Managed Hearts Read online

  Contents

  Title and Copyright

  Dedication

  Join my book club!

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Epilogue

  Dear Reader

  Acknowledgments

  Join my book club!

  About the Author

  Other Titles on Amazon

  Always You

  Players of Marycliff University Book 3

  Jerica MacMillan

  Copyright © 2016, 2020 by Jerica MacMillan

  *Originally published as Managed Hearts

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  To all the readers who started this journey with me with Summer Fling and have been patiently waiting for Matt’s story. Here you go.

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  Chapter One

  Hannah straightened her burgundy blazer and stiffened her spine, the cold January air making her shiver as it slid through the door closing behind her. She steeled herself with a deep breath before approaching the receptionist who sat behind a large desk, her red hair pulled back into a sleek ponytail, black rimmed glasses perched on her nose contrasting sharply with her pale skin. The receptionist glanced up and gave a polite smile. “May I help you?”

  Giving a nervous smile in return, Hannah nodded. “Hi. Yes. I’m Hannah Glover. I start my internship today.”

  “Welcome to Eco Utilities. I’m Alice. Let me know if you need any help with anything. I know it can be intimidating when you’re starting somewhere new, but everyone here is great. You’ll have your HR orientation first, then they’ll take you to your department where you’ll meet your mentor.” She gave directions to the HR meeting room on the second floor before glancing at the clock. “You better hurry! The meeting starts in about five minutes, and you don’t want to be late!”

  Hannah gave her another smile, more genuine this time. “Thank you!” She hurried to the stairs Alice had indicated and took them two at a time. Sucking in another deep breath at the top of the stairs in a futile attempt to calm her racing heart, she held up her head and walked to the meeting room, faking the confidence she didn’t feel.

  And stopped in the doorway with her heart slamming in her chest. The tingly feeling in her stomach that had been there all morning turned into full-on butterflies rioting in her abdomen. It seemed like everyone could see her chest moving from the strength of her heartbeat, and her skin must be writhing from the butterflies going crazy inside her.

  “Excuse me.” A male voice behind her brought her out of her daze. She took a step into the room and another to the side, turning her head to look at the newcomer.

  “I’m sorry,” she mumbled and made her way to a chair where she kept staring at the man who’d made her stop in her tracks.

  It was him. Matt. Her Matt.

  He had shorter hair now, his face free of the stubble he’d worn when she’d known him before, his skin paler in the winter, without the tan glow of summer. He’d filled out more in the intervening years, his shoulders broader than she remembered under his white button-down shirt. Of course it had been three years since the summer they spent together. In some ways it felt like a lifetime ago, in others it seemed as fresh as if it had happened last summer.

  She couldn’t take her eyes off him, wondering how his pecs and abs now compared to her memories. If the light fuzz of hair across his chest and in a line down the center of his belly had darkened or thickened in the last few years. What it would feel like to run her hands over him again with the freedom she used to have.

  All they’d had was one summer when she’d just turned eighteen—meeting a week before her birthday. He’d been nineteen. Two perfect months that she’d spent with her best friend Elena’s family in Westport, Washington. Elena’s parents had gotten a vacation rental and taken the girls and Elena’s brother. Hannah had met Matt one day on the beach where he was teaching a small group how to surf. She’d approached him afterward, asking about surf lessons for herself, and he’d invited her to a party that night.

  They’d spent the days on the beach, the evenings around fires, and more time than she’d ever thought possible in each other’s arms. He’d been her first, and she’d ended up comparing everyone since then to him.

  Half in love with him by the end of the summer, she’d been crushed when he hadn’t stayed in touch. She’d emailed him for a while, but he only responded a few times, and eventually she stopped. Only Elena knew that he was the reason she’d decided to attend Marycliff. It had a great business program, and she’d gotten an academic scholarship, so her parents had never questioned her decision.

  She’d never contacted him after she got to Marycliff, though. The fear of rejection too powerful, the feelings she maintained about their summer romance too precious to her to risk trying to make more out of it, especially when he hadn’t displayed any continuing interest before. No, she’d moved on and dated other guys, keeping herself busy with school and volunteer work. She hadn’t thought about Matt in a long time, and seeing him again shocked her, the feelings she’d had for him before rising up like they’d never left.

  She supposed they hadn’t.

  As she waited for him to look up from the papers he was arranging, she couldn’t decide if she wanted him to recognize her or not. She looked different now with shorter hair. And she’d matured in the intervening years as well. With a tiny shake of her head, she resigned herself to the reality that he probably wouldn’t recognize her. She obviously hadn’t meant as much to him as he had to her.

