Snowed In

by Shawn, Melanie

  Which she really wanted to be, more than anything. Nikki had always thought that she was a fairly tough girl. But after this last month, she wasn’t so sure.

  Everything with Mike was just on another level. Sure she understood that when you were in a relationship you had to deal with your partner’s exes, family, and friends. And sure they might all be up in your business. But this wasn’t just his ex-girlfriend or his family, and hell, she hadn’t even met his friends. This was the entire world reporting that her boyfriend was engaged to another woman. She didn’t even like it when her co-workers knew anything about her personal life and now this.

  Nikki had planned on driving straight home, snuggling up with Scrappy, who Amy had graciously dropped off about a half an hour ago, eating an entire bag of chips and watching Pretty Woman. But, as she passed JT’s Roadhouse, her normal hang out spot on Friday and Saturday nights, she found herself turning the wheel of her car and heading into the parking lot. The first thing she noticed was Jake’s SUV as she pulled in. Well, good news was her brother would probably be too busy, with whoever he was in the process of hooking up with or already hooked up with, to give her too hard of a time. Because as much as Jake loved messing with her, he loved hooking up with random girls more.

  Getting out of the car, Nikki realized that she hadn’t been to her favorite watering hole for the last few weekends because she’d been with Mike. Things with Mike felt overwhelming and confusing. As she walked into JT’s, it felt familiar and safe. Waving hello to several people, because let’s face it, this was Hope Falls. Besides a few bar bunnies, she knew everyone in this place.

  “Hey there, gorgeous. What can I get you?” Levi, who had purchased this bar when his Uncle JT had retired about a year ago, asked as he started down the bar to where she sat.

  Nikki watched as he moved towards her. Levi was the epitome of sexy. Thick brown hair, whiskey colored eyes, a constant five o’clock shadow, funny as hell and could charm the panties off of a nun. Also he was tall, standing around six-foot-two, muscled, tattooed, owned a motorcycle and a bar. I mean come on, talk about a walking, breathing bad-boy fantasy. Hello! And the best part of it was he didn’t come with a bunch of complications.

  Why couldn’t she have fallen for him?

  He stepped in front of her with his trademark half-smile and gave her a quick wink. “What’ll it be, beautiful?”

  Nikki leaned her elbows on the counter. “Why didn’t we ever hook up? You’re hot. I’m hot. We’re consenting adults.”

  “Well, you know what they say. No time like the present,” he said as he gave her a teasing wink.

  “I’m serious,” she said. They always flirted. And her life would be so much less insane right now if she was with Levi, or someone like Levi.

  “So am I,” he claimed but Nikki could tell that he was just humoring her.

  “Because if he would have touched you, I would have kicked his ass,” Jake announced loudly as sat down on the barstool beside her.

  She rolled her eyes. Great. Jake. Just what she needed.

  “I’ll just take a Coke,” she told Levi not even acknowledging her brother’s presence. She really didn’t need his shit right now.

  Even though she’d been serious when she’d asked Levi about why they’d never gotten together the truth was Nikki knew why. Because she and Levi just didn’t have that thing. That indefinable something that unfortunately no one had any control over who they shared it with. Or at least, she certainly didn’t. If she did she would be with Levi. Which would have meant that she wouldn’t have her picture on Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood or CNN.

  “So I saw your boyfriend’s engaged.” Jake motioned to Levi to get him another beer. “I’m bad with etiquette, do I congratulate you or…?”

  Nikki turned her head and glared at her brother.

  “Too soon?” he asked as he scrunched up his face.

  Nikki sighed and lifted the cola Levi had just poured her to her lips.

  “Come on, Nik, you know I was kidding. There is no way Mike really got engaged to that chick,” Jake said supportively.

  Nikki’s phone buzzed, she looked down and it was Mike. Again. She silenced it.

