For His Honor (12 page)

Her mother curtly replied that she loved her too, and then they got off the phone.

Nicole let out a weary, tired breath.

It never ends, does it? She thought.

A moment later she was back at her desk, on the computer, staring at The Rag’s front-page headline.

RED AND NICOLE TOGETHER AGAIN!

Beneath the headline was a picture of the two of them coming out of the rental car place the day before. Nicole was shading her eyes from the sunlight, and Red’s arm was on the small of her back as they walked toward his car in the parking lot.

Nicole couldn’t believe it. The Rag was back to reporting on them—in fact, it was probably written by that same creep, Anderson, who’d hounded them until Red had gone and bought the paper.

But Red no longer owned Jameson International and so he no longer owned The Rag. In point of fact, Kane Wright would be the new man in charge over there. Nicole could imagine plenty of scenarios where Kane might like to encourage The Rag to go even further in its stalking and harassing tactics. Kane Wright and The Rag—the two entities seemed tailor made for one another.

“This isn’t good,” Nicole said aloud. “This really isn’t good at all.”

***

Red came into the city to meet her for lunch. They went to Five Napkin Burger, a great little restaurant in Hell’s Kitchen.

“I need a milkshake,” Nicole said, wiping the hair out of her eyes. She’d been paranoid the whole way over to the restaurant that someone was taking pictures, and she’d had to explain to Red all that had gone on that morning; the call from her mother, the realization that The Rag was once again publishing stories about them online, her concerns about Danielle and Kane Wright being married.

The waiter took their orders; Nicole wanted the original five-napkin burger and a black and white milkshake, Red got the burger salad and a beer.

“This will all sort itself out,” Red told her, taking her hand across the table.

Nicole glanced around the place. It was fairly crowded with typical New Yorkers and no one seemed to be paying them the slightest bit of attention. “I just feel like we’re going to be under the microscope again. The last thing I want is for my mom to be finding stuff out about us through the tabloids.”

“I can handle The Rag and that clown Anderson,” Red told her, thanking the waiter as he brought over his beer. He picked it up and took a long sip.

“What if Kane Wright uses them to harass us and release those things about you—the things he’s been threatening us with?”

Red shrugged. “I told you already, I’ve got nothing to hide. I’m not ashamed of anything I’ve done and I’ll defend it publicly if necessary.”

Nicole wasn’t so confident. The media could easily twist and distort Red’s reasons for helping those illegal workers come to the United States. For many Americans, anybody with dark skin and a Middle Eastern sounding name was practically Osama Bin Laden reincarnated. It wouldn’t be easy to make a public case that Red was doing the courageous thing in trying to help political dissidents.

“I think maybe we should try and bury the hatchet with him,” Nicole said, eventually.

“With who?”

“Kane Wright.”

Red just laughed. “I think you and your friend Danielle have both been drinking the same Kool-Aid.”

“I’m serious.”

The waiter came with Nicole’s black and white milkshake, which tasted amazing.

Red looked her in the eye. “Nicole, there’s no way in hell I’m going to be BFF

with Kane Wright just because he put the moves on your roommate.”

“You’re the one who said my friends are your friends now.”

“Is Kane Wright your friend now?”

“Maybe he will be,” she replied, drinking her shake.

Red’s expression darkened. “I don’t think so.”

She leaned forward, lowering her voice. “We have a chance to smooth things over for a while. Let’s do the right thing and have a double date. Let’s be the bigger people.”

Red just shook his head. “He’s going to burn us if we let our guard down.”

“I didn’t say that we should make him the godfather of our child. I said we should maybe have a drink with him and try and play nice for awhile.”

“Our new company is going to do anything and everything but play nice with Kane Wright and his organization. We’re going to be battling it out day and night to take back what he stole from us.”

“Fine. I understand that we’re starting a company and I want to be a part of it.

But can’t we at least call a truce between you and Kane Wright until after the wedding?”

The waiter brought their food and both of them were quiet for a time. Red was picking at his salad, clearly preoccupied. Finally he put his fork down and looked at her.

“You’re right. I’m letting my emotions get the best of me.”

