Everybody Knows (Sunnyside #1) Read Online Free PDF

your name’s Zach.”
    “Right. I should introduce myself.” He cleared his
throat and then nodded. Good way to get them back onto an impersonal,
business-like track. He was a town official. Time to remember that. “Malcolm
broke his leg this morning. My father owns this house, and I’m a member of the
town council. So when Malcolm asked me to meet you in his place, I agreed. I
guess the Vicodin knocked him out before he made the call to let you know.”
He’d handled this meeting wrong from the start. But so far, she’d been a pretty
good sport, and damn, she was gorgeous. But that was irrelevant. “Let’s forget
the awkward puppy incident and start over.”
    Reaching out to shake her hand, he realized the
mistake of touching her again the moment he did it. Palm to palm with her soft,
warm skin against his only served to revive the sizzle.
    It would be much safer to concentrate on her
negatives.
    Hell, think fast. What were her negatives?
    Right, right …
She was probably one of those pampered, self-centered, spoiled rich girls who
didn’t care about anything but their manicures, their wardrobes, and their
desires. Sure, she had long, strong fingers and a very competent grip, but now
that he noticed, her nails were done up in some intricate design that probably
cost more than his clothes.
    “Hi, I’m Zach Novak, here to greet you on behalf
of the Sunnyside Town Council.”
    “I guess you were the one missing from the teleconference
when I ‘met’ the rest of them.” She smiled, playing along with the do-over.
“I’m Harper Simmons.”
    “Yeah, I have a tough schedule for daytime
meetings.” Man, if she kept smiling, he was never going to be able to resist
her. But he could do it. Starting now. All business. No flirting with the new
girl. “This will be your house while you’re in town, Ms. Simmons. Until the
renovations are completed, you’ll be staying at my sister’s home, just a short
distance away.”
    “Sounds perfect, Mr. Novak,” she agreed. “Or
should I say Dr. Novak?”
    He waved away the suggestion. “Just call me Zach.
Nobody in Sunnyside stands on ceremony with me, so you shouldn’t either.”
    “Hard to imagine.” She gave him a visual once-over
that he ignored.
    “It’s kind of tough for the locals to show the
proper respect when they remember me crashing my bike through Mrs. Carter’s
garden fence, uprooting her prize Heritage rose-bush, bleeding all over my
soccer uniform, and needing six stitches.” He pointed to the scar on his chin.
“Pretty much anytime any of them come to me to get stitched up, they remind me
of how I almost fainted from the sight of all that blood. And the needle.”
    He shuddered at the memory. Words kept spilling
from his mouth. He couldn’t seem to stop. Taking a deep breath, he was
determined to retreat to his normal level of detachment.
    “When they come to you for stitches?” Harper bit
her lip and seemed disturbed by the idea. “You mean you’re a real doctor? A
people doctor?” She cocked her head to the side as if she could determine his
occupation and all of his innermost secrets simply by studying him more
closely. And really, if she studied him that way much longer, he’d proceed to
spilling his life story.
    “As opposed to what? Animals? Philosophy? Rugs?”
    “Animals,” she admitted. “I thought you were a
veterinarian because of the way you protected and handled Pippa. And went to
such great lengths to save her.” She muttered under her breath, “Even though
she was never in any real danger.”
    “Matter of opinion.” He held up his hand to
prevent her from going down that road again. “When you grow up around a farm,
you learn to tend your own animals. And medicine is medicine. In many ways, a
lot of what I do with humans applies to any warm-blooded creature. A broken
bone is a broken bone, a severed artery is a severed artery, and so on.”
    “I guess,” she said, noticeably underwhelmed. “No
wonder you’re