Page 16 of Forbidden Kisses
Jack grabbed two bottled waters from the back of his truck and headed back over. Twisting the cap off his water to drink, he sat down behind the boy and watched him work, giving him a few tips as he did. Tristan didn’t move for his bottle, however. “Something on your mind?” Jack asked. Tristan wasn’t just quiet, he seemed upset.
“Not really,” Tristan said.
Jack didn’t believe him. “You want to talk about it?”
Tristan tipped his head back to look at the sky as a bird flew overhead.
Jack’s gut clenched. There was a dark purple bruise underlining Tristan’s right eye. “Who gave you that shiner?” Jack asked.
“None of your business,” Tristan snapped back. It was the first sign of life Jack had seen since the boy had shown up this morning.
“Someone did. How does the other guy’s eye look?”
Tristan glanced over, finally reaching for his bottle of water. He twisted the cap off and took a long drink. “The other guy is my dad.”
If possible, Jack’s gut clenched even tighter, to the point it made it hard to breathe. He knew Dewy was less than a stand-up guy in the community, but he hadn’t known he was an asshole at home, too.
“Is this the first time?” Jack asked.
Tristan gave his head a slight shake. “No. But I deserved it.”
“I doubt that,” Jack said, unable to believe his ears. “How old are you, Tristan?”
“ ’Bout to turn eighteen in a few weeks.”
A man in his own right. He’d graduated high school last spring. “So why are you still living with your old man? If he treats you that way, you should leave.”
“I don’t have anywhere to go,” Tristan said. “This is my first job, you know.”
“I see. Well, you can’t come into work looking like that.”
The kid stiffened. “Are you telling me to leave?”
“Of course not.” Jack shoved his hands on his hips. “I’m just laying down my expectations. We have clients here. If they see someone working on our property with a black eye, it doesn’t exactly send a positive message. You’ll have to steer clear of your old man’s temper while you’re working here. Plus, you deserve better. Maybe it’s time you came up with a different living arrangement.”
“I can’t. I have no money.”
Jack rubbed a hand behind his neck, lengthening the muscles that pulled there. “After today, your debt from the wreckage is paid off. I still need help building the pier that’ll go here, though. If you’re interested.”
“For pay?” Tristan asked.
Jack nodded. “Yep. But you need to get to work on time from now on. Think you can manage that?”
A smile twitched on Tristan’s mouth. “Definitely.”
Chapter 5
After working at Sawyer Seafood Company for only a couple of days, Grace already had the job down to an art. Compared to serving drinks to sometimes rude and often loud patrons on the west side, this new job was perfect. Even the Sawyers were treating her well, with the exception of Noah. He was three years younger than she was, and had still been just a kid when she and her mother were asked to leave. He’d been the first to treat her like an actual sister when she entered the family and the one to fall into animosity the easiest.
She glanced over her shoulder. Noah had entered the office ten minutes earlier, and she might as well have been invisible. Since starting, he’d said all of zero words to her. Grace distracted herself with the flyer she’d found under the door when she’d walked in this morning. It was for the East Coast fishing tournament, something Jack had always participated in with his late friend Chris Watson. She swallowed back the pain she felt for Jack’s loss as she skimmed the text.
$20,000 FIRST PLACE CASH PRIZE
Her eyes settled on the figure. She could do a lot of good with money like that, starting with buying back theBeatricefor the Sawyer family. It’d seemed like an impossible idea when she’d spoken to her mother the other night, but with a cash prize like this, she could do it.
“Hey there, bro,” Jack said, high-fiving Noah as he came through the front door.
Grace turned from the paper and her heart swelled uncomfortably in her chest with just the sight of Jack’s tanned skin and unshaven face.
