Seth was so introverted and shy that he could barely go to the store, much less show off his motor skills on demand. “At first,” AJ said. “But he just cancelled on me today. Said he appreciated everything I’ve done to help him but that he couldn’t handle being on display.”
“So how important is it to bring someone for show and tell?” Wyatt asked.
“Mission critical.”
They both glanced up at the crowd still milling around. Zoe was there, messing with her phone. Ariana, too, and she smiled at AJ. You okay? she mouthed, gesturing to her ribs, silently asking about his.
AJ nodded that he was fine.
“You’ve got other options,” Wyatt said quietly.
Yeah, on paper Ariana was the perfect match. She’d needed AJ’s PT services five years ago for a shoulder rebuild. But he knew that she cared about him as more than co-workers and friends. And though he’d tried to return the feelings, he’d felt no chemistry. He could live without a lot of things, but chemistry wasn’t one of them. “A weekend away with Ariana might give her the wrong message and screw up our friendship and working relationship,” he said. “I don’t want to hurt her again.”
“I wasn’t talking about Ariana,” Wyatt said.
AJ followed his gaze to the side of the spectator stands, to where Darcy now sat on the grass, alternately stuffing her face with nachos from the snack bar and loving up on a young German shepherd.
Her laugh came to him on the wind and he pretended that didn’t affect him, the sight of her having fun—which for the past eleven months had been rarer than him nearly screwing up tonight’s game. “Never going to happen.”
“Why not?” Wyatt asked. “She works for you.”
More like she allowed him to pretend she worked for him. “She’s not exactly on Team AJ at the moment.”
Wyatt laughed. “We both know that Darcy isn’t on any team, she’s not a team player.” His smile faded. “And we both know why.”
Yeah, they did. Wyatt, Zoe, and Darcy’s foreign diplomat parents had played a hell of a head game on all their kids, but most especially Darcy. From infancy they’d dragged her all over the world in the name of making better lives for others, giving her little to no supervision and then acting shocked whenever she’d found trouble.
Their response had always been to send her away to some tight-assed school in a country on a different continent than theirs and leave her there without communication—a total and epic parental rejection.
It was little to no wonder she had trust issues and a seeming inability to become emotionally attached to anything or anyone.
“These past eleven months have been good for her,” Wyatt said. “I mean the accident was fucked up, but having her stick around Sunshine—”
“She didn’t choose to stick,” AJ reminded him. “She hasn’t been healthy enough to chase stories around the world and write about them. If she could, she’d be gone, off traveling for work without looking back.”
“Yeah.” Wyatt scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “That was definitely true at first, but I think she’s starting to enjoy a home life now. It seems like she’s really coming around.”
“To you and Zoe maybe.”
Wyatt smiled. “She does seem to take some serious delight in screwing with you. What did you do to piss her off?”
“Breathe.” But AJ knew exactly what he’d done and he was taking it to his grave.
“There’s no reason why she wouldn’t do this for you,” Wyatt said. “Especially after all you’ve done for her.”
“Any physical therapist would’ve done what I did. And I was paid for my services. She owes me nothing.”
“You weren’t paid for all of it,” Wyatt reminded him. “You wrote off a lot of your bills after the insurance stopped paying. Given that, she’d probably jump at the chance to help you …” He trailed off at the look on AJ’s face. “You never told her?”
AJ slid his hands into his pockets.
“You never told her,” Wyatt repeated in disbelief. “Are you fucking kidding me? You insisted that Zoe and I not say anything to her because you wanted to do it.”
“Whatever,” AJ said. “You do the same thing at your work all the time. Do you tell your patients when you do pro bono work?”
“My patients are four-legged creatures who don’t speak English. Jesus, AJ, she should know what you’ve done for her.”
“She doesn’t need to know.” AJ met Wyatt’s gaze. “Ever.”
Wyatt opened his mouth but AJ pointed at him. “Ever,” he repeated. “Think about it. Like you just said, she’s settling in for the first time in her life. She seems happy, even relaxed. She’s finally on her feet again and feeling like she has some control back. I’m not taking that from her by making her feel like she owes me.”
Wyatt blew out a breath. A silent, reluctant agreement. “Okay, I get that, but you could still ask her to do this for you.”
AJ tried to imagine getting Darcy to dress up and go to a fancy dinner and play nice, helping him schmooze his potential financial backer. Unable to, he shook his head.
“Look,” Wyatt said, “if getting this guy means anything to you—”
“It does,” AJ said. “You know it does.”
