One More Dance by Roxanne Rustand (best ebook reader for pc txt) 📗

here.” He glanced at all the medical equipment surrounding the bed and the tangle of IV lines dangling in the way. “If I can’t hold you, I’m unhooking all of this and walking out of here so I can.”

The love and need burning in his eyes touched her the way no words ever could. Glancing over her shoulder to make sure there was no nurse in sight, she lowered the side rail and carefully negotiated her way past the IV lines and monitoring equipment until she could gently ease herself into his arms, for just a moment. The steady beat of his heart beneath her cheek and his firm embrace made her feel as if she’d just come home.

And just like that, they were twenty again—so innocent, so filled with the brash confidence of youth. So sure that nothing could ever go wrong when love was so absolutely right.

“We’ve had some hard times,” she murmured. “But I wouldn’t give up a minute with you to change any of it. It only made us stronger.”

“I love you, Kate,” he whispered against her hair. “More than you’ll ever know. And I pray that your last dance will always be mine.”

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One More Dance is part of my five-book Northern Pines series, which will be releasing throughout 2021.

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Up next, another romantic suspense novel titled ONE MORE WISH, which is available for preorder at all major e-book retailers .  Here is an excerpt:

“THE DOCTOR WILL BE here in just a moment, Mr. Rockwell,” the ER nurse murmured as she took his vitals.

Ethan winced and looked away when she lifted the edge of the blood-soaked bandage on his forearm.

Keifer’s voice filtered down the hallway from the receptionist’s desk, where the woman had promised to keep an eye on him. “Where’s my dad? I want to see my dad!”

An indistinct voice responded and his son quieted, but Ethan knew this ordeal had to be terrifying for him.

The boy’s mother had just dropped him off last night for the summer, and at this very moment she was flying out of the country. And then on his very first morning here, the poor kid had seen his dad nearly lose an arm in the power-take-off mechanism of a grain auger.

The stuff of nightmares, surely, and the irony was almost as painful as Ethan’s injury.

He’d wanted the next three months to be a wonderful adventure. He usually saw his son for just part of each summer, and on alternating holidays.

From the lobby area, Ethan heard kids arguing over something. He frowned, remembering the icy blonde who’d walked into the hospital just ahead of him with her three children.

She’d breezed through the lobby with an offhand, “Keep an eye on these three for a minute, Beth!” And then she’d disappeared down the hall.

Some people, like his ex-wife and that presumptuous blonde, certainly showed little interest in motherhood, far as he could tell.

A woman in a white lab coat with a stethoscope draped around her neck hurried into the room. “I’m Dr. Jill Edwards,” she said with a sympathetic smile. “I hear you had an argument with an auger.”

“It won. The painkiller is really starting to kick in, though.” Ethan rested his head against the paper-covered pillow on the gurney and regretted every moment of this day as Dr. Reynolds carefully unwrapped his haphazard bandaging.

She sucked in a sharp breath. “This is beyond the scope of a hospital this size, Mr. Rockwell.”

Startled, he looked up at her as she gently cleansed the edges of the wounds and then firmly wrapped the arm again with clean bandaging. She nodded to a nurse, who quickly shoved an IV stand next to the other side of the bed and opened a package of IV supplies.

He winced when she placed the IV needle in his arm. “It’s only a few lacerations, right? You can sew them up?”

Dr. Edwards shook her head. “It’s more involved than that. You’ve lost a lot of blood and you stand a good chance of losing function of your hand—or worse—if this isn’t done right. I’m referring you to an excellent surgeon in Green Bay.”

Ethan closed his eyes as the deadline he had to meet and the activities he’d planned for Keifer all went up in smoke. “That isn’t necessary. Last year I needed thirty stitches when a bull took after me. Doc Olson stitched it up in his office and it healed good as new.”

“The tendons and nerves are involved, and the wound is badly contaminated.” The doctor nodded curtly to the nurse, who moved to an intercom on the wall and instructed someone to make arrangements for transport and admission to a hospital in Green Bay. “You need this taken care of as soon as possible.”

“I...can’t do it.”

"Mr. Rockwell."

“I have my son with me for the summer. I don’t have relatives here, and there’s no one else to take care of him.”

Removing her gloves, Dr. Reynolds murmured something to the nurse, then she turned back to him and lifted the rail on his gurney. “We’re going to find someone to help you out, so don’t worry.”

“If...if I do go, that would just be an outpatient deal, right? Back here today?”

“Maybe. But perhaps you could come here for follow-up care.”

"Follow-up?"

“For dressing changes, and if you need IV antibiotics..” She looked over her shoulder. “Ah, here you go. I need to check on someone else, but I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

Someone