I’d just have to remember him as Angel. After all, he’d made me want to worship him.
I was glad that I wasn’t staying in Omaha, though. I’d be far too tempted to drag him down to my depths.
CHAPTER 1
AIDEN
Ten months later…
I shoved the last duffel bag into my Honda Accord by sheer force of will, using all my weight to force it in, jostling my sunglasses. It was barely ten in the morning, but the June sun was already glaring too brightly.
I’d spent the morning packing up my apartment for my move to Riverton, where I’d spend the next year, and I was ready to be done.
“I thought graduating med school would be more glamorous,” I complained as Bailey came up beside me.
“New chapters are always a little messy,” he said. “You’re getting there.”
He didn’t know just how messy those last few months of school got for me. After eight years of striving for the top of my class, I’d blown it.
I couldn’t focus, couldn’t study. IknewI had to be the absolute best to snag one of the top-tier residencies, and suddenly the pressure had paralyzed me.
It didn’t help that my asshole ex had come back into my life, making bullshit promises and distracting me. But I couldn’t put it on him. I’d been the one to crash and burn, making my long shot at the top cardiothoracic programs an impossible one.
I could have matched somewhere else, but that wasn’t good enough. I’d taken the next-best option: a research year in Riverton that would buy me the time to get my shit in order and prove I was the medical prodigy my brother believed me to be.
I slammed the car door, and it bounced back open, nearly taking me out.
I skipped back. “Shit. Damn. Stupid door!”
Behind me, Bailey laughed. “Let Flynn do it.” He turned toward the house, where my older brother was emerging with travel cups of coffee in hand. “Honey pie, come use your muscles for us.”
Flynn’s whole face lit up. My brother was a big, burly guy with a full beard, but when he smiled like that, I saw the kid I grew up with. Before everything got so ugly and painful, anyway.
“I knew you were using me for my body,” he joked.
Bailey fluttered his lashes. “What good is a strong man if he doesn’t throw you around a little?”
“Okay,” I broke in before Flynn could reply. “TMI, guys. And you wonder why I want to get my own place instead of staying with you all year.”
Flynn turned a wounded expression my way. “We’re not that bad, are we?”
I’d visited them over spring break, andyes, they were insufferable. I tempered my response for my sensitive older brother, though. He was the very definition of a gentle giant.
Well, except when he hadn’t been.
Nothis fault, though. He had protected me. I should have just taken the beating my dad was doling out. If I’d been tougher, if I hadn’t called for help?—
I shut off that line of thinking. It never led anywhere good.
“It’s not a bad thing that you’re in love,” I told Flynn. “But you two need this time together. Alone. Without any witnesses—er, um—houseguests.”
Bailey smirked. “Yeah, yeah, we’re too hot for your innocent eyes. Flynn, remind me if I’m wrong, but the first time I stayed over at Aiden’s place, didn’t he come home inbootyshorts after a night at the club?”
“I believe he did,” Flynn said, eyes filled with humor.
“Okay, nobody said I was innocent. I just prefer not to have a front-row seat to my brother’s love life. Besides, I can’t be a houseguest for awholeyear. I’m going to live in Riverton.”
Flynn handed off the travel mugs to Bailey. “Not if we don’t get this door shut.”