Nico

by J. B. Hartnett

  “He asked me if I still talk to my dad. I mean, I get it, he wanted to know where he was, maybe to make sure I was safe or something, even though I had already told him my parents were dead. But if you told me, ‘Yeah, my friend died, he was murdered.’ The first thing I would say is, ‘Oh my God, I’m so sorry.’ He didn’t get it, he never got it. Shane had no empathy, and when I looked in his eyes after I shared my history with him, I only saw pity.”

  I pulled the blanket open so I could hold her hands. “Lark, I don’t know what to say. Jesus, I’m so sorry.”

  “I’m not going anywhere, Nico. An overprotective relative and a run-in with an asshole ex… I don’t spook that easily.” She stood up and held the blanket closed with one hand. “Come back to bed with me.”

  I followed her inside. She went back to bed. I locked up and looked around the place. Everywhere, this woman had left her mark, on me, on my home, in my heart.

  Tomorrow, I was going to see a man about a ring.

  ***

  According to the frenzied phone call from my mother, Lark was going to be a superstar. She went on to explain that, apparently, this new client had been to the wedding of her cousin, Joanna Anastos, a known socialite, who had been wearing a veil that Lark made. This woman, Irena Christopolous, was shopping for a dressmaker that could create her vision of the ultimate wedding gown a reality.

  And outdo her cousin.

  I watched Lark throw fabric swatches, lace, a sketch pad, and a portfolio—something I’d never seen before, so I started to flip through it before she snatched it out of my hands—and finally, a finished head-piece she needed to deliver to my mom.

  “And you know what else your mom said?” Lark asked as she grabbed about twenty pairs of shoes from the closet.

  “What did she say?” I couldn’t wipe the grin off my face; she was just so damn happy.

  “She said I could use the shop. She and the owner had a big talk about it and they are happy to let me do fittings there, whatever I need until I have my own space!” She was breathing like she had run a marathon.

  “Come here.” I held out my arms.

  “I can’t, I have to—”

  I grabbed her and pulled her onto my lap. “Just for a second, you can. You should be really proud of yourself. You create these beautiful things. It was only a matter of time.”

  “Well, Mr. Bossy, it hasn’t happened yet.” She gave me a giggle and leaned in for a small kiss.

  She decided on the brown cowboy boots, jeans, a brown, suede blazer, and a shiny scarf she wrapped around her neck in a way that transformed it into jewelry. She had about forty bangles on each wrist, but the one thing I saw clearly was the necklace I’d given her the night before.

  “How do I look?” she asked.

  “You don’t want to know what I’m thinking.” I shot her a devious, full-tooth smile.

  “I’ll take that as a good thing.”

  I carried the crate out to my truck for her. She had this shitty little car which got her from point A to point B. I knew she loved driving my truck, and she looked good in it, too. I put the crate on the front seat next to her.

  “I love this truck,” she said and gave it a little gas.

  “Be nice to her. Don’t blow off your appointment and go hot-rodding in it or anything. Good luck, babe.” I kissed her through the open window, stood back, and watched her drive down the alley.

  ***

  “So, she liked the necklace?” my smartass jeweler, Walt, asked.

  “Yeah, she did.”

  “So you need a ring now.”

  “I think I just might.” I smiled, remembering her reaction to the necklace.

  “What did you have in mind?” I stared at him with a blank expression. I mean, how do you choose a ring for the person you want to spend the rest of your life with? “Hang on a tick.”

  He went into the back as I browsed around the shop. He came back out, locked the front door, and proceeded to open what appeared to be… his lunch.

  “I’m starving and I’m a diabetic. I have to eat now. You’re welcome to join me. The wife packs all sorts of crap in here I never even touch. Half the time, I give most of it to the homeless guy at the bus depot. Now then,” he said, taking a bite of his sandwich. “I made this about ten years ago. I had extra diamonds and garnets leftover from another project. I got a great deal on those gems so I kept ‘em, thinking I would make a nice ring for someone someday. That someone being my wife.”

  At this point, I was looking at a square box. He pushed it toward me and with a mouth full of food and said, “This is your ring.”

