Chapter 22
22
Nick
I got her, shaking and white faced, out of that arena. I knew she was panicked and probably thinking of her life when that garbage with Rene blew up. I wanted to tell her I wasn’t Rene. I wasn’t going to hurt her.
Except you already did, asshole. Posting that fucking video.
I wanted to kick my own ass.
“I’m sorry,” I said as we sat in the front seat of my truck staring out at the wall of the parking garage. “I’m so sorry.”
“You didn’t do it on purpose,” she said. She sounded so beaten. The opposite of the girl I’d picked up for the game. The opposite of the girl she’d been the last few weeks. No. This was the girl on the bench eating the chocolate cupcake. Alone and devastated.
“Maybe no one in Calico Cove knows,” I said, hopefully.
“My sister was the one who told me. I guarantee people know.”
She put her head in her hands and I wanted to pull her closer, tell her it didn’t matter, but it so clearly did to her.
“We can come up with an excuse,” I offered. “It was a joke? We were pretending to be other people? You were blasted out of your mind drunk?”
“Those sound as plausible as losing my contact or getting lipstick on your neck in a dancing accident,” she said.
I laughed but she didn’t.
“Nora, if they know, they know,” I said more confidently than I felt, given Roy’s dire warning.
“Yeah, how do you think my Dad is going to react to that video, Nick?”
Not good. I might lose a finger. Maybe a whole hand. I was playing poker with Roy tomorrow, and it occurred to me I should suddenly develop pneumonia, or The Plague.
“Exactly,” she said, reading my expression.
“Maybe this is a good thing. We’ve got nothing to hide. We’re two consenting adults having a relationship.” I said, and she laughed like I’d made a great joke. It didn’t hurt, that laughter, but it didn’t feel great.
“Trust me,” she said. “Nothing about this is good.”
Yeah. That one hurt.
Poker Night
“So we’re clear,” I said to Wyatt as we approached Mal’s front door the following night, ready to play poker. “You say nothing about Nora.”
“You mean I should avoid talking about the girl you took back to your apartment and did nasty things to all night long?” He hummed the song that had been playing in the background of the video and wiggled his eyebrows. We’d deleted the video, but the ripple effect was ridiculous. I had ten thousand followers and everyone was talking about Nora and Rene again.
Worse, Nora hadn’t come in to work today and she wasn’t returning my calls. I had one text from her.
Nora : I’m lying low until this blows over.
Me: Okay. Come lie low with me.
To which she replied with total silence.
So, I brought Wyatt to the poker game as a major league distraction.
“You’re not talking about Nora in any context,” I warned him. “You’re going to be charming and interesting. You’re going to tell stories about the good old days of hockey when men were tough, and let people wear your ring if they want.”
“I can do the stories, the ring and the interesting part. Charming isn’t really my bag.”
I glared at him. The truth was, I was freaking out. Sure, there was the Roy of it all that I was going to have to deal with. But I didn’t know how to fix this for Nora. How to make it right. All I knew was, she wouldn’t want me talking about her or us at poker. So I wasn’t going to and I brought Wyatt along to make sure no one did.
“Charming,” Wyatt relented. “Got it. So…what am I? Your brother?”
“I think everyone already knows who you are.”
“Boy, you really like keeping people at arm’s length, don’t you?”
“You want to play poker or not?” I barked at him. I couldn’t fight the internet so I was looking for another target for all this frustration. And yes, I knew he’d put me in the ground with one swing of his fist, but I felt just that out of control.
“Yes, please. The only reason I left Syd home alone tonight was so I could meet your friends. Let’s do this.” Wyatt clapped his hands together.
I didn’t bother knocking, the door was always unlocked on poker night and I stepped into the foyer of Mal's home.
“Wow,” Wyatt said, looking around at all the gleaming wood and herringbone floors. “What’s this guy do again?” he asked. It was impossible to put everything Malcolm Bettencourt did into words, so all I said was: “runs things.”
The living room was set up for the poker game. Everyone was there already gathered around the special table Mal had made. When they saw me, they started giving me grief for being late.
Mal was dealing the cards. Roy, Sheriff Bobby, Fiona and Matt all had chips in front of them. Plus, two open chairs. I’d let Mal know in advance I was bringing someone. When they saw Wyatt, everyone went quiet.
