More Than Words Volume 5 Read online

  Dear Reader,

  As you may know, Harlequin Books is a longtime supporter of women’s causes. We are proud to continue this tradition through the Harlequin More Than Words program. Established in 2004 as our main philanthropic initiative, the More Than Words program remains dedicated to celebrating and rewarding women who make extraordinary contributions to their community. Each year we solicit nominations from our readers and the general public and each year we find five very deserving women to honor.

  We are pleased to present our current More Than Words honorees to you in this, our fifth More Than Words anthology. These individuals are real-life heroines who have each made a tremendous contribution to the charities they serve. Whether their initial motivation was based on a personal experience or on their need to intervene on behalf of others, each one’s story gives proof of the overwhelming and far-reaching effect that a single act of kindness or a steadfast determination can have. These women have already been an inspiration to many, and we believe through sharing their stories they will inspire you, as well. Once again we have enlisted some of our most acclaimed authors—Heather Graham, Candace Camp, Stephanie Bond, Brenda Jackson and Tara Taylor Quinn—to write wonderful stories inspired by these recipients. These authors have generously donated their time and creativity to this project, and all proceeds will be reinvested in the Harlequin More Than Words program, further supporting causes that are of concern to women.

  It is my pleasure to present More Than Words, Volume 5. I’m sure you will enjoy this book and will be as inspired by it as we are.

  Please visit www.HarlequinMoreThanWords.com for more information, or to submit a nomination for next year’s awards.

  Sincerely,

  Donna Hayes

  Publisher and CEO

  Harlequin Enterprises Ltd.

  More Than Words

  VOLUME 5

  HEATHER GRAHAM

  CANDACE CAMP

  STEPHANIE BOND

  BRENDA JACKSON

  TARA TAYLOR QUINN

  TORONTO • NEW YORK • LONDON

  AMSTERDAM • PARIS • SYDNEY • HAMBURG

  STOCKHOLM • ATHENS • TOKYO • MILAN • MADRID

  PRAGUE • WARSAW • BUDAPEST • AUCKLAND

  Heather Graham Pozzessere is acknowledged as the author of If I Were Queen of the World.

  Candace Camp is acknowledged as the author of Breaking Line.

  Stephanie Hauck is acknowledged as the author of It’s Not About the Dress.

  Brenda Streater Jackson is acknowledged as the author of Whispers of the Heart.

  Tara Taylor Quinn is acknowledged as the author of The Mechanics of Love.

  CONTENTS

  STORIES INSPIRED BY REAL-LIFE HEROINES

  IF I WERE QUEEN OF THE WORLD

  by Heather Graham

  Inspired by Erin Puck

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  EPILOGUE

  BREAKING LINE

  by Candace Camp

  Inspired by Johanna Kandel

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  EPILOGUE

  IT’S NOT ABOUT THE DRESS

  by Stephanie Bond

  Inspired by Joan Clayton and Ina Andre

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  WHISPERS OF THE HEART

  by Brenda Jackson

  Inspired by Nancy Sander

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  EPILOGUE

  THE MECHANICS OF LOVE

  by Tara Taylor Quinn

  Inspired by Sandra Ramos

  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

  ERIN PUCK

  Toys.Calm

  Looking at her, you would never think Erin Puck, a vivacious, energetic twenty-one-year-old senior in college, has ever taken a sick day in her life. But when she was just twelve years old, doctors gave her parents terrifying news. Erin had a malignant brain tumor at the base of her cerebellum that would require surgery, six weeks of radiation therapy and thirty-six weeks of chemotherapy.

  No child at any age should have to endure these procedures or spend weeks at the hospital, but as an early adolescent, Erin had a particularly tough time dealing with the treatment. Like many twelve-year-olds, she found her body changing, she was becoming interested in boys and she missed her friends—but was too embarrassed to let them see her looking pale and bald.

  “I was a bad patient,” she says now, laughing. “I hated the hospital and kept asking when I could go home. That was my constant question.”

  Erin also hated the noise of other children crying. When she mentioned this to one of the social workers there, the woman told her the hospital was running out of toys for the little kids to play with. They were scared, tired and bored.

  Then came a moment that changed Erin’s life. After going through a medical procedure, she arrived back in her hospital room to find a toy left on her bed. A family had donated it and left a note that said simply, “We care about you.”

  “I remember feeling so good, thinking that people besides my family knew I was having a hard time being sick by myself,” she says.

  Right then, Erin knew what she wanted to do: start a fund-raiser and donate toys to the pediatric floor of the hospital.

