He’d just finished up with them and two separate political bloggers that he apparently ‘had appointments’ with showed up to do interviews with him. Normally he was prepared for interviews and had time to prep for what he would be expected to speak on, but this time he’d just have to wing it. Luckily, most of what they were focusing on was After School Success and the Fire and Ice Ball.
Those had taken close to an hour. During his second interview with the bloggers, Jane had buzzed him to let him know that several students from the local high school were there and they said that they had been told that Mike would speak to them for their research papers for government. When she tried to find out from whom, they’d shown her emails that they’d received from their teacher that backed up what they said.
So now, here he sat listening to Drew—who flipped his hair out of his eyes every few seconds—explain his views on politics, world hunger, and peace.
Mike would rather be getting a root canal.
Every once in a while Colleen, who was definitely the brains of the operation and Mike was fairly certain would be doing the heavy lifting in the writing department of this paper, would chime in with enthusiastic agreement or supportive encouragement, backing up whatever lame observation or ridiculous philosophy Drew had just spouted. Mike was pretty sure that Colleen had a mountain sized crush on the boy band wannabe seated to her left who really liked hearing the sound of his own voice.
The third musketeer, Lance, was on Colleen’s right and he looked bored out of his mind. Mike related to the kid. He wasn’t sure but he thought Lance may have even fallen asleep a couple of times. Mike couldn’t really tell because all he could see was the top of the kid’s head, which had been down because he was texting pretty much constantly, so it’s not like he could see if his eyes were open or not.
Every few seconds Mike’s mind would inevitably wander back to Nikki. She was at his apartment. Alone. Normally, he would not be comfortable with that arrangement. But thinking of her there just made him happy.
Lizzie had wanted a key so badly during their relationship and Mike had never given her one. He never instructed Sanders to let Lizzie or anyone else up in his apartment when he wasn’t there, before today.
It wasn’t that Mike had ever had anything to hide, he absolutely hadn’t. Mike had just never really trusted Lizzie. Now, after only knowing Nikki a few weeks, he’d give her a key if she wanted one. He’d let her move in if she wanted to. Actually that sounded like a great idea.
He wanted to be with Nikki as much as possible, and with their schedules he knew that was going to be difficult. But, if they lived together that would mean that when they were home they would be home together. The thought of Nikki and him sharing a home together sounded perfect to him. He loved the idea of Sunday’s in bed, sharing meals together, and showers together doing everything that people who lived together did.
Mike tried to temper his excitement over the idea. Mainly because he had no clue if it would be something that Nikki would go for or not. Actually, he had a feeling that she would think it was way too fast. Which it was, he could admit that. He could tell that she was holding herself back from him, trying to keep up her protective walls. He wished he could make her understand how he felt inside. If she could feel what he did then she would have no doubts in her mind about him or them.
Mike wasn’t sure if he wanted to stay in politics or not. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do about his mother. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do about Phil. But he was sure that he wanted to be with Nikki. He’d never been more sure of anything in his life.
“Senator Gowan?” Colleen raised her voice slightly.
Mike looked up to see both Colleen and the Backstreet Boy staring at him expectantly. “I’m sorry, what was that?”
Colleen looked at him for a moment and then smiled sweetly. “Sorry we’ve taken up so much of your time. Thank you so much for seeing us.”
This girl is going places, she definitely knows how to read a room.
Colleen elbowed Lance, who was asleep as it turns out. She stood and boy-bander, Drew, looked at her like she was crazy saying, “But we still need to as-”
She shook her head sharply once at the clueless kid and reached out her hand to Mike. “Thank you again. It was great meeting you Senator Gowan.”
“You too,” Mike shook all three of their hands and noted that out of the three of them she was the only one with a real handshake.
Kids these days.
As soon as they left, Jane rushed in and for a moment he thought she was going to tell him that someone else was here to see him. He was just about to tell her he didn’t care if the Pope himself was waiting for him; he was going home. But she wasn’t there to tell him there was anyone else to see him. She began apologizing profusely for the unexpected appointments. In the three years that they’d worked together he’d never seen her so frazzled.
He’d specifically told Jane to clear his schedule until Monday afternoon and she swore she had done just that. Mike had no idea where all of these ‘appointments’ had come from but he knew that it was not Jane’s mistake. She didn’t make mistakes.
“It’s fine really, Jane. Don’t worry about it,” he wanted to reassure her but more than that he wanted to go home and see Nikki.
“I just…I don’t know what happened. I woke up this morning to alerts on my phone that you had appointments…but as of yesterday your schedule was clear,” she looked confused and upset.
He didn’t want to leave her like this but he really wanted to get going. “Jane, I have no idea what happened but I do know that if you cleared my schedule then my schedule was clear. It was probably just a computer error,” he said making sure that he kept his tone light so that she would know he wasn’t upset.
Her face scrunched up as she shook her head and Mike knew that she was not going to let this go. “But that makes no sense. How could a computer-”
“Jane,” he interrupted her.
She stopped talking and looked up at him, confusion written all over her face.