  “I know he’s not, it’s just…” as Nikki was searching for the right words to explain what “it” was, she glanced up and saw a photo of her and Mike from the Fire and Ice Ball with the headline, Senator Steps Out With Blond Bombshell Days Before Engagement To Pregnant Fiancé, on the forty-two inch flat screen hanging behind the bar, “it’s just that.”

  Jake looked over. “Levi,” he called.

  Levi looked up and Jake motioned to the TV, when Levi saw what was on he immediately changed the channel. “Sorry, Nikki.”

  Her phone vibrated on the bar and once again Mike’s name was on the screen. She silenced it again.

  “It’s fine.” Nikki raised her hand dismissively.

  “Well, at least they called you a bombshell,” Jake teased. But when Nikki just shook her head and looked down at the bar he continued, “You know Mike has no control over that.”

  “I know. But that’s the problem. He doesn’t have control,” Nikki sighed, “and I don’t think I can handle that.”

  The second the screen went dark it buzzed again and Mike’s name was illuminated on the screen.

  “Planning on answering that?” Jake asked.

  “Nope.” Nikki shook her head slowly from side to side. If she did there was no way she could walk away from him.

  “Are you seriously just going to give up? Because of this?” Jake motioned to the large screen that her face had just been on.

  “I think that’s the plan,” Nikki answered honestly.

  “If you do, you will regret it.” Her brother’s serious tone took her by surprise and pissed her off a little.

  “Oh right, because Mike is Mr. Perfect! Right? Everybody just loves Mike,” Nikki said dramatically.

  “No, this isn’t about Mike. I don’t give a shit about Mike.” Jake turned the back of Nikki’s stool so that she was facing him. “This is about you, Nikki. You love him. I saw it when you two were at Mom and Dad’s Sunday. You need to stop running away from things when they get tough.”

  “What are you…? I don’t run away from things,” Nikki defended herself.

  “Really? What about ballet, piano, drill team Senior year-”

  “Oh come on! I was a kid,” Nikki interrupted.

  Jake continued, “Okay then college, you had one more year left.”

  Nikki was not about to defend herself by telling him that she was finishing. “Yeah, I quit to go to work in a field I am still in.”

  “And how many airlines have you worked for?” Jake looked at her pointedly.

  Feeling backed into a corner and knowing that this was not a battle she was going to win, she changed tactics. “And how do you know if I love him or not? You don’t know anything about love. You have a different girl in your bed every other night.” Nikki felt a twinge of guilt at turning this around on her brother; luckily he had thick skin.

  Jake’s green eyes darkened as his expression grew grim. “I know that if you love Mike and you walk away from him, then you don’t deserve him.” Jake grabbed his beer and headed back to the pool tables. A few girls tried to say hi to him as he wove through the tables but he just brought his beer to his lips and downed it.

  Well, maybe Jake’s skin wasn’t quite as thick as she’d thought. But what the hell could she have said? He hadn’t had anything close to a serious relationship since Tessa, and that was in high school. And he never even talked about her.

  Just as Nikki was about to go smooth things over with him a well-endowed brunette beat her to the punch. She was hanging on him like a cheap suit. Jake had an arm wrapped around her waist and he was smiling as she whispered something in his ear, but as Nikki looked closer she realized that his smile didn’t reach his eyes. Did it usually?

  “Can I get you another one?” Levi leaned casually on the bar.


  “No. I’m good,” Nikki threw down five bucks and grabbed her purse.

  She wanted to go home to the one man in her life that she could count on to make her feel better. Scrappy.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Mike called Jane as he pulled into the underground parking at his office building. “Is he still here?”

  “Yes, and he has company,” Jane whispered.

  Good. He could deal with his mother and Phil at the same time.

  “I’m coming up now.”

  Mike stopped in at the security desk and alerted them that he was going to need someone escorted off the premises. They offered to follow him up now, but he had some things he needed to say that he didn’t want anyone overhearing so he declined and they said they would be waiting for his call.

  Needing to keep moving, Mike took the stairs up—two by two—to his fourth floor offices. He kept flexing his hands. Not because he had any intention of laying a hand on Phil, it was just a way to focus the fury racing through him.

