Forbidden Kisses

by Annie Rains

  “Right. You would never lift a finger to help my mother. I know that.” Her voice grew defensive.

  “I’ll always help you, though.”

  She glanced over. “Okay. Well, I need help again. I want to be part of your crew for the East Coast fishing tournament this year.”

  His foot reflexively lifted off the gas. “I don’t fish anymore.”

  “But you do it every year. Ever since we were kids.”

  “Things changed. I changed. Why would you want to do the tournament anyway?” he asked. “Have you ever fished a day in your life?”

  “Your father took me out dozens of times when I lived with you. He taught me to fish, and I’ll have you know that I was pretty good.”

  “At catching pinfish, Grace. This is worlds different from that. It’s dangerous out there.” He knew that better than most.

  “I can do it.”

  “Is this about the prize? How much money do you need?” he asked.

  She jerked her head back to look at him. “Let’s get this straight, once and for all. I don’t steal and I don’t take handouts.”

  He held up a hand. “I know,” he said calmly. “But money is the reason you want to do the tournament.”

  She didn’t deny it. “And fear is the reason you don’t want to do it.”

  His spine stiffened as if he’d been jabbed with a pointy stick. “I’m not afraid of the water. I just don’t like it very much anymore.” In fact, if he could figure out a way to kick the Atlantic Ocean’s backside, he would.

  “It’s one day, Jack. We could win.”

  “Ask Sam or Noah.”

  Grace shook her head. “Noah hates me. And Sam isn’t a tournament fisherman. You’re the one who’s won half of the East Coast Tournaments you’ve ever entered.”

  “Chris and I won. There’s only me now. I’m done with the tournament.”

  Grace folded her arms over her chest. “You don’t have to be. This might be good for you. Good for both of us.”

  “The answer is no, Grace,” he said as he pulled into the first delivery stop on their list. He got out of the truck and started unloading, rattled from the conversation and slightly guilty all of a sudden for crushing Grace’s hopes. If he could, he’d do this for her. He didn’t know exactly why she was interested in the prize, but he knew her well enough to know she wouldn’t ask for help if she didn’t absolutely think it was necessary. Maybe she was behind on rent or some other debt. Maybe her mother’s health was worse than he thought. Whatever the reason, he wouldn’t agree to the fishing tournament. He couldn’t help her.

  Not this time.

  —

  Three deliveries later, Grace was still holding her tongue.

  “I’m starving,” Jack said. “And sick to death of seafood. Care for a sandwich?”

  Grace nodded, but kept her mouth shut.

  “You’re not talking to me now?” he finally asked.

  “I’ll do it on my own.”

  “What?” Jack looked over as he drove.

  “If you loan me a boat, I’ll enter the tournament on my own.”

  His laughter only fueled her anger. “You can’t drive a boat.”

  “Yes, I can. Your father also taught me that. And I’m strong-willed just like my mother. I can win this thing.”

  “No, you can’t.” He pulled into the parking lot for a small diner, cut the engine, and started to get out.

  Grace folded her arms and stayed put. “I’m serious, Jack,” she said before he shut the door behind him.

  He appeared on her passenger side and opened her door for her. “Come on. Let’s grab a bite.”

  “Please.” The P-word was akin to begging in her mind, but this was important. Winning the cash prize could buy back the Beatrice, and more important, buy back her family’s reputation, which was priceless in her book.

  “You can’t operate a forty-foot commercial fishing boat.”

  “Why not?”

  Jack shook his head. “Well, for one, you don’t have the right experience. Two, you have no boat. And three, you have no crew.” He ticked his reasons off on his fingers. Then his gaze slid down her body, slow and deliberately. “Also, you’re not built to reel in a fish that could weigh up to five hundred pounds.”

  He was popping all of the balloons keeping her hope of making this work afloat. “That’s what a crew is for, right? I can find experienced men to help me reel. I can find someone with a boat willing to help, too.”

  “And this crew of yours would also be willing to just hand over the cash prize?” he asked.

