“How so?”
“Well,” Nikki said with a hint of anger and annoyance in her tone, “Seth hasn’t really had much of a dating life since high school. His last serious relationship was this little…let’s say shrew…and they were serious. I really liked her, too, but they ended things pretty roughly after he found out she had been cheating on him pretty much the entire time they were together. It really broke his heart. First love kind of thing, you know? Those are tough to get over, especially when they end like that. Ever since then, he hasn’t really been with anyone, and I’d been starting to worry. I don’t know much about this girl, but he sounded really happy when he started telling me about her.”
Hawk smiled. “I know how a girl can do that to you.”
Nikki blushed and had to clear her throat to finish what she was saying. “I’m just glad to hear that my son has moved on from that.”
“Good,” Hawk said. “Who knows, Nikki? You might really like this girl.”
“I hope so,” she said. “Seth deserves a sweetheart.”
She continued to sip on her hot chocolate and make light conversation with Hawk. They talked about the shop and how well it had been doing for the past several days, and he talked about work at the station as well. Things had apparently been very quiet, which was unusual this time of year. “The crazies all like to come out around the holidays,” Hawk said. “Mostly people getting in fights at stores doing Christmas shopping. Black Friday is always a busy day for us. It’s like we have to be both cops and act as free security detail for local shops. But it’s that way anywhere. I’m just glad I don’t work in the city.”
“Ah, Black Friday,” Nikki sang. “It’s been a long time since I’ve done any Black Friday shopping. I don’t have it in me anymore. I made the mistake of going to Atlanta once for my Black Friday shopping, and a woman dumped my buggy over to keep me from getting to something. I don’t even remember what, but I remember I wasn’t even trying to get it. She just thought I was.”
“You’re kidding!” Hawk exclaimed.
“Wish I was. Now I hide in my house and close the blinds on Black Friday and wait until it’s over!” Nikki laughed.
“I do Cyber Monday now for my Christmas shopping,” Hawk said.
“Cyber Monday?”
“Yeah, you haven’t heard of Cyber Monday?” he asked as though this was some sort of terrible sin, but he could not help but grin, unable to remain serious about something so trivial.
“Is that really a thing?” she asked skeptically, sitting upright in her seat and giving him a serious look.
“It is, I swear!” he laughed at her. “Basically it’s the Monday after Thanksgiving. You get the same sort of deals you would in-store, but all the deals are online. So you get the deals but you don’t have to worry about someone pushing over your cart.”
“Noted,” she said. “I might just have to try that out this year.” She looked ahead and could see the lights from the airport up ahead. She let loose a loud, exasperated sigh.
“You ready?” Hawk asked as they pulled down the road that would take them to parking.
Nikki nodded. “I suppose I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”
They headed down the long road, waiting in line behind other cars waiting to get into the parking lot. It took them nearly twenty-five minutes to find a parking spot. Once they were parked, Nikki felt the need to sit nervously in the car for a moment. She tried to envision this girlfriend that Seth would be bringing. She hardly knew a thing about her apart from the fact that her name was Jackie. She didn’t know how Seth had met her, if they attended school together, or even what she looked like. It made her nervous. Apparently the girl had sort of invited herself along, and that made Nikki all the more anxious. Was she one of those girls with a pushy personality? Did she pressure Seth into letting her meet his family too soon? Or were the two of them really serious and Nikki had just grown apart from Seth to where he didn’t feel the need to tell her about a blossoming relationship?
Nikki pulled herself away from the thoughts of anxiety and doubt. It was not going to do her any good. “Okay,” Nikki said after taking a deep breath and opening up the car door. “Let’s go.”
3
It had been a long time since Nikki had seen her son face-to-face, so she could not contain her excitement once she managed to get out of her own head about the girlfriend. “Slow down, cowgirl,” Hawk teased, fumbling with the car keys to get the vehicle locked as quickly as possible. “I don’t think his plane has even landed yet.”
