She nodded as tears fell down her cheeks. She held up a sonogram and announced, “I am two months pregnant.”
“What does that have to do with me?” Mike’s mind was swimming in confusion. Why the hell was Lizzie telling him this and why would that have made Nikki leave? Unless…
He staggered back a step. “Does Nikki think it’s mine? We haven’t been together for over six months,” his voice raised with every word he spoke.
“Mike,” she cried out his name in a plea. Her eyes were frantically searching his. She looked broken, like a shell of herself. “I didn’t say it was yours. I know it’s not yours. But I did tell her that we were together up until a month ago.” Lizzie reached out for him again and he pulled his arm away. Her face hardened and she crossed her arms around her torso. “Which is the truth. We still talked, up until a month ago. Until you met her, and you wouldn’t return my phone calls anymore.”
“Are you crazy?” Mike had always known that Lizzie was a spoiled princess, but he hadn’t thought she was actually certifiable. Until now. “We broke up seven months ago. I only ever spoke to you again because you wanted to remain friends.”
Words started tumbling out of her mouth, “No one has to know it’s not yours. If we get back together now-”
“Get out,” Mike stated in a low menacing tone.
Her breaths were coming in short pants and her face contorted in fury as she screamed, “You can’t possibly be serious about that white trash piece of-”
Mike took a step towards her and she shut her mouth. Her feet shuffled back a step as her eyes widened in fear. He spoke deliberately, “I don’t know what games you are trying to play here and I don’t really give a shit. You are going to get out the hell out of my house and stay away from me. I don’t ever want to talk to you again. And you will stay away from Nikki. Is that clear?”
“Please, Mike! I don’t know what to do,” she begged as she crumbled back down in the dining room chair.
A small part of him felt sorry for her. But he quickly reminded himself that she was a big girl and not only had she made her bed, she’d managed to get pregnant in it. This wasn’t his problem and he was done being manipulated. “Get out or I will call security to escort you out.”
Her head snapped up at him like she’d been slapped across the face.
Fury fell over the soft features of her face. “You would have been nothing without me. My daddy made you and he will break you,” she spat out angrily as she grabbed her purse off the floor.
“Get. Out.”
Straightening her shoulders she stomped out of the apartment slamming the door behind her.
Mike raked his hands through his hair. He had no idea how he was going to fix this with Nikki. But he knew he had to. He needed to find her. Now.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Nikki blew her nose loudly into the Kleenex and then added it to the growing pile sitting beside her on the couch. Her iPod was playing “It Must Have Been Love” by Roxette on repeat and she was singing her heart out. Literally, it felt like her heart was going to break right out of her chest.
Stupid. That is what she was. She’d actually let herself begin to believe that she could have a future with Mike. Everything had been going perfectly. Which should have been her first clue. There are no guys as perfect as Mike Gowan had seemed to be.
Nikki may not be as book smart as her sister Amy but she’d always been more people smart. How had she not seen this coming? Her mind was scanning through memories of the past month like it was a microfiche reader. Frantically looking for any clue that she’d missed.
Except for his behavior the first night they met, there was nothing. Not one single shred of evidence that he was a cheating two-timing asshole.
She did say they broke up a month ago, a small voice piped in. Irritated that her sub-conscious had decided to take Mike’s side, she mentally modified her original thought; there was not a shred of evidence that he was a lying no-good asshole. Because that was an indisputable fact.
Mike had clearly said that there was no one else and that he was single in Dallas. Then later, when he’d told her about Elizabeth, he’d point blank said that they had been broken up for six months. Why had he lied?
She just couldn’t seem to wrap her mind around the fact that he’d done that. Sure, she knew that love was blind. And if she’d had any doubts that she was in love with Mike this little incident cleared those right up. She felt like she’d been run over by a truck, dragged for miles, only to be catapulted down a steep mountainside. You didn’t feel like this over someone you just “liked”.
Shit! Why? Why did this have to happen to her? Why couldn’t she get her happily-ever-after like her sister and friends had gotten?
