Fearless (6 page)

We hadn’t gotten much farther than the hallway before I heard a voice behind me. “Niki. It’s about time you showed up. I was afraid you wouldn’t make it. You know I don’t like it when people are late.”

“Dad!” I started and turned around. I guess I was a little on edge, but he had that effect on me. We gave each other a stiff hug. He was impeccably dressed in a fine suit. Yep, he sure had a client or two here tonight. “Sorry we’re late, Dad, but we had to pick up Cinnamon’s gift on the way.” I lied.

“Oh, I see. No problem then.” He looked at Jesse as if he hadn’t noticed his presence until now. He squared his shoulders and said, “Who is your friend? Doesn’t he talk? Is he mute?” Before I could answer the rude questions, Jesse cleared his throat.

“Mr. Milani, not at all, sir. It’s a true pleasure to meet you. Niki has told me so much about you. I’m Jesse Morrison.” He extended his hand like a gentleman, but my dad ignored it.

“Jesse Morrison.” He narrowed his eyes, as if mentally scanning a list of fugitives’ names from America’s Most Wanted. “Hmm…Tell me, Jesse. I’ve never seen you with Niki before. Are you from around here? Your accent sounds a little East Coast.”

“Great observation, sir. Born and raised in New York. I’ve only been here a short while.”

“So how did you get to know Niki?”

Geez, it was like the Spanish Inquisition. I figured I’d better run some interference and interrupted, “Chase and Jesse are friends, Dad. Enough with the questions, already. He’s not on trial here.” I furrowed my brow. I’d had a feeling things were going to go like this. “I brought Jesse as my date, so can we please move on?”

“Really? Well, that is really kind of…”

I didn’t want to argue any longer. It was futile. There was no winning or making him understand. I grabbed Jesse, leaving my dad mid-sentence, and continued into the main living room to get a drink. God, I sure needed one.

“That went great.” Jesse joked.

“Trust me, that was nothing. Just a typical day around here.” I was fuming.

The great room was large, with a massive black Steinway piano as a center piece. For the birthday occasion there was a bar set up against the wall, with wine and beer, and some finger food. I made a beeline directly for the bottle of Chardonnay, strode over and poured a glass to the brim. Before I was able to take a sip, I cringed with the recognition of the voice behind me.

“Hello, Niki.”

I turned and saw Jason, standing there, chewing on a crescent roll.

To fortify my nerves, I took a large gulp of my wine. “Hi, Jason. What are you doing here?”

“Your dad invited me. It would have been rude of me to not comply.”

I opened my mouth, about to explode into a verbal tirade against Jason. With one hand on my hip and the other pointing my Chardonnay in Jason’s face, Jesse came to the rescue and jumped in to diffuse the conversation.

“Hey, Jason, I’ve heard so much about you. Nice to put a face to all that information.”

“So, who are you?” Jason asked.

“I’m Jesse, from New York.” They shook hands and Jesse slung an arm across Jason’s shoulder, maneuvering him towards the patio as he continued. “So you work for Mr. Milani? That must be cool. I always wanted to know what it’s like to be a lawyer. Do you ever…” Their voices faded as Jesse hustled him out to the patio.

Left alone, I breathed a sigh of relief. That was a smooth move on Jesse’s part. His diversion gave me a little time to strategize what to do next.

Less than a minute later Jason stormed in from the patio in a huff, red in his face, scowling.

“Niki, I have to leave. Please tell your father I’ll see him on Monday, at the office.”

“Sure…bye.” I mumbled as my eyes followed him out the front door. My head snapped back to the French patio doors, were I saw Jesse entering the room grinning from ear to ear. “What did you say to him? He was all flustered.”

He shoved a hand through his hair, pushing back the stands that fell in his eyes. He brushed a gentle kiss across my forehead and put his arm around my waist. “Um… I just told him a story about this guy I once knew who suffered a broken nose after stalking his ex-girlfriend.”

I rotated my body to face him, remembering how those unruly locks of hair drove me crazy, wanting the velvet warmth of his kiss. He locked both arms around me and I poked a finger at his chest as I said, “Wow, you are one crazy boyfriend, Jess.” I looked up into his dazzling blue eyes. “But I gotta say… I like it.”

“Happy to be of assistance,” he chuckled.

