Her Forbidden Love (Indigo Island Book 2) Read Online Free Page A

the kids to the pool, so we’ll see a lot of each other,” Jack said. “So, um, want to go to the employee bonfire with me tonight? You’re going to need help with that foot of yours, I mean if you want to go.”
    Dorsey was shocked. She swallowed. Was Jack asking her on a date? “Sure. Great.”
    “Cell phones don’t work here, as you know, so call my cottage if you change your mind. Otherwise, I’ll swing by about seven?”
    “Perfect,” Dorsey said, as Steve pulled up in an all-terrain golf cart.
    Dorsey tried to stand up, but fell back on the sand. Jack reached for her hands as Steve said, “Here, Dorsey, let me help you,” scooping her up off the sand as Jack turned away. “You’re good to walk back, right, Means?” Steve asked Jack. Steve dropped her into the back of the cart and they drove away, leaving Jack behind on the hot sand.
    “Why didn’t we give Jack a ride back?” she asked. “He really helped me a lot back there.”
    “I’m sure he did. You know my policy, right? No dating among employees. I enforce it very strictly,” Steve said. “Summer staff is one thing, but you are an employee, like Jack is now. Will be quite a change for the lad from last summer.”
    “Right,” Dorsey said, getting the chills. Her foot was throbbing, the sun was hot and Steve was, well, Steve.
    “Quite the playboy, that one, but now he is in management. Rules change. I learned that the hard way on my first management job. I was quite the ladies’ man back in my day,” he said. “Yup, but now I’m a career man. Career first, pleasure second. Excellence in everything.”
    As she held on to the golf cart, Dorsey realized she’d sort of agreed to go on a date, a date with the hottest guy on the island. Hopefully, though, Steve would just think Jack was helping her out by taking her to the bonfire because of her injured foot. And really, that’s all they could ever be anyway, even without Steve’s strict rules. Friends. She knew she wasn’t ready for more. She’d made a promise to herself after Chad broke up with her that she’d spend this time, this chapter of her life alone. It only made sense.
    Dorsey looked at her foot, at the blood seeping through the bandage Jack had applied, and shuddered, remembering years ago the blood that had splattered all over her face and pink t-shirt, and all over the flowers they had been planting in the garden. The police said the killer must not have seen Dorsey, as she was kneeling down, planting a row of seeds. They also told her she must have seen the shooter, just before he turned to run away.
    She’d been fourteen years old, old enough to remember, her mom kept saying.
    Dorsey wrapped her hand tightly around the arrowhead as tears flooded her eyes.
    Five stitches later, and with orders to use crutches for the next three days to allow the cut to heal, Dorsey was released from the resort’s clinic. Steve hadn’t left her side, insisting on being there as the doctor cleaned the cut and then stitched her foot, an excruciatingly painful process. She didn’t understand why he had to be with her, watching her suffer, his beady eyes glinting under the fluorescent clinic lights.
    “I’ll drive you back, Dorsey,” Steve said, holding the door for her as she learned to walk with the crutches. “Tomorrow is a busy day. You should stay in and rest tonight. It’s OK for you to skip the bonfire.”
    “Um, right,” Dorsey said, swallowing. He couldn’t know about her plans with Jack, she realized. But it was almost like he did. She shook her head. The pain pills were making her loopy.
    As soon as she walked awkwardly out the clinic door, sweat formed on her forehead and dripped into her eyes. The cart ride provided a brief respite until Steve stopped and parked near the ocean, just below the swimming pool, where a group of happy day-trip vacationers stood waiting for their “nature walk and history talk.”
    “I hope you don’t mind but I’ve got to do a little talk