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Chapter 9
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2021-10-03 18:35:04Related chapters
The Nearness of You: The Thorntons Book 1 Chapter 10
Dawn peeked through the curtains when Harrison awoke. It only took him a moment to remember everything that had happened the night before, and it caused a wide smile on his face. Sara was still asleep, her breathing easy and slow, and he couldn’t help but inhale the scent of her hair. She murmured something but didn’t wake up.After they’d made love, Sara had told him she needed to get home, but he’d persuaded her to stay. She’d texted Ruth to let her know she’d be home before James had to get up for school, although Harrison had seen guilt etch her features.“He’ll never know that you were gone,” he’d assured her with a kiss.“You’re right. But that doesn’t stop me from feeling like a bad parent.”He kissed her harder, mostly because he didn’t want any kind of guilt to stain what had happened between them. Sara had kissed him back, and they’d made love a second time—slow and thorough, until they’d both exhausted themselves.He squinted at the alarm clock: it was close to five-thi
Last Updated : 2021-10-03The Nearness of You: The Thorntons Book 1 Chapter 11
When her classroom computer refused to boot up, Sara sighed. “Everyone, please take out your reading assignment and begin that while I try to get the computer sorted out.”Her third graders made a few murmurs, but otherwise obediently delved into their desks and pulled out the reading material she’d originally assigned as homework. When she saw that everyone was reading—or at least pretending to read—she called the front office.“Hey, Linda, can you send someone to my classroom to help me with my computer? It refuses to turn on. And yes, it is plugged in. Okay. Thanks.”She glanced at the clock. She really hated when she got off schedule, but you couldn’t plan with technology. It either worked, or it didn’t. She should’ve made certain to have a back-up plan in case her computer went on the fritz, but she needed it to show a video for a health lesson. Tapping her fingers against her desk, Sara was about to call Linda again when someone knocked on the classroom door.“It’s open!” Mad
Last Updated : 2021-10-03The Nearness of You: The Thorntons Book 1 Chapter 12
Lisa Thornton was, in a word, sulking. Harrison had chewed her out after the disaster with Kayla two weeks ago, telling her in no uncertain words that she was never to try to set him up on a date again. He’d been harsher with his mother than he’d actually intended, but remembering Sara’s face when she’d thought he’d been two-timing her had sealed that particular coffin.Now during the monthly family dinner, Lisa refused to give Harrison any of her attention beyond a passing remark or two. Caleb looked amused, while Jubilee looked like she wanted everyone to get along. Dave merely advised his eldest son to give his mother time to calm down. Lisa had a tendency to sulk longer than most people, but she would, in time, get over it.Or so Harrison told himself when Lisa ignored his request for her to pass the salt for a third time.“Here.” Caleb reached over, grabbed the salt, and handed it to Harrison.Lisa gave them both a peeved look. She hated when people reached across the dinner t
Last Updated : 2021-10-03The Nearness of You: The Thorntons Book 1 Chapter 13
“It’s beautiful,” Sara said in awe as she gazed out onto the lake. Wearing a wide-brim straw hat and sunglasses over a sundress, she looked springy and beautiful, her hair loose around her shoulders. Harrison steered the sailboat with a light touch, no particular destination in mind for the afternoon’s outing. With the shining sun and sparkling lake, it was like some kind of paradise.Or maybe it was the woman smiling up at him that made it a paradise. Sara seemed relaxed for once, and she looked younger as a result. It only made Harrison want her even more than usual. Did she not realize how beautiful she was when she smiled?A number of other people were on the lake today, although it was still fairly deserted, given the time of year. Boating season wouldn’t start for another few months, but Harrison liked to take advantage of any break in the rainy spring weather if he could. When the sun had risen this morning and promised to stay shining, he’d asked Sara if she’d like to go out
Last Updated : 2021-10-03The Nearness of You: The Thorntons Book 1 Chapter 14
“You look beautiful.” Harrison kissed Sara on the cheek before placing his hand on the small of her back. He guided her toward the front door of his parents’ home, which in Sara’s estimation, looked rather like the front door to a castle.His parents’ place was huge. She’d heard that the Thorntons’ house was palatial, but when they’d driven up the endless driveway to the house perched on a hill overlooking the lake, her breath had left her body. The house was an older Victorian with a wrap-around porch and painted a dark blue, sensible yet pretty at the same time. Sara had no idea how many rooms this place had—ten? or more? The front yard consisted of steps trailing up to the front door, while the yard itself brimmed with flowers and shrubbery, including hydrangeas that seemed to be bursting with white and blue blossoms.Her heart pounded so hard that she had to stop herself from clutching at Harrison’s arm to keep herself steady. Her nerves had dissipated somewhat after she’d agreed
Last Updated : 2021-10-03The Nearness of You: The Thorntons Book 1 Chapter 15
