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    Just Joe
    Just Joe
    Just Joe
    Ebook96 pages1 hour

    Just Joe

    By Carla Cassidy

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this ebook

    More Than Words: Bestselling authors & Real-life heroines

    Each year, the Harlequin More Than Words award is given to three women who have worked hard to change people's lives for the better. Inspired by their accomplishments, three bestselling authors have written stories to honor these real-life heroines.

    In Just Joe, Stacy Donovan is willing to do whatever it takes to save her charity, Bounties from the Gardens. Families in need are counting on her organization for fresh fruits and vegetables. Running the charity has always been Stacy's dream, and if winning a local dance competition will keep her dream alive, that's what she'll do.

    After years of being consumed by work, Joe Carpenter has discovered a new passion: giving back to the community. He's started to volunteer at Bounties from the Gardens, and he's falling for the beautiful, dedicated Stacy. But Stacy is so focused on looking after her charity, she might miss the fact that Joe is just the person to watch over her heart.

    Look for all three ebooks inspired by real-life heroines: Good Neighbors by Sheila Roberts, Just Joe by Carla Cassidy and Light This Candle by Cindy Dees.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarlequin Special Releases
    Release dateApr 1, 2013
    ISBN9781459245679
    Just Joe
    Author

    Carla Cassidy

    Carla Cassidy is a New York Times bestselling author who has written more than 125 novels for Harlequin Books.  She is listed on the Romance Writer's of America Honor Roll and has won numerous awards. Carla believes the only thing better than curling up with a good book to read is sitting down at the computer with a good story to write.

    Read more from Carla Cassidy

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    Reviews for Just Joe

    3.5/5

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    • 2/5
      Teenage stuff just right for 14/15 yr old girls to start dreaming of their perfect partner.

    Book preview

    Just Joe - Carla Cassidy

    CHAPTER ONE

    Stacy Donovan stared at the financial figures on the spreadsheet on top of her desk and fought the impulse to bang her head against the wooden surface. Unfortunately, she knew no amount of brain-scrambling bangs would change the truth, and the truth was that Bounties from the Gardens was one month or so away from financial ruin.

    She got up, walked to the window and stared out at the land she’d bought five years before. At that time the fifteen acres on the north side of Kansas City had been nothing more than dirt and weeds and an orchard that hadn’t been tended for years.

    The weeds had been replaced with lettuce and green beans, tomatoes, peppers plants and other vegetables. The dirt now grew young apple, pear and plum trees, and the old apple orchard had been cleaned up, the branches of the mature trees heavy with fragrant fruit.

    This was her dream, a charity like the Emergency Food Network that Helen McGovern ran in Washington. That particular charity provided thirteen million pounds of food for sixty-five food banks.

    Bounties from the Gardens was a baby compared with all that the Emergency Food Network accomplished each year. Still, this project had been Stacy’s passion since she was a child. She’d wanted to feed the hungry of the community, and given the bad economic situation, this year more people than ever had sought out the produce grown at Bounties from the Gardens.

    It was only mid-September. Money donations had dried up over the past year and at the moment the farm was functioning on nothing more than a wing and a prayer.

    She turned away from the window at the same time that her assistant, Kerry Long, walked into her office. Stacy had let go all of her paid staff four months ago and was grateful that Kerry had stayed on as a full-time volunteer.

    You can’t put this off any longer, Kerry said as she waved a familiar piece of paper in the air. If you can somehow win that money it’ll see us through the last of the harvest and then we can spend the winter trying to dig up donations for next spring. She slapped the paper on the desk and crossed her arms expectantly.

    Kerry was a formidable figure—tall, with lines of wisdom creasing her face. She had lost her husband three years ago to a heart attack after thirty-nine years of marriage. The two of them had never had children and Kerry had come to Bounties from the Gardens seeking purpose.

    She’d found it here, not only helping with the logistics of running a charity but mothering Stacy, whose own mom had died when Stacy was twenty-two.

    You know I’d do it myself, Kerry said, but nobody wants to see an old woman with a foot full of bunions try to twirl around the dance floor.

    Stacy sighed and stepped toward the desk. The entry form stared back at her: DANCING WITH THE LOCAL STARS. The words practically screamed across the top of the page. It was a charity event hosted by the Chamber of Commerce and would take place in three weeks at one of the downtown Kansas City hotels.

    Each local celebrity was paired with a partner from a dance studio and the winner of the contest took home five thousand dollars.

    You know this is futile, Stacy said as she sat at her desk and picked up a pen. There’s no way I’ll win.

    Don’t be so negative, Kerry protested. Besides, even if you don’t win, just think of the free publicity this will give Bounties. We can use all the publicity we can get to drum up the money to keep us in business.

    Stacy’s nerves jangled as she filled out the entry form and then passed it to Kerry. Okay, but if I fall flat on my face in front of hundreds of people I’m going to hold you personally responsible for my humiliation.

    Kerry laughed. I’m not worried. I’m already figuring out how best we can use your winnings. I’m going to run this by the coordinator’s office—you should have your dance partner assigned by this evening.

    Terrific, Stacy said drily.

    Kerry turned to leave the office and then looked back at Stacy. Oh, by the way, we have a new volunteer working in the orchard this morning.

    What’s his name? Stacy liked to personally greet any new volunteers who showed up to work.

    It’s Prince Joe.

    Stacy frowned at Kerry. Who?

    You know, Joe Carpenter, the hotshot real estate developer. In Kansas City society and the business world he’s known as Prince Joe.

    Just what they needed, Stacy thought as she walked with Kerry to the front door of the small wooden building that served as the office. Prince Joe. She knew his type, a well-to-do businessman who had a sudden moment of guilt about his own success and decided to give back to the community.

    These successful guys usually worked for a couple of days and then grew tired of the drudgery and went back to their ivory towers. If she was lucky, maybe when he grew bored of getting his hands dirty, he’d write a nice-sized check and disappear into the sunset.

    As Kerry got into her car and drove off, Stacy headed for the orchard beyond the garden area. When she’d been in the planning stages of Bounties from the Gardens, she’d used the Emergency Food Network as her model. She knew food stamps would buy the staples, but there was never enough money for fresh fruit and veggies—apples or plums and pears, fresh spinach and carrots and such.

    Often in the first five years of the fledgling charity, she’d asked herself, What would Helen McGovern do? Somehow an answer would appear and she’d managed not just to survive but to thrive...until now.

    There was so much to be done before winter set in, and without the funds to pay people, she feared the last of the fruit and vegetables wouldn’t get harvested.

    As always, despite her worries, a sense of peace settled inside her heart as she walked through the garden. The air was rife with the scent of growing plants and ready-to-pick vegetables.

    She knew what it was like to be hungry. She knew the physical pang of a stomach that touched a backbone. Helping families so that their children would never know that pain was what drove her forward despite the odds.

    The garden spilled a few feet into the orchard, and then she was shaded by trees that smelled of crisp apples and sweet pears. The last of the plums had been picked a few weeks before, but they were behind in bringing in the apples and pears.

    As she walked the rows of trees she kept an eye out for the new volunteer. Joe Carpenter, prince of real estate—she gave him a week before he disappeared back to his castle.

    She

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