Oh wow thanks guys for the reviews and the favourites and alerts on this story! In this chapter you're introduced a bit more to Maddie Hansen and this is all from her point of view, I will flit between POV's constantly as I think it fits the story better to do it that way. Hope you enjoy and please review to make me a happy bunny! Thanks xo

Chapter Two

'Thanks again Donna, I'll see you in six weeks!'

Turning on her heel she walked out of the salon feeling like a brand new person, she really had needed something to cheer her up and having her hair done always seemed to do just that. She'd taken a half day off work to just relax and try and recharge her batteries after the stressful past few weeks she'd had.

Working for Child Protective Services wasn't exactly an easy job, she saw a lot of terrible things and she met some horrible fucking people that should never have been given the blessing of becoming parents but it was the job she'd always wanted to do, she knew what it felt like to be abandoned by one parent and somehow she felt like she had a connection to so many of the children she met.

She had been one of the lucky ones in many respects, her mother had given birth to her when she was seventeen years old and luckily, her father had faced up to his responsibilities, the same couldn't be said for her mother. Her mom had shared custody of her right up until she was five years old when she'd had enough, one day, she remembered it well, her mom had dropped her off at her grandparent's house and she never came back. She'd never heard from her again and she had no idea if she was now alive or dead, she didn't really care that much either.

If her father and his family hadn't wanted her she would have ended up in care, like many of the children she saw day to day through her work. It was a sad situation for many of them, she'd seen some horrific things in her time and she constantly thanked her lucky stars that she'd never had to experience what some of the children she came into contact with had experienced during their short time on the planet.

Every few weeks she would take at least a half day off to try and relax and unwind, the job was stressful and at times it was just the most depressing experience in the world but after a short break she always felt better.

After she left the hair salon she got in her car and decided to take a drive to one of her favourite coffee shops in the city. They made the best Mocha Latte coffee that she'd ever had and after sitting in a hair salon for over two hours she definitely needed her daily caffeine fix.

She managed to navigate her way through the heavy traffic on the roads without incident and pulled up outside the coffee shop half an hour later. She took a seat on one of the tables outside as it was a sunny day, a rarity in Seattle so she was going to make the most of it. Five minutes after sitting down a waitress came and took her order, she asked for a large Mocha Latte and a Tuna Mayo baguette, she hadn't eaten since breakfast and a carb fix was now needed.

Settling back into the chair she pulled out the book that she was trying to make her way through, a friend had lent her a copy of The Da Vinci code and she was determined to get through it, the problem was she rarely had the time to read. By the time she got home from work she was usually too tired to do anything but sit in front of the TV or put on her CD player and listen to some music to try and put the day's trials and tribulations out of her mind.

She managed to get through half of the first chapter before the waitress came back with her coffee and baguette. She was about to take her first bite of food when she happened to look up from her book.

In the distance there was someone she recognised, he wasn't all that close to her yet but she knew right away who it was. His face had been haunting her dreams for the past couple of weeks, ever since she'd seen him she had struggled to get him out of her mind. Deep down she knew damn well that nothing could ever come of her attraction to him, not when he was working with her father anyway, her dad was majorly over-protective when it came to the guys she dated, he always had been. And really, she knew fuck all about him, sure he was very attractive and he seemed nice enough but she'd only spoken to him briefly. She guessed that her feelings were nothing but lust, she hadn't had sex for well over a year and Jake was the most attractive guy she'd seen in a long time, she was pretty sure she'd get over the fact that she couldn't have him eventually but right now, as he continued to get closer and closer, she could feel herself beginning to tingle a little.

She kept her eyes focused solely on him, part of her hoped that he would just walk right by without noticing her but another part of her hoped that he did see her and that he would stop to talk to her once again. She'd left the docks pretty quickly and she felt guilty for leaving in such a hurry, he probably thought she was so fucking rude but at the time she'd needed to get away from him. She'd felt herself blushing and talking at one hundred miles an hour at him, she was never normally like that with guys, even with guys that she liked but with him something just felt a little different. She put it down to the fact that it was because he worked with her dad and her uncles, if any of them figured out that she had a little crush on their deckhand she knew what they would all say and how they would react, maybe she got a kick out of the danger of it all?

Within a minute or so Jake was within fifty yards of where she was sitting, it was only when he got closer to her that she could see he had a pained expression on his face and his shoulders were hunched over like he was in physical pain. His beautiful sharp blue eyes weren't as bright as they had been a few weeks ago and her stomach instantly began to churn, why did he look so sad and dejected? He was obviously in a world of his own so if he was to notice her, she would have to make the move. She didn't know where she got the confidence from but before she could stop herself she called his name, his eyes looked up from the side walk and instantly connected with hers, just like they'd connected when he came home. She noticed a small smile appear on his face and she gestured for him to come and join her at the table, she couldn't stop herself from sending him a beaming smile when he started to walk towards her.

'Hi there, I um, don't wanna interrupt you if you're busy,' he looked down at the baguette that she hadn't touched yet and she shook her head, offering him a seat which he hesitated to take at first.

'You're not interrupting me, I'd like the company actually, that's if you're not busy,' she hoped she didn't sound too desperate but even if she had, he took a seat opposite her.

'No I'm not, just had to get out of the house for a while you know?' He sighed heavily, now that he was close to her she could see the dark rings around his eyes, evidently he hadn't caught up with the sleep he'd gone without at sea yet.

'Is everything okay?' He looked up at her and their eyes met again, every time they did she felt butterflies in her stomach.

