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Chapter 10

Nick knew it was morning even before he opened his eyes. And when he did open them, he opened them slowly, hesitantly. He half-expected to be met with a killer headache just as the morning sunlight reached his eyes, but he was pleasantly surprised to find that he was not hungover, and the memory of the night before was still vividly clear in his mind.

He was glad. Last night was an experience he did not want to forget, not quite yet anyway. It had been awkward at best, certainly not his most superlative love-making experience, and yet, it had been special. Special because it was his first time with Claire and also his first time since… well, since the previous April. He felt rejuvenated, as if new life had been breathed into his lungs.

Looking over at Claire, he smiled. She was lying on her stomach, still sound asleep, her body twisted up in the sheets, her head turned away from him. He reached out and lightly stroked her bare back, wishing she would wake up. After last night, he wanted nothing more than to just be with her. The way she had touched him… the way she had loved him... she had made him feel good about himself. For the first time in over a year, he had truly felt like a real, whole man, someone who could be desired, someone who was worthy of love. And she had given him the love and shown him the acceptance he needed. If anything, he loved her more now than he did when he’d woken up beside her the previous morning.

As he thought of the morning before, he devilishly wondered how she’d like to wake up to a faceful of icy water, but quickly dismissed the idea. He wasn’t about to ruin the morning. Instead, he leaned over, planting a soft kiss on her shoulder, then leaving a trail of them down her spine. Just as he was nearing the small of her back, she flinched and came awake suddenly, rolling over to meet him face to face.

“Morning,” he said with a grin.

She quickly jerked the sheet up to cover herself and smiled sheepishly at him. “Morning,” she echoed, her voice hoarse from sleep. “How long have you been awake?”

“Just a few minutes,” he replied. “I was just about to get up and fix myself a glass of ice water…” He waggled his eyebrows, and she smirked.

“Well, good thing I woke up then, huh?”

“Yeah,” he said; he was glad she had too. “So… how ya feeling? Hungover at all?”

She scrunched her face up, thinking. “No…” she said slowly. “Actually I’m feeling pretty good. Guess we didn’t have that much to drink last night.”

“No. Last night was great.” He smiled, almost shyly, hoping she felt the same way, hoping he hadn’t disappointed her.

To his relief, she returned the smile. “Yeah… it was.” She sighed lightly and draped her arm across his bare chest, letting her hand run slowly up and down his torso and across his stomach. He reached down and caught her hand, cupping it between his two and raising it to his lips to softly kiss.

“You slobbered on it!” she giggled, snatching her hand away and exaggeratedly wiping it off on his chest.

“I did not!” he cried with indignation.

“You did too!”

“Did not!”

“Did too!”

He huffed and turned away from her, pretending to pout. But a few seconds later, he rolled back over and smiled. “So,” he asked, “what are we doing today?”

“I should be asking you that. What are we doing today?”

“I dunno… whatcha wanna do?”

She raised an eyebrow. “Did you plan anything for us to do in advance?”

He shrugged. “Yeah, I got us booked for a few things later in the week. I thought we could just hang around here and do whatever for first few days. You know, relax and stuff.”

“So basically do what you do at home anyway – sleep and hang around on the beach?”

He grinned. “Well, when you put it like that… yeah, I guess so. But this ain’t Tampa; this beach is way more pretty, don’t you think?”

“Yeah,” she smiled, “it is prettier. Everything’s beautiful here.”

“I know,” he said, reaching out to take a tendril of her light red hair between his fingertips. Twirling the lock of hair around his index finger, he asked again, “So, what should we do?”

Untwisting her hair from his finger and freeing herself from his grasp, she sat up, keeping the sheet pulled tightly around her. “I don’t know about you,” she said, “but I need to call my mom. It’s a reasonable hour in Florida now, right?”

“Wait, call your mom?” he repeated, horrified. Oh, don’t even tell me she’s one of those girls that tells her mother everything… like all the details of what we did last night… He had never dated a girl like that before, but he’d heard horror stories from friends who had.

She must have noticed the appalled expression on his face, for she gave him a strange look. “Uh, yeah… today’s Mother’s Day.”

“Oh.” He stopped short. “It is?” He tried to think of the date… it was May something… the eighth maybe? He wasn’t sure, but he at least knew it was a Sunday. Let’s see… Sunday… early May… yep, sounded like Mother’s Day to him. He had completely forgotten.

“Yeah, it is,” Claire said, an amused smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. “I take it you didn’t remember?”

He shrugged. “Wouldn’t be the first time. I know I didn’t remember last year either.” Last year at this time, he’d still been struggling to learn to walk on his first prosthetic leg. Mother’s Day had been the least of concerns, especially since he had kicked his own mother out of his house and sent her packing just over a month before. He realized that meant it had been well over a year since he’d even spoken to his mother, let alone actually seen her.

Claire nodded slowly. “I guess that makes sense. You and your mom are kind of… estranged, right?”

He snorted. “That’s a nice way of putting it. Yeah, the last time I talked to her, I still had my leg, and she was trying to convince me not to let them amputate because it would ruin my career.”

She grimaced. “Wow… yeah, I can see where her priorities lie.”

“Uh-huh,” he said dryly, trying to sound casual, as if he didn’t care. He knew she could tell he did; the sympathy in her eyes said it all. But she chose to say nothing verbally, and he was glad. He didn’t want to talk about it. The less he thought about Jane, the better. He would rather just pretend he didn’t have a mother. Somehow, it was just less painful that way.

***

“Hey, Mom, it’s me,” Claire spoke into the phone. “Happy Mother’s Day!”

“Well, hi, honey!” her mother’s voice greeted her. “This is a nice surprise – I didn’t know if I’d hear from you today or not!”

