Then There Was You (Excerpt)

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Dr. Serafina Langdon stood in the Angel Falls Community Hospital ER before the door to exam room three, squeezing her eyes shut, struggling to be a better person. Clearly a higher power was telling her she'd made the wrong decision, returning to her hometown of Angel Falls, Ohio. Because the name on the sheet of paper in her hand said that the patient occupying the room in front of her was Colton Bentley Walker.

Not him. Anyone but him. She'd hoped to ease back into town, get herself established, and then confront—on her own terms—the man who'd helped ruin her engagement a year ago. Who'd been a burr in her side for years—since she was fourteen, really. She'd known this day would come; she just hadn't expected it during her first ER shift.

Sara sucked in a deep breath. She could handle this. She reminded herself again of the reason she'd returned to this sleepy small town to join her dad's medical practice after her high-powered Ivy League training at Columbia. Her sweet, precious grandmother had recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, and Sara wanted to do all she could to help the woman who'd been her rock, her support, her unwavering cheerleader her whole life. She could face the demons of the past for Nonna's sake.

Sara opened her eyes. Slid the sheet of paper back into the metal pocket on the wall. She couldn't do it. Not today, and maybe not ever. She turned on the soles of her Dansko clogs and walked at a fast clip back to the nurses' station.

The ER was just as white bright at two on a Saturday morning as it was at high noon. And just as busy. Even the administrative assistant was on the phone. Sara peeked around the corner to find the doc she was sharing this shift with. Sara was a primary care doctor, but in a town as small as Angel Falls, the primary care docs worked alongside the ER docs to help staff the ER. Brian Graves, a guy from the next town over whom she knew from residency, was her partner this shift. He had one claim to fame: he'd bedded more women than an eighties rock star.

She hated to approach him, but what was worse? Asking a favor of a guy who wanted to get her in the sack or inflicting irreversible pain and suffering on the man she blamed for ruining her chance at happily ever after?

An unwanted flash of herself in her mother's wedding gown passed before her, pivoting slowly in front of the big mirror at Katie O'Hara's bridal shop, while her sisters and her grandmother and her stepmother oohed and aahed. Sorrow over the future that had come crashing down around her stabbed her in the gut, as it tended to do at the worst times. She didn't want to be reminded of all that pain, and she could not see Colton without wanting to kill him. All righty then. Brian it was.

She found Brian sauntering down the hall to an exam room, eyeing the butt of a nurse as she made the usual two a.m. pot of coffee.

"Trade me a patient?" Sara asked.

He reached out and took the electronic tablet she carried in her hand. "Oh, Chief Walker." He looked from the tablet to her. "You running away from the law or something?"

He chuckled at his own joke and trained his baby blues on her. Many women found them mesmerizing, but she was definitely immune to his slithery brand of charm.

Brian handed her back the tablet, but when she made to take it, he continued to hold on. "Can't do it. Sorry. Although it's an easy case, not sure why you're worried. A few stitches and a tetanus shot and you're done. Unless you're afraid you'll fall for the cop. You'd be better off with a hot doc like me. I love danger too, by the way, if that's what you're looking for."

She rolled her eyes. "I know it's an easy case, and I do not have a thing for him. What are you working on?"

"Potential cardiac arrest. Or maybe the guy just has bad heartburn from eating at that new Mexican place off Route 44. I already saw him and ordered tests, or I'd trade. Next time I'd be happy to accommodate." He let his gaze drag up and down, as if she were wearing a boob-uplifting cocktail dress instead of blue scrubs, a white coat, and a stethoscope adorned with a little fuzzy koala bear. Her best friend Kaitlyn had given her the koala as a welcome-home gift, so that the kids Sara saw wouldn't be so afraid.