The Time of Her Life
Read The Time of Her Life Online
Authors: Jeanie London
No time like now!
Susanna Adams is too young to be a widow. She’s still in her
thirties! There will be no sitting around trying to fill empty days for her.
Instead, she’s accepted a big promotion, moved states and is embracing her own
dreams again. She might even be open to a little romance.
The new plan doesn’t unfold quite as smoothly as she
expected. The job is a lot tougher thanks to Jay Canady, the man she’ll
eventually replace. Working with him and his high standards definitely tests her
resolve. Not to mention all the sparks igniting between them. Office affairs
have never factored on her radar, but Jay is so…
hot,
she might make an exception. After all, this time it’s all about
her.
Susanna intended to thank Jay
She intended to right their relationship, to get back to
something far more comfortable than this crazy intimacy.
A simple
thanks
would restore
balance, distract her from the awareness making every nerve ending tingle,
making her remember what she
wasn’t
wearing beneath
the soaking wet sweatshirt.
Then she met Jay’s gaze, saw his face. The awareness she saw
in his expression mirrored hers, and it was torture.
For one wild moment, time stopped.
Not a breath passed between them.
Not a sound.
Only the awareness of the pent-up restraint they’d both held
in check and the certainty that restraint was about to end.
Dear Reader,
I’m delighted to announce exciting news: beginning in January
2013, Harlequin Superromance books will be longer! That means more romance with
more of the characters you love and expect from Harlequin Superromance.
We’ll also be unveiling a brand-new look for our covers.
These fresh, beautiful covers will showcase the six wonderful contemporary
stories we publish each month.
So don’t miss out on your favorite series—Harlequin
Superromance. Look for longer stories and exciting new covers starting December
18, 2012, wherever you buy books.
In the meantime, check out this month’s reads:
#1818 THE SPIRIT OF
CHRISTMAS
Liz Talley
#1819 THE TIME OF HER
LIFE
Jeanie London
#1820 THE LONG WAY
HOME
Cathryn Parry
#1821 CROSSING NEVADA
Jeannie
Watt
#1822 WISH UPON A CHRISTMAS
STAR
Darlene Gardner
#1823 ESPRESSO IN THE
MORNING
Dorie Graham
Happy reading!
Wanda Ottewell,
Senior Editor,
Harlequin Superromance
The Time of Her Life
Jeanie London
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jeanie London writes romance because she believes in
happily-ever-afters. Not the “love conquers all” kind, but the “we love each
other so we can conquer anything” kind. It’s precisely why she loves Harlequin
Superromance—stories about real women tackling life to find love. The kind of
love she understands, because she’s a real woman tackling life in sunny Florida
with her own romance-hero husband, their two beautiful and talented daughters, a
loving and slightly crazy extended family and a menagerie of sweet strays.
Books by Jeanie London
HARLEQUIN SUPERROMANCE
1616—FRANKIE’S BACK IN TOWN
1635—HER
HUSBAND’S PARTNER
1699—THEN THERE WERE THREE
1716—THE HUSBAND
LESSON
1739—NO GROOM LIKE HIM
HARLEQUIN BLAZE
153—HOT SHEETS*
157—RUN FOR
COVERS*
161—PILLOW CHASE*
181—UNDER HIS SKIN
213—RED LETTER
NIGHTS
“Signed, Sealed, Seduced”
231—GOING ALL
OUT
248—INTO TEMPTATION
271—IF YOU COULD READ MY MIND…
*Falling Inn Bed…
HARLEQUIN SIGNATURE SELECT SPOTLIGHT
IN THE COLD
Other titles by this author available in ebook format.
To all the caregivers.
May you be blessed.
With appreciation to all the staff at University Village.
Your loving service and generosity of spirit continually
inspire me to set stories in the caring world of senior living.
You touch more lives than you know ;-)
CHAPTER ONE
T
HE
OLD
PROVERB
“change is the only constant” seemed to echo inside the
empty house as Susanna Adams stood in the doorway of her home for the last time.
And she kept standing there, somehow not ready to leave even though she’d done
nothing for weeks but prepare. Apparently all the activity of packing and
storing twenty years of memories in a portable storage container had been
nothing but a diversion.
Once she left, she’d need to lock the door then drop off the
key with the real estate agent. She wouldn’t be able to get inside her home ever
again. What if this move was a huge mistake? Suddenly, taking that one last step
symbolized everything she was leaving behind.
Glancing into the quiet darkness, Susanna took a steadying
breath and tried to capture the moment in memory. She knew every square inch of
this house by heart. The wall separating this foyer from the living area, a wall
she’d often bumped into with her arms full of groceries. How many bruises had
she sported through the years because some brainy architect thought the wall
should extend beyond a clear passage to the living room?
Susanna had no clue. She only knew that without the kids’
photos marking their stepping stones through school years or Skip’s stuffed fish
showcased front and center, the wall looked foreign. Only a wall surrounded by
unfamiliar shadows.
Without her family, this house was just a house, the way it had
been when a real estate agent had unlocked the door for the first time twenty
years ago. Before she and Skip had filled every room with expectations and
dreams.
