James and Samantha were going to be here today before they went back home. When I got up in the morning, Sam was in the kitchen as per usual when she was here and Dean was sipping on coffee at the breakfast bar. I waited until breakfast was ready and everyone was seated.
I got nervous and almost chickened out. I squared my shoulders and cleared my throat. “Hey everyone?”
“Yes dear” Sam answered batting her lashes.
I was trying to be serious right now, but I couldn’t help but take the bait. “Honey bun, I don’t know why you’re sitting there. You could sit right here with me and share my food.” I told her patting my lap.
She laughed. “Oh Nick, I’m sorry. I know you’re all bulked up and everything but I might just break your leg and we couldn’t have that now could we?”
My eyebrows flew up. “When it comes to you anything is worth the sacrifice baby. Come on and break me all over.”
She threw a piece of bacon at me and I caught it with my mouth. “You damn circus clown.”
I laughed. “Alright, I actually had something I wanted to talk to you all about.” I met James eyes to make sure I had his attention. When he saw the seriousness in my face he gave me a curious stare. “I had been contacted a few times already… and well I finally made a decision on it. I’m going to enter this year’s NBA draft.”
His eyebrows flew up. “Nick, I understand this seems like a once in a lifetime opportunity but with your talent they’ll wait 12 years for you to finish school if that’s what it takes. You don’t have to go in head first you can finish school and get a degree. Plus you have no idea where you would end up in a draft.”
I nodded. “I know all of these things and I have thought it through. I need to do this for me. I just hope that you all will support me in this decision.”
He sighed. “Nick, that’s without any question if at the end of the day you know for sure that this is what you want. At the same time I have your best interest at heart so I want to make sure that before you make such a huge life changing decision you know everything you should know about it is all. Regardless of whether or not you decide to go through this at the end of the day I’m so damn proud of you that you’re doing so well that they’re hounding you and it’s only your second year.”
I smiled. “Thanks James.”
A chair scraped back and Sam bounced out her seat and came over to me. “This time I’m going to be all over you. Give me some love sexy boy.” I wrapped my arms around her waist as she bent down and placed a kiss to my hair. “I’m so proud of you Nick.” I heard her sniffle and I looked up. She had tears in her eyes.
“Awe shucks wifey, don’t cry you’re going to hurt my heart.” I told her wiping away her tears. She smiled and grabbed both of my cheeks giving me kisses on both. “Oh so now you’re not afraid of exposing the intimacy of our relationship in front of people? Had I known that I would’ve announced this years ago.” She smiled and shook her head as she went back to her seat.
“Congrats man, make sure I’m there when you get picked!” Landon said excitedly.
“Can I come to your games?” Max asked.
I frowned. “What do you mean can you come? Of course you can dude, I expect you to be there in the front row screaming my name. As soon as I’m on a team I’m buying you my jersey.”
Max smiled wide. “For real?” he asked
I nodded. “Absolutely.”
“That’s so cool, I’ll get to tell everybody my brother is awesome!” Max chatted excitedly. I looked over at Lucy and she was sitting with her elbow on the table holding her head and pushing her food around. She didn’t look the least bit happy and I decided that I’d question her about it later.
Sam and James left and Landon took Max out to get some new clothes. He was such a boy’s boy his clothes and shoes were always getting destroyed. I think he ruined three pairs of jeans last week. I found Lucy in the kitchen cutting vegetables. “Hey Lu.”
She turned around to face me, and she looked pissed. “How could you Nick?”
Ah, here we go. She must have been waiting to catch me alone too. “What are you talking about?” I asked.
“Why do you want to leave us?” she asked.
I sighed. She thought I was leaving because of them, and I’d be lying if that wasn’t part of the truth. “I’m not trying to leave you Lucy, you shouldn’t take it personally.”
“How can I not? You’ve been withdrawn for a while now and I’ve been sitting around patiently waiting for you to come to me and talk but you never did. It’s fucking frustrating, and now you’re all of sudden just leaving. Why?” she demanded.
