by Annie Rains
“I called an ambulance,” Noah said, reaching them now.
“Great,” Jack said. “Why don’t you call the police, too.”
Chapter 2
If she were a crier, Grace would be having a good long cry right about now. Grace Donner didn’t cry, though. She was tough. She also didn’t beg for jobs. Not that she’d begged Jack for anything earlier, but she’d felt the desperation hammering in her body when she’d pitched herself for the office management position.
Had he felt it, too?
“Oh, God.” Grace leaned forward over her kitchen counter and rubbed the headache forming behind her left temple.
“What’s wrong?” her mother asked, shuffling into the room.
Grace straightened and put on a smile. “Nothing.”
Her mother inspected her and shook her head. “You’ve never been a good liar.” She sat in an old blue recliner in the living room. Their apartment was small. The kitchen and living room were divided only by a metal line in the floor. “It’s my fault. I’m too much of a burden on you. I should leave.”
Grace rolled her eyes and, despite her mixed emotions, smiled. “You have nowhere to go, Mom.”
“Mrs. Smith down the street is looking for a caretaker.”
Grace resisted her need to laugh. Her mother was the one who needed taking care of. “I didn’t find a job today, but I’ll keep looking. Something will turn up.”
Her mother sighed. “You always were a stubborn one.”
“Job searching until you find something isn’t being stubborn, Mom.” But her mother had never been the type to actually get a job. More of the type to find a rich husband who adored her until she messed things up royally. “Did you take your medication today?” Grace asked.
Her mom frowned, her thin lips trembling as they dipped toward her chin. “Yes, of course I did.”
“It’s a beautiful summer day. Would you like to go for a walk? The doctor said to stay active.”
“Did he also assign you as my warden? I walked all around the apartment today cleaning. All I want to do right now is read my book.” She pulled a paperback onto her lap and shakily flipped it open.
Grace nodded. “Okay. Well, they say reading is good exercise for your brain.”
Her mother scowled like a rebellious teenager, but kept her gaze on the book’s pages. Grace couldn’t help it if she was overbearing. Her mother was the only family she had, and she didn’t want to lose her. Grace had researched all the ways to help her mother stay healthy with her Parkinson’s disease diagnosis. Eat well, stay active, and take the prescribed medication—the one that Grace wouldn’t be able to afford if she didn’t find employment soon.
Fear settled back in her chest. It pissed her off that she was letting emotion fuel her. Maybe she was the one who needed to go for a walk. Slipping her feet into a pair of flip-flops, she grabbed the prepaid cellphone she kept around for emergencies. “I have my phone on, Mom. Call if you need anything.”
Her mother ignored her and kept reading.
Grace headed out the front door, across the street, and through one row of housing toward the ocean. She felt small here, which in turn meant her problems were smaller. Her breaths became deeper as she strolled, pulling the salt-tinged air into her lungs. The Atlantic Ocean roared and rolled toward her. This was her idea of heaven.
“Grace?”
She froze, pulling her eyes from the endless water and planting them on the man in front of her. He’d seemed to appear out of nowhere, like a mirage that for a moment she wanted to rush over to. Pulling up her defenses, she reminded herself that she was nothing to Jack anymore—not if he could turn on her and her mother so easily. “Twice in one day,” she said.
In contrast to her, Jack stood relaxed. “You disappeared this morning.”
“You seemed a little busy.” She suddenly didn’t know what to do with her hands. Why did Jack make her so nervous? Her gaze skittered up to meet his Ray-Bans. “How did the interviews go?” She immediately regretted asking because she didn’t want him to think she still wanted the job for herself. That had been a moment of desperation.
He shrugged, then bent to grab a shell from under his foot. He sent it skipping out into the water. “All right, I guess. It’ll be hard to replace Aunt Mira. Who else will bring homemade fudge for us to eat once a week?”
Grace laughed. “She still did that?”
