Summer Kisses (240 page)

“You’re being a fool, my son.”

“I am your son.”

Yegor’s jaw tightened. He turned on his heel.

“Tell Mama…”

The old man stopped but did not turn to face him.

“Tell her I love her and to expect us for the Christmas holiday.”

Before the sun hovered above the lowest of rooftops in lower Manhattan, his father and Donnie left the suite and then from his twentieth floor window, Gorgon watched while his father’s limo pulled out and disappeared around the corner.

Will gasped for air and fell to the mattress next to Nicole. For three weeks, they’d tumbled into bed at every opportunity when he was in town, and Luka was out of the house or fast asleep. Today, Luka was at a friend’s birthday party for a couple of hours. At first, the sneaking around had been part of the thrill of being with Nicole. Now, doing so was a pain in the ass. “You’re going to kill me,” he managed to say between ragged breaths.

Nicole’s breasts rose and fell in unison with his chest. In the afternoon sun, her dusty rose areolas called to him and even though he just spent himself, he felt his groin tighten.

She darted her tongue across her lips, causing his pulse race.

“Killing you wasn’t in my plan.”

Will wished they could be open about their relationship. He wanted every guy in town to know she belonged to him. He brushed a lone strand of hair off of her cheek. “What is your plan for me?”

Her finger latched onto his. “I just want to make you so happy you won’t even think of looking at another woman.”

“There are no worries there, sweetheart. I don’t want anyone but you.”

“Seriously?”

He shifted on his side and stared into her gorgeous eyes. “Have I ever lied to you?”

She pulled the sheet over her breasts and wearing a smirk said, “Not up to today—that I know of.”

Through the sheet, he pinched her nipple a little. “Never.”

“Ouch.” She laughed. “Okay, never.”

He rolled over and sat up.

“Where are you going?”

“The john.” He pointed to the condom sheathing his penis. “Want to come with me?”

“Sorry. No. I like my privacy. I’ll give you yours.”

“You want to go first?”

“No. I’m fine.” She snuggled under the comforter. “I’ll keep the bed warm. Hurry back.”

Will crossed the room.

“Nice ass,” she called after him.

He looked over his shoulder. “It’s all yours.”
And so was his heart.
The thought smacked him across the head. And, either the comment hit Nicole too or she saw his reaction to realizing he was totally in love with her because her smile faded from her lips and a mixture of joy and fear sparked in her eyes.

“Be out in a minute.” He closed the bathroom door behind him and then flipped the water on, and with his hands on the counter stared into the mirror. He was in love with Nicole. He loved Luka like a son. He didn’t ever want to give them up. Ever.

But how could he ask her to stay with him without giving her the opportunity to experience life first? He couldn’t. That decision had to be hers and by the startled look she’d just given him, he had just scared the hell out of her.

