“I slept on the couch in your mom’s room.”
“They actually let you do that?”
She smiled and I knew she wouldn’t say anything else. Who knows how she found a way to con the nurses into letting her stay with Mom. I was just thankful that she did.
“She had another ECG this morning. They should be bringing her back soon. The doctor said that things look better, but they are still worried about another episode like yesterday. If she can make it through the next twenty-four hours without another attack the odds will be a lot better.”
I dug my face into her neck and took a deep breath. She smelled like vanilla even after all the time she had been at the hospital. It didn’t seem real that she was here with me. Her hands gripped my arms and I felt the tension I had been carrying start to leave me.
“I’m here for you, Nate. I’m not going anywhere.”
I groggily reached for my phone. In my rush to grab it I knocked it to the floor. Reaching as far as I could, my fingertips just brushed the edge of my phone. The ringing stopped and started up again almost immediately.
Gotcha.
“Hello?” I answered, breathlessly.
“Olivia? She’s awake!”
“Oh thank goodness.”
“Why are you breathing so hard?”
“I’m an idiot and nearly fell off the bed trying to reach my phone after I knocked it off the nightstand.”
He chuckled and I was relieved to finally hear the wonderful sound coming from him.
“I love you, cupcake. Go wake up Jon and get your asses up here. She wants to see both of you.”
“I love you too, babe. We’ll be there soon.”
I climbed out of Nate’s bed and threw on one of his sweatshirts before going to wake Jon. He wasn’t a bad kid, but he was a little obvious when he was staring at my boobs. It was going to be fun teasing the hell out of him for it when things got a little better around here.
He opened the bedroom door in boxers, his hair sticking up in all directions, and a wide yawn.
“What time is it?”
“Seven thirty, but your Mom is awake.”
He stared at me for a second. “Are you kidding me?” I shook my head and he grabbed me around the waist, swinging me around. He laughed and hugged me tight when he put me down. “Let’s go soon to be sister-in-law.”
I blushed furiously, but didn’t say anything. Pushing him towards his door, I told him he had ten minutes to get showered and dressed.
We rushed to the hospital and ran all the way up to Diana’s room. Nate wrapped me in a huge hug as soon as we walked in the door. Diana looked weak, but she was smiling at us as she watched from her bed. I walked to her side and rubbed her hand softly.
“I’m glad you’re awake. We were so worried about you.”
“I heard you talking to me,” she whispered. I blushed as I remembered all the things I told her that I wanted for her family. What I hoped to be for our family. “I want all those things too.”
I smiled down at her and tears filled my eyes. Nate walked up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist. I leaned back into him and tried to keep the tears from falling. Diana smiled up at us and I felt myself wishing that Nate and I were already engaged. If I hadn’t been so fucking stupid we probably would have been.
The boys lined up on the couch and I swear I could picture them all as little boys running rampant over their old plantation home. From the look in Diana’s eyes, she was thinking the same thing. We all talked for a while, but Diana was exhausted.
“Let’s go and let Mom get some sleep. Did you drive?”
“No, I rode with Jon so I could ride back with you.”
“Plus you didn’t want to get lost,” he said, smirking.
“No, I just…who am I kidding?” I said laughing. “I didn’t want to get lost.”
Riley and Jon chuckled from behind us.
“Come on, cupcake. I want to go sleep in my bed curled up with you.”
“Are you going to actually be sleeping?” Riley said from behind us.
“Shut up, kid. You’re not too big for me to kick your ass,” he said without taking his eyes from mine.
“Go. I’ll be here later,” Diana said. “I’m not going anywhere. Not yet.”
____
Nate’s lips were on mine before the door was even shut behind us. My fingers tangled into his hair and tugged him closer to me. I wrapped my legs around his waist and he backed us up to the bed. He tugged my shirt over my head before throwing me down on the bed. His mouth sucked down hard on my nipple and I moaned against his shoulder.
“I need you,” I gasped.
“I’m way ahead of you,” he said tugging his pants down his muscled legs. I pulled his shirt over his head. Within seconds he had my yoga pants and thong down on the floor. He looked at my body like he wanted to devour me.
I grinned up at him and his eyes blazed. My ankles wrapped around his hips and pulled him down on top of me. He braced himself on his elbows and nipped at my collar bone. As I arched into him, his cock rubbed against my sensitive clit. We both moaned and my fingers dug into his back. I pushed at his chest and he moved away far enough for me to flip him onto his back.
“I love that you didn’t have on a bra. It made everything so much easier,” he said, cupping my breasts with his hands. He rolled my nipples in between his fingers and I leaned back to brace myself on his calves.
He leaned forward, capturing my mouth with his. We were frenzied, need surrounded us almost tangible in the air. Our tongues tangled together and I gripped his shoulders as one of his hands pushed on my back, bracing me tight against his chest.
“Oh fuck,” I cursed against his lips. He rocked his hips and I nipped his neck. His fingers tangled in my hair and pulled my head back so he could kiss down the column of my neck.
“Are you ready?” he asked grinning.
