This Time for Keeps

by Rochelle Alers

  Nicole liked and enjoyed working with Preston because he treated her as an equal and not a newbie the Miami partners pressured to increase billable hours. They’d paid her well, but at the cost of working an average of sixty-plus hours a week. There were occasions when she’d had to cancel an outing with her parents because she’d been too exhausted to leave her home.

  “I have on my boots, Aunt Nikki.”

  She smiled at Luke in a pair of olive green rain boots. “Good. Now, where’s your brother?”

  “He’s still getting dressed.”

  “Please go and tell him to hurry up.” Nicole had walked Othello after she’d slipped on his boots to keep his paws dry and from tracking mud into the house.

  Luke walked halfway up the staircase. “Danny!” he shouted. “We’re downstairs waiting for you!”

  Nicole shook her head at the same time she closed her eyes. She’d lectured her nephews the only time they were to yell in the house was during an emergency. She hadn’t spent any appreciable time with a lot of children before assuming the full-time responsibility of caring for her nephews, but if she were to have children of her own, she now knew what to expect.

  Daniel bounded down the stairs in a pair of navy blue rain boots and a matching slicker, dragging a backpack. It bumped down each stair. “Ready!”

  Nicole armed the security system and then opened the door. “Let’s go, troops.”

  She’d remotely started the Pathfinder’s engine and her nephews and Othello were in their places when she got in behind the wheel.

  Tapping Fletcher’s number on the screen, she said, “We’re on our way,” when his greeting echoed through the vehicle. She disconnected the call and backed out of the driveway. She’d loaded the SUV with one of Othello’s beds, his bowls for food and water, and several cans of wet and a bag of dry food, as well as her and her nephews’ overnight bags.

  Nicole and Fletcher had gone back and forth about spending Saturday night at his place, but had finally reached a decision after he’d agreed to accompany them to church for services. Melissa, a devoted worshipper, had insisted her children accompany her, and out of respect for her late sister-in-law, Nicole continued the tradition.

  * * *

  Fletcher stood on the porch, smiling when he saw Nicole’s car turn into the driveway. Reaching for a golf umbrella, he opened it and came down off the porch to shield the occupants of the SUV from the driving rain.

  Luke and Daniel had put up the hoods on their slickers. Nicole wore a bright yellow poncho, matching wellies and had covered her hair with a black baseball cap. His smile grew wider when he saw Othello wearing rain boots.

  “Welcome,” he called out. “Everyone go inside through the garage and leave your rain gear in the mudroom.” He held the umbrella over Nicole’s head.

  “I need to get stuff out of the cargo area,” she said.

  “I’ll bring everything in.”

  Fletcher waited until everyone had gone into the house before unloading the rear of the Pathfinder. It took two trips before he closed the hatch and went inside the house. He found Nicole in the mudroom as she and the young boys had taken off their rain gear. Reaching for a towel on a stack in a wicker basket, he dried off Othello, who braced his front paws on his chest while attempting to lick him.

  “Sit, Othello,” Nicole ordered and the dog obediently sat.

  “I’m going to take the bags up to the bedrooms while you guys make yourselves comfortable,” Fletcher said after he’d finished drying off the dog.

  “Can I see where I’m going to sleep, Uncle Fletcher?” Daniel asked.

  “Me, too?” Luke questioned.

  Fletcher nodded. “Of course. Come with me.”

  He led the boys up the back staircase to the second story and into the bedroom with the twin beds. “This will be your room. You have your own bathroom, so you’ll have to take turns when it comes to showering.”

  Luke walked over to the fireplace and peered up the chimney. “Does this work?”

  “Yes. It’s heated with gas.”

  “That’s so cool,” Luke whispered.

  “What’s cool is the firepit uses wood,” Fletcher said as he walked to the window overlooking the patio and the rear of the property. He pointed when the boys joined him. “I covered it because of the rain, but if it stops by tomorrow, we’ll roast marshmallows and make s’mores.” Two pairs of clear round light brown eyes stared up at him. There was no doubt he had impressed them when he’d said “roast marshmallows.”

