Chapter 5 #3
My stomach somersaults with more butterflies than I’ve had in ages. Just the prospect of seeing him face-to-face again has me feeling like a teenager. But just when I’m about to answer him, my niece and nephew come catapulting through the living room toward the sofa like torpedoes.
“Wait, wait, wait!” It’s too late. The air is forcibly squeezed out of me from impact of their pouncing. They land on me like a trampoline. Hera’s six years old, and Laurent is four. “Easy, easy! You’re both too strong for me!”
“Auntie Mia.” Hera looks at me pointedly. “You promised you’d come with us to go skating.”
“You said—” Laurent is breathless somehow, and I have no idea why. The little guy just has so much to say. “You said—you said that you would come, so you have to come, okay? You don’t have skates but it’s okay, they have skates for you. And there are lights.”
“And disco balls,” Hera adds sagely. “You don’t know how to skate so you can wear special skates like Laurie does.”
First of all, I’m offended. I know how to skate. Kind of. Second of all, how can anyone say no to disco balls?
Jessica leans against the doorframe of the kitchen in her apron, smirking at me. “You can’t tell these kids anything. Because they’ll remember.”
“I can’t believe there are still skating rinks,” I muse.
“Oh yeah, I used to go there all the time as a kid,” Jess says. “It’s still around. We’re gonna head out in an hour.”
Damn. That won’t give me time to spend with Nolan. Unless . . .
“Could I invite Nolan along?” I ask tentatively.
Apollo wipes his hands from washing the dishes from breakfast. “Nolan along to what?”
“We’re going skating,” Jessica informs him. “It’s family day at the Edge.”
Apollo only looks puzzled. “We are?”
“Yep,” Jessica unties her apron. “And Nolan’s coming.”
Apollo’s confusion only increases. “He is?”
I grin at Jessica as she winks at me and give Nolan my answer.
I hope you like disco.
Never thought about it. Do you like disco?
No, but my niece and nephew do. And you’re coming with me.
That’s a joke. Only if you want to, of course.
He doesn’t even skip a beat.
Yes, ma’am.
* * *
My heart is melting and my body might just be a puddle on the floor as I sit on a bench at Electric Edge, watching Nolan help Laurent tie his skates up for him.
Nolan is a behemoth of a man next to my gangly little nephew, who dutifully sticks out his feet so Nolan can assist him while Apollo helps Hera and Jessica situates all of our belongings in a safety locker.
I haven’t been to a skating rink since I before I was a teenager.
Everything—and I mean everything—is neon.
Not that neon is a strange thing in a city like New Carnegie, but this is almost too much.
The floor is bathed in the glow of vibrant pinks, blues, purples, and oranges.
The music is a mix of different decades, old and new, and I sway without realizing it.
The mood is light, and there are all kinds of families here, young and old.
Laolao sits next to me and fastens her own skates on. I look at her in surprise. “Laolao,” I gasp. “You’re gonna get out there too?”
Her eyes glow with youth that cannot be doused as she giggles. Jessica comes to stand near us, smirking. “Oh, my mom was a menace on the rink when she was young, weren’t you, Mama?”
“Yes.” The corner of Laolao’s eyes crinkle beautifully when she smiles. “All the boys were looking at me,” she says with a certain kind of mischief that makes me believe it, one hundred percent. Back in the day, Jessica’s mom definitely had game.
My niece Hera is all ready and quickly runs to her grandmother, taking her hands excitedly. With grace, they both head over to the rink, Hera jabbering nonstop. It doesn’t seem to bother Laolao in the slightest, ever patient.
Jessica sits next to me as she gets ready herself. Cautiously, I lower my voice. “Are you sure it’s safe for you?”
My sister-in-law arches a brow at me. “What do you mean?”
“Well, you know, you’re . . .”
Jessica snorts. “I’m only eight weeks along, if that. I’ll be fine. Don’t worry. I’m not that fragile.”
My nephew is all about his dad, and they’ve already taken off to join the family crowds.
Nolan comes over to me. When he smiles at me, my heart skips a beat.
His white eyes are hidden again, shielded for his protection, and nobody seems to spare him a second glance. He blends right in with everyone else.
“Need any help?” he asks Jessica.
“I’m a big girl. I can tie my own shoes.” Jessica’s tone is light and affectionate. “But thank you, Nolan.”
“No problem at—” Nolan’s smile fades somewhat, his brow furrowing as he looks at Jessica. His eyes flit down to her middle and back up again. “ . . . all.” His eyes widen, and his mouth opens in surprise. Jessica and I immediately tense.
