Real Time (7 page)

“Doesn’t mean I have to like it, love,” he replied, tightening his arms to hold her close.

* * *

B
y six the next morning everyone was gathered at the studio as scheduled. Kate didn’t feel much better than she did the day before; however, the dizziness was gone. She was hoping this would all go well so they could get out early and she could go back home and sleep. Nick had promised her yesterday they would try to lay her stuff down first so she could get out as fast as possible. And, as usual, things did not go so smoothly at first and it was after two before they got something Nick was happy with. The sound room played it into the studio for everyone to listen to and there were a lot of high fives and people cheering. The rest of the band started to file out of the studio and as Kate stood up, the dizziness was back. She put a hand on the stool to steady herself and started to take a step when the world went black. She fell to the floor.

One of the sound guys yelled and the crowd came running back into the studio. Nick plowed his way to the front, trying to get to her. She was unconscious when he reached her and he scooped her up in his arms, taking her out into one of the waiting rooms where there was an overstuffed couch. Nick set her on it and tried to wake her up. Her eyes fluttered open and she went into a coughing fit as the panic of everyone there enveloped her. Nick motioned one of the public relations guys over and sent him up to his secretary to call the private doctor Nick used. If he wasn’t available, Nick would take her to the emergency room at the hospital, but he preferred to avoid that. Someone brought over a glass of water and handed it to Nick.

“Drink this, love,” Nick said, putting her hands around the cup. She took a small drink and handed the cup back to Nick. Kate started to get up and he pushed her back down. “Stay down, Kate. We have a doctor coming.”

“Since when do doctors make house calls?” she asked hoarsely, in between coughs.

The PR guy came back and whispered something to him. “When you pay them enough,” Nick answered her. Nick stood up and tossed everyone out of the room but himself and Kate. She had closed her eyes again and Nick reached out, touching her hand. He was rewarded with her opening her eyes, which told him she was still there. “It’s okay, love,” he said softly. “We’ll get you looked at and then I’ll take you home.”

Kate nodded her assent and Nick left the room. He let the rest of the band know she was okay, telling them she had been sick for a couple of days. They were a family and the guys were visibly concerned about her. Nick said he had a doctor coming for a house call and they weren’t surprised - they were used to Nick doing things most normal people didn’t do. They left reluctantly; most had planned vacations with their families during the break. Nick assured them he would take care of Kate.

The private doctor, a longtime friend of Nick’s partner, Jerry, came quickly. Nick liked he was discreet and could be called out of the office. Nick tried to limit the amount of places he went and sitting in a doctor’s office for what seemed like forever, was not high on his list. The doctor looked Kate over, listened to her heart, lungs, and looked at her throat. He was a little concerned she was running almost a one-hundred-four degree fever but Nick assured him he was going to take her home and get it down. The doctor said he thought she had strep throat and was certain she had fainted due to dehydration and not enough rest. He prescribed some medicines and Nick sent one of the studio runners – kids hired to do menial tasks - to go pick it up from the pharmacy down the street. While they waited, Nick took five minutes to go up to his office to grab his car keys and his wallet; he normally threw both in a desk drawer when he got there each day instead of carrying them around. Once the runner was back, he helped Kate to her feet and she seemed able to stand and walk with him. He helped her outside and into his car.

She was asleep before they got to the freeway and Nick drove silently to his house in Sunset Beach. There was no way he was going to leave her alone until she was over this. Once at his house, he picked her up off the seat and she stirred a little, but didn’t wake up. Nick took her upstairs to one of the spare bedrooms; the house had five bedrooms as well as the master. He laid her on the bed and realized she couldn’t sleep in the clothes she was wearing. Nick called for his housekeeper, Consuelo, to come help. She was an older lady from Puerto Rico he had hired over ten years ago. Consuelo shooed him out of the room and got one of his shirts from the closet for her to use as a nightshirt. She got her situated in the bed, then let Nick back in. Kate had never awoken during the process.

“Who is she, Señor Nick?” she asked, as they walked out of the room.

