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Chapter 19


AN: MAJOR props go out to Carrie for writing this next segment! I wanted to write a part with them actually in church, but I’m not Catholic and wouldn’t have known what to write and probably would have messed it up if I had tried, so I just decided not to, but then I mentioned that to Carrie in an email, and she was like, “Oh, you could have asked me for ideas, I’m Catholic,” and I was like, “Hm…” and that led to her actually writing a part for me! Thank you so much, Carrie, you rock!!

Also, big thanks to Mary for her ideas for later in this chapter!


Nick shifted his weight uncomfortably in the wooden pew. He had followed Claire and her family into the church like a lost puppy and awkwardly attempted to follow Claire’s actions when she genuflected on one knee before entering the seats. It was one of the nearly impossible things for Nick to try and balance his weight on his artificial limb while kneeling down on his good one.

They stood for the entrance hymn and then sat down when a woman approached the altar and read two different passages from the Bible. Once she finished, a small song was sung, and they stood up again as the priest took his place behind the lectern.

Nick leaned over to Claire. “How many more times do we go from sitting to standing?”

Claire shot Nick a stern look as she placed a finger over her lips. Then she grinned and whispered, “Just wait until we kneel.”

***

“Okay, so how bad was it?”

Claire asked the question as soon as Nick had shut the door on the passenger side of her car, which was parked in lot of the church. They had just gotten out of Sunday Mass and said goodbye to her parents, who had driven in a separate car.

Nick shrugged. “It was fine…”

“Be honest,” Claire said, smirking over at him.

He sighed and gave her a look. “Well, it wasn’t bad. I just felt, I dunno, kinda out of place. And all that sitting and standing and kneeling… man...”

She stifled a giggle and nodded, understanding completely. She’d been able to tell. It was pretty obvious he was not someone who set foot inside a church often, especially a Catholic one, and she almost wished they hadn’t gone. But her parents went every week, and during her youth, she’d gone every week too, so she knew her parents had wanted her to come with them this Sunday.

“Well, thanks for coming with me,” she told Nick sincerely. “You didn’t have to, but I appreciate it.”

“Hey, no problem,” he smiled over at her and added with a shrug, “I feel like a better person for going at least.”

She laughed. “Me too. It’s been awhile since I’ve been to church. I should probably go more often, but…” She trailed off, mimicking his shrug. She did sometimes feel guilty for not attending Mass more often than she did, for she certainly had a lot to thank God for. But as Sunday was one of her only days to sleep in, church just didn’t happen for her most weeks.

Realizing that they’d just been sitting there for a couple of minutes, and that the car was quite stuffy inside, she quickly stuck her key into the ignition and turned on the engine, blasting the air conditioner. She put the car into reverse and backed out of her space, joining the line of cars trying to get out of the lot.

“I think I’m going to talk to my parents as soon as we get back,” Claire said, as they sped down the highway. “I’ll do that while you’re changing clothes… hopefully it won’t take long. I mean, my decision’s pretty much made… I’m just gonna tell them and hope they can accept that.” She bit her lip, hoping with all her might that they would.

After talking with Nick the other day, she was ready to let go of her own doubts and move in with him, taking their relationship to a new level. And now that the decision was made, she was set on it. It wasn’t like anyone could forbid her from doing it; it had been years since she’d had to follow her parents’ rules. But at the same time, she hated to disappoint them. She owed them more than that.

All her life, she’d been “the difficult child” of the family. Kyle, the oldest, had always been mellow, good-natured, responsible, and for the most part, agreeable. As a child, her mother had described him as “well-behaved,” and his teenage years had been pretty smooth-sailing, compared to some. She, on the other hand, had been quite the opposite. She knew she had not been a “bad” kid, but she’d always been stubborn and strong-willed, the kind of person who liked to test other people’s limits. She’d been the child who threw horrible temper tantrums and refused to stay in time-out and, years later, the teenager who rebelled, getting into screaming fights with her mother, breaking the curfew her father had set for her, doing seemingly outrageous things just to get a reaction.

Looking back, she chalked it all up to birth order. Kyle was the firstborn, and she was the baby, and they both had filled the stereotypical roles quite well.

College had helped a little, for even though she hadn’t gone far from home, she had insisted upon living in the dorms on campus, hoping to get some freedom from her parents. That had helped to make her more independent and mature, and once she was out from under her parents’ roof, she’d actually gotten closer to both of them. She’d always been more of a “Daddy’s Girl,” but after her first year of college, she found herself bonding with her mother, whom she’d constantly battled with throughout most of her high school years, as well.

But the thing that had really transformed her from difficult teenager to sensible adult was, of course, the diagnosis of her leukemia. It was a horrible disease, but she had to admit, some good things had come from it. She had grown up, calmed down, and learned what was really important in life. She’d found out who her true friends were and discovered that no one was more important than her family, who had been with her through it all.

