And I couldn’t wait to get out of there the first chance I got.
Chapter 12
West
The next day at work seemed to last ten days. All I could think about between patients was the feeling of having Nico Salerno in my arms. Holding him had made everything in my life fall into place—as if my body had been waiting for his before it could finally relax. It was a shock to me. After all, people weren’t supposed to have those feelings for someone like Nico.
Wanting to sleep with him? Yes.
Wanting to hold him and care about him? No thanks.
Nico was a proven flight risk. An angry, surly man who had a history of choosing himself over others. The kind of person who could pawn off his own niece onto a pair of strangers so he could go back to his own self-centered life. He wasn’t a kind, sweet man but an instigator with a chip on his shoulder against all things Hobie. And Hobie was my life, my home. I was born and raised in Hobie, Texas, and my entire family went back years in that small town. How could I want to be with someone who hated something so integral to who I was?
I couldn’t want him.
Which was all well and good except for one fact.
I wanted him.
When work was finally done for the day, I made my way upstairs to my kitchen and saw my brother Hudson sitting at the table working on his laptop.
“Hey, I didn’t know you were here. Why didn’t you come find me downstairs?” I asked.
He looked up and smiled. “Didn’t want to bother you and I had some work I needed to finish before the weekend.” Hudson’s eyes narrowed at me briefly. “West, is something wrong? You look tired or something.”
“I’m fine. You still up for going to the bonfire tonight?” I asked, pulling down a bottle of whiskey and opening the fridge in hopes I had a can of Sprite in there.
Hudson nodded and then gestured to the whiskey. “Make me one too?”
“Yeah. Who else is coming? Any of the cousins?”
“Not sure about the cousins. Sassy and Hallie for sure. Cal wants to come, but he knows I won’t let him drink around me until he’s twenty-one.”
I finished mixing the drinks and handed one to Hudson before taking the seat across from him at the table.
“What about King?” I asked, referring to our younger brother who usually kept to himself. The rest of us had spent several years trying to lure him out of his self-imposed solitude, but nothing seemed to work.
Hudson just shot me a look.
I blew out a breath, trying not to think about my other siblings who were currently scattered around in different cities. “Okay, so, the usual suspects then. You, me, Hallie, Sassy and Cal if he doesn’t drink.”
“We both know he’ll drink. He’d better just make sure I don’t see it.”
“You’re worse than Mom and Dad,” I said with a laugh. “They never gave a shit if we drank at aged twenty. Jesus.”
“Yeah, well, as long as they’re overseas, I’m in charge,” Hudson said with a wink. He took evil pleasure in bossing our siblings around now that Dad was working in Singapore.
“That nurse who has a crush on you is going to be there,” I told him, deliberately not mentioning her name to see if I could trap him. “Can’t remember her name though.”
“Darci?” he said.
Gotcha.
“Yeah, sounds right,” I teased.
He rolled his eyes and blew out a breath. “Good. It’s been fucking ages since I’ve been out on a date.”
“Bullshit.”
“Well, it’s been ages since I’ve been out on one that I was remotely interested in possibly having a second with,” he corrected with a chuckle.
“Better. So you’re going to ask her out?” I took a sip of my drink and set it down on the table long enough to grab a bag of chips out of a cabinet for us to share. Happy hour, bachelor style.
Hudson shrugged and furrowed his brows. “Guess so.”
“What’s your hesitation? It’s not Charlotte is it?” He’d dated the woman for several years and gone through a nasty breakup the year before. I’d wondered if his inability to find someone he liked more than one date’s worth was because he was having a hard time getting over her.
“What? No. God no. That’s not it. We’ll see. Darci seems nice enough, yeah?”
“I think so. Super sweet to the patients and great with kids. She’d make a good mother to your children, Hud,” I teased. The guy had always wanted a family. It was just a matter of finding the right woman.
He swatted me on the shoulder and told me to fuck off. We gave each other hell for a little while longer until it was time to get going.
“Come on, let’s go pick everyone up and see if Doc and Grandpa want to come with us,” I said, standing up and grabbing my coat and scarf in case it got colder later.