She's the One: COunting on Love, Book 1 (3 page)

“Ryan Kaye needs to learn some manners when it comes to women,” Tim said. “I doubt he even knows how to spell ‘consequences’.”

Uh-huh. Which was why he and Emma were a perfect pair.

“Ryan’s a nice guy,” she felt compelled to say. He was, and she was painting him, unfairly, as a one-night-stand kind of guy. Not that it wasn’t accurate. She’d heard the stories. Ryan was a love-the-one-you’re-with guy and was rumored to have a pretty short attention span.

Ryan would be perfect then. You could have a hot, quick fling but not worry about him wanting to stick around long term and get in the way.

She needed to get a grip.

“I’ll get over it,” she told Tim. It would be easy to get over a love affair she’d never even had. “But I need some time. I’m sorry.”

Dammit. This had not turned out the way she’d planned. She’d wanted to let Tim down easy and stay friendly. Instead he looked pissed.

“I’m sorry too, Amanda.”

“Thanks, Tim.”

He leaned in and kissed her cheek. Aw. He was a nice guy. Why couldn’t she be in a place where she was ready for a nice guy?

She watched him push into the crowd around the dance floor before she headed back to the table with her sisters.

She put her hand against her cheek where Tim had kissed her. She hadn’t been kissed on the cheek in a long time. She hadn’t been kissed period in a long time.

And that sucked now that she thought about it.

Chapter Two

Ryan put Becky, the drunk, clingy brunette, into a cab at the curb and promised he’d call her.

He wouldn’t. He wadded up her number and tucked it in his pocket.

He appreciated the Hawks’ rabid fans and loved flirting with women of all types. But he didn’t take them as seriously when they were stumbling drunk and had accidentally called him Cody twice.

Ryan grinned. Cody wasn’t a bad guy to be mistaken for, but when Ryan made a woman scream, he wanted her screaming
his
name. Call him picky.

Turning back to the bar, he was startled to find a guy standing behind him.

“Hey, Kaye.”

He looked vaguely familiar, but Ryan assumed he was a cop or a firefighter if he was at Trudy’s bar. There wasn’t a rule that you had to work at St. A’s or otherwise protect the city to drink at Trudy’s, but it seemed that was the way it went.

“Hey,” Ryan answered. “If that was your girl, nothing happened.”

Well, she’d squeezed his ass and tried to kiss him repeatedly—succeeding in meeting his lips with hers twice—but that didn’t really count. To him anyway. This guy might feel differently.

“That’s not the girl I’m worried about.”

The next thing he knew, Ryan was on his butt on the pavement and his jaw hurt.

He bounded to his feet, rubbing his face. “What the hell, man?”

“A girl like Amanda deserves better than you.”

“What are you talking about?” Ryan wasn’t the type of guy to hit back. Or to hit first, for that matter. If he was getting hit, he assumed there was a good reason. But he sure as hell wanted to know what it was.

“Amanda Dixon. You should have just left her alone.”

Ryan was way too distracted by Amanda’s name to worry about dodging a swinging fist, so he stepped forward and grabbed the guy’s wrist. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The guy didn’t try to pull away, but stepped forward, getting right in Ryan’s face. He was a good three inches shorter, so he had to stretch and tip his chin belligerently. But it was clear he wasn’t intimidated by the size difference. He was pissed. He clearly believed that Ryan had messed around with…
Amanda
.

“How do
you
know Amanda?” Ryan asked, dropping his hold on the other guy.

“I’m crazy about her,” he said, stepping back and shaking his wrist.

Amanda had dated
this
guy? The kind of guy who would take a swing at a stranger? Who wore faded blue jeans, an Old Navy T-shirt and a ball cap?

Ryan rubbed a hand over his own faded T-shirt. That was interesting.

“Who are you?” Ryan asked.

“Tim. Winters. I’m over at Firehouse Three.”

Ah, one of Cody’s guys. Cody Madsen was the Hawks’ star running back and the chief at Firehouse Three. Amanda’s youngest sister, Olivia, worked for Cody and knew all the firemen. Made sense how Amanda might have met Winters anyway. “And what do you think I did?”