“Look Lucy, throughout the last few years I have been having nothing but nonstop loss. Yes I have gained some things too like you and I appreciate that, but I feel like I need time to myself you know? To figure things out and I don’t know find myself? Right now the one thing that keeps me steady, happy, and focused is basketball. It’s one thing I can give my all to right now, I’m sure you can understand.”
“You’re not happy here with us?” she asked and I saw the hurt in her face.
I grabbed her and pulled her into a hug and rocked her back and forth. “Oh Lucy.” I let out a deep exhale. “It’s not that babe of course I’m happy here with you guys. You’re the only family I have left and I’d be a fool to not appreciate that. But at the same time you and Landon also need some time to yourself. You guys are building something here together and while I know you want me here you don’t need me here. Don’t you think I deserve to figure out what it is I need in life to make me complete?” I asked.
She looked up into my eyes and asked softly, “does this have anything to do with Mel?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Well yes in a way, that whole thing I went through with her made me realize a lot of things about what I may or may not want in my life. At the same time, I don’t know what it is that I do want other than you guys and basketball. I know I’ll always have you guys even if I’m on the other side of the world and you know how important you guys are to me. I would walk off the court in the middle of a game and hop on a plane if any of you needed me no questions asked. And no matter where I am in the world you know you can always call me and you can always depend on me. Even if Landon gets out of line I’ll come and set his ass on fire if I have to. And you know I won’t miss anything important, there are a lot of demands that come with this life but I have already expressed as a strict condition of me entering the draft that every coach that might even be thinking about me must know that family comes first for me. You hear me princess?”
She nodded. “Yea Nick. I’m sorry, I’m happy for you I really am but I’m being selfish right now because I don’t want to lose you is all.” She confessed.
I nodded. “I know pretty girl, I know.” I held her until I felt the tension release from her body and she sagged into me.
“I love you Nick.”
“I know Lucy, I love you too.”
Lucy
“Ok Mel listen, I’ve been beating around the bush about this…” I trailed off.
“Yes Lucy, I know there’s something you’re dying to say but you’re avoiding it like the plague… you keep talking about shit you don’t even give a damn about now out with it.”
I sighed. “How are you feeling anyway? Erica told me you were sick and she had to come bring you soup with a face mask.”
She chuckled. “You know she wasn’t lying right? The girl showed up to my room with a goddamn face mask like I have swine flu or something. It was just a damn virus, she is so dramatic. Now stop changing the subject and spit it out.” I stayed silent as I started biting my lip and she sighed. “This is about Nick isn’t it? You normally can’t hold anything in for this long, so just tell me I can handle it.”
“He’s going to enter the draft this year.” I blurted out and it felt like my body could take in air again. She didn’t respond and I looked at my screen to make sure the call hadn’t dropped or she didn’t ha
ng up. The phone still had her name on it and the time was still ticking going into 30 minutes. “Hello?”
“What?” she croaked out.
“He’s entering the draft. I had a mini freak out on him since you never know where he’s going to end up or anything you know? What if they put him in Alaska or some shit?” I told her.
“He’s entering the draft?” she asked in a low broken whisper.
“Are you ok?” I asked softly.
She cleared her throat. “Yea sure, listen I need to go. I’ll call you tomorrow ok?”
I nodded and realized she couldn’t see me. “Yea sure.” Before I hung up I hurried through. “Hey Mel?”
“Yea?”
“I’m sorry.” I told her.
She sighed. “Yea me too.” Then she hung up and I listened to the phone disconnect.