Parting my lips, I raised on my toes to meet his kiss.

Before our lips could meet, my dad stormed into the great room, waving his arms in frustration. “Niki, Jason just left in a hurry. Said something about your friend here threatening him. What was that about?” He snapped his gaze toward Jesse. “Threats like that could land you in jail, son.”

“Dad, calm down. Jesse just told Jason it would probably be best if he left since I felt awkward with him here.”

“Akward! I’ll tell you what’s awkward, Miss Milani. Awkward is you bringing a date to
my
party when you know your boyfriend, Jason, will be here.” He cocked his head and raised an eyebrow, as if we were having some kind of a jousting competition and he just landed a good one.

“Dad…
Father
…Jason and I broke up weeks ago. I already told you that,” I said flatly.

“Broke up? Why it sounded more like an insignificant lover’s quarrel, than a break up, to me. Surely you are mistaken, Niki. As usual, you don’t know what you’re doing…”

“And I’m sure
you,
in your infinite wisdom
,
will tell me how to run my life.”

“Quite frankly, Niki, I do know what’s best for you. You’re young and foolish and make rash decisions all the time. First you go chasing after some silly fashion design dream and now this kind of immature behavior.”

My mouth gaped with indignant surprise. “I thought you were behind me on my fashion design classes. I thought you said taking a year off college would be a good thing…”

Oh my God, poor Jesse. I brought him here, to this dysfunctional family birthday party, and now he was caught in the middle of an argument between me and my dad. He fidgeted nervously, looking as if he wanted to jump in the fight and defend me, but I figured nothing good would come of that.

I threw him a glance and then swept my eyes to the door, hoping it would keep his fighting instinct at bay and we could get the hell out of here.

“That was just a bunch of mumbo jumbo to appease you until you came to your senses and went back to pursuing a real education.”

“Really? Did you really just say that? Okay, that’s it!” I threw my hands up in the air. “We are leaving, Dad. I can’t believe you’re doing this right now.”

I took Jesse’s hand and started towards the living room and the front door.

“That’s your answer to everything, Niki, isn’t it?” My dad’s voice rose in pitch as he followed after me. “I understand now, why Jason broke up with you. As always, if things don’t go your way, you run away and hide. Just like your mom did.”

I froze in my tracks, like a bird dog on point, and turned to face his horrible accusations. The sharp edge of his words stung my heart, threatening to corrode the precious and delicate memories I had of her, like acid poured on her photograph.

I lunged at him, hitting him flat on his chest with my open hands as hard as I could. “Don’t you fucking dare talk about Mom like that! If she hid, it was to get away from you, you brute!”

Tears stung at my eyes, but I didn’t want to turn into a sobbing idiot. I wanted to show him that I was strong and confident, that I wasn’t going to live my life intimidated by him, crumbling into an emotional mess at his command. My voice cracked a little, but I pulled myself together. “Mom was a saint. Don’t you dare tarnish my memories of her with that kind of talk.” Dad had an insidious way of implying things, saying just enough to get in my head and make me doubt myself, as if somehow my mom really was to blame.

“Niki, you don’t know everything that happened. I tried as hard as I could to help her, but she wouldn’t let me.”

“Yeah right.” I gave a sarcastic short laugh. “What I remember is that you were working all the time, spent hours at the office just to be away from us. The rare moments you were here you avoided her like the plague. Like it was her fault she got sick. You were never there for her, or me, and thanks to you, I still have to go to therapy.”

“Niki, I’m aware of that. I pay the bill—like I pay all your bills: your college, your rent, your car, everything! I do it because I know what’s best for you. And you think you know everything, but you don’t know what drives me. You don’t think it was hard for me when your mother died? You don’t think I hurt too?” His eyes flashed and his face contorted in anguish as the words spilled out.

“Nice to know, Dad. Your only child was just a big inconvenience for you.”

“Niki, I…”

“You couldn’t handle my reaction so you sent me away, just swept the problem under the rug, got rid of it—out of sight, out of mind.”

“Yes, yes! I couldn’t handle your hurt and mine. When you started that cutting phase of yours, I resigned. I gave up. I do sometimes blame myself for the way I handled that. But look at you now, Niki. Your choices will be your undoing and it’s your own fault. You decided to move out this time, I didn’t send you away. You made the decision to move into an apartment with that singer wanna-be friend of yours.”

