Caution: Enzo & Paige (Oak Springs Book 3)

by Lucy Rinaldi

  Table of Contents

  Epilogue

  One 3

  Two 7

  Three 10

  Four 16

  Five 19

  Six 22

  Seven 24

  Eight 26

  Nine 29

  Ten 34

  Eleven 37

  Twelve 40

  Thirteen 42

  Fourteen 45

  Fifteen 46

  Sixteen 50

  Seventeen 52

  Eighteen 54

  Nineteen 55

  Twenty 58

  Twenty-One 60

  Twenty-Two 63

  Epilogue 67

  Sneak Peek 71

  Available and Coming Soon Books By Lucy Rinaldi. 74

  About The Author. 76

  Caution

  Oak Springs, 3

  Copyright © 2017 Lucy Rinaldi.

  The contents of this novel are pure fiction.

  All names, places and events are in no way associated with any persons dead or alive.

  Places and events are used for fictional purposes only.

  Any similarity's to real life events, places or persons are pure coincidence.

  All rights reserved.

  TOC

  One 3

  Two 7

  Three 10

  Four 16

  Five 19

  Six 22

  Seven 24

  Eight 26

  Nine 29

  Ten 34

  Eleven 37

  Twelve 40

  Thirteen 42

  Fourteen 45

  Fifteen 46

  Sixteen 50

  Seventeen 52

  Eighteen 54

  Nineteen 55

  Twenty 58

  Twenty-One 60

  Twenty-Two 63

  Epilogue 67

  Sneak Peek 71

  Available and Coming Soon Books By Lucy Rinaldi. 74

  About The Author. 76

  One

  Paige

  Breathe. Don't scream. Keep it in until you're alone. That's all you have to do, Paige. That's all you have to do.

  Easier said than done.

  Why is it I have to repeat myself over and over again? I'm not a bad person, I'm actually a really good person. Okay, I may be a little hot headed, and a little stubborn. But that's not a bad thing it just means I know my own mind. I have every right as a woman to stand my ground. But right now, I feel like I'm talking to myself. Nothing I say seems to be sinking into this man's head!

  “You're not leaving me, Paige.”

  “Yes, I am, Kyle. How many times do I have to say it?”

  “You can't just throw us aside!”

  Raising his voice won't change what's about to happen. I've had enough. I can't take anymore. Eighteen months we've been together. Eighteen months, and he really thinks I don't know about his extracurricular activities with half the town? It never used to bother me. Kyle isn't the love of my life. There isn't even any real chemistry between us. Hell, we haven't had sex in ten months. Ten months! And why? Because I can't bear to have him touch me in that way.

  You would think he'd at least try to sleep with me. Okay, he did for a while but he soon gave up. So, in all honesty, I don't have anyone to blame for his infidelities but myself.

  But just lately, I feel like a fool. I know everyone is talking about me. I hear them whispering whenever I walk by. Even at work, people talk about me. It's time for me to face facts, I need to end this sham of a relationship.

  I only said yes to dating Kyle because I needed to try and forget about the man I've been in love with for the past thirteen years. How do you forget that kind of love? Okay, I may have only been ten when I realized I loved him, but he was my hero.

  Stop thinking about him, Paige! He doesn't want you, never has. The sooner you get that through your head the sooner you can move on with your life and actually have one!

  “We're getting married, Paige!”

  Yeah. Right!

  “Hell no, we are not! You've never asked. And I would have turned you down if you did!”

  “No, you wouldn't. You'd be damn lucky to be my wife.”

  I can't help laughing sarcastically. Is he for real?

  “You cannot be serious right now?” He raises his eyebrow. How have I let this cocky son of a bitch etch his way into my life? “I'd be lucky to be your wife? You'd be lucky if I ever said yes in the first place!”

  He rakes his fingers through his hair and turns away from me.

  “Look, Kyle, I'm not trying to be a bitch. But you and I are... It was ridiculous to ever think we could be more than friends.”