“She’s my keyboard player,” he answered. “She passed out on the studio floor and the doctor thinks she has strep. I brought her here to keep an eye on her.”

“We will take care of her,” Consuelo agreed.

Kate slept almost constantly for the next two days. She woke up long enough to take the pills the doctor prescribed and to eat a little of the soup Consuelo had prepared for her. Kate had panicked when she woke up in a strange bed, but Nick had been reading through contracts in a chair close by and was able to calm her down. He had not left the house in the two days she was there. It felt strange to him to be caring so much about another person. It was an emotion he had not felt in a long time. Not since he thought the child Sharon had borne was his, but this feeling was significantly different. On the third day, she felt well enough to take a shower and Kate said she felt a lot better afterwards. Nick wasn’t allowing her out of bed for very long but he let her take a pillow and blanket onto the couch in the media room downstairs, so she could watch some television. She got settled comfortably and turned to look at Nick who had sat down on the coffee table across from her.

“You scared me big time, love,” he started when their eyes met.

“I didn’t mean to,” she answered quietly. “All of a sudden, everything went black.”

“Do you think you will be all right for a few hours here with Consuelo?” he asked. “I really need to go to the studio but I won’t leave if you don’t want me to.”

Kate shook her head. “Go, Nick. Consuelo will help me if I need. “

Nick bent over and kissed her forehead. “I won’t be long,” he promised.

K
ate was upstairs brushing her hair when Nick got home. She was sitting on the bed, counting each stroke as she pulled the brush through the long strands. Although she wore it up in a ponytail most of the time, it flowed in a red river down her back, almost to her hips. Nick stood in the doorway watching, drawn toward her and wanting to touch her hair. He finally came over, sitting next to her and she smiled at him. As he pulled a strand of her hair through his fingers, his lips softly touched hers. Kate returned the kiss and it started to go from a gentle kiss to something with a lot of hunger behind it. Nick pulled away first and stood up, moving to the window. Kate sat on the edge of the bed watching him.

“What happens if we cross that threshold, love?” he asked. “The first time I say something which angers you, are you going to walk out because now our relationship is personal and not just professional?”

“I haven’t walked out yet, Nick,” she answered. “And you have said lots in the past six months which angered me.”

“Maybe, but that was boss to employee. Not lover to lover. Or,” he hesitated, ‘husband to wife.”

Kate’s heart started beating a little faster. “Did you just propose marriage?”

“Kate,” he started. “I love you. Watching you for the past three days has more than made it clear to me. I still have this crazy boss/employee hang up and being married would eliminate the problem.”

“This is nuts,” Kate countered. “I know the last thing you want to do is get married.”

“You probably think I’m crazy.”

Kate stood and went over to Nick. She was wearing one of his silk shirts and it was having an effect on Nick as she stood there. Kate put her hand on his chest. “I don’t think you’re crazy, Nick,” she said softly. “I only know this.”

Nick watched Kate stand on her tiptoes to kiss him. He growled as he picked her up and set her on the bed. He took a second to close the door and lock it, turning back to her as she was slowly unbuttoning the shirt. He watched as she finished and she pushed it off of her shoulders. Once completely naked, she got off the bed, walking over to him. She pulled his shirt loose from his pants and started to unbutton it. He watched her intently, devouring the sight of her and helped her finish with his clothes, leading her back to the bed. Sliding into bed, Nick pulled her on top of him.

Theirs was a time of loving and learning. Each touch, each kiss, learning everything about the other. Nick wanted to prolong it out, learn every inch of her, but his patience was limited. He had wanted this from her the first time he saw her but it was a feeling he had kept to himself; until the night she had told him about her ex. After New York, Nick still tried to stay away but he just couldn’t stop himself. Those kinds of feelings had been dead since his divorce and he had been angry with himself in the beginning they were back. What happened in Chicago more than told him he needed Kate, and he wrestled with the fact she worked for him. To simply get her into bed was akin to a manager trying to bed his secretary. It didn’t matter they both were not married; it was the principle of the idea. But after seeing her so sick, he knew he didn’t want to lose her. And he knew he didn’t want to be alone any more. This was the last thought in his mind as he surrendered himself to her.

