Chapter 10
Nick knew
it was morning even before he opened his eyes.
And when he did open them, he opened them slowly, hesitantly. He half-expected to be met with a killer
headache just as the morning sunlight reached his eyes, but he was pleasantly
surprised to find that he was not hungover, and the memory of the night before
was still vividly clear in his mind.
He was
glad. Last night was an experience he
did not want to forget, not quite yet anyway.
It had been awkward at best, certainly not his most superlative
love-making experience, and yet, it had been special. Special because it was his first time with
Claire and also his first time since… well, since the previous April. He felt rejuvenated, as if new life had been
breathed into his lungs.
Looking
over at Claire, he smiled. She was lying
on her stomach, still sound asleep, her body twisted up in the sheets, her head
turned away from him. He reached out and
lightly stroked her bare back, wishing she would wake up. After last night, he wanted nothing more than
to just be with her. The way she had
touched him… the way she had loved him... she had made him feel good about
himself. For the first time in over a
year, he had truly felt like a real, whole man, someone who could be desired,
someone who was worthy of love. And she
had given him the love and shown him the acceptance he needed. If anything, he loved her more now than he
did when he’d woken up beside her the previous morning.
As he
thought of the morning before, he devilishly wondered how she’d like to wake up
to a faceful of icy water, but quickly dismissed the idea. He wasn’t about to ruin the morning. Instead, he leaned over, planting a soft kiss
on her shoulder, then leaving a trail of them down her spine. Just as he was nearing the small of her back,
she flinched and came awake suddenly, rolling over to meet him face to face.
“Morning,”
he said with a grin.
She quickly
jerked the sheet up to cover herself and smiled sheepishly at him. “Morning,” she echoed, her voice hoarse from
sleep. “How long have you been awake?”
“Just a few
minutes,” he replied. “I was just about
to get up and fix myself a glass of ice water…”
He waggled his eyebrows, and she smirked.
“Well, good
thing I woke up then, huh?”
“Yeah,” he
said; he was glad she had too. “So… how
ya feeling? Hungover at all?”
She
scrunched her face up, thinking. “No…”
she said slowly. “Actually I’m feeling
pretty good. Guess we didn’t have that
much to drink last night.”
“No. Last night was great.” He smiled, almost shyly, hoping she felt the
same way, hoping he hadn’t disappointed her.
To his
relief, she returned the smile. “Yeah…
it was.” She sighed lightly and draped
her arm across his bare chest, letting her hand run slowly up and down his
torso and across his stomach. He reached
down and caught her hand, cupping it between his two and raising it to his lips
to softly kiss.
“You slobbered
on it!” she giggled, snatching her hand away and exaggeratedly wiping it off on
his chest.
“I did
not!” he cried with indignation.
“You did
too!”
“Did not!”
“Did too!”
He huffed
and turned away from her, pretending to pout.
But a few seconds later, he rolled back over and smiled. “So,” he asked, “what are we doing today?”
“I should
be asking you that. What are
we doing today?”
“I dunno…
whatcha wanna do?”
She raised
an eyebrow. “Did you plan anything
for us to do in advance?”
He
shrugged. “Yeah, I got us booked for a
few things later in the week. I thought
we could just hang around here and do whatever for first few days. You know, relax and stuff.”
“So
basically do what you do at home anyway – sleep and hang around on the beach?”
He
grinned. “Well, when you put it like
that… yeah, I guess so. But this ain’t
Tampa; this beach is way more pretty, don’t you think?”
“Yeah,” she
smiled, “it is prettier. Everything’s
beautiful here.”
“I know,”
he said, reaching out to take a tendril of her light red hair between his
fingertips. Twirling the lock of hair
around his index finger, he asked again, “So, what should we do?”
Untwisting
her hair from his finger and freeing herself from his grasp, she sat up,
keeping the sheet pulled tightly around her.
“I don’t know about you,” she said, “but I need to call my mom. It’s a reasonable hour in Florida now,
right?”
