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She was the picture of calm, cool and collected, even after the battle she’d just waged. Meanwhile, his heart was racing a million miles a minute as he imagined everything that could have happened.
He tried to lock it down, even as he pulled her into his arms, hugging her tightly. “Jesus, Sunshine,” he murmured.
Sunnie accepted the hug, though he could tell she was surprised at first. “I really am sorry, Landon. Swear to God, next time,” she murmured against his chest, “I’ll let go of the bag.”
He wasn’t sure who was comforting whom with the hug. He sort of thought she was trying to calm him down. The problem was, he knew all too well how badly things could have gone. Then he realized she was trembling slightly.
Ah, so she did get it. He tightened his hold.
“What were you doing out here alone?”
She pushed away to face him. “Derek picked me up after work. We got into a fight. I told him to go fuck himself, and the asshole stopped the car and told me to get out. I should have stayed on the main street, should have called for an Uber, but I was pissed off. I stormed away and then…that guy jumped me, and I kind of went all Tasmanian Devil on his ass. Guys suck.”
Sunnie was impulsive. She acted on emotion—reacted—then considered the consequences later.
“He made you get out? Here?” he asked, glancing around the dark street. Derek, the latest in a long line of occasional boyfriends, had dropped her off in the middle of a sketchy neighborhood. “I’m going to kill that motherfucker,” he muttered.
His words had come out more serious, more deadly than he’d intended. The tone obviously caught Sunnie by surprise yet again.
She looked up at his face and laughed. “Wow. Dial it back a notch, Landon. That Rambo thing is a serious turn-on.”
He closed his eyes, praying for patience…and to calm down. He hadn’t quite forgiven her for being so reckless.
They really were polar opposites, always had been. Sunnie had personality to spare, while Landon was the quiet one. Calm, stoic. If she was the queen of overreaction, he was lord and master of composed. This time, the roles felt reversed.
He stood up, helping her rise as well. She winced slightly, leaning heavily on him.
“What the hell?” he asked, looking down.
She grimaced. “Okay, well, now, don’t get pissed again…but I appear to have twisted my ankle.”
“I’m taking you to the hospital.”
She shot him an incredulous look. “I’ll get laughed out of the E.R. if I show up asking them to take care of something this silly! It’s fine.”
“Sunnie,” he started to insist.
“I’m a nurse, Landon. Trust me.”
She’d graduated from college a month earlier, jumping right into work from her residency after wowing the doctors and her professors. She was a born caregiver, her humor and bedside manner making her the perfect nurse.
A year ago, she’d expressed an interest in pursuing oncology nursing after serving as a bridesmaid in her cousin Padraig’s wedding. Padraig had married a beautiful woman named Mia, who’d died a few months after the ceremony.
Sunnie had always lived life with wild abandon. However, after Mia died, she took the pursuit of her career, the way she wanted to help others, more seriously.
What she hadn’t managed to tone down was her party-girl image, the way she spent her free time with losers like Derek.
“Okay. No hospital. But we really do need to go to the precinct, file a report.”
“Hell no.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“Please don’t make me. Dad will kill me.”
He shrugged. “That doesn’t sound so bad to me. After the stunt you just pulled.” It was clear he hadn’t made much headway on showing her the error of her ways. Maybe Aaron could.
“Please, Landon! Can’t we just keep this between ourselves? There’s no reason to upset everyone.” He noticed her hands were shaking, and it suddenly occurred to him that as the adrenaline wore off, she was starting to get it.
