Inside was the little kit Tawny had made her friend carry--the same one Tawny's father had always kept on hand when she was growing up. It was an odd thing to foist on a friend, Tawny knew that, but there were still certain aspects of her military brat upbringing she hadn't been able to shake.
Before long, she made her way back to Luke and flipped open the box, and then grabbed the tiny flashlight from the case.
"Okay, I need to check and see if you do, indeed, have a concussion. Follow the light, okay?"
He nodded, and as she put him through his tests, she found that there wasn't much to be worried about. At least, not where his head was concerned. He might have a slight concussion but she wasn’t seeing lingering signs of it.
“Next time, how about a helmet? And, um, I have to ask..." She swallowed, grabbing the emergency ice pack from the box and moving it until it began to cool in her hands. "How hard did the handlebars hit you in your, er, sensitive area?"
"Sorry?" Luke asked.
"Um, well, it's just that, you know, if you have testicular torsion or something--"
She wanted to crawl into a tiny ball and die right there rather than continue her sentence, but Luke held up a hand to save her the trouble.
"I don't think I got hit hard enough to cause me to lose any of my parts if that’s what you mean,” he murmured, a slow grin tugging at his lips.
"Right. Yes, good. So..." She thrust the ice pack toward him. "Just apply that wherever it's needed. You know, in the...affected region."
"Right." Luke continued smiling at her, and her heart flipped over in her chest.
No! Bad heart!
The very last thing she needed as she started her brand new life was to get wrapped up in some good-looking troublemaker, and, with muscles like Luke’s, it would be all too easy for her to forget that.
With a groan, Luke straightened up to lean against the boulder behind him, and gazed expectantly at Tawny.
“So, what do we do now?” he asked, and maybe it was her imagination, but she thought there was a certain something behind his words. A challenge, maybe.
His eyes gleamed in the darkness and she hoped he couldn’t see the blush she knew was rising up her cheeks as she considered him.
“Well, how are you feeling?” she asked.
He rubbed his shoulder. “Like shit.” But then, after scrubbing one hand over his face, he amended, “I’m thinking my pride is doing most of the hurting, though. And I hate to see my bike.”
Tawny nodded and shot a look behind him. It actually didn’t look too much worse for the wear but she’d let him decide that afterward. She barely knew how to fix people. Bikes were well out of her wheelhouse.
She pulled herself onto her knees, then, sitting back on her ankles, she said, “If it’s any consolation, though, you looked pretty cool while you were wiping out.”
He snorted a little laugh. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” Tawny offered him half a smile, then checked over her shoulder. Suzette and Rex were sitting side-by-side at the edge of the fire, each with a beer in hand. She heard the wamp-wamp-wamping of a bike as the rider who had pretty much been the cause of Luke’s accident zoomed toward them. It slowed to a stop and the freckle-faced guy sitting on it put his foot down to balance.
“Sorry about that, man. Tough breaks,” he said over the hum of the bike’s engine. He sure didn’t look sorry, though.
“What the fuck, Eli? You that hard up for money?” Luke rasped back, pissed off and rightfully so.
Eli shook his head and grinned. “Nah, I just hate to see you win. You shouldn’t have the pretty face and all the glory too. Besides, like I told Rex, it was an accident. I thought I saw a squirrel.” He rolled forward a few inches, gave Tawny the once over. “Speaking of squirrels, I hear you got hit in the nuts…Maybe your sexy nurse can help you with that.”
His laughter echoed behind him as he took off toward the road leaving Tawny and Luke staring after him. Her cheeks flamed as she tucked a loose lock of hair behind one ear.
“Okay, so that guy is a real asshole, huh?” she asked.
Luke’s grim smile gave her chills. “Yup. And wait until I see him out later in the week. I’m going to bust him right in the jaw.”
She nodded and then shrugged. “Well, I ought to be getting back to Suzette.” She combed her fingers through her hair and stood, waiting while Luke pushed himself gingerly to his feet.
