Chapter 27
Niko sipped his Negroni, looking out over a sea of black ties and evening dresses.
The fundraiser overflowed with light, laughter, and several A-list celebrities that would hopefully get them nationwide coverage.
It was already a record-breaker, they’d obliterated their one million dollar goal, and they hadn’t even reached the end of the welcome cocktail hour.
Jessie came through on her promise that she would figure out a way to beat Brock at his own game, and she had.
Instead of Brock Bartlett being the sole co-chair, she’d called in some favors, her hubby, Zac Courtland, who was a world champion boxer, the hottest up-and-coming, undefeated MMA fighter, Arturo Cruz, and quarterback Cole Carson, who had led his team, the Los Angeles Legends, to the Super Bowl two out of the past four years, also signed on to be co-chairs.
She described it as douche-weight distribution.
If it was just myself and Bartlett, the sheer velocity of douche would take over and drown out all the other noise, but with Courtland, Cruz, and Carson on board, Bartlett couldn’t sink the ship.
Not to mention the other sponsors that they brought with them had increased not only the exposure but also the bottom line.
Jessie had also done the heavy lifting to keep Niko’s interactions with people to a minimum this evening, for which he would be forever indebted to her.
Poised and radiant in an ice-blue gown, she greeted donors with the practiced precision of a diplomat and maneuvered them like chess pieces, keeping egos in check and conversation flowing.
On paper, the night was perfect. In reality, Niko felt as if he were standing inside a glass box, watching the gala, his gala, happening on a TV screen around him.
No one in the room actually existed to him except one person.
Every time his gaze drifted, it landed on Tiana Matthews, not by accident, never by accident, but by gravitational necessity.
She glided through the crowd with that sultry classiness she wore so effortlessly.
Niko tracked her as she moved from table to table, her white dress a beacon against the jewel tones and matte black of the other guests.
The dress was criminal in its engineering, simple on the surface but perfectly contoured to her body, with a high slit up the thigh that nearly reached her hip, a scoop neck that revealed just a tease of cleavage, and a back so low it seemed designed solely to test his self-control.
Her hair fell in retro waves, and the only pop of color was the siren-red lipstick that perfectly matched her heels.
She was old Hollywood with a very modern, very sexy twist.
Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, but to Niko, watching her and not touching her, speaking to her, or being near her was torture. She floated around the room like a beautiful fairy. He couldn’t stop staring.
Pops approached him, walking with his cane. His coloring looked so much better than the last time he’d seen the man. He couldn’t believe his surgery had only been two weeks earlier. He was wearing a fedora and could have been Billy Dee Williams’ stand-in.
“You scrub up nice.”
Pops dipped his chin. “That’s the general consensus.”
“How are you doing?” Niko asked, wondering if he should even be out. It seemed too soon.
“What’s with all the questions?” Pops lifted his cane and pointed it towards him. “Are you a cop?”
Niko chuckled. It was a much needed comedic break from the evening. He felt tense. He told himself over and over again it was because of Brock Bartlett, but the truth was it was because of Tiana Marie Matthews.
He missed her. Not in the way he’d missed other people, like his family during the season or G when they were together and had to go long periods of time without seeing one another.
He missed her like he’d heard people describe having a phantom limb.
Like a part of himself had been amputated.
He ached for her. He’d spent the last ten days, for lack of a better word, pining, but not from a distance.
She was still staying in his home, but things had changed.
She was polite, sweet even, but that was it.
There was no romance. He would say no chemistry, but that was bullshit.
Every time they were in a room together, it was like a fireworks display.
But she’d put her walls up, and there was no scaling them.
He’d tried to joke his way over or around.
He’d attempted to dig under by having a serious conversation about what he was feeling and what she was feeling, she shut it down before he got out the word talk in the phrase, “Can we talk?” He’d gone the friend route, which was sincere, he did want to be her friend.
He missed her. He missed watching bad reality TV with her and playing cards in the glassed-in sunporch after her night classes and having a glass of wine after dinner around the firepit in the backyard.
The past week and a half she’d just gone to bed after she got home, she didn’t even have dinner with him.
She claimed she wasn’t hungry, but Niko knew the truth: she was eating at work before she came home.
That was the other thing, she was getting rides home from work.
He’d really fucked up. He’d crossed a line. He wasn’t sure if it was a single line or if he’d crossed an entire train track.
Pops leaned against the bar beside Niko. “Heard what you did, young man.”
Niko’s entire being deflated, not only his physical self, his shoulders, but his spirit as well. He wanted to at least try and defend his actions. “I was just trying to take care of her, I wasn’t trying to upset her, I swear.”
“If spending two point five million dollars on a building is your idea of tryin’ not to upset her, I’d love to see what makin’ her happy looks like.”
“Oh.” Niko sighed, realizing he was totally off base as to what Pops was referring to. “Sorry, I thought… I thought you were talking about something else.”
“Clearly.”
“So what is this here about? You tryin’ to take care of her?”
Niko took a deep breath. He didn’t exactly feel right about speaking behind Tiana’s back, but she wasn’t exactly speaking to his front, so there was that. After days of reflection, he was fairly certain that him coming in and taking over her life was probably not the move…
“When she was ill, I took her phone, covered her classes, and also had my brother AJ set up cameras in her studio so she could live stream, and I, um…took care of some things… financially. I overstepped. I know that. She was really sick. Liam said she needed sleep, and her phone alarm kept going off, I was just trying to take care of her.”
