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None of the people Jace worked with knew about his past, except his manager, because he’d been forced to come clean about his record on the application. He’d promised her she’d never have any trouble with him, and she’d said she appreciated that because she had trouble with most of the young people she hired for the summer at one point or another.
She’d never had any trouble with him, and she wouldn’t.
Trouble was in the past for him now. He was all about leading an upstanding life with one major goal in mind—to have a relationship with his sons. Everything else was secondary to that.
He walked the short distance through town, nodding to people he recognized from the bar and waving to Tiffany Taylor, who ran the Naughty & Nice boutique. She was a hot shit who came into the bar with her husband, Police Chief Blaine Taylor, his brother Deacon and Deacon’s fiancée, Julia Lawry. The four of them cracked him up with their banter. Tiffany was always excited to have a night off from motherhood but couldn’t drink because she was pregnant.
Julia’s sister Cindy was another regular, and if Jace found himself thinking about her when she wasn’t at his bar, well, he couldn’t really help that. She was adorable, sweet, kind, sexy, easy to talk to and funny. He’d sensed an inner sadness in her, though, which made him curious, and she didn’t drink because she suffered from migraines.
Jace loved watching her interact with Julia as well as her other sister, Katie, and her husband, Shane, when they came in, sometimes with their brother Owen and his wife, Laura, who was Shane’s sister. It had taken him a minute to get his mind around a brother and sister marrying a brother and sister, but Cindy had drawn a picture for him on a Beachcomber cocktail napkin that had explained it, while insisting it was perfectly legal.
They were a fun bunch of people, and he enjoyed having them at his bar. He’d made a lot of nice friends on the island, but he didn’t see them outside of work or anything like that. That said, it’d been years since he’d been part of a community, and he’d begun to feel at home here. He hoped he wouldn’t have to leave any time soon.
He took a right onto Beach Street and walked to the small house at the end of the road. It wasn’t much to look at, but the location was excellent. How much would it cost to live this close to downtown and the beach? he wondered.
Hoping for the best, Jace rang the bell and steeled himself to share his past with strangers for the second time in two days. Outside of NA and AA and his manager at work, he hadn’t told his story to anyone since he’d been released from prison. Reliving the nightmare didn’t come easily to him, but he’d learned to own his truth if he wanted to lead a sober life.
The inside door swung open.
Cindy.
Jace laughed, even as his heart ached at having to share his truth with her, of all people. “It’s you.”
