Chapter 1
AIDEN
Ten months later …
I shoved the last duffel bag into my Honda Accord by sheer force of will, using all my weight to force it in, jostling my sunglasses. It was barely ten in the morning, but the June sun was already glaring too brightly.
I’d spent the morning packing up my apartment for my move to Riverton, where I’d spend the next year, and I was ready to be done.
“I thought graduating med school would be more glamorous,” I complained as Bailey came up beside me.
“New chapters are always a little messy,” he said. “You’re getting there.”
He didn’t know just how messy those last few months of school got for me. After eight years of striving for the top of my class, I’d blown it.
I couldn’t focus, couldn’t study. I knew I had to be the absolute best to snag one of the top-tier residencies, and suddenly the pressure had paralyzed me.
It didn’t help that my asshole ex had come back into my life, making bullshit promises and distracting me. But I couldn’t put it on him. I’d been the one to crash and burn, making my long shot at the top cardiothoracic programs an impossible one.
I could have matched somewhere else, but that wasn’t good enough. I’d taken the next-best option: a research year in Riverton that would buy me the time to get my shit in order and prove I was the medical prodigy my brother believed me to be.
I slammed the car door, and it bounced back open, nearly taking me out.
I skipped back. “Shit. Damn. Stupid door!”
Behind me, Bailey laughed. “Let Flynn do it.” He turned toward the house, where my older brother was emerging with travel cups of coffee in hand. “Honey pie, come use your muscles for us.”
Flynn’s whole face lit up. My brother was a big, burly guy with a full beard, but when he smiled like that, I saw the kid I grew up with. Before everything got so ugly and painful, anyway.
“I knew you were using me for my body,” he joked.
Bailey fluttered his lashes. “What good is a strong man if he doesn’t throw you around a little?”
“Okay,” I broke in before Flynn could reply. “TMI, guys. And you wonder why I want to get my own place instead of staying with you all year.”
Flynn turned a wounded expression my way. “We’re not that bad, are we?”
I’d visited them over spring break, and yes, they were insufferable. I tempered my response for my sensitive older brother, though. He was the very definition of a gentle giant.
Well, except when he hadn’t been.
Not his fault, though. He had protected me. I should have just taken the beating my dad was doling out. If I’d been tougher, if I hadn’t called for help—
I shut off that line of thinking. It never led anywhere good.
“It’s not a bad thing that you’re in love,” I told Flynn. “But you two need this time together. Alone. Without any witnesses—er, um—houseguests.”
Bailey smirked. “Yeah, yeah, we’re too hot for your innocent eyes. Flynn, remind me if I’m wrong, but the first time I stayed over at Aiden’s place, didn’t he come home in booty shorts after a night at the club?”
“I believe he did,” Flynn said, eyes filled with humor.
“Okay, nobody said I was innocent. I just prefer not to have a front-row seat to my brother’s love life. Besides, I can’t be a houseguest for a whole year. I’m going to live in Riverton.”
Flynn handed off the travel mugs to Bailey. “Not if we don’t get this door shut.”
He tugged out the duffel bag, lifted it higher, and forced it into a small space toward the back of the car, grunting with exertion. “There. That should do it.”
He withdrew from the car and shut the door. This time, it clanked into place and stayed put.
“Thanks for all the help packing,” I said. “And especially carrying my book boxes.”
Flynn cast me a baleful look. “They make e-readers now.”
I smirked. “I’ve got six hundred more on there.”
“Dear god. When do you sleep?”
I took one of the travel cups from Bailey and took a big gulp of the extra-strong coffee I’d brewed that morning. I’d made sure to pack the coffee pot last. “Sleep? What’s that?”
“I’m afraid you’re not joking,” Flynn said, taking the second travel cup, which Bailey handed to him. “Are you sure you’re good to drive?”
I rounded the car. “Of course I am. I’m a med school graduate. Caffeine runs through my veins.”
“Drive safe,” Bailey called over to me. “I’m going to catch up with a couple of friends while I’m in town, but I’ll be home by dinner. You two can have some brother bonding time.”
