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Chapter 1

Hot and bothered, and not in the good way, Dr En on her father’s ht am sharp, and out of habit, she braced herself to be bombarded

Not that that was going to happen, not here in Mayberry, USA

Excuse her—Wishful, California Nothing so simple as Mayberry Not with the coyotes and bears she knew roamed around the property on a daily basis She heard the coyotes in the earlythe hair on the back of her neck stand straight up Evenher fro her ru, homeless people

She hadn’t actually seen a bear yet, but everyone who caured with her karma, it was only a matter of time Not in a hurry for that, she booted up the coh the hustling, bustling rush of her Manhattan ER, where she literally ran her entire shift; bagging and defibbing, resuscitating, whatever came her ith sometimes little more than caffeine in her system

Yeah, she’d had it all in New York, a proreat shift in one of the best ERs in the country…it didn’t get better than that

But it certainly got worse

A world away from her world, Emma was now on the other side of the country, deep in the California Sierras, pining for Starbucks and Thai take-out Pining for crowds, traffic, and late trains, that’s how ho a erator, her next meal a simple phone call away

No one delivered in Wishful Worse, there was no fast food period, no drive-thrus, nothing unless she wanted to drive the thirty plus miles to South Shore, Lake Tahoe—which er of starving to death

She missed so much about New York, but what sheinvincible and raising Eers to the bone as an RN, had done the unthinkable

She’d died of one of the few things that Emma hadn’t been able to fix—cancer