“Then tell her. She’s got more heart than the rest of us put together. Appeal to that. You can convince her to do it.”
As if AJ knew the first thing about successfully appealing to a woman’s heart. “Have you ever talked your sister into doing something she didn’t want to do?”
Wyatt laughed ruefully, conceding the point as they both looked over at Darcy again. She’d shoved her sunglasses to the top of her head and had the German shepherd sitting obediently in front of her, eyes on the doggy treat in her fist.
AJ hadn’t seen the dog before but knew he must be the one Zoe had mentioned to him in passing, the “career change” dog Darcy had rescued from Asshat Johnny. AJ hadn’t imagined she’d be able to handle a dog. But she seemed to be handling the animal fine.
Without even realizing his feet were on the move, AJ walked up to her.
“Play dead and roll over,” she was saying.
“I’d need alcohol for that,” AJ said.
She looked up at him, eyes cool. “I meant Blue.”
“Blue” collapsed to the floor, ruining the “dead” image by lolling his tongue, appearing to smile up at Darcy.
She burst out laughing.
And actually so did AJ.
Darcy cocked her head up at him. “Huh,” she said. “Didn’t know you could do that.”
Ignoring this, and also the way her scent had come to him on the evening breeze, all soft, sexy woman, AJ crouched low and held out a fist for the dog to sniff. “Hey there.”
Blue licked AJ’s hand in greeting and then rolled over in silent appeal for a belly rub. AJ obliged, his mind doing the math. It was only a twenty-minute drive to Johnny’s, but the guy lived off of Highway 64, a narrow, curvy, two-lane highway.
Which was where Darcy had crashed her car eleven months ago.
As far as he knew, she hadn’t driven on a highway since, and she certainly hadn’t been on Highway 64. “How did you get him?” he asked.
“Xander drove me.”
AJ ground his back teeth together at the name but said nothing.
“I used the quarterly bonuses you gave out yesterday.” She paused. “Thank you for that.”
He nodded. No way would he admit that to help her without hurting her pride, he’d given out the bonuses for her sake.
“He failed his S&R training because swimming makes him anxious,” Darcy said, and offered a treat to Blue.
He leapt to his feet and gently took the prize.
“Good boy,” she said softly, and Blue melted into her hug, leaning into her, knocking them both to the grass.
Knowing exactly how much she still hurt, AJ reached for her. “You okay?”
With a laugh, she sat up. “I’m fine. Such a good boy, Blue.” She hugged the
dog tight and rubbed her cheek to Blue’s. “What a good, pretty boy, yes you are.”
“Aw, thanks, baby.”
AJ craned his neck to take in the tall, skinny, leather-clad, tatted-up man who’d just appeared at their side.
Xander returned AJ’s cool look with one of his own. He didn’t like AJ much.
The feeling was absolutely mutual.
Blue, however, went nuts, giving a joyous bark at the sight of Xander, jumping up and down like a Mexican jumping bean.
“Yeah, yeah, you’re pretty, too,” Darcy told Xander. “But not as pretty as Blue—and you’re late.”
“Appointment went over,” he said, and kept looking at AJ.
AJ kept looking right back.
Darcy divided a glance between them. “Seriously? Still?”
When neither man moved, she sighed. “You’re both ridiculous.” She looked at AJ. “Xander’s giving Blue to his aunt as a therapy dog. She’s been wanting one forever but couldn’t afford to make it happen. We’re hoping to get one for Tyson next.”
Tyson was Xander’s brother, and also a patient of AJ’s. And AJ agreed, Tyson would probably get a lot out of a therapy dog, though AJ had his doubts that Tyson was ready for one. Tyson was barely ready for life as a paraplegic after a motorcycle racing accident had destroyed his spine a year and a half ago.
Xander took Blue’s leash from Darcy, giving her a secret smile before turning back to AJ. “Heard you took a hard hit earlier.”
“I’m fine.”
Xander looked a little disappointed at that. Word around town was that he and Darcy were just friends, but there was nothing that said “just friends” in Xander’s gaze whenever he looked at Darcy. Nope, he looked at her like she was lunch.
Not that it mattered to AJ.
Except it did.
The truth was that even though he had absolutely no intention of making a move on Darcy, he didn’t want Xander to, either. He realized this made him a complete and total dick, but he could live with that.
“Thanks for watching him for me, babe,” Xander said.
“No problem,” Darcy said. “I—” She broke off to send AJ a startled look. “Did you just … growl?”
“No.” Shit, he totally had.