“Fucked her.”

Ryan eyebrows shot up. He would have definitely remembered that. “Come again?”

“Seduced her, fucked her, made her fall in love with you.”

Ryan’s hand dropped and he frowned. “What the hell are you talking about?”

And why had his heart sped up at hearing all of that? He would love to—

“She told me.”

“She told you what?”

“That she’s in love with you. That you ruined her for other men.”

Well, if he had Amanda in his bed for even a night, he’d certainly do his best to make her never want to leave.

“Sorry, man,” Ryan said. “I didn’t know about you.”

True enough. He hadn’t known Tim’s name until a minute ago and definitely hadn’t known that Amanda was dating him. He still found it very interesting that Amanda would go for a guy who…didn’t dress or act like Nate Sullivan or any of the other doctors or administrators at St. A’s. The only place Ryan ever saw Nate without a tie was on the football field. Even at Trudy’s he looked like he’d mugged a
GQ
model on his way over. Amanda could have any of those classy, sophisticated men. What was she doing with Winters? Or pretending she was with Ryan?

“I want her,” Tim said.

Ryan didn’t know what was going on exactly, but she surely had a good reason for the story, and if Amanda had told Tim she was with Ryan, he wasn’t going to be the one to tell the guy the truth.

“Too bad, man. She’s made her choice.”

“But—”

“Dude, she doesn’t want you, and going around hitting guys who are bigger than you isn’t a great way to handle it. Especially bigger guys who know your chief.”

Tim’s eyes narrowed. “She should be mine.”

Ryan laughed. “You don’t know her very well if you think Amanda Dixon is anybody’s but her own.”

“You—”

“Go home, Tim. Before I go back in there and tell my cop buddy that I was assaulted.”

Tim’s jaw tightened and Ryan prepared to duck, but finally the other man pivoted and stomped away.

It was good to have friends who carried badges. He could have taken care of himself with Tim, but his hand would have been sore tomorrow. He hated that.

He headed back into Trudy’s. He had a Dixon to find, and it wasn’t the one who had thrown him the game-winning pass that had made Ryan the man of the hour.

But he was looking forward to this even more.

Amanda was with her sisters in a booth against the far wall. They were a hard group to miss.

Emma and Isabelle were enough to have Conner wondering what sin he’d committed in a previous life to be the older brother to such beautiful, outgoing, sassy, intelligent women…who had given him an ulcer at age twenty-four. But then there was also the oldest, Amanda, and the baby, Olivia. Emma and Isabelle were the most gregarious, by far, but Conner had been watching men—friends of his and complete strangers alike—make fools of themselves over all four girls nearly his entire life.

It was exhausting for Conner. And entertaining for his friends.

Conner Dixon was a pretty laid-back guy for the most part. He was calm and cool in a crisis, which, as a paramedic for one of the busiest trauma centers in the area, was a good thing. But his sisters could suck the laid-back right out of him in the blink of an eye.

As Ryan approached he heard Isabelle say, “I’d pick Mac. He’s got that big, badass thing going on.”

Ryan knew without looking that the Mac she was referring to was Mac Gordon, a paramedic for the best crew in Omaha. He was the only Mac around, and the big and badass thing definitely applied. And, sure enough, when Ryan did glance over toward the tables, he found Conner surrounded by Mac and his crew, including Sam Bradford, Dooley Miller and Kevin Campbell. But it was Mac who sat right next to Conner and had his arm draped over the back of Conner’s chair.

Mac had appointed himself Conner’s mentor. Not because the younger guy needed a mentor exactly, but because Conner had a thing for Mac’s wife and Mac loved torturing him. He took every opportunity to call Conner in for extra shifts, to make him do the crap work, to criticize his work. And he never missed a chance to remind Conner that Mac was the one going home to Sara, the woman Conner had put on a pedestal as the epitome of all women. Sara Bradford Gordon had caught Conner’s eye the first time he’d seen her walk into the ER at St. Anthony’s. He’d hit on her…and had been putting up with shit from Mac ever since.

