First Degree Burns Read online

  “What were you doing in the kitchen?” Dane asked to draw Nicole’s attention away from the picture. She knew Nicole wasn’t cooking for the simple fact that she didn’t smell food in the air and Haydn hadn’t charged into the kitchen to beg for anything, as he often did. And, who could say no to those begging eyes?

  “Just talking to my dad,” Nicole replied.

  “How is Raymond? Did you tell him the boys still want to know when he’s going to take them to another baseball game?”

  Raymond, along with Dane and Nicole, had taken Luke and Thomas to their first baseball game, not too long ago. Dane had been bored out of her mind, as she always was with Nicole’s favorite sport. Everyone else had an amazing time, which was all Dane cared about. She’d put up with baseball forever if it kept Nicole and the boys happy.

  “I told him and he’s looking into when we can go again. That’s not why I called him, though.”

  Dane drew her eyebrows in close, feeling her forehead wrinkle. “Then why’d you call him?” She knew it was normal for people to call their parents, even though she never did and wouldn’t start any time soon, but Nicole would see her father tomorrow. It seemed like a waste.

  “Well, I wanted to run an idea by him. What do you think about camping?”

  Dane shrugged. “You know I’ve never been. As I’ve said before, I’ve slept outside on the ground, so it can’t be that bad. You want to go camping?”

  A soft smile settled on Nicole’s lovely face, as she hit a particular sore spot on Dane’s knee. Dane winced a bit, but didn’t move. Nicole glanced up, checking on her. “It’s not just regular camping. I want to do what was once a family tradition. We used to go camping every year at the same place, with my uncle and some of my cousins on my dad’s side. I want to do it again, and I want you to be a part of it.” Nicole looked up again, gauging her reaction.

  Dane ran her hand through her hair, which earned her an admonishing look. Nerves jumped in her forearm and she dropped her hand. “You want my first camping trip to be with your family? Are we sure that’s wise?” She squinted as she studied Nicole, searching for any small sign of discomfort. All she got were bright eyes and a smile.

  “It’ll be fun to camp with a group. It’s always great. We do all sorts of fun stuff. I miss it and I want to share it with you. It’s special to me.”

  Those words could cause Dane to walk off a bridge with Nicole, but thankfully it wasn’t that serious. She wanted to go camping, if only to see what it was like. She wanted to see what Nicole liked about it, too. She was certain she’d enjoy it since she had come to love the outdoors.

  “How long of a trip?” Dane asked.

  “Probably three to four days. Nothing too long. It’ll be fun, baby,” Nicole promised.

  “I think so. Your cousins won’t mind a greenhorn tagging along?”

  “They’ll mind in a way that they’ll probably tease us a little. Well, tease us a lot, but it’ll be fine. They’re all very cool. And you’ll get to meet the people I hung out with as a child, including my ‘little sister.’” Nicole snickered a bit.

  Dane knitted her eyebrows together again and felt her brow furrow. “Little sister? I thought you were an only child.”

  Nicole laughed. “I am. She’s really my younger cousin, Lillian. I’ve spoken to her on the phone a few times while you were around.”

  “Yeah, but you never called her your little sister.” Dane had noticed, a long time ago, that Nicole kept in touch with much of her family, even if it was only through short phone calls every couple of months. She texted with a few of them whenever she got a spare moment, too.

  “I know, but we’re really close. That’s what I usually call her. She’s two years younger than I am. She has two older brothers, who used to get on her nerves when she was little, even though they loved to get me involved in crazy stunts and stuff. She didn’t like doing things like that. She used to shadow me whenever I was around. One day, she declared us sisters. We were Nikki and Lilly.” She smiled.

  “Lilly?” Dane echoed, shaking her head a little. She was happy to see Nicole smile, but she couldn’t imagine someone grown going by the name of Lilly.

  “She goes by Lillian now, but the family calls her Lil. I can’t wait for you to meet her. I’m sure you’ll adore her like I do.”

