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2722 Words
Dominic was true to his word; he’d managed to get Nicki an appointment with the best physiotherapist in the city. She was booked in for four days a week, and he’d gotten her an appointment with a medical supply company that carefully made her the brace she would need. It took three weeks to make, and the representative brought the brace to the apartment so Nicki could try it on.
It was very strong and supportive while also being sleek and thin so it could be hidden beneath a pair of pants or a skirt. Nicki tried it on, and she walked from one end of the room to the other. She limped still but not nearly as bad. It was great to see her smile. Dominic paid the representative and showed him out then he smiled at his wife. This brace gave her so much confidence it was nice to see.
“You.” She said grabbing his shirt and pulling him close. “Have I told you I love you?”
“Not today.” He grinned as she kissed him. “You like it?”
“I love it.” She said leading him to the bed, she had lust in her eyes and he was pretty sure he was going to get lucky. Dominic followed her down onto the bed and stretched out next to her. He was kissing her neck and caressing her curves when Nicki’s cell phone began to ring.
“Ignore it.” He whispered between kisses.
Nicki reached for her phone and checked the caller ID. It was her sister. “It’s Millie.” She said. “Give me a minute. It might be important.” She answered the call, and though Dominic didn’t have the phone to his ear, he could hear Millie going crazy on the other end. From the look on Nicki’s face, the lusty moment had passed.
Nicki started talking frantically and getting worked up then she hung up the phone and looked at him worried. “It’s my Father. He knows.”
“About us getting married.”
She nodded. “Millie says he saw us on six magazines while standing in line at the grocery store. He knows, and I’m not the one that told him. He’s mad. She says he was screaming and throwing things. That’s not like him.” Nicki said distort. “I knew I should have gone home a long time ago. This wasn’t how I wanted him to find out.” She said with tears in her eyes.
Dominic sat up. She was homesick he knew she was. He’d been selfish keeping her here in New York. “Pack your things, I’ll call for the jet, let’s go see your family.”
“Really?” She asked hopefully.
“We can be in the air in an hour.” He promised. His nice quiet night at home with his wife was out the window. If they go to Devon, there was likely to be a fight but if they stayed in New York Nicki would mope and sulk and be no fun anyway. He supposed they had to face her family at some point. It might as well be tonight.
***
The farm was within sight. It was nearing eight. Her family ate late in the evening so that the men could work late. Nicki knew dinner would be on the table right about now. The plane had touched down about an hour ago, and Dominic had rented a car to drive them to Devon. The sound of the engine approaching must have given them away because the family came outside as they pulled up.
Dominic parked between Jove’s Mustang and Bryce’s Harley. He cut the engine, and he got out, walked around to her door, and offered his hand to help her out of the car. Once on her feet, Nicki approached the porch where her family stood. The look on her father’s face was a combination of both rage and disappointment.
Millie looked at Nicki and then their father. She then stepped off the porch and came over to Nicki and hugged her. “Welcome home.” She said lovingly. “And congratulations. I would have loved to see you get hitched.”
Lacy came over and hugged Nicki, and then she surprised Dominic by hugging him too. “You guys are just in time for dinner. I’ll set two more places.” Lacy stepped back to look at Nicki and the fine clothes she was wearing, certainly not farm wear. “You look beautiful, marriage agrees with you.”
Clint came over and hugged Nicki and kissed her cheek. “Look at you. You have been gone eight weeks, and you come home all trendy and sophisticated.” He teased.
“It’s so good to see all of you.” Nick smiled. It did feel good to be home.
“I take it you’re not home to stay?” Bryce asked. She wasn’t sure how long they were here. Bryce shook Dominic’s hand. “Welcome to the family.”
Nicki looked past her siblings at her father who stood on the porch glaring daggers at Dominic. Nicki walked up to the porch and smiled apologetically up at her father. “Hi, Daddy.”
“Oh, you remember me, do you? I would have thought you forgot all about me since you ran off and got married and didn’t so much as tell me.”
“I’m sorry. I wanted to tell you in person.”
“So, you forgot where we live? You’ve been married a whole month, and yet I find out from a magazine in the grocery store. You leave the farm and completely forget where you come from and who you are.”
“I haven’t forgotten anything.” Nicki defended herself.
“If anything, she’s discovering who she is,” Dominic said coming to stand next to her.
“I wasn’t talking to you boy. How dare you steal my daughter away and twist her mind and turn her against her family. My Nicki would never speak to me the way she just did.”
“Well, my Nicki has a backbone and speaks her mind.” Dominic snapped back.
“You took my daughter away.” Mitchell snarled.
“She wanted to go this little hick town was suffocating her. You can’t handle the fact that she found life outside this farm. You were holding her back.”
“I never held her back from anything. You corrupted my daughter.”
“I freed her.”
“Both of you stop yelling,” Nicki interjected. Both men went quiet. “Daddy I’m sorry I got married and didn’t tell you. I never wanted you to find out that way, but regardless of how you feel Dominic is my husband and now part of this family. I’m happy with him. I love you and this farm, but I’m of no use here. I can’t do anything. I was wasting away on the porch. With Dominic, I have the chance at being something. At being happy and useful once more. Look at me.” She said with pride. “I’ve grown as a person.” Mitchell glared at Dominic. “Daddy, look at me.”
Mitchell turned his eyes to Nicki, and his harsh frown became gentle and amazed. “Where is your cane?”
Nicki was surprised by his question. She hadn’t even thought about her cane. “It’s in the car.” She said realizing what her father had.