I grinned. Just the reaction I was hoping for.
“Hey everyone. I brought…this is Wyatt Locke.”
“Hey, man,” Bobby said, getting it together first. He stood up to shake Wyatt’s hand. “Good to meet you. I just saw you on TV doing the game of the week. I love your play by play commentary. You really know your hockey.”
“He played for the Peaks for twelve years,” Roy said to Bobby. “Of course he knows his shit.” Roy gave Wyatt a head nod, Wyatt returned it. Those two would either get into a fight or become life-long friends. Hard to say how that would go.
“Is it true you make Sydney Malloy sing to you every night before you go to bed?” Fiona asked Wyatt. Of course she wouldn’t want to talk hockey. “I saw a post about it.”
“I do not. But I might have her start, now that you suggested it,” he said, tongue in cheek. He took one of the empty seats and immediately the table looked child sized in front of him.
“What’s your favorite song by her?” Fiona grilled him. “Clearly, I’m a fan.”
“Whichever one she’s singing, ma’am.”
“That’s sweet,” Fiona smiled, she patted his arm. “Nice to meet you.”
“Are we playing poker or grilling Wyatt?” I asked the table.
“It appears we’re doing both,” Mal said drolly. “The blinds are a dollar and fifty cents, gentlemen.”
I sat down and tossed my blind in without even looking at my cards. I was in the mood to take a few risks.
“So, Nick,” Fiona asked me. “How did you like Nora’s dress that she bought for the wedding? I understand you accompanied her.”
I looked up, trying to read her face. Was this her way of saying she saw the video? But her expression was carefully blank. Around her, everyone else was staring at their cards.
“The dress was nice. She looked beautiful.”
“Nice?” Roy barked. “There wasn’t enough material on the damn thing for it to warrant an adjective.”
“I wasn’t asking you how you liked it,” Fiona said to Roy. “I wanted to get Nick’s opinion.”
“Nick shouldn’t have an opinion on what Nora wears,” Roy grunted. “Raise. Two dollars.”
“I call the two dollars.” I tossed in my chips.
“Fold,” Wyatt announced. “This food,” he said, pointing to the table behind him filled with snacks. “Can I just…”
“Help yourself,” Mal said and Wyatt beelined for the buffet.
“I don’t know,” Bobby said with a smile around his lips as he peeked down at his two cards. “I’m pretty sure Nick was fairly interested in those color contact lenses Nora was wearing the other night. I’ll call.”
Under the table I tried to kick Bobby. “Ouch,” Matt Sullivan said.
“Sorry,” I said.
“Nora doesn’t wear contacts,” Roy said.
“They’re from Paris,” Bobby smiled and wiggled his eyebrows. “You know… French .”
I glared Bobby into silence.
“And here comes flop, everyone. Good luck,” Mal said, thankfully distracting Roy from Bobby’s nonsense.
Maybe this was a bad idea. Playing this Nora’s way made me feel like I was lying to everyone, especially Roy, and I hated it. More than that, it made it seem like I was ashamed of us. Like we were doing something wrong, when it finally felt like we were doing something right.
“I’m going to grab a beer,” Matt announced. “Can I get anyone anything?”
“I’ll take a beer,” Wyatt said with a finger raised. “Also, Sydney wanted to know if it was possible while she was in town to get an autograph from your wife. She’s a huge Carrie Piedmont-Sullivan fan.”
“Sure. As long as Carrie gets one of her guitar picks,” Matt said and headed off in the direction of the kitchen.
“Seems like our small town is filled with famous people these days,” Mal said. “Actresses, singers, hockey stars and…people who go viral on the internet.”
My eyes met Mal’s, but he had a legendary poker face.
“Nora doesn’t do that anymore,” Roy said. “I’ll check.”
I knocked on the table twice to indicate I was also checking.
“Oh, I’m not talking about Nora,” Mal said with a knowing smirk. Oh shit. “Although I do miss her videos wandering through the streets of Paris. She always found the most delightful out of the way spots. I’m taking Jolie back there for our anniversary and I’d like to ask Nora for some recommendations, but I don’t want to bring up bad memories.”
“Smart,” Roy said, and at the same time I said, “She’d love that.”
“What?” I said to Roy. “She would. She likes helping people and Paris didn’t hurt her, that asshole did.”
