What It Takes: A Kowalski Reunion Novel Read online

  What It Takes: A Kowalski Reunion Novel

  By Shannon Stacey

  Revisit all of your Kowalski favorites while falling in love with a brand-new romance in this reunion novel from New York Times bestselling author Shannon Stacey

  Laney Caswell is looking for a change. A decade’s worth of less-than-happy matrimony behind her, she wants peace—movies, books and, best of all, a new job at the Northern Star Lodge in Whitford, Maine. Spending the summer living in a camper is her chance to rediscover what makes her happy, and a perfect transition to her new life.

  Being a paramedic in Whitford is nothing like Ben Rivers’s city life, but when Josh Kowalski offers him the job, the lure of his hometown is too much to resist. Also too much to resist: Laney Caswell. Ben always thought he’d have a wife and kids, a happy family like the Kowalskis have all built, but he never made time in his life. Now he’s found a woman who draws him like no other and helps him dream again—and the last thing she wants is a husband.

  When the annual Kowalski family camping trip is moved to the Northern Star, both Ben and Laney are surrounded by the kind of happiness they’ve always wanted but never had. It just might be theirs—if they can put aside the past and reach for it together.

  This book is approximately 80,000 words

  Edited by Angela James

  One-click with confidence. This title is part of the Carina Press Romance Promise: all the romance you’re looking for with an HEA/HFN. It’s a promise! Find out more at CarinaPress.com/RomancePromise

  Dear Reader,

  Happy March! This month marks Carina Press’s return to publishing anthologies. This is something that I’ve always loved to do—put out a call for submissions for a certain theme and see what rolls in. This month, we’re starting with erotic romances and, specifically, taboos. In the coming months you’ll see anthologies for shifters, capers & heists, and a holiday-themed anthology. Then, in 2018, we have even more coming your way. Anthologies are a great way for readers to test new authors while getting a complete, satisfying romance, and I hope you love what we’ve got in store as much as I do.

  But first, let me tell you about a book that’s incredibly near to my heart. What It Takes: A Kowalski Reunion Novel is Shannon Stacey’s return to the contemporary world of the fabulous Kowalski family. This is a project I begged Shannon to do, because I wasn’t quite ready to let the Kowalskis go. To say I was thrilled she agreed would be a huge understatement. In this book, we get a new romance, along with cameos from all of our previous favorite heroes and heroines, including a secondary plot with Sean and Emma! Loved the Kowalskis since we first started publishing them in 2010? You are going to adore this book. Never read the Kowalskis before? No worries, this book was written to allow you to jump right in. What It Takes is available in print, in audio and in ebook format at your favorite online retailer.

  Josh Lanyon is back with another male/male romantic suspense, Fair Chance. Elliot Mills thought he was done with the most brutal case of his career, having finally put the serial killer in jail, but when the lead agent on the case goes missing, Elliot has to play this killer’s twisted game to save the love of his life. Find out more about Elliot and Tucker in Fair Game and Fair Play, both now available.

  Together, Maya Clery and Dean Sova have entered a decadent world of passion, pleasure and possibility—but while their love has grown stronger, and their play more intense, the intersection of fantasy and past will challenge their dynamic in the face of deeper, wilder desires. The Discipline by Jade A. Waters will get your senses steaming!

  If you love a good paranormal shifter romance, I hope you’ve been following along with Kerry Adrienne’s fantastic series Shifter Wars. In Taming the Lion, the battle between the lions and bears decimates Deep Creek, and one of the heirs to the lions’ throne is saved from death by a beautiful bear medic who’s torn between her allegiance to her den and her attraction and obligation to the wounded lion. Want more? Waking the Bear and Pursuing the Bear can be on your reading device in minutes!

  We’re pleased to welcome debut author Jules Court to the Carina Press team with a sultry new trilogy of contemporary romance novellas. Kicking off her trilogy is Hot in the City. Brian MacGregor busted his ass to make detective by age thirty. He doesn’t have time for a social life, not even for the pretty ER doc who sewed him up post run-in with a knife-wielding perp. He never expected that when he went looking for the witness to a gangland murder, the doc would be the best lead to his missing witness. Now if he can only keep his hands off her. Look for Enticing the Enemy and Tease Me Tonight coming this year!

  Layla had only wanted to give Sid one hot, sweaty night of her well-planned life, but when these werewolves realize that they’re mates, Layla must accept that she’ll be giving Sid a lot more than she planned in Alpha’s Challenge, the next in Lauren Dane’s Cascadia Wolves series!

  Too Taboo: An Erotic Romance Anthology contains three scorching-hot novellas. Purchase them together in the anthology or as individual ebooks:

  Debut author Morgaine Cameron bangs out of the gate with an indescribably hot story in Absolve Me. A handsome, celibate man wants a licensed sex surrogate to help him exorcise the wicked desires he’s struggling to overcome—because as a priest he needs to play out his immoral thoughts or forever be a holy sinner.

