His Always: Book 1 Rhodes Character Series

Chapter 4: Natalie

I walk out of the hospital doors, taking a deep inhale of the fresh air that rushes to my face. My eyes feel dry with tiredness as I walk to my car. I sit down in the driver's seat and gently lay my head down on the steering wheel. Just wanting to close my eyes for a few seconds. Gosh, closing my eyes feels good. A second later, I hear a loud bang on the window. I startle awake - crap, did I fall asleep?

"Nat, open the door. What are you doing here still?" Shit. What time is it? Rushing around, still feeling disoriented, I click to roll down the window.

"Tate, you shouldn't go banging on people's windows. You scared me." I say softly, still waking up from my five-minute power nap. "Get up Nat. I'll drive your car home. Your shift ended two hours ago. I don't want you to drive." He argues. "Absolutely not. You just finished your 24-hour shift, too. I can drive myself."

"Are you really going to argue with me? Come on, get up. I'll order us some pizza if you let me drive you." I don't even have to consider the offer before I accept. Food, especially pizza, is my ultimate weakness. I hop over the center console as he shifts into the driver's seat.

"Wait - what about your car? We can't just leave it here." He doesn't even look in my direction. "It's no biggie. I can Uber here later." I only live about five minutes from the hospital. I enjoy having quick access in case I am needed. I must doze off again as he drives my car four blocks over to my apartment. It reminds me of my medical school days when Tate would pull all-nighters with me studying. Since he was two classes ahead of me, he always knew the tricks with certain professors. I miss the innocence of medical school sometimes. While it was the most high pressured, competitive educational environment that I have ever been in, it was nothing compared to actually practicing medicine.

When my parents died in my third year of medical school, Madison and Penelope were the two to pull me through the rest of school. But I always saw Tate in the background, checking in with them to make sure I was doing okay. He had backed off once I started dating Thomas. Sure, we had shared a few sleep-deprived kisses on the top level of the library once or twice, but once my parents died, it was like he put up a wall around me. He looked at me like I was made of glass.

Tate nudges my shoulder and motions for me to get out of the car. I am way more exhausted than I thought. Why am I so tired? I know I just worked a long shift, but still. This is my normal schedule. I should be fine to power through. Tate and I don't speak as we get onto the elevator. He breaks the silence to ask, "why don't you take a shower while I wait for the pizza?" He seriously thinks I am going to make it to the pizza eating part of this night? Ha. I am walking in and going straight to my bed.

"Sure, sounds like a plan." I mutter, but having no intention at all of doing anything besides stripping my clothes off and going to sleep. But, Tate will argue with me unless I tell him yes. We step out of the elevator and are both standing at my door. After a few seconds I jolt with awareness, "crap, sorry, guess I need to get the keys out." He chuckles under his breath. "You're cute when you're this tired. Glad you grew out of the grouchy, tired phase you had in med school." I swat at his chest as we walk through the door of my apartment.

I immediately relax as the smell of home surrounds me. While I was no interior decorator, I took the time, and the money, to make this space feel welcoming and relaxing. I wanted to make sure that after a grueling shift, I had somewhere to decompress. I turn to Tate to tell him I was just going to crash for the night, but he is already on the phone. He is the most natural caretaker I have ever been around. He surely gets that from his mom, Sally, whom was one of the most nurturing souls I had ever met. My mom wasn't really the nurturing type. She had a high-strung personality that intensely demanded success from anyone in her life. As much as her drive for me to be the best got me into a top medical program, it also created an unrealistic, anxious tendency to never put myself in a position of disappointing anyone. They aren't wrong when they say the pressure to get to the top is insane, but the pressure to stay at the top once you are already there, will slide you all the way back down to the bottom.