Chapter 15

Dan:

Larry's big SUV was in the restaurant parking lot when we got there.

"Maddie says her dad's always a little early."

"That's a businessman's approach," I said. We got out of the truck and walked into the place. We weren't exactly on a first-name basis with the staff, but the lady at the entrance was used to seeing us.

"They got the round table in that back corner," she said. "Told me to keep an eye out for y'all."

We turned the corner to see that table and there were the three of them, Maddie waving excitedly.

Larry stood to shake my hand. "Is she as excited as this thing is?" He nodded towards a grinning Maddie.

"I do believe I've endured a squeal or two. And some amount of uncontrolled giggling."

Nikki feigned mild outrage. "Uh! I have been the epitome of self-restraint!" Her statement was emphasized, of course, by a squeal as she grabbed Maddie's hands.

I held her chair. "Sit now. Squeal later." I looked at Larry and Sherry. "Looks like some of those layers of self-restraint have peeled off."

"So other than this, how are things going for you two?" Sherry asked.

"Wonderfully, Mizz Sherry," Nikki answered. "School takes on a new meaning now."

"Yeah, Mom! We're LEGENDS!!" Maddie giggled.

"And now we have to start making decisions we could've put off for a year or so," Larry said.

"Don't be a downer, Dad," Maddie said. She grinned at Nikki. "Dad's worried about college now."

"Oh, I'm not worried, baby. "I have your college fund covered. I wonder what you're going to do, though."

"A major, honey," Sherry said softly.

"What was it you said, Nikki?" Maddie asked, "Accounting?"

"I'm thinking about it."

"You'd make a good engineer, baby. You have zero trouble with math."

"I don't worry about math, Dan. I know you're a great engineer. It's just that I think the idea of that whole 'run a business' thing is interesting." Nikki was thinking. There was brief cloud over her face, then the smile came back. "Mister Larry. You have a degree in chemistry and you're a manager now. Don't you wish you'd have taken a few more accounting and business courses?"

Larry smiled. "Oh, I see what's going on here," he said.

"Sweetie," she told me, "You're a very respected engineer, but you've also told me what you manage: Projects. Mister Larry manages a pretty good sized operation, according to his daughter, who pays attention to HER dad. And HE'S got a technical degree. You two guys are in different places, career-wise." She smiled at Larry. "So ... What's YOUR answer?"

Larry did a good job, I thought, explaining how his duties slowly changed from being a lead chemist, taking on more and more responsibilities, and how he wasn't always sure of the best ways to track numbers, plan budgets, handle a number of tasks that one didn't learn in organic chemistry.

I watched Nikki. She was hanging on his words.

Sherry dove into the conversation. "Nikki, when they put him in that manager's slot, he couldn't sleep for a week, worrying. But there are a couple of people at his office who help him make the right decisions. One of them's been in the business for forty years. The other one has a business degree. Like YOU'RE talking about."

"I think I'd like to be somebody who learns a business and who makes things run. You know, keeps the billing going, manages the data, makes sure the records are straight."

"You don't have to decide right now, you know, " I said. "You don't even have to decide in your first year of college. Just take the entry-level courses and prerequisites and then hone in on a major."

Larry reinforced my thoughts. "Nikki, just a couple of weeks ago, you were still looking at two more years of high school. Now you're not, but that's doesn't mean you have to get in a hurry over college."

Maddie smiled. "We have plenty to talk about, don't we, Nikki?"

"I know," Nikki said. "But this is the most important decision I ever made, except for deciding to marry Dan." She smiled. "I hope it turns out as good."

"You two have a bright future," Sherry said.

"I do now. A year ago, things were much different." Nikki patted my arm. "Every now and then I think about it. But all this talk about futures and majors, it's kind of scary."

Maddie said, "We don't have to make a decision right now."

We finished out the meal with pleasant conversation about a variety of subjects and then parted ways.

Driving along, Cajun cutie plastered tight against my side, a good meal under my belt, an evening's happy conversation behind me, life was good.

"How did YOU figure out what you were going to college for?"

"Dad. I thought I'd follow Dad into the refinery. He told me that he was glad he'd had the job, but that if I wanted to get ahead, I needed to get a degree. And he knew engineers."

She thought for a moment. "You had that advantage. If I followed Mom's path, I'd be working in a nightclub."

"I'd hate to think of you as a pole dancer," I said.

"Or barmaid or whatever. But Grandma was a retired teacher. I thought about that some. But it just doesn't do much for me."

"You do pretty good with your study group." I thought about the interactions I'd overheard with Nikki and Maddie with their bunch of friends.

She nestled against me. "I know, but baby, that's people who WANT to learn, for whatever reason. We laugh and cut up a bit, but we all WANT to learn. In the classes at school, there's a few like that, and a bunch who basically don't care, and another few who don't want to be there and are disruptive. I don't think I have the personality for that bunch."

"I can understand that," I said.

"But I'm interested in what you do, too, babe," she said. "I dunno..."

"You're fifteen, little one," I said. "I know people who NEVER get a handle on what they want to do and they're in their forties. You have plenty of time."

"But what if I get started with something in college and change my mind?"

"Then you take off in a different direction, baby. It happens. You're fortunate. We have plenty of savings so you can change your mind."

"It's kinda scary, Dan."

"As scary as a house falling down around you?"

"No. but a different kind of scary. What if I don't find my niche?"

"Your niche is being Nikki, a delightful, beautiful, intelligent person of pleasant disposition. You make me very happy just being that."

"But what about making a living?"

"Dear, dear little one," I said. "I didn't marry you because I wanted you to go out and make a living."

"I want to contribute, Dan," she said.

"So find something you like to do, and go after it. I make plenty enough money for us to be comfortable, so you can do what you WANT to do, not what you think you have to do so we can make ends meet."

