by Beth Rinyu
“I love you,” she said
“Love you too; now go lie down.”
She ran her thumb along my cheek line. “Okay.” She stood on her tippy toes and whispered in my ear. “And Dailan, I’m not going to just get over it.” She kissed me on the cheek and headed up the steps.
I shook my head and smiled. That was Nicole, always having to get the last word in. She was the only woman that I had ever met that gave me a run for my money, That was why I was just as crazy about her today as I was from the first day I had met her.
Chapter 15
Nicole
I rolled over in my bed and looked at the clock. 3:15 p.m. I should have never drunk so much last night. I was feeling much better since I slept. I got out of bed and made my way down the stairs. I could hear a pin drop in my normally chaotic house. There was no sign of anyone. I picked up my cell phone to find a text from Dailan.
We're at my dad's. I'll be home around four.
I quickly texted him back to tell him not to eat. I had planned on cooking him a nice dinner. I sent Donna a quick text, asking her how she was feeling before I jumped into the shower. I got dressed and headed out the door to the food store, after realizing that I really didn't have much to cook.
I fumbled through my purse for my keys, looking up to find a strange car pulling in my driveway. I gasped when I realized it was Jonathan. What the heck was he doing here and how the hell did he know where I lived? Then I remembered him giving my driver's license the once over yesterday. I began to panic, not only because I knew why he was probably here, but I started thinking of what would happen if Dailan were to come home right now. I was frozen, with my hand on the door handle to my car.
"What the hell do you want?" I finally found my voice as he approached me.
"Nicole, that boy yesterday; was it him?"
I ignored him and opened my car door. "Nicole, please." He grabbed my arm.
"Get the hell off me!" I screamed. "You need to leave. My husband will kill you if he finds out that you’re here."
"Well, I'm not leaving until you talk to me." I looked down at my watch; it was 4:20 and for once, I was happy that Dailan was always late.
"I have nothing to say to you. Just go! My husband is going to be here any minute."
"Please just meet me up at the coffee shop."
"No, I can't."
"Well, then it looks like I'll be meeting your husband."
"You bastard! You know I really don't care what he does to you, but I do care about him getting in trouble for doing it because I'm telling you right now, he hates you for what you did to me."
"All you have to do is give me five minutes."
I got into my car and reluctantly drove up the street to the coffee shop. He held the door open for me as I walked in. "Did you want some coffee?" he asked as we took a seat.
"No," I answered, looking out the window.
"I know what I did to you was wrong, Nicole, and I'm sorry."
"I don't want your apologies. You are just a bad memory to me."
"I want to get to know him."
"What!" I shouted. "There is no way in hell that you are going near him."
"Nicole, he's my son."
"Oh, really, now all of sudden, he's your son?"
"Nicole, my dad is dying; I want him to meet his grandson."
"Oh, I am supposed to feel bad over that? It's not his grandson and he will never meet him."
"Nicole, look, I know that me and my parents put you through hell -"
"You know what, Jonathan? I am done with this conversation." I got up and pushed in my chair.
"Don't make this get ugly, Nicole."
"Excuse me?"
"I know all about your hot shot attorney husband. He may be a genius when it comes to corporate law, but not family law. It's amazing what you learn doing an internet search on someone." He had an arrogant smirk on his face. "My attorneys will chew him up and spit him out."
My whole body became overheated. All I could see was red flashing in front of my eyes. "You know nothing about my husband. But I will give you this little bit of information - you and your family do not want to mess with him. Trust me! So you can all go to hell!"
I got into my car, shaking. There was no way in hell that those people were getting their hands on Ryan, I would make sure of it. I was too frazzled to think of cooking now, so I stopped off and picked up pizza.
I took a deep breath before heading into my house. I had to tell Dailan, I had no choice. Dailan was feeding Ella her dinner when I walked in the kitchen. "Wow, this is my nice dinner that you’re cooking me," Dailan joked as he saw the pizza box in my hand.
"Where's Ryan?" I asked.
"He's sleeping over my dad's. What's wrong?" he asked, seemingly sensing the worry on my face.
I sat down next to him and told him everything, starting with me running into Jonathan and his mother yesterday. After I told him about how Jonathan's mother had treated me while I was pregnant, I wasn't sure who he wanted to kill more: her or Jonathan.
"Nicole, why the hell did you even talk to him?"
"Because I was afraid that you were going to come home and kill him. Dailan, they won't be able to take Ryan, will they?"
"Hell, no! They don't have a leg to stand on. He has no rights to him whatsoever. Oh, I would have loved for that asshole to have said those things to my fuckin’ face."
"I'm just scared. I don't want Ryan knowing anything about them. If they ever got their hands on him, I would -"
"Nicole, do you really think I would ever let that happen?"
"No, but -"
"Just stop. Stop worrying about something that's not going to happen."
I hugged him tightly and kissed him on the forehead. "I love you."
"If you love me, then you would have let me kick his ass."
I smacked him on the arm and laughed, knowing full well that I would have taken great pleasure in watching that.
