Feels Like Home: A Southerland Family Contemporary Romance Book 1 by Evelyn Adams Read Free Book Online

take the rest of
the papers without ever looking him in the eye.
    Perfect. Just perfect.
    Now she’d think he was a stalking sexual
harasser. His day could not get any better.
     
    Working for Jude was the last thing she
expected. But it turned out she liked filing patient records and
organizing insurance claims.
    The work was a balm for her wounded spirit,
too. Instead of moving money around on a computer screen, she
soothed sick children and cooed with new mothers over their
babies.
    She wasn’t a nurse so she couldn’t do much
more than show patients into examining rooms, but it was real work.
Something tangible that made a difference in people’s lives. She
liked the office work, too. She could tell Nancy had done a good
job setting things up, but left to their own devices, Jude and
Kristen had made a mess of things.
    It hadn’t taken long for Autumn to straighten
things out. Kristen’s gratitude endeared her even more to Autumn,
who had grown to really like the younger woman. Over lunches and
breaks they’d managed the start of a tentative friendship. Like
everyone who’d grown up in town, there were a million ways they
were connected, but mostly they bonded over the satisfaction of a
meaningful job done well.
    She was even getting used to seeing Jude
every day. After the collision and the first awkward afternoon when
he’d come back from lunch to find her working in his office, things
between them had been civil. He never mentioned standing outside
her window, and he was flawlessly polite to her.
    If the heat still sparked between them, she
could learn to ignore it, even if she didn’t think she’d ever get
used to it. He was her boss – at least temporarily – and she didn’t
date co-workers. Not that he’d asked her.
    He wouldn’t ask her. He was a Southerland.
They were adults now, not kids in high school, but in some ways
that made the divide even bigger. His family was one of the most
respected in the town; hers was a disaster. He needed a wife who
could mix with the Ladies Auxiliary and host luncheons for the
Daughters of the Confederacy. Her pedigree would never hold up to
that kind of scrutiny. Hell, she didn’t even know her own father,
let alone the rest of her family tree.
    It was better that way. The last thing she
needed was to get mixed up with Jude Southerland. She’d had more
important things to concentrate on than her love life or lack of
one.
    Now that she knew not to expect anything else
– like an indictment – from her old job, she wanted a chance to
build a life for herself and for Summer and Abby. She’d already
started repainting Gran’s house. She told herself that freshening
the place up was a good idea even if she didn’t stay in town.
    The truth was she wanted to stay.
    She liked it. She knew almost everyone and if
some of the older ladies still looked at her like one of those
unfortunate Maddox children, more of them, like Mrs. Mayhew, were
willing to give her the benefit of the doubt because of her Gran.
The longer she stayed in town the better it was bound to get.
    She’d paint her house, convince Summer to
leave Dwayne and come live with her, and she’d stop thinking about
Jude.
    As if called by the devil, the door opened
and he poked his head into the office. “There’s a patient out here
I could use some help with.” His grin told her there was nothing to
worry about.
    She followed him down the hallway and into
one of the examination rooms. Summer sat in the molded plastic
patient’s chair with Abby nestled on her lap.
    “ Hey Abracadabra, what’s
going on?”
    The little girl gave her a watery smile. She
managed a breathy “hi” before she started to cough. Summer held her
tighter and Autumn looked at Jude, wanting reassurance that it was
nothing more serious than a cold.
    “ Let me guess,” he said,
sitting on the black vinyl rolling stool universally reserved for
doctors. “You’re here for a stomach ache.”
    The little girl shook her head.
    “