Thirty days. Seven rules. One undeniable attraction.
After her fiancé skips out on her wedding, Murphy Clarke buries herself in her
life-coaching career and develops seven rules to protect her heart. Number one?
Never take vacations.
Oops. We find her on a month-long vacation in North Carolina, where she’s
alarmed by the sparks flying between her and an arrogant yoga instructor. She’s
confident, though, that she’ll be able to keep her other six rules… until she
isn’t so sure. Of anything.
Noah Andrews’s name was once synonymous with the San Francisco tech industry,
but his heart broke – both physically and emotionally. After a heart attack
sidelined his career, his long-time girlfriend dumped him. Why is he now so
attracted to this woman who seems to embody the life he left behind?
Witty and full of heart, MURPHY’S LAWS is a story of second chances, small-town
charm, and the beautiful chaos that comes when you stop following your own
rules… and start following love instead.
Chapter 1
Murphy
It looked as if the yoga class was about to end. Thank you,
Jesus. And not a moment too soon. Murphy Clarke hadn’t intended to spend the
third anniversary of her un-wedding in a yoga class some six hundred fifty
miles away from home. But somehow her annoyingly perky sister, TC, had worn her
down.
As a life coach, she couldn’t just take a month off, like
her sister, the teacher, could. Her responsibilities didn’t end at the
beginning of summer. She had developed a set of rules, and here she was,
breaking the first.
That’s how she found herself in Summer’s Beach, North
Carolina, staring at the boyishly handsome instructor who had a penchant for
torturing his students with contortionist poses.
She sat up and was nearly standing when—
“It’s time for our ending meditation. Take the stillness and
peace of this session as well as the silence into the world with you today.”
Murphy sighed as she sat back down. Apparently, rather
loudly. Not only did her sister and their friend, Eli, scowl at her, the
instructor fixed a spine-chilling stare at her with his steel-gray eyes. Again.
She had walked in ten minutes late—through no fault of her own. Well, her
client, Amelia, had a crisis and she couldn’t leave her hanging. She had to
take the call. He had flashed her one of those if-looks-could-kill stares .
Grimacing as she assumed the half-lotus pose, she placed her
index fingers to her thumbs and slowly breathed out an om. She checked
on her sister. Full lotus. Show off.
“Ommmm.” The instructor breathed out. The students
followed with their own om, strung out so it felt as if the entire room
was vibrating.
Brrnng! Brnng! Murphy’s cellphone broke the silence.
Damn it. She reached into her tote bag and fumbled for it.
Brnng! Brnng! Her cheeks burning, she rooted around
the large vacation bag and grabbed it.
“Murphy here. How may I help you…Josh…wait a second.”
She rose, gave the instructor a shrug, and walked to the
back of the room.
“No, I don’t think so. I think at this point in your life
you’re exactly where you need to be. Don’t you feel it?”
Josh Millcreek was one of Murphy’s first life coach clients.
His level of self-confidence fluctuated over the three years of their
relationship. This most recent crisis would end soon. She just needed to be
there for him. And vacation or not, that’s what she intended to do.
She held the phone in front of her, nearly parallel to the
floor as she talked. “You’re not your old—”
A shadow hovered over her phone. She blinked. Frowning, she
looked up to see the yoga instructor. His eyes bore into her. He snatched the
phone from her hand. She shivered as a spark of electricity skittered up her
arm. She swallowed hard.
“What the…?”
The yoga instructor grabbed her phone? The tall, handsome
instructor? The one with broad shoulders? And loosely curled caramel-colored
hair? She imagined if he’d ever smile, he’d probably have adorable laugh lines.
For a split second, she was lost in his penetrating eyes and those
shoulders—far too broad to belong to a yoga instructor.
Earth to Murphy. That, however, didn’t excuse him
from stealing her phone. She glowered at him.
“What the hell are you doing?” The nerve of this man.
“Ma’am” —Ma’am? He called me ma’am?— “we’re in
meditation. Silent meditation. Who are you talking to?” He nodded toward her
phone.
“My client, as if it’s any of your business.” She held one
hand out, the other on her hip as she waited for him to return her phone.
Instead, he raised it to his ear. What?
“Ms. Murphy is in meditation at the moment. I’m sure she’ll
return your call later.” He clicked the phone off and tossed it to her. It
bobbled in her hands before she clutched it in her palm.
“Let’s continue our closing routine.” He pivoted and walked
to the front of the room, leaving her to stare at his nicely formed butt. “Now
that I’ve put Ms. Murphy’s phone on airplane mode.”
“How dare you.”
Murphy grumbled to herself but returned to her spot and sat
down next to her sister. She placed her left ankle over her right thigh and
huffed.
“What is your problem?” TC kept her gaze on the instructor.
“I told you I didn’t want to go on vacation, but—”
“Ladies, are we ready? Ms. Murphy, you can talk about your
fear of vacations after the session.”
“I’m not afraid of—”
“Everyone take a deep breath. Think peace and stillness.
This is the attitude you’re taking with you as you leave the class.”
Terry
Newman is an award-winning author who writes romantic comedy with a splash of
fantasy.
Fueled by
coffee, peanut butter, and popcorn, she writes stories set in fictional towns
in northeast Ohio. Terry loves to place her characters in improbably
situations, then allows them to take over…uhm…guide the story.
She lives
in a small apartment with overflowing bookshelves, her muse, Moose, and all her
characters, in North Lima, a real town in northeast Ohio. And, yes, it does get
crowded at times.
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