Happy Harbor, page 1
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“A beautifully written book of love and renewal. I could almost smell the cornbread!”
JUDE DEVERAUX, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR
“Rachel Hanna’s flair for witty storytelling shines in this delightful Southern mix of sweet tea and sass. The heartwarming character transformations in Happy Harbor are penned with Hanna’s keen, humorous insights into the complexities and resilience of family relationships. A recommended read!”
JAN MORAN, USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF SEABREEZE INN
“Happy Harbor grabbed me from the very first page and kept me reading straight through until I finished the book, which was way past my bedtime. I loved it!”
KAREN ROBARDS, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE GIRL FROM GUERNICA
“The perfect beach read. I always look forward to a new Rachel Hanna book and this was such a fun read!…Happy Harbor explores the challenges of mother-daughter relationships with heart and humor. I couldn’t put it down!”
PAMELA KELLEY, USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE BOOKSHOP BY THE BAY
“Happy Harbor is a heartfelt story of love, healing, and forgiveness. This multigenerational book is a charming read with entertaining, relatable characters. It’s sure to appeal to fans of both women’s fiction and romance. Another unputdownable read from Rachel!”
KAY CORRELL, USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR
“Rachel Hanna writes a touching story of new beginnings when least expected. Like spring flowers, life blooms for everyone in this book—and like Southern sweet tea she draws you back for more.”
DEBRA CLOPTON, USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR
BOOKS BY RACHEL HANNA
south carolina sunsets
The Beach House
Sunsets & Second Chances
Fireflies & Family Ties
The Inn At Seagrove
The Wedding At Seagrove
A Seagrove Christmas
Lighthouse Cove
Beneath The Willow Tree
Mutts & Magnolias
Chasing Sunsets
sweet tea b&b series
Sweet Tea B&B
Sweet Tea Sunrise
Sweet Tea & Honey Bees
Sweet Tea & Wedding Rings
Sweet Tea & Christmas Trees
Sweet Tea & Baby Makes Three
january cove series
The One for Me
Loving Tessa
Falling for You
Finding Love
All I Need
Secrets and Soulmates
Choices of the Heart
Sweet Love
Faith, Hope & Love
Spying On The Billionaire
Waiting For You: A January Cove Novella
Second Chance Christmas: A January Cove Novella
whiskey ridge romance series
Starting Over
Taking Chances
Home Again
Always A Bridesmaid
The Billionaire’s Retreat
the jubilee series
Welcome to Jubilee
All Tucked Inn
Christmas in Jubilee
wisteria island series
Wisteria Island
Wisteria Winds
standalone novels
Back to Us
Blue Ridge Christmas
The Book Club On Waverly Lane
The Bucket List
Happy Harbor
HAPPY HARBOR
RACHEL HANNA
Copyright © 2024 CC Media LLC
E-book published in 2024 by Blackstone Publishing
Cover design by Alenka Vdovič Linaschke
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidentaland not intended by the author.
Trade e-book ISBN 979-8-212-17156-4
Library e-book ISBN 979-8-212-17155-7
Fiction / Romance / Contemporary
Blackstone Publishing
31 Mistletoe Rd.
Ashland, OR 97520
www.BlackstonePublishing.com
To my husband, who always supports everything I do and has been my best friend for over half my life.
CONTENTS
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
Acknowledgments
About the Author
CHAPTER ONE
She tapped her fingers against the hardwood on the arm of the chair. Long pauses were the worst part of conversations with her boss. Josie Campbell seemed to spend more time sitting in front of her boss’s desk than she did sitting at her own. She hadn’t asked for this situation, but it had been thrust upon her several months ago. She was only trying to make the best of it, but it wasn’t her fault that her team was incompetent.
“Josie, how many times do we have to do this?”
She wanted to answer with an astronomical number, but her sarcasm would not be appreciated by Sandra, her boss of three years. Sandra ran the multimillion-dollar marketing company where Josie worked as an account manager, and she didn’t have the best sense of humor or the best understanding of Josie’s management methods.
“Look, I’m sorry. You know I never asked to lead a team. I work best alone.”
Sandra sighed. “Businesses work best when there are team players.”
“Not everyone wants to be on a team. I am much more productive working alone.”
