He wanted to spend hours, days even, lapping her very essence. He’d never get his fill. He knew when he felt her body tense that she was close. He wanted to prolong her pleasure and his torture but he knew to do so wouldn’t make her forgiveness any easier. Nic needed this as much as she needed the medicine the doctor had given her.
“Will, I’m so close.”
“I know, baby. Let it happen. Take what you need and fly, Nic.”
She began to tremble as he sucked her deep into his mouth and felt her start to shatter around his tongue and then pulsed strongly as he pressed harder.
“Will! Will!” she cried.
He stayed with her, slowing the movement and pressure of his tongue on the pulsing nerves until he felt them calm, and with one last kiss on the pink and swollen bud, he moved up her body and pulled her into his side. She was asleep before he’d pulled up the feather duvet and covered her. Will slid out of bed careful not to awaken Nic and took himself in hand in the bathroom. Feeling Nic come apart on his tongue, listening to her sexy pants and whimpers and knowing he couldn’t find his own release deep inside her was more than he was physically able to do without exploding. Will cleaned himself up in the small bathroom sink and quietly made his way back to the bed where he lay awake long afterwards.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“I’m so sorry for your loss,” Mayor Reid said, as he shook Nic’s hand and moved on to her grandmother.
“He was a good man.” Mr. Whisnant came next in line and gave her a hug.
“We’re gonna miss him.” Mr. Weathers held her hand and gave it a sympathetic squeeze.
Nicole smiled, shook hands, and graciously accepted words of condolences from the residents of Sweet Ridge. She’d been standing in the receiving line for over an hour, and the end of the line was nowhere in sight. That’s the way it was with small towns. Everyone turned out to support the grieving family.
She ran a hand over the soft fabric and wondered where the black knee-length dress, black pumps, and pearls around her neck had come from. Will was the only answer. She’d been depending on Will since she’d received the phone call.
Her grandmother looked so tired. Will must have noticed too and brought a chair and helped her settle before stepping away to once again keep watch over them. Seeing her grandmother again hadn’t been as hard as she’d thought. She felt different being back in the house she’d grown up in. She was no longer the shy, awkward, and dependent girl who’d lived there before. But knowing that Will and his wife had lived there was something she couldn’t let her mind dwell on.
The house had been remodeled and restored to its former glory. Will had done an excellent job staying true to the period of the house yet updating it to be more comfortable. Her old room had been turned into the nursery. The crib and toys were still there. She knew why they’d chosen that room. It was the only other room with an en-suite bathroom. It hurt to see it had been used for a child that wasn’t hers and Will’s.
Will. Her eyes ran over the crowd of people and found him talking to the mayor. He continually shifted his eyes to check on her. Since she’d awoken on the plane two days ago, it seemed as if a truce had been called. Her cheeks flushed as she remembered the driving need she’d had for him on the plane. She wasn’t ready to examine why she’d needed him so badly or why she felt absolutely no regret. In fact, she didn’t know what she would have done without him. In her current state of mind, she couldn’t fight with him any longer, even if she had wanted to, which she didn’t. They were residing in a neutral zone.
She looked up and found him once again watching her. He’d been watching over them and always seemed to know what they needed. Her grandmother had been unable to make arrangements at the funeral home. Will had gone with her and held her hand through it all.
After another hour of standing and reminiscing with the citizens of Sweet Ridge, her grandmother looked so exhausted. Nicole searched for Will and found him walking through the door and up to her side. He leaned in and whispered, “I’ve asked my dad to take your grandmother back to the house.”
“Your parents are here?”
“Yeah, they’re waiting in line. What’s wrong, Nic?”
“I…” She started to explain and stopped. How could she tell him she didn’t want to see his parents? She was being childish and illogical but she couldn’t see them. It was asking too much of her in her current state.
“Nic, talk to me. Whatever you want, honey, just tell me.”
Would he understand? Did she even understand, “I can’t see your family now, Will. Not here. Not like this. I’m sorry, but I just can’t.”
His eyes held her gaze and she saw hurt and disappointment in their depths. “Okay, Nic, whatever you want,” he said quietly, and then helped her grandmother from the room.
She didn’t see him again until he reappeared with a cup of water for her. “I thought you might be thirsty.”
She accepted the cup readily and once again became lost in the never-ending sympathies of the town.
The next day at the funeral, Will was the strong force that kept them going. Afterwards, they went back to the church where, in the Southern tradition, a meal awaited them. But Nicole couldn’t eat. She eyed the door. One more hour and she could leave. Her grandmother sat beside the pastor, deep in discussion. Will spoke with a group of friends he went to school with. She, of course, didn’t really have any school friends other than Linda, who now lived in Arizona with her husband and two children and a third on the way. Linda had called to offer her condolences and apologized because she was too close to her delivery date to travel to the funeral.
The short time that Nicole had worked at the library in town seemed so long ago. It was sad that most of the friends she had were her grandparents’ ages.
“Excuse me.”
