Tia looked around the room and was actually pleasantly surprised at what she saw. She hadn’t realized, until now, that she’d sort of been expecting a frat party of some kind. Chandelier swinging and body shots. But of course, Eli was a 34-year-old man. And even with his playboy reputation, she knew that he was very respected in his community.

She was a little starstruck, though, at the number of professional athletes milling around in button-down shirts.

“Oh my god,” Laura murmured.

“What?”

“Don’t look, but there is a man over there absolutely undressing me with his eyes.”

“Where?”

“Okay. But do it casually. He’s at my five o clock, in a green shirt and jeans. Red hair.”

“Oh.” Tia glanced over and then immediately straightened up. The man had definitely been undressing Laura with his eyes. “Laura, that’s Jace Overshire.”

“Who?”

Tia rolled her eyes at her sister. The only way to not know who Jace Overshire was in this town was to be willfully ignorant. Which, when it came to sports, Laura was. “The wide receiver for the Stingrays. He was drafted the same year as Eli. He’s the one that caught that pass in the fourth quarter of the Superbowl when they won four years ago?”

Laura’s eyes were completely blank of recognition, but they were not blank of attraction. “Yeah. Okay. So, do you have your feet under you yet?”

Tia’s mouth dropped open. Thirty seconds into this party and Laura was already ditching her?

“Hey, Camellias,” a familiar voice said behind her and Tia breathed a sigh of relief. Marcus wouldn’t ditch her the way her traitorous sister was threatening to do.

“Marcus!” Laura threw her arms around his neck. They’d always been buddies at school, even if she’d had a fiendish crush on him for a while. But she’d figured it was time to put that crush in the grave the night she’d hooked up with Jay Brady. If there was one thing those three guys didn’t do, it was double dip with the same girls.                                           Whatever, that hook-up had been worth it. But knowing full well that any chance she might have had with Marcus was dead, Laura wasn’t about to waste any valuable time on him either. She quickly unhanded him before the red-headed hottie across the party got the wrong idea. “So good to see you! Hey, you think you can get Tia something to drink while I head to the bathroom real quick?”             

“Of course. Uh, bathroom is back that way,” Marcus said, pointing in the opposite direction of where Laura was currently walking.

She just grinned and shrugged and kept going.

“Something tells me she’s not in need of the bathroom,” Marcus said, watching in amusement as she strode right up to Jace Overshire and said something that had the Allstar wide receiver’s eyebrows shooting up in surprise.

“I think bathroom was a code word in that case,” Tia replied dryly, following behind Marcus as he led her through the party.

“Code word for what?”

“Trying to get some ass.”

Marcus couldn’t help but laugh, hard, at that phrase coming out of prim and proper Dr. Camellia’s mouth. He’d already rescinded her to Eli, but he couldn’t help but feel a healthy dose of regret about it. And he also couldn’t help but reach back and take her hand as he wove through the party guests toward the drinks table. He could practically feel the hairs on his arm burning off under Eli’s intense gaze, but he didn’t care. At all.

Tia was so glad that Marcus was there. She’d always been comfortable around him, even though everyone else treated him like he was a little bit scary. Sure, he didn’t smile very often and he definitely had the whole tall, dark, and handsome thing going on. But he’d always been soft and sweet with her. And right now, in the middle of all these fit, attractive, famous people, Tia couldn’t have been more glad for it.

She glanced down at their clasped hands and realized that she’d hardly noticed when he’d taken her fingers in his. It was natural and kind. She noted that there wasn’t even a touch of that low level, buzzing warmth between them that she felt every time she touched Eli. Absently, her free hand came up to slide over the part of her shoulder that he’d touched yesterday in her office. She could still feel the heat of his palm there.

Clearing her throat as they came up to the table with all the drinks, Tia scanned for anything she could have.

“What’s your poison?” Marcus asked. “We’ve got beer and wine, some good whiskey, vodka, gin. And I’m pretty sure that Jay picked up some of that girly shit too. Zima or whatever.”

Tia made a quick face. “That stuff’ll kill you.”

“You’re telling me. It’s like drinking cough syrup.”

His voice faded away as Tia felt something scramble up her spine. But she didn’t turn around. She’d recognize that feeling anywhere. It was the feeling she used to get in high school when she knew that Eli was in the room. She hadn’t seen him yet. And she refused to turn around and look for him. But she would have bet every penny in her bank account that he was looking at her right now.

She cleared her throat again. Opened her mouth to speak, but somebody beat her to it.

