First Love (Love Collection) Read online

  Copyright 2019 Natalie Ann

  All Rights Reserved

  No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without a written consent.

  Author’s Note

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  The Road Series-See where it all started!!

  Lucas and Brooke’s Story- Road to Recovery

  Jack and Cori’s Story – Road to Redemption

  Mac and Beth’s Story- Road to Reality

  Ryan and Kaitlin’s Story- Road to Reason

  The All Series

  William and Isabel’s Story — All for Love

  Ben and Presley’s Story – All or Nothing

  Phil and Sophia’s Story – All of Me

  Alec and Brynn’s Story – All the Way

  Sean and Carly’s Story — All I Want

  Drew and Jordyn’s Story— All My Love

  Finn and Olivia’s Story—All About You

  The Lake Placid Series

  Nick Buchanan and Mallory Denning – Second Chance

  Max Hamilton and Quinn Baker – Give Me A Chance

  Caleb Ryder and Celeste McGuire – Our Chance

  Cole McGuire and Rene Buchanan – Take A Chance

  Zach Monroe and Amber Deacon- Deserve A Chance

  Trevor Miles and Riley Hamilton – Last Chance

  Matt Winters and Dena Hall- Another Chance

  The Fierce Five Series

  Brody Fierce and Aimee Reed - Brody

  Aiden Fierce and Nic Moretti- Aiden

  Mason Fierce and Jessica Corning- Mason

  Cade Fierce and Alex Marshall - Cade

  Ella Fierce and Travis McKinley- Ella

  Love Collection

  Vin Steele and Piper Fielding – Secret Love

  Jared Hawk and Shelby McDonald – True Love

  Erik McMann and Sheldon Case – Finding Love

  Connor Landers and Melissa Mahoney- Beach Love

  Ian Price and Cam Mason- Intense Love

  Liam Sullivan and Ali Rogers- Autumn Love

  Owen Taylor and Jill Duncan – Holiday Love

  Chase Martin and Noelle Bennett- Christmas Love

  Zeke Collins and Kendall Hendricks- Winter Love

  Troy Walker and Meena Dawson – Chasing Love

  Jace Stratton and Lauren Town- First Love

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  Sparks fly when a woman from the wrong side of the tracks catches the eye of the heir apparent to the family empire.

  Lauren Towne has had a tough life. A good work ethic and a lot of determination are the keys to changing her lot in life. The last thing she needs to focus on or worry about is her new sexy boss that might just end up making all her hard work vanish in the air when he realizes how attracted she is to him.

  Jace Stratton always knew he’d be the heir to his father’s grocery store empire. But before that happened, he was determined to make a name for himself. When his “rule with an iron fist” father falls ill, he finds his timeline pushed up faster than he’d hoped for. Now he’s out to prove that even though he’s falling for an employee, he’s nothing at all like his father and never will be.

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  It Was Hers

  Office Gossip

  From the Bottom Up

  Wonder About Her

  Comments and Actions

  His Father’s Shoes

  More Than Work

  Wanted to Fit In

  Prepare for This Night

  Two Different Things

  No Clue

  True Test

  Fanciful Thoughts

  Great Lengths

  Worth the Risk

  Amount of Freedom

  Negative Thoughts

  Romantic Move

  Can Take It

  Another Lesson

  Bigger Person

  Worse Than Ever

  Hoping to Find

  The High Road

  Actually Believe

  Epilogue

  Prologue

  “You wanted to see me, Dr. Clinton,” Lauren said after she knocked on the open doorframe.

  “Yes, Lauren. Come on in and shut the door.” That never sounded good, but Lauren did as she was instructed. “Have a seat.”

  Lauren sat down across from her professor. She had a lot of respect for Dr. Clinton. She assumed her professor could be retired by now but showed no signs of wanting to hang up her hat. “Did I do something wrong?”

  “I wanted to talk to you about a few things. First, is everything okay with you? Everything all right at home?”

  Lauren was trying to figure out why she was asked that. She’d always been very private about her life and talked to very few people at school. She attended class, did her work, and went home.

  “Everything is fine.”

  She’d never let on once to anyone about her living situation. She wasn’t the only one struggling to get by in life and she wouldn’t be the last person trying to better herself going to college. She was always clean and presentable and on time to class, trying to blend in.

  Dr. Clinton nodded. “You failed to hand in an assignment yesterday.”

  “It’s due at midnight tonight,” Lauren said, fighting the panic that was creeping up her spine like a spider closing in on a tasty meal. It was her last semester. Just six weeks to go and she’d be graduating with her bachelor’s in accounting. She couldn’t let things fall apart now. Not after holding it all together for the past several years.

  “No. It was due at midnight last night. You’ve never missed an assignment in all the years I’ve had you as a student.”

