Cooper was silent for a moment before he grinned back at his brother.

“Damn! That old man is good,” Cooper finally said.

“Just don’t tell him that,” Mav said.

“I wouldn’t dare,” Cooper assured him.

“I’ve been where she’s at. When I was captured . . .” Mav stopped talking. He didn’t speak about those days or what had been done to him.

He’d learned quickly, though, after watching a lot of his fellow soldiers, that if he allowed himself to wallow in it, then he might sink to a place he would never come back from. He didn’t want to see the same thing happen to Lindsey. He cared about this girl, though he didn’t want to admit to anyone just how much.

Why she mattered to him, he wasn’t exactly sure. It wasn’t as if the two of them were close. Sure, they’d shared a night together—once—but he’d shared many nights with many women. Never before had he had a woman he couldn’t forget.

“You are taking me to Mercy Hospital, right?” Mav said.

“Of course,” Cooper told him with a wink.

“Good. There’s a nurse there who I know can heal me all up.”

The sad thing was that Mav knew her schedule. Whether she wanted an angel on her shoulder or not, she’d had one since the attack. But this angel wasn’t willing to sit in the shadows any longer.

“Next time we’re in the ring, you better bring your game,” Cooper told him, changing the subject, which Mav was grateful for. He wasn’t a feeling-sharing kind of guy.

“Sarge is gonna kick my ass,” Maverick muttered as they pulled into the ER parking lot, and Cooper turned to look at him.

“Not worse than I already did,” Cooper told him with a wink.

“Don’t be getting all cocky on me, brother. I didn’t have my head in the game,” Maverick growled.

“Whatever. I’m going to be telling this story for years to come,” Cooper assured him.

“You can start tonight ’cause it looks like I’ll be out of commission for at least a few weeks. Guess who gets to be doing all my meal prepping?” Mav taunted him.

“I don’t want your ugly mug at my place,” Cooper said as he came around the side of the car just as a nurse came out with a wheelchair.

“Tough. You broke me, and now you get to take care of me,” Mav said.

Then he turned to the pretty young blonde, who looked like she couldn’t have been out of nursing school for more than a few days. “Howdy,” he said, pretending to tip an imaginary hat.

Her pale cheeks blushed and she seemed to forget how to speak. Mav just winked at her as he smiled. He was used to having that effect on women. He loved women, loved them in all shapes, sizes, colors, and varieties. Women were his hobby.

“She’s a little young even for you,” Cooper said with a roll of his eyes.

“I’m just being polite,” Mav told his brother before looking back at the young nurse. She was too young for him, but that didn’t keep him from flirting. “What’s your name, darling?”

She stammered something, but then they were in the ER and he was given paperwork and the pretty young nurse was hustled off somewhere else. His attending nurse ended up being old enough to be his grandma, but that didn’t stop Mav from giving her his winning smile and making her wrinkled cheeks turn pink.

Yeah, he loved the ladies—ladies, plural, being the key word. Mav wasn’t the type to settle down with just one fish when the sea was full of a variety and bounty of them. He was happy for his brother Cooper, and absolutely adored Stormy, his brother’s wife. But matrimony wasn’t for everyone—certainly not for Maverick.

He was young, able, and ready to sow a lot more oats. And if that were all true, he didn’t understand what in the world he was doing pursuing Lindsey with such single-minded absorption.

“Can you get Lindsey for me? She usually attends to my wounds,” he told the sweet nurse named Alice.

“She’s almost off shift, but I can see if she’s with a patient,” Alice responded.

“I appreciate that,” Mav told her with a wink that had her cheeks blushing again.

She practically ran from the room, and Mav sat back, trying to look as pathetic as humanly possible. He would milk the broken bone for all it was worth. Ten minutes passed and Mav began to get a bit nervous. He’d sent Cooper home, planning on getting a ride with Lindsey. He hoped she hadn’t ditched him.

The door finally opened and Lindsey stepped through, her eyes on the chart in front of her. She shut the door before she looked up. Mav had to fight from smiling as he reminded himself he needed to appear weak and helpless.

He wasn’t leaving without getting her to agree to either help him or go out with him. He could barely keep from smiling when she finally glanced up and her expressive eyes shone with shock.

Yeah, he made her nervous. But it was in a very, very good way.

CHAPTER FIVE

The sudden thundering of Lindsey’s heart had nothing to do with fear. Well, maybe some fear, but as she looked up and spotted Maverick sitting on the exam table, his shirt off, and a sling on his arm, her throat closed and she couldn’t seem to tear her gaze away.

Her first instinct was to rush up to him. Her second instinct was to run away as fast as she could. For nearly a year, she’d managed to avoid him as if he was infected. She knew he could make her feel things she felt she had no right to feel anymore. She knew he wouldn’t ever give up on her.