Chapter 10 #2
“As long as I’m paying for it, it is my business.”
As soon as Niko had finished up with the Fostering the Future kids, he went down to find Tiana at the cider stand, but Ramona explained she’d gotten off about ten minutes earlier and he’d just missed her.
The last flirty text he’d sent her had basically outed himself as having been thinking about her for a long time. As soon as he pressed send, he began to second guess himself. Was that a step too far? Had he crossed a boundary? They weren’t actually in a relationship.
But that kiss. That kiss was seared into his DNA. It was real, whether their relationship was fake or not.
He checked his phone again and saw he still had no response.
His thumbs were hovering over the screen to try and do some damage control as he headed down to the main stage where Karina was going to be singing before the tree lighting when he heard a familiar voice.
He glanced over and saw Gianna, she was on the phone speaking to her sister Genevieve.
He knew it was her sister because that’s whose voice he heard, they were on FaceTime.
“Fuck him, G. If he’s gonna act like that, fuck him.”
Niko’s first instinct was to assume they were speaking about him. Why wouldn’t he think that? But he quickly realized he was not the him they were referring to.
“He’s just stressed, he didn’t mean to—”
“Do you hear yourself? I can’t believe you are making excuses for him. Who are you?”
“I have to go. L-Y-L.” Gianna and her sisters ended every call with L-Y-L, for love you lots.
She disconnected the phone, and Niko could tell she was breathing erratically, like she was about to have a panic attack.
He wasn’t sure what to do in the situation he found himself in.
He’d never seen or heard his ex sound so unlike herself.
She wasn’t the sort of person who made excuses for behavior or cried hidden away on the side of the building, he would know since he would have been the person who would have benefited from that particular trait.
She said what was on her mind, loudly, and, in Niko’s experience, up in the person’s face.
Niko knew it was none of his business, but what Tiana had said at the wedding was flashing in his mind like a neon sign. “I wish I could warn her.”
Warn her about what? He had no clue, but Tiana wasn’t dramatic or a crazy ex. She wouldn’t say that unless there was actually something to be warned about.
Niko was still trying to figure out what to say or do when G turned around. When she did, he saw that she’d been crying.
“G.” He took a step towards her. “Are you okay?” he asked.
There was only a split second of vulnerability before the shades were shut over the windows to her soul. Her mask was back in place. She wiped the two tears sliding down her cheek with the back of her hand. “I’m fine. Great.”
“I heard you,” he explained, “on the phone.”
She let out a huff of forced laughter and lifted the device. “You know, Genevieve, she’s a drama queen.”
“She is,” Niko agreed.
He wanted to push, wanted to make her tell him what exactly was upsetting her, but he knew it wasn’t his place.
Something changed in G’s face, like she realized something, and a panicked expression replaced her sadness. “I’ve gotta go find Brock, I’m supposed to meet him for the tree lighting.”
“I’m headed that way.”
“Oh, I don’t know if…” She looked around, clearly nervous to be seen with him. “I think it’s better if, you know, with our past… what if people…”
“Fuck people. Since when do you care what people say? What happened to it doesn’t matter what they’re saying as long as your name is in their mouth?”
Gianna loved people talking about her. She loved being the center of attention. That’s exactly what she would be if she and Niko walked together.
“Yeah, that’s not, I don’t think Brock would…” A chime sounded, and G checked her phone. “I have to go.”
Gianna took off walking, double time, towards the main stage at the end of the street where the tree lighting ceremony was set up for Karina’s performance.
Instead of pushing, Niko hung back and walked six paces behind his ex.
He wasn’t going to do anything to make her uncomfortable when she already seemed raw and vulnerable.
On the way, several teens stopped G, asking for selfies.
She had a fairly large social media following.
Niko watched as she interacted with each one, quickly taking their photos.
To someone who didn’t know her as well as he did, she would look engaged, but to him, he could tell that something was off.
She was absolutely not herself and present in the moment, basking in the attention of her fans. She was distracted and anxious.
He waited, hanging back, as she took the photos, then continued six paces behind her.
His plan was to continue to remain several yards behind her, that was until he spotted Tiana, more specifically Brock.
He loomed over her. Niko couldn’t hear what he was saying, but from her body language, it was clear she was uncomfortable.
Her arm was lifted, her palm facing toward him, giving him a clear signal to back off.
She took a step backwards, and he immediately advanced.
That was all it took. One second Niko was keeping his distance from G, the next, in the blink of an eye, he closed the distance between himself and Tiana, wrapped his arms around her waist, and pulled her to him.
He leaned down and kissed her. It was a short, deep kiss.
In the ten seconds it lasted, he claimed her, dipping her backwards.
A whimper escaped from the back of her throat. Niko wasn’t sure if it was out of surprise or pleasure, maybe both. When he straightened them both up. He lifted his head and smiled down at her. “I missed you.”
She stared up at him, her lids heavy as she blinked and breathlessly responded, “Oh, um…” She licked her lips, and his cock swelled at the sight. “That’s nice.”
Niko could feel Brock’s stare boring into the right side of his face, and he totally ignored it. G had joined him, and Brock barely acknowledged her.
“How was the cider stand?” Niko asked as he lifted his hand and brushed a stray curl that had fallen from her messy bun back behind her ear.
“Good.” She took in a shaky breath. “It was good.”