“Please,” I begged. He positioned himself at my entrance and I slowly slid down his length. We both groaned as he rocked into me. My hands gripped the headboard behind me as I started to move. Nate’s fingers dug into my hips, urging me to move faster. I squealed as he turned us over so he was on top of me. A sexy grin crossed his face and I started to laugh. It cut off as he thrust back inside. Nate moved the pillows behind my head to prop me up so I could see.
“My baby likes to watch,” he growled.
I nodded and bit down on my bottom lip.
He started thrusting faster and my loud moans filled the room. His name fell from my lips over and over. One of my hands threaded through his hair, the other braced against the headboard as he pounded into me. As I was on the precipice of my orgasm, I bit down on his peck, causing him to groan in my ear. That was the best fucking sound in the world.
His hand grabbed my breast and squeezed. I screamed as my orgasm ripped through my body. Nate continued thrusting as I trembled around him. His cock swelled inside me and he roared my name with his release. The sound of our heavy breathing filled the room.
I moaned as he rolled off of me. His hand rubbed his chest where I bit him and I tried to stifle my laugh.
“I’m sorry,” I said giggling.
“Don’t ever apologize for that, cupcake. Holy fuck. Can we do that again soon?”
“Food first. I want a real meal. Peanut butter crackers from the hospital vending machine doesn’t really qualify.”
He threaded our fingers together. I smiled as he kissed my wrist on my tattoo. We laid in the quiet and let our breathing return to normal.
“We still need to talk, Nathaniel,” I said, turning on my side to face him and tucking the sheet around me.
He sighed. “I know.”
I took a deep breath before starting. “When I walked in on you and Lila, it was a flashback to catching Christian cheating on me. You guys weren’t having sex, but to me it was the same fucking thing. It was like I went into a rage blackout because I couldn’t distinguish between the past and the present. I did the only thi
ng that I could, I shut down. Cora thought I went to California to see some old friends because that’s what I told her, but I actually went to see Ellie.” His fingers brushed the tears from eyes and I smiled at him gratefully. “She was the only thing that could calm me. It hurt so bad to lose you. Realistically, I knew you wouldn’t hurt me like Christian did, but I couldn’t get over the idea of you and Lila together out of my head. Everything got all mixed up in my head. Cheating is my trigger.”
“I knew it was, cupcake. What hurt the most was that you wouldn’t listen to me. Finn and I talked about it a lot. My pride kept me from going after you, even after you got back to campus after spring break; I thought you should come back to me. I hadn’t done anything wrong, so I didn’t want to be the one to go begging to get you back. It hurt, but I was so angry all the time too. After I took you home from Ember I thought that might be an opening for us, but it just seemed to make things worse. I hated every second we weren’t together.”
“I wanted to tell you everything at the beach, but I wasn’t ready. I was just starting to work through things myself. Being with you was how I started healing after giving Ellie up, but losing you just showed me how broken I actually was. Christian said horrible, awful things that buried themselves into my head so deep that I actually started to believe them.”
“You aren’t broken,” Nate said firmly. “That man is dirt and I hate the fact that he made you doubt how great of a person you are. How many people do you know would give up their daughter just so they could have a better life?”
We were quiet for a long time. Each of us lost in our thoughts.
“I’m so sorry, Nate. I don’t know how you can just be okay with everything I put you through.” I laid my head on his shoulder and sniffed once. “I want to be with you more than anything, but how can you forgive me?”
Nate pulled me into his arms and I sobbed into his chest. He ran his fingers through my hair. His touch always comforted me and I craved it since I had been without it for so long.
“Liv, you aren’t broken. Before you, I was completely lost. I was ready to quit school and go work for my grandparents even though I’d worked my ass off to get where I was. Everything seemed unimportant; school, my friends, my family. You are the reason I was able to focus and fix what I needed to fix to get back on track. I needed to be someone’s rock without being everything to them.
“Olivia, I love you. That is how I can forgive you. I’m not Christian and I will never do the things that he did to you. I’m sorry I didn’t come after you. I shouldn’t have let you run from me. I told you I wanted to be the one to help put you back together when you fell apart. Please let me do that.” I saw tears gathering in his eyes and I brushed them away. “I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
His fingers brushed at the little ‘v’ that formed between my brows at his words. Nate turned and reached into the nightstand behind him. I gasped as he pulled a little black velvet box out of the drawer.
“What are you doing?” I asked quickly.
“Olivia Crawford, I love you more than anything in this world. You constantly surprise me. You are one of the bravest, most caring, selfless people I know. Will you please marry me? Make me the luckiest bastard in the world and marry me.”
“Oh my—yes, Nathaniel. Yes, I will marry you.”
He wrapped his arms around me and I kissed him hard. Tears fell from my eyes as he slipped the ring on my finger.
“This was my grandmother’s ring. My mom gave it to me at Christmas. She had some kind of intuition about us.”
I laughed through my tears. “Are you kidding me? We haven’t even been together a year. At that time we had only been together for a few months.”
“She said sometimes you just know. My parents only knew each other six months before they got married. They had been together for nineteen years when he died.”
I settled back into his arms and stared at the ring on my finger. The huge smile on my face was starting to hurt, but it wasn’t going anywhere. I sat up suddenly.
