All She Never Wanted
By
Carolyn LaRoche
Author
Bio:
Carolyn LaRoche grew up in snow country but
fled the cold and ice several years ago. She now lives near the beach with her
husband, their two boys and one sweet kitty. When she is not at the baseball
field cheering on big hits and home runs, she is busy teaching science to
unwilling teenagers.
Social
Media Links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorCarolynLaRoche
Goodreads
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7734909.Carolyn_LaRoche
Twitter: @CarolynLaRoche
Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Carolyn-LaRoche/e/B005OKHIDI
Blurb:
One moment changed everything…
Evie Ward had everything she’d ever dreamed
of. An action-packed job where no two shifts were ever the same, the best
friend a girl could ever want, and a fairy tale wedding just days away. Her
life was absolutely perfect. Until one bullet—one horrible choice—left her with
a broken heart and shattered dreams. Fleeing the city she loved and a lifetime
of memories, Evie took a job in the Outer Banks of North Carolina in the hopes
that the ocean air and fresh beaches could somehow restore her soul. Falling in
love again wasn’t part of the plan.
Landon Reed was on top of the world. The
money, the women, the status—he had it all until one bad decision nearly cost
him his life. His father gave him three months to get his act together or be
cut off from the family fortune and business. No house, no job and no money.
His will and his patience are tested further when his father hires a nurse to
whip him into shape. She may be little but she's mean and it looks like Landon
has finally met his match.
With her shattered heart and his broken
spirit, the road to recovery will be long. Can they help each other heal or
will their fractured pasts be too much to overcome?
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Excerpt:
“Good morning, Landon!” Amelia hummed a
little tune quietly as she set up the bedside table. “It’s a beautiful day,
today. Perhaps you’d like to go down to the beach after your physical therapy
appointment?”
I pulled the covers over my head. “I
changed my mind. I’m not going to any appointment.”
“Come on, Landon. You can’t spend the rest
of your life sitting here in this room.”
“Yes, I can.”
“You are going to physical therapy.” The
covers disappeared from my face as I looked up into the smiling grey eyes of
Amelia. “Rise and shine!”
“I’m not getting up.” I buried my head
under my pillow.
Amelia walked toward the door. “Maybe
you’ll have better luck with him.”
“Good morning, Mr. Reed. Do you plan to
stay in bed all day?” A different voice, one thick with the distinctive accent
of New York City replaced Amelia’s soft southern sound.
“What’s it to you?”
“Well, it’s all the same to me if you want
to rot away in that bed. I get paid either way.” I heard soft footsteps cross
the room toward the little sitting area.
Rolling over on my side, I shifted the
pillow enough to peek out. From my vantage point, all I could see was a pair of
canvas shoes. The television turned on. I heard her flip through channels,
finally settling on that home improvement show with the twin brothers. Every
woman I knew loved them.
“Nobody watches those stupid shows
anymore.”
Either she didn’t hear me or she was
ignoring me.
“Those shows are ridiculous.” I made sure
to project my voice from under the pillow.
“No more ridiculous than a grown man
hiding under a pillow and acting like a two-year-old.”
I threw the covers off and shot up to a
sitting position, ignoring the burning pain in my leg. “What the fuck is your
prob…” Holy shit. The woman sitting
on the couch looking at the television and completely ignoring me wasn’t
hideous or horrible. In fact, she was fucking hot. “Who the hell are you?” I knew exactly who she was.
She looked over at me, boredom in her
expression, before returning her attention to the television. “The nurse your
father hired. Who do you think I am?”
“I don’t need a nurse.”
“I agree.” She flipped the channel to a
news program and grimaced. “The way you’re acting, you need a nanny.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I turned
so I could swing my legs over the side of the bed, my knee making my movements
jerky not angry and pronounced like I’d intended.
“It means, you can’t even dress yourself
so how can anyone expect you to do anything?”
I followed her glance down to my lap. “See
something you like?
“Nope. I’m a nurse. I’ve seen worse. Of
course, I’ve seen better too. Much better.” She clicked to another station. I
could have sworn I saw her lip twitch as I growled over her insult.
“Just get out. I don’t need you. Tell my
father to go to hell.”
She tossed the remote control on the
coffee table and checked her watch. “You have ten minutes to get ready for
physical therapy or I’m taking you the way you are.”
I pulled the sheet onto my lap and crossed
my arms over my bare chest. “I already told Amelia, I’m not going.”
“You are
going to get dressed.” She stood and looked me in the eye. “You’re down to nine
minutes.”
“And just how do you expect me to get down
all of those stairs?”
“The same way you got up them. Walter
showed me the elevator.”
Damn it. I was hoping she hadn’t found
that yet. “Are you planning to watch?”
“Watch what? There’s nothing to see.” She
dropped her gaze to my lap and gave me a little smile that was way more
taunting than friendly.
“Fine. Suit yourself.” I whipped the sheet
back and reached for my wheelchair. Instead of turning away, she stayed right
where she was with that little smile dancing around on her lips. With about as
much grace as a bull in a china shop, I managed to get from the bed to the
chair while she just stood there and watched.
“I thought you were supposed to be here to
help me.”
“You didn’t say you needed my assistance.”
“Really? I had to ask? Isn’t that what you are here for?”
“Let’s get something straight, Mr. Reed.” She put her hands on her hips
and glared at me. “I’m a trauma trained RN. I am not your maid or your gopher
or any other thing. It is my job to get you back on your feet both literally
and figuratively. I’ll handle your medical care and your personal care as
needed but I am not at your beck and call.”
“Just get out of my way so I can get
dressed.” I pushed past her to the large walk-in closet and started grabbing
clothes. Dragging a pair of sweats, some boxer briefs and a t-shirt into the
bathroom, I struggled my way into them. The doctors had promised me that things
would get easier once the pain wasn’t so excruciating but my knee just refused
to bend like it used to.
When I was done, I ran a comb through my
wild hair, mostly so I won’t have to see the look on Amelia’s face when we
leave the house.
“Come on, we’re going to be late!” The
nurse called.
“I’m coming already!” I whipped open the
bathroom door and scowled at her. “You never told me your name.”
She shrugged. “You never asked.”
She was fucking infuriating—despite the
way her long brown hair tumbled in sexy waves over her shoulder from the pony
tail it was secured in.
“Fine. What is your name?”
“Evie.”
“What’s your real name?”
“That is
my real name.” She stepped behind me and turned the wheel chair toward the
door. She stopped and grabbed a pair of tennis shoes from the floor, placing
them in my lap.
“I meant, is Evie short for something?”
“Yes.” She pushed the chair down the hall
toward the door at the end and pressed the button for the small service
elevator—the number one reason I had chosen the beach house as my home base
after the accident.
“Are you going to tell me what it is?” The
elevator opened and Evie pushed me inside.
“Nope.”
“Why not?”
“It’s none of your business. You can call
me Evie or nurse. That’s all you need to know about me.”
“Anyone ever tell you that you can be a
real bitch?”
“Honey, I grew up in New York. They teach
a class on that in high school.”
The door opened at the ground level. Evie
pushed me out of the elevator and down the ramp Walter had constructed to get
me in and out of the house.
“I’m going out on a limb here but I bet
you aced that class.”
“You’re smarter than you look, Mr. Reed.”
Russell Nohelty is a writer, publisher, and
speaker. He runs Wannabe Press, which publishes weird books for weird people,
and hosts The Business of Art podcast, which helps creatives build better
businesses. 
