When We Were Eighteen

WHEN WE WERE EIGHTEEN JEANNETTE WINTERS An original work of Jeannette Winters, 2023. All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, places, events, business establishments or locales is entirely coincidental. DEDICATION This book is dedicated to my grandchildren. A joy greater than I ever knew. Also a huge thank you to Deepti Mahajan, one of my editors, at [email protected]. We make a wonderful team. And to my wonderful readers. You continue to challenge me and I love it. Please keep those emails coming CONTENTS Jeannette Winters Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Also by Jeannette Winters By Jeannette Winters & Lena Lane Jeannette Winters Author Contact website: JeannetteWinters.com email: [email protected] Facebook: Author Jeannette Winters Twitter: JWintersAuthor Newsletter Signup: www.jeannettewinters.com/newsletter Also follow me on: BookBub: bookbub.com/authors/jeannette-winters Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13514560.Jeannette_Winters Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/authorjw/boards/ Facebook Twitter WHEN WE WERE EIGHTEEN She hired him to find her family. What he finds could cost her everything, including her life. Now he’ll do anything to protect her from the truth. But the price might be a broken heart in this forbidden love romance? Damien Blaze I am dedicated to bringing families back together. If your loved one goes missing, I bring them home using my unconventional means. It’s not just a business to me, it’s my life mission. But this client doesn’t fall into my normal criteria. No one is being held captive, or MIA. Against my better judgment, I take on the job and quickly learn there is a lot more to it than what I had initially thought. This isn’t a simple closed adoption. This is a woman who has been hidden from her family for twenty-five years. It’s not that no one is looking for her, but it’s what might happen if they find her. It’s now imperative that I learn everything there is to know about her family if I’m going to be able to keep MaKayla safe. But being so close to her all the time, not only kicked in my protective mode, but opened my heart in a way I wasn’t expecting. Now I need to decide, do I tell her the truth about what I learned, and hopefully she agrees to stay in hiding, or do I continue with the lies, and risk breaking her heart if she finds out? CHAPTER 1 MaKayla Prada I locked the door to the restaurant as the last employee left. It had been a long day and I knew I wasn’t the only one tired, my mother was too. It was time to address what she had mentioned while we were closing. I was sure she thought I would be excited to hear, but it had the exact opposite effect on me. I had to hide my emotions with the staff around, but I couldn’t do so any longer. I headed to the office at the back of the restaurant. My mother was still sitting at the desk tolling up all the slips from the night. Without even looking up from the pile she said, “This was one heck of a Valentine’s Day. I don’t think we had a vacant seat all evening.” My aching feet were enough proof of that. When I turned twenty-one, mom made me an equal partner in the restaurant, and we split duties based on our strengths. Mom handled the financial side while I ran the rest of the restaurant. Thankfully we had dedicated staff that worked almost as hard as we did. The cash bonus they received for working on a holiday was definitely an additional perk. But their loyalty went beyond that. We all worked together and treated each other as family. It was odd because family was all I had been thinking about, especially lately. And tonight, being all about couples in love and overhearing them speak about their futures together, or their children home with the babysitter, made me jealous. I had no one waiting for me. The restaurant unfortunately had become my life. I’m not willing to settle for that. I couldn’t talk to mom about everything I was feeling, but there were things that couldn’t wait. “Mom, can we talk?” I asked, taking the seat across from her. I was sure she could tell from my tone that I was about to say something important. Mom put down the receipts she’d been working on and looked at me. “Of course. Did something happen in the restaurant that I missed tonight? Because everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. Was it the sea scallops wrapped in bacon? I wasn’t sure if that was a good appetizer for Valentine’s Day, but I know they are one of your favorites.” No, Mom. It’s not the food or the staff. It’s us. I prepared myself for the difficult conversation, but she obviously wasn’t picking up on my mood. But she was going to, once she knew the topic I intended to broach. “It has nothing to do with dinner. It’s what you said right before we started closing.” Mom smiled. “You mean the birthday trip to Fiji, just you and me?” The one I am not going on. “You know we can’t go on a trip together. Who would run the restaurant?” I asked, not caring about the answer. She waved a hand and shook her head. “Is that what this is all about?” Not all, but a little part of it. “You have nothing to worry about. I’ve already thought about that.