Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 78357 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78357 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
One that looked a whole lot similar to him in build, but not in hair color.
Mostly because the man didn’t have any hair. He was bald as a baby’s ass and didn’t seem to care that he was.
“That’s Soren’s brother, Johan,” Sophia whispered. “Spelled with a J, not a Y.”
“Johan pronounced Yohan, got it.” I paused. “They’re both very lovely looking.”
“Lovely?” She snickered. “You mean, hot as fuck?”
I felt a flush rise in my face at the use of her words. “Yes, hot as fuck.”
Sophia snickered beside me. “I’ve had a crush on Johan as long as I can remember. He’s fourteen years older than me, and though I’m twenty-one, he looks at me like I’m still the snot-nosed kid I was when he first arrived here.”
I looked down at her. “You don’t look twenty-one. When I first looked at you, I would’ve bet that you were sixteen at most.”
She batted her eyelashes at me. “Good genetics, I guess. Dad looks super young, too, but he’s thirty-five.”
I started to add up the numbers, coming up with her father being fourteen when he’d had her.
But instead of saying anything, I chose to keep my mouth shut and keep my nose out of other people’s business. See, when I’d become a doctor, I’d come across a lot of tremulous situations, and this was definitely one of them if the set of her mouth was anything to go by.
I looked over at Madden who was leaning against a garland wrapped metal upright. He was grinning as both Soren and Johan circled around the bar.
“All right,” Madden announced just then. “We’re just going to see who can clean the most and call the winner.”
I had no clue what that meant.
Not until each of them added weight to the bar and then started to lift it up off of the ground and stop with the bar right around their shoulders.
At one point, Soren even picked it up and allowed it to bounce off of his collarbone, and I winced.
“This sport looks rough,” I admitted. “Like, they might have bruises after this.”
“There are bruises,” she agreed. “Rips of the skin on your hands from the bar. Sore muscles galore. When I first started, I was sixteen. I tell you what, I don’t have soft hands, and all the boys notice.”
I would’ve replied but then Johan picked up the barbell, was about to bring it to his shoulders, but couldn’t quite seem to get it and dropped it.
The sound of the barbell hitting from that high was deafening.
When it finally clattered loudly to a stop, Soren moved and then did his own ‘clean.’
Though, unlike his brother, he was able to lift it up to a ‘complete rep’ or whatever Sophia called it.
When he dropped it with a laugh, he gave his brother a high five and then turned to survey the group that was cheering for him.
That was when his eyes caught mine and my heart skipped a beat.
Establish dominance by putting glitter in Christmas Cards.
-Pro tip
Soren
“She’s here,” I said to Johan, my breath coming in fast pants.
“I saw.” Johan paused, his breathing just as heavy. “Did you also happen to see that she’s talking to the she-devil right now?”
The she-devil being Sophia, the owner’s daughter, who Johan liked to act like was a pain in his ass when obviously he wanted to be a pain in hers.
Literally.
“I saw,” I confirmed. “She is smiling, though, so I’ll allow it.”
“You’ll allow it.” Johan snorted.
“All right, everyone!” I heard Madden yell. “Time to partner up. One male, one female.”
We did as instructed, but I made sure to hurry over to the girl I invited, because there was no way in hell I was letting anyone else get near her.
Not when I had her exactly where I wanted her.
Just as I got to her, another man at the gym, Bane, got to her next.
I shook him off. “Mine.”
“I’m sorry, Ms….” Bane said, holding out his hand.
“Nola,” she said softly, looking at me, then at Bane, before carefully offering her hand. “Nola LeBlanc.”
“Package Girl.” I threw my arm around her shoulder and pulled her into my side, causing Bane to sigh.
“Can’t you at least give us some scraps?”
I shook my head. “No, I brought her here. She’s mine.”
Nola, wow, what a beautiful name, looked at me with a grin. “Technically, I brought myself here. And I got kind of worried when you weren’t here to welcome me.”
“That’s because I was just at a twenty-four-hour shift at the hospital,” I said. “Came straight from work.”
Her head tilted slightly, and the world disappeared around us. “Which hospital?”
“Central Mercy,” I answered immediately. “Why?”
Her lips turned up into a grin. “Because that’s where my practice is out of. Central Mercy. I’m an OB/GYN. What do you do there?”
I narrowed my eyes. “I’m an ER physician.”
Her eyebrows lifted. “Really? You look…”