“It tasted good.” Niko grinned, referring to the tart flavor that he’d just enjoyed on her lips.
“How’s Pops doing? I was thinking about stopping by to see him,” Brock stated with a casual cruelty in his tone.
Tiana’s entire body tensed, and Niko felt and heard her audibly gasp.
“Oh shit, I didn’t see you there, Bartlett.” Niko played it off as if it was him who was caught off-guard and hadn’t noticed the giant turd of a human.
“No. He doesn’t want to see you,” Tiana stated firmly.
“I want to apologize, man to man.”
Tiana bit her lip and he could feel her entire body trembling with tension.
There was no fucking way Niko would allow Brock to wield any sort of power over Tiana, and it was clear that was exactly what he was doing. He’d made that statement to try and upset Tiana, which it clearly had.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Niko explained.
“You don’t, huh?” Brock puffed his chest out as he squared his shoulders.
It was the same thing he’d been doing since freshman year in college.
It hadn’t intimidated Niko then, and at that time Brock had at least twenty-five pounds on him.
Now the two men were roughly the same weight, so why he was still doing it? Niko had no clue.
Niko stared Brock directly in his eyes. “No. I don’t.”
Brock took a step towards Niko. “I don’t think it’s any of your fucking business.”
Niko grinned, praying the man would make the first move. It would give Niko so much satisfaction to slam his face into the cement.
“What the fuck is so funny?”
Niko’s smile widened even further.
“You want me to wipe that smile off your face?”
Yes. All Niko needed was for this asshole to make the first move.
Niko continued smiling. “If you’re feeling froggy, hop.”
“Fuck you!”
Niko’s face was split in half, his smile was so wide.
“Brock, it’s fine.” G touched his arm as she gave Niko a pleading look.
She knew why Niko was smiling, she’d heard his theory on more than one occasion that if you drop an F bomb in the defensive, your opponent knows you are in a winning position.
Dropping two, it was check. A fuck you, and it was checkmate.
“Let’s go find your mom and sister. We’re supposed to meet them by the bookstore. ”
Brock jerked his arm away from G. His action nearly caused him to elbow her in the chin. If that had happened, Niko would have knocked Brock on his ass. As it was, Niko’s hands were twitching, his fingers were curling up into his palms, but he forced them to relax.
“Happy holidays, Hope Falls! I am Mayor Walker. Welcome to the annual downtown tree lighting ceremony!”
A swell of cheers built around them as the crowd applauded and whistled. Niko concentrated on the stage and stepped behind Tiana, putting his arms around her and pulling her against him, ignoring Brock altogether.
The mayor went on to speak a little bit, and Niko leaned down and whispered against Tiana’s ear as he tightened his hold around her waist. “Are you okay?”
She nodded.
“Do you want to leave?” he asked.
She shook her head and tilted it back so she could speak into his ear. He leaned down.
“I promised Karina I’d stay for her song and the lighting.”
“Okay.”
Niko did his best to continue to ignore Brock and concentrate fully on his connection with Tiana.
Their relationship may technically be “fake,” but his feelings were anything but.
He cared about the woman whom he held in his arms. He cared about her a lot.
He wasn’t sure why. Maybe because he’d admired her from afar for so many years.
He used to tell himself his gravitational pull to her was because his very first crush was Zoe Kravitz, and she bore a striking resemblance to the actress.
Then he said it was because she was with his arch nemesis in college, so she was forbidden fruit.
But now that he’d spent even just a little bit of time with her, he knew it was more than that. Much more.
Karina came on stage, and the first thing she did was give a shout out to Tiana and her classes by blaming her for being so sore, she was the reason she would not be dancing, then joked and said it had nothing to do with the fact that she was now in her thirties which made her ancient for a pop star.
Karina then introduced her husband, Ryan, who joined her with his guitar, and the couple sang a beautiful duet with lyrics of fresh starts and soulmates.
As soon as the song was finished, Karina and Ryan did a countdown and lit the tree. Everyone cheered, and the crowds began pushing forward trying to get in peak positions for Instagramable photos in front of the tree.
“Are you ready to go?” Niko whispered against Tiana’s ear, and he felt her body shiver again.
He noticed every time he whispered against her ear, she trembled, and he loved that reaction. It made him want to find out what else he could do to make her body react.
She nodded.
“Okay, I’ll give you a ride.”
He’d noticed that she didn’t have a car. He hadn’t asked her about it, but his plan for the next five weeks was he was going to be Tiana’s personal Uber.
Her eyes widened slightly in panic. “Oh, that’s okay. I’ll walk, I want to walk.”
Or not. It seemed personal Uber driver was not on the table.
“Okay, I’ll walk you.”
“No.” She shook her head and placed her hand on his chest. “You don’t have to do that.”
Niko could see there was a slight hint of panic in her eyes. He glanced around, making sure no one could hear him, then covered her hand with his and leaned down. “I promise I won’t ask to come in, but there’s no way I’m letting you walk out of here alone.”
Tiana bit the inside of her lip, and he could see that she was leaning towards a hard no, but then something caught her eye over his shoulder, and she nodded in agreement. “Fine, yeah, okay.”
Relief washed over him that she’d agreed, but as he headed out with her, he glanced over his shoulder and saw the reason she had. Brock was staring at them.
Niko wasn’t sure what his deal was or what his plan was, but he was going to find out and make sure no one he cared about got hurt.