Key To My Heart: Stay (13 page)

All in all things seemed to be going
well. Acasia and Gavin had even seemed to have gotten over their
initial reservations of living in the same house. He could see that
his fiancé had gained a certain respect for his brother, even if it
was still a little grudging, and he knew that she was trying very
hard not to interfere in Gavin and Demi’s would be
relationship.

He still hadn’t heard anything from
Jay, but he knew that it was time for all of them to stop worrying
about Jay and Nikki so much, because it wasn’t doing any of them
any good. It was hard to convince his mother of that though, and he
knew that even though the rumors had slowed down about Jay and
Nikki that it still bothered his mother to hear what she considered
to be trash talked about her son and daughter-in-law.

He was thinking of trying to talk Gavin
into taking a trip up to see Jay, hopefully to avoid their mothers
doing it, but with all the work that needed to be done, such a trip
was still hard to plan, and he told himself that his brother could
handle his own life and his own problems.

It was hard sometimes though, and he
still worried about his brother more than he liked to admit. But
the days were still passing all too quickly, and he knew that he
needed to put his worry for Jay and Nikki on the back burner. Demi
was going to be having her baby soon, and Acasia’s due date wasn’t
far behind. And there was still a lot of work that needed to be
done before the wedding and the arrival of their baby. So Garett
did his best to concentrate on the issues that he could work on
without trying to think too much about the things that he had no
control over. And for the most part it worked well.

Acasia

She was in the kitchen doing the dishes
when her phone rang. She grabbed the phone from where it was
connected to the charger in the plug above the microwave, and
glanced at the caller ID, seeing “Nakeisha Black”.

“
Hey sis. I forgot to save
your home phone in my contacts. Why does it come up on caller ID as
Nakeisha Black and not Jayden and Nakeisha Black? I always thought
that’s what it said before.”

“
I’ll explain later sis, I
promise. Is Garett around?”

“
Um, he’s not actually.
What’s going on Nikki? You’re getting me worried. And we both know
that a worried pregnant woman isn’t a good thing.”

“
I’m sorry. I can’t explain
now Cas. Just trust me. You trust me don’t you?”

“
Of course I do. Garett went
to the store to get ice cream. I told him he didn’t have to go, but
he insisted. He should be back any minute. I can have him call
you.”

Her sister stayed silent so long that
she was afraid she had lost her. “Nikki. Nikki are you there?
Please tell me what’s going on.”

“
I’m in trouble Cas. I’ll
explain as soon as I can okay? Have Garett call me. As soon as
possible. I’m gonna let you go now sis. I love you.”

“
I love you too Nikki.” She
could tell that her sister had started to hang up the phone, but
she hated to let her go like this, especially when Nikki needed
help. “Nikki wait. Gavin is here. Do you want to talk to
him?”

“
Uh. Yes. Thank
you.”

She crossed the living room to where
Gavin was working on a corner of the wall. “Nikki’s on the phone.
She says she’s in trouble. She won’t tell me what’s going on, says
she can’t explain right now.”

“
Um, okay. And she wants to
talk to me?”

“
She called to talk to
Garett but I figured that maybe you might be able to help
her.”

Gavin winked. “Thanks for the vote of
confidence Cas.”

“
I’m serious
Gavin.”

“
I know you’re serious, and
I would be more than happy to help Nikki with whatever she needs. I
wonder where Jay is.”

Acasia shrugged, impatient to get the
phone into Gavin’s hand so that they might finally be able to find
out what was going on with Nikki and Jay.

Gavin took the phone from her and spent
several minutes talking with Nikki. She tried not to eavesdrop, but
she was worried about her sister and it was hard not to. She
couldn’t catch enough of what Gavin was saying to know what their
conversation was about, and she was a little frustrated when he
ended the call and handed the phone back, telling her that he
needed to leave right away to help Nikki, and that he was sure
everything would be explained to her later.

She sat down in the armchair and waited
for Garett to get home, more worried than ever about her
sister.

Garett

When Garett arrived home from the
grocery store, Gavin’s truck was gone. It wouldn’t have bothered
him or even made him think twice normally, but he had almost sworn
that he had seen his brother’s truck headed out of town at a speed
that looked to be quite a ways past the speed limit when he’d been
on his way home from the grocery store, and he was a little
concerned.

He found Acasia curled up in the
armchair when he went in the house, and she looked upset. She was
looking at the cell phone in her hand as if willing it to ring.
When the phone still didn’t comply, she looked up and gave him a
tired smile.

“
What’s wrong
baby?”

“
Something is going on with
Nikki. She just called me wanting to talk to you. Since you weren’t
here, she ended up talking to Gavin. He took off as soon as he got
off of the phone with her. I’m worried babe.”

“
She didn’t tell you what’s
going on?”

“
No, she said that she
didn’t have time to explain. This is driving me crazy. What if
someone’s trying to hurt her? And where the hell is
Jay?”

“
My brother has never been
one to shy away from his responsibilities. I find it hard to
believe that if someone means his wife harm that he wouldn’t be the
first one there to prevent it.”

“
Do you think they’re
separated? Demi mentioned something about calling their house phone
and Jay being the only one that has ever answered it
lately.”

“
I don’t know babe. I guess
we’re just going to have to be patient and wait until Nikki calls
again. I think I do have a way to distract you though.”

“
You do huh?”

He pulled the tub of ice cream he had
purchased at the store out of the bag. Acasia laughed and shook her
head at him. They took their treat to the kitchen, and after they
had finished, they retired to the bedroom. Since her phone still
hadn’t rang, he decided to further distract his beautiful fiancé by
making love, and it seemed to work, though as soon as they had
finished, her eyes went right back to her phone, and he knew that
she wouldn’t really stop worrying until she had talked to her
sister.

