Restoring Hope (19 page)

He’d roared “
Mine”
in his head as he’d filled her body and vowed no one would harm her, or give her another day’s worry as long as he had breath in his lungs. He protected what was his at all costs, and the word “kill” even entered his thoughts.

He knew she was holding back, thought maybe even protecting him from the ugly truth of her past. Why, he didn’t know, but he didn’t care what she’d done to survive; all that mattered was that she was done with it and in his arms where he intended to keep her for a very, very long time. He didn’t know why he had such a strong reaction to her; he had from the moment he laid eyes on her. All he knew was since she entered his life a month ago, something had shifted in his core, and for the first time in over a year, he slept through the night.

Nuzzling her neck, he cupped her ass and ground himself into her leg waking her. Hope’s eyes slowly opened, and when she saw his dark soulful eyes staring back with hunger she reached between his legs and grabbed him, moving her hand up and down as his lips found hers. He rolled into her, keeping his arms braced, so her hand had room to work its magic. The sexual cloud that had settled over them, as their hunger for each other began to rise, was broken by the sound of his front door opening and Nicky shouting, “Dad!”

“What the fuck?” Nic growled in frustration. He looked at the clock, knew Nicky should be on his way to school, and if he was here, there was only one way he got here—Kat.

“Be out in a minute, bud,” Nic shouted before his son threw open his bedroom door and saw more than Nic needed him to see. Then Hope started to panic whispering “Oh, my god,” trying to get out of the bed before Nicky saw more of
her
than she wanted. They hadn’t slept together with Nicky under his roof; he’d gone to her at night and returned a few hours later. He wasn’t a kid so to speak, but Nic didn’t want him to see Hope this way. When Hope tried to escape the bed he grabbed her around the waist, pulled her back to him, kissing her neck and telling her, “Stay here; I’ll find out what is going on.”

Rolling from the bed, Nic pulled on jeans from his dirty clothes hamper, barely buttoning them, and stalked out of the room bare chested as Hope watched. Hope was trying to decide what to do, but the sight of him in nothing but his jeans had short-circuited her brain, so she laid there while he left the room. When he was gone, she sat up and looked for her clothes until it dawned on her their clothes were in a trail from the front door to the hall. Mortified Nicky would see them she threw the bed sheets over her head and tried to die on the spot. The thought of Nicky finding her bra hanging from a light—not that is was, she was pretty sure it was on the kitchen counter—was too much to bear. She wondered if God would grant her a peaceful death when the humiliation of the moment Nicky found it, overcame her body.

Nic had his eyes on Kat as he came down the hall, and she’d at least had the good grace to turn her eyes from him, when she saw how pissed he was at her unannounced arrival. He’d lay money on the fact she’d done it on purpose.

After watching Hope kiss Nic, she’d played the martyr at dinner. Giving him looks like he’d betrayed her, torn their family apart by moving on with his life. He hadn’t spoken directly with her since that night, just dropped Nicky off at the end of his week and drove away without a word to her.

As he entered the room, he caught Nicky looking at the floor, his eyes landed on the tangle of clothes he, and Hope had left. He wanted to shake Kat for putting him in this position, but when Nicky’s head came up, and his eyes looked down the hall and then back to the clothes, he smiled. Yes, he’d definitely missed the moment when his son stepped over the threshold into manhood.

When he’d stayed with Nic, and Hope had hung out with them, they’d behaved themselves, only brief touches and no kissing. Even though he’d kissed Hope at the bar, he didn’t want to shove his relationship in his son’s face in case it upset him in any way. As far as Nicky was concerned, Nic and Hope were just good friends so to speak, taking it slow in his eyes, getting used to each other. He had no doubt his son was well versed on the details of sex, but he didn’t need it thrown in his face, and that wouldn’t have happened if Kat had called before dropping in.

When he reached them, he bent down, snagged their clothes off the floor, and when he saw Hope’s lacy bra on the kitchen counter, he dropped the clothes on top to cover it. Kat raised one of her sharply plucked eyebrows at him in response, and he narrowed his eyes in warning.

“What’s going on?” Nic asked Kat.

“Well, I knew with Nicky leaving in a week’s time you wouldn’t get to spend much time with him while he’s at your parents, so I thought I’d let him stay with you until he leaves.” Nic was shocked she’d be that considerate, and immediately went on the defensive waiting for the punch line—he didn’t have to wait long. “And since it
is
technically my week, I figured we could just share him and eat our meals together; spend the evenings together just like old times. Doesn’t that sound wonderful, sugar? Our family back together again.”
There it was
, Nic thought, another desperate attempt to win him back, but this time using their son to do it.

“Outside,” he growled then looked at Nicky and said, “Stay here, we’ll be back in five.” Rounding his son, he grabbed Kat’s arm and pulled her with him to the front door.

While Nic dealt with Kat, Hope had gotten out of bed, found one of Nic’s dress shirts, and pulled it on. She needed her clothes, but wanted to wait until the coast was clear. Listening through the bedroom door, she heard Nic’s loud voice say “Outside,” and then the front door open and then close. With her heart hammering in her chest, she cracked the door open a tiny bit, listened, heard no voices and crept down the hall. Peaking around the corner, she saw no one in the living room or kitchen, and the condo was quiet. Her clothes were on the kitchen counter, and she sprinted to them so she could get back to the bedroom before being caught. As she grabbed them, she heard a noise and looked left, catching Nicky bent at the waist and his head in the fridge. He looked up, their eyes met, and she froze. Her eyes were glued to his as her cheeks turned red, and she silently prayed to God to kill her now. Nicky stared back at her, and she watched as his lip twitched like his fathers and then smiled a huge Nic like smile.

“I, uh, I think I’m gonna go die now.”

