Love by the Mile Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Epilogue

  Copyright © 2017 by Heather YoungNichols

  Cover Art by Colbert Creative Design LLC

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  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 persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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  Chapter One

  When I opened my eyes, I became acutely aware of a body lying next to me.

  A warm, hard-muscled, definitely masculine body. His bare butt brushed against my thigh, and I sighed. The guy next to me was completely naked which could only mean one thing.

  My brain went into overdrive running through every single thing that happened last night.

  I’d been at the bar with my best friend, her boyfriend, and Nick Scherzer.

  We had a few drinks—for me, more than a few.

  There weren’t many people in Harbor Point I’d go to bed with even drunk, so I didn’t think narrowing this down would be all that hard.

  The only person who fit that I remembered talking to was Nick.

  Well, shit.

  When I glanced over at him, I knew for sure. I wouldn’t need to see his face for confirmation. I already knew his body intimately and would know it if I saw it.

  I was seeing it.

  “Oh god.” I groaned, dropping an arm over my eyes to block out the light, to block out Nick lying beside me. That small movement caused an intense throb in my head.

  I made a promise to myself then and there. I’d never drink again.

  “Huh… ” His sleepy voice took me by surprise. I thought he was still asleep. “That’s also what you sounded like last night.”

  I put my hands and feet against his back and pushed with everything I had until he fell out of bed and onto the floor.

  Instead of being mad, his laughter filled the room.

  “What the hell, Nick? We weren’t supposed to do this again.”

  “You wouldn’t take no for an answer.” He climbed back onto my bed, naked, as I snorted. “I’m serious. I feel a little violated.”

  “Since everything from last night is a little foggy, I’m thinking you might be the one who took advantage of me.”

  “As if anyone could take advantage of you, Bailey Baker.”

  He wasn’t wrong. Even though I’d grown up in the small, tourist town of Harbor Point, I’d learned my way around the world. I never wanted to be the naive girl whose eyes went wide at the lights of the big city.

  That’s why I went away to college with Bianca Russo, my very best friend in the whole world. It was also why I chose a trip to Europe as my college graduation gift last summer.

  “Ok, so I need to shower,” I said. “Get out.”

  Nick chuckled again, not caring that he was buck ass naked while bending over to grab his jeans off the floor as I watched.

  It wasn’t a bad view.

  “You can go. I’ll let myself out. I’ve seen you naked before, you know. Recently.”

  “Don’t remind me.” I groaned again. “Seriously, this can’t keep happening.”

  “I know.” He sighed then glanced over his shoulder. “But you need to remind yourself of that, too.”

  “Trust me, I know.”

  After pulling a T-shirt on and slipping his feet into his shoes, he grabbed his jacket off the dresser across the room. He was ready to leave but I needed to make sure of something. A question I had to ask even if I felt confident I already knew the answer.

  “Hey, you aren’t like… into me or anything right?”

  “Well, I was in you last night.”

  I slapped his arm, the sound of skin on skin breaking the still air in the room.

  “Come on.” He rolled his eyes in an exaggerated way. “You know better. I love you, but this—” he jutted a thumb at the tousled sheets “—is just for fun.”

  I nodded because I did know. A relationship with Nick wasn’t something I ever wanted, either.

  He dropped a quick, friendly kiss, on the top of my head,, the way he always did with Bianca and me then left.

  Just as I slipped my robe on, the lock on the front door disengaged. Then another voice filled the room.

  I closed my eyes and sighed.

  So much for last night being ignored.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” Bianca asked him.

  “Leaving.”

  I listened, eavesdropping in my own apartment, as he shuffled out and hoped Bianca would follow. Just wasn’t my lucky day. The door slammed but she remained.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Bianca called into the void. “Hay Bail.”

  “Don’t start. I’m grown,” I said as I came out of my room, still tying my robe.

  I wanted her to leave so I could get on with my day, send out some more resumes in what was becoming a futile attempt to find a job, and put the incident with Nick behind me even if it had been good.

  Sex with Nick was always good.

  “Yeah, I know.” She dropped on the couch. I guess she wouldn’t be leaving anytime soon. “I just like busting his chops. So, how was it?”

  “What?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Last night with Nick?”

  Bianca and I became fast friends the summer we met in high school. The sucky part of it was that she only came to Harbor Point for the summers but spent the school year in Michigan with her parents.

  As an only child, there wasn’t anyone who had my back no matter what until I met Nick at school. Then he introduced me to his friend, Bianca, and the three of us ruled the summer.

  “Eh.” I shrugged. “Same as always.”

  I didn’t want to tell her I didn’t remember everything, though the night was coming back in bits and pieces. But sex with Nick was never anything less than excellent. She would know that.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked.

