by Soraya Lane
When the car stopped and her driver smiled at her in the rearview mirror, she smiled back, gripping the door handle before finally pushing it open. She knew the drill. The driver would usually open the door and pass her bags to her, but today she couldn’t wait. She needed to gulp in the fresh air and fill her lungs for a moment. This was the kind of thing she did often, traveling with the team and being ferried around in nice cars and private jets. Only the jet was usually filled with the entire team and some of the support crew, not with a single handsome cowboy who was driving her crazy just thinking about him.
Lauren fixed her smile and put on her game face. I am a professional. I am great at my job. I can do this. She’d landed one of the most coveted jobs in her industry as physical therapist for the Texas Rangers—she needed to hold her head high and treat Tanner the same way she’d treat any of the players she worked on.
Shit. There he was.
The door of the other car opened and she watched as Tanner stepped out. His cast was gone and she saw big boots, tapered jeans, and a plaid shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Followed by big shoulders, brown hair that was just a touch too long, and when he turned, eyes that made every part of her turn to liquid.
“Hey,” he called out, eyes traveling up and down her body, making her blush. Her cheeks ignited and she was certain even her scalp was flaming red in response. Her only saving grace was that he might not be close enough to notice.
“Morning,” she said, pleased that her voice sounded clear. She’d expected her greeting to sound as shaky as she felt.
“Your luggage,” a voice from behind said.
Lauren turned and took the suitcase on wheels from the driver along with her smaller duffel bag. “Thanks.”
She stood and waited as Tanner opened the trunk of his car himself, waving the driver away. He was limping slightly, still favoring his bad leg, and even though it was only natural, she could see that he was trying hard to stay upright and not show it. His shoulders were straight and his back was even straighter as he turned, suitcase on the ground.
“Ready?”
Lauren nodded. “Ready.”
She wheeled her suitcase to the stairs that lead up to the door, and when a pretty young woman dressed in uniform appeared and waved at the top of the stairs, the lump in Lauren’s throat slowly disappeared. She was going to be fine. This was just a work trip, nothing more, nothing less. This was no different than the trips she took with her team, only on this one she would have a whole lot of time for herself.
“Leave your bags there and I’ll take care of them,” the attendant called out politely.
Lauren left her case on the tarmac but carried her duffel bag with her. She had her Kindle in there, and her phone, and other bits and pieces she might want on the flight.
“Welcome, Ms. Lewis,” the attendant said, her smile warm as she touched her arm and gestured inside the plane. “It’s a pleasure to have you flying with us today.”
She smiled her thanks and chose a seat, putting her bag down and then dropping into the big, cream-leather chair. Flying coach would be awful now that she was used to private jets. She stifled a laugh. She got how stupid that sounded and would never say it out loud, because she wasn’t the type to ever have the chance to fly private if it wasn’t for work. Her sister would smack her around the back of her head if she ever confessed her thoughts to her, and she’d deserve it.
Tanner was on board now, she could feel his presence even though she was looking out the window. His body moved past her and she heard him settle into the seat across from her. She took a breath and turned her head, saw that he’d extended his left leg out straight, the denim stretched tight across his thigh.
“Not sure if you were sent an itinerary, but we’ve got a one-hour layover in Hawaii to refuel,” Tanner said, his eyes meeting hers briefly before looking away. “We’ll be in here for the better part of fourteen hours.”
“Hope you’ve got a good book,” she mumbled, not sure what else to say.
“I’m more of a movie man myself.”
Her face went red again. She should have known that. When they were at school she was always trying to get him to study more, but he was more interested in kicking back and watching her study, his slow smile teasing her whenever she looked up at him. And when they had a night alone, they’d always start out watching a movie, before Tanner would make a move and they’d end up making out on the sofa. Or his bed.
The door closed and the engine noise increased. Lauren looked up when the attendant reappeared, holding a silver tray with two glasses of champagne perched on top.
“Would either of you care for a drink?”
Lauren eyed the bubbles, knowing she should decline and ask for an orange juice instead, but right now she was tempted to say yes. To hell with it. She nodded and extended her hand. “Thank you,” she said, holding the stem of the tall glass and watching as Tanner shook his head and asked for a beer instead. She never usually drank when she was on the clock, but right now she needed something to settle her nerves. Besides, it reminded her of the fun night she’d had on Friday with her sister and Casey, and she’d made it clear to Mia that she’d work on Tanner during her vacation. She was technically on holiday whenever she wasn’t engaged in Tanner’s rehabilitation.
Happy birthday to me, she thought, raising her glass and taking a sip. The bubbles were cool and delicious on her tongue, and she sighed as she closed her eyes for a moment and leaned back in her seat. Today was the day she turned thirty, so if she didn’t deserve a drink now, then when?
She was on a private jet about to fly to one of the world’s most beautiful countries. There was going to be white sand and vivid blue ocean greeting her every day, the sun was going to be on her shoulders as she worked, and she was going to come back feeling amazing.
Lauren glanced at the hulking cowboy drinking his beer across from her and took another sip of champagne. She just had to stop feeling like a teenager again in his presence and show him the woman she’d grown into. Why was it that merely being near him was making her feel like a girl? She listened to him thank the attendant for his drink when she returned, and politely tell her that they’d ask if they needed anything, so she was welcome to relax during the flight.
