Page 53 of Beating Heart
Maybe it was because of what today was supposed to be.
He charged into the lake, and we both crashed into the dark blue water. I went all the way under and found those abs beneath the surface as I swam toward him. He was reaching his hand out for me, and I took it. I came up, breaking through the surface with a gasp. The fabric was pooling around me, and it was heavier than I’d expected. But Nash was right there, pulling me closer.
I tried to find the bottom with my feet, but it was too deep. In one quick move, he tugged me up so my legs could wrap around his waist as he held me against his hard body.
And by hard body, I mean…
Hard.
Body.
Everywhere.
I could feel all of him, even with ten pounds of tulle and silk surrounding us. He was standing, his shoulders just above the surface of the water.
“You okay?” he asked, his voice gruff, as I pushed his wet hair away from his handsome face.
“Yes. I’m good. How freaked out are you right now?” I asked.
“Why would I be freaked out?”
“Oh, I don’t know. You found your neighbor, who also happens to be your kid’s doctor, dancing with a bottle of champagne and wearing a wedding dress. And now you’re in the water with the crazed bride. I could see how that would freak someone out.”
“Not freaked out at all, Sunny.” His tongue swiped out along his bottom lip, and my drunken body reacted by pressing harder against him.
You’re a doctor, for God’s sake. Control yourself.
“No?”
“Nope. I live with a six-year-old. I’ve been puked on, changed shitty diapers, and been asked more rapid-fire questions than any man should ever be asked.” His hands were on my waist and my back, and I couldn’t even believe I was out here in my rejected wedding dress with my legs wrapped around him.
Who even am I?
“Well, thank you for showing up today and running into the water with me.” My teeth sank into my bottom lip.
“Tell me about your call with Farah.”
I startled at his words. He said it so casually, as if it were perfectly normal for him to be there for me. To listen to me.
“Do you have anyone that you’ve been friends with for so long that you can’t imagine your life without them?”
“I do.”
“Well, that’s how it is with her. I can’t remember a time in my life when she wasn’t there. We didn’t go to the same college, but we were only twenty minutes away from one another during that time. And she became a nurse, and I became a doctor, just like we’d always planned. And when I got my residency at UCSF, we celebrated that night because she was at the same hospital. Everyone there knows our story, so even my place of work became tainted by what happened.” I paused and shook my head in disbelief. “We always said we’d work together and marry brothers and raise our kids together. And now, everything is… different. And I swear, that loss is harder than breaking off the engagement with Collin. I don’t miss him the way that I miss my best friend.”
He listened intently, and it felt good to get it off my chest. If I said this to Easton, he would fly off the handle and tell me what a piece of shit Farah was. And I knew that it was true, but it didn’t mean that it didn’t hurt.
“I get that. Betrayal is tough, especially when it comes from someone you love. I don’t trust easily. I keep my circle small. And if one of my best friends did to me what she did to you, it would kill me. So I get it.”
“Really? Thank you. That makes me feel better.”
“Of course. And that doesn’t mean you should forgive her. That’s up to you. Personally, once my trust is broken, it’s hard to turn that around. But you have a history with her, and it’s normal that it’s hard.”
“I want to hate her, and a part of me does. I know there is no going back after what happened. But when I heard her voice today, I remembered five-year-old Farah, the girl I ate lunch with every single day in kindergarten. And I remembered ten-year-old Farah, who slept over at my house almost every single night the summer before we started fifth grade. And sixteen-year-old Farah who got her driver’s license on her birthday and came straight to my volleyball game and waited for me to finish before we went to her birthday dinner. She was such a huge part of my life.”
“And she always will be. Regardless of whether or not you have her in your life moving forward, you’ll always have those memories.”
I couldn’t stop staring at his mouth. His plump lips. The chiseled jaw peppered in day-old scruff. My hands moved to his strong shoulders, gently tracing along each muscle until I moved it along the tattoo. Dark ink in a beautiful scroll that I’d been so curious about.
