Knocked Up(8)

"Am I really cleared?" the guy asked, but Tawny only vaguely heard him.

What had Rex just called him? Bro? Was that in a friendly way, or?

She studied the man's dark hair, his dark eyes, his tan. He was taller than Rex, certainly. He didn't have Rex's sandy hair or bright green eyes, but then, she didn’t need to have lived in Alhouette her whole life to know that the Andersons only took in foster kids.

"Can you tell me your name?" Tawny asked.

"Luke." His answer came automatically, and Tawny nodded. Luke Anderson. The often heard of and less often seen Anderson brother. Still, true to his family's reputation, he'd gotten a solid twenty minutes into this party and was already causing trouble.

"Right, okay, Luke. I'm going to run to the car and grab the emergency kit. Don't move, okay?" She patted his hand, not waiting for his response before making her way over to Suzette's car and wrenching open the glove compartment.

Inside was the little kit Tawny had made her friend carry--the same one Tawny's father had always kept on hand when she was growing up. It was an odd thing to foist on a friend, Tawny knew that, but there were still certain aspects of her military brat upbringing she hadn't been able to shake.

Before long, she made her way back to Luke and flipped open the box, and then grabbed the tiny flashlight from the case.

"Okay, I need to check and see if you do, indeed, have a concussion. Follow the light, okay?"

He nodded, and as she put him through his tests, she found that there wasn't much to be worried about. At least, not where his head was concerned. He might have a slight concussion but she wasn’t seeing lingering signs of it.

“Next time, how about a helmet? And, um, I have to ask..." She swallowed, grabbing the emergency ice pack from the box and moving it until it began to cool in her hands. "How hard did the handlebars hit you in your, er, sensitive area?"

"Sorry?" Luke asked.

"Um, well, it's just that, you know, if you have testicular torsion or something--"

She wanted to crawl into a tiny ball and die right there rather than continue her sentence, but Luke held up a hand to save her the trouble.

"I don't think I got hit hard enough to cause me to lose any of my parts if that’s what you mean,” he murmured, a slow grin tugging at his lips.

"Right. Yes, good. So..." She thrust the ice pack toward him. "Just apply that wherever it's needed. You know, in the...affected region."

"Right." Luke continued smiling at her, and her heart flipped over in her chest.

No! Bad heart!

The very last thing she needed as she started her brand new life was to get wrapped up in some good-looking troublemaker, and, with muscles like Luke’s, it would be all too easy for her to forget that.

With a groan, Luke straightened up to lean against the boulder behind him, and gazed expectantly at Tawny.

“So, what do we do now?” he asked, and maybe it was her imagination, but she thought there was a certain something behind his words. A challenge, maybe.

His eyes gleamed in the darkness and she hoped he couldn’t see the blush she knew was rising up her cheeks as she considered him.

“Well, how are you feeling?” she asked.

He rubbed his shoulder. “Like shit.” But then, after scrubbing one hand over his face, he amended, “I’m thinking my pride is doing most of the hurting, though. And I hate to see my bike.”

Tawny nodded and shot a look behind him. It actually didn’t look too much worse for the wear but she’d let him decide that afterward. She barely knew how to fix people. Bikes were well out of her wheelhouse.

She pulled herself onto her knees, then, sitting back on her ankles, she said, “If it’s any consolation, though, you looked pretty cool while you were wiping out.”

He snorted a little laugh. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” Tawny offered him half a smile, then checked over her shoulder. Suzette and Rex were sitting side-by-side at the edge of the fire, each with a beer in hand. She heard the wamp-wamp-wamping of a bike as the rider who had pretty much been the cause of Luke’s accident zoomed toward them. It slowed to a stop and the freckle-faced guy sitting on it put his foot down to balance.

“Sorry about that, man. Tough breaks,” he said over the hum of the bike’s engine. He sure didn’t look sorry, though.

“What the fuck, Eli? You that hard up for money?” Luke rasped back, pissed off and rightfully so.

Eli shook his head and grinned. “Nah, I just hate to see you win. You shouldn’t have the pretty face and all the glory too. Besides, like I told Rex, it was an accident. I thought I saw a squirrel.” He rolled forward a few inches, gave Tawny the once over. “Speaking of squirrels, I hear you got hit in the nuts…Maybe your sexy nurse can help you with that.”