Chapter 7
Claire
I spent more money at Piper’s boutique than I should have, but it couldn’t be helped. Her shop had the cutest clothes. As I was grabbing my bags from my car, Nick pulled up.
“Looks like you went shopping.” He smiled, climbing out of his car.
“Just a bit.” I grinned.
“Let me take a couple of those.” He grabbed some bags from me.
“Thanks. There’s this cute little boutique over by the brewhouse.”
“That’s Piper Kind’s boutique. She married to Dr. Gabriel Kind,” he said.
“I met her. She seems very sweet. Sofia was there with her children, so I met her too.”
“Wow. You’re meeting all the Kinds.” He grinned as we rode the elevator up. “Have you eaten dinner yet?”
“Not yet.” I unlocked the door.
“Me either. How about I order us a pizza?”
“Just set the bags on the table,” I said as we entered my apartment. I wasn’t sure if having pizza with him was a good idea, but I was hungry. “Sure. Pizza sounds great.”
“Good. I’ll go to my place, order the pizza, change, and then come back.”
“Or I can just follow you to your place now.” I smiled.
“Let’s go.” The corners of his mouth curved upward.
I was curious to see how he lived. Was he messy or clean? I needed to find out. When we stepped inside his apartment, I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t a filth pit, considering he was a guy. I’d known many guys over the years who were complete slobs, which was a turn-off in my eyes.
“Sorry if the place is a little messy. With my hours at the hospital, it doesn’t leave much time to clean,” he said.
“It’s not messy at all.”
“I’ll be right back,” he said, heading toward the bedroom.
I stepped into the kitchen and cringed when I saw dishes in the sink and crumbs on the counter. While he was changing his clothes, I rinsed the dishes off and put them in the dishwasher, grabbed a dishcloth, and wiped down the counters with cleaner.
“You don’t have to do that,” he said.
“Oh, but I do. Mess and clutter give me anxiety.”
“I knew you were a clean freak when I was in your apartment. For someone who just moved in, it was spotless.” He smirked.
“I have a bit of OCD.”
“Just a bit?” His brow arched.
“Okay. Maybe more than a bit.” I smiled.
He pulled his phone from his pocket. “What do you like on your pizza?”
“Everything but anchovies.”
“Supreme?”
“Sounds good to me.”
He reached into the refrigerator and grabbed two bottles of beer, handing one to me.
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome. Let’s go sit on the couch while we wait for the pizza to be delivered,” he said.
We sat on the couch and faced each other. I couldn’t stop thinking about how good he made my body feel last night as I stared into his eyes while we talked. The one thing I found about him was that he seemed easy-going and easy to talk to.
“Tell me more about why you needed a fresh start,” I said.
“It’s complicated.” He sighed heavily.
“I think everyone’s fresh start is from complicated reasons. Otherwise, we wouldn’t make them.” A smirk crossed my lips.
“I was engaged to a woman who I thought I knew.” He tipped the beer bottle to his lips. “On our wedding day, a friend informed me that she’d been sleeping with one of her exes.”
“Oh gee, Nick. I’m sorry.”
“We were already at the church, and I didn’t believe him. He showed me some pictures he took of the two of them one night when he was out. I was so angry that I went to the room where she was getting ready, kicked everyone out, and confronted her. She confessed to everything. They had been sneaking around for about four months. I yelled, called her some names that I’m not proud of, broke it off, and stormed out of the church.”
“Why would she still want to marry you if she had been sleeping with her ex for four months?” My brows furrowed.
“She said she loved me, he meant nothing, and she didn’t know why she did it,” he said, shaking his head. “The worst part was that she was a nurse in my ER. She wouldn’t leave me alone, and I couldn’t stand to look at her every day. Christian knew about everything because he and Charleigh were at the wedding. He called me and said that Cedars had an opening for an ER doctor if I was interested. I jumped on it.”
“I don’t blame you. I would have, too.” I reached over and placed my hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry she did that to you.”
“Thanks, Claire. I’m putting it all behind me and moving forward.”
There was a knock at the door.
“You stay put.” I smiled. “The pizza is on me tonight since you paid for my drink last night.” I got up from the couch, reached into my wallet, grabbed some cash, and opened the door.
“You didn’t have to do that. I asked you to have dinner,” he said.
“So? I want to.” I smiled.
“Is it a pity pizza?” he asked.
“A what?” My brows furrowed.