“Remember I told you to clear my schedule because Nikki is staying with me this weekend. She should have gotten to my apartment hours ago so-”
Jane’s hands flew up and her eyes grew wide and round. “Oh my gosh. Yes, of course… Go. Sorry. Have a good weekend.”
“You too,” Mike smiled as he moved past her out the door.
“Oh and Mike.” Jane’s voice grew serious.
Mike stopped and turned.
“For what it’s worth, I like Nikki. A lot. She’s a keeper.” Jane had never made any comment about Lizzie while he was dating her. He also knew that Jane really didn’t like to get involved in other people’s business. In fact, around the office there was a running joke that people referred to her as Switzerland because she refused to take sides. So Mike knew that it wasn’t easy for her to offer her opinion.
“That means a lot, thanks. I think she’s a keeper too.”
As Mike left the office, he was feeling lighter and happier than he had in days. He was heading home to be with Nikki. They were going to spend the next forty-eight hours together. Life was good.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Nikki had been sitting on Mike’s plush sectional sofa in her negligee for well over an hour and she felt like she was going to come right out of her skin. She did not consider herself a patient girl and situations like this were why. The minutes were ticking by excruciatingly slow and driving her insane.
She was a doer, she liked action. Sitting, waiting, doing nothing were not in her wheelhouse. She’d been like that since she was a kid. When her family had gone on vacations, her siblings and parents had to take turns being on “Nikki duty” so that everyone else could relax and enjoy their vacation. And whoever was assigned to “Nikki duty” had to play games with her, go on hikes, play Ping-Pong, badminton or whatever else Nikki wanted to do.
She stood and walked to the kitchen. It was too early for wine. She already h
ad two bottles of water and an apple. Distracting herself with reading or watching TV had been an epic fail, if anything it had made her more bored. She was just way too excited to sit and focus on anything.
Every noise she heard caused her to jump up off the couch and run to the door. Desperate and eager really wasn’t the vibe she was trying to give off so she knew she needed to tone it down, but with each passing minute she got more and more anxious.
Part of what was adding to her anxiety was that she had no idea how much longer Mike was going to be. It could be an hour. Two hours. Five minutes. It was really just the not knowing that was making her crazy. If she knew he would be another hour she was sure she could easily distract herself.
She heard the doorknob turning and her heart started pounding rapidly. This was it. Mike was home. Finally. Nikki sat down at the dining room table and put her legs ala Julia Roberts style in Pretty Woman.
The knob turned slightly but the door didn’t open. She waited. It moved again but did not open.
Oh screw this.
She couldn’t wait anymore. Nikki stood and quickly walked to the door.
Unlocking the deadbolt, she turned the doorknob and pulled the door open. Welcome home, dea-”
It wasn’t Mike standing outside. It was Elizabeth and it looked like she’d been crying.
Great.
Elizabeth’s eyes scanned Nikki up and down. Sure, maybe she should feel self-conscious about standing in Mike’s doorway half-naked but she didn’t. Not at all.
“Like what ya see?” Nikki asked snarkily.
The woman looked back up at her like she was in shock.
“Can I help you?” Nikki spoke slowly when Elizabeth just continued to stare at her slack jawed.
That snapped her out of her stare-fest. She shook her head slightly and the tears started again. “I need,” Elizabeth sniffed, “to speak to Michael.”
“He’s not here, but I’ll tell him you stopped by,” Nikki said as she was shutting the door.
“He’s not here?” The Ex asked in utter disbelief.
Nikki shook her head. “No, he’s not.”
“Does Michael know that you’re in his apartment?” Elizabeth raised her voice in outrage.
Man, Nikki thought, this chick was like Sybil. First, she was stunned silent, then she was crying and the next minute she was yelling. How had Mike put up with this?
“Yes. He does,” Nikki replied, even though it was none of this bitch’s business. She tried to shut the door again but crazy-lady put her hand up and stopped it.
“I need to see Michael,” she spoke through clenched teeth.
“He’s not here,” Nikki repeated although she was quickly losing her patience. Again she tried to close the door.
“I’m pregnant,” Elizabeth blurted out loudly just as the door was about to shut.
Nikki froze. It felt like all of the blood drained out of her body.
Elizabeth used Nikki’s temporary paralysis to her advantage and pushed the door open, stepping inside.
This couldn’t be happening. There was no way this woman was pregnant with Mike’s child.
As if reading Nikki’s mind Elizabeth pulled out a slip of paper from her purse. “I’m two months along. Look.” She flipped it around and Nikki was staring at an ultrasound.
“Two months? You and Mike broke up over six months ago.” Even though Nikki’s head was swimming she could still put that math together in her head.
The woman’s hands wrapped protectively around her waist, “Is that what he told you?” She began crying even harder. “We were together up until a month ago. One month ago.”
A loud buzzing sounded in Nikki’s ears. A month ago. That’s when they’d met in Dallas.
Could Elizabeth be telling the truth? Why would Mike lie to her? She was just supposed to be a one night stand, so why would he lie?
Memories of the first night they were together started flooding back to her. How hesitant he’d been, which she’d chalked up to being a gentleman. How he’d tried to warn her that his life was ‘complicated.’ Was that guilt causing him to be so ‘gentlemanly’? Did his complicated life include a girlfriend?
