Page 1 of Hooked
Chapter One
Tayla McKinnon tookone step outside, glanced at the profusion of blossoms on the pear trees lining Main Street in Metlin, California, and reached for her handkerchief. She brought the delicately embroidered cotton square to her face.
Three… two… one…
“Achoo!” She let out a massive sneeze that made her eyes water. Luckily, it wouldnotsmudge her makeup.
Waterproof mascara, T. Waterproof mascara is your friend in Allergy Town.
“Hey, Tayla.” Ethan Vasquez stepped outside his hardware store and set up an angled chalkboard on the sidewalk, highlighting the classes he was offering that week. “How ya doing this morning?”
Tayla strolled toward him, keeping her handkerchief in her hand. “How much longer do these trees bloom?”
Ethan glanced up at the masses of white blooms. “The pear trees?”
Tayla blinked away the tears in her eyes. “No, the other trees making me sneeze.”
He gave her a crooked grin. “Well, there are the almonds, the olives, the apricots, walnuts, the—”
“Ahhhh!” She threw her head back. “Why did I move to farm country?”
“I’m just saying it could be any of those.” He shrugged. “But it’s probably the pears. My mom’s allergic too.”
Tayla wasn’t from Metlin. She was from San Francisco. A native of the cosmopolitan and cultured City on the Bay. The city thatdidn’thave pear trees everywhere. How the hell had she ended up sneezing in Metlin?
“Tay!” A voice came from behind her.
Tayla turned and saw her best friend and roommate, Emmie Elliot, poking her head out of the bookshop and tattoo studio she ran with her boyfriend, Ox. Emmie sold books; Ox was a tattoo artist. Their shop, INK, had been a gamble that turned into a slowly growing success.
It was also the reason Tayla was in Metlin. She’d moved the year before to help Emmie fulfill her dream. She worked part time in the shop and lived rent free in the second-floor apartment with Emmie. Tayla had also started her own bookkeeping business that was taking off with the merchants in downtown Metlin. It was light-years away from the corporate accounting job she’d held in San Francisco, but corporate accounting wasn’t something Tayla missed.
At all.
“Hey.” Emmie walked out of the store with bare feet. She looked like she’d just stumbled out of bed, and her hair was twisted into a messy knot on her head.
Tayla surveyed the fashion disaster that was her best friend. “Did you just wake up?”
“Kinda?”
Tayla shook her head in wonder. She’d been up for over two hours. She’d curled and fixed her newly dark hair—she was experimenting with tones closer to her natural brown—expertly applied makeup, and chosen the perfect outfit to emphasize her voluptuous figure. The pink in the dress she wore complemented the undertones in her skin, and the orange stripe was a strong counterpoint that made her blue eyes more vivid.
She was a fashion blogger in addition to being a bookkeeper. Her hustle was strong, and she didnotwalk out the door without her face and outfit perfect.
“Why did I come out here?” Emmie looked half-asleep and definitely caffeine deprived. “Oh! Right. Did you want to meet at Daisy’s for lunch?”
Tayla mentally scrolled through her calendar. “I have meetings at ten and eleven, but I’m supposed to do Daisy’s books around two, so yes. I’ll meet you there at… twelve thirty?”
“Ox should be able to watch the shop.” Emmie walked toward her and pulled a small pack of tissues from her pocket. “Also, the handkerchief is cute, but this is spring in Metlin. You need the heavy-duty stuff.”
“Fine.” Tayla reluctantly took the small tissue package with the wordsNow with more aloe!on the side. “I bow to your rural-living experience.”
“And this.” Emmie handed over a bubbled strip of pills. “Antihistamines. Every day, Tayla. You have to take them every day.”
Tayla took the pills. “Why do you want to live here again?”
“Because it’s beautiful, close to the mountains, has great farmers’ markets, and I’ll be able to buy a house before I’m fifty.”
She rolled her eyes. “Fine.”
