Just One Night (8 page)

Chapter 8

Nickie
leaned against
her door, her arms trapped behind her body to keep her from doing something
stupid, like begging him not to leave.

She bit her bottom lip
to keep from crying – again
–
 
as
Jase
approached, dressed all in
black once more.
 
Leaving her exactly as
he’d come to her for their one night together.

Maybe not
exactly.
 
She didn’t think that either of
them could ever be the same again after tonight.

He paused in front of
her and started to speak, but then his normally mobile and smiling lips snapped
closed and into a harsh thin line.

She understood.

What other words could
they possibly say to each other?
 
What
words could possibly make any difference in what they both knew had to happen
that morning?

She inched higher on her
tiptoes and kissed him, a hard and urgent kiss that she hoped communicated all
that she was feeling.

When they broke apart,
she sniffled back her tears, scrubbed her face with shaky hands, and offered
him a watery smile.
 
She didn’t outright
cry, but she couldn't speak past the tightness in her throat and was thankful
that he remained silent as well.

With a quick, almost
curt nod, and another hard urgent kiss, he rushed out the door, leaving her
behind to deal with the emotions swirling around in her brain.
 
Emotions she didn't have time to fully
explore because she knew that she had to be downstairs soon for the big bye-bye
breakfast that her parents had planned for the Hart family.

Only she wasn't sure she
was ready to say goodbye.
 
Not when she’d
confessed her love to the man of her dreams.
 
The man of her fantasies who had turned out to be so much more than she
ever could have imagined.

She hurried to the
bathroom and splashed cold water on her face to keep away another bout of
tears.
 
She had no energy or
desire
to do much with her hair, so with a hurried brushing
and a few quick twists she put it up in a messy top knot.

Ignoring the quick
glance of the pale strained face of the woman in the mirror, she rushed back
into her bedroom.

She grabbed the suitcase
where she'd carted home her clothes for the weekend, snatched a pair of faded
low-rise jeans and panties from it, and put them on.
 
Without much care, she grabbed a bra and a
pale blue and white baby doll t-shirt that Tommy had gotten her at the
university store just before graduation.

Fortifying herself with
a deep inhalation, she hurried from her room and down to the kitchen.
 
She breezed over to where Rosie was working
at the large island peninsula in the middle of the room.
 
Hugging the plump woman who was almost like a
second mom, she asked, “Is everyone down for breakfast already?”

“Everyone's down and
you're dad is giving Jason a very determined glare. He seems to think Jason is
the reason you're not at the table yet,” Rosie said and glanced back over her
shoulder and toward the dining room.

She plucked a ripe
strawberry from the plate Rosie was preparing and earned a lighthearted slap on
the hand.
 
“Can’t you wait until you’re
sitting down at the table like everyone else?”

Nickie
craned her neck
and peered through the doorway to the dining table where her family and
Jase’s
was gathered and where her chair next to her dad sat
conspicuously absent.

“Why would my dad think
that
Jase
is the reason I’m not there yet?” she asked,
dragging a sharp chuckle from Rosie.
 
Her
laugh was followed by her hushed whisper as Rosie leaned close and said, “Your
dad was up early and came down to make himself some coffee just as I arrived.”

Which meant that
he might have seen her and
Jase
sneaking in from the
beach.

“Shit,” she muttered.

“Yes, I think that's
what he said when he saw you and Jason heading up the stairs together.”

Rosie put the finishing
touches on the large platter of fruit salad and eyed her, the glance thoughtful
and surprisingly supportive.
 
“It's time
to face the music,
Nickie
.”

Yeah, it was, but she
hoped the music didn't turn out to be a funeral dirge.

She followed Rosie into
the dining room, a bright smile on her face, not that she was feeling all that
happy.
 
She hugged her dad, mom, Tommy,
and
Jase’s
parents before taking her spot at the
table at the empty chair beside her dad.
 
The spot beside her was normally reserved for her brother, but he was
sitting next to their mom and
Jase's
mom.
 
As she met his gaze, hers questioning, he
winked and then shot a quick glance at
Jase
, who was
sitting in Tommy’s normal spot.

“You're late,” her
father said, a combination of anger and annoyance dripping from every word.

“I’m sorry, dad, but I
couldn't sleep last night,” she said and avoided looking at
Jase
,
although as she sat, he placed a comforting hand on her thigh.
 
His actions were hidden from view by the
table.

“Funny thing, but I had
trouble sleeping as well,” he said and glared at the two of them, but said
nothing else as Rosie stepped between them to place the fruit platter on the
table.

Her family had never
been big on formalities, especially not with the Harts w
ho had shared so many good times with them.

“Well, I'm starving,”
Tommy said and grabbed the spoon from the fruit platter to serve
himself
.

“Dig in,” her mother
urged and whatever her father might have wanted to say was forestalled by the
exchange of plates from one hand to the other as people served themselves from
the pastries, bagels, eggs, bacon, and fruit that Rosie had prepared for the
meal.

She wasn't very
hungry.
 
