Tame the Beast : Small Beach Town, Single Mom Romance

Prologue

“Honesty is the key to a relationship. If you can fake that, you’re in.” – Richard Jeni

Zoe

Have you ever woken up in the morning, feeling the teasing rays of a spring sun caressing—or more like mocking—your skin with its false sense of warmth and just knew that everything is about to go to shit?

I have.

Today. This morning. I woke up scowling at the sun, accusing it of lying right to my face since spring in Chicago might as well just be called winter two-point-oh, or better yet an encore, and yet the star around which the earth orbits was glowing like a virgin around her long-lost crush.

So, if the sun was lying, then what could be said of everything and everyone else?

Does it sound like I have some trust issues?

I have. But I prefer to call it intuition derived from years spent honing that ability.

Still, I picked my sore body off the bed and tracked over to get ready for the day. I have no idea why suddenly my muscles decide to cramp up and hurt like tiny whiny assholes because I haven’t worked them out anywhere near this level of strain.

I am a scientist, for Pete’s sake. My version of work out is running down to the lab and back. But I do like to take care of my body, so I do some light cardio daily. Again, emphasis on the word “light,” so, why in the world my back hurts like a mother…I have no idea.

I must’ve pulled a muscle when I was running around, playing fetch for my boss—the best, most awarded pathologist in the country, Doctor Joy Levine. Also known as the evil witch of the wicked seas in KePah University and really, everywhere else too.

The woman is abso-fucking-lutely brilliant when it comes to science and medicine, but human interactions, empathy or a sense of humor is as foreign of a subject to her as it perhaps is for me. And that is why I am the only assistant who has been able to stick around for longer than one week.

It’s been two years since she came into my class as a substitute for one day and hired me on the spot.

Why, yes, maybe I am a little brilliant myself. But trust me, that didn’t come naturally. It was rather honed out of me by years and years of hard work—and my mother’s pressure on me. But that’s just what you have to do if you want to end up in KePah University.

The place is like a Fort Knox of educational institutions. And my mother really wanted me to end up here.

And while it is absolutely riveting to dive into my childhood trauma, today is not the day for it.

Or for my back pain and intuition.

And although we are not friends, I respect her, and I want to be her when I grow up. Despite her running me ragged each and every day—hence my strained back. Probably. Most likely.

Because today is too important to feel off.

Tonight is our annual—ridiculous—awards ceremony and dinner at KePah University. It’s the biggest thing of the year meant to honor the hard work of our faculty members throughout the year. KePah is very old and takes its traditions to extremes so when I say the awards dinner is not just a mere show to placate the employees, I mean it.

We are talking about a red-carpet—which is blue in our case—style event with high end catering, cameras and cocktail dresses that cost an arm and a leg. The kind you only wear once and then stick to the back of your closet to meet its maker or moths.

Every year, the board selects—supposedly fairly, but not really—a few of the most accomplished professors, deans, and so on, to present them with special awards. Followed by the fancy dinner I don’t have to—don’t want to—go to. Neither is it expected of me since I’ve never attended before being a mere assistant, but I will grit my teeth, don the over-priced dress I got and listen to the tedious talks and butt licking because my boyfriend is getting his award tonight.

It is still surreal to say that out loud. Justin Hunt is my boyfriend. The Justin Hunt. The brilliant cardiologist and a professor at our university. He, and my above-mentioned boss, Dr. Levine, worked on a project together for which they are being recognized tonight but that is also essentially how I really met him.

I was there every step of the way, helping and researching alongside them and Justin took notice of me. This god of a man with tall, lean figure, blond luxurious hair, and a dazzling smile, took notice. The most influential man on campus, the heir to the KePah dynasty, asked me out to dinner two weeks after we all started working together.

I had to pinch myself a few hundred times when he slipped into my office after hours, saying he could no longer hold back. Could no longer just watch me from afar and needed to ask me out for a dinner. Even if that was all I’d give him. He would take it.

I am not one of those girls who was ever easily impressed by a guy, but Justin? He took my breath away and I knew I was falling for him even before we made it to that dinner and a few dates later fell into bed together. Because Justin is someone who fits my life plan. He fits so well I still can’t believe I found him. He is everything I’ve wished for since I was young girl—smart, well-established, career-driven—so, when he approached me, there was no way I was going to resist in any way, shape or form.

Sure, our relationship is not conventional. We don’t see each other every day and sometimes it’s only once a week or two, but we are both busy adults and I understand that. Even though sometimes I wish for more.

And maybe, just maybe, that weird feeling I woke up with has something to do with him taking the next step in our relationship? What if I am getting all these strange feelings because things are about to change and not in that dreadful way I am anticipating?

My brain is just programmed to think of the worst-case scenario. That is what I have been taught from a young age, and being a scientist doesn’t help.