Finding Joy (The Joy Series) (Volume 2) (41 page)

‘Lulu,’ as she had named herself (because ‘grandma’ felt too old), spent an exorbitant amount of money on Lizzie. Though it was ridiculous, I sat back and let it happen. For the first time in her life, Lizzie wasn’t forced to creatively piece together thrift shop finds to make an outfit. I’d taken her shopping a few times over the years, but I realized now that she lived with us that I hadn’t been doing enough. I was content now to let my mom spoil her. It was good for both of them. My mother had never had more fun.

Having joined us on the porch, Maria grabbed each of Lizzie’s hands with one of her own. “Little niña, aren’t you just the most beautiful one?” she asked, spinning Lizzie around so that she could get a good look at her. “Come in. Come in. Ms. Lydia and I have been making cookies. Allie says you like cookies.”

“I love cookies,” Lizzie said, already following her inside.

“Garrett’s coming home early to see you,” my mother said to Lizzie’s retreating back.

My dad had taken a less hands-on approach to grandparenting than my mother had, but he’d been more involved than Lizzie knew. Getting custody of her … or rather officially adopting her … hadn’t been the fight that we were expecting. Amber pled guilty to a child abuse charge. In exchange for the more serious charges being dropped, she’d signed away her parental rights, relieving us of the burden of trying to prove her unfit, not that it would have been a challenge.

Lizzie had once again been made a ward of the state, and we had immediately started the process of adopting her. That was where my father had come in. Somehow, he’d tracked down Lizzie’s dad, who had been missing for most of her life, and my he’d managed to obtain a relinquishment of his rights as well. With both of her parents out of the picture, it had just been a matter of greasing it through family court. My dad had come to the rescue again, pulling strings, calling in favors, and, I feared, lining pockets to get it all done in record time. We were still within the 45-day grace period. Technically, her parents still had 22 days to change their minds, but none of us were concerned. My dad had assured me that her father wasn’t going to be a problem, leading me to believe that he’d probably lined his pocket as well.

“So we’re good then, Lydia?” Adam asked.

“Absolutely,” my mom answered. “You kids go have fun.”

I looked between the two of them. Though I had no idea what they were talking about, they had clearly been conspiring against me. “I know we just got here, but take a short drive with me,” he said, pulling me back toward the car.

I groaned. “My legs hurt, Adam. I need to walk around.”

“We can walk around in a few minutes. We aren’t going very far.”

“Okay,” I said, climbing back into the car. “But make it snappy.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he answered with a smirk. “So bossy.”

He started the car, and we rumbled on around the circular drive and onto the street again. For a second, I panicked, thinking that maybe he was taking me to his mom’s house. But he turned in the opposite direction and started weaving his way through the residential neighborhood that no longer felt like my home.

I shouldn’t have worried. To my knowledge, he’d barely spoken to Aileen during the past few months. Though I was pretty sure that he had called her on her birthday, he hadn’t done it in my presence. His feelings about his mom were complicated, but he’d made it clear that she would never interfere in our lives again. He kept his interaction with her to a minimum.

I didn’t realize where he was taking me until we pulled into a parking lot just off of Greenville. “You hungry, babe?” he asked. “’Cause I could really go for some chips and queso.”

“That sounds wonderful,” I said, while opening my car door to get out.

We walked hand in hand through the door of the Goose, and Adam asked for a table for two in the back. After we were seated and the waitress had scurried off to get our drink orders, he reached across the table for my hand. “So here we are … almost 11 years too late,” he said smiling. “I’d hoped that Lizzie’s spring break would match up with St. Patrick’s Day, but no such luck. Unfortunately, I don’t have any control over that fancy new school’s calendar.”

I squeezed his hand. “That’s okay. I bet it was crazy in here last weekend. Besides, I kind of like having you all to myself.”

“I kind of like having
you
all to myself, too,” he said.

In all truthfulness, we had spent a lot of time together over the past few months. He had found a temporary job working as an intern for a network morning show that filmed in Rockefeller Plaza. His early mornings were busy now, but he was usually finished around three or four in the afternoon. It worked out perfect since he could be around for Lizzie after she got out of school.

My schedule had also lightened up. With all the new family law knowledge I’d gained, I had taken over coordinating all of the firm’s pro bono work. I would never make partner with my lightened work load, but it had allowed me to reprioritize my life. As an added bonus, I finally felt like what I was doing was making a difference.

Things were good. Things were very, very good.

I looked around the brightly decorated restaurant, amazed that we’d finally made it to our date, which had been eleven years in the making.

Nothing had been easy … for either of us. Remembering Joy had just been the beginning. Forgiving myself for the mistakes of my past had been much harder. It was something that I might not ever have been able to do if Adam hadn’t shown me how.

I still don’t know whether I agreed with Brittany that everything happens for a reason or if I agreed with Adam’s friend, Warren, that there was no rhyme or reason for any of it.  A part of me wanted to believe in fate … that we were, in fact, two magnets that no one and no circumstances could keep apart. At the end of the day, did it really matter? The fact of it was, we wouldn’t let anything come between us ever again.

“This was a good idea. It’s nice to have some time just for the two of us.”

“I’m full of good ideas. You want to hear what I have planned for later? Come here, and I’ll give you a preview.”

I leaned as far as I could across the table. The words he whispered in my ear caused my heart to race and other parts of me to tingle. If he was still talking to me like this in 50 years, it wouldn’t be long enough.

