Her Summer with the Marine: A Donovan Brothers Novel (Entangled Bliss) by Susan Meier Read Free Book Online Page B

can we give them to everybody?”
    Her first thought was O’Riley’s grocery store, but that wouldn’t work. Half of Harmony Hills didn’t shop at O’Riley’s. Ever since Richard Hyatt, Finn’s maternal grandfather, won the grocery store from Sean O’Riley in a poker game, O’Riley friends and family wouldn’t even walk on the same side of the street with Conrad Hyatt. Finn’s family had avoided the backlash from that just by being Donovans. Jeb Donovan’s perfect little unit…
    Which Finn had told her wasn’t so perfect.
    She shook her head to clear it. That was irrelevant…and a lie. Told by a seventeen-year-old kid who’d used sex to psych her out.
    “What if you gave them out with subs when the Catholic church has its monthly sub sale?”
    Glad to be drawn away from thinking about Finn, she didn’t even try to swallow her giggle. “You believe a newspaper ad is crass, but you want to give out brochures for a funeral home with lunch?” But as she said those words, another idea dawned. “What if we put those brochures on car windshields at church services ?”
    Her dad brightened. “That’s perfect. There are five churches in town. Almost everybody goes to one of them.”
    She tucked in his blankets, knowing sliding brochures on car windshields was a good idea but far from perfect. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
    He beamed at her. “You’re gonna nail this.” He yawned. “In another few months, McDermott’s will be back to full throttle. Hey, did I tell you that Finn Donovan tried to buy the place from me once?”
    She took a step back. His doctor had told her that he’d forget things and repeat himself. She’d succeeded in not reacting to most of the comments he made that weren’t quite right, but that one had been so obvious it threw her. Reminded her that her dad was sick—really sick—with something most of the medical community barely understood. And it underscored the fact that she had to support him. Now. Not six months from now, but now . She had to get business flowing to McDermott’s immediately.
    Mary Kiel walked in with that morning’s meds. “Hey, Ellie.” She faced Ellie’s dad and smiled affectionately. “And good morning to you, Mark.”
    A resident of Harmony Hills, Mary knew Ellie’s dad very well. Actually, nearly everybody knew her dad well. And most of them would be kind to him the way Mary was.
    “Is this my daily poison?”
    She laughed. “This is the stuff that makes it so that you can keep talking to your daughter.”
    He glanced lovingly at Ellie. “Then I take it happily.” He swallowed his meds and gave back the little plastic cup.
    Mary patted his arm. “We’re going to be sorry to see you leave us at the end of the week.” She looked at Ellie. “Have you made arrangements with a personal care facility?”
    “I have an appointment today to check out Harmony Hills Hideaway.”
    Mary gasped. “Fancy.”
    “Nothing but the best for my dad.”
    She gave Mark another fond smile. “Exactly.”
    And that’s when the lightbulb lit in Ellie’s head.
    Her father might already have brochures printed for the funeral home, but the best-selling point for her father’s business wasn’t the business. It was her father. He’d devoted his life to making the worst time in everyone else’s lives as stress-free as possible. Now he needed them, and she’d bet her career that if she did this right, they’d rally behind him and support him.
    She spent the afternoon with the director for Harmony Hills Hideaway, a stupid name for a beautiful facility tucked in a forest just outside of town. Tidy suites had big windows, flat-screen TVs, and seating areas to visit with company. She saw the dining hall, walked through the clean kitchen, read the qualifications of the nursing staff and on-call doctors, and, without qualm or hesitation, signed the contract for them to care for her dad.
    When she returned to McDermott’s, she went straight to the office to