The melancholy song drifted through the air. Nikki sang along through her tears.
It must have been love, but it’s over now.
It must have been good, but I lost it somehow.
It must have been love, but it’s over now.
From the moment we touched, ‘till the time had run out.
A loud knock at the door interrupted Nikki’s pity party sing along. She grabbed her mountain of tissues and tossed them in the waste basket as she shuffled to the door. She’d called Amy to drop Scrappy off and if he got his little paws on the pile of Kleenex, her entire house would be covered in shredded tissue.
The knock sounded again.
“Coming,” Nikki yelled as she opened the door. She shivered as the cold air blew in and she looked up to see her sister holding Scrappy in her arms with a small smile on her face. Nikki reached out and took her little guy out of her sister’s hands. He began giving her kisses on her cheeks where the tears were falling.
“I brought reinforcements,” Amy declared grandly sweeping her arm behind her. Karina, Lauren, Amanda, Sam, and Lily all rounded the corner and stepped onto Nikki’s porch.
“And I brought wine.” Lauren held up two bottles.
“Way ahead of ya,” Nikki said grabbing the half empty bottle that was sitting on her kitchen table and plopping back down on the couch, snuggling Scrappy close to her chest.
The girls all made their way inside.
Amy sat beside her and took the bottle out of her hand, “Did you drink all of this?”
“Yep,” Nikki confirmed snatching it back from her sister’s grasp, “and I’m not done yet.”
Nikki took another swig of the sweet red wine and when she set the bottle down she looked around to see very concerned looks on all of her friends’ faces.
Amanda reached out and patted Nikki’s knee. “What happened?”
“Well, turns out Mr. Perfect is going to be a daddy,” Nikki sniffed and wiped her nose with her sweatshirt sleeve. Scrappy used the opportunity of her not clutching him for dear life to curl up on her lap. He was asleep in seconds.
“You’re pregnant?” Lauren asked.
“No,” Nikki shrieked, “his ex-girlfriend, or maybe current girlfriend, is.”
“That Elizabeth chick?” Karina had a knowing look on her face.
“How do you know about her?” Did her friends know that he was seeing someone else and not tell her?
“I met her at the Governors’ Ball. She was quite a piece of work. Ice Queen does not even begin to do her justice. Plus, I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone as fake as her and I lived in Hollywood for ten years,” Karina explained before shaking her head slightly. “But I thought I read that they broke up months ago. Before summer.”
Nikki threw her hands up. “That’s what I thought too. That’s what he told me. But then she shows up at his door this morning with an ultrasound saying she’s two months pregnant. And that they were still together up until a month ago.”
Her friends were all quiet. Nikki didn’t blame them. Other than saying she was an idiot for falling for him, what could they really say?
“What did Mike say about it?” Amy asked calmly.
“Oh, that’s the best part!” Nikki exclaimed dramat
ically. “Mike wasn’t even there. She showed up when he was at work.”
Karina’s eyes narrowed, “So, you haven’t talked to Mike about this?”
“No,” Nikki shook her head, “she dropped the baby bombshell and I got the hell out of there.”
“Nikki, you have to talk to him,” Sam stated firmly.
“Why?” Nikki looked around at all of her friends’ faces that seemed to be in agreement with Sam. Her shoulders lifted up in frustration. “So he can make up some lame ass excuse about why he told me they weren’t together? Did you guys miss the part that he is having a baby with another woman?!”
“We don’t know that for sure,” Lauren said calmly.
“I saw the sonogram.” Nikki seriously did not understand why none of her friends were getting this.
“I’m not saying she’s not pregnant. I’m saying we don’t know that Mike is the father,” Lauren clarified.
“She’s right,” Lily said in a soft voice. “Sometimes things aren’t what they seem.”
Nikki’s head felt like it was going to explode and she wanted to scream at the top of her lungs. Why weren’t her friends jumping on the Mike is an asshole band wagon. She looked over at Amy for support. Surely her sister would have her back.
