Bachelors In Love

by Jestine Spooner

  Tia felt herself softening a little. “Effortlessly cool, huh?”

  “You’ll see. That’s why I dressed you up like that. I’ll bet all the women at a party for Elijah Bird are gonna be dressed for a red carpet. And then you stroll in looking all biker chic. And you’re a surgeon? And that hair? And your figure? Please. Effortless, cool, and hot all at once.”

  Tia sighed as she parked her car out front of Eli’s address. “I love you.”

  Laura fluffed her hair. “I know.”

  ***

  Eli tried as hard as he could not to scowl at all the guests in his house. There were too many people. How did he even know this many people?

  Not built to maintain that kind of irritation, he glanced out at the milling crowd of friends and acquaintances, and he softened. It wasn’t their fault that he was this mad. It was his stupid ribs and his stupid, dumb ass judgment. He’d tweaked them earlier this afternoon lifting a case of water into the fridge. It had been so dumb, but he’d been feeling so much better, he hadn’t thought it would be an issue.

  But Jay and Marcus had seen it happen and they’d been up his ass about it. They were actually forcing him to sit on the couch and ice his ribs in the middle of the party. Jay had told him that he could stand as long as he was icing. Eli had opted for sitting on the couch so the cushion hid the ice pack. The last thing he wanted was for anyone to think he was fishing for sympathy.

  It was the opposite in fact. He’d wanted this damn party to show everyone he was totally fine and they should all move on with their lives. He couldn’t stand any more cards or visits or flowers. What the hell was he supposed to do with all these flowers?

  Jay waded through the crowd with a glass of something and plate loaded with nachos. Eli glanced up.

  “Don’t scowl at me,” Jay said. “I did not put you in this predicament. You put yourself in this predicament by lifting that case of water like an asshole.”

  Eli scowled further, for just a second, before the grin broke out over his face. He could never stay mad at his friends for very long. “Yeah, yeah. At least it’s got you waiting on me hand and foot. The natural order of things has been restored.”

  “I spit in your drink,” Jay responded dryly as he plopped down on the couch next to Eli.

  “What the hell is this?” Eli tipped the red plastic cup toward the light, squinting at the green-brown liquid in there.

  “Iced green tea. I made it this afternoon.” Jay leaned his blonde head on the back of the couch and closed his eyes. The man could sleep anywhere. And often did. When Eli didn’t say anything back, he cracked an eye. “What? It’s good for you.”

  Eli eyed the drink with a skeptical look on his face. Jay was a health nut, and Eli had been tricked many a time into eat a carob chip cookie or a choco-bran muffin. Iced green tea sounded about as appealing as a cup of fresh cut grass juice. He set it aside and went for the nachos instead.

  “So your girlfriend’s standing you up, huh?” Jay’s eyes were closed again, but a Cheshire cat smile curled his lips.

  Eli went back to scowling. “She’s not standing me up. She’s fashionably late. It’s only 6:45.” He didn’t bother to correct Jay about the girlfriend thing.

  “Which one’s your girlfriend again?” Marcus asked, coming up and sitting on the armchair next to the couch. Eli was his best friend, so he tried to keep a general track of all the women hopping in and out of his life, but the man made it a little difficult. If he had a girlfriend, it was news to Marcus.

  “Dr. Tia Camellia.” Jay’s smile grew.

  “What!” Marcus sat right up, swallowing the rest of the beer that had been traveling down his throat at that moment. Jay and Eli stared at him. As an FBI agent, Marcus was usually pretty reserved and calm.

  “She’s not my girlfriend,” Eli was finally forced to admit, feeling for all the world like the three of them were back in high school again.

  “Yeah, but he asked her to come tonight.”

  Marcus set his beer on the table in front of them and quickly recuffed the sleeves of his button-up shirt. “So let me get this straight. Tia Camellia is coming here tonight and she’s not your date?”

  “That’s right.”

  Marcus, halfway hoping he was right and halfway hoping to provoke Eli, smoothed his hands over his dress shirt. “So she’s fair game?”

  Eli scowled. “It’s not like that, man. It was hard enough to get her to come to this party at all. I don’t want her to get relentlessly hit on the entire time.”

