Читать книгу Love Chronicles - Lissa Manley - Страница 12

Connor pushed his dark thoughts aside, ignored his wet, orange juice–saturated lap, chomped on his doughnut and drank his coffee. He reiterated to himself why he’d made the right decision, the practical one for his practice.

Just as he finished the doughnut, Steve approached his booth. “Hey, Doc. How you doing?”

Connor inclined his head. “All right.” He and Steve had gone through school together and had shared an interest in science. Steve had combined his interest in the scientific world with his love of animals and had become a veterinarian.

Steve smiled. “Saw your sister here a few minutes ago.”

Connor nodded and took a sip of coffee. “That was her.”

“Who was that gorgeous gal with her?” Steve asked, his brown eyes alight with interest. “Haven’t seen her around before.”

Connor gave Steve a hard glance. “Sunny Williams,” he said, not particularly hot on going into details. The whole town knew Steve was in the market for a wife.

Steve plunked down across from him. “Is she living in Oak Valley, or just visiting?”

“Just visiting.” Connor was pretty sure Sunny would leave now that she didn’t have a job. He had to admit, as an appreciative, red-blooded male, part of him was a bit disappointed a gorgeous woman like Sunny wasn’t going to be hanging around.

“Too bad,” Steve said, shaking his head. “Wouldn’t mind getting to know her.”

Surprisingly, the thought of Steve getting to know Sunny bothered Connor. Irritated that he was bothered at all, he finished his coffee, stood and reached for the tab. “Don’t think you’ll have the chance, bud. She won’t be here for long.”

He said goodbye, hiding his splotched pants as best he could, then paid the bill at the front counter and left. As he walked up the boardwalk, the late morning sun warm on his back, he told himself he’d done the right thing, even though his dad would probably come unglued. That couldn’t be helped. Despite his father’s inevitable anger and disappointment, Connor’s decision would stand.

Confident he’d done the right thing, he walked back to his office. When he arrived, his next patient, ten-year-old Danny Jones, was waiting. Connor quickly donned his lab coat to hide his damp clothes, then tended to Danny.

Danny had recently broken his arm playing baseball, and Connor wanted to make sure the healing process was on track. Danny’s parents had been killed in a car accident two years ago, and he’d come to Oak Valley to live with his widowed grandmother, Edith Largo, a long-time resident. Connor had spent a lot of time with Danny, trying to fill in here and there to give Edith a break and a guy for the kid to play ball with.

Pleased by Danny’s rate of recovery, Connor walked him to the waiting room, noting his dad, the elder Dr. Forbes, sat in the waiting room, shooting the breeze with June and Edith.

Damn. Obviously Jenny and Sunny had called in the cavalry. His dad looked at him expectantly. Connor clenched his hands.

Smiling to cover up the tension suddenly roiling around the room, Connor conferred with Edith. He then made an appointment in two weeks for Danny’s cast to be removed and walked him and Edith to the door.

When they were gone, his dad stood, his perennial red baseball cap in his hand. “I expected you’d have a special visitor by now.”

Connor paused, gathering his patience together, then crossed his arms over his chest. “So I suppose Sunny and Jenny came to see you.”

His dad looked puzzled. “No. But does that mean Sunny’s here? Have you had a chance to meet?”

Major surprise. So the threatening twosome hadn’t gone running to his dad as he’d assumed. Score one small point for Sunny. “Sunny came here, and then I saw her and Jenny at Luella’s half an hour ago, but I don’t know where they went after that.”

June piped in. “She and Jenny came by, got Sunny’s dog out of her van and took him for a walk.”

His dad stepped forward, his hazel eyes questioning. “I expected that she’d be next door getting organized. Is she coming back later?”

“No, because I have no intention of being her partner. The deal is off.” He stared at his dad, scowling. “Really, Dad, you should have consulted me before you brought her on. You know how I feel about alternative medicine.”

His dad’s eyes hardened. “Yes, I do, which is one of the reasons I asked her to come here.” His dad pointed at him. “You need an overhaul, my boy.”

He stared at his dad, minutely shaking his head. Connor had become a doctor to prove to his dad that they shared a unique connection. But catering to the desire to forge a bond with his father wasn’t going to happen this time. His dad had stepped over the line.

