Redeeming harmony harmon.., p.1
Redeeming Harmony (Harmony Falls, Book Four), page 1
Redeeming Harmony
Harmony Falls Book Four
Elizabeth Kelly
EK Publishing Inc.
Contents
Redeeming Harmony
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Beautiful Harmony Excerpt
The Elizabeth Kelly Newsletter
About the Author
Also by Elizabeth Kelly
Copyright © 2022 Elizabeth Kelly
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Published by:
EK Publishing Inc.
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ISBN: 978-1-77446-129-7
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This book is the copyrighted property of the author and may not be reproduced, scanned or distributed for commercial or non-commercial purposes.
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Quotes used in reviews are the exception. No alteration of content is allowed.
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Your support and respect for the property of this author are appreciated.
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This book is a work of fiction, and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously.
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Edited by:
L. Nunn Editing
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Cover art by:
EK Designs
Redeeming Harmony
The art of love is… messy.
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Harper’s life goal never included returning to Harmony Falls a failure.
If her art career flopping wasn’t depressing enough, her father selling his vet clinic to the intelligent and way-too-sexy-for-his-own-good, Nathan Henshaw spoils Harper’s sense of security.
Harper’s life may be a complete disaster but sparring and sleeping with Nathan is the perfect distraction. She just needs to keep those pesky feelings for him at bay.
Nathan doesn’t have time for Harper and her spoiled brat routine, even if he’s a little too obsessed with her smart mouth, thorny attitude, and perfect body. He needs to focus on his new clinic.
Only, there’s much more to Harper that he finds irresistible.
And the growing attraction between them proves impossible to ignore.
When gossip and rumours leave the clinic facing financial ruin, he and Harper must work together to regain the town’s trust while navigating falling in love.
But when Harper’s insecurities threaten her artistic dreams and her relationship with Nathan, can he show her she’s worthy of love or will Harper push him away?
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Author’s Note: “Redeeming Harmony” is Book Four in The Harmony Falls Series. It is a stand-alone story in the series.
Read more about the Harmony Falls series, HERE
Chapter 1
Harper cursed and wiped the condensation off the windshield. The weather was getting worse, with the rain bouncing off the windshield until even with the wipers on full blast, she could barely see more than a few feet in front of her. She slowed down to a crawl and squinted through the glass, her hands clenched around the steering wheel and the beginnings of a tension headache lurking behind her forehead.
Sheets of water poured from the angry, dark sky. It was almost eleven, and Harper cursed again, wishing that she had stopped at the motel a few hours back. Anxious to see her dad and just wanting to be home, she’d decided to push forward… a decision she now regretted.
She was barely doing twenty miles an hour, and she considered pulling over and waiting for the rain to abate when bright headlights shone behind her. The driver honked two long, loud blasts, but Harper ignored him until the car pulled around and flew past her with a screech of tires and the gunning of his engine. She caught a quick glimpse of his angry, red face before he sped past and dipped back into her lane, narrowly missing her front bumper.
“You smelly taint crotch hound!” Harper shouted as his taillights disappeared into the stormy darkness. A few minutes later, she breathed a sigh of relief. The rain had let up a little, and she could actually see the dark winding road in front of her. Another fifteen minutes or so, and she would be at her dad’s place. Hell, she could almost taste the strong, dark coffee he made.
She breasted a small hill and slammed on the brakes. Way past their prime, the brakes squealed in protest but did their job. She stopped inches from the back bumper of the dark car that had sped around her earlier. It was stopped in the middle of the road, its engine idling roughly.
“What the hell?” She threw the car into park and picked up her phone, ready to dial 9-1-1 if the asshole even took one step out of his car. The vehicle took off down the road with tires squealing and a belch of dirty smoke from the tailpipe. Harper shook her head and shifted back into drive. She stepped on the gas, and her headlights caught the reflection of eyes in the ditch.
“Shit.”
She parked her car well onto the side of the road before grabbing the silk scarf she’d been wearing earlier off the passenger seat. She stepped out into the pouring rain, not bothering to grab her jacket from the back seat. She was soaked to the skin instantly by the pelting rain. Goose bumps screamed to life all over her body, and her blonde hair was plastered to her skull within seconds. She slipped and slid her way into the ditch, wincing as the ankle-deep water soaked her tennis shoes.
The dog lying in the ditch whimpered pitifully as she approached it.
“Easy, boy,” she said. Holding the scarf in one hand, she approached the whining dog.