“Well, you never know, and I don’t want to keep him waiting,” Nikki said defiantly. She pulled her coat tighter around herself and spun around to see that Hawk was messing with her, intentionally taking longer than necessary just to keep her waiting. “Oh, come on! It’s freezing out here, so I want to get inside as quickly as possible. Quit messing with me! I’m cold!”
“Is winter here really so different than in Georgia?” Hawk asked.
“I’d still be wearing shorts this time of year,” Nikki declared, swaying back and forth to keep herself moving, hoping to keep her blood flow up to keep herself from catching a chill. Being still too long with the nippy wind blasting through the parking garage was bound to give her the shakes. Thanksgiving time back in Georgia required the awkward combination of shorts and a sweatshirt to survive the weather. And after a few rounds of backyard tag football with the family, you tended to ditch the sweatshirt. A regular downpour of snow was a rarity back home, so it was certainly not something she was accustomed to just yet.
“All right, you ready?” Hawk asked in a taunting tone once the car was locked up. He laughed at her frustration and hooked her arm in his. She burrowed herself into him slightly, feeding off of his warmth. The two of them began their long walk through the parking lot, squeezing close together to combat the sudden wind they were having.
Once inside the airport, they learned that Seth’s flight had only just landed and the passengers were still on the plane. “It’ll be a while,” Hawk said, so the two of them roamed around the airport’s shops for a while before settling down a short distance away from baggage claim.
For a while, the two of them attempted to hold a conversation by people watching. They softly whispered commentary about people who were walking in and out of the airport, but soon this grew dull and was no longer entertaining.
Nikki pulled out her phone and attempted to pass the time looking up new ideas for recipes for her chocolate shop. She saved a few things, but even after close to forty minutes of sifting through the internet, she did not find anything revolutionary. She was always looking for new ideas, but it had been a while since something extraordinary had come her way. She yawned and felt herself slowly starting to lean towards Hawk, his shoulder being quite tempting, but she did not want to be half asleep when her son arrived.
Eventually, though, she succumbed to the temptation and rested her head on Hawk’s shoulder—slowly drifting off to sleep. The next thing she knew, Hawk was giving her a slight shake. She sat upright and rubbed her eyes. “Hey, Mom,” the familiar voice of her son jolted her. Her eyes shot open, and her sleepiness quickly faded into excitement.
Nikki leaped up from her seat, all smiles, and wrapped her arms around her son. “Seth!” she exclaimed. “It’s so good to see you!” Her stomach fluttered, and she felt a sweep of emotions. She felt like it had been ages since she had last seen her son. While her shop and her new relationship had kept her busy, it had not made her miss her son any less.
When she pulled apart from him, she got a good look. He had grown out his facial hair a bit, and it looked awful, not that she would tell him that; at least, not at that moment. It would be a few more years before he had the capability to grow a serious beard rather than the patchy disaster she was staring at. His eyes glistened slightly, but there was a nervousness behind those eyes. “You must be Hawk?” Seth asked politely, looking around Nikki at the man who was slowly rising to his feet. Seth reached his h
and out to shake, and Nikki smiled proudly at her son’s polite gesture.
“And you must be Seth,” Hawk said and the two of them shook hands. They both smiled at one another, and Nikki was glad that it did not seem awkward at all.
Nikki’s eyes scanned the area for a girl who could be the date Seth had warned he would be bringing, but she did not see a young college girl nearby. I hope he didn’t leave her at baggage claim! she thought in horror, but she knew her son was more of a gentleman than that. What she did see at last was a woman who had to be in her mid-thirties standing right behind Seth with a less than perky smile. In fact, the woman looked outright uncomfortable.
“Mom, this is Jackie,” Seth said, and Nikki had to fight the urge to pop her son in the back of the head. The woman’s neck was covered in tattoos, and if not for the coat she was wearing, Nikki suspected she would be seeing even more ink. The excessive tattoos, though, were only a mild annoyance compared to the woman’s age.
“Oh!” was all Nikki managed to let slip. She glanced in Hawk’s direction and could see that his face was contorted much like her own. Nikki opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out.
“Um…it’s nice to meet you,” Jackie said quietly, but she avoided eye contact with both Nikki and Seth.