  He stepped in the back door and passed Jane who was standing in the doorway to her office. She was biting her lip and holding a file folder protectively against her chest. Poor Jane. She hated confrontation. He would make this up to her. Mike knew wherever he ended up, he wanted her on his team.

  As he quietly approached Phil’s office door, he did hear two voices but not the two he expected to hear.

  “Why didn’t you tell me you were going to release that story to the press? Reporters have been following me everywhere. I couldn’t even get out of my driveway,” Lizzie cried.

  “Shh, shh, shh,” Phil shushed her sweetly, “listen we needed a power play and this was it, baby.”

  Baby?

  “But you told me that the pregnancy would be the power play,” Lizzie wailed.

  “It was. And look there is no way Mike is going to risk the scandal that not marrying the mother of his baby would cause. It would be career suicide.’”

  “But he knows it’s not his baby,” Lizzie sniffed.

  “Right, but it would take seven months before he could demand a paternity test and by then the damage will be done.”

  “You better be right,” Lizzie’s voice sounded a little stronger. “Or I’ll tell Daddy who the father of this baby is. And there’s no rock you will be able to hide under that he won’t find you.”

  Phil was the father?

  Mike calmly pushed Phil’s door open and stepped into his office.

  “Mike.” Phil looked a little stunned at first but he quickly recovered. “Mike, we’ve been trying to get a hold of you. Lizzie is as upset about this story as you are. She came down to the office to see if we could figure out who could have leaked the pregnancy.”

  “Does she know that you’re sleeping with my mother too?” Mike asked flatly.

  “What?” Lizzie shrieked. “You’re sleeping with Clare?!”

  Phil’s eyes darted between them. Mike saw him calculating what his next move was going to be. He knew that he would try to weasel his way out of this.

  “Yes,” Mike said before Phil had a chance to answer. “From what I understand, it’s been almost a decade.”

  “But we’ve been together for two years!” Lizzie yelled.

  “Really?” Mike turned to her. “That’s interesting.”

  “No,” she began backtracking, “I meant two months, not years.”

  “Of course you did.”

  He looked back at Phil and realized he just felt sorry for the man. He was a liar. A cheat. A horrible person. Mike had expected to stand before him and feel anger and outrage but he just felt pity.

  As far as the love triangle between his mother, Phil, and Lizzie, well they deserved each other. He could honestly care less.

  Mike leaned over Phil’s desk to the phone, inadvertently causing him to flinch. Mike smiled and shook his head as he reached and pressed the intercom, “Jane, call security.”

  “Now Mike,” Phil started to get a panicked look in his eye, “think about this. What’s it going to look like if this gets out into the papers? Do you know what this kind of scandal can do to you? It could destroy everything you’ve worked for.”

  “Thanks for the concern, Phil. But I think I’ll be just fine.”

  “Mike, please this was all his idea. I just wanted to be back together with you. I missed you,” Lizzie took a step towards Mike but stopped as three security guards stepped in behind him.

  Mike told the men that had just entered. “I want them both escorted off the premises.”

  “Mike, please,” Lizzie pleaded.

  Mike watched as both Phil and Lizzie pleaded and threatened him as the security guards practically dragged them down the hall.

  Jane came out from her office. “Are you okay?”

  “Did you know?” Mike didn’t think that Jane would keep something like this from him but he had to ask her.

  “About Elizabeth? No,” Jane shook her head.

  “What about my mother?”

  “I didn’t know for sure. But I suspected something was going on for about a year. I didn’t think it was my place to say anything.”

  Mike took a deep breath and nodded. “Get Judge Randal on the phone. I want a restraining order issued against Phil and if Lizzie shows up at my home or office again, I want one issued against her.”

  Jane nodded and her lips twitched as if they wanted to pull up into a smile as she turned back into her office.

  “Oh and can you get Ascendant Airlines on the phone? I need to charter a jet for tomorrow afternoon out at SFO.”

  Jane turned, her brow furrowed, “Where to?”

