All
She Never Wanted
By Carolyn LaRoche
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: December 6, 2016
Synopsis
One moment
changed everything…
Evie Ward had everything she’d ever dreamed of. An action-packed job where no two shifts were ever the same, the best friend a girl could ever want, and a fairy tale wedding just days away. Her life was absolutely perfect. Until one bullet—one horrible choice—left her with a broken heart and shattered dreams. Fleeing the city she loved and a lifetime of memories, Evie took a job in the Outer Banks of North Carolina in the hopes that the ocean air and fresh beaches could somehow restore her soul. Falling in love again wasn’t part of the plan.
Landon Reed was on top of the world. The money, the women, the status—he had it all until one bad decision nearly cost him his life. His father gave him three months to get his act together or be cut off from the family fortune and business. No house, no job and no money. His will and his patience are tested further when his father hires a nurse to whip him into shape. She may be little but she's mean and it looks like Landon has finally met his match.
With her shattered heart and his broken spirit, the road to recovery will be long. Can they help each other heal or will their fractured pasts be too much to overcome?
Evie Ward had everything she’d ever dreamed of. An action-packed job where no two shifts were ever the same, the best friend a girl could ever want, and a fairy tale wedding just days away. Her life was absolutely perfect. Until one bullet—one horrible choice—left her with a broken heart and shattered dreams. Fleeing the city she loved and a lifetime of memories, Evie took a job in the Outer Banks of North Carolina in the hopes that the ocean air and fresh beaches could somehow restore her soul. Falling in love again wasn’t part of the plan.
Landon Reed was on top of the world. The money, the women, the status—he had it all until one bad decision nearly cost him his life. His father gave him three months to get his act together or be cut off from the family fortune and business. No house, no job and no money. His will and his patience are tested further when his father hires a nurse to whip him into shape. She may be little but she's mean and it looks like Landon has finally met his match.
With her shattered heart and his broken spirit, the road to recovery will be long. Can they help each other heal or will their fractured pasts be too much to overcome?
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Excerpt
It was almost three in the morning the last
time I looked at the clock so when Amelia entered my room with a tray of food
at half past seven, it took all of my self-restraint and the memory of the look
on Walter’s face the night before to make me keep my mouth shut.
“Good morning, Landon!” Amelia hummed a
little tune quietly as she set up the bedside table. “It’s a beautiful day,
today. Perhaps you’d like to go down to the beach after your physical therapy
appointment?”
I pulled the covers over my head. “I changed
my mind. I’m not going to any appointment.”
“Come on, Landon. You can’t spend the rest of
your life sitting here in this room.”
“Yes, I can.”
“You are going to physical therapy.” The
covers disappeared from my face as I looked up into the smiling grey eyes of
Amelia. “Rise and shine!”
“I’m not getting up.” I buried my head under
my pillow.
Amelia walked toward the door. “Maybe you’ll
have better luck with him.”
“Good morning, Mr. Reed. Do you plan to stay
in bed all day?” A different voice, one thick with the distinctive accent of
New York City replaced Amelia’s soft southern sound.
“What’s it to you?”
“Well, it’s all the same to me if you want to
rot away in that bed. I get paid either way.” I heard soft footsteps cross the
room toward the little sitting area.
Rolling over on my side, I shifted the pillow
enough to peek out. From my vantage point, all I could see was a pair of canvas
shoes. The television turned on. I heard her flip through channels, finally
settling on that home improvement show with the twin brothers. Every woman I
knew loved them.
“Nobody watches those stupid shows anymore.”
Either she didn’t hear me or she was ignoring
me.
“Those shows are ridiculous.” I made sure to
project my voice from under the pillow.
“No more ridiculous than a grown man hiding
under a pillow and acting like a two year old.”
I threw the covers off and shot up to a
sitting position, ignoring the burning pain in my leg. “What the fuck is your
prob…” Holy shit. The woman sitting on the couch looking at the television and
completely ignoring me wasn’t hideous or horrible. In fact, she was fucking
hot. “Who the hell are you?” I knew exactly who she was.
She looked over at me, boredom in her
expression, before returning her attention to the television. “The nurse your
father hired. Who do you think I am?”