  “I’m so sorry. Can I hand it in late? I understand I’ll probably be docked points, but it’s better than a zero.”

  She was almost done with the assignment anyway. She’d planned on finishing it before her shift that started at six tonight and she wouldn’t get out until she closed the mini mart at midnight. “I can have it to you by no later than five. I swear.”

  “That’s fine, Lauren. And because you’ve never missed an assignment before, I won’t dock you anything. But the other reason I called you in was because of your last test score.”

  She knew she didn’t do as well as normal, but she’d been working a ton of hours putting away as much money as she could. Her mother had been dropping a million comments lately about how she shouldn’t be living at home at twenty-one. Between the stress of that and work, she was stretched really thin in her schoolwork.

  It didn’t matter that Lauren was commuting to SUNY Albany to get her degree so that she wouldn’t have any loans. Their family income was low enough and her grades high enough that tuition was covered. But dorm rooms, food plans, and books were not. She worked a lot of hours to pay for her books and gas and the car payment because she needed something reliable for the commute.

  Pretty much everything she earned went right out the window like a gum wrapper in a convertible, but she was okay with that because there was a light at the end of the tunnel.

  “I studied for it, but I was confused over some of the laws.” She hated taxation with a passion and vowed to not take
any job where she’d have to deal with that.

  “I could tell. You’ve aced pretty much every class you’ve had with me. No one is as detailed as you are when it comes to auditing and budgeting. Most stumble over something, and this seems to be your Achilles heel.”

  “I’ll work harder on it.”

  “I believe you will, but the thing is, you failed the test by quite a bit. Your grades aren’t as high to begin with this semester for this class, but right now you’re failing the course.”

  Lauren felt herself pale. She couldn’t not graduate. One class might keep her from that. “Can I come in for help? Do some extra credit?”

  “I know you’ll pass the course, Lauren. We all know D’s make degrees, but you’ve been one of my star students and I just can’t help but wonder if there is more going on.”

  “Thanks for the concern. I’ll be fine. I’ll work harder, I promise.”

  Dr. Clinton sighed, but didn’t push it. “I know you will. Take care of yourself. If there is anything you need, please let me know.”

  “Thanks,” Lauren said, then left the office.

  Her palms were damp and her stomach was doing flips faster than a gymnast at the Olympics. She’d never failed a class a day in her life. Just six more weeks. That was all she had to do to pull it together and work enough hours to keep putting money away.

  She was pretty sure her mother was going to ask her to move out once she graduated and she wasn’t sure how she was going to make it happen without having a full time job. She had a plan to offer to pay some of the costs to her mother for a short period of time to be able to stay where she was.

  She finished up her last class for the day and drove home, having three hours before work. Plenty of time to finish the assignment, but she’d have to find some more time to finish the stuff that was assigned in classes today. Maybe when she got home. A few less hours of sleep wasn’t the end of the world.

  She unlocked the apartment door and walked into the cramped dingy two-bedroom apartment she shared with her mother. It was less than a thousand square feet of no privacy for them. But since her mother worked the second shift at a call center and Lauren was in school all day and at work most nights, they didn’t see much of each other.

  When she walked into the kitchen, she saw a note on the table. Nothing odd there. That was their main form of communication most days.

  Lauren. I’m giving my notice at my job today and moving with Billy to Florida at the end of the month. The lease on the apartment is up in a little over two months. I paid the rent until then, but after that, you’ll have to make your own arrangements.

  She pulled the old folding chair out that served as part of the kitchen table and sat down. If she thought her stomach was churning earlier it was nothing to the urge to throw up and pass out.

  That little amount of time would get her through graduation, but then she’d be homeless.

  It Was Hers

  Lauren ran her hands down her black pants trying to smooth out any wrinkles. She thought they looked fine, but the cheap trousers she’d bought at the discount store didn’t seem to want to iron out this morning no matter how much steam her old iron pumped out.

  She was a bargain shopper extraordinaire and got a whole new work wardrobe for less than two hundred dollars. That even included the little black flats she had on.

  Her first day at her new job. She’d lucked out getting hired and being able to start the Monday after graduation. Even luckier that she found a nice one-bedroom apartment in a better section of town that was affordable. It might only be barely six hundred square feet, but she didn’t care.

  It was clean. It was safe. And it was hers.

  Now it was time to show up for her first day at work. The nerves she was experiencing had to be pushed aside. To her, the hard part was over. Not only had she graduated with honors, but she managed to pull out a B in Dr. Clinton’s class. Partially because everyone got their lowest grade tossed. She didn’t care; she took it with a grin and a huge sigh of relief.

  “You must be Lauren Towne. I’m Sue Frasier.”