  “How about popcorn?” Daniel asked.

  “That, too,” Fletcher confirmed. “So let’s hope the rain will stop before we have movie night.”

  Luke shared a look with his older brother. “Are we going to the movies tonight?”

  Fletcher rested a hand on his head. “Yes, we are. Saturdays are always movie nights at the Austen house. I have some movies on hand for my nieces and nephews who are about your age, so when we go downstairs to the family room, you’ll have to let me know what you’d like to see. As soon as you put your shoes on, you can come on down.”

  Fletcher walked past Nicole’s bedroom to find her unpacking her bag and placing clothes in a drawer of the dresser. He retreated and stuck his head through the doorway. “I’ll be downstairs if you need me.”

  Her head popped up and she gave him a warm smile. “I’m good here. I’ll be down as soon as I put everything away and check to see if the boys have done the same.”

  He forced himself not to stare at her body in a pair of skinny jeans and matching stretchy top. “They’re all right, Nikki. You can check on them later.”

  Her eyebrows shot up. “Is that your way of telling me to stop being a helicopter auntie?”

  Fletcher winked at her. “Something like that.”

  “If that’s the case, then you can take care of all the boys this weekend, and that includes Othello, and I’ll just be the chaperone.”

  “That will definitely work. You kick back and relax while the man takes over.”

  “I’m hope I don’t regret this.”

  “You won’t, sweetheart. I bought everything I need to make fajitas for lunch, so can have your pick of steak, chicken or shrimp.”

  “I think I’m going to like hanging out here.”

  “Mi casa es su casa,” he said.

  “You won’t say that if you find us living with you every other weekend,” Nicole teased.

  “That’s where you’re wrong. Sometimes it gets a little too quiet living here alone. I’d thought about getting a dog, but I’m not certain which breed I want. I just might come over and dognap Othello for a couple of days before bringing him back.”

  Nicole closed a drawer and then opened another one. “You can borrow him every once in a while, now that you are best buds.”

  With the exception of working at the garage and interacting with folks at the Wolf Den a couple of times a month, he had begun to wonder if was mentally healthy for him to spend so much time alone. He enjoyed restoring cars and listening to music, but was that enough? He’d dated a few women since he’d left the military, none whom had ever slept with him under his roof. Fletcher had invited one to join him when he’d hosted a backyard gathering for some of the soldiers he occasionally got together with on Military Monday, but she’d been disappointed once it ended and he’d driven her back to her house.

  His home had become his sanctuary—a place he coveted—and he hadn’t wanted a revolving door of women coming and going. Wickham Falls’ social mores were much more relaxed now than when his grandparents had been alive, but it was still a small town where gossip traveled faster than the spark of a lit fuse. And, once it became widespread, the details were so negatively altered they didn’t remotely match the original chatter.

  “If you’re going to bring Othello over, then I’ll buy everything he’ll need so you d
on’t have to haul around his food, bowls and bed.”

  “Remember I said borrow, not keep, Fletcher.”

  He winked. “I’ll see you downstairs.”

  * * *

  Nicole watched as her nephews devoured the fajitas as if they hadn’t eaten in days. She had to acknowledge the marinated thinly sliced skirt steak and chicken breasts and jumbo Gulf shrimp, grilled to perfection with onions, green and sweet peppers, and folded into warm flour tortillas, surpassed any she had eaten in a number of restaurants. Fletcher had showed her a binder filled with recipes he’d gotten off the internet. Some he had attempted, but there were many more on his to-do list.

  “These are so good,” Daniel mumbled with a mouthful of chicken.

  “Yup,” his brother agreed.

  Nicole lowered her eyes. She’d tried to teach them not to talk with their mouths filled with food and had failed miserably. There were just certain behaviors she could not change and she’d decided it wasn’t worth the effort to continue to talk to them about it.

