by Natalie Ann
Family Bonds- Emily & Crew
Natalie Ann
Family Bonds
Emily & Crew
Copyright 2021 Natalie Ann
All Rights Reserved
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without a written consent.
Created with Vellum
Contents
Author’s Note
Also by Natalie Ann
About the Author
Blurb
Prologue
1. A Wakeup Call
2. Understatement Of The Year
3. Gossip About
4. Ask Him Out
5. Smoking Delivery Guy
6. Clear The Air
7. Luck Is Luck
8. He Wanted More
9. A Goal In Mind
10. Seeing A Pattern
11. Looks Good On You
12. A Promise
13. Go Time
14. Pleased With Yourself
15. Life On The Island
16. What Works For Me
17. Makeup Sex
18. Back To Crew
19. Thinking About Us
20. The Big Talk
21. Put On The Spot
22. To Get Through This
23. Spoke The Truth
24. Do The Same For You
25. On The Spot
26. More Than It Was
27. Personal Business
28. Head Over Heels
29. Blood Pumping
30. Work A Little Harder
31. All Yours Now
32. Before My Time
33. Makes Sense Now
34. Claw My Way Out
35. Be There For You
36. Take Charge
Epilogue
Also by Natalie Ann
About the Author
Author’s Note
Author’s Note
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Also by Natalie Ann
The Road Series-See where it all started!!
Lucas and Brooke’s Story- Road to Recovery
Jack and Cori’s Story – Road to Redemption
Mac and Beth’s Story- Road to Reality
Ryan and Kaitlin’s Story- Road to Reason
The All Series
William and Isabel’s Story — All for Love
Ben and Presley’s Story – All or Nothing
Phil and Sophia’s Story – All of Me
Alec and Brynn’s Story – All the Way
Sean and Carly’s Story — All I Want
Drew and Jordyn’s Story— All My Love
Finn and Olivia’s Story—All About You
Landon Barber and Kristen Reid- All Of Us
The Lake Placid Series
Nick Buchanan and Mallory Denning – Second Chance
Max Hamilton and Quinn Baker – Give Me A Chance
Caleb Ryder and Celeste McGuire – Our Chance
Cole McGuire and Rene Buchanan – Take A Chance
Zach Monroe and Amber Deacon- Deserve A Chance
Trevor Miles and Riley Hamilton – Last Chance
Matt Winters and Dena Hall- Another Chance
Logan Taylor and Kennedy Miles- It’s My Chance
Justin Cambridge and Taryn Miles – One More Chance
The Fierce Five Series
Gavin Fierce and Jolene O’Malley- How Gavin Stole Christmas
Brody Fierce and Aimee Reed - Brody
Aiden Fierce and Nic Moretti- Aiden
Mason Fierce and Jessica Corning- Mason
Cade Fierce and Alex Marshall - Cade
Ella Fierce and Travis McKinley- Ella
Fierce Family
Sam Fierce and Dani Rhodes- Sam
Bryce Fierce and Payton Davies - Bryce
Drake Fierce and Kara Winslow – Drake
Noah Fierce and Paige Parker - Noah
Wyatt Fierce and Adriana Lopez – Wyatt
Jade Fierce and Brock James – Jade
Ryder Fierce and Marissa McMillan – Ryder
Fierce Matchmaking
Devin Andrews and Hope Hall- Devin
Love Collection
Vin Steele and Piper Fielding – Secret Love
Jared Hawk and Shelby McDonald – True Love
Erik McMann and Sheldon Case – Finding Love
Connor Landers and Melissa Mahoney- Beach Love
Ian Price and Cam Mason- Intense Love
Liam Sullivan and Ali Rogers - Autumn Love
Owen Taylor and Jill Duncan - Holiday Love
Chase Martin and Noelle Bennett - Christmas Love
Zeke Collins and Kendall Hendricks - Winter Love
Troy Walker and Meena Dawson – Chasing Love
Jace Stratton and Lauren Towne - First Love
Gabe Richards and Leah Morrison - Forever Love
Blake Wilson and Gemma Anderson – Simply Love
Brendan St. Nicholas and Holly Lane – Gifts of Love
Paradise Place
Josh Turner and Ruby Gentile – Cupid’s Quest
Harris Walker and Kaelyn Butler – Change Up
Philip Aire and Blair McKay- Starting Over
Nathan Randal and Brina Shepard – Eternal
Ryan Butler and Shannon Wilder – Falling Into Love
Brian Dawson and Robin Masters – Mistletoe Magic
Caden Finley and Sarah Walker- Believe In Me
Amore Island
Family Bonds- Hunter and Kayla
Family Bonds- Drew and Amanda
Family Bonds – Mac and Sidney
Family Bonds- Emily & Crew
Family Bonds- Ava & Seth
About the Author
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Blurb
Emily Rauch was proving to be a powerhouse in the hotel business at a very young age. She and her sister had a vision and she was making it come true, come hell or high water. She had to be tough in a man’s world and had no problem with that. Even in her family’s world...the Bonds. She was determined to come out on top. If it meant staying single because men were intimidated by her, then so be it.
