Charming Hannah (The Big Sky Series Book 1) Read online

  CHARMING HANNAH

  A Big Sky Novel

  Kristen Proby

  Copyright © 2018 by Kristen Proby

  All Rights Reserved. This book may not be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission from the author. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. All characters and storylines are the property of the author and your support and respect is appreciated. The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Photography by: Sara Eirew Photographer

  Cover and Formatting Design: Uplifting Designs

  ISBN: 978-1-63350-029-7

  About the Author

  New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author Kristen Proby is the author of the popular With Me in Seattle series. She has a passion for a good love story and strong characters who love humor and have a strong sense of loyalty and family. Her men are the alpha type?fiercely protective and a bit bossy?and her ladies are fun, strong, and not afraid to stand up for themselves. Kristen spends her days with her muse in the Pacific Northwest. She enjoys coffee, chocolate, and sunshine. And naps. Visit her at KristenProby.com.

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  Goodreads

  Other Books by Kristen Proby

  The Big Sky Series

  Charming Hannah

  Kissing Jenna - Coming Soon

  Waiting for Willa - Coming Soon

  The Fusion Series

  Listen To Me

  Close To You

  Blush For Me

  The Beauty of Us

  Savor You - Coming Soon

  The Boudreaux Series

  Easy Love

  Easy Charm

  Easy Melody

  Easy Kisses

  Easy Magic

  Easy Fortune

  Easy Nights

  The With Me In Seattle Series

  Come Away With Me

  Under the Mistletoe With Me

  Fight With Me

  Play With Me

  Rock With Me

  Safe With Me

  Tied With Me

  Breathe With Me

  Forever With Me

  The Love Under the Big Sky Series

  Loving Cara

  Seducing Lauren

  Falling For Jillian

  Saving Grace

  From 1001 Dark Nights

  Easy With You

  Easy For Keeps

  No Reservations

  Tempting Brooke - Coming Soon

  The Romancing Manhattan Series

  All the Way - Coming Soon

  Table of Contents

  Charming Hannah

  Copyright

  About the Author

  Other Books by Kristen Proby

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  About the Author

  Other Books by Kristen Proby

  Excerpt from Loving Cara

  Prologue

  ~Brad~

  Three years ago…

  “WOULD YOU LIKE ANOTHER glass of champagne?” I ask Hannah, the tall red headed doctor standing next to me. We’re at an exclusive party on Whitetail Mountain, with the owner of the ski resort and all of my closest friends.

  “One is enough for me,” she says with a smile, showing off her dimples. I can’t help but wonder if she has dimples above her ass as well. I’ve seen her around town since she moved here, taking a position as a doctor, and each time I see her the lust is swift and hard.

  She’s sexy as fuck.

  And I want her.

  But I’m also a gentleman. Seeing her here was an unexpected treat.

  I pass her a bottle of water and then walk with her out onto the deck where a fire is going to keep us all warm. The torch light parade is over, and people are beginning to leave. But I stand here with Hannah, leaning on the railing and watching people bustle between the two bars in the ski village.

  “It’s beautiful up here,” she murmurs.

  I nod and sip my bottle of water. “Do you like Cunningham Falls?”

  “It’s paradise,” she murmurs and then smiles up at me. “I know it sounds corny, but that’s what I think of it. The mountains, the small town, the people. I couldn’t love it more.”

  I feel the same way.

  But I’ve lived here all my life, so maybe I’m biased.

  “How long have you been a cop?” she asks.

  “Almost fifteen years. My dad is the police chief.” I shrug. “I never wanted to be anything else.”

  “Do you think you’ll be the police chief after he leaves?”

  I shrug again. My application is already in for it, but who knows if I’ll get hired?

  “We’ll see.” I hook her red hair behind her ear. My sister Jenna walks over to us, her coat wrapped around her shoulders.

  “I’m ready to head out, Hannah. How about you?”

  Hannah glances up at me. “I rode with Jenna. Looks like we’re ready to go.”

  “I can give you a ride,” I offer and Jenna’s eyes widen with surprise.

  “Oh, you don’t have—” Hannah begins but Jenna cuts her off.

  “That’s a great idea. I have some work to do this evening anyway, so if Brad can give you a lift, that’s perfect. I’ll talk to you later!” And with that, she waves and leaves Hannah with a stunned smile on her beautiful face.

  “Looks like you’re stuck with me.”

  “Are you sure you don’t mind?”

  I shake my head and lead her inside to gather our coats and say our goodbyes to Jacob and Grace, the hosts of the party. Once in my truck, Hannah gets comfortable in the leather passenger seat and sighs.

  “Are you okay?”

  “I’m tired,” she confesses. “I was at the hospital all last night, but I didn’t want to miss this party. I’m glad I came.”

