One Sweet Day I Found You: A Sweet Romance Book 1 Read online

  One Sweet Day I Found You

  ONE SWEET DAY BOOK ONE

  Jillian Walsh

  Contents

  Foreword

  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

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Books in the Series

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Letter to Readers

  Epilogue

  One Sweet Day I Found You

  Copyright © 2020 by Jillian Walsh.

  All Rights Reserved.

  All rights reserved under International and Pan American Copyright conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, recorded, or stored in any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher, except for brief quotations for review purposes.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  First Edition, 2020

  Created with Vellum

  Foreword

  Dear Readers,

  Before I Met You is a prologue to this book, and it’s available exclusively to email subscribers, but the prologue is simply bonus material that enhances the book. It doesn’t contain details that aren’t explained within this book, itself.

  However, if you love prologues and would like to read about how Courtney’s world came crashing down on her before this story starts, you can get it here by subscribing to my newsletter. The link is also available on my web site at JillianWalshRomance.com. Now, on to our story!

  Jillian Walsh

  One

  Courtney Price was going to be late for her first day of work, but it couldn’t be helped. Her flight had been delayed, and she’d left a message on her new boss’ voicemail. Two more hours would make no difference.

  Blinking, she sat up in the backseat of the compact blue hatchback and stretched. She straightened her long walnut-brown hair and smoothed her floral skirt, then reached for her water bottle. “How long was I out?”

  Samantha sat in the driver’s seat. “About an hour, give or take.” Courtney’s mother had arranged for Samantha, the nineteen-year-old daughter of a friend who lived in Milwaukee and needed money, to pick up Courtney from the Milwaukee International Airport and drop her off three hours north. “Long night?” Samantha asked, adjusting her sunglasses.

  “Brutal. Flew in from Sydney. Plus, a delay and then a layover in Dallas.”

  “Yikes.”

  Courtney glanced at the map on Samantha’s dashboard phone. Thirty more miles. “Wow, I needed the nap. Thanks again for the ride.”

  “Oh, it’s no problem.”

  Out the window, endless lush pastures and big red barns flew by. Courtney had missed the overwhelmingly green landscapes of the Midwest. It was good to be home. She gazed up at the hazy blue Wisconsin sky and checked the time again: 9:59 a.m.

  A yawn escaped and Courtney covered her mouth. How did she forget to grab a coffee at the airport? Vaguely aware of the time and battling the fog of an almost sleepless night in coach, after stopping to freshen up, she’d marched straight to the arrivals pick-up zone without a second thought. What she wouldn’t give for a steaming cup of the good stuff right now.

  Courtney rolled her eyes. Caffeine deprivation with a respectable dose of jet lag and a splash of tardiness—she might qualify for employee of the month already.

  Oh, well, she could grab a coffee when she arrived.

  Samantha switched lanes and sipped from her bottle of water. “So what’s taking you this far north, anyway?”

  Courtney was headed to Heritage Bay, a small lakefront village tucked into the west coast of Wisconsin’s Door County peninsula.

  “A job, actually.”

  The area boasted an abundance of cherry orchards, lighthouses, wineries, rocky coastlines and sandy beaches, outdoor pursuits, restaurants, and picturesque inns and resorts.

  “Nice.” Samantha nodded. “So what will you be doing?”

  Courtney crossed her legs and adjusted the strap on her wedge sandals. “Thanks. I’ll be writing content for a travel blog.”

  “Really? How exciting. Full-time hours?”

  “Yes, but it’s a contract gig, and I’ll work from home. I’m renting a guesthouse just outside of town. Just have to do a little training in the office today and then pop in once a week.”

  The job was a short-term contract position that lasted until the end of the year with the Door County division of the Wisconsin Visitors Board. The Board had a website and a blog that needed fresh travel content, especially during the summer, to market to tourists.

  “Sweet.” Samantha grinned. “Okay, now I’m jealous.”

  Courtney glanced out the window again. “Thanks. But I’m a little nervous, actually. First day jitters.”

  “Well, at least you’re starting with a four-day workweek. Mondays are the worst.”

  “True. Wait—it’s Tuesday already?” Courtney’s head had been spinning for a week, trying to dot her i’s and cross her t’s before she left Australia. It wouldn’t hurt to check her email and make sure she hadn’t missed anything big—like the day of the week.

  She pulled up the app on her phone, and hundreds of messages poured in. Most were spam. She scrolled and found one from her new boss, a Mr. Claude Beecham, dated Monday. Yesterday. She read the first line and her pulse quickened.

  Apparently, she’d been a no-show, and he wanted an explanation. Pronto.

