Chapter Three
Madden
Madden had known she wanted to be a nurse from the day she turned seventeen. On her birthday one of her friends, Kristian, had tripped over a lounge chair while trying to catch a football during her pool party. He’d busted his head wide open, the blood trickling down his face a few seconds after he’d sat up. Most of her girlfriends shrieked, and most of the guys had winced with their fists going to their mouths. But Madden had lunged for Kristian’s head, using her bare hands to hold his wound closed as best she could. She’d climbed in the ambulance with him after her mother announced she didn’t want to leave a house full of teenagers alone to drive Kristian to the ER, and Madden’s dad wasn’t home.
Madden had watched the EMTs with rapt fascination, and when she took in the hustle and bustle of the ER, she was hooked. Kristian had asked her to stay with him, and she was all in, watching him being stitched up, never taking her eyes off the gory wound. She’d known instantly that nursing was the escape she’d been searching for.
Her parents had wanted her to settle down with a nice Southern boy and spit out a bunch of grandkids. It’s what they had done; it’s what all their friends had done. And, it was what was expected of her. But it wasn’t what she wanted, not by a fucking long shot. And really, they had no one to blame but themselves.
So Madden had studied nursing in college and left school as an RN. Once she graduated she started to travel the world, learning so much more from experience than she ever did in a classroom. She worked by accepting short-term contracts at different hospitals, depending where she was at the time. Last May it had been three years since her feet had touched the rich Louisiana soil and almost four since she’d last seen Corey.
Madden liked to think that running into Corey this past summer had been fate. Old friends, they had caught up on the years in between, and through Corey, Madden had gotten the opportunity to try something new. To experience another part of the country, another way of nursing. She had been excited. She thrived on the unknown, on the adventure.
Today, however, she’d spent all day alternating between trying to get everything organized in the nurse’s office the way she liked it, and handing out Band-Aids to boys who hadn’t really needed them. Not so exhilarating but oddly exhausting. Her only break had been lunch with Corey.
At least all the boys she’d come into contact with were nice and respectful in their attempts to get a look at the new school nurse. Well, all of them except for the gorgeous baseball coach from earlier that morning. He’d basically screamed the words I want to fuck you for the whole building to hear.
He was hot as hell, she had to give him that. She wasn’t opposed to a little fling. What was a fling if not a short-term adventure? Maybe she’d take him up on his unspoken offer for a few weeks. Madden didn’t do long term, didn’t do relationships. But sex? Sex she did, and she did it well.
“Knock, knock.”
Speak of the devil, and his sexy ass shall appear. “Linc? Right?” She narrowed her eyes and bit at her recently re-glossed bottom lip, like she wasn’t too sure she remembered his name. Boy like him? That should be a little blow to his already inflated ego.
“Very good.” He smiled at her, practiced and charming, seemingly unaffected by her attempt to unsettle him. “How was your first day at our fine institution?”
“It was great, thank you.” She stood and leaned her hip against the desk. She was waiting to see what his angle would be, his excuse for being here in her office. The lines he’d no doubt spout to try to get into her bed. It was comical watching men like Linc try to play her, try to win her over in a game when she’d already decided their fate.
“Any of the boys give you any trouble?” He tilted his head to the side, studying her like he was genuinely concerned.
She raised an eyebrow, smirking. “Just you.”
His handsome face broke into a big grin. “Let me take you to dinner.” He crossed his arms over his chest, obviously flexing his muscles for her benefit. She’d never admit it, even if she was impressed. It wasn’t her style. “Welcome you to Haxton the right way.”
She had to stop herself from rolling her eyes at such a blatant proposition and overt display of manhood. “I can’t. Thank you though.” She could tell by Linc’s shocked expression he didn’t get turned down often. She sort of liked being the one to do it.
“Tomorrow night then.”
Madden let out a quick, humorous sigh, noticing that he hadn’t actually asked either time. He’d demanded, and that just wouldn’t do. “Let me make this easy on you.” She gestured between them. “You and I? Won’t be going to dinner.” Dinner implied a date and Madden didn’t date. She was certainly entertaining the idea of fucking him, but that was where it would end.
Linc’s smile never faltered. “Look, I was just trying to be polite.” He shrugged casually like her turning him down was no big deal. “But if you don’t want a free meal and a new friend, that’s okay.” He pushed himself off the door and turned to leave.
She couldn’t help herself—she started to laugh. “Really? That’s how you’re going to play this? I’m going to be honest. I expected more from you.” And she had, more bullshit. Linc wasn’t the first man who’d taken one look at her body and decided he wanted a go. She’d heard every line under the sun, and Linc seemed like a man who’d had most of them memorized by his twelfth birthday.
Linc looked over his shoulder and winked. “I’m not playing games, Madden. I don’t need to.” He walked out the door, that damn smile still in place.
She shut the door behind him and went to sit at her desk. Men like Linc were a dime a dozen. They wanted one thing from her and one thing only. She was used to it, and for the most part, she was fine with it. She only wanted one thing from them too so it worked out well. He’d be back; he’d try again. And if he didn’t? All well; there was no doubt more than one fuckable man living in Haxton, Colorado.
She gave herself a mental headshake and forced the sexy baseball coach out of her mind. She had paperwork to get caught up on, protocols to put into place. Work. But when she opened her laptop to start in on her projects, for some stupid reason all she could think about was how good Linc’s ass looked as he walked out her door.