“I don’t need a nurse.”
“I agree.” She flipped the channel to a news
program and grimaced. “The way you’re acting, you need a nanny.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I turned so I
could swing my legs over the side of the bed, the brace making my movements
jerky not angry and pronounced like I’d intended.
“It means, you can’t even dress yourself so
how can anyone expect you to do anything?”
I followed her glance down to my lap. “See
something you like?
“Nope. I’m a nurse. I’ve seen worse. Of
course, I’ve seen better too. Much better.” She clicked to another station. I
could have sworn I saw her lip twitch as I growled over her insult.
“Just get out. I don’t need you. Tell my
father to go to hell.”
She tossed the remote control on the coffee
table and checked her watch. “You have ten minutes to get ready for physical
therapy or I’m taking you the way you are.”
I pulled the sheet onto my lap and crossed my
arms over my bare chest. “I already told Amelia, I’m not going.”
“You are going to get dressed.” She stood and
looked me in the eye. “You’re down to nine minutes.”
“And just how do you expect me to get down
all of those stairs?”
“The same way you got up them. Walter showed
me the elevator.”
Damn it. I was hoping she hadn’t found that
yet. “Are you planning to watch?”
“Watch what? There’s nothing to see.” She
dropped her gaze to my lap and gave me a little smile that was way more
taunting than friendly.
“Fine. Suit yourself.” I whipped the sheet
back and reached for my wheelchair. Instead of turning away, she stayed right
where she was with that little smile dancing around on her lips. With about as
much grace as a bull in a china shop, I managed to get from the bed to the
chair while she just stood there and watched.
“I thought you were supposed to be here to
help me.”
“You didn’t say you needed my assistance.”
“Really? I had to ask? Isn’t that what you
are here for?”
“Let’s get something straight, Mr. Reed.” She
put her hands on her hips and glared at me. “I’m a trauma trained RN. I am not
your maid or your gopher or any other thing. It is my job to get you back on
your feet both literally and figuratively. I’ll handle your medical care and
your personal care as needed but I am not at your beck and call.”
“Just get out of my way so I can get
dressed.” I pushed past her to the large walk-in closet and started grabbing
clothes. Dragging a pair of sweats, some boxer briefs and a t-shirt into the
bathroom, I struggled my way into them. The doctors had promised me that things
would get easier once the pain wasn’t so excruciating but my knee just refused
to bend like it used to.
When I was done, I ran a comb through my wild
hair, mostly so I won’t have to see the look on Amelia’s face when we leave the
house.
“Come on, we’re going to be late!” The nurse
called.
“I’m coming already!” I whipped open the
bathroom door and scowled at her. “You never told me your name.”
She shrugged. “You never asked.”
She was fucking infuriating—despite the way
her long brown hair tumbled in sexy waves over her shoulder from the pony tail
it was secured in.
“Fine. What is your name?”
“Evie.”
“What’s your real name?”
“That is my real name.” She stepped behind me
and turned the wheel chair toward the door. She stopped and grabbed a pair of
tennis shoes from the floor, placing them in my lap.
“I meant, is Evie short for something?”
“Yes.” She pushed the chair down the hall
toward the door at the end and pressed the button for the small service
elevator—the number one reason I had chosen the beach house as my home base
after the accident.
“Are you going to tell me what it is?” The
elevator opened and Evie pushed me inside.
“Nope.”
“Why not?”
“It’s none of your business. You can call me
Evie or nurse. That’s all you need to know about me.”
“Anyone ever tell you that you can be a real
bitch?”
“Honey, I grew up in New York. They teach a
class on that in high school.”
The door opened at the ground level. Evie
pushed me out of the elevator and down the ramp Walter had constructed to get
me in and out of the house.
“I’m going out on a limb here but I bet you
aced that class.”
“You’re smarter than you look, Mr. Reed.”
Meet the Author
Carolyn LaRoche
grew up in snow country but fled the cold and ice several years ago. She now
lives near the beach with her husband and their two sons. She’s been known to
lug her laptop to the baseball fields and keeps a notebook by her bed to jot
down the next big story idea in the wee hours of the night.
Author
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