I smirk and glance at Jace, remembering the way he sank his teeth into my side earlier. If I’m lucky, I’ll have marks from it later.
Another woman comes outside and sits in the shade of the gazebo. My mouth is suddenly dry, and I can’t remember my own name.
Because, holy shit, that’s Starla.
As in, Starla the megastar. The voice of a generation. She can sing, dance, act. You name it, she can do it.
“Hey, girl,” Starla says to Meg, then plops down in a chair and sighs. Her hair used to be bleach-blond and short, but it’s grown long and is auburn now. She’s a tiny, petite woman, yet a powerhouse all at the same time.
I saw her Belladonna tour several years ago, and I’ve had a massive girl crush on her ever since.
I had no idea that she’d be here today.
“Starla, this is Jace and Levi Crawford, Wyatt’s brothers, and Joy Thompson.”
“Hi,” Starla says with a kind smile.
“Pleasure,” Jace says as if he’s meeting anyone, and Levi just nods.
I can’t even remember how to say words, so I just smile.
“So, what do you do, Starla?” Levi asks, pulling me out of my speechlessness. I stare, wide-eyed at Jace, but he doesn’t seem to know who she is either.
They’re idiots. Have I taught them nothing?
I’ve failed them.
“I’m a musician,” Starla says with a smile, tilting her head and hooking a piece of her hair behind her ear. Meg and I glance at each other.
“So, do you play the piano?” Jace asks.
I want to go hide in the playhouse. I can’t believe them.
“I do,” she says. “I play the guitar, too.”
“That’s awesome,” Levi says. “But what do you do to pay the bills?”
“Are you kidding me?” I ask at last, staring at both of them with disgust, then turning to Starla. “I apologize for them. They don’t get out much.”
“No, it’s actually really fun,” Starla says with a laugh and turns back to the guys. “The music gig pays the bills.”
“That’s fantastic,” Levi replies with a nod.
“What do you do?” Starla asks him.
“I’m a detective,” he says.
“Oh, do you work with Matt?” she asks.
“Yes, in a different department, but also for the Seattle PD.”
“Small world,” she says.
“Do you really not know who she is?” I ask Jace, who glances at me and gives me a wide-eyed look that says he’s lost.
I sigh, pull up my phone and find Starla on Wiki, then send him the link. He nods when he pulls it up on his phone, and then smiles down at me.
“Hi, guys,” Meredith says as she joins us. “I’m so glad y’all came. There’s food inside, but Will is already loading a plate so there may be none left by the time you get in there. I, however, am not eating much.”
“Why?” I ask her.
“Because we have a show tonight and it always makes me nervous.” She smiles and glances at Starla, who nods her head. “You guys have to come! Starla’s playing in town, and Jax and I get to dance with her, just like the good ol’ days.”
“I’m in,” I say immediately. Jace and Levi nod, not that I would have let them say no. We’ve just been invited to a Starla show. “And now I think I could use some food.”
I jump up, hurrying inside, hopeful that Will is still by the food. Of course, he’s married, and I’m in a relationship, and I’m just silly.
But holy fuck, he’s hot.
And when I move into the dining room where the food is set up buffet-style, I come to a screeching halt.
Will is holding a sleeping baby girl against his shoulder as he dishes up a plate. For a mere mortal, it would be difficult, but this is Will Montgomery we’re talking about. He’s balancing the baby and dishing up his plate effortlessly. And when he turns his head to kiss the baby’s cheek, I’m pretty sure my ovaries explode.
Damn. What is it about a man holding a sleeping baby?
“Hi, Joy,” Jules says when she sees me. “Come on, we have tons of food. I hope you’re hungry.”
“I am definitely hungry,” I agree. “And that baby is beautiful.”
“Thanks,” Will says with a proud smile. “I made this. Her name is Erin.”
“Yes, he made her all alone,” Natalie says, rolling her eyes.
