Once Upon a Friendship Read online

  They’re a team…not a couple!

  Falling for Liam was unthinkable. He and Gabi had been best friends since college, nothing more. And crucially, now Liam was her client and needed her to be focused on his case. Gabi could never risk their friendship—or Liam’s freedom—over these feelings. They could never be a couple, anyway. He was Liam Connelly, the handsome and privileged son of a billionaire. She was Gabrielle Miller, the girl who’d fought her way out of poverty and put herself through law school. They were unlikely friends to begin with. Anything more was impossible. Unless…he felt it, too.

  She had no place to run.

  She never had. She was who she was. A woman who cared deeply. Who was loyal to death. Who’d been in love with a man for more than ten years and had never let herself admit it.

  The thought of Liam actually going to jail was almost more than she could bear. Living without his kisses was something she could endure. But a world without Liam at all?

  Her reaction to the reality that had hit her at the FBI office the day before had finally opened her eyes to the truth.

  She couldn’t stop herself from being in love with Liam Connelly.

  Dear Reader,

  Welcome to The Historic Arapahoe! And to my first original title in Harlequin’s Heartwarming series! I am very happy to be joining the Heartwarming family and look forward to many more stories of the heart to come.

  And I’m still ttq all the way. Bringing you stories that are emotionally intense, psychological looks at life. An editor once said, a long time ago, that when you read ttq books, you live the life. My hope is that when you read my books, you get something to take with you in your life. Even if it’s just a smile. A renewed memory. The hope of happily-ever-after in the real world.

  On the surface, Once Upon a Friendship was kind of ordinary when I started writing. Three friends who buy an old apartment building together to keep the senior citizens who live there from being kicked out onto the street. But in the first chapter a Ponzi scheme appeared. And one of the friends could be involved. His father is arrested. I wanted to stop it all from happening. After all, this was my sweet apartment-building book. But as I’ve come to accept over the years, the book wasn’t really mine. The story belongs to Liam and Gabi and Marie. And the things that happened to them are not mine to change.

  They belong to you now.

  All the best,

  Once Upon a Friendship

  USA TODAY Bestselling Author

  Tara Taylor Quinn

  The author of more than seventy novels, Tara Taylor Quinn is a USA TODAY bestselling author with over seven million copies sold. She is known for delivering emotional and psychologically astute novels of suspense and romance. Tara is the past president of Romance Writers of America and served eight years on that board of directors. She has appeared on national and local TV across the country, including CBS Sunday Morning, and is a frequent guest speaker. In her spare time Tara likes to travel and enjoys crafting and in-line skating. She is a supporter of the National Domestic Violence Hotline. If you or someone you know might be a victim of domestic violence in the United States, please contact 1-800-799-7233.

  Books by Tara Taylor Quinn

  Harlequin Superromance

  Where Secrets are Safe

  Wife by Design

  Once a Family

  Husband by Choice

  Child by Chance

  Mother by Fate

  The Good Father

  Shelter Valley Stories

  Sophie’s Secret

  Full Contact

  It’s Never Too Late

  Second Time’s the Charm

  The Moment of Truth

  It Happened in Comfort Cove

  A Son’s Tale

  A Daughter’s Story

  The Truth About Comfort Cove

  MIRA Books

  Where the Road Ends

  Street Smart

  Hidden

  In Plain Sight

  Behind Closed Doors

  At Close Range

  The Second Lie

  The Third Secret

  The Fourth Victim

  The Friendship Pact

  Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.

  For Rachel, whose life introduced me

  to Boulder, Colorado. I thought of you,

  of walking with you on campus,

  as I wrote this book.

  Contents

  PROLOGUE

  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

  PROLOGUE

  Nine years ago

  Junior year, University of Colorado, Boulder

  WITH A WAD OF money in his pocket and a couple of beers in his system, business and journalism major Liam Connelly had to thank the old man for having taken away his every mode of personal transportation back in freshman year. While the deprivation had only lasted nine months—and had been lifted two years ago—he’d never have discovered the beauty of a long walk at night if he hadn’t been without a car. Walking took longer, but the cool Colorado spring air cleared his head.

  Yeah, the old man had done him a huge favor back then when he’d come storming up to his dorm room, pissed because Liam had moved into the dorm instead of the upscale apartment, complete with doorman, that his father had chosen for him off campus. As Liam had suspected, he’d later had confirmation that his father had prepaid the doorman to keep an eye on Liam’s comings and goings and submit weekly written reports.