Bailey headed for his red Camaro parked at the curb, and Flynn opened the passenger-side door of my dusty brown hatchback.
“Wait,” I said. “You’re not going with him?”
“Of course not,” Flynn said. “I’ll ride with you and help you unload the car. I’ve got the guest room ready for you.”
“You don’t have to do that,” I said. “I can make the drive on my own.”
“But why should you?” he asked, seeming genuinely confused.
“I…don’t know.”
“You’re not alone anymore, Aiden,” he said. “My home is your home, even if you decide not to live there long-term, okay? It’ll always be your home.”
Home. What a strange concept.
I hadn’t had a home since my dad nearly beat me to death and my brother beat him to death to protect me. Not since Flynn was taken away in handcuffs and I became legally emancipated at seventeen. On my own to finish my senior year, then go to college and med school.
I’d sold my father’s house to pay for whatever the scholarships didn’t cover. I wanted nothing to do with that old life.
That home.
But the word meant something different to Flynn. Especially this past year. He’d done his prison time, and now he had a home and a family in Riverton.
A guy he loved.
He was happier than I’d ever seen him—and I didn’t want to do anything to ruin that, regardless of my uncertainty about my future.
I forced a cheery smile. “Let’s get on the road and go home then.”
Flynn relaxed. “I’m so damn glad we get to have this time together.”
He meant more than the car drive. And even though I’d have preferred to be on my way to Baltimore or Cleveland for one of the prestigious residencies I’d wanted, more time with my brother was a pretty good consolation prize.
I’d work harder than ever and get back on track. But for now, I’d appreciate that we’d fought our way through seven long years of Flynn in prison and little to no contact outside of short visits and letters. Flynn had given up so much for me, and now I owed him everything.
We got into the car, Flynn hunched forward because of his height and his knees nearly hitting his chin with the seat pushed forward to accommodate all the boxes. We’d put a few things in Bailey’s car too, but damn, I’d accumulated a lot of crap over the past eight years.
“Bet you’re wishing you’d gone with Bailey to meet his friends now, huh? You could have ridden home in comfort.”
“Just drive,” he grumbled. “The sooner we get there, the sooner I can realign my spine.”
“Okay, but don’t blame me when you have to see the chiropractor,” I teased.
“My brother is a doctor,” he shot back. “He can fix me.”
“Not my specialty.” I snapped my seat belt into place. “I won’t be much of a doctor this year, anyway. I’m doing research.”
“Research as a doctor,” Flynn persisted. “You graduated medical school, Aiden. You’re officially Dr. Donovan. Don’t sell yourself short.”
I turned my key in the ignition, and my engine revved to life with a cough and splutter.
Flynn frowned. “When’s the last time you had this thing serviced?”
“Uh…”
“Never mind. I’ll fix your car when we get to town.”
“Pretty handy having a mechanic in the family.”
“Almost as handy as having a doctor in the family.”
I smiled as I reversed out of the driveway. He wasn’t going to let it go. “Okay, Flynn. I get it. I’m still a doctor.”
“You sure as hell are. I’m so proud of you.”
“I’m looking forward to getting the experience I need to get a good residency,” I said. “I just wished I’d worked harder this year.”
“Aiden, all you do is work,” Flynn said. “I’ve never met anyone half as dedicated as you are.”
I navigated through town until I reached the on-ramp, then concentrated on merging into my lane.
Flynn meant well, but he didn’t understand. It wasn’t enough to work hard. I had to work harder than anyone else. Be smarter and more talented.
It was an unspoken rule that legacy kids had an advantage when pursuing the most prestigious residencies, and after them, the wealthiest graduates did. People like me, those who came from more humble beginnings, had far more to prove.
But I could still get where I wanted to go. It wasn’t too late. I just had to take a bit of a detour.
“I will get to spend the year working with an incredible cardiothoracic surgeon,” I acknowledged. “Did you know Dr. Rose used to work for Johns Hopkins?”