“Nah, Meg helped.” Will kisses the baby’s head again. “Do you have kids, Joy?”
“No.” I shake my head as I set a pulled pork slider on my plate. “I have a busy veterinary clinic, and I’m not sure I have time for kids.”
“You can be successful and have kids,” Jules says. “It’s work, but it’s possible.”
“Well, I’m not in that position right now. But you never know.”
“You never know,” Jace says from behind me, startling me. I spin and find him smiling, not irritated in the least. “That looks good.”
I take a bite of the slider. “Delicious.”
“Wasn’t talking about the food.”
I blush, aware that we’re not alone, and I don’t know the Montgomery family well. But Will laughs as he walks past Jace.
“Good one, dude. You’re going to fit in just fine.”
“So, she was engaged,” I inform Jace after the show as we watch Starla take photos and sign autographs during her post-show meet and greet. We’re with Meredith and Jax, Jules and Nat, and most of the Montgomery clan as we wait for Starla to finish up and celebrate with us.
“Was?” Jace asks.
“Yeah. His name was Rick. He was a race car driver and died in an accident just a few months before their wedding date. It was really sad.”
“That’s horrible,” Jace says. Levi stands a few feet away, watching Starla and her fans closely.
“What the fuck is her security doing?” he demands. “Do they always let people touch her like that?”
“She doesn’t seem upset,” I say, watching as she says goodbye to the last person, takes a deep breath, and then walks over to us with a tired smile.
“That was fucking epic,” she says, offering her fist to the others for a fist-bump. “Seattle always rocks the house. And having Mer and Jax with me again was just . . . amazing.”
“It was wonderful and humbling,” Meredith says with a laugh. “I’m reminded that I had two babies and haven’t toured in about five years.”
“You kicked ass,” Starla assures her.
Jace and I are good at being wallflowers. We like to people watch, always have. We drink, stand together, and take everything in, then talk about it all after the event is over.
The good thing about tonight? It’s loud enough that we can talk about it in real-time.
“Your brother has the hots for Starla.”
Jace frowns. “How can you tell?”
“Seriously? Look at him. He’s been watching her like she’s the president and he’s the secret service all night.”
“The secret service doesn’t watch the president,” Jace says, shaking his head. “They watch everything but the president, in case they have to jump into action.”
“Okay, he’s been watching her like she’s a chocolate cupcake and he wants dessert real bad.”
Jace snickers. “He does enjoy a chocolate cupcake.”
We watch in avid fascination as Levi approaches Starla, and they step to the side so they can speak privately.
“I wonder what he’s saying,” Jace says.
“Let’s do the lip-sync game,” I suggest and take another sip of my martini. “Oh, Levi, you’re so big and strong. I love that leather jacket you’re wearing.”
“Yes,” Jace says, playing along, “my jacket is impressive. But you should see what I have going on under it.”
“Really? Do you have muscles? Tattoos? Are you packing heat?”
“I do get very hot in the summertime, wearing this jacket.”
I spit my drink out in laughter, then nudge Jace with my hip. �
��Maybe you should take your jacket off.”
“No, I need to keep it on, to look mysterious. You sure are pretty. When are you going to sing?”
“Aww, you’re making him sound stupid,” I protest, frowning up at Jace. “We already heard her sing.”
“He is stupid,” Jace says with a laugh. “Okay, she’s talking now. You go.”
“I think we should go back to my place. I’ll play my favorite playlist for you.”
“Is that all you want to do?” Jace asks. “We could take a shower, and I could show you the size of my gun.”
I giggle and then gasp. “Wait. Holy shit, they just traded phones. Your brother just snagged Starla’s number.”
“Atta boy,” Jace murmurs.
“Levi has game,” I say, impressed.
“I taught him everything he knows,” Jace says, puffing out his chest, and I dissolve into laughter.
“You’re so full of shit.” I shake my head and take a sip of my drink. “You don’t even know how to spell game.”
