Page 1 of Slow Burn

CHAPTER

ONE

CLIMBING UP THE stairs to her new apartment, dragging her heavy suitcase with one hand while the other clutched two bags stuffed with clothes, she had sweat dripping down her neck, but Georgia Cross still had a smile on her face. Stubbing her toe and tripping into the hallway wasn’t going to rain on her parade.

Not today.

Her dream was finally coming true.

The move might have started as a disaster. A broken elevator on moving day didn’t earn her a gold star, but none of that mattered. After all this time, Georgia was ready to start her life.

Yikes, she acknowledged she sounded a touch dramatic. But in her defense, this new apartment was a long time coming.

After four years in undergrad, four years in medical school, and another three years to complete her residency, she was ready to jump headfirst into her career. Her new job was at Landmere Family Care, the long-standing practice in Landmere, Maryland, where she grew up.

Finally, after huffing and puffing, which made her resolve to join a gym, she was standing in front of the door to her new apartment. Thankfully, the place came fully furnished so she didn’t have to add furniture to her long list of things to do. Taking a deep breath, she unlocked the door and swung it open.

Home sweet home.

She dropped everything in the living room and let out a sigh of relief. She did it.

Georgia did a little dance in her brand-new home, loving her two-bedroom apartment. Ever since she left Landmere for college at eighteen, she had always shared a room, whether in the dorms, on-campus housing, or the small apartment she shared with another med student during residency. This two-bedroom apartment was a luxurious reward after all her hard work for the past decade. Even longer, she considered how her head was always in a book, studying nonstop. When she wasn’t reading, she was busy building her college résumé. From playing field hockey and running track to being president of student council and volunteering at the local hospital, she’d been in go mode most of her life.

After all her dedication to school, as nerdy as it sounded, she was hyped to have her own bedroom. The fact she had a bonus room for an office was even better.

Her phone rang, which ended her happy dance.

“Hi, Nash!” Georgia answered, glad to talk to her older brother. Despite their seven-year age gap, they’d always been close. “Guess who is moving into her apartment as we speak!”

“Hell yeah.” The sound of clapping filtered through the phone. “I can’t believe we’re living near each other again.”

She dropped onto the cream-colored couch. “Same! Now we just need Brooks to move back.”

“I doubt that will happen. Our little brother loves living in Italy,” he reminded her.

Brooklyn, more often called Brooks, was the baby of the family at twenty-five, and he moved to Italy after he finished college. He worked as a sustainability engineer, and it didn’t sound like he planned to cross the Atlantic any time soon. Like Georgia, he barely ever made it home, but he had more of an excuse because plane tickets were outrageously expensive.

Either way, she missed him like crazy.

“He did say he would visit this Christmas.” Georgia was always hopeful it would actually happen.

“Maybe.” Nash wasn’t as optimistic. “Let’s focus on you. You’re back in Landmere!”

She beamed, happy to be home. “Tonight is going to be so much fun to celebrate. Thanks for planning everything.”

“Anything for you, George.”

Ugh, she hated him calling her George, but he wanted a little brother when she was born, and it was well before Brooks came along. Unfortunately, the nickname stuck not only with him but also with her friends.

“One day, you will refer to me as Georgia.”

“Blasphemy.”

“Nice vocabulary. You read between calls at the station?” she teased.

“Nah. Just something I heard from my last hookup.”

“Eww, gross. I need to swipe my brain clean from that.”