6. Lucky
Lucky
After Nick helped me out of the inner tube, we dried off, reapplied sunblock, and then used the QR code near our loungers to order lunch.
Nick ordered a strawberry lemonade, kabobs, and nachos, while I ordered chicken tenders and fries.
I’d probably steal some of his nachos, though, if I could.
For a drink I just ordered what he did. It sounded light and refreshing.
As we sat and waited for our meals, I pulled a paperback out of my bag and read for a bit while Nick dozed beside me.
Since he was a lot darker than me, he didn’t burn as easily, but I still kept an eye on him just to be sure he wasn’t burning.
There were very few things worse than second-degree burns all over your body from the flaming star above us.
Ask me how I know.
After a few minutes of reading, I glanced over at him again.
I couldn’t seem to help it. He was just...
Nick. Ever since I’d met him, I felt like there was something about him that drew me in.
At first I’d just assumed it was because he was powerful.
Power tended to do that, especially for those weaker on the paranormal power scale.
But it wasn’t that. Nick didn’t go around flaunting his power like a lot of other supernaturals.
In fact, for a genie, he was pretty normal.
Nick had a small pool bag beside his chair, and from its depths, a cell phone started buzzing.
Biting my lip, I glanced at Nick, who was sound asleep, then shrugged and went back to my book.
The buzzing stopped, then started again.
Biting the end of my thumb, I glanced at Nick again. He looked dead to the world, and very peaceful. So peaceful that I didn’t want to wake him up.
What if the phone call was important? Or it was an emergency?
They hung up, and I sighed in relief that I didn’t have to decide to pick it up or not—until the phone started buzzing again.
Covering my face with my paperback for a moment and groaning, I gave up and dove into his bag to scoop his phone up. The name on the screen read Big Bro.
Wincing, I answered it.
“Hello?”
There was a long pause. “Is there a reason you’re answering my brother’s phone?”
Tempted to pick up my old habit of biting my nails, I said, “He’s asleep right now, and with how many times you’ve called back, I was afraid it was an emergency.”
His tone changed; he sounded angry. “Please put him on the phone.”
Oh boy. I think I just somehow messed up and got Nick in trouble with his brother. I leaned over to shake Nick’s shoulder until he cracked an eye open. I held his phone up. “Your brother’s on the phone,” I said quietly.
“Which one?” His voice was gravelly from his nap, but the sexy sound wasn’t enough to distract me from my spiraling anxiety.
“I don’t know,” I whispered miserably. “The screen said Big Bro.”
He sat up and took the phone from me, but didn’t raise it to his ear just yet. He looked at me in concern. “What’s wrong?” Then his expression changed, and his voice came out coldly furious. “Did he say something to hurt you?”
“No. I answered your phone because he kept calling and I was worried it was an emergency.” My voice got quiet.
“He seemed mad.” I didn’t like it when people got mad.
I wasn’t even sure his brother’s anger had been aimed at me, but it had felt like it.
I dealt with people getting angry with me a lot, but I hadn’t yet been able to get used to it.
Having anxiety certainly didn’t make it any easier.
Nick reached over and gently squeezed my hand, then he put the phone up to his ear.
“I’m not talking to you until you apologize to Lucky,” Nick said, his voice icy.
There was silence on the other end of the line, and then, faintly, I could hear, “I’ll apologize. I didn’t mean to scare her or make her feel bad.”
“Yeah, well consider not being a jerk for once in your life. That would be a good place to start. And if you say one more thing to hurt her feelings or scare her, I’ll tell mom.”
I made a face. Tell mom? And then I remembered that his mom had raised five male genies, and was married to one. Yep, tell mom was a legit threat. His mom was probably one scary strong lady.
“You wouldn’t.”
“Try me.”
There was a sigh from his brother. “I would have apologized without the threats. Hand her the phone.”
Nick handed me the phone and then grabbed my free hand, clearly trying to offer me comfort. I felt silly for making such a big deal out of nothing.
Stupid anxiety. Why did I always have to deal with crazy anxiety? Why couldn’t I instead have, I don’t know, effervescent laughter or something. I’d even swap for something embarrassing instead, just not anxiety.
“Hello?”
“I’m sorry,” Nick’s brother said in a completely inflectionless voice.
Nick growled and moved to take the phone from me, but his brother started laughing. “Wait, wait! Don’t take the phone from her. I’ll apologize for real.”
“Three seconds,” Nick said, grinding his teeth.
“I’m sorry. Lucky was it? I’m sorry, Lucky. I didn’t mean to make you think I was angry with you. But you mentioned Nick was sleeping next to you...”
Nick, perfectly able to hear the conversation, said, “I’m in a lounge chair at a resort, idiot.”
“Ah.”
“You feel stupid right now don’t you?”
