Read Nursing in Northlake (At the Altar Book 9) for Free Online Page A

Texas? I must have lost my mind!"
    "You did! I wasn't going to say anything, though!" He nodded toward the bathroom. "You use the master bath. Bathtub is best in there. I'll go shower in one of the spare bathrooms."
    While Heidi bathed, she couldn't help but think about the night she was about to have. Her wedding night, with a man who was almost a stranger, but who was very attractive. Too bad he was a doctor. She was going to make the most of it anyway. She knew it couldn't last, but she did want children. Why not get them while she could?
    She shaved her legs carefully and finally got out of the tub, brushing her hair down around her shoulders. She put on the flimsy little nightgown her friends had insisted on and went back into the bedroom to find Slade sitting with his back propped against the headboard, reading a book. It looked like a spy-thriller type thing. Whatever. She wasn't all that worried about his reading habits at the moment.
    She slipped into bed beside him, feeling suddenly shy—something that was very rare for her. "Do you like to read?" she asked softly, trying to take her mind off what was about to happen.
    He finished his paragraph before putting a bookmark between the pages. "Yeah, I love to read. I just wish I had more time for it. When you're constantly exhausted from late-night deliveries, it's hard to care about what's happening in a book though."
    "That's sad," Heidi said, but she certainly understood. She was always tired from work as well, and seemed to read less and less every year.
    "I think so. Do you read?"
    "Yeah. I do. Not a ton, but I love to read. Like you, I don't have as much time as I would like for anything but work." She rubbed the back of her neck.
    Slade could tell she was nervous, so he didn't touch her yet, but instead turned to her on the bed. "What else does Heidi wish she had more time for?"
    Heidi thought about it for a minute. "I like a lot of things. I love to dance, but I never have time—or a partner."
    He smiled at that. "You have a partner now. I enjoy dancing a great deal."
    "Really?"
    He nodded. "I did a lot of country dancing when I was younger, and you should see me on a mechanical bull."
    Heidi laughed. "A mechanical bull? Really?"
    "Yup. On low speed, I can do all this standing stuff on the back of a mechanical bull. Honestly, it's how I worked my way through college."
    "How did you do that?" she asked, shocked at the very idea.
    Slade grinned. "Well, it started with my friends saying, 'I bet you can't stand on the back of that bull for one full rotation,' and they'd bet me twenty bucks or whatever. I'd go to the bar during the day between classes and practice. Then when they came up with this outrageous stuff, I could do it. And then we started talking to strangers, and they'd put up money saying I couldn't do stuff. It was silly, but I made enough to eat that way."
    "I've never heard of such a thing. Are you pulling my leg?"
    He shook his head. "No. I'll show you. Maybe we can try to do that next weekend. No promises, because I might get a call, but I'm always willing to at least try to do it!"
    “It honestly sounds like fun.”
    “Then we’ll do it. As soon as we can.”
    “Do it? Don’t you have better words for the wedding night activities, Dr. Henderson?”
    He laughed. “Oh, I do. I can give you a whole list if you want!”
    She laughed, moving toward him on the bed. “Maybe you should show me instead.”
     

Chapter Four
     
    Slade grinned at Heidi. “Feeling bold?”
    She nodded. “I liked it when you kissed me, and if I’m going to forget you’re a you-know-what, you’ll have to kiss me more. Like, a lot more.”
    He chuckled. “Thanks for trying to forget. Makes my life a bit easier.” He stroked his hands up and down her arms. “You know you could always kiss me.”
    “I could. I might later. Now, you have to kiss me. It’s the natural order of things.”
    “Why is that?” he asked.
    “No idea.”
    He sighed, pulling her closer