He’s from one of the oldest and wealthiest families from the bay.
She’s a maid.
It was never meant to be.
Reed Knight was born rich. He’s a businessman who lives alone in a sprawling huge mansion in Starling Bay.
And he’s engaged.
But he’s been having second thoughts, especially since his fiancee Olivia, an ex-beauty queen, seemed to change personality the moment he slipped a 2-carat diamond engagement ring on her finger.
Jenna Lawson has always been broke. Having left Starling Bay over a decade ago, she returns, still broke, still struggling, and still desperate to make a living.
The only job posting at the local agency is for a maid at the Knight mansion, a place laced with memories of humiliation since her teenage years.
Jenna hates the mansion, hates the Knights, and hates Reed Knight most of all.
But beggars can’t be choosers, and she needs the money.
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“Please, Shay. I need something quick and easy. Something I can start today,” Jenna pleaded.
“I know. I heard you. I heard you last night, and the day you arrived, Jenna. But you don’t have to follow me into work.” Her friend looked at her and made a face. Jenna felt useless, worse, she was beginning to feel like a burden. Returning to Starling Bay had seemed like a good idea a few weeks ago when she’d been sitting in her cockroach-infested room in a shared apartment, eating ramen noodles.
She had decided that enough was enough. Between working at the supermarket, and working as a waitress in the evenings, she barely had much money left over, and what she did have, she saved.
Starling Bay seemed like heaven, and it offered a new lease of life, and that was enough for her to pack her bags and return after twelve years.
But now that she had been here a few weeks, the doubts started to creep in. It wasn’t a city, and didn’t offer the job opportunities in such abundance. It wasn’t exactly small, either, and it had changed. She didn’t remember it being so expensive. Or maybe, she’d been so dirt poor all her life, that everything was expensive.
She was here now and she had no choice but to make things work. This was going to be her fresh start, dang it, and there was no going back. “I have no money,” she insisted. “And I’m camping out on your sofa. I need to get back on my feet.” Her friend had no idea what it was like to be so broke. Jenna had a couple of hundred dollars to her name, and she was going to budget very carefully until she got a job. A couple of jobs, she figured, if it came to that.
“Look,” said Shay, pushing up her glasses. “It’s Monday morning, I need to get back into work mode, check my emails—”
“Please,” Jenna begged. She didn’t have the time to sit around waiting while Shay ‘eased into work mode’. “Please. Can’t you take a quick look now and see if anything’s come up over the weekend? I’ll leave you in peace, I promise.” And then she would hound Shay later when she returned home from work in the evening.
Shay huffed out a breath and peered closer at her screen. “I’ve got a couple of cleaning jobs.” She frowned. “Maybe not.”
“I’ll take it.”
“No. I don’t think this one is any…” Her friend’s voice tapered away, and she moved her mouse pointer around. Jenna wished she could stand over her friend’s shoulder and see the screen for herself instead of trying to decipher Shay’s facial expressions.
“Whatever it is, I’ll take it.” She wasn’t fussy.
“Ah, here’s another one.” Shay smiled.
“What is it?”
“Cleaning a group of small offices, or,” she peered closer at the screen.
“Or?” asked Jenna, in her mind she had already accepted the first job.
“They need someone to clean for a few hours every morning at the preschool,” Shay told her.
“The preschool?” She imagined this would be small and easy enough to do. How much mess did tiny kids make? “What was the first job?” she asked suspiciously. It seemed that there was something Shay wasn’t telling her.
“You won’t want it.”
“You haven’t told me what it is yet.”
“Trust me. You won’t want it.”
“Is it cleaning toilets? Because I’ll do it.” She would do whatever it took.
“It’s…uh…” Shay settled back in her seat, and folded her arms. “It’s cleaning some rich guy’s mansion—”
“I’ll do it. Sign me up already.”
Shay opened her mouth, and her lips twisted but no words came out. She eyed Jenna with a level gaze.