“Do you love him?” Amy’s quiet question took a moment to make it through all of the chaotic noise in Nikki’s mind.
“What?” Nikki shook her head, “It doesn’t matter if I-”
“Yes it does.” Amy looked directly in Nikki’s eyes, “If you love him then you at least need to talk to him to find out his side of the story.”
Nikki honestly thought that her sister and all of her friends must be drinking the Kool-Aid. That was the only reasonable explanation for why they weren’t hanging a picture of Mike on the wall and playing darts with it.
She was about to tell them so when there was a knock at the door. Spinning towards her sister Nikki gasped in horror, “Did you tell mom, too?”
Amy shook her head back and forth. “No. I promise. Just the girls.”
Karina was already at the door and Nikki heard it opening before Karina said loudly, “Well, speak of the devil.”
The tiny hairs on the back of Nikki’s neck stood straight up as she heard the sound of heavy steps on her tile flooring. She sat up straighter, facing her friends who were all looking past her toward the door, with variations of the same of oh-my-god and holy-shit looks on their faces. Amy who was beside her had turned and was looking over her shoulder at the new arrival.
“Hello,” Amy stood and leaned over the couch, arm outstretched, “I’m Amy. Nikki’s sister.”
“Hi, I’m Mike,” Mike’s deep voice vibrated through Nikki’s entire being and tears started pooling in her eyes. That was the voice of the man that she now knew she loved. The man that had lied to her.
“Hi, everybody,” she heard Mike say to the room at large. Her friends all greeted him, except Lauren who sat silently staring with laser like assessment.
“Nikki,” Mike’s voice sounded pained and she heard him walking a few steps closer to the couch, “can I talk to you?”
“Go ahead,” Nikki shrugged without turning around.
Mike cleared his throat, “Privately?”
Nikki crossed her arms and leaned back into the couch. She didn’t trust herself to be alone with him. “You’re just lucky my girls are here and not my brothers. This is as private as it’s going to get, Senator.”
“I am so sorry that Liz…Elizabeth upset you today-”
“Is it your baby?” Lauren bluntly interrupted.
Nikki’s eyes flew to her friend. Why had she just come out and asked that?
“No,” Mike immediately responded. “It is not mine. I haven’t been with her in over seven months.”
Lauren eyed him for what felt like it had to be an hour. Nikki’s entire body clenched tightly and she felt like she couldn’t breathe. In fact, she felt like all of the oxygen in the entire room had been sucked out. Finally, Lauren nodded and then looked down at Nikki. Her lungs once again filled with air and her ass cheeks unclenched. She knew it wasn’t any real proof but passing the Lauren lie detector test was better than failing it.
Lauren leaned down and hugged Nikki tightly whispering in her ear, “You should really talk to him—without an audience.”
Nikki nodded against Lauren’s shoulder.
Lauren leaned back and looked into Nikki’s eyes, “Call us if you need us.”
Amy’s arms wrapped around her and she pulled her into a tight embrace, “Do you want me to stay?”
“No,” Nikki said squeezing her sister tightly once more for strength before letting her arms fall back down to her sides.
“Are you sure?” her sister asked as she stood.
“Yeah,” Nikki confirmed even though her entire body was shaking like a leaf.
Lily gave her a hug before moving around the couch. She heard her sweet soon-to-be sister-in-law threaten in a low tone, “Her brother is the Chief of Police and he has a lot of guns. Do. Not. Hurt. Her.”
“And I know people with guns who are not limited to staying within the confines of the law. So it would really be in your best interest not to hurt her.” Nikki heard Karina say right before she heard the door shut.
She might be miserable and heartbroken but a small smile still crept up on her face. She had the best friends and family in the world. Who else would threaten a Senator, which had to be a federal crime or at least a crime, without giving it a second thought?
Nikki sat facing forward her back still to Mike, not moving a muscle. She didn’t understand what was going on. She should be furious. She should be ripping this guy a new asshole. But all she felt was sad, hurt, and scared. Nikki couldn’t even bring herself to turn around and look at Mike because she was scared she might jump into his arms.
