Hoping for Love Read Online Free PDF Page B

attention to them. “It was nice to meet you, Grace. I hope we’ll see you again.”
    “Thank you, Mrs. Gold.”
    When she and Evan were back on the sidewalk, Grace folded the flyer, intending to put it in the purse she didn’t have. Rather, she held it awkwardly in the same hand as her phone while they walked the short distance to the ferry landing.
    “Take this,” Evan said, handing her a hundred-dollar bill. “It should be enough to get you back to the mainland and home in a cab.”
    “It’s too much, Evan! I don’t need that much.”
    He closed her hand around the bill in a gesture that touched her deeply. “Take it, please. I’ll feel better knowing you have enough to get home.”
    His kind words nearly brought tears to her eyes, but she blinked them back and worked up a smile for him. “I’ll pay you back. I promise.”
    “No need. It was a pleasure to meet you. I hope everything works out for you.”
    “You, too. Good luck with your CD and the tour and everything.”
    “Thanks.”
    They stood there for a moment before Grace pressed an awkward hug on him and managed to smack her forehead on his jaw. “Sorry.” By the time she pulled back, her cheeks were heated with embarrassment. She couldn’t even hug a guy properly. Maybe she should quit while she was ahead or join a convent—anything to avoid scenes such as this in the future.
    Seeming amused, he rubbed his jaw. “You’d better get a move on.” He nodded to the ferry and pointed to the window where tickets were sold.
    “Oh, right. Well, see you.”
    “Take care, Grace.”
    She scurried off to buy a ticket and made it on to the ferry just as the horn blared out a departure warning. On the ferry’s top deck, she went to the rail and was astounded to find Evan still standing right where she’d left him. Her gaze met his, and his dimpled grin hit her like a punch to the gut, sending a torrent of tingles down her spine. He raised a hand to her, and she returned his smile and the wave.
    As the ferry steamed out of port, returning her to the place where she was known as the “fat girl” and “The Whale,” Grace’s spirits took a dive. By the time the ferry cleared the island’s south bluffs, she was already planning a return visit to Gansett Island. She owed Evan McCarthy a hundred dollars. After all he’d done for her, the least she could do was pay him back.

Chapter 4
    Evan watched until Grace’s ferry was out of sight. There’d been something strangely endearing about her, and he was sort of sorry to see her go. Not that she was his type or anything—far from it. She was the kind of girl who had “forever” tattooed on her forehead in permanent ink, whereas Evan had “one-night stand” stamped in temporary ink on his.
    The truth of it, he thought as he walked over to the Sand & Surf Hotel to see if Owen was around, was that he’d liked talking to her. Even though she had to be reeling from what her so-called boyfriend had done, she’d still managed to laugh and spar with him and entertain him with her inappropriate-laughter stories.
    She was a nice girl. Too nice for him, that was for sure.
    At the Surf, he peeked in the windows but found no signs of life, so he continued on toward his parents’ North Harbor home. The tooting of a horn stopped him, and he turned to find his father’s best friend, Ned Saunders, pulling up to the curb.
    “Give ya a ride?”
    “I won’t say no to that,” Evan said, hopping into the passenger seat and kicking at the coffee cups littering the floor. “It’s hot as hell.”
    “Whatcha doing out and about so early? Ya usually sleep in after a gig.”
    “I took a friend to catch the ferry.”
    “Ahhh,” Ned said with a knowing smile. “I gotcha.”
    “Not that kind of friend.” Evan filled him in on what had happened the night before with Grace.
    “I think I met her. She asked about hotels, and I told her the island was all booked up for the long weekend. Nice of ya to help her