Sweet Trouble Read Online Free PDF

her,” Jesse said.
    “When I was fifteen, I got really frustrated by this computer game I was playing. I broke into their system, accessed the code and rewrote it. Then I took the new version to them. They licensed it from me. Our money situation got better then.”
    Jesse stared at him. “You licensed a computer game when you were fifteen?”
    He nodded.
    “For a lot of money?”
    “It’s a couple of million a year.”
    If she’d been drinking she would have choked. “So you’re rich?”
    “I guess. I don’t think about it much.”
    “You’re rich and you wore a pocket protector?”
    “You’ve got to let that go. I said I threw them all out.”
    “You’re rich.” She couldn’t get her mind around that fact.
    “What’s your point? Does it change anything?”
    More than he knew, but warning him about women only after him for his money was something they could talk about later. She laughed. “It changes who’s buying dinner.”

CHAPTER THREE
    Present day…
    JESSE HAD ALREADY DECIDED to get all the reunions over as quickly as possible. It was like jumping in the deep end of a cold pool. Sure the shock nearly killed you, but it was over fast. So she did her best to shake off the conversation with Matt, ignoring the rapid pounding of her heart and the mass of memories that crowded her brain, then drove to a second unfamiliar address, guided by the trusty nav system.
    This house wasn’t gated, but it was nearly as large as the one she’d just left. Yet instead of being a testament to great architecture, it was a rambling two-story house that proudly announced a family lived there.
    A tricycle and several toys littered the wide covered porch, while a minivan was parked in front of the garage. One of those decorative wreaths hung on the door, which made Jesse wonder if she had the right address. Nicole had never been the wreath type before. Maybe she’d changed.
    Jesse tried to imagine it, but couldn’t. Still, in the five years she’d been gone, not only had her sister married—a wedding Jesse hadn’t been invited to—but she’d had a son and twin girls. The information came compliments of Nicole’s fraternal twin, Claire, the sister Jesse had never really known.
    She parked on the street and grabbed more pictures from her purse. Convincing Nicole who had fathered Jesse’s child was nearly as important as convincing Matt, although for very different reasons.
    She got out of her car and walked up the main path. As she approached the front door, her shoulders slumped. The old feelings she’d thought she’d gotten over returned. The voices that said she was nothing but a screwup. That she ruined everything she touched, didn’t appreciate anything.
    “Stop!” she said aloud, pausing in front of the steps. “I’m not that person anymore.”
    She wasn’t. She’d grown up and changed. She was responsible, a single mother who’d made it on her own. When Jesse left, Nicole had claimed she would come crawling back in a matter of weeks. That hadn’t happened.
    After squaring her shoulders and raising her chin, she walked up the stairs, then pressed the bell and waited.
    She heard yelling from inside, and the sound of running feet. The front door jerked open and a little boy stared up at her.
    “Who are you?” he demanded loudly, his voice competing with the sound of babies crying. Apparently both twins were awake and not happy.
    “Eric, I’ve told you. Don’t answer the door without checking with me first. And don’t ask who the person is.”
    Eric had blond hair and blue eyes like his mom. He was the same size as Gabe and just about the same age. He sighed and addressed Jesse.
    “I’m not supposed to answer the door on my own.”
    “I heard. So maybe you want to go get your mom.”
    “I’m here,” Nicole said, walking around the corner, carrying a baby in her arms. “Can I help—”
    She came to a stop. Her eyes widened and all the color left her face.
    “Hi,” Jesse said, feeling