“Wait, call
your mom?” he repeated, horrified. Oh,
don’t even tell me she’s one of those girls that tells her mother everything…
like all the details of what we did last night… He had never dated a girl like that before,
but he’d heard horror stories from friends who had.
She must
have noticed the appalled expression on his face, for she gave him a strange
look. “Uh, yeah… today’s Mother’s Day.”
“Oh.” He stopped short. “It is?”
He tried to think of the date… it was May something… the eighth
maybe? He wasn’t sure, but he at least
knew it was a Sunday. Let’s see…
Sunday… early May… yep, sounded like
Mother’s Day to him. He had completely
forgotten.
“Yeah, it
is,” Claire said, an amused smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. “I take it you didn’t remember?”
He
shrugged. “Wouldn’t be the first
time. I know I didn’t remember last year
either.” Last year at this time, he’d
still been struggling to learn to walk on his first prosthetic leg. Mother’s Day had been the least of concerns,
especially since he had kicked his own mother out of his house and sent her
packing just over a month before. He
realized that meant it had been well over a year since he’d even spoken to his
mother, let alone actually seen her.
Claire
nodded slowly. “I guess that makes
sense. You and your mom are kind of…
estranged, right?”
He
snorted. “That’s a nice way of putting
it. Yeah, the last time I talked to her,
I still had my leg, and she was trying to convince me not to let them amputate
because it would ruin my career.”
She
grimaced. “Wow… yeah, I can see where
her priorities lie.”
“Uh-huh,”
he said dryly, trying to sound casual, as if he didn’t care. He knew she could tell he did; the sympathy
in her eyes said it all. But she chose
to say nothing verbally, and he was glad.
He didn’t want to talk about it.
The less he thought about Jane, the better. He would rather just pretend he didn’t have a
mother. Somehow, it was just less
painful that way.
***
“Hey, Mom,
it’s me,” Claire spoke into the phone.
“Happy Mother’s Day!”
“Well, hi,
honey!” her mother’s voice greeted her.
“This is a nice surprise – I didn’t know if I’d hear from you today or
not!”
Claire knew
her mother didn’t mean that in a bad way, but it still made her feel sort of
guilty for not being there. In all her
twenty-five years, she didn’t think she’d ever not seen her mother on Mother’s
Day. Even when her parents had moved
from Tampa to Gainesville, Florida a few years ago, she had always made a point
to drive there to visit for the day. But
this year, that was obviously impossible.
“Well, of
course, Mom, I wanted to at least call!” said Claire emphatically. “How’s your day going so far? Are you doing something with Kyle?”
“No, he and
Amber are spending the day with her parents, but he wants us to all get
together the weekend after next, when you’re back and have gotten a chance
settle in. Unless you already have
plans, of course.”
“No, no
plans that I know of for that weekend, so that sounds good. Are we coming to your place or Kyle’s house
or what?”
“We thought
you both could drive up here on Saturday.
You’re welcome to stay overnight, but if you’d rather just come for the
day, that’s fine too. And bring Nick if
you want.”
“Really?”
“Well,
Amber’s coming with Kyle, of course, so there’s no reason why you shouldn’t
bring your ‘significant other’ along too,” her mother said, then added quickly,
“But don’t make him feel like he’s obligated too – only if he wants to.”
Claire
smiled. “Well, I’ll talk to him,” she
promised. “I’m sure he’d love to
though.”
Maybe ‘love
to’ was a stretch, but she didn’t see why he would mind. Nick had met her family before, during her
bone marrow transplant, and they had seemed to get along well. She remembered how her mother had been
skeptical of him at first, not sure what kind of friendship a rich and
world-famous pop singer could offer her daughter. But that had quickly changed after she had
met Nick, and now she practically adored him.
Claire was sure it went back to the transplant and how Nick had been
there for her during that ordeal, visiting her in the hospital, holding her
hand when she was hurting, singing her to sleep when she was alone and afraid,
and even flying all the way from New York City to Tampa on a moment’s notice
when she needed him. He had proven his
loyalty to her then, in her eyes and in the eyes of her mother.