  In her small town of Little Silver, New Jersey, Erin was already a household name. Kids at school and at church knew about her condition. The local pizza restaurant sent deliveries to Erin to fatten her up. What she couldn’t eat, her big brother, Ryan, took care of, deftly stepping in to help with the task. Other families dropped off food and gave Ryan rides to school so their parents, Laura and Bill, could focus on Erin and meeting work demands.

  Knowing she had the town’s support—and in the middle of her own treatment—Erin tacked up posters and set up boxes at school, the pizza place and her church to collect donations of new toys. Soon, a local reporter wrote an article about Erin’s plight, and checks began rolling in.

  “My dad was a banker, so he started to flip out,” says Erin. “He was worried we’d get into trouble.”

  Toys.Calm, Erin’s charity, was born.

  Today, with the help of her family and a few volunteers, Toys.Calm has delivered over 200,000 toys, from stuffed animals to board games, Lego sets, books and video games, to area hospitals such as Robert Wood Johnson, Jersey Shore Medical and Monmouth Medical. Other donations make their way to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and New York Presbyterian Hospital. Toys.Calm has also raised money for larger items such as air-hockey tables and over a hundred computers.

  The laptop program, also known as KID CONNECTIONS, is one of Erin’s favorites. She remembers wishing she could have stayed in contact
with her friends while in the hospital without having to wait for a computer to become available down the hall. Having a laptop loan program means kids can e-mail or instant message friends without needing to leave the bed, ensuring they still have their comfort, privacy and dignity.

  Erin says she remembers the first toy she ever gave a child after her first shipment of donations came in. A toddler had just gotten a needle and her mother couldn’t comfort her. Erin asked the mother what the little girl liked.

  “Winnie-the-Pooh,” the woman replied.

  Erin wandered to the storage room where the toys were kept at the clinic and found a Pooh Bear puppet.

  “As soon as I gave it to the little girl, the tears just stopped and there was a smile. I turned to my mom and said, ‘This stuff really works. Toys really do calm!’” she says now.

  Toys must be new, so as not to further compromise sick children’s immune systems, and they’re distributed by nurses and social workers the children already know. Erin says she rarely visits the children herself, since she remembers all too well the panic she felt every time the hospital doors opened, knowing she was in for some bad news or a needle. And even when their hearts are in the right place, when strangers make a visit with a gift, the children are often too sick or weak to pretend to be happy. Toys.Calm prefers a “No Thanks Required” policy instead.

  Although Erin rarely gets to see where the toys end up, being the founder does have its perks—particularly when it comes time to buy them.

  “It’s so much fun going to Toys ‘R’ Us and having little kids look at me with my three big carts overflowing with toys. They can’t believe I’m getting that much stuff. They think I’m buying it all for me!” she says.

  These days Erin’s mom and Toys.Calm president, Laura (at thirteen, Erin was too young to be declared president herself), handles much of the day-to-day work of writing thank-you notes, shipping toys and handling phone calls. Laura also mentors other parents with children who are facing frightening diagnoses. Meanwhile, Erin, healthy and vibrant for nine years running, is busy working toward a degree in political science at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, and is toying with the idea of going to law school. She’s not completely committed to the idea yet, but says she knows what career she will definitely not pursue.

  “I think it’s funny that people keep asking me, ‘Do you want to be a doctor?’ No. I never want to be in a hospital again if I can help it,” she says. “I’m a needlephobe. I see one on TV and I cringe.”

  For more information, visit www.toyscalm or write to Toys.Calm, P.O. Box 153, Little Silver, NJ, 07739.

  HEATHER GRAHAM

  IF I WERE QUEEN OF THE WORLD

  HEATHER GRAHAM

  New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Heather Graham majored in theater arts at the University of South Florida. After a stint of several years in dinner theater and backup vocals, Heather began to write following the birth of her third child. Since then, she has written more than one hundred novels and novellas in varied genres, including series romance, suspense, historical romance, vampire fiction, time travel and the occult. She has also been published in approximately twenty languages and has 60 million books in print. The recipient of many awards, Heather has had books selected for the Doubleday Book Club and the Literary Guild, and has made guest appearances on many television programs, including Today and Entertainment Tonight. She loves travel and anything that has to do with the water, and is a certified scuba diver. Married since high school graduation and the mother of five, she believes her career has been an incredible gift. Her greatest love in life remains her family, but she also is grateful every day to be doing for a living something she loves so very much.

  DEDICATION

  To Erin Puck, and Toys.Calm,

  for creating magic for those in need.

