Chapter 39
“Would
you look at those two, I swear.” Ciara peeked out of
the kitchen window to see two blonde heads rolling in the sand, almost
drenching themselves in the surf. November in
Jane
pulled her head out of the cabinet long enough to join Ciara’s
gaze outside. “Yep. They’re insatiable, that’s for sure. I wish they could be
together more.”
“Aaron’s
touring with them though this time, isn’t he?”
“Yeah,
he is. That’ll be nice. Or a nightmare. I can’t decide which!”
“Could
go either way. I’d just love to see Kevin’s impatience going off when they go
at it. That’d be worth a trip overseas.”
“Yeah,
Nick and Kevin are good for each other. Keep each other balanced.”
Ciara silently hoped Nick and Kevin didn’t
spend too much free time together at all. For balance, for anything. As happy
as she was that the situation with Lindsey had worked its way out and didn’t
seem to put a wedge in her relationship with the boys, even mending her
relationship with Kevin, he was still a womanizer. A partier. A fool in Ciara’s mind. Nick didn’t need that kind of role model.
Hang with Brian, please.
The
trip had gone pretty well thus far, despite Nick’s earlier concern of possible
humiliation and pressure. It was nice being with this family again. It was nice
being in
“Hey!
You gonna stow away in the kitchen the whole time we’re here?” Nick and Aaron
came stumbling in, hair tousled and matted to their heads, sand covering EVERYthing and clothes twisted bassackwards.
What a sight.
“You
have something else in mind? Like a shower?” Ciara
curled her nose up at the two messy, sweaty boys.
With
you, yeah. “You sayin’ I’m stinky?” Nick bopped his brother on the
head one last time and walked over to Ciara, lifting
an arm and waving his “pit air” in her general direction.
“Ew,
God, Nick. Go bathe. You’re spreadin’ sand everywhere
anyway. Les and BJ mentioned shopping earlier. Why don’t you come along?”
“I’m
out!” A short blonde blur fled from the room, hoping to avoid getting sucked
into anything remotely related to shopping.
“Yeah,
sure. I wanted to grab a few new games anyway. Gimme 10?”
“I’ll
get the girls.”
Nick
took off down the hall taking off his shirt as he went. Small sprinkles of sand
made a path behind him, causing his mom to sigh and Ciara
do nothing more than shake her head. He’s a brat. A sweet, loveable brat.
“Is
that okay, Jane? Can I take ‘em all out?”
“Yeah,
that’s fine. Get them out of my hair for a bit. You, uh…wouldn’t wanna take
Aaron too would you?” Cheesy grin. Pleading eyes.
“NO!
I’m not goin’!”
“Where
did you come from, young man?” Ciara ruffled his hair
only to have a pound of sand fall from his head onto the tiled floor of the
kitchen. “Crap…I’m sorry, Jane. I’ll get it.”
“Nope.
He’ll get it. Aaron, get the broom. Ci, go ahead and
get ready. I’ll keep him. No sense all you having to listen to both he and Nick
whining.”
“Aw,
Mom…I don’t wanna sweep!”
“Shop
or sweep, smarty. You chose.”
“I’m
sweepin’, I’m sweepin’…jeez.”
******~~~~~~******~~~~~~
“So,
how’s married life, Cici?” BJ unloaded her tray onto
the table, shaking her head at the amount of food in front of her brother.
Damned fool could eat a horse and not gain an ounce. Les wasn’t so lucky. BJ
just never was hungry enough to bother.
“Eh,
it’s okay, Beej…not all it’s cracked up to be.”
“It’d
help,” Nick swallowed the wad of food in his mouth finally, taking a huge swig
of soda, “if you weren’t married to an asshole.”
“NICK!”
Les and BJ fortunately had been shielded from all that was Bill. In fact, Nick
really had no clue; he was speaking purely from Ciara’s
body language and his own jealousy. Thing was, he knew he was right because Ciara never argued with him on it.
“He’s
got a point. Bill’s not the poster boy for perfect husbands.”
“Oh…”
BJ looked down at her pizza, feeling a bit ashamed for bringing it up. “I’m
sorry. I just assumed…”
“It’s
okay, sweetie. I’m trying to make it better. Kinda why I’m here. We needed some
space. Dumb ass had some surgery again, so I’m letting him heal all by himself
this time.”