They had been such big dreamers.
The thought grabbed Susanna around the throat, made her swallow
hard. They’d bought this house while still in college, ignoring every bit of
advice from their parents and friends.
“You’re too young to get
married.”
“Finish college and start careers before
settling down.”
“Live a little before saddling yourselves
with a mortgage.”
She and Skip had filled this house with dreams of a life
together where anything could happen. And did.
They’d started careers while having their family, had paced
floors in the wee hours through colic while still managing to make it to work on
time the next morning.
They’d been T-ball coach and Brownie leader. They’d taken turns
as chaperone for school field trips. They’d been homeroom mom who baked designer
cupcakes en masse and homeroom dad who tended every classroom pet from mammal to
reptile.
“What’s the rush? You’ve got a lifetime to
settle down.”
No, they hadn’t. They’d had only a limited number of years
together, certainly not the lifetime everyone had promised. Thank God they’d
ignored the advice and hadn’t wasted a second. As Skip was losing his battle
with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, he’d said his only regret was not getting more time
with her and the beautiful family they’d made.
That was
still
her only regret.
So, Susanna had forged on while he missed the teenage years,
the championship games, the homecomings, the proms, the graduations. Survival
helped her through grief, helped her focus on what was important—keeping life
familiar for the kids. She’d been playing the roles of both mom and dad, keeping
life moving in the direction she and Skip had intended for their family.
Now both kids were away at college. Bedtime stories and
good-night kisses were a thing from the distant past as Brooke was three states
away in Virginia and Brandon five states away in South Carolina. If she could
ever take this last step and get on the road, she’d only be one state away from
each.
Then selling the house wasn’t a mistake, was it?
What else could Susanna do? She had an opportunity for job
advancement that would get her family back on solid financial ground for the
first time since Skip had died. True, there was risk, but she didn’t like the
alternative any better—continuing to knock around this empty house, losing her
mind from loneliness.
The kids didn’t know. She was the parent, the only one they had
left. She’d reared them to be independent adults. They needed to go off and
experience life, not tie themselves to home, worried about leaving their mother
alone.
But was she being selfish by selling the only home they’d ever
known? Once she locked this door, none of them could come back to the one place
they would always have memories of Skip.
She hadn’t realized how much those memories, and the tangible
evidence of his presence in their lives, had kept him alive. But as she stared
into the foyer, she realized how close he’d been in spirit, as if he’d only gone
on a business trip and would be awaiting them at the airport to bring him
home.
Now all visible reminders were packed away, their family
scattered. Brooke and Brandon lived separate lives on separate campuses in
separate states. Susanna was the only one left at home with the memories. Now
she’d be forced to move on, too.
Was she ready?
Being a single parent was one thing. She’d had purpose to keep
the family together, to help her kids deal with their father’s death. Being a
single woman with a life of her own was another thing entirely.
That was something she’d never really done. After leaving home,
she’d tackled college dorm life with her best friend beside her. Then, as a
young bride, she’d moved from the dorms to this house with Skip....
Susanna honestly didn’t know what came next, what she could
handle. She only knew that loneliness had grown all too familiar of late and
something had to change.
Another deep breath.
She had to take this next step in life as an individual or else
she’d remain here, feeling left behind, pining for everything she’d once
had.
Life was change. Susanna knew that, and the kids could travel
on school breaks far more easily to her new home in Charlotte, North Carolina,
than they could return to New York where she was now. That was the reality of
the situation. She’d figure out how to move on, even if she couldn’t see beyond
placing one foot in front of the other.
Memories would travel with them wherever they went.
One last glance into that shadowy interior... Susanna pulled
the door shut quietly, slipped the key into the lock and turned the bolt for the
last time.
* * *
J
AY
C
ANADY
MOVED
PAST
doors in the administrative corridor, pausing
only to glance into the financial office.
“Got a call from the gatehouse,” he said. “The new
administrator is on her way.”
He didn’t bother waiting for a reply but kept going until just
shy of the front lobby, a spot where he could view the comings and goings around
the reception desk, while remaining mostly hidden from view.
Mostly
was the operative word. Jay
wasn’t fooling anyone around here. And certainly not the daytime receptionist.
Amber routinely accused him of lurking behind potted palms to catch her tweeting
on her iPhone during her shift.
He wasn’t doing anything of the sort, but as owner and property
administrator of The Arbors, A-list memory-care facility and family business, he
was fond of hiding. Moments when he wasn’t in popular demand were few and far
between.
But hiding never worked for long. Especially with Amber. She
didn’t need X-ray vision to find him on any one of the sixty acres that made up
the property. She wielded that iPhone like a lightsaber, texting him whenever he
wasn’t within earshot and getting miffed if he didn’t reply immediately.
Jay should institute a new policy: no cell phones on shift.
Radios only. But what was the point? In the very near future, none of his
policies would mean squat.
The thought made him smile. As soon as the new property
administrator walked through the door, everyone around here could start
reprogramming their internal GPSs to take problems to someone else for
solutions.
