When in Bloom
Southern Charm # 4
Release Date: February 20, 2015
Author Name: Nicole Dennis
Publisher: Totally Bound
Cover Artist: Emmy Ellis
Blurb(s):
Will the personal challenges of a former Army doctor and a brilliant florist get in the way of a chance at life and love?
Fighting type one diabetes since childhood, Jude Sebastian runs to prove he can live a normal life, until epileptic seizures begin to change his life. Even with Dawson, his medical alert Golden Labrador, at his side, Jude finds daily life difficult. He owns the floral shop Flowers in the Breeze, and designs everything from simple bouquets to elaborate themes for weddings and celebrations.
At the Shore Breeze Clinic, Jude comes across a man clearly suffering with a PTSD episode. A new arrival in the small town, Doctor Elliott Sheffield, a retired Army Ranger doctor, is looking for a second chance after what he saw in the Middle Eastern deserts.
Wanting a normal relationship, Jude tries to deny his disorder, but something is happening. He can’t regulate his sugars and his disorder worsens. When he returns to the clinic, Dawson alerts Jude to an oncoming seizure.
Categories: Contemporary, M/M Romance
Excerpt:
Cursing under his breath as the sky turned orange with
another incoming sandstorm, Dr. Elliott Sheffield hated the situation.
Though they’d tried to tie down the damn tent, the ferocious wind tugged the
straps, causing openings everywhere to expose the critical care unit to
the elements. Why had he ever agreed to come to this desert hell in
the Middle East?
After struggling through several storms like this one,
he knew the clouds could turn the sky black for at least seven hours.
Pushing out the noises of men calling out in pain and fearing for their lives,
he concentrated to save the man on the operating table. His hands and
forearms were covered in blood as he searched for the damned bleeder in the
man’s belly.
“Come on… Come on… Where the fuck are you?”
As the winds howled, Elliott felt the grit of the fine
layer of sand digging underneath the scrubs and within any openings of his
uniform. Along with the sweat dripping down his nape, the sand mixed with the
moisture and aggravated him. Damn stuff could get through any crack and crevice
of tent, Humvee or building. This place sucked when it came to performing
delicate surgery, but he didn’t have a choice. The soldiers were here. He
needed to be nearby to care for them.
“Shit… Got it,” Elliott said and made the necessary
stitches to close the nasty bleeder. He scrambled to put the
soldier’s innards back in place, flushed everything with saline to
cleanse, and stapled the exterior wound. “Cover him up tight. We’ll come
back and make it nicer.” He stepped back to let the other physician and nurse finish.
He peeled off and tossed the gloves. Removing the sweat-soaked mask, he
left the curtained-off operating theater and went back to the main
infirmary.
When the blasted Taliban insurgents had overrun the
garrison stationed at the American base, Elliott had transferred with most
of the surgical team to the Canadian–British combat hospital at the Kandahar
airfield.
It wasn’t any better here.
Elliott shoved a weary hand through his hair. He
scratched at the heavy bearded growth. Since his boots had hit the sand,
he’d adapted to the crazy, never-ending situations, difficult in the best of
conditions, but aggravated in the worse. He’d figured out ways to suture
and clean some of the most devastating wounds he’d ever seen in his career. He
could never get around the constant issue of infection from the damn sand.
“Fucking sand…”
The thump-thump-thump of helicopter blades
surrounded them. Everyone within the base knew the meaning behind those
blades. It was never good.
“We have incoming patients,” someone called out.
“They’re not friendlies! Take cover!” another soldier
shouted as bullets flew through the sand and darkness.
Crouching, riveted as soldiers rushed around, Elliott
thought about the patients. He knew their lives were at the most risk,
unable to defend themselves. When dark figures invaded the tent, Elliott
covered a nearby patient. Several loud blasts blew through the base as
bombs went off in rapid succession. He called out when searing heat scored
through his shoulder.
Blood and gore rose in front of his mind. Within
seconds, all the time it had taken to save these patients was destroyed.
“Doctor…”
“Doctor…”
Elliott blinked. He tasted the fine grit of the sand.
“Doctor…”
“Dr. Sheffield? Are you okay?”
