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“What makes her special?”
Luke could list a million things, but the ones that came to mind were too personal to share, even with his sister. Like Alexa’s stunning vulnerability. For a doctor who held lives in her hands, she’d been manipulated her entire life and didn’t know her own self-worth. He’d tried to give her that in a few short days, then invited her out here, and when she didn’t jump like the other women in his life—the women who meant nothing to him and who he easily left behind—he threw those insecurities in her face and told her she needed to figure out what she wanted.
Nice of him, he thought, with no small amount of regret and an even healthier dose of self-directed disgust.
“Oooh silence,” Ashley said with a grin on her previously sad face. “You’re in deep, and you can’t even say why. You’ve fallen hard!” She clapped her hands in glee, suddenly back to the sister who liked to tease him when they were kids.
He rolled his eyes. “Cool it,” he muttered, embarrassed.
“Sorry.” She settled back in next to him. “What’s she like?”
“She’s a doctor. Busy. Not sure she loves her work situation. She’s loyal, saw her step up to take care of her best friend when she was attacked, then stayed overnight at the hospital to look after her. Pretty. Auburn hair—”
“Brown with reddish highlights? About my height? Does she ever wear her hair in a ponytail, and would she look uncomfortable at a big Texas barbecue?” Ashley asked, a too-big grin on her face.
Luke jerked his body around, and there she was. Dr. Alexa Collins, walking across his parents’ big Texas spread, talking to his mother as she led her to where Luke and Ashley sat. “I’ll be damned,” he muttered.
“Since I always know everyone at these shindigs, I figured that had to be her. What’s she doing here?” Ashley asked.
“I invited her.”
“What? You didn’t tell me she was coming!” Ash punctuated this with a shot to his shoulder.
“That’s because she said no.” Luke rose to his feet as the women approached.
“Lucas Thompson, you didn’t tell me we were having a guest!” His mother, Louise, who ruled this ranch along with her family, glared at him like he’d committed a crime.
“He didn’t know, Mrs. Thompson,” Alexa spoke softly.
“He invited you. That means you’re important to him, and that means he should have told me.”
“Ma!” Luke knew he’d better call her off before she scared Alexa away.
Alex grinned, and man, Luke had missed that smile. “It’s fine,” she assured him.
Luke shook his head. Nothing about his mother’s form of torture was fine. “Alexa, this is my sister Ashley. Ash, this is Alexa.”
His sister jumped up and hugged Alexa. “He was just telling me all about you!”
Luke rolled his eyes. “God save me from the two of you,” he muttered. “Ash, take Mom away, would you? Go eat. Drink. Something.” He met and held Alexa’s gaze. “We need to talk.”
“We’re going,” Ashley said, understanding in her tone despite her earlier teasing. “Come on, Ma. You can talk to Luke’s girl later.”
“Ash!” Luke’s voice vibrated with annoyance, but to his surprise, Alexa’s eyes were lit with amusement as she obviously held back her laughter.
“At least someone finds them amusing,” he muttered to his mother’s and sister’s retreating backs.
“You have no idea how lucky you are,” she said, staring after his family with a wistful expression on her face.
Luke didn’t know what she was doing here, but he had to assume it boded well for him that she’d come. He hooked his arm in hers and led her away from the yard and around the side of the house.
His mother had insisted she needed a place of her own, and his father had put up a gazebo in the most private corner of the yard, right off the side door to the house.
They settled in the swing chair. “I take it getting away wasn’t easy?” he asked.
“That would be an understatement.”
Her pretty green eyes told the painful story. He wouldn’t push her for an explanation because he was sure it would come when she was ready. “Yet you’re here.”
“Is the invitation still open?”
There it was, that vulnerability he’d been thinking about before she materialized before his eyes. In her blue jeans and white lace tank, a light denim blouse tied around her waist, she looked like she belonged here on the ranch, yet everything about her screamed hesitant and uncertain, two things he never wanted her to feel around him.
“Invitation’s always open, darlin’.”
“Well, that’s good since when I took a leave of absence from work, my boss informed me he wouldn’t be holding my position open.” Her jaw set tight at the admission.
That bastard. “Your father said that?”
“It seems he didn’t appreciate the idea of me finding my own path.”