He gave his dad a stony look and said, “Is there anything else?”

His dad stepped up to the counter and pounded his fist on it. “Dammit, Connor, you’re not going to do your usual number and just walk away when things get sticky. I expect you to go along with this.”

Connor gritted his teeth, but before he could say “Forget it,” his dad continued. “And I’ll throw this out as bait. Your mother is driving me crazy at home now that I’m retired. I love her, but I’m going nuts with all of her honey-do’s. If you do this for me and allow Sunny to be your partner for say…a three-month trial period, I’ll reconsider full-time retirement after that.”

Connor raised his brows. He had to give the old man some credit. He’d thrown out a tempting deal, especially since what Connor really wanted to do—pursue a career in medical research and leave Oak Valley behind—would be that much easier to accomplish if his dad was around to help out.

Granted, he hadn’t figured out how he could be a medical researcher and still fulfill his long-ago promise to his parents to permanently take over for his dad in exchange for them putting him through med school. He hadn’t even told them about his dream of a different career.

He let out a heavy breath. Okay, he’d work on that and come up with something. Maybe he’d even be able to convince his dad to go back to being Mr. Commitment, too. One more reason to take him up on the deal.

True, Connor would have to put up with Sunny’s hokey massage business and yoga. He could take that for three months, couldn’t he?

Maybe as his working partner. But as a sexy, tempting woman he’d have to keep his hands off of? He swallowed. Suddenly, three months seemed like a lifetime.

He ignored that thought. “You’ve got yourself a deal.”

His dad smiled. “I knew you’d see reason. I promise you won’t regret your decision. Sunny is a wonderful, charming woman who will be a terrific addition to this office.” He moved toward the door. “Junie tells me you don’t have another patient for over an hour. Instead of stuffing your nose in some medical journal, why don’t you go find Sunny and give her the good news?” He waved, plopped his hat on his head and walked out.

Connor stared at the door and then rubbed his neck, trying to relieve the perpetual crick there. Suddenly, a massage by the delectable Miss Sunshine sounded pretty good.

He swung around, tightening his jaw. She was getting to him already.

Too bad. He’d agreed to the deal. He’d just have to be sure to stick to his vow to keep his thoughts where they belonged—anywhere but on beautiful Sunny Williams. He wasn’t going to be tempted into certain romantic failure again.

Get real, Forbes. He had a bad feeling that keeping his mind off of brown-eyed Sunny wasn’t going to be easy. She turned him on in a major way and seemed pretty nice, too, even when she was spitting fire.

Damn, he hoped he wouldn’t regret agreeing to his dad’s harebrained deal.

Sunny sat on a quaint, wrought-iron bench in the park, waiting for Rufus to come back with the tennis ball she’d thrown. She was determined to chill out and enjoy the sunny, peaceful morning and picturesque, grassy little park, located on the edge of town, while she figured out what to do next. Jenny had left to pick up her daughter at her parents’ house with a promise not to talk to her dad, leaving Sunny alone with her thoughts.

Despite her efforts to calm down and simply enjoy her surroundings, frustratingly dire thoughts—centering around one stubborn, irritating doctor—swamped her.

After so many business and romantic flops, she’d been so excited about moving here, making a new start and proving to herself that she wasn’t a total failure. This might be her last chance to fulfill her pact with Robbie and secure the commitment they’d craved as footloose best friends being raised in a commune.

Commitment. Inevitably, her thoughts swung to her parents. Sunny had always felt vulnerable since her parents had never married, worried that they didn’t love each other enough to make it official, that they would split up. It hadn’t helped that they had separated three times during her childhood. Even though she’d never suspected her parents had been unfaithful, because of their upsetting separations, when she was ten, she swore that she would eventually find a good man, fall in love and commit, creating the rooted environment that had always been missing in her life.

That vow had been cemented in stone when she and Robbie had made their promise to marry each other, fueled by her need for security and stability, for a comforting anchor, a need that lived on inside of her to this day.

Consequently, she’d been thrilled when the elder Dr. Forbes had made her the offer to come to Oak Valley. Build a new business. Find the ideal, steadfast man to commit to, fulfill the pact and, hopefully, heal the wound Robbie had created by marrying someone else. Create a secure, small-town life. It all had seemed so wonderfully picture-perfect.

