Winning the Doctor by Harmony Evans

Author:Harmony Evans
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2016-08-15T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

The delicious smells emanating from Ruby’s Tasty Pastries, Bay Point’s most popular gourmet coffee shop and bakery, should have been illegal. Liza couldn’t walk within one hundred feet without gaining at least five pounds, or at least it seemed like it.

Every time she left with her stomach full of delicious treats, she felt like she had to run a half marathon. But she always came back for more.

Today was Tuesday, and it was as good a day as any to indulge in her favorite no-no: chocolate croissants. Plus, it was her first official day of working with Anthony, and she needed to be appropriately sugared up for the task.

Liza scored a table next to the open windows. An unexpected bonus, considering the place was packed.

Ruby approached. With her thin figure, short jet-black hair, sienna-colored skin and somewhat pointy ears, she reminded Liza of a ’70s television actress.

“I’m going to make you pay for the next scale I break,” she joked. “How do you stay so slim?”

“I stick to nibbles and licks,” Ruby advised.

She set a plate of pastries Liza had ordered at the counter down in front of her. She picked up one of the croissants, her mouth salivating.

“I don’t know how you restrain yourself.”

Ruby laughed and removed a steaming cup of café au lait from her tray. “Not my pastries, silly. I was referring to my husband. He’s all I need to satisfy my sweet tooth.”

Liza giggled. “You’re a blessed woman.”

Ruby and her husband lived in the apartment above her shop. She’d never met the man, but she heard he was some kind of salesman and that he traveled. A lot. When he got home rumor had it that you could hear the couple’s exultant lovemaking sessions all the way down Magnolia Avenue.

When Ruby left, Liza took one bite of her chocolate croissant and moaned with delight.

Food often had a calming kind of effect on her, especially when she was stressed. Since her mother passed, she’d gained a little weight that she’d put off losing for months.

Liza felt safer with a little bit of padding, the slight rounding of her curves that caused some men to stare, others to turn away. But she didn’t mind. Her weight protected her from men who, in their hearts, wanted perfection.

She sipped her café au lait, and then took another bite out of her croissant. Today was going to be a good day. The faint smell of salt water, always prevalent in the air, floated into her nostrils, and she thought about the beach, and the last time she saw Anthony.

The contract to design his cosmetic surgery clinic was hers, and with one last passionate kiss, they’d agreed that their relationship was at a stalemate, and would remain that way, as long as they were business partners.

Liza wasn’t happy with their mutual decision, and yet, somehow she knew it just had to be this way.

She put her elbow on the table, splayed her fingers on her cheek and rested the curve of her jaw against the palm of her hand, hiding her scar once more.

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