The One (The Halo Series Book 2)

by Kimberly Knight

  I wouldn’t change it though. Okay, maybe the whole tumor part I’d change. But watching Nicole care for Brooke and worry like a mother caused my heart to swell as I envisioned her pregnant with my baby.

  I felt crazy thinking about her pregnant after only two weeks of dating, but I was thirty-one and ready to settle down. If things were still going this well after Brooke fought her tumor, I was going to ask Nicole to move in with me. I was done going to bed alone at night. It felt strange not waking up with her in my arms since I did for seven days straight while on the cruise. Hell, it felt strange going to bed without her too.

  I just wanted her there because without a doubt, I was in love with her.

  After Brooke’s biopsy and after lunch, we dropped Brooke and Easton off at Brooke’s apartment and then went back to Nicole’s. Again she was exhausted and I understood. The more Nicole worried, the more I knew she was comparing Brooke to her grandmother. I tried telling her that there was no reason to stress until we knew for sure about Brooke’s tumor, but I understood she had to worry.

  Brooke was more than a best friend to Nicole, she was like her sister. Nicole was an only child like me and I knew the bond she and Brooke shared because I shared the same with Easton. I would be a total wreck if I lost Easton.

  “You want to take a nap and then let me take you to dinner?” I asked, setting my keys on her breakfast bar.

  “I feel like an old lady. I don’t understand why I’m so tired lately.”

  “It’s been a long day. Let’s take a nap.”

  “You don’t mind?” she asked, giving me a tight smile.

  “Baby, as long as you’re in my arms, I don’t care. I’ve been wanting to have you there for a week now.”

  She smiled and grabbed my hand, leading us to her bedroom.

  I woke to darkness, Nicole wrapped around me so tight that I wasn’t sure how I was breathing. In the morning, I was leaving again. Leaving for another five days, maybe longer because I had to cover the bar Friday and Saturday night. I needed to ask Nicole if she’d come to New York. There was no way I was going to be able to go longer than five days without her.

  She stirred in my arms. “Hey, beautiful. You hungry?”

  “I’m starving.”

  “Good. Let’s get you fed and build up your energy so I can pleasure you all night.” I grinned like a fool at the thought.

  She smiled against my chest. “I like the sound of that.”

  We dressed and Nicole gave me directions to her favorite Italian restaurant. It was small, only had about twenty tables. The smell coming from the kitchen, of garlic and cheese, was making my mouth water.

  “What’s that smell?” Nicole asked after the waitress brought us to our table.

  “Um…awesomeness?” I laughed.

  “No,” she said, shaking her head. “It smells like rotten eggs.”

  “I don’t smell anything but Italian goodness.”

  “Weird.”

  Weird? The smell was making me hungry and I didn’t smell rotten eggs. I smelled garlic, cheese, pasta, bread, pizza—pretty much anything in Italian cooking and I was in heaven.

  I looked over the menu, waiting to order everything because it all sounded good.

  “Know what you want?” I asked, setting my menu down and noticing Nicole wasn’t looking at hers.

  “Yeah, I always get the tortellini with pancetta. It’s my favorite.”

  “You’re gonna let me have some?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.

  “Maybe.” She smirked.

  The waitress came over, took our drink orders and left a basket of bread.

  “I think I’m going to order the chicken fettuccine.”

  “Good choice,” she said, sticking a piece of the bread in her mouth.

  I grabbed a piece of the warm bread, spread a little butter on it and ate it all in two bites.

  “Bet this beats frozen yogurt for dinner.” I joked.

  Nicole laughed. “Yeah, it does.”

  “Tell me again why you and Brooke only had frozen yogurt for lunch after her biopsy.”

  “It’s like our thing. You know when you’re a kid and you go to the doctor, your mom takes you for ice cream after?”

  “No,” I said, giving a sarcastic chuckle. My parents never did that.

  “Oh. Well, my parents did that. They always said it would make me feel better.”

  “Did it?”

