Perfect Stranger (Novella) (2 page)

“Cara—” Mike reached for her but she pushed him away, shoving at his shoulder.

“No.” Cara jerked out of his reach.

Alexa moved closer. “I’m going to the ladies’ room,” she
said, tipping her head toward the back of the bar. The silent
Do you want to join me?
was implied. She wanted to give Cara options before dragging her away.

Mike whispered in Cara’s ear, something Alexa couldn’t hear, but Cara shook her head.

Alexa turned, shooting a regretful glance at the man she’d never actually meet. “Sorry. Friendship calls.” She smiled at him, wishing they’d had more time.

He nodded in surprising understanding and gestured with a sweep of his hand. “It was a pleasure,” he said, the words dancing along her nerve endings, similar to the way his touch had branded her skin.

She held his stare for a few more precious seconds before breaking eye contact and focusing on Cara, who, though torn, would thank Alexa later for stepping in.

“Let’s go,” she said to her friend, and steered them through the crowd toward the restroom, leaving her sexy dance partner behind.

*   *   *

L
ucas Thompson watched his dance partner walk off, her hips swaying, her delectable derriere displayed to perfection in her tight black leggings. He liked what he saw. Hell, he’d liked what he’d felt even more. She wasn’t too skinny, like the NFL groupies who usually followed him around back home; her waist felt soft and generous in his hands.

He groaned and headed to the bar. A cold drink would cool him off before he went to his buddy’s house somewhere in this small upstate New York town. Luke was here for a visit but his ex-teammate Sawyer Rhodes wouldn’t show up till late tonight. He was busy getting his father settled into an assisted living facility today. Sawyer’s plan was to stick around, fix up his father’s house, and put it on the market. Since Luke was in Manhattan for meetings with his agent, he’d taken Sawyer up on his offer to stay with him instead
of in some sterile hotel room in the city. As pro football players, they both had enough of that when they were on the road. He’d help Sawyer out for as long as he was in town.

Luke had pulled into the parking lot, planning to grab a beer and maybe some wings at Joe’s Bar. 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 Sawyer 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, 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 already had a long day of meetings. Between his agent and the potential sponsors he’d lined up for Luke to meet with, then the hours’ drive up here, Luke was beat.

Before taking off, he looked around for
his woman
—he chuckled at the term; he hadn’t learned her name so it 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. Her friend, a pretty brunette, was nowhere in sight. Apparently Luke’s 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 considering 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 a 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 onetime 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 almost thirty, 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 Sawyer’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 that he wasn’t a part of whatever had gone down here.

“I see.” The man nodded slowly, 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 with his car. Alexa had been too preoccupied to even realize Luke was in the group of people surrounding them, and 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 Sawyer’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 signs for the hospital. The same exit he’d passed on his way to Serendipity.

He parked near the emergency entrance 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.

Right now,
it
was Alexa.

He’d first seen her as a sexy woman with haunting green eyes and a hot body that Luke was damned attracted to. She’d transformed into a loyal friend who’d given up a sure thing—since Luke couldn’t see himself turning her down if she’d wanted to hook up—in order to look out for a pal. Then later, she’d morphed again, this time into an in-control doctor, capable of putting away her emotions and treating her unconscious friend.

In the span of thirty minutes, Luke discovered Alexa was
not just beautiful but multifaceted, and as a result, she’d captivated him completely. He couldn’t leave without finding out if her friend was okay and how she was doing after the night’s crazy events.

Although, as he walked through the sliding ER doors, Luke had to ask himself if he wasn’t a little crazy himself, pursuing a perfect stranger he’d never really met.

O
nce Alexa checked Cara over and had tests run, she diagnosed her friend with a concussion and a bruised trachea. The abusive bastard who’d attacked Cara had done so because he’d blamed her for his wife leaving him, not only because Cara was a police officer but because she was a human being who’d cared enough to take the woman under her wing. Now he was behind bars and denied bail, so Cara was safe from the man. As for Mike, Alexa had stuck around to make sure his presence didn’t upset Cara, but with the sedative, she was out cold. And Mike had sat by her bedside all night, never leaving. Alexa snoozed in the on-call room, waking up to check on things before allowing herself more sleep time. By the time eight A.M. rolled around, she’d all but forgiven Mike, knowing he would do anything to repair his relationship with Cara. Alexa had no more reason to stay.

She stopped by the nurses’ station and wrote down discharge instructions, then ran through them with the nurse
assigned to Cara’s room. “And now, I’m leaving. Call me if something urgent comes up, otherwise I’m indisposed.”

