The Love You Maine Series Boxed Set

Chapter 1

Chapter One

Kell

Until the lemur reached for one of the glasses next to the sangria pitcher, poured itself a drink, and pulled its furry head off.

None of the animals at the rescue sanctuary in his small town in Maine did that.

“What did you do to be assigned an intern’s job, Rachel? Or, should I say, Leo?” he asked. Everyone laughed. They were all fellows in environmental policy at the same NGO, and they were a tight group. There were five of them, with a sixth not here yet.

Kell’s girlfriend, Alissa. The head fellow and, technically, their supervisor.

Who had been increasingly unavailable recently.

Rachel sipped from the glass in one hand and pulled her long, thick ponytail out from her neckline. “I wasn’t assigned. Maia got food poisoning and the other interns were all busy, so I offered.”

“You volunteered?” John recoiled in horror, hand splayed on his chest, looking every bit the part of the descendant of old money that he was. The sun glimmered on his Patek Philippe watch. “Why would you do that?”

“Because she’s nice?” Kell said with a sympathetic smile to Rachel, who gave it right back.

“Nice gets you nowhere,” John said, shaking his head as if they were all crazy.

“Nice gets you stuck inside a lemur costume, boiling from the inside out,” Jonas chimed in.

“It gets worse. When she found out I offered to help Maia, Alissa assigned me to be Leo the Lemur. Said that before my final review, I needed to be more assertive with putting out messaging.” Rolling her dark brown eyes, she smiled, but something deeper flashed in her look.

John let out a low whistle as the rest of them laughed.

“And wearing a lemur costume accomplishes this… how?” Kell asked as Rachel gave him the stink eye he deserved for even asking the question.

“You tell me. You’ve all had to wear this stupid thing and work the crowds.”

“Nope. That’s for interns,” John said with a sneer.

The pecking order mattered to guys like him. Interns ranked below fellows.

“We’re representing the ring-tailed lemur and endangered species in general,” Rachel continued. “Testing shows the costume attracts kids, and kids are attached to parents who vote. You know this,” she said, picking up her striped tail and whacking Kell on the shoulder.

“And donate,” Jonas added, holding up an amber beer bottle with the label half peeled off.

“Cheers to that,” Kell said, raising his own.

Rachel thunked a clipboard with a very thick stack of contact forms onto the table. Completed contact forms. This time it was Kell who let out a low whistle.

Everyone made room for Rachel to sit. The costume was bulky enough that it took up two seats, the butt wide, the tail downright lethal if you swung it hard enough.

And Rachel Hart was the type of woman who would do exactly that if you pushed her too far.

“How many sign-ups did you get?” he asked.

“Sixty-seven.” Rachel’s voice was filled with triumph.

“That’s got to be a record,” Jonas said with a genuine smile, but Kell heard the undertone in both of them.

Competition.

She may have done a lowly intern’s job, but she did it better than anyone else. And where Kell came from, there were no jobs “beneath” you. If something needed to be done, you did it, because it was part of a larger goal. A piece of him admired Rachel for helping Maia and EEC.

Another part thought she was nuts for taking on an extra responsibility.

With a month left to go in their year-long fellowship, all of their cohort was nervous.

Working at the Earth Endangered Coalition was every starry-eyed environmentalist’s dream.

EEC was an international non-governmental organization–an NGO–with offices in every nation’s capital and policy influence that made a real difference.

The EEC fellowship was the only one Kell had applied for because making a real difference in the world was his singular goal.

For others, though, working for EEC was a stepping stone. Working for the best was more important than being the best steward of the Earth.

“It is a record,” Rachel informed them.

“Which means I was right,” said a smooth voice filled with an arrogance that simultaneously appealed to Kell and made him cringe.

He turned toward the sound of Alissa’s approach.

Before anyone could stop her, his girlfriend slipped into the seat the others had cleared for Rachel, who was left standing above them all, one hand on her tail and the other holding a now-empty sangria glass.

“Hey,” Kell said, Alissa’s quick peck on his cheek leaving him feeling more puzzled than welcomed.

They’d started dating four months ago, and left toothbrushes and changes of clothing at each other’s apartments over the last two months.

Lately, she was clamoring for him to take her back home to Maine to meet his family.

Just as they were applying for jobs, their futures deeply uncertain.

