part0027

He learned all about what had happened in the lives of the three women who had become my lifeline. He was devastated to learn about Charley’s family and Emme’s horrific relationship with her ex, but he was thrilled to learn that both of them had found love and happiness here in Wyoming. Monroe’s pregnancy took him by surprise, but he was still so happy for her.

My father knew my friends from back when I was little. We’d been friends since kindergarten and he loved the fact that I’d maintained my relationships with the three of them.

I told him about my salon. I even told him all about Mrs. Jones .

After getting all of that, my father went to the elephant in the room and asked about Luke.

“He’s amazing,” I started. “I don’t know how I got so lucky to have someone love me the way he loves me.”

“I’d like to think it has nothing to do with luck,” my father retorted.

“You’re right. It has to do with him just being that good of a man. He fell in love with me months ago. As soon as I realized it, I broke things off with him.”

“What? Why would you do that?”

I took in a deep breath, knowing the answer to this was going to hurt him.

“I didn’t want to fall in love. Life was one disappointment after another. I decided a few years ago to not get involved with anyone else on that level. After losing nearly everything I love to lies and betrayal, I knew I didn’t want to have that happen again. The pain was too much and I wouldn’t survive going through that again.”

“Nikki…” he trailed off.

“I’m lucky, though,” I began. “Luke decided I was worth sticking around for and insisted that if I didn’t want a relationship with him he was going to at least make sure he became the best friend I ever had. Months went by and I started to realize how much I missed him when he wasn’t around. He was making my life better day by day. I eventually just got to a point where I could no longer deny that he meant more to me than I wanted him to and I needed to do something about it. And now…” I paused a moment. “Now I’m in love.”

My father’s face softened. “I’m proud of you.”

I let out a laugh and wondered, “Because I fell I love?”

He shook his head. “No. Well, not entirely. I’m proud of you for getting out of that house and out from under your mother and sisters. I’m proud that you could fight through the pain you’ve endured and become successful. I’m grateful you didn’t let them get you down and I couldn’t have asked anything more of you had I been there to raise you myself.”

“And I’ve got to be honest,” he started. “I’m most proud that you didn’t allow the hand you’ve been dealt to make you question your worth. It would have been tragic for you to accept that and give yourself less than what you deserve. I haven’t really gotten to know him all that well, but from everything I’ve seen and heard, I believe Luke loves and respects you. That’s all I can ask. I never thought I’d ever hear myself say this, but I approve of the man you’ve chosen and I’m looking forward to getting to know him better.”

The relief I felt at hearing him acknowledge that Luke had his approval was heartwarming enough, but to know that he wanted some semblance of a relationship with him as well took it over the top for me.

“I think Luke will feel the same way,” I offered. “But you’ll probably have to wait a few more weeks before that can happen. It might not happen until your next visit.”

“Why is that?” he asked.

“He is a professional snowboarder just like Zane and Stone. Wes’ company, Blackman Boards, sponsors all three of the guys and they are all competing in the Winter Olympics at the beginning of February in Salt Lake City. They’ve been training like crazy for weeks leading up to Christmas and, after taking a week off, they’re going to be back to training full-time starting tomorrow.”

“Well, it’s not like I don’t have things to do to keep me busy for the next few weeks. If I can continue to see you on a regular basis while I make phone calls to my parole officer and try to line up a job for when I can officially move here, I’ll be happy. I just want time with you.”

“Of course you’ll see me. You’re going to stay here until you have to go back,” I demanded. “Monroe has finally managed to move all of her stuff out, so there’s an empty room here. We can run out tonight to get some bedsheets, toiletries, and anything else you need. We’ll stop for dinner, too. And that room will always be here for you when you come back.”

“Princess, I don’t want to come in and disrupt your life and what you’ve got going on,” my father said. “I appreciate you offering up a room for me this time and I’ll take you up on that now, but when I make the move, I don’t want to live with you as a long-term thing.”