  Marcus raised an eyebrow at his friend. “Definitely fair game.”

  Eli threw his hands up in frustration but winced at the sudden movement. He pressed a flat hand to his ribs and eased himself back. “What, have you been carrying a torch for her since high school or something?”

  Marcus softened. He knew Eli. And if Eli thought that Marcus was really serious about his feelings for Tia, he would back off right away. Marcus didn’t want that. He just wanted to give Eli a hard time. “Not really. I haven’t thought about her a ton. It’s just that she was so goddamn pretty back then and…” he trailed off, his eyes focusing across the party. “And she still is now. Ho. Ly. Shit.”

  Eli turned and looked over his shoulder and felt like his breath had been extracted from him on a long, thin string. He got the strangest feeling like he was only in charge of half of his life. The other half was currently standing across the room from him. It must be because she’d saved him.

  He let out the long, low breath. Dr. Tia Camellia had just walked into his house looking so pretty it hurt. It actually hurt. And she was not on the arm of a man. She’d brought her sister. He couldn’t even begin to say how much that relieved him.

  The other women who were milling around were all decked out in short skirts and flashy, low cut shirts designed for man’s attention.

  But not Tia. Eli let his eyes skate down from her glossy hair, over her outfit. And now he just felt like he’d been hit by an offensive lineman. So. She had a body. He hadn’t quite been able to tell underneath her scrubs. But damn if she wasn’t filling out that shirt. And the way those pants were clinging and shaping to her ass?

  “Wow,” Jay said, observing Eli. “I’ve never seen somebody’s eyes do the Awoooooga thing before. Like in cartoons? When the boy’s eyes explode out of his head.”

  Marcus studied Eli as well. Yeah. No matter how much of a crush he’d had on Tia in high school, he was not getting in the way of that look on his friend’s face. “I’ll go get her.”

  Marcus stood but Eli’s hand shot out, grabbing his arm. “Do not dance with her,” he warned.

  Marcus couldn’t help the smug grin that broke over his face. All three of them knew exactly what happened when Marcus danced with a girl. She became completely blind to all other men. And somehow in the process her panties disintegrated. “I’ll keep my superpowers to myself.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Tia looked around the room and was actually pleasantly surprised at what she saw. She hadn’t realized, until now, that she’d sort of been expecting a frat party of some kind. Chandelier swinging and body shots. But of course, Eli was a 34-year-old man. And even with his playboy reputation, she knew that he was very respected in his community.

  She was a little starstruck, though, at the number of professional athletes milling around in button-down shirts.

  “Oh my god,” Laura murmured.

  “What?”

  “Don’t look, but there is a man over there absolutely undressing me with his eyes.”

  “Where?”

  “Okay. But do it casually. He’s at my five o clock, in a green shirt and jeans. Red hair.”

  “Oh.” Tia glanced over and then immediately straightened up. The man had definitely been undressing Laura with his eyes. “Laura, that’s Jace Overshire.”

  “Who?”

  Tia rolled her eyes at her sister. The only way to not know who Jace Overshire was in this town was to be willfully ignorant. Which, when it ca
me to sports, Laura was. “The wide receiver for the Stingrays. He was drafted the same year as Eli. He’s the one that caught that pass in the fourth quarter of the Superbowl when they won four years ago?”

  Laura’s eyes were completely blank of recognition, but they were not blank of attraction. “Yeah. Okay. So, do you have your feet under you yet?”

  Tia’s mouth dropped open. Thirty seconds into this party and Laura was already ditching her?

  “Hey, Camellias,” a familiar voice said behind her and Tia breathed a sigh of relief. Marcus wouldn’t ditch her the way her traitorous sister was threatening to do.

  “Marcus!” Laura threw her arms around his neck. They’d always been buddies at school, even if she’d had a fiendish crush on him for a while. But she’d figured it was time to put that crush in the grave the night she’d hooked up with Jay Brady. If there was one thing those three guys didn’t do, it was double dip with the same girls. Whatever, that hook-up had been worth it. But knowing full well that any chance she might have had with Marcus was dead, Laura wasn’t about to waste any valuable time on him either. She quickly unhanded him before the red-headed hottie across the party got the wrong idea. “So good to see you! Hey, you think you can get Tia something to drink while I head to the bathroom real quick?”

