Got the Life (A Nicki Sosebee Novel) (12 page)

“Well, almost
everything is ready.  You and W
ill can take out all that stuff over there.”  She pointed to the small table in the kitchen.  On the table sat a beautiful green salad full of cherry tomatoes and cucumbers, two small pitchers with salad dressings, a large cara
fe of ice water with thin slices
of lemon floating in it, a
nd a bowl full of warm rolls.  N
icki grabbed the salad and one of th
e pitchers and walked to the din
ing room.

The table was already set.  She could tell how much her mother missed Will when she saw the room.  She was using her best china, real silverware, and linen tablecloths and napkins.  In the center of the table was a vase full of
various flowers professionally arranged.  Nicki had no idea what any of them were (except for the baby’s breath), but they were colorful and smelled sweet but not overpowering.  Will followed with an armful that he placed on the table.  “Mom really outdid herself, huh, isn’t that what you said?”

“Yeah, overboard.”  She started walking back to the kitchen but turned around and smiled.  “She really misses you.”

He grinned, only a step behind her.  “Yeah, she said she misses you too because you never visit.”

Ouch.  It was true, though.  She tried to visit every two or three weeks, but it was hard.  Besides being pretty busy, she was often lectured about her clothes, her habits, her jobs (and seeming slackeritis), her—
ahem
—expressive use of language, her choice of friends, her choice of man friends and frequency thereof, her refusal to go to church, and on and on and on.  But she wasn’t going to lay all that on Will.  She chuckled.  “I visit when you’re here.  You’ll just have to come home more often.”

He smiled as they returned to the kitchen.  Mom had since put more food on the table to be carried to the dining room—a large bowl of green beans and another piled high with fluffy mashed potatoes.  Nicki felt her stomach grumble.  She hadn’t eaten yet.  As she picked up the bowl of mashed potatoes, she realized she hadn’t even heard her dad and Sean.

When Will and Nicki returned to the kitchen yet again, mom said, “Will, honey, I need to get this roast on the platter.  Can you tilt the pan and I’ll get it out?”  He obliged and came over to the stove to help her.  “Nicki, would you get your father and Sean and ask them to wash up?”

Shit.
  Just her luck.
  “Yeah, if I knew where they were.”

Will grinned.  “They’re in the backyard.  Dad got a riding lawnmower and is showing it off.  He’s just like Tim Allen in
Home Improvement
.”

Nicki laughed and did her best imitation of
Tim Allen’s
character.  In a deep voice she said, “Ah…needs more power!”  Will shook his head, smiling, and Nicki walked to the door at the end of the kitchen.  As she got closer, she saw through
the door
that—on the right side of the yard—dad certainly was showing Sean his shiny new red lawnmower. 
Suck it up, Nicki.
  She walked out the door and was blasted by the warm air.  She hadn’t realized how cool it was inside until she came back out.

She gritted her jaw.  Sean’s back was to her, but he looked good as always.  He was wearing a black t-shirt and a newer pair of blue jeans.  His hair
, not contained by his usual work do-rag,
was slicked back
.
God, his hair always looked so hot like that. 
No way could she stand being around
him
today. 
Well, she
could
just shout
from the door, right?  Or maybe she could behave
and act like an adult
.  She did need to give her dad a
hug
after all
.  Then maybe she could feign a stomach bug
and go home
.  She used to be an actress in high school, so surely she could pull that off.

She took a deep breath and walked toward them.  Dad looked up from the
lawnmower where he’d been showing Sean some feature that probably adjusted the blades an eighth of an inch at a time
.  “There’s my Nicki girl.”  He held open his arms.
  Nicki might have looked like her mom, but Will was the spitting image of his dad—dark
hair and eyes and way
tall
, so when Nicki hugged him, her head nestled his chest.
  Dad’s hair was getting a little salt in it, but the dark hair still overpowered the light.

“Hi, dad.”  True test next.  She glanced over—quickly, but not too
fast
, and then back to dad.  “Sean.”  Cool but not cold.  Whew.  She did it.  Dad pulled her in a close embrace.  She could smell his usual Old Spice.  She loved that smell.  “Mom sent me out to tell you guys to wash up for lunch.”

“Good.  I’m hungry.”  He paused.  “I just need to go move the water on the roses. 
Tell your mom
I’ll be right in.”

Thanks, dad.
  That meant that she and Sean were alone to walk in together.  Dad started heading around to the side of the house.  She started walking toward the back door—not too fast, because she didn’t want the need to escape to be so obvious.  Sean, right behind her said, “What?  No hug for me?”

For some reason, that hit her all kinds of wrong.  She stopped in her tracks and took a deep breath.  She had no idea what words were going to spew out of her mouth, but something was coming
and there was no stopping it
.  She turned to her side where Sean now stood.
  She managed to make eye contact but she kept her voice low so no one else could hear, even though she talked quickly.
  “I have a better idea.  Why don’t you French
me again?
”  She raised her eyebrows in mock surprise.
 
“
Oh, wait. 
I forgot that never
happen
ed
.  Never mind.  Sorry.”  And before he could retort, she opened the back door and walked inside.

