Loving the Nurse by Piper Sullivan

Gus

“Ihad fun, Nurse Gus. And I like your daddy a lot.” Rosie wore the kind of all encompassing smile that only a well loved kid could as she launched herself at me. “His fish was better too,” she whispered with a mischievous expression.

I accepted the love contained within her hug and squeezed her back. “Your secret is safe with me, Princess.” Antonio’s fish was by far the better of the two, crispy and full of flavor, but Rosie preferred her fish without the crunch. “I had a good time too. Thanks for letting me crash your party.”

She pulled back with a grin and a wave for me and Dad. “Have a good night.”

Antonio held his hand out for Rosie without taking his brown eyes off me. She slid her hand into his and he winked at me wordlessly. They pair walked down the street with the moon illuminating their retreating figures.

I closed the door and leaned against it with a sigh once the Ricci family was gone. Out of sight. I was happy to see that Dad was making friends and connections in town, but fighting my attraction to Antonio, especially after that kiss that set me on fire, was becoming a full-time job.

“What’s going on with you and Antonio?” Dad’s gravelly voice ended my moment of peace and I opened my eyes to see his smiling face a couple feet from my own.

“Nothing is going on,” I answered a little too quickly. Dad might be getting up in age, but his eagle eyes didn’t miss much. “He’s got some kind of passing interest in me, probably out of boredom or proximity, but it won’t last.” In my experience, men’s interest never lasted long. Usually they were gone the moment after they got what they wanted, or when it became clear they wouldn’t get what they wanted from me.

“Why not?” Dad’s wild brows dipped into a frown as if he really didn’t get it, which only made me love him more. “What man wouldn’t want a lovely, accomplished woman who’s also good with kids? An idiot, that’s who.”

I took a step forward and wrapped my arms around my father and hugged him tight before I smacked a big kiss to his wrinkled cheek. “Thank you for saying that, but I think you might be a bit biased.”

“Not at all, girl. I just call things how I see ’em.” He winked with a wide eyed smile and I couldn’t help but hug him again.

“Love you, Dad.”

He sighed and reluctantly accepted the love I gave so freely. “Love you too, Augusta. Not sure I deserve it, but I sure am glad you asked me to move here. It’s like a real community, one neither of us ever had before, and I’m finding that I like it. So, thank you.”

“You’re welcome, Dad. I’m happy you’re here too.”

He smiled and pulled me into the kitchen where we double teamed the dishes. “You could do a lot worse than Antonio, you know.”

I laughed at his newfound interest in my nonexistent love life. “He’s a heartbreaker dad, a man who isn’t looking for love when that’s all I’ve ever wanted.” I had a string of broken relationships in my past that started with me wanting too much, and ended with him not wanting me enough to give it to me. A lifetime being deprived of that love had given me what some might call unrealistic relationship expectations, which mostly ended with me being disappointed every single time. Hence the six month break from dating. From men.

“That’s bull, honey. I’m sorry, but it’s true. All men are heartbreakers until they find that one woman who makes them want to change their ways.”

And that was another relationship pitfall I tried to avoid. “I’m not interested in changing anyone, Dad.” People didn’t change for the most part, and trying wasn’t just looking for heartache, it was begging for it.

Dad sighed as he handed me the last dish and turned to face me. “You don’t have to change anyone, if a man loves you enough he will want to be worthy of yah. That’s where the change comes in.”

A nice thought, and I’d seen it firsthand with Cal and Teddy, but I wasn’t one of those women who inspired that kind of fire in men. I wasn’t a woman that a man wanted to change for, they expected me to accept them as they were, which I expected in return.

“Oh, my god.” And suddenly it all made a lot of sense.

As the chubby girl, the girl with a few too many curves, all I wanted was a man to love me for me, not try to change me. But that meant I attracted men who didn’t want to change either, who were happy to be with the plump chick as long as she didn’t ask too much of them.

“What’s going on in that pretty head of yours?” Dad’s gravelly question pulled me from the depths of realization.

“I just realized my part in my failed relationships.” And I vowed, then and there, to avoid making that mistake again. “Antonio won’t change for me and I won’t ask him to, so just drop it. Please?”

Dad held his hands up, red and still covered in suds, and sighed. “Fine, but let me just speak my peace and I’ll be done with it.”

“Go ahead.”

“I know chemistry when I see it, and you and Antonio have it in spades. He might be a little rough around the edges but this thing between you might be worth exploring, no matter what you think you know about him. Okay, I’m done.”

“You’re just rooting for Antonio because you want gourmet food every night of the week.” Of course, that wasn’t entirely true. He and Antonio seemed to understand one another, which made me wonder what else they had in common that I didn’t know about.

“I wouldn’t say no to his cookin’, but that’s not the reason. Hell, in this town all I’d have to do is stand on the sidewalk and say I’m hungry and ten people will pop out the woodwork with ten different casseroles.” He laughed and shook his head and I knew what he was feeling. It never failed to surprise me just how much the people of Jackson’s Ridge were willing to step in and help out.

“Maybe I ought to stand out on the street and say that my dad is in search of female company, see who comes out of the woodwork for a handsome old man with a full head of hair and his own teeth.”

He threw his head back and laughed. “You wouldn’t do that to your old man, would you?”

I shrugged. “I might. Depends on how devious I’m feeling.”

“Do that and I’ll toss all the veggies from the fridge and replace ’em with soda and cheese puffs.”

I laughed and shook my head. “Totally worth it to see you running away from a bunch of single seniors.” The more I pictured his long, lanky body hurrying away from the widows and divorcees looking to start over, the harder I laughed.

“It ain’t funny, girl.”

His insistence only made me laugh harder until I was doubled over in the kitchen, tears running down my cheeks.

“Damn stubborn girl,” he growled. “Lucky I love you.”

In that moment, I felt incredibly lucky.