  “I am too.”

  I concentrate on the slippery road that winds down the mountain to town. Once we’re on the main, better travelled street, I feel more comfortable. It’s been snowing heavily, and the mountain road is always tricky. But about a mile later, we come upon an accident.

  “Two cars,” I mutter and slow to a stop. I immediately reach for my phone to call it in, and Hannah has leapt from the truck, moving quickly toward the car with the most damage.

  Thank God it’s no one from the party.

  “Over here,” Hannah calls after I shove my phone in my pocket. She’s standing by the driver’s side of a small sedan, the door open, and the young woman driver is passed out against the steering wheel. “She’s unconscious, but she’s alive. I don’t want to move her until the paramedics get here. I don’t know what her injuries are. Will you stay with her while I check the other car?”

  “No need,” someone says from behind us. “I’m fine. My God, I couldn’t stop the car when I went into a full spin.”

  “It’s okay,” Hannah says, turning around and immediately taking her sca
rf off and pressing it to a bloody gash on the man’s forehead. “Hold this to your head. You have a small laceration there.”

  “I do?”

  “He’s in shock,” she says to me, just as we hear the sirens coming in the distance. “Paramedics are on the way,” she says to him and urges him to sit on the snow bank, holding the scarf to his head.

  The young woman is coming to, and when she looks around, she starts to cry.

  “It’s okay,” I say and rub my hand up and down her arm soothingly. “You’ve been in an accident, but help is on the way.”

  The next ten minutes are a blur as the ambulance arrives. Hannah rattles off a quick report of what happened and the paramedics load both of the injured drivers inside, then heads to the hospital. I stay an extra five minutes to help the officers on scene, and when Hannah and I are back in my truck, she says, “Take me to the hospital.”

  She doesn’t look tired now, and watching her on the scene was amazing.

  “Are you sure?”

  “I want to check on them before I go home,” she says. “I know I’m an OB/GYN, but they’re mine now.”

  I nod and pull into the emergency bay behind the ambulance. Hannah jumps out and I see her give a quick report to a doctor that walks up – one she appears to know – and it’s amazing to see her in her own element.

  I’ve never been more turned on in my life.

  She’s stunning, her blue eyes bright and red hair around her face. She’s a force to be reckoned with.

  After all of her reports are given to the doctors on staff, she blows out a breath and returns to me with a shy smile. “Sorry, I just needed to see this through.”

  “No need to be sorry.” I can’t keep myself from dragging my finger down her cheek. “Are you okay?”

  “Of course.”

  “Hannah!”

  Both of us turn at the sound of her name. A tall doctor, Drake I believe his name is, rushes to her and cups her face in his hands.

  “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. I wasn’t in the accident.”

  “Thank God.” He pulls her in for a hug, and it’s clear that they’re close. Intimate.

  Together.

  So while they’re hugging and she’s telling him all about what happened, I slip out the door to my truck.

  The sexy doctor isn’t available.

  Fuck.

  Chapter One

  ~Hannah~

  “I’M GOING TO DIE.”

  “I’m one hundred percent sure that you’re not going to die today,” my best friend, Drake, says with a smirk.

  A freaking smirk.

  “How do you know?”

  “I’m a doctor,” he says and reaches over to steal a donut hole from my plate. “I went to school for a really long time so I could tell hypochondriacs like you that you aren’t dying.”

  I narrow my eyes and watch him, sitting all smug like across from me. We’re at our favorite café in town, Drips & Sips, sitting outside for the first time this summer, now that the weather is finally nice enough to allow it.

  It’s a breezy seventy degrees, yet there is still some snow clinging to life at the top of the ski mountain that’s directly in my view.

  It doesn’t suck to live here.

  “You can’t tell just by looking at me that I’m not dying.”

  “Okay,” he says and takes a big bite of his scone. “Why do you think you’re dying?”

  “My low back has been killing me,” I reply. “I have twinges in the ovary area. I’m pretty sure I must have ovarian cancer.”

  “Or, you have a back ache and you’re ovulating,” he replies, and I want to slap him for being so flippant about it all.

  “Drake—”

  “Hannah Banana, I love you, more than you’ll ever know. But I’m going to say this to you, again, and it probably won’t be the last time. You’re an amazing doctor, but you never should have gone to medical school. You know too much. A twinge here and there isn’t cancer.”

  I try to speak, but he holds a finger up and keeps talking.

  “It isn’t. You’re a healthy thirty-five year old woman with a great career, ridiculously attractive friends, and you make enough money to buy yourself a pretty condo pretty much anywhere in the world. Stop buying trouble with the whole dying thing.”

  “You’re not that attractive,” I reply and fidget with the silverware on the tabletop, trying not to sulk.

