A Better Man. Emilie Rose

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      She blinked and swallowed, trying to ease the knot forming in her throat. From the moment she’d heard of his return she’d known this question would come up. She should have been prepared. But she wasn’t. And she’d never been a good liar.

      “Did I what?”

      “Visit the clinic.” His eyes searched her face.

      Her heart pounded and her palms moistened. The door handle slipped from her fingers. Stick with the facts.

      “Dad drove me to one in Raleigh. It’s far enough away that nobody here would know…” She bit her lip, unable to finish because that’s where the truth he needed to hear stopped. Anything she added would have to be a lie.

      “Piper,” Madison called as her footsteps squeaked down the long tile hall, filling Piper with a mixture of relief over the interruption and dread over the upcoming meeting. “Mrs. Lee’s Chihuahua is in labor and it’s not going well. I have to cancel our lunch and make a house call. If the labor drags on or I have to bring Pebbles in for a C-section, I’ll call your cell.”

      Madison reached the archway between the treatment rooms and the waiting area and spotted Roth. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize we had company.”

      Her ex-lover and her boss stared at each other. Then Madison hiked an expectant eyebrow at Piper. Piper reluctantly accepted that she couldn’t avoid making introductions. “Madison, this is Roth Sterling, Quincey’s new police chief. Roth, Dr. Madison Monroe.”

      Madison smiled and extended her hand. She, unlike Quincey natives, tended to avoid the gossip and intrigue of small-town living. But her interest in the new male specimen couldn’t be missed. Piper lost her appetite.

      “Nice to meet you, Chief Sterling, and some other time I’d love to hear what brought you here. But I have to run.”

      “Good to meet you, too, Doc,” Roth replied. “And the answer is simple. I came home.”

      Piper didn’t like the sound of that. Home implied a certain…permanence.

      Madison’s eyes widened. “Home? You’re a local?”

      “Yes.”

      Madison shot Piper a look that promised an inquisition when she returned, then with a wave she grabbed her med-kit, and rushed out the door.

      Roth’s dark eyes zeroed in on her, making her feel antsy and uncomfortable. “You’re not the veterinarian?”

      She couldn’t believe he remembered her long-ago dream. “I’m Madison’s assistant.”

      “What happened to vet school?”

      She wiggled her toes in her shoes. “Plans change.”

      He flashed one of his lethal grins and her abdomen quivered. “And because yours have, you’re now free for lunch. Let’s go.”

      No. No. No. “I need to set up the surgical room in case Madison needs it.”

      “I’ll wait.”

      She did not want to spend any more time with him. “Look, Roth, while I appreciate your invitation, I really don’t have time for a long lunch break.”

      “Then I’ll get a takeout from the diner and we’ll eat here.”

      Alone behind a locked door? She searched for another excuse to avoid this encounter and couldn’t find one. “The gossips would be the ones feasting if you did that.”

      “Sounds like Quincey hasn’t changed.” He shoved his hands into his pockets. “We’re sharing a meal, Piper. If not lunch, then dinner. I’m not on duty until Monday. I can park it right here—” he pointed at a waiting room chair “—and wait until you’re available.”

      Not what she wanted to hear. She wasn’t going to be able to avoid him. Resignation settled over her.

      “When you put it like that, how can I refuse?” If she did, she’d only arouse his curiosity, and the last thing she wanted was Roth Sterling snooping around in her personal life.

      “Exactly.”

      CHAPTER TWO

      “LET’S GO. I’LL PREP the room when I get back. We’ll have to hurry in case Madison needs me.” Piper snatched her purse and headed out, eager to get this encounter behind her.

      Then maybe Roth would go away and forget her. Again.

      “Your enthusiasm underwhelms me.” She heard the teasing note in his voice and didn’t need to look to know he was smiling. His smiles used to turn her to mush. But she couldn’t let them have that effect now.

      After locking up she followed him into the parking lot.

      He scanned the busy-for-Quincey streets. “Traffic’s picked up from what I remember.”

      “Over the past few years we’ve had several mom-and-pop antiques stores open up. That makes Quincey a mecca for weekend shoppers.” She hoped that meant the shopkeepers would be too busy with their customers to notice her comings and goings or her lunch partner. “The diner will be packed. There’s a barbecue place ten miles south of here.”

      “Afraid to be seen in town with me?”

      She couldn’t risk someone stopping by their table to ask about her son. “I don’t have the time to wait for a table or be constantly interrupted by people welcoming you.”

      “I don’t think the welcomes will be a problem. I’ll drive.” He led her toward a big black truck.

      She caught herself admiring the way he filled out his jeans and couldn’t force her gaze away any more than she could stop a freight train with her pinkie finger. Roth still looked damned good. Better than any of the slim pickings in town, for sure.

      An old familiar hunger trickled through her—one she hadn’t experienced in so long that she almost didn’t recognize the budding tension in her belly. When she did she tried to pop the bubble by focusing on the wreckage he’d made of her life when he’d said goodbye.

      She clung to the hurt and anger like a shield, but no matter how much his betrayal stung, she didn’t—couldn’t—hate Roth, because he’d given her the most precious part of her life. Josh.

      He opened the door and she climbed into the high cab. When he slid into the driver’s seat she fastened her seat belt and took shallow breaths through her mouth to avoid the tantalizing aroma of his scent. It didn’t work.

      He put the truck in gear and hit the highway. “If you didn’t go to vet school, what have you been doing since I last saw you?”

      Raising your son. She held her tongue and searched for an acceptable answer.

      “Right after you left, my father’s great-aunt fell and broke her hip. She needed live-in help while she recuperated. I was available.”

      “I СКАЧАТЬ