Before we knew it June was here and it was time for the draft picks. Once it was out there that Nick had decided to go through with it the sports channels have been buzzing about him nonstop. It appears that almost everyone had their eyes on him. It was bitter sweet for me, I mean I was so fucking proud of him and happy for him but at the same time I didn’t want him to go. Come on I’ve done life without Nick and it wasn’t fun but then again he was pretty pissed at me at the time so I guess it was different. We all gathered in front of the TV to review the picks and Nick was the first one chosen but it was to the shittiest team in the league. His hopes fell dramatically and so did everyone else’s. I can’t lie and say that wasn’t expected because everyone wanted him but a call from his agent was uplifting. He was such a hot commodity that people were willing to pay the big bucks to take him it’s all a part of the NBA. He was guaranteed to be sold off to a good team and that lifted my spirits.
It was about three weeks later and we were heading out to the dive bar on campus to watch the final decisions of who will be with which teams for the upcoming season. Nick’s teammates wanted to all watch it together with him to celebrate and we were going to support him. We sat at the bar with the rest of the team and I was nervous in anticipation. They didn’t talk about Nick until almost the end and most of the team was drunk. I only had one beer because I would need to wake up for Dean tonight. They announced that he would be with the Toronto Raptors which was one of the best teams in the league. The entire bar went bananas about it and Nick was extremely happy. He scooped me up and spun me around while I laughed and hugged him tight. Just as he was putting me down my phone rang, it was Catherine. I went outside to speak to her because it was so loud inside. I returned a few minutes later with an even bigger smile on my face.
“What was that about?” Landon asked.
I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face for anything. “Oh nothing, just about my paintings…”
He grinned. “Then why are you grinning like a lunatic?”
“She sold four of my pieces.” I told him.
His grin turned into a full blown smile and he hugged me. “Congrats babe.” My leg bounced as I waited to give him the last bit of the news. “What else? I can see you’re barely keeping it in, just tell me Lucy.”
“They sold for a net of over two million dollars, apparently more than one person wanted them and it drove the prices up.”
“Holy shit Lucy that’s amazing. I’m so proud of you baby. You see I’m not the only person in love with your work.”
I nodded. “This feels so surreal I can’t believe this is real, pinch me please.” He reached down and pinched my butt and I jumped up. “Seriously? You just had to choose there didn’t you?”
He shrugged. “All you said was pinch you, so I got to choose where I wanted to do it. That was the best place I could think of in public.”
I rolled my eyes. “Must you always be a perv?” I asked and he nodded.
Nick needed to be packed and ready to go to Toronto in a week for practice since the season was starting in October. We helped him get ready and when the day came for him to leave I cried like a big baby. He ended up having to reschedule his flight for a later one since he spent two hours with me on his lap bawling while he rubbed my back trying to soothe me. Eventually I snapped out of it and released him so he could leave and we promised to visit as soon as he found himself a place. He would be staying in a hotel while his agent hunted down living arrangements for him. The team would be paying for his hotel stay.
It took us a couple of months to adjust to Nick being gone. Maggie was full time now since I would be starting school in about two weeks. She would be responsible for dropping and picking Max up from school as well as take care of Dean. The one thing I wouldn’t bend on was her cooking dinner, that’s something that I enjoyed doing for my family. Oddly enough Max has taken to calling her Granny Maggie. She says she’s too old to be someone’s grandmother but she is secretly basking in it. I was pretty pumped to be going back to school. I had received the check from Catherine for the two million dollars I made on my paintings and I put it away. I figured if I could expand on my techniques I could really make this a career. I never thought that I would be able to do anything with my paintings besides getting self-enjoyment when creating them and I could only thank Landon and his nosy ass for all of this.