***
Later that night, I curled up in bed with Dailan. "In one month, we will be in Ireland." I leaned my head on his chest and kissed him. "I can't wait." He didn't answer me. He just took a deep breath and kissed me on the head. "I think I need to make up for that ‘I'm sorry cake’ that I never made you.” I lifted my head off his chest and smiled.
"Oh, yeah; how are you going to do that?"
I kissed his chest, slowly trailing my lips downward. I pulled down his boxers and he smiled. "Nicole?"
"Hmm?" I looked up at him.
"You can save yourself a lot of trouble next time; I'll take this any day over chocolate cake."
Chapter 16
Dailan
I hugged Nicole tightly as she slept. I had every intention of telling her about needing to cancel our vacation tonight, but then she had to go and do that, and being a guy, I didn’t want to say anything that would piss her off and make her stop. She knew exactly how to get to me. I never thought that I would love someone as much as I loved her. If someone told me a few years ago that this was where I was going to be with my life, I would have told them they were crazy. I didn't do relationships. I was happy just going from girl to girl. But Nicole changed that. There was something about her from the very first time that I had seen her that was different. I laughed to myself as I thought back to the very first night we met:
Tommy and I had just gotten to the bar. He had, again, just broken up with one of his girlfriends and was looking for someone to replace her with. "Hey, Dailan, what do you think of those three chicks over there?"
I quickly looked over to find three girls laughing away, not paying much attention to any of them. I had had a shit day at work and then Ryan's teacher had pissed me off even more with her bullshit email about some stupid ass meeting I had to attend.
"Go for it," I said, taking another sip of my beer.
Tommy flagged down the waitress and ordered them a round of drinks. He waited until their drinks arrived and then made his move. I laughed as I watched him ap
proach one of the blonde girls at the table. I looked at the dark-haired girl, thinking that she would have been my choice, but Tommy and I never did have the same taste in women. I turned around after he and the girl went out on the dance floor.
I pulled my phone from my pocket to check out the text that I had just gotten. “Later tonight... my place?” Jenna Crawford, yeah, she would be the perfect fix for a horrible day.
I quickly responded back with “okay” as the little dark-haired girl that was sitting over at the table bumped into me.
“Hey, thanks for the drink,” she said as she looked up at me. Seeing her up close only reconfirmed what I had thought earlier. She would have definitely been my choice - she was hot as hell.
What the hell was she thanking me for? I didn't recognize her at all, but it was possible that maybe I did sleep with her at one time. Nah, I definitely would have remembered her. “What?” I finally asked.
“You and your friend bought me and my friends a round of margaritas.”
“Oh, that was my mate there, trying to pick up your friend. But if I was half paying attention and had seen how cute you were, I would have bought you a drink myself.”
An adorable smile spread across her face. “Well, aren’t you sweet?” No, actually you are darlin’, and I would love to get to see just how sweet you are, later on tonight.
I ordered her another margarita. “Oh no, I can’t have any—”
“I’ll be insulted if you drank the margarita that Tommy bought you and not mine.”
“Okay, if you insist.” She sipped on the margarita and eyed me up. Yeah, she wanted me and I was more than willing to give her what she was after.
“Do you want to dance?”
“Sure,” she said, taking one last swig of her margarita and licking the salt off her lips. Damn, this girl was turning me on. She was hot, a good dancer, a little drunk, and hopefully in my bed in a few hours. The music changed to a slow song, but I wasn’t ready to let her go. I pulled her closer and wrapped my arms around her. She immediately rested her head against my chest. She smelled so damn good. It was taking everything in me to stop my hands from wandering. She pushed herself closer to me and I smiled. Screw Jenna Crawford; this girl is way hotter.
“Wow, this is a great ending to a horrible day,” she said.
“Why’s that?”
“Just a horrible day at work.”
“What do you do?” I asked.
“I teach second grade and my day ended with an obnoxious e-mail from a pompous ass who’s the uncle of one of my students.”
Oh, fuck! On second thought, I could have some fun with this one. I gazed down at her with a smile. She moved her head back to my chest and we continued to dance. I didn’t care if she was Ryan’s teacher, I wanted this girl bad! “Do you have a name, hot Irish guy?”
Moment of truth. “Dailan – Dailan O’Maley. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Morgan.”
She quickly removed her head from my chest and looked up at me. I tried my best not to laugh at the look on her face.
“Oh my God, I’m sor-” Next thing I knew, she was out the door. I finally released the laughter that I had been holding in as I walked back over to Tommy.
“Holy shit, Dailan, what did you do to that girl?” Tommy joked.
“That was Ryan’s teacher,” I said, still laughing.
“Oh, guess you won’t be hittin’ that tonight.” Tommy laughed.
“Maybe not tonight, but I will be soon.”
“Bro, she’s your nephew’s teacher,” Tommy said.
“And? Since when do you have morals, Tommy?”
“Yeah, she was pretty hot.”
“Yes, she is.”
“Yeah, well, by the way she ran out outta here, I think you’re in for a challenge.”
I smiled. “Tommy, you of all people should know that I am always up for a challenge. I always get what I want. And I want that girl.” I didn’t know how long it would take, but I was determined to have Miss Morgan in my bed. But for right now, Jenna Crawford would just have to do.
