“I’m right here!” Lindsey said as she glared at both of them.

“Yes, you are. Trust me, doll, you’re never forgettable,” Dr. Stine said before his pager went off and he frowned. “We will have to continue this later.”

He then took off running, and Lindsey turned her full fury on Stormy.

“That was so uncalled for,” she snapped.

“There’s nothing like a little jealousy to make a man crazy,” Stormy said in a singsong voice.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Lindsey asked.

They finally began moving down the hallway, Stormy gathering Lindsey’s purse and coat before exiting the building.

“It means that I’m going to love telling Maverick about the good doctor,” Stormy said as she held her car door open.

If Lindsey weren’t already feeling good from the pain medicine, she would have had a snappy comment for her friend. But as she sat down and buckled up, she felt her eyes growing heavy.

She’d give Stormy an earful later. After she’d had a nap.

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

Maverick should have known better. Nothing came without a price these days. And his uncle was far too much of a meddler to not try to do something about what he deemed a situation that needed to be fixed.

Even knowing this, Maverick couldn’t help but stare at Lindsey as she stood by the fire on Joseph Anderson’s private beach and talked animatedly to Stormy. Of course she was at the get-together. Why else would Sherman have insisted on him coming? The old man was meddling.

Some people needed to just leave well enough alone.

Maverick couldn’t keep his eyes off Lindsey as she turned and laughed at something Cooper said to her, her chest rising and falling in the fitted summer dress she wore that was showing enough leg to grab the attention of every available male on the beach.

He closed his eyes as he remembered running his hands up those silky smooth calves, across her soft thighs to her hot center.

Snapping his eyes back open, he shifted on his feet. Thoughts like that weren’t going to get him anywhere but into a hell of a lot of trouble. But dammit, if just at that moment, a small gust of wind didn’t come straight from the heavens and ruffle the bottom of her hem, making the garment flutter a bit higher.

His mouth was watering as he waited to get a peek at her delectable assets—and she had perfect ones.

When the wind died and he groaned the slightest bit is when he heard the chuckle. He turned to find Nick approaching with way too knowing a look in his eyes.

“Enjoying the view, brother?” Nick said as he took a swig of his beer.

Maverick’s attention was wrenched away from Lindsey as he focused on his brother.

“Yes, it’s a nice night,” he said, ignoring the knowing tone in Nick’s voice.

“Lindsey sure does look good tonight,” he said with a sparkle in his eyes.

“Yes, she’s in a great mood too,” Cooper said as he joined in the conversation. Maverick hadn’t even noticed he’d walked away from Lindsey and Stormy. He needed to be on better alert.

“Yeah, I need to get over there and see how she’s doing,” Nick said, poking the bear wanting to roar inside Mav.

“Go on and talk to her,” Cooper told Nick. “She’s been telling us about her baseball game.”

“He doesn’t need to go and talk to her,” Mav snapped before he could stop himself.

“Why not?” Nick asked with too much innocence.

“There’s no reason. You just don’t need to,” Mav growled.

“You aren’t interested in seeing her anymore, so I don’t see what it matters,” Nick told him.

“Dammit, Nick!” Maverick thundered before managing to lower his voice when several people turned their way. “She’s off limits.” This last bit came out between his gritted teeth.

“Well, are you going to do something about it, or not?” Cooper said pointedly.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Maverick said.

“It’s more than obvious you’re in love with this woman. If you don’t do something about it soon, then you’ll regret it because women like Lindsey don’t stay available for long,” Cooper told him.

“Yeah, and the good Dr. Stine is totally after her,” Nick said.

“How the hell do you know that?” Mav asked.

“Stormy told me, and I told Nick,” Cooper said.

“What are you talking about?” Maverick was getting a massive migraine.

“Stormy had to pick Lindsey up yesterday from the hospital because she got hurt—”

“What?” Maverick cut him off as his eyes immediately sought out Lindsey to make sure she was okay. She didn’t appear to be injured, but as his eyes scanned her from head to toe, he noticed the bandage on her arm for the first time. Maybe if he hadn’t been staring at her legs and breasts, he might have noticed sooner. “What happened?”

“It wasn’t much. She got cut by an intern, but the apparently fantastic Dr. Stine is the one who patched her all up. He then told Stormy he was going to have Lindsey sooner or later,” Cooper said, too much glee in his voice as he shared the information.

“Like hell he will,” Maverick said.

At that moment, Lindsey looked up and their gazes connected across the sand. His must have been intense because her eyes widened and her cheeks colored before she ripped her gaze away and looked down.