Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 99967 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99967 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
Blake
I don’t do relationships, but I’m excellent at casual hookups. That’s not to say I’m a jerk. Not at all. I respect women—all women—and I know the value of love. But I’m married to my job as a physician. In fact, I’m married to the hospital, having a full-time affair with the clinic, and my family is my side piece. I don’t have time for a relationship with a woman.
But then the most beautiful human I’ve ever laid eyes on walks onto my plane, and my world tilts. Thanks to a Montana snowstorm, I spend one incredible night with Harper, but wake up alone. She never told me her last name. She’s just … gone. It would figure that the one woman I could see myself breaking my own rules for is the one I can’t have.
Harper
It’s time for me to come home to Montana to help take care of my dad and pick up the slack for my siblings. I’ve been gone for a long time, but this beautiful corner of the world is my home. I’m excited to start my job as a NICU nurse at Bitterroot Valley General and begin a new chapter in my life. A fresh start. A clean slate.
Then he walks into the room, and it’s suddenly hard to breathe. Blake was the one-night stand who still haunts my dreams. The man can do things. Amazing things. But I never thought I’d see him again. Okay, that’s a lie. I knew he worked at this hospital, but he’s an ER doctor. I’m in a different department, so I planned to avoid him. Yet that didn’t last more than the first hour of my first shift.
Now, he’s pursuing me and saying things like forever. But with a past like mine, can I trust that he won’t tire of me and leave? Or is this finally my happily ever after?
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Prologue
HARPER
Two Years Ago
One time when we were in the kitchen, and he was getting water out of the fridge, he growled at me like he was a wolf and I was the bunny.
He literally stood there, glared at me as his water bottle filled, and growled. Not in a sexy way.
In a ridiculous, I almost laughed way.
He sleeps on the couch, mostly because he knows I hate that. He knows I hate the silent treatment, too.
And he hasn’t spoken to me in three weeks. Not a single word.
Why is he behaving this way? What stunt did I pull that was so egregious that it earned this behavior from the one person in the world who’s supposed to love me more than anyone else?
Because I picked up an extra shift at the hospital and couldn’t go with him to his buddy’s party earlier this month.
That’s all. I went to work.
I’m a nurse, and we were short-staffed, so I picked up a shift, and to punish me, my fiancé hasn’t spoken a word to me in almost a month and treats me like I’m the shit on his shoe.
Honestly, the silence has been great.
And his ignoring me has created the space I need to plan my exit strategy.
Because after three years of putting up with his mood swings, lectures, body shaming, and cheating on me with just about anyone with a heartbeat, I’m over it.
I’ve been over it for a while but didn’t have anywhere to go.
Okay, that’s not entirely true, and Ava, my best friend since we were twelve, would be appalled and likely slash my tires for even thinking that I couldn’t go to her. But her family has already done so much for me.
I can’t run to the Hendrix family every time life gets hard.
Now, if Nathan—not Nate. He hates nicknames.—can just hold on with his silent treatment for three more days, I can leave while he’s gone for a work trip this weekend, and it’ll all be over.
Am I a chickenshit for packing up and leaving when he’s none the wiser?
No. I’m not. Because Nathan can be a violent asshole, and I don’t want to chance that this will be the first time he hits me and holds me hostage in our house. Make that his house. Because when we chose and bought the pretty little bungalow just outside of Portland, he refused to put me on the mortgage. It’s only in Nathan’s name, which works well for me.
I have no responsibilities here.
In three more days, I will fly out of Portland to Charlotte, where I’ve taken my first traveling nurse assignment.
A new life.
Freedom.
Anything but what I’ve been living.
I’m sitting on the couch with my laptop, looking at used car listings in Charlotte, when Nathan walks into the house, glares at me, and paces into the kitchen.