Her stomach was twisted up like
a pretzel as each second ticked by and became one second closer to the time
Jase
would leave with his parents.
 
But she also knew her father and eagle-eyed
mother would know something was up if she didn't eat.

She’d always had a
healthy appetite and breakfast was her absolutely favorite meal.
 
There was no way she’d skipped it unless some
major shit was going down.

She loaded her plate
with eggs, bacon, a bagel and some of the fresh fruit, and forced herself to
start eating.

“Would you like some
coffee?”
Jase
asked and offered to pour from the
carafe in his hand.

“I'd love some, thanks,”
she replied, maybe a little too formally.
 
Anyone watching them would hopefully never believe that they'd spent the
entire night fucking each other's brains out, but as she grabbed the carafe
from him, their fingers brushed and a salvo of desire and heat exploded through
her body.

With a shaky hand, she
poured coffee for her dad, managing to spill a good amount into his saucer.

“Are you sure you
haven't had too much coffee already,
Nickie
?
 
You seem kind of jittery,” her father said
and steadied her hand with his.

“Not enough,
actually.”
When she finished pouring and set the carafe on the table, she fixed her
coffee with a few
spoonfuls
of sugar and cream and
took a big swallow.
 
“Heaven,” she said
and ignored her brother's snicker.

“Heaven is Rosie's
French toast,” her brother said and then called out to the housekeeper, “How
come you didn't make your world famous French toast, Rosie?”

Rosie came in a second
later with a plate heaped with blueberry walnut pancakes which she took right
to Jason.
 
With a wry grin at Tommy, she
said, “Because these are
Jase's
favorites and I
wanted to make something special for him before he left.”

She dropped her fork at
Rosie's words, but
Jase's
reassuring touch on her
thigh provided the strength for her to pick it up and try to act as if
everything was normal.

Only it wasn't.

The man of her dreams
was sitting beside her and he'd be gone in a few short hours.
 
After that, who knew how long it would be
before he would be back home, only home wasn't New Jersey anymore.
 
Not since his parents had moved away months
earlier.

She grabbed her coffee
cup again and took a bracing swallow, hoping the heat of the coffee would help
warm the chill that had suddenly seized her heart.

It didn't.

Somehow she managed to
eat, not that she was hungry.
 
Especially not as her dad decided to pile on with the reason for
this special meal.
 
He raised his
juice glass and said, “To Jason on his commission and deployment.
 
We hope you come home soon, as well as safe
and sound.”

“Thank you, sir,” he
said respectfully and lifted his coffee cup to clink it against those being
offered by everyone except her.
 
She
somehow couldn't muster the strength to raise her cup at first, but then
managed a hasty tap against his to avoid scrutiny.

The rest of the meal
passed in relative silence as everyone ate.
 
Every now and then someone would ask
Jase
a question
about his assignment and she listened intently, trying to picture how the time
would pass.
 
What he'd be doing.
 
What she'd be doing.
 
How long it might be until they were together
again.

“So you're not set to
ship out until next weekend?
 
You have
this whole week off?” Tommy asked
Jase
while gazing
at her directly.

“I have the week off,
but there are some things I promised my parents I’d do this week,” he said and
forked up a big mouthful of pancakes.

“
Jase
and I have work to do on the new house,” his dad chimed in.

“And we haven’t really
seen him all that much since we moved down to North Carolina,” his mom added
and looked at her son with love and pride.

“Right,”
Jase
said around the mouthful of food, but squeezed her
thigh beneath the table as if to say, “I’m sorry.
 
I’d rather be with you.”

But he couldn’t be with
her.
 
In that second, though, it came to
her what she had to do.

It was something that
was illogical and so not like her.

It would risk her heart
even more than she already had by giving him his one night.

But it was the right
thing to do.

She laced her fingers
with his and brought their joined hands to rest on the table in full view.

Everyone’s attention
zoomed to that spot, including
Jase’s
, as she said,
“Would you mind very much if I went with you?
 
I’m off from school and even if I get the summer intern position, I
don’t have to start until next month.
 
So
I’m free to go and I’d like to spend some more time with
Jase
.”

Her dad’s dark bushy
eyebrows shot up high, looking like two crow’s wings about to take flight on
his forehead.
 
Her mom brought a shaky
hand to her mouth and her eyes watered.
 
Tommy grinned from ear to ear, obviously pleased and let out a loud “
Oohrah
.”

 
Jase’s
parents were
obviously surprised, but smiling in approval.

“Are you serious,
Nicole?
 
Do you know what that means?”
her father asked, but his voice lacked the bluster and upset she had expected.

She glanced at
Jase
and her gaze lovingly swept across his face.
 
She smiled and said without any doubt, “I
know what it means, Dad. I love
Jase
.
 
I want to be with him.”

* * *

In his wildest dreams,
Jase
had never expected this.
 
Never imagined
Nickie
would truly commit for more than the one night much less surprise everyone like
this.

But she had and he
wasn’t about to doubt why or how.
 
He was
going to go big and then go home with her.