by Cookie Jones
“I know…uh, I know this isn’t ideal. What with Clary and I not being in a relationship and all…” I started and Jeff held up a finger for me to stop.
“New life is a blessing, and frankly…I’m thrilled to be getting a grandbaby. But you’re right, the situation isn’t ideal…on your part,” he said and all eyes were on me at the table.
“Nick, please tell me you’ll pull things together for the baby,” my mom practically begged me and I nodded earnestly.
“I am, I’ve already started. I’m moving to New York, I’m there already and looking to start up a career…” Both my mom and Jeff kept looking at me to go on and I did. “A career in either architecture or stock brokerage…I’m leaning more towards the architecture though,” I said and Jeff nodded thoughtfully, my mom’s eyes filled with tears again, though. I couldn’t read her expression well enough to know if it was happy tears or sad tears or like…angry tears.
“I’m behind Clary one hundred percent. I’m going to be in the baby’s life through and through,” I said, mostly to Mom who picked up a napkin and started to dab at her eyes.
“Well, I’m glad to hear that Nick, I hope you stick to your word,” Ronnie said and I looked at her sincerely.
“I will, I definitely will,” I looked over at Clary then, who still had my mom holding on to her.
She smiled at me and I breathed a sigh of relief, well that went a lot better than I thought it would. The waiter came just in time to take Clary and my drink order and then Ronnie ordered for the whole table. It was funny to see Jeff urge her to stay at the table with everyone instead of going back to the kitchen to cook herself.
“So how are you transitioning from owner and chef, to just owner, Mom?” Clary asked with humor in her voice and Ronnie stuck her tongue out at Clary.
“It’s hard, but soon the renovations will be done at the new restaurant so I can jump into the kitchen there,” she said excitedly.
“To train the other new chef,” Clary reminded her and Ronnie huffed.
“You’re just like your father, take the wind out of my sails, why don’t you,” she said and Clary laughed. It was nice to watch them being normal. Jeff was watching his girls with amusement, and bless Clary she still had her arm firmly around my mom’s shoulders.
“So…what are you going to do about work, Clary?” Jeff opened up that line of conversation after a beat of silence and Clary sighed.
“Well, I was going to talk to you about hiring another senior partner for the New York office, from the pool of capable juniors we already have…” she said slowly and Jeff considered it for a moment.
“Well, we do have the means for hiring another senior, in fact, we could hire two other seniors. I was mulling around with the idea myself, I could use the help here in New Haven,” he said and Clary smiled in relief.
“Great, so we can talk about it further?” she said and Jeff nodded.
“Of course, though I’d want you to interview extensively whoever you have in mind. For that level, I’d also want to meet with hem,” Clary nodded.
“Yeah, of course, we’ll talk about it more later,” she said and Jeff nodded.
“Well, it seems like things are pretty much figured out…for the most part, or at face value,” Ronnie commented and Clary glanced at me with a confident smile. What I did to deserve that confidence, the world would never know.
“Yeah, pretty much,” she said and my mom spoke up finally.
“Are you happy about the baby, Clary?” she asked her and Clary nodded.
“I mean no one can really be ready for a baby, but I’m excited about him…or her,” she glanced at me again and my mom caught the small exchange.
“You want a girl, Nick?” she asked almost incredulously and I chuckled.
“Yeah, I’d rather a girl, but boy or girl, I’ll be happy,” I said and she actually gave me a small smile. For the first time in years my mother smiled at me.
“So have you had a doctor’s appointment yet?” Ronnie asked Clary and she nodded, smiling wide. She reached into her purse and then handed out the pictures.
“Oh, Jeff, look,” Ronnie squealed in delight and her eyes got all watery, my mom hugged Clary and started up with the waterworks again. Jeff was looking at the photo with pride. I knew then that our baby would have a pretty great family, one who loved them.
“You should’ve seen Nick, though, he had done research about where the baby and I would be at six weeks and was asking the doctor questions…” I tuned into Clary telling them about the doctor’s visit and felt a little embarrassed.
“Aw, that’s the new dad concern there,” Ronnie said and I shrugged a little.
“I just like to be informed,” I said and they all poked fun at me.
Once the food was served, though, conversation came a bit more naturally, Jeff told me stories about he and Ronnie when she was pregnant with Clary and such. My mom mostly spoke to Clary and Ronnie, but she didn’t ignore me, either. I felt like maybe she saw me in a new light or something. I hoped she did, I really wanted to be able to apologize to her soon. After dinner and saying our goodbyes, Clary and I got back to the car and took a collective sigh of relief.
“That went well, your mom told me she loved me,” Clary said and I cracked up.
“Seriously? That’s what she was saying when she hugged you?” I asked and Clary nodded, a small smile on her lips.
“She’s really very sweet,” she said and I sighed as I started up the car.
“Yeah, I know; I have a lot of making up to do. I have to take care of her now that Dad is gone, I just have to get her to trust me again,” I said and Clary rubbed my arm comfortingly.
The ride home was pretty quick compared to the ride up. I thought it was funny that I was already referring to Clary’s apartment as ‘home.’ Come Monday I’d have to start putting a portfolio together for architecture jobs; I still had some stuff together from college, it was actually in the trunk of my car…somewhere.