  Returning author Amber Bardan indulges us in some wicked ménage fantasies when an innocent trespassing turns into a lesson in obedience as the two property owners show their trespasser just how right punishment can feel. Twice as Hard is not to be missed.

  When the most skilled operative in the secret organization known as the Seduction Squad is captured, her only hope of escape is to use her body to drive her sexy abductor wild...but, having unleashed his darkest fantasies, does Inge really want to get away from Jake? Amanda Stewart’s Seduction Squad: Captured teases us with the dark taboos of forced seduction and capture fantasies.

  That’s all for this month, but whew, I think that’s more than enough. This is such a powerful lineup, I’m jealous of all of you getting to read these books for the first time. They are unputdownable (that’s totally a word only avid readers understand)!

  Coming next month we have another full-length novel from the amazing author duo Alexa Riley; Rhenna Morgan is back with another to-die-for hero; and two male/male authors give us two amazing romances.

  As always, until next month, my fellow book lovers, here’s wishing you a wonderful month of books you love, remember and recommend.

  Happy reading!

  Angela James

  Executive Editor, Carina Press

  Dedication

  This book is dedicated to the many readers who have loved the Kowalski family as much as I do and wanted more, as well as to the dedicated volunteers who work tirelessly to make four-wheeling a fun and safe passion for my family. Thank you.

  Contents

  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

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

&n
bsp; Also by Shannon Stacey

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  Nothing good ever came of a half-assed plan.

  Ben Rivers stood with his arms folded across his chest, staring down at the mangled four-wheeler lying on its side about twenty feet down a pucker brush-covered hill. Though a half-assed plan was still better than no plan, he had to admit.

  “The handlebars are going left and the wheels are going right,” he pointed out.

  Matt Barnett—who was with the Maine state warden service—and Josh Kowalski both shrugged, but it was Josh who spoke. “Yeah, you’ll have to figure out how to compensate for that.”

  “Me? Who decided I was going down there?”

  “I’m running the winch,” Josh said, pointing to his ATV with its spool of heavy-duty winch cable bolted on the front.

  “And I’m in charge of the investigation,” Matt said, “so I can’t risk breaking my paperwork hand.”

  Ben snorted. “And I’m the paramedic, so I should probably stay up here and be ready to patch up whichever of you idiots draws the short straw.”

  “Hey, I’ve had first aid training,” Matt protested.

  They laughed because they all knew Matt was a guy you’d definitely want around in a crisis, but his first aid training didn’t exactly match up to Ben’s years of being a paramedic in the city. That was why Drew Miller—Whitford’s police chief—and Josh, both of whom Ben had known his entire life, had called and offered him a job back in his hometown. Now that their part of the state had become a vacation destination for ATV and side-by-side enthusiasts, they needed somebody who could ride a four-wheeler, knew the area like only a native son would, and could offer advanced medical care while victims were slowly carted out of the woods to a waiting ambulance or helicopter. Ben had fit the bill and his phone had rung at a time he was staring down the barrel of burnout and looking to make a change.

  “If Matt wasn’t here we could just push it off the tree it’s hung up on and let it roll the rest of the way down the hill into the pond,” Josh said.

  “We’d never get the equipment we’d need for extraction down there,” Ben said.

  “That’s between the owner and his insurance company.”

  “We’re not pushing it into the pond,” Matt said firmly. “Do you want the lecture on water contamination, wildlife impact and EPA fines or can we just go with because I said so?”

  Josh groaned. “Hell no, I don’t want a lecture. And you know I was kidding, but since you won’t let us do it the easy way, we’ll watch you do it the hard way.”

  Matt looked at Ben. “Rock, paper, scissors?”

  “I saved the rider. You save the machine.”

  The game warden snorted. “Saved the rider? You cleaned the scrape on his elbow and gave him a Band-Aid.”

  “Hey, infected wounds are no joke.” He managed to say wound with a straight face, but it wasn’t easy.

  The rider had bailed when the machine started to roll, throwing himself free. He’d skinned his elbow when he hit the ground and he’d be finding new bruises for a couple of days, but he’d been lucky and Ben’s services hadn’t really been needed. Unfortunately, the information that the rider wasn’t still on the ATV when it rolled over and went off the trail and down a hill wasn’t relayed to the dispatcher right away and hadn’t been relayed to Ben at all. So he hadn’t saved anybody, but that wouldn’t stop him from trying to pawn the physical labor off on one of the other guys.

  In the end, both Matt and Ben ended up over the edge while Josh ran the winch. After they secured the steel cable to the frame of the ATV, they had to guide the ATV as Josh reeled the cable back in. It was slow work, and they had to constantly move to make sure they were never in a position to be swept down the hill on the odd chance the winch cable snapped.

  By the time they had the four-wheeler back on the trail, Ben was sweaty and cursing himself for not leaving as soon as he’d slapped a Band-Aid on the machine’s rider. Instead, he’d hung around after Andy went back after a truck and trailer, the so-called victim riding behind him since Andy had a two-up, chatting. Then the chatting became a discussion of how to retrieve the ATV and here he was.

