Brooke

Brooke was just unlocking the door to her dorm room when her cell phone started to ring. It blared her MMMbop ringtone and she smiled. It was her favorite song and she didn’t care how much people teased her for loving such an outdated tune. It was impossible not to feel happy when hearing it. It made her smile every damn time her phone rang and this was no exception.

“Hello,” Brooke answered, her voice as cheerful as the Hanson brothers.

“Brooke Becker?”

“Yes . . .”

“You’re Lucy Adams’s roommate?”

Brooke’s skin began to tingle with alarm. “Yes. What’s this about?”

“This is Sheila from Cedars-Sinai Hospital. We have you listed as Miss Adams’s emergency contact.”

Brooke dropped her phone.

Jaxon

Jaxon was anxious to check on Lucy, so he asked Conner if he had time to shower and stop by her room before going over the details of the accident again. Conner said he wasn’t in a rush and went to hit up the cafeteria while Jaxon cleaned himself up.

A shower and fresh clothes made Jaxon feel remarkably steadier. He examined his reflection in his uncle’s mirror, strangely liking the way he looked in the blue scrubs. Jaxon had wanted to go into medicine like his mother. It’d been a topic of contention in the Bradburn house for years. His father and brother were cops, while his mother and uncle were doctors. More recently, Jaxon had been leaning toward the medical field. He actually thought being an EMT would be the perfect fit for him. But that was before he’d lost his mother.

Since then, Jaxon had really let his grades slip. He was back on track since transferring to Saint Andrews, but it would still be an uphill battle to get into college at this rate. Plus, Jaxon wasn’t really focused on future ambitions at the moment. He was taking things one day at a time, and sometimes even that was an effort. And there was his father to consider. Someone was going to have to take care of him if things didn’t change.

“You look good in blue, little bro,” Conner announced, his voice ringing through the room. “Course I prefer LAPD blue,” he teased, tossing a wrapped sandwich in Jaxon’s direction.

Jaxon caught it.

“Thought you could use some food,” Conner added. “It’s turkey and cheese.”

“Thanks.”

“So, should we go check out this girl of yours?”

“She’s not my girl.”

“Bro, you rescued her from a burning car. Chicks eat that shit up. She’s your girl.”

“That’s not why I did it.”

“Ah, she’s fugly, huh?”

“Jesus, Conner. No. She’s just a girl. And I need to see that she’s still breathing with my own eyes, alright?”

The playful twinkle in Conner’s blue eyes vanished. “Yeah, I guess you do.”

Jaxon rubbed the weariness from his face. He knew Conner was just trying to lighten the mood. That was the way his brother always dealt with things. And Jaxon knew there was no way Conner didn’t get how heavy today was.

As if reading his mind, Conner clapped a large hand on Jaxon’s shoulder. “Sorry, Jax. Today’s a shit day. And this was a shit thing to happen on top of everything else. You dealing okay?”

“Yeah,” Jaxon muttered.

“I’m with ya, bro. Always.”

Jaxon looked up, meeting the fiercely protective look in his brother’s blue eyes. They were the exact same shade as Jaxon’s. And the exact same shade as their mother’s—sapphire blue.

Jaxon and Conner shared many features. Their thick brown hair, square jaws, olive skin and broad shoulders. They’d gotten all of that from their father and uncle’s side of the family. But their eyes . . . they were all their mother’s. It was the only trait they’d shared with her, and sometimes it made it hard for Jaxon to look at his own reflection or meet his brother’s eyes. But at the same time, Jaxon was grateful there was at least one small piece of their mother that remained.

Jaxon wouldn’t trade Conner for the world. His older brother may exude a crass exterior, but he always had Jaxon’s back. And there was no way he would’ve survived losing his mother without Conner by his side. Their father hadn’t been available to lean on, so Jaxon and Conner had to support each other. It strengthened their bond as brothers and was pretty much the only good thing to come from the accident.

Jaxon clapped his hand on Conner’s shoulder and squeezed. “Always.”

Brooke

Brooke scowled at the nurse behind the desk. “But I’m her roommate. You guys told me to come here.”

“I’m sorry, but right now Miss Adams is in recovery. She’s only allowed visitors from her immediate family.”

