Chapter 26

Chapter 26

Zack

“Zack? Zack, honey, you have company. Can you come down, please?” Mom sounds nervous.

I have company? The only person who ever comes by anymore is Keller and Keller hasn’t seen ten on a Sunday once in the twelve years I’ve known him.

I throw on a t-shirt and grab my Dodgers hat. A few steps down the stairs, I hear Mom mid conversation with another woman. I thought she said the company was for me?

From the top of the stairs, I catch a glimpse of a ponytail. Her back is to the steps, but I’d know that laugh anywhere…and the image of that ass is permanently scorched into my brain. Nikki is in my house, talking to Mom.

The creak of my footsteps on the wooden stairs alerts Nikki to my presence and she turns before I hit the landing. “Hi Zack,” she says, with energy that usually only comes from a bag of Swedish fish chased by a Red Bull. I spot her nervous smile as she speaks.

“I was out for a run and thought you might want to join me. It’s beautiful out,” she talks fast.

Mom is smiling even broader than Nikki. She looks like the sun just came out after a thunderstorm. I didn’t realize how long it’s been since I saw Mom light up with real happiness. I savor the moment.

“You want to race me again? I let you win last time. Don’t think I’m doing it twice,” I say with a grin.

She turns to my mom, her face full of innocence. “Zack didn’t let me win, Mrs. Martin. He’s trying to rewrite history to cope with the fact that he was beaten by a girl.” She turns to me. “Did you get a good night’s sleep?” Nikki arches an eyebrow and attempts to conceal her smirk. “You sure you’re up for a rematch? I don’t want you to have any excuses when I beat you again.”

After the hours in the car last night, she knows I didn’t get a good night sleep. I look to see if Mom picks up on her flirting. It’s a side of Nikki I’ve only seen just a glimpse of before, but I like it. A lot. It does something to me when she’s bold, pushing past her limit even though it scares her.

Mom doesn’t catch the meaning of our exchange since she doesn’t know about our date last night. I’m sure she assumed I was out with Keller— he’s the only person I’ve been out with anywhere since Emily. But Mom is obviously pleased with Nikki’s light-hearted and happy way because she beams from ear to ear.

“A rematch? You sure you know what you’re asking for?” I catch her eye and her cheeks immediately turn a glowing pink. I love that I can do that to her with only eye contact and some words with hidden meaning.

“I’m sure. Unless you’re scared to go up against me again?”

“I’ll change into running clothes,” I say. I take the stairs two at a time to change into shorts and sneakers.

Nikki’s laughter wafts up the stairs as I change. Mom’s follows it. Damn, it’s a good sound.

***

When I come back downstairs Mom is humming to a Billy Joel song softly playing on the kitchen satellite radio as she’s pureeing veggies in her juicer. “She’s stretching on the front porch. I like her, Zack.” Mom’s face is full of hope.

“Me too, Mom. Me too.”

A tear pools in Mom’s eye. “Aw, don’t, Mom… just don’t. Guys don’t do the happy tears thing. Please.”

She nods and waves me off with a laugh. “You’re impossible. Go for your run. Have a great time. You deserve to have fun. You really do, sweetheart.”

“Hope you didn’t pull anything stretching.” Earbuds in, Nikki doesn’t hear me come out. She’s surprised at my appearance, her thoughts obviously off somewhere else. I hope she’s stuck in the same place I’ve been for the last nine hours.

“Zack, who is that man?” She’s staring across the street at Mr. Bennett, who’s working in his flowerbed.

I hesitate. “It’s Mr. Bennett…Emily’s father. He spends a lot of time gardening since Emily…”

Nikki’s hand reaches out to touch my arm. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. He just looks so familiar to me.”

I look over in Mr. Bennett’s direction, where Nikki’s eyes are fixed. A male voice calls out from the house, “Dad, phone for you. It’s the hospital. I think you need to take it.” Mr. Bennett sets down his spade and strips his hands of gloves before heading back to the house.

Nikki turns to me. “Is someone in the hospital?”

“No. Mr. Bennett works at Long Beach University Hospital. He’s a psychiatrist.”

