She shrugged. “No biggie.” She started to say something else, but one of the racegoers came up to her needing help after they’d fallen. There was a golf ball sized gash on the woman’s knee.
I silently stood back and watched as she cleaned out the minor wound, assessing the person likely didn’t need stitches before bandaging it up to allow the woman to finish the race.
“Cut was pretty superficial.”
She lifted her eyebrow. “You’re familiar with wounds, considering your career choice, huh?”
“That and the ‘medic training,” I answered before thinking better of it.
“What training?”
“In high school and first few years of college. I began training as an EMT and became a ‘medic once I went away to school.”
“Wait. A paramedic and college?”
I sighed and again called myself a dumbass for revealing that little bit of information about myself. Very few people knew my history and I liked it that way. Before Syd could question me any further, another runner came up to the table in need of assistance. Moments later, two spectators that’d gotten into a fist fight with one another needed Syd’s help. One of the dumb fucks actually did need stitches, which Syd had to triage and pass the fucker onto an EMT on the scene to be taken to the hospital.
“How long were you a ‘medic?” I questioned when she had some downtime.
“All together? About ten years before starting my company.”
She spent the next twenty minutes, between helping runners and spectators alike, telling me about her business, ParaSquad. While my face remained neutral, I grew more and more impressed with the company she’d started with a friend of hers.
Before I knew it, I’d been there for about two hours, watching Syd help people, admiring her first aid expertise and being thrown back to the time in my life when I was certain I was on my way to medical school. My jaw began to ache from the pressure I’d put on it as I grounded my teeth together just thinking about that period in my life.
“Hey, Luke? You still with me?”
“What?” I questioned, shaking my head.
“I said, we’re about done here. I have to go drop off my equipment at the office.”
“Oh.” I glanced around, seeing that aside from a few stragglers, the race was nearly over. Where the time had gone, I didn’t know.
“Are you hungry?”
I frowned, giving Syd a confused expression.
“It’s almost five o’clock and I haven’t eaten any real food since this morning. I’m not about to eat runner’s Gu for dinner.”
“Yeah, I could eat. But it has to be plant-based. My pain in the ass trainer has me on a new meal plan.”
Syd laughed and my body tensed. Not in the way it does when I’m pissed off or annoyed. Something entirely different.
“There’s a place with pretty good vegan options not too far from my work.”
I nodded. “Give me the address and I’ll meet you there. My car’s parked about a mile from here and I’m betting it’ll take a while before either one of us are able to get out of here with all of these people around.”
Syd agreed, giving me the address of the restaurant. According to the GPS it would take me about thirty minutes to get there, given the extra traffic due to the race.
At least you’re not eating at your place again.
That thought alone had me pushing out a breath of relief. The night she’d brought dinner over to my place and we’d watched that documentary, it’d taken every ounce of my being to overcome the animalistic instinct I had to rip her clothes from her body. She had no idea of how dangerously close she’d come to being thoroughly fucked on my kitchen counter.
We wouldn’t be alone in a restaurant. All I needed to do was get through the next few months of training, beat Rodriguez’s ass and kick Syd the hell out of my life for good.
Chapter 11
Skullcrusher