  “Nowhere,” Mike said as he headed into his office.

  He had a lot of work to do.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Nikki walked into the employee lounge and the room fell quiet. Ignoring the silent stares of her coworkers, she quickly made her way across the room to her locker.

  Julie owed her big-time! Not only had she just gotten back from being out for five days yesterday, she’d had serious plans for wallowing in self-pity, curled up on the couch with lots of salty snacks and Scrappy. And since it was such short notice, she hadn’t even been able to get a hold of Amy to watch her little guy. Luckily, Amanda had agreed to dog sit.

  When Julie had called this morning, Nikki assumed it was because of the story that hit the news yesterday and so she hadn’t picked up. Julie had called back three more times in the span of five minutes before leaving a text saying that she had food poisoning and felt like she was going to die. She begged Nikki to take her flight today since she’d just gotten written up last week for being late too many times.

  Nikki had really wanted to say ‘no’. The last thing she’d wanted to do was work today. But Julie was the closest thing to a friend that Nikki had at the airline and she couldn’t let her down.

  She pulled out her jacket and took it off the hanger. As she slipped it on, she tried to get into character. Put on her game face. Cowboy up. Her job was to be cheerful and pleasant and that was exactly what she was going to do. Even if it killed her.

  Stepping into the hallway that led to the tarmac, Captain Howard stepped out of the administrative offices and joined her. He smiled warmly when he saw Nikki. “How you doing, kid?” he asked as he began walking with her.

  “Oh you know,” she shrugged. “I’m hanging in there.”

  He nodded and stared straight ahead as they made their way to the plane. She couldn’t tell if he knew all the stuff that was going on with her or not. His face gave nothing away. Well, if he knew at least he wasn’t treating her any differently. So there was that.

  Nikki squinted as the sun shined brightly in her eyes, bouncing off of the asphalt as they made the short walk to the plane. Sunny days in San Francisco were beautiful and normally put Nikki in a very good mood but sadly they were having no such effect on her today.

  She felt like there was a bag of cement sitting in her stomach. It was more than just a sick
feeling, it was a heavy feeling. Ever since she’d seen the first “news” report yesterday, she hadn’t been able to shake it. Oddly enough, a liter of Dr. Pepper, an entire bag of Lay’s Sour Cream and Onion chips, and a box of chocolate chip Chips Ahoy cookies had done nothing to settle it. Strange.

  Jake’s words kept playing over and over again in her head. “I know that if you love Mike and you walk away from him, then you don’t deserve him.”

  Mike had called and left so many messages her voicemail was full. She knew that he was scheduled to fly back from DC today and she had a pretty good feeling that he would be heading up to Hope Falls to see her. Maybe it was a good thing that she did decide to fill in for Julie. Because she had no idea what to say to him if she saw him.

  After not returning any of his messages over the last twenty-four hours she was actually feeling a little bit guilty. He hadn’t done anything to her and she knew that somehow he would set the media straight. She’d just needed time to think. To process.

  When he’d told her he was planning to ask her to move in with him last week, she’d almost peed in her pants she’d been so excited. Luckily, she had been able to control her bladder and some of her excitement over the prospect had faded. Not because of this new scandal, but as much as she’d always thought she wanted to leave Hope Falls, when it came right down to it, Nikki wasn’t sure that she did. They hadn’t spoken about it since but, if she was going to make this work with Mike, she did think that living together made the most sense.

  So, she had to decide was Mike worth taking a chance on? Was he worth leaving her home? Could she be everything he needed in a mate? Would she ever fit into his world? Did she want to fit into his world? After her being completely incommunicado over the last day, was the offer still on the table?

  So many questions flew around in her mind. So many life altering decisions needed to be made.

  Following Captain Howard up the steel staircase, Nikki made up her mind then and there that as soon as she got back from this flight she was going to go see Mike. They had a lot to work out and avoiding the situation or “running” from it—as Jake had so kindly pointed out that she did—was not going to solve anything.