But somehow, Nick always managed. And if anything ever put fear in his gut, he did a damn good job of hiding it.
God, I admired him. Medicine wasn't just a paycheck to him. His patients weren't just a number. They were living, breathing humans that he truly cared about. It showed in everything he did, including taking on a teenager's rare brain tumor case pro bono.
His back rested against the headboard, and his gaze was focused on the laptop on top of his thighs. He looked good. Well, he always looked good, but it was times like these, when his attention was completely preoccupied, that I savored the short little bursts of time when I could just look at him without him realizing he had his own personal Peeping Tom.
With my shoulder leaning against the doorframe, I took him in. His deep brown gaze, the way his brow furrowed ever so slightly when he was questioning something he was reading, the way his long, dark lashes fanned over his face with each blink. And his lips, goodness gracious, those lips, no matter what they were doing-smirking, laughing, firm with focus-I was a fan.
And don't even get me started on his body, currently sporting only a pair of navy boxer briefs, nearly every square inch on display. Every time his fingers tapped across the keyboard, his forearms and biceps flexed ever so slightly, leaving me with the delicious promise of more.
I smiled softly and ran my index finger across my bottom lip. Hot damn, he really was the most magnificent man I'd ever known.
I guessed I was biased, but when it came to love, wasn't being biased a good thing?
It meant that you only had eyes for that person and you loved every little piece of them, even their flaws. Through your eyes, they were everything.
Eventually, my little speck of time to gawk at my fiancé ended, and Nick looked up from his laptop and met my gaze.
"You look like you're up to something," he said with a tiny smirk. "Should I be worried?"
"Nah." I waved him off with a hand as I walked into the bedroom and started undressing. "I was just standing there, watching you like a little creeper. No big deal."
"Well, that's a relief because you looked like either you were head over heels in love with me or plotting my murder."
I laughed outright at that. "It was the former. Promise."
"Is Lexi asleep?" he asked, and I nodded.
"After she read two chapters of Moby Dick to me, she was out like a light," I answered with a soft smile and tossed on my favorite sleep shirt before sliding into bed beside him. "Her brain should be considered the eighth wonder of the world. I can guarantee I wasn't reading novels that most adults have a hard time comprehending at her age. Hell, as she was reading it to me, there were a few words in there I was happy she knew how to pronounce because I sure as fuck didn't."
He grinned. "Thanks for tucking in her tonight."
"No thanks necessary. You know I jump at the opportunity to spend time with her."
"She likes you, you know," he said and shut his laptop. "This afternoon, when you were at the grocery store, she made me promise that I would marry you and that we'd stay together like her mother and Wes."
I held up my engagement ring and winked. "Well, good thing marriage is the plan, huh?"
"Damn straight." Nick smirked and pulled me on top of his big body. His lips brushed mine, once, twice, and on the third time, he kissed me deep, his tongue sliding into my mouth and dancing with mine.
I moaned at the feeling, and he smiled against my lips.
"I'm going to marry you so hard, Charlotte Hollis," he whispered.
"I bet I'll marry you harder."
"Impossible." He rolled his eyes and tickled my ribs.
I giggled until he stopped.
"We need to start planning soon," he said quietly, and I leaned back to meet his eyes. "Do you have any ideas about what kind of wedding you want?"
"Something small," I answered immediately. "Something that doesn't involve us inviting a hundred people that we barely know."
I didn't think I'd run again-this time, the marriage was right-but I couldn't help but picture Runaway Bride and cringe. Give me the small wedding now. I'll skip the four engagements in between, thank you very much.
"Location?"
"City Hall," I said with a teasing grin.
"Date?"
"Tomorrow." At first, I'd said it as a joke, but once the words had left my lips, it didn't feel like I'd said it in jest. It just felt right. Tomorrow was Saturday. Lex was with us this weekend. And Nick didn't have any surgeries or office hours scheduled.