“She’s on call.” Eli’s deep voice rumbled through her and Tia couldn’t stop the shooting thrill that went through her. He was standing right behind her.

“Eli.” She turned to him and was extremely surprised when she was immediately enveloped into a hug. He was so big that she got the feeling she was being wrapped into a huge, friendly blanket. His arms came around her for just a moment, firm and soft at the same time. And so did his scent. He smelled like exercise and fabric softener. Tia immediately told herself not to nuzzle into the warm hug. Well, it was mostly a warm hug. There was ice bandaged to the outside of his dress shirt on one side.

She stepped back from him, only to be momentarily stunned by the dazzling smile on his face. The same one that used to dazzle her in high school.

Marcus cleared his throat and Tia dropped her eyes in minor embarrassment. Oh lord, had she looked as moony and spritzy as she’d felt?

“So that means no alcohol?” Marcus asked, looking back and forth between Eli and Tia with a little smile on his face.

“Right.”

“I got a bunch of juice and stuff for you,” Eli said, still smiling. “It’s in the kitchen. And Jay made some iced green tea as well, but seriously, it’s like drinking a bouquet of flowers.”

Tia followed behind Eli, barely noticing that she was leaving Marcus in the dust. Marcus merely sighed and turned to go sit with Jay, knowing exactly when to fold ‘em. If he’d ever thought he had a chance with her, that was completely dashed by the look she’d just given Eli. Damn stupid cockblocking football star.

“Speaking of flowers,” Tia said, her eyebrows rose as they stepped through the swinging door into Eli’s much quieter kitchen. The place was covered counter to table top in fresh cut flowers.

“I know. Everybody wants to let me know they’re thinking about me. Which is really nice.” He opened the fridge and peeked his head in. “But these flowers are gonna give Jay a coronary if they keep arriving in this quantity.”

Tia looked around at all the colorful jars and vases filled with blooms. “I take it he’s still an environmental advocate? The way he was in high school?”

“Yup. Full-on vegan, leave-no-trace, eco warrior. And the flower industry drives him up the wall with all the waste.” He peeked his head out from behind the door and the sudden appearance of that smile had Tia’s cheeks going pink. “Okay, I got organic grape, white grape, cranberry, apple, sparkling apple, and pear juice. Which I didn’t even know was a thing.”

Charmed and flattered that he’d gone to all that trouble just because he knew she wouldn’t be drinking, Tia folded her arms across her chest and leaned against the counter. “Cranberry, please.”

He pulled out a fancy glass jar and Tia frowned at the label.

“Something wrong?” he asked as he grabbed down a glass for her.

“You got 100% cranberry juice. Not cranberry cocktail.”

“So?”

Tia cocked her head at him. “Have you ever tried pure cranberry juice?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

Tia took the glass from his hand and poured a tiny swig into it. She handed it over to him, some expression dancing on her face that he couldn’t quite read.

Eli wasn’t a particularly adventurous eater or drinker, but he was intrigued by the moment. And he would have taken a bite out of the countertop if it put that little smile on her face. He took a sip and the instant, gut wrenching bitterness on his tongue had his face crumbling in on itself.

Tia threw her head back and laughed. Really laughed. It was husky and low and tumbled out of her like water over the pebbles in a stream.

Yeah. Eli was forced to admit it all at once. No more dancing around it. He was into her. Definitely into her.

She took the glass from him and rinsed it out in the sink. “People don’t usually drink it straight like that. Pure cranberry juice is generally used medicinally. For treating UTIs.”

What the hell, Tia? Why in god’s name was she talking about UTIs while she stood four feet away from Elijah Bird?

He grimaced and put the offending juice away. “How about some good ol’ grape, then?”

Tia had her juice in hand as he held the swinging kitchen door open for her. She was strangely disappointed to be leaving the quiet kitchen to head back into the larger gathering. But she was mindful of the fact that she didn’t want to monopolize his time. This was his party and she was sure he had a lot of people to see.

Case in point. A tiny little bombshell with a long red braid down her back came dancing up to them the second they stepped back into the living room. She wore a short satin dress and tall boots that still only brought her up to Tia’s chin.

“Elijah! I’m so relieved to see you up and around. You know I’ve been biting my nails ever since I heard on the radio that you’d been injured.”

“Katie.” He bent down for a quick hug and Tia wondered for a brief second if her own hug with him had been that short, if it had only been her imagination that had lengthened the time he’d held her. “This is Dr. Tia Camellia.”

