Rachel Dove - The Long Walk Back

Does everyone deserve a second chance?

As an army trauma surgeon Kate knows how to keep her cool in the most high pressure of situations. Although back at home in England her marriage is falling apart, out in the desert she’s happy knowing that she’s saving lives.

Until she meets Cooper. It’s up to Kate to make a split-second decision to save Cooper’s life. Yet Cooper doesn’t want to be saved. Kate’s determined to convince him to give his life a second chance even though its turning out dramatically different from how he thought. Along the way, can he convince Kate to give love a second chance too?

Also from Rachel Dove

The Chic Boutique on Baker Street

The Flower Shop on Foxley Street

The Long Walk Back

Rachel Dove

ONE PLACE. MANY STORIES

Contents

Cover

Blurb Does everyone deserve a second chance? As an army trauma surgeon Kate knows how to keep her cool in the most high pressure of situations. Although back at home in England her marriage is falling apart, out in the desert she’s happy knowing that she’s saving lives. Until she meets Cooper. It’s up to Kate to make a split-second decision to save Cooper’s life. Yet Cooper doesn’t want to be saved. Kate’s determined to convince him to give his life a second chance even though its turning out dramatically different from how he thought. Along the way, can he convince Kate to give love a second chance too?

Title Page The Long Walk Back Rachel Dove ONE PLACE. MANY STORIES

Author Bio RACHEL DOVE is a mum of two from Yorkshire and a post 16 teacher specialising in early years education and SEN and Autism. She has always loved writing, has had previous success as a self-published author, and is the author of The Chic Boutique on Baker Street and The Flower Shop on Foxley Street . Rachel is the winner of the Mills & Boon Prima Flirty Fiction competition. She is the winner of the 2016 Writers Bureau Writer of the Year award and has had short stories published in the UK and overseas. She is currently working on her sixth book, and can often be found glued to a keyboard. She is currently undertaking an MA in Creative Writing and if not writing or working from home, she can be found walking the dog or hanging out with her family. She may have a slight addiction to Pickled Onion Monster Munch, but she will deny it when asked.

Acknowledgements Acknowledgements First of all, big thanks as always to my lovely editor Anna Baggaley, who listened to my rambling pitch for this book in a busy London wine bar, and backed me in writing it and bringing it out into the world. This book was one I wanted to write for a while, and thanks to you and HQ/Harper Collins, it’s finally here. Also thanks to my physiotherapist Matt, from The Sandal Clinic in Wakefield, who not only fixed my tricky back, but answered my many questions and gave me pointers on sources for the medical parts of this book. Thanks also to the British Army and Help for Heroes for their information, and their service. A huge helping of gratitude as always to my lovely family of authors, readers and bloggers, who spur me on and inspire me every day. There are too many of you to list, but a big mwah to you all. I love to hear from readers, and I hear such lovely comments. Thank you. Lastly, as always a massive thank you to my family, especially my husband Peter and our sons Jayden and Nathan. Thank you for putting up with the piles of clean washing everywhere and takeaway food while I tapped away on my laptop for so many hours. I love you all. Miss you Max.

Dedication To my husband Peter, who never reads my books, but inspires them anyway. Thank you for putting up with me.

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Epilogue

Endpages

Copyright

RACHEL DOVE

is a mum of two from Yorkshire and a post 16 teacher specialising in early years education and SEN and Autism.

She has always loved writing, has had previous success as a self-published author, and is the author of The Chic Boutique on Baker Street and The Flower Shop on Foxley Street . Rachel is the winner of the Mills & Boon Prima Flirty Fiction competition.

She is the winner of the 2016 Writers Bureau Writer of the Year award and has had short stories published in the UK and overseas. She is currently working on her sixth book, and can often be found glued to a keyboard.

She is currently undertaking an MA in Creative Writing and if not writing or working from home, she can be found walking the dog or hanging out with her family. She may have a slight addiction to Pickled Onion Monster Munch, but she will deny it when asked.

Acknowledgements

First of all, big thanks as always to my lovely editor Anna Baggaley, who listened to my rambling pitch for this book in a busy London wine bar, and backed me in writing it and bringing it out into the world. This book was one I wanted to write for a while, and thanks to you and HQ/Harper Collins, it’s finally here.

Also thanks to my physiotherapist Matt, from The Sandal Clinic in Wakefield, who not only fixed my tricky back, but answered my many questions and gave me pointers on sources for the medical parts of this book. Thanks also to the British Army and Help for Heroes for their information, and their service.

A huge helping of gratitude as always to my lovely family of authors, readers and bloggers, who spur me on and inspire me every day. There are too many of you to list, but a big mwah to you all. I love to hear from readers, and I hear such lovely comments. Thank you.

Lastly, as always a massive thank you to my family, especially my husband Peter and our sons Jayden and Nathan. Thank you for putting up with the piles of clean washing everywhere and takeaway food while I tapped away on my laptop for so many hours. I love you all. Miss you Max.

To my husband Peter, who never reads my books, but inspires them anyway.

Thank you for putting up with me.

PROLOGUE

That day. The day I learned an answer to one of mankind’s big questions: what do you see when your body is at the point of death? Not your average day. An average day is going to work, coming home, parking your fat arse on the couch in front of the TV, a takeaway perched on your knee while you piss and moan to yourself about how skint you are, how the country is going to the dogs, how much you hate your job. That is an average day, one that blends into countless others through the years, till you wake up in your fifties, bored, bald and fat, wondering at what point the dreams of your younger self went down the toilet. That was never going to be me, and my choices in life led me to this day, what looked like my last day. Karma is a bitch, I hear you on that one.

An hour earlier, I was doing a routine sweep of the area with my unit. Of my thirty-one years on the earth, I had spent fifteen of them in the army. We were out in Iraq, pushing back the terrorists that threatened the small villages we were camped near to. Many of the villagers wanted us here, and the tensions were rising.