Melinda Curtis - Kissed By The Country Doc

She came to sell a town...

But she found a home

Never in her wildest dreams could single mom Ella Monroe imagine co-inheriting the small town of Second Chance, Idaho—or falling for its curmudgeonly doctor, Noah Bishop. Despite his rough edges and protests for isolation, Noah has her believing in love at first sight again. But when she’s pressured to sell her stake, Ella is torn between family loyalty and following her heart.

Prior to writing romance, award-winning USA TODAY bestseller MELINDA CURTISwas a junior manager for a Fortune 500 company, which meant when she flew on the private jet, she was relegated to the jump seat. After grabbing her pen (and a parachute), she made the leap to full-time writer. Between writing clean romance for Mills & Boon and indie-pubbed romantic comedy, Melinda recently came to grips with the fact that she’s an empty nester and a grandma. Brenda Novak says Melinda’s book Season of Change “found a place on my keeper shelf.”

Also by Melinda Curtis

Dandelion WishesSummer KissesSeason of ChangeA Perfect YearTime for LoveA Memory AwayMarrying the Single DadLove, Special DeliverySupport Your Local SheriffMarrying the Wedding Crasher

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk

Kissed by the Country Doc

Melinda Curtis

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-09100-8

KISSED BY THE COUNTRY DOC

© 2019 Melinda Wooten

Published in Great Britain 2019

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

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www.millsandboon.co.uk

Version: 2020-03-02

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Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

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

Extract

About the Publisher

PROLOGUE

THERE WERE DAYS when Ella Bowman Monroe felt like life couldn’t get any better—when her house was clean, when her little girl was clean and when she was surrounded by her large family of boisterous in-laws. On those days, this orphaned widow felt like singing as loudly as Grandpa Monroe.

Today wasn’t shaping up to be a singing kind of day.

Chalk it up to her grandfather-in-law’s funeral on this snowy January afternoon, the reading of his will and the Spanx she’d wiggled into that were so tight every breath was a struggle.

“Mom,” two-year-old Penny whispered from her lap. “I go.” And her daughter didn’t mean she wanted to leave. The ripe smell of dirty diaper mushroomed around them in the dining room of the Monroe Philadelphia compound like an alien force field.

To Ella’s right, her husband’s cousin Sophie spared Penny a glance and a nose tweak. “No more artichoke quiche for you.”

To Ella’s left, Sophie’s twin brother, Shane, waved a hand in front of his nose. “Penny la Pew.”

Penny giggled and grinned, glorying in their attention. “Kiss,” she whispered, leaning to kiss first Sophie and then Shane, and then twisting to kiss Ella.

The smiles, teasing and kisses would have been normal—so very normal—except for the elderly lawyer wheezing through the legalese of the will and the black-clad Monroes ringing the formal dining-room table. They nodded at appropriate wheezes as if well-versed in legalese.

Near the head of the table, Ian Monroe, Ella’s father-in-law, turned his somber face her way, his expression one of reluctant farewell.

Because his father just died.

No. That wasn’t grief.

Ella had been on the receiving end of reluctant farewells before, most notably when she’d been transitioned out of one foster home and into another, repeatedly. Ian’s expression wasn’t rooted in grief. It was rooted in regret. The remorse of goodbye. She was suddenly certain of it. It made little sense—why now?—but she couldn’t see past Ian’s regret or her fear.

The Monroes were the only family she had. The only family Penny had. This couldn’t be goodbye.

Don’t panic. Don’t pass out. Breathe.

Ella breathed deeply, despite the Spanx.

And then nearly gagged.

She’d inhaled too much eau de poopy pants.

Thankfully, the elderly lawyer with the rasping voice finished reading the first part of Grandpa Harlan’s will and signaled a break. Ella carried Penny out of the lavishly decorated dining room and toward the bathroom down the hall, fighting the feeling that she was about to be excommunicated.

Two years ago, Ella had been an interloper in Ian’s eyes, a woman who’d “trapped” his son, Bryce, into marriage by becoming pregnant a month after their first date. The Monroes were old money, old traditions, old school. In the Monroe world, nobody fell in love at first sight. You dated. You were vetted by the family and a private investigator. And after several years, you had a lavish wedding ceremony at the country club.

But she and Bryce had tumbled into love at a charity ball. He’d swerved to avoid a passing waiter, bumped Ella, knocked her off her feet and into the shrubbery. She’d laughed—because what else could she do in her rented designer dress? He’d hurried to set down his drink and before he even reached to pull her up, their gazes collided and it was... love . It had hummed in her veins. He’d felt it, too. They’d both froze. They’d both laughed. And then Bryce had helped Ella out of the shrubbery and never let go.