Chapter Two
“C onnor, what the hell is wrong with you?” his brother Logan asked. “It’s your turn to break.” He waved a hand at the pool table they stood beside at Grey’s Saloon.
“Sorry,” he said and took his shot, sinking three solids. Pure luck, since he hadn’t even thought about it. Luck. Which, of course, made him think about Sierra. It wasn’t cards but the same seemed to apply to any game. Unlucky in love. He sure had been since returning from Las Vegas. Not that he’d tried to change that. No, he wanted her—Sierra.
He didn’t run the table, but he came close. Logan took his turn, grumbling. “You’ve been out to lunch every time I’ve seen you lately. Ever since you got back from Vegas. Did something happen there? Shit!” he added, missing his shot.
“I told you Cherie dumped me.”
“I thought you took Candy.”
“Cherie, Candy, what’s the diff?” He rolled a shoulder. “She dumped me. In Vegas. The first day. After I paid her way there. End of story.”
Logan leaned against the table and smirked at him. “I don’t think it broke your heart since you can’t even remember her name. So what is it?”
“Eight ball, corner pocket.” Not to his surprise, he sank it. “Bring me a draft and I’ll tell you about it.”
“I wish your luck would change. I’m getting tired of buying your beer.”
Connor found a seat in the corner near the back, where it was less crowded. He had been spacey lately. Not at work, thank God, but any other time. Because still, even three weeks later, he couldn’t get Sierra out of his head. And he not only hadn’t gotten her phone number, he didn’t even know her last name. All he knew was she lived in Texas. Which was a hell of a long way from Marietta, Montana.
She was beautiful but beautiful women weren’t a novelty to him. Yet she had been. The sex had been great. More like astounding, but there was more to it than just the physical. He wasn’t sure why. Maybe because he’d been more open and honest with Sierra than he ever had been with anyone other than his brothers. Which was weird, but there it was.
He remembered the conversation they’d had after the first time they made love.
“You’re the first man I’ve been with since the last time I had sex with my ex-husband.”
“I kind of figured that since you said you hadn’t kissed a man in a year.”
“Oh, yeah. I forgot I told you that.”
He rolled over on top of her, supporting his weight with his forearms. “Do you regret it?”
“Being with you? No. I was afraid I might, but I don’t at all. What about you?”
“Sierra, there is no possible way I could ever regret being with you.”
And that was the God’s honest truth. He kissed her and they made love again.
Here he was, thinking of it as making love rather than having sex, or fucking, or hooking up. But that’s what it had felt like with Sierra. Which was insane. You couldn’t fall in love in one night. Hell, he was pretty sure he couldn’t fall in love at all, much less overnight.
He’d lost his mind over a woman he’d never see again. Was that why he was obsessed with her? Because he knew he could never have her? He wasn’t ready to settle down right now, but that didn’t mean he never wanted to. Of course, he had to trust a woman not to break his heart in order to do that.
He’d had someone a long time ago. When he was in the army. He’d been crazy about her. Loved her. Had wanted it to last. But it had ended really badly. So he pretended, until he’d mentioned it to Sierra, that it hadn’t been a close call. On his part. On hers it never had been. And then it was over in the most final way. Death was pretty damn final. So he did his best not to think about her. Even years later it still hurt. Her betrayal almost as much as her death.
“Here’s your beer.” Logan set it down in front of him. “Now what the hell is going on with you?”
He took a long pull of his beer and then put it down. “I met a woman in Vegas.”
Logan waited but when Connor said nothing more, Logan said, “Stop the presses.”
Connor rolled his eyes. “This was different. She was different. Being with her was—”
“Different. I get it. But you hooked up, right?” Connor shrugged. “So why are you moping around here instead of being with her?”
“It was a one-night stand. We didn’t exchange numbers. Hell, I don’t even know her last name. All I know is she lives in Texas and her name is Sierra.”
“Texas is a big place.”
“No shit.” He took another drink.
“So what are you going to do?”
Decision made, he slapped his glass down. “I’m going to find her.”
*
Over the years Sierra Evans had kept in touch with Samantha Gallagher, an old friend who did her surgical residency when Sierra was working in the ER of the same hospital, early in her marriage. When Sam heard she was divorced and considering moving she’d begun campaigning for Sierra to come to Marietta, Montana. Sam had moved there a few years earlier to practice surgery and then married a local rancher. She said Redbird Flight Care, an air medical service that served Marietta Regional Hospital among others, was looking for a qualified flight nurse to be based in Marietta. And since that was exactly what Sierra did, after checking out the job and Marietta, the town where she’d be based, interviewing by Zoom, and being offered the job, she accepted the position.
She couldn’t deny that when Connor had told her he was from Montana she’d been curious. But Montana was a big state, even though it was sparsely populated. She didn’t even know his last name, never mind what he did. Marietta was a small town, despite having a fairly large and growing medical community. It would be far too coincidental for Connor to be from the very town where she’d accepted a new job.
