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"I’ into a tunnel," she said desperately

"There are no tunnels in Lucky Harbor, Grace"

"Then I’ myself under a bus"

"You can run," he said, clearly vastly a She’d been hiding all her life, right in plain sight Pretending to be a Brooks, when the truth was, she wasn’t pedigreed She was mutt She disconnected, tossed her phone to the booth seat, and thunked her head onto the table

"Wow," Ao all the way, don’t you?"

"I’ the tray of cupcakes closer to Grace "I don’t think people go to hell for rand yourself"

Grace thought about how she’d abused herself in the shower just that very hed

Chapter 7

If not for chocolate, there would be no need for control-top hose An entire garment industry would be devastated

Thanks to a crazy ER shift, Josh didn’t get home until 3:00 a about a certain beautiful, y banking-specialist-slash- to her curves and made his heart pound

And thanks to his own stupidity, he could also drealorious hour of sleep before he oken by a puking Anna Not the flu, but a hangover Good tiot to his office, he found he’d been double booked, but that was nothing new either First up was Mrs Dawson, as experiencing hot flashes and other signs of peri in once a week or so for ripes and symptoms At the end of each appointment, she asked hi he never ave her the standard line, she pulled out her phone and showed hi

"Looks like a pretty definiteof church and state," she said

Josh stared at the picture, a little surprised to find that his and Grace’s crazy chemistry had absolutely translated to the screen for the world to see "She’s not my patient"

"She’s an e"

There was no use in getting annoyed that she knew Grace was his dog walker Everyone knew it This was Lucky Harbor, after all He rose, pulled off his gloves, and tossed them into the trash bin "See you next week, Mrs Dawson"

"Humph," Mrs Dawson said

Josh walked to the next patient room and pulled the chart fro with kidney stones Josh entered the rooloves He’d once wondered how loves and figured he didn’t really want to know "How are you doing today, Mr Saunders?"

"Dying"

"Actually, you’re not," Josh said "It’s kidney stones Once you pass them, you’ll feel better"

"You sure?" Mr Saunders asked

"Yes"

"Sure sure?" Mr Saunders asked "Because it doesn’t feel like kidney stones Last night, I felt like I was having the uess I was probably just passing one of the stones, huh?"

Josh had to keep his head buried in the file as he nodded because how the hell do you confuse passing a kidney stone and an orgas him to wonder if everyone was crazy or if it was just hiht off his shoulders, and he knew he couldn’t go on like this He either had to start turning patients away or give up the ER shifts

"It’s a no-brainer," Matt said He’d brought five-inch-thick deli club sandwiches for lunch They were spread out in Josh’s office as the hts on the co in another doc, and all your proble was ever that si about little else forup his dad’s dream, which he hated, but the truth was that Josh couldn’t do the dreaone back to work, Josh brought up the contract offer, which he’d read a hundred tio over it with a fine-tooth comb All he had to do was accept the offer with an electronic signature and hit SEND

His finger hovered over the ENTER key, but then he set his head down on his desk to think about it for ahe knew, Dee, his nurse-practitioner, was calling his naet to nap, so do I" She was in her fifties and resembled Lucy from the Peanuts comic strip She was that perfect h she rarely felt the need to iet your cute ass out here," she said "You’ve got Nancy Kessler in room one with a bladder infection that she wants cleared up before she goes to Vegas this weekend with her new boyfriend Randy Lyons is in rooain And Mrs Munson’s in three, saying the high pollen count is going to kill her dead"

"You take the allergies," he said "I’ll get the other two"

"Three You’ve got thirteen-year-old Ben Seaver in four He stuck his ding-dong into the Jacuzzi vent"

"Christ," Josh ain?"

"Here" Dee handed him her coffee "You probably need it ar and ht He needed it bad

"Your father was never this busy," Dee said

"Because we’ve doubled his practice"

"You doubled his practice," she said, and gave him a rare pat on the arn the da to burn out"

"Okay, then sign the damn contract before I burn out" With that, Dee nabbed back her coffee and left

Josh’s other office staff members consisted of two front office clerks, Michelle and Stacy, and an LPN named Cece An hour later, Michelle poked her head into the exam room "Mrs Porter on line two Needs to see you today Says she’s dying"

Mrs Porter wasn’t dying; she was lonely Her kids lived on the East Coast, so she came in at least once a week for attention Last week she’d had an eye twitch and had self-diagnosed a brain cancer "Tell her we can get her in tomorrow," he said to Michelle

"She says she’ll be dead toht, fine Squeeze her in today, then"

An hour later, the waiting rooave Josh the stink eye when he slipped into his office to take an inco call It was Toby’s school

Toby hadn’t been picked up by Katy, his nanny

Josh i a pissed-off Dee an apologetic wave He got into his car while dialing Katy She was the sister of one of the nurses at the hospital and had cohly recommended Problem was, she was only a temporary fix because, soon as her husband’s transfer ca to Atlanta

Before Katy, they’d had Trina, who’d quit because of co Anna And Suzie, the nanny before Trina, had also left unexpectedly

Josh was sensing a pattern, and he didn’t have time for it

Katy picked up and i on a plane"

Josh let out a breath "No notice?"

"I couldn’t get a hold of you yesterday I talked to Anna"