---------------
Nicholas rushed over to Deborah’s house, screeching at a halt after he pulled into her driveway and up behind her car.
Oh, good. She's home!
He quickly turned the ignition off and ran to the front door to ring the bell. Now all he needed was for her to be willing to answer the door.
Between ringing the doorbell and waiting for Deborah to open the door, Nicholas paced back and forth with one hand on his hip and the other on his head, feeling both dread and hope intertwined.
“Come on, come on, come on! Please open the door,” he spoke softly.
When he heard a noise he stopped and stood staring at the door hoping what he wished for was about to happen.
Sure enough, the door slowly inched open and there she stood, looking more beautiful than he remembered.
“What do you want?” Deborah said sharply.
There was no, “Hi. How are you?” or “Please come in. I want to know what happened.” There was just a simple, “What do you want?” which Nicholas not only understood but felt he deserved.
“I want - no, scratch that. I need to talk to you about what happened.”
“I don’t really care anymore, Nicholas. Now can you please go home and leave me alone?”
Deborah slowly started shutting the door, but Nicholas put up a hand to stop it. He was bound and determined to make things right once and for all. But in doing so, he could tell she had been crying.
“Wait. Have you been crying?” he asked, as he continued to keep the door ajar.
“What does it matter if I was or not? It’s not like you care.”
“Wait a minute. I do care.”
“Oh, yeah? If you cared so much then why did you stand me up? I thought you wanted to go out! I thought you wanted to catch up and be friends again!” Deborah began to yell as tears threatened to fall again.
“That’s what I rushed over here for as soon as I could, to tell you what happened. Can I please explain?”
Nicholas hated to see Deborah upset, especially with him being the one that caused it. As he waited for the go ahead to explain his actions, he looked deep into Deborah’s eyes and knew right then and there that he felt something for her. It wasn’t just a physical attraction either. He wanted to be with her forever, to right all the wrongs he ever did and to make sure she would never hurt again.
“Fine. Go ahead, but make it quick,” Deborah sniffled.
She let go of the door and stood there with arms crossed over her chest anticipating his excuse.
“Okay. First of all, I did go to the café, but was very, very late.”
“No kidding."
“Hang on. Let me finish,” Nicholas stated and then continued on. “The reason I was late was because I had to go into work again today, something that doesn’t happen very often. I would have gotten out early enough to meet you on time, but there was a breakdown and I was the only one that could fix it. At first I didn’t think it would be a big deal because I was told I could leave when that was finished and it shouldn’t have taken that long to do. However, one thing after another went wrong, this being one of them.”
Nicholas held up the bandaged knuckle so that Deborah could see what he was talking about.
“So even though I planned on getting out of work early enough to go home and clean up to then meet you for a wonderful lunch, this is what you get instead: a hungry, late and very dirty man.”
Deborah could see in his eyes that he was begging for forgiveness, understanding and perhaps a little bit of pity seeing as he just made it sound like he went through a lot of trouble this day already. His longing look made Deborah weak in the knees and almost ready to cave in.
“Couldn’t you have at least called then or something?” Deborah questioned, regaining her composure.
“Yes, and I should have, but believe me or not, on my way to the café my phone died. I feel awful for not only being late, but not letting you know somehow. I should have called you as soon as I found out I had to work today and then I should have called you while at work to say there was an issue. I should have even called to say I’d probably be late! But right before I left work to let you know I was on my way is when I noticed my phone had died. I even had to use the phone at the café to call you to let you know I was on my way here. I had no right to leave you hanging the way that I did. I’m so sorry.”
The two stood in silence for a moment, Deborah taking everything in and Nicholas hoping he got his point across.
Finally, Deborah took a deep breath and said, “Okay.”
“Okay what?”
“Okay. I believe you.”
That statement made Nicholas' day and allowed him to take a sigh of relief and gratitude. Her understanding spirit made Nicholas realize he loved her even more. He was so excited over her apparent forgiveness and newfound feelings that he had to do something about it or at the very least tell her.
“Oh, thank you so much, Debbie. And there’s something else I have to tell you too.”
“What?” Deborah could sense the excitement in his voice and was curious as to what he was about to share.
“I…I, um…I,” Nicholas stammered as he looked into Deborah’s piercing blue eyes.
