First Class Hero (First Class Novels) (10 page)

It worked and the ladies moved on to shopping for swim suits
and the latest gossip from work. Nic leaned her head back and breathed a sigh
of relief. Obviously, this was going to be something she would have to figure
out on her own.

Paul checked his email when he could and his spirits were
lifted every time he found a new message from Nic. He was so pleased for her.
She had found the job of her dreams according to one of her emails and was
thrilled to be starting over in a new city. She’d written that this change had
“pushed her out of the nest” and was forcing her to make “needed changes”. He
really was glad she was so excited. And he was kind of excited for himself too.
If she moved to New York it would make it that much easier to see her when he
returned in August. He had no intention of staying in San Diego once his career
in the Navy had ended. He would go back home; back to his family and to start a
new career. He still had to decide what that would be, but if Nic was going to
be there the biggest obstacle had already been tackled.

The question that he mulled over in his mind when lying in
bed trying to sleep when it was still one hundred degrees in the middle of the
night, was how to move their relationship forward. He had never been a romantic
type. He never made women swoon like his brother Matt, or have the charm of his
brother Mark. His brother Tim took the prize when talking romance. He brought
flowers to every woman on their first date. He gave gifts at Valentine’s Days
and remembered anniversaries of first dates. The baby brother of the family had
it all figured out when it came to women. But not him. He‘d been a Seal and
immersed in combat for so long he couldn’t remember that last time he’d had
sex. But, as his brother Matt had told him repeatedly over the years, sex was
not synonymous with love. And since he’d married Janie, he had confided in Paul
that he actually hadn’t had a clue what true love really was until he’d
experienced it with his soul mate. Matt had told him to skip all the messing
around just for the fun of it and find the one person who made him a better
man; the one who he would strive to be better for. Paul had nodded and filed it
in the back of his mind for another time. And now was the time. Nic was the
woman he would work hard to deserve. She was the one he thought about in the
middle of the night or when he saw or heard something cool.
I wish I could
share this with Nic
, his would think.

So how could he convince Nic that he was the one man for
her? That was the million dollar question and he only had four weeks to come up
with an answer.

*****

Nic was up to her knees in boxes and piles of clothes and
household items. Evelyn was still irritated that she was going to have to move,
but Nic had stopped caring. The whining and complaining had not stopped since
Nic had announced her exciting news of a job in New York. She would be glad to
get it over with so she didn’t have to listen to it anymore.

Maureen had been a God-send. She had more contacts and
connections than Nic could have imagined and with the help of one of her
children who owned several apartment buildings in Manhattan, Maureen had
managed to secure an apartment that Nic would actually be able to afford. It
was two bedrooms with a washer and dryer. Apparently that was rare and was
quite a feat to secure such a prime rental. And it was only six blocks from the
school so she could walk to and from work every day, another gift from heaven.

Nic had signed the lease agreement with the landlord and
paid her deposit with the first and last month’s rent. It had wiped her savings
out completely so she had hoped that the moving expenses would be minimal. But
then Maureen had come through for a third time, informing her of a small check
they would be mailing to her for the expense of moving. Never in her life had
Nic heard of a school district offering to pay for moving expenses, but once
again Leslie had reminded her that she was dealing with a private school. Nic
couldn’t believe her good fortune when the check arrived in the mail. Maureen
had led her to believe it would be a very small amount but when Nic opened the
envelope she was more than pleasantly surprised. Everything was falling into
place; there was just one last piece of business she had to take care of before
she left and that was scheduled for later in the afternoon.