“Thank you for seeing that,” Nicole said, relief flooding her. “It will make things so much easier if the four of us can at least be civil with one another.”

Red smiled darkly. “And as Sun Tzu says in The Art of War, we must keep our friends close and our enemies closer.”

***

Nicole’s mother called her at almost seven o’clock that Friday and told her they were stuck in horrible traffic just outside the city.

“How long before you get here?” Nicole asked, rolling her eyes, as Red came over and massaged her neck.

“Honey, I have no idea how long. I don’t know if there’s been an accident or if this is just normal Friday evening traffic.”

“Well how far away are you?”

“The GPS said we were less than an hour away until we hit this gridlock.

Nothing’s moving as far as the eye can see.”

“Well, there’s nothing you can do about it. I’ll just keep the food warm and hope it lets up soon.”

“We’ll call back to give an update in the next half hour or so.”

“Thanks, mom. Bye.” Nicole got off the phone and looked at Red.

“That bad?”

“They’re running way late. They would have been late even without traffic, that’s what annoys me most,” Nicole said, opening the oven and checking on the chicken. She took her baster and squirted more broth over it to keep it moist. “It’s ready now. In an hour it’s going to be completely dried out.”

“Relax. What’s the worst that happens—we have chicken jerky for dinner. I like chicken jerky.”

“That’s not funny,” she said, but she was laughing just the same.

He put his fingers under her chin and tilted her face up towards his, and then he leaned in and kissed her deeply.

As usual, the anxious thoughts and fears seemed to slowly ebb, like the tide going out. “If you could just kiss me all the time, I’d really be happy the whole day,” she told him.

“Why didn’t you say so? We can arrange that, no problem.” He leaned in and kissed her again, then on her neck, then moving toward the swell of her cleavage.

“Red! Stop it!” She pushed him away, giggling.

He grabbed her ass with both hands and pulled her against him. “Come on. Now we have time for sure.”

“I need to make sure I keep an eye on the food,” she said. “Please don’t get me crazier than I already am.”

“You’ll be totally relaxed afterwards. Think about it,” he said. “Danielle’s gone out with Kane, your parents are stuck in Friday rush hour traffic. We can get completely naked right in this kitchen.”

She felt her nipples stiffening and her body responding, especially her lower half.

Nicole was still surprised at how wet he could get her just with his talk. But she shook her head no. “Time for that later,” she said. “I need to be on my game right now.”

Red sighed. “Fine. Have it your way.”

“Do you think it was a mistake having them over to my apartment?”

“Nicole, we went over this and over this,” Red told her, walking to the fridge and grabbing a beer. “You said you didn’t want to freak them out by having them come to our house.”

“Our mansion,” she corrected him.

“I believe your exact words were that you didn’t want them to get smacked in the face by my opulent lifestyle.”

Nicole went to her mashed potatoes and glanced at them. “These are hardening.

They’re going to be gross.”

“You’re getting caught up in your head,” he said, having a long drink from his beer.

She glanced up from her soon-to-be fossilized potatoes. “Must be nice to just hang out and drink a beer while your fiancé does all the work.”

“It’s not as easy as it looks to be this laid back,” he said with a smirk.

“At least at the house Chef Roland could have helped me deal with this disaster.”

“That would be great, having your folks eat food made by a personal chef in a multi-million dollar mansion.” Red laughed. “Afterwards we could have gotten a helicopter to fly us around the Statue of Liberty.”

“It probably would have been better than this,” Nicole said. She opened the oven again, shook her head. “I need to put some tinfoil on this to keep it warm and keep the moisture in.”

“Where’s the tinfoil again?” Red asked, starting to open cabinets.

“Thanks for at least trying to help,” she replied, opening the third drawer of the cabinet beside the sink. She took out the aluminum foil and pulled out a long strip to overlay the chicken.

“Everything’s going to be fine,” he said, for the millionth time. “Nothing ever goes as badly as you think it’s going to.”

Nicole thought to herself that those sounded like famous last words.

About an hour later, her mother and father finally arrived at the apartment, and they were in absolutely terrible moods. It was obvious they’d been at each other’s throats, even though they tried to hide it initially.

