She was a doctor, just not a medical one, and according to her mother, her PhDs were little more than expensive pieces of paper. “I just know a little about this.”
“Who’s this man you are meeting?” Elias asked as the bartender set down their drinks in front of them.
“I’m not meeting a man,” she said as she studied the drink she’d allowed him to order for her. It actually came in a hollowed-out pineapple and was very interesting to look at.
“You’re not?”
“No.” She picked up her drink and took a sip. She found it delightful. “Why would you think I was meeting a man?”
“Because you are a beautiful woman sitting in a bar with a nervous look on your face.”
“You think I’m beautiful?” She grabbed his beer and slid it away from him. “How many drinks have you had?”
She was smart. She was creative. She was great at board games, but she had never thought she was beautiful. She tried to look her best. But at most she was pleasant to look at.
“I didn’t even have a sip of my second. I wouldn’t tell you that you were beautiful unless I thought you were. I like your hair and your mouth and your huge doe eyes.”
She tried to ignore the fact that his compliment made her feel warm all the way down to her toes. “That’s why my parents named me Cricket. Because of my eyes. They call me Bug.”
“Do you mind?”
“I didn’t at first, but then everyone in school started to call me Bug, and not in the cute, endearing way my father intended.”
He nodded. “That must have sucked.”
“It did,” she agreed. “I bet you were popular in school.”
“What makes you say that?”
“I’m purely judging a book by its cover. You were a jock. You played football. All the girls loved you because you are so perfectly gorgeous.” She swept her eyes over him again, enjoying how he looked more and more by the second. “You can hold a conversation, so I’m guessing you weren’t just an athlete but participated in something like student council. You were prom and/or homecoming king. How much of that did I get right?”
“All of it,” he said with a grin. “But you missed something.”
“What?”
“I sang in the choir.”
“That is surprising. Did you join to impress girls?”
“I liked to sing.” He shrugged. “You never told me who you were meeting.”
“A childhood...friend?”
“You don’t sound too sure about that.”
“I’m not sure I like her. I don’t think she likes me, either. She always makes little digs at me. ‘I’m seeing the most incredible man. I guess you haven’t found anyone yet. I’ve been promoted at work again. Are you still doing research in that dark little lab of yours? Don’t worry, you’ll change careers when you get up the courage.’ It makes me want to spill something on one of those thousand-dollar handbags she carries around.”
“If you don’t like her, then why do you see her?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “It’s completely irrational, isn’t it? But we grew up together. We attended the same private school. We took violin lessons together. We even have horses stabled at the same barn.”
“Horses?”
“Yeah. My guy is old and overweight and his name is Seymour, and hers is this exquisite Arabian who wins prizes for his beauty.”
“What’s his name?”
“Adonis.”
He shook his head. “Sounds pretentious.”
“It is and he is! He’s a mean horse. I bet he makes little catty remarks about the other horses behind their backs. My boy is sweet as pie. Beauty and speed aren’t everything in a racehorse.” She looked up at Elias, realizing that she was having a longer conversation with him than she’d had with any man that wasn’t about science for the first time in years. And he actually seemed interested in what she had to say. Most of her conversations with the opposite sex were purely intellectual, about topics that most people without PhDs couldn’t follow. And at times, they bored the heck out of her. Sometimes those men even asked her out, and rationally those men should have been stimulating to talk to. But this handsome stranger with a broken hand made her feel more comfortable than anyone else ever had. “Why are you letting me ramble on like this?”
“I don’t know. We’re the only two people in this bar. It seemed like we should meet.”
* * *
Elias was being truthful when he told Cricket he didn’t know why he was having this conversation with her. He had been feeling restless since he had been banned from the hospital. Staying in Miami, being around all the sights and smells, knowing that people were being gravely injured every minute, all over the city, and he could do nothing about it, was making him nearly jump from his skin. So he had escaped to Hideaway Island, home of his brother and twin sister. They had been supportive when he told them that he was going to be out of work for some time as he healed, both offering their homes for him to recuperate in, but he couldn’t be around them, either.
They were both married. Carlos had a daughter. His twin was still a newlywed and so ridiculously in love with her husband it sometimes made Elias’s stomach churn. They were all happy and settled, and Elias felt very out of place with them.
He was the only one of his siblings who was single. He didn’t want to get married. In fact, he planned to remain single for years, but when he was with Carlos, he felt...unsettled. Like he was missing out on something. So he had escaped his sister’s house and come to the nearby restaurant for a change of scenery.
He had immediately noticed Cricket when she walked into the bar. She was much different from the women he encountered in Miami who lived in slinky dresses with lots of exposed skin. They were overtly sexy.
Cricket was sexy, too. Oddly sexy, in a way that discomfited him. She was not his type at all, but when she walked into the bar that night, his senses went on high alert. He took in everything about her. She wore a short pretty sundress with a bold graphic floral print. Her legs were by no means long, but they were beautiful and thick—the kind of leg that a man liked to slide his hand up and down in bed. Her hair was in loose, almost fluffy curls. It wasn’t a modern style. Hell, it wasn’t classic or chic or anything, but it suited her. She looked perfectly sweet, with wide innocent eyes and beautiful full lips.
And he had been sitting with her for the past ten minutes, unable to pull himself away.
“Is there any particular reason you are meeting this woman you don’t like here tonight?”
Cricket shrugged. “She asked to see me. It’s been a while. Said we need to do some catching up. She’s probably feeling a bit low about herself and would like to take a few jabs at me to boost her confidence.”