  It had a wide band, smooth and shiny, with inlaid tiny white diamonds and garnets. It reminded me of a garden path you see sometimes with a polished stone or the bottom of a glass bottle set in the concrete. In the middle stood a long rectangle-shaped diamond with the smallest garnets in the setting beneath, like they were holding it up.

  It was perfect.

  The only problem was, even though I probably had the money, I thought this might wipe me out.

  “Jesus, Nico. You should see your face right now.” He let out a hearty laugh as lettuce fell onto the counter. He wiped his mouth with a paper towel and asked, “Do you know what makes this ring special?”

  “Nope,” I answered.

  “It’s kind of like a patchwork quilt; you have the garnets from making my wife’s anniversary ring. The diamonds are left over from making a pair of fortieth birthday earrings. The platinum was meant to be for our thirtieth wedding anniversary until she showed me a picture she saw in some magazine and said, ‘Instead of jewelry, Walt, let’s go to Hawaii.’ So, I’m going to Hawaii in August… for a month. Closing the shop and taking my wife on her dream vacation. And she also told me she prefers gold. All these years, now she tells me.” He laughed. “I priced the tickets yesterday, first class to Hawaii. You know Drew over at Tiki Time Travel? He’s just getting everything together for me.” He took his last bite and sat back, wiping his face. “I’ll never sell this ring to anyone else. We have a daughter, but she insists that her ring is going to come from Tiffany’s, even though I could make a ring that would look exactly the same, if not better. Something about a damn blue box.”

  He stood up and took a look at his creation. “I didn’t know who you were at first. I went home and told my wife about you after you came to have your necklace made. Then she said, ‘Walt, that’s him. That’s the man Martin told us about, the one he left the cabin to. Don’t you dare charge him a single penny.’”

  I felt my chest constrict and my throat close. Fuck me. I couldn’t talk.

  “Martin was my best friend. Aside from my wife, he’s the only real friend I had as an adult. I was hoping you’d come back for a wedding ring. I charged you for the necklaces, so I could save this argument for now. I took a risk, hoping you’d come to me for the big purchase. That’s why I teased you about it before. And don’t argue with me, because arguing with me is like arguing with my wife. So you either take it or you have to take your business elsewhere.” He grinned.

  “Can I pay you to make a single band for me to match it?”

  “Don’t tell my wife.” Walt held out his hand and I shook it. “Pleasure doing business with you, Nicolas Grant.”

  I thanked him, profusely, and left the shop.

  Then I went to see Drew at Tiki Time Travel and bought first class plane tickets to Hawaii. I also arranged a special dinner, with Drew’s help, for Walt and his wife on the beach with their own personal waiter and chef.

  ***

  I walked into the studio to see Becca and Zack shoving Mexican food in their faces, a very pregnant Anika with Cole close behind, along with Gus, holding a little tiny baby and his wife, Aimes, Anika’s best friend.

  “Dude, Nico!” Aimes exclaimed. “You look even hotter with short hair! Sorry, sweetie.” She batted her eyes at Gus, who just smiled at her.

  “Hey, Nico.” Cole shook my hand. “Sorry to barge in on you like this. I
tried to call your cell, but anyway, we’re here. Aimes wants to get her leaf. The rest of the gang should be by soon.”

  “It’s all good, Cole.” I walked over to Anika, “How are you?”

  “Having a whale of a good time?” She laughed, her round belly prominent in a maternity t-shirt that said, ‘The baby made me do it.’

  “I bet.” I smiled down at her. “You look beautiful.”

  “You’re just saying that.” She had just been passed baby Luke and was whispering to him.

  “Have you ever known me to say much of anything? Why waste words on a lie?” I raised my eyebrows at her.

  “Okay.” She laughed and handed the baby to me. “Now, that is something you wear really, really well, Nico. Aimes, check it out.”

  I turned toward her with this little thing cradled in my arms and Aimes blurted out, “I think I just came… sorry, sweetie.” She said to Gus. “Seriously Nico? You were hot before, but now you’re like, off the charts.”

  “Amelia.” Gus said her name and nothing else, and Aimes went oddly silent for a while.

  I gave the baby to Gus with an apologetic nod. “It’s the hormones,” he whispered with a slight hint of his Texas drawl. “Between you and me, she either wants to screw my brains out or cry. I am not complaining,” he said and smiled.

