Montana Actually by Fiona Lowe Read Free Book Online Page B

Pressing the button to start the water, she then placed the espresso cup in position ready for the dark and tangy brew. She wished he’d ordered a latte or a cappuccino, because then she could have busied herself with frothing milk, but now she had nothing else to do but wait while the coffee brewed.
    She could see him turning his wallet over and over in his hands. The man was never still. When she finally looked up, the flirting charm had gone, replaced with a serious look on his freshly shaved cheeks. In one way, she missed the dark stubble, which had given him a relaxed look, but on the other hand the neat and tidy urban professional thing he had going on made him easier to resist. The stubble had merely been a facade, because nothing about Dr. Josh Stanton was relaxed or laid-back.
    “If I upset you yesterday, Katrina, I blame the paint.”
    His ham-fisted attempt to say sorry both surprised and irked her. “That’s an interesting apology.”
    He sighed. “Do you concede that we both said things we probably shouldn’t have?”
    Put it this way: I’ve worked with enough.
Her own words echoed accusingly in her head, holding a degree of bite. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, he was right. She’d let her caustic feelings for Brent spill over to unfairly taint him. “I can see there’s a grain of truth in that.”
    His eyes darkened, taking on the hue of smoke. “There you go. That wasn’t so hard, was it?”
    Hard.
An image of his naked chest, all solid muscle and power, took residence in her head, begging the question what else about his body was hard.
Her knees wobbled as her blood turned into a river of sweet, hot desire.
No. Bad idea. Don’t go there.
    She blinked, trying to block all wayward thoughts. “I’m more than capable of admitting when I’m wrong.”
    He tilted his head and a curl fell over his forehead, stealing for a moment the formidable doctor look he mostly had going on. “Really?”
    He’s got you there.
She didn’t want to smile, but her mouth curved up anyway as she popped a traveler lid on his coffee. She met his all-too-knowing gaze. “Well, I’m as capable as you are.”
    “So in other words, not that capable at all.” He grinned at her, the dimple in his chin deepening and lighting up his face. He handed her some notes and accepted the change. “Thanks for the discount.”
    She shook her head. “I charged you the full price.”
    “But that’s so cheap,” he said, sounding astonished.
    “This is Bear Paw.”
    He rolled his eyes.
    “What?”
    “That phrase is the default setting for everything around here. At least this time, it’s a good thing.”
    She tried not to sigh. Sure, Bear Paw was small and at first glance it didn’t look like much, but it was a bit like Montana gold. You had to dig for it. “Never lived in a small town before, Josh?”
    He shook his head. “Not unless you count Boston. I’ve been living in Chicago these last two years.”
    “So why did you want to come live and work in Bear Paw?”
    She hoped he’d say he wanted to improve access to health services for isolated communities or admit to a passion for working with Native Americans or—
    “To reduce my student loans to a manageable level.”
    And there it was.
Disappointment clanged through her. “The Hippocratic oath meets market forces?”
    “Something like that.” His mouth flattened as he caught her disapproving gaze. “What do you want me to say? That I’m thrilled to be here? I have to tell you, after this morning at the clinic, I’m thinking the feeling might be mutual.”
    She knew the town could be slow to warm, but she had the gut feeling that he probably hadn’t helped things along. “What were you expecting? A ticker tape parade?”
    Josh felt the spotlight of Katrina’s far-too-perceptive green eyes on him and saw the moment she read him like a book.
    Her hand flew to her mouth and then she laughed. “Oh my gosh. You really were.”
    Her laughter made him feel