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  Landon’s heart did a twist for an altogether different reason.

  Dr. Adams glanced over at the monitor next to the bed when the steady beep suddenly grew faster. “What just happened?”

  This time the doctor gave him a practiced smile, cocking his head to the side as he studied Landon. The scrutiny had Landon instantly wanting to pass whatever inspection he was under and earn a real grin. This smile was only meant to encourage Landon to explain himself.

  The strange tension running through his body intensified as the weight of Dr. Adams’s gaze moved down his body, then quickly back up before stopping at the paperback on his chest. Dr. Adams lowered his hand, using a single finger to edge the book over to get a better look. The doctor eased the book from Landon’s fingers and lifted it to scan the cover. This time when their eyes met there was genuine curiosity staring back at him. “A Game of Thrones. You’re doing some light reading, are you?”

  That comment weirdly lifted Landon’s mood. It was his first time to tackle a George R. R. Martin novel. Yes, he got the books were all engrossing, but that was kind of the point. He needed something to fully occupy his overactive mind—absurdly over-imaginative based on all the scenarios he’d conjured in the last few minutes. It still took him a second to say, “I have an uncle who works in a library. He sends me books he thinks I’ll like.”

  “It’s a good choice.” Dr. Adams crossed his arms over his chest as he stared down at Landon.

  “You’ve read it?”

  “No, not yet. It’s long and the author’s known to be very descriptive. My dad had a small library and encouraged me to read A Game of Thrones several times over the last few years. He met Martin once—” Dr. Adams’s tone changed before he abruptly stopped speaking midsentence. For the briefest of moments, the doctor seemed lighter, the lines around his eyes easing before he reached down again and ran a finger across the cover. “Martin left an impression on my father. He felt like once this series was complete, it would be a great tale for the ages.” Silence sat between them again as Dr. Adams seemed lost in thought until he lifted a hand and rubbed his eyes. “So you haven’t gotten very far?”

  “No, I’m having trouble. It’s a struggle turning the pages.” Landon confessed with a sudden deep need to offer comfort and he wasn’t certain why.

  Dr. Adams looked down at the immobilizer holding Landon’s bandaged arm and hand in place before nodding. “I’m sure it’s difficult. We have volunteers who can read to you. I can request one for you.”

  “Yeah, they offered that to me today, but I was being my normal stubborn ass self and turned it down because I thought I could fucking manage.” He immediately stopped the train of thought and said, “Sorry about the language.”

  “No problem. So, you don’t like to accept help. You’d rather figure it out on your own. I get it.” Dr. Adams nodded in perhaps unspoken agreement. “How’re your pain levels?”

  “Hey, Landon.” Holly, a med tech he knew stepped inside the room. “Hey, Dr. Adams.”

  Landon watched the good doctor slip back into professional mode. His face became blank and guarded again.

  He didn’t acknowledge Holly’s greeting, but said to Landon, “I’m here because I’ve heard you’re rejecting your pain medication. There’s no sense in suffering, not right now.”

  Landon wanted to make the doctor happy, so he gave a nod and Dr. Adams did too. A smile broke the stern look on the doctor’s face. The man seemed relieved, like he’d been expecting Landon to put up a fight.

  “As long as we’ve got that straight. I’ll leave you to it. Goodnight.”

  Landon kept his gaze glued on the doctor until he left the room and disappeared from his view. He couldn’t have been more than a few feet down the hall when Holly sighed loudly. “He’s so dreamy.”

  “Dreamy?” Landon teased, giving a genuine chuckle and an eye roll that turned to a wince. The ache in his ribs reminded him of the bruising there and the laugh became a non-committal grunt as he swallowed the pain.

  “Yeah, that’s what we decided was the best way to describe him. He looks like Paul Walker. So ‘dreamy’ absolutely fits him. Now do what the doctor said and open up,” she ordered, advancing on him with two small paper cups.

  “What is it?” Landon moved his head as far away from the offering as he could, which turned out to be nothing more than a few inches. He strained to see what she was trying to get him to take.

