Page 5 of Win Some Love Some
That kid stuff he was referring to had included the following:
When I was ten he gave me a kid’s bike he’d built from a discarded frame, painted pink, with a white wicker basket on the front and a bell on the handlebar.
When I was fourteen, he painted my room a hideous dark magenta, a color I believed expressed my deepest, darkest emotions.
The next year, he’d changed it back to powder blue when I was done expressing my deep, dark emotions.
There were flying lessons when I turned sixteen and insisted I was going to be a pilot. Dad had refused to let me take them and made Nick sell them for cash and put the money into my college fund.
There was a part of me that still hadn’t forgiven Dad, but my drive to be a pilot had faded over time. So maybe not a bad idea.
Last year it was a homemade cedar wood box, with my initials carved into the top and a trick lock only I could open to keep my brothers and sisters out of my stuff. Especially my closest in age sister, Charlie, who stole every article of clothing I’d owned that wasn’t locked down.
This dress, for example, had been in that chest until I put it on for the party.
I held both my hands out, palms up, and waggled my fingers. He wasn’t fooling anyone. He’d definitely gotten me a present for my eighteenth birthday, and it was going to be epic.
“Now please. Before I turn nineteen.”
“Stop fucking with her, and just give it to her.” Dad said, coming up behind me to sling his arm over my shoulder.
“Okay, fine,” Nick said, obviously disappointed his fucking around with me was cut short. “It’s out front.”
I bolted around him toward the front door. Hugging people as I walked by and accepting their birthday wishes to get to my prize. I was hopeful, but not certain, I knew what Nick had planned for me this year.
Parked out in front of our house in a place of pride, with a giant red bow on the hood, was a powder blue Mini Cooper. Soft top.
I squealed the second I saw it and started clapping my hands. It was perfect.
“Oh wait, you think that tiny blue car is yours?” Nick teased. “No way. I saved that baby for myself. Yours is that mini-van in the driveway.”
“That’s Sheriff Bobby’s mini-van,” I said, rolling my eyes.
Sheriff Bobby Tanner and his wife Mari, and a whole bunch of other people, came out to see the gift. Bobby cupped his hands over his heart. “Kills me every time someone calls me out for my mini-van.”
I booked it across our front lawn to the Mini Cooper and threw open the driver side door.
It was clearly used but restored to mint condition. Nick opened the passenger side door and squeezed his big body inside. He looked ridiculous in the compact car.
“Did you drive this here?”
“I did,” he confessed. “With my knees up around my chin.”
“It’s beautiful and amazing,” I said softly, running my hands over the steering wheel. “It’s so me.”
“It is so you. I have to confess though, this gift is not just from me. Your folks were in on it too.”
Nick gestured with his thumb back up at the house. Roy had his arm around Vanessa’s shoulder, while Vanessa was waving at me ecstatically. Her infectious joy on full display.
Tears burned in the back of my eyes as my throat swelled up. Nick hated when I cried, so I waved my hands in front of my eyes to stop it from happening.
“Oh, hey kid-” he stopped himself. “Nora. Don’t cry.”
“I can’t stop,” I whispered. “It’s all just so good. You know?” I asked him and he nodded because of course he knew.
“I’m so lucky,” I whispered, my voice cracking. “We both are.”
“We are,” he said with a nod.