“What’d
he have surgery for? Had I known that…”
“Don’t
worry about it Nick. Wouldn’t have changed a thing.” Taking a bite of her own
pizza, she smiled around her mouthful. “You ready for this one?”
“I
doubt it.”
“So
do I. He sits around watchin’ TV with a paper clip in his mouth. Always has
done it. He’d do it at the hospital with Josh too. Well, the moron finally
swallowed one.”
“No
way.”
“Way.
Goes to ‘his’ doc, they decide the only way to get it out is surgery.”
“My
God…that sounds pretty serious!” BJ couldn’t decide whether to be disgusted or
amused. What a maroon. Ciara definitely deserved
someone better than this guy.
“Well,
it could be, I suppose. He was fine when I left him. Layin’ on the couch with
his cath bag in his hand. Perfection.”
“Cath
bag?”
“Um…”
Ciara looked to BJ and Nick for a bit of assistance
on how much information to give Leslie. She might be twelve but she always
seemed so sheltered. More so than Angel and Aaron even.
“A
plastic bag that holds his pee, Les. No wonder you wanted to get out of there.”
Thanks,
Nick. Nicely put. “Yeah, he’s my hero.”
“He
didn’t do this on purpose, did he?”
Ciara stopped shoving food in her mouth and
just stared at the blonde boy/man across the table from her. More boy than man.
More playful than serious. But when he stopped goofing long enough and just
thought, he was often downright brilliant. Able to see beyond the tangible to
the hidden feeling and heart of almost any matter. He was her dreamer. She
wished for that ability.
“I
knew I liked you for some reason, Carter.”
“Eh,
you like me because of my blue eyes and charming personality.” Cheesy grin.
Gagging noises from his sisters. Big slurp of his pop. Burp. Charming alright.
“Seriously, Ci. Did he do this on purpose? Who the
hell swallows a paper clip!?”
“Bill
does apparently. Gets his ass outta work for another 6 weeks. He’s one in a
million.”
“Yeah,
and leave it to you to find him. God.” Nick stood, stretching and patting his
stomach in exaggerated fullness from their meal. “You guys done? I wanna walk.”
******~~~~~~******~~~~~~
“EEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!
Look, it’s the Backstreet Boys CD!” Leslie flailed her arms in the air, and
jumped up and down making the store full of people stare.
“Les!
Stop it! God…put that down.” Nick yanked the CD from his tormenting sister’s
hand and shoved it back in the slot. “Do we need a hoard of…of YOU following
us, huh?”
“No,
probably not…sorry.” She shrugged off his anger and found BJ in a different
section. What a party pooper he could be.
Nick
looked around, peeking out from under his ball cap to see if anyone noticed him
and was relieved to see a clear path. He stopped by Ciara
on his way out. Sliding an arm around her waist, he bent down to her ear and
whispered, “I’m goin’ across the way to find some games. Meet me by the
fountain?”
Ciara’s heart stopped at his touch…his breath
on her ear. Damn him. Foul play. She couldn’t react, couldn’t respond. Hell,
she couldn’t breathe. Finally taking a deep breath, pretending to be so
entranced in her CD she was reading, she looked up and smiled. “Yeah, go on.
We’ll be there.”
He
made his way out chuckling. He got to her and he knew it. Since when was she
interested in a Barney CD? Damn that husband of hers. Damn the age difference.
He wanted a chance and as cool as it was that he got to her with his
flirtation, he knew deep in his heart nothing would ever come of it.
After
Leslie saw that Nick was safely out of the store, she snuck up to Ciara. “Hey…can I ask you a favor?”
“Sure,
kiddo…whatcha need?” Relief. How dare he do that to her? She was still mulling
around the feelings that coursed through her body at his touch. And a Barney
CD? Damn…he probably noticed too. But, it wasn’t right. She was married. He was
a minor. He was…Nick. But, damn…
“I
need to uh…well, I need to buy some, um…” Leslie sighed, frustrated that she
had to do this, that she was awkward and that she hadn’t spoken to her mom yet
about it for some reason. Ciara seemed safe, and yet
she still stood here bumbling. “I’m sorry. I need to get some bras…I don’t
wanna go with mom. Can you help me?”
“Oh
honey…sure! Yeah, lemme go tell Nick and we can head down the way.”
“NO!
Don’t tell him!”
“Well,
I have to tell him we’re not here anymore…I’ll just tell him we’ll be awhile
yet, okay?”