  “I love you, Paige.”

  “No, you don't. You love running around town with any woman who so much as smiles at you.” He opens his mouth to speak, but I'm not done yet. “Please don't try to justify what you've done. There's really no need.”

  “So this is it? We're over?” I nod my head while crossing my arms over my body. “There's nothing I can do to change your mind?”

  I shake my head no and smile slightly. “Whichever way you look at this, we're over.”

  “You've just been waiting for the chance to run off to that prick, haven't you?”

  I roll my eyes. It's always the same thing, we argue, he throws Enzo in my face. It's not like the whole town, including Enzo, don't know that I still have feelings for him. God, it's not like I haven't tried to stop loving him.

  My friends have told me time and again over the past year that I shouldn't have been with Kyle, that it would only end badly. I knew it yet I didn't stop our relationship, nor did I pull him up about his cheating ways. Even though we live in a small town where nothing is ever secret. I only found out about his latest squeeze in the next town over because he got the girl pregnant and she came looking for him.

  “My decision to end things has nothing to do with Enzo and everything to do with the fact you got someone else pregnant!”

  He stares at me for a long moment, not saying anything, just looking at me.

  “Look, it's over, Kyle. Go be with Daphne and your unborn child. Have the life you've dreamed of, but leave me alone. It's over.”

  He nods, lifts the bag I packed his clothes into, hooks it over his shoulder and leaves without another word.

  I sink down onto my bed with my head in my hands. I am in no way upset, I'm relieved that this is finally over. Kyle and I didn't live together, but he stayed over sometimes. Not once in the last six months though. Why would he when he's been off with whoever doing whatever? And obviously getting someone else pregnant.

  Shouldn't I feel something?

  Shouldn't I feel upset that he's obviously be sleeping with other girls, that he must see them as sexier than me?

  I should but I just don't. Is that weird?

  I wanted this, I wanted my freedom from him but now I feel a little lost. Where do I go from here? Yes, I have a good job working as a nurse at Oak Springs General Hospital. I love my job because I love helping people. But what do I do now?

  I'm not good on my own. No, I don't need a man to make my life complete, but all of my friends are either married or getting married. That will never be me. I'm not lucky enough.

  Ha! More like I measure every man I date to the one man I can never have. Lorenzo Ryker. Or Enzo as everyone calls him. God, he doesn't even know I exist.

  Okay, he does, we've been friends for years. But he sees me more the little girl who used to follow him around, the little sister of his best friend. I doubt I'll ever be anything but that in his eyes.

  My best friends big sister, Callie, married Enzo's little brother, Sonny, last year. They've lov
ed each other for so many years now, since they were four years old, in fact. He left town for five years, leaving her behind.

  Callie was hurt badly in a vicious attack by a mad man. She was left scarred across the left side of her face and most of her abdomen. She spent a year in the shadows until Hudson came home and showed Callie just how beautiful she still was in his eyes. How much he still loved her. Callie then went through plastic surgery to help repair some of the damage to her body. It worked to a degree and Callie now walks around with her head held high. Just as she always should have done.

  Callie and Hudson also became the proud adoptive parents of twin just after her surgery to fix her scars on her face. Those babies came into the hospital I work in, orphaned due to a car accident. Took me a while to convince Callie that she could be their mother. She's unable to have children of her own after what that lunatic did to her.

  As soon as Hudson met them, he knew he'd be their father. Both Callie and Hudson took those babies into their hearts, took away their fears and showed them it was okay to be loved again. Little Todd and Robyn are now Ryker's, and they love their uncle Enzo.

  But a miracle happened a few months ago, Callie gave birth to a little boy. And he really was a miracle. After being told you could never have a child to suddenly finding out you're pregnant? I can't imagine the joy she felt in that moment.

  Della, Callie's sister, and my best friend, is married to my big brother, well, he's not technically my brother but our parents have been together for years, so in our hearts ,we're brother and sister.

