15. Lucky
Lucky
The next day, after healing from the potion Nick had been able to get for me, we decided to do an ATV tour.
As a safety precaution, Nick had found out what ATV we’d be riding beforehand, then blinked over and used his genie magic on it to make it stronger and more resistant to my chaos magic.
Something that I didn’t really think was possible.
But I didn’t want to accidentally kill anyone, including me or Nick, so I supported his delusions.
I dressed in a pair of dark blue joggers and a big light-blue tee shirt that I knotted at my waist. I wanted to be comfortable today.
Scrounging around in my drawers for socks, I hurried to put them and my tennis shoes on, then threw my hair up in a secure bun so it wouldn’t blow everywhere while we were in the open ATV.
Chapstick and a few cards, including my room key went into a zippered pocket, and I was ready to go!
I knocked on the adjoining door, not even bothering to use the one in the hallway.
Nick answered it looking like he’d just gotten out of the shower, and I about swallowed my tongue.
He leaned forward and kissed my forehead, not even noticing that every muscle group in my body had suddenly decided to stop working all at once, and I was standing there frozen, ogling him.
“Hey, sunshine. I missed you. Just let me grab a few things and put on a shirt and we can get out of here. I had a hard time getting to sleep last night, so I overslept this morning.”
Words, Lucky. Find words.
I cleared my throat. Well, at least one thing was working. “Why’d you have trouble sleeping?”
Move into the room now. You can do it. And stop staring at him!
It took me a moment to notice that Nick wasn’t answering me, and when I glanced over, he was just standing there with his shirt in his hands, staring at me with a small smile and that fond expression on his face he so often had when he looked at me.
“You look beautiful, Lucks.”
I felt my cheeks flush and glanced down, fidgeting with a ring on my thumb. “Thank you.”
“Want me to keep my shirt off a little longer so you can keep ogling me?”
My head snapped up and my eyes widened. “Nick! I thought you hadn’t noticed!”
Laughing, he shut the bathroom door to finish getting ready.
When he came out, my face was still burning in embarrassment. Chuckling, he pulled me into his arms. I went willingly. He smelled so good. Whatever his cologne was, it was amazing.
“Sorry I teased you. I couldn’t resist.”
I wrapped my arms around his waist. “It’s fine. You tripped over your feet the first time you saw me in a swimsuit.”
“You still remember that? That was, what, a year ago? At the fourth of July party I threw at my house, right?”
“Yep.”
His hands were rubbing small circles against the small of my back. I don’t even think he realized he was doing it anymore. It had just become automatic.
“You’ve seen me without a shirt plenty of times since then, though.”
I shook my head, leaning my forehead against his chest. “We weren’t together then. I have a tendency to put blinders on when it comes to guys. And here at the resort you’ve been wearing those sunblock tee shirts.”
“Ah.” He pulled back, lifted my chin, and kissed me until the rest of the world disappeared.
I melted into him, clinging to the back of his shirt.
Unfortunately, after a few moments, I wanted considerably more than kissing, which was becoming a daily struggle.
With a frustrated little sound, I pulled back in self-preservation, grabbed the front of his shirt, and started towing him toward the door.
“New rule. No more kissing in hotel or resort rooms.”
Nick’s chuckle was self-satisfied as he laughingly tried to stop our momentum. “Wait, wait, I have to grab the backpack and keys!”
I reluctantly released him, giving him exactly enough time to grab his things before taking his hand again and towing him to a public area.
Any public area.
“That’s rule, what, five already?
We met up with our tour guide, Mac, on the west side of Maui. Not wanting to sit in the front away from Nick, I took the seat next to him in the back while Mac got his whisper system set up. He handed us our earpieces, and we put our safety goggles and helmets on before buckling in.
I knew the tour would climb in elevation through the mountains, eventually reaching about 2,500 feet, but I hadn't counted on the narrow coastal roads along the Pacific Ocean... or the amazing views.
I clung to Nick’s hand, but he didn’t seem at all stressed or worried about the sheer drop-off to our side.
In fact, he was glowing brightly and kept grinning at me and pointing out things in the distance.
A few times, Mac looked back at Nick in the rearview mirror, probably trying to figure out what kind of supernatural Nick was and why he glowed.
I was actually surprised he’d never seen a genie before because as a snow leopard, he’d probably seen his fair share of supernaturals.
The trail itself was all dirt. And even though it was hard-packed from all the vehicles driving up and down it, it still kicked up grit and dust into the air, getting everywhere.
Even in my mouth. By the time we’d reached the summit, I felt like I’d inhaled a pound of dust, so I grabbed a water bottle to rinse and spit first, then guzzle it down.
“You have a little dirt there in your teeth,” Nick teased, pointing.
Groaning, I rinsed and spit again, then wet a hand towel Nick handed me and cleaned off my face. Nick, even though he was still laughing at my disgusted expression, was doing the same.
Once we were fairly cleaned up, our tour guide gave us some privacy to enjoy the views. Leaving our earpieces with Mac so we wouldn’t be overheard, we stepped out to the ledge and looked down.
Vertigo instantly hit me hard and I swayed.
“Lucky!” Nick snatched me back away from the edge, pulling me against his chest, and securing his arms around me in an iron grip. “I had no idea your vertigo was so bad,” he said, his voice shaking.
I clung to his arms as they wrapped tightly around me and closed my eyes to try to stop the spinning. “Yeah, it’s bad. It’s one of the reasons I hate heights. Other than, you know, the possibility of falling to my death.”
“You just scared fifty years off me.”