                        -Allie

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

As it should be, the very first thank you goes to my family. They are the ones that have had to put up with the endless hours that I’ve spent in front of the computer. Thank you, Jeff, for supporting me, for brainstorming with me, for coaching me through plot holes and debilitating bouts of self doubt.  Thank you, Ethan, Dylan, and Ella, for eating bag after bag of frozen chicken nuggets with no … or at least little … complaint.

A special thank you to my parents, who taught me that I can do anything when I set my mind to it and who watch my kids every now and then to help me actually get it done.

A completely inadequate thank you to my Sisters in Sin: Elizabeth, Lauren, and Emily. You add joy to my life every single day. If my kids have friends like you when they grow up, they will be fine no matter what life throws at them. Thank you for being my sounding board and my research team and for allowing me to make many of our private text conversations now public.

Thank you, Beth, for taking my vision for the cover and bringing it to life … again. A full-time architect, a mother of three, a font nazi and lover of meticulous manicures … I appreciate your perfectionism like no one else.

A sincere thank you to Jackie for once again for putting the commas where they belong, removing them when they don’t, and reminding me that ‘that’ and ‘who’ are not interchangeable.   

Thank you, J.B. for your never critical though always eagle-like eye. You are a expert typo-finder and grammatical error-corrector. However, your encouragement has meant the most to me.

A baker’s dozen worth of thanks for each of my beta readers. Elizabeth, Emily, Lauren, Ashley, Mary Kate, Casey, Tara, Joanna, Kate, Andrea, Autumn, Nereyda, and Tawnya. Thank you for taking time out of your busy lives on a moment’s notice to read for me. Your insight and your opinions meant more to me than you’ll ever know. Every tweet, text, email, and phone call was appreciated and favorited.

Thank you to each and every book blogger and reviewer who supported this no-name, small-town girl from Oklahoma. When I published
Remembering Joy
, I didn’t even know what a blog tour was. I now realize that book bloggers are invaluable. A very special thanks to Fictions My Addiction, Mostly YA Obsessed, One More Chapter, The Bookish Babe, Autumn Review, Brittany and Bianca Blab Books, Just Booked, Autumn Review,  and Caffeinated Book Reviewer. The fact that that you ladies loved
Remembering Joy
enough to mention it, not just once, but over and over again means more to me than I can possibly express.

Finally, thank you to the readers who took a chance on
Remembering Joy
and then liked it enough to come back for more. Your messages, emails, tweets, likes, and comments make my heart swell.  

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jenni Moen lives in her hometown with her husband and three crazy, exuberant kids that have the potential to burn the house down at any time.

When she’s not chauffeuring kids, performing her mom duties as a short order cook, or vacuuming for her fastidious husband, she hammers away at her keyboard at her big girl job as a patent attorney. While vodka and exercise have provided some relief from the daily grind, it is reading . . . and now writing . . . that are her true escapes.

www.jennimoen.com

Sneak Peek

of

A Blue Tale

By
Sarah Dosher

Prologue

Eli Blue

Love fucking sucks.  No really, let me repeat myself.  Love. Fucking. Sucks.  I’d lived my entire life believing in fairytales, believing that my Prince Charming would swoop in and rescue me.  Then shitty heartbreak after shitty heartbreak knocked me down until I had no choice but to stop believing… 

Until the day I started again. 

Honestly I never thought it would happen, but all it really took was a simple spark to ignite the smoldering within me and then it flamed.  Want a glimpse of that day?  Want a small peek at the possibility of happily ever after before I show you the turmoil?  Yea, I figured you did.

***

See that beautiful woman covered from head to toe in flowing blue silk peering over the edge of the landing – that’s me, surrounded by twinkling lights and white flower sprigs that smelled bright and romantic. I hated them, hated what they represented and what I no longer had.

I looked like a princess on the outside but felt sad and alone inside.  But I was positive no one would see it because they never do.  I’d been blindly navigating through life for a long time, since the day I’d lost the only person that ever truly loved me. When I was too young to understand how deeply real loss could cut into your soul.  Then, like love always does, it found its way back to me in the form of a man who pulled at every inch of my body and heart.

He’s down there, just entering through the large doors.  Damn, that body hugging penguin suit fit him perfectly – flawlessly.  His hair had grown longer than I remembered; the little curls that once teased along his hairline were now full ringlets.  His dark whiskers had turned long and unruly.  My heart ached at the sight of him, ached for what we once had – for the possibility that we lost.

He looked up, his eyes immediately connecting with mine.  I saw them brighten and almost immediately they faded darker. 

Then he looked away.

A waiter handed me a flute of champagne, I downed it and took two more from the tray.  I didn’t give a shit how inappropriate it might have looked to my colleagues that were here to celebrate my dad’s career. I needed it. Everyone in life takes what they need most, unfortunately I was just starting to understand and partake in it myself.

There was a loud tapping on the microphone that I assumed was to signal the start of the show.  Everyone that was anyone in the music industry had shown up to remember my dad’s music.  He was being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next month but tonight was a somewhat smaller gathering, if you could call an event of this size small. Everyone that knew him or worked with him throughout his career was here.  Musicians had fought for the chance to play his songs or write new music to commemorate his career.  It should be a touching occasion, but I’d been dreading it for weeks and had practically been forced here against my will.