Jack grinned—the expression a visual aphrodisiac. “Still does it, even though she’s retired. The woman is a saint.”
Grace fidgeted some more. “She’s always loved taking care of you guys…Anyway, I guess I’ll see you around.” And avoid him wherever possible just like she’d been doing for the last fifteen years since Pete and her mother divorced. Although for some reason today, the moon and stars seemed to have collided and pulled them together.
Jack gently reached for her arm as she started to pass. His touch was like an electric current zipping through her. Every cell awakened. She turned to look at him standing so close. Big mistake. He’d pushed his sunglasses on his head, revealing eyes equally as stimulating as his grin. Heat crawled down her body from her cheeks to her chest, settling low in her belly. Her gaze flicked to his mouth. She’d kissed those lips once when they were teenagers. Or he’d kissed her. They’d never agreed on exactly how the kiss had come about. Just on the fact that it should never happen again. He’d been her stepbrother. Kissing him had been against an unspoken rule.
“Don’t run off just yet,” he said.
Part of her was relieved. Part of her had wanted him to stop her. The other part of her, the weaker part, wanted to run like the ocean wind, fast, kicking up sand in its wake.
She took a small step backward and braced herself. “What do you want?”
—
Jack never walked by the ocean anymore. All it turned up were seashells and bad memories. But today, a woman he wasn’t supposed to like, much less be attracted to, made him breathe in the salty air with appreciation.
The ocean blew her brown hair around her face, clawing against her soft, touchable skin. She folded her arms over her chest, reminding him of the tough teenage girl she’d pretended to be. She was tough all right, but not impenetrable.
“Are you going to talk or just stare at me?” she asked.
Jack shook his head. She was throwing up her defense tactics left and right, which meant she felt like she needed to protect herself. From him. “You were interested in the job.”
And he knew better than to hire her.
“I shouldn’t have said anything. I’m not the right person for the office position. We both know that.”
He released his soft grasp on her arm, but they continued to stand close. “You helped Aunt Mira in the office when you were a teenager. She said you did great.”
Grace swiped at a lock of hair that whipped across her cheek, framing her mahogany eyes. “I was fifteen years old.”
“Just imagine how great you’d do now, then.” He could hear the flirty tone in his voice. Unintentional. Grace brought out all kinds of unintentional things in him. “We offer competitive pay. Benefits. Office hours.”
Grace lifted a brow. “You didn’t sell the job this well to the other two candidates. Why me?”
Good question. She was the worst candidate for the job. His dad and brothers would implode if they found a Donner in their midst. But they’d tasked Jack to do the hiring. “Dewy’s kid rammed a boat into our kayak launch earlier.”
Grace’s hands flew to her mouth. “Tristan? Is he okay?”
“Yeah. He’s fine, but I’m the one who’ll be building a new launch. I don’t have time for paperwork and I don’t have time to train someone whose main qualification is making coffee. That’s why I need you.”
Grace inspected him, making him feel like he was the one being interviewed. For a reason he couldn’t explain, he wanted her to say yes nearly as badly as he wanted to taste those lips of hers again—which was exactly why it’d be best if sh
e turned down his job offer.
“I don’t know. Are you sure your family would be okay with me working at the company?”
“It’ll be fine. I’ll talk to them before you start,” he promised. “Come on. Please. I need you.”
She nodded slowly. “Okay. If you’re sure.” She gave a small smile and said, “When and where do you want me?”
That question sparked a flurry of responses in his mind. He wanted her right now, on the sand, in his bed. He was no longer a thirty-one-year-old man; suddenly he was whipped back to the sixteen-year-old boy he’d been with a forbidden crush on his stepsister. She’d been beautiful and she’d had this seemingly magic power to make him feel better just by walking in the room back then. He couldn’t get enough of her, even though their time was mostly made up of just hanging out and watching TV. He’d fantasized about more, though. As much as he’d liked and respected the teenage Grace, he’d also been a horny kid.