“I already told you, she doesn’t have any family. I’m just trying to bring her things to her,” Brooke said, holding up a bag.

“I’ll see that she gets them,” the nurse replied.

Brooke surveyed the print on the nurse’s gray scrubs—little brown nests full of pink and white owls. The pattern didn’t exude confidence. Brooke looked down at the bag of Lucy’s things she still held and the yellow stuffed dog she had tucked under her arm. She didn’t want to trust a stranger with Lucy’s treasured toy. As far as Brooke knew it was the only childhood item Lucy had—or at least the only one she ever spoke about.

Freshman year, Lucy told Brooke her father gave her the yellow stuffed dog for Christmas when she was a little girl, which she promptly named Mr. Pickles. He told her if she took care of it she could have a real dog the next year. When Brooke had asked if he made good on the promise, Lucy’s eyes had welled up and she promptly changed the subject.

That’s always how it went whenever Lucy’s parents came up. For whatever reason, they weren’t part of her life. And right now, Brooke was having a hell of a time explaining that to the stubborn nurse who was refusing to let her back to check on her best friend.

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t help overhearing. You’re here to see Lucy?”

Lucy spun around nearly colliding with the broad scrub-clad chest of a handsome young doctor. An equally handsome young police officer stood behind him. Dang! Maybe Brooke should think about checking herself into this hospital. The men here were fine!

“Uh, yeah. I’m her roommate. The hospital called me to bring her things and now they won’t let me back to see her or tell me how she is,” Brooke said, giving the nurse a glare.

“Family only,” Nurse Nesty replied.

“And I told you, she doesn’t have any!” Brooke growled.

“I’m actually going back to see her now,” Doctor McHotty interrupted. “I can take her things back and let her know you stopped by.”

“Thank you,” Brooke said, practically sighing with relief. Doctor McHotty looked way more trustworthy than old Nurse Nesty. Okay, it was probably just because he was extremely sexy and Brooke would’ve given him her first born if he asked, but still . . .

She handed over a duffle bag of Lucy’s clothes and shoved the yellow stuffed dog into Doctor McHotty’s hands. “This is Mr. Pickles. He’s extremely important to Lucy so don’t lose him or I’ll have to kill you.”

The broody police officer cocked one dark smoldering eyebrow in Brooke’s direction and she backpedaled, nervously. “Not really. I’d never kill anyone. Just a figure of speech.”

Sergeant Sexy gave Brooke a devastating smirk, momentarily distracting her. But then a terrifying thought blossomed in her mind and she felt icy dread rake a hand down her spine. Brooke glanced between the doctor and the officer. “Is Lucy in some kind of trouble, like legally speaking?”

Sergeant Sexy stepped forward. “No ma’am. Your roommate was in a car accident. I’m simply here to follow up and take statements when she wakes up.”

“Oh my God. She’s not awake?”

“Not yet, but she just had surgery so it might take a while,” Doctor McHotty said.

“Surgery?” Brooke squeaked. This was getting worse by the minute. The woman who called from the hospital hadn’t given Brooke any details. She just asked that Brooke come down to bring Lucy some clothes and help fill out paperwork since she was listed as Lucy’s emergency contact.

Doctor McHotty spoke softly. “She needed surgery to set the break in her leg.”

Brooke burst into tears. Poor Lucy! This was so much worse than she’d thought. She hated that she was crying in front of these two gorgeous men—especially since she was a self-diagnosed ugly crier. But once the tears started, she knew it was useless to try to rein them in.

Doctor McHotty shifted on his feet uncomfortably, but Sergeant Sexy stepped forward quickly. “I got this,” he said in a low voice, nodding to Doctor McHotty. “Go check on your girl.”

Jaxon

Jaxon strode quickly through the double doors and into the patient corridor. He couldn’t get away from the crying girl fast enough. He did not do well with tears, but Conner ate them up. Jaxon swore his brother actually preferred weepy girls. He had some sort of super power for finding them and getting them to fall in love with him. Well for a few hours, anyway.

Conner was a serial flirt. He’d never been in a serious relationship and he seemed to prefer having a different woman on his arm every day. Usually Jaxon hated that about his brother, but right now he was just happy to escape the blonde girl’s blubbering. Her pale features had instantly gone pink and splotchy when she burst into tears, and her white-blonde hair fell around her like a curtain of mourning.