  The brutal match of wills that had taken place two years before hadn’t been pretty. The old man had demanded—not kindly or softly, either—that Liam leave with him immediately. That night had been the first time Liam had openly stood his ground with his father. Face-to-face, instead of in the quietly rebellious ways he’d managed prior to that—such as deliberately answering questions wrong on his college entrance exams so that he didn’t score high enough to be shipped off to Harvard.

  But that night in his dorm, he’d called the old man’s bluff. He’d lost motor vehicle privileges, including his BMW 3 Series sports car, all three boats and the Jet Skis, but the price had been a small one to pay.

  But humiliating, when he’d found out that the two girls who lived in the room next door had heard every word of the ugly altercation.

  That was the night he’d met Gabrielle Miller and Marie Bustamante.

  Detouring from his path to the plush apartment he’d moved into at the beginning of his sophomore year—in a bargain with his father to get his car back—he headed toward an upperclassman dorm on the Boulder campus. This dorm was different from the one two years ago. The girls had moved twice since freshman year: at the beginning of sophom
ore year, and again at the beginning of their junior year. They’d been talking about getting an apartment for senior year. Gabrielle was leery of the extra cost. Marie, who was majoring in food and nutrition, wanted a place closer to the coffee shop where she’d been promoted to senior barista.

  Didn’t matter to him one way or another as long as he knew where to find them.

  He might be the only guy who visited a confessional before he slept off his sins, but he’d found that he woke up better that way. Besides, if more guys had a two-girl confessor instead of a priest, there’d probably be a whole lot more confessing.

  He knocked. And waited. Past midnight on Saturday, they might be asleep. But they’d get up for him. Just as he’d done for them the time Gabrielle’s car had broken down when they’d gone to Denver for some Wednesday night charity thing to raise money for one of the kitchens or something she was always volunteering at.

  And the time Marie’d been invited to a frat party and had had two guys trying to force her to spend the night there.

  He’d called his father for the first issue. The old man had sent a tow truck for the car and a cab to take the girls to Gabrielle’s mother’s house. Liam had personally paid to have the car fixed so the girls could drive it back to Boulder.

  The second one, the frat party that had gotten out of hand, he’d handled himself. With a fist, because the guys were too drunk to reason with, and then the next day, when they’d sobered, he’d issued threats. Neither Marie nor Gabrielle had been bothered by the frat boys since.

  He knocked again, glanced at his watch and then tried to discern if light was coming from beneath the door. The sweep prevented such a tell. They could both be out. Marie had been dating a guy she’d met at the coffee shop. Some older dude in med school. And Gabrielle—she’d talked about going home to Denver for the weekend. One of her younger brothers played baseball for his high school team and had a tournament game. He’d thought she was leaving the next day. Saturday. Gabi didn’t really like spending the night at her mother’s place.

  Not that Liam blamed her. The place had seen better days. And better neighbors. His BMW wasn’t safe parked out front...

  Just as he was turning to leave, the door opened. Both girls stood there in flannel pants and baggy, thigh-length T-shirts, staring at him. Gabrielle’s short black hair was sticking up randomly—pillow hair, she called it. Marie’s hair was pulled back into her usual ponytail.

  “You guys in bed already? It’s Saturday night.” Liam sauntered into the barely lit room, dropping down to the beanbag chair he’d left in their room freshman year when it had become obvious to him that they were going to be his keepers.

  His conscience.

  Hell, he might as well admit it—because he’d had two beers—they were his best friends.

  The room wasn’t much different from the others the girls had shared throughout college—two beds, two built-in desks, wall cabinets for dressers, a closet and a small private bathroom. At least this john they didn’t have to share with suite mates who took exception to a guy using it.

  “It’s one o’clock in the morning.” Gabrielle yawned, not bothering to turn on any more than the small lamp between the girl’s beds, which she’d probably switched on when he’d knocked. “What’s up?”

  “Let me guess, hot girl of the week passed out on you?” Marie’s sarcasm was out of character, making him hesitate in his plan to spill all, as she plopped her perfectly shaped, not quite five-foot-two body cross-legged on her unmade bed.

  Gabrielle curled her long legs on her desk chair, arms hooked on the back of it, resting her chin on top of her hands.

  Guys he hung with ribbed him. Insinuating that something was wrong with him for not going for one or both of the girls. Everyone said the way they let him come and go made it pretty obvious that he could take things further with either one of them anytime. But he couldn’t. They were like...sisters to him. Ever since that first night in the dorm when they’d overheard his father coming at him so hard and had come to see if he was okay. He’d been annoyed at first. Knowing that they’d heard. And then secretly thankful to have them there.

  He’d never had siblings. Never had anyone close enough to have his back where his father’s mental and emotional abuse were concerned—and had only begun to realize in the past few years that the old man was, in his own way, abusive. In a weak moment he’d bared his soul to the girls.