“Great,”
her mother said. “Well, you can call me
again when you’re back in Florida and let me know. So, how’s Hawaii? Are you having a wonderful time?”
Claire
smiled, thinking of the night before.
“Ohh yes,” she said, “it’s so wonderful.” As she launched into a description of the
house and the beach and ocean beyond, Nick popped his head around the corner
and grinned at her. She smiled back and
stuck out her tongue at him, giggling at the goofy face he made back. “Sorry, Mom,” she said quickly, “Nick just
came in, and he’s makin’ me laugh.”
Snapping her fingers at Nick, she pointed to the chair across the table
from her, motioning for him to sit down.
Be off in a minute, she mouthed, holding up her index finger, as
she listened to her mom reminisce on her honeymoon in Hawaii.
“Well,
Claire,” her mother said after a few more minutes, “we should probably get off
the phone now. Long distance, you
know. If I don’t talk to you again till
you’re home, you and Nick enjoy the rest of your trip and have a safe flight
back.”
“We will,
Mom, thanks,” replied Claire. “Love
you.”
“Love you
too. Bye, hon.”
As Claire
ended the call and set the phone down, Nick smiled across the table at
her. “You guys are close, huh?” he said.
“Yeah,”
Claire nodded, “we really are. Didn’t
always used to be that way – we fought all the time when I was in high school…
you know, typical mother/teenage daughter stuff. But things change… people grow up, stuff
happens… we’re a lot closer than we used to be.” She smiled ruefully. “Something like getting cancer will do that
to you, I guess, bring you closer to people, show you what’s important and who’s
important.” She saw his eyes shift
downward as she said this and remembered that he hadn’t been so lucky… her
family had been there for her throughout everything, but his had not. He didn’t like to talk about it a lot, but
she knew the basics. His own mother…
She cleared
her throat and quickly added, “I’m sure it’s the same with you and the
guys.” They were practically his
family anyway. She had seen firsthand
the way they had all watched out for him and supported him in the days, weeks,
and months after the amputation of his leg.
If that wasn’t love, she didn’t know what was.
His eyes
rose back up to meet hers, and he smiled slightly. “Yeah,” he said, and she relaxed, feeling as
if she had corrected the wrong chord she’d struck before it had a chance to
resonate.
“Speaking
of the guys,” she spoke up, “where’s AJ?”
“Out back
with Mary,” replied Nick. “I think
they’re gonna go swimming.”
“Cool. You wanna go swimming too?”
“Maybe
later,” said Nick and rose from the table, grimacing as he stepped forward with
his prosthetic leg.
Noticing
his pained expression, she asked, “Hey, how are things down there?”
Halfway to
the refrigerator, he stopped suddenly and turned quickly, his eyes flying
downward to his crotch. He looked up at
her, red-faced, and she realized what she’d said. Bursting out laughing, she slapped her
forehead and cried, “No no no, not down there! I know for a fact that all is very
well there.” She grinned widely and gave
him an exaggerated wink. “I meant your leg!”
“Ohh…” He chuckled, his cheeks growing even
redder. “It’s, um… fine. Getting better.”
“Liar. It still hurts; I saw you wince. You still need some TLC, don’t you?” she
asked, putting on a face of motherly concern.
He
smirked. “You know, around this time
last year, I believe you were basically telling me to get up off my ass and
stop feeling sorry for myself, not offering to give me ‘TLC’.”
She laughed
and stood up. “True,” she said, as she
sauntered up to him and slid her arms around his waist. “But that was before you paid my way for ten
days in paradise. I owe ya.”
“Hm…” Nick
murmured, “that’s right. I guess you
do. Well, now’s the time to pay up,
woman.”
Looking up,
she saw him dip his head, his lips making a beeline for hers. She tipped back her head, turned up her chin,
and let him steal a kiss. Only it wasn’t
really stealing, for apparently she was just paying her dues. Fair enough, she thought, as her hands
rose to run through his sun-bleached hair, and she guided his head down so that
she could kiss him back.
***