Forbidden Serenade

Chapter One

"You can do this, Riley. You are a strong, independent woman and you can do this."

The woman reflected in the mirror rolled her hazel eyes as she blew out a breath. This was impossible. And stupid. Never in a million years should I be serving drinks for the wealthy and famous at one of their ostentatious Hamptons retreats. How the hell had my brother Leo talked me into this? I hated him and the circumstances leading to this and my entire life. I despised how, over the past year, life had ripped everything from my world, leaving me with nothing but emptiness.

It had started when the man who promised to love me forever betrayed and abandoned me.

That didn't matter now. None of it mattered. I was a new woman, and this was my new life. I was strong and independent.

Running my fingers through my dyed blonde hair, I leaned forward to check my lipstick in the mirror. A car horn sounded outside my townhouse and my stomach dropped, knowing it was time.

Trying to control my shaking hands, I grabbed my suitcase and headed out the door into the warm late July air. My always confident and successful brother Leo stood against his car grinning. Tall and broad, Leo watched me through brown eyes behind rimless glasses. He ran an upscale restaurant in our hometown of Muscatine, Iowa. He was magic with food, and I took full advantage of it when I waitressed at his restaurant during the week. With a vast gap in my resume from staying home with my children, few places would hire me after the divorce. My younger twin brothers took pity on me and hired me at their individual restaurants. It was a gut punch that, at twenty-eight, they both had their lives figured out while I was starting completely over at thirty-two.

Leo strolled to the back of the car and opened the trunk. "Are you ready to go?"

The car thumped beneath my suitcase I angrily tossed in. "I can't wait. This is, by far, the highlight of my life."

Leo burst into laughter. "Oh, you are going to need to work on that cherry mood. That sarcasm will not be appreciated where we are going."

My hands clenched into fists as I stormed toward the passenger door of his vehicle. "I don't think they're going to care what I say, Leo. They are going to want drinks, which you know I can hardly make because I only work for Logan on the weekends and I mostly serve beers. It's completely irresponsible of you to hire me for this."

Leo chuckled as we climbed into the car. "It will be fine, sis. Stop worrying. Where's your sense of adventure? Besides, if it's for a kid's twenty-first birthday, it will probably be filled with their friends the same age. No one will know that you're serving crappy drinks. They won't know what it's supposed to taste like, and halfway through the night they'll be too drunk to care, anyway."

I gave my brother my best glare. "Thanks for the confidence boost."

Laughing, my brother buckled his seatbelt. "Just relax. It will be fine. Besides, it pays well."

Those words were exactly why I had allowed Leo to rope me into this insane idea.

Blowing out a breath, I sank back into my seat and folded my arms across my chest. My ex-husband, James, insisted our three children continue attending their private school, which, according to our divorce decree, required me to pay half the tuition. It was money I didn't have, and I refused to let them down.

I didn't give a response, and Leo didn't need one. He understood how difficult and painful the divorce had been. It had blindsided me and turned my entire world upside down. The happily ever after I thought I had evaporated in front of my eyes. I never knew a simple piece of paper could cut so deep. That it could rob me of everything I loved and cared about and leave me broken and alone.