Typical. He could be the world’s biggest idiot and behave recklessly over and over again, but he was unfailingly polite and never acted like he came from wealth the size of Texas.
It was one of the things she’d always loved about him.
And still did.
* * *
Tanner slowly swallowed his beer and stretched out his ankle. If he was honest, it hurt like hell when he flexed it, and it was the one reason he was trying so damn hard to be polite to Lauren. He needed her help, more than he wanted to admit, and when he’d asked around over the past week, everyone had sung her praises. Then when his cast had come off, he’d known there was no way he could cancel their trip. He needed her.
The truth was, he was desperate to get back on a bull. He missed the adrenaline, missed being on the circuit, and his greatest fear was that when the season started again, he’d be sitting on the sidelines—and that was not a place he wanted to be.
“I requested your latest ankle scans this morning,” Lauren said, her soft voice jolting him from his thoughts.
“What did you think?”
She smiled when she eventually looked at him, and he liked it. He’d hated her for so many years—or more correctly hated what she’d done to him and how she’d made him feel—but looking into her eyes and seeing her warm smile, it made it damn hard to hate her now.
“I think you have more soft tissue damage and ligament issues than I’d hoped for, but it’s only to be expected.” She chuckled. “I’m used to plenty of soft tissue problems, just not ones that occur from crushing. None of my players have come into contact with a fifteen-hundred-pound opponent, thank goodness.”
Tanner cracked up and took another pull of his beer. “I’ve been damn l
ucky to go this long with so few injuries. Guess my lucky streak couldn’t go on forever.”
“Anything else that’s been niggling you? Any other pain that you’ve been putting up with since before the accident?” she asked. “Aside from the general aches and pains we discussed the other day?”
Tanner looked down at his wrist and gripped the beer bottle a little tighter, feeling the pinch of pain that he’d become used to living with. He couldn’t pretend that it wasn’t a big problem, because it was.
“My wrist,” he admitted. “I hurt it damn bad that day, but before then the joint had felt, well, a bit sticky I guess. It just never felt quite right and it still doesn’t.”
“Hmm,” she made a low mumbling sound in her throat. “I know this sounds crazy, but you don’t have any footage of you riding, do you? It’d actually help me if I could see the way you hold yourself and get a better understanding of your sport. I like to visualize what I’m trying to achieve for my clients so I can see where they want to be, what they need to be doing.”
He raised a brow. “You’re serious?”
She nodded. “Deadly. Is that a problem?”
Tanner shrugged. “No problem.” He put his beer down on the table and opened up the small bag beside him, pulling out an iPad. “You want to see the fall, too?”
He heard her sharp inhale and it surprised him. Did she not want to watch the moment he got hurt? He’d seen it and it was brutal—there was no sugarcoating that the accident could easily have killed him—but surely it was something she needed to see?
“Yeah,” she murmured. “Please.”
Tanner clicked on the video clip and passed it over to her, extending his arm out. When her fingers closed over the device, her eyes darted upward and met his and he couldn’t help staring at her. How was she so damn beautiful? How had she managed to get better looking with age? Her skin was creamy, a result of the winter weather and her probably not getting outside as much as he did on a daily basis, but he knew that after a few days in Fiji she’d be lightly golden and tanning darker. Years ago they’d spent hours horseback riding under the sun, lying in grassy fields on long summer days, and her legs had been tanned as dark as his arms. She’d always be in cut-off shorts, even out riding, and he still remembered the feel of her soft skin beneath his fingertips.
Tanner sucked in a breath and let go, pushing back into his chair and looking away. He reached for his beer and drained half the bottle.
Lauren was out of bounds. She’d broken his heart once and he was never, ever going to let her or anyone else do that to him ever again.
He shut his eyes as the video started, knowing which one it was. She was watching him take the title the year previous, the crowd erupting into cheers as he rode to victory in Las Vegas. The year before he’d placed second, but that was his year, the day he’d beaten out every other competitor and taken home the biggest prize. He finished his beer as that video ended and another started. He counted down, waited for it, that moment when the crowd went silent. When everything changed. This video was the one that gave him nightmares.
Thump. He could feel himself hitting the ground all over again, his back making contact with the hard surface. Crunch—his ankle making that sickening sound. Rip—his skin tearing open as the horn of the bull had slipped straight through him.
The inside of the jet went silent then and he listened to Lauren put the iPad down. The jet fired to life then and started down the runway, and Tanner shut his eyes again, refusing to look over at Lauren even though he could feel her watching him.
“You having nightmares about this?” she asked in a low voice as she glanced over at him.
He could have lied and said no, but it wasn’t like he was trying to impress her. “Yeah, you could say that.”
“And does it put you off getting back out there?” she asked. “Because I’m guessing, and please tell me if I’m wrong, that the reason I’m here is to get you back up on a bull again?”
He nodded. “Right again.” He paused, looked at her, and tried to read the expression on her face. “You going to give me a lecture about how I should give up and do something safer?”
