“Nooooo,” Jessica screamed, batting at him before she grabbed the cracker and shoved it in her mouth. She gave him a big smile then turned to whoever was on her left and shot the wad of crackers.
“Nick, did you see her aim?”
“I played football in college,” he said. “I think she takes after me.”
“Give her another cracker.”
“Jessica, do you want this?” He held up the soda cracker.
She took it from his hand without a word and bit down.
“You’re not playing football here, don’t spit.”
Jessica made little munching noises before she buried her head in Diana’s neck.
“I love when she does that.”
“She looks good on you,” Nick told her.
“You know, I didn’t think of this before, but I’m good with this baby. I’ve been trying so hard to find something I’m good at, something that I can do to change the world, and I will—uh-oh—where did it go?” Diana looked over her shoulder. Another cracker ball missiled and landed. “Let’s move south,” she said, heading straight ahead.
“That’s north.”
“Nick, don’t sweat the small stuff.”
Jessica grabbed another cracker from his hand. “I know I’m precise, but I have to be,” Nick said. “In my business, being off even one centimeter can throw the whole house off.”
“I’m precise, too.” At least Diana thought she was, most of the time. She truly believed that when things went wrong, it had been because she’d been thinking about Nick. And since she was with him now, she didn’t have to think about him, she could just be—
So why was she arguing over north and south? Who could tell the difference inside a building anyway? She was just about to point that out, too, when the lady who had been Jessica’s target turned around and stared hard.
“Sheila!” Diana tried to sound enthusiastic, and not sick. “What a surprise.” Where there’s a Sheila, there’s a Harry. “Jessica,” Diana whispered. “No more crackers.”
Nick held up his hand. “Here, Jessica, have another.”
“What are you doing here?” Sheila asked, wheezing through her nose. All those white-paint fumes probably had done permanent damage.
“Waiting in line.” Diana stood as straight as she could, standing over Sheila by a head. There was power in size, she thought, giving her father’s fifth wife the same sweet smile she reserved for door-to-door salesmen. “And you?” You little Napoleon Bonaparte-complex person.
“I was supposed to meet your father, but I know once he knows you’re here, he’s not going to want to stay. You’ve disappointed him greatly, Diana. You should be ashamed.”
Diana felt herself shrinking, until Nick reminded her, by circling her waist with his arm, that he stood by her side. He empowered her with strength of mind and character, and she didn’t know how or why he was able to do that with a simple touch. Maybe that was a good thing, maybe it wasn’t. But for now, he had her gratitude.
“Diana, aren’t you going to introduce me?” Sheila asked. “To your friend.”
“Nick, Sheila. Sheila, Nick.”
“Don’t tell me,” Nick said. “You’re the interior decorator. Is she the one, love?” He pulled Diana closer to his side.
“She’s it.”
Sheila’s mouth twisted. “Your father’s here.”
Okay, Diana. You can do this. She looked up at Nick’s beautiful eyes. She loved those eyes. He winked at her at the same time she was winking at him.
“Diana,” Harry said. “You joining us for lunch?”
Nick nodded slightly, and so Diana agreed. She figured they probably wouldn’t get as far as the table together.
Jessica had chewed another cracker, and once again Sheila was the target, only this time, Jessica hit the front of Sheila’s white dress, instead of the back.
“That child is evil and has no manners. Give her back to whomever she belongs to,” Sheila demanded while she swiped at the front of her dress. “Oooh, this is disgusting…”
“She’s my niece.”
“And who are you?” Harry asked.
“Nick Logan.” He held out his hand, which was ignored.
Diana smiled up at Nick. He was so calm. So respectful. Her father, on the other hand, had that look on his face again, the one that turned his complexion red and splotchy. His hatred for the Logans ran so deep.
“What are you doing with him, Diana? You know better than to speak to a Logan.”
“Nick’s not part of your fight.”
“He’s a Logan. That’s enough.”