  Lauren shook hands with the woman she knew would be her boss. At least that was what it said on her paperwork. Sue hadn’t interviewed her. Someone in HR did and she was hired after just one interview. She didn’t question it since she was coming in at an entry level position.

  “It’s nice to meet you,” Lauren said.

  Sue looked to be close to her forties. She was dressed nicely in pants and a summer sweater making Lauren feel like she almost fit in. Their styles were the same, the quality not even close.

  “You’re nice and early. I like that in my staff.”

  Sue was smiling, but Lauren took it as a gentle warning. Not that Lauren would be late, because she never was. There were simple things in life to do to not get fired from a job, never being late and dressing appropriately at the top of the list. She’d never be stupid enough to mess them up unless it was an emergency situation.

  She’d been poor her whole life and was looking forward to not worrying about it at some point in the future. Unemployment equaled poor in her eyes.

  Lauren just smiled back politely. “I’m eager to get to work.”

  “Good. I know you were hired as a general accountant for the stores.”

  Lauren tried not to laugh at the word “stores.” Stratton’s was a supermarket chain with over a hundred stores in New York, Vermont, and Massachusetts. “Yes.”

  “Well, there has been a change of plans since you were interviewed.”

  Why didn’t anything seem to go right in her life, she was thinking. But she kept quiet and continued to followed Sue up another flight of stairs and then to an elevator. Now she was getting nervous because she’d just passed the floor where the other finance staff worked.

  “Can I ask where we are going?”

  “Mr. Stratton has just acquired two fast food franchises, and though they have their own staff for the moment, he wanted to bring someone in to audit their books. We were told that that is your specialty.”

  She was trying to hide her confusion. “Well, this is really my first job out of college, but yes, I loved my auditing classes. I just seemed to be able to find things when no one else could. But how would you know that?”

  “Mr. Stratton is an acquaintance of one of your professors. I believe Dr. Clinton.”

  “I didn’t know that,” Lauren said.

  She’d listed Dr. Clinton as one of her references and she was wondering if that was how she’d gotten the job. Nah, HR wouldn’t go to the CEO of the company for just an entry level position. Had to just be a coincidence.

  “I guess they go way back. Anyway, I was told to have you work on this. Once this project is done, I’m sure he’ll figure out where you should go next.”

  “Do you mean this is just a temporary job now?”

  Good lord, she took this job because it was close to her apartment and it paid the most. Not only that, but the company had been around for over fifty years and seemed the strongest of any of the other places she’d interviewed. She didn’t want to think she’d be out of a job in a year...or even less.

  “Not at all. It just means that you won’t be doing what you were originally hired for.” Sue put her hand on Lauren’s shoulder, part in comfort and part in support, she could see. “It’s a good thing. Trust me. I’ve got a great feeling about you. Many would be thrilled to be given this opportunity. Don’t worry or stress over it. Mr. Stratton isn’t around often and you’ll be on your own and reporting to me if you have any questions or concerns.”

  “Do you work up here too?” she asked. They’d gotten off the elevator on the sixth floor and were now moving down another hallway.

  “No. I’m on the second floor, but I’ll be just a phone call away and can come up at any time. You can come down and see me too. It’s not a problem.”

  “Can I ask a question?”

  “Sure,” Sue said.

  “Why not move another staff memb
er to this position? Why someone brand new?”

  “Easy. Mr. Stratton wants a fresh face. You’ll be dealing with employees that are going to be nervous themselves over this buyout. But you being new yourself, you won’t be biased. You won’t be able to say how things are done here to either assure or worry them. You can go in as a new person yourself and have that in common with them.”

  “Has he done that before?” she asked.

  “This is the first time he’s branched out like this, and because it’s such a large investment, he wants their books looked over more closely to find out why they were struggling when it seems they shouldn’t have been.”

  “Oh. So he’s concerned there’s a problem?” Just what she needed. To not only learn her new job, but to go into what could be a hostile environment trying to find problems.

  “I’ll let him explain it all to you. For now, I’m going to spend the next few days with you and show you around the system and explain the way things are done. Mr. Stratton is out of town and will be back next Monday. He’ll explain more to you then.”

  At least she had a week to get familiar with things before she had to meet the CEO. Talk about nerves.

  ***

  Jace let himself into his father’s house Saturday morning. He’d gotten back into town last night and crashed face first into bed after he’d taken a shower.

  He never minded traveling before, but now for some reason he just wanted to stay put for a while. Maybe it was because he had so much responsibility on his shoulders now when he didn’t almost two years ago. Or nothing like what he was used to.

  “Dad,” he yelled out. He hadn’t seen the housekeeper and wasn’t sure where everyone was.

  He popped his head into his father’s office, but it looked like no one had been in there recently, which was probably a good thing. His father needed to take it easy.