Her Las Vegas trip had not only been to ‘celebrate’ her divorce being final but also to celebrate her new job and, she hoped, a new beginning far away from the heartbreak of the past. Winning at almost every game she played was a hit, but spending the night with a gorgeous man was the home run. It had been sexy and fun—more fun than she’d had in years. She’d needed some fun. Though she was only thirty sometimes she felt much older.
Now she was ready to settle down and enjoy her new job and town. And if she thought about Connor far more than she should have, who could blame her? She’d never been tempted into a one-night stand before. To have her first, and almost certainly only one, be as memorable as it had been made her little getaway a huge success.
She knew she’d never see him again. Knew it was best to forget about him. And she tried. She really did. But she’d dreamed about him, about their night together almost every night since, and woke up thinking about him. Wanting him. She couldn’t help her dreams, could she?
The hospital needed her to start as soon as possible. So she packed up her apartment and contracted the movers to bring the furniture and what she didn’t take in her car. Since her car was a Corvette she couldn’t put much in it. Plus, it wasn’t exactly made for snow and mountains. She knew she’d have to trade in her sports car for a sport utility vehicle, but she loved her ’vette and didn’t want to give it up. Maybe she’d keep it too, just for summertime, and buy something else to use in the winter.
Sam had told her of an apartment complex near the hospital where a lot of people who worked at the hospital lived. She looked it up online and signed to rent a two-bedroom unit at the Absaroka apartments. The pictures of it online weren’t terrible but they weren’t great either. She figured she wouldn’t be in it forever. It was a short lease, since she intended to look for a house as soon as she could. But renting an apartment would give her a chance to find a good neighborhood as well as making certain she wanted to stay in Marietta after her initial year-long contract with Redbird Flight Care was up. Plus the extra bedroom made a nice storage center for what didn’t fit in the apartment but what she hoped would fit in a house someday.
She’d sublet her apartment in Dallas and that had taken more time than she’d expected. She arrived in Marietta five days before she was to start work at the hospital. She stayed at the Graff hotel that night and the movers with her furniture and other belongings arrived the following day. It turned out the apartment was nicer than it had looked online, which made her happy. She called Sam when she got in to let her know she’d arrived. Sam asked her to come to the hospital so she could show her around as soon as she could after the movers finished and she’d had a chance to settle in a little.
“I’m so excited you’re here! The hospital administrator said he’d show you around but I asked him to let me since we’re old friends,” Sam told her when she saw her the next day. “And Dylan and I want you to come out to the ranch. You don’t start for a few days, do you?”
“Not until Monday.”
“Great, then why don’t you come over Sunday night?”
“Sure. What can I bring?”
“Just yourself. Do you have any idea what your call schedule will be?”
“Not a clue. I’m sure I’ll find out when I start work.”
Sam took her around that morning, hitting all the general areas of the hospital before showing her the specialties.
“Here’s our ER,” Sam said. “My brother-in-law Sean is an ER doc. The other two are doctors also. Jack is a family practice doc and Wyatt is an orthopedic surgeon.”
“Wow, a family of doctors. How did you manage to snare the only non-medical brother?”
“Dylan is hard to turn down.” She dimpled. “You’ll see when you meet him.”
Sam introduced her to a few of the staff in the ER. They were about to leave when Sam said, “Oh, there’s one of our flight paramedics.”
A tall blond man in a flight suit was walking towards them. As he came closer her heart began to race. There was no possible way. It couldn’t be him.
But it was.
“Connor, let me introduce you to our new flight nurse. Connor McFarland, meet Sierra Evans.”
In a dream, she held out her hand and he took it. Sierra couldn’t have spoken on a bet. He didn’t speak either, but his wicked smile said all it needed to. Someone called out to Sam, and she left the two of them together, saying she’d be right back.
“What—what are you doing here?” she managed to spit out. Realizing he was still holding her hand, she withdrew it.
“I work here.”
“You’re a paramedic.”
He nodded. “A flight paramedic. And you’re apparently a flight nurse. With Redbird, I take it.”
“Yes, but—but what are you doing here ?”
“I told you I lived in Montana. Marietta, Montana, is my hometown. The question is what are you doing here? You told me you lived in Texas.”
“I did until I took this job.”
“Small world.”
You can say that again. “So we’ll be working together.”
“Since you’re a flight nurse and we both appear to be based here, I’d say there’s a real good chance of that. I can’t believe you’re here. Coincidence or fate?”
“I don’t believe in fate.”
“I don’t believe in coincidence.”
She decided to be blunt and firm. “Connor, I had a great time with you but I never expected to see you again.”
“I never expected to see you again either. But I can’t say I’m sorry. In fact, I couldn’t be happier. You have no idea how many times I’ve thought about you. I tried to find you but without a last name I didn’t get anywhere. I knew you lived in Texas but it’s a big state.”
Oh, God. She wasn’t about to tell him she’d dreamed about him nearly every night since their one night together. “We’re going to be working together.”
“Yeah. We established that.”
He was every bit as hot as she remembered. Damn it. “We can’t… Nothing can happen between us.”
He rubbed the back of his neck and looked puzzled. “Why not?”
“I don’t date co-workers.”
“Why not?” he repeated.
“Because my ex-husband and I worked together. And you know how that turned out. No way am I doing that again.”