the gift of love (finding love book 9)  <p><strong>he just wants to grant a critically-ill child's wish. he wasn't supposed to fall in love.</strong></p><p>leah didn’t plan to still be searching for love so late in her twenties. her looks almost guarantee her success with the opposite sex, but quantity doesn’t mean quality. good thing she’s got a great career to fall back on. the only dark cloud on that particular horizon is the enigmatic dr. levy, the man she’s come to think of as a permanent thorn in her side. brilliant and handsome he most certainly is, but that doesn’t make up for the fact that he’s also stern, impatient, and bad-tempered. oddly enough, it isn’t their mostly negative encounters that linger in her mind. instead it’s the sadness she glimpses from time to time in his face. there’s no explanation for why she’s so bothered by this, nor can she imagine a situation where she’ll be in a position to discover the cause of his silent misery. all of which means she’s wasting her time. if anyone can take care of himself, it’s dr. levy.<br> <br>stratton had only been at hutchison clinic a short time before he heard about the beautiful nurse on the second floor. in his usual skeptical fashion he discounted the gossip until he saw leah for himself. he had no problem admitting that the reports of her beauty hadn’t been exaggerated, but appreciation was as far as he was prepared to go. love, romance and the so-called happily-ever-after only exist in the movies. putting your happiness in someone else’s hands is just begging to be hurt. he has a monthly alimony payment to prove it. getting his family and friends to understand his preference for bachelorhood isn’t so easy. while he appreciates their concern, he doesn’t need the complication of something with such overwhelming odds of failure. one ex-wife is enough for any man.</p><p>author's note: although this book is a romance novel, it deals with loss and grief. if you're sensitive to these issues, this might not be the book for you.</p>