Crowned By Love (Hearts and Heirs #1)

Chapter 1

KYLE

Ireally shouldn’t have gotten involved. But I wasn’t very good at staying away from things I should.

I’d kissed my stepmother—twice. Then another married woman. She’d been nice about it, though—so nice, in fact, that now I lived with her and her husband.

Impulse control and I had never gotten along. And as I stood in that fast-food joint, the scent of fried food making my stomach growl, I proved it once again.

Don’t do it. My mind repeated the mantra over and over and over again, and yet… I shifted just slightly, studying the striking brunette in front of me as she stared at the soda machine.

The soft, small features on her delicate face made her exceptionally attractive. Some people may have said pretty, I’d say beautiful…but when I fell for someone, I fell hard and fast, so maybe I wasn’t the best judge.

Not that I was in love…yet, but the potential was already brewing in my mind.

I cleared my throat, shuffling a step closer. “Uh, you need to pick the soda you want.”

She startled, glancing over her shoulder as though she hadn’t even known I was there.

That was my luck. Why would the beautiful woman in front of me ever had noticed that I was there?

“Oh, right,” she said.

My eyebrows pinched a little. There was something about those two words that piqued my curiosity. It sounded like she had a slight accent that I couldn’t place.

She glanced back at the machine again before she shifted aside. “Why don’t you go first? I’m holding you up.”

“Oh, no,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m in no hurry.”

She offered me a sheepish glance. “The thing is…I don’t know what I want.”

“Can’t decide?” I asked as I stepped forward and jabbed at the button for cola. As a doctor, I knew better than to drink this stuff, but sometimes you just needed to break the rules. Right?

She lifted her chin, her eyes focused on the machine like she was studying it. “I’ve really never had any of this before.”

I filled the other two cups I had with the orange soda my friends loved and snapped the lids onto them. As I stowed them in the drink carrier, I glanced over my shoulder at her.

“Is the orange good?” She tilted her head as she stared at the choice I’d just made on the screen.

“Umm, it’s okay. My friends like it. I don’t love it.” I narrowed my eyes slightly at her. Was this some kind of bizarre flirting?

I really hoped it was because I was striking out everywhere in love, and for once, it would be nice for someone to actually like me.

Although, I warned myself, once she heard about my past, she’d probably run screaming.

And my big-mouthed half-sister would make sure she knew exactly how messed up my history was.

From my issues with my dad to the revenge plot and all the other drama, Sierra would scare her off faster than I could say “nice to meet you.”

For once, though, I really hoped one of the ladies I met wouldn’t care.

“Hmm. What about the cola? That’s what you got, right?”

“Uh-huh, I did. It’s, umm, what about root beer? They have that.”

She arched a dark eyebrow, flicking her dark brown eyes to me before she thrust her cup forward.

I stood there for a minute like a complete idiot before I grabbed it. “Oh, right. You want me to…okay, sure. I can get it for you.”

I pressed the depressor to dispense ice into her cup, then tapped on the screen to find the root beer.

As the liquid poured into her cup, mixing the syrup with the carbonated water, I glanced over my shoulder and grinned at her.

She offered what looked like a polite smile, hands clasped primly in front of her. Something about her just didn’t fit the burger joint Alex and Ava had insisted we stop at.

Her clothes were a little too nice for a five-dollar meal in a place where the floor tiles were only slightly clean. Then again, I was here with a tech billionaire and his wife of twenty years, who had only recently decided to give their marriage a real shot.

I didn’t have the most conventional friends—maybe this woman was some sort of quirky, off-beat type, too.

The machine finished dispensing, and I pulled the cup from under the dispenser and snapped the lid on before I shoved a straw into it and handed it back.

Another polite smile. Of course. I definitely did not have skills with the ladies.

She took a sip, her eyelashes fluttering as the soda hit her tongue. Her delicate, doll-like lips formed a pout before she glanced at me, her features slightly surprised. “It’s good.”

A chuckle escaped me as I grabbed my drink carrier. “I’m glad you like it.”

I shuffled toward the pick-up counter, and she followed behind me, taking another sip of the soda.

I shifted my weight from foot to foot, wanting to say something witty or smart, but my mind came up empty. Instead, I came up with the stupidest possible line. “So, waiting for your order?”

“Yes,” she answered, her eyes darting to the door. “I ordered something called chicken nuggets. I’m interested to see what they are.”

I screwed up my face for a second. Was she some sort of comedian? I glanced out the window at Alex and Ava sitting at the table outside in the warm sunshine. I wondered if they’d set me up.

Ava always teased me that I’d find the one–a woman who would appreciate me for all my oddities and quirks. “Don’t settle for someone who doesn’t love you for all of you, Doc,” she always told me.

I didn’t believe her. I had some really not-so-nice things in my background. I’d blown into New Orleans intent on destroying my billionaire father who had never even known about me. And that was just the start of the crazy.

My half-sister, Sierra, didn’t call me Crazy Kyle for nothing.

“Oh, uh, well, we just got burgers.”

“We?” She glanced toward either side of me as though I had invented this detail.

I poked a finger outside at the table. “I’m with them.”

“Oh,” she answered with a nod, her eyes lingering on Alex for a moment. I assumed she recognized him as the great Alex Stone–inventor of the Stone Phone.

“Are you here alone?” I asked, immediately regretting my choice of words. Why did I always come across like a stalker in a Lifetime Movie?

“Yes,” she answered. “Alone.”

I saw my chance and took it. “Then…why don’t you join us?”

She glanced at Alex and Ava again, her head cocking. “I wouldn’t want to intrude.”

“No, you wouldn’t be. I’m kind of a third wheel already, so you’d be doing me a favor,” I assured her.

