Nickels (41 page)

She pulled into a visitor’s spot and turned off her car. 
Drumming her fingers on the steering wheel, she gathered the nerve to move
forward.  Stepping from her car, she squared her shoulders and walked towards
Kyle’s back door.

Her courage faded some when she saw a light shining from his
window.  Poised with her hand in the air ready to knock, she hesitated again,
still judging her own actions.  Just as she decided to knock, the door opened
before her hand connected.

Kyle took a step onto his back patio then yelped as he
stopped just short of bowling Niki over.  “Niki?”  he asked catching his
breath.  “What are you doing here?”

“I, um, wanted to see you,” she said, suddenly feeling shy. 
This was dumb.  Why was she so nervous?

He pushed the door open.  “Make yourself at home.  I’ll be
right back,” he said pointing to the trash bag in his hand.

She  entered his now familiar abode and deposited her purse
on the corner of the kitchen counter.  What was she doing here?

As he entered the room, a huge grin spread across his face. 
Stopping at the kitchen sink, he washed his hands.  “This is a surprise.”

Niki smiled.  Her voice fled.

He stood across the counter from her, waiting for her to
speak.  After a few seconds ticked by, he asked, “Would you like something to
drink?”

Suddenly her voice returned along with her courage.  “No
thanks.  I came…  I missed you, Kyle.”

“Guess so, if you drove all the way over here at nearly
eleven at night.”

Embarrassed, she reached for her purse, ready to flee her
own stupidity.  Only, his hand resting on hers stopped her.  She looked into
his eyes as they softened with quiet love.

How could she have missed the feeling swelling within her? 
She did love him.  He worked his way into her heart slowly, silently.

“I love you, Kyle.”  The words rushed from her mouth.

He stepped around the counter, pulling her into his arms. 
With no warning, he kissed her long and hard, coaxing a thrilling response from
her.  She let her hands roam the breadth of his back, pressing closer.  When
his arms tightened around her, she deepened the kiss.

A low guttural sound came from his throat.  He stopped
abruptly and stepped back.  “I think you should go,” he said as they walked
towards the door.

“Oh,” she said, confused by his reaction.  She scooped up
her purse from the counter as self-doubt rushed in.

“Niki, I think you should go—not because of what you
said—but because I’m pretty sure if you don’t, this,” he motioned his finger
back and forth between them, “and the late hour—I can’t say that I would be
willing to…  Act honorably…  I mean…”

She understood what he meant because she was still reeling
from the heated kiss.  She smiled.  “I hear ya.”

Kyle opened the door with a frustrated sigh.  “I love you,
Niki,” he affirmed, kissing her on the forehead before pushing her out the
door.

As she walked past him, she remembered her question about
Alana.  “Who is Alana?”

The moonstruck expression faded from his face, swallowed by
worry.  “It’s late.  Let’s go to dinner Friday night.  I’ll explain
everything.”

“Okay.  See you then.”  She walked toward her car.

As she drove home and fell into bed, her heart filled with
love—except for that one little nagging feeling.  She still didn’t know who
Alana was.

Friday night, at six o’clock, Niki finished curling her
hair.  Walking into the great room, she stood, waiting for Kyle to pick her
up.  Hopefully, tonight all of her questions about Alana would be answered.  She
spent two days trying to guess in her mind, but finally just let it go,
concerned she was spending too much energy and thought on it.

Six fifteen.  Still no Kyle.

She dug her phone from her purse to see if she missed a
message.  Nothing.  Kyle was never late.

Six thirty.  Maybe she had the time wrong.  Surely he would
ring the doorbell any minute now, she thought as she paced back and forth
across the length of the great room.

Seven.  Her stomach growled.  The last time she ate was at eleven.

Niki’s anxiety rose.  She was sure he said six.  She dialed
his cell number, figuring maybe he lost track of time at work or something.  No
answer.  She left a quick message, trying to keep her voice from sounding as
strained as she felt.  Then she sat down on the couch.

At seven thirty, her mind started to work against her. 
Maybe Kyle didn’t want to tell her about Alana and this was his way of avoiding
it.  Though it seemed entirely out of character, she knew people well enough to
know they did weird unexplainable things sometimes.  She started to justify the
excuses she made for him in her own mind.

Eight.  She kicked off her shoes in her closet.

Kyle stood her up.

The anger surged as she stripped off the cute dress she
thought he’d like, trading it for a baggy t-shirt and sweat shorts.  Stomping
down the hall to the kitchen, she yanked open the fridge and stared into it
trying to figure out what to fix for dinner. 

As she argued in her mind about whether or not he still
might show up, she decided on making a small sandwich—just in case.  Foolish? 
Maybe.  Probably.

Seriously, Niki.  Face it.  Kyle stood you up.  He’s not
coming.  He hasn’t called.  You’ve tried twice.  No answer to the messages.  No
answer to the text.

