Forever and a Day by Jill Shalvis Read Free Book Online Page A

sniffed every single rock, every last tree, and then finally chose a spot to hunch and do his business.
    “Hey!” A man stuck his head out of a window of the house. “Don’t think I don’t see that you’re not carrying a doodie bag! You come back with a doodie bag and clean that up!”
    A doodie bag? Grace had seen a stack of plastic baggies by Tank’s leash. Guess she knew what they were for now. She scooped Tank back up. “I hope you’re done.”
    Tank snorted and licked her chin.
    “I mean it!” the man yelled at her. “Make sure you take care of that mess or I’ll call the cops on you.”
    Grace took Tank back to the house, securing him in the laundry room. Then she reluctantly grabbed a bag to go do her “doodie” duty. As she turned to the door, she nearly tripped over a young woman in a wheelchair. She was twentyish, petite, dark-haired, her eyes as dark and alluring as the man she had to be related to.
    “Anna,” she said, introducing herself. “The crazy sister. And you must be the nude girl he kissed.”
    Grace choked. “ What? ”
    “Yeah, you haven’t seen?” Anna pulled her phone from a pocket and thumbed a few buttons, then turned the screen for Grace.
    It was Lucky Harbor’s Facebook page, and a picture of Grace in the bikini T-shirt that was going to haunt her for the rest of her damn life. And her lips were indeed connected to Josh’s. The kiss had lasted only a heartbeat, but one would never know it by the picture, which had been captured at just the right nanosecond, showing Grace leaning into Josh with her entire body, both hands on his chest.
    She hadn’t realized she’d touched him so intimately, but now she could remember the heat radiating through his shirt, the easy strength of him beneath. And he’d smelled delicious.
    But God, had she really looked at him so adoringly?
    Josh hadn’t been so innocent either. He had one big hand cupping her jaw, his thumb clearly stroking her skin in a way that seemed both tender and yet somehow outrageously sexy.
    “Cozy,” Anna said dryly.
    “It’s not what it looks like,” Grace said, giving her back the phone.
    “No?” Anna asked, looking down at the screen again. “Because it looks like you’re kissing. You’re not kissing?”
    “Okay, so we’re kissing, but that’s only because the day before he’d said he’d kiss me if I lost the dog and then…” Grace trailed off, unable to remember exactly how it was that she’d ended up with Josh’s mouth on hers.
    On the Internet.
    Anna arched a brow.
    Grace sighed. “Well, this is embarrassing. We’re not…I mean, he and I aren’t—”
    “Oh, no worries,” Anna said. “I know you’re not his girl toy. He wouldn’t have hired you if you were.”
    “Girl toy?”
    “Yeah, Josh doesn’t bring his women home.”
    Well ouch. “Okay, good.” Great. Because, hey, she’d already decided that the two of them weren’t going to do this. This being anything. So yeah, this was really great.
    “Hang on,” Anna said. “I just want to share the link with everyone I know…” She hit a few keys, then smiled. “There. God, how I love it when he does something stupid. It’s so rare, you know? And then when he finally does it, he really does it right.” She unlocked the baby gate, freeing Tank just as a young boy came tearing into the kitchen. He was waving a lightsaber and making some sort of war cry as he ran circles around the kitchen table.
    Tank took off right on his heels, barking so hard his back legs kept coming off the floor. Quite the feat, given that his belly swung so low.
    The kid was wearing a Star Wars T-shirt. His jeans were streaked with dirt and low enough on his narrow little hips to reveal his underwear waistband, which was also Star Wars. His battered athletic shoes lit up with each step he made, and the right one was untied. He was maybe five, with dark hair that definitely hadn’t seen a brush that morning, and his melting, dark chocolate eyes matched