Page 1 of Good Girl’s Guide to Love (Guide to Love #4)

ainsley

“I have nothing appropriate to say…”

I fling myself back into my chair at the nurse’s station as Mia, my best friend and the only reason I’m working today, stares ahead as she bites on the tip of a pen cap.

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but do you ever have anything appropriate to say?”

The answer is no, but she doesn’t respond, which is strange. Mia’s always one for a witty comeback or some sort of playful dig. She’s a lot like my sister Quinn in that regard.

Instead she’s just staring ahead, pen dangling from her lips as a touch of drool escapes her mouth.

“Earth to Mia!” I say as I snap my fingers in front of her face. “What is with you?”

She nods toward the doors at the end of the hallway of our unit and then tells me everything I need to know. “It’s Fury day.”

I look toward the direction, and frankly, I’m disappointed in myself for not realizing that it’s a group of huge, attractive men who are making my best friend catatonic.

This is what happens to Mia every time the Nashville Fury comes for a visit to Nashville Children’s Hospital.

The pro football team comes in fairly regularly to spread good will and to brighten the spirits of our patients.

You’d think Mia would be used to it by now.

But my football obsessed best friend always ends up with a dry mouth and bulging eyes.

As for me, sure, I can appreciate a good-looking man. I’m a red-blooded female in my late twenties. But the muscular, athletic guys aren’t my type. No, give me a straight-laced, trim build any day of the week.

“They’re just men,” I say as I sit back down, knowing I have a ton of charting to do before shift change in twenty minutes.

“If they’re just men, then the Mona Lisa is just a painting.

” Mia pulls me up from the back of my scrubs, making sure that every inch of my five-foot-four self can see over the nurses’ station.

“Look at them. Tall. Handsome. Strong. Like, you just know they can hold you against a wall like it’s nothing while murmuring you’re a good girl and you can take it. ”

I look back to her because, frankly, that sounds dangerous. And a little threatening. “You want a man to pin and hold you against a wall?”

She slowly nods, and I’m pretty sure she licks her lips. “Like I need air to breathe.”

I shake my head, but not before really trying to see what she’s literally drooling over. Maybe I’m missing something.

Walking down the hall is a group of about eight football players, all carrying stuffed animals, balloons, and signed paraphernalia as they start popping into different patient’s rooms. Yes, it’s sweet and all, and while they are very attractive, I’ve seen this dozens of times.

And heck, I don’t even normally work on this floor anymore.

I’m now in labor and delivery, but since I used to work here, I’m used to this kind of circus.

And while it’s amazing for the morale of the patients and families, and I’m sure great PR for the players, it’s just another day.

And despite what my best friend says, they’re just men.

“I’m loving this for you, but I need to finish up,” I say as I sit back down. “If you recall, per our agreement of me picking up this shift, I have to leave by five. Not a minute later.”

Mia waves me off as she angles her neck to better see the players making their rounds. “Yeah, yeah. Gotta leave. Family stuff, blah blah. You go finish those charts; I’m going to watch a linebacker read to a seven-year-old.”

All I can do is shake my head and laugh as Mia walks away.

Now, most days I would watch with her. But not because I want to drool over one of her many football player crushes.

No, it’s because days like today are the reason I originally wanted to become a pediatric nurse.

Because days like today give hope and joy.

I’m settled back into my patient charts when a bump at the back of my chair nearly sends me into the floor, scaring the bejesus out of me. “Ainsley, you need to come with me. Now.”

I scowl at her and rub my chest, where my heart is pounding. “Were you running? Wait, where did you come from? Is it a kid?” I’m already halfway out of the chair, thinking the worst.

Mia grabs my shoulders and turns me to face the hallway where the football players disappeared. “No, no. Nothing like that. But really, you need to come with me for thirty seconds to see what I just saw.”

I quickly check the time on the computer. Fifteen minutes until I have to get on the road to my hometown of Rolling Hills. And I can’t be late. I have important papers I need to deliver to help take down my sister Quinn’s boyfriend’s mother, who’s trying to extort him.

How my family gets wrapped up in these things, I have no idea…

I tug out of her grasp and drop back into my chair. “I really can’t.”

“Ugh, you’re no fun,” Mia groans. “You really don’t want to see a six-foot-five, tattooed football player taking selfies with your favorite patient?”