“I’m hurt.” He covers his heart with his hand. “Truly devastated.”
“There, there.” I pat him on the cheek, putting some force behind it. “I’ll make it up to you later.”
“I don’t know, you’re in a rough kind of mood.”
“I’ll be gentle with you.”
He sweeps me up into his arms and kisses me soundly, then plants his lips next to my ear in that way he does when he has something just for me to hear.
“I’m not going to be gentle with you.”
“Thank the baby Jesus.”
~Joy~
“Room two needs her temperature taken again, please,” I say to Susan, one of four techs on the staff today. “And three needs some immunizations drawn. I made a note in her chart.”
“Done,” she says with a smile. “You have a visitor in your office. He’s hot and he brought lunch.”
I sigh and throw my latex gloves into the trash. “I don’t really have time today.”
“Take twenty. I’ll draw up the meds and take the temp. Dr. Myracle is caught up on his patients, so we’re not behind today.”
“Well, that is a miracle,” I reply with a wink, wash my hands, and hurry into my office.
Jace is sitting at my desk, eating a burger from Red Mill. “Hungry?”
“So hungry, and I have seventeen minutes.” I root around in the bag and retrieve my burger and fries, digging in immediately. “Mell me mm happnn.”
Jace cocks a brow and chews his fries. “Come again?”
“Tell me what happened,” I repeat after I swallow. “At your meeting.”
He shrugs one shoulder. I can see by the tense lines in his face that it didn’t go the way he wanted. Jace had his second meeting with the attorneys this morning.
“More of the same,” he says. “They think they’re closer to getting the family to settle out of court, and to say that I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Do they want money? Is that what this is?”
He shoves a fry into his mouth. “Maybe. In their shoes, if I was convinced that the doctor caused the death of my father, I wouldn’t settle. It wouldn’t be about the money for me, it would be about proving that the doctor was in the wrong.”
“Right. So, if they’re willing to settle for a certain amount of money, which I’m assuming isn’t peanuts, and say you did nothing wrong, it tells me they’re just after the money.”
“Exactly.”
I sigh and chew on my burger. “I hate that.”
“Me, too.”
“I’m going to have to run for about ten miles after this burger,” I say with a smile. “But damn, it tastes good.”
“You work hard, you’ll burn it off,” he says and scowls. “I, on the other hand, need to step up my workout game since I’m not working. I don’t want to lose these abs that you seem to enjoy.”
“I’m not worried,” I say, waving him off.
“You’ll still love me with a dad bod?”
I laugh and toss my wrappers into the paper bag, then pull out a mirror to make sure I don’t have anything stuck in my teeth before I stand. “You won’t have a dad bod. If we’re going to your house tonight, do you mind picking up Carl from my place? I don’t want him to be alone all night.”
“I can do that,” he says with a smile. “I already got a litter box for him.”
“You did?” He smiles, making my stomach clench. “You’re so good to me.”
I lean in to quickly kiss him, but he yanks me into his lap and kisses the fuck out of me.
“I have to remember how to be a doctor,” I remind him when he comes up for air. “And I can’t do that when you kiss me that way.”
“I’m not sorry,” he says with a satisfied grin as I maneuver my way out of his lap. “Have a good day, dear.”
“See you later.”
I hate keeping my patients waiting, even if it was just sixteen minutes. I do feel better after eating something, though.
“How is Daisy?” I ask as I walk into room two. Daisy, a Great Dane weighing in at almost two hundred pounds, hurries over to say hello to me.
“I think she might have eaten socks. Again,” her owner, Alec, says with a sigh. “And she obliterated my carpet and subfloor the other day.”
“Did you leave her alone all day again?” I ask as I feel around on her abdomen.
“I have to work,” he insists, “so I can pay for all the damage she’s doing to my house.”
“She needs chew toys that are safe for her,” I remind him and frown. “Yeah, there’s something here.”
