Still the One Read online

  “What’s up?”

  “Nothing,” Darcy said.

  AJ didn’t say anything.

  Zoe divided a look between them. “It feels like something.”

  No kidding … “AJ needs a favor,” Darcy said. She met his easy and relaxed gaze.

  She, on the other hand, felt the opposite of easy and relaxed. Heat flickered through her whenever he was around, and even when he wasn’t and she only thought of him. And she spent way too much time thinking of him, wondering if he knew how to use that big body of his in bed.

  She suspected he did. “I’ll go,” she told him.

  “You’ll go where?” Zoe asked.

  Darcy waited for AJ to explain but he didn’t. Of course not. He wanted her to say it. “To Boise to meet a potential bigwig interested in funding AJ’s grant program.”

  Zoe turned to AJ and grinned. “Yeah? You got someone interested?”

  “Yeah,” he said, but he hadn’t taken his gaze off Darcy. “And he’s asked that I bring along someone I’ve treated after their insurance cut them off.”

  “Aw,” Zoe said. “And Darcy’s going to pay back a favor for a favor. Nice.”

  “Wait— What?” Darcy asked, and turned to AJ just as he was making a slicing-finger-across-the-throat motion to Zoe.

  Zoe was staring at him in confusion as she answered Darcy. “For all the pro bono physical therapy work he did when your insurance stopped paying at four months—” She broke off when AJ shook his head in disgust.

  Yep, definitely missing something, Darcy thought, not liking where this was going. “I thought you and Wyatt covered me,” she said to Zoe.

  Zoe sighed. “AJ wrote the bills off.” She turned to AJ. “I’m sorry, but you said you’d tell her. I just assumed she knew.”

  “I hadn’t gotten to it yet,” AJ said, looking resigned to having this conversation, the one about how he’d not only saved her life but also not gotten paid.

  Darcy could scarcely breathe. “You … you wrote the bills off? But that had to be hundreds of dollars of treatment, or more.”

  “Forget it. Oh, and the dinner’s dressy. And we’re going with no drama so don’t bother packing any.”

  Zoe winced. “Maybe I should go, too. I can pack food for the trip, it’ll be fun.”

  Darcy was struggling to contain herself. Her inner bitch really wanted to come out but … he’d written off her PT bills. “I’ll skip the drama if you skip being an ass.”

  “I’m not sure either of those things are possible,” he said. “But while we’re in negotiations, let’s put this on the table—no crazy.”

  “Okay,” Zoe said. “I’m definitely coming with.”

  “Maybe you should print me out a list of rules,” Darcy said to AJ, ignoring Zoe. “Like when I talk to you, should I say ‘Sir, yes, sir,’ or not speak at all?”

  “I mean I have work,” Zoe said. “But it’s no big deal for me to cancel a few flights.”

  “Not necessary,” AJ said to Zoe as he poured himself a mug of coffee and leaned back against the counter to take a leisurely sip. “And as much as I like the ‘Sir, yes, sir,’” he said to Darcy, “let’s go with door number two—not speaking at all.”

  Okay, this wasn’t going to work. Darcy was working at paying off her debts. She always paid off her debts, but this one might kill her. “Do you want to approve my wardrobe as well?”

  “Yeah,” Zoe said, pulling out her phone. “So I’ll just start cancelling some flights right now—”

  “No,” Darcy told her. Having Zoe the Worrier there would make everything worse. “Thank you but we’ll be fine.”

  “Fine dead, or fine in prison?”

  AJ smiled, albeit a little grimly. “Fine fine.”

  Zoe didn’t look convinced but she nodded. “Well … it’s really nice of you to help him out,” she said to Darcy.

  Nice had nothing to do with it. Darcy waited for AJ to mention that he was paying her a thousand bucks to go, something she would absolutely refuse now—but he didn’t say a word. She looked at him pointedly.

  He looked right back at her from those impenetrable hazelnut eyes.

  A point in his favor, she thought reluctantly. “He offered to pay me,” she told Zoe, and had the pleasure of catching a flash of surprise from him.

  He’d underestimated her. She was well used to that. “A lot of money,” she added. “That he’s no longer going to pay me now that I know what he did for me.”

  “I’m sorry,” Zoe said. “I’m going to ask again. Are you two sure this is a good idea? It’s a long car ride, and we all know that the two of you don’t exactly …” She trailed off, grimacing again when both Darcy and AJ just looked at her. “… get along,” she finished.

  Silence. Because why argue the truth?

  Zoe looked uncomfortable.

  Not AJ. In fact, Darcy had never seen the guy look uncomfortable, ever. It didn’t matter what he was doing, calmly digging into her knotted muscles while she swore and cursed at him, plowing his way across the football field with the guys, or running the wellness center and all the people in it with his endless, legendary calm—he never looked anything less than completely confident.

  She could hate him for that alone.

  AJ took another sip from his coffee while with his other hand he turned off the burner under the bacon pan, expertly flicked the pieces onto a plate layered with paper towels, and walked the plate to the table.

  “Coffee?” Zoe asked Darcy. “I made you decaffeinated in the hopes you’d sleep better.”

  “Did you serve AJ decaffeinated?”

  “Hell no,” AJ said. “Coffee without caffeine is like sex without a woman.” His phone went off. He looked at the screen and then moved to the door. “Gotta go.”

  “But you didn’t get to eat,” Zoe said.

  “Next time.” He glanced back at Darcy. “Let me know if you change your mind.”

  “I don’t go back on my word,” she said. And plus now she owed him, which really chapped her hide.

  Zoe shifted uneasily. “Listen, there’s got to be someone else who could do this for you, AJ. Maybe someone who …” She broke off and glanced guiltily at Darcy.

  “Maybe someone who what?” Darcy asked, eyes narrowed.

  Zoe winced. “Maybe someone better suited to handle the social pressure of representing AJ’s work.”

  Darcy sucked in a breath and tried to act like that didn’t hurt more than her aching leg.

  “Honey, I’m not trying to hurt your feelings,” Zoe rushed on when Darcy stared at her. “But this is really important to him and you’re good at lots of things, but social stuff isn’t one of them. And then there’s the problem that the two of you don’t exactly see eye to eye.”

  They saw eye to eye just fine, Darcy thought grimly. And for three glorious minutes they’d once seen lips to lips, but hey, he hadn’t wanted her and she could deal with that. Someday. When she was old and gray and no longer had estrogen in her body. Maybe. “I am a representation of his work,” she said.

  AJ, clearly knowing better than to get in the middle of a sister “discussion,” remained silent. If he had any reservations about bringing her, he kept them close to his vest.

  Like he did just about everything—except for how he felt about her. He’d made that pretty damn clear. Whatever. She’d deal with that, too.

  Five

  AJ left Zoe and Darcy’s house and told himself things were all good. Darcy was going to go to Boise with him.

  Sure they’d be trapped together for the long car ride, but he couldn’t obsess about it.

  Nor would he obsess about what Darcy had been wearing when she’d stumbled into her kitchen fresh out of bed—a thin cotton cami and holy shit short shorts.

  He shook the memory off with shocking difficulty and pulled up to the small ranch house where he’d grown up. The neighborhood hadn’t changed much. Still a hardworking, blue-collar street, the vehicles were mostly Americanmade trucks better cared fo