by Jill Sanders
ALSO BY JILL SANDERS
The Pride Series
Finding Pride
Discovering Pride
Returning Pride
Lasting Pride
Serving Pride
Red Hot Christmas
My Sweet Valentine
Return To Me
Rescue Me
The Secret Series
Secret Seduction
Secret Pleasure
Secret Guardian
Secret Passions
Secret Identity
Secret Sauce
The Lucky Series
Unlucky In Love
Sweet Resolve
The West Series
Loving Lauren
Taming Alex
Holding Haley
Missy’s Moment
Breaking Travis
Roping Ryan
Wild Bride
Corey’s Catch
The Grayton Series
Last Resort
Someday Beach
Rip Current
In Too Deep
Swept Away
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Text copyright © 2016 Jill Sanders
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Published by Montlake Romance, Seattle
www.apub.com
Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Montlake Romance are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.
ISBN-13: 9781503935082
ISBN-10: 1503935086
Cover design by Shasti O'Leary Soudant
To my sisters, who have and always will be my best friends.
CONTENTS
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
PROLOGUE
Amelia rushed through her front door, almost knocking over her little brother, Joel. Instead, she ended up falling backward and landing on her butt, hard. The pain shot up her back, causing the tears that had been in her eyes to flood down her cheeks. After quickly yelling at him to get out of her way, she bolted up the stairs and slammed her bedroom door shut behind her.
She threw her bag across the room and leaned against her door, wincing when she bumped her bruised backside on the door handle. She knew it wasn’t her little brother’s fault that she’d fallen down. She hadn’t seen him because her eyes had been too full of unshed tears. Just the thought of the boy who had caused her the ultimate embarrassment had her vibrating with anger.
Closing her eyes, she flipped around and rested her forehead against her bedroom door as more tears washed down her cheeks. She’d never been so humiliated before. It had been his mission to embarrass her ever since he’d moved in down the street during her kindergarten year.
It wasn’t as if her life would have been all peaches and cream even if she weren’t being bullied by a boy half her size. She sighed and opened her eyes to look around her room. There were still boxes shoved in the corner and piled high in her closet.
She had been awakened in the middle of the night a few days ago by the sounds of her mother packing up all her things. “Mom, what are you doing?” Amelia had asked groggily.
“Oh, Amy,” her mother croaked out her nickname. Her mom had rushed over to her, crying as she tried to explain. But she hadn’t made any sense sitting next to Amy, babbling as tears rolled down her face. But then Amy had heard one word she did understand. Divorce. Even though she was only eleven, she’d felt much older after her mother told her that she and her father were getting a divorce.
When what was happening finally registered in her sleepy mind, she’d instantly thought of Kristen, her best friend in the whole world. They’d known each other since kindergarten. She couldn’t possibly move away from Kristen. Amy had begged and pleaded with her mother that night while the distraught woman had rushed around tossing clothes and items into boxes.
Finally, her father had walked in and taken her mother’s arm, and together they had left the room. Her father had glanced back at Amy as she cried on the edge of her bed.
“It’s okay, sweetie. Go back to sleep. We’ll talk about all this in the morning.” Her father’s voice had soothed her then.
Less than a month later, her father had moved into a small apartment in downtown Golden, Colorado. Even though her parents still weren’t officially divorced, she found it difficult to get over the fear that, at some point, her mother would sweep in and finish packing up her things and they would move far away. Because of this, she’d kept everything in boxes, unsure of what would happen next.
Amy walked over and flung herself on her bed. But as bad as her family life was, it still didn’t scratch the surface of what had been done to her on the bus ride home. Her back teeth clenched at the mere thought of him.
He teased her about everything. For the past couple of years it had been her height. Amy was tall for her age—she was taller than most of her girlfriends, which meant that she towered a foot above all the boys in her class also.
She rolled over and hugged her pillow to her belly. Her silent tears slid across the bridge of her nose and fell to her pillowcase.
Kristen would have normally been there to defend her against the bully, but her friend’s parents had picked her up early that day for a dentist appointment. Amy wished she’d been the one to go to the dentist instead. She hated this boy more than going to Dr. Stein’s office.
By tomorrow morning, everyone in her entire school would know what he’d done to her. Then there would be no stopping the flood of humiliation that was sure to follow her all week long. All of a sudden, moving away didn’t seem so bad.
She glanced down at the boxes, then over at the picture of her and Kristen on her nightstand. Shaking her head, she decided that nothing could ever be bad enough for her to move away and give up her best friend. Especially anything Logan Miller could ever do to her.