  Eventually the rest of Anika’s family arrived for their leaf. At the wedding, back on New Year’s Eve, a few of us had stood around, sipping our drinks, shooting the shit, and talking about how wonderful it was that Anika was marrying Cole. Everything she and Cole had been through was behind them… or about to be. A few of the men had decided to get an oak leaf tattooed like Anika’s, similar to the one Cole had done. His words the night he got that will never leave me. “Your pain is my pain, Anika. I can’t take it away, but I can wear it with you.” Yeah, he loved her. He loved her deep, a lot of people did, and this was their way of showing her just how much. I was giving Aimes her leaf tattoo. Everyone was emotional, but in an effort to stop herself from crying again, Anika started talking.

  “Isn't it weird? I mean, I always think of my boobs being specific to sex, not feeding a person. I think it's creepy. I'm totally doing formula,” Anika stated.

  I had listened to hundreds, maybe thousands of different topics of conversation while giving a tattoo. But listening to Amelia and Anika discuss lactation was a definite first.

  “Dude, guys get to whip it out conveniently and pee anywhere they want. Girls, this is the first time we get to whip out a tit and have it be for practical purposes. But I'm not an ambi-feeder, so I have a B.L.T."

  I had a feeling I was about to learn a lot more about breastfeeding than I had ever wanted to know.

  Anika gave her a “please explain” look. “Well, I'm right handed, so I lay Luke across my stomach, kinda propped on my left elbow, right?”

  “Right.” I watched Anika arrange her arms as if following an instructional video.

  “Then I flop out my left tit and squeeze a little boob juice out so he can smell the goodness, like boob-coffee.” Anika was now cupping her breast, which I couldn't help but notice had increased at least a full cup size since I'd seen her at the wedding. I had to stop. In fact, every single person in the shop was listening to Aimes now. I turned off the buzzing machine to wait out the story.

  “And it's totally sweet. Gus has tried it, he loves it, and thank God because, oh yeah, that's what I was trying to tell you, about not being an ambi-feeder. So, it's totally easy to feed him on the left side, but when I try on the right, it doesn't work as well… hence, not an ambi-feeder. So, I end up always having a really full left boob, big left tit, B.L.T. and the right one, starts to hurt a little when it gets full because baby never feeds as much on that side. So at night in bed, Gus takes a little drink for me so my boobs won't hurt. He calls it dessert.”

  Just then, Gus appeared. All six feet of former marine. “Sugar, maybe you could take it down a notch on the sharin' of the intimate details of our life?”

  I watched her giggle and look up at him. He wasn’t mad at all. In fact, you could see, if anything, he was amused.

  I took a break while Zack gave a tattoo of an oak leaf on the back of Anika’s brother, David. He was actually her half-brother, one she didn’t even know she had until Cole had located her dad. Amazing how it all turned out for her. Talk about a happy ending. I stood outside in the brisk air, waiting for Lark who said she was just having a shower and checked the messages on my phone.

  “Would you like some company?” she said in that low, sexy voice of hers.

  “I was just sending you another text. You look nice.” I smiled and pulled her from the two steps above me into my arms. “How did it go?”

  “She loved my ideas, and I have my first bridal gown client.” She beamed.

  “I knew it,” I said and kissed her. She couldn’t stop smiling, so the kiss turned into a giggle. “Come on, I want you to meet someone.” I only told her to come down to the studio. I didn’t tell her why.

  I led her in and all eyes were on her. “Lark!” exclaimed Cole. “Come on in and have some food. Have you eaten? Doesn’t matter; we have tons. I wasn’t sure how many people would be here.”

  “It’s nice to see you again,” she said, smiling all the way as Cole shoved a plate at her, but then spun her back to Anika, taking up residence on a rolling stool. “And my wife, Anika.”

  “Oh, I loved that flower corset,” Anika gushed. “So beautiful. Actually, come and talk to me outside a minute. I need some air that doesn’t smell like cilantro.”

  “Baby, are you all right?” Cole came to her side, full of concern.

  “Ugh, I’m fine. I just need to walk up and down the sidewalk a little. Now, go away.” She smiled and gave him a quick kiss.