  “Does it matter? The doctor prescribed it. Now stop being difficult. Open up.” She tipped the paper cup to his lips. Clearly, she was made of tough stuff with the way she rolled her eyes at his most fierce look. She stared him down. He finally gave, swallowing the two pills dry. She wasn’t having any of that either, she tipped the second cup with water to his lips. “There’s no reason to choke to death trying to prove your alpha status.”

  “Why’s he here?” he asked when Holly wiped his chin.

  “Don’t know, but that’s what everyone’s asking. I heard he got special permission and he’s been here a few weeks, maybe a month. Totally keeps to himself much to the entire nursing staff’s regret,” she said. The puzzle of Robert Adams grew more complex. “We’ve become a fashion show in fatigues around here.”

  He’d sure bet Dr. Adams got that reaction everywhere he went. All those blond, sunny good looks. The first time Landon had ever seen him, he’d sucked in his already tight belly and puffed out his chest even as he’d done something as somber as stand guard over Vice President Avery Adams’s state funeral.

  The doctor definitely fit in the “dreamy” category. For Landon, there was something more appealing about Dr. Adams than just looks, but there was no denying the doctor had hit the motherlode in the gene pool. “What’s the rumor… why’s he here?”

  “The speculation is that he’s planning to run for office and getting military time under his belt, but I don’t think so. Usually people like that don’t come to places like this. He could volunteer at any VA hospital in the states.” She gave a noncommittal shrug. “He jogs around the hospital in the middle of the night. Usually about three in the morning we can see him out there, then he spends twelve to fourteen hours working. I don’t know when he sleeps, but we all love to watch him when he runs. He’s seriously sexy.”

  Landon nodded. The mental image playing in his head of the doctor jogging in those little running shorts and a tight-fitting T-shirt stole his breath. He’d be all hot and sweaty… Damn.

  “You should sleep good with what I just gave you.” She gave him a wink. He sure as hell hoped it was good enough to keep him from tenting the sheets while dreaming of the gorgeous doc. “I’ll be back later. I need to get Dr. Dreamy’s signature before shift change.”

  Landon watched her leave as a very weird feeling washed over him. Why did he feel so territorial all of a sudden? He tried to shrug it off. What the hell did he care if Holly had the hots for Dr. Adams? He had zero claim on anyone in the Adams family. It didn’t matter how Avery Adams had inspired Landon on his life’s journey—that had been done from afar and was completely one-sided, personal only to him.

  As his eyelids grew heavy, Landon remembered those fine lines of worry he’d seen on Dr. Adams’s face. He’d also noticed the hollowness lurking in the depths of those baby blues. The smile he’d offered hadn’t reached his eyes. Sadness floated around the man. If he could help Dr. Adams, he needed to try. Landon’s brain wasn’t quite fuzzy enough to agree with his heart, and it mocked him immediately. What in the world did his redneck ass have to offer such an accomplished man?

  Chapter 2

  With each pounding strike against the pavement, Robert’s anxiety slipped away. Who knew jogging in the middle of the night could be so freeing? He stared into the distance, listening to the rhythm of his steps as the lights of the hospital grew brighter with every stride. At this point in his run, his body flew on autopilot, permitting his mind to wander.

  He’d always been too serious—reserved and analytical. At least, that was what he’d been accused of while growing up. He supposed he got those traits from his daddy—Kane—which, oddly enough, was the reason he’d allowed himself to delve into the spiritual side of life.

  To be so much like his daddy, yet share none of his DNA, made him curious. But accepting something he couldn’t see, touch, or study, went against all his training and had proved a hard pill to swallow. He’d held a beating heart in his hand, and in that moment, he’d been the only thing that stood between his patient’s life and their death.

  Yet, there had to be more to life than just the exactness of science. A metaphysical something that required him to suspend his incessant need for facts. That wasn’t an easy concept for him, but the thought of something more helped him process all this heavy weight holding him down, suffocating the very life from him.

