How to Marry a Doctor

How to Marry a Doctor
Nancy Robards Thompson

I can find you your soulmate in five dates.Dr. Jake Lennox took that bet from his best friend, nurse Anna Adams. And then he insisted on returning the favor. After all, he's a commitment-phobic bachelor, while Anna wants the wedding ring and the white picket fence. So why can't he find her Mr. Right while she finds him Ms. Right Now?Now admittedly, in small-town Celebration, Texas, the dating pool is shallow. And Anna and Jake's picks for each other are either too small or too tall, too old or too bold. Still, they're determined that by dates number five, both of them will be diving headfirst into marriage. So why do they suddenly seem to think it could be with each other?

“You just have to promise me one thing,” Jake said.

Running the pad of her index finger over his tempting bottom lip, her wrist rubbed against the sexy stubble on his cheeks. Her body reacted with a warming shiver. He opened his mouth and gently caught her finger between his teeth. Nipped at it and sucked on it for a moment.

It felt like she’d been waiting her entire life for this moment. Despite his words, he certainly didn’t seem to be in a hurry to get away. Yeah, he wasn’t going anywhere.

Not right now, at least.

“Anything,” Anna said.

She wasn’t going to let him tell her he wasn’t good enough for her.

She knew what she wanted, and he’d just slipped his arms around her again.

“No regrets,” he said.

“No regrets,” she answered. “But tell me something. How do you know that you’re not good for me—that we’re not good together—if we’ve never… tried it out?”

***

Celebrations, Inc:

Let’s get this party started!

How to Marry a Doctor

Nancy Robards Thompson

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

National bestselling author NANCY ROBARDS THOMPSON holds a degree in journalism. She worked as a newspaper reporter until she realized reporting “just the facts” bored her silly. Much more content to report to her muse, Nancy loves writing women’s fiction and romance full-time. Critics have deemed her work “funny, smart and observant.” She resides in Florida with her husband and daughter. You can reach her at nancyrobardsthompson.com (http://www.nancyrobardsthompson.com) and facebook.com/nancyrobardsthompsonbooks (http://www.facebook.com/nancyrobardsthompsonbooks).

This book is dedicated to everyone who believes in happily ever after.

Contents

Cover (#u8f00901c-30ed-54b5-acda-111294ed6c20)

Introduction (#uf2b38dfb-ea9b-5d12-80d7-eea36c528963)

Title Page (#ue42d2309-a063-5324-8dca-bc75e68da036)

About the Author (#u2ffd3040-5613-55c9-8a42-19699c887a25)

Dedication (#u2d098c8a-c92a-59b5-8e9b-f99db6fe6ed2)

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Extract (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter One (#u270aa968-b905-56b8-bdcb-ee52c9a954e2)

Anna Adams parked her yellow VW Beetle in Jake Lennox’s driveway, grabbed her MP3 player and took a moment to make sure it was loaded and ready to go.

She was about to hold an intervention and music—just the right song—was the key component of this quirky job.

Today, she was going to save Jake, her lifelong best friend, from himself. Or at least from drowning in the quicksand of his own sorrow.

This morning, Celebration Memorial Hospital had been abuzz with rumors that Jake’s girlfriend, Dorenda, had dumped him. Anna might’ve been a little miffed that she’d had to hear about his breakup through the nursing staff grapevine, but the sister of one of Dorenda’s friends was an LPN who worked the seven-to-three shift at the hospital and she’d come in positively brimming over with the gossip.

Jake had been scarce today. He hadn’t been around for lunch. Another doctor had done rounds today. When she’d tried to phone Jake after work, the call had gone to voice mail.

The radio silence was what made Anna worry. She hadn’t realized that he’d been so hung up on Miss Texas. That’s what everyone called Dorenda, even though no one was sure if she’d actually held the title or if she’d gotten the nickname simply because she was tall and beautiful and looked like she should’ve worn a crown to her day job. Poor schlubs like Anna did well to make it to their shifts at the hospital wearing mascara and lipstick.

Anna wasn’t sure what the real story was. When Jake had a girlfriend, he tended to disappear into the tunnel of love. Or at least he never seemed to bring his girlfriends around her. And Dr. Jake Lennox usually had a girlfriend.

Anna didn’t celebrate Jake’s breakups, but she had to admit she did relish the intervals between his relationships, because, for as long as she’d known him, that was when she’d gotten her friend back. Sure, they usually saw each other daily at the hospital. It was not as if he completely disappeared. But in those times between relationships, he always gravitated to her.

She would take the spaces in between any day. Because those spaces ran deeper than the superficial stretches of time he spent with the Miss Texases of the world.

Anna rapped their special knock—knock, knock-knock, knock, knock—on Jake’s front door, then let herself in.