“Wait, you were going to ask me in Niagara Falls.” I put my hand to my mouth. “Holy shit, Nate, you bought a house.”
“I did. You like colonial style right?” He pulled me back to the bed and wrapped his arms around me.
“You know I do, but you always said you wanted to move here eventually.”
“It can happen later. I’m not in any hurry. Plus I still have medical school to figure out, but I want to do it together.” He kissed my forehead. “What did you think of the house?”
“I love the wraparound porch and all of the gorgeous woodwork. It’s amazing.”
“Wait? I’m a little slow right now because you fucked my brains out and just said that you would marry me.” I smacked his shoulder. “How do you even know about the house? And how did you know that I was going to propose?”
“Finn.”
“Fucking Finn. I can’t tell him anything.”
“You can, but you know he’s going to tell me.” I grinned. “We don’t keep secrets from each other. I’m his twin, he tells me everything.”
“I’ll have to keep that in mind.”
I laughed and he pulled me in tighter. A happy sigh slipped out. For the first time in over two months I felt safe and happy. We drifted off to sleep wrapped up in each other’s arms.
I walked into my mom’s hospital room and kissed her on the forehead. She had improved dramatically in a short amount of time, but she still had a long way to go. She pulled me into a big hug and I smiled down at her.
“You and Olivia need to get back to school.”
“Olivia is going back tonight. I’m going to wait a few more days, just to make sure everything is okay.”
“Nathaniel. I’m healing. You can’t stay here forever and you have finals starting Monday. Get your ass back to school. You can’t afford to miss anymore class. I know your professors have been very understanding of our circumstances, but you can’t take advantage of that anymore. It’s time for you to go back, son.”
“Mom—“
“Nathaniel Sterling Ford, quit arguing with me.”
“Sterling?” Olivia asked from the door. “How did I not ever know your middle name?”
“I don’t know, but you should use it all the time now,” my Mom said, smirking. “He hates it.”
“Enough from you invalid,” I said laughing.
“Olivia, talk some sense into your fiancé, make him follow you back to campus tonight.”
“I tried,” she said, shrugging. “He won’t listen to me, apparently my opinion doesn’t matter.”
“You two planned this.” I pointed at both of them.
“You’re going back to school, Nathaniel.” Uh oh. Mom meant business when I got called by my full name. “Riley will call you to give you updates every hour if he needs to, but you have to go. I will not be the reason you don’t get into medical school.”
“Fine,” I said, relenting. “I’ll go back, but only because I’m afraid that Olivia will get lost trying to find her way back.”
“You’re a dick,” Olivia said, pointing at me with her cell phone. “For your information I didn’t get lost coming down here.”
“I’m so proud, cupcake.”
“You need to text Finn. He keeps bugging me to get me to have you text or call, but he won’t tell me what it’s about.”
“I will.”
I pulled out my phone and pulled up my text messages. Once we found out my mom was okay, I hadn’t said much to any of my friends. It was an asshole move, but I had a lot going on.
Finn: Did she say yes?
Me: Of course she did, asshole. Don’t you think she would be back home already if she hadn’t?
Finn: True story. I need to talk to you about something without you freaking out.
Me: Okay…
Finn: Christian got kicked out of the house, but he told Erick that you and I beat the shit out of him. We might be out too.
Me: What
ever. Olivia said yes to me, I don’t give a fuck about those bastards.
Finn: Offer still open for me to move in with you?
Me: As long as you don’t freak out that I’m fucking your sister blind.
Finn: You really are a dick.
Me: Be home tonight. We can celebrate then.
“Mom, you’re getting your way. I’m going home tonight with Olivia.”
She smiled and I knew I had been outsmarted. My mother and my fiancé had already made the decision for me. Mom winked at Olivia and I pretended to glare at both of them. They shared a look and started laughing. I didn’t know rather to be happy or scared that they got along so well.
____
Olivia and I walked up the front steps to my new house hand in hand. She looked around in awe and I smiled widely. Even if I hadn’t realized it at the time, I chose this house for her. I wanted Olivia’s approval and just the look on her face told me all I needed to know. She loved the house as much as I did.
We walked inside and Finn and Cora were standing there with champagne. Olivia went running over and hugged her brother first, then her best friend. Cora grabbed her hand and oohhed and aahhhed over the ring. If my mom hadn’t given me my grandmother’s ring, I would have been enlisting Cora’s help to pick one out, so I was happy she approved.
Finn clapped a hand down on my shoulder and grinned.
“You’re family now fucker.”
“Finn, you’re just so damn sentimental,” I said laughing.
“Don’t you know it, brother.”
His emphasis on that particular word made me choke on my drink. It was true; we would be brothers once I rushed Olivia down the aisle. If I got my way, we would be married as soon as freaking possible. I had lost her once and I never wanted that to happen again.
Cora wanted to know how I had popped the question. Liv and I decided to tell everyone that I asked her at the beach, but we both knew the truth. No one really needed to know that I asked her seconds after fucking her brains out. What Olivia didn’t know is that I was going to ask her again at the beach so she wouldn’t have to lie about our story.
Waiting to Breathe: Book One of the Waiting Duet Page 19