  “Of course. Uh, bathroom is back that way,” Marcus said, pointing in the opposite direction of where Laura was currently walking.

  She just grinned and shrugged and kept going.

  “Something tells me she’s not in need of the bathroom,” Marcus said, watching in amusement as she strode right up to Jace Overshire and said something that had the Allstar wide receiver’s eyebrows shooting up in surprise.

  “I think bathroom was a code word in that case,” Tia replied dryly, following behind Marcus as he led her through the party.

  “Code word for what?”

  “Trying to get some ass.”

  Marcus couldn’t help but laugh, hard, at that phrase coming out of prim and proper Dr. Camellia’s mouth. He’d already rescinded her to Eli, but he couldn’t help but feel a healthy dose of regret about it. And he also couldn’t help but reach back and take her hand as he wove through the party guests toward the drinks table. He could practically feel the hairs on his arm burning off under Eli’s intense gaze, but he didn’t care. At all.

  Tia was so glad that Marcus was there. She’d always been comfortable around him, even though everyone else treated him like he was a little bit scary. Sure, he didn’t smile very often and he definitely had the whole tall, dark, and handsome thing going on. But he’d always been soft and sweet with her. And right now, in the middle of all these fit, attractive, famous people, Tia couldn’t have been more glad for it.

  She glanced down at their clasped hands and realized that she’d hardly noticed when he’d taken her fingers in his. It was natural and kind. She noted that there wasn’t even a touch of that low level, buzzing warmth between them that she felt every time she touched Eli. Absently, her free hand came up to slide over the part of her shoulder that he’d touched yesterday in her office. She could still feel the heat of his palm there.

  Clearing her throat as they came up to the table with all the drinks, Tia scanned for anything she could have.

  “What’s your poison?” Marcus asked. “We’ve got beer and wine, some good whiskey, vodka, gin. And I’m pretty sure that Jay picked up some of that girly shit too. Zima or whatever.”

  Tia made a quick face. “That stuff’ll kill you.”

  “You’re telling me. It’s like drinking cough syrup.”

  His voice faded away as Tia felt something scramble up her spine. But she didn’t turn around. She’d recognize that feeling anywhere. It was the feeling she used to get in high school when she knew that Eli was in the room. She hadn’t seen him yet. And she refused to turn around and look for him. But she would have bet every penny in her bank account that he was looking at her right now.

  She cleared her throat again. Opened her mouth to speak, but somebody beat her to it.

  “She’s on call.” Eli’s deep voice rumbled through her and Tia couldn’t stop the shooting thrill that went through her. He was standing right behind her.

  “Eli.” She turned to him and was extremely surprised when she was immediately enveloped into a hug. He was so big that she got the feeling she was being wrapped into a huge, friendly blanket. His arms came around her for just a moment, firm and soft at the same time. And so did his scent. He smelled like exercise and fabric softener. Tia immediately told herself not to nuzzle into the warm hug. Well, it was mostly a warm hug. There was ice bandaged to the outside of his dress shirt on one side.

  She stepped back from him, only to be momentarily stunned by the dazzling smile on his face. The same one that used to dazzle her in high school.

  Marcus cleared his throat and Tia dropped her eyes in minor embarrassment. Oh lord, had she looked as moony and spritzy as she’d felt?

  “So that means no alcohol?” Marcus asked, looking back and forth between Eli and Tia with a little smile on his face.

  “Right.”

  “I got a bunch of juice and stuff for you,” Eli said, still smiling. “It’s in the kitchen. And Jay made some iced green tea as well, but seriously, it’s like drinking a bouquet of flowers.”

  Tia followed behind Eli, barely noticing that she was leaving Marcus in the dust. Marcus merely sighed and turned to go sit with Jay, knowing exactly when to fold ‘em. If he’d ever thought he had a chance with her, that was completely dashed by the look she’d just given Eli. Damn stupid cockblocking football star.

  “Speaking of flowers,” Tia said, her eyebrows rose as they stepped through the swinging door into Eli’s much quieter kitchen. The place was covered counter to table top in fresh cut flowers.

