Dare to Love: A Sweet Contemporary Romance (Finding Love Book 4) Read online

  “If you’re ready, I’ll take you to Mr. Porter.”

  Sabrina rose to her feet and straightened her shoulders, her grandmother’s words running through her mind. Just because you’re almost six feet tall is no excuse for bad posture. A wistful smile touched her lips as she followed the young woman down a long hallway. Just past the turn at the end, they stopped in front of an open door.

  “Jared, here’s Miss Melton.”

  “Thanks, Paige.” A man who appeared to be in his early thirties waved her in. “Hello, there. I’m Jared Porter. Can I call you Sabrina?”

  His friendly manner put her at ease. “It’s nice to meet you, and yes, you can call me Sabrina.”

  “I see you made the same mistake I did and forgot your umbrella. My wife is always getting on me about that. Have a seat and make yourself comfortable.”

  He came around the desk and sat down on the corner, crossing his arms and swinging one leg back and forth. Sabrina settled into one of the black leather chairs and waited for him to continue.

  “As you may or may not know, our administrative assistant is on maternity leave. The young lady your agency sent over a few weeks ago came down with strep throat and that has left us scrambling around again. Basically, we need someone to open the mail, help prepare reports and presentations, handle the receivables, run errands and answer the phone if we’re with clients. The hours are eight to five with an hour for lunch. Does that sound like something you’d be interested in?”

  “Yes, it does.”

  “Great. You’ll need to meet my partner. He should be back any minute now. While we’re waiting, tell me a little about yourself.”

  Sabrina pushed a swath of wet hair behind her ear, uncomfortably aware of the trickle of water running down her neck. “I’m originally from Canton, but I spent most of my life in Roswell. I have a degree in graphic design. Up until a few months ago I was working at Creative Images. They were bought out by a bigger company, and in the reorganization, my position was given to someone else. It’s been difficult finding something in my field so I decided to do some temp work.”

  He nodded. “I was laid off a few years ago myself. I know how hard it is to find another job, especially in this economy. I think I just heard Trent come in. Let me tell him you’re here before he gets involved with something else.”

  Sabrina just managed not to flinch. One would think after six years she could hear that name without cringing. As she watched Jared walk away, memories she’d buried deep in her consciousness rose to the surface.

  She’d gone to the library because Camille had the television volume so high the walls of their dorm room were practically vibrating. At that time in the evening, the study rooms located on the top floor were all taken, but the two tables situated along the back wall were empty. Her hour of peaceful solitude was interrupted by the unwelcome drone of the elevator and the corresponding metallic whine of the doors sliding open.

  Whispers reached her ears. That meant at least two people. She glanced up in time to see them sitting down at the table opposite her. Just her luck; a couple, and a stereotypical one at that. The girl was slim, petite and blonde. The guy was tall with the muscular build of an athlete. Giggles and louder whispers mixed with the thud of books hitting the table. From the few words of conversation she could hear, they were discussing a movie they’d seen the night before. She’d give them ten minutes. If they didn’t settle down by then, she’d go somewhere else.

  Under the cover of their murmurings, Sabrina took the opportunity to tear open the wrapper of the candy bar she’d brought with her. Strictly speaking, she wasn’t supposed to have food in there at all, but she’d had nothing to eat since lunch, and it was nearly eight at night. Without taking her eyes from the book in front of her, she reached for a pencil and ended up knocking her calculator off the table. Sticking the candy bar in her mouth, she braced herself with one hand and bent down to grab the calculator with the other.

  As she straightened up, she locked glances with a pair of twinkling green eyes. Everything else about the guy was dark: the thick, wavy hair, the lashes surrounding his eyes, and the neatly trimmed goatee. The position of the feminine hand near his lips told Sabrina he’d been kissing his girlfriend’s fingers.

  Her mind took a quick detour as she tried to imagine such a thing happening to her. Her thoughts easily filled in the background, but failed at the most crucial detail. There were guys in her college classes she could see herself going out with, but none of them knew she existed.