  Dane nodded. “If she’s anything like her ‘big sister,’ then, yeah, think I can manage adoring her.” Those words earned her another smile. “I guess I could do this. I wanna see what camping is all about and it’d be nice to meet your family. I mean, your dad is cool.”

  Honestly, Dane liked both of Nicole’s parents for the simple fact that they were great parents to Nicole. It was the icing on the cake that Raymond accepted her and liked her to a degree. He’d have conversations with her and didn’t openly sneer at her. Nicole’s mother, Kathleen, remained completely in the territory that bordered hatred, but it seemed mostly born out of the idea that Nicole could do better. Dane was sure Kathleen was correct, but she wouldn’t walk away if that better person ever showed up.

  She even liked Kathleen, despite the fact that she seemed to be prejudiced against homosexuals. She wasn’t sure where Kathleen picked up the attitude, since her parents didn’t seem to have a problem with Nicole dating a woman. Kathleen, on the other hand, seemed to think Nicole needed to be with someone better than Dane and also a male.

  “Yeah, I think he wants to show you how to camp.” There was an impish twinkle in Nicole’s emerald eyes. Clearly, it meant something to Nicole that her father wanted to do something with her girlfriend.

  Dane chuckled. “Okay, but I want you to take care of all hands-on tutorials. We get to share a sleeping bag?” That sounded like all kinds of fun.

  Nicole gave her foot a teasing squeeze. “If you want to, but we can’t do much. My father will be in a tent nearby, after all. Not to mention my uncle and cousins, too. But, if you find you like camping, we can try it again on our own and then we can do a lot of things.”

  “Anything that lets me sleep next to you is already great in my mind.” Dane smiled. Nicole smiled back and the light in her emerald eyes called to Dane like a shining beacon. “Come here.” She opened her arms for Nicole.

  Nicole nodded and released Dane’s leg. Dane moved over a bit to give Nicole space, and Nicole settled down next to her. She put her arms around Nicole, brushing aside soft auburn hair before she placed a gentle kiss to the side of Nicole’s head. Nicole cuddled against her, draping her arm across Dane’s stomach and putting a leg over Dane’s legs. Of course, she was careful, not wanting to injure Dane. Dane patted Nicole’s leg, to let her know it was fine where it was.

  “So, why do you think Raymond wants to teach me camping? Maybe he’s excited about going out with you,” Dane said, caressing Nicole’s bicep.

  “No, he asked me if you’d ever gone camping, and then he started going down a list of all of the things we could do. They weren’t activities for me because he knows I either know how to do those things or don’t like them. Plus, he knows I wouldn’t hang around him on a family camping trip, anyway.”

  Dane blinked hard. “You don’t hang out with your dad on the camping trips?” She figured Nicole was a daddy’s girl, so she thought they’d spend a lot of time together on trips, like they did with sporting events.

  “Nope.”

  “Tell me about these family camping trips.”

  “What do you want to know?” Nicole began caressing her lover’s stomach.

  Dane couldn’t understand Nicole’s fascination with her pudgy paunch, but she was happy Nicole liked her body. She struggled to hold in a light purr, wanting to continue their conversation. “Don’t know. Anything you can think of. Everything.”

  A light laugh escaped Nicole, and her fingertips danced across Dane’s stomach. “Everything is a lot to cover, baby, but I’ll see what I can do. It’s a family tradition that started with my father’s father. He used to take his kids to the same place: my dad, my uncle, and
my two aunts. He went on a couple of trips with us, the grandkids, but he died before we really got to know him. My dad and uncle have stories, though.”

  Dane smiled upon hearing her girlfriend’s loving tone. How could this woman, who has so much love and respect for family, not have at least one child? She’d be a great mom. How could I keep her from that? How could I keep the world from having someone brought up by Nick?

  “What’s your uncle’s name?”

  “Richard. He’s the oldest and then my dad and then my Aunt Susan, and, lastly, my Aunt Stacy. My aunts don’t really go camping, anymore. I think they grew out of it. Plus, they always talk about how it’s boring to go to the same place every single year, but they never once brought up another place to go camping. Of course, we love it, so we don’t know what my aunts are complaining about.”