  “I was a kid. Ice cream made everything better.” She grinned.

  “True.”

  The waitress returned with our drinks then took our order.

  “Want to continue our game?” I asked.

  “Of course.” She smiled.

  I’d been wanting to ask her serious questions for two weeks now, but never thought the time was right. Maybe now it was.

  “If you could go anywhere for a vacation, where would you go?” I didn’t want to start off with a bang. I needed to ease my question in.

  “Fiji.”

  “Nice.”

  “What about you?” she asked, dipping her bread in the oil and vinegar mixture.

  “Dublin. I’m curious how the bars are there.”

  “I’d like to go to Dublin one day.”

  “Maybe we can go together?” I asked, smiling.

  “Promise?”

  “Promise.”

  Over the last few weeks, I noticed that our thing was asking for someone to make a promise. Honestly, I’d promise her anything she asked for.

  “Do you wish you had your own kid after helping Easton with Cheyenne?”

  My eyes widened. I guess we weren’t easing into the questions. “Almost every day,” I answered, honestly.

  “I can’t wait to meet her.”

  “She’s a handful, let me tell you. She’s just like her mother.”

  “That’s really sad about her mom.”

  “Yeah.” I sighed. “It tore us all up for a long time. Since Easton and I grew up together, I’d known Dana since day one. Even though she had an attitude, she was a good person and a good mother. After she died, I immediately started helping Easton. His parents were in New York and Dana’s parents wanted to take custody. So, instead, Easton and I became like Cheyenne’s two dads and I just tried to do what I had seen Dana do for the five years before she died when I was home from college. Dana’s parents backed off once they realized that Easton could actually be the father Cheyenne needed him to be, and then we moved to New York.”

  “She died when you were in college?”

  “No,” I shook my head. “She died about a year later. I’d already moved back home.”

  “Oh,” she said. “How many children do you want?”

  “I’m not sure. I always thought it would be cool for my kids to grow up with Easton’s kids, but Cheyenne’s ten now.”

  “He and Brooke can still have one.” She smirked, taking a sip of her water.

  I laughed. “I guess so. I’ve actually never seen Easton act this way towards a girl before.”

  “They’re totally going to get married and have babies.” She chuckled.

  “Oh really? And what about you? Are w—um, how many kids do you want?” I stopped myself, again biting my tongue when I wanted to talk to Nicole about our future.

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. Two or three at the most.”

  “Cool. What’s your favorite position?”

  Nicole started to choke on her water. “Not holding back I see.”

  “You’ve been my girlfriend for two weeks. I think it’s time I know.” I grinned, sipping my beer. I needed to change the subject from our future. Wearing my heart on my sleeve always got it crushed.

  “So I’m your girlfriend?”

  I paused. It had been a long time since I’d had one. The last time was in college and I’d asked the girl to be my girlfriend. Did people still do that at thirty-one?

  “Is there any doubt?”

  “No.” She shook her head.

  “Want me to ask you if you wan
t to go steady?” I laughed.

  She laughed back. “No, I just didn’t know. It’s been a long time since I’ve been in a serious relationship.”

  “Me, too. So, it’s settled. You’re my girlfriend and I’m your boyfriend and if I see anyone hit on you, I get to punch them.” I laughed again. I was only half joking. The thought of someone else flirting with Nicole made my blood boil.

  “All right, Mike Tyson.”

  “Hey, if I remember correctly, you staked your claim on the cruise ship.”

  She blushed. “I did and I was prepared to bitch slap those two bitches.”

  “All right, so we both don’t deal well with jealousy. Noted. But I won’t be biting some guy’s ear off for you.” I laughed. “Now, will you answer my question?”

  “Doggie,” she said, not missing a beat. Her face flushed more and I wanted to reach across the table and kiss her. But instead the waitress decided to bring our food at that time.

  “Would you like fresh parmesan cheese?” she asked.

  “Yes,” I said. I didn’t tell her to stop until I had a small pile of the grated goodness on my pasta.