  The smile on the face watching her grew wider as her cheeks suffused with color. Embarrassed not only by what they were doing, but also by the fact that she’d been caught with a candy bar hanging out of her mouth, she quickly dropped her gaze back to the table.

  From that point forward, her ability to concentrate on quadratic functions, or anything else for that matter, was severely limited. Her ears registered every syllable of conversation, and no matter how hard she tried, her eyes kept drifting from the equations on her paper to the dark head resting on a pair of wide shoulders.

  The ringing of the phone on Jared’s desk brought Sabrina back from that brief foray into the past. A long sigh escaped her. If only that had been the end of it. Unfortunately, her acquaintance with Trent Thomas was only beginning. Before it was over, she would bitterly regret ever setting eyes on him.

  Working with someone who had the misfortune to have the one name she despised above all others wasn’t ideal, but she could put up with it for two months. This Trent couldn’t possibly be as bad as the other one.

  * * * * *

  After putting away his umbrella, Trent hung up his suit coat and straightened his tie. He hoped the rain would stop before he had to leave town in a few hours. The traffic in the suburbs of Atlanta was bad enough without the added complication of slick roads. He would have left last night if he hadn’t had a meeting this morning with a potential group of new clients. It had been a grueling, but ultimately successful three hours. After glancing through the phone messages Paige had left for him, he returned his attention to the report he’d been working on earlier.

  The same analytical skills that earned him high honors in business school had translated into a highly successful career as a financial planner. This wasn’t what he thought he’d be doing. Trent had wanted to play professional baseball like his brother Landris, but fate had something else in mind for him. It had taken three years to gain enough experience and name-recognition to leave the large corporation that hired him out of college. After nine months on his own, he had enough clients to take in a partner.

  Jared was nearly as dedicated and twice as smart. Trent had been extremely lucky to get him. An unexpected benefit of having someone else in the office was being able to take off a few days without everything falling apart. Such was the case today. He just needed to wrap up one or two outstanding issues, and he could be on his way to Augusta. His sister Taryn would never forgive him for being late to her rehearsal dinner.

  It was somewhat depressing to think that after tomorrow he’d be the last single in his immediate family, a fact his mother had recently felt necessary to point out to him. Just in case he hadn’t realized it himself. Those closest to him would have been shocked to discover how much he wished things were otherwise. This was a startling admission from a man who’d been involved with many beautiful women over the years, though not for the reasons most people suspected.

  Trent wasn’t the serial heartbreaker everyone thought him to be, and his seemingly idyllic bachelor lifestyle was anything but satisfying. The meticulous organizing of his future had always included marriage and a family. He couldn’t imagine missing out on what he considered to be one of life’s most rewarding experiences.

  Unfortunately for all his hopes and plans, he hadn’t yet fallen in love. His inability to do something he’d set his mind to, something that everyone else seemed to do so effortlessly, was a growing source of frustration. To cover his failure to find someone as
well as end the constant questions from his well-meaning friends and family, he adopted the persona of a carefree playboy. What most people missed when they looked at the stream of women who entered and left his life like clockwork was that Trent went out of his way to make sure he didn’t hurt anyone. He learned the hard way that honesty is always the best policy.

  Jared popped his head around the corner of the door. “Oh, good, you’re back. The girl they sent over from the temp agency is in my office. Can you talk to her for a few minutes?”

  Trent hid his impatience. At this rate, he’d never get out of here by two. “Sure. Send her in.”

  “It would help if you knew her name, wouldn’t it? It’s Sabrina Melton.”

  The pen in Trent’s hand dropped to the desk as the picture of a girl with long, dark hair and eyes the deep blue of an ornamental pool appeared in his mind. He motioned Jared into the room. “Close the door for a sec.” After Jared did so, he asked, “Did you say Sabrina Melton?”