*****

Paul sat at the computer in the communications center on the
military base in the middle of the desert in Kandahar. He had just replied to
Nic’s email. She had told him about sorting through her household items and boxing
up her belongings. She would be moving in just a few weeks. Her email had been
full of optimism and hope and he liked this side of her. Since he had met her
over four months ago, she had been somewhat of an enigma. He knew he was
attracted to her physically. She had the most beautiful soulful eyes that
sparkled when she smiled. He had found himself lost in them at times. And his
body inevitably responded to her when he was near her. On numerous occasions
he’d had a difficult time pushing inappropriate thoughts from his mind. But
more importantly she was intelligent and articulate and when she let you in,
she had a great sense of humor. She was brutally honest and he found that
incredibly attractive. She was also extraordinarily difficult to read. She
walled off
all
emotion. She had obviously been hurt and after hearing
about her childhood and her mother, he was starting to understand those deep
bruises a little more. She was wounded and scarred and he felt very protective
of her. She had not asked him for anything; quite the opposite in fact. She was
keeping him at arms’ length. Her emails were very friendly and full of information,
but rarely included emotion or sentiments of anything more than friendship. Yet
he was still drawn to her. He knew in his heart that if he could break down the
walls she had fortified around her heart she would be so worth it. He had to
earn her trust, something she obviously did not give easily. But he would do
it. He had to. His future depended on it.

*****

Heather Stewart sat in the coffee shop tapping her manicured
fingernails on the table waiting for her daughter Nicole to arrive. She was
already seven minutes late and Heather was a bit irked by her daughter’s
rudeness. She didn’t have all afternoon and Nicole should be more considerate
of her time.

Finally, a couple of minutes later, Nic rushed through the
door and all but ran to the table with her mother.

“So sorry,” she panted. “I was dropping some stuff off at
Salvation Army and it took much longer than I thought. Sorry,” she pleaded.

“Oh Nicole! You know I work for a living! I don’t have all
day to waste away like you do.”

Nic bit her bottom lip and wondered if there would ever come
a time when her mother would consider her worthy of her precious time.
Not
today
, she thought.

“Have you ordered?” Nic asked.

“No, I was waiting for you!”

“Well let’s get a drink then, shall we?”

“I’ll take a grande iced skinny hazelnut latte.”

Nic looked at her mother. She didn’t move.
Apparently I’m
paying, too!
Nic placed their orders and paid for the two drinks. She stood
at the counter and waited for the barista to make their coffees and then she
handed her mother her drink. Nic sat opposite and played with the straw poking
out of the plastic cup lid.

“Well, you called me!” Heather snapped.

Nic attempted a smile but couldn’t make it happen. She took
deep breath and tried to remember she was an adult, a grown-up, and not an
eight year old child still desperate for her mother’s attention and approval.

“I wanted to tell you that I have been offered a great
teaching position.”

“Oh? Still in kindergarten?” Heather asked.

Nic sighed. “I am a kindergarten teacher mom. That’s what I
went to school to be. It’s what I love and I have been hired to do what I
love.”

“It’s a glorified daycare provider, Nicole. I think you
could be something really important, like a lawyer. Why don’t you try to do
something
with your life? You didn’t have all of the disadvantages
I
did. You
don’t have to work as hard as
I
did to get somewhere.” Heather shook her
head in disgust.

“Well, I believe that a kindergarten teacher can change a
child’s life and I want to make sure that
every
child feels
loved
and
cherished. The job is in New York. I’m moving in three weeks,” she added
quickly.

“New York?”

“At a private Catholic school.”

“Oh Nicole. Really? Couldn’t you be a stripper? That would
be less embarrassing.”

Nic fought mightily to hold back the tears that were close
to the surface. She wouldn’t let her mother see her cry.

“Mom, I’m sorry you don’t approve.”

“
He
was a Catholic, you know!” The disdain dripped
from her tongue.

“Really? I didn’t know that,” Nic said, totally surprised
her mother revealed something new about her father.

“Yes. He wore a cross and everything,” Heather smirked.

“What was his name?”

“Well for the last thirty years I’ve just called him the
bastard.”

“Yes, I know,” Nic sighed. “But he did have a name. What was
it?”

“Greg.”

“Greg?”

“Greg Wilkins.”

Nic was stunned. She had asked her mother a million times to
tell her about her father and she refused every time. And now she had a name.

