Chapter 4

Alicia

I woke up to the smell of waffles and the sound of my brother singing badly to early 2000s R\&B. Which, by the way, should be illegal before 10 a.m. I squinted at the ceiling, momentarily confused. This wasn’t my apartment. There were no textbooks, no half-eaten protein bars on the nightstand, no emergency scrubs draped across the chair. Just a warm, cozy guest room with beige curtains and that ugly lamp Evan refused to throw away because “it had character.”

Right. I was at my brother’s place.

I’d crashed here the night before after a long-ass shift and a car battery that decided to die dramatically in the hospital parking lot like it was auditioning for a soap opera. Evan picked me up and insisted I spend the night, mostly because he didn’t trust the tow truck guy and partly because he loved babying me now that our parents had moved to Florida.

Dragging myself out of bed, I pulled on one of Evan’s oversized hoodies and padded out into the hallway, expecting to see him dancing with a spatula or making a mess in the kitchen.

What didn't I expect?

Him.

There, standing in the middle of the living room, coffee mug in one hand, talking and laughing with Evan like they were childhood friends, was Damon freaking Strathmore.

I froze. Literally froze. My socks nearly betrayed me on the wooden floor.

He didn’t see me at first. His back was to me, hair slightly messy, wearing jeans and a plain gray t-shirt like he didn’t know he was single-handedly ruining my peace. Then Evan said something that made him laugh and that laugh, that ridiculous, charming, disarming laugh I recognized in half a second.

He turned.

Saw me. And everything stopped.

His eyebrows lifted, eyes widening in shock. The mug in his hand hovered halfway to his mouth like he’d just seen a ghost or worse, a woman he’d flirted with while shirtless in a hospital bed who now appeared in his life completely uninvited and very much in his friend’s house.

“Alicia?” he said, blinking like I was an illusion conjured by caffeine and regret.

I stared right back. “What the hell are you doing here?”

Evan looked between us, clearly confused. “Wait. Hold up. Do you two know each other?”

“I—uh,” Damon stammered, rubbing the back of his neck. “Sort of?”

I folded my arms. “Sort of?”

“We met at the hospital,” he said quickly, giving me a cautious look. “She was my nurse. The bossy one.”

“And he was the idiot who tried to check himself out while still concussed,” I snapped, trying to play it cool even though I could feel my ears burning.

Evan just… stared. Then he suddenly burst out laughing. “Oh my God. This is the nurse you wouldn’t shut up about?”

Damon went bright red. “I didn’t okay, I may have mentioned her—”

“He called you Angel for a week straight,” Evan added with a smirk. “We thought he’d hit his head harder than we thought.”

“You’re friends,” I said slowly, trying to digest the emotional trainwreck of this morning.

“Best friends since high school,” Evan said proudly. “We played on the same team in college before Damon went pro.”

Damon cleared his throat. “In my defense, I had no idea she was your sister. None. Zero. Nada.”

I dragged a hand down my face. “You’ve literally been in Evan’s house. How did you never notice my picture on the fridge?”

“Your brother has so many magnets, okay? It’s like a mural of chaos.”

“Oh my God,” I muttered. “This can’t be happening.”

Evan looked way too entertained. “Wait… so when you were telling me about the nurse with the sarcastic mouth and dangerous eyes…”

“Dangerous?” I said, my voice rising.

“I never said it was dangerous!” Damon defended.

“He totally said it was dangerous,” Evan confirmed.

I glared at them both, my brain working overtime to make sense of this cosmic joke. Of all people. In all the cities. In all the hospitals. Damon freaking Strathmore turns out to be my brother’s best friend.

“Okay,” I said finally, backing up a step. “This is too weird. I’m going back to bed. Wake me when reality makes sense.”

But as I turned, Damon called softly, “Wait.”

I stopped.

He took a step toward me, like he wasn’t sure if I’d let him get any closer. “Look, I swear I wasn’t trying to play games. I didn’t know you and Evan were connected. I didn’t even know if I’d see you again after the hospital.”

“Yeah, well. Surprise,” I said flatly.

“Can we maybe… talk?” he asked. “Like, just talk. Without sarcasm and blood pressure cuffs?”

I stared at him.

And here was the thing: part of me wanted to run. Hide. Pretend this whole thing hadn’t just collided into my personal life like a meteor. But another part, the stupid part remembered the way he’d looked at me in that hospital bed. The softness in his eyes when he asked about me. The weird comfort I’d felt around him, even when I was trying to be annoyed.

“I’m showering first,” I muttered. “Then we talk.”

He smiled. A real one. No flirting, no jokes.

“Fair,” he said.

I walked past him, but not before I heard Evan mutter under his breath to Damon, “If you break her heart, I’m breaking your kneecaps.”

And Damon replied, “I’d let you. But I’m not planning on hurting her.”

And just like that, I was doomed. Again. Because even though I didn’t trust him yet, and even though the universe clearly had no chill, my heart didn’t care.

I already remembered the way his name sounded in my mouth, and worse, I liked it.

I didn't know what all of this meant, but one thing I knew was I'd be a fool if I allowed someone like Damon to destroy me.