Page 1 of Forbidden Kisses
Chapter 1
Grace Donner felt strangely out of place as she walked into the Blushing Bay Café with her decade-old laptop and ordered a coffee and blueberry muffin. She was really here for the free Wi-Fi. She’d been out of work for a full week now. She was hoping something new had posted overnight. She needed a paycheck before her landlord kicked her and her mother out of their modest apartment. Before they couldn’t even afford the canned beans and ramen noodles they’d been subsisting on for far too long.
Everything is going to be okay,she told herself.
She took a seat at a table in the far corner of the café and sat with her back to the other customers, limiting her distractions. Opening her computer, she tapped a few keys and went directly to a job-search site. She’d scoured most of the listings already. Blushing Bay, North Carolina, was a small fishing town, snuggled between two of the coast’s major ports. It was known for its scenic views of the Atlantic Ocean, seafood, and the way the water around the marina was populated by red algae once a year, making it “blush” to a beautiful rosy color. The town, however, was not known for its wealth of jobs. Not unless you had fishing in your blood, which Grace did not—not anymore at least.
She took a bite of her muffin and closed her eyes. It was the best thing she’d put in her mouth in a long time. She chewed, enjoying the moment before slipping back into her depressing job search.
A chair scraped along the floor behind her and she recognized the sound of someone plopping into a seat. A moment later, the person—a man—welcomed a woman to his table.
Grace opened her eyes and continued scrolling down the screen of help-wanted ads on her computer, her hope dwindling as quickly as the coffee in her cup. All of the jobs required some form of higher education—something she couldn’t afford. Her grandmother had set up a college fund for her growing up, but that had been spent during one of her mother’s infamous shopping sprees to buy who knows what. That was the past, though. Her mom was different now. For one thing, her disease didn’t allow her to tramp up and down the mall spending all their cash. Also, her mother didn’t seem to care about the material things like she used to. Maybe that was more from necessity than from choice.
Grace sipped her coffee and tuned in to the man’s voice behind her. He asked the woman a question. She answered. He asked another question. She answered.
This is a job interview, Grace realized. And the woman interviewing for the position knew nothing about running an office, which was apparently what he needed.
“I can make a mean pot of coffee,” the woman told him. Her voice was crackly, suggesting age and maybe a cigarette habit, Grace guessed, unable to help eavesdropping.
“All right. What about managing deliveries? There’s a tight schedule. Calling and taking orders, and scheduling drop-offs up and down the East Coast is a huge part of the job.”
Bigger than making coffee, Grace thought, feeling sorry for the woman, who was obviously underqualified.
Grace continued to listen until the interview ended ten minutes later.
“I’ll call you by the end of the week,” the man promised, his voice deep and…sexy.
Something about it vibrated through Grace’s bones. She shifted and recrossed her legs.
“Well, it was nice to meet you,” the woman said. Her chair scraped along the floor as she stood. “Thank you very much.” Then her heels clicked along the café’s tile as she walked away.
Grace’s heart sped up. She was good at juggling schedules. She could make calls and schedule deliveries of whatever the man needed. Unless he was dealing drugs, but surely he wouldn’t be interviewing for a drug dealer job in the middle of a café.
This could be my job.
And she really needed the money. She straightened, took a deep breath, and turned around. “Excuse me,” she said, putting on a polite smile. She was so nervous that the person in front of her was a blurry image. She didn’t give herself time to focus. She just started talking before she lost her nerve. “I couldn’t help but overhear that you’re interviewing for an office manager position. I’m proficient in all the skills you mentioned and—” Her words stuck in her throat as she finally took in those deep-blue eyes. Jack Sawyer was seated at the table behind her. His was the blurry, now very clear face attached to that sexy voice. Her mind froze, like a computer swirling its blue circle of death.
Jack was her ex-stepbrother, her first true friend in Blushing Bay, and first big teenage crush. He’d also been her first kiss—forbidden because of the bond they shared, which only made it that much sweeter. Then Grace had learned of her mother’s first shopping rampage—one that had devastated their two families. Jack’s father had promptly divorced her mother, and Jack had never looked at her in the same way again. She and her mother had only ever garnered looks of distrust, disdain, and disgust from the Sawyers after that.
“Grace,” he said.
Heat crawled through her chest and neck. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize it was you.”
He smiled back at her, the motion crinkling the corners of his eyes. “It’s good to see you. Been a long time.”
Even though it was a small town, Grace had managed to evade the Sawyers. If she saw one of the brothers or their father, she quickly turned in the opposite direction. Not this time, though. This time she felt like a caged animal, ready to bolt at the first opportunity.
“I’m interviewing for an office manager to replace Aunt Mira. She finally retired,” he said.
“Oh.” Grace nodded, stuffing the last of her muffin into a brown paper bag. She couldn’t afford to waste food right now. And even though she was looking for a way out of this conversation, she also couldn’t help but think that managing an office sounded like a heck of a good job. She’d worked that job the summer when she was fifteen years old and Mira had had back surgery. Things were different then, though. Grace couldn’t possibly work for the Sawyers now.
Except there were no new job listings online, and she had only twenty dollars to her name. That would barely cover the copay for her mom’s medication. She needed employment almost as desperately as she needed to bolt out of this café.
“I know how to manage a schedule,” she said before she could stop herself. She didn’t look up to meet Jack’s eyes, though. Not when she was humbling herself to ask for a job from someone whose family had already turned their backs on her once. This was definitely a new low.
Jack leaned in. “What?”
Swallowing, she reminded herself that her mother was the only family she had left. They needed to continue having a roof over their heads and food to eat. “I made orders over the phone at the bar where I used to work all the time. I was in charge of making sure we never ran out of anything, and if we did, I placed the orders. I booked parties and managed the schedules of myself and the other employees. Dewy even had me handle filing the taxes last year…I’m good at business management.”