“Really? That’s where Aunt Claire works. I wonder if they know each other. Is it a big place?”

“Biggest in Long Beach.” I shrug.

“The guy calling him Dad… Emily has a brother? Does he go to our school?”

I clear my throat to ease the knot that’s caught there. I suppose it’s only normal for Nikki to be curious, but the conversation makes me uncomfortable nonetheless. “Yes, Brent. He comes home to visit every few weeks now. He never did that before. He’s older than us— I think he was fifteen or sixteen already when Emily was born. The Bennetts were already in their forties when Emily came along. I don’t know him very well. He lives in New York. A writer, I think.”

Before she can ask another question, I start down the driveway. “I’ll give you a head start. Come on.”

“Head start?” she says, insulted at the notion. “I don’t need a head start. I’m faster than you think, Zack. Don’t underestimate me.” She blows by me, sprinting down the street.

“I’d never underestimate you, Nikki,” I call as I breeze past her with a grin.

***

Nearly two miles later, with Nikki not far behind me, I direct our run into Dover Park. Mom used to take me for long walks in my stroller here. It still makes me feel like a kid, running through the trails.

When we get into the center of the path, I slow down and head to the bench area alongside the flower gardens. There’s a water fountain between the benches and Nikki reaches me just as I’m splashing water on my face.

“You only stopped because you knew I was going to pass you. Admit it,” Nikki taunts, flat out of breath from our little sprint.

“You’re breathing a little heavy. That always happens when women run behind me,” I tease.

She finishes her drink from the fountain and turns to me with a cocked eyebrow. “I seem to remember it’s you who likes the view when I’m in the front.”

Well, she’s not wrong there. The sight is goddamn spectacular. Why didn’t I slow down and let her pass me? My competiveness just cost me ten minutes of heaven’s view.

“Aunt Claire asked me to go brunch with some friends of hers from college.” Nikki glances around as we settle down on a bench under a large, shade-bearing oak tree. “She worries that she doesn’t spend enough time with me because of her long hours at the hospital.”

“It’s nice that she cares so much. I can’t imagine how hard it is to lose a parent, but at least you had an Aunt that you were close to and weren’t alone.”

Nikki looks off into the distance. “To be honest, I didn’t even know I had an aunt until Mom died. They didn’t speak. My mom…meant well, but she kept a lot of secrets. She always thought she was protecting me. She was very sick.” Shadows from the past cloud her face.

But today I want only sunshine. “Not everyone would bounce back so quickly. You’re strong,” I say, lightly bumping her shoulder with mine and resisting the urge to add my own confessions. I jump to my feet. “But not strong enough to beat me. First one back to my house has to make the loser a fruit smoothie.”

I shoot past Nikki, but push my competitiveness aside after a minute in favor of the great view all the way home.

***

I throw a towel from the kitchen cabinet at Nikki. Not that her dripping sweat bothers me at all. In fact, there’s nothing I’d rather do at the moment than trace the beads of perspiration sliding behind her tank top between her heaving cleavage.

“Thanks, I’m ready for my smoothie,” she proudly orders not realizing the real prize was letting her stay ten feet ahead of me for two miles.

“Do you like cantaloupe?” I ask, digging through the fruit shelf in our refrigerator. “Mom is a fruit smoothie junkie, so if you prefer something else, I’m sure we have it.” I toss a cantaloupe to Nikki.

She catches it and examines it. “Never had one.”

I’m surprised, but she’s not joking. I’ve only just started to scratch the surface of Nikki’s past. Fresh fruit and family picnics probably weren’t the norm.

“Then cantaloupe and melon smoothies it is. They’re my specialty anyway.”

Nikki watches me with a smile on her face as I slice the fruit. I think a guy making her something in the kitchen is a first.

“Here, taste,” I move closer to feed her a piece of fresh sliced cantaloupe from my hand. My eyes are glued to her lips as she bites. A drop of cantaloupe juice glistens on the corner of her mouth and I use my tongue to wipe it off. Jesus, I just can’t help myself around this girl.

