My Sweet Valentine Read Online Free PDF Page A

huge smile crossed his face.
     
    “What else are you going to have?” He pulled out a five-gallon bucket, flipped it, and sat on it next to her. Excitement was written all over his face, so much so that she couldn't help but smile at him.
     
    “Well, if you want, I can show you my menu.” She opened the file on her laptop and he leaned closer to her to get a better look.
     
    When he was done reading over the simple menu, he turned to her and smiled. “You're going to have monkey bread! Sara, you are not only doing this town a great service, I think you've just stolen my heart.” She knew he was joking, but it didn't stop her heart from skipping a beat.

Chapter Three

    I t felt like his lungs were on fire. Even when his body begged for air, he steadied his mind and continued to hold his breath for another fifteen seconds. When he finally came up for air, he noticed he'd been the last one to do so. It had always been that way. His new recruits were all treading water around him, some gasping for air, others easily swimming. He'd taken stock of who had come up first and the order that the other seven recruits had come up.
     
    “Jones.” He nodded towards the skinny kid. “Dry off, change, and be in my office in five. The rest of you, take ten laps and call it a day.” He hated letting the kid go, but so far, his record wasn't impressive. You had to be made of stronger stuff and the hundred-and-thirty-pound twenty-two-year-old just didn't have what it took to be in the Coastguard. Sure, he'd worked hard for the last three years, but that didn't mean he was tough enough to handle an open ocean rescue.
     
    Allen dried off and watched his recruits swimming laps in the Olympic-size swimming pool they used to train for water rescues. Finally, after a few minutes, he turned and walked towards his office. The kid was standing by his door looking like every other recruit had before he'd given them the news. The kid’s shoulders sank, his head hung low, and he avoided eye contact with Allen.
     
    He hated telling kids that their life's dreams were being squashed. Only once in the last several years had he been wrong about someone. Terry O'Brian had been much like the kid standing before him now when Allen had given him the news that he wasn't cut out for the job. Terry had taken it badly, but the next year had shown back up on Allen's doorstep, fifty pounds heavier with bulging muscles, and his head firmly on his shoulders. He'd passed the yearlong classes with flying colors and had gone on to take a position in Alaska, one of the roughest jobs along the coast. Allen smiled. Maybe this kid could bounce back like Terry had, he thought, shutting his door behind them.
     
    When he got off work, he decided a meal at the Golden Oar was in order. Sitting in the familiar room with the sounds of a crowd and the smells of wonderful food always lifted his spirits. By half way through his meal, he'd talked himself into believe cutting the kid loose was for the best. If he looked at it from one angle, he could have just saved his life.
     
    After he'd eaten, he sat there and chatted with Iian a little. When he left, the snow was coming down in thick clumps. Already his truck was starting to slide on the hill when he went up towards Main Street. When he saw the light on in the bakery and Sara's small car sitting outside, he pulled over and parked behind it. He'd hate to think that she'd have any more car problems on a night like this.
     

    Sara stood back and watched as her new appliances were being hooked up. The vents and fans had been installed yesterday, and now the two ovens sat beautifully below them. The ovens, one a gas six-burner with two ovens below, the other a double-stacked, double-wide convection oven, looked perfect along the stainless-steel-plated walls. Her new register was sitting on the countertop, but she decided she could unpack it at the last moment. It was the same she'd used at her last job. The new coffee