Extreme Measures

by Brenda Harlen

  "I've looked everywhere already. Most places twice," she admitted.

  She was still digging through the closet when Carly came back down the stairs, her hands tucked behind her back.

  "Mommy?"

  "Mommy's kind of busy right now," Nikki said, still from inside the closet.

  "I have to tell you something."

  Nikki stood up again, sighing as she closed the door, her hands empty. "What is it, honey?"

  "I … um … it's about your … shoe," Carly admitted.

  Nikki closed her eyes, as if she knew her daughter's words were a prelude of worse things to come. "Where is it?"

  Carly chewed on her bottom lip, unconsciously mimicking one of her mother's nervous gestures, and held out the shoe she'd been hiding behind her back.

  Colin had to bite down on his own lip to keep from laughing out loud. The shoe in Carly's hand, covered in purple and green marker, no longer bore much resemblance to the one Nikki had been searching for.

  "Caroline—Theresa—Gordon."

  Caroline. It had been Colin's mother's name, but he'd never realized it was Carly's as well. Nikki hadn't even known his mother, but she'd known how close Colin had been to her, and it meant a lot to him that she'd named their daughter for her.

  Looking at his little girl, he saw that the use of her full name was all it took for Carly to appreciate the magnitude of the situation, because her eyes immediately filled with tears. "I'm sorry."

  Nikki exhaled audibly and took the shoe from her daughter's hand. "What were you doing with this?"

  "I was just playing dress-up," Carly answered.

  "You know you're supposed to ask for permission before you use someone else's things," her mother reminded her. "And you don't color or paint or cut or glue anything that isn't yours."

  Carly nodded and hung her head.

  Colin was impressed that Nikki was able to maintain a level tone and outward calm despite the obvious ruin of her footwear.

  "Then why did you draw on mommy's shoes?"

  "I wanted shoes like Cosmic Cat," she explained. Her favorite cartoon character habitually wore a pink cape and green-and-purple-spotted shoes.

  Nikki sighed again. "Caroline."

  The first tears tracked down Carly's cheeks, and Colin felt his heart turn over in his chest. He knew Carly's actions deserved reprimand, but he hated to see the obvious upset on his daughter's face and he longed to take her in his arms and comfort her. Fortunately, before he could give in to the impulse—and annoy Nikki by interfering in the situation—the doorbell rang.

  "I'll get it," he offered, grateful for the interruption and looking forward to the opportunity to chat with Nikki's date for the evening.

  But when he opened the door, he found his brother standing on the porch.

  Chapter 8

  "It's not a good time for a visit," Colin said, vaguely wondering why Shaun was dressed in black tie. "Nikki's in the middle of a shoe crisis."

  His brother frowned. "I'm not visiting," he said. "I'm here to pick up Nikki."

  Now it was Colin's turn to frown.

  Shaun was Nikki's date?

  Well, that would explain the tux. But it didn't explain the myriad of emotions that coursed through Colin in response to the revelation.

  Should he be relieved that Nikki would be with Shaun? Or infuriated that she was wearing that sexy dress for his brother?

  "Can I come in?" Shaun asked.

  Colin stepped back automatically, his mind reeling. There was no way Nikki was really dating Shaun. His ex-wife and his brother? The idea was just too ridiculous.

  Shaun would never—

  Hell, Nikki was a beautiful woman. Any man would consider himself lucky to be with her.

  But Nikki would never—

  Well, as Nikki had so clearly stated, he didn't know anything about her. Not anymore.

  Maybe Shaun was the type of man she was looking for. He was a successful professional—responsible, reliable. And he'd been there for Nikki over the past five years, which Colin himself had not. The realization didn't sit well with Colin, and although he wanted to be there for Nikki now, he knew he couldn't make any promises. Not until Duncan Parnell was behind bars again and all loose ends were tied up.

  A short while later, he stood mutely at the window with Carly as she waved goodbye to her mother and uncle. He watched Shaun put his hand on the small of Nikki's back—his palm against the bare flesh exposed by the low-cut dress—to guide her to his car. There was no awkwardness in the touch, no uncertainty. If this really was a date, it obviously wasn't a first date.

