Part 10 … Nick
I watch Lori and our daughter, and it hits me again how damned lucky I am. Today is a ‘good’ day, and I smile as I watch them playing ‘Marco Polo’ with the kids from down the street. I’d like to think we’ve beaten the odds, but I know that for each good day there are usually five or six more that put Lori through hell. I know with each episode she’s terrified that the MS is there to stay and no matter how cheerful I remain, I’m honest enough to at least acknowledge her fears as a possibility. She’s given me her trust for all these years, and it would dishonor her if I gave her anything less than my complete honesty.
“Take a break, you two!” I call out. “Skye’s lips are turning blue.” My daughter reacts as every other thirteen-year-old girl in the world would. She rolls her eyes and sticks out her tongue. “Brat!”
“Old fart!” she counters, laughing hysterically when I stick my tongue out back at her. “Please daddy?” she cajoles. “Ten more minutes?”
I look at Lori first, before answering. I’ve always known who really makes the rules in our house, and when she nods her ‘ok’, I in turn nod back at Skye. “Ten. That’s all.”
“Muah! Thanks daddy!” She blows me a kiss and dives back under the water as Lori climbs out of the water, searching for a warm towel.
“Here, baby,” I hand her a super-sized towel and pull her onto my lap, rubbing warmth back into her arms. “Better?”
“Always,” she says with a smile and presses her lips to mine. A chorus of groans from the pool interrupts our loving as Skye and her friends make kissy sounds and goo goo eyes at one another.
Just to piss them off, I bend Lori over my arm and proceed to give her the hottest kiss she’s had since … well, since this morning at about 7:00. The kids shriek with laughter and I know I’ll have to stay here for a very long time unless I want my daughter to get an eye full. Damn, after sixteen years Lori still makes me hard just by being in the same hemisphere as me.
We defied the odds, Lori and me. I can still remember it like it was yesterday…
“Next.”
The couple ahead of us at the courthouse was wrapped around each other as they kissed all the way out the door and to the elevator. Lori giggled as I rolled my eyes, but I knew that a lot of it was sheer nervousness on our part. We were actually going through with it. We were getting married.
“Nick, are you sure?” she asked me as we were called yet again for our turn with the judge of the day.
“Lori, we’ve been over this and over this. Yes, I’m sure.” I tucked her arm through mine and moved up to the counter to sign all the documents.
The disinterested clerk looked like he’d be much better off working with the death records than marriages, but I wasn’t about to let his attitude bring us down. Not today.
“License?” he droned and I produced our marriage license.
“Blood tests?” he droned once more and Lori handed him the certificate from her doctor.
“Sign here,” he said dispassionately, handing us back the marriage license and keeping the rest for the files or whatever they did with that stuff. “Wait over there, you’re next.”
We took our place by the closed door to the judge’s chambers and tried to make small talk while we waited. “Well …” I said.
“Mm hmm…” she answered.
“It’s almost time.”
“I know,” she says on a deep breath and I can feel her trembling.
“Lori-“
“I’m fine,” she says, looking up at me with a smile brighter than I’ve seen from her in a long time.
“Okay. I want you to be happy, Lori, that’s all I want.”
“Oh Nick,” she sighs and my heart melts. “You need to be happy, too.”
“I am, Lor. I’ve got you.”
“Next?” The door has opened and a tiny graying woman in a black robe is waiting for us. Not at all what either of us expected, but she’ll do. She smiles at us and her eyes crinkle. Oh yes, she’ll do just fine.
For a civil ceremony, it was a lot more personal than either of us had expected. We even managed to end up with pictures courtesy of the bailiff and a disposable camera. But what really got to us was the parting comment the judge made. We were leaving the chambers and she stopped us.
“You young people are more fortunate than most who come through these doors,” she’d said. “Most get married for the wrong reasons altogether, but you two? You each just married your best friend, and that’s a blessing. Go be happy, you deserve it.”
“Nick? Nick??”
Lori’s voice brings me back to the present and I snap out of my memories.
“You okay Nicky?” I love it when she calls me that, even after all these years.
“Yeah, baby. Just thinking about our wedding.”
She smiles. “It’s almost our anniversary.”
“I know, whatcha want to do to celebrate?”
I could see Lori thinking. Our anniversary celebration was always carefully planned, right down to the last detail. “I was thinking…”
“Dancing? A night on the town?” I laughed at the face she made.
“I think not. I might trip someone on my cane.”
“You could let Skye decorate it again.” We both laughed, remembering the gaudy plastic flowers that had adorned Lori’s cane the year Skye had turned six. “Maybe her taste has improved?”
“No. No way. I know your daughter better than that.”
“Then what?” I was curious now; it wasn’t like Lori to be so indecisive about something like this.
“Well… I want to go back to our island.”
Our island was one we’d found one day while out on the boat. We’d dropped anchor and stayed there most of the day, the warmth of the sun and the sand easing the aches and pains in Lori’s body like nowhere else we’d ever been. The weather was perfect that day, not a cloud in the brilliant blue sky as we’d made love for hours, both on the sand and then back on the deck of the boat. Lori had always said it was well worth the aches and pains the next day, and even more so when we found out she was pregnant. We knew without a doubt that our baby had been conceived that day, and when she was born, ‘Skye’ seemed to be the perfect name.
“Think we’ll ever tell Skye how she got her name?” I asked with a grin.
“Maybe some day,” Lori laughed. “After she’s married and has children of her own.”
“Chicken,” I chided her.
“Uh huh,” she said, kissing the tip of my nose.
“Howie called last night.”
She was silent, my announcement coming out of the blue.
“He asked about you, he always does.”
“How is he?” she finally asked.
“He’s doing well. Gillian’s having a rough time, though.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” Lori rested her head on my shoulder and sighed. Howie had always been faithful about checking in, but I’m sure there was a part of Lori that would never quite forgive him for not being there when she needed him. And me? I was not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. Howie’s loss had definitely been my gain.
Poor Howie. He’d fled from Lori’s illness that reminded him so much of his sister’s illness and death, only to find roughly the same scenario five years later. Gillian had been a dream come true for Howie, and their marriage had been the talk of the entertainment world. Her cancer had been diagnosed, treated and promptly sent into remission. Until six months ago. Now she was living on borrowed time, waiting for a miracle that might or might not ever come.
“I should feel guilty,” I told Lori.
“Don’t, Nick. Don’t ever denigrate what we have. We’re so blessed to have found each other. You’re my other half, my soul mate.”
“I know, baby. I know.”
“Even if you were my second choice, you were never second best. You know what they say-”
I laughed and repeated the mantra we’d shared for years. “You have to kiss a few frogs before you find your prince.”
“You are my prince, Nick, my knight in shining armor. Ever since you rescued me from that horrible bouncer at the Desert Rose.”
“Are we going shopping for my anniversary present soon?” I laughed. Ever since that first night when she’d thrown up on me, Lori bought me a new pair of Nike’s every year for our anniversary. I’d do without the damn shoes for the rest of my life if it meant having her for an extra day. But there are no guarantees in life, so we live it to the fullest. One day at a time.
Lori’s eyes were moist as she shared the memories with me. “I love you, Nick.”
“I love you, too, baby.”
“I know you do.”
The End
1-2-03