CHAPTER ONE
Fourteen years later . . .
Amy’s heart skipped a beat as she watched the man walk into the conference room. Her presentation had been going smoothly up until that moment. Now, she could only blink and stare at him, as if she’d seen a ghost.
Instead of coming in and finding a seat, he’d leaned against the closed door with his arms crossed over his chest. His suit looked expensive and she could tell that he was comfortable in finer things.
His silver-blue eyes bore into her own. He was easily the tallest man in the room, nearing six-two. His nose was straight, but it was his chin and lips that drew most of her attention. Talk about perfection! How did he get such a good-looking face?
His sandy-colored hair was the only part of him that looked disheveled. But since there was a high-wind advisory in effect for that day in the foothills of Colorado, she guessed that he’d just arrived and the wind had had its way with him. Earlier that day, she had taken
a few minutes herself, in the ladies’ restroom, to put herself back together after the short walk from her car to the office building of Rocky Mountain Realty, her employer for the last several years.
It had taken several seconds of watching him before her mouth started working again. She’d stood in front of the rather large group of employees with her mouth open, blinking at him, before she’d shaken her head and glanced down at her notes.
As long as she didn’t think about the sexy man leaning against the doorway, or what his presence meant, she felt like she could continue with her presentation. However, after looking down at her notes, the words seemed to float on the paper in front of her. It took all her concentration to continue with her presentation on how to properly enter a listing into their new computer system. She’d headed up this project, since she’d been the one to suggest the upgrade to her boss, Gary Bortolo. Gary wasn’t only her boss; he had always been a very close friend of her father’s.
The year she’d been hired at the agency, rumors had spread that she’d gotten the job due to favors. She knew how to handle gossip, and it had taken her less than a year to start climbing the corporate ladder.
Now, her office was the second largest in the building, and she was credited for single-handedly turning the agency around. This was just the surface of what she had planned for the agency. Especially since she had her eyes on becoming RMR’s first partner. If she could persuade Gary to take her on.
The rest of her presentation went smoothly, as long as she didn’t look at the man standing near the back. Her mind kept running over the same question: What was he doing here?
Finally, she shut down her laptop, switching off the projector. Gary was the first one to approach her.
“Good job, Amy.” He smiled and patted her on the shoulder. “This system should speed us up as well as stop Leah from losing paperwork.” He said the latter part in a whisper as he leaned closer. He nodded toward the older woman who was the primary cause of all lost paperwork in the agency. Amy couldn’t stop her smile or the laughter that came quickly.
“Only if she doesn’t lose her computer mouse again,” she whispered back.
He laughed as he looked toward the man who was approaching them. “Aah, just in time for introductions.” He reached out and shook the man’s hand firmly. “Glad you could make it.”
“Almost got blown away.” The man chuckled and the sound caused a shiver to run down her spine. She realized her back teeth were clenched and she had to work to purposely release her jaw.
“Amy, this is Logan Miller, one of last year’s top, up-and-coming Realtors in Colorado.” Gary patted Logan on the shoulder. “Not to mention, he’s my sister’s kid.” Logan smiled, showing off perfect white teeth, which only caused Amy’s eyes to narrow. “I’m happy he’s finally decided to come work for me.” Gary patted him on the back again. “I want the two of you to work closely for the next several months. We have some big projects coming up and we need the extra help.”
She nodded and looked down to see Logan’s hand stretched out toward her. It took all her willpower to raise her hand and shake his. She tried to pull it away quickly, but he held onto it and smiled a little more at her.
“Nice to meet you, Amy. I’m sure I’m going to enjoy working with you.”
She tugged her hand free. “I . . .” She felt her chest grow tight and looked around for an escape only to blurt out, “I need to go to the restroom.” Her cheeks heated once the words left her mouth, so she gathered up her laptop quickly. When she turned to leave, she watched as Gary started making his way around the room, introducing her nemesis to the entire workforce at RMR. Her eyes met Logan’s as she pushed through the doorway. She thought she saw his smile grow, but didn’t linger to make sure.
She rushed back to her office and dumped her computer, then glanced at her clock and wished more than anything that she didn’t have another hour before she could clock out. Picking up her cell phone, she texted Kristen and told her she needed to stop by her place after work.
I’ll be there. Is everything ok? Kristen texted back.
Just be there. Pls, she responded.
Always! her friend answered.
She felt her eyes sting and took a couple of deep breaths to clear her mind. Why hadn’t she known that Logan Miller was Gary’s nephew? She knew that Golden was a small town, and after living here her entire life, she knew that almost everyone was related to someone she knew.
