For Joy's Sake Read online

  There’s something about Julie

  Hunter Rafferty is committed to two things: his bachelor lifestyle and his career as an event planner. But working with Julie Fairbanks on a fund-raising gala is quickly becoming the best part of his day. He can’t stop thinking about the mysterious beauty—despite her refusals to have dinner with him.

  Everything changes when seven-year-old Joy comes to The Lemonade Stand, a shelter for victims of abuse. To help Joy overcome her trauma and the mystery surrounding it, Hunter and Julie push beyond their boundaries, confronting their own past pain...and feelings for each other.

  “Just be yourself, Hunter. She likes you.”

  “I truly have no idea how you talk to a child,” he said. “I’m guessing golf scores aren’t going to do it. And probably not surfing, either.”

  His chuckle made her smile. Which sent warning notes through her. She was not going to soften toward this man.

  Some man. Someday. Sure. If she was attracted to one she felt she could trust.

  But not this man. Not a charmer.

  “You talk to her like she’s a person,” Julie said. “I think back to when I was a kid and pull from that.”

  His attention, fully on her now, warmed her all up again.

  She was there to help him for Joy’s sake. She had to get it done.

  And get out.

  Dear Reader,

  Joy is the pinnacle of good feeling for those of us living within the human condition! And for those of us who are parents? Holding your child in your arms, hearing his or her voice, watching him grow… These are some of the most joy-filled moments ever.

  They’re also the moments that make us the most vulnerable ever. Because the shadowy side of joy—the loss of joy—is excruciating. It can be debilitating. We’ll go to any lengths to avoid it, to prevent harm from happening to our children. That’s what Joy’s mother does: she puts herself in jeopardy to protect Joy. So that the child might know joy.

  And in this story, the child brings joy to those who are there to help her.

  The source of joy isn’t just children—the source is infinite, spreading itself more thoroughly than the worst disease (the shadowy side) ever could. It’s here where I am and there where you are, touching us both and millions of others. And it’s up to us, each one of us individually, to let it in. A lesson Julie Fairbanks, a haunted soul, has to learn. For Joy’s sake.

  I love to hear from my readers. Please find me at www.tarataylorquinn.com, Facebook.com/tarataylorquinn and on Twitter, @tarataylorquinn. Or join my open Friendship board on Pinterest, Pinterest.com/tarataylorquinn/friendship!

  All the best,

  Tara

  USA TODAY Bestselling Author

  TARA TAYLOR

  QUINN

  For Joy’s Sake

  Having written over eighty novels, Tara Taylor Quinn is a USA TODAY bestselling author with more than seven million copies sold. She is known for delivering intense, emotional fiction. Tara is a past president of Romance Writers of America. She has won a Readers’ Choice Award and is a five-time finalist for an RWA RITA® Award, a finalist for a Reviewers’ Choice Award and a Booksellers’ Best Award. She has also appeared on TV across the country, including CBS Sunday Morning. She supports 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

  Love by Association

  His First Choice

  The Promise He Made Her

  Her Secret Life

  The Fireman’s Son

  For Joy’s Sake

  Shelter Valley Stories

  Sophie’s Secret

  Full Contact

  HARLEQUIN HEARTWARMING

  Family Secrets

  For Love or Money

  Her Soldier’s Baby

  The Cowboy’s Twins

  MIRA BOOKS

  The Friendship Pact

  In Plain Sight

  Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com

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  Cast of Characters

  Lila McDaniels—Managing director of The Lemonade Stand (TLS). She has an apartment at the Stand.

  Wife by Design (Book 1)

  Lynn Duncan—Resident nurse at TLS. She has a three-year-old daughter, Kara.

  Grant Bishop—Landscape developer hired by TLS.

  Maddie Estes—Permanent TLS resident. Childcare provider.

  Darin Bishop—Resident at TLS. Works for his brother, Grant. Has a mental disability.

  Once a Family (Book 2)

  Sedona (Campbell) Malone—Lawyer who volunteers at TLS.

  Tanner Malone—Vintner. Brother to Tatum and Talia Malone.

  Tatum Malone—Fifteen-year-old resident at TLS.

  Husband by Choice (Book 3)

  Meredith (Meri) Bennet—Speech therapist. Mother to two-year-old son, Caleb.

  Max Bennet—Pediatrician.

  Chantel Harris—Police officer. Friend to Max and his deceased first wife.

  Child by Chance (Book 4)

  Talia Malone—TLS volunteer. Public-school scrapbook therapist. Student of fashion design.

  Sherman Paulson—Political campaign manager. Widower. Single father of adopted ten-year-old son, Kent.

  Mother by Fate (Book 5)

  Sara Havens—Full-time TLS counselor.

  Michael Edwin—Bounty hunter. Widower. Single father to six-year-old daughter, Mari.