'It's hard to explain, plus I don't wanna bore you with my shit considering I barely know you,' he laughed a little, a nervous laugh she thought.

'It might be easier to talk to someone you barely know and anyway, I don't get bored easily, unless of course the problems you're having are about fishing then I would get bored, it's all dad and Sig fucking talk about,' she smiled and was pleased to see him smiling back at her.

'No it's not about fishing, it's about family, well my sister actually,' Jake shifted uncomfortably in his seat and she found herself having to hold back from putting her hand across the table and touching him.

'Look Jake, I know we don't exactly know each other, all I know about you is what dad has told me and that's not much, but just so you know, anything you tell me, it won't go back to anyone. You look like you need to talk and I'm willing to listen,' she replied, she wasn't sure if he was going to say anything or not and she wasn't going to push him. Just as he was about to speak, the waitress who'd taken her order came back to the table to ask if Jake wanted anything, he ordered a bottle of sparkling water and once the waitress disappeared once again, he started to talk.

'You know that I have a pretty fucking huge family right?' She nodded her head, her dad had mentioned something about him having five sisters. 'Well one of my sister's, Chelsea, she's sick, really fucking sick,' the pain on his face was crystal clear as he spoke about his sister, the need to take him into her arms and try to comfort him was becoming overwhelming but she knew that she couldn't do that, they were practically strangers after all.

'What's wrong with her?' She bit down hard on her lip after asking him such a personal question, she was meant to be letting him do the talking.

'She was born with Rheumatoid Arthritis and over the past few months, she hasn't been doing so good, she barely leaves the house now,' he shook his head and she could see his eyes fill up, without hesitation she reached her hand across the table and brushed her fingers against his.

'You don't have to talk about this if you don't want to Jake….'

'No I'm fine,' he shook his head and smiled a little at her, 'It's nice to actually talk to someone about this, I can't really say anything to my parents or my sisters in case I upset them you know? And the guys I work with wouldn't be comfortable with me whining to them all the fucking time,' he chuckled a little before brushing his hands over his eyes.

'You're not whining, everyone needs to have someone to talk to about difficult things, if you don't talk things will just build and build inside you until you explode,' she felt his fingers brush against hers as she spoke and she shivered at the contact, why the fuck was she shivering at the slightest touch from him? Was she officially going crazy?

'You sound like you're talking from experience,' Jake responded, out of nowhere the waitress came back to the table and put the bottle of sparkling water down in front of Jake before disappearing again.

'Sorry, I guess I'm used to seeing people blow up or breakdown all the time in my job,' she shrugged a little.

'What do you do?'

'I work for CPS, have done for the past year and a half,' she replied before taking a small sip of her coffee.

'Wow that's a job I could not do,' he said as he opened his bottle of water.

'Well I could definitely not be a crab fisherwoman, I can't believe the shit that you guys go through out there,' her admiration for crab fisherman was not a surprise considering her grandfather, father and two uncles had all done the same thing.

'Yeah well it's not a full time job though, you have to deal with shit every day, after a couple of months I get to come home and spend time with my family,' his face dropped again as soon as he mentioned his family, she knew he had a lot more to say but she didn't know whether talking about something so private right out in the open was a good thing.

'It sounds like you have plenty to deal with every day,' without looking away from him she rummaged around in her handbag, searching for her small notepad and pen which was hidden under all her make-up and paperwork in her Mary Poppins like bag. Eventually her hands found what she was looking for and she looked away from him for a few seconds so she could write her contact details down on paper. She wrote down both her home and cell numbers so he could contact her, she didn't feel bad about doing it, even her father couldn't prevent her from having friends.

She handed the paper to him and a smile appeared on his face. 'Can I borrow a piece of paper so I can give you my numbers?' Smiling back at him she handed over a sheet of paper and pen and she watched as he scrawled down his details.

'You know, if your dad finds out….'

'What's there to find out? That we have each other's contact details and we talk? There's no crime in that, it's not like we'll be hooking up for rampant sex every few days, that kinda might make my dad snap your dick in half,' she smirked when she said it but she knew that her dad would seriously lose it if he thought that she was sleeping with the man he affectionately called Junior.

'Not gonna lie, your dad scares the fuck out of me,' he replied.

'If he scares the fuck out of you now wait till I tell you about what he did to my first boyfriend, you'll so not want anything to do with me then believe me!'

'I don't believe you, I wouldn't have stopped to talk if I didn't think you were….Pretty cool,' she could feel the blush creep up on her skin and she cursed the fact that it wasn't a particularly hot or cold day as it would make it so obvious that she was blushing, even if it was obvious to him he didn't say anything about it which she was thankful for.

She spent the next hour sat outside the coffee shop with Jake, they talked about many different things from her job to his job to the kind of music and films they liked but they didn't talk about family, it was obviously an emotive subject for him and she didn't want him to get upset in such a public area, that conversation could wait until she maybe invited him to her place for coffee or something. Though inviting him for coffee would be pretty difficult considering she'd have to hold herself back from throwing herself at him and humping his leg like a bitch in heat.

She couldn't describe it really, she'd had crushes on people before, she'd lusted after people before but this….it just felt so different to her. She felt fucking giddy and excited like a kid on candy and yet she still hadn't known him all that long, surely it wasn't possible to fall in love with someone so quickly? She'd never believed in all that 'love at first sight' bullshit, she was a logical person and in her mind there was no way you could love someone at first glance, you had to get to know them first, REALLY get to know them.

Anyway, it wasn't even possible for her to love Jake Anderson like that, she could love him as a friend but nothing more than that, ever.