Midnight Special Coming on Strong - By Tawny Weber Page 0,2
who’d been admitted to Emergency after a building exploded.
Or she could just throw herself out now, muttering a lecture on the sanctity of patient privacy and abuse of family ties.
“Wait...” Sammi gleefully drew the word out like she’d just discovered where Marni kept her secret stash of girly toys. “I know why you’re here.”
“Do you?” Marni wasn’t sure if she should pull on an abashed look or go for guilty. It was hard to tell what Sammi suspected.
“You’re hoping to meet someone.” Sammi’s grin was pure triumph. And now that she’d divined her cousin’s nefarious scheme, she pulled the basket of cupcakes across the counter.
“Seriously? You think I’m trolling the emergency room for a date?” What was wrong with her family? Did they not know her, not at all?
“Why else would you be here at nine o’clock on a Friday night?”
Marni pushed her hand through her hair. Oh, now that was just pathetic. Just because she was the only one of her thirteen cousins still uncommitted didn’t mean she was looking to change that status. Especially not like this. She didn’t figure it conceited to acknowledge that she was a good-looking, intelligent, fun woman. If she wanted a guy, there were plenty of better places than this to find one. But she didn’t want a guy. She wanted a career. A fabulous, famous, reporting-on-big stories career.
Which she’d told her family over and over and over.
“You think I’m here looking for, what?” She gestured to encompass the sterile, run-down room. “An old man with pneumonia and a fat inheritance he’s looking to bequeath? Or a single, male accident victim with a good-paying job that doesn’t live with his mother?”
Sammi peered around the glass partition toward the waiting room, as if checking to see if either of those potential dates had come in. Then she squinted at Marni.
“You make it sound like the only guys we get in here are all messed up.”
“That’s because other than the doctors, whom you’ve already deemed not worth setting me up with—” thank God “—the only guys you get in here are all messed up.”
Choosing the cupcake with the most frosting, Sammi peeled back the paper liner and took a big bite.
“Then why are you here looking for a date?” she asked around her mouthful of chocolate.
Marni buried her face in her hands and groaned.
“Hey, some of those messed-up guys are pretty good-looking. There’s a car accident victim in room five right now even you would drool over. He has that smoldering, sexy thing going on. And muscles. Talk about hot. His shoulders are to die for.”
Sammi sighed so deep, she sent the papers on her nursing station fluttering. Marni wasn’t sure any man was worth that much oxygen. Not even the one she was after.
Then again, what she wanted from him had nothing to do with the size of his...shoulders. And everything to do with the Charles Burns case. Indicted on SEC fraud and money laundering, the wealthy CEO was on his way to trial. After his dockside warehouse had exploded last week, rumors had started flying that the feds were going to bring new charges.
If she could get a handle on what they were, even an inkling about what had gone down with that explosion, she could write the article of her life. The one that would launch her out of the questionable fluff as the senior editor of Style and Entertainment and into the nitty-gritty of real reporting. Investigative reporting.
Marni gave a mental shiver of delight.
All she needed was a break. And that break was standing in front of her, licking frosting off her knuckles.
“You’ve had one sexy guy in here in the entire month, yet you think this is the place I should look for eligible bachelors?”
“You’re the one who came in here looking for a guy.”
Touché.
“If I wanted a guy—” which she wasn’t saying she did “—I wouldn’t want one who was sick. I want a guy who’s healthy. One who’s strong, with a brilliant mind and an intense personality. Sexy and fit, with a body that you can tell he takes care of. Running, swimming, I’m not picky. As long as he’s got a sweet ass and some solid biceps. Oh, and washboard abs. There’s nothing sexier than a guy with a flat stomach in tight jeans and a T-shirt.”
Whew. Marni almost had to fan herself over that image. Not that she wanted a guy. She really didn’t. But the fantasy was pretty sweet to entertain, all the same.