Seeing that Nyxie had returned, Mrs. Tomlin turned back to Nyxie. "I can't find the embossing tool. This may take a couple more minutes."
"I'm in no hurry," Nyxie said, putting her purse on the counter and pointing the camera lens to face herself. She put her elbows on the tall counter and leaned in, trying to give Declan, if not a peek down her T-shirt, at least a view of her chest and face while she waited. When the women were facing away, Nyxie would stick out her tongue childishly or moue and lick her lips in what she hoped looked seductive.
"Is the transcript for your records?" Mrs. Tomlin asked.
"I'm going to apply to South Plains Community when I finish my GED," Nyxie answered. She saw no reason to lie to save face over quitting school. Even if the woman didn't remember her, the transcript clearly showed she didn't get her diploma.
"I'm glad to hear you're getting your GED. I always felt badly that you dropped out."
That surprised Nyxie. It never occurred to her that anyone gave a rat's ass about her or gave the slightest thought of her.
"Found it!" the second woman said, digging in the back of a drawer of one of the file cabinets.
The door behind Nyxie opened and she involuntarily turned towards the sound. As soon as she saw Coach Stryker, she automatically turned away, but she immediately realized she couldn't pretend she hadn't seen her father-in-law, the way she might ignore some random teacher she didn't like.
"Hey," she said forcing herself to smile and face him.
"What are you doing here?" It didn't sound like an accusation, but genuine surprise.
She wondered if she looked as awkward as she felt at that moment. Oh God, what if she smelled of her girlfriend after what she had just finished doing. She tucked the fingers of her right hand in her pocket, hoping she looked casual doing it. "I needed a copy of my transcript."
His eyebrows were raised as he looked around. "Is Declan with you?"
"No, sir, he's at work."
"You can call me Roy, or even Dad."
"Sorry."
Roy stepped up beside her, putting his arm around her shoulders. "Have you met my new daughter-in-law?" he asked the women behind the counter.
Nyxie stiffened, finding the contact confusing and even a bit frightening. In her mind, she could imagine Coach Stryker slamming her head on the counter like a villainous TV wrestler.
What the hell? Nice Coach Stryker was even scarier than mean Coach Stryker—mostly because she understood the man who had been her P.E. teacher. Her mind searched to understand what motives explained this new persona.
Mrs. Tomlin gave Nyxie a strange look, no doubt wondering why she hadn't mentioned it, especially when the subject of her last name had come up.
"I didn't figure you'd want anyone to know Declan had married Flip-Flop Girl."
She had been unconsciously leaning away since he had put his arm around her, and when he pulled her tighter to his side, she might have lost her balance, had he not been holding her so firmly. He stroked her upper arm twice in an affectionate-like gesture.
"It's a small town. No doubt everyone has known since the marriage license notice came out in the paper. I am more concerned about my son's happiness than I am about a bunch of gossips."
"Well, congratulations," Mrs. Tomlin said. "Or best wishes, I guess I should say. How did this happen?"
Great. Now she would give them something to gossip about.
"Declan was one of Cody's doctors. He remembered me from high school and took me out for breakfast the morning after the accident. We've been together ever since."
"Isn't it funny how things happen," the woman said, stepping up to the counter with the embosser and three sheets of paper.
"Yeah."
In short order, the woman had the school district seal stamped into each page of Nyxie's transcript.
"How much do I owe you?" Nyxie asked.
"Don't worry about it."
"Thank you. Do you know if I need to get the kids’ records, or if their new schools will send for them?”
"You can do it either way."
“Come on, Flip-Flop Girl, I'll walk you out."
Finally, Roy released her and held open the doors as they walked out to the parking lot.
"I'm sorry. I hope I didn't embarrass you. I just didn't figure you’d want anyone to know Declan had married a Carmichael."
He shrugged. "It is what it is. I meant what I said. After seeing you together at the reception, I can see you make him happy. It's been a long time since I've seen him acting young and carefree. You're good for him."