  Surely there had to be more to life. More for his fathers. Something bigger than all of this. He had to cling to the hope, or he would most certainly drown in all his confusion. Therein lay his quandary. He didn’t know what to believe or where to find the truth. His whole heart wanted him to believe in something his intellect told him couldn’t exist.

  Life moved so fast, so aggressively and harshly that he had become lost somewhere in the turbulence, searching for a life preserver. At least he was practicing medicine again. Robert’s mind drifted to the feathers. Who would have ever thought his path back to medicine would come by way of a hospital in Germany? Robert slowed his steps, thinking about his dad—Avery—and his last words to him. They weren’t anything close to the last words he’d shared with his sister, Autumn, who was a carbon copy of their father. His dad had used the tone that always made Robert listen, a voice that echoed through his head even now.

  “I’m proud of you, Robert, and I co
uldn’t have asked for a better son. You’re so much like your daddy, so serious all the time. Relax, be open for what life has to offer. Don’t lose yourself in the science of things. It’s okay to chase feathers in the wind, son. But remember… It’s not enough to have the feathers. You must dare to fly.”

  Feathers… It was silly how he clung to such a simple notion. Robert slowed to a walk and wiped his brow with his shirt sleeve. Hope, self-preservation, and one of his father’s favorite quotes by Cass Van Krah were the reason he was here in Germany in the first place.

  A little over a month ago, he had met Autumn at their childhood home in Stillwater, Minnesota. It had taken him months to even agree to return. There was so much work ahead of them to finalize the estate. Except Robert never really understood why he needed to be present. His sister was an attorney and the executrix. It made sense to him that she’d just handle it all. She was efficient and fair. Besides, Robert didn’t care about the inheritance. Autumn could have it all. He was lost in this deep sense of betrayal and he carried so much guilt for going against Autumn at the end of their daddy’s life. He should have listened. Instead, he’d let his sick father dictate his own care, allowing him to stay in his home even when he was so clearly declining a little more every single day.

  Shit, he’d blown it when it mattered the most. He’d all but killed his father by not insisting on professional medical care sooner. He was a surgeon. Medicine was his life. How had he let this happen?

  Stop. Nothing good would come from rehashing all of this again. Believe in the possibility, it’s your only hope. Believe in destiny and fate and a connection so deep one couldn’t live without the other. Believe that the two people who showed you what extraordinary love truly meant were now together in the heavens.

  Believe your fathers were truly each one’s other halves and were only complete when together. Accept the end was predetermined.

  But he wasn’t certain he believed it—any of it. His innate logic wanted to ruin the only thing that offered him comfort and hope.

  “It could be true,” he whispered against the sadness building in his heart, assuring himself the blurry vision was more from perspiration and humidity than tears forming in his eyes. He used the bottom of his T-shirt to wipe away the sweat on his brow as he looked around to see how far he’d run. It was hard to tell from the layout of the building.

  Robert let out a deep sigh. Man, he missed his dad’s middle of the night conversations. He could use one right now. Just him and his dad and the quiet of the early morning hour. Avery had a way of explaining and engaging Robert, pulling him from his tunnel vision. Would his dad be proud of him for being in Germany? Avery always believed in humanity and giving back to the world that had given him so much.

  “God, this sucks so bad,” he hissed, staring up at the twinkling stars. A soft breeze blew across the open greenspace area, rustling the leaves on the trees and cooling his heated skin. He had to trust there was a reason for everything that happened. There was some sort of master plan in all of this.

  It just seemed like he was grasping for excuses to help justify his actions.

  Frustrated with himself, Robert looked around the building and headed for the closest unlocked set of doors to enter the hospital.

  Landon listened to the almost deafening silence surrounding him. The utter quiet seemed out of place especially since he was in a hospital. There was no staff talking, no sign of human existence beyond his own. He’d heard rumors that the hospital was going to be rebuilt—they were too busy and the facility too small—so where were all the hurt soldiers he’d been hearing about?

  Maybe the zombie apocalypse had happened. Kind of reminded him of the scene where Rick Grimes woke in the hospital and all hell began. Maybe he was the lone survivor of the massacre of Landstuhl Regional Medical Center.

