Loving the Nurse by Piper Sullivan

Antonio

Iwas hooked. I couldn’t get Augusta off my mind, especially after everything that happened two nights ago. She was a fucking breath of fresh air, giving me things I didn’t even know I wanted or needed. She was sweet and hot, an irresistible combination that I couldn’t get enough of. Not yet anyway.

I would get enough of her, eventually, but for now, all I wanted was Augusta. Every time I had her, I wanted her again.

Yeah, I was done for.

“Earth to Antonio.” Teddy waved her hand in front of my face, a knowing smile on her face. “Oh there you are. Thought we lost you to dreamland for a minute.”

“What are you doing here, Teddy?” Not that I didn’t love spending time with my only sister, but I didn’t expect her today, and her presence put a kink in my plans.

“Good to see you too, bro. I’m here to see my favorite little princess. Is that all right?”

“Yeah, of course. In fact, it’s perfect.” I needed to make a quick run, and it would be easier if Rosie wasn’t there.

“Yeah?” Teddy sat back and folded her arms, a wide toothy smile splitting her face. “What is it that you have to do, dear brother?”

“Something personal. Nothing for you to concern yourself about. Can you keep an eye on Rosie for a little bit?”

“Yep. Cal’s shift just started and Hannah is busy, so my afternoon is pretty wide open. Later I have plans, though, so don’t think you can disappear all day.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.” My errand shouldn’t take much time at all, but I could linger knowing that Rosie was being looked after. “I’ll be back in an hour.”

Teddy’s dark brows arched, a question burned in her eyes. “Going to see Gus?”

Was I that transparent? “Maybe.”

“You are! Holy crap, you totally are going to see Gus!” Big brown eyes, nearly identical to my own, stared at me in wide-eyed shock and surprise. And glee. “So you guys really are seeing each other?”

“I don’t know about all that. We’ve been spending time together. Having fun.” Things weren’t serious. Sure, I was a little taken with the pretty pediatric nurse, but we were dating and we weren’t serious. “Don’t make it more than it is, Teddy.”

She held her hands up in a defensive gesture. “I’m not making it anything, merely asking a question.”

“Right.” I didn’t believe my sister for one second, but I didn’t have time to argue. “Gotta go.” I kissed Teddy’s cheek and gave Rosie a tight hug and kiss before I hurried out the door.

“Bye, Daddy!”

“Have fun with your aunt!”

“You have fun too,” Teddy called after me and I didn’t need to look back to see the smile I heard in her voice.

After a quick stop to Petals of Glee, I made my way to the medical center where I was immediately greeted by Melanie’s knowing smile. “Antonio, you handsome devil. Where’s Rosie?”

I rubbed a hand over my head and flashed a sheepish grin. “She’s hanging out with her aunt for a few hours.”

“Oh.” That one word held a wealth of meaning that I refused to touch. “So you’re here for…medical advice?”

“Nope. I’m looking for Augusta, is she around?”

With another knowing smile, Melanie turned to face her computer screen and tapped a few keys before she turned back to me. “She’s up on the pediatric floor, checking on patients. Go on up, you’ll find her.”

“Thanks, Melanie.”

“Sure thing, handsome.” She waved me off and I had no doubt she would be on the phone, lighting up the gossip line before I set eyes on Augusta.

A pair of hot pink scrubs came into view as I rounded the corner from the elevator, and I don’t know how I knew, but I knew it was Augusta. Maybe it was the way the pink scrubs hugged her hips and butt, or the way she crouched down to talk to the crying youngster, but I just knew it was her. I waited patiently for her to finish up with her patient.

This town must be filled with idiots if none of the men in town had seen the gift that was Augusta. She wasn’t just kind and caring, and damn good at her job. She was beautiful. Sweet. Hot in the sack.

“Antonio, what are you doing here? Is Rosie all right?” She looked behind me in search of my daughter, and yeah, for just a moment, I thought maybe I more than liked this woman.

“Rosie is fine, hanging out with Teddy.”

“Oh.” She blinked several times, her shoulders slowly relaxed as my words sank in. “Then why are you here?”

That genuine confusion in her voice, as if she couldn’t believe that I would just show up for her, pulled me into her orbit. “I’m here for you. Obviously.”

Her gaze slipped to the bouquet of flowers in my hand and then back to my face, her confusion even stronger. “Okay. Why?”

“To give you these, for starters.” I pushed the flowers at her in what was certainly not my smoothest moment. “I, uh, hope you like them.” Other than Rosie, I hadn’t given a woman flowers since high school, and being unsure made me uneasy.

Augusta’s plump lips pulled up into a gentle smile. “They’re beautiful, Antonio. Thank you.” She looked up, red brows still furrowed. “What’s the occasion?”

Hell if I knew. “I wanted to see you and I figured you might like some flowers.”

Her smile blossomed fully at those words. “I always like flowers, Antonio.”

“Do you have time to talk?”

She let out a husky laugh. “Is talk a euphemism, or do you really want to talk?”

I couldn’t tell which answer she wanted and I shrugged. “I’ll settle for talking, but I’ll never pass up a chance to bury myself deep inside you.”

She shivered and let out a shaky breath before she quickly recovered. “Come on. We can talk in my office. Just. Talk.”