Nicky’s smile got bigger, and he rolled his eyes “Like I don’t know my dad is a babe magnet, he has lots of friends.”

“What?”

“His struggle is real,”

“His struggle?”

“Fightin’ off all the babes who are after him.” Hope's eyes widened, what she didn’t do was head back to his room to put clothes on, an error she would regret.

“He has lots of friends?”

Nicky figured if Hope thought that he was a hot item, she would be impressed that she’d caught him, so he lied, “Oh, sure, dozens of them.” He watched as Hope’s face paled and then she ducked it, clearing her throat.

“Well, that’s good he has so many, uh, friends, I’ll just, um, head back to my condo, nice seeing you again, Nicky.”

For some reason Nicky got the impression she wasn’t impressed, in fact, he got a sick feeling that he may have screwed up. He watched Hope hesitate, then with the bar blocking his view, she bent at the waist pulled her jeans on from the night before, grabbed her purse, shoved her top, bra and panties inside, found her shoes, and stalked to the front door.

“Hope wait!” Nicky panicked as she reached for the doorknob. She didn’t look at him; she wrenched the door open and found his dad and mom on the landing, his mother crying and his dad holding her.

Nic was sick to death of Kat’s antics, and when he told her so, she had thrown herself in his arms, crying crocodile tears, and using their dead daughter as a reason to keep him close. When his door flew open, and Hope stepped out, pain evident on her face, he tried to peel Kat off him so he could stop Hope as she flew down the steps. Nicky came flying out after her saying, “Stop; I can explain,” and Nic was done.

He got untangled from Kat, turned to Nicky and asked, “What happened?”

“I told her your struggle was real with the babes.”

“In English,” he barked.

“That you have babes chasing after you and have lots of friends. I thought she’d be impressed that she’d caught you, but she seemed upset.”

Nic sighed and hung his head to reel in his temper and after a moment he raised his head and in a firm, yet loving tone replied, “No more lies, no more hiding shit, and do me a favor, don’t help me with the
“babes
,” as you call them, I’ve got this covered.”

Then Nic whipped around to deal with Kat in time to see her smirking in victory at the little scene that just played out, and he made a decision. He didn’t give a fuck if it upset her, if she hadn’t pulled this shit none of this would have happened. He turned back to Nic and asked, “You want a family day huntin' crawfish?”

“What about school?”

“Figure they can do without you for one day.”

“Awesome, what Bayou?”

“Honey Island?”

“Sweet, I can be ready in ten,” Nicky shouted and then ran back into the condo.

“Can we stop by the house so I can change?” Kat replied behind him. Thrilled her plan was working. Nic turned around; anger etched on his face and on a low growl explained, “Kat, you crossed me one too many times. I’m takin’ my boy and my woman crawfishin’ you can go spend that alimony I pay you each month on your fuckin’ nails.”

After that parting shot, Nic stormed into his condo, packed his gear and he and Nicky went downstairs and knocked on Hope’s door. When she answered, obviously recovered and moved from upset to angry, she presented them both with a pissed off face. Nicky wasted no time admitting to his lie and blurted out, “Dad doesn’t have friends over, I was tryin’ to make you comfortable, and thought if you thought that Dad was a catch you would like him. I’m sorry; I think you’re great just so you know.”

Hope being Hope melted at his words and forgave him on the spot. “Your dad is a catch that’s why I was upset. Thank you for telling me the truth.”

That fiasco behind them, Nic put his hand to Hope’s stomach and pushed her back so they could enter her condo. Once in, he instructed her to, “Get your old clothes on we’re goin’ crawfishin.” Then he figured since the cat was out of the bag, and Nicky didn’t care; he smacked her on the ass, kissed her on the neck, and then mumbled in her ear, “After we eat tonight I’m having you for dessert.”

Hope choked on a laugh as she made her way down the hall wondering what the hell crawfishing was and if it required her to handle them. She may serve them, but she always insisted that Big Daddy handle them—those beady black eyes gave her the willies.

Chapter Fifteen

It’s hard to explain a Louisiana bayou. The winding the water takes as you go deeper into the prehistoric environment. Cypress trees tall and foreboding, their moss covered limbs blocking the sun in places, lending an eerie feel to their surroundings. The greens of vine flowers that covered some of the trees, even the green covered water was a sight to see. The quiet at times, like the wildlife, plants and trees themselves knew you were there, interrupting their tranquil world. Alligators lying in wait, Herons, perched on rotten stumps, their necks curved towards the sun. Snakes and turtles cresting the surface of the water and then ducking back down as you passed, all were foreign and in some cases a scary world to Hope, but nonetheless beautiful in their own right. She could see how a person could get lost out there, turned around, but also lost in a different way, lost in your own mind. The tranquility of the place lends itself to solving world hunger, stopping wars or even coming up with a recipe for the perfect gumbo to appease Big Daddy and his quest for perfection.

The roar of the propeller broke Hope from her thoughts, as water lilies rocked in the water as they sped past towards some secret crawfish hole. Nic and Nicky swore it was the best spot for miles, and with the season’s end approaching, they were determined to get one last big catch. Nic’s airboat was loaded with mesh traps, a small cooler with fresh meat and hotdogs guaranteed to attract a crawfish within smelling distance. All was in the front of the flat-bottomed airboat, as Nicky and Hope sat in the middle while Nic drove high above them in the driver’s seat. They were thirty minutes outside of New Orleans at a place called Honey Island, where Nic had a truck and airboat he kept in a storage unit for just such outings with his son. They’d driven down in his car and pulled out the boat, then put in near the swamp tours and watched as the large tour boats filled with people. They’d passed houses and shacks built on stilts with boats tethered to porches that sat right on the water. Nic had called them swamp people, those who lived there year round, and some had been on their porches and waved as they sped past towards their fishing spot.