This Heart Of Mine

By Loretta Nyhan and Suzanne Hayes

In this short prequel to I'll Be Seeing You, authors Suzanne Hayes and Loretta Nyhan introduce you to two extraordinary women who are worlds apart–but whose journals reveal they have more in common than they could ever imagine….

Chicago, 1921

Nineteen–year–old waitress Rita Strauss is trying to make it on her own in the big city, spending most of her time alone with her thoughts. The bright spot in her day is the handsome medical student who's a regular at her diner. Rita fantasizes about what to say to him, wishing she could be more confident–until she decides to take control of her life once and for all.

Rockport, 1940

Socialite Glory Astor thinks it's the best day of her life when her longtime beau, Robert, finally proposes. But everything gets complicated when her childhood friend Levi asks her to run away with him instead, forcing Glory to choose between the two men she cares about the most.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Australia
• Release date: May 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9781743641118

Loretta Nyhan

Loretta Nyhan has worked as a journalist and copywriter, and currently teaches college writing and humanities. She lives in the Chicago area with her husband and family. I'll Be Seeing You is her first novel.

Book preview

In this short prequel to I’ll Be Seeing You, authors Suzanne Hayes and Loretta Nyhan introduce you to two extraordinary women who are worlds apart—but whose journals reveal they have more in common than they could ever imagine....

Chicago, 1921

Nineteen-year-old waitress Rita Strauss is trying to make it on her own in the big city, spending most of her time alone with her thoughts. The bright spot in her day is the handsome medical student who’s a regular at her diner. Rita fantasizes about what to say to him, wishing she could be more confident—until she decides to take control of her life once and for all.

Rockport, 1940

Socialite Glory Astor thinks it’s the best day of her life when her longtime beau, Robert, finally proposes. But everything gets complicated when her childhood friend Levi asks her to run away with him instead, forcing Glory to choose between the two men she cares about the most.

Find out how Rita’s and Glory’s lives intersect in I’ll Be Seeing You. Told through their letters during WWII, this incredible story brings together two unforgettable women who have never met in person yet share an unbreakable bond of friendship.

THIS HEART OF MINE

Suzanne Hayes and Loretta Nyhan

www.harlequinbooks.com.au

Contents

RITA

GLORY

RITA

Chicago, 1921

Tuesday, December 13, 1921

Dear Diary,

He showed up at the diner again.

I still didn’t catch his name. Anthony? Nick? Enzo? It’s too late to sneak it out of him. I tried, introducing the other girls, but he just winked and said, Hiya, and never offered up. To ask now would be an insult, and I can’t afford to insult a customer who tips as if he’s got a Rockefeller in his back pocket. My money’s been getting lost on its way to my purse. Where it goes, nobody knows....

Maybe I’ll give him a nickname. I do it with all the regulars, and it looks as if this mystery man is on his way to becoming one, though he doesn’t look anything like the red-faced, doughy boys who sit at my counter, ample rears hanging over the sides of their stools. This guy isn’t tall or strapping, but he’s not a shrimp either. His hair is so dark and shiny I can almost see my reflection in it. He wears the top a little long, stray locks brushing against skin the color of tea with milk. His general swarthiness makes his eyes pop like sapphires on black velvet.

I should call him Blue.

That is, if I get a chance. You never know with diner customers. Chicago is a big, unpredictable city—a fella could come every day for a week and then disappear into the ether. Happens all the time.

I hope this one comes back. He’s interesting, and I need interesting. He’s also nice. This evening he ordered a slice of my sorry excuse for a raisin pie. I hadn’t cut into it all day.

And, truth be told, he’s gorgeous. Who doesn’t like to look? To dream?

The new girl—Hildy—made sure she got an eyeful. The other girls don’t like her—whatever she does with her nights leaves lines on her face and slows her walk—but I do. She always refills the sugar bowls without being asked and isn’t afraid to scrub out a burnt coffeepot. Who’s the gent? she said while Mr. Blue dug into his pie. He doesn’t have a good sense of direction, does he? What’s he doing in Germantown?

I shrugged. Who knows? Some college boy with time on his hands. He attends Rush Medical College. It’s the one fact I do know about him and, by golly, I’m going to hang on to it pretty tight.

The corner of Hildy’s cherry-red mouth tilted upward. More like mama’s boy, she teased.

It’s only a saying, but my heart squeezes with jealousy when I think of someone—anyone—having a mother still walking this world. Mine’s been gone three months, but the feeling won’t leave me. Father Ulrich says we can’t mark grief the way we mark time, in increments. If he’s right, then there’s something very wrong about me because all I do is count the days since she passed, hoping my glum mood will lighten a smidge with each check on the calendar. It doesn’t. I’m climbing slowly out of a deep well, rung by rung on a rickety ladder that could go out from under my feet at any minute. It makes me careful. So careful.

My emotions live pretty far under the surface, so Hildy didn’t read the sorrow, she only picked up a shift in my mood. Oh, Rita, you’ve got it bad, don’t you?

It’s Marguerite, I said primly. And I don’t know what you’re talking about.

Uh-huh, she said.

Hildy’s lucky I like her, because I wanted more than anything to slap her smug grin from here to State Street. She wasn’t wrong, though. I do think he’s sweet, but I have to be careful. I need to hold on to this job. A good waitress knows diner crushes should only turn into true romance in the realm of the imagination. Our torrid affair could take place between my ears while I mix a single-chocolate malted. That way, I don’t risk making a fool of myself. If I can keep my thoughts private, my daydreams starring Mr. Blue will do what they’re supposed to—make the long day skip along at a nice pace. No one has to be the wiser. That’s the sacred motto of restaurant workers everywhere—Keep It to Yourself, Kid.

I would have told Mama. She loved to hear my stories, listening intently, laughing in all the right places and trying not to cough. She’d devise a plan to find out his name. She’d lessen the sting if he never walked back in the door.

But she’s gone. Passed from earth to heaven like a