Oh. My. God. Nikki thought she was going to be sick. She knew that he was too good to be true. She knew it.
The walls felt like they were closing in on her. Elizabeth kept talking but all Nikki could hear was, “Wah wah woh wah wah". It was like she was Charlie Brown and the pregnant ex-girlfriend was his teacher.
She needed to leave. To get out of here. Nikki spun around on her heels and headed towards the bedroom. Maybe Elizabeth was following her, maybe not. Nikki didn’t really notice.
All she could do was focus on the next task she needed to perform to leave; get dressed. She hurried to her bag, unzipped it and grabbed her jeans. She didn’t even bother taking off her teddy she just pulled them up over it. She dug through her bag until she found her UCLA sweatshirt and roughly threw it on while she was already zipping her bag back up.
She quickly gathered her things and without sparing the other woman a second glance she was out of there. The tears didn’t start until she stepped inside the elevator and the memory of when they’d gotten stuck, and how amazing Mike had been, flashed in her head.
Great. She wiped the tears that were now pouring down her face. Like she didn’t hate elevators enough already.
--- ~ ---
Mike could feel his heart pounding against his ribs as he pulled into the garage and his car bumped over the speed bump. The entire drive home from his office, all Mike could think about was asking Nikki to live with him. The more he thought about it, the more excited he got about the idea. He hadn’t been this excited or nervous the night the polls had come in and he’d been elected senator.
Sure, he knew that she might not be on board right at first, but he also knew that what they shared was special and she knew it too. It might take some convincing, but he would do whatever it took to make her see how perfect it would be.
Stepping into the lobby, he couldn’t suppress the smile on his face. He heard someone clear their throat loudly and looked up to see Sanders standing beside the elevator banks with his brow furrowed and lips tightly pressed together.
“Hey, Sanders. Did you get Nikki all settled?”
“I did, Sir.” Sanders nodded but the lines of his face still looked tense.
“Great.” Mike hesitated as the doors opened. He wanted to get upstairs to Nikki but there was obviously something wrong with Sanders. “Everything okay?” Mike asked.
“She left,” he blurted out in huff of breath.
“Who left?” Mike turned and asked with a sinking feeling in his gut.
“Miss Maguire.” Sander’s face looked pained as he explained, “She came down crying about an hour ago. I tried to help her with her things but she wouldn’t let me.”
Sanders words felt like a punch right in the solar plexus. Questions bombarded him as he stood staring at Sanders.
What could have happened?
Why was she crying?
Was she hurt?
Was she sick?
Was her family okay?
Was she okay?
She had to be okay. He had to know if she was okay.
Pulling out his phone he rushed back towards the parking garage. “Did she say what was wrong?” Mike called over his shoulder as he pushed her name on his contacts list and put the phone to his ear.
“No. But you may want to ask Miss Gordon. She is still upstairs.”
What the fuck?
He could not have heard that right. Mike stopped dead in his tracks and did an about-face. “What? Lizzie’s here?”
“Yes.” Sanders nodded emphatically his shoulders slumping in relief as he explained, “Miss Gordon showed up and then a few minutes later Miss Maguire came out of the elevators crying with all of her luggage.”
Nikki’s voice came over the speaker on his phone. “Hey, it’s Nikki… you know what to do.”
Shit. Straight to voicemail. Mike wanted to go after her but he needed answers.
“Lizzie is still upstairs?” Mike asked, stalking towards the elevators with purposeful strides.
“Yes, Sir.” Sanders nodded once again and held the elevator door open for him.
He tried to call Nikki again as he stepped inside. Again it went straight to voicemail. This time he left a message. “Nikki, it’s Mike. Call me back. Please.”
Not the most compelling message but he had no idea what the hell was going on. His chest rose and fell rapidly. His breathing became increasingly labored as more questions flooded his brain, in the short elevator ride up to his apartment.
Why was Lizzie here?
What had she done to upset Nikki?
Had she hit her?
No. Nikki grew up with two brothers and could definitely scrap. Lizzie grew up being treated like a princess. There was no way she would have gone toe to toe with Nikki.
The elevator doors swooshed open and he could hear the blood pumping in his head at the same rhythm of his shoes clicking against the hard wood flooring. He threw his front door open and found Lizzie sitting at his onyx topped dining room table.
She lifted her head and he saw streaks of make-up running down her cheeks, her face lit up when she saw him. Pushing off the chair she rushed over to him and threw her arms around his neck. “Mike, I’m so glad you’re here.”
Reaching up his fingers closed around her thin wrists and pulled them free of their tight grasp. Stepping away from her, he asked through clenched teeth. “What did you do?”
“Mike, don’t be mad,” she pleaded.
“What did you do?” he asked again, his voice deadly calm.
“I just…I told her the truth. I’m pregnant,” Lizzie spoke quietly, her gaze downcast not meeting his stare.
“You’re pregnant,” he repeated in shock. Those were the last words he would ever have expected to hear come out of Elizabeth Gordon’s mouth.
Snowed In Page 19
