Tara Quinn - Wife by Design

When life hands you lemons…

You make lemonade. That’s what Lynn Duncan believes. A single mother and nurse practitioner, she works at The Lemonade Stand, a unique women’s shelter supported by various businesses. These include a physiotherapy service, where Grant Bishop, a landscape designer, takes his disabled brother.

When Grant and Lynn first meet they’re intensely attracted to each other—but they don’t see a future for themselves. They’re too committed to the people they need to protect. For Lynn that’s three-year-old Kara and the residents at TLS. And Grant will sacrifice anything for his brother. That might have to include a relationship with Lynn….

“Mr. Bishop?”

Turning, Grant recognized the woman approaching him at once. Her long hair was pulled back from her face, but the warm glow in her eyes was just as he’d remembered.

He’d told himself he’d imagined the woman’s effect on him the last time they’d met—four years before. She’d had a wedding ring on back then. She didn’t now.

“Lynn,” he said. She held out her hand. He took it. And didn’t want to let go.

“You don’t remember me,” he said, quickly shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans as he faced her in the empty, fluorescent-lit hallway. He’d heard that The Lemonade Stand was beautiful, a haven, resortlike. The commercial beige tile and white walls didn’t give him that impression.

“I do, actually,” she said. “Now that I see you. I recognized your name when you called, but I wasn’t sure why. You’re the one with the brother. Darin, right?”

“I’m impressed.” Grant smiled. “You were his nurse for one day. You’ve got a good memory.”

“Darin was memorable. So what can I do for you?” Lynn asked, that not-quite-smile he’d remembered curving her lips, and hitting him where a guy only liked to be hit when he could do something about it.

He’d hoped she’d remember him, too, and she had. More important, she’d remembered his brother. With enough affection to pull strings and get Darin into their physiotherapy program?

The Lemonade Stand was the only option he had. This had to work.

Dear Reader,

Welcome to The Lemonade Stand. Life hands all of us challenges; happiness comes through the choices we make in the face of those challenges. And sometimes the choice that brings happiness is the decision to reach out for help.

I know that sometimes life feels as though there are no options left. No hope for true joy.

And then there’s a place like The Lemonade Stand, a very special shelter for women. More than a shelter. It’s a place that shows women that they have the right to be happy. Wife by Design is the first of a series called Where Secrets Are Safe—and that refers to both the secrets that some women hide before they come to the Stand and the secrets, the hidden selves, they’re able to reveal and explore once they’re there. I am deeply committed to these books. And to the hope that the decent men and women at The Lemonade Stand have to offer. There is true joy and deeply peaceful happiness available to every one of us.

Because, after all, when life hands you lemons, you can choose to make lemonade!

Please let me know what you think of this book. And join me in the fight against domestic violence, which afflicts a shocking number of women in this country and worldwide. You can reach me at www.tarataylorquinn.com.

Tara Taylor Quinn

Wife by Design

Tara Taylor Quinn

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

With sixty-five original novels, published in more than twenty languages, Tara Taylor Quinn is a USA TODAY bestselling author. She is a winner of the 2008 National Readers’ Choice Award, four-time finalist for the RWA RITA® Award, a finalist for the Reviewers’ Choice Award, the Booksellers’ Best Award and the Holt Medallion, and she appears regularly on Amazon bestseller lists. Tara Taylor Quinn is a past president of the Romance Writers of America and served for eight years on its board of directors. She is in demand as a public speaker and has appeared on television and radio shows across the country, including CBS Sunday Morning. Tara is a spokesperson for the National Domestic Violence Hotline, and she and her husband, Tim, sponsor an annual in-line skating race in Phoenix to benefit the fight against domestic violence.

When she’s not at home in Arizona with Tim and their canine owners, Jerry Lee and Taylor Marie, or fulfilling speaking engagements, Tara spends her time traveling and in-line skating.

To the women whose pictures line the wall of my private office at The Lemonade Stand:

Penny Gumser, Phyllis Pawloski, Leeanne Williams, Patricia Potter, Lynn Kerstan, Kim Barney and Paula Eykelhof.

Each of you plays a vital role in my Lemonade recipe.

Contents

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

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Excerpt

CHAPTER ONE

Three years earlier

“WE HAVE TO TALK.”

Glancing from the baby in her arms to the man standing in the doorway of their bedroom, Lynn nodded. Brandon had been acting odd since before Kara was born, moving into the spare bedroom ostensibly so his tossing and turning didn’t make Lynn more uncomfortable than she already was.

And now five weeks after their daughter’s birth, he was still using the spare room.

“Come on in.” She patted the bed beside her. The baby had just finished her 9:00 p.m. feeding and should sleep until midnight. Lynn had napped that afternoon. She could manage without more rest. And even if she couldn’t, she would. Brandon was her life—and was obviously having a hard time adjusting to sharing their world.

At least, she prayed that was the problem.

He joined her on the bed, and she placed his pillow against the headboard so he could sit propped up beside her. Ignoring the pillow, he turned his gaze to Kara and remained seated on the edge of the bed. The sadness in his smile scared her.

“Brandon? What’s going on?” They’d been best friends since the ninth grade. Knew everything about each other.

He looked from her to Kara. “She’s perfect, Lynn. Everything we hoped and more...”

But? She heard it there. His chin taut, he stared silently at the baby.

“You want to hold her?”

Nodding, he reached for the soft, blanketed bundle sleeping against her. Cradling Kara’s body easily on one arm, the baby’s head safely nestled between his biceps and chest, Brandon looked comfortable, natural, as though this was his fifth child, not his first.

His gentleness, as always, touched her deeply.

“She’s great, isn’t she?” he said, his voice thick with emotion. Reminding her of their wedding day, of standing at the front of the church that was filled to capacity with their friends and loved ones and hearing the catch in his voice as he vowed to love her forever. There’d been no mistaking his sincerity. Listening to him, she’d known very clearly that he spoke a truth beyond words. Brandon’s love was real. The kind that came from someplace more powerful than the human mind or heart. From that point on she’d never worried that they’d make it. She’d known their marriage was safe.

Taking comfort in the memory, Lynn smiled. Nodded. “Yeah,” she said, loving the sight of her engineer husband holding their infant daughter. “We made a beautiful baby, Bran, just like we always said we would.”