Internally, Nyxie beamed, hoping Roy meant it. "I hope I do make him happy. He's an amazing person. He deserves to be happy."
Roy opened the car door for her, and she sat down, putting the key in the ignition.
"Look, Onyx, I'm sorry for the way I treated you in P.E.. It never occurred to me your family was struggling financially. You know, in a small town like this, people usually talk, but as far as I can remember, none of the other coaches said a word. Maybe they blamed your sister for my predecessor being fired—I don't know—maybe they just didn’t want to get on my bad side. I'd like to think, if I had known you didn't own sneakers, that I would've bought you some."
Nyxie didn't know what to say. She’d never expected an apology from him. He sounded sincere, but the fact that he didn't know her situation, really shouldn't factor into the way he had treated her. No one deserves that.
Nyxie resisted her inherent tendency to apologize. "I just want to forget it ever happened—start fresh."
"Me too," he said. "Tell Declan, I said hello and don't be a stranger."
Nyxie managed a small smile. “I will.”
Very slowly she backed out of the parking place and when she saw that Roy had gone inside, she said her thoughts aloud. “That was weird.”
~*~
Declan was about to shut off his computer when he heard Nyxie say, "That was weird." He couldn't agree more. His official last day of residency had dragged on forever as he had looked forward to locking himself away and watching how well she followed his instructions. He was well pleased and would show her later tonight.
When he had come home from work an hour earlier, she was out of the house, probably at Cody's therapy session, but her phone had been left behind on the kitchen counter, hooked up to the charger. Because it was powered off, he suspected she had forgotten to stop the recording and had run down the battery until it shut off.
He took the phone back to his side of the townhouse, hooked it up to his computer to download the video, and began to watch. He had expected her to turn off the recording before she left the restroom, but continued to watch when she began making faces at the camera while the women's backs were turned. It was one of those rare moments where she was being herself, unguarded and no doubt happy to have her task completed. But when his dad entered, he couldn't stop watching. Thank God he had been nice to her or he would have had to confront him.
Afterwards, he'd been about to shut it off when she said aloud, "That was weird.”
Did she always talk to herself when she was alone? Despite the fact that the camera was pointing at an air vent, he continued to sit in front of his monitor as it played. He pulled out his phone and checked his e-mail as she drove away from the high school. He chuckled when she started singing along with Bohemian Rhapsody on the radio, which turned into belly laughs when she imitated the operatic section of the song with an out-of-tune falsetto and bass. Her singing abruptly stopped.
“Look left, look right, look left again. Proceed," she said out loud.
"Good girl," he said, realizing she continued relying on her driving lessons. Maybe she wasn't ready for the short drive out of town by herself. She changed the radio station incessantly looking for a song she liked. It drove him nuts.
It wasn't long before the engine shut off and his view changed. He got a quick flash of the interior of the car and then heard her feet on the sidewalk as she walked along the perimeter o
f a parking lot. He saw grass and trees and then the exterior of a brick building before she walked through metal doors into a hallway lined with blue subway tiles and lockers. It didn't take a genius to realize she was at one of the other schools in Chimera Flats.
"May I help you?" a voice said.
"We moved to Lubbock and I wanted to see about getting my nieces’ records to enroll them in school there."
“Uhm, Claudia just went to lunch. You need to talk to her."
"When will she be back?"
"I really don't know. She went with the principal and a bunch of teachers. This time of year, they might be gone for two hours, maybe longer."
"You can't run the copies?"
Declan could hear the frustration in Nyxie's voice.
"I just started a week ago. I don't even know her computer password, and the IT guy is on vacation, so I don't have one yet."
"Okay, thanks." Nyxie waited until she was back in the car to say, “Dammit."
A few minutes later, she was at the junior high. Technically, it was a middle school—sixth grade through eighth, but in a small town, no one had a deep-seated need to change the sign when they reconfigured the grades that went there.