Another sigh. “Yes. Clearly I jumped to conclusions.”
I was so embarrassed my cheeks felt like they were on fire.
Nick, peering at my expression, reached over and grabbed the phone gently from my numb fingers. “I’ll call you later. You better make this right.” His voice was still a biting growl, and I winced again.
Nick dropped the phone in his bag and reached for me. “Come here, sunshine,” he said softly, patting the squidge of seat next to him.
Once I was settled, he wrapped his arms around me. “He’s the only grumpy jerk in my family. Don’t worry about him. My other brothers and I don’t.”
Resting my forehead against his bicep, I smiled, and said softly, “Liar. I can tell how much you love each other.”
His sigh was put-upon. “Of course I love him. He’s my big brother. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t get carried away sometimes, sticking his abnormally large nose into me and my other brothers’ business.”
My chuckle was a little watery.
A waiter came by and dropped off our food, but neither Nick nor I moved to pick it up and eat it.
Nick started rubbing my back. “Talk to me, Lucks. This reaction seems a little...”
“Over the top?” I asked quietly.
He hesitated before nodding. “I mean, far be it for me to tell anyone how to feel, but...“
I sighed and settled more of my weight against him, getting more comfortable. “You know that my grandfather raised me during my teens, right?”
He nodded. “Yeah, you’ve mentioned it once or twice.”
“Well, he had to fight my parents for custody of me in order to do that. My parents were physically and emotionally abusive as well as manipulative. My father was half leprechaun, half human, and my mom was fully human. They were both cruel and selfish. When I was born and started exhibiting strange magic that embarrassed them, they took me to a lot of professionals to figure out what was going on. It wasn’t until I was seven or so that a medical mage figured it out.
“I walked on eggshells around them, constantly fearing their anger. They hit me, called me horrible names and screamed at me. I... could never do anything right, though I tried so hard.
“My grandfather and I had always been close, but whenever he was around, my parents were different. I think they feared him because he’s so powerful.
And, at the time, I was still bewildered, wondering why I could never be enough for my parents.
Why they did the things they did. I loved them.
I just didn’t understand why love had to hurt so much.
When I got older, I realized that what they were doing was actually abuse.
“One night, I was sitting in my closet crying, listening to them screaming at each other in the living room, when my grandfather popped into the closet with me, took my hand, and blinked me to his house in Alaska. He’d heard them at the front door, you see.
They were too busy screaming at each other to hear him knocking.
“He tried to get me to talk about it, but I just couldn’t at first. It was like everything was locked inside of me, and I was afraid that I would break if I let it out.
I also loved them and didn’t want to get them in trouble.
I didn’t want them to be hurt or... or suffer anything bad.
I thought that’s what love was supposed to be like. ”
“But it wasn’t like that with them,” Nick said.
I shook my head and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.
“Finally, I opened up to my grandfather, and though he acted calm so he didn’t scare me, I could tell he was livid.
” I tried to smile. “And a livid full-blooded leprechaun is all kinds of scary.” I shook my head.
“Anyway, he pushed it through the paranormal courts, suing for full custody of me, and when that was granted, he filed restraining orders against them. They can’t come near him or me for the rest of our lives.
I shrugged. “As a result, I deal with some anxiety, and some, umm, fear, when people are angry near me. Even if it’s not really directed at me.”
We lay next to each other in silence for a few minutes before he said, “I’m so sorry you had to go through all that, sunshine.
” He tilted my face up so I could see the absolute sincerity in his expression.
“You’re always safe with me,” he vowed. “I hope you know that. And if you don’t yet, I’ll just let time and my actions prove it to you. ”
I swallowed and nodded.
After unloading all of that, I wasn’t even hungry. But Nick teased me until I nibbled a little bit on my chicken tenders, swiping some of my fries and comically shoving them all into his mouth.
I couldn’t help but laugh.
But it wasn’t until a small tray filled with a weighted I’m Sorry balloon, a cute stuffed piglet, two boxes of fancy chocolates, and several other yummy looking snacks blinked in front of us outside my chaos magic range that I was able to relax.
“Looks like big bro sent an apology gift,” Nick said. He pulled the table over to us and rummaged in one of the chocolate boxes, grabbed a white-covered chocolate, then popped it into his mouth faster than I could blink.
I swiped the box from him, scowling. “These are my apology chocolates, not yours!” I peeked in the box, and couldn’t help but laugh. Inside, the icing spelled out words on each individual chocolate. From left to right, they read I’m Sorry, Lucky.
Nick shook his head, and gave me sad puppy eyes. “Cruel woman. And after I shared my nachos with you.”
I felt bad for about three seconds until I realized he’d already swiped the other box from the table and was halfway to opening it already. I laughed and smacked him with my stuffed piglet.