Read Love Everlasting (Isle of Hope series Book 2) for Free Online Page A

“Because if you apply that kind of love in your relationship with Jasmine and every other woman, you won’t fail either, Sam, in finding the kind of love that will truly make you happy.” Her lips twitched with a near smile as she employed her sternest teacher tone. “Now I’m going home, Dr. Cunningham, and you are going straight to bed, understood?”
    “ Yeeeesssss , Miss O’Bryen,” he said in a sing-song voice à la Eddie Haskell. He grinned with a wide stretch of arms before shuffling to his feet, fingers suddenly clutching the back of the chair when he started to sway. “ After I walk you out to your car.”
    “No, sir.” She marched around the table, waving him off on her way to the door. “You look like you can barely walk to your room, much less to my car, Doc, so I should be carrying you to bed.”
    “Mmm … not a bad idea,” he said with a rakish waggle of brows that produced an immediate wince in his face. “Ow—that hurt.”
    “Aw …” She fluttered her lashes in sympathy before delivering a dry smile. “Good.” He followed her to the foyer, hand to his head, and she couldn’t help but laugh. “Pain, puke, and the promise of a hangover.” Hand on the knob, she turned at the front door with an arch of her brow. “Tell me, Doc, does anything stem the player in you?”
    He mauled the back of his neck with a cringe, his smile appearing to be in as much pain as him. “Well, the point-blank truth tends to suck a bit of the wind out of my sails.”
    She couldn’t resist a chuckle as she opened the door, lobbing a grin over her shoulder before she slowly shut it again. “Good to know.”
     

 
    Chapter Four
     
    A player, yes, but a sweet one. Shaking her head, Shannon yanked the door closed with a smile, squealing when it bounced back with a clunk and a groan.
    “ Owwww! First you bludgeon my heart, and now my arm.” Sam moaned, rubbing his wrist while he sagged against the doorframe. “Okay, that settles it—you’re not a third-grade teacher, you’re a sadist.”
    Eyes wide, Shannon put a hand to her mouth, as much to stifle a giggle as from shock. “I am so sorry,” she said, backing down his brick serpentine walkway when he started to follow, thinking that even sulking, he looked adorable. “But I did tell you to go to bed, did I not?”
    “A bossy sadist at that,” he muttered, padding behind her in his bare feet, hands in his pockets as he gingerly stepped over acorns and sticks.
    “You haven’t seen ‘bossy,’ mister, if you don’t get your butt back inside right now.” Keys in hand, she rounded her car and opened her door, pausing to sear him with a threatening look completely ruined by her flicker of a smile. “Goodnight, Sam— again .” She slid into the driver’s seat and turned the ignition, groaning when a familiar grinding occurred. The engine refused to turn over as she pumped the accelerator to no avail. “Nooooo,” she moaned to herself, cheeks heating as she tried to remember what Jack had done to start the car when she’d flooded it at home, before the Memorial fundraiser. The smell of gasoline wrinkled her nose as she tried it again. “Come on, baby, I know you’ve endured drool, puke, and Sam Cunningham, but please don’t take that out on me …”
    Tap. Tap.
    Smothering a groan, Shannon looked up when Sam opened the passenger door, brows in a bunch as he ducked his head in. “What’s wrong?”
    She resisted the urge to roll her eyes, figuring she’d given Doctor Love enough grief for one night. “It’s been flooding lately, so now it won’t turn on.”
    “Well, you’re in luck, Teach.” A slow grin slid across Sam’s face as he shut the passenger door and ambled around to the driver’s side, opening her door with a wink. “I happen to have a lotttttt of experience in turning things on, young lady.” He bumped her shoulder. “Move over.”
    Succumbing to an eye roll, she scooted over on the cloth bench seat of her mother’s