“Right. Well, thanks for, you know, patching me up and everything.” He held out his hand and she took it and shook, trying to ignore the sizzle of awareness that shot through her.
Dang, he was tall. A full head taller than she was. He was eyeing her curiously and she realized with a start that she’d been staring.
She yanked her hand away and grabbed her bag. “No problem. See ya,” she mumbled. Then, with a stiff nod she turned quickly in the other direction and headed off to find herself a beer.
That was all she needed. A nice drink to cool her off and chill her out. Then, she’d be able to relax, celebrate, and move on with her night. Then, she’d be able to stop trying to picture what Luke Anderson must look like underneath those sexy, faded jeans of his.
“Tawny,” Suzette called, and waved a red cup full of beer in the air. “I gotcha one. Come on over. We’re about to start a game.”
Tawny followed her friend and took the outstretched drink gratefully, sucking down half in a long swallow and settling onto a nearby log. Suzette and Rex had apparently assembled a little crowd around them, and before long they all joined in, agreeing to let each of them pick one drinking game to play and running through the list. She had never been much of a partier before moving to Alhouette, but she’d been out enough with Suzette to know that she couldn’t be trusted to pick.
“Fine, fine,” Tawny said, “but I refuse to play Suzette’s favorite game. It’s not happening.”
“Why?” Rex glanced from Tawny to Suzette and the blond snorted a laugh.
“Tawny’s a chicken,” Suzette explained.
“Because it’s terrifying,” Tawny shot back and took another swig of her beer, but from the corner of her eye she was watching Luke. He’d made his way over to another small group and they were all fawning over him, especially the girls. They were all drinking, talking animatedly about the crash while Luke stood back and listened to them, barely ever opening his mouth.
“I’m sorry. Those can’t be the rules.” Rex’s voice broke through Tawny’s thoughts and she focused on Suzette as she let off a little peal of laughter.
“I swear it. My older cousin Gil taught me when I was twelve or so.”
“Maybe I’m just not understanding it right,” Rex tried. “So you have a nail in a stump—”
“Yeah. And all you gotta do is flip the hammer in the air, catch it, then hit the nail with the hammer. If you miss, you—”
“Go to the ER,” Tawny finished dryly, and they all laughed.
“Tawny’s right. Suzette, you cannot pick that game.”
“Fine, if y’all wanna be a bunch of fuddy-duddies,” Suzette pouted.
Not that Tawny was looking, but Luke Anderson was walking away from the knot of other people now, prowling through the little opening in the tall grass until she could only just make out the top of his mop of dark hair. She couldn’t help but wonder where he was going.
"How about something everybody knows how to play? Like thumper?" one girl suggested and Suzette considered her for a moment before sitting up straighter.
"I have an idea," Suzette said. "Let's play Never Have I Ever.”
Tawny polished off her beer and stood to quickly fill up a second. She had a feeling she was going to need it.
“Eh, I hate that game,” Rex said, curling his lip but Suzette ignored him.
"It'll be fun. Come on, fingers up everyone. First person to put all five fingers down has to chug a whole beer." Suzette grinned and everyone did as she commanded, placing their beer bottles in the grass so that they could sho
w their “score card”.
"Right. Okay. Um, I'll go first. Never have I ever...been to another country," Suzette said, and Tawny put a finger down, silently thanking heaven that she didn't have to put fingers down for every country she'd been to. If that were the case, she'd be polishing off half that keg all by her lonesome. And, by the look of her new beer, she didn't need any help in the chugging department.
"Ha! Tawn, I got you!" Suzette said, and Rex rolled his eyes.
"Only because you chose the most boring question ever. Let me show you how a pro does it," he cut in, then a long pause punctuated the air as he thought of his question.
"Oh yeah, I'm learning so much,” Suzette jibed him, but Tawny was already zoning out again, glancing back to the other group to see if Luke had made his reappearance.