She stretched her arms over her head and yawned. “I need a good meal and a couple of solid hours of uninterrupted sleep.” Though at this point, she didn’t know which would happen first. She might fall facedown before she ever ate.

Emily, an older nurse who’d been on staff when Alexa’s father was first starting out, shook her head. “Honey, you need more than that if you’re going to get a glow back in those cheeks. Do you even know what the word
vacation
means?”

Alexa laughed. “Not really. The chief of staff here drives me pretty hard, you know.”

Emily frowned. “That father of yours is going to work you into an early grave, and for what? To keep a Collins in charge of this hospital?” A buzzer sounded, distracting the older woman, and she glanced down. “That’ll be Mrs. Evans in two eleven. I swear she better need more than her pillow fluffed or I’m going to scream.”

Alexa laughed as Emily walked away, but her words lingered. During these weeks of Alexa’s discontent, there had been many issues she couldn’t verbalize, even to herself. There were simple things in life that other people took for granted, things that Alexa just didn’t have time for, like a regular social life, dating, or even a relaxing night with a friend.

She gathered her jacket and purse, and headed for the elevator. With her mind clear of worry about Cara, Alexa’s thoughts immediately strayed to the sexy stranger who’d danced with her last night. The man who’d given her more in thirty minutes of dancing than she’d had in years. Her body tightened at the reminder of that too short carefree moment. Serendipity didn’t get many strangers passing through, so chances were she’d never see him again. The sad fact was, even if they did cross paths, Alexa had no time for sex. But if their chemistry was any indication, he’d be so worth her making the time for.

Which brought her thoughts full circle. No time for sex, no time for a future. That was what she’d been trying so hard not to dwell on. But the sad truth was, the longer she accepted her father’s mantra, that
a Collins puts work first always
, along with his plans for her future, the less likelihood there would be of her ever getting married. Having children, a family. And Emily was right about working herself to death, even if the other woman didn’t mean it literally.

There were some days Alexa barely remembered crawling into bed at night because she was so exhausted from being on her feet at the ER.

Exactly how she was feeling now.

She stepped out of the elevator and pushed through the doors of the waiting room that led to the exit, when she heard her name spoken in a sexy drawl that could only belong to one person.

One man.

“Alexa,” he repeated.

She turned to stare into a pair of golden brown eyes, which were once again focused on her. “You’re here,” she said, sounding as shocked as she felt. “Are you sick?”

He shook his head. “Just waitin’ for you.”

She blinked in surprise.

He grinned. “I was beginning to think you’d gone out another door but the guard there assured me you’d have to pass this way.” He folded his arms across his broad chest. “So I waited.”

“You’re here for me?” A wave of pleasure rolled through her that was so strong and unique, she almost didn’t recognize it.

“Are you the pretty lady who danced with me last night?” he asked with a wink.

A hot flush rose to her cheeks and she managed a nod.

“Same one who ditched me in favor of a friend?” he continued teasing her. Before she could reply he added, “I admire loyalty, by the way.”

“I—”

“I’ll take that as a yes, that was you. And by your scrubs, I’d say you’re the same woman who turned out to be one hot doctor. Which means, yes, I’m here for you.”

Alexa felt flattered and steamrolled all at the same time. “Why?” Why would he stick around all night and wait for her this morning?

“Been asking myself that same question in between Z’s. The best I can come up with is that you intrigued me, we clicked, I wanted to know if your friend was okay—”

“She is.” And he was sweeping her off her feet with very little effort. “You cared about my friend?”

“I cared about you.” He shook his head. “Yeah, I know. Short time, crazy thing. I’m guessing after pulling an all-nighter you need breakfast?”

Whatever exhaustion she’d been experiencing had since disappeared. “That would be great,” she said. “Breakfast, I mean.”

He grinned, obviously pleased. “Since I’m not from around here, you’re going to have to recommend someplace.”

There was only one diner in Serendipity. “There’s a place called The Family Restaurant on the edge of town.” Unfortunately, she’d left her car at Joe’s, and though she wanted to have breakfast with this man, she didn’t think getting into a car with a stranger was all that smart. “Listen, I don’t really know you so I’m not going to get into your car.”

He immediately extended his hand. “Luke Thompson.”

“Alexa Collins,” she said, noticing how much smaller her hand was as she placed her palm against his. Instant awareness sizzled along her nerve endings at their handshake, telling her that last night’s electricity hadn’t been a fluke.

They were chemically compatible. Now, if she could make sure he wasn’t a serial killer or stalker, she’d be all set, she thought wryly.