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Chapter One
“HEY ERIN, CAN you step into my office for a minute?” Dr. Austin Taylor’s voice carried down the hall and Erin Johnson leaned back in her chair just in time to see his head stuck out of his office door.
He’ll never learn, will he? She chuckled as she stood and grabbed her notepad and pen sitting beside the intercom. The same intercom connecting the front desk to Austin’s office in the back.
She rushed into Dr. Taylor’s—Austin’s—office. He sat with his back to the door, staring out the window at the cliffs of Laguna Beach and beyond them, the deep blue Pacific Ocean.
“You know, Dr. Taylor, I can show you how to use the intercom, if you’d like. It’s pretty complicated, of course. I mean, you have to remember to push the button before you speak and everything.”
Austin’s chair spun and he turned an easy smile on her. “Very funny. Hilarious. I don’t need that ridiculous thing. It’s not like the office is so big you can’t hear me if I yell.”
She laughed as she slid into the guest chair that flanked his desk. They’d had this same conversation a thousand times. But the exchange just reflected the kind of office Austin ran—
“Erin, how long have you worked here?”
“Five years.” And she had enjoyed every minute of the time working with Austin and the staff. He took a chance on hiring her at a time when she needed a job and it had been the best thing to happen to her.
“Five years. Right. It’s been five years. My name is Austin. Maybe you can say it—Auuuusssstiiiiinnnn.” He motioned with his hands to draw out the sound. “You’ve been to my house and played with my kids. You’re friends with my wife. You can call me Austin.”
“When we’re in the office, it’s Dr. Taylor.” Erin’s parents had raised her to treat others with respect. Austin had worked hard to earn his title of doctor and she was going to use it.
Austin quirked his mouth.
He’d never convince her otherwise. Yet another tired conversation between her and the boss that had been such a good friend to her. Speaking of which. “How is Abby?”
“She’s great. You should call her, go out to lunch. You know she’s always up for a break.”
“I bet those kids are running her ragged. I’ll give her a call. In the meantime, what did you want to talk about?”
“Huh? Oh yeah, right. Would you set up a new patient file, please?”
She flipped back in her notebook to their staff meeting last month. “I thought we weren’t taking any additional patients until the new doctor came on board.”
“We aren’t. This is a friend of mine and I told him I’d squeeze him in. He had an accident on his work site this morning. X-rays are clear but he’s in a lot of pain.”
“You’re such a nice guy.” She’d told him that a lot. He was a nice guy, the kind she hoped to find and marry herself. Someday. But she didn’t expect someday to happen for a long time. She had other plans. Plans she’d delayed for the past ten years but that were finally right in front of her.
She rubbed her thumb across the inside of her left wrist.
“Oh, gosh, don’t let that rumor get around.” Austin laughed. “His name is Jake Cooper.”
“Whose name?” She’d been daydreaming again and lost track of her conversation. Something that happened more often now that her future was about to become her present.
“The new patient.”
“Oh, right. I’m sorry. I guess I was distracted. I’ll take care of that right now.”
“Thanks, Erin.”
She rose from the chair and threw him one last response on the way out the door. “You’re welcome, Dr. Taylor.”
Austin’s laugh followed her back to her desk. As the most sought-after chiropractor in a community where the wealthy residents scheduled adjustments like they scheduled their salon visits—once a week, like clockwork—the office was always hopping.
She was thrilled his practice had taken off, but she also felt guilty. Her resignation letter, still unsigned, burned a hole in the desk drawer. She was waiting for the right time, if there was one, to hand it over.
She was ready for the rest of her life to begin—as far away from here as possible. It wouldn’t be long now. For many, Laguna Beach, California was a piece of heaven on earth. But for her, it was her jail—a place she had been forced to live when bigger and better things loomed over the horizon.
She rubbed the tattoo on her wrist again. The world was at her fingertips. She just had to reach out and grab it. What, then, was holding her back?
She pulled the new patient paperwork from the file cabinets, chuckling about her conversation with Dr. Taylor, err Austin. Despite his jokes, everyone knew he was a nice guy. If he wasn’t seven years older than she was, and if he weren’t happily married with three kids, she might have a crush on him. Let’s be honest—she had a crush on him despite those things. Every girl in the office loved his deep red hair and mischievous green eyes. But he was hopelessly devoted to Abby.
Erin could only hope a man like that was in her future.
