Prologue
July
Everyone’s talking about his stupid stats and the supposed halo on his head!”
“Dax…”
“But he’s notbetterthan me! His game is imprecise, and if the bastard doesn’t go to hell, I’ll…”
“Dax! Do me and the world a favor and shut your pretty mouth, okay?” Anna responded theatrically, shaking her head at her brother. “You promised me an evening of fun so I could switch off, forget all the studying, forget everything that has anything to do with medicine. Have a free evening. That’s the only reason I came with you!”
Disgruntled, Dax held the hotel door open for her. “You can do all that too.”
“Do you even know whatfunis, Dax? Because listening to you rant about Jack is about as fun as a colonoscopy.”
Dax looked at her darkly. “You’re the only one I can talk to about it, Anna! God, if Jack is traded to us, I swear to you…”
“I know! But I want to drink and joke around with some hot hockey players today, Dax,” she interrupted impatiently. She knew she deserved it! “I don’t want to deal with another of your tantrums because you hate Jack. God, you hate him even more than that PR consultant that you keep talking about – Lucy.”
Having to listen to him was like patching an compound fracture with Barbie bandages — pointless and unnecessarily painful for everyone.
Nobody but them knew that his biggest rival, Jack West, was their brother, so she understood why Dax was complaining to her about the current trade negotiations with the L.A. Hawks. He was putting her in an awkward position, though. She loved Dax – but she loved Jack too! They werebothher brothers and they needed to make up, once and for all. This years-long feud between them had to end, which was why she personally wouldn’t mind if Jack moved to L.A. Naturally, she wouldn’t tell Dax that. If she wanted to rupture her eardrum, she could stand next to the bass in any club.
“Lucy is the devil!” Dax snapped. “I know everyone callsmethat, but only because they don’t knowher! She…”
Anna tuned him out. She was exhausted, stressed, and panicked, having felt for weeks that work and life were getting the better of her. She wanted abreak. Casual fun! No family drama. Was this a complete waste of time? She’d almost rather be sitting at her desk at home, studying or answering the email that had been burning a hole in her laptop for months. She only had a year left until her final specialist exam — and then it would be over. Then, ten years of hard work would finally pay off and she could start reallyliving.
Damn, she should never have let Dax talk her into going out. Open bar or not, she was wasting precious hours. This wasn’t helping her stress level; it was only making it worse.
“You know what? I’m going home,” she said, pausing in the middle of the entrance. “I’m pretty sure I left the stove on, I…”
“Oh no, you don’t.” Her brother put his arm around her shoulders and pushed her toward the coat check and a long bar where a pimply-faced young man was mixing drinks. “You’re right. I’ll stop. You’re taking the day off. You should have fun. Even if I have to force you.”
“But my stove!” she argued, trying to pull away. “What if my apartment burns down?”
“It wouldn’t be a big loss for anyone,” Dax growled, pulling her jacket off her shoulders and dropping it off at the coat check. She could try to fight back, but it would be pointless. Having a professional athlete as a brother had its disadvantages; unlike a lot of other guys,heactually had functional muscles under his shirt.
A young woman behind the bar sighed wistfully and openly ogled Dax, but he didn’t pay any attention to her. Anna had to give her brother credit for that. He never picked up women when she was around. Then again, just then, she could have used the distraction. She could have used it to slip back out the door.
“My apartment is great!”
“For a broom closet, yes,” Dax remarked absently and guided her past the bar, which she could only look at longingly, toward the double doors that led to the hotel’s banquet hall. Loud music was coming from behind them. “If you would just take my money, you could afford something better.”
She pressed her lips together. “I don’t want your money. It’s bad enough that you keep bringing me groceries.” She had been dependent on her brothers all her life: She had depended on them to drive her around when she was younger because her mother worked and her father was too drunk; she’d relied on them to protect her from her classmates, the ones who’d teasedher all through high school for her worn-out clothes; she’d had to take their financial support for college.
Now, Anna had had enough. She was twenty-six years old and would soon be a doctor. Then she would finally be more than merely Dax Temple’s sister.
“You’d forget to eat!”
She rolled her eyes but didn’t argue. Maybe because it was true. Her head was full of medical jargon and complicated procedures, so who had the time or patience to go shopping, let alone cook?
Dax pushed the door open and for a moment, she held her breath. She kept forgetting how much money Dax’s hockey team had. The banquet hall hosting the L.A. Hawks’ end-of-season party could easily have accommodated two herds of elephants, a medical facility, and the Hubble telescope. Or the egos of twenty-two hockey players and their management.
Golden chandeliers hung from the ceiling. Bistro tables covered in heavy, dark blue linen sprouted from the floor. Without exception, all of the men were wearing tuxedos, and Anna automatically wondered how many square yards of fabric had been used to cover all those broad shoulders. Then again, the women present equalized the fabric consumption by wearing essentially nothing.
Anna frowned as she smoothed down her simple black t-shirt dress and tried to arrange her shoulder-length brown curls. Wonderful. She looked like her apartment: small, slightly untidy, and like nothing special. She could admit she was unreliable at wielding a broom. She preferred syringes.
“Ah, you coaxed Anna out of her cave,” someone from the left remarked, squeezing her shoulders.