Nick had given Jessica another cracker. She chewed and chewed this one, and Diana felt sure she was going to actually eat it. But this time she opened her mouth, stuck out her tongue and let it drop, right on Harry’s shoe. They all looked down at the same time. It was Harry who got kicked in the face by Jessica’s swinging leg.
“Who is this child?” he bellowed, shaking off his shoe and rubbing his head.
“My sister’s.”
“Diana, will you tell that Logan boy that I’m not talking or listening to him. When I have a question, I will come to you. If you wish to defer to him, that is your choice. But for every moment you’re with him, consider that one less day of college. So I ask again, who is this child.”
“Daddy, you can’t bribe me. I don’t need your money. And even if I did, I’d like to think that I have more backbone than that.”
“Diana,” Nick said, admiration deep in his eyes, genuine affection on his lips. “I’m proud of you.”
“Are we going to eat, Harry?” Sheila asked. “They’ve called our table.”
“Are you still inviting us to join you?” Diana asked.
“You’ve got to be kidding. I won’t eat with a Logan.”
“It’s too bad, Daddy, because Nick and I are, well, we’re—” She took a deep breath, tightened her hold on Jessica, and felt Nick squeeze her waist. She hoped that squeeze was for encouragement and not as a signal to stop, do not pass go, do not collect the possibility of a future with Nick.
So, she stared her father in the eyes and just blew out the words. “Nick and I have decided that the two of us, well—we’re going to live in sin.”
8
THEY SAT at the kitchen table in Nick’s apartment, the three of them, Nick with his fork and Jessica with her fingers suspended in midmouthful, waiting for Diana, who could only look around the table and say, “So—”
Diana’s gaze darted back and forth between identical blue eyes. She took a deep breath, let out a big sigh, lowered her head and continued to cut her chicken into small pieces just as she had just done for Jessica moments before. Three-quarters of the way through cutting, she finally realized that what was done was done and there wasn’t a thing she could do about it.
She put her knife and fork on the plate and folded her hands in her lap. Leaning forward a little, she asked, “In your honest opinion, Nick, and don’t hold back, on a scale of one to ten with ten being high, how mad do you think my father was?”
“At least a fifteen.” A forkful of black beans went in his mouth.
Diana broke into a huge smile, clapping her hands together. “Really? Oh, that’s so wonderful, isn’t it? I thought so, but I wasn’t really sure. I needed confirmation.”
“He reacted just like we thought he would.” Nick took a tortilla, helped himself to more meat and topped it off with salsa, sour cream and guacamole. He rolled the tortilla and took a big bite and chewed with relish. “They outdid themselves today. This is good stuff.”
!Otra, Otra! had stupendous take-out food, the very best Diana had eaten. The people who ran the restaurant must have had a good-neighbor take-out policy since they had filled fourteen-inch tinfoil containers with enough food to last three days, maybe four. Diana thought that was great since she didn’t know how much macaroni and cheese she’d be able to disguise as rotisserie ravioli rossetti, or sunset spaghetti surprise, which was not to be con
fused with shocking sunrise spaghetti—two totally different ingredients. Both main ingredients were macaroni and cheese, but sunset was made with tomato soup, and the sunrise with raisins, cinnamon and butter.
Jessica bounced around, as much as a baby who was strapped in a high chair could bounce. She tore apart tortillas and munched on fajita chicken. She had tears running down her face as she jabbered to her little cut-up pieces of food, but she wasn’t screaming.
Nick was on his third helping of mesquite smoked chicken, beef and vegetables, topping everything off with melted garlic butter.
Diana ate slowly, savoring the company, wishing meals like the one they were sharing this afternoon could go on forever. She knew better than anyone how short forever lasted. She knew she’d better enjoy each and every moment they shared because without her even realizing it happened, the very next moment everything could be gone, just poof!—up in smoke. “A fifteen,” she said. “That’s great. Better than I even hoped.”
“Okay, maybe I exaggerated. You can give or take one or two points.”
Diana pursed her lips, nodding. “I think this is good. Real good. Don’t you?”