Harrison didn’t try to break the silence as he drove Sara back to his place. He should’ve known that taking her to a family dinner would be disastrous. Lisa had never supported his dating Sara, but he never could’ve imagined his mom would say something as terrible as that. He winced, anger bubbling up inside him again on Sara’s behalf.He didn’t know if he’d ever be able to forgive Lisa for her behavior tonight.Harrison’s home was situated about twenty minutes away from his parents’, a modern bungalow with floor to ceiling windows and a contemporary look that was the complete opposite of his parents’ aesthetic. He preferred clean lines and muted colors, and when he’d bought this house, he’d loved it because it didn’t look like something his mother would want to live in.Is my entire life just rebelling against my parents? he thought darkly. He helped Sara out of the car. She looked up at him with a defeated expression, which only made him angrier toward his mother.Once they were
Last Updated : 2021-10-03The Nearness of You: The Thorntons Book 1 Chapter 16
Sara had experienced a number of surprises in her life, but nothing quite surprised her as much as seeing Lisa Thornton waiting outside her school to speak with her.When Sara stopped in her tracks, James tugged on her arm. “What are you looking at, Mom?”It had been three weeks since the infamous dinner, and it had been three of the happiest weeks of Sara’s life. She and Harrison spent as much time together as possible, and he had taken her and James on a picnic near the lake last weekend. James had chattered the entire time about school, his friends, and anything else that popped into his head, but Harrison hadn’t seemed to mind. Sara couldn’t help but fall further in love with him when he interacted with her son. When James asked Harrison to show him how to fish one day, Harrison had said yes immediately, even asking Sara later if she would mind him taking James out for a guys’ day eventually.Kyle had never shown any kind of interest in his son, so seeing Harrison with James, a
Last Updated : 2021-10-03The Nearness of You: The Thorntons Book 1 Chapter 17
Harrison kneeled down in front of Delilah, one of his latest patients to go into remission from leukemia. “This is going to be the last time we see each other for a while,” he said, smiling. “You take care of your mom and dad, okay?”Delilah, with her red cheeks and lips, looked like a porcelain doll. Except her predilection of jumping in giant puddles and throwing mud at her siblings generally destroyed any comparison with a breakable doll. The chemotherapy had caused her blond curls to fall out, but Harrison could make out glints of peach fuzz on her head.The girl nodded solemnly, then reached inside her pocket to pull out some leftover Easter candy. “Thank you. My mom said I should say that. I wanted you to have some candy, too.”He bit his lip to keep a straight face. “Thank you,” he said in a serious voice.The candy was melted, but Harrison couldn’t help but feel that it was the best part of his week so far.As Delilah and her parents left his office, though, the depression
Last Updated : 2021-10-03
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The Nearness of You: The Thorntons Book 1 About the Author
A coffee addict and cat lover, Iris Morland writes sexy and funny contemporary romances. If she's not reading or writing, she enjoys binging on Netflix shows and cooking something delicious.Stay in touch!irismorland.comIris Morland’s MermaidsNewsletter Facebook Twitter BookBub Goodreads Instagram
The Nearness of You: The Thorntons Book 1 Also by Iris Morland
Say You’re MineAll I Ask of YouMake Me YoursHold Me CloseOopsie DaisyHe Loves Me, He Loves Me NotPetal PluckerWar of the RosesincludingThen Came YouTaking a Chance on LoveAll I Want Is YouMy One and OnlyThe Nearness of YouThe Very Thought of YouIf I Can’t Have YouDream a Little Dream of MeSomeone to Watch Over MeTill There Was YouI’ll Be Home for Christmas
The Nearness of You: The Thorntons Book 1 Enjoy this exclusive excerpt
“I hope you like sushi,” Caleb said after he and Megan were seated at a booth in the corner, “because otherwise tonight won’t be much fun for you.”Megan wrinkled her nose. “Lucky for you that I do like sushi. Although what would’ve happened if I’d said I hated it? Would you go somewhere else with me?”He heaved a deep sigh. “I guess. Although I would’ve judged you for it for the entire evening.”Laughing, Megan felt her nerves calm for the first time that evening. Ever since Caleb had come into The Rise and Shine and insisted that she go to dinner with him, she’d been a mess. Actually, she’d been a mess over him for what felt like an eternity. Now that she was sitting across from him, his dark hair tousled and his face showing the shadow of his beard already, she had to stop herself from practically crawling into his lap and eating him up. It didn’t help that he was wearing a button-up that brought out the green in his eyes, or that he looked at her like he could eat her up, too, i
The Nearness of You: The Thorntons Book 1 Epilogue
Sara smiled as she looked outside her kitchen window. “Look at this grasshopper,” Harrison was saying with all the seriousness of a true insect collector, “It’s huge.”She watched as James narrowed his eyes. “I’ve seen bigger,” he said in confident tones.Harrison seemed nonplussed, but with a devious smile, he placed the grasshopper on James’s shoulder. James squealed, especially when the grasshopper hopped into his hair. This resulted in Harrison plucking the offending bug from James’s hair, but not before both had collapsed to the grass in laughter.It was the beginning of summer, and with that came three months off for Sara and James. It also meant that Harrison was at their house as often as his schedule permitted. He’d hinted to her about moving in with him, but she didn’t want to uproot James after they’d just moved to this house, not to mention that she had Ruth to consider as well.“They look good together,” Ruth commented as she came to stand by the window. “You’d think h