  Freddy and Della are so in love. It makes me sick sometimes watching the way they are with each other. The way they're always so considerate of each other. The way they hold each other no matter who's looking.

  Yeah, I'm jealous, I wish that could be me. I wish with all my heart I could have that with Enzo. I won't, and I fear that I will never get over him should I stay in this town.

  When is it my turn to be happy?

  I can't think about this any longer. Kyle is finally out of my life, and I can move on. On to what, I don't know. I can't think about it now, I guess work calls. I may not be in the mood for it right now, but it's my job and I need to get going. I slip on my light purple scrubs and head out. I don't want to be late.

  * * *

  “Paige?!” My name is yelled out and the voice behind it reverberates off the walls of the hallway I'm walking down. I turn to see Tori running up behind me. God, what does she want? I'm too tired for her dramas. “You're needed.”

  “For what? I'm on my way to the nurse's station to hand in these files.” I lift the files in my arms enough for her to see.

  She practically snatches them from my hands. “I'll take them. We have a patient and the family is asking for you to be his nurse. They don't want anybody else.”

  “Oookay...” It's not unlikely that a patient's family will ask for a specific nurse to tend to their loved ones. But, it's not normally me who is asked for. Apart from when Callie was admitted a couple years ago after her attack. I wasn't even fully qualified then, but I was the one they wanted to help. “Does this patient have a name?”

  “Yes,” What's with the smirk? I'm really too tired for this. I've been awake for two days straight. I've worked two sixteen hour shifts, and I haven't been able to sleep when I have gone home. What with Kyle and the breakup. “Enzo.”

  I think my heart just fell through my ass!

  “Ryker?” She nods, still smiling. Of course, that's who she means, how many Enzo's are there in this town? “What's wrong with him?”

  I don't think I can swallow. My throat is so dry there's a huge lump stuck there, and my heart is beating too quickly. What if he got hurt in one of his stupid underground cage fights? What if he got caught in a fire and is burned beyond recognition?

  Please don't let anything really bad have happened to him.

  “Well, according to Dr. Lawson, Enzo was coming along Anderson up on Hill Side?” She asks in the form of a question. As if I don't know where Hill Side is, I live there! Why would he be driving down by where I live? Anderson is two streets over from mine. He has no reason to be up on Hill Side. “Well, he was turning left in his SUV and a truck hit him.”

  “Oh my god.” I clasp my hands over my mouth.

  “He's okay. He just hit his head pretty hard on the steering wheel due to the fact the air bag didn't inflate like it should have. Plus, his ankle was broken, and he's cracked a couple of ribs. He'll be fine. But he's a goddamned terrible patient...”

  “Okay, I get it.” I didn't mean to snap but she could have just told me what was wrong instead of rambling. This is the man I love for Christ's sake! I was scared enough without her going on and on. “Where is he?”

  “Third floor. Room #208.” I nod in thanks and walk quickly to the elevator. I need to get to him. There must be a reason Sonny asked for me specifically. Sonny being Hudson, Enzo's little brother, but we've always called him Sonny. There are plenty of good nurses in this hospital, anyone of them could have been chosen.

  Maybe it has something to do with the fact most of the women around here would do anything to get Enzo in a position where they'd have to touch him. Him being the local fireman and all. But Enzo hasn't dated anyone since his girlfriend Autumn died last year after giving birth to their daughter four months prematurely, who was born sleeping. Autumn took her own life just three days later. Enzo was left to bury both of them. He's been quite reclusive ever since. I've tried to be there for him as a friend, but he snaps at me a lot just lately. Everything I do is wrong in his eyes. I think, deep down, he's still grieving and I irritate him no end. Typical.

  I take a deep breath as I reach his room.

  Be professional, Paige. That's all you have to do. Forget that you have loved this man since you were ten years old. He's your patient, nothing more.