What the hell was wrong with her?
--- ~ ---
In his line of work, Mike had walked into some pretty intimidating rooms before but he didn’t think he’d ever felt quite as much like he was standing in front of a firing squad as he had when he’d walked into Nikki’s living room. Not to mention the fact that one of the most famous pop icons in the world had casually opened Nikki’s front door. He’d recognized all the other girls in the room too; most of them had been in the picture with Nikki he’d seen on Facebook. The Olympic snowboarder, the TV host, Nikki’s sister, even the girl that had threatened him with Nikki’s brother’s gun collection, he’d seen in the news lately because she’d taken down a huge crime syndicate in her teens, then been in witness protection and recently had an attempt on her life.
Surreal didn’t begin to describe what this situation felt like.
But none of that mattered. All that mattered was Nikki. Mike had no idea what she was thinking. She hadn’t even turned around to look at him. All he’d seen is the back of her head.
Standing there wasn’t helping anything so Mike stepped around the couch and sat on the coffee table in front of Nikki. She was looking down petting Scrappy who was curled up asleep in a ball on her lap. It reminded him of the picture she’d shown him the night at the bar of Scrappy curled up on Scooby’s head.
Seeing Nikki, sitting huddled up on her couch in her big oversized UCLA Bruins sweatshirt and a pair of jeans, he was struck by how small and vulnerable she appeared. It was a stark contrast to the normal air of confidence she exuded. Every cell in his body wanted desperately to reach out and pull her into his arms. But he didn’t think that’s what she needed or wanted so instead he said, “Are you okay?” Not his best line, and just looking at her he knew that she wasn’t but he needed her to be okay.
Her gorgeous hazel eyes raised up beneath her long wet inky lashes. She stared at him, like that was the dumbest question she’d ever heard for several beats, before answering flatly, “Oh yeah, just peachy.”
Involuntarily, a small smile pulled at his lips. Her sarcasm was one of the things he loved the most about her. Along with her sp
irit, her honesty, her mind, her voice, her love of animals, her eyes, her smile, her body, her fierce loyalty, the soft spot just below her collarbone that when he kissed it made her moan, the smell of her hair, the way she stretched like a cat when she woke up in the morning, her ability to cut through the bullshit and focus only on what really mattered, her heart. He loved everything about her. He loved her.
Damn, he really loved her. He was in love with her.
His heart achingly broke as he gazed into Nikki’s eyes, damp from the tears that she’d cried over him. “I am so sorry that Lizzie upset you. She thought that I would help her by saying the baby’s mine and getting back together with her. She even threatened to pull her father’s funding of my campaign, which I was unaware he’d even contributed until a week ago. I don’t know how to prove it to you. If you want, you can look at my phone records, email accounts. Whatever will show you that I have not been with her for over six months, I’ll do.”
Nikki’s gaze softened as she stared at him and he leaned forward placing his hands on her knees while he continued staring deep into her eyes, “I promise you that baby is not mine. I’ve never lied to you, Nikki.”
Sitting up a little straighter she asked, “The first night we met why were you so hesitant to come into my room?”
“Because I don’t have one night stands. I just don’t. And it doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that I’m a senator. I don’t sleep with people that I don’t know and don’t plan on seeing again. That is just not me.” He moved closer to her squeezing his fingers around her leg and rubbing his thumb against the inside of her thigh. “But I just couldn’t make myself walk away from you. It didn’t feel like we’d just met. I felt like I knew you, like you knew me. I knew, even then, that what was going on between us wasn’t a one night stand.”
Nikki bit her inner lip and looked back down at Scrappy who was still sound asleep curled up on her lap. “Why did you say that your life was complicated?”
Mike let out a forced laugh. “Because it is. Look at what happened today. And you were walking into it blind because I just couldn’t bring myself to tell you who I was. I know it was selfish, but I couldn’t.”
Snowed In Page 20