Kissed By The Country Doc. Melinda Curtis

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       CHAPTER TWO

      ELLA SHARED BOTH potato and apple fries with Penny at the counter of the Bent Nickel and tried not to stare the entire time at Noah and his gloves.

      It was chilly inside the coffee shop and Ella hated being cold, but when she’d wiped baby snot off Noah’s pant leg his gaze had heated her right up.

       All due to embarrassment, naturally.

      She sneaked a glance at Noah, testing her embarrassment theory.

      His black hair was long and pushed back from his face, brushing his collar in loose waves. He had a full, short, dark beard and broad shoulders. His brow had been furrowed since she’d walked in and his eyebrows were on permanent ground patrol over his blue eyes. He’d seemed different than the rest of the men in the coffee shop. Or maybe it was just that he held himself stiffly, as if he considered himself an outsider.

      Ella could relate. She’d spent most of her middle and high-school years feeling like an outsider, a foster child with a few friends and a drawer of hand-me-down clothes. She’d since filled her closet, but after what had happened at the reading of Harlan’s will, she wasn’t sure of her future as a Monroe. If she couldn’t make a market assessment Bryce’s cousins approved of would they shut her out of the family, too?

      Her attention drifted to Noah. His clothes were new. That wasn’t what kept him apart from the others. It was the black leather gloves, she decided. That, and the soulful look in his eyes.

      Their gazes connected, and Ella lost track of her breath. The lack of oxygen combined with awkwardness heated her cheeks. The embarrassment theory was holding water.

       Embarrassment and the fact that he’s gorgeous and looks at me as if I wasn’t the kind of woman to eat a package of Penny’s cheese and crackers for breakfast.

      The Bent Nickel diner was a throwback to a simpler time. Green-and-white checked linoleum tiles. Chrome bar stools with mint-green vinyl seats. Forest green vinyl booths and worn white Formica tabletops. Framed photos crowded the walls, mostly black-and-white pictures of people in front of cabins and vintage cars.

      There were elementary-age kids gathered around the L-shaped counter and a booth beside it. Schoolbooks, notebooks and laptops were stacked or open. Tall milkshake glasses and baskets of French fries were distributed among them. Between the chatter they spared amused glances toward Andrew and Alexander, Sophie’s twin boys, who were holding a spinning race on their bar stools.

      “Me, too.” Penny patted Ella’s arm and then pointed to the twins. “Me, too.”

      Penny didn’t have the arm strength to spin herself. Ella turned Penny’s bar stool in a slow circle.

      “Whoa.” Penny’s eyes got huge. When her back was to the counter she had nothing to hold on to, particularly when she had an apple fry in one hand and a potato fry in the other. That didn’t stop her from saying, “Again,” when she’d completed one circuit.

      Ella turned her stool a second time, aware of Noah’s gaze upon them.

      “Woof.” Penny was halfway around on the stool. She pointed out the window and dropped the potato fry. “Uh-oh.”

      Ella stopped spinning as she realized what Penny had seen—a yellow dog with an uneven gait. “Someone’s dog is outside.”

      “That’s a Labrasnoodle.” Roy moved toward the window. “Does it belong to one of you Monroes? It’s one of them designer dogs. A Labrapoo or Doodledoo or something.”

      “We brought kids,” Shane said loftily. “Not dogs.”

      “The dog’s limping.” Roy peered to the side. “Come on, Doc. Looks like someone dumped a dog out here again.” Roy glanced back at Noah.

      Ella and Sophie exchanged raised-eyebrow glances, as if thinking the same thing: What was a young veterinarian doing in an old town like this?

      Noah didn’t get up. “I’m a surgeon, not a vet.” His fingers flexed.

      Ella and Sophie continued to be perplexed: What was a young surgeon doing in an old town like this?

      A yellow, curly-haired Labradoodle placed two large paws on the diner’s window, peeked inside, barked once and then dropped back to all fours.

      “Woof,” Penny barked again.

      Her antics made the twins giggle and a preteen girl with braces say, “Ahhh, how cute.”

      Roy opened the door and the dog burst in, along with a surge of cold air. His feet scrambled for purchase and he slipped and slid around the room, managing to gobble up Penny’s fry on the floor before he crashed into Noah almost the same way Penny had done.

      The dog put his big paws on Noah’s sturdy thighs, then he exhibited a panting grin that passed over every human in the room before settling on Noah. Immediately, he was surrounded by eight schoolchildren eager to pet the dog and take a photo with their tablets.

      “Isn’t this against some kind of health code?” Shane asked from one of the dark green booths. He was nursing a cup of black coffee and reading a thin local pamphlet on real estate for sale in the area.

      Ella СКАЧАТЬ