She had no problem procuring Cody's records, and answered a few questions about his progress since the accident. She was getting ready to leave when she stopped and asked the clerk one more thing. "I didn't have the money to get Cody’s school pictures. Do you know what they do with them?"
"I really don't know, but I remember one of the parents asking about having extras printed, so maybe they save the negatives or the digital files or whatever they do now."
"Do you know the name of the photographer?"
Before the woman could answer, a woman’s voice beckoned to Nyxie, calling her Onyx.
"Mrs. North?"
"What are you doing here?"
"I'm getting Cody's records so I can get him enrolled at his new school."
"I mean, why aren't you on your honeymoon?"
"Declan had to work two more days before his vacation. We just figured if we had the wedding the weekend before, we could have a longer honeymoon."
"Are you going any place exotic?"
"I don't know. Declan is keeping it a secret."
"Marilyn, are you ready," a male voice in the distance, interrupted.
"Sorry. I've got to go," Mrs. North said. "I'd love it if you brought Cody around to see me every now and then."
"He'd like that too."
Nyxie left the school and shortly after that, the recording abruptly stopped. No doubt the phone battery had died.
Declan shut off his laptop and made a phone call.
"Hey, Mom."
"Declan, honey, what's wrong?"
Declan rolled his eyes. It seemed as if every time he called her, she assumed he must be in trouble of some sort. "Nothing's wrong. I just wanted a small favor.”
Chapter 34
Apparently, Declan was incapable of doing anything half-assed, Nyxie was finding out. The morning their honeymoon began, a bus-sized RV with a brand-new 4-door red Jeep Wrangler Rubicon attached behind by a tow bar was delivered to the house. Declan backed his Jeep out of the garage and handed the keys to the man who had driven the RV, and the man drove off in the pint-sized Jeep.
Nyxie wondered why he had had her pack the red ropes and other assorted adult toys, since they would be too close to the kids and nanny to use them in the relatively tight space of the RV.
Trust him, she chastised herself.
She soon realized he had chosen the rented RV as their mode of travel for several reasons, but mostly to accommodate Cody. He still tired easily and Declan liked the idea that Cody could rest whenever he needed. Also, with Kylie, they numbered six occupants and they would not fit into anything but a van or an SUV with a third seat, and she suspected, Declan was unwilling to completely cash in his cool card just yet. The way things stood, when they started adding to their family, he would have to make the sacrifice.
Declan tried to keep the traveling in short hops to keep from tiring Cody too much. Their first day, they went to Carlsbad Caverns—just a few hours away. Cody had been upset to find that Declan had stowed away a wheelchair for him to use for the mile and a half walking trail at the bottom of the cavern. But when the time came, and he had walked as far as he could, he reluctantly sat down in it. Declan promised to take everyone back when Cody was strong enough to walk down the natural entrance, so they could all get the full experience. But even without trekking down the natural cavern opening, they were all fascinated by the stalagmites, stalactites and other formations, each making liberal use of their phone’s camera. They filled up the rest of the day with a stop at a tourist trap where he bought, much to Nyxie's disapproval, overpriced souvenirs and T-shirts for everyone. Although Declan considered either returning at sunset to watch the bats fly out of the cave or sending the nanny and kids to the drive-in movie theatre in town, he could see Cody wasn’t up to it so they opted for a family game night around the RV’s kitchen table.
The next day, they found themselves at Red River and Taos, enjoying the artsy communities and the beautiful scenery. Nyxie and Reina loved the mountains of New Mexico. Declan pulled the RV into a hotel and rented a pair of suites for the night—one for Kylie and the kids, the other for the newlyweds, where Nyxie spent nearly every minute tied up and made love to. On the third day, Declan drove them to the Mesa Verde ruins in Colorado. Where Nyxie had been excited by the mountains to the south, she was now in complete awe of the Rockies. She had never seen anything so big in her whole life. The day after that, they found themselves in South Fork, Colorado, where his grandparents had once owned a cabin and he intended to stay for at least a week. Nyxie loved Colorado from the snow-topped mountains, to the pleasant daytime temperatures—though in the morning it was a bit nippy—to the way it smelled. Everywhere she looked, the place looked like a postcard. They climbed the mountain behind his grandparents’ former cabin and he showed them where someone had erected poles into a teepee with a Texas license plate from the 50s hanging from the top. He said he had spent many summer days playing there in his childhood, and he seriously considered buying a cabin in the small town, but wasn't sure if he'd be there enough to justify it. Cody found a single deer antler that he decided must come home with him as a souvenir and the girls picked up pinecones and pieces of fool’s gold.
