One Simple Step (Journey Series) (17 page)

Well, as free as I could get I suppose. Nick had stolen my heart practically the minute I met him, and I didn’t want it back.

And now here we were in Indiana. Nick wanted to make things right with Leah and my family, and properly meet everyone. So, after he made sure Aaron, his assistant manager, was totally capable of running the resort on his own for a weekend, we scheduled a trip to visit my parents.

At least I didn’t have to worry about work anymore. As soon as Leah left, I took her advice about starting up my own business, and jumped in feet first. My bedroom and Nick’s house had been overtaken by headbands, flowers, bows, and tulle.

I already had some mad marketing skills on my side from working with the band, so the first step I took was setting up a website. The Internet was
everything
with this type of business. From there, I started adding pictures of all the different creations that I made, and started to get custom orders quickly.

I became so busy that eventually working at the resort just didn’t make sense anymore, even though I knew that would cut the time in half that I got to spend with Nick. He said we would make it work when I gave my notice, and we had done just that.

We spent his days off together, and days that he worked, we ended up having lunch, or I would pop in during his breaks.

He hadn’t asked me to move in, but we were practically living together. It just felt right waking up in his bed, and if I stayed back at Remy’s, I just woke up lonely and missing him.

I continued to watch him sleep, frowning when I saw his eyebrows scrunch together. It looked like he was worried about something, even is his sleep. I had noticed things were a little off with him, but every time I asked, he brushed it aside and played it up to being stressed from work.

I knew his job was stressful, but I could tell it was something else. I had no idea why he wouldn’t just tell me. I’m sure it was something that we could easily work out so that it wasn’t eating at him like it seemed to be doing. For now, I would just have to wait, and hopefully he would be able to trust me with whatever it was.

I heard his phone beep, and I grabbed it from the small table, hitting a button on the side to silence it. I was reaching to set it back down when my eye caught the name Kara, and I did a double take. I hated to feel like I was spying on Nick, but what in the hell was that girl still contacting him for?

My stomach dropped when I slid the unlock button across the screen, and I tried to discreetly read it, even though I felt extremely guilty. If I had paid a little more attention when I was with Teddy, though, maybe I would’ve caught onto the cheating. That wasn’t what was happening here, was it? Just the thought made me sick.

I decided against reading it, and laid the phone back down on the table. Nick wasn’t Teddy, and I needed to trust that. Just because I had been burned in the past didn’t mean it was going to happen again. I was just jumping to conclusions, and we know where that landed me the first time. I think I actually remember him saying she had a box of his stuff that had been mixed in with her things when she moved out that he still needed to pick up. See, perfectly good explanation.

“Are you watching me sleep?” he asked in a husky voice, not yet opening his eyes, but his lips twisted into a smirk, flashing a dimple at me. I loved those things.

“Yup, I am.” I giggled when his hand shot out, and he grabbed around my waist, pulling me on top of him. I straddled his body, giving a little wiggle, and his eyes finally popped open.

“Don’t even think about it,” he said, digging his fingers into my hips to lift me up slightly. He pointed a finger down to the tent that had appeared in his shorts and shook his head. “This stays in there as long as we’re at your parents’ house. I don’t need your dad kicking my ass out of his house for doing very naughty things with his daughter.” I pouted my lips at him and swung my legs around to the edge of the bed. “Even though I really want to.”

“Mmhmm, I’m sure you do, so if you want to behave yourself we better head down for breakfast, before I can’t control myself.”

“Alright, I’m gonna go take a cold shower, and I’ll be down in five.”

I rolled my eyes, even though a cold shower was probably exactly what I needed, and it would be even better if it was with Nick. I walked down the stairs, loving the fact that I was back at home. It was just so comforting to be in the house that I had grown up in, remembering all of the great memories I had with my family. I smiled at the picture of Owen and his wife Brenna that was displayed above the brick fireplace. They looked so in love on their wedding day, and still were after being married for eight years. It made me sad to think that they lived so far away now in California where Owen had just recently been relocated for his job.