  The Good Father (Book 6)

  Ella Ackerman—Charge nurse at Santa Raquel Children’s Hospital. Member of the High Risk Team. Divorced.

  Brett Ackerman—TLS Founder. National accreditation business owner. Divorced.

  Love by Association (Book 7)

  Chantel Harris—Santa Raquel detective. Member of the High Risk Team.

  Colin Fairbanks—Lawyer. Member of Santa Raquel’s most elite society. Principal of high-end law firm. Brother to Julie Fairbanks.

  His First Choice (Book 8)

  Lacey Hamilton—Social worker. Member of the High Risk Team. Child star. Identical twin to daytime-soap-opera star Kacey Hamilton.

  Jeremiah (Jem) Bridges—Private contractor with his own business. Divorced. Has custody of four-year-old son, Levi.

  The Promise He Made Her (Book 9)

  Bloom Larson—Psychiatrist in Santa Raquel. Domestic violence therapist. Divorced.

  Samuel Larson—Santa Raquel high-ranking detective. Widower.

  Her Secret Life (Book 10)

  Kacey Hamilton—Daytime-soap-opera star. Identical twin to Lacey Hamilton. Volunteer at TLS.

  Michael Valentine—Cybersecurity expert. TLS volunteer. Shooting victim.

  The Fireman’s Son (Book 11)

  Faye Walker—Paramedic. Divorced. Sole custody of eight-year-old son, Elliott, who is in counseling at TLS.

  Reese Bristow—Santa Raquel fire chief.

  For Joy’s Sake (Book 12)

  Julie
Fairbanks—Philanthropist and children’s author. Sister to Colin Fairbanks.

  Hunter Rafferty—Owns elite professional event-planning business specializing in charity fund-raisers. TLS is one of his clients.

  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 THIRTY-ONE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  EXCERPT FROM ABOUT THAT KISS BY CINDY MILES

  CHAPTER ONE

  HER BREATH CAUGHT in her throat, Julie Fairbanks crouched on the floor, hugging her knees, staring at the television screen. The baby who’d been born in a man-made bubble town, who’d been raised and surrounded by people who were only there to keep up appearances, was a man himself now. And about to break free...

  The creak of a door opening disrupted her concentration. Lila McDaniels, managing director of The Lemonade Stand, stood in the entranceway. All six women, lounging in various positions on the couch, chairs and floor, looked at her. Five were residents at the unique women’s shelter. Julie was a volunteer who hadn’t left after she’d finished her art therapy session. Lila’s gaze homed in on Julie. With a sideways quirk of Lila’s head, Julie knew she’d been summoned.

  Before the show’s hero broke free.

  Smiling at the other women, she quietly left before the happy ending that was coming soon. And hoped each one of them would find the necessary strength and support to create her own happy ending.

  “What’s wrong?” Julie asked as soon as the door was closed behind them.

  Lila shook her head, but her tight gray bun hadn’t moved. “Nothing’s wrong. I just wanted to have a chat with you,” the unflappable woman said. Her voice was kind—as always. And the words were issued with Lila’s usual emotional distance.

  The woman both intrigued and frightened Julie. Intrigued because Julie sensed there was so much more to Lila than her ability to maintain calm in an atmosphere of pain and fear. And watching Lila frightened her sometimes, too, because she doubted she’d ever know Lila’s sense of peace.

  For the most part she’d love to have Lila’s life. Unmarried and yet with a huge family of women and kids to tend to every day. Making a strong, positive difference in the lives of others.

  They were heading for Lila’s private suite—rooms that were her off-duty space at the Stand. Lila stayed there any time she didn’t make it home to the condo she owned in town. Julie hadn’t been aware of any situation at the Stand that had prompted the director’s need to stay over this particular early-October Friday night.

  But as a volunteer at the Stand, mostly working with the children, Julie wasn’t privy to every circumstance.

  Lila offered her tea. Julie accepted. And watched the older woman bring out the exact brand and flavor she preferred. In some ways they were so much alike, she and Lila.

  And yet, Julie knew next to nothing about the other woman’s circumstances, other than that she’d been the managing director of The Lemonade Stand since day one.

  Word was that she’d applied for the job while the resort-like shelter was under construction. She’d undergone a normal interview process and had been hired.

  From what Julie had been told, in all the years Lila had been at the shelter she’d never had a personal visitor. Not a family member or friend. And even in town, she wasn’t known well.

  That was where Julie and Lila differed. Everyone in Santa Raquel knew who Julie Fairbanks was. Many of those people she’d once considered friends. There was still a handful.

  A carefully selected, heart-vetted, very small handful.

  “How are you doing?” Lila asked, giving Julie a rare, full-on smile as she took one of the two wingback chairs on either side of the claw-foot table in her small but elegantly decorated parlor.