  “We’d split the money.”

  Jack shook his head, his hands braced above him on the top of her doorframe. “You should drop this right now, Grace. It’s not happening.”

  She wondered if she was imagining the heat circulating between them. It was a hot summer day, but the space between them was at least ten degrees hotter. “Just think about it. That’s all I’m asking.”

  He hesitated, then tossed a glance over his shoulder at the diner. “I’m starving right now. If you’ll go inside with me for that sandwich, I’ll think about it, okay?”

  One little hope-filled balloon moved her forward. She dipped under his arm and walked past him. “That’s all I’m asking.”

  Chapter 6

  Jack safely avoided the subject of the East Coast fishing tournament at lunch. Instead, he and Grace talked about everything and nothing under the sun. It almost reminded him of when they were teenagers. They used to be able to spend hours just talking.

  He placed some money on the table and pushed his chair back. “Is this your first time in Southport?”

  “Yeah.” Grace turned to look out of the restaurant’s window. “It’s a lot like Blushing Bay.”

  “There’s nowhere on earth like Blushing Bay,” Jack argued. “But Southport is worth seeing if you’ve never been here. What do you say we go for a walk before we take the two-hour drive back home?”

  Grace smiled. “I’d like that.”

  They left the diner and walked quietly side by side for a while, navigating the touristy streets.

  Jack stopped in front of one of the storefront windows. “As a kid I always begged Dad to take me in there.”

  The Bumble Bee Toy store had several old-fashioned toys on display in the window.

  “Let’s go in,” Grace suggested.

  Jack raised an eyebrow. “You want to go in a toy store?”

  She grabbed his hand and tugged him toward the door, but his feet froze. His hand wrapped around hers, hanging on to the touch she’d given him. The touch that part of him, a large part, had been longing for since he’d first seen her at the Blushing Bay Café a couple weeks ago.

  She looked at him. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing. I’m just glad you’re giving me the time of day again. I’ve missed you over the years.” He let go of her hand. Grace had come into his life when he was a hormone-driven teen boy. She’d been more than just a pretty face or a stepsister to him, though. There’d always been something about her that had pulled him in, hooked him like a senseless fish going after something he knew deep down he couldn’t have.

  “I know.” Grace swiped at a lock of hair that was tangling in the wind. “I’m glad we’re friends again, too.”

  “Friends. That’s an upgrade. I just thought you were tolerating me. I like friends, though.” If he were honest, he’d like another upgrade—friends with more.

  “So, the toy store?” she asked.

  He shook his head. “No, I’d rather just walk off lunch. My toys these days are my carpenter tools.”

  Grace shrugged and fell in stride beside him. “What are you making?”

  “Aside from the new launch and pier, I’m building a small boat in my garage.”

  Her squeal made him stiffen. “I guess you’re excited about that.”

  “Yeah, I’m excited. That’s awesome, Jack. If you make a big enough boat, we can enter it in the tournament.”

/>   A low growl erupted from him that made her burst into giggles.

  “Just kidding. That would take forever.” She winked at him as he offered up his broodiest stare-down. He wasn’t upset, though. Not really. More relieved that she felt comfortable enough to tease him. And comfortable enough to ask him for something, even if it was something he absolutely did not want to do. He knew that Grace didn’t like to depend on others. She liked to be self-sufficient. And if he had to guess, she probably would try her darnedest to enter the tournament. The big question was why.

  They circled through a few scenic blocks and then climbed back into his truck and made the long haul home. Grace fell asleep midway, which left Jack to his own thoughts and frequent stolen glances at her.

  It was just after five o’clock when they pulled into the parking lot of Sawyer Seafood. Grace yawned and stretched her arms overhead. Then she smiled sleepily at him. A sudden image of her doing the same next to him in bed popped into his mind.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked, looking concerned. “A strange expression just came over your face.”

  He laughed nervously, averting his gaze. “Tired, I guess. Long drive. Thanks for coming along this afternoon. Looks like your workday is over.”