* * *

T
hey went downstairs and made sandwiches to eat. Consuelo had left after Nick returned home from the studio, so they had the kitchen to themselves. Kate assured Nick she was feeling well enough to come down with him and they had fun teasing each other as they ate the simple roast beef sandwiches. It was a feeling of ‘home’ Nick hadn’t felt in a long time and he smiled at Kate, dressed in one of his shirts, since she only had one outfit there – the one she had been wearing in the studio on Monday. After dinner they went back to his bedroom. They made love again – more poignant and with less haste than the first time.

“Can I ask you something,” Kate asked as she lay draped on Nick’s chest.

“You can ask me anything, love,” he answered.

Kate paused a few minutes, getting her words to together. She looked squarely into his eyes. “Nick, you are the most confident, outgoing, outspoken, organized person I have ever met. Everything you do is on a level with perfect, and I know it’s from hard work and lots of years. But when you start talking about relationships, us specifically, I sense an insecurity which doesn’t fit with the rest of your demeanor. I suspect it has something to do with your ex-wife. Tell me what happened?”

Nick was amazed at how perceptive she was. It was almost like she could read his soul. “I don’t know there is much to tell. She burned me badly and I have been cautious ever since.”

“When you hired me, I did some research about you,” she said, blushing as he raised an eyebrow at her. “I wanted to know as much as I could since we were going to be spending a great deal of time together. I know it’s been over twenty years since then. Maybe
cautious
isn’t the right word.
Misogynistic
may be closer.”

“That’s harsh, love. I never stopped liking women, I just wasn’t interested in getting burned again,” he defended himself. “I’ve had a couple of other relationships since then, but being gone ten out of twelve months a year was hard on them. I’m here more, since I bought into the studio, but there was always the fame thing – everyone wants to say they were sleeping with me.”

“So tell me anyway?” she asked quietly. She knew he needed to tell her this, even if he was denying it. “I’m sure it’s a story I will hear at some point.”

Nick made a silent decision, slipping out from under Kate, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. He turned on the lamp and pulled a cigarette from the pack next to it. Lighting it, he took a large drag and blew the smoke out slowly. “We were childhood friends, Sharon and I. She lived two doors down from me growing up. Her brother, Aaron, and I were best friends, so I was always over at their house since I didn’t like being at mine.”

“She was younger than you both?”

Nick smiled. “No, she was Aaron’s twin. They were always together and eventually we three were always together. We officially started dating after I left school and moved out of my parent’s house at sixteen to pursue my music. She was my fan club, always there to say things to make me feel better about myself and encouraged my music. We got married when we were twenty, mere days after I signed my first record contract - it was a real rough time. We probably should have waited to get married, but I was on cloud nine and thought we were on easy street.

“I was gone a lot of the time, recording, and then going with the studio folks to various television appearances, radio interviews, as well as my first tour in Britain. I was home maybe two weeks in a nine-month span. But at Christmas, I got to be home with her for two straight weeks and I think all we did was stay in bed. After the first of the year, I was off on a new tour, starting to hit some of the other European countries, France, Germany, Italy, and I got a call from her one night, excited to tell me she was pregnant with our child. It was a huge shock because I hadn’t been thinking about having kids, at least not yet - I was totally wrapped up in my music. But we both knew I wouldn’t let her abort it, so, in late August, Arianna Marie was born. And she was the image of her mother – brown hair, brown eyes.”

Nick paused. He took the last drag off of the cigarette before stubbing it into the ashtray. “One of the rare times I was able to spend at home, we were watching television. Arianna, who was almost two, came running into the room, tripped, and fell into the glass coffee table, shattering it. She got a cut on her arm which wouldn’t stop bleeding – it was really deep, so we rushed her to the hospital to have it stitched up. In the process, because she had lost a lot of blood, the doctors were talking about possibly doing a blood transfusion. They had her blood typed just in case. Out of curiosity, I asked one of the nurses what it was. I’m A-positive and Sharon was O-positive. The nurse looked at the chart and told me O-negative.”