“Got your fingers crossed?” a voice crackly with age asked.
“You betcha.” Jay raised a hand to display the good-luck
gesture. He didn’t bother turning around to see the man who’d shuffled up
behind. Careful steps had announced Walter’s approach long before he’d reached
his destination.
Like Jay himself, Walter Higgins was a fixture around The
Arbors. The longtime chief financial officer was another employee who could
track down Jay no matter where he was. But Walter had the distinction of being
an employee who also had a role in Jay’s personal life.
Not that the entire staff couldn’t him call 24/7. They could
and did. Often. But Walter’s calls weren’t always work related. Not only had he
been managing The Arbors’ finances since before Jay had been born, but Walter
had become an honorary grandfather since Jay’s real granddad had passed
away.
That connection had been cemented when Jay’s late grandmother,
after grieving the loss of her forty-year marriage, had gotten involved with
Walter. Jay had never asked—never would, either—but he suspected Walter had
loved Gran all along and stayed single until he got his chance to woo her into
an honest relationship.
Jay would certainly miss Walter. But selling The Arbors didn’t
mean giving up the people in his life. He had some work to do proving that to
Walter, though.
The electronic hiss of sliding doors dragged Jay’s attention to
the main lobby. His breath tightened in his chest as a dark-haired woman in a
business suit strolled through with brisk steps.
“I thought you said they were sending a middle-aged widow with
grown kids,” Walter grumbled.
“
Widow
with
college
kids.” The distinction obviously made a difference.
“Northstar provided a bio. If memory serves—and it still does, which is always a
good thing—the new administrator is around forty. Not middle-aged.”
Not for Jay, who was pulling up the rear at thirty-two, or for
Walter, who was pushing eighty-six. “I’m not even sure that’s her. There wasn’t
a photo.”
“She could be my granddaughter, Jay. My
great
-granddaughter.”
“How’s that? You never had any kids.”
Walter grunted, narrowing his gaze at the reception desk. The
woman currently greeting Amber wasn’t Jay’s idea of what a widow with college
kids would look like, either. The suit emphasized her curves. She wasn’t tall,
but not short, either. Just really curvy.
Withdrawing a business card from her jacket, she handed it to
Amber, who leaped from the chair on immediate hyperalert. Reaching across the
desk, she extended a hand in welcome.
Walter scowled harder.
Judging by Amber’s actions, this woman was the new
administrator, whether she was what Jay expected or not. The woman flashed an
easy smile that animated a heart-shaped face framed by a tumble of dark
hair.
She was a very beautiful woman, which really shouldn’t be the
first thing Jay noticed. Not if he planned to retire from the memory-care
business with some peace of mind.
Competent. Experienced. Professional.
Compassionate.
Those were the things he should be looking for.
He’d noticed one of four.
Dressing professionally was a start, he supposed. And what did
competence, experience or compassion look like, anyway? Jay shook off the
thought. Worry was getting the best of him, but he wouldn’t admit that to
Walter, who sought any reason to launch into The-Arbors-is-your-responsibility
lecture again.
Jay had heard the arguments and the lectures. More than once,
thank you.
“Okay. She’s professional,” he said. “Attractive. Stylish. A
bit younger than I expected—”
“A bit?”
“Haven’t had access to her personnel file,” Jay reminded.
“Technically she works for Northstar Management.”
“Which is why I can’t figure out why I’m adding her to our
payroll. She doesn’t come cheap, Jay. You’ll be eating a fair sum if this deal
falls through.”
The deal wouldn’t fall through. “We’ve got to assume some risk.
It’s only fair. Northstar would acquire this property tomorrow if it wasn’t for
me insisting on a transition period.”
As much as Jay wanted out of here—and he did in a big way—he
couldn’t leave without witnessing Northstar’s procedural changes and being
reassured they would uphold The Arbors’ standard of care. This new administrator
had six months to actualize Northstar’s promise to provide growth potential
while maintaining the excellence of service established by Jay, and generations
of his family before him.
That was the best he could do. He was leaving, although Walter
still hadn’t given up hope he might yet dissuade Jay. But the decision was made.
He’d worked hard to put together a plan to insure the future for The Arbors, the
staff and residents.
Walter could grouse all he wanted—the only thing left to do was
get through the transition. Jay almost felt bad for the new administrator.
Walter wouldn’t be a pushover. He’d compare her to Gran, whose shoes were
awfully big to fill, as he was so fond of saying. So big that not even Jay had
filled them.
But Walter only wanted what was best for The Arbors. That much
Jay knew. The rest of the staff, too. They were all competent and experienced
professionals. Well versed in what it meant to be an employee at The Arbors.
The Compassion to Care.
That catchphrase had been around since the very beginning, when
Gran had started the place to care for her mother during an era when not much
had been known about Alzheimer’s disease.
Gran had wanted to provide some quality of life, so she’d
transformed a wing of the house on Granddad’s farm into an ALF, an
assisted-living facility. This was long before Jay’s time, but he knew she’d
added one bed at a time so her mother would have pleasant companions to fill her
days.