“We’re so, so sorry,” her mother said as she entered the apartment. “That was the worst traffic I’ve been stuck in since I don’t know when.”

“If we’d taken the Brooklyn Bridge instead, like I said,” her father began and her mother snapped at him.

“The Brooklyn Bridge would have made us even later. Would you like to have gotten here at ten o’clock at night instead?”

“That bridge would have been clear all the way.”

“No it would not. Don’t be foolish.”

Her father shook his head and mumbled something.

Nicole’s mother made a face. “This is what I’ve been dealing with all night.”

Red was right there to greet them, shaking her father’s hand and hugging her mother. Her mother embraced him with about as much enthusiasm as if she’d been told to hug a deranged serial killer.

“Let me take your coat,” Red said, and he took her mom and dad’s coats and hung them on the coatrack beside the door.

“I’m going to put dinner on the table right away,” Nicole said. “I can’t let it sit any longer.”

“Let me help you, honey,” her mother replied, and the two of them went into the kitchen together.

“Can I get you a beer, Mr. Masters?” Red asked.

“Call me Bud, and heck yes,” he laughed.

“Great, now he’s going to be drunk on top of everything else,” her mother said, shaking her head in annoyance.

Red opened the fridge and grabbed a beer, exchanging a look with Nicole.

“Sorry you and Dad had such a tough drive here,” Nicole said as she opened the oven and pulled out the chicken.

“Oh, it’s fine. Just happy to spend time with both of you,” her mom replied, without even the hint of a smile. “Now what can I do to help?”

“Well, I need to add some milk and butter to those potatoes.”

Her mother took the cover off the mashed potatoes and looked inside, sniffing.

Then she grabbed a spoon from the counter and dipped it in, tasting them. “Maybe a little more salt and pepper, too.”

Nicole shrugged. “Okay, then. Whatever you’d like to add.”

She could hear her father and Red speaking in muted tones so as not to disturb the womenfolk.

In a way, it gave her some comfort to know that at least her dad would likely be friendly tonight.

With her mom assisting in her own, inimitable way (which meant lots of comments about what to do better next time), they were finally able to get dinner on the table.

Everyone settled down to eat at the tiny table where Nicole and Danielle usually just left their mail and did their nails from time to time. Nicole couldn’t even remember the last time she’d actually eaten a meal at this table with other people.

“It smells wonderful,” Red told her, as she served him a plate of chicken, gravy, mashed potatoes and corn.

“It sure does,” her father agreed, seemingly content now that he had his beer and was about to fill his belly.

Suddenly her mother’s cell was ringing. She looked at it and without even apologizing, answered in a loud, obnoxious voice. “HELLO?” Pause. “Oh, yes. Yes, I meant to send that to you, I just didn’t get a chance yet. I’ll put it in the mail tomorrow afternoon when I get home…Well, we’re having dinner in Brooklyn with Nicole and Red.”

Everyone sat and listened to her talk, not quite knowing what else to do.

Her mother was listening intently now, and her eyes narrowed. “You what…you read that today? Really? That can’t be true.” She glanced at Nicole and her lips tightened. “Okay. Well…thanks for telling me. Yes. Yes, I know. I’ll call you tomorrow.” She got off the phone and put it away.

“That was a little rude, Mom,” Nicole told her.

“I had to take that call, it was Karen.”

“So?”

“I couldn’t ignore her.” Her mother started to pick at her plate of food. “I can’t help but ask…is it true you quit your job this past week?”

Nicole sat back in her chair. “I was going to tell you, I just didn’t want to get into a whole thing about it tonight.”

“When were you going to tell me?”

“I don’t know. I’ve had other stuff on my mind.”

“I’m sure you have. But instead I had to find out from Karen, because they’ve just written a new thing about you in the tabloids. This is how I find out about my daughter now.”

Nicole put a hand on her forehead. “Mom, can we please not do this right now?”

Red placed his hand on her leg and gave a comforting squeeze. “Barb, those tabloids are best ignored. Most of what they print are lies, and I’ve learned just to ignore them.”