Chapter 1
Paisley Matthews
There are exactly three things I know for certain.
One, nursing school is actively trying to kill me.
Two, coffee should qualify as a food group.
And three...
Walker Lakewood has been the biggest pain in my ass for as long as I’ve known him.
“Paisley.”
I don’t bother looking up from my pharmacology flashcards.
“If you’re about to tell me caffeine isn’t a personality trait, save it.”
Hannah laughs from across the tiny study room, shutting her anatomy textbook with a dramatic groan.
“I wasn’t. But now that you mention it...” She points toward the mountain of empty coffee cups scattered around me. “I’m a little concerned.”
“You should be more concerned about cranial nerves.”
“I already took that exam.”
I narrow my eyes.
“Don’t remind me.”
She grins, entirely too pleased with herself.
Being best friends with Hannah Lakewood means living in a constant state of chaos. We’ve been inseparable since we were seven years old, when she marched across the elementary school playground because she’d seen another girl make fun of my thrift-store backpack.
She’d looked that girl dead in the face and said, “If you’re mean to her, you can’t sit with me anymore.”
Just like that.
Instant best friends.
Fifteen years later, nothing has changed.
Except now we’re drowning in nursing school together instead of multiplication tables.
My phone buzzes against the table.
Mom ❤️: Rent’s covered this month. Don’t you worry about me. Love you.
I smile despite the knot that instantly forms in my chest.
She always says not to worry.
I always worry anyway.
Between scholarships, waitressing three nights a week, tutoring freshman biology students, and clinicals that start before sunrise, there isn’t much room left for anything else.
Failure isn’t an option.
If my GPA slips...
If I get written up...
If anything happens...
I lose my scholarship.
And if I lose my scholarship...
I lose nursing school.
Simple as that.
“You okay?” Hannah asks quietly.
I nod before forcing a smile.
“Yeah.”
She’s known me long enough to know I’m lying.
She reaches across the table and squeezes my hand.
“We’re almost done.”
“We’ve been saying that for two years.”
She shrugs.
“Eventually it’ll be true.”
I laugh.
“Fair point.”
The library doors swing open.
A second later...
Every girl in the room collectively forgets how to breathe.
“Oh God,” Hannah mutters.
“You know he’s coming over here.”
“I know.”
I don’t even have to look.
I’d recognize the sound of Walker Lakewood’s boots anywhere.
Slow.
Confident.
Like the entire campus belongs to him.
He stops beside our table.
“Darlin’. Pain in my ass.”
There it is.
I finally glance up. Hannah flips him off cause I have a nicer nickname than she does.
Six-foot-five.
Dark brown hair that’s somehow perfectly messy without looking like he tried.
Bright blue eyes that have no business being that unfair.
A silver chain resting against the collar of his black T-shirt.
The sleeve tattoo wrapping his left arm disappears beneath the fabric before reappearing at his wrist.
He smells faintly like cedar and laundry detergent.
Annoyingly attractive.
Infuriatingly aware of it.
“What do you want?” I ask.
He places a bottled water beside my coffee.
“You’ve had four coffees.”
“Five.”
He sighs dramatically.
“That’s exactly my point.”
“I’m hydrated.”
“You are absolutely not.”
“I’m mostly water.”
He looks at Hannah.
“Is she always like this?”
Hannah doesn’t even glance up from her notes.
“Worse.”
Traitor.
Walker reaches over and effortlessly steals one of my flashcards.
“Walker.”
“Hm?”
“Give it back.”
He scans the card.
“‘What medication class does lisinopril belong to?’”
His eyebrows lift.
“Do you even know this?”
“I did before you kidnapped my flashcard.”
He smiles.
That stupid, crooked smile.
“No, you didn’t.”
“I absolutely did.”
“What is it?”
I open my mouth.
Nothing comes out.
His grin widens.
“I hate you.”
“You love me.”
“I tolerate you because Hannah would cry if I pushed you down a staircase.”
“I wouldn't,” Hannah confirms.
Walker hands my flashcard back.
“ACE inhibitor.”
“I knew that.”
“Mhm.”
“I did.”
He chuckles.
“You looked terrified.”
“I was distracted.”
“By what?”
“You.”
His smile falters for half a second.
Just long enough that I almost think I imagined it.
Then it’s back.
“Cute excuse, Darlin’.”
Before I can respond, his phone buzzes.
He glances down.
His expression shifts.
More serious.
“Coach wants us at the field early.”
Hannah waves him off.
“Go.”
He nods before taking two steps away.
Then he turns back around.
Looks directly at me.
“Eat lunch today.”
“I always eat lunch.”
“You skipped yesterday.”
I blink.
“How do you know that?”
He shrugs.
“I notice things.”
Before I can ask what that means...
He’s gone.
I stare after him.
Hannah is already smirking.
“What?”
She practically vibrates with excitement.
“He notices things.”
“So?”
“So?” She looks offended.
“Paisley, he literally knows whether or not you ate lunch.”
“He’s observant.”
“He is obsessed.”
I snort.
“No.”
“Oh, absolutely.”
“He barely tolerates me.”
She laughs so hard she nearly falls out of her chair.
“You are so unbelievably blind.”
“I’m realistic.”
“No.”
She points toward the library entrance where Walker had disappeared.
“My brother has had heart eyes for you since high school.”
I blink.
Then laugh.
Actually laugh.
“Hannah.”
“I’m serious.”
“He makes fun of me every chance he gets.”
“He flirts with you every chance he gets.”
“By stealing my flashcards?”
“Yes.”
“That’s a terrible strategy.”
“I’ve told him that.”
I stare at her.
“You’ve... talked about me?”
She immediately realizes what she admitted.
“...No.”
“Hannah.”
She winces.
“Maybe.”
“Oh, my God.”
“It wasn’t weird!”
“It sounds weird.”
“It wasn’t!”
I shake my head, laughing.
“You two are unbelievable.”
She opens her mouth to argue.
Before she can...
My phone buzzes again.
Unknown Number.
Hi, Paisley. This is Mrs. Dawson from the tutoring center. One of tonight’s appointments canceled if you’d rather head home early.
Relief floods through me.
One less hour meant one less hour on my feet before tomorrow’s clinical.
Thank you! I’ll still come for the others.
I slip my phone back into my pocket.
“Everything okay?” Hannah asks.
“Just work.”
She nods.
“You know...”
“What?”
“You don’t always have to carry the world by yourself.”
I smile softly.
“I know.”
But the truth is...
Sometimes it feels like I do.
Nobody else is paying my rent.
Nobody else is making sure my mom doesn’t have to choose between groceries and electricity.
Everything I’m building...
I’m building alone.
And I can’t let it crumble.
Not now.
Not ever.
I gather my flashcards and stand.
“I’m grabbing another coffee.”
Hannah groans.
“Water.”
“Coffee.”
“Water.”
“Coffee.”
A deep voice behind me settles the argument.
“Water.”
I don’t even have to turn around.
I roll my eyes toward the ceiling.
“Do you ever leave?”
Walker steps back beside me with that same infuriating grin.
“No.”
He holds out the bottle of water he’d apparently bought before I even reached the café.
“For you, Darlin’.”
I sigh dramatically as I take it from him.
“You’re impossible.”
“And yet...”
His blue eyes meet mine.
“...you still took the water.”
For reasons I couldn’t begin to explain...
That made my heart skip just once.
I blamed it on the caffeine.