“A pity pizza. You feel bad for me after what I just told you.”
“No. It’s not a pity pizza.” A soft smile crossed my lips. “And I don’t pity you or feel sorry for you. That woman did you a favor.” I pointed at him.
“Why do you say that?” he asked, taking a slice of pizza from the box.
“Because the two of you weren’t supposed to be together. If you were, she never would have hooked up with her ex. Imagine if you married her and found this out six months or a year in. Your friend saved you a lot of heartache and pain by telling you on your wedding day.”
“I guess you’re right,” Nick said. “Honestly, after everything that happened, I question whether or not I truly loved her in the first place.”
“See. She did you a favor. Imagine being married for five years and waking up one day with the realization you never loved her like you thought you did.” I smirked.
“What about you, Claire Monet?”
“What about me, Dr. Russo?” I took a bite of my pizza.
“Tell me about your boyfriends in Connecticut.”
“I had one. His name was Steve Connelly.”
“I find it hard to believe that a woman like you has only had one boyfriend. How old are you?”
“Twenty-nine.” I laughed. “And it’s true. We were seventeen and dated for seven months. We were so in love, at least I was. He would tell me every day that he couldn’t imagine being with any other girl and that I was the most special thing in his life. It was a Friday night, and he took me on an expensive and romantic date. His parents were out of town, so afterward, we went back to his house, and I spent the night. He made me feel special—like I was the only girl in the world. He was mature for his age, so he knew exactly the right things to say and do. The next morning, I cooked us breakfast. It felt like we were a married couple, and I loved it. That afternoon, he took me home, walked me up to the porch, held my hand, and told me it was over between us.”
What?” Nick’s brows furrowed. “Why the hell would he do that after that romantic night?”
“He was leaving for Cabo with his friends for three weeks and told me he didn’t want to be tied down to one girl. He said if he wanted to sleep with another girl, he could do it freely without the guilt, and he wanted to give me one last amazing night before he broke it off.”
“God, Claire. What an asshole. What did you do?”
“I cried and asked him how he could do that when I thought he loved me like he always said every day. He told me that it was easy because they were just words with no feeling behind them. He said I shouldn’t be so gullible and believe every word a guy says. I took my fist and planted it across his face so hard that he fell off the porch and broke his arm.”
“Oh shit.” He laughed. “Then what?”
“He didn’t get to go to Cabo with his friends.” I smiled. “His parents did threaten to sue us, but my mom had Richard take care of it.”
“Who’s Richard?”
“He’s an attorney and business partner at the insurance company my mother and Joseph started when they moved here from Paris.”
“Was Joseph your father?” he asked.
“He was the man who raised me. My biological father was never in the picture. I just recently found out that my mother never told him I existed after she told me my entire life that he walked out when he found out she was pregnant and never came back.”
“Wow. I’m sorry. Are you trying to find him or something? Is that why you moved to California?”
“I looked him up, but he’s dead now.” I picked up my beer bottle.
“You said you moved here for a fresh start. What exactly are you looking for here?” he asked, picking up his beer bottle.
I couldn’t tell him about my newfound family, so I needed to come up with something quickly.
“Just a fresh start.” I smiled. “Too much pain back in Connecticut since my mother passed away. Speaking of which. What about your parents? You haven’t mentioned them.”
He leaned back in his chair and tipped the bottle to his lips.
“My parents live back in Seattle. Things between us aren’t that great. They never liked my ex and made it very well-known, especially in front of her. On my wedding day, when they found out what she’d done, instead of consoling me, they threw it in my face and told me that had I listened to them in the first place, none of this would have happened. They were another reason I wanted to leave Seattle.”
“I’m sorry, Nick.”
“Thanks, but don’t be. They’re very opinionated people, and it’s their way or no way. It’s how they’ve always been. My best decision was going to Harvard, across the country, and as far away from them as possible.”
“You’re a Harvard man?” I grinned.
“Yeah.” He chuckled. “Don’t get mad at me for asking this, but did you go to college?”
I picked up my napkin, balled it, and threw it at him. “Yes, I went to college. I went to Columbia.”
“Okay.” He laughed, throwing the napkin back at me. “You haven’t told me what you do for work, so how was I supposed to know?”
“I’m or was the financial manager for my mother’s insurance company. I went to work there full-time after I got my MBA.”
“Nice.” He smiled. “So you’re smart.”
“I am smart, but so are you, Dr. Nick.” I grinned.