“My Nick! Why you here?”

Rosalie had been looking out of her living room window when she saw him pull up. Running outside with nothing but pink panties on, she jumped up in his arms and let him carry her inside the house. “Where are your clothes, young lady?”

“Mommy’s doin’, uh…doin’…oh shoot.”

“What?”

“I forgot word…” She squirreled her way out of his arms and pulled on his hand, leading him to the back of the house. “Come.”

“Where we goin’?”

“Come.” She pulled him into a hallway he’d not seen before and opened the door. Washer and drier.

“Ah…laundry. She’s doing laundry.”

“Yes! Laundry.” She smacked her forehead and took hold of his hand again. “Come see my room.”

She pulled him into a very pink and purple room and pushed him to sit on the bed. When he did, he squeaked…or, his backside did. “Oh…what’d I sit on?”

“My mouse…he’s noisy.” Nick leaned over and she grabbed the stuffed animal out from under him. When sitting back up, Nick looked around only to find…

…his face. Only twice, but it was weird. “You have pictures of me on your wall?”

“Yep. My Nicky.” She crawled up on her bed and walked over to his picture, planting a big kiss on his lips. “Kiss goodnight…all nights.”

“You do, huh? Does it ever kiss back?”

“No, silly…it’s a picture. You kiss back!” Hopping off the bed, she went to a small drawing desk. “See, Aaron too. You hang for me?”

“You want me to hang Aaron?” He’d wanted to do that a number of times, but figured that’s not what she meant.

“Yes. You tall. Lemme get sticky stuff.”

He watched her curls as they bounced one minute second slower than her body. He also forgot why he even came over. This was too much fun.

“Okay, here. Hang Aaron, por favor.”

“Where do you want him?”

“By my Nicky.” Smacking the spots on the walls, she spelled it out for him. “My Nicky here. My Aaron here.”

“Your Aaron too? You’ve got too many boyfriends going.” He pulled off little globs of poster tack and stuck them on the back. It felt weird sticking blue gunk on Lance’s left arm, but the girl had made her choice. It was to be an Aaron poster, not an *NSync one.

“Nope. You brothers. You share me.”

Nick had to stop trying to line up the poster for that one…too much. She was too much. He finally stopped laughing only to see her standing and watching him with one hand on her hip…much like she had at the pool-side. “What funny?”

“You are, Rosalie…okay, that look straight?”

“Yep. I kiss him tonight.”

“Yes, kiss him tonight and me tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay. You want to see Mami?”

“Yeah…is she busy?”

“Nope, come on.”

“Mami! Mami! Look who here!”

From behind the closed door, Nick could hear an unhappy Solana and lots of unintelligible Spanish.

“Rosalie, te dije q estoy ocupada. ¿Qué necesitas?”

Rosalie opened the bedroom door without a thought and Solana continued mumbling in Spanish, turning quickly when the door hit the wall.

“Rosalie! ¡Golpeamos antes de ent-! Oh shit!” Seeing Nick outside, she slammed the door closed and pulled her robe tighter around her body.

Echoing Solana’s reaction was Nick’s own ‘oh shit’ and Rosalie just stood there, tears welling up in her eyes, confused as to why everyone seemed to upset.

“Nick…what I do?”

“Uh, let’s go back to your room, sweetie. Mommy wasn’t dressed.”

“I not dressed!”

“Yeah, but, um…let’s just…let’s get you dressed and then we’ll all be even, huh?” Dear God. Totally stark naked under that robe. Totally. He could barely breathe. Lovely as she was, not quite what he had in mind when he came over today.

“Okay…my shirt got stuck.”

Sitting back down on her bed as the small child picked up a shirt that had been previously discarded on the floor, he realized what she said, clear thinking slowly returning. “Your shirt got stuck?”

“Yes…see?” She pulled it over her head and tugged, unable to get her head through the neck hole.

“Oh…your head’s stuck…come here. Lemme help.”

“No! No! No! It hurts!”

“Nah, it won’t come here, we’ll count to three and pull real fast…”

“In Spanish…you must learn Spanish.”

Giggling at her lecture…sounding so serious from inside a t-shirt, he took hold and started to wiggle it over her head. “Okay, uno….dos….tres!” One swift yank and her pretty curls and brown eyes were through. “There…you’re not stuck. Got any shorts?”

“Yep, in here. I want pink.”

With little effort they finished getting her dressed and she picked up her lecture right where it left off. “You can count in Spanish!”

“Eh, how do you say ‘a little’?”

“Un poquito.”

“Sí. Un poquito.”

“Where you learn?”

“Sesame Street.”

“Ah, that nothing! You learn more.”

“We sang in Spanish a few times…I just didn’t know what we were saying.”

“Oh yeah…” She started bouncing on the bed, knocking stuffed animals on the floor and almost causing Nick to join them. “Sing in Spanish, Nicky! Sing for me!”

“I don’t know if I remember, Rosalie…that was a long time ago.”

“You ‘member…sing Spanish for me!”

“Oh, Rosalie…I dunno.”

“Come on, Nicky.” The bouncing continued until she landed in his lap and held his face in her hands. “Sing Spanish, Nicky…”

“You don’t like the word ‘no’, do you?”

“You no say ‘no’. Sing.”

Shaking his head and leaning his forehead into hers, he made a quick check of the words and started. “Donde quieras yo iré, al fin del mundo llegaré; lo que quieras yo hare, sin preguntas sin porqués.” Stopping for a check, he looked up into her big brown eyes, only to see them closed. They popped open when he stopped.

“More! More!”

