Chapter 2
TAKE IT TO EXTREMES
“What is wrong with you, Alana?”
“What?” she asked her cousin and boss, Kelsey Raymond.
Not a first cousin. She wasn’t positive what number to put on it. The grandmothers of Kelsey’s father and her mother were sisters. Twins.
“It’ll be so much fun to watch your daughter. I’m looking forward to it. Blah, blah, blah,” Kelsey said, waving her hand. “How about saying, ‘It’d be so much fun to jump your bones, Brennan?’”
Her jaw dropped as she swiveled her head toward the door double-checking it was shut. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Kelsey leaned back in her chair and burst out laughing. “You know exactly what I’m talking about. Do you think I haven’t caught your side eyes and glances at Brennan since he started here two months ago?”
She couldn’t believe this was happening.
She’d thought she was so good at hiding that. “Have you?”
Kelsey pointed her finger. “You should see how red your face is right now.”
“Great,” she said. “I’ll just stay in here until it passes.”
Kelsey rolled her eyes. “Don’t you have the food pantry tonight?”
“No,” she said. “That was last night.”
“The clothing drive?”
“That’s tomorrow,” she said. “But I actually did it on my lunch today because they called and asked if I could.”
Kelsey was holding her fingers up. “Okay, we’ve got volunteers at the food pantry, picks up clothing for the local clothing drive at least for one if not more organizations, you’re doing some Christmas toy drive too, and now you want to babysit a coworker’s daughter.
Do you ever just sit home and stuff your face with Oreos and Doritos? ”
“Eww,” she said. “First, you’re making me sound like some saint.”
“You are,” Kelsey said. “We all know it. Little miss helping everyone she can in the community so that you don’t have to put yourself out there again.”
She scrunched her nose up. “It’s not for that reason. I enjoy helping those organizations. We all give back. It’s part of our family legacy.”
But she wouldn’t admit that a lot of it was to not sit home alone and feel like such a loser that she couldn’t attract a man.
She’d put herself out there a few times, gone on a couple of dates that flopped, and it was best to let it go for now.
Everything she felt for Brennan hit harder than it ever had with any other man, but he never gave any sign he wanted more than casual conversation about his adorable daughter.
Why not help a coworker in a bind?
“Put your chin down,” Kelsey said. “Yes, we do, but you take it to extremes. In a nice way. Maybe you thought you’d find someone doing those things.”
She snorted. “Nope.”
A big part of what she did on the island she’d moved to a year ago for a career and lifestyle change had more to do with her clients.
She focused on not for profit, government funded organizations. The more she got to know them and their services, the more she wanted to help.
Nothing more than that in terms of volunteering.
It sure the heck had nothing to do with the fact she was running from a failed engagement. She didn’t care what Kelsey said. Volunteering wasn’t a new form of dating in her mind.
Prior to that, it was more misses than hits in relationships because she was never the one her exes wanted in the end. A great friend, not a perfect partner.
“Good,” Kelsey said. “Because you won’t find anyone but do-gooders at those things.”
She put her hands on her hips. “What’s wrong with do-gooders?”
“Gotcha,” Kelsey said, pointing both fingers and alternating them back and forth as if she was trying to shoot love arrows out of her tips.
“I’m not looking for someone,” she said. “Been there and done that and needed a break.”
Kelsey let out an exaggerated snort. “It’s been over a year. Be honest. You think Brennan is hot.”
Her shoulders dropped. She turned her head to look at the closed door again. Brennan’s office wasn’t that close anyway, but she didn’t want to be caught.
It’d be nice to talk to someone about this and Kelsey was great at making her laugh and not feel like a complete failure.
“It’s hard not to. He is.” He stood a good foot taller than her.
She’d peg him at six-three. His brown hair was cropped short on the sides and back, a little longer on top, just messy enough to run her fingers through.
But it was his eyes that held her. Dark blue, like a storm rolling in.
Not the kind you fled from, but the kind you leaned into, desperate to understand what stirred beneath the surface. “Do you know his story?”
