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    Nothing Else Matters
    Nothing Else Matters
    Nothing Else Matters
    Ebook91 pages1 hour

    Nothing Else Matters

    By Peri Elizabeth Scott

    3/5

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    About this ebook

    Claire and Liam had a good thing going until he walks out of her life. Being dumped without warning is devastating enough, discovering she isn’t pregnant leaves her without even a part of him. Withdrawing from everyone, she moves to another city and immerses herself in work, the better to forget Liam. Not that it’s working. Claire is a one-man woman, to her despair.

    Back stateside after an unexpectedly long deployment, security contractor Liam Cafferty has accepted the truth: walking out on Claire makes him a coward. Thinking it for the best, given his dangerous profession, doesn’t cut it. She should have been given the choice. With the biggest heart of any woman he’s known, he’s hopeful she might take him back and makes it his new mission to convince her.

    Claire must decide what matters: her pride or taking another chance on Liam—and love.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherEvernight Publishing
    Release dateApr 16, 2019
    ISBN9781773399294
    Nothing Else Matters

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    • 2/5
      Too short. Heroine was totally depressed and he dumped her. He was sorry and came back but she had moved. He really did love her but he was stupid. Was gone on a contract and came back for her. Hea!

    Book preview

    Nothing Else Matters - Peri Elizabeth Scott

    Published by EVERNIGHT PUBLISHING ® at Smashwords

    www.evernightpublishing.com

    Copyright© 2019 Peri Elizabeth Scott

    ISBN: 978-1-77339-929-4

    Cover Artist: Jay Aheer

    Editor: Audrey Bobak

    ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

    WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

    This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

    DEDICATION

    My thanks to my go-to beta reader Karen Hawk for her input on Nothing Else Matters! You're one of those people I can always count on.

    NOTHING ELSE MATTERS

    Romance on the Go ®

    Peri Elizabeth Scott

    Copyright © 2019

    Chapter One

    The doctor stepped inside the office, slinging his stethoscope around his neck, hands then tugging on the ends. His white coat was pristine above a pair of dark, pressed pants and shiny, black shoes. He was very different from old Dr. Jacobs.

    He met her gaze. Claire Booth?

    Yes.

    I’m Dr. Salinger. He strode to the desk and settled in, staring at the computer monitor. You’re here for a pregnancy test.

    Yes. I mean, I’ve taken two over-the-counter tests a day apart, and one was positive, the other negative. To say her mood had swung from euphoric to devastated in a twenty-four-hour period was an understatement. So I made this appointment.

    Hmmm. He scrolled through a bunch of typing on the screen. Dr. Jacobs concludes you’re in good health.

    Yes. That meant she could manage a pregnancy, right?

    He turned his head to look at her, and she noted how young he seemed. And unfamiliar. He said, Single?

    What? Was he asking about her marital status? Hitting on her? His stare was unnerving. Or maybe her brain was still in chaos.

    Are you still unmarried? he asked.

    Why? Lord, Dr. Jacob’s adolescent replacement was a traditionalist.

    He blinked. Uh, just keeping the records updated.

    Right. She stared at him, and he typed rapidly before printing out a form. Here’s a requisition for the lab.

    Thanks.

    Once you’re done, take a seat in the waiting room. The sounds of his footsteps and rustle of his white coat diminished as he went through the open door.

    Regardless of the test results, she was finding another physician.

    Back in the waiting room, having supplied the necessary samples, she leafed through a parenting magazine. She wondered what it said about her that she was so desperate for the test to confirm a pregnancy when not only was she single, she had no idea where the father was or why he’d dumped her.

    A cheerful female voice directed her back to the doctor’s office, and Claire smiled her thanks.

    Dr. Salinger will be back a moment.

    Initially perching on the edge of the chair, she then slouched back and put on a nonchalant face, the entire time willing Salinger to return, bearing good news. Otherwise, she might shoot the messenger. When the doctor strode back in, she tried to read his face.

    It’s negative, Claire. His deep voice seemed carefully neutral.

    No. Just no. But I haven’t had my period, and I’m very regular. And I’ve been sick several mornings in a row.

    He shook his head, a hint of surprise in his eyes. Had he thought he was delivering good news? I’m sorry. There are a variety of things to explain false symptoms.

    The last several months of her life had been nothing but false. I see.

    Sometimes women who badly want a child can convince themselves—and their bodies—that it’s true. Other times, it’s hormonal, brought on by a change in circumstances.

    Great. Now she was a nut case. She faked a deprecating smile even as tears pricked the back of her eyes. She fought them back. She’d hadn’t allowed herself to cry, not even behind closed doors since Liam left, hiding her heartbreak, hanging on to her pride. Now, that was all she had left, and it was imperative that it remain intact.

    No reason not to try again, he said.

    A burst of hysterical laughter nearly escaped. If only he knew. Or maybe he’d seen past her mask and was reaching out. She always tried to see the good in people, but she needed to go hide and lick her wounds.

    Thanks for your time. She gathered up her purse and hustled to the door, ignoring his concerned look.

    She held herself together, crushed with disappointment, all the way to her car, and managed to drive home safely despite the scalding moisture blurring her vision. She no longer had the love of her life, and she had to accept there wasn’t a part of him carried in her womb, either. What else did she have that mattered?

    Entering her house, it felt as though she was stepping out of the real world as she closed the door on it. She was really, really tired.

    Her phone jangled in her purse, the ringtone belonging to her best friend, Joanne. Thank goodness Jo had been too preoccupied with her precocious twins to pick up on Claire’s angst since…

    She shut down that mode of thinking. There was the before, and this was now, and if she was to exist in the future, she had to let the past go. If she’d convinced everyone else, then she’d simply convince herself. No reason not to—now.

    Hey, Jo.

    She lives!

    What the hell did that mean? Uh…

    Her friend laughed, but there was something serious behind it. You’ve dropped out of sight. I thought it was just me, but everyone says so.

    Dropped out of sight. Huh. She must have been taking lessons from the man who should never be named again. I wouldn’t say I dropped out of sight.

    Hey, I might not be the social butterfly with the terrors tying me down, but you’ve been incognito, period. What’s going on?

    Knowing her friend as she did, worse than a dog with a bone, Claire sighed. She really needed to wrap this up and get some rest. Her body was as heavy as lead and

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