“Okay…”
Leslie’s eyes lowered in embarrassment at how silly she was being. She just was
ashamed of her slightly heavy body and her mom did nothing but ride her about
it. Ciara wouldn’t do that and she knew it.
“Can
BJ come?”
“Um,
yeah…”
“Alright,”
Ciara patted Leslie’s arm and went to BJ, whispering
something unheard to Les. BJ’s eyes smiled to her sister and they made their
way out of the store motioning for Les to follow. “Lemme let Nick know where
we’re headed.”
Ciara saw him standing at the store’s
Nintendo unit deeply entranced in a new game. Turn about was fair play, at
least in Cici’s mind. She quietly made her way in and
stood back watching him for but a few moments. Once the small group of boys
that had been standing by had walked away, she slid up close to him and ran a
finger up his arm, and leaned in, brushing her curls along his bare skin.
CRASH!
BEEP! “Game over,” came screaming from the machine and Nick stood perfectly
still. Now he was the one who couldn’t breathe, who couldn’t think, who
couldn’t function.
“Hey,
baby. Cat got your uh…joystick?”
He
slowly turned his gaze from the black screen down to her green flirtatious
eyes. Talk about your foul plays. “That was not fair.”
“Sorry.”
She stepped back and went back to the playful Ciara
he had known for years. Sultry seductress she just could not maintain right
now. “Les needs to go looking for something special, so we’ll need a bit longer
here. Can you give us about a half hour or so?”
“Yeah…where
you goin’?”
“Just
some girl stuff….”
“Girl
stuff? Where are you going…she’s always so damned secretive.”
“Nick…she’s
embarrassed. She needs a bra.”
“Oh…God.
Why did I ask? Yes, go on. I’m NOT going into an underwear department with you.
No way.”
“Didn’t
think you’d want to…now, uh…” She picked up her seductress for one final act,
“push that little red button there, baby and I bet your joystick will come back
to life.”
And
she was gone. He stood there, watching her walk away wondering how many shades
of red one person could get before they called the paramedics in. He had to be
damned close. He just had to be.
******~~~~~~*******~~~~~~
“Uh,
Mom…could you come in here?” Leslie carried her new purchase very close to her
body fearful it’d fall and spill its contents. She was feeling guilty for not
doing this with her, but couldn’t bear the underhanded comments either. Now
that her purchase had been made, however, she was ready to share.
“Yeah,
hon…whatdya get?”
Ciara was in the next room, getting changed
for an evening on the boat. What she would hear would stick with her for quite
some time. It broke her heart.
“Well,
Ciara helped me. We never really have the time to
shop like this, you know, so uh…” Ciara could hear
the rattle of a bag and the sound of Leslie’s bed creaking as Jane sat down on
it. “We bought a few bras. I’m kinda feeling like I should wear one now, Mom.”
“Yeah,
I guess so!” Silence. Ciara kept getting dressed,
dying to see, to hear what was going on. She needed a new hobby. She sucked at
eaves dropping. “So, uh…these look kinda small. Are they going to be big enough
for you?”
She
did not just say that to that girl. Ciara sat on her
bed as well and seethed. She wasn’t supposed to have heard this conversation at
all, but unfortunately she had. Didn’t Jane KNOW? Didn’t she see that Les was
already insecure about her weight? About her size? The poor thing should have
been in a bra since summer time and now…my god. Nick was right. Her finger was
on a control switch and she no longer had any thought or concern for her kid’s
feelings.
“They’re
fine, Mom. We tried them on. Just…just forget it.” More rattling of bags and Ciara thought it best to make her way out quickly. Neither
Jane nor Les would benefit knowing this conversation had been overheard. But it
had been. And Ciara couldn’t shake it. She couldn’t
believe it. Such a simple question from her mother, but to that child…it was
like a smack in the face. If Ciara knew it, why
didn’t Jane?
She
grabbed her bag and made her way out to the deck, hoping to find the guys
getting things ready for their evening out. Thank God they were. But, in
typical Nick fashion, nothing got past him as far as Ciara’s
moods were concerned.
“Hey…you
okay?”
“Uh…yeah…I’m
fine. Just…” She plopped down on a deck chair and watched Bob as he shoved
water bottles into a cooler for “the kid’s” night out. He’d always called her a
kid too, silly as it felt. And really, that was okay. With Nick, she felt like
one.
“Ci…what happened? What did mom say to you?”
***