It made Jaxon uneasy. He tried to shake the feeling as he moved down the hall. Jaxon caught his reflection in the darkened glass windows of the hospital rooms he passed and realized he was gripping the little yellow dog the crying blonde gave him to his chest. He looked ridiculous and immediately tucked the stuffed toy under his arm instead. It still looked lame, but it was better than clutching it to his heart like a child.

He followed the arrows that listed the room numbers at the end of the hall and eventually made it to Lucy’s room. The door was propped open and the lights were off. A pale blue glow illuminated the private hospital room. Jaxon took a tentative step inside the doorway but a thin white curtain was drawn across, cutting off his view of the bed inside.

He knocked lightly on the door. “Hello?”

No one answered, so he took a deep breath and ducked past the curtain, moving all the way into the room. Lucy lay in the big white hospital bed, hooked up to machines that were monitoring her vital signs. Jaxon took a step closer to make sure it was really her. She looked more gauze than girl. Thick white bandages were wrapped around her head and left arm. Her right leg stuck out from under the sheets in a massive cast. It was the heavy old school kind. Jaxon was used to seeing those big black walking boots when people had leg injuries. Lucy’s must’ve been severe to warrant this level of immobilization.

“Ah, I see why you’re so smitten with this one.” Conner’s voice called, making Jaxon jump as his brother entered the hospital room.

“I’m not smitten,” Jaxon grumbled.

Conner ignored him and plopped down in a hard chair next to Lucy’s bed. “I don’t know, bro,” he said examining her closer. “She’s not your usual type.”

“I don’t have a type,” Jaxon snapped—but that was a lie.

Jaxon’s past girlfriends had all been of the blonde and curvy cheerleader variety. Lucy was the exact opposite. Messy tendrils of auburn hair fanned out on her pillow and her body was so thin she appeared to have the opposite of curves. The bones of her small frame were over pronounced in the large hospital bed. She looked so fragile lying there that Jaxon wondered how she hadn’t shattered into a million pieces in the car accident he’d witnessed. The damn girl took up hardly any space in the room, but Jaxon could already feel her carving out a spot in his tattered heart.

Shit, was Conner right? Was Jaxon smitten? His chest felt tight just thinking about it. Jaxon pushed back against the feeling. He was in no frame of mind to get attached. Especially to a girl that wasn’t available.

Jaxon was pretty sure Lucy was dating the biggest douche nozzle on campus. Since transferring to Saint Andrews, Jaxon tried to keep his head down and avoid getting sucked into the rich kid drama the school practically cultivated. But it was nearly impossible not to notice Alex Alvez. The guy was like a neon billboard, strutting around campus with hordes of girls following him and a camera crew that filmed his every move. What a tool.

It was just another thing that made Lucy not Jaxon’s type. She was unavailable and Jaxon wasn’t the type of guy to go after another man’s girl. Plus, if Lucy liked flashy jock-wads, then she definitely wasn’t the girl for Jaxon.

“So,” Conner said disrupting Jaxon’s thoughts. “Tell me about the accident.”

Jaxon sighed and took a seat next to his brother and launched into the detailed account of the hit-and-run he’d witnessed just a few hours ago. The whole time Jaxon spoke, Conner scribbled notes on his notepad, nodding and asking questions meant to help Jaxon recall details. When they were done, Conner shut the notepad. “Let me know when she wakes up. I want to personally take her statement, and I’ll arrange to have a sketch artist meet with you since you got a look at the driver.”

“Thanks,” Jaxon said.

Conner stood up and stretched. “Can I give you a lift home?”

“I think I’m gonna stay for a bit.”

“You sure?”

Jaxon looked back at Lucy’s tiny frame and nodded solemnly. He knew he’d do nothing but worry if he left without seeing her wake up.

Conner put a hand on Jaxon’s shoulder and squeezed. “We’ll get this one.”

Jaxon looked up at his brother, feeling suddenly vulnerable. “Promise?”

Conner’s jaw twitched with determination. “I got you, brother. Always,” he said holding up his fist.

Jaxon pounded his fist against Conner’s. “Always.”