She sat down hard in her leather chair. Closing her eyes, she started swiveling her chair around and tried not to think of the possibility that Gary was bringing Logan in to take over the business.
For months now, she’d been thinking that she finally had a shot at persuading Gary to take her on as partner. He’d even given her hints that he was looking for someone to help relieve some of the burden of running the place by himself.
Had he been talking about Logan all along? She opened her eyes and felt her heart sink. Then gasped when she saw Logan standing on the other side of her desk. He had a box of things in his hands and he was smiling at her again.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.”
She sat up, making sure to straighten her shoulders. “No, you didn’t. How can I help you?”
He glanced around. “Um, it looks like we’re roommates for a while.”
“What?” She almost jumped out of her chair.
“At least until they find a place for me. Gary told me to park it there.” He nodded over to the left corner of her office where a smaller desk sat. She used the spot occasionally, and even had an intern from the local high school who came in once a week and worked there.
She motioned for him to go ahead, then spun around to work on her computer. She tried to keep herself busy for a while. The next time she glanced down at her watch, she almost groaned with frustration. Only five minutes had passed. Glancing at Logan from the corner of her eye, she watched as he set up his corporate-assigned laptop.
“So, what made you choose the Netell system?” His voice almost made her jump.
She turned her chair toward him, her eyebrows shooting up. “It’s the best system for what we do.”
“Still, it’s one of the most expensive out there.” It wasn’t something she hadn’t heard before, or thought of herself, but she still believed in her research.
She shrugged. “It will easily pay for itself within a year.”
“We’ll see.” He turned back to his computer and she felt like throwing something at the back of his head.
Why was he messing with her? Did he think he could just pick up where he’d left off years ago? At this point, he hadn’t given her any clue that he knew who she was or remembered her. Had he?
She remembered the day she’d gone to school and found out that he’d moved away. It had been the best day of her junior high life.
Now, he was back and she had no doubt that her life was going to take a turn for the worse. Even if he didn’t remember their past, she knew he was trouble. She desperately wished for her friend’s advice and mentally counted down the seconds as she pretended to be busy on her computer.
At four thirty sharp, she started collecting her things. Her eyes moved over to where Logan sat with his back toward her as he punched away on his computer. She knew he was faking it, since it was his first day on the job. What could he possibly have to do?
She took a step closer to him so she could get a better look at his screen over his shoulder.
He was working on an email, then she noticed to whom he was sending the long message and she felt her body vibrate with anger.
“Why are you emailing Mr. Kent?”
He glanced over his shoulder at her, his fingers only pausing on his keyboard. “Because his contract was missing the disclosures.”
“No. They weren’t.” She took another step closer to him.
“Yes,” he stopped typing and turned toward her, “they were.” His lips curled up in a slight smile.
She
crossed her arms over her chest. “I hand-delivered them to him on Monday.”
“Then you forgot to put a signed copy in his file.” He leaned back in the small chair, watching her.
She sighed, knowing exactly where the paperwork had gone astray. “I’ll deal with it.”
His eyebrows shot up in question.
“Do not send that email. I’ll see to getting the paperwork in his file myself.” She turned to do just that, but his voice interrupted her.
“If there’s deadweight in the agency . . .”
She spun around quickly and stormed over to him. “There isn’t. Everyone here pulls his or her own weight.”
He waited a moment, then nodded slowly. “Fine. Have it your way.”
She looked down at him, then turned toward the door. She stopped with her hand on the handle. Something nagged at the back of her mind. Why was he here? And more importantly, why now?
“What are you doing here?” she asked, not looking back at him.
“Same as you, I suppose.”
She turned toward him to question him further, but then he continued. “It’s the best move for my career. RMR is a good, solid agency. There’s great potential here.”
She couldn’t have argued that point. Not since she believed it herself. Turning, she opened the door and rushed out to find where Leah had misplaced Mr. Kent’s disclosures.
“Can you believe it?” Amy almost screamed. Her fingers were deep in her long hair, and for a moment, she felt like pulling it all out.
“Calm down,” Kristen said, leaning back on the large sofa. “Take a deep breath and start at the beginning.”
Amy closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then opened them again and started babbling.
Kristen interrupted her halfway through her story. “Okay . . .” She walked over and took her friend by the shoulders. “First off, who’s Logan?”
Amy blinked at her a few times. “Logan Miller.” She paused, waiting for recognition to cross her friend’s eyes. When none came, she continued, “From junior high school.” She paused again and still Kristen didn’t seem to know whom she meant. “Bully Logan Miller.”