She lifted me.

This random pissed off chick—who kept staring at my accidentally exposed cock like it had offended her—just wrestled all two-hundred and twenty pounds of me upright without the slightest grunt of exertion.

It was humiliating. It was emasculating. It was...

Fucking impressive.

She twisted me and turned me and at the last minute slammed the toilet closed before depositing me right down on the lid. “Now, where are your crutches?” she asked. “All the way over here? You were trying to reach them when you fell, weren’t you? You’re lucky they didn’t land on your head.”

“I’m sorry, but…” I said, staring at this girl who’d appeared out of nowhere—like some kind of blue-eyed, body-building guardian angel—right when I’d lost my fucking balance in the shower like the old lady on a Life Alert commercial. I’d literally fallen and couldn’t get up. “I should know you, right?”

“Everly,” she said, in this resigned tone of voice. Like she was used to reminding people about who she was. “From next door.”

Everly. The name conjured up flashes of wide eyes under a heavy fringe of bangs. A solemn, staring girl in unfashionable hand-me-downs standing on the other side of the creek while my siblings and I played in the backyard. Watching but never joining in.

Those memories didn’t jibe with the blonde badass currently invading my personal space while I sat naked on a toilet. “So you’re my nurse now?”

“I’m studying to be an RN,” she said with stiff pride. “I take my boards in a couple weeks.”

The humidity in the bathroom was making little hairs fuzz up from her tight ponytail, haloing her in blonde. She had full cheeks and full lips that gave the impression of softness but her eyes were cold blue steel. There was something about them that made the back of my brain tickle. I’d seen her before, of that I was certain, but then again, of course I had, she was the neighbor girl after all.

As if she could tell I was studying her, she stared right back. Openly, without even trying to sneak glances or be subtle about it. There was something about how direct her gaze was that made my skin heat up in a way that had nothing to do with the lingering heat of the shower. My cock stirred as if it liked the attention. “Um,” I said, angry at how vulnerable I was right now, “that’s cool and all, but can I have my crutches now?”

“No.”

“Are you trying to hold me hostage or something?”

“No.” She rolled her eyes. “First I need to check your vitals.”

“I’m naked.”

“I’m a nurse,” she huffed. “You think yours is the first naked body I’ve ever seen?” I couldn’t tell if it was the heat in here that was coloring her cheeks or if it was something else.

She leaned forward and stared into my eyes for a moment, then grabbed my wrist. I held my breath as she pressed two fingers to the pulse I was inexplicably hearing in my ears. I willed my cock to stay where it was and not enjoy the feel of her fingers on my skin so damn much.

After what seemed like an eternity, she stepped back with a nod. “Now, do you remember what you were doing before you fell?”

I blinked at her. I’d traveled the world and had crowds screaming my name. I’d had my own TV show with ratings good enough to warrant talk of a new season. But this chick didn’t seem impressed by any of that and I was surprised at how annoyed that made me. She was all business and seemed bound and determined to ignore my naked discomfort. “Getting out of the tub because I heard someone prowling around downstairs,” I snarked. “Somebody who showed up a lot earlier than she needed to.”

She didn’t take the bait. “Mm hmm, and tell me what happened just after you fell?”

I tightened the towel around my waist. “My nurse slammed a door into my head.”

“Okay and do you remember why I’m here?” she asked.

“You mean other than to give me the third degree?”

“I’m checking for a concussion,” she said primly. “Making sure you’re not confused about recent events.”

“Oh, recent events are pretty damn confusing, I’ll tell you that much. But no, I remember you’re supposed to take me to my first PT appointment.” I reached out. “And in order to get to it, I’m going to need my crutches so I can go get dressed.”

“No way I’m letting you dress yourself,” she said. “You need assistance, especially with lifting your arms over your head. How many ribs did you break again?” But she handed me my crutches.

I grimaced, scrabbling with one hand to keep the towel wrapped around my waist while trying to maneuver around her with the other. The towel fell again. “Fuck it,” I growled. “Mine isn’t the first naked body you’ve seen, right?”

“Nope,” she said, her scowl deepening. “Now, where are your clothes? Don’t tell me you have to come all the way up here to get dressed. Why are you even on the second floor, anyway?”

“This is where the shower is,” I said, hauling myself as fast as I could to my old bedroom.

But she was right on my heels, scolding me like some kind of human blue jay. I swung myself into the doorway and reached out.

“Hey!” she cried as I shut the door in her face. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Getting dressed in private?” I answered, hobbling over to my bed and taking a deep, panicked breath.

Plenty of chicks had seen me naked since I broke up with Noelle. But every single one of them had been too busy trying to save my life to give a shit about how I looked in the nude.

Everly-from-next-door should have felt the same way. She was another nurse, after all. But for some reason it mattered to me this time. It mattered that she saw me, scarred and crippled, weak and so out of shape that little hobbled sprint down the hallway had me feeling out of breath.

I gritted my teeth as the crutches dug into my armpits. My ankles were screaming from the slight weight I was putting on them now.

I’d swung my legs out at the last minute. Which saved me from slamming my head into the rock face and scrambling my brains like an egg, but left me with two shattered ankles. Pins and screws were holding them together now, and I swore I could feel those bits of metal grinding around in there. I’d just finished washing myself but the pain was already making cold sweat prickle at my hairline. I looked down at the side of my old bed.