“You what?” Deborah was getting a little nervous because in all her life she had never heard Nicholas stutter except for when he had just woken up from his coma. Nicholas had a crazy look in his eyes too that added to Deborah’s apprehensiveness.
“I,” Nicholas started but then decided to forget about words and, with urgency, went up to Deborah, put both hands around each side of her face and brought her lips to his for a hungry, passionate kiss.
At first Deborah was shocked and stood frozen as Nicholas continued to try and deepen his kiss, but then she melted into it. She raised her arms up to wrap around his neck as both of Nicholas’ hands moved to the back to slowly slide down it and settle around the midriff, pulling her even closer.
They stood there kissing fervently until Deborah stopped it to ask, “Wait. What are you doing?”
“Well,” Nicholas started with a smile. “I was kissing you.”
He then winked at Deborah, which was something she hadn’t seen in a long, long time.
“Yes, but what for?”
“Because I’m crazy about you. I think I’m in love with you.”
“What?” Deborah asked with shock.
“It’s true. I finally realized it just a while go. I mean, we've always had this special connection and I knew I had feelings for you for a long time. I was just a little unsure of how deep they were until recently. Like when you went to college and I couldn't get a hold of you. That was pure torture for me, and I think it made me realize how much I cared about you.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, but I think it also helped how good you were to me when I had my accident. I just didn’t think twice about it then.”
“I see. Well, since we're on the topic, I have a confession to make myself.”
“You do? What’s that?” Nicholas asked, reaching for Deborah's hand so he could hold it.
“I love you too! I realized it when you had your accident. I kept thinking that if anything were to happen to you that I didn’t know what I would do.”
Nicholas pulled Deborah in for a tight hug. “Well, I’m here and I don’t plan on going anywhere.”
He then leaned down to kiss Deborah again, but she quickly interrupted him by placing her right hand over his lips.
"Ugh, why are you doing this to me?" Nicholas playfully asked.
“Can you at least come into the house for a little bit?” Deborah asked with a laugh after noticing they were still standing in the front porch.
Nicholas came in and the two of them sat by each other on the couch, his arm wrapped around her. Deborah laid her head on Nicholas’ chest after they shared some more kisses, this time slow and intimate. The two of them talked about their feelings first and then gradually they got talking about any
thing and everything just like they used to do while growing up. They even made plans to go on an official date that coming Monday.
Deborah felt at home in Nicholas’ arms, like she was meant to be there. Just earlier she was crushed thinking she’d never be with him. She couldn’t believe how things had changed so quickly, but was glad they did. She was also very thankful that her feelings were finally being returned.
Nicholas treasured the moment he was sharing with Deborah on the couch as well. Even though he participated in their conversations, he spent a lot of time thinking about how lucky he was to have a woman like Deborah by his side. He knew deep down that this was going to be it.
Deborah was going to be the woman he would marry and spend forever with.
Epilogue
After asking her mom, sister, Felicia and Amber to leave, Deborah looked into the full-length mirror to admire the way she looked and to have a few moments to herself before she were to walk down the aisle.
It was seventeen months ago that her and Nicholas had decided to go out on a date and started an official relationship. Since then she has been the happiest woman in the world. Not only did Nicholas treat her like a queen, but her love for him grew to levels she didn’t know possible.
Then six months ago came the big question. Neither of them had talked marriage a whole lot, but Deborah didn’t need to think twice before giving Nicholas her answer when he had gotten down on one knee.
As Deborah looked at her dress to make sure everything was right, she smiled. She couldn’t believe how gorgeous she looked. The dress she now wore was the first wedding dress she had tried on. Even though her mom urged her to try on more, Deborah knew right away that this dress was the one. It had the look she went into the store shopping for with straps hanging off the shoulders and a long, flowing lower half that sparkled. The bodice fit snuggly and was covered with an intricately woven design and stones that shimmered at every angle. Deborah stood there picturing Nicholas’ face when he’d see her for the first time today in her wedding dress.
With just a few minutes left to spare before she were to walk down the aisle, Deborah took a huge sigh of relief that this day had finally come. She couldn’t wait to become Mrs. Nicholas Michaels and to spend the rest of her life with the man of her dreams. She grinned from ear to ear as she thought about how fortunate she was to be marrying Nicholas.