  And then hadn’t been able to quit.

  So...yeah...they had way too much on him.

  And were about to have more.

  “No one passed out on me,” he said now, in a hurry to get this done and get out, not discounting that there might have been a hot girl of the week.

  He couldn’t help it that girls sought him out.

  “I played cards tonight...”

  “Liiiaammm.” That one drawn-out word was all Gabrielle said out loud. Her expression said the rest. Those silver-blue eyes of hers could be like pinpricks when she wanted them to be. He’d disappointed her.

  The soft lamplight was not unkind to the gray-and-white commercial tile on their dorm room floor. Marie’s purple rugs still helped, though.

  “You’re going to get yourself in trouble.” Marie was always the more vocal one. And the more fearful. “How much did you lose?” the blonde asked.

  He swallowed. Thinking about beer. Wishing, for a brief second, that he was still on the stupid drinking binge he’d ridden freshman year. And hadn’t boarded since.

  “You won, didn’t you?” Gabrielle’s tone was soft. He didn’t have to look in her direction to know that those coal-black eyebrows of hers would be drawn. And her lips would be pursed, too.

  “Yeah.”

  “How much?”

  He thought about his answer. About what she’d think. She waited. They both stared at him.

  Another flash of memory from that night two years before came to him. Gabrielle telling him that she’d been ready to write him off when, through the thin wall separating them, she’d heard him ask his father how he was going to get to work without a car. She’d thought he was buckling. Finding justification for doing so. A guy had to have a car to get to work.

  The old man had told him to take the bus. All the way to Denver, though she hadn’t yet known that part.

  “So I still have a job?” he’d asked. Not daunted by the more than an hour-long public commute each way.

  According to Gabrielle, when he’d asked that question, instead of fighting about having to take the bus, he’d won her admiration and friendship.

  “You’re my son. You will work in the family business and earn your keep.”

  “Fine.”

  His father had slammed out of his room, and five minutes later Gabrielle and Marie had knocked on his door. When he’d answered, they’d both just looked at him, as though they could see right into him.

  Just like they were doing now.

  “I won two thousand dollars,” he said. Which told them he hadn’t been playing with the college boys.

  Marie’s hissed intake of breath, the worry shining in her eyes, were his penance. The reason he’d come to them...

  He’d remember their disapproval the next time he was tempted to rebel against his father and do something stupid.

  Gabrielle didn’t lift her chin from her hands as she asked, “You going to report it to the IRS?”

  He hadn’t thought that far. “Yeah.” He played by the books.

  “You know you’re going to get yourself in trouble if you keep this up.” Gabrielle again.

  He did. Which was why he was in their dorm room instead of home in bed. Why, every time, in his quest for freedom from manipulation over the past three years, he’d run his antics by them first before carrying anything out. But not this time.

  “You’re winning now, bu
t it won’t last,” Marie added. They knew his life story. Knew where and how to turn the screws. If he’d played cards that night just because he’d wanted a game of chance, then so be it. But he hadn’t. He’d played because he’d been looking for a way to slap the old man in the face. His son gambling would do it.

  The heir to his fortune, caught up in the excitement of the win...

  An excitement that had almost cost Walter everything. Liam had heard the story from his mother. And had repeated it to the girls on the anniversary of her death. Walter had earned his first million, married and had Liam. His whole life had been filled with the excitement of getting the carrot dangling in front of him. And suddenly, he’d been content. He had all he’d needed or ever wanted.

  That’s when his father-in-law had invited him to sit in on a game of cards. A game that had taken him to Atlantic City and then to Las Vegas, where he’d squandered away his own million and had started dipping into his wife’s money.

  The second chance she’d given him had been enough, though. Connelly Investments was healthy and Walter made back all he’d lost plus an extra billion or so. He never touched a card again. And had ordered his son never to do so.

  “You’ve been drinking.” Gabrielle, the practical one of the two, broke into his reverie. She didn’t ask. She told. Annoying thing was, she was usually right.

  “Yeah.”

  She didn’t react. “What did he do this time?”

  “I was dropping off a folder to the legal department today.” Liam’s current position in Connelly Investments was as liaison between upper management and the lower echelons. A fancy way of saying he was an interoffice mail boy. So, his father had justified, he could have a presence in every department. See how they all worked. Get to know everyone.

  It was a step up from sorting the incoming mail, which was what he’d been doing the previous year. His first year of college, after thwarting his father’s living arrangement plan, he’d been employed as a night janitor.

  Marie pulled her knees up to her ample chest, wrapping her arms around herself. “And?”