  Fletcher, flanked by the two boys on the bench seat in the eat-in kitchen, gently patted Daniel’s back. “Easy there, champ. If you talk with food in your mouth and choke on it, then I’ll have to apply the Heimlich maneuver to dislodge it.”

  “What’s a hemlick, Uncle Fletcher?” Luke asked.

  Fletcher touched his napkin to the corners of his mouth. “It’s a first-aid procedure used to dislodge foreign objects from the upper airway.”

  Daniel stared up at him. “How do you do that?”

  “I’ll show you later. Meanwhile, chew your food thoroughly and swallow before you talk.”

  “Does it hurt?” Luke questioned.

  “Choking and not being able to breathe hurts. One time, when I was about your age, my brother and I were fooling around at the dinner table and my mother told us to stop. I opened my mouth to tell her it wasn’t my fault, but I had a mouthful of food. I started to choke, and peas and carrots came out of my nose and mouth. Not only did my throat hurt, but the inside of my nose was sore for days. My mother never had to tell me not to talk with my mouth filled with food again.”

  “Wow!” the boys said in unison.

  Nicole turned her head so they wouldn’t see her smile of supreme satisfaction. There was no doubt Fletcher’s choking episode resonated with them. Picking up the glass of sweet tea, she took a sip and gave Fletcher a barely perceptible nod.

  She rested a hand over her belly. “I think I ate too much.”

  Fletcher slumped against the back of the bench. “You’re not the only guilty one.”

  Luke covered his mouth with a hand to smother a yawn. “I need a nap.”

  “Me, too,” Daniel said, also yawning. “Can we take a nap, Aunt Nikki?”

  Nicole glanced at the clock on the microwave. It was a few minutes after one, but with the rain and overcast skies, it appeared much later. “Yes.”

  The two boys slid off the bench and walked out of the kitchen.

  Fletcher smiled across the table at her. “Are you also ready for a nap?”

  “I could use one, but I’m going to pass. If I nap in the afternoon, then I’m really disorientated for the rest of the day.”

  “What do you want to do?”

  She angled her head. “That all depends on you. What do you do to relax when you’re not working on your cars?”

  “I read or listen to music.”

  Nicole put her elbow on the table and rested her chin on a fist. She hadn’t known what she’d expected him to say, but it wasn’t reading. Watching sports, but definitely not opening a book.

  Fletcher stood and began clearing the table. She pushed back her chair and came to her feet to assist him.

  “I noticed you have quite a few books about business in your office.”

  “Those were from some of my college courses,” Fletcher explained. “It took a while, but I finally was able to earn an online undergraduate business degree. I did it more for my mother than myself, because I really didn’t need it if I was going to eventually take over the business from Pop once he retires. Mom was the first one in her family to go to college, and she wanted the same for her children. I disappointed her when I turned down the athletic scholarship to enlist in the army, so the pressure fell on my brother and sister.”

  Fletcher scraped and rinsed dishes while Nicole stacked them in the dishwasher. “Did they disappoint her?”

  “Nah. Sean graduated with a degree in chemical engineering and Charlene outdid both of us by earning a graduate and postgraduate degree in English. She’s always been an overachiever.”

  Nicole heard the pride in Fletcher’s voice when he talked about his siblings. “Would you insist that your kids go to college?”

  Fletcher’s hands stilled as he turned to face her. “That’s something I can’t answer at this time. The one thing I don’t want to do is pressure them to become what I want for them. A degree definitely has more earning power than a high school diploma, but not everyone is college material. Pop has earned three times more money than Mom even if she hadn’t given up her career as a social worker.”

  “That’s because he’s a business owner. And you know social workers and teachers are usually underpaid for their work.”

  “How about you, Nikki? Would you insist your kids go to college?”

  It suddenly struck Nicole that she and Fletcher were talking about children as if both were parents. “How did we go from talking about relaxing to us having kids?”