  “Yeah. I better get home to check on my mom.”

  “Right.”

  “Not that she needs it. She’s doing great. You really can’t even see the Parkinson’s some days.”

  “You should take care of yourself, too,” Jack said. “I was glad to hear that you’d hung out with Abby and Krista the other night. It’s good to keep friends.”

  Grace looked over at him, and he had to remind himself that he and Grace were just friends.

  “Good night, Jack,” she said softly.

  “Night.” He watched her get out and walk away, a little part of him wanting to jump out of the truck and pull her back toward him. He wanted to press her against his truck and kiss her senseless.

  But they were only friends. And that’s all they could ever be.

  —

  The next morning, Jack met Tristan at the pier early and they worked steadily through lunch until midafternoon. Between the two of them, they’d completed 75 percent of the job in a week’s time. Both grabbed a water bottle from the back of Jack’s truck and drank half the bottle before pulling it away and looking at each other. It’d been an eight-hour day where they’d done ten hours’ worth of work.

  “Come on,” Jack said, walking toward the front of his truck. He grabbed his checkbook and wrote out a payment to Tristan.

  “What’s this?”

  “Told you I’d start paying you. You earned it.”

  Tristan wasn’t wearing his dark sunglasses today. Just the ball cap pulled over his head. Sweaty strands of hair stuck to his forehead. “That’s a lot.”

  “It’s what I’d pay any man on a construction crew.”

  Tristan looked up and nodded. “Thank you.”

  “Have you made any new living arrangements yet?”

  “My friend has a place just south of here. He said I could move in if I could pay rent.”

  “Friend?”

  Tristan twisted the cap back on his bottle of water. “A guy I went to school with. He goes to college now.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  Tristan nodded. “I was thinking that I might go to college on the side, too, while I work for you. Maybe online.”

  “Not a bad idea. Might take longer to get the degree, but as long as you keep at it. Well, good job today. Another day like this and we’ll have this job finished.”

  Tristan looked worried.

  “Word has traveled about our work here. Someone wants us to build a boathouse. Can’t do that on my own. Would you be interested?”

  “Yeah. That’d be cool,” Tristan said, smiling again.

  “Great. See you later, Tristan.”

  The kid, who wasn’t such a kid, waved and headed toward his truck. Jack finished off his water and tossed the plastic bottle into the recycling container under his truck’s toolbox. Then he drove home, got cleaned up, and headed to meet the rest of the Sawyer clan and Grace for their monthly business meeting at Castaways.

  Grace had been with the company little more than a week, and Noah had been avoiding her the entire time. Jack pretended not to notice because he had no idea what to do about it. He couldn’t make his younger brother forgive and forget. It wasn’t that easy. Although Grace’s reentering Jack’s life had been pretty damn easy so far.

  The five of them sat around a table at Castaways and sipped their beers.

  “Grace, you’ve done a good job,” Pete said. “It’s good to have you with us.”

  Sam and Jack nodded their heads. Noah, on the other hand, stared into the crowd and drank his beer.

  “Thank you.” Grace looked between them. “It’s good to be at the company…So, getting straight to business, you have three guys interested in joining a fall crew for the Summerly, after the high schoolers return to classes.”

  Noah didn’t look at her. “Or Jack could return to the boat and we could move on with our lives and catch some fish.”

  Jack frowned.

  “Um, I’ll post another ad,” Grace continued. “I would handle the interviews, too, but—”

  “But you don’t know anything about fishing,” Jack said, cutting her off. “You could end up hiring someone with, I don’t know, as much experience as you to work on the Summerly.”

  Grace lifted her chin and turned to him. “I still think I could do it.”

  Sam put his beer down. “Wait. You want to work the boats now?” he asked Grace. “I thought you were our office manager.”

  “I am. I just…I want to enter the East Coast fishing tournament.”

  Everyone, including Noah, turned to look at her.

  “You’re kidding, right?” Sam asked.

  “You’re a woman,” Pete said.