  “Now comes the hard part,” Josh said, and Ben’s groan was almost drowned out by Matt’s. “We have to get it two miles to the closest spot Andy can get the truck and trailer to.”

  “We’re not driving it, that’s for sure.” Matt was circling the ATV, taking pictures. He’d taken some while it was hung up on the hill, too, as well as a few of the marks on the trail leading up to the spot it rolled over.

  It looked to Ben like the rider had simply caught a rut wrong and it was a straight-up accident, but that was Matt’s job.

  “I don’t see why we don’t leave it and let the guy who owns it worry about it,” Ben said. “You’d have to be one tricky son of a bitch to steal it in the condition it’s in.”

  Josh shook his head. “Because guess who’s going to get asked to bring him back out here and then get the machine back to the road? I’m here now. And you guys are here. I’d rather do this with you than a guy who managed to roll his machine on a dirt road.”

  “There are ruts,” Matt pointed out.

  “How are you planning to get it to the road?” Ben asked Josh, hoping they could move the process along so there was at least the hope of having lunch in the near future.

  “It’s only a 500, so my machine can take the weight. We’re going to put the front wheels up on my back rack and strap the shit out of it. Then, nice and slow so I’m not doing accidental wheelies, I’m going to pull it out to the road.”

  Ben laughed, shaking his head. “Sean and I did that once. He made me ride all the way back on the front rack of his machine to balance the weight of mine on the back.”

  “I remember when you guys pulled in the yard. Worked, didn’t it?”

  Ben looked at Josh. “We were young and stupid.”

  “And now we’re older and wiser, so nobody’s riding on the front rack. It is going to take all three of us to get that front end up high enough, though.”

  Matt snorted. “Aren’t you glad you took this job, Ben?”

  He laughed, but he was glad he’d taken the job offer. Sure, he was sweaty and his arms were going to be sore and he could only hope there hadn’t been poison ivy or oak on that hill, but he had no regrets.

  Coming back to Whitford had been the right decision and he had a feeling things were really going to start looking up.

  * * *

  Laney Caswell had been looking to make big changes in her life, and almost being able to touch both walls of her new home at the same time certainly qualified as a big change.

  The camper was small, but it had a bed, a tiny bathroom with a tinier shower, and outlets for her coffeemaker and charging her phone. What more did a woman starting over in her midthirties need?

  Today was the first full day of her new life at the Northern Star Lodge & Campground, she thought, feeling pretty damn proud of herself. The divorce had taken forever, but the papers had been signed and it was finally final. Throw in the camper’s hot water heater being just big enough to rinse all the soap and shampoo away, and things were looking up already.

  A knock on the camper door startled her, and she would have laughed out loud at herself except she knew campers weren’t exactly soundproof and she was trying to make a good impression on her new employers. After setting her coffee mug on the small square of Formica that made up her kitchen counter, she opened the door to find one of those bosses smiling up at her.

  “Good morning, Laney.”

  “Good morning.” Laney guessed Rose Miller—who she’d been told to call Rosie, like everybody else did—was in her very late sixties, though she wouldn’t ask, of course.

  “Now that you’ve spent
your first night in the camper, I thought I’d stop by and see if everything went okay, or if there were any problems.”

  It was awkward standing above the woman, so Laney stepped down onto the metal step and then the ground. After separating the two door panels, she closed the screen door and then folded the exterior door all the way back. There was a small hook bolted to the side of the camper that would hold it open. The camper had been closed up for a while and every little bit of fresh air would help.

  “I didn’t have any problems,” she said. “Everything seems to work fine, the bed is comfortable and my coffeemaker went off at the time I set it to. Thank you for the welcome basket, by the way. The muffins were amazing, and the banana bread was the best I’ve ever had.”

  “You’re welcome.” Rosie smiled. “And you can’t ask for much more than a comfortable bed and fresh coffee in the morning. Andy’s off doing some chores and I thought maybe you’d like to take a walk with me and see a little more of the place.”

  “Of course.” This was going to be her home until fall, and she was looking forward to exploring it.

  “Your flamingo is adorable, by the way,” Rosie said.

  Laney looked at the silly yard ornament she’d set into the ground next to her step and smiled. The wooden flamingo was bright pink and it had a funny, painted cartoon face. It also had thin plastic wings that would whirl if the winds were strong enough. It was something neither her family nor the Ballards—including her ex-husband—would have allowed on their lawns, and Laney loved it.

  “Thank you. He’s definitely a cheerful guy.”

  They walked around the campground area of the property. There were two cabins, and a dozen sites with sewer and electric hookups, not counting hers. Her site was closer to the line of trees between the camping area and the lodge, and had a view of the new pool.

  When they walked past the field behind the campsites where the campers could park their ATV trailers, Rosie waved to her husband, who was mowing with a zero turn mower. He blew her a kiss and Laney swore she heard Rosie giggle.