NURA

Chapter 12

Nura

Dec. 2013, New York

"Thanks," Nura said as she absently took the warm cup in both hands, her eyes traveling over Nate's cabin.

There was a slight smile on her face as she inspected his bookshelf, obviously agreeing with his taste, which made Nate feel ridiculously proud of himself as if he had done something extraordinary.

He took his cup and turned around, his eyes flying from the armchair to the sofa and back, finding himself unable to decide which one to choose. He didn't want to make Nura feel uncomfortable, and seeing as the sofa was pretty small and he was pretty big, he thought she would feel trapped with him crowding her.

He started to feel stupid standing there like a great lump, trying to pick out where to sit as if he was going to spend the rest of his life in the damn chair, when Nura solved the problem for him, taking his hand in hers and pulling him over to the sofa.

They sat in a comfortable silence for a while, staring at the fire that was finally starting to warm the place up. Nura's head snuggled in the crook of his neck, and her scent filled his nose with a most wonderful aroma.

Nate thought that nothing could beat this moment, so happy he felt, bar for a tiny moment of guilt as Eli's face jumped up in the back of his mind, but he quickly stumped on it. He knew that Eli wouldn't mind him being happy, and he was sure she would have loved Nura if she'd gotten to meet her.

"So, how did you and Meg meet?' Nura asked after a while, moving her head a bit so she could see him. Nate got momentarily distracted as he gazed down at her face, feeling blown away by just how beautiful she was. Her oval-shaped eyes framed with long, dark lashes, the way her pierced nose perked up at the tip, and her full lips with the deep bow on the top one all made him want to never do anything else except look at her.

"Nate?" she said with an arched brow, her face now showing her confusion at his lack of response, and he felt himself growing hot in embarrassment at being caught staring at her like a love-sick puppy for the second time in one night.

"Umm... yes... Meg, right." he stumbled over his words while trying to get his mind to start working long enough for him to form a coherent sentence.

He thought back to when he met Meg, a broad smile spreading over his face at the memory. He had just opened his hospital and was working a double shift since he still hadn't found another trauma surgeon.

It was a night not much different than this one; the snow was falling, and the roads had started to freeze over, which culminated in a slew of car accidents, one of which Meg ended up being in.

She had been driving home from her office since she was still a practicing lawyer at the time and not quite done with trying to make the world a better place when a dog jumped up in the middle of the road, forcing her to swirl to the side and collide with a tree. Thankfully, she only earned a small cut on the side of her head that barely needed a couple of stitches and a handful of pain meds to fix.

It was a bad night, but it ended up with the two of them bonding over cars and the best way to grill a steak.

"She cried?" Nura managed to say between chuckles as Nate nodded, smiling himself at the memory of Megan crying at the sight of a needle.

"Yup. I have seen everything over the years, both in the army and in the hospital, but seeing her going white as a sheet and crying at just the sight of the needle must be the most hilarious thing I've ever witnessed."

Nura continued to laugh for a while; every time she managed to calm down, it would only take a look at Nate's face for her to go off again.

The sight made something in the pit of his stomach warm up, the sound of her laughter the best thing he ever heard, so he leaned in, unable to resist, and kissed her.