Above her head Xander smirked at him. Asshole.
Darcy bent low and hugged Blue good-bye one last time. When she stood, she steadied herself equally on both legs the way AJ had taught her so that she didn’t continue to baby her bad leg and keep it weak. “I’ll see you later,” she said to Xander.
“Yeah, you will,” he said, and didn’t go away.
AJ didn’t, either. He wasn’t leaving first. Hell no. And he could stand here all night, too. Even if he wanted to curl into the fetal position and whimper over his aching ribs.
“Oh, for God’s sake,” Darcy said in exasperation. “I’m sure both of your penises are the exact same size.”
Xander grinned.
“Go home,” she snapped at him.
“As you wish.” Xander brushed a kiss right across her mouth and then he and Blue sauntered off.
Darcy turned to AJ and something flashed between them, something that most definitely hadn’t flashed between her and Xander, though he was at a pretty big loss to say what it was.
Darcy sucked her lower lip between her teeth and suddenly he knew exactly what it was.
Lust.
Which was going to be a problem, a big one. “You going to order me home, too?” he asked, daring her.
She laughed. “Like you’d do anything I ordered of you.”
“Try me.”
Three
Try him? Try him? Darcy thought about reminding him that she’d once done exactly that and he’d flat-out rejected her—a feeling she’d learned to be so at one with that it hardly fazed her anymore.
Mostly.
But her tummy quivered at the look in his eyes, even though she had no idea what it meant. Didn’t dare give it much thought either because she’d long ago trained herself to stop wanting him.
Especially since sometimes, like right now, she was vividly reminded of her most embarrassing moment. It had been three months after her accident. She’d still been in a wheelchair and homebound—and going stir-crazy. It had been late, really late, and she’d been alone, selfishly needing someone.
Anyone.
She hadn’t wanted to disturb her brother or sister, not when they’d finally gone back to having their own lives after being with her nearly twenty-four/seven for so long.
So she’d called AJ.
He’d shown up ten minutes later looking sleepy and disheveled, like he’d literally rolled out of bed and rushed to her side. He’d forever earned a spot in her heart that night by not questioning her when she asked him to drive her to the bar for a drink.
Still in casts and various bandages, it had taken her a half hour to wrestle into real clothes. Real clothes being yoga pants that stretched over her leg cast, and her fave KISS tank top. After weeks and weeks of pj’s, she’d felt infinitely more human and herself, especially after she’d added mascara and lip gloss.
AJ had rolled her from his truck to the bar, where she’d had two shots and absorbed the loud music and laughter like she’d been in prison. Afterward, they’d gone back out into the night.
It had been a clear, gorgeous one with a full moon and a million stars littered across the black velvet sky. She’d never forget staring up and inhaling deep the chilly air, and for the first time since the accident she’d felt … grateful.
Grateful to be alive.
She hadn’t realized she’d been crying until she’d felt AJ’s fingers on her. He’d hunkered down at her side, balanced on the balls of his feet as he cupped her face and whispered her name.
She’d pulled him in with her one good arm and kissed him.
And for one glorious moment he’d kissed her back with his firm, warm lips, a sexy low groan rumbling up from deep in his throat, the delicious glide of his tongue to hers, and then …
And then he’d jerked back. He’d shaken his head in disbelief before speaking. “This isn’t going to happen, Darcy. This isn’t ever going to happen, not with you.”
Cue the humiliation.
Because she’d given it her best shot. She’d thrown herself at him, and he’d found her lacking. Worse, he’d refused to discuss it, apparently preferring to pretend it had never happened.
So after making him promise to never tell a soul, she’d done the same.
She’d been as good at that as she’d been at pretending the rejection hadn’t hurt. Really good. After all, she had good practice since for most of her life she’d been dumped like yesterday’s trash and she’d long ago learned to block off her feelings. She’d been good at that, too, and was able to do it with everything and everyone—except one man.
This man.
That night she’d made a pact with herself. She’d decided she didn’t need to know why AJ affected her the way he did. She only had to steer clear of him enough so that it didn’t become an issue. For the most part she’d done just that, except she hadn’t been able to resist stepping on his every nerve whenever possible to make things more even between them.
The hardest thing was also the most embarrassing—making sure she never gave herself away by keeping her tongue rolled in her mouth when he was at work looking hot and sexy and confident.
Or on the football field looking dirty and hot and sexy and confident.
“I’ve gotta go,” she said. “I—”
But Ariana had stopped at his side to give him a hug. The kind