“The plan was to get your father so angry at you he could throw a steel girder. Okay, we succeeded. We did a great job.” He took another bite.
Diana’s hands went slack, her fork dropped to the plate. “Oh, no, Nick. That’s not what happened. We have to do the whole thing again. This plan didn’t work at all.”
“Of course it did.” He gazed at her encouragingly. “I was there, I know it worked.”
“He was supposed to get angry at you, remember. And your dad was supposed to get angry at me.”
“Diana, I know anger when I see it. I’m telling you, when you told him we were living together, your father about hit the ceiling. If I had a daughter who told me she was living with some bum, that bum would be dead meat.”
“Really?” This part made her happy. Nick was thinking in terms of children. His children.
“Of course, I’m not planning on getting married, and I’m no bum, so that scenario doesn’t apply to me. I’m just saying how I’d feel if I were in your father’s position.”
“I understand.” She nodded knowingly.
“No, I can tell by the look on your face, you don’t”
“What look? I’m not looking like anything. Of course I understand what you’re saying. I don’t agree, but I understand.”
He grabbed her hand. “Diana, listen to me. When I tell you Harry was angry at you—not me, he was angry at you.”
Oh, Lordy, right now she wanted to move their hands closer to her mouth and kiss his knuckles, then turn his hand over and kiss the palm, and then his wrist, and then the inside of his elbow, and up and up until she got to his mouth.
She’d kiss him deeply, and thoroughly, and drink in all that was Nick. Maybe now she could advance the fantasy, and dream about her and Nick having children. About the fun they’d have getting them.
She hadn’t let herself imagine a relationship developing to that point of seriousness between them. She hadn’t fantasized past the dating and making love part before today because she had always known that even talking to Nick the way she was doing now was such an unattainable goal. Yet, it had happened. So who knew what else might happen?
“So you see, Diana,” Nick was saying, “Harry wouldn’t waste any time being angry with me. I see that now. To him I’m a nothing. I don’t exist So pushing me into his face, making him come to terms with a Logan again, would make him angry at you. He doesn’t want to face the fact that we’re alive and kicking. He wouldn’t want to be reminded”
She knew in her heart he wasn’t right Still, there was this little flame of a doubt, and if there was even one little flame, no matter how small, she had to douse it “I would say the same thing to you if it was your father we saw today and I didn’t want you to be disappointed. Only, I didn’t realize how hard it would be to tell my father. You know, I’m his only daughter. I didn’t think about a daughter saying to a father, ‘Hey, Dad, I’m living in sin.’“
“We’re not living in sin, Diana.” His intense gaze sought her eyes, searched her face. “Yet”
But tonight they would be, and by tomorrow—A tingling thrill raced up her spine. She looked down at her plate, breaking the lock he had on her. She had to think. “Now it’s your father’s turn. First thing tomorrow, you’ll call him, and tell him about our arrangement”
He shook his head, taking another bite of his fajita.
“Why not?” she asked. He had to. This had to work out
“Because something just dawned on me. It’s a given that no matter what we do together, both fathers will be angry. However, your dad was ready to shoot nails from an electric nail gun right into my heart for touching you.”
Diana nodded. “That’s because I’m a daughter, remember?”
“Exactly. And that’s also exactly why my dad won’t care. Living with someone isn’t marrying them. Marriage is permanent. Living together is temporary. My dad would say, ‘Have a good time, son, use protection.’ At this moment your dad is upstairs on the thirtieth floor figuring out a way to make me sing soprano.”
Diana shook her head and gazed at him in sympathy. He was so wrong. “Nick, my dad is still at !Otra, Otra! eating lunch. Nothing, not even the idea of his daughter living in sin, is going to affect my father’s appetite.”
“Oh, Diana, you of little faith. Your dad wants to cut off my male parts and hang them up to dry. It pains me even to think along those lines. That’s the difference between the father of a son, and the father of a daughter.”
“No way would he want to do that.” Her dad wasn’t sadistic. Just hungry. Once he ate his lunch, and had time to think about things, he’d be reasonable. Especially if he had sopaipillas for dessert.
