Nickels (21 page)

Why on earth was she crying?  Over Kyle’s compliment?  Over
his prayer?  Her failed love life?  What?  This was stupid.

She sniffled and wiped her eyes with some toilet tissue. 
She must be more tired than she thought.  She was just overloaded from the long
hours.  That had to be it.

Straightening her shoulders, she dabbed at her eyes.  She
could handle a few more minutes of conversation.  Not every meal had to end in
her fleeing.  Taking a deep breath she returned to the table.

Kyle looked at her with a questioning gaze, but concentrated
on eating his food.  Niki was sure he noticed the redness around her eyes.  How
could he not?

Feeling awkward, she decided she would feel better if she
could get him talking.  “How long have you been out of the Air Force?”

Kyle tensed.  She picked the wrong topic.

“Never mind.”  Changing tactics, she asked, “So, what does
Kyle Jacobs do for fun?”

“What all bachelors my age do.  Ride my bike when it’s not
110.  Play video games.  Physical therapy.  Work on a project.”

“What’s your project?”

“You.”

“Great.  I’m really in trouble if both you and Marcy see me
as your big project.”

“You have no idea.”  He chuckled.  “We used to get into a
lot of trouble together growing up.  Drove poor Mom crazy.”

She smiled and took another big bite of her salad.  A wave
of exhaustion washed over her.  She was only about half way done with her meal,
but she really wanted to get home.  She rubbed her temples to dull the ache
becoming more pronounced.

“You okay?”

“Just tired.”

“Gee, I wonder why.  Why don’t you take off?”

“But you’re not finished,” she said, her voice getting
whiny.

“I’m fine.”  He raised his hand to get their server’s
attention and requested a box for Niki.  When the server returned, he suggested
again that she go on home.

“How much do I owe you?” she asked.

“For what?”

“Dinner.”

“Nothing.  It’s on me.  Now go.”

She stood and started to leave.

“And text me to let me know you got home, okay?” Kyle called
out.

She answered him with a wave.

Niki managed to stay awake long enough to get home and
unload her car, though she left everything piled in a heap in the great room. 
Too tired to worry about the mess, she texted Kyle, then went to bed, so very
thankful to be home again.

Kyle smiled as he got up Saturday morning.  Another
brilliant idea came as he stretched out.

This was truly a good idea.  Not like asking her to dinner
last night.  That had been a mistake.  He should have been more sensitive to
how exhausted she was.

It seemed like the right time to ask her to
dinner—especially after the way she looked at him when he showed her how to fly
the simulated helicopter.  For the first time since he started working with
her, she looked truly happy.

Too bad they ran into Trevor in the parking lot.  If they
hadn’t, he wondered if she might have enjoyed having dinner with him.  Kyle
wasn’t sure if her sudden change in moods was from that or something else.  She
seemed very troubled by the time she left.

That’s why he let her go.  It was the best thing for her.

He sighed.  He wanted so much for her to see him as he was
now—the man he was becoming since the accident.  Oh, he hadn’t arrived yet. 
But, Lord willing, he would keep trying to be less selfish and arrogant.

If he could pull his idea together then maybe she would get
a glimpse of the new him.  She might be annoyed by him showing up on her
doorstep, but it would take him a little bit of time to get everything he
needed.  He wouldn’t show up until the afternoon.

He reached for his cell phone and found Doug’s number.

Need a favor.
  He pressed send on the text message,
confident Doug would help.

Chapter 19

Saturday morning, the doorbell’s annoying ring pulled Niki
from her cocoon of slumber.  Rolling over, she tried to shut out the noise,
hoping Marcy would send the solicitor away.  The bell rang again.  No such
luck.

She took the ponytail holder from her night stand and pulled
her hair back in a half bun half ponytail.  Looking down at her pajamas, she
figured the shirt and shorts were good enough to run the persistent solicitor
off.  She put on her glasses and walked down the hall as the bell rang a third
time. 
Really?

She opened the door.  “You know, some of us are still asleep
this early in the morn—”

Her words came to a crashing halt as she recognized her
visitor.

“Kyle,” she said flatly as she squinted against the bright
sunlight outside.

“Did I wake you?” he asked as she turned to get the key to
unlock the same annoying howling coyote security door.  She still needed to
replace that.

“Of course you did.  I don’t know where Marcy is.  I’m
assuming if she was here she would have answered the door.”

She held the door open wide and let him in.  Then she turned
without paying attention and tripped over her bag of clothes that she threw in
the great room last night.  Kyle’s hands went around her waist to steady her,
sending a jolt through her body that had her more awake than her usual three
cups of coffee in the morning.

“You know, it’s one in the afternoon,” he said as he
released his hold on her.

“What?”

“I really should get you a watch.  You always seem to be clueless
about the time.”  Tapping a finger against his temple, he added, “Should
probably make it military time, so when it says one, you’ll know not to call
your coworkers.”

She swatted at his arm before going to the coffee maker. 
Ice cold.

“You should probably get in the habit of calling Marcy
before just showing up all of the time.”  She dumped the cold coffee down the
drain and started a fresh pot brewing.

“I’m not here to see Marcy.”

 “Huh?”  She looked at him blankly.  That must mean he was
here to see her.  Her stomach fluttered at the thought.