  Since my girlfriend was outside with Anika talking about God knows what, I got Zack and Becca and pulled them behind a screen. Then Cole popped his head in along with David. His dad, John, kept an eye out as Gus and Aimes whispered over the baby.

  “Becca can you come help out for a week?” I asked.

  “When?” She took out her phone to check dates.

  “As soon as possible?” I grinned.

  “Why?” Zack asked.

  I reached into my pocket and pulled out a small velvet pouch and opened it.

  “No fuckin’ way, man. You can’t get married before me and Teense, man.”

  “Will you keep your fuckin’ voice down, you idiot? I have to ask her first, you fuckhead. I don’t know when, but I want to take her to the cabin for a week and do it there.”

  “When do you want to go?” Becca asked with a huge smile on her face. She looked up from the ring and simply said, “Pretty.”

  “Next week?” My phone buzzed in my pocket.

  Anika approves.

  She’s really tired.

  Doesn’t want to ruin the party.

  XO

  “Cole, man, time to go.” I held the phone up so he could read the message.

  “I knew it!” he said, looking toward the door. The others seemed to sense that the two of us needed a minute and walked away as Cole said to me, “Thank you for doing this, Nico. The ring is beautiful. Where did you get it?”

  “I know a guy.” I winked. “But I can hook you up, no problem.”

  “I like you happy, Nico. And… don’t tell my wife, you know my world begins and ends with her, but Lark? She is stunning. I hope she says yes.” He patted me on the back and started to grab Anika’s bag, “Sorry about the mess. I’ll ask David and John to clean up.”

  “It’s cool, man. Go. Let me know when the kid comes, yeah?”

  “Of course,” he said and stopped. “You helped her. You and Aimes were the only ones who knew what she went through. It was like, artist to artist, you understood what it meant to her to cope this way. Her leaves and the other women you help. What do you call them?”

  “My Birds,” I said.

  “Do you mind if I ask why?”

  I le
aned back against the padded chair behind me where I’d given thousands of tattoos, “My pop was born out in the desert, near Hemet. He doesn’t talk much about his pop… touchy subject… but he told me his pop was a ‘lost bird’ and then later he mentioned the term ‘split feathers.’ I finally looked them up. They are the names given to Native American kids who were adopted out of their tribes to be assimilated into white society. In some cases, the kids were living in poverty, high mortality rate, that sort of thing, so it probably saved a lot of lives. But a lot of them never knew where they came from, their heritage. Every woman I’ve given a tattoo, like Anika, something was stolen from them. You can see it in their faces. You can feel it when they tell you their stories. They’re lost birds, too.”

  “Fuck, Nico.”

  I pulled my hands down over my face and looked down as I gripped the ring, “It’s easier now.”

  Cole, as cool as ever said, “I completely understand.”

  ***

  “That was a lot of leftovers. Seriously, what a waste.” Lark laughed as she climbed into bed wearing yoga pants and my grey sweatshirt.

  “I’ll take some to Zack tomorrow. He has a fast metabolism.” I pulled the covers over us as she took up residence against my chest.

  “Thanks for letting me be a part of tonight, Nico. That was pretty amazing.”

  “Lark?”

  “Yeah?” she answered as she tucked herself even closer.

  “I need you to take a week off. You tell me when, and I’ll arrange it with Zack and Becca, and her staff can help cover the studio.”

  “Where are we going?” she asked. Her excitement made her pop up and stare down at me.

  “It’s a surprise.” I grinned.

  “I’m gonna love wherever we go,” she said.

  “Are you sure about that?”

  She took a deep, cleansing breath, and, as she scooted back into me more, said, “As long as you’re there, I’ll love it.”

  Chapter 15

  We had to postpone our trip together. I hadn’t realized it was peak wedding season. The spring madness of weddings got the ball rolling for potential brides, and Lark’s workload had increased. Hank and my pop had transformed the cottage into a temporary workspace for Lark. Eventually, they would gut the empty shop next door and do it up right for her, but it apparently needed a new roof. In the meantime, they built a small platform, carpeted half the room, and put in a three-way mirror. Mom and Ramona went antique shopping and found a great display cabinet for all the headpieces, veils, bouquet corsets, and ring pillows. My contribution to the cause, aside from manual labor, was to make her a sign.