Tara Quinn - Second Time's the Charm

Can you ever escape your past?

Jon Swartz is an adult recipient—the second one—of a scholarship awarded by an anonymous donor. A single father, he comes to Shelter Valley, Arizona, to begin his life anew. He’s a man with a secret past, a past he has to hide to protect both himself and his two-year-old son, Abe.

Lillie Henderson, a child life specialist, has her own history of loss and betrayal. She and Jon are brought together by Abe—and by an attraction they can’t deny. They have to decide not to let the emotions…and mistakes…of the past sabotage their hopes for the future. Abe’s happiness depends on it. And so does theirs!

“Are you coming on to me?”

Jon’s question was soft, intimate.

There was a two-year-old sleeping a couple of feet away. A child Lillie couldn’t take any further into her heart.

“No.” Was she? “At least, I don’t think I am. I’m just…the other night you said…we both acknowledged…” For someone whose entire life was dedicated to finding the right words to help people, to soothe them, Lillie was failing miserably. “But I really don’t want anything more than friendship….”

She couldn’t take on Jon’s son. Not as her own. She’d smother him with her love and constant concern. Worry herself sick over every little hiccup.

She honestly did not want to marry again. Ever.

Dear Reader,

We get to spend more time together in Shelter Valley! I love it here and love that so many of you do, too. I hope we’ll be able to keep meeting like this!

Jon’s new to Shelter Valley this semester. He’s a man who was on the periphery of my mind after his appearance in It’s Never Too Late; the real story in Second Time’s the Charm was going to be Lillie’s.

Lillie first came here to attend college. And then, when tragedy took away everything that was dear to her, she came back to Shelter Valley to live. She’s a child life specialist who’s had a very successful private practice here for the past five years. She knows what she’s doing, what life is about and she believes she has all the answers—or knows how to find them.

Then Jon shows up. He has answers, too. But he raises questions. Jon needs Shelter Valley as much as anyone who’s ever been there. He doesn’t know that yet, but it’s as if Shelter Valley was made for Jon. He has secrets, though. And because of that, our town might not be safe with him in it....

It seemed to me, while I was writing this book, that I was going to have to choose—between a town that’s come to mean so much to me and to many of us, and a man who’d sacrifice everything for his two-year-old son. And I learned, right along with Lillie, that I don’t have all the answers.

I hope you enjoy this visit! And remember to plan time in your schedule for another Shelter Valley vacation. We’ll be here again later this fall in The Moment of Truth.

I love to connect with my readers. Please like Tara Taylor Quinn on Facebook, and follow me on Twitter so we can get better acquainted! You can also reach me at tarataylorquinn.com.

Tara Taylor Quinn

Second Time’s the Charm

Tara Taylor Quinn

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

With fifty-nine original novels, published in more than twenty languages, Tara Taylor Quinn is a USA TODAY bestselling author. She is the winner of a 2008 National Reader’s Choice Award, four-time finalist for an RWA RITA®Award, finalist for a Reviewer’s Choice Award, a Bookseller’s Best Award and a 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 inline 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 inline skating.

For Mindy

Thank you for all the parts of your life that you share with me. And for having the strength and endurance to do what you do every day for those children. You are not only my inspiration, but my heroine.

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

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Thirty

CHAPTER ONE

Five years ago

HOT AND HEAVY with baby, Lillie Henderson knew the pains would pass. She wasn’t going to deliver for another month, at least. False labor was common. Birthing class said so. The pains weren’t acute enough to be labor. They were symptoms of dread. Alone in the elevator, she held the basketball-like protrusion that used to be a flat tummy and pushed the button for the eighteenth floor.

“We have to talk, Lillie,” Kirk had said when he’d asked her to meet him at his office—a top-floor suite with a windowed view of Camelback Mountain in his father’s Phoenix PR firm.

Jerry Henderson, Kirk’s father, and his third wife, Gayle, were out of town for the summer. Which made Henderson Marketing Kirk’s sole territory. He’d called a meeting on his ground—not on mutual or neutral ground. Lillie didn’t miss the ploy. In the almost three years they’d been married, Lillie had figured out that many of Kirk’s actions were strategically devised to get the results he wanted.

The elevator slowed to a smooth stop and the door opened, showing her the plush blue-gray carpet that covered every inch of the Henderson offices except the kitchen and bathrooms. Original Picasso sketches lined the walls in between solid mahogany doors that remained open—unless private business was being discussed—to get the maximum benefit from the walls of windows inside the rooms. The entire floor had been designed to convey a sense of openness that was meant to translate to an atmosphere of trust.

Lillie had been breathlessly nervous the first time she’d visited the offices as Kirk’s fiancée. She’d been a college senior then, studying child and family development.

In the three years since, she’d graduated and become employed as a child life specialist, but the nerves were as bad as ever. Some things didn’t change.

Her long, chocolate-brown hair curled loosely down her back and she could feel its weight on her shoulders. She’d left it down for the interview, in spite of the triple-digit heat outside. And she’d donned her one pair of expensive maternity dress slacks, purchased before Kirk had learned that the baby she was carrying was going to be born with serious birth defects.

The nice thing to do would have been for Kirk to meet her at the elevator. She’d texted to let him know she’d arrived, just as he’d instructed. He’d texted back, telling her to come on up.

Since the doctor’s distressing diagnosis two months ago, Kirk hadn’t shown any deference to her pregnant state. He hadn’t spent many nights in their mountain-view home, either, leaving her to tend to her grief and worry and growing discomfort alone in their elite gated community.