Double Take by Brenda Joyce Page A

Marni’s. Kait would move heaven and earth to protect them both.
    And Lana would be home either late tomorrow or first thing the day after.
    Kait tried to think. And then the world at Fox Hollow might very well blow up in all of their faces.
    Kait fought for composure. Only one thing seemed clear. She had a day or a day and a half at most to try to soften up Trev Coleman, to try to save her sister’s marriage, and mend the many fences she had torn down.
    But what was the point?
    The point was that she desperately wanted to mend all of the fences Lana had broken, just as she couldn’t bear the thought of Lana losing Fox Hollow, Trev Coleman, and her daughter.
    Kait closed her eyes, trembling. But it wasn’t her place to repair and heal Lana’s relationships within her family. And in a day or two, she was going to have to leave, because Lana was going to return and all hell would break loose when Trev Coleman learned what the two sisters had been up to.
    Why hadn’t she thought of this sooner? Why hadn’t her sister thought of this? Why had she, Kait, so blithely accepted her sister’s promise that once she returned, they would finally be real sisters and real friends, and that Kait would become a part of her family?
    Kate refused to think that Lana had been manipulating her with her promises.
    But there was a bottom line. There was one fact that Kait knew for sure, beyond any doubt.
She didn’t want to leave Fox Hollow.
    Not tomorrow, and not the day after that, not ever.
    The realization was brutal.
    She didn’t want to leave.
She loved Fox Hollow. She loved Marni. She wanted to be accepted, by Trev, by Sam, and even by grouchy old Elizabeth. She wanted to be a real part of this family.
    But there was more.
She didn’t want to leave because she wanted Lana’s life to be hers.

CHAPTER 4
    It was impossible, Kait thought, stunned. She turned and made her way downstairs, not seeing where she was going. She hadn’t even been at Fox Hollow for an entire day. Yet she wanted Lana’s life?
    Yes. She did. And it didn’t matter that Trev hated her, because he didn’t hate her, he hated Lana. And that was hardly the same thing.
    Kait felt as if she’d been struck between the eyes. Had her own life become so miserable that she could step into her sister’s shoes and want what she had so quickly, so badly?
    She paused to reflect, because her life wasn’t miserable. It was just... empty.
    Her own life had been empty for years, and Fox Hollow was a magical place, and there was Marni, whom she adored as if she were her own daughter, and of course, there was Trev Coleman....
    But she mustn’t allow her thoughts to go there. Trev Coleman belonged to Lana, and rightfully so.
    And in that moment, she made a decision. In two days, Lana was coming home—to Fox Hollow, to Trev, to Marni. Amazingly, the concept somehow was painful. But it was a fact. Hard and cold. And when she did return, Kait would fight to her very last breath to mend every single rift Lana had created in the Coleman family. No matter how terrible the fallout from their deception, Kait would stand strong— especially when it came to Trev Coleman. Somehow, she would become a part of this family. As for the divorce, she would do everything she could to convince Lana to fight for her marriage. If she could—and she was determined as she had never been determined before—she was going to try to help Trev and Lana find the love they had once had. Surely her sister still loved Trevor Coleman, no matter what they were now going through. Kait knew Lana had not married him for his money. In the end, she and Lana would be friends as well as sisters, and Trev Coleman would be a friend as well as her brother-in-law.
    And she was not returning to New York.
    She was staying in Three Falls.
    She had savings; she would quit her job and buy a sweet old house somewhere in Skerrit County, so she wouldn’t be too far from Marni. She had always wanted to work from home, and it