“How bad can it be? I’ll do it.”
“It’s the Knight mansion.”
Those four words had the power to paralyze her. She snorted. “You’ve got to be kidding me. That thing is still standing?”
“Of course it’s still standing.”
“And they still live there?” Of course they did. Why would they not? The Knights were as old as the dinosaurs. They’d been here from the start. Generations of Knights had lived in the huge sprawling mansion in Glassmere, the exclusive end of Starling Bay. It was away from the busy town center and the bay, with the back of the house overlooking the ocean.
For Jenna, it represented extreme humiliation and she seethed at the mention of it.
“They don’t live here anymore, only Reed does. His parents bought a ranch in Montana.”
“They did?” Jenna imagined horses running wild on acres of land. “Why would you buy a ranch in Montana?”
“Because they can. What does it matter to you?”
Jenna shrugged. The lives of the rich were a continent away from her own. She was living with Shay, for now, because she couldn’t yet afford to rent a small apartment of her own. Meanwhile, the Knights had left an enormous, fit-for-a-king mansion in which their son now lived, while they left to go and live on a ranch in Montana. It wouldn’t surprise her if they’d bought a thousand-acre ranch out there. The Knights super-sized everything.
“I told you that you wouldn’t want this one.”
Jenna swallowed. “I’ll do it. I’ll clean his house.” Of all the men she could have run into, and all the places she would end up in, it would have to be this one. “I need it.” She really did. Reed Knight or not.
“Is this wise?” Shay asked.
“I need the money, and I will do a good job wherever you put me, but if this is the only position that is available, I’ll take it. I’ll work at that place, for him.” She couldn’t even bring herself to say the names. “I hate that they think they’re better than us, and I hate that he thinks he can treat the likes of us as if we’re—”
“You’re still mad at him, Jenna! I’m not sure this is going to work out.”
“I’m over it,” Jenna said quickly. “It was nothing. He won’t even recognize me, not with this.” She gently tugged at her hair.
“Would it really be such a problem if he did?”
“I can’t stand the guy so—” She stared at Shay, then smiled. “It’s not going to be a problem.”
“I can’t afford to give this to you if there are going to be problems, Jenna.”
“I’ll be as good as gold, I promise. When can I start?”
“I’ll need to check with his PA,” said Shay.
“He has a personal assistant?” Jenna scoffed. “I’ll bet he has a chauffeur, and a cook, and a gardener, and—.”
“He keeps it simple, from what I’ve heard. He only has his personal assistant, more like a butler, say, and someone to cook for him and a maid to clean.”
“The luxury of having these people in your life,” Jenna muttered. “He doesn’t cook for himself at all?”
“The cook’s probably been in the family for years, like the butler. He doesn’t need to do it, so why should he?”
“It’s still surprising that in this day and age, a grown man needs someone to cook for him.”
“You really have it out for him, don’t you? I’m not sure you working for him is a smart move, for you or for me. I’m not sure I can place you there, Jenna. It would look bad on the agency if you messed up. It would look bad on me.”
“I’ll be good. I promise.” She rushed to reassure her friend. “I’m curious to know what he’s like now.”
“If you keep your mouth shut, you might get to find out. Did you know he’s engaged to be married this summer?”
“Poor woman,” Jenna muttered.
“He’s not as bad as he used to be.”
“Easy enough for you to say.”
“I was there that night as well.”
Jenna looked away. Reed Knight had helped her up when she’d fallen down on the track one day. One of the most popular boys at the school, he had been polite, and concerned, and she’d been smitten. And when she and her friends had received an invite to his party months later, she’d been beyond excited. But that day had ended in a humiliation that she had carried around with her for years. Nobody had been in her shoes. Yes, Shay had been there with her, but Shay hadn’t been the one they had laughed at.
“Let me call his PA and arrange for an interview.”
“Great, because I’d like to start as soon as possible.”