“You are standing without it. You walked all the way from the car to the porch without assistance. How is this possible you’ve missed all your therapy appointments?”
“I’ve been seeing a doctor in New York.” She informed her father.
“Best in the business,” Dominic added. “Three hours a day. Four days a week.”
“That would cost a fortune.” There was a reason she had only been seeing one for an hour twice a week.
“It’s a good thing I have one,” Dominic said smugly.
“But it’s only been a few weeks you’ve been in therapy for over a year. How are you walking unassisted?”
Nicki reached down and pulled the baggy pant leg of her white slacks up exposing her new brace. “It’s a brace, but it’s custom made. It’s not perfect, but it helps a lot. Dominic had it made just for me.”
“You got my baby walking again.” He said surprised.
“All she needed is the right support and a little motivation.”
“Are you saying I didn’t support her?”
Dominic rolled his eyes. “I never said that. You’re just trying to find fault in me because you don’t like my interest in your daughter. Well tough for you she’s my wife, and I’m not going anywhere.” Again, her father was glaring.
“Boy I don’t approve of you, and the fact that you would elope without my blessing speaks volumes about your character.”
“Are you questioning my character? I’ve done nothing but be nice to you, and you disapprove of me for no good reason. You would have never given me your blessing.”
“I have my reasons,” Mitchell shouted.
“They’re not good reasons,” Dominic shouted back.
“You are too old for my daughter it’s perverted.”
“I am sick to death of you calling me a pervert.” Then Dominic smiled. “But you know what I don’t have to put up with it. I’m going home. Come on Nicki.” He said taking her hand and leading her back to the car.
“That’s my point boy you don’t like my opinion, so you steal my daughter away. I’ll never see her again because of you.” Mitchell accused as he followed them.
“Daddy that’s not true,” Nicki said. She wanted to reassure her father her leaving the farm didn’t mean she was leaving her family. “We’ll only be an hour away. We’re going to get a place in Helena, and we will see you all the time. We’ll come down for dinner every weekend.” She offered.
“We’re not moving to Helena.” Dominic corrected her.
Nicki’s head snapped in her husband’s direction. She was hoping she hadn’t heard him correctly. “What?”
“We’re not moving to Helena.” He repeated sternly.
“But you said-”
“I know what I said, and I’ve changed my mind. There is nothing in Montana.”
“My family is in Montana.”
Dominic took her hands in his. “Nicki our life is in New York.”
“Your life is in New York.” She snapped. “My life is here in Devon. New York was always supposed to be temporary; the plan was always to move to Helena.”
“Well, I’ve changed the plan. Everything is in New York. My studio is in New York. My social responsibilities are in New York. The best doctors and schools are in New York. New York is a better lifestyle.”
“New York is two-thousand miles away from the people I love.”
“And nobody I love is in Montana.”
“But your family is all over the country and they all travel. My family is just here, and they don’t have a private jet or millions of dollars.” She said almost in tears.
“So, I should uproot my life and live here with a man that can’t stand me?”
“So, you think it’s better that I should uproot my life and live thousands of miles away from my family with your parents that don’t approve of me?” She couldn’t believe what was happening. Dominic had never been unreasonable. She didn’t understand what his problem was.
“I’m not living in Montana.” Dominic barked standing his ground.
His unwillingness to budge only hardened her resolve. “Well, I’m not living in New York.” She yelled back.
“Nicki, get in the car.”
“No.”
“Get in the car!”
“No! I’m not leaving my family.”
Dominic took a deep breath. “You’d rather stay here in the middle of nowhere and wallow in the dirt then come home with me?”
“I am home.” She said sadly. “I’m not going back to New York, and if you loved me, you’d stay here with me.”
She could see the annoyance in his bright eyes. He looked at Mitchell and then at Nicki. “Fine, you stay here. Go back to your pathetic life that dusty old porch, you’re nothing without me.” His words hurt but not as much as watching him throw her cane on the ground as he got into his rental car and drove off leaving her behind.
Her father put his arm around Nicki lovingly. “You don’t need him, darling. He didn’t deserve you.”
Nicki picked up her cane and headed into the house. She limped her way up to her room to shut herself away for the rest of the day. She then climbed onto the bed and hugged her pillow as she let the tears fall. There was a knock at the door, and then it opened, and both Lacy and Millie came in. Lacy shut the door as Millie climbed onto the bed and wrapped her arms supportively around her sister. “Oh hon, I’m sorry.”
“I know it hurts,” Lacy said sitting on the bed next to her, “but you will always have us.” Nicki buried her face in her pillow and began to sob. “Why don’t you come down and have some dinner with us.”
“I’d rather just be alone.” She sniffled.
“Ok,” Lacy said as she got up. “Come on Millie let’s go have dinner.” Millie got up, and they left Nicki alone with her broken heart.
***
Dominic sat in his leather seat as the jet took off. He would head back to New York alone. He couldn’t believe Nicki chose this place over him. She’d been so happy in New York until they came back to this place to try to deal with her father’s rage. He was upset. How she could expect him to smile in the face of a man that called him a pervert he didn’t understand. She wouldn’t have put up with it if it was the other way around.
He refused to stay here if he wasn’t respected. He didn’t understand why Nicki wouldn’t stand by him. Well, he didn’t care if she wouldn’t stand by him he wasn’t sticking around. They could all go to hell he was going home where he belonged. If she wanted to join him later, then she was welcomed to, but he was putting Devon behind him.
- Writer