A soft sigh slips from her lips when I move my mouth to her warm neck, my hard-on quickly growing against her stomach as I lean in. My entire body ignites when I feel her tremble from my kiss. The memory of that tremble woke me up more than once last night.

“Zack, what if your mom comes in?” she asks, breathless, as my kisses move further up her neck.

“She won’t. She’s out at the Farmer’s Market,” I whisper into her ear. Another shudder runs through her body. “Eleven. Every Sunday,” I breathe. “Thankfully, she never misses it.”

Trying my hardest to slow things down, afraid I’ll scare her by pressing her up against the kitchen wall, which is only about two seconds away from happening, I lean back. “You taste like cantaloupe,” I say. “I can’t help it…I really, really, like cantaloupe.”

Nikki laughs. “Guess I do too now.”

I finish making our smoothies and the cool drink helps to turn down the heat in the kitchen. A little, at least. Trying to get the last bit out of the deep glass, Nikki spills the remainder of hers onto her tank top.

“God, I’m a klutz.” She laughs, totally unselfconsciously.

“I can give you a t-shirt if you want.” I grin. “In fact, I think I really like the idea of you in my t-shirt.”

Nikki blushes as our eyes meet.

“Come on up and pick one.” I start up the stairs so she doesn’t have time to consider not following.

Upstairs in my room, I pull open my drawer to reveal dozens of impeccably pressed and folded t-shirts. My mother definitely has issues.

“Wow, it looks like someone dumped a whole table from Abercrombie,” Nikki arches her right eyebrow towards my t-shirt drawer.

“Cute. You too, huh? Keller likes to take pictures and post them on Instagram to try and embarrass me. His drawers are the polar opposite. Crap sticking out all over the place. I found a half-eaten cheeseburger in one of his drawers last year.” Even a two-minute stay in my room turns to twenty minutes of him busting my balls over how neat it is. “My mother is an organization freak.”

“I’m afraid to touch one and disturb the artful presentation,” Nikki teases.

I grab the smallest t-shirt I can find, hoping it will be tight in all the right places, and toss it at her.

“Great, thanks.” She turns.

“Leaving with my shirt?” I ask.

“I was just going to look for the bathroom to change.” The pink sting is back in her cheeks as she awkwardly tries to figure out if I really expected her to undress in the middle of my room.

As much as I’d love to watch her take off her shirt, and the pink in her cheeks certainly stirs something inside me, I let her off the hook. Kissing her chastely on the lips, I say, “Change right here. I’m going to take a quick shower anyway. I have a feeling you’re being polite and not mentioning what I smell like.”

“I did make you sweat pretty hard,” she smiles.

I know she means the race but I walk over to her and say, “Yes, you really make me sweat.” She laughs and pushes me towards the door.

***

Five minutes later I find Nikki in my room with that old t-shirt of mine on. It’s as tight as I expected, a perfect fit for my liking.

“I borrowed your brush too. Tried to do something with this mess of hair,” She runs her fingers through her now loose, shiny hair.

“It’s beautiful,” I say as I reach her space and quickly invade it.

She’s backed against my desk chair and only feet from my bed. The trouble alarm is going off at a blaring volume in my head. But the need to touch her again, feel her body against mine like it was last night, outweighs any concern about where things might lead to. My thumb brushes her parted lips and my body responds instantly when she lets out a low gasp with a sharp intake of breath. Screw it— concern about where things might lead quickly turns to hope that they will. Just as I lean in, Nikki dodges my kiss and turns to my desk. Nervously, aiming to lighten the moment, she lifts something, dangling it from her finger with a cheeky grin. “Aren’t we a little old for a Batman mask, Zack?”

Her hands are on the mask Emily gave me on my 12th birthday, our little private joke. The life drains out of my body as I snatch it from her hands.

I take two steps back. Two steps away from her physically, but miles of distance stretches between us suddenly.

“You should probably go,” I say, walking to the door of my room. The look on Nikki’s face causes me physical pain. She’s confused. Hurt. Probably even a little embarrassed. Selfishly, I wallow in the feel of my own pain as it washes over me, ignoring the sadness etched into her face as I escort her to the front door.