Boy, did she make me work for it. Normally, all I had to do was buy a girl a drink and she was ripping off my clothes. But, Nicole was a little spitfire; she didn’t back down to me and that was what I loved about her. I smiled as she wrapped her arm around me and mumbled in her sleep. Yup, it took me a while, but I finally got her in my bed forever and it was totally worth it.
Chapter 17
Nicole
The morning sunlight was shining in my bedroom window. I rolled over and hugged Dailan tightly. “Good morning, sexy,” I said as I ran my hand down his bare chest. He stretched his neck to look over me at the clock.
“Wow, it’s seven o’clock and Ella’s still sleeping. Are you sure no one came in and kidnapped her last night?” Dailan joked.
“Don’t even joke around about that!” My paranoia set in and I jumped out of bed. I walked into Ella’s room. She was just starting to stir. I watched as she opened her sleepy eyes and smiled widely at me. She grabbed onto the bars and pulled herself up. She rattled the side of her crib as she waited for me to pick her up.
“Good morning, baby girl!” I lifted her out of the crib and kissed her on the head. She took a handful of my hair and stuck it in her mouth. “No, that’s yucky,” I said as I gently removed my hair from her grasp. “Mommy will get you breakfast, just as soon as we get you in a nice dry diaper.” I laid her down on her changing table. It was getting harder and harder to change her now that she was getting bigger. She twisted and turned as I wrestled with the diaper to try and get it on her. “You are a wiggle worm this morning,” I said as I lifted her up in the air. She began to laugh. She laughed even harder when she saw Dailan standing in her bedroom door.
He took her from my arms and kissed her on the head. “Why don’t you go lie back down? I’ll get her breakfast,” he said.
“No, that’s okay. I’m wide awake.”
“Okay, then why don’t you get dressed and I will take you out for breakfast.”
“All right, but why are you being so nice?”
“What? I can’t be nice to you now?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “I guess.”
I took a quick shower and dressed. I got Ella dressed and ready while Dailan jumped in the shower. I called Dailan’s dad to find out what time Ryan wanted us to pick him up. I talked to Ryan and was informed that he had eaten breakfast and they were fishing already. Ella and I waited patiently for Dailan to come downstairs. I thought about tomorrow; I hated going back to work after long weekends. But the good thing was that only fourteen more days of school were left and then I would have the whole summer to spend with Ryan and Ella. Dailan finally made his way down the steps while texting away on his phone and laughing.
“What’s so funny?”
“Nothing.” He was still smirking.
“Dailan, tell me!”
“Oh, I don’t think you want to know.”
“Yeah, I do.”
He took a deep breath and laughed again. “Okay, you asked for it. Tommy slept with your sister.”
“What! Are you freakin’ kidding me? Her divorce isn’t even final!”
Dailan shrugged his shoulders and grabbed Ella. “Not our business. Come on; let’s go.”
I shook my head and sighed, praying that she would be like the rest of the women in Tommy’s life - short lived.
We went to the same diner that Ryan and I had gone to the other day. After the waitress got done ogling over Ella, she finally took our order. “What - no emergency meetings today?” I asked.
“Nope, not today, anyway.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“This big case is going to trial, which means I’m going to have put in a lot of extra hours to prepare for it.”
“Like how many extra hours?” All of sudden, Rachel Wiser popped into my mind. Would she be spending those extra hours with him as well?
“Nicole, we’re going to have to postpone
our trip to Ireland.”
“What? Why?”
“I can’t be away from work for that long right now.”
“It’s only for a week, Dailan! Your mother is so looking forward to seeing the kids.”
“There’s nothing I can do about it. Nicole, if I lose this case, Mr. Allan will lose everything.”
I bit my lip and looked away. “Well, whatever. You gotta do what you gotta do.”
“I’m sorry, beautiful. I promise I will make it up to you.”
“Well, you can break that news to your mother.”
He waved his hand in a dismissing manner. “Dailan, I mean it. You better do it soon.”
I really liked Dailan’s mom, but she could be very opinionated and outspoken on many things. For instance, how I chose to raise my kids. The last time she had visited, Ella was three weeks old. I listened to her go on and on about how the doctors had parents brainwashed these days with keeping the babies on formula for a whole year. Her kids were drinking whole milk by eight weeks old. I tried to tell her as politely as I could that things had changed a lot since her kids were babies, but she was insistent, causing me to throw away the milk and not buy anymore until she left for fear that she would try and give some to Ella. Poor Ryan was going through cereal withdrawal by the time she left. It was a very long two weeks. But, still, I had been looking forward to going to Ireland. Ella would be almost a year old by the time we were planning on going so I wasn’t worried about the whole milk thing. I knew she wasn’t going to be happy when she found out we weren’t coming, but that was Dailan’s problem to deal with. The first time I had met his mother was right before our wedding. She wasn’t the warm and lovey type. I was given a rundown of her personality by Dailan’s dad beforehand and boy, was he right. I could tell right away that she didn’t think any girl was good enough for Dailan, which was fine. I supposed that I might feel that way about Ryan someday. But once I got to know her, she began to warm up to me and we actually got along quite well. Of course, having her live an ocean away probably helped a lot too.
