Nickels

by Karen Baney

  “Afternoon,” Brian called from his office. “Glad to see you could join us, Jake.”

  Jake glared, drawing a chuckle from Brian.

  Niki held her tongue. She worked with Jake long enough to know that he did his best work later in the day. Much later. She typically did not speak to him until sometime after eleven, still an hour and a half away. But, it was Brian’s office and his rules.

  By noon, she was ready to poke her own eye out slowly with whatever blunt instrument she could find. Desperately needing a break, she cajoled Doug and Jake into grabbing some lunch. They chatted about the work they did at Hamilton and dreamed of what company they might be assigned to next.

  She knew what she wanted her next client to be. Helitronics. Okay, it was a stupid name. But, they were only the largest DoD contractor for helicopter aviation electronics. Out of all of Elite’s clients, they were the most coveted. And she wanted it. She paid her dues for the last four years. She wowed her other DoD clients—all with Helitronics in mind.

  Last week, she heard through the office rumor mill—instant messaging—that they contacted Brian about a new six month gig requiring a team of four or five engineers in addition to the four already onsite. Ever since that juicy little tidbit, Niki waited for the right time to bring it up to her boss.

  For two hours after lunch, she tried to pay attention to the certification exam questions but they were so boring. She stood and stretched, got another cup of coffee, and a high octane energy drink. Nothing worked. She was ready to fall asleep from boredom.

  Enough! She was done with sitting there. She was going to go talk to Brian about Helitronics.

  She knocked softly on Brian’s open office door. He looked up and motioned her in while he finished with his phone call.

  “Niki, good. I was just going to see you,” Brian started. “First, great job at Hamilton. They had high praise for your work. You did good for your first project as technical lead. Quite impressive with only four year’s experience.”

  She nodded as she took the seat across from him, smiling as if she did not mind him ambushing her planned conversation.

  “Do you think you can handle a bigger project?”

  “Of course. What did you have in mind?”

  “It’s one of DoD’s. Pretty important project. It means you are theirs for the next six months if you want it.”

  Niki’s heart raced. He couldn’t be considering her as technical lead for Helitronics. Could he?

  “You would be the technical lead, but Russell would also be involved. It would be a great chance for you to learn from the master.”

  Russell was at Helitronics. That had to be where Brian was sending her. Her palms grew sweaty. She widened her eyes and hoped she could keep her jaw from dropping as she waited for him to confirm her expectation.

  “It’s Helitronics.”

  She grinned—a big, huge, silly, eager grin. “Do you think I’m ready for it?”

  “I know so. Your work on Hamilton proved my gut instinct is right. You’re a natural, Niki. You handled our most demanding client with grace. You can definitely handle Helitronics.”

  She was stunned. This was even better than she had been hoping for. Brian was giving her a chance.

  If she messed it up…

  Her smile faded.

  “Ah, reality check,” Brian said, correctly interpreting her mood change. “If you’re thinking this is going to be tough, it will be. If you’re thinking the end product, if delivered poorly could result in someone losing their life, you’re right. This is a high stakes project—not one I would offer unless I was confident you could pull it off.”

  She swallowed. It would be a huge challenge. Her gut told her to go for it, but a little voice of reason told her to take a day and think on it. “Can I let you know tomorrow?”

  “That is exactly why I’m offering you this opportunity—good judgment. I’ll tell you what, why don’t you head home early today. Give me a call tomorrow with your answer.”

  Niki nodded and started to rise.

  “And take the rest of the week off and do something fun. The next few months are gonna be long.”

  She smiled as she walked back to her desk. She hadn’t even said yes and Brian was already making plans.

  Niki thought the challenge of finding something fun to do for four days was harder than if she already started on the Helitronics project. The first day off she called Brian as promised, with an affirmative answer. Then she floated in the pool for hours. Growing bored, she stalked around the house considering her options. She finally decided she would repaint her room—the master suite—to something other than the awful lilac her mother had chosen when they first moved into the house twelve years ago.

  Once home from the hardware store with several gallons of tan paint, she shoved all of her furniture to the center of the room. As she started taping the edges of the wall above the baseboards, she couldn’t get her brain to shut off.

  Marcy, in her quest to find Niki a man, had some good points. Most people her age were starting to think seriously about settling down. She had to admit, the idea held a great deal of appeal for her—if it wasn’t coupled with the potential for enormous pain. If she let herself love someone or if she got too close to someone, what would she do when they were taken away?

  For her, it wasn’t a question of if. It was a question of when—when she would lose someone. Life taught her the hard way that there were no ifs when it came to pain and death.

  She brought her arm up to wipe away the tear running down her check. After she finished taping the edges, she set down a drop cloth and began painting.

  This morning, Marcy reminded her that if she found the right man, the risk of pain might be worth it. She didn’t want to get into an argument before Marcy left for the day, so she kept her mouth shut. She wholeheartedly disagreed.

  Yet, she did hope that her life could one day be different. That she wouldn’t feel so alone all the time. That she might be able to share it with someone.