Taking a bite of the sandwich, Niki worried that she must
have scared him away with her crazy declaration of love.  Maybe he was one of
those guys who could say it but not hear it.  What was she thinking?  When had
she ever met any guy who acted like that?

At nine, she turned on the TV, hoping to distract the dark
turn her thoughts skipped toward.  Maybe this was his way of breaking up with
her.  She flipped through the channels, not really watching anything.

Finally, she picked the first DVD her fingers reached and
loaded up a movie.  Through the entire movie, she kept telling herself to pay
attention and forget about Kyle.

She couldn’t.  It was too late.  She already gave him her
heart.  She was done for.

This is why she didn’t date.  This horrible feeling of
having your heart ripped from your chest when something went so terribly
wrong.  If she didn’t love him, she wouldn’t have to feel this pain right now. 
Loneliness seemed a whole lot better than this.

Marcy entered through the front door, returning from her
date with Chad.  It was sometime after ten.  Niki paused the movie when Marcy
asked, “How was your date with Kyle?”

She burst into tears, unable to contain the hurt any
longer.  “He stood me up.”

Marcy’s eyes nearly bulged from her sockets in utter shock. 
“He what?”

“He never showed up.  He’s not answering his phone or
returning the messages I’ve left.”

Marcy’s shock turned to anger.  “I’m calling him right now. 
Then I’m calling Mom and Dad if he doesn’t answer.  He better have a good
explanation for this,” she shot over her shoulder as she stormed down to her
room. 

Twenty minutes later, Marcy returned to the great room just
as Niki’s movie finished.

“No one has heard from him,” Marcy said.  “Now I’m getting
worried.  It’s not like him to just disappear.  And I don’t think he’d skip out
on you on purpose.  He’s just not that way.”

“That’s what I keep hoping.  But…”

“But, what?”

“He was supposed to tell me about Alana tonight.  Maybe he
decided he didn’t really want to.”

“That’s absurd.”

“Is it?  Or maybe he freaked when I told him I loved him.”

Marcy looked at her oddly.  “When was that?”

“Wednesday night.”

“No, I can’t picture him being upset by that.  He’s loved
you for a long time.  That would only be the best news of his life.”

“You don’t think he got into an accident or anything, do
you?”  Niki hesitated voicing her fears.

“I don’t know.”

Niki’s phone rang.  She ran to answer, but stopped short
when she didn’t recognize the number.  She waffled on whether or not to
answer.  Finally, it went to voicemail.  She logged into her voicemail to retrieve
the message.

“Niki.  It’s Kyle.  Look I am sure I’ve missed our dinner
date by now.”

No kidding.  Try by five hours!

“I’ve been traveling all day.”  His voice went muffled as if
he was talking to someone else.  “Right, I know I can’t say where we are.”  His
voice returned to normal volume.  “I’m gone, for work.  I’ll call you again
when I can, but I don’t know when that will be.  I love you, Niki.”

“Was it Kyle?” Marcy asked.  Niki put her phone on speaker
and had Marcy listen to it.  Marcy blew out a loud breath.  “Oh, good.  He’s
safe.”  Then smiling at her, she added, “And he didn’t mean to stand you up.”

Niki nodded, still confused by the whole thing.  She’d only
been gone from Helitronics for a week.  She never heard rumor of a trip, though
she may not have been involved had there been.

She wiped the lone tear of relief from her eye.  Kyle was
safe.  He hadn’t meant to bail on her.  And he still loved her.

Chapter 37

As Kyle hung up the phone, he slowly made his way back to
his bunk.  His bad timing struck again.  Why did his boss have to send him
halfway around the globe on the day he was finally going to tell Niki
everything?

This morning his boss told him he needed to be at the first
live combat trials of the new avionics systems.  They needed a representative
with combat experience to monitor things from a command center near the combat
zone.  His job was to collect and monitor data for the next three months.  He
told his boss that he absolutely had to be back by the first week of December at
the latest.  He couldn’t miss Marcy’s wedding.

After the meeting, he ran home, packed, and then hopped on a
flight—he should have called Niki then.  Once at his destination, he got on a
military flight to the Middle East.  Then he took a helicopter ride out to an
aircraft carrier somewhere in the Gulf.

Niki wasn’t his only worry.  He still needed to call Kelly
and tell her he wouldn’t be able to visit Alana for several months.  He wasn’t
looking forward to that conversation either.  It would have to wait for
tomorrow.

What must Niki be thinking at this point?  He really wished
she would have answered her phone.  She had to be mad.  If he could just hear
her voice, he could tell.

As he fell onto his hard bunk exhausted, he prayed. 
Lord,
please help her to understand.

Subdued.  That described Niki for the two weeks since Kyle
left.  She was subdued at work, at Bible study, and at home.  She spoke to Kyle
only three times, and got a message once when he called during a meeting she
couldn’t break away from.  All she learned in the short one minute
conversations is that he wouldn’t be back until right before Marcy’s wedding
the first week of December.  Here it was only the middle of October.