Seth, clearly realizing that his mother was shocked by the age of his girlfriend, spoke quickly to prevent an awkward silence. “So, you guys good to go? We’ve been sitting around airports all day trying to get here, so I’d love to get home. I’m exhausted.”
“Yeah,” Hawk said quickly. “Let’s get going and try to beat this crowd before the roads get flooded.” Hawk gave Nikki’s arm a slight tug, and she began functioning on autopilot. She walked alongside Hawk, allowing him to lead her because she was still in a bit of shock at the woman she had just been introduced to. She must be twice his age, Nikki kept thinking, while forcing herself to bite her tongue for the time being.
Jackie skipped along beside Seth, and the two of them soon were wrapped up in their own conversation. Hawk and Nikki walked ahead of the couple a considerable distance–far enough to avoid having to talk to them but close enough to where it did not seem like they were trying to ditch them. “What am I looking at, Hawk?” Nikki whispered, at last able to speak after the momentary loss of speech.
“Your son is dating a woman who is closer to your age than his,” he said plainly, and Nikki punched him fiercely in the arm.
“Oh, this is so awkward. It’s awkward. It’s awkward. It’s awkward,” Nikki kept muttering under her breath. “What should I do? Should I say something?” she asked, and Hawk shook his head no.
“Don’t do that,” Hawk insisted. “Let it go for now. Trust me. Get him home first. Last thing you want is him getting mad and the two of them going to get a hotel room for the night.”
“Oh geesh,” Nikki hissed under her breath.
The awkwardness in the airport was nothing compared to the discomfort in the car. Silence. Absolute silence. Every single desperate attempt at small talk only seemed to make them all feel even more uncomfortable. “So,” Hawk said after they were a good ways from the airport, “how did you two meet?” Nikki could see Hawk’s eyes glance up in the rearview mirror for a moment before returning to the snowy road that lay before them.
This should be good, Nikki thought just as her son and Jackie both put their feet in their mouths.
“We had a class together,” Seth said at the exact same time that Jackie said, “Tattoo parlor.” Nikki glared up at the rearview, and she could see Seth quickly avert his eyes. She felt an urge to reach into the back seat to punch him in the leg, but she resisted the temptation.
“So, what was that?” Nikki asked firmly. “How did you two meet?”
“We had a class together; that is how we met,” Seth stammered. “But I went with my roommate; he was getting a tattoo, and Jackie was, um, there. Her, um, friend was also getting a tattoo, and we wound up talking. So I guess we also met at the tattoo parlor because, well, we hadn’t really spoken in class before.”
“Gotcha,” Nikki said, but she was not buying it. Seth didn’t lie to her. Ever. But he was clearly nervous about bringing this woman around, so Nikki was not going to put it past him that he could be bending the truth a bit to make the situation less uncomfortable for himself.
Another wave of silence passed. Nikki glanced in Hawk’s direction and could see he was gripping the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles were turning white; he had certainly not expected to be so uncomfortable, and neither had Nikki. Hawk spoke to break the silence. “So, Jackie, what is it you do?”
Jackie hesitated before answering. “I, uh, I work at a tattoo parlor,” she said, apparently deciding that not lying was her best route.
Smart, Nikki thought. She already had an instant distaste for the woman, so honesty was going to be her best route, and the woman knew it.
Looking up in the rearview, Nikki could see Seth palm his face in embarrassment. “So, you got a tattoo now, Seth?” Nikki asked, but Seth just grunted and chose not to answer. A million different visions of ridiculous tattoos flashed through Nikki’s mind, and she started to make herself sick. Skull and crossbones? A stupid cartoon character? Dear, God, his father’s birthday? Surely not! She decided not to press further about the tattoo, but it would be a conversation that she was sure to let resurface very soon.
More silence, and Nikki could tell that it was about to make Hawk explode. After a moment, Hawk leaned forward and turned up the radio, so the four of them remained quiet and simply listened to the music for the remainder of the car ride back to Maple Hills. Sitting in absolute silence was much better than trying and failing to make casual conversation.