Lauren held up her hands. “Hey, I’m not your girlfriend and I’m not your mother. You want to make a living climbing onto a bull and having your teeth rattled out of your head? Go for it. This is all about you, Tanner. That’s why I’m here.”
His girlfriend. He winced and finished his beer. “So, talking about being my girlfriend, what have you been doing this past decade? Aside from landing a job in pro sports?” He should have changed the subject, but she was the one who’d brought it up.
“Tanner, look,” she said as he watched her slim fingers clench around the stem of her champagne flute. “What I did to you, the way I ended things, I’ve always regretted how it happened. I think we need to get all that out in the air now instead of letting it fester anymore.”
He shook his head. “Seriously? You think now is the time to take a walk down memory lane?”
Her sigh was loud, and she shook her head. “Maybe we should get everything out now so we don’t have to deal with it again.”
Tanner grunted. “Look, far as I can see, you decided I wasn’t good enough for you or something better came up and you ran for the hills. Some warning would have been nice, but hey, we were teenagers. I don’t know why I expected any different, but I did.”
The look she gave him was pain mixed with shock. Maybe he’d overstepped.
“You know what, how about we start with what you’ve been up to since college,” he said, when a minute later she was still silent. “That might keep things a little more civil.”
Her stare was cool now, and when her eyebrows arched high and her eyes narrowed, he knew he’d struck a nerve. “You want to know what I did after college?”
“Sure. Seems like as good a place as any to start.” Tanner stared down at his bottle and wished he hadn’t drunk it so fast. The attendant wouldn’t be able to get him a new one until they’d finished their ascent, so he should have made it last. “While I was starting out on bulls and trying to heal my broken heart, how were you doing?”
Her laugh was low, and he watched as she sat back and drained her champagne glass until there wasn’t a drop left. “You know what, Tanner? I put on my big girl panties, I worked hard, and I never looked back.”
Chapter 4
LAUREN dug her nails hard into her palm as she fisted her hand. Dammit! Why did she have to let him get to her like that? And why had she snapped back such a snarky reply?
“Maybe we should find a new subject then,” Tanner said, his voice softer than she’d expected. “I know I was a jerk the other day, but right now I’m actually just trying to make conversation.”
She took a deep breath, eyes shut, before facing him. “Yeah, I know. I don’t know where that came from.”
His laugh took her by surprise. “It was pretty darn funny though, I’ll give you that. I’m guessing those kind of pithy statements are how you manage to hold your own with a team of jocks.”
The atmosphere in the plane changed as quickly as it had soured. “You really think it was pithy?”
He grinned. “Don’t go getting a big head, but yeah, maybe I did. Now what do you say about another drink?”
“I’d say it’ll be my last, otherwise I’ll be drunk and then hungover all on the same flight, and that wouldn’t be pretty.”
Lauren pushed her shoulders down and wondered what the warm, slow feeling spreading through her was. She stared out the window into fluffy white clouds, already imaging how good her second glass of champagne would make her feel.
Relaxed. That’s what the unusual feeling was. She was relaxed! She would have laughed out loud if Tanner hadn’t been seated so close, but she didn’t want to have to explain herself. Instead she just smiled to herself and enjoyed the feeling as the clouds drifted by.
“Ms. Lewis? Would you like another glass?”
She turned when she heard he
r name and gratefully held out her glass. “Absolutely.”
Lauren took a little sip, wanting to take this one slow. It was easy to drink fast instead of trying to make conversation, but she wasn’t going to fall into that trap again.
“So tell me how it all happened. I’d actually like to know how you ended up with the Rangers.”
She settled back, deciding not to make direct eye contact with him again. What was it about this man that affected her still, after so many years? But she knew what it was: She’d never wanted to end things in the first place, and part of her had always wondered what if. What if they’d stayed together? What if she’d turned her back on her family instead of her boyfriend? What if she’d told him the truth about why she’d had to call it off? She wasn’t unhappy with how her life had turned out. She’d landed her dream job and she’d worked hard for everything she’d achieved, but there would always be that little niggle, wondering what could have been.
“I suppose my college years were fairly uneventful,” she said, smiling as she remembered Casey dragging her to parties and insisting she wasn’t allowed to stay in their dorm room on her own on weekends. To start with, it had taken all her willpower not to call Tanner, to beg his forgiveness and apologize for what she’d done. Then she’d look around and remember why college was so important to her, why she wanted to have control of her future and do the work she’d always imagined herself doing. She’d never wanted to have to rely on a man, she’d wanted to create her own future and her own financial independence, and nothing had changed. “I wasn’t exactly the life of the party there, but I knuckled down and worked hard. When I graduated, I started working in the sports medicine industry, at a private practice, and eventually I had the chance of a lifetime.”
His chuckle made her pause and she chanced a quick peek at him, diverting her eyes the moment she saw his were trained on her face.
“Let me guess, you charmed your way in there?”
Lauren bristled. She hated anyone thinking that she used her looks or charm or anything else “female” to get where she’d gotten to. “You know, I’ve never had to charm anyone,” she said, taking a sip of bubbly and refusing to give him a reaction. “My work speaks for itself and it always has.”