Jack cleared his throat. “How about coming to the office at eight o’clock tomorrow morning?”
Grace nodded, still smiling. “I’ll be there.”
Their gazes held for a second.
“Okay, well, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Yeah.” Jack watched her wave and walk away, the muscles of her long legs tightening against the mounds of sand, his attraction to her crashing down on him as forcefully as the waves on the shore. This decision was going to get him in so much trouble—and not just with his dad and brothers.
He headed back to the office to tell them the news, but no one was in. The fish must’ve been biting this morning. Maybe that meant they’d all be in a good mood later when he sprang the news of their new hire. Relieved for the delay, Jack walked over to the kayak launch to inspect the damage that Tristan Capps had inflicted earlier. His cousin Gabe met him at the water’s edge.
“Hey, cuz.” Gabe pulled Jack in for a back slap. Not a hug. Nope, the Sawyer men didn’t embrace. They took a hand, pulled, and used their other hand to slap backs. Fronts didn’t touch because, well, they were men. And they were also fishermen, which meant they usually wore grime, bait, and a thick coating of perspiration when they were at work. “I hear you’ll be the one fixing my launch.”
“Yep.” Jack nodded. “Tristan is lucky he’s not paralyzed or worse. What was he thinking?”
“You mean what was he drinking.” Gabe pulled his shades off the top of his head and over his eyes. “He is Dewy Capps’s kid, so I guess he was doomed at conception.”
Jack frowned. “What’s going to happen to him? Do you know yet?”
Gabe shrugged. “His old man will pay for the damages, I suspect. Haven’t decided if I’m going to file charges, although I probably should. The kid is already being hit with underage drinking, though.”
Jack rubbed the back of his neck, entertaining the second bad idea he’d had today. Bringing Grace onboard at the Sawyer Seafood Company was bad enough. But he remembered being a punk of a teen, too, once upon a time. At least he’d had a decent father to steer him back on track. Tristan, on the other hand, had a father who was doing a good job of steering him off track. “I’m going to need help fixing this launch,” Jack said.
Gabe’s brows lowered. “Okay. Well, do you want me to—?”
“No.” Jack shook his head. “I want Tristan Capps. How about we make a deal with him? He helps fix the launch or you file charges?”
“Are you crazy, man? Working with a teen version of Dewy is likely to get you thrown in jail on attempted homicide charges.”
Jack laughed. “Maybe so. But I want to do it.” Plus, Jack didn’t want to do all the work on his own. He loved to build, but he’d always had his best friend, Chris, by his side.
“All right. If you’re sure. I’ll call Dewy this afternoon and let him know.”
“Great. The job starts tomorrow afternoon.”
Gabe shook his head. “Might want to stop and get yourself a few drinks at Castaways before heading over. You’ll need a couple.”
“Right.” Jack might need to go there and start knocking a couple back right now. He’d had two bad ideas already today, both of which would probably bite him in the ass tomorrow.
—
After the week Grace had already had, a couple of drinks was exactly what she needed to funnel away all of the tension building at the base of her skull. Since her encounter with Jack this afternoon, her mind had been chattering nonstop. She wasn’t sure how she was going to make it work; she only knew she had to.
Grace took a breath, suddenly feeling hopeful. Working for the Sawyers wouldn’t be easy at first, but she was certain that she’d be great at the job. And if they saw how capable she was, maybe their working relationship would be at least tolerable. They didn’t have to like her. She certainly wasn’t that fond of them, especially her ex-stepfather, Pete Sawyer. After the divorce, she’d never heard from him again, which had been painful. He’d pretended to love her as a daughter during her mother’s five-year marriage to him. Then he’d turned his back on them.
“It’ll be fine,” Grace whispered under her breath—her motto these days—as she approached Castaways, a high-end bar that was a mile’s walking distance from her apartment. After making sure her mother was tucked cozily into bed, she’d taken the hike here for a change of scenery and a drink, which she had no business spending her money on. But the drinks were only a dollar on tap tonight, and if she didn’t let loose soon, she felt like she was going to explode.
