Page 91 of Forbidden Kisses
“Wait a minute. Is that your plan? To be too busy to think about Jack?” Abby shook her head. “Because if it is, it’s not going to work. I know from experience.”
Grace and Krista frowned at Abby now.
“But this is not my pity party. I’m fine. I’ve loved and lost, which is way better than never loving at all.” Abby narrowed her eyes at Krista.
“Hey!” Krista complained. “That is so not fair. I’m busy working as a nurse and saving people’s lives every day, thank you very much. Besides, it’s Grace’s love life we’re talking about right now.”
Grace held up both hands. “No love life. I’m done. It’s just me and my dog.”
They all returned their attention to Hope, who proceeded to squat and pee on Grace’s floor.
“No, no, no. Don’t do that.” Grace shot up and ran to go get paper towels.
“What does your landlord think about Hope being here?” Krista asked.
Grace froze with the paper towels in hand. Right. She’d never had a pet before, so she’d never had to consider that some places didn’t take pets. “Oh crap.”
Abby waved a dismissive hand. “If he threatens to kick you out, then you call his bluff and tell him you’ll gladly leave. There’s like five vacancies in this complex. If you leave, that’ll be one less check he’ll collect each month. He’ll probably just ask you to pay a deposit or something.”
Grace exhaled. “Oh. Good.” Because she’d move before she considered bringing Hope back to that shelter.
Krista stood and headed to the fridge. “Can I get some water?”
“Of course.” Grace continued toward the spot that Hope had left on the floor and cleaned it up.
After drinking a glass of water, Krista collected the little dog back into her arms. “Can I be Hope’s godparent? So if you die, I’ll get ownership.”
Grace shook her head. “That’s so morbid.”
“I’m a nurse. What do you expect?”
All three women laughed. It was better than crying. Grace wanted to do more laughing, she decided, mentally adding that to her list of desires.
—
On Thursday morning, Jack took a break from his current job and headed over to Sam’s bright and early.
“No fishing today,” he said. “I need your help.”
Sam continued to pull his fishing boots on. “What do you mean ‘no fishing’?”
“I checked the books. The deliveries are caught up on and Dad can go out with a few of the temporaries. They need the kind of training that only he can provide anyway.”
Sam gave him an assessing look. “What kind of help do you need, bro? And why not just get Tristan to help you?”
“Because it needs to be you and Noah. Get dressed. I’ll explain at breakfast. Noah’s meeting us at the café.”
The three men sat over coffee and bacon croissants as Jack explained what he was asking them to do. It was fifty-fifty whether or not they were going to agree or give him an old-fashioned brotherly beatdown.
“You want us to go over to Tammy Donner’s house and build her a ramp?”
Jack nodded. “I already bought the lumber. It’s not much different from building a pier, I figure.”
Sam drank his coffee quietly.
Noah chewed his breakfast, his skin turning ruddy as he clenched his jaw.
“When you love someone, you love every part of them. Tammy is a part of Grace and,uh…” He hesitated. “Well, we all love Grace, right? She nearly died to make things right between our families. I figure we owe her this much.”