“And the internet,” Fiona said. “All those people she thought were fans turned on her so fast.”
“Nora’s got a gift,” Roy said, his eyes pinned on me. “She should be using it. Instead, she’s working at a garage.”
“Oh, please don’t let her leave the garage,” Matt said, coming back from the kitchen. He dropped an open bottle of beer in front of Wyatt and retook his seat. “I finally have an appointment scheduled to get my truck fixed.”
“She likes it,” I said to Roy, feeling a bit defensive. I wasn’t forcing Nora to work at the garage. “And she’s good at it too.”
“And here is the turn card,” Mal announced.
I hadn’t been paying much attention to the game, but everyone in the hand must have checked the flop. Truth be told, I had no idea if I had anything remotely resembling a winning card.
“You know she can’t stay, though,” Roy said again, looking directly at me. “Nora’s future isn’t going to be working with you.”
“Working?” Sheriff Bobby coughed into his hand. “Maybe not.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” Roy barked. “Is there something going on here I don’t know about?”
The table immediately got quiet and everyone averted their eyes. From Roy. From me. Everyone knew what happened except Roy and I felt like an asshole keeping my mouth shut.
This is what she wants, I reminded myself.
Distraction! I needed a distraction. I glared at Wyatt, who had his mouth full.
“Anyone want to try on my ring?” he said, though it was indecipherable around a mouthful of slider.
“All in!” I shouted and pushed all the chips in front of me into the pot.
“Call,” Roy said immediately. “I’ve got a full house,” he said, turning over his cards.
I looked at my hand. I officially had nothing. I tossed the cards face down into the pot and muttered, “Win some, lose some.”
“You said you were good at cards,” Wyatt said as we left Mal’s house and made our way back to the truck. I was down about two hundred bucks.
“I was distracted,” I admitted. “And you were zero help.”
“Sorry, man,” he said patting my back. “You know everyone at that table knows what’s happening with you and Nora except her dad right?”
Guilt stopped me in my tracks. “I know.”
“I don’t have a daughter yet, but if I did, and some guy I played poker with was fucking her, I sure as hell would want him to man up and say it to my face.”
“Then what would you do?”
“Oh, I’d fuck him up hard. But that’s a father’s right. That dude in there. Roy? Yeah, he’s going to mess you up. Probably break something. Your nose, maybe? I mean, I’m a former pro hockey player and that dude makes me nervous. So you’re going to get yours, but then, it will have been worth it.”
“Nora asked me not to say anything about us,” I said. “She’s not ready to be public. The video was an accident.”
“I don’t know, man,” he said with a shrug. “If you’re serious about a girl, you should be serious enough to tell her dad. “
We climbed inside the truck and I turned the key in the ignition. Was he right? Should I just ignore Nora’s wishes, go back inside, and tell Roy I was with Nora and let him punch me in the face?
“So?” he asked. “Are you serious about her?”
“Yeah,” I said.
It wasn’t hard to answer. That moment outside the door of her house I knew there was no going back. “But I wanted to give her time to trust me, you know. After everything that happened with that asshole and everything I did to her when she was eighteen, I wanted to show her, you know, that I was someone she could count on.”
“Seems to me lying to her dad doesn’t really do that,” Wyatt said.
“Fuck, I know, but…”
“I get it. She doesn’t want you to. Listen,” Wyatt looked out all the windows like someone might be watching, and dropped his voice to a whisper. “If you tell my wife I said this, I’ll deny it and kick your ass so hard I’ll make the beating you’re about to get from Roy seem like a love tap, but…sometimes, sooooometimes, very occasionally, very rarely...women are wrong.”
“That’s it. That’s your big epiphany? When have you told Sydney she was wrong?”
“Oh no,” he said. “You can’t tell them they’re wrong, you have to show them, but make it seem like they came to the conclusion on their own. It’s advanced relationship stuff.”
Well, I’d been in a relationship with Nora for most of my life, and I was dead serious about her. About us. And I couldn’t have Roy thinking I was an asshole, how would that help me?
“You’re right,” I said to Wyatt.
“Of course I am,” he said. “You want to go get a beer?”
“Maybe another time,” I said and put the truck in gear. “I’ve got to go get my nose broken.”