Taking A Chance (Rebels 0f Forbidden Lake Book 2) Read online

  Kimmie didn’t say anything, and Liam’s thoughts rotated about this new agency he’d found. Heartland Au Pair had actually been recommended to him by another single father at a group Liam attended from time to time. When he’d discovered he’d need someone quickly, he’d texted Jason to find out who he used.

  Heartland had said it would be a challenge to find someone, and then the next day, they’d called to say one of their au pairs was returning to Forbidden Lake from France quiet unexpectedly and needed a new job.

  Liam hadn’t asked a whole lot of questions. He’d gotten Serenity Silvers’s name and phone number, filled out all the paperwork, and she would be there that evening.

  “Do you have your backpack?” he asked.

  “No.” Kimmie hopped over the cracks in the sidewalk as they walked to the SUV.

  Liam sighed. “Why didn’t you bring it?” He knew why. She didn’t want to go to school, where they were probably washing desks and then watching a movie. With only five days left, if he was a teacher, that was what he’d be doing.

  Kimmie didn’t answer, and it wouldn’t do any good to lecture her. He waited for her to buckle her seatbelt, and then he put the vehicle in drive.

  “Do we need the backpack?” he asked. “It’s the last week of school.”

  “Yeah,” she said. “Miss Butler said to bring stuff to take papers home in. She’s passing out all of our art today.”

  Annoyance bolted through Liam, but he didn’t let it show. He supposed he should’ve reminded her to bring her backpack if he’d wanted her to have it. Truth be told, he wasn’t going to go into work today at all. He’d been planning to go to their appointment and then take Kimmie to lunch.

  Why couldn’t Charlie just send the tourists to their cabins along the clearly marked roads?

  They lived out on the Addler family land, adjacent to the orchards, so it wasn’t just a quick trip to grab what she needed. Liam drove in silence, the lake on his left glinting in the almost-summer sunshine.

  With Kimmie absorbed into her video again, Liam was left to his own thoughts. Both of his brothers had found someone to spend their lives with recently, and he’d been out of the dating pond for so long. Maybe Jon or Phoenix could give him the names of some eligible women.

  He almost laughed at the thought of asking Phoenix. While he’d left his cabin in the woods a few times recently, the man literally hadn’t been into town in years before that. His suggestions for who Liam could ask out would probably include a co-worker or two and that was it.

  Jon would definitely have a wider net, and Liam resolved to text his brother before the day ended. Just thinking about what that text would say sent his stomach into a frenzy.

  He tapped her arm and waited for her to take out her headphones. “Will you miss lunch?” he asked.

  “What time is it?”

  “Well, it’s eleven-fifteen now. Don’t you go to lunch at eleven thirty-five?”

  “Yeah.”

  “So we should get something at the house,” he said, glancing at her. “We won’t be back until half your lunch is over.”

  “Maybe we could get something,” she said, her whole face lighting up.

  “No.” He shook his head. “We have food at the house. I have to get you back to school and take care of something at the office.” He glanced at her and watched her face fall. He hated it. Hated not being able to do everything she wanted.

  “Fine,” she said.

  The orchards came into view, and they were bright and green and glorious. Liam had worked his whole life in the family orchards, and he was set to take them over one day. One day soon, with the amount of work his father had turned over to him this year.

  He stopped at the intersection, the road to his left winding up to the cabin rentals and parking for the free-picking that nurse had mentioned. Straight ahead led to the private Addler property, and right would take him south, toward Chicago if he stayed in the car long enough.

  He peered up through the windshield, noticing a line of white smoke lifting from his family’s private property. All of the Addler’s lived on this lane, including Phoenix. He just lived farther down it than most.

  “What in the world?” He crossed the road and went down the road. Jon’s. Karly’s. Mia’s. Past his parent’s house. His grandparent’s.

  His was next, and the smoke was definitely coming from the back of his house. Panic hit him hard. Had he left something burning? A candle? A heater? The stove?

  He couldn’t think. He said, “Stay here,” to Kimmie, and bolted from the SUV. After taking the front steps two at a time, he burst through the front door to the loudest rock music on the planet.

  “Hey,” he yelled into it, thinking a vagrant had gotten into his house. Maybe they’d been watching him, and noticed he and Kimmie left every morning at the same time and rarely came home during the day.

  He marched through the foyer, scanning the living room for any intruders. He didn’t see anyone, but a woman started singing along with the music. It was more like screeching, and he came to a complete halt when he rounded the corner and saw the blonde dancing in his kitchen.

  His heart thrashed then, and pure attraction poured through him. So he would know when he was attracted to another woman, because wow, every cell in his body was firing.

  “Hey,” he said again, and she spun toward him. Where the nurse had been made up and fake, this woman was raw and beautiful. Her hair sat halfway between brown and blonde and fell over her shoulders in long curls he wanted to fist his fingers in. She wore simple jeans and a tank top that could’ve been labeled pumpkin by a crayon company.

  “Who are you?” he asked, managing to hide the way his hormones seemed to have forgotten he was a thirty-five-year-old man. And this woman was clearly much younger than him, and so very obviously not for him. Off-limits.

  She scrambled to turn down the music, her eyes wide and afraid. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “I didn’t think you’d be home until tonight.”

  “Clearly,” he bit out, folding his arms. He did it because he knew it made him look large and imposing, and this woman seemed afraid…but she wasn’t at the same time.

  “I’m Serenity,” she said, darting forward to shake his hand. “Serenity Silvers. Your new au pair.”

  Sparks shot up Liam’s arm when her hand touched his, and he knew he’d just fallen into a deep vat of very, very hot water.

  * * *

  Ooh, Liam and Serenity are going to be in so much trouble… I love boss/nanny romances!

  WORKING IT OUT is available now, in Kindle Unlimited.

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  About Elana

  Elana Johnson is the USA Today bestselling author of dozens of novels, from YA contemporary romance to adult beach romances. Check out her sweet romances in the Hawthorne Harbor Romance series, the Clean Beach Club Billionaire Romance series, the Beaches & Brides Romance series, the Rebels of Forbidden Lake Romance Series, the Stranded in Paradise Romance Series, and the Carter’s Cove Beach Romance Series.

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  She also writes under the pen name Liz Isaacson, who is the USA Today bestselling author and Kindle All-Star Author of the Three Rivers Ranch Romance series, the #1 bestselling Horseshoe Home Ranch Romance series, the Brush Creek Brides series, the Steeple Ridge Romance series (Buttars Brothers novels), and the Grape Seed Falls Romance series, the Christmas in Coral Canyon Romance series, the Quinn Valley Ranch Romance series, and the Last Chance Ranch Romance series.

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  TAKING A CHANCE

  Book Two, Rebels of Forbidden Lake Romance series

  by Elana Johnson

  Copyright © 2019 by AEJ Creative Works Inc, Elana Johnson

  All Rights Reserved

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. No part of this book can be reproduced in any form or by electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without the express written permission of the author. The only exception is by a reviewer who may quote short excerpts in a review. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in, or encourage, the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

  Cover and interior design by AEJ Creative Works Inc.