Tia’s back straightened and she forced herself to look casual, take a sip of her juice. Right. He was thinking of her as his surgeon. The one he owed for saving his life.                             For a moment in the kitchen, and during the hug, Tia had started to wonder if there was a spark of personal interest there. But no. Of course not. He had barely noticed her in high school and he wouldn’t have noticed her now if she hadn’t saved his life. But she had. So here she was at his party and he was being so sweet and friendly. And that was just fine. She would be polite to his friends, tell him she’d had a nice time, and that the debt of gratitude was completely repaid. And then they’d both get on with their lives.

Tia was calmed by the split second resolution she’d just made with herself but found herself immediately annoyed again by the passing, obligatory nod that this Katie person had sent her way.

“Hi.” Katie’s eyes went back to Eli and did a much more leisurely scan down his large body. They zeroed in on the ice at his side. “Oh, Elijah, you poor baby. You must be in so much pain. I can’t believe you have to ice in the middle of a party!” She turned to Tia in a loud, fake whisper that was obviously meant to mark territory. “It’s not like him at all to show his injuries during a social gathering. Usually he’s such a he-man.”

Tia couldn’t help raising one of her dark, perfectly sculpted eyebrows. “He’s only three weeks out from surgery. He needs to ice regularly. Social engagements or not.” Tia turned to Eli. She couldn’t be proprietary over him in a personal way, like this Katie woman apparently could. But he was viewing her as his doctor. And she’d be damned if she wasn't gonna wield her medical clout a little. “And speaking of that, Eli, you really should get off your feet. And I’d like to make sure your ace bandage isn’t restricting circulation.”

The smile that bloomed over Eli’s face took away the breath of both of the women standing before him.

“Oh. So you’re like actually his doctor?” Katie asked, a skeptical look coming over her face as she swept her eyes from Tia’s feet to her hairline.

“Yes,” Eli immediately answered. “And she’s an old friend from high school. Come on, Doc. Nice to see you, Katie. Enjoy the party.”

Eli took Tia’s hand in his own and it was nothing like holding hands with Marcus. Tia’s hand was immediately swallowed by his large, rough one. That buzzy heat gathered between their palms again and this time it was so acute that Tia could feel it shooting up her arm. She was suddenly uncomfortably hot.

“Old friend from high school?” she said to him, making him look back at her. “Eli, you don’t even remember me from high school.”

His smile faded a little and his eyes suddenly narrowed as he tugged a little bit harder on her hand all of the sudden.

She expected Eli to lead her to the couch where Jay and Marcus were sitting and chatting with a few people Tia didn’t know, but he walked right past them, pulling her all the way through the living room and down a back hallway. Tia did her best to ignore the countless daggers that were being stared into her by the other women at the party.

He pulled her down the dark hallway, flipping lights on as he went. He walked past a few rooms with their doors slightly ajar and Tia got déjà vu of the one other time she was in the place where Elijah Bird lived. The party where she’d snooped in his room. And written in his yearbook. Oh lord. She was grateful for the dim hallway when her cheeks went pink.

Finally he tugged her into a room at the end of the hall. It was a cozy den space with dark green walls and an enormous bookshelf on one wall. He motioned for her to sit on the plush love seat that, Tia saw with surprise, faced a large window instead of a television. It was too dark to see what the window looked out on. She sat, crossing one leg over the other and watched Eli drag a finger along the spines of one shelf of books, obviously looking for something.

“Have you actually read all these books?” she asked, mimicking his earlier question back at him.

He laughed. “Not even close.”

She looked around her. What were they doing back here? She started to feel like maybe she should check on Laura.

“Eli,” she started.

“Ah! Here it is!” He plucked a sickeningly familiar book off the shelf and came to sit right next to her on the love seat. It was small enough that they were pressed together, hip to knee. Eli lifted his arm and placed it along the back of the couch behind her so that he wouldn’t be crowding her too much, but the effect was such that she felt utterly surrounded by him.

She stared at the yearbook that he unceremoniously plopped in her lap.

Oh lord. Did he know? Had he figured out that she was the one who’d written that lovesick note for him? Her stomach flipped with trepidation. This was not something she wanted to talk to him about.

“I feel terrible for not initially remembering who you are, Tia. Please. Find yourself in there. Jog my memory.”

Ok. So he just wanted to look at her yearbook photo. As a surgeon, Tia’s hands never shook. A fact that she was not so much proud of as she was extremely grateful for. And right now, her iron will didn’t fail her. She briskly flipped through the pages as if her heart weren’t doing the conga beneath her shirt. Avoiding the front pages, where she’d scribbled her love note for him, she went to the Cs and quickly found herself, pointing out her picture.