“Morning, Mom.” I smacked a kiss on her cheek. She was standing at the stove flipping pancakes, and she began giving me instructions to help with breakfast.

“Ally, dear, make sure you grab the maple syrup that Ben likes. And there’s fresh strawberries in the back of the fridge. Does Nick like pancakes and bacon? I hope that’s alright.”

“It’s perfect, Mom, he’ll love whatever you make.” She wiped her hands on the front of her apron, before grabbing up her coffee mug that had “Mom” spelled out in tiny jewels. Something that I made for her one Christmas when I was around ten, I think.

“I like him,” she said after taking a long sip and sitting down next to me. “He’s a very nice boy, and so handsome. I’ve always had a thing for dimples.” That must be where I get my obsession from then.

“You know I was never a fan of Teddy’s, you just didn’t seem to be yourself when you were with him. I think he stole a little bit of that light that I love about you so much. It seems like you have all of that back now.” She reached out and patted my cheek before standing back up to flip a pancake.

I was a little shocked at what my mom said. She never once mentioned anything about not caring for Teddy, or a change in me. My dad and her were always so supportive of everything I had done in life. I guess they felt they needed to support me in that, too. I was glad that she had taken a liking to Nick, though.

“I’m glad you like Nick, Mom,” I said as she sat a stack of pancakes in the center of the worn table that had been around longer than I had. “But you know you can always tell me your opinion. I never had a clue that you didn’t like Teddy. It would have helped to have your input, and maybe I wouldn’t have made such a huge mistake by marrying him.”

“Ally, that was your decision to make, not mine or your dad’s. You were happy with him at the time, and you did what was in your heart. It’s all a part of the journey, honey, even if it was a bit of a bumpy one. You wouldn’t be where you are today if it wasn’t for Teddy. And now your journey has led you to that one. Maybe I can finally get myself some grandkids,” she added with a wink.

“Definitely not from me,” I responded quickly. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready for kids. They’re such a pain in the ass,” I said sarcastically.

My mom knew that I’ve always wanted kids, I just wasn’t sure about the when. I don’t think Nick and I were really to that point quite yet in our relationship where we needed to talk about it, but I could see myself having kids with him. With Teddy, that picture had always been kind of blurry. Maybe it had been that way for a reason.

My mom pointed to the stairs that I could hear creaking as she ruffled my hair, and I looked up to see Nick walking into the kitchen. Just the sight of him made me smile. My mom was right, there had been something missing, and with Nick, it felt like I had that missing piece back.

Chapter 18

Nick

Me:
No

No.

It was amazing how much a tiny two-letter word could actually mean. I wasn’t even sure what it meant when I finally responded to Kara’s text that sat unanswered for weeks.

I had given myself a time limit. I knew that after visiting with Ally’s family back in Indiana, I just needed to make a decision. I tried not to think about it while I was there, though.

Her family was great, and I could see that they had helped shape her into the outgoing, caring, and overall perfect girl that I loved so much. We didn’t do much while we were there, just more of a getting to know you type of thing, playing board games and cards, but it had been just what I needed. It kept my mind off of things, while I got to spend all of my time with Ally.

“Dude, what in the hell is wrong with you?” Danny tipped his beer back before slamming it back down, and leaned forward in his chair.

We met up at Clammy’s as soon as I got back into town and had dropped Ally off at Remy’s place. I wanted her to come home with me, but she said she needed to catch up on orders that customers placed while we were gone. She was going to try to come over later since I had been promising to do very bad things to her once we got home.

“And don’t tell me ‘nothing’. I’ve known you for like twenty-five years or some shit like that. Is it about that bitch, Kara, again? Please don’t tell me you’re actually thinking about getting back together with her or something.”

“No, Danny.” I squeezed my eyes shut. “It’s so much worse than that.” I swallowed thickly, letting the words roll around on my tongue before I said them. I hadn’t actually said them out loud to anyone, but I needed to, and doing it with my best friend seemed like the best idea that I could come up with.

“Kara’s pregnant.”