Crew Ackley was just a middle class kid until his parents hit the lotto and left it all to him when they died tragically. Then he learned that everyone wanted to be with him for a handout. Fed up with not being able to figure out who was real and who wasn’t, he left the area and was starting over on a small island off the coast of Massachusetts. He thought that’d make him happy until he found a woman he wanted to get to know better who didn’t see him as anyone other than the man delivering her mail. But if he told her his net worth, would she only see that?
Prologue
“Next up is Emily Rauch, co-owner of the Atlantic Rise Hotel,” Helena Bond said. “As many of you know, she is from Patricia’s side of the family. Come on up here, sweetie.”
Emily squared her shoulders. The last thing she wanted to do was be put up for auction for the Bond family fundraiser, but it was for a good cause bringing in a lot of money that went to various much-needed and underfunded causes on the island. This ye
ar it was for the health clinic that many of her cousins worked at too.
“Here goes nothing,” she said to her younger sister, Penelope. Irish twins they were. Her mother having them just under one year apart. For one week a year, they were both the same age. This past summer, late August, they were both in their twenties. Then she turned the big three oh.
“You’ll be fine. I’m just glad she asked you and not me,” Penelope said.
“She didn’t ask you because she heard you were out on a date a few weeks ago and thought you were taken. I should have said it was a blind date and didn’t work out so you’d be stuck too.”
Penelope laughed and pushed her toward the stage where Helena was waiting with a big grin on her face.
Not her aunt, but close enough to one. Her mother, Sophia, was actually best friends with Janet Bond, Helena’s sister-in-law. Janet and Helena ran this fundraiser, but Helena was more the voice of it. Or at least the voice of the auction since it was her idea.
“I’m coming,” Emily said to Helena, who held her hand out, then grabbed Emily’s and patted it.
She did have a fear that she wouldn’t get that many bids. Or none at all. Her cousin Bode’s went well and she was afraid that might be a hard one to follow. Hailey Bond was after her and she knew damn well that would be high. Anyone with the last name Bond did well in life.
But she liked that she could hide behind being part of the family without really announcing it to the world.
“The bidding can begin,” Helena said to the auctioneer. Thankfully, it wasn’t one of the fast-talking kind and it was more in fun.
After she got an opening bid at a thousand, she felt a little bit better. When it started to go up in hundred-dollar increments by men she didn’t know, she was worrying a little, but everyone would be vetted before the date occurred through security measures.
The bidding was still going and she was standing there stiff in her fitted black dress and Valentino Garavani studded nude pumps. They made her feel powerful and feminine at the same time. She’d learned to master that in her life if she wanted to get ahead.
She had no problem getting noticed for her looks, but she was damn well going to make sure that wasn’t all someone saw.
Tough. Businesslike. Get out of my way if I’m in the zone.
Yep, that was what people thought of when they saw her.
Not sexy and laid back.
Not standing on stage with a big smile on her face waiting for some guy to pay a few thousand dollars to spend a couple of hours with her.
For the life of her she had no idea why anyone would want to.
But it was for charity, and on the island, the Bonds put that first.
When the bidding stopped, the auctioneer said, “Going once, going twice—”
“Three thousand,” she heard in the back. Damn, that just jumped up a thousand. There were some chuckles in the crowd and she was trying to see who belonged to the paddle that was just raised but couldn’t make out his face.
“Someone is interested in winning a date with Emily,” the auctioneer said. “Going once. Going twice. Three thousand it is to number sixty-one in the back.”
She nodded her head and walked off the stage, then caught sight of who it was and started to laugh. “Wow. Guess that might be the only way to get a date with me.”
Crew Ackley, her mailman, grinned and winked at her and she wondered how the heck he was able to drop three thousand dollars on this and why he would.
And at the end of the night, she made her way over to him. “That was nice of you. It will go for a good cause.”