“No, I didn’t. That’s amazing.”
“It is,” I said, feeling a flicker of excitement. “She has done phenomenal things. They named a procedure after her—the Rose graft, for her advancements in aortal valve reconstruction.”
“That’s the specialty you want to go into, isn’t it?”
I nodded. “Yeah, working with Dr. Rose should give me an edge I didn’t have. If she wrote me a recommendation after this year? That could be as good as guaranteeing me any residency I want.”
“Wow,” Flynn said. “How did she end up in Riverton?”
“From what she told me in my interviews, she was raised in the Midwest, and she wanted to be closer to her grandkids. This is her retirement gig. Amazing doctors don’t usually land in Riverton.”
“Well, I guess they’re lucky to have you then.”
The jury was out on that, but I was lucky to work with Dr. Rose.
I could learn a lot from observing her. My job was to do meaningful research that could be published, which would bring me and Elkhorn County Regional Hospital some much-needed esteem.
Smaller hospitals didn’t have enough staff to dedicate time to research, so it was a win-win.
But I planned to learn everything I could from Dr. Rose, too.
Flynn’s phone rang. He checked the screen and gave me a sheepish look. “It’s Bailey. Do you mind?”
“Nope. Talk to your guy. I’m good.”
It wasn’t a lie. Driving gave me time to think, time to plan. I wanted to get a jumpstart on some research proposals before my first day of work next week.
Dr. Rose had given me a list of potential topics to explore, and I was most drawn to the ones with a focus on rural health care.
I’d grown up in rural areas, and they didn’t get nearly the attention that big urban metropolitans did, so I was looking forward to digging into some core issues that could intersect with surgical outcomes.
“How are Seb and Iris?” Flynn asked Bailey before laughing at something his boyfriend said. “Ah, well, you should invite them down for a weekend, babe. Aiden wants to get his own place before his job starts in a couple of weeks, so we’ll have the spare room available.”
I bit my lip and turned up the radio a fraction, trying to tune out their conversation. I knew my brother was a little disappointed I didn’t want to live with them, but they’d thank me later. Their relationship was new, and they didn’t need me all up in their business.
Flynn ended the call and shifted toward me. “So, Dr. Donovan. We should be back in town in time for lunch. How would you like to try a MoonShake?”
“A Moon…”
“Shake,” he said. “It’ll make you want to stay in Riverton forever. We can stop at Jerker’s Soda Shoppe before unpacking you and getting settled in. Bailey says his brothers want to take us out, but I figured you’d be too tired tonight. Maybe in a few days, once you’ve settled in?”
“Yeah, that sounds good.” I wasn’t sure I was up for a big welcoming committee. I’d met Bailey’s brothers—all three of them and their boyfriends—when I’d visited for Thanksgiving. They were great, but they could be a lot when they were all together.
I’d also gotten a hell of a shock when I’d run into Knight, the guy I’d hooked up with months ago at a nightclub in Omaha. His eyes had just about bugged out when he saw me, too.
“Angel?” he’d whispered.
“My name is Aiden,” I’d said, annoyed he didn’t remember right. Had our hookup not been as memorable to him as it had been to me?
He’d shaken his head, as if he had something else to say, then reared back. “Holy shit! Aiden, as in Flynn’s brother?”
“Yeah, and you’re…oh my god, you’re that Knight.”
The door had opened then, interrupting us before we could say anything more.
In retrospect, I really should have put it together sooner. But the Knight I’d met in Omaha had been months before Flynn ever brought him up to me—and he’d become wispy and dreamlike in my memories, almost as if he’d never been real.
But after seeing him again? He was a little too real.
My stomach tied itself in knots at the thought of running into him again.
He was practically Flynn’s best friend. There would be no avoiding him, no forgetting what he’d done to me in that nightclub, the way he’d made me burn for him, moan and cry and beg.
I never let go like that. Never gave someone else control.
Not like I did with him.
And no matter how good it felt, it couldn’t ever happen again.
I stayed in control. That’s who I was. When I didn’t, people got hurt.