There, I said it, now maybe it would seem real. Yeah, it seemed real, too real, and judging by Danny’s shocked face, he knew I wasn’t joking about this. It wasn’t the type of thing that I would joke about.

Danny’s hand smacked down loudly on top of the table as he leaned back in his chair and let out a low whistle. “Holy. Motherfuckin’. Shit.”

Yeah, that just about summed up what I was feeling the first time I heard about it, and I’m pretty sure that’s how I still felt.

Danny’s mouth was hanging open as he stared back at me silently, at a loss for words for probably the first time since I met him.

Kara had told me the night that I met her at the restaurant. A million things had been running through my head at why she wanted to meet up, but that had not been one of them. When she first uttered the word, I thought she was joking, and I actually laughed about it.

All I got in return was a glare, and she pointed to her stomach. I looked at it least three times before I actually noticed a little bit of a rounded bump underneath the bulky black sweater she had on. I don’t know why I didn’t question that earlier in the night.

Kara always wore black, but it was always something tight to show off her curves. She had a nice body, one of the reasons she never went on birth control, she said she didn’t want to gain weight, but we had always been super safe when it came to wearing condoms.

“Do you think I got pregnant on purpose?” she hissed before thanking the waitress for the appetizer she had just sat down. “Because you know I didn’t want kids right now, Nick. Obviously, you weren’t careful enough.”

Of course she was blaming this on me. Typical Kara.

“Well, how do I know it’s even mine?” I gestured towards her stomach, feeling bad that I called the baby an “it” but I really hadn’t come to terms that there was an actual being growing in there. “We haven’t been together in months.”

Her face turned dark as she took a bite of the beef nachos she had ordered, another strange thing to see, Kara had always been a strictly veggie girl. “Trust me, I wish it wasn’t. The guy I’m with now wasn’t exactly happy when I found out I was two months pregnant and we’d only been together for one. I wasn’t sure if I was even going to contact you, but I thought about it for a while and figured it’s the right thing to do. It’s yours, Nick. Jared’s staying with me, though, as long as I take care of this little problem.”

Take care of this little problem? What in the hell did that mean? “Are you actually considering—“

Ally interrupted us, then, one of the reasons that I had kind of been an ass to her. I was in shock at what Kara had just told me, and I needed to finish the conversation we had started. It wasn’t really one that could be easily picked up at a later time. I was pissed at myself for putting it off for so long.

“Well, that was lovely,” Kara muttered sarcastically when I returned from helping Ally back to her table. I got a nasty stare down from Danny, and I’m sure he was wondering what in the hell was going on.

I dropped back down into my chair, and Kara raised an eyebrow. “I never took you for that type. Is it really true what they say about blondes?”

“Cut the shit, Kara. Ally is none of your concern.”

She huffed and rolled her eyes at me. “Whatever, Nick. So, let’s get back to what we were talking about then, shall we?”

I grunted in response. Sure, just what every guy wanted to talk about with their ex-girlfriend.

“My first thought was to get an abortion, I mean, do you already see what this is doing to my body? And I have to eat like non-stop, or I feel like I’m actually dying. But I decided against it. I just don’t think I really believe in those.” She reached down, shuffling around in her purse until her hands landed on something, and then she pulled out a wad of papers, setting them down in front of me.

I still hadn’t gotten over the fact that she had actually considered the idea of having an abortion. Yeah, we weren’t together, but that didn’t mean a life needed to end just because of that. I didn’t comprehend what was really in front of me until my eyes landed on the word adoption.

“You’ve gotta be fuckin’ kidding me, Kara.” I read the papers more thoroughly, and no, my eyes hadn’t deceived me. She was really serious about adoption. I had just found out about the baby, and I didn’t think that would be an option. Ever.

“All you need to do is sign the papers, Nick.” She pushed a pen across the table.

“I’m not signing shit, Kara,” I pushed the pen back to her. “You literally just told me about this, and you think I’m just gonna do it because you say so? And let me get this straight, you don’t believe in abortion, but you have no problem giving your own child up for adoption?”