  “They all have children?”

  “Yes, they do. Uncle Richard has three children. Lillian is his youngest. Richie is his oldest. We all call him Junior. The middle one is Webber. We call him Spider.”

  Dane nodded. “That’s a cool name and nickname.”

  “He takes it very seriously. He used to climb everything. He collects spiders and has for almost fifteen years. He’s got so many spider tattoos it’s unbelievable.”

  Dane’s eyes went wide. “He has tattoos?” That's unexpected. Raymond is cool, but always so professional and straight-laced.

  “He probably has more tattoos than you do.” An amused smile appeared on Nicole’s face, as if she were teasing Dane. The sparkle in her eye was confirmation.

  “I’ll believe it when I see it. The brothers are older than you?”

  “Yup.” Nicole gave her a firm, slightly goofy nod. “I looked up to them. Spider’s only a year older than I am, but it seemed like so much more when we were little. Junior is three years older than I am. In my head, that made him practically an adult, but a very cool adult. He was always so amazing. Junior was my hero, and Spider was his sidekick.”

  Twisting her mouth up to the side, Dane wondered what made this guy so great that Nicole had awe in her voice even now. “What did he do?”

  A brilliant smile lit up Nicole’s face. “What couldn’t Junior do? Sports, exploring, building stuff. The best thing was that he always included me when we were around each other. I wasn’t used to that from boys at my school or in my neighborhood. Junior never in his life said I couldn’t do something because I was a girl. He got me for being too small a few times, but never for being a girl.”

  Oh, he does sound like a cool dude. I wonder what that translates to in adulthood. “He sounds like a good guy.”

  “The best.”

  “Keep telling me, please.” Dane caressed her girlfriend’s arm again.

  Nicole grinned. “Well, as I said, Junior is great. Of course, I love Lillian. She’s wonderful. I used to help her with her homework and we talked on the phone all the time through our teen years.”

  “Like now?”

  Nicole snickered. “We’re nowhere near as bad as we used to be. We’d talk on the phone for hours almost every night. Our parents were always complaining, wanting to know how the hell we could still have topics to talk about if we spoke every day, all night long. Now, we’re lucky if we talk to each other every couple of weeks.”

  Dane frowned a little. “Why? What changed?”

  Nicole shrugged. “Things change when you grow up. It’s a dull, horrible fact of life. You find yourself with less time, job worries, bills to pay, and other relationships to focus on. We catch up when we can now. Actually, one of the reasons I want to go on this camping trip is an excuse to see her. She often says she’ll come here, but something always comes up, so it’ll be nice to see her.”

  “What about your other cousins?”

  “Well, the only other one that’ll go camping with us is Beth.”

  That was a name that Dane knew. “The photographer?”

  “Yes, she’s Aunt Susan’s oldest. She’s got a baby sister who hates camping. I think she hates outside, really. All three of Aunt Stacy’s kids hate camping. They only went on the family trip once and complained the whole time they were there. I think they even left early, which we were thankful for because they were killing our vibe.”

  A small chuckle escaped Dane. “Do your aunts hate camping now?”

  “No, like I said, they grew out of it. They claimed they got bored with it. They made the trip about fifteen times, so it’s possible that it was too much of something and they grew to hate it. But I think they’re really bored with the whole idea.”

  Fifteen times had to make a lot of things seem boring, Dane figured. “And you’re not bored with it?” She watched Nicole carefully.

  A smile that showed off Nicole’s cheekbones adorned her face, like she was holding in a laugh. “No, because I haven’t gotten a chance to share it with you. It’s a magical experience. You’ll like it.”

  Dane smiled back. They sat silently for a while, before Nicole reached for the remote. The sound of the television caught the attention of their busybody puppy. Haydn charged in from the den, yapping happily. He hopped up onto the couch and tucked himself against Dane. Both ladies laughed as Haydn settled himself. Dane scratched his neck and he whined lightly while a show played and they laid around for the rest of Sunday.

