Everyone has a plan.
Dr. Guy Hunter secures his dream fellowship with a beautiful free spirit by his side.
Two unexpected blue lines don't even shake his resolve—he is on his way to having it all.
Until he isn’t.
Abruption: a sudden breaking off
Jules Chiappetti loves her boisterous over-involved Italian family but is
determined to pave her own way. An MBA and boardroom job is her ticket out. Until it
isn’t.
Abruption: an unexpected event
Four years later, Guy is consumed by the challenges of being a single father, still
struggling with the aftermath that derailed his life and left his son with special needs. He doesn't
realize his world went dark the same day his wife's did, until Jules, his son's new nurse, shows
him the light.
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“I’m not playing games, Dr.
Hunter.”
I backed up until I was leaning on the opposite counter, crossed my legs, and
folded my arms against my chest. “Then explain to me why I haven’t heard from you all
week. I get it was our first date and it turned into a really shitty night, but I thought we ended on a high
note.” Jules’ eyes widened and she bit her bottom lip. Yeah, she thinks it ended on a
high note too. “I text, I call a few times, and not once did you think to pick up the phone or
text back. I’m the first to admit that I’m rusty in the dating department, actually if you
want to know the truth, I haven’t dated since my wife died. I’ve hooked up, not going to
lie, but I haven’t dated someone with the intention of getting to know them.
You’re the exception. So I’m asking, what’s with the
games?”
“I needed a minute.” Her voice was low and trailed off. So much so,
I thought I misheard. Then she broke eye contact and scurried away, opening cabinets and drawers for
plates and silverware.
“A minute, as in four days?” We apparently had a different
definition of a minute, so I needed clarification. Suddenly, the anger I thought I was over began to
resurface. “Look, Jules, I’m sorry I don’t have the luxury of tiptoeing around your
feelings here, so I’m going to come straight out and tell you that your minute
doesn’t work for me. And it sure as hell doesn’t work for my family. I’m not trying
to pressure you into anything, but I have kids, kids that already know you. Kids that already like you. This
was not news when we hooked up. So if you aren’t into it, into me, or you decided all of a
sudden you have an issue with my baggage, I need to know and we’ll end it
now.”
Before they get too attached. Liar. Before I get too
attached.
Damn, she was making me soft. She froze mid-plate grab and pivoted back around
with her eyes squinted together at a peculiar angle. This expression was a new one and not one of my
favorites if I had to compare. “Baggage?” She dragged out the word and cocked her head
more to one side. Shit. “You think I consider Maxine and Finn baggage?” The tide
changed, and I sensed she wasn’t exactly feeling me right at this moment. “Is
that what you’ve been thinking all week? Seriously ... seriously?” The second
seriously hit an octave I’d yet to hear from her and probably could do without
hearing again, so I opted to use my northern brain and keep my mouth shut. “How could you
even think that? Not for one point one second. Do you hear me?”
Nope, still not answering. That was a trick question.
“Have I ever given you any inclination that I had an issue with Finn or Max,
ever? No. Never!” She answered for me, loudly, and she was pissed. “I adore
your children, and I’m just as attached to them as they are to me. That’s why we
needed a minute. Everything was moving so fast. You don’t even know anything about me
and you opened your home to ... to me. You called me a natural, for God’s sake. You have no
idea. So I didn’t know what to do with that, and you needed time to think about all that.
I’m not sure either of us were ready for what we already let happen, never mind
more. That’s why I didn’t call.”
Oh, we needed a minute. What were we, French now? I was tempted
to call her on it, especially on the half of what she said that made no sense, but the look in her eyes
stopped me. There was a vulnerability there, a softness, so I let her have that play. For
now.
“Tell me, are you sure now?” I asked with a bite. She turned her
back to me and unwrapped and plated the breakfast sandwiches.
Don’t think so, doll. You got your answer, my
turn.
I walked up behind her, pressing my front to her back, pinning her in. She
involuntarily shuddered, sucking in a bit of air when I kissed the spot where her neck met her
collarbone. “Are you sure, Jules?” This time I asked against her
skin.
Her entire body stiffened and she whispered,
“No.”
Fuck.
Riley Mackenzie~Authors
Yep. That's an “s.” There are two of
us!
We’re East coast girls separated by Long Island Sound who met in
Physician Assistant School and have been besties ever since. We can safely say that thirteen miles of
water does not get in the way because we talk or text, no exaggeration, at least 150 times a day. No,
really, we do—about everything and nothing. Shockingly, we never (we mean never)
run out of things to say. Umm, ever. We definitely laugh A LOT and we’re a tad sarcastic.
And if we’re being totally honest, one or two people might have, on occasion, used our names
and ‘dramatic’ in the same sentence. But it’s hard to trust the sources since they
married us.
It only took twelve years, two husbands, five kids, two dogs, and a two-week
vacation in Cape Cod later to decide the romance world needed a splash of medicine. Write what
you know.
So you can easily find us at 4 o'clock on Bank Street beach with a glass of
cold Prosecco brainstorming. And guaranteed if we bump into you, literally, it’s only because our
iPhones are glued to our hands (totally out of our control) either writing or editing our next novel (and
yes, it is possible to do from your iPhone, we mastered it … damn those straight
quotations).
When we are not working on our book or reading the latest angsty romance on
our kindles, you basically name it and we have it going on. Soccer, lacrosse, golf, swimming, dance,
gymnastics, football, chess, baseball, basketball, skiing, ice skating, school, homework, and more
school.
Oh yeah, did we forget to mention our careers in
medicine?
Needless to say, we realized fast that something had to go, so we opted for sleep.
It’s completely overrated (yet so AMAZING) and delirium makes everything funnier. Good thing
we share a brain and can pretty much complete each other’s sentences (definitely weird, we
know).
So that’s our story, who we are … just add AUTHORS to the
list!
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