“Ugh…okay…lemme see if I remember more…” He took another mental check and continued the song, hoping he didn’t butcher it up too badly. “Tu amor por lo que puedo ver, es lo que necesitaré; y algo que absolutamente se,” almost whispering the next line, the little girl actually moaned, “oh , yo lo se.” Giggling, he finished…quite proud that he’d remembered. “Que nena donde quieras yo iré.”

“Yay! Nicky! You sing pretty!”

“Thank you…”

“She’s quite right…”

Looking up to the older female voice, Nick immediately blushed. As did she. “Lani, I’m so sorry…”

“It’s okay…not your fault. I’m still packing, so if you wanna talk, you’ll have to come to my room and watch me work.”

“Oh…I can come back another time. Almost forgot why I’m here anyway.”

“Come on…you’ll remember. And Miss Rosalie…”

“Yes, Mami…” She knew she was in trouble by the tone in her mother’s voice.

“Thanks for keeping Nick busy. He gets into trouble easy.”

“Hey! I’m not the one waltzing around half naked like you two.”

“And that’s the biggest tragedy of all now, isn’t it?”

“Are you sure this is okay? I didn’t meant to interrupt.” Nick picked up a stack of clothes from an old rocking chair and sat down. He didn’t want to leave, but the timing was definitely bad.

“Yep. I’m leaving in about an hour anyway. Here…I’ll take those. Time to be packed.”

“Where you headed?”

“Atlantic coast. My mom and I share a condo every year. She gets three nights, me and Rosalie get four.”

“You know…we have ocean right out here…”

“Do we? I hadn’t seen it. I’ll check it out sometime. Bend down and grab those sandals, would you?”

Handing her the shoes, he bopped her on the behind with them and sat back down. “You know what I mean…why drive three hours when we have it right here?”

“We have a gulf…which is nice, but I like to stand on shore and see nothing but water. Better surf too. I just like it there. You boys should come…hey, come Thursday for the fourth. Ben and Jack will love it.”

“Nah, that’s your vacation. You don’t need us invading.”

“You’re not invading if you’ve been invited, Nick. Seriously. You don’t have to travel this week do you?”

“Nope. I’m home, I think.”

“Well, come on out. We’re there ‘til Saturday morning. Two bedrooms, a roll away…plenty of room for a girls room and a boys room.” She opened a drawer and pulled out a few bras and panties. “Close your eyes...”

“What?”

“Close ‘em…you’ve seen enough of me today, thank you.”

Seeing what was in her hands, he chuckled and smacked a hand over his eyes. “Oh yeah…quite enough.”

“If Ben hears about that, by the way, I’ll have your head.”

“My lips are sealed. Can I open?”

“Oh…yeah, open. And seriously…talk to Patty. I’m sure she’d be okay with that far of a trip. And she won’t have to worry about Ben getting into trouble with fireworks and stuff.”

“Yeah, I’ll ask. Liz is gonna kill me, though.”

“Oh, she jealous?”

“Yup. Totally dogged me yesterday.”

“Uh oh…don’t talk to her then. She’ll bite you.”

“That’s what I hear. Didn’t think she had it in her.”

“Oh, she’s a sweetie ‘til you piss her off. Then…well, don’t take bare flesh anywhere near her or it’ll be in pain before you know it.”

“Nice.”

“Okay…I think…” taking a quick look around her room and a peek into her bathroom, she shut and zipped the suitcase. “…that about does it. Sometimes getting ready to go is more work than it’s worth.”

“I hate packing.”

“I bet…you probably feel like you live out of a suitcase sometimes, huh?”

“Yeah, been weird bein’ home this long. I keep running into my cleaning lady. Haven’t seen her in like…a year.”

“She’s probably thrilled you’re hanging around. I hated when my clients were home when I cleaned.”

“You used to clean houses?” Now that’d be a cleaning lady he’d like to bump into!

“Yup…worked my way through college that way. Hated it. You rich people are pigs.”

“Money doesn’t make you a pig.”

“Ah…good point. I guess I just never had that much and if I did, I’d take better care of it. Appreciate it more.”

“Well, I’m learning that now…I’m lucky to have what I do.”

“Yes, you are. You’ve worked for it, but it could be gone tomorrow.” Grunting as she pulled the suitcase off her bed, she plopped down and took its place on the edge. “So, Nick, I’m sure you didn’t come to see me naked and packing…why are you here today?”

Still contemplating her comment about losing it all, he sat for a few more moments in silence and came to only when she snapped her fingers. “Hello?”

“Oh…yeah…sorry. Little league. Can I pay for Ben, Jack and maybe Liz to sign up for the second season?”

“That’s a lot of practices for them to keep straight…they want to do it?”

“Yeah. Ben and I went to a game yesterday. I’ve taken him to the batting cages before and he’s good at that anyway. I’m going to be working more the next few months and won’t be able to entertain them so much.”

“Hmm…well, if they think they can do all the practices. Their responsibility is part of the game.”

“Okay, I’ll talk to them…let you know about coming out to the condo too.”

“Yep, just call my cell.”

They sat in silence for a few moments, Nick not wanting to leave, Solana not wanting him to either, but not sure what could be done about it.

“Nick?” God, he was beautiful. The light was shining through her blinds and shimmering off his sun-bleached hair just perfectly. She couldn’t think this way.

“Yeah?” God, she was beautiful. The light was shining through her blinds and shimmering off her chocolate colored hair just perfectly. He couldn’t think this way.

“Thank you.”

“For?”

“Coming into all of our lives. I like how this is working out.”

“I’m just sorry how it happened.”

“Me too. But it did and look at the good that’s come in such a short time already.”

“Yeah, I still can’t quite believe it.”

“Me either…but you’ve made an impact, and I thank you.”

“So have they, Lani…so have they.”