  Nah, that didn’t make sense for many reasons, but the primary one was his door was wide open. He’d have been massacred too, no doubt about it. If he just had his cell phone, he could prank call the guys in his squadron and wake their asses up, make them keep him company.

  “You okay?”

  Landon jerked his head toward the doorway. The voice startled him from his thoughts. Holy hell. And now he knew what Dr. Adams looked like in a tight-fitting T-shirt and running shorts. Yeah, he understood why the nursing staff spent so much time watching this man run. The visual treat likely explained the floor going silent a few minutes ago. The noises of hustle and bustle were filling the halls again as he took in the other distraction that had commandeered his thoughts this evening. The man was absolutely and most certainly dreamy. Sweat ringed the thin light blue T-shirt and highlighted the lean, muscular body just beneath.

  The doctor lifted his arm, doing a small stretch as he stepped inside the room. The action caused the shirt to ride high across his waist and expose his firm abdominals. Landon lowered his eyes and swallowed hard when his gaze landed on the low-slung navy running shorts hugging Dr. Adams’s slim hips. The silky material clung to his body like a glove, and he could almost make out the lines of a really nice cock underneath the fabric. He shouldn’t gawk, but fuck, Dr. Adams was mouthwateringly hot.

  Shit, now he’d have to bribe Holly to help him get near the window on the other side of the room just to watch Dr. Adams run past in the middle of the night. All those firm muscles in full stride would be breathtaking.

  “Yeah, fine,” he croaked, finally getting his words out as he dropped his head back on the pillow. Landon slid his free hand under the thin blanket to cover his dick just in case it managed to plump even with all the medication they insisted he needed for pain. He stared at the ceiling and cleared his throat before trying again. “Never been much of a sleeper.”

  “Me either. Bored?” He heard more than saw Dr. Adams move farther inside the room.

  “Yeah.” What a serious understatement.

  “I know it’s torture to keep you guys confined like this.” The doctor stopped beside his bed. Landon gathered the courage to steal another glance. Dr. Adams’s casually muttered words didn’t fit the conflicted look on his face as he lifted an arm and used his sleeve to wipe at his forehead. “I’ve got some time. Want some company?”

  Oh hell, now Landon was as conflicted as Dr. Adams looked. Landon had to admit, he was intimidated as hell and that sure didn’t happen to him very often. “I don’t wanna keep you.”

  “You’re not. Want some coffee? I smell a fresh pot somewhere.”

  “Coffee’d be great.” Just the mention of a hot cup had him perking up. God, he hoped it was better than the lukewarm stuff that came on his breakfast tray.

  “Hang tight.”

  Landon had to halt the urge to check his breath. If it was bad, there was nothing he could do about it anyway. Instead, he ran a hand through his close cropped, dirty dark hair, feeling it standing every which way. Why did he have to look his worst?

  “I brought it black. You look like a no-frills coffee drinker.”

  “What’s that mean?” he asked and immediately started searching for the bed controls to lift his head. He couldn’t do anything about his appearance but he sure as hell didn’t have to look helpless in front of the doctor.

  Dr. Adams caught him off guard again when he smiled a small smile and placed both cups on the rolling tray positioned by his bed. “I didn’t mean anything. You look like a guy that drinks his coffee black. Do you?”

  “I do,” he admitted grudgingly as if that were a bad thing and he couldn’t quite figure out why.

  “Then I was right. And besides, not one person in this hospital seems to use creamer. I’m a creamer kind of guy. I like my soy lattes. I miss my lattes,” he explained, walking around the bed to Landon’s other side.

  Yep, that was exactly how Landon saw the man—a fancy latte coffee drinker. “It’s a ways for a Starbucks. I never thought anyone would be willing to pay five bucks for a cup of coffee.”

  “You sound like my dad, but I’m pretty sure Starbucks is the investment I’ll be most proud of in twenty years.” Dr. Adams found the control that had somehow slipped underneath the torture device keeping his arm locked in place. “Let me lift you.”