Dean was growing fast, he would be 10 months tomorrow and he’s already taken his first steps. Not surprisingly his first word was dada. Landon still smothered the hell out of him but now that he wasn’t so fragile he was also trying to chase Max around. Max was your ideal big brother he played with him and protected him like he was his own. Max himself was like a little man these days; he’s moved off of his marvel stuff and action figures and has gotten into sports. I was surprised that he tended to gravitate towards sports like hockey, and soccer but he played a little bit of everything. I was looking forward to the upcoming years to see what kind of man he would grow up to be. Would he be like Landon and Nick and be this hot shot sports guy or would he be like me and like painting and drawings? Although he was growing up he was still my little Maxamillion. He still crawled in bed with Landon and me occasionally and slept or just wanted me to hold him. I could understand, he was nine years old now but he still suffered slightly from abandonment issues. He knows that it wasn’t actual abandonment like what my mother did to me, but the loss still sometimes scares him and he seeks reassurance that he still has us. With Nick no longer here we ensure that we spend a few hours altogether everyday just to ensure that everyone continues to keep the connection that we have. We’re very careful with Max, although he doesn’t come off the least bit jealous of Dean we don’t ever want him to feel replaced or any less important.
Landon was upstairs taking a nap and I left Maggie with the kids. I crept up the steps slowly and made my way to our room. I looked at Landon fast asleep with his mouth slightly parted on our hot pink bed sheets. I giggled to myself when I thought about the shit he gave me yesterday when he saw them. I was in the store looking for some new sheets for the kids when I saw them. I mean come on I am a girl, and what girl would turn down some extremely cute pink sheets. Of course I found a black comforter with a hot pink design on it. He refused to sleep on them saying that I took it a step too far with the pink and made up the couch. It wasn’t even two hours before he was back upstairs and in the bed with me huffing and puffing. He said it was because the couch was uncomfortable but I knew that was a damn lie, there has been more times than I can count when he had come home after practice and sat in the family room with us and ended up passing out, I knew he could sleep perfectly fine on that damn couch but I didn’t call him out on it. Not to mention he refused to touch me and I fell asleep with his back to me. When I woke up I felt like I was in a sauna with all of his body tangled up with mine. At some point in the night he crawled over to my side and wrapped himself around me. When he woke up shortly after me he accused me of touching him in his sleep. His big ass just looked so cute on the girly sheets. I crawled up the bed to lay down with him when his eye popped open.
“What are you doing?” he asked his voice th
ick with sleep.
I gestured to the bed. “Laying down… duh.”
“You can’t sleep with me get out.” He muttered.
I laughed. “Aww don’t tell me that you’re still mad about the sheets. If it makes you feel any better I think you look adorable right now in them.”
“Ha ha, get out.”
I rolled my eyes and dropped down on the bed. I propped my head up on my hand, “so what’s it going to take for you to forgive me?”
He sighed and turned on his side so his back was to me. “I won’t ever forgive you Lucy.”
I grabbed his arm and pulled and he rolled over onto his back. “Yes you will, say you will.” He shook his head. I sighed and kissed his cheek, “come on you know you want to.” He shook his head again and I leaned over him to kiss his other cheek.
“Bye Lucy.” He huffed and I chuckled. I trailed kisses along his jaw then his neck and moved down to his bare chest. I continued going until I reached his sexy abs and placed kisses on them. I felt him twitch and I laughed. “What’s funny girl?” I didn’t answer I laughed and continued kissing his hot ass abs. The lower I got the slower I went and he started fidgeting. The tent in his sweatpants was unmistakable. I purposely made sure that I didn’t come into contact with it maneuvering my body so that I didn’t accidently brush him. I knew he was growing frustrated because every time I came close his hips moved seeking friction. When I finally reached the top of his pants I feathered kisses from one hip to the other and he groaned. I hid my smile as I slid my hand underneath the waistband and used a finger to trace him through his boxers. “Lucy…” he moaned.
“Tell me you forgive me.” I prodded and he threw his arm over his eyes and shook his head. God he was fucking stubborn as all hell. I sighed and when my breath blew across his stomach I felt him shudder. I was probably looking forward to this more than him so I decided to stop messing with him and myself and pushed down both his boxers and sweats just enough so that I could release him. I took him into my mouth eagerly and his hips bucked off the bed. I continued on with a punishing rhythm.
Keeping Her (The Lexington Series Book 2) Page 26