  Nicole waved the waitress off, not waiting any of the fresh cheese and she left.

  “Oh my god, this smells so good,” I groaned.

  “I think I’m going to throw up.”

  I looked up at her pale face. “Babe…what’s the matter?”

  “This smells weird and it’s making me nauseous.”

  “Are you sick? Did you drink the water in Mexico?” I had to laugh at my joke, but Nicole wasn’t laughing.

  “I don’t know. Here,” she said, handing me her plate. “Get it as far away from me as you can before we both don’t eat.”

  “Let’s go home. Get you some saltines and 7-Up.”

  “No, you eat. I’ll just eat the bread.”

  “I’m not going to eat in front of you. Especially since you ordered your favorite. It’s fine.” I waved the waitress over, asking her to box our food and bring the bill.

  “Thank you,” Nicole said on the verge of tears.

  “Baby, it’s okay if you’re sick. You’ve been through a lot this week, and your body’s probably just trying to fight off the stress.” I reached out, caressing her hand in mine.

  “Aren’t I the one in the medical field?”

  “True, but when you’re better, I want to play doctor.” I winked, trying to lighten the mood.

  I had no idea what I was coming down with, but the smell of cheese was making me nauseous. Maybe it was just stress from dealing with Brooke’s tumor. I hated seeing her in pain and not knowing if she had cancer. We received Brooke’s biopsy results and they were inconclusive. The doctor that did the procedure wasn’t able to get enough sample to test because the tumor was extremely dense. What the fuck does that even mean? I know what dense is, but don’t these people know how stressed we are, not knowing if Brooke has cancer?

  Brooke handled the news better than I thought she would. I was expecting her to break down because we still didn’t know if she had cancer. Each night, Avery helped me cheer up by calling me and making me laugh. During the week, I tried to cheer Brooke up by making her laugh. Laughing masks pain and I wanted all of our pain to vanish—even if it was only temporary while our minds weren’t on the fact that Brooke may be dying. I was tired and emotional and trying to hide my worry. Avery assured me that after Brooke’s surgery and her tumor was tested and not cancerous, my stress levels would go down and I wouldn’t be as tired. At least we hoped that was the case.

  On Friday, I got off of work early and Brooke and I headed for New York to see our guys. Avery knew I was coming, but neither of the guys knew Brooke was coming. Brooke wanted to surprise Easton and I didn’t want Avery to tell him that she was coming. He didn’t tell me that Easton was coming for Brooke’s biopsy, so I wasn’t going to tell him that Brooke was in the car with me.

  Did we trust each other?

  “We should surprise him at the bar,” I said, talking about Easton. “Avery’s there, too, but I didn’t tell him that we were both coming.”

  “You didn’t? Where am I supposed to sleep?” she asked, her eyes wide.

  “I figured you would stay at Easton’s.” I shrugged.

  “Hello, Easton hasn’t introduced me to Cheyenne, yet. I can just imagine us bumping into each other in the hall. “Hello, I’m Brooke, your daddy’s fuck buddy.””

  “You know you’re more than just a fuck buddy.”

  “I hope so. I mean, I know, but once I meet Cheyenne, that will seal the deal in my eyes.”

  “You already know that’s coming. Pull up directions to the bar on your phone,” I said, motioning to her phone in her hand.

  We arrived in the city, black clouds rolling in, and once we parked in the parking lot at Halo, the clouds opened and rain started to beat down on my car.

  “Looks like we made it just in time, but now we need to make a run for it,” I said.

  We dashed through the parking lot, rain falling hard on us, and once we got to the front, I opened the heavy wooden door and entered. A bouncer checked our IDs, and then let us by. The bar was packed and bodies were everywhere: on the dance floor, sitting at high top tables and at the bar.

  It was like Avery had a pull on me. I instantly spotted him behind the bar and my smile widened. Before I could step forward to go to him, Brooke grabbed my arm hard, stopping me in my tracks. She motioned to the bar and that was when I saw Easton flirting with a redhead.