Claire knew her mother didn’t mean that in a bad way, but it still made her feel sort of guilty for not being there. In all her twenty-five years, she didn’t think she’d ever not seen her mother on Mother’s Day. Even when her parents had moved from Tampa to Gainesville, Florida a few years ago, she had always made a point to drive there to visit for the day. But this year, that was obviously impossible.

“Well, of course, Mom, I wanted to at least call!” said Claire emphatically. “How’s your day going so far? Are you doing something with Kyle?”

“No, he and Amber are spending the day with her parents, but he wants us to all get together the weekend after next, when you’re back and have gotten a chance settle in. Unless you already have plans, of course.”

“No, no plans that I know of for that weekend, so that sounds good. Are we coming to your place or Kyle’s house or what?”

“We thought you both could drive up here on Saturday. You’re welcome to stay overnight, but if you’d rather just come for the day, that’s fine too. And bring Nick if you want.”

“Really?”

“Well, Amber’s coming with Kyle, of course, so there’s no reason why you shouldn’t bring your ‘significant other’ along too,” her mother said, then added quickly, “But don’t make him feel like he’s obligated too – only if he wants to.”

Claire smiled. “Well, I’ll talk to him,” she promised. “I’m sure he’d love to though.”

Maybe ‘love to’ was a stretch, but she didn’t see why he would mind. Nick had met her family before, during her bone marrow transplant, and they had seemed to get along well. She remembered how her mother had been skeptical of him at first, not sure what kind of friendship a rich and world-famous pop singer could offer her daughter. But that had quickly changed after she had met Nick, and now she practically adored him. Claire was sure it went back to the transplant and how Nick had been there for her during that ordeal, visiting her in the hospital, holding her hand when she was hurting, singing her to sleep when she was alone and afraid, and even flying all the way from New York City to Tampa on a moment’s notice when she needed him. He had proven his loyalty to her then, in her eyes and in the eyes of her mother.

“Great,” her mother said. “Well, you can call me again when you’re back in Florida and let me know. So, how’s Hawaii? Are you having a wonderful time?”

Claire smiled, thinking of the night before. “Ohh yes,” she said, “it’s so wonderful.” As she launched into a description of the house and the beach and ocean beyond, Nick popped his head around the corner and grinned at her. She smiled back and stuck out her tongue at him, giggling at the goofy face he made back. “Sorry, Mom,” she said quickly, “Nick just came in, and he’s makin’ me laugh.” Snapping her fingers at Nick, she pointed to the chair across the table from her, motioning for him to sit down. Be off in a minute, she mouthed, holding up her index finger, as she listened to her mom reminisce on her honeymoon in Hawaii.

“Well, Claire,” her mother said after a few more minutes, “we should probably get off the phone now. Long distance, you know. If I don’t talk to you again till you’re home, you and Nick enjoy the rest of your trip and have a safe flight back.”

“We will, Mom, thanks,” replied Claire. “Love you.”

“Love you too. Bye, hon.”

As Claire ended the call and set the phone down, Nick smiled across the table at her. “You guys are close, huh?” he said.

“Yeah,” Claire nodded, “we really are. Didn’t always used to be that way – we fought all the time when I was in high school… you know, typical mother/teenage daughter stuff. But things change… people grow up, stuff happens… we’re a lot closer than we used to be.” She smiled ruefully. “Something like getting cancer will do that to you, I guess, bring you closer to people, show you what’s important and who’s important.” She saw his eyes shift downward as she said this and remembered that he hadn’t been so lucky… her family had been there for her throughout everything, but his had not. He didn’t like to talk about it a lot, but she knew the basics. His own mother…

She cleared her throat and quickly added, “I’m sure it’s the same with you and the guys.” They were practically his family anyway. She had seen firsthand the way they had all watched out for him and supported him in the days, weeks, and months after the amputation of his leg. If that wasn’t love, she didn’t know what was.

His eyes rose back up to meet hers, and he smiled slightly. “Yeah,” he said, and she relaxed, feeling as if she had corrected the wrong chord she’d struck before it had a chance to resonate.

“Speaking of the guys,” she spoke up, “where’s AJ?”

“Out back with Mary,” replied Nick. “I think they’re gonna go swimming.”

“Cool. You wanna go swimming too?”

“Maybe later,” said Nick and rose from the table, grimacing as he stepped forward with his prosthetic leg.

Noticing his pained expression, she asked, “Hey, how are things down there?”

Halfway to the refrigerator, he stopped suddenly and turned quickly, his eyes flying downward to his crotch. He looked up at her, red-faced, and she realized what she’d said. Bursting out laughing, she slapped her forehead and cried, “No no no, not down there! I know for a fact that all is very well there.” She grinned widely and gave him an exaggerated wink. “I meant your leg!”

“Ohh…” He chuckled, his cheeks growing even redder. “It’s, um… fine. Getting better.”

“Liar. It still hurts; I saw you wince. You still need some TLC, don’t you?” she asked, putting on a face of motherly concern.

He smirked. “You know, around this time last year, I believe you were basically telling me to get up off my ass and stop feeling sorry for myself, not offering to give me ‘TLC’.”

She laughed and stood up. “True,” she said, as she sauntered up to him and slid her arms around his waist. “But that was before you paid my way for ten days in paradise. I owe ya.”

“Hm…” Nick murmured, “that’s right. I guess you do. Well, now’s the time to pay up, woman.”

Looking up, she saw him dip his head, his lips making a beeline for hers. She tipped back her head, turned up her chin, and let him steal a kiss. Only it wasn’t really stealing, for apparently she was just paying her dues. Fair enough, she thought, as her hands rose to run through his sun-bleached hair, and she guided his head down so that she could kiss him back.

***