Ryan turned his attention back to the Dixon sisters. He knew Sara Gordon and she was beautiful, sweet and sassy, but she couldn’t compare with the Dixon Divas as far as Ryan was concerned.

“I’d be all over Sam,” Emma said. “No question.”

Ryan raised an eyebrow. That fit. Sam was the ladies’ man—or had been according to the stories—and had tried everything at least once. Emma would definitely be able to keep up with him.

“Kevin’s the sweetest,” Isabelle said. “Perfect for Olivia.”

“I think there’s more naughty under Kevin’s sweetness than you might think,” Emma said, studying Kevin Campbell, the ex-NFL defensive lineman. “Okay, how about you, Amanda?” Emma tipped back her beer bottle.

Ryan perked up. Ben Torres, the trauma surgeon who had married Sam’s sister, Jessica, was probably more Amanda’s type. Ben was a nice guy and a brilliant surgeon. He hung out with these guys—the group was tight—but he wasn’t rumored to have been the badass or the playboy that these other guys were.

“Probably Dooley. I like a guy who can have a good time,” she finally said.

Ryan felt his mouth drop open. Dooley Miller? He was the…goofball. Out of uniform, he wore exclusively blue jeans and T-shirts that said things like
The police never think it’s as funny as you do
. Amanda would most likely go out with
Dooley
?

If that was the case, Ryan was so in.

Emma snorted. “Since when is having a good time a criteria for you for anything?”

For some reason, that annoyed Ryan. Emma had enough fun to cover all her sisters, her brother and all of his teammates. Amanda was fine just as she was.

He stepped forward and took Amanda by the elbow. “I need to talk to you.”

She looked up at him and her eyes widened. “You do?”

“Yes. Now.” He wanted this story that she’d given to Tim Winters and to know why
he
had been the one she’d used as the pretend boyfriend.

“I, um…thought you left.”

He tugged her out of the booth. “Why’d you think that?”

“I saw you leave with that brunette.”

She’d been watching him. Ryan felt a smile curve his lips. “I put her in a cab.” Then he frowned. “Did you tell Winters you were with me because you thought I’d left and he wouldn’t be able to confirm it?”

Fuck. That wasn’t nearly as nice as thinking his name was the first to come to mind when she thought of guys she’d like to fool around with.

“You talked to Tim?” she asked. Then she muttered, “Dammit.”

“What did you tell Tim?” Emma asked, taking in their exchange with interest.

“Nothing,” Amanda said quickly.

“That she was with me,” Ryan said right over the top of her.

Emma leaned closer. “With you as in
with
you?”

She was a nosy little thing. Ryan signaled Carrie, the waitress. “Two of whatever each of the ladies want,” he said, pointing to Emma, Isabelle and Olivia. He looked at the girls. “Stay here and mind your own business. Or at least mind someone’s business other than mine and Amanda’s.”

Emma grinned. “You and Amanda have business in common?”

He looked down at the woman beside him. He still held on to her elbow, and he became aware that she smelled really, really good. Yes, it appeared that he and Amanda had business in common. How interesting. “Just stay here,” he finally said to Emma.

He tugged Amanda through the crowd to the corner near the back door. It wasn’t exactly private, but it would work for a few minutes. That was all he would have, he was sure, before Conner realized one of his friends had one of his sisters off in a dark corner alone.

“Yes, I talked to Tim Winters,” Ryan said when they were as alone as they were going to get. “Right after he clocked me and knocked me on my ass.”

Amanda gasped. “He
hit
you?”

“Yeah, because I slept with you.”

“I… Oh… Um…”

Ryan fought a smile. “But it’s weird. That really seems like something I’d remember.”

She rolled her eyes. “We all probably blend together after a while.” She said it quietly, more of a mutter really, but he heard it.

“What’s that mean?” he demanded. He put a finger under her chin and tipped her head so she had to look at him. “Amanda, what does that mean?”