  I was going to kill him.

  “Oh, fuck no!” I shouted over the loud music, every head nearby turned in my direction. Before I could say anything further, Brooke slowly backed up and then turned, running out the door.

  I looked to Avery, he was looking at me and then my eyes turned back to seek out Easton. I couldn’t find him. Before I realized it, he was bolting past me and through the doors after Brooke.

  My mouth hung open as Avery motioned for me to come towards him. Maybe surprising Easton wasn’t a good idea—or maybe it was. It was better for Brooke to find out now rather than later if he was a cheating bastard like Jared.

  I squeezed through warm, sweaty bodies and made my way to the bar. Avery motioned to a stool in the corner that had a sign in front of it on the bar that read: “RESERVED FOR MY GIRL”. ‘RESERVED’ was printed from a computer on card stock, ‘MY GIRL’ written in pen. I smiled. I was his girl and I loved it.

  Avery leaned on the bar where my reserved seat was in the corner. Once I made it through all the sweaty bodies he tapped his lips, asking for me to give him a kiss.

  “Whose seat is this?” I asked, joking after our lips pulled apart.

  “That seat?” He pointed to the black barstool. “That seat’s for my girl.”

  “Is she here?” I looked around the bar as if I was trying to find her.

  He reached over the bar, grabbing my face in both hands and kissed me again. “I only kiss my girl.”

  “Well, your girl wants to make sure that her best friend’s okay before she gets comfy. Plus, I’ve been sitting for almost five hours and my ass hurts.” I laughed.

  “All right, stand. I need to help customers while Easton’s out dealing with Brooke.”

  “Just real quick. Has he been cheating on her?”

  “God no, Baby. I would beat the shit out of him. You know that.”

  “But he was flirting with that redhead,” I pointed, not having any shame in doing so. I’d bitch slap anyone trying to get with my best friends man.

  “We…” He paused. “Don’t get mad.”

  My eyes widened as I saw his chest rise, taking in a deep breath like he had devastating news.

  “We flirt to get more tips,” he whispered closer to me.

  I laughed. I’d been flirted with by bartenders for eight years. I knew how they played their game.

  “You’re not mad?” he asked.

  “No,” I said, shaking my head and still laughing. “I get it. But,” I said, drag
ging out the last word, “if I see any chick give you more than money, I make no promises.”

  He laughed. “All right, Laila Ali.”

  “Get to work and make me some money, honey,” I said, shooing him away, still laughing. “Oh, A.” I grabbed his hand before he was out of my reach. “I like your hair cut.”

  “I was wondering if you’d notice.”

  “How could I not? It’s so much shorter,” I reached out, running my hand along the side of his head. His hair was much shorter, buzzed on each side and only about an inch on top. He no longer had the shaggy surfer vibe going on and he and Easton didn’t look like they could be twins.

  Avery kissed me softly one last time before he left to help customers. I watched as he made drinks, glancing over at me and winking each time before he gave a woman her drink. Maybe he did want me to kick some ass. “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. The hands can't hit what the eyes can't see.” After all he called me Laila Ali, the daughter of one of the greatest boxers of all time, Muhammad Ali.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Brooke and Easton approaching. I guess Brooke had made it out the door before Easton caught up with her because they were both drenched head to toe and Brooke’s hair was frizzy.

  Easton smiled at me and nodded as if to say hello, then motioned for Avery to step over to us. Avery was looking at him weird as Easton dripped rainwater on the hardwood floors.

  “It’s raining outside,” Easton said, over the loud music.

  “I can tell.” Avery smiled.

  “It’s getting late, and I want her to meet Cheyenne before she goes to bed. Do you mind if I take off?”

  My heart swelled. Brooke was going to meet Cheyenne.

  “My girl is here too, man,” Avery said, motioning to me.

  “I need to talk to you then. Let’s go to the office.” Easton turned to Brooke as I just watched. Avery rolled his eyes. “Baby, have a drink. I need to sort this out with Av.”