Looking past Eric he saw Lucie break a hug with a very pregnant girl and then walk toward her doctor who was talking with another gentleman at a table across the room. Dressed in an expensive suit and his dark hair gelled and combed to the side, he looked like the stereotypical trust-fund baby. Someone who’d always had money even before he became a doctor and was very comfortable with the finer things in life.
The doctor was in midsentence when he noticed Lucie. It was a true record-scratch moment. He did a small double take and his eyes damn near popped out of his head while his tongue rolled out of his mouth onto the floor like one of those old cartoons.
But Reid couldn’t blame the guy. Lucie was in rare form. She was crossing the room with obvious intent. A huntress approaching her trapped prey with a hint of a knowing smile at the corner of her mouth. He could almost hear her saying, Nowhere to run…I’ve got you now.
Mann excused himself from the table without even sparing the guy he’d been talking to a courtesy glance. In two steps he’d closed the distance between himself and Lucie. Though he wasn’t a lip reader, Reid could guess how the conversation was going.
Lucie, you look positively stunning!
Why, thank you, Stephen. You’re looking very handsome yourself.
Well, there’s certainly nothing different about that. But now that you’ve tapped into your natural beauty, you simply must accompany me to the hospital ball.
I thought you’d never ask. Of course I’ll go to the ball with you!
Then we can get married and you can tend to our children as I attempt to save the world one mended bone at a time.
Oh, Stephen, it sounds like a dream come true!
Lucie laughed at something Mann said and touched his arm lightly. Then as she spoke to him she tucked one side of her hair behind her ear and looked up at him from under her pixie lashes. Holy shit, she was a natural. He’d unleashed a monster.
Reid drained the last half of his beer and tried his damnedest not to march over and drag her home. She shouldn’t be flirting with Mann, much less wanting to have his children. On paper the guy was probably USDA Prime, but Reid couldn’t shake the sense that he had hidden flaws that made him no better than Standard Grade.
“I saw you come in with Lucie. You guys seeing each other?” Reid looked over at Eric just as a waiter set down a bucket full of ice and bottlenecks on the table next to them. He smiled and said, “Forethought.”
They grabbed their next round, used the bottle opener on the side of the bucket, and tossed their caps. Shaking the excess water off his hand Reid said, “Lucie and I are old friends. I’m staying with her for a bit while I’m in town.”
Eric tipped his bottle in Lucie’s direction. “Well, the friend thing explains why you’re not staking your claim as she flirts with the good doctor over there. But it doesn’t quite explain the look in your eye that says you’d like to kill him with your bare hands.”
“I fight for a living, so that look is kind of a habit,” he answered smoothly.
“Are you also a makeover artist or is our Lucie’s sudden transformation simply a coincidence with your appearance?”
Reid didn’t like where the conversation was heading. Eric was too damn observant for his own good. He seemed like a decent guy, though, and he spoke with affection for Lucie. “Have you known Lucie long?”
Eric peered over at where she was still talking with Mann. “I’ve known her since college.” He cut his gaze back to Reid. “She’s like a sister to me.”
Reid inclined his head in understanding. “Message received, man. I’m her brother’s best friend.”
A satisfied grin spread over the guy’s face and he held up his beer for Reid to tap with his. “Good to hear.”
Taking a few generous swallows of his beer, Reid wondered if he could gain any insight about the years he hadn’t been around. The ones that very clearly defined who she was as an adult. “Were you around when Lucie got married?”
“Yeah,” Eric ground out. “I was around.”
“Who was he? What happened?”
“She met him when they literally collided outside of the university one day. She was on her way out of class, and he was involved in some peace rally about whatever his group had their panties in a twist about that week.”
Reid knew the exact type Eric described. There were entire groups of them that were constantly speaking out against MMA. They called themselves human activists. He called them uneducated assholes. He tried picturing Lucie with a guy like that and failed. Then again, he couldn’t picture her with a guy like Mann either, but clearly she saw something he didn’t. “Okay, so the guy was an activist, she was a student, they met. Then what?”
“The relationship was a fricking whirlwind. One day they met for lunch and the next thing we know they’re announcing their engagement and eloping to Vegas. The whole thing happened so damn fast it made our heads spin.”
“Is that why you didn’t like him?”