Can’t Hurry Love, Nadine Millard [10 best novels of all time .TXT] 📗

Beth was doubling up on duties until her friend’s return.

Josh had no idea why he found himself so riveted by the sight of her. It had been that way since he’d first bumped into her at Bella’s Diner. She was beautiful, with her All-American blond curls and big blue eyes. But it was more than that. There was something about her that attracted him more than anyone he’d ever met. Yes, even Elaine.

His only real relationships had been with fellow Harvard med students or girls from the same wealthy, stiff societal background as him.

Beth’s unassuming, guileless zest for life, her pleasure in their simple evening together just talking and walking — no expensive dinners, no flash cars or expectation of Michelin-star restaurants — had been like a breath of fresh air.

Exactly what he’d needed after Chicago. After a lifetime of the same sort of people actually.

What would have happened if Ellen hadn’t called that night? If her request for Josh’s help, Josh’s money, hadn’t brought home to him all the reasons he’d sworn never to get involved again?

He’d ended the call with a promise to pay for yet another stint in rehab, then with a heart feeling heavier than it had since the accident, he’d deleted the draft text message to Beth. Stupid of him to think he’d be able to escape his past.

However, as it turned out, it had been stupider to think he’d be able to forget Beth Carroway in a town as small as Rocky Valley. Or to think that he’d want to.

It hadn’t been fair to her, kissing her again at the wedding. But hell, he wasn’t a saint, and a man could only avoid so much temptation.

As he watched, she reached into the truck bed and hefted out a huge, flat box, staggering a little under the weight of it.

He’d promised himself he’d stay away.

He’d told her he’d stay away.

But he couldn’t in good conscience watch her struggle, could he? That wasn’t gentlemanly at all.

And with that flimsy excuse, he hurried to dress himself.

Chapter Five

“Allow me.”

Beth screeched at the sound of a voice behind her. She couldn’t turn around given the size of the box in her hands, but she didn’t need to. She recognised the timbre of his voice, having become well-acquainted with it in her dreams this past week.

Of course, in her dreams he hadn’t kept kissing her to within an inch of her life and then bailing. Hadn’t kept convincing her to put herself out there and start to hope that something might happen between them, before shooting her down again.

Oh, but her stupid, stupid heart. It just wouldn’t listen when it came to the Adonis-like doctor.

Case in point, it was currently fluttering wildly, and she hadn’t even had to deal with the impact of his ice-blue eyes staring down at her yet.

She needed to get some action. Fast. That must be what was wrong. It wasn’t that Josh Larson was incredible. It was that she hadn’t had a boyfriend in so long.

And then, there he was. Casually stepping around her and plucking the box of brownies and blondies from her hands.

Prepare for impact, Beth warned herself. In three, two, one—

Yep. There it was. That crystal blue gaze that made her feel as if the earth was shifting beneath her feet.

Since Zoe was currently away with Beck and wasn’t available to be the voice of reason, Beth had tried being her own voice of reason since the wedding. And it had worked until this exact moment, the first time she’d seen him since then.

Which meant it hadn’t worked at all.

“It’s fine,” she bit out, albeit it a little wobbly, and reached for the box, but he just held it over his head like it weighed nothing. And since he was easily a foot taller than she, she really had no way of getting it back.

Beth huffed out a sigh of frustration to cover for her reaction and glared up at him.

“What are you doing?” she demanded.

“I’m helping you,” he said with that grin and that dimple. And predictably, her insides turned to mush.

But then she remembered how humiliated she’d felt at Zoe’s wedding and hardened her heart while giving other parts of her anatomy a talking to.

“I don’t need or want your help, Josh. I don’t need or want anything from you.”

Maybe it was the bad lighting of the streetlight overhead, but Beth thought she saw a flash of something like regret in his eyes.

“Beth,” he began, but she didn’t want to hear it. She already felt ridiculous for making such a fuss of one evening — two, now.

And his gentle brush-offs or empty apologies would just embarrass her even more.

“Fine,” she interrupted whatever he was going to say. “You can carry things in for me, but then I have to get working. So—“

“I’ll just help and go,” he assured her, nodding toward the door of the bakery. “I won’t even expect some of that famed Rocky Valley hospitality.”

She rolled her eyes at his sarcasm as she opened the shop and hurried to disarm the alarm.

“What are you doing up this early, anyway?” she asked as she flicked on the lights then led the way to the back kitchen.

Usually, Jenna Wakefield helped her out in the mornings, carrying things and setting up for the day, then staying for the lunchtime rush before taking afternoons off. She worked weekends too, and when tourist season kicked in, she’d be almost fulltime. It suited her since she ran riding lessons on her family ranch and could be pretty flexible. Beth got the impression that working at the bakery gave Jenna a sense of escape from the ranch and her brothers, and Beth could understand that feeling more than most. With Zoe away though, Jenna had taken over running The Book Nook, so Beth had been alone last week and would be until next Saturday. She’d been lugging boxes every morning by herself too and hadn’t been caught before.

“I couldn’t sleep,” Josh answered as he