  Still, Colin took some comfort in the fact that Nikki had been forced to borrow a pair of low-heeled gray pumps from Arden's closet. While the shoes matched the dress well enough, they weren't the kind of footwear to inspire erotic fantasies. Even as she'd slipped her feet into them, Nikki had grumbled that she wouldn't be able to do much dancing because the shoes didn't fit quite right. Colin had bit back a smile, silently congratulating his daughter on the success of her clever, if unintended, attempt to keep her mother out of the arms of another man.

  Hours later, after Carly was sleeping in her bed, Colin continued to puzzle over the situation between his ex-wife and his brother. The idea that they could be romantically involved preoccupied his thoughts to the exclusion of all else. Even his concerns about Parnell and the bombings took a backseat—if only temporarily—to equally unnerving thoughts of a personal relationship between Nikki and Shaun.

  When ten o'clock came and went and Nikki still wasn't back, his uneasiness increased. She hadn't said what time he should expect her, and he hadn't thought to ask. She had left her cell-phone number in case of an emergency, but he doubted she'd agree that the thought of his brother holding her too close on the dance floor constituted such an emergency.

  He heard the crunch of tires on gravel through the open window and exhaled a sigh of relief. They must have left right after dinner to be home already, which confirmed that the evening was an obligation rather than a date.

  He turned up the volume on the television, pretended to be engrossed in the baseball game.

  But it wasn't Nikki who came into the house.

  It was Arden.

  "You're home early," Colin said, ignoring the surge of disappointment.

  Arden kicked off her shoes—sensible, low-heeled pumps—and sank into an overstuffed chair, tucking her feet under her. "Not early enough."

  "Bad date?"

  "The worst," she agreed. "Never, never, never let yourself be talked into going out with someone your single friends assure you is perfectly wonderful," she warned him. "Because the truth of the matter is, if he was that wonderful, he wouldn't be available. And they wouldn't be trying to pawn him off on you."

  Colin couldn't help but smile. "Good point."

  "Why does everyone think a woman can't be happy unless she has a man in her life, anyway?" she demanded to know.

  "I couldn't say," he replied.

  "Because I am happy," Arden continued. "I'm an independent woman with a fulfilling career and wonderful friends."

  He knew what she was talking about. And because he'd been there, he understood how she could feel lonely and alone despite outward appearances. "Life sucks, doesn't it?"

  She laughed. "Yeah. Sometimes it really does." She pushed herself to her feet. "I think I'm going to have a glass of wine. Would you like one, or are you ready to head back to your own place?"

  "I'll hang around for a while," he said casually. He might not have been the man Nikki had spent the evening with, but somehow he'd make sure that he was the man she was thinking about when she went to bed that night.

  "Want to see what time she comes home?" Arden teased, moving over to the dining room cabinet to take out two glasses. She found a bottle of red wine in the cupboard below and deftly uncorked it. "If she comes home."

  Colin's eyes narrowed, but Arden just smiled.

  "Does she make a habit of not coming home?" he asked.
He didn't expect that Nikki had been celibate for the past five years, but the thought of her being with some nameless, faceless man was easier to tolerate than that of her with his brother.

  Arden passed him a glass of wine. "Why are you asking? Are you looking for ammunition in case you decide to sue for custody?"

  "I'm asking because I can't stand the thought of her being with anyone else," he said, surprising both of them with the admission.

  "She'll be home," she assured him.

  "Does Nikki go out … with Shaun … very often?"

  She chuckled softly. "I thought you'd at least try to be subtle."

  "Would you just answer the question?"

  "They've been out a few times."

  "Are they just friends?" he asked. "Or is there something more going on?"

  Arden hesitated, and he wished he could withdraw the question. If there was something going on between his ex-wife and his brother, he did not want to know about it.

  "They're just friends," she said, "but … sometimes I think he'd like it to be more."

