Page 6 of Thunderstruck
Darcy laughs. “First of all, Houston is hardly a snob, and you know it. Second of all, no.” Her laughter turns into a frustrated frown. “Rugby in the US isn’t like baseball or football. Most of the players have second jobs because there’s not enough money going around for them to make livable wages.Yet.” Something tells me she’s going to try to change that. If anyone can, Darcy can.
Still, I breathe easier knowing I won’t be surrounded by people who think they automatically deserve anything they want. Or don’t want. As I recently learned, men of privilege are dangerous, and I want nothing to do with them. Houston gets the only pass because he’s my brother-in-law and actually pretty great.
“We’re here,” Darcy says as the car pulls to a stop. “You can still change your mind and come back to Missouri with me when I’m done here, but I think this will be a good move for you after everything that happened.”
She means after I fell in love with one of my patients, risking my whole career as a physical therapist because I thought he loved me back. Spoiler: he didn’t.
Maybe she’s right. Maybe I do need a complete overhaul of my life, and I can’t get any farther from my mistakes than sunny Los Angeles.Who would have thought I’d have a mid-life crisis at twenty-five? Not me. I thought for sure I would last in my career of choice longer than two years.
“Well?” Darcy pushes her door open and turns to look at me with her perfectly sculpted eyebrows raised high.
I let out a deep and dramatic sigh, which is my way of trying to rid myself of all the fears holding me back. I make—er,made—my patients do that all the time, and it usually helped push them to work harder to overcome their obstacles. I’m hoping it works for me too. “I can do this,” I say under my breath. “I can do anything I put my mind to.”
“Yes, you can,” Darcy agrees and steps out onto the sidewalk, telling the driver to wait for us.
It’s easy for her to be confident. She’s wearing gaucho pants and wedge heels and somehow making it look classy, and I’m over here in sweatpants and a hoodie I put on because the plane was freezing. I certainly don’t need it now, but all I have on underneath is a hot pink tank top with a cartoon unicorn on it.
Darcy is already heading for the stadium, so I scramble out of the car and hurry after her while a voice in the back of my mind says I should change into something a little more professional. But if I turn back now, there’s no way I’m making it into the stadium of my own free will.
I’m not Darcy.
My sister has always been confident—probably because she was the only girl on her high school baseball team—but it’s still fascinating to watch her walk into a pro team practice with her head held high. She looks like she belongs here, and she completely ignores the heads that swivel in her direction when the players start to notice her.
I can’t help but notice theplayers. My education was centered around the function of the human body, and I know the importance of muscle in protecting the other elements like bones and tendons. Plus, I had anathlete or two come into our clinic in Philly. But as I follow Darcy along the edge of the field, I am in completeawe.
I’ve never seen more beautiful legs in my life. Some of these guys have thighs bigger than my waist, their quads and hamstrings bulging in ways I’ve never seen before. I can’t even admire their upper body strength because all I can see are calves and adductor muscles. It’s a beautiful symphony of anatomical function. A demonstration of the majesty of the human body in a way I’ve never seen before.
I might be in heaven.
“Rizzo, will you hold on to this for me?” Darcy interrupts my gawking, stuffing something small into my hand.
I look down, surprised to see her wedding ring on my palm. “Why?” Should I be worried that she’s already looking to stray from her perfect husband? But no, she would never do that, even if other people would. Not everyone is Peter.
Chuckling, she pats my cheek. “Will you relax? Tamlin isn’t married, and some of these guys will be more open to talking to me if I flirt a bit. Houston knows the drill.”
I slip the ring onto my finger. “I hope you’re right.” Goodness, it’s getting warm, and I tug on the collar of my sweatshirt, trying to get some air flow. “I still can’t believe you lied to me about all this,” I say, gesturing to her getup.
She laughs as her eyes catch on one of the players as he approaches us. “I literally couldn’t tell anyone. Not even Houston. That’s why you had to sign that NDA.”
Honestly, I have no idea what I signed. I trusted Darcy and Houston when they said it was perfectly safe, and all I know is I can’t tell anyone that Darcy is Tamlin. Not even our parents, though that should be easy because I’ve been avoiding them. They don’t know why I left my clinic in Philly either, which is a miracle unto itself. Thank goodness they recently stopped watching the local news.
“Tamlin Park,” the player says, finally reaching us on the edge of the field. He’s monstrous compared to the average human, but he honestly looks like one of the smaller guys on the team.
I don’t think there’s a single person on that field who is anything but a pure beast.
Darcy smiles wide and holds out her hand. “Malcolm Auxier. I’ve wanted to meet you for a long time.”
Malcolm, whose last name sounded more like ‘Oaks-yay’ than how it’s spelled on his uniform, folds his large arms, ignoring Darcy’s outstretched hand. “This is a closed practice, Park.”
This guy is so gruff and tough that he’s incredibly intimidating, but Darcy doesn’t waver. “Whatever you think I’m here to do,” she says, “you’re wrong. I don’t do that anymore. I just want to talk about the game.”
A few more players decide to join us, all of them big, burly, and beautiful. Though, one of them looks like he’s been hit in the head a few too many times, one of his ears lumpy and misshapen. It doesn’t matter because his shoulders are the stuff of legends, and he looks like he’s seven feet tall.
“Oo, what did you do, Moxie?” one of the guys taunts as he wraps an arm around his teammate’s shoulders.
Malcolm narrows his eyes. “Nothing. She claims she’s here in peace,” he says without taking his gaze off Darcy.
Darcy snickers and looks at the gathered guys, lingering on one who looks more nervous than the others. Most of them are smiling and actually look pretty friendly, but one guy in the back simply looks angry.
