Taking one last swallow of his drink. “Yup.” Walking into the room he found her in bed, but he noticed she was still dressed. Well that is a good thing, right?

“Come on, I want to snuggle. It’ll be my last time for a while. I’m not gonna bite you. Sheeze, you’re acting like this is the first time we’ve slept in the same bed or something.”

He thought maybe he was being a little silly and decided to just go along with it. What ever his worries were they seemed to be completely unfounded. Climbing into the bed they fell into the Nick and Bree snuggle into bed routine.

“Okay, are you quite comfortable now?” When she nodded her head yes he asked, “So, where or what is my present. You’re really dragging this out, ya know.” He was giving her a hard time. That was his job.

Reaching back under the pillow behind her she pulled out a medium sized box and handed it to Nick. He almost let out an audible sigh when he saw the box. Howie’s putting bad thoughts in my head. Note to self, forget them. Opening the box he looked inside and found a small stuffed animal. Actually it was two stuffed animals, two little bunnies, one blue one pink, hugging with their heads each on the other’s shoulder.

“Look at the tag.” Bree was smiling.

There was a little tag on one of the bunnies’ ears and it read ‘Snuggle Bunnies’. Nick let out a loud laugh that turned into a giggle. Putting the box aside he pulled Bree up into a big hug. “You are too much, you know that. What am I gonna do with you?”

She wrapped her arms around him and smiled. She loved hearing him giggle and loved doing things to make him happy and smile. “Keep me?”

Kissing her on the cheek, “Little girl, you couldn’t get rid of me if you tried. Snuggle Bunnies. God. When did you get this?”

“Today. I saw it in this little toy store and it reminded me of the many, many hours we’ve spent doing just that and talking. The many secrets have I shared with you while we were snuggling. The secrets and fears you’ve shared with me. And just being quiet and enjoying having someone there, ya know.”

He still had her in a hug and was rubbing her back. She was playing with his hair and was actually quite close to crying. In the morning they’d say goodbye. “I know, sweetie. It’s been these times over the years that you’ve helped me get out a lot of stuff that I tend to keep inside. You’d listen and never judge. You know, you can always tell me anything, Bree. No matter what. I could never hate you, and I’d never judge you.”

“I know, Nick. But things are going good now for me.” He scooted down so they were both laying down on their sides, but still holding each other. “I just want things to be good for you too. I want you to be happy Nick. Really happy.” She could feel his arms tighten around her and knew she was right in the fact that there was something more going on than he had told her. Something deeper. “Nick tell me, what’s wrong?”

<~ Chapter 18 or Chapter 20 ~>


Karina 2003