WHATEVER YOU NEED is book two in Barbara Longley's
Haneys
contemporary romance series. I love this book
and simply adored this shy nice-guy hero. Although it
takes a little bit before things get truly hot and heavy
between Wyatt and Kayla, Barbara Longley does a superb
job of building their relationship and the sense of
erotic anticipation. Wyatt is an electrician-by-day and
aspiring comic book writer craving the love and stability
his brother has recently found. Kayla is a single mom who
has been burned in the past and is reluctant to give up
her freedom and try to trust again. I would recommend
WHATEVER YOU NEED to any romance fan in search of a story
that's both tender and magical.
Having this story told from alternating perspectives is
extremely helpful for the reader because Kayla and Wyatt
initially keep their true feelings under wraps. Wyatt
hits it out of the ballpark as a hero. While Wyatt might
not be a superhero like the one he writes about, the way
he looks out for Kayla and cares for her five-year-old
son Brady make him swoon-worthy. I love how Kayla is so
easy to relate to -- a busy mom, trying to continue her
education, occasionally stopping for fast food, and doing
the best she can. Wyatt and Kayla each have their issues
to overcome -- his insecurities about his physical scars,
and her emotional scars left by her late husband and his
family. WHATEVER YOU NEED is a deeply moving story about
two people serendipitously finding each other and forming
a family.
WHATEVER YOU NEED is a charming must-read with an
unforgettable hero. In WHATEVER YOU NEED, Wyatt is a hero
who is willing to be whatever the heroine needs. Barbara
Longley tells a warm and uplifting story with flashes of
humor, while writing about flawed, realistic characters.
The ending to WHATEVER YOU NEED is so satisfying that I
wanted to stand up and cheer. Although is my first
Barbara Longley book, it will definitely not be my last!
In the second novel in award-winning author Barbara
Longley’s sweet and sexy Haneys series, an introverted
electrician rewires a young widow’s apartment—and
attempts
to mend her heart.
Painfully shy electrician Wyatt Haney is a pro at complex
wiring jobs, but when it comes to women, he just can’t
seem
to make a lasting connection. If he had even half the
courage of the superhero he penned for his comic book
series, he’d finally be able to talk to his beautiful
neighbor, Kayla—and stop hiding behind a hoodie. When an
electrical fire breaks out in Kayla’s apartment, Wyatt
comes
to the rescue, sparking an attraction neither of them
expected.
Kayla Malone has had enough surprises. First an unplanned
pregnancy at eighteen, then losing her husband in war,
and
now a fire in her apartment. Thank God her hot neighbor
has
the skills to help. As Wyatt repairs Kayla’s apartment
and
forges a relationship with her son, he also makes inroads
to
her heart. It’s clear that Wyatt has fallen for Kayla,
but
is she willing to risk another heartbreak—or will she
ignore
the electricity between them and miss her happy ending?
Excerpt
Chapter One
Wyatt sat at his drawing table and worked on a panel for
his latest comic book series. Elec Tric, his super hero, had
been hit by an otherworldly bolt of lightning one sunny day.
Twice. Since then, he’d been able to generate his own
electricity. Even stranger, an unseen world of demons and
super beings had become visible to him from that day
forward. Tric had been forced to make a choice: join the
forces of evil who intended to reign supreme over the
innocent inhabitants of earth, or join the forces of good
who kept the evil at bay.
“Join me, Tric, or I will destroy you,” commanded
Delilah Diabolical, the demon queen.
“Never!One demon down; three to go.” Tric
pivoted to shoot a bolt of deadly electricity at his
archenemy. He couldn’t destroy her, but he managed to send
Delilah reeling, which bought him enough time to obliterate
her remaining minions. ZAP! SIZZLE! ZAP-ZAP! Gone.
Wyatt finished inking in the bolts of lightning shooting
from Tric’s hands and eyes to where the superhero had
reduced another pesky lower-level demon to a pile of glowing
embers and ash. Then he moved on to the next panel, and a
new challenge for his superhero.
“Help!” a pretty blonde cried, as two of DD’s minor
demons attempted to drag her off to the underworld.
“Somebody, please help me!”
Elec Tric once again rushed to rescue the Mysterious Ms. M,
which gave the superhero pause. Why did fate keep throwing
the pretty blue-eyed blonde in harm’s way? In his way. Was
she another distraction sent by the evildoers to keep him
from finding out what they were really up to? If not, what
did the demon realm want with Ms. M?
Cue dramatic foreshadowing music. Da-da-duhhh.
Wyatt grinned. Sometimes his stories played through his mind
like cheesy movies, and when that happened, he was in the
zone. Nothing made him happier than working on his comic
books while in the zone.
Noise at the back door leading to the parking lot pulled him
out of his imaginary world. He rose from his stool and moved
to glance out the window. There she was, the blonde who
lived in the apartment above his—the pretty neighbor who’d
been his inspiration for the Mysterious Ms. M. Her little
boy carried a jug of laundry detergent, while K. Malone—he’d
read her name on the mailbox more than once—lugged two large
plastic tubs full of laundry, one stacked on top of the other.
K. Malone did her laundry every Saturday morning. Wyatt knew
this because he took the opportunity to observe her as she
left. And every Saturday morning he wondered the same thing:
How would she react if he ran downstairs and out the back
door to help her with her heavy load? Would she turn her
thousand-watt smile his way, introduce herself and ask if
he’d like to get together with her soon? He wished. Oh, how
he wished.
Longing stole his breath, and he moved back from the
window—as if K. Malone might be able to see him watching her
from his apartment. “Curse this wretched shyness,” he
muttered in his best cartoon character voice.
He wanted so badly to talk to her, to introduce himself and
maybe ask her out. He’d even tried a few times, but the
words stuck in his dry mouth, his face turned to flame, and
his lungs refused to do their job. He was a hopeless mess
when it came to women. Hell, he was a hopeless mess when it
came to people in general.
He peered out the window until mother and son drove off to
the laundromat. Letting loose a heavy sigh, he returned to
his drawing table and immersed himself in his made-up world
of alter ego, heroic deeds and feats of superhuman strength.
It sure beat losing himself in his usual diatribe of
self-castigation.
A couple of hours later, Wyatt got up to stretch. He’d
finished the panel he’d been working on, and his stomach had
been grumbling “feed me” for the past fifteen minutes. He
walked to the kitchen to make a turkey sandwich, when he
smelled . . . smoke? A second later, the fire alarm went off
in the kitchen above his. “Cripes.” K. Malone’s apartment
was on fire.
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