Chapter Fourteen

TALK ABOUT AWKWARD
.  Sean had taken the hint and wasn’t forcing Nicki to engage in conversation.  She knew what she’d done outside was imm
ature, but what was he thinking?  That she really
could
forget it?
  The problem was that Nicki just did
n’t know how to handle
her feelings
.  If
he was an ex-boyfriend, it would be no problem to burn a bridge, but Sean was a friend that
she wanted to keep (and maybe the
future
love of her life
); she just wasn’t ready to deal civilly with him right now. 
The last time they’d been face to face he’d literally been
in
her face, and it was hard to pretend that hadn’t happened. 
But snapping at him had worked.  His expression outside had changed from amused to abashed (if she was reading him right) in short order, and she’d walked inside so fast, she didn’t know what else he could
have
be
en
thinking.

Worse yet, mom and dad were at both ends of the table as usual, but Will had insisted that Nicki
not
sit next to him as she’d wished, because he wanted to face her.  That’s why he wanted Sean on the other side of the table as well.  So Nicki and Sean were sitting right next to each other.  Close enough that the
ceiling
fan kept blowing
the
scent
of his aftershave
her way.  If she hadn’t been so pissed at him (and she hadn’t realized until a
few minutes
ago just how angry she was), she would have loved it.

She wondered why Sean hadn’t brought Kayla along with him, and then realized that his invitation to dinner was no doubt as last minute as hers had been.  Kayla
might
have had other plans.  Just as well, she thought.  Kayla was a nice girl, but there was no substance to her.
  If Will had wanted to talk substance, Kayla probably couldn’t have kept up.

“
Mrs. Sosebee
, w
ould you
please
pass the mashed potatoes
?” Sean asked her mom.
  Normally, Nicki would have smiled at Sean’s formality with her parents; he still called them
Mr.
and
Mrs.
like he had in high school (of course, Nicki did the same with his mom), an unshakeable lovable habit.

“Certainly, Sean.”  She smiled and handed
him
the
bowl.

“Everything smel
ls really good.  I don’t get
cooking like this very often.” 
Nicki felt herself simmering beside him. 
Oh, really?  Even from your “come home to a hot cooked meal” girl?  Maybe
Kayla’s
hot cooked meals came out of the microwave.
  Or maybe her hot cooked meals weren’t actually meals at all. 
Nicki
poured a little of mom’s homemade raspberry vinaigrette on her salad and bit her bottom lip so hard she thought it might bleed, so she willed herself to relax.

A faint sigh escaped mom’s lips as Sean spooned out the potatoes and she spied his knuckles.  “Oh, Sean, I wish you’d get that dreadful
BAMF tattoo removed.”
  She said
BAMF
just like in the old
comic
books, causing Nicki to smile.

Sean’s lady killer smile curved his lips as he looked at Nicki’s mom.  “I’ve had it for seven years now.  You’re not used to it yet?”

“I’m
used
to it.  It doesn’t mean I like it.”  She handed Sean the bowl of green beans.  “What does your mother think about it?”

Nicki allowed herself to look over at Sean.  He was sitting in the figurative seat she usually occupied
at her parents’ house
.
  But he seemed cool under the pressure.  “She knows it’s part of an image I have to maintain.”

Not wanting to disrupt the flow, Nicki picked up the bowl of mashed potatoes from between the two of them but kept her gaze on Sean.  She’d never heard this before.

“Image?  Why do you need an image?”

Sean smiled again.  “I own a motorcycle repair shop, Mrs. Sosebee.  If I looked like Mister Rogers, no one would take me seriously, and my business would go under.”  Mom seemed to consider what he said.  “If I look and dress the part, I’m halfway to being thought of as legitimate by the people who hire me to do the work.
  And then my work can speak for itself.
”

Dad chimed in.  “How
is
business these days, Sean?”

Sean looked over to dad and so Nicki took her eyes off him.  Didn’t want him to have to satisfaction of knowing she was even paying attention.  She handed the mashed potatoes to dad.  “Keeps me busy.”  She folded her hands in front of her plate, waiting to see when Sean would set down the bowl of beans he was holding, but all her peripheral vision saw was him holding them suspended above the area.  Shit.  He wanted her to take them from him.  So she looked up, barely caught his eye, then took the beans and began slowly spooning them onto her plate.  “I actually
had a really good week
.”  Nicki saw her dad nod.  “I sold my custom Harley
a few days ago and made off it what I usually earn in six months, so I’ve now had my best year ever.”

Holy shit.  Nicki wondered how much the damned thing cost.  And that meant that Carlos must have had a lot of money too.  Maybe Sean was right about the gang thing, but she didn’t want to know.

Sean continued talking.  “
So now
I’m considering doing that on the side.  I loved that bike, but the money I made on it was crazy
, more than I would have thought
I could
.”

It was a sore spot, but Nicki had to know.  It meant she actually had to talk to him which was probably okay since he was handing her the butter.  “Was it worth it, though?  I mean, look at all the labor you put into it.”

God, she could barely stand the way his eyes were drilling into hers.  Could the rest of the family
see that
?
  “It was a labor of love, Nicki.  But, really, that’s when I considered her mine.  If I
was
just building custom bikes knowing I was going to sell them, I wouldn’t put that much time into them.”

At least he
’d
admitted it.  He hadn’t wanted to part with that bike.  He’d loved
her
, probably had even had a name for her that he hadn’t told anyone else.  Nicki knew how much that bike had meant to him, and so she
couldn’t quite let it go.  “But
you loved that bike, Sean.  How could you just part with it like that?”

She’d hit a nerve.  He picked up his glass of water and took a sip.  Then he looked her way but didn’t look
at
her.  “Sometimes you sacrifice for things that are more important.”