“Oh,” she noted with a little surprise. “It’s not as terrible a picture of me as I remember.”

Eli, leaning over the picture for a good look, looked down at her like she was crazy. “You look so pretty in this picture. You must have been nuts if you thought it was bad.”

They both leaned over it for a closer look. “I wasn’t nuts. I was a high school girl. They’re built to think that every picture reveals their worst flaws.”

Eli squinted at the photo. “Oh yeah. I do remember you, Tia. We had a class together. History or something?”

“History of religion,” she corrected absently, tracing a finger over her picture.

“Right. Right.” Eli strained to remember. “We did a project together, right? I’d forgotten that.”

“Yeah.” Tia wanted to look up but couldn’t. She could feel his gaze burning into the side of her face. “We had to do a visual timeline on the events of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. You, uh, surprised me. I remember. While we were working on that project.”

Tia was talking like she too could barely recall having worked on that project with him. But the truth was, it had been so searingly exciting at the time, that she didn’t think she’d ever forget it.

He cocked his head to the side. “Surprised you how?”

Tia flipped through the book until she found his picture. His curly hair on his forehead and huge, creased grin. Looking exactly the way she remembered him. “I expected to have to do all the work by myself.”             

He laughed. “Because I was a jock?”

Tia shrugged. “And because everyone loved you. The guys were all your friends, the teachers laughed at all your jokes, and the girls, well, you know how the girls felt about you.” She shrugged, wanting to quickly move past that. “And I guess I just thought you’d assume I’d do the project for both of us.”

She didn’t mention that she’d had it so bad for him, she’d have gladly done the whole project for them.

“But like I said, you surprised me. You worked harder than I did on the project.” She traced an absent finger over his picture as well. She barely noticed that she’d done it. But he did. “And then I felt badly for having such low expectations for you.”

Eli watched her. He remembered now, albeit dimly. Honestly, he remembered the project better than he did the girl. He wondered now how he could have been so blind. She had been cute back then, verging on very pretty. And they must have sat and talked and planned that project for hours. How could he have ever forgotten her?

Well, he knew how. His mother had died only a few years before that and Eli had still been in a cloud of grief. Each day a little less potent than the day before, but infinitesimally. Girls liked him in high school, sure. But honestly, he hadn’t paid much mind to anyone besides Jay, Marcus, and his father.

But he was paying attention now. And that pretty young girl had turned into an utterly stunning woman.

Eli’s heart thumped as he looked down at her. She looked back at him. Her eyes glowing and silver bright.

“Eli?”

“Yeah?” His voice was husky and dark and he couldn’t help but drop his eyes to her lips. Her perfect, luscious, serious lips.

“You’re welcome.”

He looked back up at her quickly, confused.

She cleared her throat and took his hand in hers, gave it a little squeeze. “You’re welcome for everything that happened that night of the accident. I accept your gratitude. I’m so glad I was there to do that for you.”

Eli gave himself a moment to let her words truly sink in. She wasn’t shaking off his words. She wasn’t telling him that it was perfectly normal for him to feel gratitude for his surgeon. She wasn’t talking to him about the gratitude that her other patients had felt as well. She was just looking him straight in the eye, and clutching his hand, and saying you’re welcome.

He waited for the fist of need in his chest to loosen. The one that had been pulling tighter and tighter ever since he’d met her. The one that was connected to her on a long, invisible string. It didn’t loosen.

Now that she’d fully accepted his gratitude, his need to thank her suddenly looked like something else to him. It was a rock, lodged somewhere in his chest. And it wouldn’t stop yearning. First it had been to thank her, and now it was yearning to be close to her.

“Wow,” Eli said, his eyes falling to her lips again. “Suddenly you don’t feel like my doctor anymore.”

“Oh?” Tia breathed, painfully aware of his leg pressed against hers, his arm around the back of the couch.

“Yeah.” He shifted a tiny bit. She would have thought that he would crowd her in a moment like this, a moment so heady and filled with romantic intent. But he did the opposite. He kept his eyes on hers, dead on hers and leaned back just the slightest amount.

Tia had the insane urge to lean into him. And she realized that was just, exactly, what he’d meant to have happen. He was reeling her in right now. Instead of invading her space, he was pulling her little by little into his own. Tia’s lips parted.

The grinning, floppy-haired Elijah Bird of high school was still flashing across her mind’s eye. The same photo of him that she’d privately sighed over countless times laid open on her lap. And here he was in front of her, all grown up and hers for the kissing. Of that she was sure.

