This I promise You (49/?)
“Yea.” I couldn’t help but smile as he scooped Isabella up from Warrick’s lap before bringing her over and setting her in my lap.
She sat there looking up at me for a moment before sniffling and pointing at my arm. “Mommy owwie?”
“Yes, mommy has an owwie but thanks to Uncle Warrick and,” I stopped trying to decide what to call Nick biting my lip as I did. “Nick, I’ll be fine.” Despite everything in me that wanted to call him daddy, I couldn’t. What if something happened to us? Then what? Daddy would have left her again and that was something I couldn’t live with.
Isabelle on the other hand seemed content with this explanation and settled in against me going back to her cartoon.
“If you guys are going to be alright I think I’m going to hit the shooting range for awhile, maybe see if there’s a little trouble I can get into.” Warrick quirked an eyebrow looking at the two of us.
“We’ll be fine.” Came Nick’s answer as he flopped down beside Quinn on the couch.
“Alright.” Warrick pushed himself up from the couch and was soon slipping out the door.
“Guess she was more ready for a nap then I thought.” Nick’s words caused me to look down at Isabella laughing softly when I realized that she was asleep.
“Would you do me a favor and lay her in on the bed please? I would but with this sling it’s not as easy as I thought it would be.”
“Yep.” Nick pushed himself up off the couch causing Quinn to growl as he disturbed her sleep. “Oh hush, you’re the one who came and woke me up this morning, this is just pay backs.” Carefully he scooped Isabella up from my lap holding her close to him as he took her down the hall to the bedroom. He returned a few minute later. “So I noticed you kind of struggled trying to decide what it was you wanted to call me?”
“I-I,” I couldn’t find the words to explain to him what I was really thinking. It wasn’t that I didn’t honestly want him to be her daddy; in fact it was the exact opposite.
“Just aren’t ready for that yet.” Nick finished for me.
“No it’s not that, I would love for that but if something happened to us and you weren’t around anymore, I’m not sure I could deal with her thinking that daddy left her.”
“Understandable and I’m ok with that. We can deal with it as we go. It was just that you didn’t correct me before so I didn’t think you had an issue with it.” He allowed his frame to slide back into the couch where he’d been. “You want to see if there’s something other then Dora on tv?”
“If you don’t mind.” Truth was I was beginning to go a little stir crazy being stuck in the house. “What I’d love to do is go swimming but I cant like this.”
“Didn’t you say that it didn’t get deep for awhile? You could go wading, it wouldn’t hurt you to go out and get your legs wet, cool off some.”
“I might consider that, I suppose I should get in touch with Heather and see about another session too.” I carefully rubbed my eyes watching him for a minute trying to figure things out.
“Well, Isabella’s asleep, I think it sounds like the perfect time for you to go sit out on the dock and relax for awhile, stick your feet in the water. Heathers going to be around no matter what but you’re only home for a few days to enjoy this.” His words weren’t meant to be cruel merely to serve as a reminder that this wasn’t going to last forever no matter how much I wanted it to.
“I’ve been thinking.” The words came out without me needing to think about them really.
“And?”
“And I wanted to know if you’d mind if we took Izzy home with us. As you said on a trail basis.” It was true, I had been thinking about it a lot and that was truly what I wanted.
“Whatever you want Steph. Come here.” He patted a knee as he watched me waiting for me to move.
Pushing myself up out of the chair I moved across the room sliding into his lap as I did. “I-I’m tired of coming home to a house where she isn’t and knowing that she isn’t going to be for a long time either. I just want her home where she belongs.”
“Alright, then that’s what we’ll do. We’ll see how it goes for a while and then we’ll go from there.” He settled back against the couch watching me as if trying to figure out what made me tick and what I was thinking.
Grabbing the remote I began flipping through the channels, there wasn’t much on. “Alright Texas boy you think you can live with a Cowboys game?”
“Sounds good to me. Except I suppose I should warn you, I have a tendency to yell at the tv since I’ve played and I don’t necessarily agree with what they’ve done.”
“Oh I’m right there with you, I never played but I just keep thinking to myself how stupid can you be to do that? It’s just aggravating for me.”
“So I take it having been born and raised in Michigan you’re a Lions fan?”
I couldn’t quit laughing as I thought about this. “You’ve never seen the Lions play have you? Dad never really watched more then the Superbowl but I never could get into watching the Lions loose on a regular basis. So at a very young age I became a Dallas Cowboys fan. In fact, I from the age of six wanted to be a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader.”
This time it was Nick’s turn to laugh as he looked at me. “Are you serious? How could you not have made something like that? You’re gorgeous, tall, itty bitty and even better yet you’ve got a great personality.”
“I never ended up trying out, I chickened out,” The rest of my words were cut off by a terrified screech from Isabella down the hallway. Pushing myself up off his lap I started for the hallway, Nicky close at my heels.
Every thought raced through my mind as to what could possibly be wrong with her at this point automatically assuming the worst. And then it hit me, if it truly was one of Tyler’s moronic friends what was I doing leading, there was no way that I could fend him off, especially not in my current condition.
As I approached the bathroom I slipped out of the way letting him pass as I did. The gun was already in his hand as he passed and I’d never forget the sound of it chambering and going off. Nick’s voice was calm when he spoke, “Stephanie, call the police and then call Warrick.”
*******
Cradling Isabelle close to me the best that I could with a sling still on, I was still trying to settle down. The police had long since left, along with paramedics and the idiot who was unfortunately still alive.
“You alright?” Warrick eyed me with suspicion as he asked. He’d helped Nicky clean the carpets and make sure that things were put back in order so that it seemed as if nothing had happened but yet I couldn’t forget.
“What do you think?” I didn’t mean to be sarcastic with him and yet he’d asked such a dumb question too.
“I think you’re shaking.” His voice was calm as he extended an arm setting the hand on my shoulder as he did. “It’s alright you can put her down, I swear to you, no one is going to take her.”
“Here let me take here.” Nicky’s voice was soft as he moved up behind me causing me to spin around. “Sorry.”
Reluctantly though I allowed him to take her from me though I wasn’t about to let her out of my sight right now.
“That’s the last of the cronies that Tyler told us about.” Warrick’s words made me relax a little but I also knew that just because Tyler had said it didn’t necessarily make it the truth.
“Which means it’s time to enjoy vacation.” Nick was dead set on the fact that I would enjoy this time no matter if it killed one of us.
“Do you have a suggestion of how to make that happen?”
“Yea, I’m suggesting that you put Isabella in her swim suit and you put on a pair of shorts and then we’ll go wading and Isabella can play in the water.” He seemed very set on this decision and there was obviously no changing his mind.
“Alright.” The words came hardly above a whisper.
“You need to relax.” He was sincere as he spoke, and I could already feel myself starting to relax.