Declan took them on day trips to fish, to see the repertory theatre in Creede and told scary stories when they visited the abandoned mine of Silverton.
The next day, Declan took the top off the Jeep and took them for a long drive in the mountains. They drove through streams and crawled the Jeep up rocky terrain, which had every female in the car holding on for dear life, and the males laughing at them.
Declan soon realized during their trip, that Kylie was worth every cent he paid her. She kept the kids occupied during travel times, but anytime they piled into the Jeep and left her with the RV because she wouldn't fit, she would happily acknowledge it was their vacation and she was there as their employee. If they didn't need her, she was perfectly happy to stay behind and pick out her classes for the fall semester or catch up on Facebook.
They were entering their second week of their honeymoon when Declan wanted to send the kids horseback riding, while he claimed some alone time with Nyxie to teach her a little mountain climbing. Unfortunately, Kylie protested being given the RV to drive while they took the Jeep. She was terrified to drive anything so big, so Declan handed her the keys to the Jeep and a credit card, while he and Nyxie drove off in the RV to find a bit of adventure.
Declan drove the behemoth about 45 minutes, before he turned off the blacktop onto a dirt road. The dishes and the pans rattled as they climbed the rough, narrow road on the side of the snow-capped mountain, hugging the guard rails on half of the switchbacks.
Nyxie noticed they hadn't seen any other vehicles since they had pulled off the main highway, so when he stopped the RV on
a wide spot in the road, she wasn't too concerned that parking there while they hiked the rest of the way, would cause much problem if someone did come along.
He produced a pair of backpacks. His was much heavier than hers, as his contained mountaineering equipment, an abundance of survival gear, and supplies in case they got lost or had bad weather strike. Hers held duplicates of some of the same things in case they became separated, warm clothes, protein bars, a couple of bottles of water, another first aid kit and a sleeping bag. They hiked up the side of the mountain through the pine trees for an hour before they reached the rock face he wanted to climb.
"I can't believe I'm winded," Nyxie said, stopping to catch her breath, her hand over her chest as she drew in deep gulps of mountain air. "I think you need to let me start walking again. I'm really out of shape."
"It’s the altitude, baby. The air is so thin up her, the trees can’t survive much higher up than this."
About fifteen minute later, his words rang true, and they found themselves above the tree line.
"Is it safe this high up?"
“We'll be okay. This isn't like Mount Everest or anything. We’ll stop when you need to catch your breath. I thought we would climb to the top and play in the snow for a little bit. We’ll repel about halfway down, fuck like Chuck, then head back to South Fork."
She was so fixated with the idea of playing in the snow in August, that she nearly missed him saying he intended to have sex with her up there.
"In the snow?"
"Not that high up. I'm thinking right about there,” he said pointing at a spot midway up the rock face.
"What? Out here? Someone might see us."
Declan laughed. "We haven't seen any cars out here yet. And frankly, let them watch."
"But…how would we…up there?"
He used his thumb to point at the pack on his back as if the solution was hidden away inside. "Hanging from ropes."
“Oh." Nyxie bit her lip as she tried to figure out if he truly meant it. He wore an infectious boyish smile and she realized if he wanted to have sex hanging from ropes on the side of the mountain, even if other people could see, she couldn't or wouldn't deny him the experience.
The Love He Craves (The Love She Craves: Selling Her Soul to Declan Book 2) Page 32
