Chapter 10
Arlet’s eyes fluttered open. She met the beautiful gaze of Nick’s blue eyes looking down at her. She stared into them for a little bit. A funny feeling in her stomach came out of nowhere. She never felt it before and she wasn’t sure how to act.
“Good morning.” Nick said softly, smiling down on her.
That smile always does it for me, she thought. “Morning.” She replied sleepily. She snuggled up closer to him. “You’re the best pillow I ever had.”
Nick laughed. “Well, I’m glad. Did our families come home yet?”
“Uh...I don’t think so. I’ll go check.” Arlet got up and stretched. “Man, I don’t want to get up.” She whined. Nick chuckled. Arlet walked out to the garage and found the cars gone. “Nope, they haven’t returned. I’ll go check messages. They might of called when we were sleeping.” She walked out of the room.
Nick couldn’t take his eyes off of her. Every move she made, made him want to just chase after her, wrap his arms around her body and kiss her and kiss her and kiss her forever.
“God I love her.” He said, dreamily and smiling.
“What?” Arlet asked as she walked back into the living room.
“Oh nothing. I didn’t say anything.” Nick answered, trying to sound casual.
“Oh okay. Must of been hearing things. Anyways, yeah, they’re still up at the condo. There was a blizzard up in the mountains and they couldn’t drive home.”
“Really?”
“Yep. They might be stuck there for a while. I’ll go check outside to see if it made it’s way down here.”
Nick nodded and followed her to the front door. When Arlet opened it, the most beautiful picture appeared in front of him. The sight took his breath away. Snow covered almost every inch of ground and it piled up at least a foot. Besides the plowed street, the snow was untouched. The Sun was out and reflected off the perfect snow. He’d never see anything like it in his life.
“Oh! Look at the powder! Must be perfect up in the mountains. I need to go boarding in the next couple days so I don’t miss it.” Arlet said, enthusiastically.
Nick smiled. “It’s so beautiful. You don’t see something like this in Florida, ever. Wow, I can’t believe it.”
“I know. That’s why I love living here. I wouldn’t want to live any place else.”
The both of them stood in the doorframe of the front door and continued to look out for awhile. Nick stood behind her. He wanted to envelope her in his arms and run his hands up and down her arms. He wanted to push her long black hair out of the way and kiss her on the neck. It took all his strength to hold back.
Arlet looked out. She felt safe and secure, standing with Nick behind her. She was totally grateful for him. She wanted to thank him but something more special than just saying thank you. She didn’t know how she wanted to thank him. Standing in front of him, the feeling in her stomach came back. She didn’t know what it was. She never felt anything like it in her life. She only felt like that around Nick. No, she thought, I can’t get close to anyone right now. I don’t want to get hurt. But then she thought back to what she said to Sarah after she asked what she wanted for Christmas: “Someone I could actually spend the rest of my life with.” I didn’t think it would happen. I’m not ready to get back into another relationship at the moment. I’ve been with someone ever since I was fourteen. I need to be alone for a while, her thoughts told her. But something inside of her begged to differ...
“Arlet?” Nick’s voice came from behind. His voice brought her back to reality.
“Huh?”
“Let’s go inside. I’m getting hungry and it’s getting cold.”
“Oh, right. Yeah, okay.” She smiled at him. He returned it. “What do you want to eat?” She asked as he sat down at the table in the kitchen.
“I don’t care. Something good. And warm.”
“Oh! You want some pancakes? I’m so in the mood for some!” She asked, like a little girl.
“Sounds good to me.”
Arlet hustled around the kitchen, grabbing stuff to cook her and Nick breakfast. After a few minutes, she had made a stack of steaming pancakes.
“This is good. Real good.” Nick said, with a mouthful of pancakes.
“Ew! Nick, don’t talk with your mouth full.” She laughed.
“Oh sorry.” He swallowed his food. “Damn, these are really good.” He dug into his plate.
“They’re just pancakes. I’m pretty sure everyone makes the pancakes the same way.”
“Not when you travel with the guys. I don’t even think you can actually call them pancakes. I don’t even know what to call them.” Arlet laughed. “Leighanne makes pretty good ones. She saved us at one time. She tried Brian’s and decided to save us from each other’s cooking.”
“That’s funny.” She smiled up at him. “So tell me, what’s it like to tour with you guys?”
“To be honest, chaos. That’s the only word to describe it. Total chaos.”
“I can imagine. Just being with just you is total chaos.”
“Hey!” Nick said defensively, pieces of pancakes flying out of his mouth.
“Nick!” She cried. “Gross!”
“Sorry.” He blushed.
“Oh, I’ll get it.” She said as the phone rang. “Hello?”
No answer.
“Hello?” She asked again.
Still no answer.
“What the--”
Then a cold, cruel voice came from the phone.
“You should’ve known better than to mess with me. You better watch out for Blondie...and believe me, I’ll get what I want.” The sound of a click told her the person hung up.
“Oh my God.” Arlet said staring at the phone, horrified.
Nick stopped what he was doing and looked up at her. She had turned pale and her hands were shaking and sweaty.
“What’s wrong? Who was it?” He asked.
She slowly turned her head to Nick.
“Oh my God Nick! Oh my God!” She started to panic. Nick stood up from the table, grabbed the phone, hung it up, placed his hands on her shoulders and looked straight into her eyes.
“Arlet, calm down. What is it? Breath.”
“He’s gonna get me...you. He’s gonna get us. Nick, oh my God!”
“What? Who?”
“Keenan! Oh God! Nick, we have to call the police!”
“Arlet! Calm down!” He embraced her tightly. “Ssh, it’s going to be okay.” He heard her start to cry.
“Nick, I’m scared. What are we going to do?”
“Ssh, we’ll think of something. Don’t worry.”
“Don’t worry? Keenan’s out there! He’s determined to get you Nick! And he’ll do it! Believe me, when he says he’s wants something, he gets it!”
“We’ll just have to think of something. But until we do, we’re gonna have to stay close to each other and watch out more carefully. Ssh, don’t cry.” He comforted.
“Nick, I’m not just scared for me. I’m scared for you. Keenan will hurt you or even worse, kill you just so he could get to me.”
“Like I said, I’ll make sure you’ll be safe. I’ll by your side every second of every day until he’s locked away. I told you earlier that I’ll be there for you always. And I’m going to. He’s not going to scare me away with some threat.”
“But it’s not some threat. It’s--”
“Ssh,” He cut her off. “Just calm down. I’ll think of something. Believe me, I’ll think of something.”
Chapter Nine
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