What was he going to do?
He asked this as he washed up. He had to be cool, as if they were just having fun. He couldn’t push her, and somehow he also had to make her love him.

~~~

A whirlwind of emotions spun through Nicole. She pressed her hands over her eyes and then combed her fingers back through her hair. She trapped the joy threatening to escape her. Had she heard Will right? Did he really mean his ass belonged to her? Did that mean he was hers to keep forever?

She closed her eyes and relaxed onto the pillow and allowed herself the dream of Will, Luka and her becoming a real family. Maybe, one day, they’d have a baby together.
Where did that come from?

Her hands curled into fists over the comforter’s edge. Why was she setting herself up for heartache? Will hadn’t meant anything but that she could have sex with him anytime she wanted. Yes, he was attracted to her. He’d said as much. And yes, he said he didn’t want her to see other men, but that was a guy thing. He didn’t want to share what he had going on here.

She stared at the bathroom door. She wished he’d hurry. Every second Will was in there, doubts piled on top of her heart.

The bed groaned while Nicole pushed up on the mattress and repositioned herself, fluffing the pillows. She couldn’t just come out and ask him if he was serious about her—if he was falling in love with her––could she?

She slid out from under the comforter. She needed to get dressed. If they were going discuss this, she wanted the conversation to be face to face and them both on their feet.

Nicole slipped on her clothing before the door opened.

Facing Will, she said, “We need to talk.”

The mid-sized sedan issued to her by the agency was nothing shiny and new. The car had a slight dent in its rear passenger panel and the metallic gray paint was sun-blasted to a flat shale color, but it was clean inside, the heater blasted like a furnace and it ran like a charm. The vehicle fit her persona perfectly—a single mom with more lint in her pockets than money.

Over the past four months, she’d become a faceless single mother who made ends meet working as a clerk in a gift shop. With the exception of tumbling into bed with Will, her days were filled with normal activities like grocery shopping and arguing with Luka about sleepovers at his friend’s house.

Pulling into a parking spot at Rex’s Grocery, Nicole jammed the vehicle into park and climbed out. She hurried around the front of the van and opened the rear door just as Luka unsnapped his seat belt and his toes touched the floorboard.

“Put your game under the front seat please. Out of sight.” Will had given a video game to Luka as a birthday present and the device immediately became an extension of her son’s hand.

She entwined her fingers with Luka’s the moment he jumped from the van and they turned toward the scent of fresh baked goods wafting in the crisp autumn air. “Let’s hurry. I have a million things to do today.”

“Is Thanksgiving tomorrow?”

“No. Tomorrow is Wednesday. Thanksgiving is always on a Thursday and that is the day after. But, I have to work tomorrow afternoon, so I need to get a few things done if we’re going to have a feast. You do want a feast, don’t you?”

“Yeah.”

A frosty gust swept across the grocery store’s parking lot, making pre-thanksgiving shoppers scurry, load their bags into their cars, and then take shelter in their cabs.

“Hi, Becca and Luke,” Margie Ballietson––the nice woman from the church they started attending––called out before slamming her car door closed and waving a gloved greeting from inside.

Nicole waved back with her free hand before pulling her parka’s collar closer to prevent the wind from sending another chill through her. Becca Smith wasn’t her name, but it was the one she went by now. And Logan’s Summit wasn’t her hometown, but the sleepy village nestled in the Appalachian Mountains of Northeast Pennsylvania was where the government had chosen to place her and Luka, near Will.

She hated deceiving the people who were becoming her friends and wondered if she would ever be Nicole again? As much as she longed to see her family and friends from the past, she didn’t want to leave Will. If her secret was ever revealed, she hoped her new friends wouldn’t hold her past against her.

No. They could never know her past.

Pulling a grocery cart from the cart return, Nicole took a double take toward the highway where a car resembling Will’s passed by. She’d seen Will several times over the past week, at a distance watching her, and every time her heart had jumped and then plummeted as he smiled, waved and then disappeared into the shadows. They couldn’t expose their relationship. Not yet. Maybe never.

Nicole stared at the car she’d thought was Wills, now sitting at the stop sign. She waited for the man driving to turn and smile, but he didn’t. Instead, the car surged forward and disappeared from view.

“I’m cold.” Luka broke her train of thought. With his arms huddled close to his sides and his hands shoved deep into his coat pockets, Luka’s bottom lip quivered. She needed to buy him a pair of gloves too. A couple pairs, because he’d lose one within forty-eight hours.

“Sure, babe.” She threw a glance over her shoulder one more at the highway and the surrounding area, then yanked the shopping cart free from another cart. “I was just running the list of things I need through my head, so I don’t forget anything and have to come back again. We want Thanksgiving to be special, don’t we?”