“I wouldn’t want to test out his anger.”
Okay, so her father did have a lot of tools. Saws, a hatchet—“I didn’t think about that before. This is now an emergency and we didn’t think of a contingency plan. It’s really too late to drop the whole thing, because it’s all been set in motion. What am I supposed to do, go to my father and say it’s a joke? He’d never believe me.”
“Not that”
“I want them talking again. I want these families at least on a cordial level. Nick, if my dad and your dad could at least renew their friendship, maybe my father wouldn’t be searching so hard for someone to take my mother’s place.”
Jessica squealed, banged on her high-chair table and stuck her fingers in her mouth. Nick went to the refrigerator and took out three bottles of milk, setting them on the tray.
“I didn’t think of this before, but everything is coming together. My father lost his wife and his best friend. He’s lonely,” Diana said.
“I’m not suggesting we stop. I’m suggesting that we modify the plan. This morning when I told Alicia we were getting married, yes, it was a slip of the tongue. I’m not getting married, you do understand that?”
Diana rolled her eyes. “Of course I understand. Here, have a taste of this.” She put some chicken on a fork and pushed it toward him. He opened his mouth and took the chicken off the fork with his lips. She wanted those lips on her lips, but her lips on the fork he just touched would be almost as good. Not quite as good, but a start
“However, the more I think about it, the more reasonable it sounds as far as what we tell my father.”
“A parent wouldn’t be angry if we were to get married. Marriage is a good thing.” Diana said.
“For ninety-nine point nine percent of the population, that’s true. Then there’s my father. If I tell him you and I are getting married, he’ll go crazy. Because you’re a Smith and marriage to a Smith is as bad as my sister having a baby out of wedlock. Like I said, marriage is a permanent institution.”
“So’s a baby.”
“Look at my parents, married forever, miserable forever.”
“Look at Jessica. She’s a part
of them, whether they like it or not.”
“Like I told you, they’ve ignored her, and my sister.”
There was a real heaviness in her heart for him and for Cathy. Diana at least knew her father had loved her mother. That thought always kept her secure at night, as if her mother, like a guardian angel, always watched out for her. Nick didn’t seem to have that. Diana guessed that without knowing a mother’s love, a person couldn’t grow up feeling whole.
Nick was a good man. She knew that from the moment she’d met him. She might have spent a good deal of that summer before the White Envelope Incident ogling his behind, but she also saw the way he’d gotten along with the men on the crew. He didn’t act like a rich man’s son, lording his position over the men. He’d been right in there working and sweating with the rest of them. That’s what made him so much fun to watch.
His parents needed to be taught a lesson, and she was just the one to do it. If she had to return to her fantasies when these few days were over, then at least she wanted to go out with a bang, no pun intended.
Nick took another mouthful of fajita. Diana played with her food, moving it around the plate with her fork. Jessica dumped two bottles on the floor, and drank milk out of the third one. When she finished, she threw chicken pieces at Nick and screamed at him, while tears rolled down her cheeks.
He caught the chicken pieces midair and stuck them in his tortilla. “I was a quarterback once upon a time,” he said when Diana complimented him on his catching ability. “I also played outfield in college baseball.”
“That’s why Jessica’s feet kick all the time. See.” She pointed to Jessica’s oscillating legs.
“She gets the athletic ability from me. She gets her temper from my mother. If she turns up talented, she’ll have gotten that from Cathy. Smart, my other brothers.”
“What did she get from her father?” Diana asked.
“Life.”
“That’s a lot, Nick. Even if he’s not here, that’s a precious gift.”
“Responsibility is an obligation that goes with that gift.” His eyes turned a deep, stormy blue. “I’m not spending the night here.” Nick took their plates off the table, dumping them in the sink. He brought back the coffeepot and set it on a towel. “Because I’m a responsible guy, and I’m not going to see you compromised.”
Kidnapped / I Got You Babe Page 26