Tia tilted her head, a tiny movement that would have meant almost nothing in any other context, but in this moment, smashed together on the love seat, his arm over the back, this heat thrumming in the air between them, Eli knew it meant that she was about to lean into his space. She was about to give him a little taste.

There was a roaring in his ears as he kept his eyes on hers, kept his body still as he could so he wouldn’t mess up the moment. She leaned forward—

“Elijah, where are all the—oh. Ah. Sorry to interrupt. I just couldn’t remember where you keep the extra darts for the dart board. You got them for me last time but I couldn’t remember from where.”

Tia’s blurry eyes eventually focused in on an absolutely stunning woman. Short, choppy blonde hair and a body to die for. She wore silky high-waisted shorts and a little fitted top. The words last time echoed in Tia’s head. Last time.

Of course. The red head and now this blonde and the countless other gorgeous women mingling out in his living room. Tia would bet all of them had had last times at Eli’s house. With a sinking in her gut like a stone in a well, Tia realized that this was her first time here at Eli’s, which was most likely the exact reason she was jammed onto this love seat with the heat of his arm searing her neck. She was a conquest. Which meant that at some point in the future, she’d be barging in on him with some other woman who was in the middle of her first time at Eli’s.

Eli was saying something to the woman, who gave Tia an embarrassed little wave before she ducked out. But Tia was too busy staring at Eli to pay much attention to it.

The fact was, he wasn’t the same boy she’d loved in high school. This wasn’t a stolen kiss in his blue bedroom like she’d wanted so badly as a girl. He was a man with a man’s appetite and she was a smart woman. She’d read the tabloid articles. She’d heard the sports announcers snickering at whatever woman had come to the game to watch him play that week.

And as painfully handsome as he was, as cute and alluring and…tall. With his white teeth and crinkly eyes and those creases in his cheeks. It didn’t matter. It didn’t matter that she could see the boy smiling out from him even now. No.

She wanted to kiss high school Elijah. Not Elijah Bird, star quarterback and chronic womanizer.

He said something to her that she didn’t hear and she made herself concentrate.

“Tia, are you okay?”

“Oh. Yes. Look, Eli—” An insistent beeping sound had her looking down at her phone. Thank god. Saved by the bell. “That’s the hospital. I’m getting called in.”

He rose alongside her and the two of them hurried through the halls of his house. “I can give Laura a ride home if you need to leave straight from here.”

“Oh! Damn.” Wow. Tia hadn’t even thought of her sister in the last twenty minutes. “Yeah, that would be great. Let me just run it past her real quick.”

They stepped out into the living room and Tia scanned until she spotted her sister in the corner. Was she? Yes. She was sitting in Jace Overshire’s lap. Without another word to Eli, Tia slipped away from him and hurried over toward her sister.

“Hey!” Laura said, narrowing her eyes at the expression on Tia’s face as she came hurrying over. She slid down from Jace’s lap. “Everything okay?”

“Yes. I just got called in to the hospital. Eli said he could give you a ride home.”

Laura’s eyes whipped back to Jace’s almost imperceptibly. “Okay, cool. I’ll be fine. But let me walk you out. Jace, I’ll be right back.”

Laura looped her arm through Tia’s and led her through the party. Tia turned and scanned for Eli. He was standing in the exact same spot that he was when she’d hurried away from him to get Laura. His hands were in his pockets and he wasn’t smiling at all. Instead he watched her with those tawny eyes. She raised her hand to him mouthed thank you across the party, and let Laura tug her out of the house.

“Spill,” Laura said the second they got outside.

“There’s nothing to spill.”

“Tia, don’t make me beat it out of you. You know I can.”

Tia sighed. “Alright, but it was barely anything. He was about to kiss me, I think, when one member of his harem walked in on us and it made me uncomfortable.”

“Being walked in on?”

“No. I mean, kind of. But no, I meant the idea of being one of his harem.”

Laura walked around to the driver’s side of Tia’s car with her. “I think he really likes you, T. You should have seen the way he was looking at you when you were talking to Marcus.”

Tia shrugged. “Does it matter?”

“Sure it matters. It means that he would treat you with respect and kindness. Which we both know he would. Who cares if the guy has a harem? And wouldn’t it be kind of fun to try something new? You’re the one who said no more relationships after Owen. This is what the dating world is like, T. You can’t tie your self-worth up in whether or not the person you’re getting naked with thinks you’re the one.”

Tia considered those words, turned over the engine.

“Besides,” Laura said as she leaned in the driver’s side window and kissed her sister on the cheek. “You owe your high school self at least one kiss with Elijah Bird.”