A Week at the Beach (35 page)

            “Okay, enough about all this deep feelings crap!  Tell me,” Allison wiggled her eyes at me.  “He’s amazing in bed, isn’t he?”

            I felt the heat rise to my cheeks.  “You can’t honestly expect me to tell you that!  Mom?”  Stupidly, I turned to my mom for support.

            With a grin, she said, “Well, maybe just a few details would be nice.”

“So, what did you guys talk about in the garage?” I asked as I watched him working. 

            By the time we’d left my parents’ house, I was both physically and emotionally exhausted.  When I’d fallen asleep in the cab on the way to the train station, Nick just paid the driver to take us all the way back to the city.  He said he didn’t want to wake me from my adorably peaceful nap.  Back at home, we’d changed into sweats and were lounging on the bed together.

            “Just guy stuff,” he shrugged, without looking up from his task.

            “Like your hopes, dreams, and feelings?” I teased him.

            “Don’t forget about the rainbows and unicorns,” he added with a laugh. 

            I laughed.  “What did you really talk about?”

            “Mostly sports, actually.  Your dad seemed pretty amped that I like baseball.  I think I might try to see if I can get us seats to a game this spring.  I’m sure the company has a box or something.” 

            I smiled.  My dad would love that, and I suspected that Nick would too.  “So, you think he liked you?”

            “I think so,” Nick nodded and looked up.  “What do you think?”

            “I think he liked you,” I answered.

            “No, what do you think of my work?” he asked and held my foot up so that I could see my toes.  “Do you like?”

            I looked down at my freshly polished toes.  He’d painted my toenails a lovely shade of pink then skillfully spelled out on my toes “I LOVE NICK” with a shade of bright red.

            I smiled and nodded my approval. “Wow, you are good at that!  I should have let you do them that first day at the beach.” 

            He put my feet down and tossed the bottle of red polish onto the side table. “You are a lot like your dad, you know?”  He crawled up to where I was laying against the headboard.

            “I know.  My mom says it’s amazing we actually get along, because we are so similar.” 

            “He’s really easy to talk to.” Nick pulled me into his chest and wrapped an arm around me.

            “So he didn’t threaten you or anything?” I laughed, remembering the worried expression on Nick’s face as he got up from the table.

            He laughed, “Well, there was the awkward warning when we first got out to the garage.”

            “Tell me about that!” I said excitedly.  Jack and my dad had never really hit it off.  Usually when Jack would attend family functions, he’d just stay in the room with me and the other girls, while my dad would sneak off to hide somewhere. 

            “When he handed me the first beer, he looked sternly at me and said ‘I’m only saying this because I think I’m supposed to.  Judging by the things you said earlier, and the way you look at my daughter, I don’t think I’m ever going to have to make good on this.  However, just to be clear, if you hurt her or break her heart, I will kill you.’” Nick repeated my dad’s words with a serious tone of his own.

            “What did you say?” I asked with a grin on my face.

            “Understood.”

            “Then you guys started talking about baseball?”

            “Pretty much,” Nick nodded.

            “Men are so weird!” I laughed and snuggled into him.

            “Why?  What did you girls talk about?” he asked.

            I blushed, remembering the conversation I’d had with my mom and sisters.  “You don’t want to know.”

            He laughed, “Was it about my body?” He wiggled and ran his other hand down his torso in a playful way.

            “I am so sorry about that.  They have never done that before.  I do not know what got into them?”

            “You mean they didn’t sexually harass Jack?  Why does that not surprise me?”  Nick laughed, “I get the impression that they didn’t exactly like him.”

            I shook my head, “I didn’t realize how much they disliked him until you came along.”

            Nick laughed and pulled me tighter.  “I don’t mind being compared to him, as long as I always come out on top, of course!”

            “I’ll keep that in mind,” I said with an eye roll.

            He leaned down and pressed his lips to my cheek.  He gave me a small kiss and whispered, “Don’t get mad at me for noticing this, but did your bump get like two times bigger overnight?”

            My hands went to my growing belly.  “I was thinking the same thing!” I said excitedly.  “Yesterday it was so small you couldn’t even tell I had one, but today it’s completely noticeable.”

            He pulled my shirt up over it and pulled the waistband of my sweats down.  His hand rubbed against my skin, causing a shudder to run through me.  I remembered how odd it had felt to have my sisters and mom touch me.  Nothing about Nick’s touch felt odd or uncomfortable.  His skin against mine felt right.

            “Your dad says it’s perfectly normal to feel scared about our first one.  He said to get used to the feeling, though.”  Nick watched his own hand rub against my skin as he talked.

            “What does that mean?” I asked and studied his face. 