  “That’s sexist, Dad,” Jack said, running a hand through his hair. Even though he didn’t like the idea of Grace out on the water, either.

  “I can take care of myself, Mr. Sawyer. You taught me everything I need to know. I just need a boat and a crew. We could do this.”

  Sam’s jaw dropped. “We?”

  Grace shrugged. “I thought you guys were fishermen. You should be jumping at opportunities like this.”

  “I mentioned it to Jack earlier,” Pete said. “It’s good for the company to have a representative out there. I think it’d be good for you, too, son,” he told Jack.

  “I told you I’d think about it,” Jack snapped. He’d thought about it, though, and there was no part of him that wanted to do the tournament.

  “We understand if you can’t hack it this year,” Sam said, sparking anger inside Jack.

  “I can hack it. I just don’t want to, all right?”

  “No offense,” Sam said, turning to Grace, “but—”

  “If you call me a woman I’m going to knock you senseless.” Grace folded her arms over her chest.

  Jack couldn’t help but laugh. Grace was determined, and he had no doubt that she wasn’t going to let this drop. She’d get herself killed if she went out there without someone who knew what they were doing, though. Concern for her safety trumped everything. He groaned into his beer and then set it down. “Fine. I’ll do it,” he said, knowing he’d regret this right along with his next several beers in the morning.

  Grace smiled. “Good, because I’ve already entered you as my crew member.”

  Jack frowned. “What?”

  “I entered you as my crew. I put myself down as the captain.”

  “Of the Summerly?” Jack asked through an increasingly tighter jaw. “My dad may have taught you a lot of things, but you know nothing about being a captain. And that’s my boat.”

  “That you’re going to let some stranger operate for the company,” she pointed out, raising her voice across the table.

  Jack raised his to match hers. “A stranger with a résumé.”r />
  “Get a room, you two,” the waitress said, stepping up to the table. She winked and put a plate of chips in the center of the table. She’d been working at Castaways for years, but not long enough to know that Grace had been part of the family once.

  Jack noted the blush filling Grace’s cheeks as she retreated back into her chair. Awkward to say the least. And yeah, this tension between them could totally be handled by getting a room.

  “I paid the registration fee. I’m part of the crew,” Grace said when the waitress was gone. “And I’m not taking no for an answer.”

  Jack sighed. She’d just be filling up space that he could use for someone who could actually help him reel in the fish. It’d always been just him and Chris for the tournament. Two guys drinking beer and baiting hooks, back when life was simpler. “Fine. But I’ll need one more man to help.”

  His father was too old for heavy lifting now. Sam would do, but fishing for sport was never his thing. Noah, on the other hand, would be perfect. He loved competition. He was young and strong.

  Jack turned to Noah.

  “Why are you eying me? I can’t be on the same crew as—”

  “As me?” Hurt shone in Grace’s eyes. She pushed away from the table. “If you guys will excuse me, it’s late. I need to get home to my mom.” She kept her gaze down as she stood, grabbed her purse, and waved goodbye.

  “All right, jackass,” Jack barked, knocking Noah’s hat from his head.

  “Well, it’s true. I can’t be on a boat with her.”

  “What her mother did is not her fault,” Jack said for what felt like the millionth time. He had a good mind to slug his brother right about now.

  Noah stared into his beer. “It’s just hard being around her, all right? I never had a mom. Tammy was the closest thing to one I’ve ever known. And Grace was my sister. Losing them sucked…I can’t be around her.”

  Jack’s fists uncurled under the table. “She lost us, too, Noah. It sucked just as bad for her.” Jack was only talking about Grace. He could care less how bad it’d hurt Tammy. She was the one who’d caused all this pain that was still going on today. He stood. “I’ll see you guys later.”

  —

  Grace didn’t mean to slam the door to her apartment, but she was like a shaken bottle of soda ready to explode. She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself before her mother shuffled down the hall to see what was going on. Grace didn’t want to talk about this with her. Her mom had enough on her plate without adding more guilt and regret over the Sawyer family.