The more I thought about it, the more perfect it really was. Maybe a little crazy, sure, but God, it felt so so right. It felt like us, starting our lives together the exact way we should, without any big, extravagant wedding or giant cake or five-course meal, but just the three of us.
"Just me, you, and Lex?" he asked, and I searched his eyes for the rebuttal in his words. But it wasn't there.
"You're not disagreeing with this?" I asked, and he shook his head.
"It feels right. Intimate. With the only people there who really matter."
Tears filled my eyes, and I smiled bigger than I'd probably smiled my entire life.
"So, you're going to marry me tomorrow?" I asked, and my voice rose three octaves higher. "Like, you're really going to marry me tomorrow?"
"Yes, Charlotte Hollis." Nick grinned at my enthusiasm. "Tomorrow, I'm going to make you Mrs. Charlotte Raines."
I squealed and hopped off the bed. "Oh my God! What am I going to wear?"
"First, you're going to get your ass back in bed, and we're going to get some sleep," he said with nothing but love in his eyes. "And then, when we wake up tomorrow, we'll both be thankful that I'm extremely close friends with Judge Miller and he owes me a favor. Otherwise, making a marriage license and a marriage appear on a Saturday in NYC would be impossible."
I hopped back into the bed and climbed my way back onto his big, muscular body. "And then what are we going to do?" I asked and waggled my brows.
He grinned, humoring me. "Then, we're going to get married."
I squealed again in response, and Nick laughed and kissed me softly.
Before my brain could start panicking again about coming up with a wedding dress last minute, Nick flipped off the lights. He gently slid me to my side and wrapped his arms around my body, cuddling me close to his chest.
"Ugh. I'm too excited to sleep," I whispered, and I could literally hear his smile form in the stillness of our bedroom.
"Just close your eyes," he whispered and started gently running his fingers through my hair. "Tomorrow, you're going to make me the luckiest man in the world."
I wanted to refute his statement, or at least give an add-on, acknowledging the fact that he was making me the luckiest woman in the world, but his fingers, and my hair, and goodness gracious, a girl could only stay awake so long when they were being gently stroked like a cat.
Tomorrow, I'd get to marry my best friend.
At exactly three in the afternoon, after Judge Miller had pulled through, we were inside the otherwise closed building of City Hall on a Saturday. I had no idea how Nick had managed to pull it all off, but somehow, someway, he did.
Not only had he made it possible for us to get married, but besides our most important guest, Lexi-who'd enthusiastically dressed herself in a pink, sparkly dress with a pair of Converse-he'd also managed to invite a few other guests along. Doreen and Harry-who were still living comfortably in my house-my parents-whom he'd somehow managed to fly in from Boca Raton on short notice-his parents, my bitches, Harper and Ivy, and surprisingly, and with nothing but love and support in their eyes, Wes and Winnie.
The instant they'd stepped through City Hall's doors, both Nick and I had been shocked to say the least, but Winnie had been the one to make things feel nothing less than normal. She'd given us her heartfelt congratulations, even telling me that she couldn't have been happier that I would be a permanent fixture in Lex's life.
All of the bad blood I'd thought had been between us was nonexistent.
My past with her brother Remy was just that. The past. I didn't expect we'd receive a wedding gift from him anytime soon, but he hadn't left any bags of burning shit on our doorstep either. As far as Nick and I were concerned, that was good enough.
And now, Nick was my future. The man I'd spend the rest of my days with, laughing, loving, and just living in our own little bubble of happiness.
I stood across from Nick, hand in hand, with the minister standing in front of us and an opened Bible in his hands. "Are you ready to start?" he asked.
"I couldn't be readier," my soon-to-be husband answered, and I smiled.
And then, at exactly 3:15 p.m. with the bride wearing a cute little cream dress and the groom dressed in gray dress slacks and baby blue dress shirt, and with everyone who was most important in our lives near, we said our vows and exchanged our rings.