“Take care of her,” Pops chorused along with Niko.
Pops put his hand on Niko’s shoulder. “You didn’t do anything wrong, son. Our girl just has a hard time letting people in.”
Niko thought that was the understatement of the world.
“You know she’s never touched any of that money she got from the divorce for herself, don’t you?”
“I wondered about that.” Niko was glad it was finally getting addressed.
“She’s given the money to women’s shelters, Ronald Mc Donald House, Feed the Children, dog rescues, GoFundMe causes for random people she saw online in need, but she never touched it for herself. She never wanted a dime of The Big Blond Wolf’s money.”
Niko couldn’t help but smile at Pops’ nickname for Brock. He’d never heard that one.
“And she used the money his aunt left her to fund a literacy program for underserved youth because they bonded over their love of reading when they were children. It was an escape for both of them.” Pops got tears in his eyes as he stared straight ahead.
“I hate the burden I am on her. She thinks I don’t know she sold her car to get me into Golden Years, but I do know.
Some nights I pray that God would just take me so I’m not a drain on her.
I don’t want anyone havin’ to care of me.
I didn’t want to get the surgery, but every time I tried to turn it down, that one…
” Still looking at Tiana, he shook his head.
“She needs you.” Niko told him what he already knew.
“I know you paid for the surgery.” Using his thumb and forefinger, Pops wiped beneath his eyes, then looked over at Niko. “Thank you.”
“It wasn’t a…” Niko cleared his throat, feeling himself getting a little choked up. “I was happy to do it. I would do anything for her.”
Pops stared into his eyes, really stared, and then nodded back.
A silent understanding passed between the two men.
Unspoken, but no less communicated. Pops took a deep breath and tilted his head towards Tiana, who was speaking to Mr. Henley, the postman, and his wife. “Growing up, that girl was all alone.”
Niko glanced over. God, she was beautiful.
“She had you,” Niko pointed out.
“After school for an hour or two. She gives me a lot more credit than I deserve.” Pop continued, “She had to survive, being shuttled from place to place, no notice given, the only person she could count on was herself. She had to question everyone’s motive.
Everyone’s agenda. Then the first man she loved was that dickweed.
” Pops lifted his cane, pointing to Bartlett, then lowered it.
“He did a real number on her. She says he didn’t.
But she went from being this girl.” Pops took out his phone, tapped on the screen, and tilted it towards Niko.
It was a kid’s drawing of a bridge with lights and what looked like maybe a prince and princess.
He scrolled to the next one, and it was basically the same idea, except it was a different bridge.
He had probably two dozen drawings, all romantic settings, seventy percent looked like they were on a bridge.
“A little girl who dreamed of meeting a Prince Charming, her soulmate, now is shut down to romance, and it’s that shit weasel’s fault.
” Pops put his device back in the right chest pocket of his shirt, then he motioned to G.
“It looks like he’s doin’ the same thing to that young lady.
He just extinguishes their spark, cause he can’t take it when anyone else shines. He’s an insecure little boy.”
The more Niko got to know Pops, the more he liked him. And he was right about G. Tonight, he didn’t even recognize her. Literally, the shape of her face was even different.
Luckily, he had a plan. The last event he had scheduled for Jessie’s PR revival was to co-Grand Marshall the Christmas Parade with Bartlett. If his plan worked, Bartlett would be heading back to Ohio alone, footloose and fiancée-free. And G would be footloose and fuckwad-free.
Pops turned to face him, his expression serious.
“Son, trust is going to scare Tiny. Simple as that. Acceptance is going to scare her. Love, real love, true love, unconditional love is going to scare her. It scares people who have always had and have a strong support foundation. People who have seen and feel what love looks like. Does she want love? Of course that’s what she wants, what she deserves. Who doesn’t? But she’s terrified.
“Those are big feelings, and that little girl spent an entire lifetime hiding, protecting, and denying big feelings. She had to, she couldn’t show any weakness.
She developed instincts at a young, very young age—survival instincts.
Those same instincts that kept her alive are going to try to protect her now.
They don’t know the difference between your intention or anyone else’s.
They just know how she’s feelin’ and that is settin’ off alarm bells in her.
So she’s gonna try and protect herself.”
Fuck. Niko had never looked at it like that.
“Because if she lets someone in, then she’s vulnerable.
They can hurt her. I know you wouldn’t hurt her, but she doesn’t know that.
So it’s your job to stick around until she does know.
Just keep showin’ up. And I’ll tell ya this for free: that girl’s walls might be Fort Knox, but once you scale ‘em—"
“Yeah, I know,” Niko agreed.
“Also, just so you know, this talk…” Pops waved his hand between them.
“It stays between us.” Niko nodded. “I know.”
“No. It doesn’t.” Pops shook his head back and forth slowly. “Sometimes people need to hear what’s being said behind their back. Alright, I think it’s time for me to call it a night.” He used the cane to steady himself as he stood.
“Do you need a ride?” Niko knew that he was supposed to stay, but he wouldn’t mind taking a break and running Pops back to the home.
“I’ve got a chauffeur for the evening compliments of Golden Years.”
“Oh, right.” Niko forgot that they had the van there for the residents. “Okay, night.”
He watched Pops head across the room, and of course, his eyes then scanned to Tiana, who had walls as high as Fort Knox. It looked like he better get some emotional climbing gear.