  Fletcher gave her a direct stare. “I don’t know. Now, back to music. What’s your favorite genre?”

  “Old-school R & B.”

  “That’s my girl!” He smiled. “As soon as we’re finished here, I’ll show you my record collection.”

  “Don’t you mean CDs?”

  “No, beautiful. Vinyl records.”

  Nicole felt pinpricks of heat dot her cheeks and she wondered if Fletcher was aware of his glibly spoken endearments: babe, sweetheart and beautiful. And she felt beautiful and desirable whenever they were together.

  Although she had spent half her life around men, it was her career that had taken precedence over a love life. Many of her fellow female officers had fallen in love, married and had families of their own, while Nicole had allowed herself to get involved with a married man who’d used her as his sounding board, and that had threatened to derail her military career. She had continued to choose unwisely with the two men she’d dated after moving to Miami, and then had closed herself off emotionally when they had accused her of being cold, unfeeling and insensitive.

  However, she found Fletcher different because he did not need her and because they had a lot more in common than she’d had with other men. They’d both been born and raised in the same town and served in the military, and had come back to Wickham Falls to support family members.

  “How many records do you have?”

  He dried his hands on a terry dish towel. “Come with me and I’ll show you.”

  * * *

  Fletcher couldn’t help but laugh as Nicole’s jaw dropped when he opened the doors under the entertainment unit in the family room to reveal countless vinyl records in their original jackets and even more CDs in jewel cases.

  He sat on the floor, easing her down beside him, and handed her a record featuring the Dave Brubeck Quartet. “I collect old jazz and R & B records.”

  Nicole read the back of the jacket. “I remember my mother talking about the music that was popular when she was in college. She said the jukebox in the restaurant where they hung out never switched certain records because they were favorites. I remember her playing Brubeck’s ‘Take Five’ and Louis Armstrong’s ‘What a Wonderful World.’”

  Fletcher smiled. “My favorite of his is ‘A Kiss to Build a Dream On.’ There’s something about his voice that’s magical.”

&nb
sp; Nicole rested her head on his shoulder. “Will you play it for me?”

  He thumbed through the albums he had set up in alphabetical order by artist and found the one that listed the song. Standing, he turned on the stereo system and placed the record on the turntable. Extending his hand, Fletcher stared down at Nicole, who was looking up at him.

  “Come and dance with me.” She placed her palm on his hand and he gently eased her up from the floor. Wrapping an arm around her waist, he pulled her flush against his body and lost himself in the words of the love song and the warmth and sweet scent of the woman in his arms.

  Fletcher had admitted to Nicole that he had waited a little more than seventeen years to kiss her, but he had also waited just that long to dance with her. He had told himself when he’d driven up to her house the morning she was scheduled to go to court that he was over her rejection. He’d known that wasn’t true when she’d looked at him as if he were a stranger instead of someone she’d known all her life.

  She had given him the same look whenever they’d worked together on the school yearbook—that look that said he wasn’t in her social class and therefore she would never agree to date him.

  Now that he’d kissed her and held her in his arms, Fletcher knew the wait had been more than worth it. They danced, barely moving their feet as he buried his face in her hair and inhaled a whiff of coconut clinging to the short strands. Everything about her was soft and feminine, and in that instant he knew he was falling in love with Nicole. He realized love was a strong word, but he could not explain away the depth of the feelings he had for her. His head dipped and he pressed his mouth to her ear. He had memorized the words to the poignant love song and he felt her stiffen as he whispered them, before she relaxed again against his chest.

  Fletcher not only wanted a kiss to build a dream on with Nicole, he also wanted so much more. He wanted her to share his life and their future. But that would only be possible if she agreed to come home to Wickham Falls. She’d told him her home was now in Miami, Florida, and she was not involved with anyone, which meant she had nothing keeping her from relocating. He was certain she wouldn’t have a problem selling her house, and if she wanted to continue practicing law, she already had a position with Preston McAvoy.