The two big Frankenstein boots were sitting there, staring me down like a guilty conscience. I’d graduated from plaster casts that couldn’t get wet to these monstrosities, but at least I could take them off. The bath Everly had interrupted had been the first time I’d been alone in the bathroom in months. It was pathetic how good it felt to have some privacy and some fucking dignity and...

I heard a decidedly unfeminine curse out in the hallway. The door slammed open.

I snapped my head up and stared at the red-faced Everly in open disbelief. “What the fuck are you doing?” I demanded, yanking the covers off the bed and holding them against my over-exposed dick.

The expression on her face reminded me of the one my dog made when he stopped being gentle playing tug-of-war and started growling and yanking. “You’re my patient, which means you’re my responsibility,” she said, planting her hands on her hips. “There’s no way in hell I’m letting you get dressed and risk falling again on my watch.” The way she said “my watch” landed like a sack of guilty bricks against my chest.

I held up my good hand. “Seriously, Everly. I don’t need...”

“Sit,” she barked.

For some reason, I sat.

She nodded. “Let’s find you some clothes.” She started yanking open drawers. “Here you go.”

“That’s my brother’s shirt,” I said. She was pretty but she was really starting to piss me off.

She rolled her eyes. “Who cares?”

“Me?”

“Fine.” She rummaged around some more. “How about this?”

I threw up my good hand in surrender. “I haven’t worn that in ten years and I told my mother to throw it out, but whatever.” I shrugged. “Give it here.”

She nodded, but she didn’t hand it over. Instead she stalked over to the side of the bed and stood in front of me.

I looked up at her from where I was sitting and took in the determined set of her mouth and the little worried furrow between her eyebrows. She seemed to be scrutinizing me as closely as I was her and for a moment we just looked at each other in complete silence. Again I had that tickle in the back of my brain.

Noelle was a chatterer. She liked to fill my ears with her every thought, a never-ending flood of words that sometimes threatened to drown me. In the years since I’d ended it, I wondered more than once if she hadn’t kept talking in order to keep me from thinking. Because maybe, if I had a chance to catch my breath, I might have realized what she was up to behind my back.

Everly was obviously not a chatterbox, so I just stared back at her. It was like a weird game of silent chicken. Whoever talks first, loses.

Finally she exhaled. “Lift your arms,” she said, holding the shirt over my head.

My brief triumph over winning the standoff was overthrown the second I tried to do what she asked me. I lifted my arms and grimaced. “That’s as far as I can go.”

Her soft mouth screwed down into a frown. “When’s the last time you took your painkillers?”

“I didn’t.” I raised my chin defiantly.

“What?”

“I’m not taking them.”

“Are you insane?”

“Some people think so, yeah,” I said.

She shook her head. “So you’re taking nothing for the pain of five broken ribs, a laceration, and two broken ankles?”

“Ibuprofen.”

“That’s like bringing a knife to a gun fight.”

“It’s fine.”

“Why are you being so stubborn?”

I glanced up at her. She’d grown up next door to us but I was only noticing her for the first time. I wondered if the feeling was mutual. Being in the public eye meant it was close to impossible to know how much information anyone had about you. Had they heard of you? Were they obsessive fans or completely clueless? Or were they haters who spent time on web forums typing in ALL CAPS about how you ate babies for sport? You knew nothing about them but they thought they knew everything about you.

Did she have any knowledge of what had gone on in my life these past few years? Did she know about my break-up with Noelle St. Lucia, the breakup of the band, my stint in rehab? My slow climb back into relevancy with a cheesy-ass reality show where I went around the world doing extreme sports?

She knew about my accident, that much was clear, but as far as I could tell, she didn’t know anything else about me.

And to my surprise I found that suited me just fine.

Instead of explaining my stubbornness when it came to painkillers, I just smiled. “I’m a stubborn guy.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m noticing this,” she said as she slid my shirt over my head.

She disappeared from my view for a moment, and then reappeared even closer when my head popped out of the collar. She was so close I could feel heat rising from her skin and see each one of those fine blonde baby hairs that haloed her face. As she bent to help me into my boxers, the collar of her uniform fell away, revealing the strong slope of her shoulder and a bright pink bra strap that made me sit up a little straighter.

In the process of dressing me, her hands must have touched every inch of my skin, and as they did, the strangest thing was happening. Her feathery touch drew trails along my skin that alternately cooled and burned. Goosebumps broke out on my arms.

Of course she noticed. “Are you feeling feverish? I think I need to check your vitals again. That fall was pretty spectacular.”

I clenched my teeth. The pain in my ankles was searing and my tentative hold on civility was starting to fray. The couple sessions with the physical therapist in the hospital had left me gasping and shaking and pretty fucking close to tears. And now I was supposed to go do all of that again, but this time with Everly there watching everything with those steely blue eyes. Watching me struggle.

So far this girl had seen me naked, hurt, embarrassed, and vulnerable.

Enough was enough.

I crossed my arms in front of my chest and willed the last remaining bits of my dignity to assert themselves. “Yeah, it was pretty bad,” I said, lifting my chin. “Maybe I had better not go today.” I shifted until I was lying back on the bed. “I’ll call and cancel the appointment. Why don’t you head home?”

And that’s where I made my first mistake.

Ana, my last nurse, was always ready to be let out early. It required little more than a, “I think everything’s fine,” to get her out of my hair. I figured the same bullshit would apply to Everly, who, after all, had other shit going on right now. I figured she’d jump at the chance to knock off early.

When the steel in her eyes hardened to diamonds, I realized I’d figured completely wrong.