Now I knew, even with all that crying last night, watching her despondently clicking on Max’s computer, she was having a very prolonged “bad moment” and I had to do what I could to make it go away.
She tipped her head back to give me a small smile but that too looked dead. Then she turned back to the computer screen.
I walked up to her, hesitated because it seemed we’d known each other an age with all that had gone on but we didn’t know each other all that well then I went for it and gently pulled her hair over her shoulder.
“I have to check my e-mail, darling, then make a couple of calls. If you want to get a shower, after I’m done, I’ll give you a facial,” I offered, drawing her long, curly, soft hair through my palm again and down her back.
She twisted her neck to look at me. “A facial?”
“Yes, I do an at home facial every weekend. Brought all my stuff with me. It’s fantastic. Your skin will never feel so good.” I put my hand to her cheek and said, “Promise.”
“Are you okay?” she whispered, her voice trembling with emotion or fear or both.
“I’m fine,” I lied because I… was… not.
“Max sounded –”
“He’s fine.”
She shook her head and my hand dropped away.
“He sounded pissed,” she told me and she was right, except it was a significant understatement. “Never heard him like that, seen his face like that. Even when he was fighting Damon last night he was in control.”
I pressed my lips together, uncertain how to proceed. Then I decided on honesty.
“You know what happened to you a few weeks ago?”
Her eyes got wide then her mouth got tight then she swallowed before she nodded.
“One day, sweetheart, you’re going to have to tell a good man what happened to you and, on your behalf, he’s going to get like Max did earlier.”
I watched her shiver, actually watched her shiver, before she whispered, “You’ve been raped too?”
I shook my head quickly and said, “Beaten.”
“Oh Nina.” She was still whispering but now tears were in her eyes and I bent at the waist, got close and put my hand back to her face.
“We girls, we’re tough, darling. Soft on the outside but, deep down, we’re tough. Doesn’t feel like it now but none of this is going to beat you.”
She was trembling, also visibly, but she said, “Okay.”
“I promise.”
“Okay.”
“Go get a shower, sweetheart, use my stuff.” When she hesitated, I continued, “Showers work miracles.” I ran my knuckles along her cheek and smiled before I finished, “And facials are even better.”
She nodded and repeated, “Okay.”
I pulled away and she got up and walked to the stairs as I sat down at the computer.
“Neens?” she called, giving me a new nickname that I instantly liked.
I looked to see she was halfway up the stairs, standing in a curve and looking down at me.
“Yes, my lovely?” I answered.
“You told Max about… what happened to you?”
“Sorry, it was bad timing. It just happened.”
“I’m glad,” she said. “I’m glad you trusted him with that and I’m glad that’s why he was the way he was because he scared me but it doesn’t scare me now that he was that way for you.”
It was me who was now shivering.
I ignored this and said, “You need anything to wear, just dig in my suitcase.”
“We left all your shopping bags in my car,” she reminded me then muttered, “bummer,” then walked up the stairs.
I turned to the computer and as the shower went on I held my breath and checked my e-mail.
Nothing from Niles.
Drat.
I looked up the stairs, I could hear the noise of the shower but it was significantly muted and I suspected I heard it because I was listening. Max built a quality house.
I leaned forward and pulled my phone out of my back pocket. Then I called Niles. Then I held my breath while it rang.
Then I got voicemail.
“Niles?” I said into the phone after I heard the beep. “This is Nina. I called because I thought we could talk. We need to… finalize things.” God, I was such an idiot. “I’ll call back later.”
Then I touched the screen to end the call. Then I called my mother.
“Oh my God!” she said instead of hello. “I thought you’d never phone.”
“Hi Mom.”
“Get let out of Max Prison?” she asked, her tone amused as I shut down my e-mail and headed across the house to the coffee.
“I wasn’t in Max Prison.”
“He sounds interesting.” Her tone now sounded nosy.
I changed the subject and informed her, “I just called Niles.”
She was quiet a moment then asked, “And?”
“Voicemail, I left a message.”
“Did you check your e-mail?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“Nothing.”
“That boy,” she muttered.
“It’s okay, we’ll have dinner or something when I get home, talk it through, finish it up like two adults.”
“Yes, it would be novel for you two to actually speak to each other in the same room while you break off an engagement. Not talk via e-mail and voicemail.”
“Mom.”