Now that gets my attention. Not the tattoos—those have never really done it for me. But seeing Marcus, a sweet ten-year-old who’s been in and out of this unit for most of his life, smile? That I’ll stop my paperwork for.

“You play dirty,” I say with a sigh as I stand.

“One minute isn’t going to kill you,” Mia says as she grabs my arm, hustling me down the hall toward Marcus’s room. “And this view is worth being a few minutes late for.”

“I swear if I’m even one minute late, I’m going to?—”

I don’t know what the last part of my threat was going to be. It doesn’t matter, because at this moment, I know I’m going to be late. And the worst part? I don’t even care.

I stand in the hallway, peeking in the room to see Marcus’s megawatt smile. He’s talking and laughing and handing his phone to the man who currently has my jaw on the floor.

Because holy mother of molasses, this man is hotter than a sidewalk on a July Tennessee day.

“That’s what I thought,” Mia whispers, apparently reading my mind. “Now aren’t you glad you came over?”

I nod and force my jaw back into place. “Who is he?”

“That, my friend, is Linc Kincaid, the Fury’s newest tight end. And boy does he live up to his position. I mean, look at that ass…that’s Nashville’s ass.”

I rack my brain, going through the few Fury players I know.

Which is just a few, and one of them has been retired.

I’m not a football die hard by any means, but when you grow up in a house where football—specifically the Nashville Fury and the Tennessee Volunteers—rule, you learn a thing or two just for survival purposes.

I also learned over the years that big games come with parties and snacks. And I never turned down snacks.

“I’ve never heard of him,” I whisper as I watch him sign autographs for Marcus.

“He got signed midway through last season,” Mia says, who knows more football than my brother.

And that says a lot. “He wasn’t even on a team.

Had a ton of potential coming out of college, but got into it with some players at the draft combine.

It was a nasty fight that he started. Killed his draft stock.

He’s been on a few practice squads over the years, but has a bad reputation because he apparently has a hell of a temper. Always getting in fights and shit.”

“Really?” I ask, really only understanding a little bit of what she said. And what do combines have to do with football? “But look at him. He doesn’t seem like the type.”

“Oh sweet, sweet, Ainsley. Always wanting to see the good in people. What I’d give to have a day wearing your rose-colored glasses.”

I turn my head away from my gawking to glare at Mia. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means that I love you, and I love that your heart is so big it overflows from your soul. But with that comes you always wanting to see the good in people, even if it’s not really there.”

“I don’t always do that.” Keyword in that statement is always. “I knew my sister’s ex-fiancé was a pile of garbage long before she did.”

Mia gives me a slow clap. “Congrats! You’re now a proper cynic.”

“Listen, you can be your glass-half-empty self all you want. I’m going to continue believing that everyone is good until they prove me otherwise. And right now? I’m going to think that about Linc. Because all I see is a professional football player making a kid’s day.”

“And that’s where we differ.” Mia pulls me in closer, like somehow that’s going to give me a better view of the room. “What I see is the newest bad boy of the Fury, who needs a new start. So he goes with the team on a public relations visit to the children’s hospital. That smile? Fake and forced.”

I look a little closer at their interaction, and while what she’s saying makes sense as a possibility, I’m just not getting that vibe from him.

The smile he’s giving Marcus is big and bright.

I don’t know what they’re talking about, but whatever it is, both of their faces are animated.

I know I should be watching Marcus—he doesn’t have a lot of good days anymore—but I can’t.

Linc Kincaid is by far the most attractive man I’ve ever seen in real life.

His dark brown hair is perfectly styled, his locks just long enough to be swept back off his handsome face.

The corners of his eyes are crinkled from the smile and laugh he’s sharing with Marcus.

His jawline is defined, so sharp it could cut glass.

My eyes travel down, landing on biceps that are threatening to bust through the fabric of his T-shirt.

His skin is tanned, but you can still see every drop of ink on his left arm.

It looks like a full sleeve, and even though I’ve never understood the big deal about tattoos, I can’t help but want to get a closer look at the details.

“Oh my!” I don’t mean to audibly gasp, but I can’t help it when Linc stands from Marcus’s bedside. Holy smokes, he’s tall. At least six-foot-five. I didn’t know men could be that built and also be that tall.