Page 64 of Together

“I like this side of you,” she says. “You’re standing up for yourself. Finally. Only took you thirty-three years.”

I don’t tell her the change is partly thanks to Nik. I’m not sure she would believe me anyway.

But I know it is, and that’s enough for me.

Nik’s changing me, and not because he didn’t like the way I was. BecauseIdidn’t like the way I was. I’m finally discovering who I am, and that’s all thanks to Nik.

Chapter Fourteen

Nikolas

“Nik, I presume,”a woman says by way of greeting me when I get to Ashley’s house.

“You’d be correct. And you are?”

“Grace, Ashley’s sister,” she says, extending her hand.

“Ahh. The lawyer, right? Nice to meet you.” We shake hands and I hear Ashley call to me to come on in.

Grace moves aside, inviting me to sit on the couch while I wait for Ashley. She sits in the chair, a computer, coffee cup, and stack of files on the coffee table in front of her.

“I’m almost ready!” Ashley calls from somewhere in the house.

“No rush, we have plenty of time,” I call back.

Grace looks at me with narrowed eyes that she probably thinks will intimidate me, but she’s dead wrong. I raise an eyebrow in return and she smiles brightly. There’s no honesty behind her smile, though. It’s too… perfect. She’s trying too hard.

“Ashley tells me you want to get together sometime?”

I nod. “Yes. It would be good to get to know each other, right?”

She turns her head to the side and crosses her legs, sitting back in her seat. “Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why get to know us?”

I furrow my eyebrows. “You mean other than the fact that you’ll be my baby’s aunts and uncles? Or other than the fact that Ashley is important to me and you’re important to her?”

“Ashley is important to you? Why?”

I repeat myself from earlier, “Other than the fact that she’s the mother of my child?”

“Yes. Other than those things. That person you’re describing could be anyone.” She’s talking to me as if we’re in a courtroom and I’m on trial rather than in a living room.

“But the person isn’t anyone else. The person is Ashley. And whether Ashley fit that description or not, she’s growing more and more important to me. The only way you will believe that is by getting to know me. If you don’t care to get to know me, then you can’t judge the relationship your sister and I have. And if you don’t care to get to know me, trust me when I say that I’ll have an opinion about your relationship with my child.”

She uncrosses her legs and balls her fist on the arm of the chair. “Who do you think you are?” she demands. “You take advantage of my sister on a night that she’s heartbroken and distraught, pretend that you’re some white knight coming to save her? You pretend that you’re this perfect gentleman with such honorable intentions. I know the type of man you are, Nikolas. I’ve seen hundreds of men like you who pretend to be this upstanding citizen of your tiny town, with your minuscule business you think makes you some sort of man. And then you’ll get bored of her and leave Ashley high and dry. If that’s what your plan is, and I believe that to be true, then leave now. Don’t get her hopes up. And, by the way, I find myself averygood judge of character and I’m never wrong about people. Her family can help her figure this out.”

Figure this out. What the hell? My pulse spikes as does my anger. “Who do I think I am? Who the hell do you think you are? Making assumptions based on the fact that, what, I work with my hands for a living? You’ve obviously been checking up on me. And that’s fine because I have nothing to hide. I was married once. She and I were good friends, thought we had more than friendship between us. Turns out we were both wrong and the divorce was amicable. My parents died in a car crash eleven years ago. I have one sister. She and I are close. I own an electrical business. It started small, as all businesses do. It’s grown and is profitable. I don’t have to pretend to be anything because what you see is what you get. You are wrong in this case, and I’m not afraid to tell you so.” I lean forward, my elbows resting on my knees and never take my eyes away from Grace. She might be trying to prove to me that she’s a threat, but she’s underestimating me. “As for the rest of your speech. Who says I’m not a gentleman? Who says my intentions aren’t honorable? Is it because I’m a man who doesn’t hold a degree other than from high school and the school of hard knocks? Or maybe I’m missing the bigger picture here. Maybe your attitude toward me right now has nothing to do with me specifically. It’s because I’m a man.” She raises her eyebrows in reply. It makes me think that maybe her husband hasn’t been so honorable. Or maybe it’s deeper than that. “And trust me when I tell you there was no taking advantage of anyone that night. We were both in a bad place emotionally and found each other. If you ask me, we got lucky because we did find each other. And maybe if you took the time to know me, you’d think the same. If someone with not-so-honorable intentions had been in my place that night, we don’t know what would have happened.”

“Are you seriously saying that my sister couldn’t have taken care of herself?”

“No, actually,yousaid that when you alluded to the idea that I had taken advantage of Ashley, therefore implying that she couldn’t take care of herself when she was with me.”

“That’s a stretch.”

“But it isn’t a stretch to assume that someone you don’t even know couldn’t possibly be a good human and only want what’s best for Ashley and the baby? Give me a break. I get it, I’m the unknown who came into your sister’s life and had a part in turning it upside down. However, unless you’re willing to take the time to at least know more than my name and what you’ve learned from an internet search, then back the fuck off and give Ashley and I time to figure this out. She’s a fuckuva lot stronger than you’re giving her credit for.”

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