Her Christmas Offer

By Marie Johnston

The celebrity vet is back in town.

Bunny’s high school crush has returned to town just in time for the holidays. Ethan, celebrity veterinarian to the stars, has even called her with an early Christmas present: his company wants to buy out her vet clinic. Sure, the clinic’s a little dated, the staff is clamoring for a raise, and the clientele is scattering, but she can’t trust a word out of Ethan’s perfectly chiseled mouth...even if it does wicked things to her when he stops talking.

Ethan’s arrogance drove Bunny away once, but twenty years hasn’t diminished his infatuation with the curvy veterinarian. This time, staying off Bunny’s naughty list will be even harder since he works for the company planning to buy her out. She thinks he’s nothing but a pretty face for a cold corporate machine. But he’s not here to dismantle her life’s work, he’s here to save it, because without a Christmas miracle, her clinic won’t survive another year.

The clock is ticking down, and not just until Santa’s arrival. Ethan needs an answer from Bunny before Christmas. A yes means putting coal in the stockings of all her employees, but a no means Ethan’s bosses will spend the new year driving her business into the ground—and she’ll have to give up the only man she’s ever wanted for Christmas.

Deck the halls and get your copy today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Marie Johnston
• Release date: Nov 26, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463010716

Marie Johnston

Marie Johnston is an award-winning, best-selling writer of paranormal and contemporary romance, and a RITA® Finalist. Marie decided to pursue her passion for writing and traded in her lab coat for a laptop to write her first book ever, Fever Claim. She lives in the upper Midwest with her husband, four kids, and old kitty. Other than hanging out with her family, Marie enjoys reading, movie dates with her hubby, getting outside on sunny days, and the all too rare - girls' night out.

Book preview

Chapter 1

I f you could give me a call back, Bonita, I’d love to discuss this opportunity for your clinic and the entire community in detail.

Bunny snorted as she hit delete before the man rattled off his name and number. She knew who he was. And she could probably summon his useless phone number from the depths of her memory, too. But since he’d addressed her as Bonita, he probably didn’t even remember they’d gone to school together. She was Bunny to everyone in town, but apparently to Ethan, she was Bonita Walker: single woman, owner of the only vet clinic in Moore—and an easy target.

Ethan Blake.

She glowered at the top of her desk. Papers cluttered the top and only added to her stress. And that plant. She cared for animals, not vegetation. The poinsettia an elderly customer had given her in appreciation for saving the infected extra toe of her polydactyl cat drooped in its cheerful pot. The poor thing should’ve gone to a better home, but Bunny hadn’t had the heart to confess her lack of a green thumb.

She was out in the field too much, didn’t have the time to read up on how to care for a poinsettia or to organize the mess on her desk. At least the office manager helped temper the angry pile of paper. Bunny owned the clinic, but she didn’t care to run it. Hanging out in barns with four-footed livestock and the ranchers, half of whom were her cousins, was preferable to office work. It was her calling. She was good at what she did. It was what she’d gone to so much school for.

Candice was good at payroll and health insurance and retirement plans. And she’d probably be laid off if the company Ethan worked for, Rural Veterinary Services of America, bought out Moore Veterinary Clinic.

Rural Vets wanted her answer by December twentieth. Five days before Christmas. What company would try to buy out another before Christmas?

What would she tell her employees? Merry Christmas and good luck not getting laid off?

And if she didn’t sell? Merry Christmas and sorry, no raises next year?

Hailee popped into the doorway. Ready? The vet tech took one look at Bunny’s expression and sidled into the office, closing the door behind her. Dr. B. again?

Bunny glowered at the phone. Ah yes, Ethan had been known as Dr. B. on his old TV show. She didn’t need the reminder that he was also a celebrity vet. He’s tenacious. I’ve told them I wasn’t interested.

You’re not even going to think about it? Hailee slid into the chair across the desk. The worn, faux-leather upholstery cracked. Bunny winced. They needed to upgrade their furniture. Advanced veterinary care was hard to envision within a clinic sporting an eighties afterglow.

I did think about it. Bunny had discussed the offer with the staff after Rural Vets first contacted her. Her employees clamored for the promise of higher wages and better benefits, while Bunny couldn’t get past the more efficient working environment that would leave a quarter of her staff out of work. And better pay and benefits weren’t guaranteed after the transition. Someone had to pay for the new and improved cost-effective services and it wouldn’t be the customers. It’s only good for the clinic in the short-term.

Hailee shrugged. As the tech who rode around in the field with Bunny, they’d already discussed the buyout in depth, but she was probably getting pressured for more information from the rest of the staff.

I think Ethan is trying to move back to Moore, Hailee said.

He might get his hands dirty if Rural Vets makes him a practicing veterinarian again instead of their spokesmodel. And what a model he was. Tall with dark, wavy hair, he’d filled out his once-lanky high school frame. How, Bunny didn’t know. Smiling for the camera didn’t require much physical effort. Maybe it was getting his eyes to twinkle that had burned all the fat off him.

I talked to his niece last month. She wanted to ask my opinion about his ex moving back to Normandy with the kids. How would the kids adapt and all that. Anyway, he wants to be close to them. Moore’s only an hour away. I guess he’s staying with his mom for now.

Ethan was in town? Bunny had been wandering around Moore in her winter boots and coveralls and Ethan freaking Blake was in town?

Wait. What was the other part Hailee mentioned?

He’s divorced?

She’d heard he’d gotten married after vet school. He hadn’t graduated that long after her even though he was three years younger. While she’d struggled to maintain high marks and stayed up late studying, he’d managed to finish a complete semester of college before high school graduation.

The star pupil. The star football player. He’d had it all. And he’d made sure she’d known it.

If you could give me a call back, Bonita… No, he didn’t remember.

And so what if he had? It wasn’t like they were friends, and they’d certainly never dated. Three years at that age had seemed like major cougar territory and she’d never gathered the courage to talk to Moore’s smartest running back.

Gosh, had that been twenty years ago already?

It’s amicable, Hailee answered. No drama, no arguing. He’s been on the market for three years now.

Mmm. Bunny forced herself to keep from fidgeting. She’d worked with Hailee too long. The tech was twelve years younger, but they’d become fast friends. Hailee knew her big animals, as well as when to give Bunny room to work or fume at the ranchers who still treated her like she was the ten-year-old who’d followed her dad on every weekend call.

Her phone rang. She glanced at the number. Hearing Ethan on her voicemail was unsettling enough. She didn’t need his deep timbre going straight into her ears and down to her—

Well, it was the front office anyway. She picked up.

Your cousin Cash called. He said he’s got the cow ready for you to examine today.

Sweet relief of work. Got it. We’re on our way.

She caught Hailee’s doe-brown eyes. The tech’s face was a mask; she was on duty, her mind already envisioning how the call would play out. She was an unflappable machine in the field, and that’s why she’d become Bunny’s personal vet tech.

They headed outside, grabbing winter jackets along the way. She crinkled her nose. It needed a washing. The old thing didn’t weather horse sweat, cow manure, and her own perspiration like it used to.

Bunny bypassed her pickup for the mobile unit that looked like a small RV. Each side was plastered with a black-and-white dairy cow’s face, and the rear had a classy picture of a horse’s behind with the tail brushed and gleaming. The unit was stocked with all the medical equipment she might need in the field, and she could even do vaccinations and physicals on the smaller furry animals.

Hailee drove while Bunny started a report. She didn’t get far, her mind constantly wandering back to Ethan’s last three messages. He’d caught