by T. R. Ragan
“I’m still scared.”
“I’ll think about it,” Hayley said at last, and then she held up her bandaged hand. “But how will I ever play the piano again?”
Lizzy’s face fell. “You play the piano?”
A twinkle lit up Hayley’s eyes. “No. I’m just shittin’ you.”
Lizzy shook her head at the girl’s off-the-wall humor.
“For the first time in my life,” Hayley said, her voice serious, “I realized I wanted to live. How screwed up is that? Tortured by a madman and I suddenly want to live?” She huffed. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
“No,” Lizzy agreed. “But if nothing else, it’s kind of nice if all the bad can somehow make the good that much better.”
“Yeah, I guess,” she said as Jared approached. The three of them made small talk for a moment before Hayley said goodbye and headed for the parking lot.
“She’s a trooper,” Lizzy told Jared as they watched Hayley walk off.
“Yes, she is. Sorry I’m late,” he added. “Looks like I missed Jessica’s eulogy.”
“She’ll understand. She did a great job. How’s Jimmy doing?”
“He starts chemo first thing in the morning. Prognosis is uncertain.”
“That’s a shame. I like Jimmy. And even if I didn’t, I wouldn’t wish cancer on anyone.”
“I told him we’d drop by the hospital tonight.”
Lizzy nodded as they weaved through the crowd to find Jessica. She knew Jared was having a hard time. Jimmy was his friend and mentor and he was very sick. And then there were Jared’s parents and their failing relationship. Although he hadn’t said much about his parents’ separation, she knew it was something that weighed heavily on his mind. Although Jared was an adult, Lizzy knew firsthand the effects of a split household and how it could make a person re-evaluate and look at life a little differently.
They stopped a few feet from where Jessica and her brother were placing flowers at Mary’s gravesite, giving them a chance to mourn privately.
“It’s hard to believe it’s finally over,” Lizzy said to Jared.
Jared took her hand in his. “It’s just beginning, Lizzy. Just the beginning.”
* * *
Theresa Ragan is a member of RWA and the Sacramento Chapter of RWA and has garnered six Golden Heart nominations in Romance Writers of America’s ® prestigious Golden Heart ® Competition for her work. She lives with her husband, Joe, and the youngest of her four children in Sacramento, California.
Want to read more books by Theresa Ragan?
Theresa Ragan writes Medieval Time Travels, Romantic Comedy, and Romantic Suspense.
Return of the Rose
Twin sisters are born in Medieval England. One of the infants is dying and is taken to the Witch of Devonshire, who uses supernatural powers to transport the ailing babe to the future. It is the year 1986 when Cathy Hayes, a woman who has lost her child and husband in a car accident, finds the baby at her doorstep, gets her the medical attention she needs, and raises the baby as her own. Morgan grows up in the twentieth century with a mysterious attraction to a hollow suit of armor that stands in the window of her mother’s antique store.
Morgan is twenty-four-years old when she becomes entangled within the armor’s metal plates and is whisked back in time where she is mistaken for Amanda Forrester, a twin sister she knows nothing about. In Amanda’s place, Morgan is forced to marry King Henry’s favored knight, Derek Vanguard, Lord of Braddock Hall. Abandoned by his mother and having failed as a child to gain his father’s love, Derek’s heart is as cold as the stone walls of his castle.
A Knight in Central Park
Alexandra Dunn, a spirited twenty-five year old peasant woman feels weighed down by responsibility after her father abandons his family, leaving her in charge of four siblings. There are crops to tend, endless chores to do, and her grandfather is showing signs of feeble-mindedness. To make matters worse, Sir Richard, an overly pampered lord, wants to marry her sister. After Alexandra refuses his offer on her sister’s behalf, he sends his men to destroy her home and takes her sister captive. As their farmhouse is set aflame, Alexandra’s grandfather places his precious stones in her palm, telling her she has until the next full moon to find a hero-a brave, chivalrous knight who must return with her and help save her family. Suddenly, Alexandra is standing in the middle of Central Park, but she has no time to ponder on the wondrous powers of the stones...she needs to find a hero before all is lost.
Joe McFarland is the “lucky” guy who runs into her. He would be the first to admit that he’s about as far as a man can get from hero material. He is a firm believer of truth, justice and quietude. A strong believer of non-violence, he avoids conflict at all costs. At thirty-four, he is one of the younger Professors at NYU where he lectures and teaches History: The High Middle Ages. Joe’s main goal in life is to gain membership into the Medieval Academy, a highly distinguished group of archaeologists and historians. He believes membership will bring him respect and recognition...but what he really wants is to be reunited with his father; a man who has spent his entire life searching for the Black Knight, the last of the medieval knights.
Joe’s organized, well-structured life begins to unravel the moment he meets Alexandra. He figures she majored in medieval history before going off the deep end...until days later when he is miraculously transported through time, to 1499 England. Dressed in Dockers and a button down shirt, Joe thought he was ready for anything...anything but this! An armored man with a very authentic looking broadsword is about to strike him down. Joe has no time to think about such an implausible phenomenon as traveling through time...not if he wants to live to see another day.
Finding Kate Huntley
During a vacation in the Caribbean, fifteen-year old Kate Huntley’s father, a prominent U.S. scientist, is murdered before her eyes. For the next ten years, Kate grows up alone in Haiti, one of the most dangerous and poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. Not a day goes by that she doesn’t think of her father. Kate pushes herself to become stronger, mentally and physically. Every day is a struggle for survival. And yet she lives for only one reason...revenge.
FBI Agent Jack Coffey has eidetic memory, the ability to recall images with great accuracy. While looking for a drug lord via satellite in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, Jack spots Kate Huntley. Jack is sent by the agency to find Ms. Huntley and bring her back to the States. They have many unanswered questions about her father’s death. A professional and responsible man, Jack is confused by Kate’s lack of cooperation. He wants to help her return to the States where he believes she’ll be safe, but she treats him like the enemy and refuses to go. Everything about Kate Huntley is a contradiction. She looks fragile and innocent, but every time he turns around she’s putting another thug in his place. In the beginning Jack wonders if Kate’s distrust of his superiors is warranted or just simple paranoia. In the end, Jack realizes nothing is as it seems.
Taming Mad Max
Max Dutton, a starting NFL linebacker for the Los Angeles Condors, is certain he’s going to die young since his father and grandfather both passed away at an early age. Believing his life will be cut short, Max lives every moment to its fullest. For this reason, Max also shies away from forming close relationships. What would be the point of falling in love and starting a family only to leave them as his father left him and his sisters?
Nutrition expert, Kari Murphy, used to think Max Dutton, aka Mad Max, was to die for, but she’s older and wiser now. But then she’s hired by the NFL franchise to follow Max around for a couple of weeks and give him healthy-eating advice, foolproof facts about carbohydrates and tasteful tips on cooking and shopping smart.
Kari Murphy must work side by side with the guy she spent one spectacular night with during high school…the guy she pined after for way too long.
Too bad the guy has NO idea who the hell she is…
Taming Mad Max finaled in RWA’s 2008 Golden Heart competition under the title, Better Lat
e Than Never.
Table of Contents
Title page
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