Until this morning. Until Connor Forbes had entered the picture and put an ugly blotch on what was to have been her perfect life.

Rufus brought the ball back, wagging his spotted tail. He dropped it and she threw it again. He ran off, chasing the thing down. The goofy dog would play this game forever if she let him.

Her thoughts careened back to her problems. So, she’d run into one big, handsome, annoying roadblock. How could she prove to him that what she did had worth—admittedly not as a total replacement for his brand of traditional medicine, but as a complement? She’d always subscribed to the notion, Heal the Heart, Heal the Body,” believing that maintaining and encouraging a peaceful inner self would help foster a healthy outer self, the body. How in the world was she going to convince Connor to reconsider, to give her methods a chance to fill in the blanks his methods often left?

Before she could answer her own question, a male voice spoke from behind her. “Your dog’s a horse.”

Her tummy flip-flopped. Taking a deep breath, she turned and saw Connor standing in back of her, his bulging arms folded across his broad chest. His dark hair glinted in the sun like warm chocolate and his green eyes looked like dark emeralds. A ripple of feminine awareness skated up her spine. Why did he look so darned good, his masculine appeal so blatantly obvious?

Cutting off her mental list of his positive traits, she forced herself to remember how he’d heartlessly cut her loose. Her hands clenched, she turned back and watched Rufus bound clumsily back with his beloved tennis ball in his mouth. “Great Dane. Definitely a dog.”

Rufus spotted Connor and immediately dropped the ball, woofed and ran over to him, his tail swinging back and forth like a giant whip.

Obviously unintimidated by Rufus’s size, Connor smiled and said, “Hey, big guy,” holding out his hand so Rufus could sniff it. Then Connor began to gently pet the big lug. Rufus whined, then proceeded to lie down and roll onto his back. Connor obliged him and squatted and rubbed the dog’s good-sized belly, grudgingly scoring major points in Sunny’s book.

Connor looked up and smiled. “He’s just a big baby, isn’t he?”

She nodded, chuckling despite her negative mood. “You’ve got that right. He’s huge, but doesn’t have a mean bone in his body. Right, Rufus?”

Rufus didn’t acknowledge her, just lay there, his legs splayed, soaking up his first tummy rub of the day. Connor undoubtedly had no idea that he’d made a friend for life. Rufus wasn’t nearly picky enough about whom he associated with.

A long silence stretched out, and Sunny’s curiosity got the best of her. “So, why are you here? You made it pretty clear you wanted nothing to do with me. Need another glass of juice spilled on you?”

Connor rose and ran a hand through his hair. He moved toward her, what looked like forced contrition showing in his eyes. “Sorry about what I said. I don’t always express myself very well.”

She hoisted up a brow. “Oh, I think you got your point across pretty well.”

He sat down next to her and his soapy, male scent washed over her, raising her awareness level a notch.

“My whole family tells me I’m tactless,” he said, seemingly without regret. “I prefer to call it being refreshingly direct.”

She pulled in her chin and said, “Refreshing?” She laughed under her breath and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, right. That’s a good one.”

“Why don’t you tell me how you really feel,” he said, sarcasm dripping from every word.

“Okay,” she said, taking him up on his offer even though she was sure he wasn’t really interested in her feelings. “Actually, I’d like to stomp on your head. You’ve ruined my plans.” She took the ball from Rufus and hurled it across the grass. “I was sitting here trying to figure out how to change such a stubborn, grouchy man’s mind.”

“Don’t hold back, now.”

She stared at him. “Trust me. I won’t.”

“I can see that,” he said dryly. “Actually, grumpiness aside, you have a good plan, trying to change my mind. Very practical.”

“And are you always practical, Dr. Forbes? You strike me as the type who tries to be sensible at all times.” Sensible and totally repressed: boy, did he need to loosen up.

“I try to be.” He angled his body toward her and rested his left elbow on the back of the bench, bringing himself slightly closer. He pierced her with his eyes. “Is that bad?”