  He never should have asked. He should definitely drop the subject. Instead, he said, "What does Nikki want?"

  "That, you'll have to ask her."

  "She doesn't exactly confide in me these days."

  Arden sipped from her glass of wine. "That's not surprising."

  "No." He knew he'd made some mistakes. Big mistakes. He would give anything to be able to go back in time and do things over, but since that wasn't possible, he could only hope that Nikki would give him a second chance. And that he would stay alive long enough to take it.

  "How are things going with Carly?" Arden asked.

  He smiled. "I find myself just watching her sometimes, awed by the realization that I had even a small part in creating such an incredible child."

  "She's the best, isn't she?" There was no denying the affection in Arden's voice.

  "Yeah, she is."

  "She's the reason I suggested this arrangement," she admitted. "Not because you deserved a chance to know your daughter, but because she deserved to know her father."

  He ignored the not-so-subtle jibe. "I'm grateful, anyway."

  "Don't make me regret it. And—" she hesitated once more "—don't break Nikki's heart again."

  Colin's mouth twisted in a wry smile. "She won't let me get that close."

  "She's had to be strong," Arden admitted. "But that doesn't mean she's not vulnerable, and I don't want you to take advantage of her feelings for you."

  "I would never intentionally hurt her," he said.

  "Most damage is done under the guise of good intentions."

  Colin's expression sharpened. "Speaking from experience?"

  She shrugged off the question. "What do you want from Nikki?"

  "I'm not sure," he admitted. "I'm still not even sure why I decided to come back here, except that I knew I had to see her again." Before it was too late. But he kept that thought to himself and sipped his wine. "I was almost hoping that she'd remarried. That she'd have half a dozen kids and three chins."

  She laughed. "I guess you were disappointed."

  "She has changed," Colin said. "She's even more beautiful than I remembered. More stubborn. More independent.

  "I'm sure having Carly had a lot to do with that. I can't even begin to imagine how hard it was for her to go through the pregnancy and childbirth and everything on her own."

  "She didn't," Arden said.

  "You were there?" Colin asked.

  She nodded. "Every minute of sixteen hours of labor."

  "I'm glad she wasn't alone," he said softly.

  But he still wished he could have been there—to have held her hand, to have heard the first cries of their baby. It was too late to change the past, time to move forward. And he wanted to move forward with Nikki and Carly by his side. Unfortunately, his ex-wife seemed to have different ideas.

  Before he could say anything else, the sound of footsteps coming up the front steps drifted through the open window. Arden caught Colin's eye and grinned, but she gamely kept quiet so they could both listen to the murmur of conversation.

  Watching through the wide front window, Colin saw Nikki and his brother step onto the porch and into the light that shone over the door.

  "Are you sure I can't talk you into extending the evening a little longer?" Shaun's voice was pitched low enough that Colin had to strain to hear his words.

  "Thanks, but it's been a long day already and my feet are killing me. I think I'm going to start giving Carly an allowance, just so I can take the cost of the shoes she ruined out of it."

  Shaun chuckled.

  The initial relief Colin had felt upon realizing that Nikki was home gave way to something else—some darker emotion that he chose not to define—as he listened to their exchange. As he listened to his brother hitting on her.

  Then Shaun stepped closer to Nikki, set his hands on her shoulders. It took every ounce of willpower Colin possessed not to barge through the front door and bodily throw his brother off the porch.

  "I should be getting in," Nikki said.

  "Okay." But Shaun leaned toward her rather than stepping away.

  "He's going to kiss her," Colin hissed at Arden.

  "That's usually what happens at the end of a date," she replied from behind his shoulder.

  Sure enough, that's what happened. He felt a burning surge deep in his stomach as he watched Shaun's head lower until his mouth touched hers. Colin's hands clenched into fists, but lucky for his brother, the kiss was over almost before it had begun.

  "Good night, Shaun," Nikki said softly.

  Both Colin and Arden scrambled back to their seats as they heard a key turn in the lock of the front door.