Entering the bar, Grace paused for a moment to look around. The music was lively with the sound of the crowd’s chatter threaded through it. She immediately felt more relaxed somehow just being here. She moved her gaze around the room, looking for a familiar face—not that she minded sitting alone. That meant possibly having to ward off undesired men, though. She didn’t want a man tonight. Not unless his last name was Sawyer.
Grace shook her head. Jack was already in her brain. Now she needed to drink him away.
Relief hit her as she spotted Krista Nelson, one of her oldest friends from high school. Grace knew that Krista worked as a pediatric nurse at the hospital during the day. She was sipping beers with Abby Sawyer, Sam’s estranged wife and a local chef. Abby’s head was thrown back as she laughed at something, and Krista’s hand clutched her chest as she struggled to breathe through her own laughter.
Grace headed in their direction. They seemed to be having a good time, which was exactly what she needed tonight.
“Hi, ladies,” she said, walking up to them.
Krista and Abby looked up from their conversation.
With a squeal, an obviously tipsy Krista jumped up and wrapped her arms around Grace, nearly knocking her over. “Grace Donner! I haven’t seen you in forever! I’ve missed you!” Krista pulled back, her thick black hair swinging behind her shoulders from her sudden burst of movement. “Have a seat, friend. I’ll buy you a drink.”
“You don’t have to—” Grace began, but Abby held up a hand.
“That’s how we roll. She buys you a drink now and in thirty minutes you return the favor. So it evens out. Makes us feel like we’re doing a good deed, though.” Abby winked.
Grace nodded and pulled out a chair. “Oh. All right then. I’ll have what you two are having.”
“Of course you will. It’s Thirsty Thursday. We drink until we need help walking to the bathroom. Then we call my brother, Joey,” Krista said, using her hands to smooth her hair back into place.
“Joey?” Grace was having a hard time following.
“He’s a cab driver. He always makes sure we get home safely.”
“I see. That sounds like a perfect setup,” Grace said.
“Aren’t you glad you decided to join us?” Krista signaled the waitress, who placed a beer in front of Grace.
“Yeah,” Grace said, pulling the glass to her lips. “I am glad.” This was exactly what she needed tonight. Cheap beer and friends. She’d let her friendships fall to the wayside over the years whil
e caring for her mother and working nights. “Don’t let me drink too much, though. I start a new job tomorrow morning.”
Both women raised their brows in interest.
“Well, don’t leave us wondering, where will you be working?” Abby asked.
Grace took a long gulp. “I’m going to be the new office manager at Sawyer Seafood Company.”
Krista nearly choked on her beer. “You’re kidding, right?”
Grace shook her head. “No. Why?”
“I thought your families didn’t mesh anymore,” Krista said.
“We don’t. But I can be professional if it means helping my mom.”
“I heard she was sick,” Abby said. “How is she doing?”
Grace nodded. This was Blushing Bay. Even if she’d been keeping to herself, everyone else apparently had been keeping tabs. “My mom was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease last year. She’s managing, although living with her is about to drive me absolutely crazy. Thus, one reason I’m here tonight.” Reason number two was that thinking about Jack was driving her even crazier.
“Caregiving is tough. You deserve a break.” Krista smiled, though Grace could see the concern darkening the blue of her eyes.
Grace didn’t want to dampen the women’s mood. “So, is dancing part of your girls’ night out?”
Abby groaned. “Krista forces me onto the dance floor,” she said. “Thank God there’s finally someone else for her to drag out there tonight. I’d rather drink and mentally make fun of everyone else’s moves.”
Krista gave her friend a playful shove. “You still have to dance. Now I have two partners.” She drained the remaining beer from her glass and stood up. “Come on, you two. Maybe I can talk the DJ into playing the Electric Slide.”
