He began to process her words. She wanted it to be special, to be meaningful, and he had just ruined all that. She wasn’t just any girl. She wasn’t a woman out to trap him and fill his head with lies. She was the girl that had him wrapped around her finger when she was twenty years old and flirted with him mercilessly. She was the girl he dreamed of for six years, the girl he tried to forget but never could. She was the woman he loved. The woman he wanted to marry and have a family with. The woman who made him feel like he could have that. That he even deserved it. The woman he just crushed.
“I know none of this was planned and I…” She started, but he cut her off.
“I have to go.” He stammered. He had to make things right and standing there acting a fool wasn’t helping. He looked at her and watched the hope sink in her eyes and he tilted her chin upward and her moist eyes met his. He leaned down and pressed his lips softly against hers. She reached up to hold his face, to deepen the kiss, to hold onto him, but he pulled away.
Without a word or an explanation he turned on his heel and stalked off into the stormy night. She leaned against the door and closed her eyes. She hoped he just needed time to cool off and that this wasn’t the end.
Nick’s mind was racing. He was suddenly able to see the future he never thought he could have and it all centered on, the one woman who had been standing in front of him years ago. A young girl trying desperately to get his attention. Well, she had his attention now, she had everything, but mostly she had his heart. The one thing he kept under lock and key. He just needed to do things right. The way she deserved.
He figured he had made a pretty nice mess out of things. She was probably sitting in her apartment thinking they were over. But there was one thing that had to be done, the noble thing. His mother was right, his father never taught him how to be noble, but there was one man who did; one man who deserved his respect as much as his daughter did.
Nick took a deep breath and rang the bell of the home he mostly grew up in. He hoped he wasn’t disturbing them, not even paying attention to what time it was. He pressed his hand against his soaked suit jacket and felt the box that was now plastered against his chest in his pocket. The porch light went on and the door opened.
“Nick? Oh dear, get in here. You’re soaked through and through.” Deb said as she pulled his arm from his chest and dragged him into the house. She didn’t care if he dripped all over her floors. “What did you walk here?” She shook her head. “Let me get a towel.”
“I’m fine, Deb.” He said hoarsely, not recognizing his own voice.
She looked at him. “You’re not fine. You’re probably going to catch pneumonia.” She said as she disappeared to fetch a towel. Nick looked down at himself, damn he was a mess.
Deb reappeared handing him a towel. “There is a tornado and flash flood warnings all over the news, mind telling me why you’re out in these conditions?” She said, placing one hand on her hip, staring at him with that motherly look of hers.
Nick wiped at his hair, face and then tried to pat dry some of the clothes that stuck to his body. “Is Joe home? I actually wanted to talk to the both of you.” He said realizing that he very much wanted Deb to be present when he spoke his peace.
Deb drew her eyebrows together in suspicion and then looked over her shoulder and shouted for her husband. “Joe!!!”
Joe stepped out of the living room shaking his head and holding his ears. “What is it woman? I think you just punctured my eardrum.” He grimaced and then noticed Nick. “Jesus, you look like shit.”
Nick laughed slightly and then held out his hand to the man he had the utmost respect for. Joe took his hand and shook it just as he had the first time he taught him how to properly deliver a handshake. Nick stared at their joined hands, remembering that day. He was just twelve years old and Joe had said the first step in being recognized as a man is a firm handshake.
Joe raised an eyebrow as he watched him study their joined hands before he nudged his wife. “Did he get hit by lightning or something?” He mumbled under his breath.
“Possibly.” Deb whispered back to her husband as she tried to figure what was going on with Nick.
Nick snapped out of it and released his grip on Joe’s hand. He lifted his head and looked back and forth between the two of them who looked at him as if he was crazy.
Deb smiled, trying to mask her wonderment. “Why don’t we go into the living room?” She said as she led the way.
“Did you get struck by the lightning too?” Joe asked. “He’s soaked and allowed in the living room? I’m not allowed in here with a glass of water, but he can come here like a tsunami?” He asked outraged.
“Shut up, Joe. Clearly, something is wrong.” She said between clenched teeth.
“Actually, nothing is wrong.” Nick said as they made their way into the living room. He was careful to only stand in one place and not lean on the fabric couch, knowing Deb wouldn’t mind the slightest if he messed up her couch, but if it was Joe? Well, she’d crucify him. A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. He wondered if he and Sam would be like that after thirty five years of marriage, he hoped so.