  “I’m on my way to work but wanted to check on you because you were so drunk last night. Which makes me want to rip his balls off.” She jabbed a thumb at the door Nick had just exited. “He should’ve known better. Then again he was as drunk as you, so I’m surprised he could even get it up.”

  I snorted. “I should know better, too. I don’t exactly have the best track record in the decision-making area.” My head thumped with my pulse. I needed a shower and a whole gallon of water. Maybe some greasy food to get through the day. “I’m good but I seriously smell. I feel sticky. I need to get clean, so, I’ll stop by Romano’s later?”

  “Gross.” She cringed. “Sticky? What’d you let him do?”

  Her smile was much t
oo satisfied for my liking. As much as I wanted to laugh, I had to keep it in to not give her the satisfaction. It was very difficult.

  “Out.” I pointed at the door.

  Once Bianca left, I picked out some jeans and long sleeve T-shirt and set the outfit on my bed. Then I went to the bathroom, turned on the shower to heat the water, and quickly ditched the robe.

  The room filled with steam.

  A good hot shower made me feel about fifty percent better. I let the water rain down on me until it turned cold then toweled off, and got dressed.

  I chugged a liter of water the kitchen to help take my recovery to the next level.

  What I really needed was some good, greasy hangover food. Romano’s pizza would be exactly what the doctor ordered. After running a brush quickly through my newly bright copper hair, I was ready to step into the day.

  Sometimes I still missed all the different colors I used to put in my hair but now was the time to leave that in the past. I wanted someone to hire me and I needed to look the part.

  The sun was too damn bright for a November morning and made Harbor Point uncharacteristically warm. Snow was coming and honestly, I was surprised not to see any on the ground.

  Normally I’d walk the few blocks from my place to Romano’s but with a headache still nagging me, there was no way I could do it without throwing up. I’d have to drive.

  When I graduated from high school, my parents gifted me the car of my choice, within the budget they set. I chose a little used red Corvette that stuck out like a sore thumb in town but that was part of the car’s charm to me.

  It was like me. A standout.

  Yes, I had to learn to drive a stick. But all the stick jokes had been worth it for my bright red beast.

  The restaurant was only half full when I arrived keeping the noise to a survivable level. Being a Saturday, it was just luck that there were open seats when I arrived.

  I wanted to sit in Bianca’s section and told the hostess as much. She led me to the tiny two-person table in the corner. The perfect spot so I’d be out of the way yet still see everything happening in the restaurant.

  Almost as soon as I sat down, Bianca dropped a soda off—I’d need the caffeine—and hurried away without taking my order. When she returned, she brought exactly what I would’ve ordered anyway.

  “What?” she asked when I raised an eyebrow. “I know you. Hey.” She snapped her fingers then turned back to me. “Gio’s cousin is coming in today or tomorrow. Do you think you’d be up to hang out?”

  Gio Diamati, the love of Bianca’s life and newest resident of Harbor Point. He’d come to work at Romano’s in May and fell for her. But something happened between them and they broke up. He broke her heart, to be more specific. They worked it out and now he was here permanently but she’d never been overly specific about what broke them up.

  Even with me.

  She did tell me that his parent’s owned The Trinity Corporation which had tried to force her grandpa to sell the restaurant but she’d never said exactly how that led to their falling out.

  I had ideas. I could assume things but I didn’t really know. All she ever said after they reconciled was that his parents were in jail, and now he owned part of the company but wanted to stay with her in Harbor Point.

  “Which cousin? Sal?” Sal DeLuca. The only other family member I knew Gio had contact with other than his sister Gemma. “The guy you told me about?”

  “That’s the only one he’s got. That I know of anyway.”

  “Sure, but I’m not drinking. Possibly ever again.”

  She snorted.

  “That’s what you always say. No, we were thinking we’d hang at our place, maybe watch a movie. Gio put a pool table in the basement to—” she put her fingers up into air quotes “—add to the man cave. I don’t even know why he calls it that because the title implies women aren’t allowed but he wants me down there with him all the time anyway.”

  “You’re making my head hurt.” I rubbed my temples in a slow circular pattern. “Yeah, that sounds fine.”

  She slid away while I dove into the greasy, sausage-filled slice of Heaven. No matter where I went, I never found pizza as delicious as Bianca’s gramps’. Even those I got in Italy made me homesick for Romano’s.

  It was the sauce.

  The sauce was the reason Trinity Corporation wanted Romano’s in the first place. People came to Harbor Point in the summer from all over the country and fell in love with the pizza. She said over the years he’d had requests to ship pizza or bottle and sell the sauce.

