Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 78760 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 394(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 263(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78760 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 394(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 263(@300wpm)
I now could see what Tally saw in him.
He was an attractive fucker, I’d give him that.
His attitude, however, was not.
“I’m Doctor Tomirkanivov.”
Russell blinked, then sneered.
“Well, this is a private conversation,” he informed me haughtily.
I shrugged. “Just need to get to my bike.”
I pointed, and the man turned, eyeing the bike like it was some random piece of trash.
“Figures,” he grumbled. “I’ll be talking to our lawyers again, Tal. It’s time.”
Tally didn’t bother to reply, and watched him walk away with barely restrained violence shimmering in her eyes.
“You okay?” I rumbled, turning fully to face her.
She breathed out a shaky breath.
“Yeah,” she nodded twice. “I’m okay.”
“You had a real winner there.” I meant it to come out as teasing, but she nodded in all seriousness.
“I know.” She swiped angrily at her eyes. “I broke up with him before I even knew I was pregnant. The worst decision of my life was dating him, but out of it, came one of the best things that has ever happened to me.”
“So the kid that your mom shows around the ER is yours and not your sister’s?”
She smiled and shook her head.
It was nice to see that she was hiding the bitch tonight…something I’d been dealing with ever since that day in my class two weeks ago when she was talking about me and I could hear every word.
Well, not her, but her friends. But then she’d defended them, blatantly lying to my face, and it’d pissed me the hell off.
Which was why I’d said rude words to her about her mother getting her the job in the ER.
Ever since, she’d been cool and distant, whether we were in class or in the ER, and it was starting to grate on my nerves.
She finally turned to face me, and my gut tightened at seeing the tear tracks on her face.
There wasn’t much that affected me.
I was an ex-Marine and had served as a doctor for four years before I was discharged and came home to Mooresville to start my career. I’d been here for almost three years, and I’d seen and done a lot in all that time.
Tears, though, they were my undoing.
Seeing a woman cry—young or old—was enough to make my stomach clench and my heart start to ache.
“Yeah, Tallulah is mine.” Her mouth quirked. “Thankfully, I’d been smart enough to know where I was going with my life after college. Started taking dual credit classes and graduated with my associate’s right out of high school. Took Microanatomy one and two during the summer before classes started, and about killed myself that summer.” She hesitated, “I went a little wild during that week between classes, and made a huge mistake by sleeping with Tallulah’s father. Got pregnant. Thankfully, I was able to make it through my entire first semester and most of my second semester before I had her, only missing two class days due to giving birth. Thank God I was able to make them up. Took the summer off with Tallulah, and then picked right back up during third semester.”
I blinked, surprised by the information dump.
But then I saw her face and realized rather quickly that she was nervous.
“Your car here?” I asked, looking around the nearly empty lot.
She pointed to a red, late model 4-Runner, and I gestured for her to start walking.
“Come on,” I ordered.
She fell into step beside me.
“I graduated school when I was fourteen,” I said. “Started college almost immediately after that. Once I graduated with my MD, I went into the Marines where I stayed for four years. Got out. Been here for three now.”
Lightning lit up the night sky and was immediately followed by a rumble of thunder.
In that moment of light, her face was illuminated, allowing me to see her pleasure at hearing my story.
“That sounds like you’ve been busy,” she said, reaching into her pocket for the keys just as the first raindrop hit. “Are you going to ride in this?”
Another raindrop fell, landing on my arm.
I nodded my head.
“Yep,” I said, turning around and walking away. Then, as an afterthought, I yelled over my shoulder so she’d hear me clearly. “A biker doesn’t just ride in the sunshine, Tally. There’s always bad that comes with good. Gotta take life as it comes.”
With that the heavens opened, and I smiled as I reached my bike.
Bikers fell into two camps when it came to riding in the rain. Some hated it. Some didn’t mind.
Me, I loved it.
As long as it wasn’t thirty degrees.
On a night like tonight, with it being eighty degrees, the cool raindrops felt nice against my skin.
Pulling out my leather jacket from my saddlebags, I shrugged it on and zipped it up, before I snatched up my helmet and seated it on my head.
Then I started the bike up, and roared out of the parking lot, sparing a look back twice to see if her eyes were on me.