My heart hurt. I hated that he thought he would be an inconvenience or that he’d be cramping my style by being here. I missed out on so much time with him already; having him stay here only made sense. Not wanting to get into a debate about it, I decided not to argue with him about it. He said he’d stay for this trip, so I figured we’d deal with it later.

“What are your plans for work? What have you been doing in California since you got out?”

There was a bit of hesitation on his end before he huffed, “It’s tough to find work as a felon, wrongfully convicted or not. I managed to find a few odd jobs here and there after I advertised repair work on computers, but finding steady employment has been next to impossible.”

This made my heart hurt even more. Not only had his conviction taken away his freedom and his relationship with me, but it also took away his ability to provide for himself now that he was back in the real world.

“That’s not fair,” I asserted. “It wasn’t you. Isn’t there any way to get this taken off your record? Can we prove that you’re innocent?”

“If there was a way to do that, I’d have done it back then. Nikki, don’t you think I already tried everything I could to prove that I didn’t do it? I knew that I’d face a lot of years in prison if I was convicted. Prison isn’t what scared me, though. It was knowing I’d be away from you. So trust me, I explored every avenue I could think to explore. When you have two adults and a twelve-year-old girl telling you that someone did what they said I did, it’s extraordinarily difficult to prove your innocence. I’m not sure what I could have done short of providing video evidence that I didn’t have.”

I sighed. “I’m sorry. I hate that they’ve gotten away with this. We deserve retribution and they deserve to be punished for what they did.”

My father scooted closer to me and put my hand in his. “I don’t disagree with you, but it’s not worth it now. I did the time I had to do for a crime I didn’t commit. They took me away from you for long enough. I’d rather spend my time catching up with you and starting a new life here, far away from them.”

He deserved to have that. As much as I wanted to fight back and figure out a way to seek out justice for him, I needed to respect his wishes. On that thought, I decided to change topics.

“We should head out to get you what you’ll need for a few days and then we should stop to pick up dinner. You should know now that I’m not a good cook. I’ve been trying to learn lately, but I’m a slow work in progress.”

He laughed and seemed relieved when he shared, “That’s probably the best news I’ve heard in the last couple hours.”

My brows pulled together. “It’s good news that I can’t cook?”

I continued to stare at him, utterly confused.

“It means that I haven’t completely missed out on teaching you things. Lucky for you, I can cook and have no problem showing you a thing or two if you want to learn.”

I knew he could use a grill because I’d seen him do that when I was younger, but my mother typically always made dinner while my dad spent time entertaining Jessie, Megan, and me.

He gave me a huge smile and confirmed with a grin, “I can’t wait to teach you.”

At that, we got ourselves up off the couch and followed through on most of our plan. We went out to get my dad some things he’d need for the next few days, but instead of getting dinner at a restaurant we stopped at a grocery store to pick up everything we’d need to make dinner at home.

And just like that, in the blink of an eye, my life had changed for the better in a way I’d never imagined.

Later that evening, after we called it quits for the night, I got in my bed and called Luke.

“Hey, babe,” he answered. “How did it go?”

“I don’t know how to thank you,” I confessed.

“I’ll take that as good news then.”

My voice was light and happy when I clarified, “Luke, I love you. More than that, I love the way you love me. If you weren’t such a good man, I’d have gone the rest of my life believing that my dad walked out on me. It was a bad place to be, but I’m no longer there thanks to you. You’ve lifted this huge depressing weight off my shoulders.”

He didn’t respond.

“Are you there?” I asked.

“I’m here,” he answered softly. “It was worth it. Hearing the happiness in your voice makes it worth all the risk.”

“Thank you so much for this.”

“There isn’t much I wouldn’t do for you.”

“I love you, Luke.”

“I love you, Nikki.”

We stayed on the phone with each other a while in silence. I think we were both relieved about the situation. Obviously, our relief was for different reasons, but it didn’t make it any less important on either side of it.

I ultimately broke the silence. “You aren’t going to believe this,” I exclaimed.