“I’m sure it will,” he said.
“I’m not sure how this is going to work. You obviously know where to find me to set this up, but why don’t I get your number? I’ve got to go out of town next week and then with Thanksgiving, it might be a few weeks if that works for you?”
Crew pulled his phone out and she tried hard not to stare at his large hands. Everything about him was big and intimidating and she almost had to do a double take to realize it was him in the dark suit and black tie rather than the government-issued blue-and-white one with a bag over his shoulder as he hopped in and out of the truck driving around her neighborhood.
His dark eyes were laughing at her and she was trying her hardest not to flush like she always wanted to when he smiled at her. She’d never been attracted to big men before or ones that were rougher looking, but Crew got her salivating more than juice from an orange being squeezed in a press.
“That works for me,” he said, reading off his number. “Do I get yours so I don’t think it’s some cold call and send you to voicemail?”
“I guess you do,” she said. She sent him a quick text, heard his phone go off. “There you go. We’ll be in touch with each other.”
“We will,” Crew said, walking away. She tried her damnedest not to follow his movements, but when she heard Penelope laughing she knew she was caught.
1
A Wakeup Call
“Crew, sweetie, I’m so glad you could make it.”
Crew smiled at his grandmother when he walked into the retirement home’s large common room where she was playing cards with her friends. “I wouldn’t miss it. You know that. This is easier for me than Christmas. Maybe I should fly you to me for Christmas.”
“Heavens, no,” she said. “Did you hear that, Ethel? My grandson wants to fly me to some remote island in the East.”
“Go,” Ethel said. “Take a bikini with you. You can borrow mine.”
His eyes went wide and then he heard his grandmother laugh. “I don’t need to borrow yours when I’ve got plenty of my own. How’s the ocean this time of year? It’d be just like taking the Polar Plunge.”
Thoughts of his grandmother in a bikini running into the freezing ocean were causing his heart to hurt in more ways than one. “How about we save the ocean until it’s warmer? Maybe you could visit in the summer?”
“We’ll talk about it another day,” his grandmother said. Which probably meant no. He’d been trying to get her to move with him for the six months that he’d lived on Amore Island.
Nope, she was content to stay in the retirement facility that he paid for back in Boulder, Colorado. She understood his need to leave and he just wished she would have come with him.
He only came back to visit one or two times a year and never the same time. He didn’t want his remaining family to know when he might be in town and he knew his grandmother would keep that secret.
“Are you ready to get some dinner?”
“I am. No one came to visit with you today?” he asked.
Lucy Hanson was his maternal grandmother. The only one he wanted to be around after his parents died tragically. He’d been in college burning through their money and partying the same way they were. It was a wakeup call to find out the small plane his father had just purchased and was flying crashed during a storm one night and there were no survivors. Pilot error had been the final call.
“Your Uncle Richard only comes around if he thinks you will be here. The same with his greedy kids.”
“You mean your other grandkids,” he said, smirking. Dina and Derek Hanson weren’t that close to him growing up even though they were around the same age.
Crew’s parents were just blue collar workers living paycheck to paycheck their whole lives until they struck it big on the lotto.
His mother’s brother decided that maybe his younger sister was worth something now. Like a handout when he’d never helped his parents when they needed it. After it was all left to Crew, his uncle and cousins thought they could squeeze some green out of him. Not happening.
“It doesn’t matter what their names are, they rarely come around. They are too busy with their lives.”
“Good for them,” he said sarcastically. He’d never abandon the one person to take him in and love him unconditionally. His grandmother loved everyone the same. Or she used to. She had little tolerance for her son and other grandki
ds now. “Let’s go back to your rooms and get your jacket.”
He offered his hand and helped her up even though she didn’t need it. She might be seventy-five, but she’d give most fifty-year-olds a run for their money in many things in life.
Once they were in her two-room suite on the first floor of the complex, he looked around the open area. There was a decent-sized living room with a four-person table near the galley kitchen. Her bedroom and bathroom were off to the side. She loved it here and he knew if he couldn’t get her to go with him, she was at least being looked after.
She came out of her bedroom with her jacket on over her black pants and UGG boots and he couldn’t hold back the laughter. “What?” she said. “You bought them for me.”
“I did,” he said back. He’d been stunned when she said she wanted a pair but figured they would be nice and warm on the grounds, not that she’d go out in public in them. Even her black pants were stretchy with a longer sweater. She looked pretty modern to him too.