  “Oh, are you kidding me right now,” Courtney said, more a statement than a question.

  A queasy sensation filled her stomach. That can’t be right. The first day was supposed to be today. Wasn’t it?

  Samantha glanced back at Courtney in her mirror. “Everything okay?”

  Last week, while checking the airline’s schedule, Courtney had tried to remember—would she gain back one day upon returning to the States? Or two? Or would she lose two? And was that Sydney time or Milwaukee time listed in the arrival column? The time difference always scrambled her brain when it came to planning a trip like this. And now, it seemed, it had done her in.

  Courtney faked a smile “Uh, maybe. I’m trying to figure that out. Hopefully, it’s nothing.” She swallowed hard.

  Courtney’s hands were suddenly shaking as she opened the calendar app. She’d basically thrown her hands in the air last week and booked the only doable flight she found before it sold out. It had said it would arrive in time for her first day, though, hadn’t it?

  There’d still been three hundred thousand other things to finalize before she could leave, after all. Did she make a mistake?

  She found the entry in her phone’s calendar. She had punched it in last week, just after doing her hap
py dance, having been offered the job.

  Monday, May 30: Beecham 9 a.m. First Day.

  Today was Tuesday. Oh. My. Gosh.

  She had booked a flight that arrived on the wrong date.

  Courtney’s cheeks felt warm. “Oh, this is not good.” She flopped her head back against the seat and let out a quiet groan.

  To be fair, she’d received the offer exactly one week ago. The decision to accept had taken her about three seconds flat. She’d been ready to come home. Not surprisingly, it had been a whirlwind of a week.

  With flight plans made, she’d moved on to all the arrangements necessary to close out her life, as it were, in Sydney. Quitting her job at the coffee shop, a pack-up at the international hostel, tidying up three stories on her laptop, arranging for payment and letting them know she’d no longer be local, informing her family of her plans, meeting up with friends at the pub for a last hurrah, and then, of course, nursing the unavoidable hangover.

  G’ day, mates. I’m off.

  She’d also had to secure a place to live in Wisconsin and now, she was close to being broke until her next paycheck. Australia had been expensive. She could not afford to lose this job, and she was not going back to Chicago, at least not anytime soon. Courtney sighed heavily.

  Samantha eyed Courtney with concern.

  “So what happened?”

  Courtney sat back, defeated, and stared out the window.

  “I, uh…well—I’m gonna be a little later than I thought.”

  Another twenty-five minutes passed and the driver slowed in front of a row of quaint, well-kept, two-story buildings lining Heritage Bay’s Main Street. On the opposite side of the street, a shimmering Lake Michigan peeked out from behind a row of similar shops and businesses, manicured trees and shrubs, and flowers in bloom.

  Courtney shook off the last of the queasiness, searched the addresses marked on the buildings, and pointed to a blue office with white trim, marked with a sign over the door. “There it is.”

  Samantha pulled into a parking spot and helped Courtney unload her luggage.

  A storefront two doors down caught her eye—the West End Coffee Shop. “Oh, thank goodness,” she muttered, her shoulders relaxing.

  Courtney grabbed the last of her belongings from inside the car then handed over fifty of her last three-hundred dollars in cash. “Thanks so much for the ride.”

  “It was a nice change of scenery. Take care, and good luck with the new job!”

  She would need the luck. Courtney attempted a warm smile. “Thanks.”

  With a hasty goodbye, Courtney slung her purse, her carry-on bag, and her laptop case over her shoulder then pulled her rolling suitcase behind her.

  It was time for coffee. Luscious, glorious coffee with cream. Something to clear the brain fog. Finally.

  She’d grab a cup and hurry over to her new office, and then beg and plead to keep the job she had just flown halfway around the world to take.

  The aromatic flavors of fresh brew permeated the colorful shop. A jazzy instrumental playlist hummed softly in the background and quirky artwork dressed the walls. Courtney stepped up to the counter.

  A few minutes later, coffee and bagel in hand, she found a seat against a wall. She could not possibly handle the rest of the morning without some food in her stomach.

  She smothered the bagel with cream cheese and then downed it, scanning the latest news on her phone. She took a deep breath. It was time to face the music, and she’d better step on it.

  With one hand on the rolling suitcase, her bags over her shoulders, and the other hand clutching her coffee cup, she started towards the door.

  A text dinged and Courtney stopped to pull the phone from her purse. She read the message.

  It was from her father, welcoming her back from the land down under. Oh, Dad. He thought that phrase was so clever.

  She grinned and hurried onward as another message came in from him.

  Did you see any wallabies?

  Courtney laughed and looked up from the phone just in time to see a tall, handsome stranger with eyes as blue as the lake displaying a look of momentary panic. “Watch it!” he said.

