“Okay, but if something happens to me, then I’m haunting you both,” she warned.

But when she was strapped into the car, securely in place with the motor revving, she felt a rush of adrenaline flow through her.

“You ready?” he asked, his grin almost as mesmerizing as Maverick’s.

“I guess it’s now or never,” she said with a nervous giggle.

And then they were off. The tires squealed as the engine purred. They were flying around the track. But he didn’t stop at just one lap. He took her around several more times before skidding to a stop where Maverick was waiting for them, a big grin on his face.

What she didn’t realize until the helmet was off and Maverick was scooping her up into his arms was that she was grinning madly too.

“That was the biggest thrill I think I’ve ever had,” she said, completely out of breath.

“I knew you’d love it,” he said before leaning down and kissing her.

“Hey. I’m the one who gave the thrill. Don’t I get a little kiss too?” Jet said, interrupting them.

Without even thinking about it, Lindsey let go of Maverick and gave Jet a hug, then kissed him on the cheek.

“Thanks, darling. It was fun,” Jet said before he was bombarded by media people.

Once he turned away, her smile fell as her eyes rounded in shock at what she’d done. She’d initiated touch with a stranger—and not just any stranger—a man.

She looked at Maverick, who looked very proud—and slightly jealous.

“Am I going to have to kick his ass?” Mav asked with a crooked grin.

“I . . . I can’t believe I did that,” she gasped.

He wrapped his arm around her and began walking her out to the parking lot.

“It’s the adrenaline. I still get it when I fly. There’s a thrill that’s indescribable when you are speeding like that,” he told her.

“But . . .” She stopped. She didn’t know what to say or how to explain it.

“You’re learning to touch again. You’re learning it doesn’t hurt, but that it’s actually necessary,” he said before leaning down and kissing her on the cheek.

He was right. Everything he was doing for her was helping. She hated how absolutely right he was. The man was a freaking magician.

“Thank you for another remarkable day, Mav. Truly, it was indescribable,” she said.

“It was my utmost pleasure,” he told her as they reached his truck.

When a wicked smile appeared on her lips, she could see she had begun making him nervous. She spoke.

“Okay, now I’m going to ask you to do something truly dangerous,” she said.

“Is there something more dangerous than driving or flying fast?” he asked with a laugh.

“My parents are having dinner tomorrow. Want to accompany me?”

Her stomach was tied in knots as she waited. It was so intimate to ask him to her parents’. She kind of wanted to take it back now that it was on the table. But she didn’t know how she would manage to do that.

He grinned as he looked at her. “I’d love to. And trust me, that’s not dangerous at all.”

“Believe me, after an evening with my family, you might be rethinking that,” she said with a laugh.

She laughed even more when he got just a touch of worry in his eyes. Oh yeah, meeting her family was going to be quite the entertainment. Especially since she’d never brought a man home before.

Maybe she hadn’t really thought this out after all. Her family was going to be giving both of them the third degree all night.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

It was so odd to be at work and have her mind other places. For years, Lindsey would look forward to her shifts at the hospital, and now what she looked forward to was spending time with Maverick.

Yes, she knew that work was never going to be the same again after the attack, but she should still get satisfaction out of her job. She wanted to get that feeling back. She’d spent too many years in school to ever let one event, no matter how awful, stop her from doing what she’d wanted to do from the very first time she’d slapped a bandage on one of her brothers and declared him healed.

But she had only a couple of more semesters of school left and then she would be a nurse practitioner. Maybe she just needed a new scene. It had been her stubbornness that had brought her back to the hospital where she’d been attacked. She wasn’t letting those men beat her.

She’d proven she could come back. She didn’t need to keep tormenting herself. It was hard working at this hospital, and even harder when it was slow. But she wouldn’t dare voice that thought aloud, because she would be tempting fate, and in a hospital, you never wished for more activity. When you did that, emergency calls tended to pile up, and that wasn’t fun either.

Lindsey was startled out of her thoughts by the radio.

EMS please respond to 45893 Main Ave. Seventy-year-old female, cut on hand.

Betty turned to Lindsey and smiled before she laughed. Lindsey let out a long-suffering sigh. They all knew that address well. They also knew Lucy must be sitting at home feeling lonely.

“I guarantee you she scratched herself so she could get the ambulance there,” Betty said with a laugh.

“Yep. None of us are going to take that bet,” Lindsey told her as the new nurse on staff began walking up to them.

“Oh, I bet I can get Suzanne to take the bet,” Betty said wickedly.

“That so wouldn’t be fair,” Lindsey said with a scowl. “Quit hazing the new girl.”