  “I know. Everybody wants to let me know they’re thinking about me. Which is really nice.” He opened the fridge and peeked his head in. “But these flowers are gonna give Jay a coronary if they keep arriving in this quantity.”

  Tia looked around at all the colorful jars and vases filled with blooms. “I take it he’s still an environmental advocate? The way he was in high school?”

  “Yup. Full-on vegan, leave-no-trace, eco warrior. And the flower industry drives him up the wall with all the waste.” He peeked his head out from behind the door and the sudden appearance of that smile had Tia’s cheeks going pink. “Okay, I got organic grape, white grape, cranberry, apple, sparkling apple, and pear juice. Which I didn’t even know was a thing.”

  Charmed and flattered that he’d gone to all that trouble just because he knew she wouldn’t be drinking, Tia folded her arms across her chest and leaned against the counter. “Cranberry, please.”

  He pulled out a fancy glass jar and Tia frowned at the label.

  “Something wrong?” he asked as he grabbed down a glass for her.

  “You got 100% cranberry juice. Not cranberry cocktail.”

  “So?”

  Tia cocked her head at him. “Have you ever tried pure cranberry juice?”

  “No, I don’t think so.”

  Tia took the glass from his hand and poured a tiny swig into it. She handed it over to him, some expression dancing on her face that he couldn’t quite read.

  Eli wasn’t a particularly adventurous eater or drinker, but he was intrigued by the moment. And he would have taken a bite out of the countertop if it put that little smile on her face. He took a sip and the instant, gut wrenching bitterness on his tongue had his face crumbling in on itself.

  Tia threw her head back and laughed. Really laughed. It was husky and low and tumbled out of her like water over the pebbles in a stream.

  Yeah. Eli was forced to admit it all at once. No more dancing around it. He was into her. Definitely into her.

  She took the glass from him and rinsed it out in the sink. “People don’t usually drink it straight like that. Pure cranberry juice is generally used medicinally. For treating UTIs.”

  What
the hell, Tia? Why in god’s name was she talking about UTIs while she stood four feet away from Elijah Bird?

  He grimaced and put the offending juice away. “How about some good ol’ grape, then?”

  Tia had her juice in hand as he held the swinging kitchen door open for her. She was strangely disappointed to be leaving the quiet kitchen to head back into the larger gathering. But she was mindful of the fact that she didn’t want to monopolize his time. This was his party and she was sure he had a lot of people to see.

  Case in point. A tiny little bombshell with a long red braid down her back came dancing up to them the second they stepped back into the living room. She wore a short satin dress and tall boots that still only brought her up to Tia’s chin.

  “Elijah! I’m so relieved to see you up and around. You know I’ve been biting my nails ever since I heard on the radio that you’d been injured.”

  “Katie.” He bent down for a quick hug and Tia wondered for a brief second if her own hug with him had been that short, if it had only been her imagination that had lengthened the time he’d held her. “This is Dr. Tia Camellia.”

  Tia’s back straightened and she forced herself to look casual, take a sip of her juice. Right. He was thinking of her as his surgeon. The one he owed for saving his life. For a moment in the kitchen, and during the hug, Tia had started to wonder if there was a spark of personal interest there. But no. Of course not. He had barely noticed her in high school and he wouldn’t have noticed her now if she hadn’t saved his life. But she had. So here she was at his party and he was being so sweet and friendly. And that was just fine. She would be polite to his friends, tell him she’d had a nice time, and that the debt of gratitude was completely repaid. And then they’d both get on with their lives.

  Tia was calmed by the split second resolution she’d just made with herself but found herself immediately annoyed again by the passing, obligatory nod that this Katie person had sent her way.

  “Hi.” Katie’s eyes went back to Eli and did a much more leisurely scan down his large body. They zeroed in on the ice at his side. “Oh, Elijah, you poor baby. You must be in so much pain. I can’t believe you have to ice in the middle of a party!” She turned to Tia in a loud, fake whisper that was obviously meant to mark territory. “It’s not like him at all to show his injuries during a social gathering. Usually he’s such a he-man.”