Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 22557 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 113(@200wpm)___ 90(@250wpm)___ 75(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 22557 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 113(@200wpm)___ 90(@250wpm)___ 75(@300wpm)
Luke had seen Joe’s Bar and pulled into the parking lot, planning to grab a beer and maybe some wings. Dancing hadn’t been on his agenda. Then again, neither was the russet-haired woman who’d captured his attention. She’d been a surprise in many ways, the most pleasant being that she hadn’t recognized him as the tight end of the Texas Titans.
Either she wasn’t a sports fan, or she was more into her hometown team, the one to which Cole had recently been traded. Which meant her invitation to dance had been based purely on mutual attraction. Even before he’d seen her up close and taken in those sea-green eyes and the smattering of freckles on her nose, his gut told him the woman was more wholesome than any who’d crossed his path in way too long.
He’d been watching her shake those hips with undisguised interest, and when she’d crooked her finger his way and his cock had jumped in delight.
“Want to keep a running tab?” the bartender asked as he set Luke’s soda on the counter.
He shook his head. “I’ll settle now.” He’d had a long day of meetings. Between his agent and the potential sponsors the man had lined up for Luke to meet, then the hours’ drive here, Luke was beat.
Before taking off, he looked around for his woman—he hadn’t learned her name, so the term seemed to fit. He found her standing on the other side of the room, deep in conversation with the same guy who’d been hassling her friend earlier. The woman, a pretty brunette, was nowhere in sight. Apparently, Lucas’ dance partner was mediating a dispute between the two.
Luke shrugged, tamping down the disappointment. At a glance, she didn’t strike him as a one-night stand kind of woman, although the way she let him grind against her on the dance floor, who knew where the night would have ended if they hadn’t been interrupted.
Unfortunately, he’d never know.
He set a twenty on the counter and waited for the bartender to make his way back to his end of the bar, which took a while since the place did steady business.
Finally, Luke got his change, left a tip, and started for the door at the same time someone ran inside shouting. “Alexa! Get out back now. Cara needs a doctor!”
To Luke’s surprise, his one-time dance partner turned and bolted toward the rear exit.
A doctor. Something about the information made him grin.
Luke couldn’t stop the impulse to follow the crowd out back. Alexa—he knew her name now—knelt by her friend, the woman she’d been so protective of.
“What happened?” he asked the man next to him.
“Cara was attacked.” The guy, who appeared about the same age as Luke’s thirty-three, suddenly eyed him warily. “You’re not from around here, are you?”
He hailed from a small town himself, where everyone knew everyone else, so this man’s distrust didn’t surprise him.
Luke shook his head. “No, sir. Here to stay with a friend.” He wasn’t about to mention Cole’s name, not wanting to draw any attention to himself as a pro athlete while he was here. “But I was dancing with Alexa earlier,” Luke said, more to reassure the man he wasn’t a part of whatever had gone down here.
“I see.” The man slowly nodded, seeming to take Luke at his word. “Well, she’s the best doctor we have. She’ll be running University Hospital one day when her father steps down.” Before the man could continue, a siren sounded in the distance, the noise growing closer and making it impossible to continue the conversation.
The paramedics arrived, and things got even more hectic. They loaded Cara onto a stretcher, and Alexa went in the ambulance after insisting the ex-boyfriend meet her there in his car. Alexa had been too preoccupied to even realize Luke was in the group of people surrounding them. Soon, the ambulance doors slammed shut, and the vehicle sped away. The crowd slowly dispersed, the fun gone from the night.
Luke climbed into his car and turned on the engine. The directions to Cole’s place were in his GPS, yet instead of turning it on, he picked up the southern route on the highway he’d taken here and exited at the signs for the hospital. The same exit he’d passed on his way to Serendipity.
He parked near the Emergency Exit and scratched his head, asking himself what the hell he thought he was doing. The woman was a stranger to him, but she intrigued him on a level no woman ever had. And that was saying something, considering the smorgasbord of choices laid out for him over the years. He’d enjoyed it when he was younger, but he’d be thirty next month, and he was over the lifestyle that came with the fame. The booze, the women, the occasional bar fight. So. Over. It. His teammates called him an old man. So be it. Luke knew he could take each one in a fight and still have energy left over. He just knew there was more to life than partying, and he was ready to find it. Whatever it was.