Longing for Forever (Sunset Bay Romance Book 1) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Description

  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

  Epilogue

  Excerpt from LONGING FOR A HERO

  More Books by Debra Clopton

  About the Author

  Copyright

  LONGING FOR FOREVER

  Sunset Bay Romance, Book One

  DEBRA CLOPTON

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  Longing for Forever

  A burned-out trauma doctor at a crossroads returns home to help out at a small-town family practice, a coffee shop owner with a second chance at living, is she just what the doctor needs?

  Doctor Adam Sinclair is at a crossroads, burned-out and searching, after losing a young patient he felt he should have been able to save. He returns home to Sunset Beach searching for a way out of the dark hole he’s found himself sinking into. He agrees to help out at his mentor’s small-town family practice, a lot different than the fast-paced trauma units he’s used to. He’s not sure what life holds for him. But when he moves into a rundown beach cottage he plans to renovate and meets the ray of sunshine that is his new neighbor, his life will never be the same…

  Rosie Olsen nearly died and has been given a second chance at living and she is doing that full force. Spreading joy and smiles with her coffee shop and homemade muffins and other pastries, she is on a mission to change lives. But when the good-looking doctor moves in next door to her she spots a chance to help change his life.

  She’s just not counting on how he will change her life. And make her want things she isn’t sure she can handle.

  Can love find a way…will they risk their hearts?

  Chapter One

  A man wasn’t supposed to feel like a hollow shell. But he did.

  Doctor Adam Sinclair was smart enough to know it was time to change his life. Time to step out of the shadows hanging over him, time to acknowledge that he needed more.

  He needed a life.

  Maybe even a wife…maybe.

  He just didn’t have the heart for finding one right now.

  But it was easier to think it than to accomplish it. Right now he only needed this, time to breathe in the salty air as he stood on the beach of Sunset Bay, with the heat of a crisp January day warming his skin. The feel of that warmth spreading though him, beginning the difficult task of chasing away the chill that encased his soul these days.

  When he’d packed up his belongings and left Chicago two months ago, the wind had cut through him and the snow and ice still seemed to cling to him on the inside. It was good to be home, surrounded by the beauty of the Florida coast, with its warmth and sparkling blue water. Momentarily, he wondered why he’d ever left.

  Of course, he knew the answer to that—he’d wanted to be a trauma doctor, and in this sleepy little strip of Florida, there wasn’t a lot of trauma going on. His career had taken him to some of the biggest and best hospitals across the country: first L.A., then New York, and his last stop—the one where his whirlwind, burn-the-candle-at-both-ends career had caught up with him—Chicago. His reputation as one of the best trauma doctors in the country had made him highly sought-after and consulted with. It was everything he’d ever dreamed of or wanted.

  And he’d recently walked away from it all.

  Now, he wasn’t sure he could ever set foot in a trauma unit again.

  But could he do family practice?

  Breathing in the salty air, he turned to face his older brother, Tate. Tate looked a lot like him, with their matching sandy-brown hair and gray-blue eyes, square chins and high cheekbones. He was a little taller than Tate, but Tate was broader in the shoulders and chest than Adam, partly due to his strenuous life in his outdoor pursuits and his weight training to keep in shape for his sometimes role as a stuntman. Their mother used to say both of them were too handsome for their own good, Adam with dimples and Tate with his crooked grin. Adam didn’t think much about his face very often, but he knew that he was decent-looking, if the women who often stared at him were any indication. To be truthful, their attention was a little unnerving sometimes. To him. He was fairly certain it didn’t faze Tate.

  He had never been as outgoing as Tate. He preferred a quieter corner to dwell in while Tate had always been the outgoing one. But his more internalized temperament had always been his strongest, or one of his strongest, assets in the trauma unit. He had the ability to keep a clear head, steady hands, and make decisions to act or to pull back. But in both New York and Chicago—Chicago especially—he’d learned that those assets didn’t always mean his patient was going to live. The thoughts soured his stomach. He let his gaze shift back to the blue waters.

  “What have you decided? Are you going to help out at the clinic?” Tate knew not to push. But they’d been standing here for a while as Adam had stared out at the water, contemplating what he should do.

  This was not a time when Adam’s usual good judgment was coming into play, and the answers he sought were not coming to him. There was too much turmoil roiling inside him.

  He sighed. Why not? “It’s just for a couple of days a week, right?” He could feel his blood pressure rising just thinking about walking into a hospital or clinic.

  “Just two days a week. Doc Coleman needs a little time off. He’s not getting any younger. I mean, he was our doctor from as far back as I can remember, and he was old then…” He paused. Concern filled his eyes. “Look, I know something happened in Chicago. We all know and we’re all worried about you. We’re very glad you’re home, especially since we weren’t sure you were coming home when you decided to go visit the cousins in Windswept Bay first. But I told Mom that if you went there first to hang out with Max, Trent, and Jake, you had a reason. Chicago has been in the news constantly, with far more violence than any city deserves. I figure with you working the trauma unit, you had to have been busy. I know Max, Trent, and Jake each had to readjust to life after leaving the military. I figure you had something in common with them, with some of the things you’ve told me over the phone through the years that you dealt with in the trauma unit. I’m hoping they were able to help you.”