Almost Done!

From: Lathem, Paul R.
LCDR (lathempr@nav...

Date: Wednesday, August
08 05:05 AM

To: Nic Stewart
(nicas821@out...

Hi Nic!

Thanks so much for the
last email. I am thrilled to hear all about the new apartment. Sounds perfect!
And I’m glad to hear you’ve made some new friends already at your new school.
My offer still stands btw. I’ll fly down to you and drive the moving truck
back. I know how nervous you are about doing that. And no, you won’t miss your
car once in the city. Public transportation is excellent. Don’t stress over
that. I’ll call you when I get back to San Diego and make the final
arrangements with you. :)

So I get back to San
Diego on the 11
^th
and my parents and a couple of my brothers are
flying in for the ceremony on the 12
^th
. It’s nothing fancy. Just the
unit having a little goodbye thing. I’m sure my mother will cry and who knows,
I might too. Hahaha.

So this will be my last
email. I pack up and start the trek home tomorrow. It still feels pretty
surreal. BUT, I will see you soon!

I want you to know that your
emails have been great to read. They have helped to make the time fly by and I’ve
loved getting to know you better and I really feel like we will be friends for
a very long time. Thank you!

Love, Paul.

*****

Nic closed the lid of her laptop, a smile plastered to her
face. He was coming home still in one piece and he wanted to help her move to
New York. What a generous offer; one she wasn’t going to refuse. The thought of
driving a moving truck for the four hundred plus mile journey made her palms
sweat and the idea of driving in Manhattan in a car made her sick, so a truck
was positively nauseating. She would be eternally grateful to him for this one!

Paul had invited her to San Diego for his last day as a Seal
but she had declined…for several reasons. First off, she couldn’t afford it. The
cost of living in Manhattan was considerably higher than what she was used to,
and even though her salary was considerably higher than in the state of
Virginia, she needed to be as frugal as possible. And if truth be told, she
wasn’t at all comfortable with the idea of being there with Paul’s family. How
would she explain her relationship with him?
She
didn’t even know what
it was so how could she articulate it to others? She considered Paul a friend…a
very good friend. She couldn’t let herself think of him as more than that,
although sometimes when he signed his emails ‘Love, Paul,’ her heart skipped a
beat and her breath hitched in her throat. But she wasn’t even close to ready
to have a relationship that was anything more than friendship. She had tried very
hard to make sure she in no way led Paul on. She didn’t want him assuming
things that she was not ready for. She knew she was emotionally screwed up. Her
mother had made sure of that. And she wasn’t going to saddle anyone with her
issues. That wasn’t fair.

But then the thought entered her mind that made her smile
again. He would be here in just a few days!

*****

The Lathem family did nothing on a ‘small scale’! The first
class cabin of the aircraft was full of Lathems. Peter and his wife Maureen
were the first to board. Maureen was so thrilled at the thought of her son
leaving the Navy she could hardly stand it. As proud as she was of her son for
serving as honorably as he had, she was glad to have him finally out of harm’s
way. Peter held her hand and smiled at his wife. He was as happy as his wife,
just not as vocal.

Matt, Paul’s oldest brother, and his wife Janie were also
headed to San Diego with their two young children, Ella and Christopher. With
them stood Matt’s younger brother Mark and his wife Katy. To round out the trip
was Andrew, the third Lathem son, and his husband Rory and their four month old
daughter, Isabelle. It was quite a group and the flight was full of fun and
laughter and they landed in Los Angeles in no time. Just a quick flight on to
San Diego and they would be reunited with Paul. It couldn’t come soon enough
for Maureen.

*****

Paul sat in his tiny apartment for the last time. His entire
life in San Diego fit into six boxes that UPS had just picked up. They would be
shipped to his parents’ house where he would arrive tomorrow. Paul stood and
straightened his dress whites, grabbed his hat and locked the door behind him.
This chapter had closed.