When fingers touched his wounded shoulder, Elliott
screamed and pushed back until he hit something hard then plopped his ass
on the ground. The intensity knocked Elliott out of the intrusive flashback
from his five years spent in Kandahar. He was home in the States. Having
left Afghanistan and his ten year military career, he had now lived
and worked in Florida for the last nine months.
He lowered himself until his scrub-covered ass hit the
floor. He pressed his hands flat on the cool tile of the emergency room to
ground himself in reality. He looked around, goggled as other staff fought to
save a patient with a vicious belly wound. Two others moved toward him. He
held up a hand and hyper focused on the blood-covered blue latex.
“Are you with us, Elliott? Can you rise?” another
doctor said in a calming tone.
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m here.”
“Where were you?”
“Kandahar.”
“Do you know what set you off?”
“Insurgents overran the base and hit the clinic and
caused so much destruction among the patients and created more. It was the
appearance of the wound. I took care of so many of them. Most were ruined by
the fucking sand.” Elliott knocked his head against the wall.
“Easy. Can you stand? I’ll get you back to the
lounge.”
“I’m okay, Harry, take care of the patient.” Elliott
pushed himself to his feet and stripped the gloves from his hand.
He wobbled out of the room and down the hall.
“Dr. Sheffield?” a nurse called.
He held up a hand. “Taking ten.”
“But…”
Something toppled with a harsh clatter. The broken
glass caused Elliott to crouch again in a protective corner and cover his
head.
“Dr. Sheffield!”
Lost again in the sand, heat and blood, Elliott stayed
put in his cover position. What the hell was he doing here in civilian
life? He couldn’t avoid the truth of how he suffered from PTSD.
“Dr. Sheffield… Major…”
He lifted his head at the sound of his Army title.
Another doctor crouched in front of him. Through the haze of blood and
sand within his memory, he almost didn’t recognize the fellow soldier. James
was a friend, a psychiatrist and military officer with the Air Force.
“Major, are you with us?”
“Not an attack…” Elliott knew his gaze would be dead
and haunted since he saw it so many times in the mirror after one of the
dreams woke him.
“No, Major, a tray filled with containers crashed,”
James said. “Major, I need you to stand and come with me. We’ll have a
chat.”
“Yeah, guess I need to do that,” Elliott said as he
looked beyond James. “I kinda lost it there.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time a soldier covered his
ass,” James said as he rose.
Elliott followed
James, who chose to find someplace quiet and separated from the chaos of the
ER.
Sales Links: https://www.totallybound.com/when-in-bloom
Rafflecopter Prize: ‘E-copy of When In Bloom’
FACTOIDS
33 – Do you have characters who argue over whose turn it is next? All the time! *headdesk*
34 - What do you do to restore or refill when you need to recharge? A catnap with the Fat Cat. A book of a different genre or pairing. A movie.
Author Bio:
Ever the quiet one growing up, Nicole Dennis often slid away from reality and curled up with a book to slip into the worlds of her favorite authors. Over the years, she’s created a personal library full of novels filled with dragons, fairies, vampires, shapeshifters of all kinds and romance. Always she returned to romance. Still, there were these characters in her head, worlds wanting to be built on paper, and stories wanting to be told and she began writing them down whether during or after class. She continues to this day. Only recently has it begun to become fruitful, spreading out to let others read and enter her worlds, meet her characters, and see what she sees. No matter what she writes, her stories of romance with their twists of paranormal, fantasy and erotica will always have their Happily Ever Afters.
She currently works in a quiet office in Central Florida, where she also makes her home, and enjoys the down time to slip into her characters and worlds to escape reality from time to time. At home, she becomes human slave to a semi-demonic tortie calico.
Where to find the author:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NicoleDennis.Author
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/nicoledennis.author/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/nicoledennisaut/books-n-promo/
Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/nicoledennisauthor
Tour Dates: February 20, 2015
Tour Stops:
Parker Williams, Inked Rainbow Reads, Amanda C. Stone, Divine Magazine, BFD
Book Blog, MM Good Book Reviews, Molly Lolly, Bayou Book Junkie, Rainbow Gold Reviews, Havan Fellows, Lee Brazil, Fallen Angel Reviews, Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words, Elisa - My Reviews and Ramblings, Andrew Q. Gordon, Wicked Faerie's Tales and Reviews, Hearts on Fire, The Hat Party
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