  Tate had always been observant and right now he was pretty close to the mark. Too close.

  Adam raked his hand through his hair. “Let’s just say Chicago wore me down. I became a doctor to save people. Heal people. And as far as I can figure, that’s not what I was doing.” He’d seen so much senseless violence. So much.

  “I hear you, brother. And don’t beat up on yourself for having compassion. Stuff like that would get anybody down. Especially someone whose life is dedicated to healing people. But you and I both know that what you were doing and what you would be doing at Doctor Coleman’s clinic are not the same thing. At the clinic, you’ll be treating fishhooks in fingers, kids with colds and scraped knees. You’re going to see people getting well and you’re going to eat at the same restaurants with them, see them at social events and when running errands around town. Getting coffee at the local coffee shops—speaking of which, there is a fantastic one on the corner near your house. I know how much you enjoy good coffee
, plus they have the best orange marmalade muffins I’ve ever tasted. It will be a great stop on your way to see patients at the clinic two days a week.”

  Adam gave Tate a don’t-assume-anything look.

  Tate ignored it. “Come on, Adam. You and I both know that you can’t be a beach bum. Not with the pace of life you’ve had all these years, going through medical school and then doing your residency and then moving around so much we lost track of you for a little while there. A slow pace will eat you up.”

  Adam was afraid that was true. However, he didn’t plan on doing nothing. Still, working in a family practice could give him a different perspective on the career he’d chosen. The water rolled in and washed over his bare feet. The coolness woke him up a little to the fact that maybe what Tate said was true. Maybe he needed to see people around town who were well after having seen them sick in the office. While he’d been in Windswept Bay, his cousin Cam and his wife Lana were having their baby. It had been a high-risk pregnancy and he’d been able to calm her fears some, to reassure her that she had good doctors and would be okay. After the baby was born, it had felt good to visit them at the hospital and see their happiness. He had gone to the nursery and held the baby and felt the little life in his hands. Holding that baby had helped him feel something… In the trauma unit, holding babies wasn’t usually part of the bargain. Was a slower calling what he needed now? Family practice could potentially be as good for him as this warm sunshine and peaceful seaside. He had hopes he could move forward, to come to terms with what had happened…he couldn’t go there right now, though. Couldn’t think about that last night before he’d known he was done.

  “Two days a week? I’ll do it. Doc Coleman inspired me to become a doctor and this can be my way of paying him back for that. But no more than that right now. I’ve been nearly running twenty hours a day for the last ten years and I need some time. That’s doctor’s orders.”

  * * *

  “Sunshine, oh my little sunshines,” Rosie Olsen said in a singsong voice full of excitement as she pulled a tray of fresh orange marmalade muffins from the oven. Their citrus aroma had already filled the coffee shop, but now its mouthwatering scent pretty much kicked the front door open and anyone within twenty feet of the bakery probably smelled them. Which was always what she was counting on.

  She smiled as she set them on the cooling rack. “Never fear, my little sweets. You are going to be well-loved. People will come from far and wide to taste your goodness.”

  Behind her, Lulu Raintree laughed. “Girl, I may love them but if you keep making sinful delicacies like those, my thighs are not going to love you, or me. I swear, I’m going to have to stop coming by here on my way to work every morning.”

  “Blasphemy,” Rosie gasped to the muffins. “Cover your ears, pretty babies. She speaks lies.” Picking one of the large golden-topped muffins up, she turned and tilted it back and forth temptingly at Lulu. “Do you want one? They’re as delicious as they smell, I can promise you.” Rosie knew this because they were one of her patrons’ favorites and her favorite too. “They’re made of the freshest ingredients, very healthy and not sinful at all. Besides, as my mama would say, if you really, really love something, then the calories don’t count.” That was something her mother had always told her when she was growing up, when she was teaching her to bake.

  “Unfortunately, that’s not true, but I wish it was. It certainly sounds good.”

  “Sad, but true. But, with as many miles as you walk those dogs every day, this muffin is going to slide right off your hips. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same, so I’m not having one.”

  Lulu bit her lip and took a deep breath as she thought about the muffins. “You do have a point. I do walk some miles. Half the time the dogs are dragging me.” She chuckled. “Still, ever since you opened up this coffee shop so close to my apartment building, it is just too tempting for me not to stop by and get a coffee and morning muffins. It’s become a habit. I’m chanting resist, resist, resist all the way over here each morning. Then I say, ‘give me my usual Americano and one of those, please.’”

  Rosie dramatically set the muffin in front of her friend. “I’ll say good choice and thank you for your business. I’ll get that Americano for you.” She spun and went to her sparkling machine of coffee magic and proceeded to make the coffee in a to-go cup.

  “You love this, don’t you?” Lulu said, her voice muffled as she talked over the mouthful of muffin.