“What?” he retorted.

“My dad knows how to cook!”

From there, I told him all about my day with my father and the things I learned. I gave him the good, the bad, and the ugly. When he heard me getting enraged, he talked me down. When he heard my excitement, he lifted my mood even higher. And when he felt my sadness, he offered me comfort.

That night, when I finally fell asleep, it was with my heart feeling fuller than it had ever felt. I had my dad back in my life and it was all thanks to a man who loved me when I thought I was unlovable.

The first few weeks of the new year passed by quickly. Things at the salon were steady, but certainly not nearly as busy as they were leading up to the holidays. I welcomed the reprieve because it gave me a little bit of extra free time to spend with my father.

It was only a matter of days after he arrived in Wyoming when my father managed to line up employment for when he would be able to make the move. Levi was responsible for that. He was going to hire my father at Cunningham Security. My dad wasn’t going to be working in the field, but would be able to provide substantial help in the office. Before my dad was arrested, he worked for a company in California as a database administrator. Apparently, Cruz spoke with my father about his plans and what his work experience was when they were making their way to Rising Sun. When they arrived and Cruz went back to work, he talked to Levi about my dad’s situation. Levi had his receptionist, Deb, reach out to my father to set up an interview. Levi hired him on the spot. I couldn’t have been more grateful for what they did for him. That was one hurdle out of the way, one step closer to having him back in my life permanently.

Then there was Luke. Since my father arrived, I had spent a lot of time at my condo with him. This meant that Luke and I weren’t seeing much of each other. We spoke on the phone every night and tried to get together at least once each week; however, I started noticing a change in Luke. The reality was, he was spending long days training for the Olympics after which he’d go home and I was rarely there. I was certain Luke was beginning to feel a bit rejected.

For this reason, I decided that I needed to give the both of us some extra time with one another. It was Saturday afternoon and I was on my way to Luke’s place. He was on his way home from his half day of training, but had no idea I was surprising him with a visit.

I had a talk earlier in the morning with my father and let him know that I had plans with Luke for the day and that I would be spending the night at his place. My dad wasn’t even remotely bothered by it and had actually encouraged me to go.

I parked in the driveway, pulled out my phone, and called Luke.

“Hey,” he answered.

“Are you home?” I asked.

“I just got back about ten minutes ago. What’s going on?”

“Care to open your garage door to let me in?”

Luke didn’t respond.

Ten seconds later, his garage door opened.

I disconnected the call and got out of my car. When I looked up, I saw Luke standing there looking at me, a look of contentment on his face .

Once I was standing in front of him, I wrapped my arms around Luke’s neck and kissed him. His arms wrapped around me as he kissed me back.

“Come inside,” he urged me after we’d pulled our mouths from one another. “It’s too cold out here.”

Luke ushered me into the house ahead of him. Once inside, I removed my jacket, scarf, and gloves.

“To what do I owe the pleasure of this surprise visit?”

“I think it’s safe to assume we’ve both been missing spending some time together. You’ve been working extremely hard to get ready for the Olympics and I’ve been spending most of my free time making up for the lost years with my dad. I thought you and I needed some quality time alone with each other, so I’m here. You’ve got me for the rest of the day today and all day tomorrow.”

Luke lowered his lips to mine and kissed me softly. “I’ve missed coming home after training knowing you’d be here,” he declared, when he pulled back.

“I’ve missed it, too,” I informed him. “But I really appreciate you being unselfish and giving me the opportunity to be with my dad.”

He pulled me tighter to his body.

“I already told you there isn’t much I won’t do for you. To be honest, this whole thing has been great for us. I don’t particularly like being apart, but now when we are together it’s even better. You’re different.”

“I’m different?”

He took in a breath and explained, “I mean that in the very best way, Nikki. You’re still you. And you are still the person I fell in love with. Everything I love about you remains. All of your little quirks and your sassiness…it’s all present, but there’s more. The cloud isn’t there. There’s no longer anything weighing you down or holding you back from living your life completely carefree. You’re no longer as guarded, and you’ve al lowed yourself to be vulnerable again.”

