Page 1 of Booked for Summer

ChapterOne

Jade’s toes, currently slotted into a pair of sparkly flip-flops, curled with excitement as the train pulled into the station. Okay, maybe a teeny bit of her still wished she was heading to a tropical island because, duh, what sane, sun-worshipping, book-obsessed person wouldn’t want to spend three months in a place where they could read steamy romances on perfect white sandy beaches? This Nantucket place though, the one she’d never heard of a few months ago… well it certainly wasn’t Twickenham. In the guidebook she’d devoured on the plane to Boston, she’d seen pictures of sandy beaches, though they did look a bit windswept. Also, marinas with long wooden pontoons, lighthouses and deep blue waters dotted with white sailing boats. Nantucket had a small-town vibe, so the book said, but with a heavy dose of glamour, taste and style.

She’d had a little snigger to herself when she’d read that. In her twenty-five years on the planet, she’d managed Devon, Margate and a week in Spain. Aculturally sophisticatedisland in the Atlantic off Cape Cod was not a place she’d ever expected to find herself. Especially one that she’d read wasn’t the playground of millionaires, but ofbillionaires.

God knows what they’d make of her.

The Cape Flyer– even the name of the train she’d taken from Boston to Hyannis sounded posh– finally drew into the station. Butterflies flapped in her belly as she stuffed her Kindle into her bag. She didn’t even mind that she’d left the devilishly handsome billionaire in a state of tortured agony as he watched the woman he’d fallen for walk away from him. Daft sod hadn’t told her how he felt. Thankfully, there were still another few chapters left for him to come to his senses, but for now, Jade was more focused on her own story. Her own new chapter.

The train came to a halt and she leapt out of her seat, clean forgetting the half-eaten bag of gummy bears on her lap, which cartwheeled into the air, landing on the lap of the woman across the aisle who let out a disdainful sigh.

‘You seem in a rush to get off,’ her fellow passenger remarked as she brushed the poor buggers onto the floor. ‘Where are you headed?’

Jade’s happy buzz was too great to be dimmed by the condescending look. ‘Nantucket.’

The woman’s eyes flicked from Jade’s flip-flops up to her white shorts and then further, to the pink T-shirt straining over her boobs, before landing on her face and giving her a tight-lipped smile. ‘It’s not a usual holiday destination for someone… like you.’

She let the insult roll off her. It didn’t mean it didn’t niggle, didn’t rub at old scars. ‘Oh, I’m not on holiday. I’m going to manage a bookstore over the summer. Little Bay Book Shack. Isn’t that the cutest name? I originally applied to run one in the Maldives, but this sounds way cooler, don’t you think?’

The woman frowned, studying Jade. ‘You don’t look like a bookstore manager.’

‘Oh, I’m not one, not yet.’ Jade pushed a smile on her face. ‘I’m a publishing assistant.’ It was the title she’d told her parents when she’d got the job, hoping they’d be impressed, at least more impressed than they had been with her waitressing job. Sadly, while she loved the idea of working with books, so far allpublishing assistanthad turned out to be was a posh name for the office dogsbody.

Brushing off the depressing thought– she was here to make new, positive memories– Jade reached up to grab her backpack from the overhead rack. Damn, it was wedged, and God knows what on because five-foot-two flip-flop wearers had no hope of seeing up there. Taking hold of the strap, she gave it a determined tug. ‘Buggeration.’ The backpack flew out of her hand and fell onto the floor. She bent to pick it up, giving the keyring she’d secured on the zip an absent-minded stroke.

‘Stop staring, Roger,’ the woman hissed to the man next to her. ‘It’s not like you’ve never seen breasts before.’

You’d be taken more seriously if you wore less revealing clothes.

Jade shook off the memory of her sister’s words. She liked looking sexy. It made her feel confident, even when inside she was bricking it. Like now, because even though she’d not stepped foot on it yet, she knew Nantucket was a million miles away from what she was used to.

And way too sophisticated for a girl in shorts, flip-flops and a Kindle packed with steamy billionaire romances.

‘I suspect he’s staring at my good-luck charm,’ Jade supplied, waving the keyring and letting Roger off the hook. ‘I bought it years ago because I kept being told I was a bookworm, so I figured a bookworm should have a worm. But then someone told me that what I thought was a cute fury worm was actually a caterpillar. Worms and caterpillars are pretty similar, though, don’t you think?’

She didn’t get an answer, just an excruciatingly polite smile. Still, at least her boobs were no longer under discussion.

Stepping into the aisle she shuffled along to the end of the carriage. When she spotted her neon pink suitcase she went to reach for it but a male arm got there first.

‘Don’t want a lovely little thing like you straining yourself, honey. I’ll carry it off for you.’

Jade turned to find Roger giving her a broad wink. Over the top of his bald head, the woman he’d been sitting with was staring daggers at them.

‘Tell me, Roger, the woman you’re travelling with, is she your wife?’

He gave her a puzzled frown. ‘Yes.’

‘And you’ve been married for how long?’

‘Thirty years.’ He shrugged, his shirt pulling over his paunch. ‘Give or take.’

‘So why are you helping me, someone you don’t know and will never meet again, over the person you share your life with?’

His face reddened and he opened his mouth, then closed it again, much like a trout.

‘Bye Roger, and Roger’s wife,’ she added, peering round him.

Ignoring their nonplussed looks, she gave them both a little wave before lugging her case off the train.

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