  “I do love my coffee shop because I get to feed people delicious baked goods and breakfast items and lunch items. It makes them happy.” She carried the steaming cup of coffee to the counter and set it in front of Lulu, who was in the middle of taking another bite of her muffin. “And I really love selling muffins to customers who think they don’t want one, then woof them down in three bites.” She laughed at her friend.

  “That would be me.” Lulu chuckled, laid her ten on the counter and took a sip of coffee as Rosie rang up her bill. “So good,” she said with a satisfied sigh. “You are a miracle worker. I think it’s your love of this place that is the secret ingredient.”

  “Oh, I like that. I need to figure out how to use that in my marketing.”

  “Speaking of marketing, are you going to have a lot of muffins at your booth at the festival this weekend? You’re going to need a lot.”

  “I’ll have a good many. We’re going to start baking nonstop the day before. Gigi is working all day to help out.”

  “Perfect. It’s going to be fun and we’re expecting a lot of people, so it will help get your name out more. I want you to succeed big-time, so I don’t have to worry you’re going to close up shop and leave me hanging.”

  “Aw, that is so sweet. I’m not going anywhere. The corner of Seashell and Main is stuck with me. I’m spreading the word, with complementary muffins somewhere every day.”

  “Oh, that’s a great idea.”

  The shop had only been open a little longer than two months but she was doing a decent business. Every muffin, Danish, and cookie needed to be perfect because even though she was on a prime spot on the Sunset Bay seawall and beach strip, word-of-mouth would build her business faster than anything. The festival would be a good day. Her social media presence was growing, but still, word-of-mouth was the best after a person tasted her coffee or treats. In some ways, she was old school. And she was going to enjoy the festival, too. She loved people. She loved celebrating each day by brightening someone’s day. Maybe out there on the street, without the walls of the shop around her, she could touch someone who might not normally come into the shop. That would be a perfect day.

  “I’m glad you are liking the area. You’re an asset to this little seaside town.”

  “I am loving it. I adore my little bungalow and the whole area. It’s been easy to settle in because Sunset Bay is a welcoming place.”

  “I feel the same way. Sunset Bay is a nice community to fit into.”

  “Exactly,” Rosie said, completely understanding. She set a small bag on the counter with another muffin inside. “It’s a place to fit in, to find yourself.” It was so true for herself. So very true. “That one is on the house—for a snack later.”

  Lulu’s eyes widened. “I love you.” She gathered her coffee and muffin. “Thank you and despite the fact that I could stay and eat you out of business, it’s time to take my first doggies of the day and get my walking on so I can continue to fit into my jeans.” She spun and headed toward the door, waving the paper bag above her head. “I will love every minute that I eat this. Especially now that I’ve sworn off men for good, these muffins are my go-to substitution. Talk to you later.”

  “Bye,” Rosie called as the door closed behind Lulu. Wondering why exactly her friend had sworn off men, she went back to work. Satisfaction settled over her. She had arrived here, searching for a place to belong and to become a part of a community where she could contribute and be helpful. It was essential to her. She had faced death and won…and it had chang
ed her. Now, she had a mission and here in Sunset Bay, she was finding her spot and learning to live.

  She was making friends, though she still had a lot of people to get to know. She did know some of her customers, some better than others and some just by sight. She was starting to fit in. And she’d just heard that she had a new neighbor; though she hadn’t met him yet, she’d heard he was the brother to the fire chief. She’d met him briefly when she’d dropped a dozen muffins off at the firehouse. She was glad someone had bought the little cottage—it needed a lot of love.

  She went back to taking the muffins from the tray and setting them on a pretty dish. “Okay, my pretties, your mission today: you will help me make someone smile today.”

  She lifted the plate and set it inside the glass counter with the assortment of breakfast muffins and other goodies already waiting for her customers. They would begin to arrive by seven. Thankfully, they weren’t all as early as Lulu because she still had a lot to do to get ready for the day.

  The buzzer sounded and she headed to the oven to pull out a fresh batch of muffins. She pulled the large pan from the oven and set it in the cooling rack as the warm scents of cranberry and vanilla wafted through the air. She inhaled deeply, smiling…it was going to be a good day. She could feel it. Then again, every day was a good day, but she just had a feeling that today something special was coming. And when she got that feeling, it was usually right.

  Chapter Two

  It was a beautiful eighty-degree day with the sun beaming down on Adam, the sound of the waves mixed with the call of the seagulls overhead. Perfect for wade fishing. Adam set his five-gallon bucket full of water and bait fish on the sand outside his bungalow. He carried the decent-sized redfish he’d caught earlier inside the house and placed it in the kitchen sink. He was looking forward to having fresh seafood tonight. He’d spent the afternoon fishing on the beach, walking out into the waves and casting his line as far out into the ocean as he could get it, then wading back to shore and waiting for something to bite. It had been a relaxing few hours on another beautiful day. He’d released most of the fish back to the sea, only keeping the legal-sized redfish for dinner and bucket of bait fish he would use for fishing in the morning.