“Whatever you say, sweetheart.” I had no plans to seduce her inside the medical center, there were too many eyes, too many wagging tongues and I didn’t want Augusta to get in trouble. But I wouldn’t mind a long drink from her sweet mouth.

She dragged me down the corridor and into an office no bigger than a shoebox, where she shut the door and turned to me with a smile. “What did you want to talk about?”

I couldn’t think straight while her hands slid up and down my chest and abs, her thumbs grazing the waistband of my jeans. “I wanted to invite you…ah hell, I can’t concentrate when you do that.”

Her hands immediately stopped, but her expression was full of mischief, not regret. “Okay. Talk.” She took five big steps back, leaving too much distance between us.

“Me and Rosie are going to a Renaissance Fair this weekend and I thought you might like to join us.”

I could tell my invitation stunned her because she stood with her mouth open into a perfect ‘O’, big green eyes stared up at me like she didn’t know who I was.

The silence became uncomfortable. “If you don’t want to go, just say so…”

Augusta blinked and shook her head. “It’s not that, I just wasn’t expecting the invitation. But I love history and giant turkey legs, so count me in.”

“Perfect.” I relaxed with relief, and with the invitation issued and accepted, I was hungry for a taste of her lips. “Just fucking perfect.”

“Yeah?”

I nodded. “Hell yeah,” I whispered a hot second before my mouth crashed down over hers, devoured her until she panted and clung to me. Her tongue teased my lips and danced with my tongue while her hands roamed my chest and my back. “Augusta, if you don’t take a step back, I will take you right here. Right now.”

She shivered again and I was half tempted to do just that. “The door doesn’t lock.”

I growled and buried my face in her neck. “Too bad.”

“Maybe later?”

“Definitely later. Definitely,” I kissed her one more time before I headed towards the medical center exit with a wide grin and a bit of energy in my step. Later couldn’t come soon enough.

“Antonio!” Cal’s voice halted my progression and I turned back with a smile.

“Hey man, what’s up?”

Cal sighed and shook his head. “It’s already been a long day. Tell me you don’t have plans tonight. I need a drink or five, and a night with the guys.”

“Hell yes,” I growled, unaware of just how badly that’s what I needed too.

Cal’s expression brightened. “Perfect. Nine o’clock work for you?”

“That’ll give me enough time to spend a few hours with Rosie and put her to bed. See you then.” A night out with the guys was just what I needed to get over my infatuation with sweet Augusta.

Yeah, it was just what I needed.

At least that’s what I thought until I showed up at The Outpost to meet Cal and Casey. “What are you two gossiping about?” I swear there was something about being in a relationship that turned even the most stoic of men into chatty, gossiping old ladies.

Casey flashed a wide smile and patted the chair between him and Cal. “You, actually. Have a seat, there’s a pitcher on the way.”

I took the seat and stared at my friends. We’d all gone to school together from elementary school until graduation. We had all left to pursue our dreams as well, yet somehow, each of us ended up back in Jackson’s Ridge. Sitting around The Outpost as if we had never left.

“What’s so interesting about me?”

Cal laughed. “All the time you’ve been spending with Gus, for starters. Tongues are wagging, my friend.”

I shook my head and laughed. “Yeah, your tongue is wagging. Are you lobbying for the biggest gossip in town award?”

“That’s a low blow,” Casey offered with a laugh.

“I never say no to an award,” Cal joked. “But I’m curious. You’ve been spending a lot of time with Gus lately. Are you seeing each other officially?”

I shrugged off the question with a vague answer. “I wouldn’t say that, you know how I feel about labels.”

Casey let out a loud bark of laughter. “You didn’t just say that, did you?”

“Damn right I did.”

Cal sighed. “My poor, ridiculous, fool of a best friend. You can’t keep a woman like Gus by stringing her along. She’s independent, knows her worth and won’t put up with your crap.”

“I’m not asking her to.” Augusta didn’t appear to have a problem with our current, label-less arrangement, and I had no plans to change it. “We’ll keep hanging out for as long as it suits both of us.”

“So you do like her?” Casey asked with a knowing smirk. “Megan said there were serious sparks between you two, but she’s a romantic so you can never be sure what she actually saw.”

There were definitely sparks. More than sparks. When me and Augusta were together, it was always the pre-cursor to an inferno, hot and bright and seemingly never-ending. “I’ll just say that I like spending time with her. She’s beautiful and smart. She’s cool.”

“Cool? What are we, sixteen?” Casey shook his head and helped the waitress with the glasses when she finally got around to bringing our beer to the table.

“Easy to be so smug when you met your wife in the third grade.” For as long as I could remember it was always Casey and Megan, Megan and Casey, joined at the hip. “What do you know about dating?”

“I know that we’re too old for your games. You like Augusta, if you didn’t, you wouldn’t have brought flowers to the hospital today.”

“You did?” Cal’s eyes went wide with shock and I groaned.

“I did.” And thanks to Melanie, the whole damn town knew about it.

“So you definitely like her,” Cal insisted. “Maybe more than like her if I had to guess.”

“Don’t guess, Cal. In fact, don’t do anything. Me and Augusta are having fun. Trust me, she knows the score.”

I hoped she did, because I wasn’t even sure if I knew the score anymore.