Nicole’s eyes moved from her plate of unwanted food to the face of someone that looked familiar. Nicole stood. “I’m sorry. I don’t believe I remember you.”
“We’ve never met. I just wanted to offer my condolences on your loss. It’s never easy losing someone you love.”
“No, it isn’t. You sound like you know that from experience.”
“Yes, I do. My son died. I only had him for two years. He was gone much too soon.”
Tears that Nicole had been unable to shed throughout her grandfather’s funeral now filled her eyes over the woman’s horrible loss. “I’m so sorry.”
“He was a miracle baby and gave me two very special years. He’s with his father now. I was blessed to have had him in my life for even a short time.”
“You lost your husband and son?”
“He was my love and my life, but he was never my husband. Unfortunately, he was killed in war before we could be married.”
Nicole’s eyes widened in shock. Now she recognized the woman from the pictures on Matthew’s Facebook page. Standing in front of her was Will’s wife.
“Yes, I can see it in your eyes that you know who I am now.”
“You’re Will’s wife.” Did this woman want him back?
“Ex-wife,” she corrected.
Nicole felt trapped. She didn’t want to be in the same room with the woman Will had chosen to be with. “Why are you here?”
“To offer my condolences for one thing. And to apologize to you and hopefully to pay back a friend. Will loves you. He always has and he always will. What he did for me was selfless and pure. I may have been married to Will but you always had his heart. I knew this from day one. Had there been any other way to get my baby the medical care he needed, I wouldn’t have accepted Will’s proposal. I apologize for taking what was never mine.”
“I understand what Will did. I can even understand why he did it. What I can’t forgive was his method.”
“I agree. It was cold and heartless the way he abandoned you. I tried so many times to get him to go to you and explain. For weeks after we married, I would hear him in his bedroom at night,
crying out in his dreams, calling your name. I watched him through the years as if all the joy in his life had been sucked away. Give him a chance, Nicole. He, more than anyone, deserves a second chance at happiness, something I never had with Juan.”
“I’m sorry you lost so much,” Nicole said quietly.
Reca stepped closer, forcing Nicole to meet her gaze. “You and I are not the only ones to suffer loss. Do not discredit what Will did as something he did lightly. There was and still is great hurt for him behind what happened to Juan. Juan may have been the one to lose his life, but he was not the only one injured that day.”
“What do you mean?”
“Not all injuries are visible.”
Before Nicole could question her further, Reca took a step back, her eyes glancing over Nicole’s shoulder, and smiled.
“Because of that man there, the one that looks really pissed with me and is pushing everyone out of his way to get to you.” She smiled and continued. “Because of him, my life is now filled with happiness and joy. I will always love Juan, but I am one of the lucky ones. I found true love a second time.”
“Reca, what are you doing here?” Will kissed her cheek in greeting and then stood beside Nicole, wrapping his arm around her waist and pulled her into his side.
“I just wanted to meet the woman that holds your heart, Will. I knew she would be special. I still think you were incredibly stupid for what you did to her.”
“I couldn’t agree with you more. I’m trying to make amends. But it’s up to Nicole.”
“Now that you’re home, will you be attending my wedding?” Reca asked.
“I don’t think…”
Nicole stopped Will with a hand to the chest and looked up into his eyes as she answered for them. “It’s okay, Will. You should go.”
“We would be honored if you would both attend.” Reca smiled and pulled an invitation from her bag.
“I don’t think…” Will started to decline, but Nicole interrupted again.
“If I’m still here, I would love to come.” No one was more surprised than she was when she accepted Reca’s invitation.
“Then I look forward to seeing you both there. It was nice to meet you, Nicole.”
Nicole watched Reca as she kissed Will on the cheek and left the fellowship hall. Shouldn’t she have been jealous seeing the looks that passed between Will and Reca? So much was going on inside her head.
“I’m sorry, Nicole. I didn’t know she was coming.”
Nicole turned to Will. “I always wondered what my replacement was like. She’s very beautiful.”
Will winced and his eyes clouded with hurt. “No one could ever be your replacement, Nic.”
“That’s not what it feels like from my end, Will.” Nicole’s grandmother motioned to her and she left to go to her, dismissing him without another look. If she had turned back, she would have seen the look of a man in pain.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Nicole sat on the back veranda with a cup of tea in her hands. Everything was the same, yet everything was different. How many times had she sat with her grandparents while her grandmother poured tea? Now, she wondered if her grandfather had really enjoyed those daily tea parties or had he only suffered through them because her grandmother loved them so much.
The hedge had been repaired. Nicole didn’t know how she felt about that. New plants had filled in the section she’d chopped down. A person would never even know that a young girl devastated by the abandonment of her lover and fiancée had taken an ax to it. Had her grief even existed? She would not and could not walk through that hedge to the memories on the other side.
“Mind if I join you?”
Nicole smiled. “Of course, Grandmother. May I get you a cup of tea?”
“No, dear. It would keep me up tonight. I just wanted to let you know I’ll be leaving tomorrow. It just doesn’t feel right being back in this big old house without your grandfather. I’m glad William bought this old house. It looks better than it did when your grandfather first built it. This house needs children to breathe life back into it. Maybe your children?”