I turned in his arms, still with my eyes closed, to reassure him. “Sorry, but I’m okay,” I said, patting his arm. “Really. We’ll stand back here, away from the edge, and I’ll just look across instead of down. It’s a trick I use to avoid the whole vertigo thing, and it usually works.”
He nodded hesitantly. “Okay, let’s try it, but I’m not letting go of you.”
I never expected that he would, nor did I want him to.
We backed up a few more steps because Nick was still terrified I’d trip and fall, and I turned around again, facing the ocean and view.
Since we couldn’t look down from this angle, I looked across...
and was fine. It was still high up, but for some reason this angle always tricked my brain, and I usually didn’t get the head spinning or instant nausea when I viewed things this way.
“You good?”
I nodded, taking in a deep breath. The air was crisper up here and less dense with humidity, making it easier to breathe. “Yeah. It’s beautiful.”
He kissed my neck. “It really is.”
After our tour, Nick and I were both starving, so we decided to hit up a food truck on the way back to the resort. We found one not far from the ATV tour headquarters, and managed to find a parking space. Which, this late in the day, wasn’t easy.
“Stay please,” Nick ordered, and I smiled and shook my head as he came around to my side of the jeep, opened my door for me, and helped me out.
He made it so easy to fall for him.
Not because he was performing, but because this was Nick.
This was who he was. He was a lover, very thoughtful, and a natural protector.
He was someone I could tell my secrets to and he would never betray me or think less of me.
Someone I could trust with my whole self and share everything with, even if the thought of that level of vulnerability still made me cringe and want to retreat and hide.
I hoped I could get there someday soon.
For myself, but also for Nick.
Since I was afraid the whole food truck would go up in flames if I got anywhere near it, I asked Nick to grab me a menu, and then sent him up with my order.
I chose the loaded fried rice, and Nick chose a sandwich called the Hurricane Chicken.
It was supposed to be really spicy, and I kind of wanted to try it, but not enough to get my own.
For a drink I just got a Coke, and Nick got a bottle of water.
All the seats and tables were taken, but it was only a block down from the beach, so we grabbed our meal to go and drove there.
I managed to grab the bags and the drinks, while Nick brought everything else.
He’d picked up a few things a few days ago for us to use when we wanted to go to the beach.
One of them was a towel so large it looked like a blanket.
It even had little spike things you could drive into the sand to keep it from flying away, which was perfect for a picnic on the beach.
We found a spot and spread the towel out, then sat and got comfortable, divvying up the food.
“Can I try a bite of your sandwich?”
He eyed me doubtfully. “Are you sure? It has sriracha mayo on it.”
I shrugged. “It sounds good. I won’t know if I’ll like it until I try it.”
He handed it over with an expression that still said he was waiting for me to dive for my soda, but after taking a bite, I chewed thoughtfully, and then took another one.
“Are you going to give it back?” he asked with a laugh.
“Maybe. This is really good, and I’m not usually crazy about fried food.
” Reluctantly, when he looked like a sad little puppy denied treats, I handed him his sandwich back.
“Want some of mine?” I asked, opening my to-go container.
Instantly, I could smell the rice and bacon, along with the scrambled egg, green onions, and sauce they’d put on.
“Yeah, that looks good.”
I grabbed a spoon out of the plastic bag, and handed him my rice bowl. He seemed to like it because he didn’t want to give mine back either, and I practically had to tackle him to get him to release it.
He laughed, pulling me closer on the blanket so he could tangle his legs with mine. “How about we compromise. We split them and give each other half.”
I held a spoon up threateningly, making him grin. “Alright, but no tricks. I’m starving.”
We split our meals and sat peacefully talking and laughing as we watched the ocean and the people on the beach with us. It wasn’t too crowded, as it was a weekday. At least... I thought it was a weekday. I’d kind of lost track of the days on this vacation.
“What day is it?”
He finished chewing and swallowing before answering. “Thursday. We’ve been here ten days already.”
I shook my head in surprise, trying to count the days back. He was right. Ten days. It had gone by so quickly.
When we finished eating, I found a trash can and dumped our empty containers in, making the seagulls squawk in outrage that we weren’t going to share with them.
As we stretched out on our sides, Nick intertwined our legs again and pulled me as close as possible while still allowing us to see each other.
“You’re very grabby today,” I teased. “Not that I’m complaining.”
He skimmed a finger over my cheek, then ran his fingers through my hair.
I’d released it from its bun after the ATV ride.
“I spent a long time trying to find the right person for me, and a lot of time alone. I knew exactly what I wanted, and I also knew that when I finally did find the right person, I would be all in from the beginning. I don’t really operate any other way. ”
“And you think I am? The right person?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t even need to think about it?”
“No.”
I sat with that for a while. As the sun started sinking across the water, we packed up and walked back to the jeep hand in hand.
I’d thought a year ago that Nick’s interest had been casual.
And then after we’d become friends, I started understanding that Nick wasn’t really casual about anything.
Not his work, not his moral compass, and certainly not his relationships. I admired him a lot for that.
For me, it was no longer a question about whether or not he would stay with me through the difficulties brought about by my magic. It was whether he would stay through all the boring, ordinary days of our lives, and every time he felt like giving up on us. And was I willing to stay, too?
If Nick was all in, was I?
Or was I still running scared?
Afraid to trust.
Afraid to hope.
The scariest thing of all right now wasn’t that Nick didn’t love me, because even though he hadn’t said it yet, I knew he did. It was that his love made me hope for a future I was becoming terrified to lose.