  “Yes, I am,” he says and flashes his annoyingly perfect teeth at me.

  “I have been on my feet a lot lately,” I concede and pop a donut hole in my mouth. “Lots of babies decided to show up this week.”

  “There you go,” he says. “Not cancer.”

  I sigh and nod, feeling stupid. “Why do I do this to myself?”

  “Because you’ve seen first hand what illness can do. It’s scary.”

  “Also, being a doctor means that we’re confronted with our mortality all the time.”

  “True.”

  “I don’t think this is unusual.”

  “It’s not.”

  “So I’m not crazy.”

  “I didn’t say that,” he replies with a grin, and I finally laugh.

  “You’re supposed to be my best friend and make me feel better.” I kick out with my foot, connecting with his shin.

  “Ouch.” He laughs and rubs his shin. “You’re a violent woman, Hannah.”

  “Yeah, well, you can take it.”

  Suddenly Drake’s phone begins to ring.

  “It’s the hospital,” he says grimly. “This is Dr. Merritt.”

  He listens quietly for a moment, then tosses his napkin on the table and I know our breakfast is over.

  “I’ll be there in ten.” He ends the call. “Gotta run. Appendectomy.”

  “Good luck.” He reaches for his wallet, but I shake my head. “Go. I’ve got this. You get it next time.”

  “Thanks.” He smiles but his head is already in the surgery. He jogs over to his brand new Land Rover and speeds away, leaving me here in downtown Cunningham Falls to enjoy the morning sunshine and to eavesdrop on the couple who just sat down at the table next to ours.

  It’s not going well.

  “I can’t believe you’re doing this in public,” the brunette woman says with tears in her voice.

  “At least it wasn’t by text,” the man replies, and I frown, then hide my face behind my almost empty coffee mug. What a jerk.

  “So, why now? I thought it was going well.”

  There’s a long pause, and then the douchebag replies with, “I’m going to be brutally honest here. The sex just isn’t doing it for me.”

  “We haven’t even had sex yet,” she hisses, and he has the audacity to simply nod.

  “Exactly.”

  “You said you understood when I told you that I wanted to get to know you better first.”

  “Yeah, I thought you meant that you had a stupid three date rule or something. But it’s been a month, Penny, and nada.”

  “I’m relieved I didn’t have sex with you, and I regret the blow job.”

  “That was a delightful evening,” he says with a wink, and I silently will the woman to punch him in the throat.

  But she does something so much better.

  She stands, and says in the loudest voice possible without shouting, “No, Nick, your limp dick issue isn’t normal. You should see someone about that. Not to mention, you couldn’t find a woman’s g-spot with GPS and written instructions. You should probably see someone about that, too. Your inability to please a woman is embarrassing, and I need a real man in my life.”

  With that, she turns and stomps away, chin up, not a tear in sight. And I can’t help but stand and give her a slow clap, then turn and glare at Mr. Douchenozzle. He’s not smirking now, is he?

  He curses and rushes away in the opposite direction, and I sit back with what’s left of my coffee, ready to enjoy the last few moments before I have to go to the office.

  I tip
my face back to soak in some sunshine and revel in the mountain views. The fact that the snow is still holding on at the top is surprising for this late in the year.

  It was a particularly snowy winter, and by the time it started to melt, I’d seriously questioned whether I made the right choice in accepting the position here five years ago. I’d originally wanted to settle in a city, delivering a dozen babies a day. I love my job, and after putting in my time at big city offices, I didn’t know if that was for me, either. I want to develop a working relationship with my patients, not just shuffle them through the office, one after the other, as fast as I can.

  When Drake told me there was a position open here, I brushed it off, still not convinced that this was for me. I’d been here to visit, and while it’s beautiful, I didn’t think small town life was the answer.

  I’d left that behind when I was eighteen and finally able to escape the home life from hell for college. A full ride scholarship, for the first four years, followed by a mountain of loans that I’ve thankfully been able to pay down quickly. I don’t owe anyone anything, and I earned everything that I now have.

  But Cunningham Falls, Montana, is nothing like Wamego, Kansas. There are mountains here. Fewer bugs. More people. And that’s saying a lot, given that Cunningham Falls has fewer than ten thousand full time residents.

  This is also the biggest and bluest sky I’ve ever seen, when it isn’t winter anyway.

  And most importantly, there is no Randall Malone here. No, I ran far from that man and his liquor.

  His self destruction.

  No child should bear the burden of an alcoholic father. I don’t know if he’s dead yet. Part of me hopes so. I could do a search. With social media and Google being what it is, it probably wouldn’t be hard to find out.

  But I haven’t looked because honestly, it doesn’t matter. He’s not even a spot in the rear-view mirror anymore.