She shifted on the hard bench again and fiddled with the ends of her hair, uneasy with his nearness and how aware she was of his heat and scent. What was wrong with her, letting his physical appeal get to her? She didn’t even like the man. “Uh, well, not always, although sometimes it’s better to go with your gut instincts rather than what’s practical. A person’s inner voice is important, don’t you think?”

He inclined his head. “I guess. It’s been proven that instincts have helped man survive for thousands of years.”

She wanted to snort. Of course, he’d twisted her beliefs around so that they reeked of scientific fact rather than what he simply knew, deep down inside. He was obviously so out of touch with himself.

Ignoring how much she’d like to help him with that particular problem—boy, would she like to get a hold of his broad, well-muscled shoulders and work all of his tense, uptightness right out of his body—she focused instead on the question that was still gnawing at her.

“So, why did you come find me?” she asked, trying to sound casual. “I figured our business was finished.”

Rufus ran up, flopped down next to Connor and gazed up adoringly at him. Connor obliged and patted his head. “I’ve reconsidered.” He turned and held out his hand, his eyes boring into hers. “How about you shake hands with your new partner?”

Sunny widened her eyes, taken totally off guard by his unexpected offer. She automatically put her hand in his warm grip, liking the way his large hand engulfed hers. “You’ve changed your mind?” she asked, doubt spilling over. She quickly pulled free of his compelling touch to stay in control.

He nodded and then quickly looked away, his gaze focused across the park. “I guess I have.”

His inability to meet her eyes set off alarms in her head. “Why?”

“Change of heart,” he said, casually—too casually—lifting one broad shoulder.

She stared at him, her reliable intuition kicking into gear. She frowned slightly. “Really? An hour ago you were very clear about what you thought about partnering with me, and it wasn’t good.” She narrowed her gaze. “What’s going on?”

He shook his head. “I guess I can’t fool you.” He inclined his head. “All right, I’ll come clean. My dad changed my mind.”

She gave a humorless laugh, doing a bad job of covering up the ache building inside of her. “Ah, I should have known your change of heart was really just your father forcing you to honor the deal.” She pressed her lips together and glared at him. “So what did he offer you to cooperate?”

“He offered to come out of retirement part-time.”

She pulled her brows together. “Okay. But how does that help you, except for cutting down on your work load?”

“I want to get into medical research. That’ll be easier to do if he’s helping me out. He also offered a trial period. Of three months.”

She glared at him. “The heart of the matter at last. You’re probably thinking you’ll just bide your time for three months, then get rid of me, right?”

His stony silence gave her the answer.

With anger building in her—she felt like stomping on his head again—she quickly rose and began pacing before he could reply. “So you’re only doing this because of your dad’s offer rather than because of some newfound respect for what I do, right?”

He shrugged. “Hey, I have an agenda, just like you do. This will help me achieve it.”

Well, she had to give him credit for being honest, but that was as generous as she’d be. His attitude cut deep. Her wounded pride reared up, along with a healthy dose of her usual idealism. Partnering with a man with no respect for her methods would be wrong—and counterproductive. She’d be working under a cloud of contempt that would surely overwhelm her eventually. No, she couldn’t—wouldn’t—work under those uncertain, pride-shredding circumstances, no matter how desperate she was to finally settle into a successful career.

She stared at him. “Thanks for the offer, but no thanks. You have no respect for what I do, no appreciation for any medical treatment not based in your kind of science. You only want to use me to help you further your own goals. I don’t think you’re the partner I’m looking for.” She picked up Rufus’s leash and hooked it to his collar, then gave a stunned-looking Connor a sweet, totally fake smile. “Goodbye.”

Connor stood and put a hand on her arm. “Sunny, wait—”

Rufus’s hysterical barking cut him off. Before Sunny could react, Rufus started running in circles while he barked at a squirrel running up the trunk of a nearby tree. His leash wrapped around Connor’s legs and then Sunny’s, round and round, pulling them closer and closer together.

“Rufus, stop!” she hollered. But it was too late to get the leash off her wrist and Rufus was too strong and too rambunctious. She and Connor were quickly bound together by the tangled leash, his big body pressed intimately up against hers.

Rufus quit barking and the leash went slack. The silly dog whined, looking everywhere for that darn squirrel.

