CHAPTER 41

The next day, the flowers arrived as usual with chocolates and a written note, but a much longer one;

Yesterday, I realized how much I missed

having you in my life. You are all I want

(plus more Nicholes or whatever we

choose to name them)

Nick.

P.S: I'll so much love a repeat of the

locker room, thought about it all

night.

For the first time since getting the notes, she giggled helplessly.

"What's funny?" Christian looked up from his breakfast to ask. He looked bleary eyed after his sleepless night of whoring and drinking.

"Nothing really," she answered clearing her throat nervously. She had forgotten she wasn't the only occupant of the room.

"You still love him don't you?," he asked with as much seriousness as he could muster with his eyes half open.

She nodded without thinking.

"Then give him another chance," he said with a shrug of his broad shoulders.

"It's not that easy. He'll just break my heart all over again."

"I don't know what happened between you two in the past but my instinct tells me he's not here to play this time around."

She looked back at him doubtfully.

"Besides, you'll never know what'll happen if you don't take the risk. Life's too short to waste it playing safe. Take the big bold step Nadine," he continued cajoling and it seemed to be working on her.

She nodded emphatically "I'm too young to be alone and I've been scared this whole time. Who cares if he's not offering his whole self but a part, right?," she asked, looking at him to confirm it all.

"That's what I'm talking about. Take what he's offering and try to find your happiness with that," he said, doubting the words as they gushed out of his lips.

He hoped he wasn't doing the wrong thing giving her the much needed push.

Nadine was a nice woman and if her Adonis as much as drop her heart not to talk of shattering it, he was going to find him and deal with him. Forget the fact he wouldn't be in Folks for long.

"And I'm giving us a chance as a family for Nichole, right?" Anything to make her stupid decision right.

"Definitely," he replied nodding aggressively.

"Then I should go tell him all that," she said rising from her seat excitedly and moving to the door.

"Good luck," he called after her smiling, regretting the action immediately. His head was pounding crazily.

One had to wonder how he was a schoolteacher of all career choices.

.........

Who could be ranging his doorbell like a maniac ten am in the morning?

He jerked the door open, thinking it was Katrina who didn't yield to his threats and was ready to deliver a angry tirade when he stopped short.

"Hi," Nadine said smiling awkwardly at him.

Her standing there reminded him of the time she had come dressed up for the first night of their affair. She had been awkward also.

"Hi," he replied, looking at her in awe. She looked so breathtakingly beautiful with her hair swept up in a messy bun with her pink bare lips looking soft and ready to be kissed.

"May I come in?"

"Sure," he said moving away from the door."Do you want coffee? I made some."

"That'll be nice. Thank you."

She followed him to the kitchen, noticing the pristine clean house. He obviously got a new housekeeper.

Interesting.

She watched him pour her a cup and murmured her appreciation when he handed it to her. They sipped in an awkward silence till she decided to break the ice.

"You told me we need to talk," she began gingerly.

"We do," he said moving to sit at the kitchen table. She did the same.

"I want to tell you about my parents," he said slowly, looking deep into her eyes like he was gazing at her soul.

He had never talked about them. The little she knew about them was from sources other than him.

"OK," she murmured uncertainly.

"For whatsoever reason I never got to know about, my father was here in Folks for a couple of months. That was when he met my beautiful mother and they started an affair," he paused then continued "they were in lust. When it was time for him to leave town and move on, mother became pregnant with me."

She watched him take the hot cup of coffee to his lips and take a sip. She could almost see the whirlwind of emotions radiating from within him and she knew it was taking a lot from him to talk about his parents.

He was so sexy with the serious look in his eyes.

"Being the honorable man that he was, he decided to marry my mother. After all, he was going to have to marry someday so why not to a beautiful and amenable woman? That was how he got trapped in a loveless marriage."

"Doesn't sound loveless to me. They had something together," she said with a shrug.

"They had the lust and that soon burned out. After I was born, not a day passed by that my father didn't drum it into my ears how he was trapped by my mother who always wanted to rise beyond her small town."

"That was.."

"Insensitive of him," he cut in. "But my mother was none the better. It was like she forgot all about me the moment I was born and had served my purposes. She had series of lovers just like my father did and she never had a moment to spare for her unwanted son."

"I'm so sorry," she said on a whisper.

"Don't be. It was all in the past. I expected so much from them, I wanted them to give me all their love and attention but it never happened till the day they died. I was so starved for love and mistrustful until I met you."

He looked into her green eyes, wet with unshed tears. He moved his hand to take hers in his on the table. She didn't resist.

"I want to spend the rest of my life with you Nana. I want to live knowing I'm not the love starved little boy anymore and....."

"I want this too. But I don't want you marrying me for the wrong reasons and hating me at the end."

"No baby, that's not going to happen. I want to spend the rest of my life with you for all the right reasons. For one, you make me happy," he said smiling into her eyes.

That really wasn't the three words she wanted to hear but she had come with her knowing she couldn't have his heart.

She nodded and Nicholas felt something inside him sigh in relieve. He had not gotten around to telling her how much he loved her, but he felt pretty close. And she had said nothing about loving him either.

He was going to have to work to earn her love after all that has happened between them.

"I ran into your 'friend' in town yesterday," she said, making the word 'friend' sound like something bad.

"You mean Katrina?"

"Oh. So that's her name? Suits her," she said tonelessly.

"Are you jealous?," he asked smiling into her eyes.

She scoffed loudly "Me? Jealous? Why should I?" She moved to extricate her hands from his but he held on tight

"I don't know. But she's not my friend and if she knows what's good for her, she should be on her way back to New York as we speak," he said coldly.

"Why? You ended your relationship with her because of this?"

"No. We never had a relationship. Whatever arrangement we had between us ended way before I came back to town. And I had nothing to do with her while she was here," he said solemnly, willing her to believe him.

"I thought I saw you.."

"That was me about to bodily throw her out not whatever you think. You've ruined me for any other woman. I told your macho guest to tell you it wasn't like it seemed. He didn't do that?"

She shook her head "That son of a bitch," he swore angrily.

"I told him not to tell me whatever you said," she replied smiling.

"But he knew better than to leave you to assume stuffs that didn't happen. Tell your guest to hide from me."

"I'll do just that," she said laughing.

He watched her, grateful for the second chance he was getting and promising himself he wasn't going to ever mess it up.

"Was the pregnancy hard on you?," he asked out of the blue. All traces of mirth left her face as she nodded slowly, not understanding his reason for asking.

"What happened?," he asked, swallowing convulsively, asking himself if he really wanted to know the answer.

"The baby was in a breech position. I found out early into the pregnancy. That was the reason I went for Cesarean section. Everything was fine after that," she finished smiling sadly. He managed to smile back at her, his heart breaking for what she went through alone.

"I'm happy you had the Sullivans."

"Me too." She cleared her throat nervously before saying "I've some pictures, in case you want to see the first five years of her life." She had a lot of pictures with her baby bumps too but she wasn't so sure if he'll want to see them.

"I'll love to. Thank you so much Nana," he said giving her hands a squeeze.

"Nichole will be so glad we are going to become a family," she smiled giddily.

"I can just picture the look on her face." He smiled, grateful for his daughter but he wanted nothing more than to chart off her mother to bed to make more babies.

She saw the smoldering look he was giving her, reciprocating with one of her own. She didn't know who moved first but they were standing and their lips were locked in a passionate kiss that spoke volume than all the words they had said.