Heartstrings (Prequel) Forbidden Heart Series

68| Spice Girls, Candy Land, & Soulmates

After Lanie and Harper almost caught Nathan and I literally in the throws, we both had some explaining to do. At first, my boyfriend's little sister was not happy with him for crashing our girls weekend. But that all changed when Nick came rolling up in Nathan's jeep. Apparently, the love of my life knew his little sister just as much as we did. Nathan explained that when they arrived at the campsite, he sent Nick to get everyone some breakfast. So when Nick showed up with exactly what Nathan asked him to order, we were all surprised when Nick handed Lanie some chocolate cake.

Problem. Solved.

At least one of them anyway. Even though Lanie didn't voice it out loud, I knew that she was worried he would take all my attention away from our weekend. I didn't blame her. When Nathan and I were concerned, we tended to get lost in each other while the outside world became a blur.

So I pulled him aside and told him that if he wanted to stay tonight, he and Nick needed to hang with us as a group. That meant no private time for Nathan and myself. He understood and agreed instantly, as I knew he would.

Since the lake was too cold this time of year to go swimming, we all greed to go canoeing instead. Nathan and Nick shared one canoe while me and the girls shared another. I had to admit, it was pretty amusing listening to the boys bicker about navigating through the water. And it was even more hilarious when their bickering turned into arguing which led them to accidentally tip their canoe over and they both got submerged in the icy cold water.

"I told you to behave, Nathan. See what happens when you don't listen to me."

Nathan grimaced as I dabbed the hydrogen peroxide soaked 1-tip against the gash on his forehead. When the canoe went over he got a good hit from the small boat. Thankfully it wasn't deep at all. Nothing some cleaning and a band-aid wouldn't fix.

"Damn. It hurts, baby. Do you have to push so hard?"

"I'm barely touching you! Now hold still I'm almost done." Nathan was sitting on the tree stump in front of me. When I bent forward to grab the gauze, band-aid, and Neosporin from the first aid kit, he reached for my hand to stop me. "What is it? Are you hurting?"

He shook his hand before pulling me onto his. "Nah. I'm good, gorgeous. I just want to feel you for a minute."

"Nathan," I warned. "You know the rules."

"I know. I'm not going to try to seduce you right now." His eyes held mine as he cupped the side of my face with his hand. "You're going to make one kiss ass nurse someday, baby. You know that right?"

"Oh, I don't know. . ." Was my nervous reply.

"Come on. You are the most compassionate person I know. Any hospital or doctor's office is going to be so fucking lucky to have you. Those patients. . . they his the jackpot by having a nurse like you."

He praise caused my heart to race and my lungs to get tight. Suddenly it felt a little hard to breathe. I was still trying to find a way to bring up the whole USF thing to him. The closer I got to graduation, the more I was dreading the inevitable.

"What if I don't want to be a nurse anymore?"

Nathan's harsh frown caused his brows to drop into a deep V. "What the hell are you talking about? Being a nurse has always been your dream. Ever since you were little."

My gaze dropped from his and it took all my energy not to breakdown. "Dreams change, Nathan."

"Really? So what else are you going to do then? Be a fry girl at McDonald's?" Nathan placed his index finger under my chin, forcing my eyes to meet his once again. "Gorgeous, I know you. Now, there's nothing wrong with flipping burgers, but I know you are meant for a hell of a lot more than that shit."