“When I put you in a management position, it was because your clients raved about your work ethic and what you did to increase their bottom lines. But as soon as I put you in charge of other human beings, it’s like you became a different person. I’ve only seen a modest increase in our bottom line, and that is solely because you have refused to delegate!”
Josie’s mind wandered for a moment as she thought about the stack of work still sitting on her desk. She really didn’t have time for this today. “Again, I get much more done when I just do it myself. My staff is inept, Sandra. I constantly have to follow up to see if they did what they were supposed to do. At a certain point, it makes more sense to handle it alone.”
“Or train them?”
“Train them? I don’t have time to hold the hands of adults. They should know their jobs.”
Sandra opened a file folder that was on her desk. “This is your personnel record.”
“You keep records on us? That’s a little Big Brother-ish, if you ask me.”
“Last month you told Bill to create a proposal for the Jenkins file. Do you remember that?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Bill got the proposal done in time, but you delayed it at the last minute. And rather than give him feedback, you threw it in the trash.”
“That’s because it was trash, Sandra. It looked like a fourth grader wrote it.”
“Another employee saw you throw it away and then told Bill. How do you think that made him feel?”
“How would you have felt if the client saw that awful proposal? I saved the client! I rewrote the proposal. Bill turned it in late to me, and I could tell it was a total rush job. The meeting only got delayed by a couple of days.”
“The client still complained about the delay, Josie. And now Bill is threatening to quit.”
Josie leaned in and whispered, “It wouldn’t be a big loss.”
Sandra turned to the next page in the folder. Josie wondered how long this process was going to go on. She needed to inhale her salad and then get on a videoconference call with her newest clients in Texas.
“We recently hired a new college graduate named Tasha, and she worked for you for twenty-two days before going to Human Resources. She said you only let her mail packages and make copies, Josie.”
Josie chuckled. “I don’t know how she graduated from college, to be honest. She couldn’t even manage simple tasks. For example, I needed her to send a package to Elliott Madders in Seattle, but for some reason, she sent it to Washington, DC, instead! Why, you may ask? Because she apparently thinks Washington always means DC, and paid no attention to Seattle on the note I gave her. She did it three different times, so yes, I raised my voice. I was frustrated. I had to spend hours on the phone smoothing that over. So I did put her on copy duty because, again, I don’t have time to babysit grown adults.”
“This is not working out, Josie.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that we need effective leaders in this company, and you’ve become a liability. Your staff is constantly complaining, and you haven’t increased profits even with a whole team of people. You’re fired.”
Josie’s mouth fell open, and she was sure she felt the blood completel
All she could think about was her daughter. Kendra was going through all the teenage strife right now, and the last thing either of them needed was financial issues. She had to keep Kendra in the good school, but how would she continue paying rent?
“I’m sorry it didn’t work out.”
“Please, don’t fire me. I’ll try harder. I’ll apologize to everyone, and I’ll even go see a shrink or something. Don’t fire me.”
“I’m sorry, Josie, but this is it.”
“Sandra, you just said I’m the best. Clients will be so upset . . .”
“Please clean out your desk and leave your key card with Patti.” Sandra stood up and crossed her arms.
Realizing she wasn’t kidding or bluffing, Josie slowly stood. “What am I supposed to do now?” Her voice, softer and possibly trembling, fell from her lips in more of a stutter.
“I don’t know, but I wish you the best. I really do. I wish things could have been . . . easier.”
Easier. That word had never been part of Josie’s vocabulary. From her earliest moments of life, her existence had never been described as easy. Better words for it were complicated, emotional, gritty, raw, and maybe even sad. But easy? Never.
Josie felt her feet walking slowly out of the office, but she didn’t feel in control of them at all. It was as if they were floating across the floor, and she was just an unwilling passenger. She made it to her office, which was just a couple of doors down from Sandra’s. There was already a box sitting on her desk. She turned around to see if anyone was standing behind her, but no one was.
As she slid behind her desk, probably for the last time, and laid her forehead against the beloved mahogany surface, she held back tears. Crying wasn’t her thing, and she wasn’t about to start now.
“Are you okay?”
She looked up to see her friend—her only friend, really—Melody. She was standing there with an empathetic—or maybe sympathetic—look on her face.
“What have you heard?” Josie replied, her throat inexplicably hoarse.
“Pretty much everything. Gossip travels fast in this place. Who gave you the box?”
“No idea. I assume somebody who is really excited to see me leave.”