  "Was that a base hit?" Arden asked, as if she and Colin had been discussing the ball game that still played out on the television.

  "Base hit?" Colin was indignant. "He never made it anywhere near first base."

  "I don't know," she said, her eyes sparkling with humor. "It looked pretty impressive from here."

  He shook his head. "That was strictly minor league."

  "As if you could do better," she scoffed.

  Colin grinned at the veiled challenge. "You bet I could."

  Nikki's keys clinked against the wood as she dropped them on top of the small table in the hallway. She stared at the scene in the living room. Colin and Arden—in the same room together, watching television, sharing a bottle of wine, and discussing baseball?

  Arden didn't even like baseball. And Nikki had been sure her cousin wasn't too fond of Colin, either.

  Then again, it had been Arden who'd forced her and Colin to talk about the custody issue. And it had been Arden's suggestion that Colin take up temporary residence in the downstairs apartment. But still, Nikki hadn't realized they'd gotten quite so … chummy.

  "Oh, hi, Nic." Arden smiled at her.

  "How come you're home already?" Nikki asked, stepping out of the borrowed shoes she'd been forced to wear. Her feet practically screamed in relief.

  "Don't ask," Arden muttered.

  Nikki turned her attention to Colin. "How was Carly?"

  "Good. We watched a movie, shared some popcorn."

  "Did she go to sleep okay?" Nikki took a seat on the sofa beside Arden, and began flexing her foot against the leg of the coffee table to work the kinks out.

  "After I read her some bedtime story about a big bunny and a little bunny fifty times."

  "Rookie." But Arden smiled as she said it. Then she topped up her glass of wine and handed the bottle to Colin. "See you guys tomorrow."

  "Do you want a glass of this?" he asked Nikki.

  She shook her head. "No, thanks." She needed to keep a clear head around Colin.

  He stood up and set the bottle of wine on the coffee table, his glass next to it, then moved to the seat Arden had vacated. "Put your feet up here," he said, gesturing to the tops of his thighs.

  "Why?"

  Colin shook his head at
her obvious mistrust, but he was smiling. "So I can give you a foot massage."

  She hesitated. A foot rub sounded innocent enough, but she knew from experience how dangerous any kind of physical contact with Colin could be.

  "Your feet will thank you in the morning," he promised.

  Her feet were killing her, and his offer seemed genuine.

  She turned so that her back was against the arm of the sofa and swung her legs onto the cushions. He slid a little closer, picking up one of her stocking-clad feet in his strong hands. His fingers began to move over the instep, kneading, loosening.

  "So how was your … date?" Colin asked, continuing to perform magic on the arch of her foot.

  "Fine." She closed her eyes as his fingers worked on her toes. He had great hands. His touch was strong yet gentle, and Nikki was afraid she was going to start moaning in ecstasy. She would never have guessed that a foot rub could be so sensual.

  She forced her eyes open, forced herself to think about something—anything—but the way his hands moved over her feet. The way they'd once touched every part of her body.

  "You're sure Carly was okay? She didn't give you a hard time?"

  "She was great," Colin said, setting down the first foot and picking up the other. "She's a wonderful kid. You've done a good job with her."

  "Thank you." Nikki was both surprised and touched by the compliment, and a little wary.

  "When I first found out that you'd had a baby—our baby—I was angry. Mostly about how your decision affected me." His hands continued to move over her foot, almost absently, as if the activity somehow made it easier to open up to her. "All I could think about was how much I'd missed out on. I never considered how hard it must have been for you to be on your own."

  "It wasn't always easy," she agreed, wondering at his sudden willingness to discuss his feelings.

  "Were you scared, when you found out you were going to have our baby?"

  "Terrified." She'd never forget how overwhelmed and alone she'd felt. Her marriage had just fallen apart, her mother was still recuperating from a car accident, and then Nikki had learned there was a tiny, helpless life just starting out inside her.

  "Did you ever…" He hesitated, and even the movement of his fingers on her foot halted. "Did you ever consider not having her?"