“So do you feel better about…all of this?” Clary asked, her hand went to her belly.
“Yeah I do, though even if they all reacted horribly, I wouldn’t have left you high and dry,” I told her and she gave me a sweet smile and leaned over to kiss me on the cheek. I glanced at her for a second and wondered how she’d feel about me wanting more with her.
Chapter8
Clary
Monday morning I was woken up way before my alarm by a wave, hell a gulf, of nausea. I practically sprinted out of bed to the bathroom and bent over the toilet helpless to my stomach heaving.
“I heard dry heaving, are you alright?” Nick came hurrying into the room and I groaned.
“Go away, I’m fine,” I said and then actually threw up. Nick held my hair out of the range of fire as my stomach emptied itself and made sure it was empty. Afterwards he helped me to my feet and I washed out my mouth and brushed my teeth, like, three times.
“How do you feel? Do you want some ginger ale?” he asked a bit anxiously and I nodded.
“Yeah ginger ale sounds nice,” I mumbled and he took my hand and led me out to the kitchen.
Only then did I realize he was in nothing but a pair of gym shorts. His broad back and defined muscles were fully out in the open for me to stare at. Of course that also meant memories of when we had sex came barreling to the forefront of my mind and all I could see was his powerful body moving over mine.
“One ginger ale, do you want to try for some bread or a plain bagel with butter or something?” Nick asked and I had to compose myself a little before I answered, I felt a bit like a deer in headlights. The headlights being my hormones that started to rage at the sight of his naked chest.
“Um, yeah, the bagel…yeah,” I stammered and he gave me a crooked smile, his hair falling over to the side, which made him brush it back. I watched his bicep flex and then snapped myself out of it. I couldn’t look at Nick like that. He was just the father of my child…that’s all. Doing anything more would only complicate
things.
“You okay?” he asked. His voice was a little husky and that was all I needed, I felt my nipples harden and a dull ache began to make itself known in between my legs.
“Yeah, I’m okay,” I said and took a sip of the ginger ale, which really did do wonders on my uneasy stomach. Nick turned around to fix me a bagel and I tried, I really tried not to watch him moving around the kitchen half naked, but that was impossible.
“Voila, one plain bagel, lightly buttered,” he placed the plate in front of me with a flourish and I giggled.
“Thanks, it looks like the best lightly buttered bagel I’ll ever have,” I said and he laughed.
Then he got into my personal space after rounding the breakfast bar. He was standing right next to my seat and had his hand on the back of the chair, he smelled warm and like some sort of spice. It made me want to lean into him and lick his neck and—not do any of those things, I firmly reminded myself.
“Clary…I, um, wanted to…talk to you about—”
“Can you…put on a shirt?” I asked a bit suddenly, effectively cutting him off.
He looked at me in confusion for a moment and then took a step away from me, thankfully.
“Sure, yeah,” he said and then slowly retreated to his room.
I took several deep breaths and actually fanned myself a bit. I needed to cool off, was that what pregnancy hormones did to a woman? If so, I really hoped Nick would find a place of his own soon. I didn’t want to mess things up by coming on to him, especially if he didn’t want me or think we should complicate things that way, which we shouldn’t. Definitely should not.
I gave myself the lecture while I ate my bagel quickly and drank the ginger ale. I hurried back into my bedroom before Nick came back out, if he was going to at all. When I passed by his room it sounded like he was on the phone. Checking the time, I saw that I had better start getting ready for work. I was hoping to start the interview process for the senior partner soon and I had Jayce Rowling in mind for the position. Even though I just hired him for the junior position, he showed the most promise.
I was just about to head out for work when Nick came out of his room. He was freshly showered and dressed in a professional suit that made him look absolutely delicious. I then reminded myself to ignore that fact.
“Hey, where are you off to?” I asked him and he smiled.
“A job interview. Buddy hooked me up with some connection of his. It’s for this big architecture firm, I’m just hoping that my college portfolio will be enough to get in the door,” he said a bit nervously and I squeezed his arm in reassurance.
“Don’t focus on the bad and I’m sure you’ll do great, be confident,” I said and he gave me a slow, almost sexy smile.
“I’m always confident,” he said and I laughed.
“Oh, you’re right, my bad,” I said and he surprised me by pulling me in for a kiss on the cheek. I got a giant whiff of the smell of his cologne and melted a little bit inside.
“How about I stop by the firm for lunch?” he asked and I hesitated.
“Uh, call me first and I’ll see if I’m free,” I said and he frowned a little.
“You do have to eat, Clary,” he said and I laughed.
“Yeah I know, it’s just that lunch is a great time to have meetings,” I explained and he nodded in understanding.
“Alright, well, I’ll call you then,” he said and I nodded, soon he was out the door and I made myself some baby safe tea and then headed off to Bellinger Tower, where the office was located. Stacy had a lot of updates for me as I walked past her office to mine. I had pretty much ignored work over the weekend and that usually meant a pile of calls and e-mails and cases to sort through.
“…so basically the big thing is to get back to Raven and Co because they have a really big case,” Stacy filled me in while I got settled at my desk.
