Family Practice. Marisa Carroll

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      Welcome home…

      Dr. Callie Layman isn’t looking forward to going home to White Pine Lake, Michigan. She isn’t looking forward to taking over as the physician in charge of the community clinic after only recently becoming a doctor. She isn’t looking forward to facing her new stepmother, stepsiblings or the changes in her relationship with her father. And she certainly isn’t looking forward to going head-to-head with Zach Gibson, the handsome former combat medic who’s been running the clinic and will now be her assistant.

      And yet the community needs her expertise. Her family needs her to help them heal. And, she learns, so does Zach. Callie decides she has to try to help them, but ultimately can she be everything they need her to be?

      Maybe he was right....

      Maybe Callie couldn’t spin all the separate ends of her family ties together into a long, strong yarn that could be woven into a whole. But she had to try.

      Zach lifted his hand and touched her lips, just a brush of his fingertip, but it felt as if her skin had been seared by fire. “I know you have to try. I wouldn’t expect anything less of you. You want what’s best for everyone, but sometimes that just doesn’t happen, Callie. And that’s not your fault. Sometimes you can’t make it all come out right.”

      Tears blurred her vision. She blinked them away. She didn’t like being this vulnerable. She didn’t like having her innermost hopes and dreams exposed—particularly to a man as perceptive as Zach Gibson.

      And she knew what was going to happen next. He was going to kiss her….

      Dear Reader,

      Marian and I are thrilled to be contributing our story, Family Practice, to the Harlequin Heartwarming line. For many years we’ve wanted to be able to write a book that concentrated on the emotional aspects of falling in love and staying in love and less on the physical side of the equation. Thanks to Marsha Zinberg and her wonderful editorial staff, we’ve been able to do just that.

      Callie Layman is a newly minted M.D. She returns to her small northern Michigan hometown—with real misgivings—to care for its colorful inhabitants and to try to blend the disparate elements of her own complicated family situation, including precocious and antagonistic eleven-year-old stepsiblings, a pregnant stepmother and rebuilding the bond between herself and the mother who abandoned her years before. On top of everything else, she finds she’s obligated to share her practice with handsome physician’s assistant Zach Gibson, who, unlike Callie, knows exactly what he wants from his life. And one of those things he knows he wants is Callie.

      Will Callie be able to have it all? A career, a love of her own, a happy life in White Pine Lake? Will she be able to weave all these tangled strands of family and romance into a seamless loving whole, or will it all be too much? Will she end up with her happy-ever-after or will Callie turn her back on everything and everyone she cares about rather than risk it all for love?

      We hope you enjoy reading Family Practice as much as we enjoyed writing it.

      Sincerely,

      Marisa Carroll

      (Carol Wagner and Marian Franz)

      Family Practice

      Marisa Carroll

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      MARISA CARROLL

      Marisa Carroll is the pen name of sisters Carol Wagner and Marian Franz. They have been writing bestselling books as a team for more than twenty-five years. During that time they have published more than forty titles, many for the Harlequin Superromance line and Feature and Custom Publishing. They are the recipients of several industry awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from RT Book Reviews and a RITA® Award nomination from Romance Writers of America, and their books have been featured on the USA TODAY, Waldenbooks and B. Dalton bestseller lists. The sisters live near each other in northwestern Ohio, surrounded by children, grandchildren, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins and old and dear friends.

      MILLS & BOON

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      To Marsha Zinberg

      For all your years of excellent editorial advice,

      steadfast friendship

      and your uncanny ability

      to choose the restaurants with the best crème brûlée.

      Contents

       CHAPTER ONE

       CHAPTER TWO

       CHAPTER THREE

       CHAPTER FOUR

       CHAPTER FIVE

       CHAPTER SIX

       CHAPTER SEVEN

       CHAPTER EIGHT

       CHAPTER NINE

       CHAPTER TEN

       CHAPTER ELEVEN

       CHAPTER TWELVE

       CHAPTER THIRTEEN

       CHAPTER FOURTEEN

       CHAPTER FIFTEEN

       CHAPTER SIXTEEN

       CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

       EPILOGUE

      CHAPTER ONE

      CALLIE LAYMAN STEERED her eight-year-old Jeep off the pavement and into a small, scenic