She was just worried about his recovery, that was all.
Internally, she rolled her eyes at herself. If she was going to spout lies to herself, she was going to have to be a hell of a lot more convincing than that.
Still, she had no reason to be interested in a guy like Luke. She hardly even knew him, after all, and the things she did know weren't anything to recommend him. He was racing dirt bikes for money, for crying out loud. But then again...
She pictured herself on the back of his motorcycle, her arms tight around him as they zigzagged from one lane to another, the wind whipping in her hair.
"Uck, disgusting,” Suzette groaned, and Tawny focused on her friend, trying her best to look like she'd been paying attention to her surroundings.
"Don't knock it ’til you've tried it." Rex winked at her and Suzette grimaced.
“You’ll notice that you’re the only one with a finger down from that one,” she said with a laugh. “Tawny, why don't you go?" she asked, but Tawny shook her head.
"Nah, I've got nothing interesting.” She swiped at the sweat beading over her upper lip. The last thing she needed was to run through all the things she hadn’t done right now. Tonight was about having fun and leading Never Have I Ever was right up there with a root canal, to her mind. “I think I might go take a swim, actually."
Suzette stuck her tongue out at Tawny but didn’t try to dissuade her as she headed out of the circle and topped off her beer before wandering over to the lake.
It always amazed her at parties like these, even in a town this small, how few people she knew. Then again, she'd only transferred to the university two years back. Before then, she'd been on the east coast, going to a local college and living with her mother while her father was stationed overseas.
Again.
She shook her head. That life was behind her now. Her suitcase was unpacked for good, and she wasn't about to go back to a life of not knowing where or when she was going next. Nothing was worth that. She loved Alhouette and the sooner she could start strengthening her roots here, the better, as far as she was concerned.
She took another swig of her beer and strolled lazily down the spit of beach, over a bluff that gave the best views of the almost fully set sun.
Yup, this was the life.
“One of the few things I love about this place,” a low voice called. She jerked to a halt and gripped her slippery beer. Luke Anderson was sitting just a few yards away beneath a tree, watching the horizon.
“Come to check and make sure I didn’t slip into a coma when you weren’t looking, Doc?” he asked with a sheepish smile.
She knew she should have let out a little fake laugh and kept walking but she couldn't bring herself to do it.
Instead, she meandered toward him, taking a long swallow from her beer. She hadn’t eaten much and, combined with the heat, she was already feeling a little tipsy, which was nice for a change. Still, she was in no rush to join the horde or play that stupid game anymore, so she settled in the grass a few feet away from where Luke was lounging against the tree trunk.
“It’s nurse, actually. And I’m not much for excitement," Tawny said simply and Luke nodded.
"I hear you. I've had more than enough for one night."
An awkward silence stretched between them for a moment and Tawny was about to break it by excusing herself to start back toward Suzette when Luke spoke again.
"Playing drinking games, huh?" he asked.
"Just a little," she said. "I didn't stay for long."
"Couldn't handle the competitive atmosphere?" Luke cocked an eyebrow.
"Yeah, something like that." But more than that, she knew things would get rowdy because those games always did and the last thing she wanted to have to do was admit all the things she hadn’t done.
"You know, sometimes, when I'm trying to get my little brothers to shut up, I play juice box drinking games with them." He laughed and Tawny found herself smiling back at him. "My nine-year-old brother is a little too good at quarters for my liking, though, and I wound up dropping like fifteen bucks on Capri Sun.”
She laughed, then said, "How many brothers do you have?"
"Three. At the moment. Rex is my age, so that's not too bad. Except for the fact that I used to share a room with him and he snores like a son of a bitch."
"And the other two?"
"Two and Nine."
Tawny whistled. "That's a wide spread."
"My parents don't let anything like that stop them,” Luke said, then added, "but what about you? You have any siblings back in--wherever you're from?"