A knock at the door disturbed Deborah’s thoughts.
“Who is it?”
“Deborah, it’s mom. They’re ready for you.”
Deborah opened the door and got in position, putting her hand through her father’s bended arm he’d escort her with. She saw her mom wipe tears from her eyes as she made her way to the sanctuary entrance so that she could be seated and just smiled knowing her mom was probably going to shed a lot of tears today.
“Well, are you ready for this?” Mr. Harrington asked his daughter.
“Sure am,” Deborah beamed.
As her and her dad walked to the entrance of the sanctuary, Deborah took a cleansing breath and thought, Time to say, “I do!”
---------------
Nicholas was impressed with how smoothly everything went during the ceremony and reception. It seemed as if everything not only started on time, but that there were no mishaps. This pleased him because he knew that Deborah put a lot of time and effort into all the planning.
Thinking of Deborah, Nicholas still couldn’t get over how gorgeous she looked when he first saw her as she made her way down the aisle to stand by him. He not only had his breath taken from him by her sheer beauty and huge smile donning her face, but tears had even welled up in his eyes as he realized he’d get to be with her forever. Nicholas had no doubt in his mind that this one would last and that it was always going to be him and Deborah “until death do us part”.
With everything now over, all that was left was the limo ride to their new home and then to start their life journey together. Nicholas helped Deborah get into the limo as attendees blew bubbles toward them and waved the couple off.
As the limo made its way down scenic roads, Nicholas and Deborah sat side by side in each other’s embrace enjoying the beautiful scenery and occasionally stealing a kiss from one another.
All of the sudden Deborah remembered that Nicholas had yet to tell her where they were going on their honeymoon so she jabbed him in the side and asked.
“Oww,” he slightly laughed. “I was going to tell you later.”
When she begged to know now, Nicholas caved.
“All right. All right. The two of us are going to go on an Alaskan cruise tour. It’s going to be fourteen days of pure beauty and exploration. In more ways than one,” he teased with a smile and wink.
By Deborah’s reaction to the revealing of where they would be going for their honeymoon, he could tell he made a good choice. He knew she always wanted to do something like that and figured there wasn’t a better way to start a marriage than to have some dreams fulfilled.
When the limo pulled up to their new home, again Nicholas helped Deborah out. They both thanked the driver who wished them well, and then headed inside, Nicholas carrying Deborah across the threshold.
Now I’m about to get my dream fulfilled, Nicholas thought to himself as he gave a playful, dirty smirk to Deborah.
---------------
After making love for the first time, Nicholas looked intently into Deborah's eyes. He saw nothing but happiness there, but could also tell she was deep in thought.
“What are you thinking about?” he asked in a husky whisper.
Deborah smiled as she replied, “Oh, just about our lives and our journey to this point. We’ll sure have a good story to tell our kids and grandkids someday won’t we?”
“Sure will,” he smiled. Then with a wink he added, “But, babe, our story has only just begun.”
With those words said, Nicholas leaned his head down and began to zealously kiss Deborah on the lips, readily seeking to take her all in again.
Dear Reader,
If you enjoyed this novel, please consider posting a short review on Amazon! You can do so through your Kindle or by visiting Amazon.com and searching for Growing Up Neighbors.
Reviews help indie authors, such as myself, a great deal, and that in turn allows us to write more stories for you. Thank you very much for your interest and support!
Respectfully Yours,
Frances Hoelsema
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Frances Hoelsema is a wife and mother residing in Michigan where she gets to enjoy all four seasons, autumn being her favorite. After earning a degree in business and transcription, she now gets the best of both worlds by working from home as a real-time writing manager for an international transcription firm.
In her spare time, Frances thoroughly enjoys traveling, kayaking, hiking, shopping and loving on her cats. She is also an avid reader and writer that loves to engage with others through social media.
Some concepts that Frances stands for are positive parenting, homeschooling, clean eating and pursuing a relationship with Christ instead of pursuing religion. She also believes in never giving up; that everyone should keep pursuing their dreams.
Frances loves to imagine a good story and write it to life so she’s always busy working on her next novel. If you would like to find out the latest news from her, please visit her blog at: www.franceshoelsema.wordpress.com.
You may also connect with her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/frances.hoelsema.author or on twitter: @FrancesHoelsema.
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