Nicole shook her head. “Grandmother, Will and I, we’re not…”
“I know we tried to keep you two apart, and I’m sorry for that. Your grandfather always wanted me to ease up on you. I’m sorry, Nicole. I just didn’t know how. When we lost your father, you were all we had left. In trying to do right by him, I’m afraid I lost sight of what was really important. All we wanted to do was to protect you. We couldn’t lose you too.”
“I always knew you both loved me, and I always knew you were there for me. That was important for a child who’d lost her parents.”
“What’s going on with you and Will? Did he explain why he broke your heart?”
“It’s complicated. Reca was Will’s best friend’s fiancée. His friend died on a mission, and Will thought the only way to get Reca and Juan’s child the medical care he needed was to marry her.”
“But why didn’t he tell you this at the time?”
Nicole sighed and pursed her lips before answering. “That’s what I have problems with too, Grandmother.”
“Why is he with you now and not his wife and child?”
“Things didn’t work out for them,” she quietly answered, not wanting to explain Will’s marriage.
“So he’s come back for you?”
She looked into her grandmother’s concerned eyes. “It would appear so.”
“What he did for his friend was a very noble thing. But what he did to you…was it unforgivable?”
Was it? Could she forgive him and move forward? “I don’t know. How do you trust someone that hurt you so badly?”
Her grandmother reached over and laid a hand on her knee. “You’ll know the answer to that when you’re ready, dear.”
Nicole wondered. Would she know? Uncharacteristically, her grandmother kissed the top of her head and patted her on the cheek before going back inside. There were so many things she’d thought of as true but now, she wasn’t so sure.
She wandered down the steps and out through the yard to the tree swing. She was surprised to see it there. Her grandmother had the gardener take it down before Nicole even reached her teens. Did Will put it back up or had the last homeowners? She flipped the wooden seat up, and there they were, their initials carved in the wood by Will’s pocket knife. The one his daddy had given him on his birthday. She ran her index fingers over the rough W and N remembering so clearly the day Will had carved them.
“Please be careful, William.” Nicole stood beside the old oak tree, anxiously wringing her hands. “Children shouldn’t play with knives. Grandmother says I must only use a butter knife.”
In disbelief, Will stopped what he was doing and looked up at her from his seat on the grass. “It’s just a pen knife, Nic, it’s not a machete. Besides that’s because you’re just a kid.”
Nicole raised her chin in frustration. “You could still cut yourself. And you are defacing property.”
“There you go again, defac…whatever you said. That’s not a word a ten-year-old should know. Besides, I told you this will prove it.” Will went back to working on the piece of wood in his hands.
“Just please hurry before Grandmother sees you.” Nicole’s eyes searched the back of her house for any movement, wishing William would hurry.
“There, I’m finished.” Proud of his work, Will held the swing seat up for her to see. “Look, Nic. This proves that you belong to me.” He dusted a few remaining chips away from his masterpiece.
“I don’t really see how that proves anything, William.”
“Our initials will always be carved into this swing. Always. Just like you will always belong to me. You’re my girl.”
“Are you still my girl, Nic?”
Nicole jumped at the unexpected voice. “Oh, Will. I didn’t hear you come up.”
Will bent down and ran his fingers over the letters
. “I remember that day too.”
“We were so young.” She looked into his eyes. Though everything around her had changed, his crystal blue eyes had not. Neither had the way he looked at her.
“But I knew what I wanted back then, and it’s the same thing I want today. Are you, Nic? Are you still my girl?”
Will asked her something she had no answer for. Being back home with memories everywhere she turned, she couldn’t process what was real and what was only a memory. She’d spent so many years angry and hurting, she didn’t know how she felt anymore. So she chose the coward’s way out. She said nothing.
“Want me to push you?” Will asked, and helped her to stand.
Nicole smiled and took a seat on the swing. “We spent a lot of time here, didn’t we?”
“We did.”
“Did you put the swing back up?” Her skin tingled under Will’s warm hand on her back, pushing her gently forward.
“Yeah, I found it in the outbuilding and put it back where it belonged.” He pushed her again.
She rested her head on her hand, holding the chain as she drifted back and forth. “I’m glad.”
“You belong here too, Nicole,” Will said quietly.
She closed her eyes as the movement of the swing took her places in her mind that she didn’t really want to revisit. “I thought so at one time. Now, I’m not sure where I belong. Thank you for letting us stay at your house.”
“No problem. Mom’s happy to have me in my old room.”
Wind blew her hair into her face. “You didn’t have to leave your own house.” She put her feet down and slowed the movement of the swing until she stopped.
Will took her hand to help her from the swing. “I thought you and your grandmother would be more comfortable alone.”
“You did a wonderful remodel on the old house. It’s never looked better.” She smiled into his eyes and noticed the sadness in them. “What’s wrong, Will?”
You Promised Me Forever (The Dirty Ankle Series Book 1) Page 17