Doing nothing to extricate himself, Connor looked down at Sunny, his darkening gaze zeroing in on her, and said, “Your dog needs a firmer hand.”

Sunny stared up at him, stunned into inaction, heat building inside, almost drowning in his gorgeous green eyes. She could only nod, wishing in some far, foolish corner of her brain that he would kiss her.

Oh, my stars! He must have had the same idea. A moment later, he lowered his head, bringing his hands to her shoulders and his lips to within inches of hers. “Although I guess there are some advantages to having a naughty dog, right?” He moved closer still, his breath washing over her, his male heat searing her. Her heart raced and her breath stalled in her throat. He dropped his head—

Rufus yanked on the leash, hard, barking frantically again. In an instant, she and Connor went from almost kissing to falling over like a giant, leash-wrapped felled tree. Sunny squealed and Connor let out a hearty “Whoa!”

Fortunately for Sunny, but not for Connor, he landed on the bottom with an oof, cushioning her fall. She came to rest on top of him, her legs entangled with his, her body plastered from head to toe against him. His masculine, spicy scent surrounded her, warming her from the inside out.

Bad reaction. She struggled to get free, wiggling and flailing, letting out a few unladylike grunts, one thought front and center in her mind:

He’d almost kissed her!

Worse yet, she’d been well past the brink of letting him. Luckily, Rufus’s antics had stopped that in the nick of time. Connor wasn’t the man she was looking for. She had no business kissing him.

She needed to get away. She tried to stand, but her lower legs were still tangled in the leash. Muttering dark thoughts, she rolled off Connor to the ground, her feet still bound to his.

“Rufus, you big, stupid mutt, come here!” she said, pulling on his leash. Rufus whined and meekly obeyed. Sunny quickly unhooked his leash from his collar, then unwrapped it from their legs, still holding him with one hand.

As soon as she could, she stood, brushing herself off with one hand, hoping her blush had faded. She re-hooked Rufus’s leash, took a deep breath and looked at Connor, who’d stood, too.

“I’ll be going now,” she said to Connor in as normal a voice as possible, unable to meet his probing gaze. “I’m sure you’ll be able to explain why I didn’t accept your little deal to your father.”

With that, she started walking, her head held high, Rufus trotting along at her side. She softened her earlier harsh words with a stroke to the dog’s big head. Connor didn’t stop her this time, and she was glad. He flustered and confused her and she hated that. She might be broke, but she still had her pride, despite their little near kiss.

And Connor Forbes was right where he wanted to be before his dad stepped in.

On his own.

His runaway heartbeat was thundering in his ears as Connor watched Sunny walk away, noting with lots of male appreciation how her blond hair looked like white gold glowing in the sun. He wished she’d come back here and tangle herself up with him again. He’d come so close to kissing her, to letting his desire run its course. He was sure he would never forget the feel of her soft, curvy body moving around on top of him…

He snorted, jerking his thoughts back to what mattered, forcing himself to focus on the cold, harsh, unexpected reality that had nothing to do with how much he’d enjoyed their leash-and-fall incident:

Damn, she’d actually turned him down!

He made himself stand still and not run after her, needing time to regroup and cool his blood. He couldn’t deny that he admired the hell out of her at this moment. Okay, so her pigheadedness was pretty irritating, but he had to appreciate the pride he’d seen burning like hot coals in her eyes. She had principles. He liked that.

But what he liked—and it was becoming clear he really liked a lot of things about Sunny Williams—didn’t matter. What mattered was that she was walking away.

He rubbed his chin, acknowledging that his priorities had changed in a big hurry. But he’d blown it and he had no idea how to fix things.

He’d always been more comfortable immersing himself in books than talking to people; even as a boy, he’d spent hours reading science books by himself, hoping to make a connection with his father by learning as much as he could about medicine. Personal relationships weren’t his forte.

He started walking back to his office, looking at his problem from a practical viewpoint. The truth was, he needed Sunny Williams in a way that went far beyond his desire to have her laying on top of him again. Now, he just had to figure out a way to talk her into changing her mind—for the sake of becoming a medical researcher and jettisoning Mr. Commitment back to his dad, of course.