Dropping my head to the side, I reasoned, “I’ve learned a lot over the last couple of months, since before I knew what happened to my dad. When I was spending my summer craving bits and pieces of time with you or when I was with the girls for Emme’s bachelorette party weekend, I learned. When I gave you the truth about my past, I learned. When I realized I could depend on you, I learned. But most of all, when I fell in love with you, I learned.”

I paused a moment and watched as Luke’s expression turned tender.

I continued, “Luke, you’ve singlehandedly proved to me that I deserved more than I was giving myself. You made me feel worthy of love…both giving and receiving it. And you went above and beyond to do what you could to help heal the wounds inflicted by people who should have been there to love and protect me. My father’s abandonment was burning a hole in my heart and you brought him back to me. I could never thank you.”

Luke stood there, taking in my words.

I went on, “Do you know what I hate most in this world?”

The corners of his mouth tipped up and he joked, “I’m guessing it’s not me.”

I shook my head and remained serious. “It never could be. I despise lies, Luke. The liar and lies themselves. You didn’t know it would happen, but in seeking to fill that hole in my heart, you gave me the truth. I never thought my life and my heart would ever feel so completely full; yet, here I am. And now I’m wondering how I’ll ever manage to show you what you mean to me.”

“Baby,” he sighed. “We’re leaving in a week and two days to go to Salt Lake City for the Olympics. This is the first time snowboard big air will be part of the Olympic Winter Games. I’ve been working so hard to become the first person to win the gold in that event, and I’d love for that to happen. But if I’m being honest…I’ve already won the gold with you and there’s no medal, title, or record that’ll ever compare to that.”

So, I slipped my hands under the hem of his shirt and pressed them to his abdomen. I slid them up his body and over his chest, the shirt coming along for the ride. When I could go no further, I gripped the shirt between my fingers and worked to get it over Luke’s head. He stepped in to help with removing it completely.

I ran my fingertips down his muscled, tattooed arms before I leaned in to press a kiss to his chest. With my lips hovering over the skin there, I wondered, “How was training today?”

Luke, whose hands had settled on my hips, answered gruffly, “Same as always.”

“It’s cold out there,” I noted as I slid my hands down his abdomen to the waistband of his pants while I continued to pepper kisses all over his torso. “You should really make it a priority to warm up when you get home,” I suggested while I unfastened his pants.

“Are you offering to help me with that?” he questioned.

After pushing his pants down his legs, I stepped back to look at him. Once I’d allowed my eyes to roam over his beautiful body, I brought my gaze to his. “I might be able to offer some assistance,” I teased.

With a massive grin on his face, Luke reached out and snaked an arm around my waist. He pulled me toward him and immediately lifted my shirt over my head. “It’s funny how that works,” he started. “You’re telling me I should get warm, but you’ve removed nearly all of my clothing.”

I decided to take charge. I took a step back, slipped my feet out of my shoes, unbuttoned my pants, and slid them down my legs. Standing there in nothing but a bra and panties, I clarified, “My version of warming you up requires nudity, but I promise it’s works.”

“Is that so?” he chuckled.

I nodded slowly as I removed my bra. Luke watched it fall to the floor. I moved my hand to my hips, snuck my fingers under the lace fabric there, and shimmied out of my panties. Luke watched that just as intently.

“Your eyes are on fire, baby girl,” he pointed out.

I smiled seductively and walked toward him, “I should have warned you.”

“About what?” he asked while I removed his boxer briefs so that we were both completely naked.

With my body pressed to his, I tipped my head back to look up at him. “I’m not just going to warm you up, Luke. I’m going to make you burn for me.”

Luke was done listening to words.

He captured my mouth possessively, lifted me up by the waist, and filled me. Then, I made sure we spent the first part of our uninterrupted time together making sure Luke was hot for me.