The Husband Quest

by Lori Handeland Narrated by Kristin Price

Overview

Jilly Hart has been called many things: gold digger, trophy wife, serial bride. She's led a difficult life, so she doesn't believe in love or magic-only assets. She doesn't ever plan to be poor or hungry again. However, when she finds herself a widow for the fourth time, she discovers that all she has left is a nineteenth-century inn in South Fork, Arkansas. She heads there with plans to sell the place and start her quest for husband number five. Unfortunately, the inn is not only a wreck but also haunted. Evan Luchetti's brothers tease him about being "just a gigolo." But all he wants is a family. When his latest relationship falters after he proposes, he decides to change his life-in Arkansas. He accepts a job restoring a nineteenth-century inn. When the two meet, sparks fly. But Evan wants forever, and Jilly has three rules she lives by: 1. Never, ever marry for love. 2. Poor men are for play; rich men are for keeps. 3. Old men are like fine wine. Once tasted, they don't last very long. They strike a partnership to restore the inn and sell it so that Evan can be paid the money he's owed and Jilly can move forward with her quest. But the more time they spend together, the more things change. Can Evan convince Jilly that love is magic and that it will make her so much richer than any life money can buy?

Product Details

BN ID:	2940177935072
Publisher:	Dreamscape Media
Publication date:	03/31/2020
Series:	Luchettis , #4
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

The Husband Quest

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By Lori Handeland

Harlequin Enterprises, Ltd.

Copyright © 2004 Harlequin Enterprises, Ltd.
All right reserved.
ISBN: 0-373-71226-X

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Chapter One

"ALL OF YOUR MONEY IS GONE."

Thinking there must still be water in her ear from taking a shower that morning, Jillian Hart tapped the side of her head.

"I'm sorry? I didn't catch that."

"Your money is gone."

Her late husband's lawyer, Jay Daggett, spoke slowly, as if she were a half-wit. Sadly, Jilly often had to act as if there wasn't a brain in her head. Men liked that, especially older, wealthy men. Her specialty.

"My money has gone where?"

"Into someone else's bank." Daggett, a short, stout, balding man of indeterminate age, shuffled his papers and put them in his briefcase. "Actually, several someones."

"Get it back."

"I can't. Henry owed everyone in town. His reputation kept them from collecting while he was alive and there was a possibility of his recouping the losses. However ..."

Jilly was drawn to the peaceful, panoramic view of the ocean visible from her house on Laguna Beach. "Now that he's dead, they want their money."

"Yes."

Her fourth husband, Henry Duvier, had died of a heart attack only a week ago. Considering he was eighty, that wasn't a surprise.

They'd been married five years - longer than any of her other marriages. Jilly had been fond of Henry, enjoyed his company and that of his friends. She'd hoped his assets would allow her to remain a widow for at least a year or two - something she'd never been able to do before.

Jilly turned her back on the ocean. "So you're telling me Henry's money is gone."

Daggett shook his head. "Everything. You'll need to be out of this house by Friday."

Not her beautiful beach house. She loved the sand, the surf, the endless expanse of blue. How would she sleep at night if she couldn't hear the soothing cadence of the water nearby?

"This makes no sense. Henry was a very wealthy man."

"Until he decided to become a movie mogul."

Damn. Jilly had known Henry's interest in Hollywood would bite him on the butt someday. Unfortunately, she seemed to be the one feeling the teeth.

Henry's ancestors had begun Duvier Publishing back when Gutenberg was a pup. Henry had spent his life making the family business even more successful. Then, when he was in his seventies, he'd sold out to a German conglomerate and retired to California.

But a lifetime of being a workaholic did not a good retiree make. Never having spared the time to create a family, Henry was not only bored, he was lonely. Which was where Jilly came in.

Some called her a gold digger; the society pages referred to her as a woman of means; the tabloids had long ago labeled her a serial bride. Jilly was both all and none of the above.

"There was just that one movie," she said.

Daggett peered at her over the rims of his glasses.

"There were three."

Jilly sighed. In the manner of trophy wives, she was not expected to meddle in Henry's business affairs. She'd been in charge of his loneliness; his Hollywood friends had taken care of the boredom.

Henry had always wanted to be a producer. All he'd produced had been bombs.

"He used his money on Aliens Are Easy," Daggett continued. "Mortgaged everything for Gunfight in Cleveland. Your funds went into the Beverly Hillbillies Return."

Annoyance and disappointment flooded Jilly. She and Henry had made a good marriage, one based on trust and affection. But she should have followed her mother's advice and stashed her personal hoard in Switzerland. Instead, she'd let Henry manage the fortune left to her by husbands one, two and three. It had hardly seemed fair to deny him access to her money when she had access to his.

Fair? When had life been fair?

She'd been dragged from town to town as a child, on the whim of her mother's husband of the moment. Genevieve Hart had married once for love. Love had gotten her a child and poverty when her husband skipped off with every penny they had. He'd gambled it away, then promptly gotten himself shot by someone he couldn't pay.

Jilly had been five at the time, but she remembered the overwhelming sense of panic that pressed down on them, the countless times they'd had nowhere to sleep but the street, nothing to wear but the clothes on their backs, not a thing to eat but what they could beg or steal. She would not be in that predicament again.

"Is there anything left?" she asked.

"Just the Inn at South Fork. In Arkansas."

"Arkansas?" Her voice reflected the horror that was no doubt all over her face. "Why on earth would Henry buy something there?"

Daggett glanced at the single paper he'd left out of his briefcase. "The inn was supposed to be the setting for the hillbilly movie."

"And?"

"They never used it." He tilted his head. "I'm not sure why."

"The vultures couldn't leave me the villa in Tuscany?"

"They devoured that first. I suspect the inn wasn't worth the trouble."

"Great," she muttered.

Daggett shrugged. "Take it or leave it." Jilly snatched the paper from his hand. "I'll take it." What choice did she have?

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from The Husband Quest by Lori Handeland Copyright © 2004 by Harlequin Enterprises, Ltd.. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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