“Hey back,” Alissa said, scanning the table. Unlike the other five, she had been with EEC for two years, part of a special program designed to develop female leaders. She was their supervisor, but was leaving EEC in a month like the rest of them.

And was desperate to find the right job, like the rest of them.

Kell slipped his arm around her shoulders and she relaxed into him, his hand brushing the ends of strawberry-blonde curls. Rachel looked increasingly uncomfortable.

“You haven’t been answering my texts,” he whispered into Alissa’s ear.

She stiffened. “I’ve been busy.”

“Too busy to type No? Or even better, Yes?”

She reached for his bottle of beer and took a sip.

“Let me get you one,” he said, and she smiled tightly and nodded. Kell stood, gesturing to Rachel.

“Sit.”

“I can’t take your seat!”

“Sure you can.” With a small nudge, he urged her to do just that, ignoring Alissa’s exasperated vibe. Standing for nine hours at a rally–and in the May heat of D.C.–meant Rachel must be exhausted.

Actually, he knew all too well. Last year, he’d been in that costume. He’d wanted to make sure he knew what the experience was like because someday, he might be in charge of that kind of fieldwork. Your feet hurt.

A lot.

“Thanks,” Rachel mumbled, arranging her tail so it fell to the floor, away from Alissa. She slid the clipboard over and smiled. “I got sixty-seven sign-ups.”

“That’s wonderful! Our division will beat New York if we keep it up,” he heard Alissa say as he walked inside to the bar to grab two more beers.

And think.

The delicious smell of the restaurant made him smile. He loved everything about the city. Everything. Growing up in rural Maine, then moving to Amherst, Massachusetts, for college, meant that he’d spent his entire life in small-town New England.

The decision to come to D.C. was the best he’d ever made.

City life suited him well. The variety was intoxicating.

All the new sights, scents, and experiences filled a place inside him he didn’t know was empty.

Urban living appealed to him so much, he’d only applied for jobs in New York, L.A.

, Chicago, and of course, here, hoping to use his forestry and agriculture background and education to continue shaping public policy.

Flagging down the bartender, he ordered his two beers and looked around. Diners sat at tables in clusters of two and four. Even here, important decisions were being made.

D.C. was all about power. And Kell wanted the people who held that power to make decisions that protected the planet.

Scanning the crowd, he felt his intuition kick in, picking up non-verbal signals and letting his imagination run wild.

The couple practically mining each other’s throats for tonsils were cheating on their spouses.

The angry suit in the corner spitting invective at his cringing companion was a senator.

The two women in African dress were here on a vaccine campaign, one of them close to being named head of the World Health Organization.

He didn’t know the truth, but he didn’t have to. He just knew there was so much influence here.

“Thought I better come find you before the beer evaporates,” Alissa teased him, suddenly at his side, prying one bottle out of his grip. Perceptive topaz eyes met his, fringed by long lashes. Those pretty eyes could quickly narrow in judgment, he knew.

“What? Oh. Sorry. Just thinking.”

“You’re always thinking, Kell.” She gave his cheek a light pat that made him grin.

“How about we talk?” he asked.

Her phone buzzed.

“I’ll be right back.” She took a swig of her beer, then handed it to him.

And disappeared into a dark corner, head down, thumbing away.

“No problem texting other people instantly, but you can’t answer me for over twenty-four hours?” he muttered, knowing the words wouldn’t change anything, hating the growing feeling inside. For as much as he loved his new life, parts of it were still a mystery to him.

Like how to handle a girlfriend who seemed to make him her lowest priority.

Kell took the beers back to the table, where a still-sweaty Rachel sat in his seat. She began to stand, but he pressed a palm to her furry shoulder.

“Stay. I insist. Your feet are killing you, aren’t they?”

“Yes,” she confessed.

“Why don’t you go into the restaurant and change?” Jonas asked.

Rachel blushed furiously.

“Uh oh,” Lila said, leaning in. “That doesn’t look good.”

Rachel frowned, then reached for the sangria pitcher. “I need another drink before I tell this story.”

“Let me guess. Sonny the Sperm Whale from Ocean’s Honor Collaborative beat you up and stole your lunch money,” Kell said with a laugh.

“I’d pay a good amount to watch that wrestling match,” Jonas chimed in. “In a vat of chocolate pudding.”

“You’re disgusting,” Lila informed him. “What happened, Rachel?”