Never Nicola by Jamie Bennett

It’s never going to be the right time for Nicola.
Nicola Curran has spent her life caring for others. First, her six siblings needed someone to raise them, and now she’s responsible for the patients in the emergency rooms where she works as a nurse. She also doles out plenty of advice to the tenants who rent a room in her house. Their money goes to cover the expenses that she’d rather not discuss, because there are things about Nicola that she’ll never talk about. Never.
Meeting Jude Bowers, who’s a wreck of a person, shouldn’t have even registered as a tiny blip in her busy life. But in not too long, he becomes a major part of her thoughts, of her worries, and of her…everything. He does need her guidance, of course, but then it becomes clear to Nicola that she needs him, too. His problems are hers, and her own issues? They’re still not something she wants to talk about, but things can’t go on the way they are. Something has to give, and Jude is afraid that it’s going to be Nicola who falls apart just like her aging house.
She never expected happiness, and she never expected love. But then never becomes maybe, and maybe? It could be forever with Jude, if life and if Nicola herself don’t get in the way of their happiness.