It was all past her now (she hoped), but those effects lingered, and after everything she’d both intentionally and unintentionally put her parents through, she now found herself just wanting to make them happy, to make up for all the grief she’d caused them in years past. But at the same time, she wanted to make Nick happy too… and herself; she couldn’t forget her own happiness.

What had seemed so simple in Nick’s eyes was turning into a confusing mess for her. At this point, all she wanted to do was get home, get the conversation with her parents over with, and hope for the best.

***

As soon as they got back to her parents’ house, Claire slipped out of her black skirt and stretchy top, trading the dress clothes for a comfy pair of shorts and a tank top. Leaving Nick to change in the bedroom, she walked down the hall to her parents’ room and knocked lightly on the door. After a moment, she heard her father call, “Come on in!”

She opened the door and poked her head in. Her dad was sitting on the bed, having already changed out of his church clothes as well, switching his black dress socks with the plain old white socks he usually wore. Her mother came out of the bathroom right as Claire came in and smiled when she saw Claire. “Hey, honey, what’s up?” she asked her daughter.

“I just wanted to talk to you guys about something,” said Claire, coming into the bedroom and closing the door behind her. She was about to flop down onto the bed, just as she had when she was a little girl, to watch in wide-eyed wonderment as her mother breezed around the room, getting ready for a night out on the town with her father, or maybe just to talk. But, now an adult, she thought better of it and sank down into an armchair across from the bed instead, facing her father. It just seemed more grown up that way; she couldn’t quite imagine them taking her seriously when she announced her plans to move in with Nick while sprawled out on her stomach on top of their bed, her legs in the air behind her, ankles criss-crossed.

So she crossed her legs like a lady and waited while her mother perched on the edge of the bed, beside her father. “What do you want to talk about?” she asked, folding her hands.

“Well…” Claire hesitated, wondering if there was any certain way she should begin this. Finally, she decided to just get to the point. “Nick and I want to move in together.”

She watched her parents’ faces closely. Her father frowned slightly, but her mother was slowly nodding. “You mean you want to move into his place?”

Claire nodded. “Yeah. Into his place.”

“So this means you two are pretty serious then? This is more than just a fling?”

Claire smiled. “Yes, Mom… I think it’s always been more than just a ‘fling’.” The word ‘fling’ somehow just didn’t fit with her and Nick… not when they’d met during a chemotherapy treatment, exchanged their first “I love you’s” in a hospital room, and officially “hooked up” when Nick was still recovering from life-threatening lung surgery. And after nearly five months together, there was no doubting it – they were serious.

“Well, are ya gonna marry him?” Her father spoke for the first time, simply raising his eyebrows in her direction.

She smiled again, though awkwardly this time, and shrugged. “Maybe. Who knows? Personally, I think it’s a little soon for that, but-“

Her father nodded vigorously, his head bobbing up and down almost like one of those stupid drinking birds. “I agree – too soon.”

She put her hand over her mouth to hide a smirk. Her dad was a very kind man, but when it came to his kids, her especially, he could be so overprotective, to the point of driving her nuts. Jamie was the only boyfriend of hers he had ever gotten used to, even grown to like after awhile. She had a sneaking suspicion that the fact that Jamie had been a soccer star in high school, leading the school team to second place in their division for the state senior year, didn’t hurt – like her brother, her father was a sports fanatic. She’d always tended to avoid jocks though, except for Jamie, who, despite his soccer talent, hardly qualified as a “jock” in her eyes. She preferred… mascots? Uh, no. Then again, she’d never thought much of pop stars either, and look who she was with now.

“Well, we’re definitely not getting married now,” Claire reassured her father, “but we would like to live together.” She paused, then went on quickly, “If you think about it, it makes so much more sense to do it that way. I mean, if we were to discuss marriage in the future – and we’re not… I mean, that hasn’t come up at all… just being hypothetical here – we’d already know exactly what we were getting into, if we’d already lived together.”

“Your brother and Amber didn’t live together before they were married, and they have a wonderful marriage,” her father pointed out.

Claire gave him a look. “I’m not Kyle,” she said firmly.

“Kris,” her mother stepped in, touching her dad’s arm. “She has a point, you know. And I really don’t think this is something we have a say in… Claire’s an adult now, and this is her decision to make.” Looking back at Claire, she added, “But thank you for coming to us before you made it.”

Claire nodded, smiling faintly. She could feel happiness bubbling up inside her – her parents hadn’t freaked out; she was going to be moving in with Nick.

She looked at her father, hoping for an encouraging sign from him. Her mother seemed to be fine with the decision, but she knew he was less than enthusiastic about it.

“Dad?” she asked gently.

He gave her a little smile. “I guess your mom’s right,” he said. “If you want to move in with him, it’s your decision. And if you think it’s the right step to take, then I trust your judgment.”