He tried to get to his feet, and Harper winced when he fell back on his side with a bone-jarring thud. She crouched beside his prone body and rested a hand on his thin side, squinting as she waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. The dog returned her stare, his body trembling under her palm. She cautiously moved her hand to scratch behind his ears when he made no attempt to move.
He laid passively, and she scratched his cheek and under his chin. “Steady, boy.”
Moving slowly, she twirled the scarf into a rope and then eased it around his muzzle, wrapping it a couple of times before tying it in a knot. It didn’t matter how friendly the dog was, an injury could make even the sweetest dog bite. Muzzling an injured dog to minimize the risk was one of the first lessons her father had taught her.
“Steady, boy,” she repeated before running her hands over his ribs. The dog whimpered again but didn’t try to move. Water had soaked into his thick fur, and his body was shivering as wildly as hers. She moved her hands down to his back leg, and he made a sharp yelp of pain that pierced her heart. He tried to lurch to his feet before sinking back into the rain and mud-soaked ditch.
“It’s okay, big guy. It’s okay.” Keeping one hand on the mutt’s flank, she sat back on her heels and tried to decide what to do. She could feel every rib with chilling clarity. It was impossible to confirm what type of dog he was in the darkness and pouring rain, but she suspected he was a shepherd or at least a shepherd cross. He was obviously a stray, but he was still much too big for her to carry to her car even in his emaciated state. She was small, but she was strong and knew how to handle animals, thanks to working at her father’s vet clinic for years. However, even she could recognize the impossibility of the task in front of her.
“Hold on, buddy. I’m gonna get my phone and call Dad,” she said to the dog.
She stood, pausing when headlights splashed across the road behind her. She squinted at the truck as it stopped in front of her car, and the driver climbed out. He jogged over to her, and she stood protectively in front of the dog.
“I just want to help,” he said.
Harper stared up at him in the pouring rain. Even freezing and worried about the injured dog, she couldn’t help but notice the lean, hard length of his body or the – sweet baby jeebus – sexiest lips she’d ever seen. There was no way this guy was from Harmony Falls. She wouldn’t ever forget a mouth like that.
Harper! Now is not the time.
She stepped aside, crouching next to the stranger when he knelt beside the dog and petted his flank. He made his own murmured reassurances to the dog before smoothing his hand over his hind leg. The dog whined, lifting his head to give them a weary accusing look of pain before dropping it with a squishy sounding thud against the wet ground.
“Did you muzzle the dog?”
Harper nodded. “Yeah. I didn’t want him biting me.”
“Smart. Is he your dog?”
“No. There was an asshole driving like a moron in front of me. I think he hit the dog and then took off. The dog looks like a stray to me.”
The stranger nodded as his large hands moved quickly over the rest of the dog’s body, searching for obvious injuries.
Ha
rper jumped when there was a big boom of thunder, and the rain became a torrential downpour again. Shivering, water dripping from her nose and her chin, she leaned forward and spoke directly into the man’s ear so that he would hear her over the rain.
“I need you to help me carry him to my car. There’s a vet about ten minutes from here.”
He turned his head, and Harper blinked at the closeness of his face to hers. She caught a glimpse of his dark eyes and tanned face before he tilted his head and spoke into her ear. “We’ll take my truck. There’s more room.”
His biceps bulging against his t-shirt, he carefully picked up the stray, cradling him against his chest as he headed toward his truck. She splashed ahead of him and opened the passenger door. The truck was high, and she felt like a little kid, stepping onto the running board and using the handles to help herself climb in before scooting over to the middle. The man eased the shivering, whimpering dog into the truck until his head rested on Harper’s lap.
The dog cried out again when the man shifted his back leg into a more secure position before closing the door. He slid behind the wheel and slammed the door shut. Now that she was sitting right next to him, she was acutely aware of just how big Mr. Sexy Lips was.
He was lean, but he was well over six feet and the hands gripping the steering wheel were twice the size of hers. Harper could feel every brush of his thigh against hers as he started the truck and drove down the road, peering through the windshield.
Both of them were shivering, and he turned the heat to high. She enjoyed the warm air blasting against her body for a few seconds before reaching across and angling the vent so that it blew directly onto the trembling dog draped in her lap.
“Steady, boy. Steady.” She rubbed the thick, wet fur of his forehead and neck when he shifted and yelped.
“I’m Nathan.”
“Harper.” She peered out the windshield into the darkness. “You’re going to take your next right in about five minutes. It’s a long winding driveway. Try to go slow. There are lots of potholes.”
She glanced up at Nathan. “Can I use your cell phone? I left mine in my car.”
He pointed to the phone mounted on the dashboard, and she grabbed it.