“Is Dad coming?”

Cold dread ran its finger up her spine. Luka hadn’t mentioned his father in weeks. She’d hoped maybe he’d begun to forget Gorgon. God. She prayed he would. “No. He’s still on his business trip.”

“Will he be home for Christmas?”

“I don’t think so. He said it would be a very long time until he can come back.” She had to change the subject before anyone overheard this conversation. Nicole tossed her purse onto the cart’s upper shelf and headed toward the automatic doors. “Let’s pick up some cherries and we’ll put them into the brownies. What do you think?”

“Yeah.” Luka skipped ahead of her, surprisingly happy.

Inside the store, they fell into their new routine. She turned and dropped a box of oatmeal into the cart. “Luke, I’m not going to repeat myself a second time. I said no. Now put that back on the shelf.”

“Come on.” His foot hit the vinyl flooring. “Tommy says it’s really cool--I mean good.”

“Good, huh. I think you want this cereal because of the cheap toy inside.” She pointed to the grocery shelf lined with more types of breakfast meals than the world needed. “I have eighty dollars to spend on the groceries. I need things for the Thanksgiving dinner and all of next week. So, don’t think I’m going to buy something you or the dog wouldn’t eat. Put the box back.”

“This sucks,” he whined.

Mrs. Owens, the reverend’s elderly wife, shot a perturbed glare at her and Luka before pushing her cart past them.

Nicole snatched the box out of Luka’s grasp and shoved it onto an empty space on the shelf. Nicole steered her cart with one hand, while she latched onto Luka’s elbow and hustled him further down the aisle. Outside of Mrs. Owen’s ear shot, Nicole trapped Luka’s jaw between her thumb and forefinger and tilted his pout up toward her. “What is going on, Luka? The last few days you’ve been acting like a real horse’s butt.”

“You mean ass.”

The boy’s use of words set her back on her heels. “Where did you hear that word?”

“Billy.”

Another new friend Luka made in school recently. One that seemed to be influencing Luka more and more in ways she didn’t like. “Well, I’ll have to talk to Billy’s mom.”

His eyes widened. “Don’t. He’ll be mad at me.”

“What you said was a bad word. Don’t use it again.”

Luka’s chin hit his chest. “Okay.”

“I have a feeling something else is going on. What? You can tell me.”

“Nothing.”

“I think there is. Spill.”

Luka stuffed his hands into the front pockets of his jeans.

She folded her arms across her chest. “I’m waiting.”

“The guys called me ‘mama whipped.’ ”

Nicole couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped her.

Luka’s expression told her he didn’t think what his friends had called him was funny at all, or her laughter. “I’m sorry. Why would they say that?”

He shrugged. “Billy said I do everything you tell me to, and Tommy and Pat agreed.”

The threesome that Luka had fallen into company with were right. She’d trained him from an early age to do exactly as she said. Doing so was the only way she could keep their identities safe when the time came for them to escape Gorgon.

Nicole sighed. Maybe the time had come to loosen the apron strings, a little, and give him a some independence…and teach him responsibility.

She brushed his dark bangs off his forehead. “Doing what is right isn’t a bad thing. I hope you understand that.”

Looking down at his feet, Luka nodded.

No matter what she said, her words wouldn’t erase the hurt his friends had caused. She glanced at her watch––nearly five. “I’ll tell you what. After you help me carry the groceries into the house, you can call Tommy to come over and play.”

His eyes lit up. “Can we play down in the basement?”

The place was an empty basement, except for the furnace and a few old boxes. She didn’t see the attraction, but Tommy and Luka seemed to enjoy being down there, looking for spiders, playing with the old boxes as if they were cars or spaceships, or drawing chalk roads for their matchbox cars on the concrete floor. And it was warm. “Yes, as long as you keep the spiders downstairs. No begging for a jar to put them in.”

“Okay. Can Tommy stay overnight?”

Will wasn’t in town so there was no chance of him visiting and Tommy would keep Luka busy so she could get a jumpstart on the holiday dinner. “I’ll ask. Let’s get the rest of the stuff on my list and then we can head home.” Nicole glanced at the paper lying on top of the fresh vegetables and fruits she’d placed in the cart’s top rack. “I need a dozen eggs, butter and a gallon of milk. Let’s head over to the last aisle.”

“Can I push the cart?”

“Sure.”

A few minutes later their items rolled along the belt toward the scanner and Nicole struggled to open a plastic bag.

“Hi, Ms. Smith. Luke,” Tory, the bag boy said, stepping up to the counter. He grabbed and flipped open the sack like a pro. The store was busy and he worked hard to cover two checkouts.

“Hi, Tory. How’s your dad doing?” Tory’s father, she’d learned while helping out at a church fundraiser, had fallen off a house roof while working. He was a self-employed roofer. The fund raiser was held to help out the family that had fallen on hard times. She knew the boy was working this job after school in an effort to help his family out.

“Good. He gets the cast off next week. He can’t wait to get back to work.”

“I bet. Six months is a long time to be off. And your mom?” Tory’s mother had just started cancer treatments.