The Nearness of You: The Thorntons Book 1 Chapter 19
When Harrison saw that Sara was calling him, his heart leapt into his throat and he almost dropped his phone on the hardwood floor of his bedroom. He swore, rustling around underneath the bed to grab his still ringing phone. He managed to pick it up a second before the call would’ve gone to voicemail.“Sara? How are you?” he answered in a rush.Silence. Then: “Harrison?”That was definitely not Sara’s voice. If he didn’t know better, it sounded like a little boy’s.“James?”“Yeah, it’s me. How did you know it was me?”Harrison sat down on his bed. “Call it a lucky guess. Why are you calling me? Are you okay? Is your mom okay?”James made a noise. Harrison couldn’t tell if it was a grunt, a laugh, or maybe just a six-year-old boy’s sound of frustration at stupid adults. “She’s fine. She doesn’t know I’m using her phone, though. So you can’t tell her. She gets mad if I use it without permission.”Harrison was tempted to ask how James knew her passcode, but then again, kids were s
The Nearness of You: The Thorntons Book 1 Chapter 18
“Mom, did you hear me? I said that I scored a goal today in PE.”Sara looked up from the cutting board where she was chopping carrots. James sat at the kitchen table, his chin in his hands as he watched her. “I’m sorry, what did you say?”“I said that I scored a goal today.”“That’s great, honey. Playing basketball?”He rolled his eyes. “You don’t score goals in basketball. It was soccer.”“Don’t sass your mother,” Ruth said as she entered the small kitchen. Wearing a purple blouse with matching purple pants, she looked like a veritable rainbow with her red hair.“Sorry. But, Mom, you’ve barely been listening to me since we got home today. Every day you look sad. Why do you look so sad? Is it because Harrison hasn’t come by and given you flowers?”Sara returned to her carrots, shaking her head. She hadn’t spoken to Harrison since that fateful night when she’d told him things were over between them. He’d called a handful of times afterward, but she’d ignored them. Soon, the calls
The Nearness of You: The Thorntons Book 1 Chapter 17
Harrison kneeled down in front of Delilah, one of his latest patients to go into remission from leukemia. “This is going to be the last time we see each other for a while,” he said, smiling. “You take care of your mom and dad, okay?”Delilah, with her red cheeks and lips, looked like a porcelain doll. Except her predilection of jumping in giant puddles and throwing mud at her siblings generally destroyed any comparison with a breakable doll. The chemotherapy had caused her blond curls to fall out, but Harrison could make out glints of peach fuzz on her head.The girl nodded solemnly, then reached inside her pocket to pull out some leftover Easter candy. “Thank you. My mom said I should say that. I wanted you to have some candy, too.”He bit his lip to keep a straight face. “Thank you,” he said in a serious voice.The candy was melted, but Harrison couldn’t help but feel that it was the best part of his week so far.As Delilah and her parents left his office, though, the depression
The Nearness of You: The Thorntons Book 1 Chapter 16
Sara had experienced a number of surprises in her life, but nothing quite surprised her as much as seeing Lisa Thornton waiting outside her school to speak with her.When Sara stopped in her tracks, James tugged on her arm. “What are you looking at, Mom?”It had been three weeks since the infamous dinner, and it had been three of the happiest weeks of Sara’s life. She and Harrison spent as much time together as possible, and he had taken her and James on a picnic near the lake last weekend. James had chattered the entire time about school, his friends, and anything else that popped into his head, but Harrison hadn’t seemed to mind. Sara couldn’t help but fall further in love with him when he interacted with her son. When James asked Harrison to show him how to fish one day, Harrison had said yes immediately, even asking Sara later if she would mind him taking James out for a guys’ day eventually.Kyle had never shown any kind of interest in his son, so seeing Harrison with James, a
The Nearness of You: The Thorntons Book 1 Chapter 15
Harrison didn’t try to break the silence as he drove Sara back to his place. He should’ve known that taking her to a family dinner would be disastrous. Lisa had never supported his dating Sara, but he never could’ve imagined his mom would say something as terrible as that. He winced, anger bubbling up inside him again on Sara’s behalf.He didn’t know if he’d ever be able to forgive Lisa for her behavior tonight.Harrison’s home was situated about twenty minutes away from his parents’, a modern bungalow with floor to ceiling windows and a contemporary look that was the complete opposite of his parents’ aesthetic. He preferred clean lines and muted colors, and when he’d bought this house, he’d loved it because it didn’t look like something his mother would want to live in.Is my entire life just rebelling against my parents? he thought darkly. He helped Sara out of the car. She looked up at him with a defeated expression, which only made him angrier toward his mother.Once they were