  He always said no. Said he was happy with the way things were.

  Before Gio, his sister Gemma, and Sal took the company over after their parents went to jail for some shady business deals, Trinity would scour the country for popular Mom-and-pop shops, take them over, and fold them into the bigger corporation.

  I’d never met his cousin but soon after Gio began working at Romano’s, his sister, Gemma Diamati, also came to work there. We got to know her pretty well though we didn’t know she was his sister then.

  Now she was back in Chicago in college but was coming to visit for Thanksgiving in a few weeks. Since my parents typically traveled over the holidays, I’d be staying here and hanging out with Bianca’s family.

  “Hey, kid.” Gio rubbed my head too hard, not only causing pain to bounce around my skull like a basketball but also messing up my hair the way he knew I hated. He dropped into the seat across from me, grabbed a piece of my pizza and started eating. “How’s the head?”

  “Ugh, asshole. Do I need to take another shot at your manhood? Because that can be arranged. And who said you could eat my food?”

  “You’re not going to eat all that pizza.”

  True, again. “To answer your question, the head is not so bad unless you shake it like you did. But I may never drink again.”

  “That’s what you always say.”

  Even rolling my eyes caused me pain.

  “Oh my god, do you and Bianca know it’s OK to have two separate brains?” I asked.

  He tipped his head to the side and squinted.

  “She said the exact same thing.”

  He laughed, swallowed hard then took a large gulp of my soda without asking. Didn’t even think about sharing germs with me. I’d probably never admit it to him, but I loved that guy.

  He was family to me as much as Bianca.

  I finished eating and still had half a pizza left. So I went to the back to grab a box and was back clearing my table just as Bianca came out with a pie for another table.

  “What are you doing?” she asked as I dumped my dirty glass in the bin.

  “Cleaning up after myself, Mom.”

  “Bailey,” she called after dropping the food at a table. I stopped to wait for her to get closer. “Have you heard back from the interview in Trenton?”

  “Yeah, they went another way, they said.”

  “Sorry. That sucks.”

  “Yeah, I’m sending out a few more resumes today. We’ll see what happens.”

  “You’ve only been out of college a year. It’s not unusual to still be looking.”

  “I know.” I sighed, letting out the frustration I had over still not finding a job. “You had one the day after. Nick got that great job in Boston. I’m being left behind. I should’ve done internships in college to get experience.”

  “Woah, bring it in a hair. You are not being left behind.”

  “My parents are going to have to support me until I die.” The joke was on me. While I was twenty-two, my parents were already almost seventy. They wouldn’t be around to support me another seventy.

  “Hey,” she said suddenly. “Why don’t you work here until you find something better?”

  “Better than Romano’s? Not possible.” My words may have dripped with sarcasm but really I was being honest.

  Gramps, Bianca’s grandpa and owner of Romano’s, created something special in that restaurant.

  “Smartass.
Look.” She pulled me away from the other customers into her grandpa’s office. “I’m serious. You don’t have to take just any job, I get that. Your parents own the building where you live so you don’t have rent and I know they send you money every month.”

  “You make me feel so kept,” I replied while shaking my head.

  She chuckled and nudged me with her elbow.

  “But you could work here; earn some money until you find something else. I know you don’t want to just hang out and sleep with Nick the rest of your life.”

  “Woah, she slept with Nick?” Gio popped his head through the door. Dark hair first, dark brown eyes casting their gaze onto me. “When did that happen? Where was I?”

  “Last night.” Bianca smiled. “You were busy.”

  “No wonder he didn’t mind taking you home.” He crossed his muscled and tattooed arms over his chest as he looked down at us. He towered over the both of us. Bianca and I had never managed to make it over five feet two inches whereas Gio was a good foot taller.

  “Happiness makes you mean, Gio.” I pinned him with a glare that only earned me a deep chuckle from him.

  “Will you at least think about it?” Bianca, with her long blonde hair and freaking blue eyes, asked. Eyes that could beg and plead like no other.

  “Actually, I don’t need to. I’ll take it.”

  Bianca squealed, jumping up and down while clapping. She’d asked me to work with her when we were teenagers but outside of the occasional covering for a call-in, I never took her up on it. I was in high school and wanted to live it to the fullest.

  Now… now I needed to make some cash.

  Chapter Two

  Gio got word that his cousin, Sal, got away from work earlier than he originally thought and hopped onto a plane right away so he’d be in tonight. Just a quick visit because Gemma, Sal, and Gio were working on their new definition of family after helping put their parents in jail. Sal took over running the company at the young age of twenty-six, while Gemma stayed in college, and Gio moved here with Bianca permanently.