  Two

  Enzo

  Agony. Sheer fucking agony is all I feel throughout my body right now. How in God's name didn't I see that damn truck? I certainly fucking felt the force of it slamming into the side of my car, that's for sure. The force of the impact knocked me clean out. My head hit the steering wheel because the damn air bag didn't inflate! I could have ended up with brain damage! Luckily for me, I just have a couple of sore ribs, a bump on the head, and a broken ankle.

  Okay, not so lucky when you do the jobs I do.

  But here I am stuck in the damn hospital and all I want to do is go home. I can't bear hospitals. Ever since I lost my mother and... Well, let's just say I've been in better places.

  My little brother pacing the floor is making me feel uncomfortable. I guess I gave him a good scare. He's all I have in this world. He has his wife and kids, but other than them, I'm all he has too. I don't want him worrying about me, though, I'm fine now.

  “Go home, Sonny. For God's sake, I'm not dead. You don't need to be here.”

  “You're my brother. I'm worried about you.” The emotion in my little brother's voice is not lost on me. He came straight to the hospital with his wife when he was called to say what had happened. I was out of it when he came in, but I swear I heard his wife comforting him through his tears. Sonny doesn't cry. Or at least not in front of people.

  Sonny is my baby brother, three years my junior. An amazing man, one I helped raise after my mother left my abusive father. She then went on to marry someone else, someone who loved her more than anything. Someone who cared for her until the day she died of ovarian cancer over six years ago. Someone neither Sonny or I see much of anymore. He hides away in his house like no one else matters. He hasn't got over the loss of my mother, and I'm not expecting him to anytime soon. Although he should by now, or at least try.

  Sonny married his childhood sweetheart last year, just a month before I lost my ex-girlfriend and my child. Autumn was in no way the love of my life, but I promised to stand by her when she found out she was pregnant with my child. Never once in my life have I slept with any woman without using a condom, not even h
er, yet she ended up pregnant with my child.

  Or so she said it was mine. I had my doubts, in fact, I knew the baby wasn't mine, but still, I stood by her. She was already ten weeks gone when she found out, which is how I knew the baby wasn't mine. We'd been seeing each other eight weeks. Not that I told anybody, I didn't want her mother finding out.

  I found out later that Autumn had an affair with a married man from a different town. Was she wrong to pin the child on me? Of course, but I couldn't turn my back on her when she needed help. She was afraid of what her mother would think of her should she find out the truth. I didn't love her, but I was willing to try and make a go of things.

  What else did I have?

  Work? Yeah, that's about all I had.

  Just three months later, Autumn went into premature labor. At twenty-two weeks gestation baby Charlie Ryker was born sleeping. She wasn't mine but it hurt like hell nonetheless. Autumn couldn't cope and she took the easy way out.

  Did it hurt when she took her own life? Hell yes, it did. I felt like it was all my fault. We'd argued the day before she gave birth to our daughter. I told her that as much as I wanted to try, I just couldn't be with her any longer. My heart lay elsewhere. But I would always be there for Charlie, that her mother would never find out the truth.

  She yelled and screamed how she always knew I didn't want to be with her, and why would I make her promises I couldn't keep. And how she would never allow me to see Charlie once she was born because I wasn't her father.

  Of course, I yelled back and told her that just because I didn't love her didn't mean I didn't love my daughter. She smirked and told me to take her to court for a DNA test, then she walked out.

  The whole thing was wrong of me, to begin with, and I should have helped her in a different way. I should have made her see she didn't need me. But I didn't and I made huge mistakes that ruined a young woman's life. I was cruel to her, unnecessarily so.

  The next thing I heard, she'd been rushed to the hospital because she was losing blood. Apparently, she'd fallen down her mother's stairs. Charlie was stillborn. It broke my heart into a million pieces. Autumn said not one word. We both got to hold our baby, but still, she said nothing to me, or anyone else for that matter. I sat with Autumn all night. The doctors had sedated her but I didn't want to leave her alone. I'd done enough to hurt her, I'd caused her all of that pain.