“Do you want me to help you pack?”
“No, thanks. But can you give my key card to Patti? I don’t feel like walking right down the center of the office when I leave. I prefer to slink out the back door and disappear into oblivion.”
Melody walked over and sat across from her. “You’ll land on your feet. You always do, Josie.”
“I’ve always had to. I’m pretty tired of starting over.”
“It’s just a job! Remember, you’ve got a wonderful fiancé and a beautiful daughter.”
Josie laughed. “My fiancé is pretty great, but my daughter? Well, she’s a handful, just like I was at her age. She scares me.”
Melody laughed. “You’ll be okay. I just know it.”
“Thanks for the pep talk, but I’d better pack my stuff before they send in the military to extract me.”
She watched as Melody left her office and then looked down at her desk. She had two framed pictures, her favorite pen, and her iPad. Other than that, nothing else belonged to her.
Josie had always packed light, never expecting to stay somewhere long. That, too, was a part of her childhood. Some things never left you, and the feeling of having no roots never left her. After all, how does a person get roots if they were never given any?
She tossed her belongings into the box and stood up, grabbing her messenger bag and favorite umbrella from the corner. As she turned off the light, she sighed. Another new beginning she didn’t ask for. Another failure to add to her long list of them. The one bright light was the fact that she was having dinner with Craig tonight. He’d make it better. He’d tell her how amazing she was, how smart and determined. He’d pump her up until she could find a new job. She just had to make it until dinnertime.
Josie opened the front door of her townhome and slammed it behind her. This day had not gone as planned, and she was ready to drink an enormous glass of wine and watch trashy daytime TV until her eyes bled.
She lived in the fanciest suburb of Atlanta, and most of her neighbors were away at work during the day. The only people she saw were nannies and stay-at-home moms with their cute yoga pants and expensive sneakers. Even though she lived among them, she was anything but rich. Never in her life had she been “well-off” when it came to money. It was only recently that she could afford the rent in a place like this to provide the best life for her daughter.
Now that Kendra was sixteen and a junior in high school, Josie felt like her job as a parent was almost done. Her grandmother had told her a long time ago that parenting was forever, but she hoped her daughter was going to fall in line soon and become a contributing member of society. She had always been a straight-A student until her grades recently began to slip, and she started hanging out with the wrong crowd. Josie had to do something. Getting them into this townhouse six months ago had been like an act of God. The rent was still a stretch, but the pride she’d felt when her daughter started at a better school had been worth all the long hours at work, especially over the last year. Though not spending as much time with her daughter had been hard, and sometimes Josie blamed herself for Kendra’s new attitude problems.
She walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge, selecting a half-drunk bottle of wine. Had she really drunk that much in the tub last night? Staring at the bottle, she scoffed at the idea. There was no way she drank that much. Brushing off the worry that her daughter might’ve done it, she poured herself a glass and leaned against the cold granite countertop.
How would she cover the rent next month without a good-paying job? Car repairs had taken her savings weeks ago. Getting into another marketing company and making a management-level salary would not be easy. Her résumé wasn’t even up to date. She’d have to work on that immediately. But first, she was making herself a big plate of French fries and watching those court shows where mothers sued daughters and landlords sued renters.
Just as she was opening the freezer to find the bag of fries, she heard a noise upstairs. Was it muffled voices speaking? Frozen in place, she thought about the decision to not own a gun. Right now seemed like an awfully good time to have one. Knowing her inability to aim and how her hands shook when she was nervous, she’d opted to own pepper spray instead. Of course, she had no idea where that was.
She grabbed a knife from the big wooden block on her counter and slowly climbed the stairs, turning sideways like she saw in the movies. Why did they turn sideways like that, anyway?
At the top of the stairs, she looked left toward her bedroom. The door was still open, and her bed was unmade. Nothing looked amiss there, so she turned right, toward Kendra’s bedroom. The door was closed but cracked, and she could see sunlight peeking through, which meant Kendra had left her window blinds open before leaving for school.
Thinking she’d just imagined the noise, she turned to walk back downstairs.
Then she heard it again, and it was definitely coming from Kendra’s room. She pulled her phone from her pocket, her finger paused over the number nine.
Suddenly, the door swung open. A teenage boy stood there, shirt off, hair a mess. A red plastic cup—filled with God knows what—was in one hand and a cigarette was in the other.
