Jo McNally - The Life She Wants

She’s fought hard for this life, and won’t give it up!

Gallant Lake, New York, is the perfect place for former supermodel Melanie Lowery. It’s slow-paced and far from the limelight. Her peace is disrupted, though, when hotshot sports agent Shane Brannigan comes to town with his young golf star client. Melanie sees herself in the rebellious teen struggling with fame, and she can’t help stepping in and getting to know Shane in the process. But Shane’s chasing the same jet-set world that she left behind—a world that could reawaken demons Melanie’s fought hard to conquer. Yet with Shane leaving Gallant Lake any day, her heart is putting up a fight of its own...

JO McNALLY lives in coastal North Carolina with one hundred pounds of dog and two hundred pounds of husband—her slice of the bed is very small. When she’s not writing or reading romance novels (or clinging to the edge of the bed), she can often be found on the back porch sipping wine with friends while listening to great music. If the weather is absolutely perfect, Jo might join her husband on the golf course, where she tends to feel far more competitive than her actual skill level would suggest.

She likes writing stories about strong women and the men who love them. She’s a true believer that love can conquer all if given just half a chance.

You can follow Jo pretty much anywhere on social media (and she’d love it if you did!), but you can start at her website, jomcnallyromance.com.

Also By Jo McNally

Nora’s Guy Next Door

She’s Far From Hollywood

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk

The Life She Wants

Jo McNally

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-08471-0

THE LIFE SHE WANTS

© 2018 Jo McNally

Published in Great Britain 2018

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

® and ™ are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Version: 2020-03-02

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He had no doubt that this woman might rip his life, and his heart, apart if he let her.

And still...he wanted her. He wanted her to be his.

A furrow appeared between her brows.

“Shane...” His name was a whisper on her lips.

“Say that again.”

Melanie’s eyes darkened, and the furrow faded as a smile teased her lips. Her voice was stronger this time.

“Shane. What are we doing?”

“Damned if I know, but I’m not stopping unless you tell me to.”

He waited, and she didn’t say a word. His head dropped until his lips touched hers. He waited again, until she tipped her head up to meet his. Her lips parted for him with a sigh, and still he hesitated. Was he afraid for her? Or for himself? This moment...this moment felt big. She murmured his name against his lips, her arms wrapping around his neck. And he was a goner.

Dear Reader,

This book is the third and final book in my The Lowery Women series. This book is also one of the last four Superromances to ever be released from Harlequin. There have been so many terrific Superromances through the years, written by wonderful authors (my “Super Sisters”) and edited by some of the best in the business. My emotions are all over the place between pride and sorrow to be in this final group of Supers.

I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to my two Superromance editors. Victoria Curran is the person who said “yes!” to my debut novel, She’s Far From Hollywood. I will never forget her enthusiasm and wise advice. And speaking of wise advice, my current editor, Karen Reid, got me through books two and three with wonderful guidance and vision.

As they say, when one door closes, another opens. If you enjoy the small-town setting of Gallant Lake, New York (the setting for this book as well as Nora’s Guy Next Door), I’m happy to say I’ll be writing more Gallant Lake stories for Harlequin Special Edition.

So...this is truly bittersweet. I’m thrilled to be part of Special Edition going forward, and very sad to be saying goodbye to Superromance. I hope you enjoy this story, and that you’ll want to read more about the people of Gallant Lake.

Wishing you forever love,

Jo McNally

Writing doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It takes a team, and I’ve had the best possible team for The Lowery Women series.

To Victoria and Karen with gratitude.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Introduction

Dear Reader

Dedication

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

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Extract

About the Publisher

CHAPTER ONE

“MELANIE, CAN I skip this necklace? It seems like overkill to me.”

“Mel, you don’t really expect me to wear these shoes, do you?”

“Melanie, this dress is way too short for a grandmother.”