  She sighed. What would Jack tell her?

  Slowly a memory came forward of a time where they had talked about the subject of marriage.

  “I don’t think I’ll ever marry,” Niki had said to her brother as she rinsed off their dinner dishes in the cramped sink of the kitchen in their base housing.

  “Why do you say that? You’re pretty enough. I’m sure some guy will want to marry you some day.”

  “Would you want to marry?” She shot back. “Especially after watching Mom and Dad?”

  Jack snorted. “What they had was not marriage. It was co-habitation.”

  She stepped back from loading the last dish in the dishwasher. “What do you mean?”

  “Think about it. You remember all the times they argued. Every time dad came home from a trip, mom went through his things, looking for evidence of his mistresses. She usually wasn’t disappointed. Then her way of getting back at him was sleeping around when he was gone. He even went to get a paternity test just to make sure you were his. That’s not marriage to me.”

  “What is?”

  Jack flopped down on the couch. He leaned forward propping his elbows on his legs. “I won’t marry a woman unless I think she wants to commit the rest of her life to me. No sleeping around. No threats. No hidden agendas. Guess I’m thinking of something like what Lieutenant Colonel Jacobs and his wife have.”

  “Marcy’s parents?”

  “Yeah. You can just see it when you look at them. They have something special. There’s nothing that would come between them. At least I don’t think it would—not for very long.”

  The coolness of wet paint dripping on her foot reminded her of her present task. She grabbed a paper towel and wiped the tan drops from the top of her foot.

  Jack’s idea of marriage sounded pretty good. Love. Commitment. Security.

  It was just the pain part that she wanted to avoid—for as long as possible.

  Chapter 4

  Kyle Jacobs ho
pped in his shiny new Ford F-150 King Ranch. It’s roomy inside fit his long legs perfectly. Not to mention he loved the roar of the engine.

  As he pulled out of the parking lot of his townhome, he wondered again if he made the right decision to move to Arizona. So much happened in the last year and a half—not much of it good. Was it strange to want to be closer to his sister and his parents even though he was twenty-eight?

  Mom told him it wasn’t. At least half a dozen times in the last week she remarked how thrilled she was that he was at least in the same metro area as them. Dad mentioned it, too—only not quite as much.

  Maybe the accident hadn’t been all bad. His relationship with his family improved since then. His dad talked to him differently. Some of the sternness faded.

  The first time he saw his dad after the accident, his dad held on tight for a long hug. When he pulled away, he noticed the tears in Colonel Rick Jacobs’s eyes. Guess everyone had a new appreciation for the second chance Kyle received.

  He cleared his throat trying to dislodge the emotion that threatened to choke him. Maybe he wasn’t ready to rejoin the ranks of the gainfully employed yet. Too late. He started his new job last week. After the favor his dad called in to get him the job, he wasn’t about to cast it aside so easily.

  There was a time when he would have resented his dad’s help. Growing up as the son of Rick Jacobs had not been easy. Dad was a pilot in the Air Force. That meant the family followed him wherever he ended up. Sometimes they stayed at a base for several years. Thinking back on it, Kyle couldn’t believe he attended all four years of high school on the same base. They even stayed until Marcy graduated two years later. To date, Ramstein Air Force base in Germany was the longest he lived in the same place.

  His dad was well loved in his unit. It made Kyle’s life harder—especially since all he wanted to do was fly. Every time he got in the cockpit as a teenager, he had to endure the ribbing about how he had big shoes to fill. So, Rick Jacobs’s son wanted to learn to fly. The constant mention of his dad’s name is what eventually led him to pick an entirely different type of aircraft. He couldn’t stand always being compared to his dad or people talking about how his dad gave him an advantage.

  For the first time in his life, he appreciated his dad’s power and reputation within the Air Force. Without it, he would not have this job. Even though he couldn’t fly anymore, this job was the closest he could get—so he took it.

  His thoughts drifted to something else weighing on his heart. Sooner or later he would have to see her. He would have to talk to her. Who was he kidding? He wanted to talk to her. It was just odd and complicated.

  The last time he saw her, he was a senior in high school. She was a sophomore. After a year and a half, he still failed to ask her out. At that point, it didn’t make sense. He was leaving for the States. She still had two years of high school left. He was off to college and ROTC. Then he had his training and would be stationed who-knows-where-in-the-world. It would be stupid to ask her out on one date.

  So he hadn’t. And he spent far too many hours in the years since regretting it.

  Maybe God would give him a second chance there, too. Was it too much to hope for?

  Since she was close friends with his sister, it was very likely he would see her—and soon. He already learned that she was still single, never married, and no kids. She had a good job, though his sister didn’t elaborate much on it.

  His heart picked up speed as he remembered the picture Marcy showed him. He almost hoped that the picture would have doused cold water on his infatuated heart—he just needed to get her out of his mind. It hadn’t. She was even more beautiful than he remembered. She had soft blue eyes, touched by sadness. Her long brown hair looked silky. He could hardly wait to see her again.