“Shit,” he mutters, rubbing his forehead. “Another surgery?”
“Let me do an X-ray to see how big it is, but if it might obstruct her intestines, yes, she’ll need surgery again.”
“Fuck,” he whispers. “I don’t know if I can keep her.”
“I warned you when you adopted her that she would grow to be the size of a small horse and that she would be difficult for the first few years until she mellowed out.”
“I know.”
“And you didn’t believe me.”
“I thought the kids would help with her more,” he admits. He’d divorced from his wife, and as an apology, he bought his kids a dog. “Not sure why, considering they only see me on the weekends.”
“Maybe Daisy could go back and forth with the kids?” I suggest, but he shakes his head.
“My ex is allergic,” he says. “She’s already pissed that the kids come home with dog hair on their stuff.”
“If you decide to rehome her, please don’t surrender her to the animal shelter,” I plead with him. “The odds of her being adopted there are slim, due to her size.”
“I’ll let you know first,” he says with a nod. “But let’s find out what the damages are today.”
“Okay, I’m going to take her back for an X-ray real quick, and then I’ll bring her back to you.”
He nods, and I take Daisy’s leash, leading her through the back door of the exam room to our work area. This is where we do X-rays, blood draws, and kennel the patients that have to stay with us longer than a few hours.
“Daisy needs an abdominal X-ray,” I inform Susan. “Can you help me with this real quick?”
“Sure,” she says, setting aside what she was doing and walking with me to the X-ray machine. As usual, she talks while we work. “I have a question.”
“Shoot.”
“Why do we have to change the way we store the surgical instruments?”
I frown at her over Daisy’s back as I adjust the camera on the dog’s belly.
“We don’t.”
“According to Dr. Crawford, we do.”
I blink, confused. “Did he tell you that?”
She nods as we take the photo and then adjust Daisy and the machine for another view. “He was looking at the instruments and told us to switch it up because it would be more convenient for you and the other doctors during surgery. I’m sorry if the way we’ve b
een doing it has been a problem for you during procedures.”
I take a deep breath and then blow it out, trying to keep my temper at bay. “You don’t need to change anything. I like it exactly the way it is. Hell, I trained you all to do it that way because it’s the way I prefer it.”
She nods, clearly not happy that Jace made himself at home in my clinic, and I agree with her.
Once Daisy is finished with the X-ray, I turn to Susan. “Will you please take her back into room two. I’ll be there in just a few moments to go over the X-ray with Alec. I’m going to have a quick chat with Jace.”
“You bet,” she says, leading a happy Daisy away from me.
I go in search of Jace and find him in my operating room, looking under the sink.
“It’s really clean under here,” he says without looking at me. “I’m impressed.”
“Surgery requires cleanliness,” I remind him, and he glances up in surprise.
“I thought you were Susan.”
“No.” I prop my hands on my hips. “What are you doing, Jace?”
“Just looking around,” he says casually. “I didn’t think you’d mind.”
“Well, I do.” His head whips up in surprise. “Jace, you’re not a vet. I need my surgical instruments the way they are for the kind of surgery I do. This is my clinic, not Seattle General.”
“Hey, I was just—”
“I know,” I interrupt. “But I need you to go, please. I’ll see you tonight.”
He holds up his hands, clearly hurt, and marches away, through the door and out of the clinic without a word.
I feel bad for about three seconds. He was just trying to help. But he can’t just come in here and take over. This is my business. This is my staff.
So, I hurry back to give Alec the bad news of another surgery to remove socks from his dog’s abdomen, determined to worry about Jace later.
I’m bone-tired. It’s three hours past the normal end to my day. I had to perform surgery on poor Daisy, and had two more emergencies come in.
I’m on call tonight, and I’m praying that no one has any needs overnight. I could use a good night’s sleep.
First, though, I need to make up with my boyfriend. Because even though I wasn’t in the wrong, I did hurt his feelings, and I hate that with every fiber of my being.
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