“Good for you,” Kelsey said. “It’s better to go for a guy that appeals to you and you can find out about him in person. Those apps, we know they don’t work.”
Kelsey had tried her hand at dating apps and entertained the office with her tales. Not that Alana was here when it was happening, but she still heard bits and pieces.
Her cousin was engaged to Van Harlow and was getting married in a few months. The 911 operator who answered Kelsey’s frantic call when her dog was trapped under the deck over a year ago.
Kyle Raymond’s business partner that no one knew about.
Getting to know someone in person worked for her boss.
That was how she went about it with Jonathan too. Look at how well that turned out.
“I’ve never tried them and never will,” she said firmly. “It’s not my thing.”
“Especially here on the island,” Kelsey said. “And we know you want to avoid Boston now.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m not avoiding it. I grew up there and loved it for a long time. It was time for a change.”
“Because Jonathan is a dick,” Kelsey said. “And I’m surprised your father didn’t get him fired.”
“My father wouldn’t do that.”
Though maybe she would have liked that deep down, but Jonathan didn’t do a terrible job, just used her.
The curse of people finding out the family she was part of.
It hadn’t helped any that her father was Vice President of Finance for Bond Enterprises, working for Mitchell Bond and overseeing many endeavors.
Alana had been a finance manager at one of Mitchell’s companies. Did people assume her father pulled strings to get her the job? Absolutely. But she kept her head down, proved her worth, and made damn sure everyone knew she earned her place.
She’d met Jonathan Andrews at a work retreat. He worked for another of Mitchell’s ventures. They were both a few years out of college and looking to launch their careers.
Her in finance.
Him in operations.
He learned fairly quickly who her father was, but hadn’t realized she was part of the Bond family until over a year into their relationship.
“My dad would have,” Kelsey said. “I wouldn’t have even had to ask him. He’d be pissed knowing that someone used anyone in the family.”
“Your father also owns all his businesses. My father doesn’t.”
“Oh please,” Kelsey said, rolling her eyes. “I know you. You’re a people-pleaser. You told your father not to do it. And then you went to Mitchell and Ethan and said the same thing. Right?”
It was impossible to hide anything from anyone.
“It was better that way,” she said. “It’d do nothing more than give Jonathan ammunition to talk about me.”
“You should have been running your mouth about him.”
“Not my way,” she said. “I wasted too much of my life with him and thinking of him. That chapter is closed and he can do what he wants, where he wants, and with whoever he wants. My life is full on the island and it’s mine.”
“Filling it with pleasing everyone but yourself,” Kelsey argued.
She heaved in a breath. “Maybe one day I’ll put myself first. But it’s not today.”
“No, today you’re going to babysit a little girl you met once.”
“I love kids,” she said. “You know that. I’m always watching Penelope’s and Emily’s kids.”
“You are and I’m sure they love it. But you should spend more time on yourself and not everyone else.”
She shrugged. Not something she hadn’t been hearing for years.
“Spending time alone is boring,” she said. “So there you go. And Brennan is new to the area. I’m just helping a coworker out.”
Kelsey sighed. “I know. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t pick on you. I just want to see you as happy as I am with Van.”
“I thought I was there,” she said. “Not sure I’ve got it in me to do it again.”
“Don’t feel that way,” Kelsey said. “Then you’re letting him win. If I think he is winning I’ll go pay him a piece of my mind with my sexy mean fiancé.”
She laughed. “Van might make him wet his pants. That would be a sight to see.”
“Good,” Kelsey said. “Be honest—do you like Brennan? It won’t go any further than these four walls.”
“He’s a likeable guy,” she said, standing up. This conversation was over in her mind.
She trusted her boss, but she wasn’t about to admit anything to anyone if she couldn’t figure it out herself. And right now, the only thing in her mind was that he had a cute daughter she got to entertain tonight so she wasn’t sitting home alone looking for Oreos and Doritos to stuff her face with.