  Forcing herself to look away, she reached under her chair to pull a pen out of her bag. One thing all jobs had in common was paperwork on the first day. An internship, even an unpaid one, wouldn’t be any different. She’d have to fill out paperwork to get credit for her program.

  When she looked up again, her eyes locked with Matt’s. He stared at her for a beat, and she couldn’t tell if it meant he’d figured out who she was, or if he just thought she looked familiar and was trying to place her. It only lasted a moment, his brows drawing together, but then he shook his head like he was shaking himself out of a trance. Face clear, he started the meeting.

  Well, that was that. From the way he went on like she was just another intern, she had to assume he didn’t recognize her. For all she knew, he was just checking her out since there were only two female interns in the room. The other three were guys. She didn’t know any of them. She’d hoped ma
ybe one of her classmates from her other business classes might be here, but no such luck.

  Matt cleared his throat. “I’m Matt Schwartz. I’m your intern manager. You’ll each be paired with a mentor in your department who you’ll work with directly, but they’ll send their evaluations to me. And I’m here to help you with anything you need. If you’re having trouble with your department, or you’re only getting assigned grunt work instead of actually learning, come find me, and I’ll meet with your department head to get it worked out. You’re here to learn new skills and get experience, not to memorize everyone’s coffee order.”

  They all chuckled, relaxing while he continued.

  “Alright, since I won’t be seeing you every day, this is my chance to put your faces with your names. I’d like to go around the room and have you all introduce yourselves. We’ll do the standard college student questions: what’s your name, where are you from, and what’s your major? We’ll also add in what you hope to get from the internship.”

  Hannah smiled despite herself, surprised to be enjoying an HR presentation. When her turn came, Matt kept his polite, neutral look in place, not even looking like he might recognize her at all. A wave of disappointment washed over her. Wow. It stung that he had no idea who she was, no memory of her, when she’d cared so much about him once. And she’d thought he cared about her. Too caught up in her own head, she didn’t even register anyone else’s name.

  Thirty minutes after the round of introductions, the head of HR came in and distributed paperwork for them to fill out before taking them on a tour of the offices to find their assigned departments. Hannah felt eyes on her as she followed the others out of the room, and turned her head in time to see Matt staring at her, his expression unreadable. Well, if he didn’t remember her, she didn’t feel the need to help him out, so she just gave him a polite smile and left the room.

  The rest of the afternoon went by in a whirlwind, keeping her busy and distracted so she didn’t continue to obsess about Matt. She spent most of her time being a gopher—getting coffee and taking files between people. Even though Matt had said she should be doing meaningful work instead of just fetching and carrying, it was only the first day. She wasn’t going to complain already. One of the marketing assistants took her around for the first hour, introducing her to everyone and getting her oriented to the office area, and she met Sandra, who would be her mentor.

  Sandra sat down with her and showed her the company’s social media pages. “Look around at what we’re doing. Tomorrow I’ll take you through our strategy, and feel free to let me know if you have any ideas after looking through everything here. This is going to be your baby for the next couple of months.” After that Hannah found herself on her own since Sandra had a big project to get out the door that day.

  At the end of the day, she caught a glimpse of Matt climbing into a green pickup when she came out to the parking lot, a newer model than the one she remembered him driving. She stood watching him until he started his truck. The wind picked up, making her shiver, and she scampered to get to her car, cranking the heat so she wouldn’t freeze to death. Blowing on her hands and rubbing them together, she couldn’t help her thoughts turning to Matt some more. Would he ever figure out who she was? Would it be worse if he did or if he didn’t?

  Hannah Glover.

  Matt sat on the couch, beer in hand, repeating the name to himself, shaking his head, still shocked that it had been her today starting the spring internship. He’d seen her name on the paperwork, but assumed it must be some other Hannah Glover.

  But nope.

  It wasn’t.

  She looked the same, but different. Older, shorter hair, less blushing, more clothes than he remembered. Of course, it was January. Everyone wore more clothes in January than they did in July.

  The TV blared Big Bang Theory in the background, the laugh track distracting him from his thoughts. He had the volume up louder than normal, hoping to cover the sounds coming from Chris and Megan’s bedroom. You’d think those two were trying to set a record. They were at it more than Lance and Abby had been when they’d first started dating, and that was saying something.

  He still hadn’t gotten used to their constant loud sex, even after living with it for the last four months or so. Since Thanksgiving when they’d worked out whatever problems had come up, they’d been going at it non-stop. He didn’t know how Chris found the energy between going to class full time, working out, and practicing every spare moment to get ready for the Regional Combines next month.

