Love Chronicles. Lissa Manley
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