even told them about his dream of a different career.
He let out a heavy breath. Okay, he’d work on that and come up with something. Maybe he’d even be able to convince his dad to go back to being Mr. Commitment, too. One more reason to take him up on the deal.
True, Connor would have to put up with Sunny’s hokey massage business and yoga. He could take that for three months, couldn’t he?
Maybe as his working partner. But as a sexy, tempting woman he’d have to keep his hands off of? He swallowed. Suddenly, three months seemed like a lifetime.
He ignored that thought. “You’ve got yourself a deal.”
His dad smiled. “I knew you’d see reason. I promise you won’t regret your decision. Sunny is a wonderful, charming woman who will be a terrific addition to this office.” He moved toward the door. “Junie tells me you don’t have another patient for over an hour. Instead of stuffing your nose in some medical journal, why don’t you go find Sunny and give her the good news?” He waved, plopped his hat on his head and walked out.
Connor stared at the door and then rubbed his neck, trying to relieve the perpetual crick there. Suddenly, a massage by the delectable Miss Sunshine sounded pretty good.
He swung around, tightening his jaw. She was getting to him already.
Too bad. He’d agreed to the deal. He’d just have to be sure to stick to his vow to keep his thoughts where they belonged—anywhere but on beautiful Sunny Williams. He wasn’t going to be tempted into certain romantic failure again.
Get real, Forbes. He had a bad feeling that keeping his mind off of brown-eyed Sunny wasn’t going to be easy. She turned him on in a major way and seemed pretty nice, too, even when she was spitting fire.
Damn, he hoped he wouldn’t regret agreeing to his dad’s harebrained deal.
Sunny sat on a quaint, wrought-iron bench in the park, waiting for Rufus to come back with the tennis ball she’d thrown. She was determined to chill out and enjoy the sunny, peaceful morning and picturesque, grassy little park, located on the edge of town, while she figured out what to do next. Jenny had left to pick up her daughter at her parents’ house with a promise not to talk to her dad, leaving Sunny alone with her thoughts.
Despite her efforts to calm down and simply enjoy her surroundings, frustratingly dire thoughts—centering around one stubborn, irritating doctor—swamped her.
After so many business and romantic flops, she’d been so excited about moving here, making a new start and proving to herself that she wasn’t a total failure. This might be her last chance to fulfill her pact with Robbie and secure the commitment they’d craved as footloose best friends being raised in a commune.
Commitment. Inevitably, her thoughts swung to her parents. Sunny had always felt vulnerable since her parents had never married, worried that they didn’t love each other enough to make it official, that they would split up. It hadn’t helped that they had separated three times during her childhood. Even though she’d never suspected her parents had been unfaithful, because of their upsetting separations, when she was ten, she swore that she would eventually find a good man, fall in love and commit, creating the rooted environment that had always been missing in her life.
That vow had been cemented in stone when she and Robbie had made their promise to marry each other, fueled by her need for security and stability, for a comforting anchor, a need that lived on inside of her to this day.
Consequently, she’d been thrilled when the elder Dr. Forbes had made her the offer to come to Oak Valley. Build a new business. Find the ideal, steadfast man to commit to, fulfill the pact and, hopefully, heal the wound Robbie had created by marrying someone else. Create a secure, small-town life. It all had seemed so wonderfully picture-perfect.
Until this morning. Until Connor Forbes had entered the picture and put an ugly blotch on what was to have been her perfect life.
Rufus brought the ball back, wagging his spotted tail. He dropped it and she threw it again. He ran off, chasing the thing down. The goofy dog would play this game forever if she let him.
Her thoughts careened back to her problems. So, she’d run into one big, handsome, annoying roadblock. How could she prove to him that what she did had worth—admittedly not as a total replacement for his brand of traditional medicine, but as a complement? She’d always subscribed to the notion, Heal the Heart, Heal the Body,” believing that maintaining and encouraging a peaceful inner self would help foster a healthy outer self, the body. How in the world was she going to convince Connor to reconsider, to give her methods a chance to fill in the blanks his methods often left?
Before she could answer her own question, a male voice spoke from behind her. “Your dog’s a horse.”
Her tummy flip-flopped. Taking a deep breath, she turned and saw Connor standing in back of her, his bulging arms folded across his broad chest. His dark hair glinted in the sun like warm chocolate and his green eyes looked like dark emeralds. A ripple of feminine awareness skated up her spine. Why did he look so darned good, his masculine appeal so blatantly obvious?
Cutting off her mental list of his positive traits, she forced herself to remember how he’d heartlessly cut her loose. Her hands clenched, she turned back and watched Rufus bound clumsily back with his beloved tennis ball in his mouth. “Great Dane. Definitely a dog.”
Rufus spotted Connor and immediately dropped the ball, woofed and ran over to him, his tail swinging back and forth like a giant whip.
Obviously unintimidated by Rufus’s size, Connor smiled and said, “Hey, big guy,” holding out his hand so Rufus could sniff it. Then Connor began to gently pet the big lug. Rufus whined, then proceeded to lie down and roll onto his back. Connor obliged him and squatted and rubbed the dog’s good-sized belly, grudgingly scoring major points in Sunny’s book.
Connor looked up and smiled. “He’s just a big baby, isn’t he?”
She nodded, chuckling despite her negative mood. “You’ve got that right. He’s huge, but doesn’t have a mean bone in his body. Right, Rufus?”
Rufus didn’t acknowledge her, just lay there, his legs splayed, soaking up his first tummy rub of the day. Connor undoubtedly had no idea that he’d made a friend for life. Rufus wasn’t nearly picky enough about whom he associated with.
A long silence stretched out, and Sunny’s curiosity got the best of her. “So, why are you here? You made it pretty clear you wanted nothing to do with me. Need another glass of juice spilled on you?”
Connor rose and ran a hand through his hair. He moved toward her, what looked like forced contrition showing in his eyes. “Sorry about what I said. I don’t always express myself very well.”
She hoisted up a brow. “Oh, I think you got your point across pretty well.”
He sat down next to her and his soapy, male scent washed over her, raising her awareness level a notch.
“My whole family tells me I’m tactless,” he said, seemingly without regret. “I prefer to call it being refreshingly direct.”
She pulled in her chin and said, “Refreshing?” She laughed under her breath and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, right. That’s a good one.”
“Why don’t you tell me how
