Katie McGarry - Red At Night

More Than Words:

Bestselling authors and real-life heroines

Every year, Harlequin’s More Than Words award is given to three real-life heroines, women whose courage and vision have helped change people’s lives for the better. Once again, three bestselling Harlequin authors have written stories inspired by these remarkable women.

In Red at Night, Stella and Jonah are total opposites. She’s the girl with purple hair from the wrong part of town. He’s a high school senior who hangs with the cool crowd. Until a car accident leaves him haunted by guilt, and Jonah starts spending time at Stella’s favorite refuge...the local cemetery.

Stella knows she should keep her distance—after all, she spent her girlhood being bullied by Jonah’s friends. Once he’s sorted out his tangled emotions, Jonah won’t have time for her anymore. Too bad she’s already fallen for him....

Look for all three ebooks inspired by real-life heroines: Red at Night by Katie McGarry, You Are Here by Liz Fichera and The Gift of a Good Start by Earl Sewell. Visit the Harlequin More Than Words website, at www.HarlequinMoreThanWords.com, or your favorite ebook retailer to download these free novellas today.

Red at Night

More Than Words

Katie McGarry

Dear Reader,

For a decade, Harlequin has been a leader in supporting and bringing awareness to women’s charitable efforts. Through Harlequin More Than Words we have had the opportunity to celebrate and encourage women who are actively working to improve their communities. Each year we honor three women who have made extraordinary differences in the lives of others, and a donation of $45,000 is divided equally among their charitable causes.

We are also pleased to spotlight the current Harlequin More Than Words recipients by enlisting three talented Harlequin authors who have written fictional stories inspired by these remarkable women and the charities they support. All three ebooks—Katie McGarry’s Red at Night, Liz Fichera’s You Are Here and Earl Sewell’s The Gift of a Good Start—are free to download at HarlequinMoreThanWords.comand other e-tailers.

In addition, More Than Words: Acts of Kindness brings together three of the most popular More Than Words stories by three bestselling authors for the first time. Whispers of the Heart by Brenda Jackson, It’s Not About the Dress by Stephanie Bond and The Princess Shoes by Maureen Child will be available at Harlequin.comor on the shelves of your favorite bookstore in March 2014.

All six of these stories are beautiful tributes to current and past Harlequin More Than Words recipients, and we hope they will inspire the real-life heroine in you.

For more information on how you can get involved, please visit our website at HarlequinMoreThanWords.com.

Together we can build strong communities!

Sincerely,

Loriana Sacilotto

Executive Vice President, Editorial

Harlequin Enterprises Ltd.

Goodie Two Shoes Foundation

Name: Nikki Berti

Hometown: Las Vegas, Nevada

Recipient’s Related Charity: Goodie Two Shoes Foundation (GTSF)

Website: www.GoodieTwoShoes.org

How Nikki inspires others:

Growing up with a small-town, middle-class background, Nikki Berti had never been exposed to real poverty until she and her husband, Tony—then an NFL player with the San Diego Chargers—participated in a program run by his team that enabled children in need to choose their own shoes from a retail store. The couple was so moved by the experience that, following Tony’s retirement, they decided to set up a similar but more extensive program in Las Vegas.

Today, Goodie Two Shoes Foundation outfits ten thousand children every year in southern Nevada. Two to three times a month, GTSF brings in seventy volunteers to assist 400 children in need in selecting any pair of shoes they want (all brand-new, boxed and tagged) from a huge mobile shoe store on wheels. Allowing children to choose from a large selection prevents any stigmatization.

Nikki stresses the impact that choosing new shoes can have on a child. Owning a new pair of properly fitting shoes can boost a child’s self-esteem immeasurably by reducing instances of being bullied and by enabling participation in physical education. Nikki believes that with greater self-confidence, kids make positive choices in other areas of their lives, such as school attendance and homework.

As the only nonprofit model of its kind in the United States, GTSF is unique in the service it provides to children in need. While understanding the importance of maintaining its high standards as a regional organization, Nikki also foresees a day when GTSF could help children all over the country.

About the Author

Katie McGarry was a teenager during the age of grunge and boy bands, and she remembers those years as the best and worst of her life. She is a lover of music, happy endings and reality television and is a secret University of Kentucky basketball fan. She is also the author of Pushing the Limits, Dare You To, Crash Into You, Take Me On and the novella Crossing the Line.

Katie loves to hear from her readers. Contact her via her website, www.katielmcgarry.com, follow her on Twitter, @KatieMcGarry, or become a fan on Facebook and Goodreads.

Dedication

For Nikki Berti and the Goodie Two Shoes Foundation. Thank you for your generosity and for making such a profound impact on the lives of so many children.

To God—Galatians 5:13–14

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Extract

Stella

I like cemeteries. They’re quiet, well-groomed, and overall possibly the safest place in the city. I can talk all I want, and the company doesn’t talk back. At least for now. Someday, as Joss often reminds me, the pathetic remains of my sanity will crack and she’ll find me conversing with crows while I try to convince her that the dead souls that inhabit the black-feathered bodies are real and are warning us of an impending apocalypse.

For kicks, I like to flutter my eyelashes and tell her it’s really the blue jays she needs to worry about.

I brush the dried leaves off the grave marker. It’s one of the cheaper ones, made of gray stone and buried flat against the ground. If it weren’t for people like me, these spots would be overwhelmed with grass, scattered brush and dust. They’d become, like me, forgotten.

“Do you think she wanted more?” I fall back onto my bottom and wrap my arms around my bare knees, as my jean cutoffs were “cut off” a little too short, thanks to Joss. She’s all about skin and believes everyone else should be, too.

The boy six spots down from me is still absorbed in the fairly new grave, his hands shoved into his pockets. He’s got to be roasting in his jeans and dark blue T-shirt. The September sun can be brutal to those who are unprepared. It’s how I found Lydia. Thanks to the towering tree, her stone has shade.

“I said, do you think she wanted more?” I repeat. It’s the third time he’s been here this past week. The tenth time in a month. That type of behavior signals serious grief issues, and that’s not healthy. And on the selfish side, he’s cramping my alone time. “Her name was Lydia. She was twenty-four when she died and she has a flat grave marker. Did she like understated or was this chosen for her?”