  “Yeah. Do you know her?”

  “You could say that.”

  “Uh, oh. Is she an old girlfriend?”

  “Yes. I hope you’re not too attached to her because I doubt she’ll be staying.”

  Jared’s heavy brows rose. “You don’t want her here? That must have been some breakup.”

  “You’ve got it wrong. It’s Sabrina who probably won’t want to work with me.”

  “How long ago was this?”

  “Back in college.”

  Jared dismissed that with a wave of his hand. “She can’t still be holding on to that.”

  “If I haven’t managed to forget it, I’m sure she hasn’t. Believe me, I’m the last person she wants to see on a daily basis.”

  “I hope you’re wrong because the agency won’t be able to send anyone else for another week.”

  “We’ll know if I’m right in about five minutes. Go ahead and send her in.”

  Trent watched him go, an unsettled feeling rising in the pit of his stomach. What was it his father always said? Something about your chickens coming home to roost. He was about to come face-to-face with a reminder of an incident that still made him uncomfortable whenever he thought about it. In his more irrational moments, he’d even wondered if what he did to Sabrina was the reason love continued to elude him. Was he getting what he deserved for playing around with someone’s feelings?

  * * * * *

  Sabrina tugged on the hem of her skirt and tried to relax. What was taking so long? Jared returned just as she succumbed to the temptation to check her appearance in the small hand mirror she carried in her purse. It hadn’t been reassuring. Closing it hastily, she swung around to face him.

  “I’m sorry about the wait, Sabrina. There was something Trent needed to discuss with me, but he’s ready for you now.”

  A more or less resigned calm descended on her as she followed Jared to the office at the end of the hall. It dissipated immediately when she walked through the door and glimpsed the man rising from behind a massive mahogany desk. This couldn’t be happening! In desperation, she closed her eyes and opened them again. He was still standing there, looking as cool and calm as she felt shocked and rattled.

  The last time she’d seen Trent Thomas he’d been reclining on a gurney, an assortment of bruises covering his face, his left arm in a sling, and his right leg in a cast. A small part of her was glad to know he’d made a full recovery from that awful accident. The rest of her was wondering how fate could be so cruel as to pull a trick like this.

  The only difference the years had made was a slight maturation of his already too-handsome features and a definite upgrade to his wardrobe. The tight-fitting t-shirts that had molded to his ripped abs and chiseled biceps had been replaced by a pristine white dress shirt that fit snugly across his broad shoulders. The rolled-up sleeves revealed his toned forearms. She had no problem remembering what it was like to be held in those arms.

  “Hello, Sabrina. It’s been a long time.”

  Not long enough if her pounding heart and frantic pulse were anything to go by. “Yes, it has.” For the life of her that was all she could manage. Her words seemed to have dried up along with her mouth. In a matter of seconds, her hard-won composure had completely deserted her. She was back in that cold, antiseptic-infused hospital corridor hearing the words that revealed her dream of love to be an illusion.

  Anger rose up within her as bittersweet images flashed in front of her eyes like a movie trailer. The frustration of being trapped in a situation from which there was no escape quickly followed. She wanted nothing more than to turn around and walk out of this nightmare, but she didn’t have that luxury. There were more than injured feelings, shattered dignity, and past humiliations to consider. Mrs. Wilson from the temp agency wouldn’t understand her reasons for refusing this job nor would she be in a hurry to place Sabrina somewhere else. For the time being she had no choice but to stay. There would be no running away from Trent this time.

  “Won’t you sit down?”

  With a slight start, she realized she was still standing half in and half out of his office. Beside her, Jared was saying something and then he was gone, leaving her to face her nemesis alone. Pride came to her rescue. Not for anything did she want this man to know how much seeing him again affected her. She refused to give him that satisfaction. With a show of poise she hoped was good enough to fool him, she moved further into the room and sank down in the chair closest to the door.

