Chasing Nikki

Chapter Nine

 Chapter Nine

    

    After serving my time at school without further incident, I pulled up in front of Nikki's house and sat staring at it. I needed to apologize for my earlier behavior and running away from her like I did.

    It was time to face the music. I liked her a lot, and that was okay. It wasn't as if I had to be committed for the rest of eternity. I could just relax, see where things went naturally, and have some fun along the way.

    I climbed out and headed toward the door. Nikki opened it before I could knock, lifting her finger to her lips.

    "My brother and sister are sleeping. Clara's sick, and Timmy fell asleep beside her when he got home from school." She stepped aside and gestured for me to come in, closing the door behind me.

    "How old are they?" I asked staring at where they lay snuggled on the sofa together.

    "Clara is seven and Timmy is five. She's in second grade and he's in all-day kindergarten. They're best friends, though, and rarely ever this quiet, so I'm determined to enjoy it."

    "Gotcha." I totally understood how that might be nice. I didn't have any siblings, but I had enough cousins to know kids this age could get rowdy.

    "So what's up?" she said after a slightly awkward pause. "Did you come over for some reason in particular?

    Leave it to Nikki to be so direct it made me nervous.

    "Uh, yeah . . . I guess." I slid my hands into my pockets, glancing down at my shoes for a moment while I tried to compose myself. "I wanted to apologize for being a jerk and ducking out on you earlier today."

    "Yeah, I noticed. Why did you?"

    Okay, so she wasn't going to go easy on me.

    "I just had a moment of panic, but I'm better now."

    "Panic over what?" 

    Damn. She was going to make me spell it out.

    "Over how much I like you," I replied honestly, and she made a little "oh" shape with her mouth, but no sound came out. "I didn't mean to, you know."

    "Mean to like me so much?" she asked for clarification.

    "Yeah. Getting close to someone again hasn't really been a top priority of mine."

    "I see," she answered, but she still had this wrinkle of concern on her brow. "So what are you going to do about it?"

    "Nothing." I sighed. "I'm gonna quit fighting everything and let life take me wherever it wants."

    She placed her hand on my chest. "Chase, this is your life. Only you can decide what it's going to be like. It can be anything you want it to be, but you have the power to steer your ship where you want it to go."

    "Is that so?"

    "It is if you believe it. What do you want?"

    I stepped closer, wrapping my arm around her waist and dragging her up against me. I gazed down into her big brown eyes, wondering if she could feel my heart pounding in my chest.

    "Kiss her," a soft voice came from the couch, and I turned in surprise to find Clara staring at us with sleepy eyes and a grin.

    Nikki blushed heavily. "I'm sorry, the kids get excited, and they say dumb—"