            He looked down at me with a smile, “Get used to it, because it will never go away.  We will always be worried about our children, even when they’re all grown up and move out.”

            “Children?” I repeated his word with a raised eyebrow.  “How many are we planning on having?”

            He laughed, “Just one the first time, I think.”

            “Yes, but how many altogether?”

            He shrugged and smiled, “I don’t know.  How many do you want?”

            I relaxed, “How about we get through this first one and see how that turns out before we start making plans for any more?”

            He shifted and lay flat beside me, propping himself up on his arm so that he could look down at me.  I fixed my shirt and pants so that my stomach was no longer exposed.  When I looked up at him, he was staring down at my face. 

            “Sometimes, I’m afraid I’m going to wake up and realize that this has all been a dream.  That you aren’t really here, and that I’m going to have to go through this alone.”  I confessed quietly.

            He brushed hair out of my face and spoke softly, “I’m not going anywhere, I promise.”

            I closed my eyes and nodded.

            “Cami.”

            Nick said my name so softly that I almost couldn’t hear him.  I opened my eyes to see him studying my face.

            His hand gently stroked my face as he whispered, “I meant everything that I said to your family today.  You feel like home to me, and you have since the first day I met you.  Because I’d never had it before, I didn’t know how important that was.  When you showed up, it changed everything.  I’ve never felt like that with anyone.” 

             I reached my hand up to his face and pulled him down to me for a kiss.  When he pulled away, I smiled up at him.

            “Why are you smiling?” he asked with a smile of his own.

            “I was just thinking about that night at the beach when we made dinner.  Do you remember what I said when you asked me why I wouldn’t hook up with you?”  I watched him intently as he tried to remember our conversation.  “Remember, you asked if it was because I thought I wasn’t pretty enough to be with you?”

            He rolled his eyes and gave me a smile.  “I told you that I didn’t mean it like that!  I meant that if you thought that then you were wrong.  I don’t think that you aren’t pretty enough to be with me.”

            I laughed, “Don’t you remember what I said about it?”

            He stopped and scanned his memory, “I think you gave me three reasons why I was wrong, right?”

            “Yes, and one of them was because I’d seen enough chick flicks and read enough chick lit to know that I’d get you in the end.  Remember that?” I asked with a smile.

            “Yes,” he nodded.

            “I was right,” I smiled and shrugged.

            He shook his head, “Was there ever a doubt that you would get me?  You had me that first day on the swing.  Something in me knew I wanted to spend forever with you when I watched you scratching at your legs like you had fleas.”

            “And then you painted my legs for me,” I smiled remembering the day.

            “I would have done anything to get my hands on you,” he said and shifted his body to be over top of me.  “It worked, too.  Of course, it took me a lot longer than I thought it would.  I got you in the end, though.”

            I wiggled against him, “No, I got you.  Don’t forget that I’m the one who opened the door.  If I hadn’t come out of my room that night, you might have chickened out and stood outside my door forever.”

            “True,” he kissed me on the lips. “Let us not forget, however, that I am the one who took that step across the hall for that first kiss.”

            “I’ll give you that one,” I said and planted a quick kiss on his lips, “but I let you kiss me.  I could have stopped it, and I had stopped it twice before, but I didn’t want to.  I wanted you to kiss me.” I ran my hands up and down his back as I spoke, causing his body to shudder this time.

            “You wanted me to do a lot of things that night, if I remember,” he said with a grin.  He dipped his head back down to mine and kissed me passionately.  I kissed him back, but as soon as his lips left mine, a yawn escaped. 

            “Are you bored with me already?” He laughed and tucked a piece of hair behind my ear.

            “I’m sorry.  I’m just really tired today,” I smiled apologetically.

            “How can you possibly be tired?  You took an almost two hour nap earlier today.”

            I smiled, “We didn’t exactly get a full night of sleep last night.”

            He ran a hand down my side, dipped his head, and nibbled on my ear.  “I didn’t get a full night’s sleep either, and I’m not too tired.”  His breath against my skin sent another wave of uncontrollable shudders through my body.

            “You’re not creating a life on top of everything else.”  Just to punctuate my statement, I yawned again.

            He rolled off me and sighed loudly. 

            I rolled over and pressed my body against his.  “We have the rest of our lives to have sex.  Can’t we just snuggle tonight?”

            He instinctively pulled me closer to him and moaned sadly.  “I can’t believe you just gave me the can’t-we-just-cuddle line.” 

            I laughed and kissed his chest.  “I’m sorry.”

            “We’re not even married yet and you’ve already cut me off.”

            I smiled and closed my eyes.  “It’s one night, Nick.  You can survive one night without it.”