  “This is something of a surprise,” she said through stiff lips. “I didn’t realize you worked here.”

  He smiled faintly as he resumed his seat. “I can believe that. This is one of those strange and awkward coincidences that sometimes happen in life. What we have to find out is whether enough water has passed under the bridge. I would certainly understand if you wanted to change your mind about this job.”

  Sabrina took those seemingly innocent words as a challenge. Was he implying that she wasn’t mature enough to put aside their differences? She wasn’t the one who had anything to be ashamed of. If anyone should be uncomfortable, it was him. “I’m capable of acting professionally no matter what my personal feelings might be.”

  Trent nodded. “I never doubted it. Even so, if you’re going to stay, we need to address the elephant in the room. I never had the opportunity to apologize to you in person for what happened. I’d like to do that now, if you’ll let me. My actions hurt you, and I’m sorry.”

  No apology was going to remove the pain and embarrassment he’d heaped on her. He made her a laughing stock on their small campus. “None of that has any bearing on today.”

  His eyes searched her face as if trying to discern the truth of her words. She fought the urge to squirm under his steady regard.

  “I’m glad to hear it. I’m sure Jared told you about the position. It’s nothing you can’t handle. You were always very organized. I’m sure that hasn’t changed.”

  And he’d been a heartless liar. Had that changed? “Where will I be working?” she asked, hoping it was as far away from him as physically possible.

  “Debby’s office is next door. It’s a little smaller than this one, but it’s got a nice view of the park. A lot of people from this building go over there during their lunch hour. There’s a lake, picnic tables and a walking trail. Just watch out for the bees.”

  Sabrina had been avoiding looking directly at him. His last comment pulled her reluctant glance from the framed print on the wall, which ironically enough depicted a storm at sea, to his face. “You have a good memory,” she was surprised into saying.

  An unfathomable look passed over his face. In someone else she might have labeled it regretful. In Trent, it was likely to be contrived and should be ignored.

  “There’s not much I don’t remember about you. Failures always seem to linger longest in one’s mind.” He stood abruptly and held out his hand. “I won’t keep you any longer. I hope you’ll enjoy working here. Jared has some paperwork for you to fill out before
you leave.”

  The abrupt change from personal to professional had her head spinning. She wanted to ignore his hand, but knew she couldn’t. She had to start as she meant to go on. Her brain understood this; her body did not. When his strong fingers closed around hers, she stiffened. The firming of his lips told her he was aware of it. What did he expect? After what he did to her, no one could blame her for not liking him.

  “I’ll see you on Monday,” she said, drawing her hand away quickly.

  “Actually, I won’t be back in the office until Tuesday. Have a nice weekend.”

  Her self-possession lasted long enough to get her to the car. For several minutes, she sat motionless, her fingers tightly gripping the steering wheel. Why did this have to happen now, when she needed a job so badly and didn’t have the option of refusing?

  * * * * *

  Trent shoved his hands in his pockets and paced the floor of his office, a frown gathering on his brow. Any suspicion that Sabrina had known he worked there had been laid to rest as he watched every scrap of color fade from her face. He waited for her to turn around and leave. That’s what she did last time, and it’s what he expected her to do this time. Instead she stayed. Why had she agreed to work for him when it was so obvious she didn’t want to?

  Even if he hadn’t already sensed her animosity, he would have known how she felt after that revealing handshake. His touch had produced many reactions in women; revulsion had never been one of them. Until now. It was a disconcerting to realize how much it bothered him. And yet, did he really expect her to welcome him back into her life with open arms?

  The injury he dealt Sabrina wasn’t easily forgiven and definitely wouldn’t be forgotten. For selfish reasons, he knowingly hurt the person whose only mistake was believing all the worthless lies he told. Hindsight made it easy to blame his behavior on youth and immaturity. He’d been too self-centered to consider how things would appear to her and naïve enough to believe she’d never find out the truth. But like most deceptions, his didn’t stay hidden forever.