“Code is 175636,” Nathan said.
She punched it in and then dialed the number from memory, smiling a little as she held the phone to her ear. Her dad and Addie’s numbers were the only ones she actually knew.
Her father’s voice on the phone chased away some of the chill she felt. “Hey, it’s me. I’m about three minutes away, and I have a dog just hit by a car. Maybe a broken hind leg or some internal injuries. Can you meet me at the clinic?”
“Yes. See you soon, sweetheart.” Her dad ended the call without asking any other questions, and her smile grew. God, she loved him.
She stuck the phone back in its holder on the dashboard. “Once you reach the top of the driveway, take a left. You’ll see a brick building you can park in front of.”
He nodded but didn’t say anything. She petted the injured dog, her teeth clacking together and her body quaking from the cold. She was tempted to lean into Nathan to try to leech some of his body heat, but he was just as wet as she was and wouldn’t provide much warmth.
He turned right and drove slowly down the bumpy gravel driveway. Harper held the injured dog and tried to minimize his movements, breathing a sigh of relief when they parked in front of the clinic. It was already lit up with light, and a sense of being home covered Harper like a warm blanket.
Nathan jumped out and hurried around to the other side of the truck, opening the door and easing the dog out, doing his best not to bump the injured leg as he shifted him in his arms. Harper slid across the seat toward the door and jumped to the ground. She slammed the door shut as the clinic door opened.
Leaving Nathan and the injured dog behind, she ran over and hugged her father, burying her face in his shoulder. He smelled the same, a comforting combination of antiseptic and coffee, and her throat started to burn as she blinked back tears. God, she’d missed him. She hadn’t been home at all since she moved, and he’d only visited her once in New York.
“Hi, sweetheart.”
“Hi, Dad.” She kissed his cheek and scooted past him into the clinic, her sneakers making squeaks on the tile floor with every step.
Harper crossed the foyer to the swinging door that separated the waiting area and exam rooms from the clinic's treatment area. She held the door open as Nathan and her father walked through. Nathan eased the dog onto the green blanket spread out on the steel treatment table as her father brought over a muzzle.
He untied Harper’s scarf, setting it on the long counter that held the lab equipment before petting the old dog's cheek and chin. He examined the dog’s eyes, ears, and mouth then slipped the muzzle on and secured it.
“Pupils look normal. Harper, step around here and hold his head while I examine him, please.”
How many times had she done this before? Too many to count. It might have been over a year since she’d last helped her father in the clinic, but she fell into the familiar routine without missing a step. She buried her fingers in the shaggy fur of the dog’s throat and scratched gently.
She was right. The dog was a shepherd cross and horribly thin. His hipbones and ribs stuck out, and he had lost large clumps of fur across his body. She idly wondered when he had eaten last as he made a low sigh and closed his eyes.
She watched her father’s hands, crisscrossed with large blue veins, ease their way down the dog’s body. He prodded the dog’s stomach, and when the dog whined, he said, “Steady, boy. Steady.”
She rubbed the dog’s head again, picking out small burrs and twigs from his fur, murmuring soft assurances to the frightened animal. The initial warmth of the clinic had faded, and she clenched her jaw to keep her teeth from chattering as water dripped from her hair down the back of her neck.
Nathan stood just slightly behind her, and she was more aware of his body than she should have been. Man, how tall was the guy anyway?
Her father hummed softly to himself, occasionally muttering small unintelligible words to the dog as he palpated the dog’s hips.
The dog whimpered and tried to sit up. Harper pressed against his head and shoulders, but despite how emaciated and weak he was, the dog started to slip free. Before she could shout a warning to her father, she felt the hard, warm bulk of Nathan press up against her. His big hand pushed against the dog’s shoulders next to hers, his other hand bracing the dog’s head against the table.
The dog struggled for a few seconds longer before giving up the fight. With Nathan holding him down, Harper was free to pet and scratch the dog’s neck.
“Good boy. That’s a good boy,” she said when he whimpered again.
The dog settled, and she was suddenly much too aware of Nathan’s body against hers, of his warm breath on the side of her neck. His chest brushed lightly against her back, but he kept his lower body away from hers. She should have been pleased that he wasn’t using her need for his assistance as an excuse to be a total perv. Instead, she wished his crotch was pressed up against her ass, wished that grinding up against a complete stranger in front of her father was a perfectly a-okay move to make.
Who’s the perv now?
She was. With a capital P. Still, his politeness wasn’t gonna stop her from asking out Mr. Tall, Dark, and Sexy Lips the minute she had a chance. He would be a nice distraction from the current mess that was her life.