  He sighed. If the rest of the world could hear his thoughts, they’d think he was a stalker. He wasn’t. He had just fallen in love with a girl from high school that he never even asked out—which might be sadder in a way.

  Swallowing hard, he wondered if he should really call it love. Was it possible to fall in love like that?

  He shook his head as he pulled off the freeway and onto the side street to take him to his job. It was the only thing he could think of to explain why he thought of her so many times over the years, though they had no contact. It might even explain why no woman he dated ever seemed right for him. He had been holding on to someone else—to her.

  Get your head in the game, Kyle. He must let it go and focus on work.

  He pulled into the parking lot of his new job. He glanced at the clock on his dash. Darn it. The meeting was starting in just a few minutes. No chance he would make it in time. It still took him too long to get through security.

  He should have set an extra alarm last night since he took one of his pain pills. He slept like the dead when he was on those things. He didn’t hear his alarm. Thankfully, his nosy little sister called him this morning just to see how he was doing. If she hadn’t, he’d still be asleep.

  “Jeff,” he greeted the security guard as he entered the building.

  “Sorry we haven’t gotten the paperwork back from HR yet on the alternate security scanning for you. We’ll have to give you the full treatment again today.”

  Kyle groaned. He was going to be very late for his meeting. The metal pins they put in his back after his accident did not play nice with the metal detector. Since the company he worked for was a DoD contractor, they had some pretty tough security regulations. He would get a full pat-down again today. He really hoped HR would get his paperwork processed soon.

  After twenty minutes, he finally gained clearance. He rushed down the hall to his cube to drop off his stuff. Then he headed toward the conference room. Todd would probably give him endless grief about being late.

  He paused with his hand on the door and took a deep breath. This meeting was the kick off to a new project—a project where his military background and flight experience would be invaluable. He said a quick prayer that he might get along with the consultants and that the project would go well. And that he would settle into this new life—even if it wasn’t the one he dreamed of.

  Chapter 5

  Niki smiled as she got ready for work. Her newly made over room turned out perfect. The tan really popped against the dark wood furniture of the room. It looked like it came from the page of a magazine. The only thing she did not like was the paint smell, still hanging in the air on Monday morning. Hopefully, it would not permeate her clothes especially since she was on her way out the door to her first day at Helitronics.

  Not knowing what kind of office environment she would find, she opted for a pair of low heeled pumps to go with her black dress slacks and a pale pink blouse. While she wanted to dress to impress, she learned early in her career that it paid to be more conservative on the first day at a new client. She wore three inch heels and a skirt to her first manufacturing client. She spent that day in the warehouse walking from one end to the other in July. Swamp coolers were such a joke. It just made the hot air a little less hot and no less sticky. By the end of the day, her feet blistered something awful. She wouldn’t make that mistake again.

  Tying her long brown hair back in a low ponytail, she surveyed her appearance. Good. This outfit and hairstyle made her look older, even with blond highlights streaking her hair from her afternoon in the sun last week. She fastened the engraved white gold bracelet around her left wrist, pausing this morning to read the engraving. “Nickels.” Jack, I hope you would be proud of me today.

  Her eyes burned and she sniffed, barely keeping the tears at bay. It would not do to show up red-eyed.

  She carefully tucked her emotions away, same as she always did. She could not afford to think about her loneliness or her losses right now. This was the biggest day of her career. She had to stay strong.

  Coffee, granola bar, purse, phone, laptop. All items accounted for. She set everything in its place in her car then punched the button to lift the garage door
.

  Her first stop of the morning was Elite’s office. Brian asked her to meet him there to go over a few things before the meeting with Helitronics at ten. As was his custom, he would personally attend the first meeting before handing over the project to his people.

  She pulled into her usual parking space, turned off the car, and loaded her items up to the second floor office. Brian was there waiting. She dropped her items in a nearby cube, before joining him in his office.

  “Here’s the rundown of the project,” he said. “We’re programming the aviation systems for the latest model helicopter for the Air Force Combat Search and Rescue units. You know CSAR?”

  Niki held back a sigh. Of course she knew. After four years on a military base and going to school with lifetime military brats, she felt quite comfortable with military lingo.

  “Helitronics has hired a former pilot as the flight consultant on the project. That’s the good news. The bad news is that we are inheriting some pretty terrible code.”

  Niki nodded as she took notes on her laptop.

  “Seems the previous firm, while supplying engineers with the proper clearance, failed to choose qualified ones. They were scheduled to have the code loaded into the simulators by the end of this month. From what Russell tells me, they are not even close. So, Helitronics fired the other firm and set new deadlines, though they are still pretty tight.

  “The project manager is from Helitronics. You and the team will be reporting to him. You’ve got Doug and Jake again. And Scott. I think you worked with him for that medical client.”

  She nodded again.

  Brian looked down at his watch. “This morning’s the meet-and-greet. Then we jump in with both feet this afternoon. Any questions?”

  After she asked several questions about the condition of the code, programming language, and projected deadlines, Brian suggested they head over to Helitronics. She grabbed her things and followed him to his car.