Karmen
I was going to kick him. Right in the balls. One shot. It would make me feel better, and he would probably shut up for a few minutes. Win, win.
“Lay back down.”
I rolled my eyes and glared at Nickel. “I’m not going to lay down. If I lay down anymore, I’m going to scream.”
It was over a week since I had taken my ambulance ride, and Nickel was driving me absolutely insane. “The doctor said you need to take it easy.”
“No, Nickel. The doctor said I needed to take it easy for forty-eight hours, not nine freakin’ days.” I was beyond annoyed.
“I’ve never met someone before who fights relaxing and doing nothing,” he grumbled under his breath.
I tossed off the blanket that he had draped across me and stood. “I’m fine, Nickel.” I reached my arms above my head and jumped up and down. “The baby is also fine.”
Nickel sprang up from the couch and put his hands on my shoulders to hold me down. “I know that, but I just want to make sure that you and the kid stay fine.”
Oh Lord, have mercy. The first couple of days, I totally understood why he watched over me so much. He had been scared. Hell, I had been terrified when I had lost my lunch in the parking lot and almost fainted when Boink had tried to help me up. Absolutely terrified.
But now I was ready to get back to normal. “I want to move back to my place.” As much as I liked being in Nickel’s room at the clubhouse, I was ready to get back to my apartment where I could use the kitchen in my underwear and not worry about Boink or Pipe walking in. Not that I had actually tried to go in the kitchen in my underwear, but just knowing that it was an option to do that was something I needed.
“Why don’t we wait ‘til next week when you’re back to one hundred percent.”
I gritted my teeth and stomped my foot. “Nickel, it’s freakin’ Sunday! I’m going back to my apartment. If you want to come with, you can, but honestly, I really don’t care if you do.” I bent over to grab my shoes, and he hooked me around the waist and pulled me to him.
“Okay, we’ll go back to your place. I know I’m driving you crazy, but I can’t afford to have anything happen to you. I already almost lost you twice. When I say nothing is ever going to happen to you again, I fucking mean it.”
I rested my hands on his shoulders. “Thank you for being so concerned, but you really need to bring it down a notch before I lose my shit.” Seriously, I was so close to running away for a few days just to have a moment where Nickel wasn’t hovering over me.
The rumble and smirk came out, and I sighed. It had been far too long since I had seen Nickel just let go and laugh. “Does that mean I get to move into your place now?”
I poked a finger into his chest. “Yes, but the first time you tell me I look tired or to go lay down, I’m kicking your ass, and I’m running away to raise this baby with the nuns in the mountains.”
“Nuns in the mountains?” he chuckled. “Last I checked, there aren’t any mountains around for miles.”
“Well, whatever. I watched Sound of Music with Cora and Nikki yesterday, and it’s stuck in my head.” I flitted my hand in his face. “But you get the idea. You start freaking out, this baby and I are finding the nearest set of nuns and running away.”
“Nuns come in sets?”
I smiled and slapped his chest. My Nickel was back. The one who was carefree and gave me shit all of the time. “Yes, at least, the good ones do.”
“Well, I guess if you’re going to try and run off, I would expect you to at least have the best nuns with you.”
I busted out laughing and rested my head against his shoulder. “I love you so much, Nickel.”
He sighed into my hair and pressed a kiss to the side of my head. “I’m pretty fond of you, Captain.” He lifted me up and laid me back in his bed. He covered me with his body and slowly trailed kisses down my neck, over my chest, to my stomach. “I love you, too, little guy.”
“Or girl,” I reminded him. Nickel was hell-bent on the fact that we were having a boy, but I was keeping my mind open to the thought that it might be a girl.
He cradled my small baby bump and pressed a kiss square on my stomach. “I’m good with whatever, but it’s a boy, Captain.”
“I told Nikki yesterday,” I whispered.
“What?” Nickel asked. “I thought we were going to wait a couple more weeks?”
“We were, but then Nikki told me she was quitting and moving away.” My voice cracked, and I knew the tears I had been holding back were about to fall.
Nickel lifted his head and looked up at me. “What?” He was just as surprised as I was when she had told me.
I dipped my head and wiped the lone tear that was streaking down my cheek away. “She said she needs a change of pace. She’s lived in Weston all of her life, and she needs a change.” My best friend since we were fourteen was going to move hours away. I had been devastated when she had told me, but I understood why she needed to go.
While I was content in living in Weston for the rest of my life, I knew Nikki yearned for something more exciting than working in a nursing home and hanging out with me.
Nickel slid up my body and wrapped up in his arms. “Don’t cry. Maybe you can talk to her, convince her to stay.”
I shook my head and buried my face in his chest. I couldn’t do that to her. I didn’t have the right to beg her to stay when I knew she needed to leave. Although, I didn’t understand why all of a sudden she needed to leave. “No, I can’t. She said she’ll come back to visit, and I can always bug her on the phone every day.”
Nickel chuckled. “We’re gonna have to make sure you have an unlimited phone plan.”
“I already checked. I’m good,” I giggled. That was one of the first things I had done after she told me. I leaned back and looked him in the eye. “But you do know what this means for us, right?”
“No, what’s that?”
“I’m going to have way more time to spend with you, and I’m already worried about that because I was honestly two seconds away from kicking you in the balls before.”
Nickel wrapped his arms around me and rolled us over, so I was laying on top of him. “Then I guess every time I start driving you crazy, I’m just going to have to kiss you until the feeling passes.”
“You mean like when you used to kiss me when I thought too much?”
“Exactly like that. I haven’t had to do that for a while, so I’ll be more than happy to find another reason to kiss you all the time.”
I pressed a light kiss on his lips and smiled. “Or, you could just kiss me all the time because you love me.”
The rumble and smirk surfaced. “I can definitely do that.”
“Does this mean my badass biker is back? The guy who takes whatever he wants but also gives me everything I need?”
He delved his fingers into my hair and pulled my lips to his. He kissed me hard and fast and, just like always, it was better than the last. “He’s always been there, baby girl, you just managed to scare the hell out of him for a bit.”
“Sorry,” I whispered. “I’ll try to keep the shootouts and ambulance rides to a minimum from now on.”
“That would be much obliged.”
“I love you, Nickel,” I whispered against his lips.
“I love you, too, Karmen.”
Life wasn’t always going to be quiet and orderly anymore. I knew for a fact, with Nickel by my side, it was going to be wild and crazy, but he would always keep me safe.
My badass biker wasn’t going anywhere.
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