Acasia

It was a little after ten p.m. when her
phone rang again, and she snatched it up on the first ring, feeling
a little guilty that she was so relieved that Garett was in the
shower, but glad to be able to talk to her sister semi privately
all the same.

“
Nikki, are you
okay?”

“
I’m fine Cas. Gavin took
care of my problem, or at least I hope he did.”

“
What’s going on Nikki? What
happened between you and Jay? Something has been going on for a
while hasn’t it? Sis, why didn’t you tell anyone? I can understand
why you wouldn’t want to tell Mom, but why not talk to me? I
thought that you knew that you could talk to me about
anything.”

“
Like Demi can about her
feelings for Gavin?” Nikki sighed. “I’m sorry Cas. I shouldn’t have
said that. It’s been a really long day.”

“
So you think that Demi and
Gavin should get together too? Garett certainly seems to think
so.”

“
She’s a grown woman. We
have to let her live her own life. And she certainly doesn’t need
us criticizing her life and her decisions. She already gets plenty
of that from Mom. And we’ve both done a good job at one time or
another of screwing our own lives up anyway. So who are we to tell
Demi what to do?”

“
I worry about
her.”

“
Of course you do. You’re
her big sister. Look Cas, I worry about Demi sometimes too. She
always seemed so young, and naïve, almost delicate. But she’s
proven how strong she can be. She’s going to be fine, even if she
does get together with Gavin. He loves her, and he’s doing his best
to prove that he’s a changed man.”

“
I see the changes in him
but. . .”

“
Don’t worry about the buts.
Gavin isn’t your concern other than the fact that he’s your future
brother-in-law. How’s the wedding planning coming
along?”

“
Mostly good. Garett is
trying to convince me to have the wedding in our backyard. He wants
to build a gazebo and all kinds of other stuff. Nikki, is it weird
that he seems more excited about planning the wedding than I
am?”

Nikki laughed. “I think that Garett
just likes to build things, and maybe he thinks it will make your
wedding even more special. I honestly didn’t much enjoy planning my
wedding either Cas. We would have eloped if we would have thought
our parents would have forgiven us. Mom and Alisa are the ones that
really planned my wedding. I just picked out my dress. I’m
surprised they haven’t tried to butt in and take over
yours.”

“
They have, but Garett is so
damned excited that they’re not making much progress. He’s amazing
Nikki.”

“
Yeah, we always knew that.
The Black boys have always all been pretty damned amazing in their
own ways, even Gavin.”

“
Yes, even Gavin. I suppose
it’s time for me to forgive him huh? Especially since he came to
your rescue without a second thought.”

“
Demi will eventually
forgive him, and she’s the one he ran away from, so you might as
well forgive him too. I wish he hadn’t had to protect me. Oh
Acasia, I am such a screw-up.”

“
Nikki, the last thing you
are is a screw-up. You have a beautiful daughter, and even if you
and Jay do split up, which is hard to imagine, you had thirteen
good years together. That’s more than a lot of people can say these
days.”

“
We’ve been separated for
months Cas. I had an affair, and I called Gavin, or tried to call
Garett as you know, because the man I cheated with won’t leave me
alone. I couldn’t call Jay. I couldn’t even tell him that Cole was
pretty much stalking me. Why should I expect him to protect me when
I ruined our marriage?”

“
Oh Nikki, I wish you would
have told me sooner. I can hear in your voice that you’re hurting.
I wish you were here so that I could give you a hug. I love you
sis. No matter what.”

“
I love you too Cas. I’m
glad things are going well between you and Garett.”

“
Me too. Do you really think
that you and Jay will get divorced?”

“
I don’t know. I meant every
word of my marriage vows when I said them. I planned on being with
Jay until death do us part, and not just ‘til divorce do us part.
But I messed up. I was selfish. And what’s worse Acasia, is that I
don’t even understand why I did what I did myself. Maybe it was
some sort of self-sabotage. It’s not easy to live up to everyone’s
idea of the perfect couple that everyone has always thought of Jay
and I as being.”

“
You’re human Nikki, and you
make mistakes. I always envied the relationship that you and Jay
had. You fit so well together, and you were friends first; best
friends. But I suppose it’s never easy to live up to the
unrealistic expectations of others. I think there are points in all
of our lives when we practice self-sabotage, whether it’s because
we’re afraid of something, or whether it’s because we’re tired of
living someone else’s dreams instead of our own. I still don’t know
what I want to do with my life, and even if my relationship feels
damned near perfect, I know that since we’re staying in Clinton,
that we’re going to be scrutinized by our Mom and Garett’s parents,
especially when it comes to the way we choose to raise our child.
That is certainly not something that I’m looking forward to.
Sometimes I wish my man wasn’t such a hometown guy.”

Nikki laughed. “Why do you think Jay
and I moved away? We were running away in a way too, because we
wanted kids, and even though both the Blacks and our parents did a
fine job of raising us, we knew if we stuck around that they were
going to try to tell us how to raise our children. And we never
wanted that. Not that their advice isn’t well meaning, but unwanted
advice is still unwanted advice, no matter who offers
it.”

“
True. You should come home
for a visit sis. Demi’s baby is going to be born soon.”

“
I’d love to see you all.
And no one has seen Sammi in person yet besides Gavin. I will think
about it. Maybe I can work something out with Jay.”

“
Do you want to work things
out with Jay? I mean really work things out with him?”

“
Of course I do. He’s my
best friend, my husband and the father of my child. But I’m worried
that even if he thinks he can forgive me and learn to trust me
again, that eventually he’ll look at me and realize that he can’t
and that he made a mistake asking me to come home.”