Chapter 1

A Friday in June - Ellie

"Oh, hell no!" The words flew out of my mouth before I had a chance to think about them. The best words always do. The truest ones at least.

"You're not going to hear me out?" my best friend, Meg, said from across the table.

We were having lunch at our favorite noodle shop near the campus of Everton College in Milwaukee. Meg was a history professor there.

"Nothing to hear out," I replied. "There's no way I'm working as a nurse for your ass of a brother."

Did Meg really think there was a chance I'd say yes? I mean, yes, he was injured, but she knew how I felt about Luke. The guy was a total playboy. The kind of guy with a string of broken hearts left behind and a huge ego. I hadn't even seen him in nearly a year, and his cockiness could only have worsened since then because he'd gone and landed a big recording contract in Nashville. His band was the hottest new act in country.

And guess who was the lead singer (and also happened to play the guitar)? Mr. Cocky. If that wasn't bad enough, he'd always done nothing but tease me and give me hell any time I was in the room with him.

Meg was asking because Luke had a badly broken arm and a major shoulder wound. His tour bus had wrecked. No one else had been seriously injured. Thank goddess. And he would live. I mean, I'd dedicated my life to helping people, and I loved my work. I didn't wish broken bones or open wounds on anyone, but being stuck in Luke Knightley's new mansion in Nashville taking care of the guy sounded like my idea of hell.

"But he needs you." Meg had a puppy-dog-eyes look on her face. The only time puppy-dog-eyes worked on me was when Mindy, the little girl in the Oncology Unit at the Milwaukee Children's Hospital, asked me for contraband candy…every time I visited her.

"I don't care if you puppy-eye me. Hell, I don't care if you cry. The answer is no."

"It's right up your alley," Meg added as if I hadn't spoken.

Up my alley? I assumed she meant that during the Covid pandemic, I'd left my permanent job at the hospital in Milwaukee and become a traveling nurse practitioner, filling in where I was needed. I liked going to different places and meeting new people. But that didn't extend to Nashville or Luke.

"No. Dealing with your jerk of a brother is not up my alley. That's not an alley I'm interested in. He can get another nurse. There are plenty of them who'd probably jump at the chance to help a music star."

Meg heaved a sigh. "Look. You know I wouldn't ask you if we weren't desperate. The truth is…" She leaned in and lowered her voice to a whisper. "Luke's last nurse sold pictures of him to celebrity websites."

I rolled my eyes. Hard. "Oh, and what sort of pictures were they? A line of groupies outside his bedroom door?"

Meg shook her head, and her long dark hair flew over one shoulder. "One of the pictures was of him sleeping. Seriously creepy."

"Ick. Okay, I'm sorry to hear that, really. And I hope that nurse was reported to the police, but what does he need a home-care nurse for anyway? He's got a broken arm and a shoulder wound, right?"

Meg twirled some noodles around her chopsticks and scooped them up. "Yeah, but it's a whole thing. The insurance company for the group in charge of his tour insists on him having a full-time home health care worker while his arm heals because as lead guitar, his hands are his moneymaker."

I twirled my noodles too. "Okay, that makes sense. But there are literally thousands of nurses out there."

"Of course there are, Ellie, but…" Meg's voice faded off and she bit her lip and looked away.

"But what?" I prodded, hating myself for caring, even a little bit.

"The truth is Luke wants someone he knows. He's having a really hard time trusting anyone right now. And if you tell him I said that, I'll kill you."

"No worries there because I'm not going to do it. Which means I won't be talking to him." Though I did feel a tug of guilt. For a second, I put myself in Luke's shoes. Or boots as the case may be these days. His fame had obviously put him in the crosshairs of crazy people. Like nurses who took pictures of him sleeping. Creepy!

"Just say you'll think about it, pleeeeease." Meg grabbed the check our waitress set on the edge of the table.

"Look, I hope Luke's okay. I really do. But I still don't want to spend that much time with him."

"What is your biggest objection to helping him?" Meg asked as she slapped her credit card on the little plastic tray and pushed it back to the edge of the table.

I rolled my eyes yet again. "For one thing, he's the biggest player ever. Like bigger than Vance." Vance was my ex-fiancé and a lying cheater who had completely broken my heart and made me distrust all men back in college. No big deal.

"And?" Meg drew out the word.

"And for another, you know Luke gives me constant shit." And there had been that one time years ago. An incident I never spoke of. One I hadn't even told Meg about.

Meg folded her arms together along the tabletop and stared at me. "He teases everyone he likes."

"Yeah, well, we're not in the second grade." There. That was an indisputable fact.

Meg slurped down the last of her noodles. "What if I get him to promise to lay off you?"

I raised my brow. "That'll be a cold day in hell."

"I'm serious. What if he promised to be nothing but respectful and sweet to you?"

Sweet Luke Knightley?Oxymoron. "He doesn't have it in him." I left my chopsticks in my noodle bowl. For some reason, I'd lost my appetite.

The waitress came back to leave the final copy of the check and departed just as Meg said, "He's changed in the last year. I swear."

I stood and grabbed my tote bag. I held onto the faux-leather straps while I watched Meg signing the check. "Thanks for lunch, but the answer is still no. Besides, I'm a nurse practitioner. I'm very expensive, Meg."

"Yeah, and Luke is very rich now. What if he agrees to pay double your rate?"

I narrowed my eyes. "Double?" The only reason that gave me even a moment's pause was that my student loans were killing me. But even the promise of money wouldn't make spending weeks with Luke Knightley sound like a good idea.

"You'll think about it, won't you?" Meg gave me a bright smile.

"I'll think about it," I said, more to get out of there than any true desire to contemplate the ridiculous matter any further. Double my rate was slightly tempting, and for anyone else I'd consider it, but even if Rockabilly (my snide little nickname for Luke) was in trouble and promised to be nice to me, there was absolutely no way in hell I was going to work for him.

Never. Ever. Ever.