Sierra was too incensed to finish her workout so she headed back to her apartment in annoyance. She shared it with her younger sister Scarlett, who was still in college studying to be a nurse. Though it seemed like these days her boyfriend Ryan practically lived there too.
She was happy for her sister and all but it was hard seeing her be in a happy relationship when she couldn't even get a guy to text her back. Even if it seemed like the two of them really hit it off and exchanged numbers, she would never hear from him again. She was as forgettable as always so getting a boyfriend was impossible.
Their older brother Sam was married with a two-year-old son so she was the only singleton in the family. That made family gatherings extra fun. Not.
Scarlett, who was relaxing on the couch with a book, raised an eyebrow when she saw Sierra come in. "What's with you?"
"Remember that guy I told you about who keeps helping me out?"
"The one who randomly happened to have cords on him to tie up the guy that stole your purse? Because that's totally weird."
"That's the one. Apparently, he lives here because I ran into him at the gym. He stopped a broken rack of weights from falling on me and called me Danger Magnet," Sierra replied in a disgruntled tone.
Scarlett laughed. "Is he wrong though?"
"…no. But you're supposed to be on my side here!"
"Come on, sis, he probably didn't mean to be rude. He has helped you like six times now."
How on earth did she keep track of that? Had Sierra mentioned him that often? "Still! I don't even know the guy's name. He doesn't have the right to tease me like that. You have to admit that's a little weird."
"Yeah but at least if he lives here, he probably isn't stalking you. Running into him so many times is a coincidence," Scarlett pointed out.
She had thought the same thing earlier. The two of them had always been on the same wavelength. She supposed that came from living together their entire lives. They shared a room when they were kids until their dad won his first big lottery and was able to afford a bigger house too.
Daniel Nolan was a statistical anomaly. He won something in the lottery every time he played but they were always small payouts until he randomly happened to win a jackpot of $60,000,000 when his kids were young.
That allowed them to move to a mansion in Malibu, paid for all of his children's educations, and helped his wife fund her dream of becoming a professional cake artist. He was happily retired and spent most of his free time tinkering on vintage cars since he used to be a mechanic.
He wanted his children to stay humble though so he didn't let them live off his money once they were done with college. After Sierra's ongoing lack of luck jobhunting, he offered to bend his own rule because he felt sorry for her but she shot him down.
It would set a bad precedent for her siblings and she wanted to prove she could handle things on her own. That was how she ended up living with Scarlett. Since she was too busy with school to work her dad was currently paying for her apartment and there was an extra bedroom.
It seemed that Daniel used up all the luck in the family because his daughter had practically been cursed between her invisibility and penchant for injury. Sam and Scarlett didn't have particularly bad luck though.
Sierra sighed. "I thought the same thing earlier. Really though, who carries around so many emergency supplies? It's like he's always expecting something bad to happen. Maybe that's why he keeps helping me out."
Scarlett wagged her eyebrows at her sister. "I think you've found your perfect man. Someone capable of combatting your ability to hurt yourself is definitely useful to have around. Is he hot?"
"I guess so but I'm not interested in someone so self-righteous. Or paranoid. Besides, you know my track record with men. None of them ever call me back. I've been ghosted so many times I've probably set some sort of record."
"That's true…you know who your perfect man would be for real? The one that remembers you exist."
Sierra threw her sweaty towel at her sister, who immediately tossed it off of her and recoiled. "Gross! Sierra, that's just mean!"
"That's what you get for teasing me when I'm already in a bad mood."
"Yeah, yeah," Scarlett grumbled as she returned to her book.
That was when Sierra noticed the picture of the author and blurb about him on the back cover. Her eyes widened and she clapped and pointed at it. "That's him! That's the guy that called me Danger Magnet!"
"No way; are you serious?! He's my favorite author! I've read every book he's ever written more than once."
"What's his name?"
"Nathan Grant. You would not believe how masterfully interwoven his plot lines are. I love mysteries but most of the time it's totally obvious who did it by the end because I've read so many. With him, you never see it coming until you reread it and catch sooo many things in hindsight. I can't believe you've met him so many times!" Scarlett swooned.
Sierra couldn't deny she was surprised. She didn't know anything about that guy but it was strange hearing someone gush about him like this.
"You do realize your favorite author is an overly paranoid, self-righteous jerk, right? Although he is undeniably a good brother. That's one thing he has going for him…his sister is seriously adorable too."
Scarlett shrugged. "So what? If he writes this well, I can forgive anything. I want to meet him!"
"Hang out with me long enough and I'm sure you will since I can't seem to stop running into him," Sierra said dryly. "I've never bumped into anyone this often before. It's kind of freaky."
"It's fate!"
She rolled her eyes at her sister's dramatics. Please. She didn't believe in things like fate. Especially when it came to romance because she had literally zero luck with men. Her own prom date had forgotten about her and they both ended up going alone until they ran into each other there. He had been incredibly apologetic but her mood was already ruined.