  He was happy for them and all, but fuck. Sometimes Matt just wanted to relax in the living room without crazy monkey sex as the soundtrack to his life. Especially since he wasn’t the one having it.

  A loud moan coming through the wall had him downing the last of his beer and heading to his own room. Exhibit A to why he couldn’t wait for this summer and the end of their lease. He could get his own place and not have to listen to his roommates fucking at all hours of the day and night. The worst part was that he couldn’t help getting turned on by the sounds he couldn’t block out.

  With a resigned sigh, he stripped off his shirt in his bedroom, grabbing a clean towel and heading to the bathroom. As he waited for the water to warm up, Hannah’s face floated into his mind again. Chin length blonde hair the same color as the wheat fields in the summer, held back by a clip on one side. Green eyes. A cute little nose that turned up at the end. Her hair had been longer before, usually in a ponytail. He’d wrapped it around his hands a few times. God, that summer had been the best.

  Now on the opposite side of the house in his bathroom with the water pounding down around him, he couldn’t hear anything from Chris and Megan anymore, and he could let his mind replay his memories of their summer together without interruption. He soaped up more out of habit than necessity, palming his cock, the slippery suds in his hand giving just the right amount of slip. He felt less like a creep jacking it while thinking about an old fling than over the sounds his roommates made in the sack.

  He worked himself faster, squeezing harder. “Oh, god.” He couldn’t stop himself from groaning under his breath, imagining Hannah’s hands on him. Still as pretty and sweet as he remembered, she had high, full breasts, a trim waist, and an ass that begged to be spanked. Imagining she was stroking him, dropping to her knees to take him between her lush, red lips, more memories of that summer rose up in his mind. Her kneeling on his bed over his reclining form getting ready to wrap those same lush lips around the head of his cock.

  His legs trembled and his hips jerked as he came to the memory of Hannah Glover giving him her first blow job the summer he was nineteen. The sweet little virgin who had rocked his world. Not that she was still a virgin by the end of the summer. And man, she’d learned fast.

  He’d been captivated by her from the first time he saw her on the beach with her friend while he taught surf lessons at Westhaven State Park. Summer wasn’t the greatest time for surfing in Westport, but after he’d left home to go to Marycliff, he couldn’t go any other time.

  Hannah had watched him teach the lesson on the beach with rapt attention, too far away to hear his instructions, but he was aware of her eyes eating up every movement of his wetsuit-clad body, the longing on her face almost painful to see. Her friend, whose name he couldn’t remember now, was less interested, spending more time reading the book she’d brought with her than anything.

  He’d passed by the girls when he led his students into the water, and Hannah had caught his eye, holding it until he passed by and she returned to laughing and splashing and playing in the waves. It had been a warm day for June, warm enough to brave the frigid waters of the northern Pacific to cool off after spending time in the sun. After stashing his surfboard and peeling down the top of his wetsuit to expose his upper body to the sun, Hannah had approached him before he could figure out what to say to her, asking if he taught private surf lessons. He’d invited her to a party that night, and, to his delight, she’d shown up.


  By the time he’d found out that she still had a year left of high school and was only a week away from turning eighteen, it was too late, he was already hooked on her. He couldn’t let her go for such a silly reason if he’d tried.

  They spent the next two months together until he had to go back to school and she had to go home to finish high school. She’d emailed him after that. He’d responded a few times, but between the distractions of football and school, and the fact that he didn’t know what to say, he put off responding until he realized he hadn’t heard from her in weeks. He’d tried. But everything he wrote sounded stilted and stupid, and with practice and classes, he couldn’t talk on the phone much, and he never knew what to say then either. He did better at face to face communication, especially with relationships. Long distance wasn’t his thing. And it wasn’t like they’d talked much when they were together, anyway. Sure, yes, some, but he much preferred communicating by touch. He still did, truth be told. Too much time spent talking exhausted him. Touch, movement, physical presence were the things he handled best.

  He’d convinced himself that she’d stopped reaching out because she was busy too. And she’d be better off if he just let it go so she could focus on her senior year and all the important things that happen like homecoming, and prom, and graduation. Ghosting his way out of her life was kind of a dick move, but he didn’t know how to explain himself to Hannah. And the way his teammates were giving shit to one of the other guys about still dating his high school girlfriend from back home didn’t give him any incentive to keep up a relationship with a girl still in high school herself. After she stopped trying to get in touch with him, with the busyness of classes, football, and other girls to catch his attention, Hannah became a distant memory.

  Until now.

  Chapter Two