Chapter 15 #2
She nodded. “I had a teacher in first grade who was a screamer. I had stomachaches that whole year, and around the time my parents split, they got so bad, my mom took me to the hospital for it once. They couldn’t find anything wrong.”
He gave a gentle tug to bring her into his embrace. “That’s because everything was wrong.”
“It was, and it stayed that way for a very long time.”
“How old were you when they split?”
“Eight.”
“And they fought over you until the day before you turned eighteen.” He shook his head in disbelief.
“Yep. My mom had mental health and substance abuse issues that she tried so hard to overcome. He never gave her a single break. When we were here in the summer, our grandmother had custody of us, not our mom. He’s the one who had an affair, had children with someone else, and she’s the one who was made to suffer while he had custody of us. ”
“You suffered, too. You had to live with him when you couldn’t stand him.”
“It was really nothing compared to what he put her through. He treated her like she was a junkie living on the street, when that was never the case. She went through hell due to her illnesses and battled her demons for years before she finally got clean and was put on the right meds.”
“But that was too late for you and Nikki.”
“We were happy that it happened when it did. It was hard to watch her struggle.”
“You’re due for a break, sweetheart.”
“How’d you get me to talk about this shit, anyway?
I never talk about this stuff.” And certainly not with a guy she’d just met.
This was supposed to be about fun and transitions and moving on, but in the scope of the last hour, it’d become so much more than that.
The realization left her feeling unnerved. “I should probably go.”
“Why? You got somewhere to be?”
“No, but…”
“What?”
“I… I don’t know.”
“I want you to stay. Unless you don’t want to.”
“I do want to.”
“Why do I hear a very loud ‘but’ in there?”
“I feel like I need to keep telling you that my life is a mess, Mason, and you’re a really, really nice guy. I’m afraid.”
With his fingers on her face, he gently turned her to look at him. “Of what?”
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
“While I appreciate that more than you could ever know, I’ve got my eyes open here. I know things are in transition for you right now in more ways than one. All I can tell you is being with you is the most fun I’ve had in years.”
“Same,” she said, thrilled to know he felt the same way she did.
“And what just happened here?” He gestured to them and the bed. “Hands down, no contest, best I’ve ever had.”
“Also same.” Not that she had much to compare him to, but he was better at everything than Brendan had been.
“So it sounds like we’re on the same page here.” He tipped her chin up for another of the soft, sweet kisses that made her heart race and her blood boil. “Lots of fun, no worries.”
After spending most of her life in some sort of an uproar, his plan sounded absolutely perfect to her.
“Jordan isn’t coming home tonight,” Nikki said to Riley as he got into bed. “She’s staying at Mason’s.”
“That’s an interesting development.”
“I guess.”
“You don’t like that she’s hanging with him?” Riley asked.
“It’s not about him. By all accounts, he’s a great guy, and he’ll have my gratitude forever for saving her. It’s just that she’s in such a weird place right now, and I worry about her.”
Riley took her phone from her, placed it on the bedside charger and then wrapped his arm around her.
Nikki snuggled up to him, as she did every night. She couldn’t recall what it’d been like to sleep without him.
“I know you’re preconditioned to worry about her, and I get that she’s given you ample reason to, but maybe this thing with Mason is just what she needs to reset, you know?”
“Maybe. I just worry about her getting hurt again.”
“He’s not going to hurt her, babe. He’s not that kind of dude.”
“Every dude is that kind of dude,” Nikki said with a laugh. “He may not set out to hurt her, but don’t pretend it’s not possible that he could.”
“Not every dude is that kind of dude.”
Nikki heard the hurt in his softly spoken words. “Every dude but you, I should say.”
“You’re preconditioned to expect the worst, and I get why, but I wish there was some way to convince you that not everything will end badly. Some things,” he said, kissing her, “are meant to last forever.”
She felt terrible for speaking without thinking about how her words would be taken by him. “I’m sorry, Ri. You have to know I have no doubts whatsoever about you.”
“I hope you don’t. I’m all in with you. Forever won’t be long enough.”
Nikki blinked back the tears his sweet words brought to her eyes. “No, it won’t be long enough. I know you’re all in, and so am I. I wasn’t talking about you. I swear I don’t worry about any of that with you.”
“I really hope not.”
“I don’t. But I do worry about Jordan. She’s been through so much. I want to see her find what makes her happy the way I have. I want that more than anything.”
“She will. She just needs to figure it out for herself the same way you did and I did and everyone else does. I know it’s hard for you to see her struggling the way she has lately.”
“It’s not just lately. It’s always. Starting when we were kids with the asthma and everything with our parents and then him. It’s been a lot.”
“Yes, it has, but maybe all that was meant to happen so that when the right thing came along, she’d know it.”
“I suppose.” She looked over at him. “Do you think Mason could be the one for her?”
“Stranger things have happened. Take you and me, for instance.”
“Nothing strange about that.”
“You don’t think so? Hmm, well, from my perspective, a goddess moved to Gansett from LA and found this schlep who was fixing her leaky roof.”
Nikki laughed and then turned on her side so she could kiss the words right off his lips. “Don’t call my sexy, wonderful, amazing fiancé a schlep.”
“Compared to you, babe, he’s a schlep.”
“No, he isn’t.”
“Yes, he is.”
Nikki appreciated the way he’d managed to get her mind off her worries about Jordan, but they remained in the background as she began to doze off, steeped in the warmth and security of Riley’s embrace.
What had she ever done without him? The difficult months they’d spent apart after they first met seemed like a distant memory now that they lived together and spent every night together. “Thanks, Ri.”
“What for?”
She grasped his hand, which was resting on her abdomen. “All of it. Everything. You make me so happy and have given me things I didn’t even know I needed.”
“Same goes, babe. I used to think my cousins were crazy for settling down with one woman, but now I get it. When it’s the right one, the only thing you want is to be settled with her.”
“Who is she, and how can I have her killed?”
Riley’s laughter rumbled through his chest. “There’s only one woman for me, and you know her very, very well, as do I. Which is how I know you suffer when Jordan suffers. But I have a good feeling about her and Mason. They could be great for each other for however long it lasts.”
“I suppose so. As long as no one gets hurt.” Jordan couldn’t handle another big disappointment, and neither could Nikki. Because Riley was right—when Jordan hurt, Nikki did, too.