“Alright, send me all their stuff and then put a call in to their office in about ten minutes please,” I told her and she got right on it and left me to sort out a few e-mails.
***
The morning went by in a blur from scheduling a rush meeting with Raven and Co and then having a video conference with my dad who gave me the green light on interviewing Rowling for the senior partner position. Jayce came striding into my office around lunch time and he seemed nervous as he came over to shake my hand.
“Jayce, how are you?” I asked and he kept that nervous smile, but nodded politely.
“I’m pretty well, a little…unsure as to this impromptu meeting?” he said and I gestured for him to sit down and went to close the doors to the office.
“I actually wanted to talk to you about a pretty big and sudden promotion…”
Jayce’s eyes widened in surprise and he sat forward, intrigued. “What sort of promotion are we talking here?” he asked and I sat down behind the desk nonchalantly.
“Like becoming a senior partner,” I said and his eyebrows disappeared into his hairline practically.
“I—that’s…wow, I don’t know what to say,” he stuttered and I smirked, but gave him time to get his thoughts together.
“As you know, the firm is growing faster than me and my dad can keep up with, we have the means and the need for another couple of senior partners, but I recommended you help me out here. There are a few other juniors who show promise and have been here longer than you. But they aren’t quite there yet. Plus, you’re learning how we do things around here pretty fast and its hard to ignore your resume, like I said when initially interviewing you.” I kept talking mostly because Jayce seemed taken aback with shock and needed a minute. I filled up the air to let him catch up a little.
“Wow, Clary, this is just…I don’t know what to say. I’m honored that you’d pick me,” he said gratefully and I smiled. I knew he’d be a good choice, Jayce had that loyal air about him.
“Well, there are obviously some extensive interviews we’ll have to go through, not just with me, but also my dad and things like that. All the while you should continue to work with your current clients admirably.”
“Of course, that isn’t even in question,” Jayce said. He was obviously thrilled.
I liked to see the passion he had for his job, it was yet another sign that I made the right choice. I told Jayce what I would need from him and after that he got up eager to go and get his portfolio together.
“Thank you so much for this, Clary, I won’t let you or the firm down,” Jayce said excitedly and only then did I realize that he had a few effeminate gestures, especially in light of his excitement.
I shrugged internally and gave him a wide smile then rounded my desk to shake his hand. Only he hugged me instead and I laughed. Of course that’s when Nick waltzed into my office with his hands full of two takeout bags.
“Oh, Nick, hey what are you doing here?” I asked after stepping away from Jayce.
Nick’s gaze was critical as he took in Jayce and my proximity to him.
“I came to surprise you with lunch…but if you’re busy?”
“No, I was just finishing up with Jayce. Nick, this is Jayce, soon to be senior partner here, hopefully,” I said and Jayce gave me a wide smile before he greeted Nick and then excused himself. Nick walked over to my desk and set the bags down; I saw that he had brought sandwiches and soup.
“That looks really good, is it Heraldo’s?” I asked and peeked inside to see that indeed it was. They were probably the best deli on all of Fifth Avenue.
“So you were meeting with him about being senior…partner?” Nick asked, innocently enough as I unpacked the bags.
“Yeah, he’s really excited about it, which is a good sign,” I said and Nick took a seat where Jayce had previously been.
“Yeah, seemed really excited,” he mumbled and I didn’t know what he meant by that.
“So how did your interview go?” I asked and Nick smiled almost reluctantly.
“It went pretty good, though, of course, they want to see some more work from me so I have to
focus on my portfolio a little. They gave me a couple of mock assignments to work on this week and depending on that, I may have a job,” he said almost proudly and I was so excited for him.
“Nick, oh my goodness, that’s great!” I exclaimed and he laughed.
“Yeah, but I can’t get ahead of myself…yet,” he smirked and I laughed.
“Now, I wanna see some of your work, will you show me your college portfolio when we get home?” I asked him and he nodded; he seemed to like that I wanted to see his work.
“How are you feeling?” he asked and I patted my belly.
“Great now that I have this sandwich,” I said and Nick chuckled.
“You know you should be snacking in between meals. Like fruit and granola and stuff,” he said and I smirked at him.
“Will you pack me a lunch?” I asked and he shrugged.
“If you want me to I will,” he said and then held my gaze, his expression having gotten a little intense. “So that Jayce guy, he’s gay right?” Nick asked and I cracked up.
“I suspected a little, but I can’t be too sure…why?” I asked and Nick sort of played with his soup.
“I don’t know, maybe cuz I’d be jealous if he wasn’t and soon you’d be working closely with him…on a daily basis,” he said and I froze a little bit. Nick would be jealous?
“Jealous why?” I asked, a little dumbfounded and admittedly slow.
“Because I…I don’t know, I—” Nick sighed heavily and got up abruptly from the chair, he was in front of me before I could attach reason to his movements.
Then he leaned down and pressed his lips to mine. At first the kiss was hesitant, but it gained steam really quick. I could blame it on my hormones, but my mind had caught up enough to realize that Nick had feelings for me. His lips were as soft as I remembered and they moved against mine with a sensual insistence that had me breathless and panting all at once.