Page 11 of Heartless Pucker in Love

Huh. I totally understood why she became a nurse. She cared about everyone and everything. That wasn’t a bad thing. It occurred to me that perhaps I should go for women with a compassionate nature like April rather than the shallow ones who only see dollar signs when they look at me...but, I digress.

Who spent more time hiding in the park hanging out with animals more than she hung out with people? A crazy person, that’s who…or a goddamn Disney princess. It wasn’t her quirks that had rubbed me the wrong way. It was the way she always looked down her pretty little nose at me. As if she thought she was better than me, better than all the guys in school...but mostly me. Because maybe I had a slight thing for the nut job hippie. Now I was glaring at her as hard as she was glaring at me.

You know what? It didn’t matter what I might have felt for April Bennet once. She still looked at me the same way, still detested me, and hell, I didn't care. None of that mattered because I’d leave Oakland and her behind in a matter of days.

“Stick around, nurse. It makes no difference to me. How about a little privacy to enjoy some grub?” I nodded to my breakfast.

She gave me a dirty look as she slid off the stool. “I’ll wait in the living room, patient.”

7

APRIL

Three days later…

“I thought you said you were leaving in two days. Why are you still here?”

Julian’s quiet laugh sent a warm tingle through me and I sucked in a breath. My reaction had nothing to do with attraction. It was merely a normal female reaction to the sound of sexy male laughter…I hoped. I peeked up at him through my lashes and saw him wince. The fractured ribs would make him sore for a while. Ignoring the way my traitorous body kept reacting to everything he did and said, I returned my attention to cleaning up the gash on the outside of his right thigh. Looking at his bare thigh was just too...stimulating.

“Are you that eager to get rid of me? I’m hurt.”

“No, you’re not.”

He snickered. “Ouch. Take it easy there, April,” he said when I applied a topical antibiotic to one of his wounds.

“Stop being such a baby.”

“Your bedside manner is lacking, nurse.”

“Only where you’re concerned, patient.”

He roared, but it ended in a groan. Sympathy flooded me. I disliked Julian. A lot. But I didn’t enjoy seeing him in pain.

“You’re as amusing as ever, April. I’ll give you that.”

My jaw clenched. Amusing as in weird? He’d called me a “peculiar creature” in the ninth grade. It hurt my feelings because I assumed he was making fun of me. He and his friends seemed to always enjoy doing it.

I chose to ignore his comment. “So, why are you still here? You seemed eager to leave a few days ago.”

“Mom and Andy talked me into staying a little longer.”

“They usually visit you in Canada, right?”

“Right, or whichever part of the world I am.”

“Do you have something against Oakland?”

Julian frowned. “No, why?”

“You barely come back to visit. When you do, you hide out in Faye’s house the entire time.”

“I didn’t think you cared what I did, April. You said it yourself, you didn’t want to see me again.”

Heat seared my cheeks. “I...It’s not that I care. I’m curious.”

“You have to care in order to be curious.” He smirked.

Rolling my eyes, I focused on bandaging his leg.

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