Nikki felt positively overwhelmed with disappointment. She had already been secretly displeased with Seth bringing a guest, but she had convinced herself it was for the best. He hadn’t dated in a long time, and she wanted him to be happy. Plus, it would have taken some tension away from the fact that his mother was in a new relationship. But this was certainly not a tension releaser. What business did her son have dating a woman nearly twice his age? And she was going to find out if he had tattooed himself up even if it killed her.
They pulled up in front of Nikki’s home, and all four of them bolted inside to avoid the cold. Hawk and Seth dropped off the luggage in the foyer, and then the four of them made their way into the kitchen. Nikki flipped on the kitchen light, revealing the adorable display of chocolates she had laid out just for Seth and his girlfriend. Now Nikki wished she had not put in so much effort. Truthfully, she had imagined a sweet college freshman who had stolen her son’s heart, and Nikki had wanted to make a good first impression. Jackie, in all honesty, was not exactly someone Nikki felt the need to impress.
“Oh, how cute!” Jackie said, pointing to the kitchen island where a collection of chocolates was laid out. They were molded carefully and made to look like little turkeys. Without so much as an invite, Jackie plopped one of the carefully designed chocolate turkeys into her mouth. For all Jackie knew, those chocolates had not been intended for them.
From the corner of her eye, Nikki could see Seth shoot her a nervous glance. Nikki took a breath; she was not going to start something with Jackie over something so trivial. “What do you think?” Nikki asked politely, and she could see her son’s shoulders drop in relief. Even Seth knows that was inappropriate, Nikki thought. She laughed in her mind for a moment, realizing Seth probably thought that the fancy chocolate turkeys had been intended for customers and not them.
“So good,” Jackie said.
“Good,” Nikki said, and then there was silence again. Is this how the entire week is going to be? Nikki wondered.
“So,” Seth said. “It’s kind of late, right? I’m sure you guys are just as tired as we are. So, I think we ought to retire for the night.”
Nikki frowned. She had hoped to do a little bit of catch up, but she supposed it could wait until the next morning. Then an uncomfortable t
hought struck her. Had she been dealing with a typical college freshman, she wouldn’t feel too strange about telling the girl she was going to need to sleep on the couch. The thought of her son sharing a bed with this woman made her anxious.
Hawk must have picked up on her discomfort because he acted quickly. “Say, Jackie, you know I have a guest room at my place. It’s up to you, but I know Nikki doesn’t really have a lot of room here. If you want, why don’t you stay in my guest room? I’m sure that little bed of Seth’s won’t be comfortable for the two of you anyways, and I just live a short drive from here. Plus, didn’t you say one of your employees would be staying here this week, too? The house is bound to get really crowded, right, Nikki? What do you say, Jackie?”
Jackie smiled, and it was fairly obvious that Jackie was reading right through everyone’s discomfort with her. Frankly, Nikki didn’t care. She just didn’t want the woman in her house. Jackie nodded. “You know what, that sounds lovely,” she said, and Seth frowned.
“You sure you don’t want to stay here?” Seth questioned. “I mean, it’s not that small of a bed. And we have a couch here. I can sleep on the couch if it gets too uncomfortable for you.”
Nikki felt Jackie looking towards her, so Nikki averted her eyes. Jackie smiled. “It’s all right, Seth. I’ll go stay with your mom’s friend. Plus, it would probably be nice if you got to spend some time with your mom, right?”
“Um, sure,” he griped.
“Okay, so it’s settled,” Hawk said, grabbing hold of Jackie’s suitcase. “I’m assuming the purple suitcase with the flowers is yours and not Seth’s, right?”
Jackie laughed. “Yes, that one is mine. Thank you.”
“Okay, well, I guess I’ll text you tomorrow,” Seth said, and he and Nikki walked Hawk and Jackie to the door.
“Thank you,” Nikki mouthed to Hawk as they were leaving, and he nodded and winked at her. A bit of tension released itself as she watched Jackie walk back out to the car with Hawk.
Maple Hills Mystery Box Set Page 25
