Hope Flames: Hope Book 1 Read Online Free PDF

crazy, and he’d sworn he’d never get involved with another one.

    He’d tried to be nice to Emma, tried to help her out. Hell, he’d even asked her out after hearing her story about not dating for years, figuring she’d be happy to have a night out. He found her hellaciously attractive, but he knew limits, and when a woman was skittish, he could stay hands-off. But instead of being grateful, she’d acted as if he’d insulted her.
    He should have left Emma alone. He’d broken his own cardinal rule, and look where it had gotten him.
    Tossed out on the sidewalk.
    He looked down at Boomer, who stared up at him and wagged his tail, oblivious to what had just happened.
    “Let’s go, Boom. Time to get back to work.”
    A MERCY DATE. Mr. Hot and Sexy had asked her out on a mercy date.
    The sparks between her and Luke had been out of this world. Twice she’d been alone with him, and she might have been a little wary, but she hadn’t been afraid. He was nice. Luke had a good sense of humor, and he was oh-so-fine-looking. And he had a great dog that Daisy loved. If she was going to go out with someone—which she wasn’t—he’d be the right guy.
    But then he had to treat her like she was some poor, pitiful misfit who couldn’t get a man to ask her out if she’d put a front-page ad in the hometown newspaper begging for one.
    Take her on a date. As a friend. Just to help her out.
    “What a colossal douchebag.”
    She wanted to throw something. Unfortunately, everything in the clinic cost too much to hurl across the room.
    She stormed into her office to grab her bag, Daisy bumping into her leg to shove her head under Emma’s hand.
    There was the calm she needed. She absently petted Daisy, then sat in her chair and nuzzled Daisy’s neck.
    Was she really that pathetic?
    She’d felt the chemistry between her and Luke, had been excited to have those feelings again. She’d thought that maybe . . . just maybe, at some point she could take a shotat having a normal life again after all the hell she’d been through. But she was obviously throwing off some kind of odd signals that screamed she was helpless and pathetic.
    Ugh.
    She was not helpless, and she didn’t need a guy to rescue her from her self-imposed dating exile. Just because she didn’t have a man in her life didn’t mean she was miserable.
    She was fine. Perfectly fine. She had her shiny new practice and her patients and her dog.
    What more did she need to be happy, dammit?
    She finished up at the clinic and took the dogs home, got them fed and settled, then wandered the kitchen, searching for something to eat.
    Nothing sounded good. She felt unsettled, as if there was something she should be doing, but wasn’t.
    Her thoughts wandered back to Luke, which got her irritated all over again. Now she had a full steam of mad and nothing to do with all that pent-up emotion.
    Since sex was out of the question, she needed an outlet. She’d already gone to the gym before work this morning, though nothing said she couldn’t go again. Then again, that’s not what she wanted.
    Routine was her problem. She finally decided she needed to get out of the house. Too much sameness wasn’t good for her, and she’d spent the past week doing the exact same thing every day—going to the clinic, coming home, and spending the night alone.
    If she continued that, before long she’d have two dogs and a house full of cats, and she’d park her butt on the sofa watching one too many of those Real Housewives of some city or other.
    She refused to let that happen, so she changed into jeans and a sweater, grabbed her keys, and drove to Bert’s, the town’s best diner. A bowl of chili for dinner sounded really good.
    The good thing about showing up late was avoiding the normal four to six p.m. dinner crush. Bert’s was a popular place, and Hope was a very small town. Tuesday was meat-loafnight, and she’d had Bert’s meat loaf before. It was awesome. So was his chili.
    The place