  And for Connie Perry, Chynna Pozzessere,

  Harley Jane Kozak, Lance Taubold,

  Dave Simms and C.J. Lyons,

  and the amazing Children’s Hospital

  in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

  PROLOGUE

  The sun was out, and it was a beautiful day. Spring had come to the mountains and valleys of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and it did so with a dazzling display of greens and pastels.

  Laurie closed her eyes, feeling the warmth on her face. When she opened them again, he was there. Right there, not ten feet away, on the balcony of Care for the Children Hospital.

  For a moment, she forgot that she was rail-thin and wearing a brightly colored scarf her mother had purchased for her and tied about her bald head with forced cheer and enthusiasm, and that she wasn’t certain there would be many more days, beautiful or otherwise, left for her.

  He was tall and well-built, probably a few years older than she was, and absolutely gorgeous. He had both hands on the rail and was looking out over the mountains, but not really seeing them. She knew that because she could see his eyes. They were deep and dark, but the expression in them was distant. Tormented, she thought.

  He had sable-dark hair to go with those hypnotic eyes, and strong features.

  He noticed her before she had a chance to even think about hiding. She wasn’t sure that, even if she looked normal, she would ever be in his league, and now, thanks to the cancer, she looked anything but.

  “Hello,” he said. He had a great voice. And then he smiled. She definitely felt very much alive at that moment. Her heart fluttered with the speed of hummingbird wings.

  “Hello,” she replied. She realized that his smile, like his gaze, was sad.

  He came over to the patio table where she was sitting, and drew up a chair across from her. “It’s a beautiful day, huh?” he asked her. “I think spring has finally come.”

  “Yeah, feel that sun. And check out the flowers.” She smiled and tried to keep the conversation going, all the while wondering if she could be any more inane.

  He stared at her very seriously, then offered her a rueful smile. “You’re being treated here.”

  “Yes,” she said dryly. “I’m what they call a ‘frequent flyer.’ I almost think of this place as home, I’ve been here so much the last few years.”

  “I’m sorry,” he told her earnestly.

  “Don’t be,” she answered. She really wished she had hair; she would have loved to flip it dismissively over her shoulder. “It’s all right, really. The doctors here are great. This is as good a home away from home as you’re ever going to get.”

  She wasn’t sure why she was trying to convince him that the hospital was all right. Before he had walked out on the balcony, she had been feeling depressed, torn between hope and fear. Hope that the treatments she was receiving really were working as well as her doctors said.

  Fear that each day in the sun could be one of a dwindling few.

  He leaned back, his smile becoming more rueful. “A frequent flyer, huh? So how do you spend your time when you’re here?”

  She laughed. “Well, I do my best to keep up with school.”

  A slight frown creased his brow. “How old are you?”

  She knew that most people had a hard time guessing her age, what with the chemo-caused baldness. “Seventeen,” she told him. “I’m hoping to graduate with my class in June. How about you?”

  “Twenty-one,” he said. “And if I managed to graduate, so can you. I was pretty wild back then.”

  Looking at him now, she couldn’t imagine him being anything less than serious.

  “What else do you do, besides schoolwork?” he asked.

  “I love books,” she confessed. “I read a lot.”

  “Aha.”

  “And I play a game.”

  “A game?” he asked.

  She looked down, for once not noticing how pale her skin was, how she could see the veins in her hands, because she was wondering why she had spoken. If she actually told him the truth, she was going to sound awfully immature.

  “What game?” he persisted.

  She looked back up at
him and saw real kindness in his eyes. Not pity. Just empathy.

  “All right,” she said. “Just don’t go sharing this with anyone, huh? I have a few friends here, and we like to play something called If I Were Queen of the World. Or King,” she added lightly, “as the case may be. It takes our mind off things.”

  “Let’s play,” he suggested.

  She opened her mouth, surprised, and a little afraid. Drop-dead gorgeous, healthy guys didn’t usually go in for games that belonged to dreamers who didn’t know if they would see another birthday.

  “You don’t have to entertain me, you know.” She offered him what she hoped was a mature smile.

  “You’ll be entertaining me,” he told her. “Please.”

  “Okay…” She looked away. “All right, if I were queen of the world, no child would ever contract a horrible disease.”

  “If I were king of the world,” he said, “no child would ever be born with a congenital disease.”

  She nodded at him, smiling. “Very good. If I were queen of the world, no country would ever go to war against another.”

  “If I were king of the world,” he countered, “there would be no need for countries to go to war. There would be no hunger or poverty, and everyone would have a safe place to live and a job they enjoyed.”

  She laughed. “You do know how to take things a step further, don’t you? Why don’t you start this time?”