Page 1 of Doctor's Surprise Bride

Chapter One

Daisy

“Did you hear about what happened with the mayor’s daughter last week?”

I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone forever.

“Everyone’s been talking about it. Get this, she was supposed to marry some older guy, right? So she runs away on her wedding day and shows up the next morning with some roughneck saying she wants to marry him instead. Can you believe it?”

I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that a man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant. You alone have brought me to Bath. For you alone, I think and plan. Have you not seen this? Can you fail to have understood my wishes?

“Daisy!”

The use of my name startles me out of my reading. Someone snaps their fingers in front of my face. I look up and blink in confusion to see my best friend and co-worker, Rayne, staring at me with an annoyed look on her face.

“Um, did you say something?” I ask, pushing my glasses up my nose to hide how flustered I am to be caught reading during work hours. It’s so hard to pass by the literature section without touching this book. It’s pretty pathetic just how many times I’ve read this particular passage ofPersuasion, just to experience what it feels like to be wanted through the characters. By now, I know all the words by heart, but that doesn’t stop me from reading the book over and over again.

“If I wanted to talk to myself, I would have just stayed at home and talked to my cat. At least he pretends to listen to me sometimes,” Rayne scoffs.

“Sorry,” I wince. I close the book and lean down to reshelve it before giving her my full attention. She clicks her tongue and flashes me a glare but I know it’s halfhearted.

Rayne and I have known each other ever since elementary school. We lived in the same block, but briefly lost touch with each other when her parents got divorced. She’d to move away to live with her mother. We ended up reconnecting a year ago when she moved back to Port View in search of a job. I didn’t hesitate to recommend her to my boss, who ended up hiring her even though we don’t need additional help at the library.

“How do you ever get any work done when your face is always glued to the books?”

“Says the girl who spends all day gossiping.”

“Touché,” she mutters. “But it’s not really gossip. Someone has to keep up with the town’s news.”

“Okay then,” I say to humor her. “What’s the latest news?”

Her face lights up at my question, eager to have a captive audience. Before she can start, however, my phone vibrates in my pocket, startling us both. She stares at me in confusion and I shrug as I reach into my pocket to grab my phone.

The screen is lit up with a notification from the program I signed up for a few days ago. I feel my eyes widen before I can stop them, and I press the screen to my chest while flashing my best friend a panicked look.

“What is it? What’s with the shocked look on your face? Don’t tell me you won the lottery or something.”

“I-it’s nothing.”

“Daisy, let me see! Wait—is it a man?”

Her mouth falls open in shock but I’m not surprised or offended by her reaction. It’s more likely I’d win the lottery before I’d ever get hit on. It’s not like I’m hard to look at or anything, but in my experience, men are more attracted to Rayne’s bubbly personality and easily get bored by my silent nature. I’ve tried to change and coax myself into being more sociable, but my social anxiety always gets in the way of any progress I try to make.

She squeals when she sees my cheeks flush with heat. “Oh my god! It reallyisa man, isn’t it?” Rayne leans in to grab my phone but I pull away before she can.

“It’s—It’s not—”

The words get stuck in my throat as I think through how to explain to my best friend that in a moment of weakness, I signed myself up for a mail-order bride app.

“Tell me!! Is he cute?” she asks gleefully. “Or, oh! Do you like your men a little more rugged?”

As she speculates about my taste in men, I raise the screen to my face to peek at the message, trying to shield the screen away from her curious eyes. I don’t bother reading the long text, I just quickly click on the photo attachment and my heart drops when I finally glimpse the face of the person I’ve been matched with … I know those gray eyes.

They are on every billboard in Port View. These are the same gray eyes that have been published on the covers of several medical journals and in various wellness-related magazines. It’s not like I’ve got an interest in the medical world, but we receive new publications with this face on them at least once a week. And that’s without accounting for the college kids that are always asking to be directed to his research materials.Everyonein Port View knows about him and I’m no exception. Even if I’m not in the loop about what’s happening in this town, I know enough to know that whoever just messaged me on this app is definitely catfishing me.

“Is that …”

“Ashton Ford,” I sigh softly. My sigh turns into a gasp when Rayne grabs my phone to get a closer look at the screen.

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