Oh, now he was pulling out all the stops. First he attacked my choice of boyfriends and now he was insinuating that my friends were losers. I can’t make a good career choice, boyfriend choice or friend choice. What’s left? I may as well not even exist.

“Now, let me tell you something, Daddy dearest. I chose to leave because I refused to be under the same roof as an egocentric ass who thinks he can control me like some stupid employee…the way you control your precious golden boy, Jason. You know what? I used to think the two of you were so much alike. Now I know better. Jason is an angel compared to the monster you’ve become. No, I take that back –the monster you have always been!”

For once, my dad was speechless. For a split second, I had managed to shut the lawyer up and, from the look on his face, I think I unsettled him. Before he had a chance to regain his focus, I stormed out of the house, as fast as possible, with Jesse on my heels. I sprinted down the driveway to the truck and within seconds Jesse’s big wheels screeched out through the gaping jaws of the black wrought iron gate.

Chapter 7

Jesse

What the fuck just happened back there?
Niki looked totally pissed off; she was fucking fuming. She sat next to me in the front of the pickup as I drove us back to her place, with her arms folded across her chest and her eyes shooting daggers at…well, I imagined at images of her dad in her mind.

His face was classic when she gave him a wallop on his chest like that and stood her ground. Way to go, Niki. I had never seen her like that before, confident and feisty. I liked it. It kind of turned me on. I mean, her dad was acting like a total dickhead; he sure knew how to push her buttons.

The drive back to Niki’s place was completely silent. I shot a glance over at her, every once in a while, to check on her. I didn’t want anyone breaking my baby’s heart, not even her dad.
Ah shit
. Her eyes were wet. I couldn’t stand to see Niki cry. It caused a funny twisting feeling in my stomach.

I took one hand from the steering wheel and reached over to nudge her arm. The way she had them folded so tight it would have taken a crow bar to pry them loose. “Hey,” I said softly and nudged again. She tilted her head my way and released her death grip, letting her arm fall to the seat. I laced our fingers together and squeezed lightly. She wiped the back of her other hand across her cheek.

“You okay, baby?”

She nodded. With her head still titled in my direction, a little smile crept across her face.

I nosed into a space in the parking lot of her apartment and killed the engine. Neither one of us moved. We just sat for a minute. Niki stared straight ahead and then closed her eyes. She popped them open and turned her head toward me and said, “Jesse, I think I need to see a therapist, like right now!” I froze up inside. Damn, this was worse than I thought.

I looked straight at her, “You wanna go to your therapist
now
?”

“I need to see
your
therapist—Jack...Jack Daniels. You may have heard of him? Let’s go to Rookies. I need a freaking drink.”

I exhaled and laughed. “Shit, Niki, you scared me. I thought you were serious there for a minute…” That was the best goddamn fucking idea I’d heard all night. I cranked the engine, threw it in gear and headed for Rookies.

The parking lot in front was nearly empty and, as we entered the bar, it was unusually quiet. Except for a young couple, making out in one of the booths, we were the only people there. Damn, not a good sign for the health of Rookies.

Chase came out from the back and greeted us with a smile when he recognized us. “Fuck. It’s just you guys. I was hoping it might be a customer.”

“Nice to see you, too.” I flipped Chase the middle finger, out of Niki’s line of sight.

“Jackass,” he mumbled with a playful smirk.

“Works for me, dude, we
are
customers.” I pulled a stool close, smoothing the palm of my hand over the black vinyl seat where Niki’s perky little ass would sit. Self-restraint was never my strong suit. “Niki, slide up on this stool here, babe.” I ran a hand down over her ass as she stepped up beside me. “And line up some shots, will you, Chase?”

I sneaked a glance at her ass as she perched herself on the stool. Chase laughed and slammed three shot glasses on the bar top. “So, how was the birthday party?”

Niki and I looked at each other, then answered at the same time.

“Don’t even ask…” Niki held up a hand.

“Uh, er, well…shit.” We both broke out laughing. I let her answer.

“Let’s just say…it
sucked
. And leave it at that.” Niki pulled a shot glass toward her and ran a finger around the edge, waiting for us to all drink at the same time.