Page 114 of Wild Card

By the time she gets to the part about him kissing me before I ran off, my face is burning with awkwardness.

“You had your first kiss at Tom’s? And then you ran away?” Rowan’s interest is alarming. I know how close she and Talon are, so the last thing I need is for her to think my running away is regular.

“It’s like history repeating itself.” Jewls has a wisp to her tone.

Confusion crowds my brain. Did Talon make a habit of kissing women in Tom’s?

“It was a little odd and I’m not in the habit of making out with strangers.”

“Ford and I had our first kiss in Tom’s. Then I ran away.” Rowan clears my confusion.

“I didn’t exactly run. I excused myself to go home.”

“Rowan ran, ditched us all with a stupid excuse,” Shayla pipes in.

“Well, I was mortified and didn’t exactly want to say I’d made the first move and got shot down!”

It’s my turn to be shocked. “You made the first move and were shot down?”

“It’s a long story, but Ford had some hang-up about my mental state after the first kidnapping.”

No one seems fazed by this remark except Bex. She sucks in an audible breath. “First kidnapping? How many have there been?”

Outside of my quick explanation of my overreaction on Wednesday morning, I haven’t shared much with her.

“Two,” Jewls, Harley, and Ember answer in unison.

“You’ve been kidnapped twice? How?”

“I had a crazy ex, but he’s dead now.” Rowan says it so nonchalantly I have to wonder if she’s a bit of a badass herself.

“Oh my….”

“I’ll tell you the stories another time when we’re alone. Ford and the guys go a little insane when it’s mentioned. Back to Willow and Talon. So, you technically met in a bar and then he became your patient? How does that even happen?”

“Fate, divine intervention, destiny—whatever you want to label it,” Harley gushes with a shine in her eyes.

“Okay, Teary Tess, hold it together,” Jewls chides.

Harley ignores the jab.

They all gawk at me, waiting for me to answer Rowan’s question. The other day, Harley and Jewls accepted the short explanation of Talon being my patient. But now it’s obvious they were biding their time for the full story. I think about skimming the details, but my instincts tell me it would be useless.

I take a large swallow of my drink and launch into the day at the clinic when Abe was out and Talon was assigned to me. Shayla keeps my drink topped as I wind through the story, ending with this morning when he left for work when my grandparents arrived as if it were a normal occurrence.

The words come easy and when I get to the part about the incident in the salon with Rylee, I delve into the details of herbetrayal with my stupid ass ex-boyfriend. Each time I mention Talon, my pulse races.

Retelling the last five weeks has my heart and stomach fluttering in sync. I take a deep breath and wave my hands in a fanning motion. “And now we’re here.”

There’s a pause before they pounce.

“He catered lunch to your whole office?”

“He sent your dog a stuffed unicorn?”

“He borrowed a dog to go to the park?”

“Your sister is a world-class bitch.”

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