“Are you ready for lesson four?”

He could not be serious.  “You just got me out of bed.  I’m
in no condition to go anywhere.  Nor do I want to.”

“Nor do you have to.”  He held up two DVD’s in one hand and
two bags of microwave popcorn in the other.

“At least let me shower,” she said feeling very self-conscious
about her appearance and complete lack of hygiene at the moment.

“You have fifteen minutes.  Go.”

“But my coffee.”

“It’ll be here waiting for you.”

Niki shuffled down the hall to her room.  She wasn’t about
to primp for this unannounced visit.  She didn’t have the energy.  Flipping
through the clothes in her closet, she picked a pair of sweat shorts, even
though they had “princess” printed across the rear.  She really needed to weed
out her old college clothes.  She picked a loose boring gray t-shirt with some
angel design on it.

Closing her bathroom door, she rushed through a shortened
version of her morning routine.  Instead of fully drying her hair, she just
breezed the dryer over it so it wasn’t sopping wet.  Then she threw on her
comfy clothes, her glasses, and pulled her half wet hair back in a ponytail.

When she stepped out of her bathroom, she noticed all her
stuff from the great room neatly stacked along the wall.  Boy, he must really
feel sorry for her.

The smell of coffee and popcorn wafted down the hall to
greet her as she stepped into the kitchen.  A cup of coffee—the perfect light
tan shade—sat next to a big bowl of buttery popcorn.  Kyle was popping another
bag in the microwave as he pointed to the one on the counter.

“Breakfast of champions,” he said.

Niki giggled an unusually feminine sound.  She must be
tired.

“Choose your couch while I finish this.”

She picked the one against the far wall, her favorite.  Then
she piled all the throw pillows against the arm and leaned back, upright enough
to drink her coffee and munch her popcorn.

“I hope I brought the right two movies.”  Kyle sat on the
other couch facing her.  He held up
The Princess Bride
and
Office
Space
.  “I understand from some of my new geek friends that these are
prerequisites for any computer science degree.”

She laughed.  Her two all-time favorite movies.

“Yes, and just how did you get your hands on those?”

“I have my sources.”

“So, is lesson four as simple as it seems?”

“Yep.  Sit back and relax.  And if you need anything, you
let me know,” Kyle said as he put
The Princess Bride
in the DVD player.

When he sat down, it took him awhile to settle onto the
couch.  She glanced over, wondering if it bothered his back.  He ended up
sitting with his back against the armrest and his legs straight in front of him
along the length of the couch.  It looked uncomfortable to her, but she said
nothing.

“R.U.S.’s?” Kyle asked.

She smiled at his question about the movie scene.  “Rodents
of Unusual Size,” she answered in perfect timing with the movie’s dialogue. 
They both laughed at the coincidence.

Turning on her side, she stretched out her arm and placed
the popcorn bowl on the coffee table that sat between the two couches.  Then
she fluffed a throw pillow and rested her head on it, still able to comfortably
view the movie.  Sensing his eyes on her, she looked over.  He was staring at
her with a funny look on his face.

“What?”  Did she have something on her nose?

He blushed and turned his attention back to the screen.  “Nothing.”

She closed her eyes, just for a second, to clear out the
bleariness.  When she opened them, Kyle was standing, walking back and forth.

“Good, you’re awake.  Want some pizza?”

“What?” she said, feeling groggy as she propped up on one
elbow.

“You were snoring.”

“Was not.”

“Were too.  For a half hour.  You missed the last of the
movie.”

“Do you always have to contradict me?”  She stood as her
stomach growled at the delicious smell of pizza beckoning her.  She loaded up a
paper plate with a few slices—amazed that she never heard the doorbell for the
delivery—and retrieved a diet soda from the fridge.  Standing by the bar height
counter, she munched on the supreme pizza, her favorite.

“I don’t always contradict you.”

“There,” she said around a mouthful of pizza, “you just did
it again.”

“You’re grumpy when you wake up, Princess,” Kyle teased,
reminding her he could see the words on her shorts from his vantage point.

She angled her hiney the other way, sorry she hadn’t picked
something less juvenile to wear.  But they were so comfortable and she was
still pretty tired.

“Maybe I wouldn’t be so grumpy if you weren’t always waking
me up?”  She tossed back her diet soda.  Pizza always made her thirsty.

Niki yawned.  “Sorry I slept through lesson four.”

“Relaxing was the point of lesson four.  You always were an
overachiever, weren’t you?”

“If you’d give me some kind of warning before these lessons,
I could practice ahead of time.  Then you’d really see what an overachiever I
am.”

He smiled, shaking his head.  “Only
you
would turn
lessons about fun into work.”

His prayer from last night popped into her mind.

“Can I ask you a question?”

Kyle nodded, biting the edge of his lip as if he was holding
back some smart remark.

“Why would God care about our project?  I mean, if he’s so
heartless as to have taken my whole family, why would he care about some
insignificant project?”

She had to know.  It was driving her crazy.

His smile faded and he was silent for several minutes.  She
was about to repeat the question when he spoke.  “He is not heartless and he
didn’t take your family.”

“How can you say that?”

“Death is a part of life, with or without God.  It’s not
like he goes around intentionally wiping people out to inflict wounds on
someone else.”