TWENTY-EIGHT
Dalt
“Stop. Just stop talking.” Dak holds up a hand to stop the verbal vomit I’m spewing all over Tracey, Alex, and him as I pace. They’re sitting on lounge chairs around Dak’s pool at his parents’ Malibu beach house. Up until now no one had said a word, too dumbstruck by my story. Batt and Wolfe are missing my tirade. Batt met some chick on the beach today and they’re somewhere giving each other ‘surfing’ lessons and Wolfe is getting an actual surfing lesson from Heaven, Dak’s little sister.
“Are you telling us you have a kid?” Dak asks.
“Oh my God.” Tracey beams. “I’m an auntie.”
“Oh, my fucking word. You and Nikki have a baby girl? She must be a little goddess,” Alex swoons.
“Congratulations, dude!” Dak walks over and lifts my hand to shake it.
“What the hell are you guys talking about? You’re missing the whole point here. Yes, I have a baby girl. But my father and my brother cooked up this whole scheme to break me and Nikki up, even though they knew she was pregnant. And Nikki lied to me for two years and didn’t tell me about Chloe all that time. I’ve had a daughter for two years and she didn’t tell me!”
“Aww, Chloe. Gorg name.” Alex nods his approval.
“You’re father’s a fucked-up mess,” Dak says. “Sorry, dude. But it’s not like you haven’t known that since you were a kid. Now, Garret’s another story. I’m not sure how he falls for your father’s evildoings time after time. You know he’s always had blinders on when it comes to dear old dickhead dad. Who cares about them now? Where’s Nikki and Chloe? You guys can stay here while you’re dealing with the rest of the shit with your father.”
That’s it? Congratulations? I’m an auntie? ‘Gorg’ name? That’s their words of wisdom and sympathy at how horrific my family and Nikki have treated me?
“Yeah. Where is the sneaky little thing? I knew I recognized the little girl in her drawings. I just didn’t put two and two hundred together on how she’s the spitting image of you, Dalt. Nik is so going to hear about keeping my beautiful little niece from me,” Tracey laughs and waggles a finger. “Where is she hiding to keep me from giving her a piece of my mind?”
“Uh…um…Nik’s not here.”
“What do you mean she’s not here? Where is she?” Alex blinks a couple of times, waiting for my clever answer as to why the love of my life, the mother of my child, and said child, aren’t here with me.
“She’s…they’re in Winter Harbor at her farm. I…I kind of left them there.” As I stutter through my answer the reality of what I’ve done occurs to me: I left Nikki—the woman I professed unending love for just the day before—crying as I drove away from her. And I let someone take my baby girl, whose first two years of life I was absent for, out of my arms and walk away.
“What do you mean you kind of left them there?” Tracey stands up and gives me a narrow-eyed glare.
“I…I was hurt, pissed off.” I run a hand down the back of my neck. “She lied to me for fuck’s sake about my kid! What was I supposed to do, say no biggie? Not a problem. I had a kid for two years and you kept her a secret.”
“You fucking asshat. You were hurt? You were pissed off?” Dak mimics me in a whiny voice. “What are you, a thirteen-year-old girl?” He shoves me in the shoulder. “You’re an even bigger pussy than I thought you were when you wouldn’t kiss Susie Akers at her tenth birthday party when the bottle pointed to you.” He shoves me again.
“What the fuck, man?”
“I’ll tell you what the fuck, man. Nikki is a one in a million lady,” Alex chimes in. “If I was playing for her team I would have stepped in and stolen her away from your tight, fine ass a long time ago.” He snaps his fingers.
“Dalt, she’s crazy in love with you.” Tracey’s voice softens. “And what about Chloe?”
“I’ll tell you what the fuck else,” Dak snarls his two cents. “You’ve been madly in love with Nikki ever since the first day you laid eyes on her. All the guys knew it. We watched you fuck around with bunnies just to try to get over her and saw the way you got all irate and miserable every time you saw her with another guy. Are you going to let your douchebag father get in the way of everything you’ve wanted since you met her, you big dumbass? Are you going to be complicit in his scheme to keep you separated from the love of your life and your kid?”
I let out a big stream of air and drop my chin to my chest. The weight of my stupid, empty head is too much to hold up for one more second. They’re right, of course. I told Nikki yesterday I couldn’t live without her and I meant it. I already knew my father had messed with her head big time, but even then, I didn’t realize how evil he could be. Why the fuck am I taking it out on her and Chloe?
“I have to go make a call. And a plane reservation back to Maine.”
“Yeah you do.” Trace embraces me and plants a kiss on my cheek.
“Okay. That’ll be enough of that,” Dak laughs and pulls us apart. “Go get your own lady back.” He hooks my head in a lock and this time the fucker gives me a noogie, but I don’t elbow him in the gut because I owe him big. My bro’s wisdom may have just saved me from losing the woman of my dreams.
***
I head out to my rented Rubicon, parked in Dak’s driveway. I left my phone plugged into the charger. When I pull up the screen I see I have a missed voice message from Nikki from last night. Shit. She probably thinks I’m ignoring her. I push play on the message screen and when I hear Nik’s sweet voice plead with me to wait for her and then tell me she loves me, I get a stab of pain in my heart. I don’t know how I’m going to wait five hours to get back to her, but when I do I’m going to drop to my knees and beg her for forgiveness.
I push Nikki’s number to return the call. After several rings a woman answers. For a second I think I called the wrong number, but when I pull the phone away from my ear and the screen lights up, Nikki’s number is displayed across it.
“Hello? Is Nikki there?”
“I’m sorry, Dalt. Nikki can’t come to the phone right now.” The woman’s voice on the other end of the line is quiet. I don’t recognize it and can barely hear what she’s saying. “This is Rose. She’s—”
“Oh, Mrs. Dixon. Rose. Please. I know Nikki probably doesn’t want to speak to me. I shouldn’t have left. It was a stupid kneejerk reaction to finding out about Chloe. But please, I need to speak to her. I want to tell her how sorry I am. I—”
“Nikki’s been in an accident. She’s…she’s in a coma.”
I don’t know if the call disconnects before or after I drop my phone. I can’t have heard her right. I try to call back several times on my way to the airport but Nikki’s phone keeps going straight to voicemail and I don’t have any other number to contact her mom.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
I slam the steering wheel as I drive about a hundred miles an hour to the airport. The next few hours are the longest hours of my life.