"Nope. Just me,” she said, trying not to sound sad about it. Fact was, though, she’d always envied people with big families. She’d spent many a day playing tea party with only her teddy bears for company. When she got married, she was going to have a whole load of kids if she could. Just the thought of all the noise and bustle of it made her heart swell.
"And where is it that you're from, exactly? I hear an accent but I can’t place it.”
It was a little funny considering that his own slow drawl fairly dripped Loo-siana, and Tawny tilted her lips in a half smile. "I'm from everywhere, kind of."
He picked up a rock and absently smoothed his thumb over its surface, that boyish grin of his melting her insides. “Is this the part where some crazy sci-fi shit happens and you tell me you're an alien?"
"No, this is the part where I confess my deep dark past as a military brat and you think I’m even more of a weirdo.”
Luke nodded. "Ah. Yeah, I can see that."
"What's that supposed to mean?" she shot back with a gasp.
"Nothing. You just…I’m good at hearing accents and couldn’t identify yours. Take it easy, Doc.”
She went to correct him again and changed her mind. What was the point?
“Sorry, I’m a little sensitive about the whole military brat thing,” she admitted softly.
“If it makes you feel any better, I think it’s cool. All that travel, seeing the world. We’ve all got different perspectives, you know?”
She nodded and scraped at a blade of grass with her thumbnail. “True.”
“Here’s to different strokes,” he said, holding up his mostly empty cup.
She clacked hers against his and polished off the last of her quickly warming beer.
“So what’s the verdict on the bike?” she asked.
“It’s still running, so I’m gonna call that a win.” He chuckled and shook his head but she flushed as she noted his gaze zeroing in on her mouth. She wondered if there was still a hint of that peachy lip gloss Suzette had made her wear and resisted the urge to fluff her hair.
He set his empty cup on the ground and tugged a silver flask from his pocket. “Whiskey?”
She shook her head. “No thanks.”
He poured himself a small shot and tossed it back with a grunt.
“You should probably go easy too, with the head injury,” she warned, knowing she sounded like a den mother but unable to stop herself.
“Don’t worry, darlin’. I’m only going to have the one. Rex is supposed to drive home but I saw he was knocking them back by the bonfire so I’m pretty sure I’ll wind up
behind the wheel by the time we are ready to head home in a few hours.”
Okay, so at least he wasn’t totally reckless. That was good. But the shiver rolling up the back of her neck at the fact that he’d called her darlin’? That was the part that had her ready to run again.
“I’m hot as hell. Want to go for a swim with me, Doc?”
She wet her lips and took a glance behind her to see if she could see any of the others.
What had her father always told her about being alone with strange guys? To watch her back.
But so far, Luke had been nothing but a gentleman…and she did have on shorts and a tank top. It wasn’t like she had to go in naked or something.
Suzette’s words from earlier in the day rang through her head.
They’d done it. They’d graduated college and, very soon, she was going to be spending the rest of her life adulting. Surely one little swim and a night of fun couldn’t hurt…
“Okay. Sure.”
Chapter 4
“Sweet mother of god.”
Damn. Had she just said that out loud?
It had all been fine. The semi-awkward walk to the edge of the lake. The nervous chatter spewing from her mouth as they both bent to take off their shoes. Even the shrill giggle she let out as he gripped the hem of her shirt. She was a little tipsy, after all, and it was a hot summer night. Surely all that could be forgiven, if not easily forgotten.
What she’d likely never live down was her gasped prayer as he tugged the t-shirt over his head.
Sweet mother of god? Is that what savvy, no-longer-college-students said when confronted with a naked male torso? She was pretty sure not. And what made it worse was the fact that she was a nursing student. She’d seen more than her fair share of torsos during clinicals.
But not like this.
Never like this.
His golden skin gleamed in the new moon light as each new inch of his rock-hard, god-like body was revealed. Thick, round shoulders, perfect biceps, but it was the defined muscles of his chest and abs that had her palms going slick with sweat.
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