The Professor's Defender

Chapter 1

"It was fun while it lasted."

"And I take it's now over?"

Chantale nodded, though she didn't look into her sister's eyes.

Jocelyne let out a little sigh. "Chantale, it was the longest relationship you've ever had." She put down her mug of tea with honey and scrutinized her sister. "What really happened?"

Chantale had sworn she wasn't going to cry, so she blinked several times. "I think he just got tired of me."

Jocelyne made a sound of disgust. "You do realize that I am going to have to kill him. Or better, I'll sic Seth on him."

A ghost of a smile passed across Chantale's lips as she enjoyed the image of Jocelyne's husband causing bodily harm to Colton, her now ex-boyfriend. Of course she would never sanction such actions, but it was tempting. Colton had a few inches over Seth who himself was six feet, but Seth could be scrappier. Of course the entire scenario was academic. Both men were members of the venerable RCMP and would be risking suspension if they fought. That, and the fact that they were good friends, precluded any fighting over Chantale's honour.

"Seth is a little busy building that house he's promised you."

Jocelyne's hand pressed to her still-flat belly. "It's a good thing his brother Ray is running the construction, otherwise we might be living in that tiny cabin with a little one. I honestly hadn't thought we would get pregnant so quickly."

Chantale's brow quirked. "You're a doctor and you're going to tell me you are in need of sex-ed classes?"

As she had hoped, a faint blush crossed her sister's cheeks. "No, I understand how babies are made. It's just we'd only been trying for two months."

"Sometimes good things happen to good people." She was referring to her sister's brush with the law. Jocelyne had been arrested and had fled, seeking refuge thousands of miles from Chantale. In the end, she had been discovered and brought back to their home in Montréal, Québec to face the charge of manslaughter. As a lawyer, Chantale had fought like a dog to get her sister exonerated. In the end, the prosecutor had decided that charging a doctor with doctor assisted suicide and getting a conviction would be tough.

Jocelyne had been freed and decided to come back to where she had been hiding and seek out the man she had fallen in love with. Of course Jocelyne hadn't been willing to admit she was in love with Seth and he had been equally obstinate. In the end, it had been up to Chantale and Colton to force Jocelyne and Seth together. It had worked and the wedding had soon followed.

Somehow, during all the machinations, Chantale and Colton had hooked-up. Then the hook-up and developed into dating. Then, when Chantale had believed Colton on the verge of asking her to move in with him, he had dumped her. She'd been blindsided.

She felt Jocelyne's hand clasp hers.

"I'm okay," she said, finally meeting her sister's disbelieving eyes. "Or I will be. I'm planning to install a dartboard in my office and hang his picture in the centre."

Jocelyne laughed. "That's my baby sister, finding a way to plot revenge."

Chantale shook her head. "Not revenge. He's not worthy of my time to plot out revenge. I'll just move on to bigger and better things."

"Like your boss?"

Her jaw nearly dropped. "You see me with Bennett MacDougal? Are you nuts?"