Still the One Read online

  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