through her teeth. Stuffing down her feelings was easier than dealing with