The Nearness of You

She’s a single mother struggling to get by. He’s the handsome, wealthy doctor who’s out of her league. What happens when she starts to fall for him?

The last thing Sara Flannigan needs is a man in her life. When she returns to her hometown, she vows to create a happy life for her son and to rebuild her life after a painful divorce. Yet when she meets her son’s new doctor, she can’t deny the spark of attraction that heats between them.

The problem?

He’s Harrison Thornton, the oldest son of the illustrious Thornton family. His family would never accept a woman like Sara, a woman who grew up on the wrong side of the tracks. She tries to ignore the whispers of her past, but she soon realizes secrets can never stay hidden for long.

Especially from the man claiming her wounded heart.

Growing up in the rich and powerful Thornton family, Harrison has lived a charmed life. A renowned physician, the last thing he expects is to desire the mother of one of his patients. Sara is beautiful and intelligent, and she’s completely devoted to her son, something that only deepens his attraction to her.

He doesn't want a single night of passion, though: he wants forever. Yet there are forces at work and people determined to tear them apart. Even Sara turns from him, certain she's unworthy. Harrison refuses to let Sara slip away, and soon, he’s fighting the greatest battle of all.

The battle to win the heart of the woman he loves.

“James Daniels?” 


“It’s Flannigan,” Sara Flannigan said automatically to the nurse before turning to her son James. “Time to go in.”


James shrugged as he continued to play his video game, but he followed his mother into the back of the doctor’s office without any more protest.

Six years old and already as stubborn as any adult, Sara reflected with an inward shake of her head.

James was the love of her life ever since he’d been placed in her arms, all red and wrinkly and screaming to the heavens.


“Let’s get the boring stuff out of the way,” the nurse said as she got James’s height and weight before ushering them into one of the rooms.


Sara hated the smell of these rooms—antiseptic and cold, the paper on the tables crackling as James would inevitably fidget from boredom.

They hadn’t been in a doctor’s office in six months, not since James’s amazing pediatrician in Seattle had told her that her son was healthy, still in remission, and not in need of constant doctor’s visits.


But when she’d felt his swollen lymph nodes in his neck, Sara had made an appointment for him to see a family doctor here in the small town of Fair Haven, where they had moved just two months ago.

That doctor hadn’t taken her concerns seriously.
So, now she was here, seeing the best pediatric oncologist in Fair Haven to make certain her son’s cancer hadn’t returned.


“Everything looks good. I’ll let Dr. Thornton know you’re here.” The nurse smiled at James, who continued to play his video game, kicking his heels against the table.


Sara rubbed her hands. She should’ve brought a sweater. Why were doctors’ offices so damn cold? She’d never been in one that didn’t result in her shivering from the blast of air conditioning no matter the time of year.


She told herself that more than likely James’s swollen lymph nodes were nothing. Probably just a cold. His cancer had been in remission for over four years, but she couldn’t stop the memories flooding her all the same. He’d had the same symptoms when he’d been just a toddler, and she’d assumed it had been nothing. Until the doctor had told her the tumor had spread to his bones and they were lucky it hadn’t spread to his bone marrow just yet…


“Mrs. Daniels,” Dr. Thornton said as he entered the room. 
When Sara looked up from her clenched fists, she had to keep her jaw from dropping open.
This was Dr. Thornton? This gorgeous man, barely in his thirties, with dark hair and deep green eyes? 


Sara swallowed against a suddenly dry throat. “It’s Flannigan,” Sara replied lamely, completely tongue-tied.

She hadn’t had time yet to legally change back to her maiden name after her divorce; thus, she was constantly reminded that she had been married to her cheating ex once upon a time.
But her cheating ex disappeared from her thoughts as she realized that not only was her doctor one of the well-to-do Thorntons of Fair Haven, Washington, but that he didn’t even have the grace to grow up to be fat and ugly, too. 


Of course he was a Thornton. She’d read his last name online, but for whatever reason, she’d been so worried about James that she hadn’t put two and two together. That was just her luck, wasn’t it?


Of course he was beautiful. Tall and muscular, he filled out his doctor’s coat too well. She’d known that his father was a doctor, but she hadn’t known that the eldest Thornton had pursued medicine as well. 


The entire Thornton family was considered royalty in Fair Haven. Wealthy, beautiful, and talented, their six children had always been the most popular kids in school. While Sara had grown up in a trailer park with her alcoholic mother and angry younger sister, the Thorntons had represented a life she could only imagine in her dreams.

To have both parents—successful and healthy—in your life? To drive brand-new cars, attend the best schools, play any sport or take up any after-school activity you wanted without worrying about the expense? Sara had had to give up on playing in band in sixth grade when her mom could no longer make payments on the cheap rental flute she’d gotten Sara to play. She remembered the shiny new flute Lizzie Thornton had gotten that same year, and how Sara had been green with envy. 


Dr. Thornton glanced up, and Sara’s reverie was broken. “Flannigan. I know that name. Are you…?”


“Ruth Flannigan’s daughter? Yes, that’s me.”
His expression changed, like he was seeing her for the first time. If she didn’t know better, she’d think he was checking her out.

But he turned away, and Sara told herself she was imagining things. As if one of the snobby Thorntons would glance her way! She was all too aware of what they thought about people like her, people who had grown up poor and with an absent father and an alcoholic mother.