She stared at them for another moment before she set those almost-black eyes on me, then sent my heart spiraling out of control as she nodded. “All right.”

“Great,” I said with a grin that was way too broad. I thrust my hand forward. “I’m Kyle Carter, by the way. Dr. Kyle Carter.”

“Na–Natalie, uh, Burgmont,” she stammered, covering it with a smile as she stared down at my hand for a second before she touched it lightly. “You can call me Nattie.”

The woman working behind the counter dumped two bags on the counter, glancing up at us with an unimpressed stare. “Sixteen and seventeen.”

I raised my hand like a complete moron. “That’s me…us…I’m number seventeen.”

“Oh, umm…” Nattie said, her brows pinching.

“Yes, it’s you, princess,” the woman said. “Chicken nuggets and potato sticks.”

The way she said the last statement made me wonder what had happened between them, but it didn’t really matter. What did matter was that the beautiful Nattie was about to join me for my dinner.

I grabbed both of our bags before motioning toward the door. “Ready?”

With a bob of her head, we pushed into the waning afternoon sunlight and rounded the building toward the table. As we approached, Ava arched an eyebrow at the woman trailing behind me.

“Be cool,” I whispered, trying to signal to her that I was interested in this one.

I raised my voice as Nattie joined us. “Uh, Nattie, these are my friends, Alex and Ava. Alex, Ava, this is Nattie who I met inside, and invited her to join us.”

“Hi, Nattie,” Ava said as I motioned for Nattie to sit down, then plopped onto the brightly colored bench next to her. “Glad you could join us.”

“I’m pleased, too.” She dug into her bag as Alex passed out the food from ours. With the little cardboard box in front of her, she flipped it open and stared at it.

“Are they everything you hoped for?” I asked.

She glanced at me then back to the chicken nuggets. “They don’t look like chicken.”

“You’ve never had chicken nuggets?” Ava asked.

“No,” she answered with a shake of her head. “I’m concerned I have been lied to.”

She lifted a chicken nugget and examined it. “There’s no way this is chicken.”

Alex chuckled across from me, still chewing his burger. “I mean, it’s definitely from a chicken, but it’s not like…the kind of chicken you may have hoped for.”

She peered at him curiously, and my heart sank. She probably only said yes so she could get closer to Alex. I was certain she’d recognized him. Women threw themselves at him constantly, always impressed with his unfathomable amounts of wealth.

“It definitely is not,” she murmured before she dropped it into her box and grabbed a fry. “I’ll try the potato stick first.”

“Potato stick,” Alex said with another laugh, “I like that.”

I bit into my burger. Every moment that passed made it agonizingly obvious that she probably wasn’t interested in me.

I side-eyed her, finding her glancing over her shoulder as though she was searching for someone. Her muscles tensed for an instant before relaxing again.

“Everything okay?” Ava asked.

“Yes,” she said with a forced grin. “I thought I saw someone I knew.”

“Oh, are you from the Hamptons?”

“No,” she answered. “But I’ve been here on more than one occasion. Only briefly, though.”

“Where are you from?” Ava asked.

I shifted my foot to hit hers under the table, pressing my lips together and giving a slight shake to my head. I loved Alex and Ava, but I didn’t need them crushing my game right now. What did it matter where she was from?

Ava kicked me back—hard enough that I had to suppress a groan.

“New York,” Nattie answered as she finally bit into a chicken nugget before she stared at it again.

“Oh, nice. The city?” Alex asked.

“No, upstate,” she answered.

“Beautiful country up that way,” Ava answered. “We’re actually from Silver Pine.”

I spotted the barely perceptible narrowing of Ava’s eyes as Nattie failed to react to the town’s name. I really liked my friends, but sometimes, I really hated them.

We finished our meal with lighter conversation, though Nattie didn’t have many in-depth answers.

As I drained the last of my soda, ready to ask if I could walk her somewhere or drive her somewhere or get her number I would have taken anything, she suddenly rose.

“Well, thank you for the dinner. I need to go.”

“Wait,” I said, nearly choking on the soda as I leapt up and chased after her as she hurried across the parking lot. “Hey, umm, thanks for joining us.”

She took one last glance at Alex, making my stomach clench, before she flicked her gaze back to me. “Thank you for having me. I’m sorry, I need to go.”

“Nattie, wait,” I tried, but she turned on a heel and raced away, darting across the street before I could follow.

I stood staring after her as she disappeared. That was just my luck. The beautiful woman who had actually joined me for dinner bolted away at the first opportunity. It had been more than obvious that she wasn’t interested.

My heart sank, and I crossed back to the table, collapsing onto the bench.

“Did you get her number, bro?” Alex asked.

“Nope,” I said with a puff of my cheeks. “She couldn’t get away fast enough.”

I shook my head. “Did I come across badly? Was I too desperate or something?”

“Not at all,” Ava said with a shake of her head. “But there’s something weird about her.”

I wagged a finger at her. “If you’re about to say she’s weird because she actually took me up on my invitation—"

“I’m not. Doc, you’re a catch. You know I think that. But you can’t deny that she was strange.”

“We’re strange, too, babe,” Alex said.

“Not like that. She seemed secretive, like she was hiding something.”

My heart sank at the words. I’d probably never find out if she was. I’d probably never see her again.

“We could totally find out.” Alex waved his cell phone in the air. “Doc may not have scored her number, but I did.”

“Ahhh,” Ava said with a wry grin, “Alex’s Watchful Eye strikes again.”

“Yep. Now…let’s see what Miss Nattie is hiding.”

I leaned closer, wondering if we’d learn anything about the mysterious woman who had caught my attention. Would this be yet another disaster for me?