  ***

  Nicole needed to see her father, but she’d wait until after work. No matter what, she always needed to keep work about work. She was beginning to understand that her need to separate business from personal came from a desire to stay sane. But, she found more and more she was learning to deal with work. She wasn’t interrupted and pestered so much, thanks to her parents not wanting her to be overwhelmed while she was worrying about her classes.

  She was still a little surprised by how accommodating her parents were about her courses. They had been against her returning to college, pursuing a master’s degree in chemistry. In fact, her mother had been insulted by the whole thing and blamed Danny for Nicole doing something rather foolish, in her opinion. But her parents made sure she had enough time and energy to handle her classes. She wondered if they’d be proud of her when she had her degree, which would probably be in another year if everything went according to plan.

  She also had to give Danny credit for her evolution at work. Danny, first and foremost, helped her relax at home. It hadn’t been a concept she’d fully grasped before Danny came into her life. Being able to go home and put her work down, to be able to forget the day and make new happy memories with a person who made her feel special and loved had been beyond her. It was one of the many things that caused her to fall in love with Danny.

  Nicole went about her day as she normally did. She took a morning phone call from Danny, who liked to check on her to make sure she wasn’t stressed out. At noon, her friends, Mina James and Clara Ramos, came to pick her up for lunch. At the end of the day, she met up with her father before he left. She was staying late because she had class in an hour.

  “Hey, Daddy, I wanted to talk to you about the camping trip,” Nicole said, as she entered Raymond’s office. Her father paused in the middle of putting papers away in his briefcase to look up at her.

  Her father smiled and straightened himself up, resting his palm on his big oak desk. “I thought you’d come by sooner, considering how much you love the annual trip.”

  Nicole laughed. “I was bouncing in my seat all day. Did you call Uncle Richard?”

  “I called Richard and he was all for the idea. The last time he went camping was with us, three years ago. He’s been dying to go out again.”

  Her mouth twitched a bit. “Wow, I didn’t think Uncle Richard would fall behind like that. He always seemed to love camping.”

  “He’s been trying to save money. He’s got those grandkids to think about. He wants to be able to afford fun things with them when they’re old enough to remember fun things. He’ll be the one that continues the camping trips with them in a few years, I’ll bet.”

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sp; Nicole nodded and thought about her cousins, Junior and Spider. They were the reasons why her uncle was now a grandfather. Junior had a son and a daughter on the way. Spider recently had a son. My cousins actually have kids. It felt like her heart sighed.

  “Hey, Daddy…”

  “Yeah?”

  “What do you think about Uncle Richard being a grandpa?”

  “I say he doesn’t have a choice in the matter thanks to his sons and their offspring.” He laughed.

  “Daddy,” Nicole said in a stern tone, crossing her arms over her chest. She wasn’t really sure what she wanted him to say. Maybe she needed something to make her feel less crazy for having kids on her mind so much lately.

  He smiled at her. “I think he’s quite happy being a grandfather. I’m sure he’d be happier if Junior was actually married and Spider was still with his young woman.”

  “You don’t even remember her name do you?” Nicole shook her head, trying her best not to appear amused.

  He had to laugh again. “I don’t. Richard refers to her as ‘the crazy one.’ As much as he acts like he wishes Spider were with her, he probably wishes Spider had a child with a more stable woman. At least Spider has custody of Spencer. Now, if only he had saved that poor boy from that name.”

  Nicole laughed. “It’s not a horrible name. Is he coming?”

  “Who, Spencer? No, Richard has made it clear. He’s not taking any of those kids into the woods until they’re at least school age, even if their fathers come with them. I think his boys are in agreement. So, you won’t get to see them on the trip.”

  She pouted. “I want to see them. The only one I’ve seen in person is Spence and he was a baby.”

  “Well, you have to work that out with your cousins.” He gave her a shrug as condolence.

  Sighing through her nose, she rubbed her forehead a little. “Junior and Spider are coming, right?”