  “Good.” Julie nodded as she sat in the other chair, suddenly feeling as if she was onstage under bright lights. As if she could be seen but couldn’t see what was out there. “Busy,” she added. And then, perhaps to ward off whatever was coming, she continued. “The annual celebrity gala for the Sunshine Children’s League is coming up and, of course, I’m fully involved with that...” Her seat on the league’s board had won her the opportunity to chair the gala. “And Minoran Child Development is getting ready to open up a thrift shop. The red tape is endless, although Colin’s being a sweetheart and helping out tremendously.” Lila was well acquainted with Julie’s older brother, who not only ran the family’s prestigious law firm in town but had recently become a major donor to The Lemonade Stand.

  “I hear that Chantel is pregnant.”

  “Three months!” Julie grinned. Her sister-in-law, who now shared the family mansion with Julie and Colin, had come into their lives as an undercover cop pretending to be a member of their privileged society, and had become her best friend. “I can’t wait to have a little one in the house!” These days, that new baby was the first thing she thought of when she woke up in the morning.

  She was just the aunt. She’d maintain her proper place. But still, she couldn’t wait. “I’m going to watch the baby when Chantel goes back to work. At least for the first couple of years.” If Julie had her way, she’d be the child’s nanny until he or she went to school, but it was ultimately up to Chantel and Colin, and they all had time to figure that one out.

  Lila’s smile looked somehow...worried, suggesting that she saw some kind of sadness in Julie’s situation. In her gray skirt and blouse, with her hair in its usual bun, Lila didn’t resemble Julie’s idea of a psychic, but she felt sure the older woman had otherworldly talents of perception.

  Lila’s next words confirmed Julie’s personal opinion. “I’m concerned about you,” she said.

  “Me?”

  “Yes.”

  The woman watched her, as though waiting for Julie to confess to something. “Why?”

  “There’s a wine tasting at your home this evening.”

  She nodded again. She’d helped arrange the event that was raising money for the Santa Raquel Library fund—a cause that had become dear to her and Colin and Chantel, since the library’s fund-raising efforts had been instrumental in creating the bond the three of them shared. Chantel, while posing as a writer from a privileged family in New York, had been dating Colin as part of her cover. She’d agreed to write a script for the library’s grand opening party in the renovated mansion that had been willed to the city as a library site. The evening’s event had been a mystery caper, and Chantel had written herself right into the hands of a privileged, wealthy, respected man she’d discovered was a serial rapist—Julie’s rapist. She’d risked her own life in order to give Julie’s life back to her.

  “The wine event is there. You’re here.” Lila stated the obvious, so Julie just shrugged.

  “You’re cohosting an event, and you aren’t there.”

  Feeling those bright lights again, Julie sipped her tea. Stared at
the polish on her toes, the black leather straps of her flip-flops across her pale feet. And then she looked straight at Lila. “I am capable of being there,” she said with complete assurance. “Knowing that, I’ve given myself the option of choosing not to be.”

  “Why make that choice?”

  So maybe she’d recognized from the moment Lila had appeared exactly why she’d wanted to see her. The summons. The tea. Julie would’ve liked to stand up and leave. To defend her right not to be subjected to inquiry. But she didn’t really feel defensive. Or upset with Lila.

  “You know I’m uncomfortable around that crowd.”

  True enough, though no one on the night’s guest list knew that. The rapist’s father was one of the state’s most prominent bankers—so the details, including names, had been kept out of the news. Smyth Jr. had accepted a plea agreement. And money really did carry a lot of power. But Lila knew—Julie and Colin had become associated with the Stand through the ordeal. As did others closely associated with Smyth’s ten years’ worth of victims.

  “I also know you’ve made a point, with Chantel’s and Colin’s support, of rejoining your social group. I heard that you used to love dressing up for parties, too.”

  “And I can now attend these things without panic attacks,” she told Lila. “It’s like I said. I know I can, so I no longer have to.”

  “We’re talking about a function in your own home, Julie. Yet here you are.”

  She didn’t like how Lila’s statement made her feel. As though she, Julie, wasn’t quite done with moving on. As though she was still broken.

  The truth was, she’d never be done with it. Not really. There was no way to erase what had happened, and no way not to be affected by it.

  But she was able to live more normally now.

  For some reason, she needed Lila—a highly respected professional working with female victims—to see that.

  “I wanted Chantel and Colin to be able to welcome guests into their home as a couple. More specifically, I wanted Chantel to feel like the hostess, the woman of the house. Since she came into our lives on a lie, she still sometimes feels like an imposter, like she’s not really one of us, especially when there’s a gathering that includes people who don’t know the details. It can be hard for her. As if making the transition from street cop to detective wasn’t difficult enough, she’s living in a society that’s completely unfamiliar to her. If I was there, people would naturally turn to me as the hostess and...”