  He stopped quickly, directly in front of her, before an actual collision could happen.

  But it was too late.

  The lukewarm liquid in Courtney’s lidless paper cup was sloshing about violently. It splashed them both, all at once.

  Courtney and the stranger stared at each other, mouths open.

  As if in slow motion, Courtney’s eyes went wide and she looked down at her top.

  He glanced at his green polo.

  Both were speckled as if someone had used them as a canvas for a splatter painting, only with just one muddy color. Her phone had been hit as well.

  “Oh, my gosh!” Courtney was horrified.

  The stranger looked too surprised to speak and returned her stunned gaze, and for a short moment, she couldn’t tear her eyes away from that gorgeous pair of blues.

  “I can’t believe I just did that,” she stammered. “I’m so, so sorry.”

  Moving quickly, Courtney set the coffee cup and her bags down on a nearby table. She grabbed a small stack of napkins from the dispenser and handed him some.

  He took the napkins and dabbed at his shirt and khaki shorts, muttering under his breath. “Shoot, I have to go back to work.”

  She grimaced, then dried the screen on her phone and stole a glance to study his features. Clean-cut, with close-cropped, sandy-brown hair, a little longer over the top. Broad-shouldered with a trim, athletic build. She guessed he was roughly her age. Probably about twenty-six or twenty-seven? Not bad looking. At all.

  She noticed a logo on his polo shirt that read Inlet Outfitters.

  Shame she had worked him over like this. Talk about awkward.

  Courtney dabbed some napkins at the coffee on her sleeveless, cream-colored top, the perfect shirt to make a coffee stain stand out. “Gosh, that was so careless of me.”

  He nodded awkwardly.

  She felt awful about his shirt. But how was she going to show up for her first day on the job looking like this?

  She remembered the suitcase. She could change. “Listen, I’m so sorry. I should’ve been watching—”

  “—Where you were going?” He tossed the napkins into a nearby trashcan and offered her a weak smile.

  Courtney blushed. “I know. I’m really, really sorry.”

  He ran a hand across one side of his jaw, calling attention to an alluring five-o’clock shadow. He brushed off the exchange. “Whatever. It’s no big deal. I’ll live.”

  “Can I make it up to you?” she offered. “How about I buy you a coffee?”

  “No. It’s okay.” He turned with a grin and headed for the counter. “Thanks, though.”

  Courtney turned away, feeling terrible. She peered back at him one more time, flung the empty coffee cup into the trash, grabbed her luggage, and headed for the restroom to change.

  Way to go, Court.

  Strike two.

  Courtney studied the pale blue walls of her new boss’s office from a chair facing his desk. A tasteful, modern sculpture of a ship sat on an end table under a stylishly dressed window. She neatened her pink, strappy top. It was one of the few things left in her suitcase that had still been clean.

  Claude Beecham was a casually but smartly dressed man in his late forties. He sat behind the desk, mouth agape for what felt like minutes as Courtney explained the mishap. When she’d finished, he ran a hand over his slicked-back, dark hair and pushed a pair of reading glasses up to rest on the bridge of his nose.

  “Seriously, how does a travel writer confuse something like that?” he finally said. “International date lines? Time zones? Booking travel correctly? I can understand the flight delay, but these are all important considerations for someone in your line of work. And our clients will expect more if this is your usual modus operandi.”

  Wince. Apologies.

  Latin—really? Invi
sible eye roll.

  A few more embarrassing questions.

  Finally, he relented. “Well, Ms. Price, I’m willing to let it slide because I needed you here yesterday, quite literally, but also metaphorically. I have no time to go through the hiring process all over again if I were to let you go right now. Do you think you can keep up from here on out?”

  “Yes, sir. Absolutely.”

  He went on. “You’re just going to have to promise me that nothing foolish like this will happen again. I want the assignments posted on time and not a comma out of place. Do you understand?”

  “I do. You have my word.”

  “Good, because I’ll be watching.”

  Courtney sat up straighter.

  “Thank you so much. You won’t regret it. Sir.”

  “Fine. Now, you’ll spend a few hours here with Josh, learning how you’ll receive the assignments and how you’ll post your stories for editing before they go live. And then, I’d like you to check in with us every Friday here at the office for an hour or two. Otherwise, you’ll be out in the field. You do have your own mobile set-up? We don’t have a full-time computer for you here.”

  “I sure do.”

  “Good.”

  “Your first assignment is two days from now on the shores of Cave Point County Park, nine a.m, sharp. I trust you’ll have enough time to get settled and jump in a kayak Thursday morning?”

  Vigorous nod.