That was all she wanted to hear. Smiling, she slid off the chair and went over to hug him. “Thanks, Daddy,” she said, patting his back.

“I suppose you’ll need help moving all of your stuff out of your apartment and into his house?” he asked, when she pulled back.

“Um, yeah... probably.”

He nodded. “Well, if you do it over a weekend, I can come down and help. Your brother could help too.”

“Thanks, that would be great. I’ll have to talk to Nick and figure out when a good time would be to do all this. I’ll definitely wait till at least the end of the month, so I can pay my last month’s rent, but maybe we could do it like the first weekend in June or something?”

He nodded. “Well, you talk to Nick and let me know, and I’ll plan to drive down when you need me.”

“I will,” she said. “Thanks again, Dad.” Another rush of excitement soaring through her at the realization that this was really happening, she gushed, “I’m gonna go find Nick,” and scurried out of the room to tell him the good news.

***

Nick was overjoyed. After all the drama and worry of the past week, the decision had finally been made, and there was no changing her mind now – Claire was moving in. He was anxious to get home and start getting his house ready for her… even though she wouldn’t actually be making the move for another two weeks at least. Still, he wanted to be prepared. He had decided that he was ready to move back into the master bedroom upstairs, rather than stay in the guest bedroom downstairs he’d been using for the past year, so that he wouldn’t have to go upstairs. But he could navigate stairs well enough by now that it wouldn’t be much of a hassle. It would be worth it to have the larger, nicer bedroom upstairs to share with Claire, and he had promised her the use of the jacuzzi in the master bath.

While he stood behind Claire’s car, waiting for her to bring out her suitcase for him to load into the open trunk and thinking about what all he could do to the house before she moved in, the front door opened, and Claire’s father appeared on the front stoop. “Nick!” he called, beckoning to Nick. “Come over here; I want to have a word with you.”

Nick walked over, feeling slightly intimidated as he stepped up to the older man.

“I just wanted to tell you… I know Claire likes you a lot, and you seem like a real nice kid. But… you make sure you treat her right, you understand? If you step out of line with my little girl…”

Nick shook his head quickly, wide-eyed. “Oh, no, sir,” he interrupted, “I would never do anything to hurt Claire!” He paused for a minute and then added, “I love her.” This could have been either the right or the very wrong thing to say, but luckily, Kris Ryan’s face relaxed, and he smiled.

“Good.” Stepping forward, he clamped his hand down on Nick’s shoulder and gave it a friendly squeeze. “I figured I wouldn’t need to say that to you, but it’s a ‘dad’ thing, you know. If you ever have a daughter someday, you’ll understand.”

Nick nodded vaguely, and all of a sudden, he couldn’t help but think of Elaina. Leah’s daughter, the baby he’d thought was his up until just over two months before she was born. He’d seen her just once, at a chance meeting with Leah and her fiancée (probably husband by now) at a grocery store last year, but he still remembered her face, so sweet and angelic, and her features, blonde hair and blue eyes, just like her mother. She’d be over a year old by now…

His thoughts were interrupted when the front door swung open and out came Claire, walking lopsidedly with her heavy overnight bag slung over one shoulder.

“You want me to get that?” he offered, holding out his hand, but she shook her head.

“Nah, I got it, thanks,” she replied, carrying it out to her trunk. When she had dumped it in alongside his bag, she came back up to the front stoop to join Nick and Kris, and now the rest of the family, who had come out to say goodbye to her and Nick. He said goodbye to Kyle and Amber, who would be leaving shortly after they did, while Claire hugged her parents, and then stepped back so she could tell her brother goodbye as well.

“Thanks for having us for the weekend,” he said politely to her parents, shaking Kris’s hand and returning the kind smile Carrie gave him.

“Oh, we were glad to have you. Thanks for coming up with Claire, Nick. It was so good to see you again,” replied Carrie, making him feel both welcomed and accepted. It was a nice feeling.

“I guess I’ll see you again in a couple of weeks, when we get Claire moved in,” Kris added, and Nick couldn’t help but notice that although the older man smiled, the smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. It was not hard to figure out that he was not exactly thrilled about Claire’s decision to move into Nick’s home. But Nick tried not to dwell on that too much, hoping it was only his paternal overprotective nature and not a personal thing.

Nick nodded. “Yep, I’ll see you then,” he replied.

He couldn’t help but feel slightly relieved when he heard Claire say, “Well, we better head off now. I wanna get on the road and get home before too long.” They walked to the car and got in, waving to the family as Claire backed out of the driveway. Only when she had turned off of their street did Claire turn to Nick and ask, “So what was my dad talking to you about when I came outside just a few minutes ago?”

Nick smirked. “Eh, nothing much.”

“Was he giving you crap about me moving in with you?”

Nick chuckled, wondering what he was supposed to say to that. In defense of her father, he simply replied, “No… he was just being a dad.”

They left it at that.

***