Somehow, he knows. “Jessica, you’re—”
Jessica and I both flail in our own ways to stop him from saying it. “Shh, shh!” Jessica hisses desperately.
“We haven’t told Apollo yet,” I say with soft urgency. “It’s gotta be a surprise. You can’t say anything!”
Nolan clamps his mouth shut and nods eagerly in understanding. “Right. Right! I won’t say a thing,” he promises. “You have my word. And my congratulations.”
“Thank you.” Relieved, Jessica reaches out to him. “Help me up?”
I look at him in shock. “How’d you know that? Just from looking at her?”
Nolan taps the side of his head, near his eye. “I can scan vitals and run diagnostics on humans and on other androids, remember?”
“I know, but I didn’t know you could tell that.”
“I heard its heartbeat.”
“Wow,” I marvel. “That’s really amazing.” But suddenly I think of something. “Wait, have you scanned me?”
Nolan’s smile is cryptic and infectious. “What, you? Who, me?”
Everything Nolan does is adorable today.
I watch him help Jessica to the dance floor.
My sister-in-law leans over to him and says something in his ear, standing on the tips of her skates.
Even then, Nolan bends down slightly to accommodate her, as though her telling him a secret is as natural as can be.
I imagine he doesn’t even have to respond that way, with his super hearing as an android, but still, his behaviors are so natural, I guess from being around us and seeing our body language.
There’s nothing mechanical about anything he does.
But that little whisper has me curious. When Nolan comes to return to me with a smile, I squint at him in mock suspicion. “What was that about?”
Nolan shrugs innocently and kneels in front of me. “She said she’s happy I’m here.” He takes my foot gently. “May I?”
I bite my lip to try and harbor the broad smile I’m trying to hold back but can’t. “You may.” Internally, I’m practically screaming as he slides my skate on and deftly ties it up for me. He takes his time. I feel like some kind of princess in a fairy tale at the minute, trying on a glass slipper.
Except my prince isn’t some fictional charmer who slays dragons; he fights fires and saves lives. I’m the luckiest girl at this rink right now, if not the entire city.
“Are you going to be able to cover for Jess?” I ask, leaning back and offering the other foot when he reaches for it. “I know it’s hard for you to lie.”
“It’s not a lie. It’s just omitting a certain truth. And it’s a happy one, at that. If nothing else, Apollo will forgive me for trying. But he’s not in the habit of talking about his relationship with Jess in that in depth with me or anyone else. Shouldn’t be a minefield.”
“That’s good to know.” I cock my head as he finishes tying up my second skate. “You’re really good with kids.” My ovaries might not want to ever have those, but goddamn, did they appreciate the show.
“All part of the programming,”
“So, what? You just download whatever you need?”
“Exactly. Only takes a few seconds, if that.”
“So you already know how to skate?”
“Yep.”
“CPR?”
“Please. I came programmed with that.”
“Horseback riding?”
“Too heavy for a horse, but if that wasn’t an issue, then yes.”
“Shakespearean acting?”
Nolan smirks as he sits next to me and fastens his own skates. “‘O, for a Muse of fire . . .’” he says.
God, he’s so hot. “Say more things like that.”
He leans over, his lips nearly against my ear. My flesh is on pins and needles as he whispers. “‘Let me not to the marriage of great minds admit impediment. Love is not love, which alters when it alteration finds—’”
“‘Or bends with the remover to remove.’” I shiver and lean against him, fighting off the urge to grab his face and give him the biggest kiss of his life. “How did you know I liked ‘Sonnet 116’?”
“It’s a popular one. A safe bet. I can’t take credit based on cleverness alone,” Nolan remarks, pulling away. “Just a play of the odds.” He stands and offers his hand. “Shall we?”
“Such a gentleman,” I say as I allow him to guide me to my feet. But then we’re chest to chest, and I can see the hunger in his eyes, mirroring mine.
Go slow, I remind myself. Go slow, go slow, go slow.
His is a face that would make so many women fall in love in an instant. Right now I feel like I’ve been catapulted to the front of that line. If my entire family wasn’t here, if we weren’t in public on family day, surrounded by all ages, I’d lay a real one on him.
Instead, I lean up on my tiptoes and give him a soft peck. One he returns with similar tenderness, and then the moment is over. He seems to understand our situation too and doesn’t question, doesn’t press for more.
An amazing, incredible man.
For the next fifteen minutes, we glide around the rink with the flow of others, smiling and laughing as Apollo and Jessica and even Laolao run in circles around us, left after left after left. Suddenly, an individual on the other side of the rails wave us down.
Nolan squeezes my hand and slows. “What’s the matter?” he asks them.