"That's nice, baby, but I don't want to be a leech..."

"Sweetie, you're nowhere near being a leech. You're my wife. It's OUR house. Our money. Our lives intertwine together."

"But you have to work..."

"And I love what I do. It's not like I'm descending into the sewers every day, hoping one day to get some relief." I twisted and kissed the head that was on my shoulder. "Before you, I liked my job. I didn't dread going to work. I enjoyed it. And now, I still enjoy the work, but I know that when I get home every day, I have something that I enjoy even more."

The words I spoke got me a purr in answer. "I married you because I love you, Daniel," she said. Her use of my full name was her way of emphasizing a point. "But I expect to do my part when I finish school."

"Is this an argument, kitten?" I asked.

"I don't call it an argument. I'm just telling you that..."

"That we love each other and our biggest problem is doing too much for one another?"

Giggle. "Yeah. I guess. Horrible, ain't it?"

I stroked that sleek brown hair. "Truly horrible. Taught me never to walk near a pile of rubble again."

"That's good, buddy," she giggled. "Every time you do that, you drag out some girl an' marry 'er. You're up to your full allotment of wives."

"If I had any more wife than this, it'd kill me," I said. This last comment was made as we drove within eyesight of OUR house. Without the noise and light from the building that WAS next door, our view of the night sky was magnificent. We took time to view the bands of light above us, and we took time to kiss in the cooling autumn air before going inside, being met at the door by the watchcat.

Inside, Nikki attended to the prescribed regimen of petting the cat as we sat in my recliner, me, then Nikki in my lap, and then Tommi the cat on hers.

"What a wonderful little family we are, baby," she said.

"I dunno," I said. "Cat likes you better." His purrs under her hand were audible, like an old refrigerator at the end of its days. I briefly pondered evenings when I'd sat in this chair with cat, without interposing cutie, when I didn't ever imagine that I would end up with a life like this.

Nikki is far superior to a cat when it comes to reacting to petting. I caressed her face at my chest, then I allowed my fingers to touch her neck underneath the little flip of that thick brown hair. Her body gave a little quiver in response.

"That always feels soooo good," she said. "Feels like love."

"Because I love you, princess," I said.

Her face turned up towards me. "Why don't you love me in the shower, then, guy?"

"You'll piss off the cat."

"Me an' Tommi understand each other," she said. "He'll get some extra treats." When she shifted to sit up, Tommi leapt off her lap. He knows.

Nikki didn't get two steps before I wrapped her in my arms from behind and kissed the top of her head. She squealed happily and backed into me, butt wiggling, producing an immediate reaction in my pants. Giggle. "Wouldn't this be more fun without clothes?" she purred.

"Sometimes I can't wait," I said.

"Me neither. But naked! Come on!" She led me to the bathroom. She was right. It WAS more fun. Forty minutes later we were in bed, still naked, laughing, sighing, giggling, and finally she was in my arms quivering through her second orgasm. The final act of consciousness was to turn out the bedside lamp and slide into each other's arms.

In the dark, I felt the bed jump slightly and I knew that the cat had decided that it was safe for him to join the warm spot. His normal position was now up next to Nikki.

Wednesday morning was back to work. It was routine for me, at least the idea of getting up and going to work every day was routine. What I did from day to day was varied, sometimes terrifically aggravating, sometimes challenging, sometimes rewarding, and often a combination of the three.

I walked into the office with a dozen donuts and a gallon of milk in hand. Becky stuck her head out of her door when she heard me come in. "Donuts? Milk? Are we celebrating something?"

Steve popped out of his office, following me to the kitchenette. "You're smiling, and it's Wednesday and you bought donuts. What's up?"

We were joined by Becky and a couple of the technicians.

"I got tired of you guys talking about me marrying a high school sophomore, so I bought donuts to celebrate her NEW status as a high school SENIOR."

"Dude," Kevin said, affecting the speech of a slacker, "She's still FIFTEEN..."

"Yeah, but by the end of the school year, she'll be a high school graduate. College in the fall, if she'll let us get past summer semester." I recounted the story, including the conversation from dinner the night before.

Becky was amused. "She's really thinking about accounting and business?"

"She's talking about it. But seriously, she's fifteen. She's got a lot of time to sort that out."

"I've seen 'er looking over YOUR shoulder, Dan," Kevin said. "She might make a good engineer." He snorted, "Well, if there IS such a thing..."

"There goes your 'plays well with others' rating on your next evaluation," Steve laughed.

"Yeah, but I make up for it with my mad technical skills," Kevin countered.

After work, I went home to Nikki.

"Study group's bringing pizza, baby," she said. "Sort of a celebration for me and Maddie and Kellen."

"Kellen got in on it, too?"

Nikki tittered. "Oh yeah. And she put on this big pouty thing about how if they'd done her last year, she'd already be in college."

"She's still beating the system by a year," I said.

As much as I despised fast food factory pizza, I enjoyed the bunch that got together with Nikki for study. Tonight, thought, was a party as much as a study session, and I fielded a lot of questions about college.

"You have to remember," I said, "my college experience is twenty years out of date."

"So's Dad's," Kellen said. "And Mom turns colors when I start pushin' 'im for questions and answers."

"I have no doubt that a lot of peoples' college experiences might include things they'd rather not relate to their kids," I said.

"Cool," said Slade. "Mister Dan, isn't that part of growing up?"

"Uh, yeah ... It can be. It can also be some things you spend the rest of your life living down, too."

Holly's bright brown eyes twinkled. "Uh, Mister Dan," she said softly, "do YOU have some of that?"

"Oh, no, Miss Holly," I answered. "I was hopelessly socially inept and nerdy, and that was before there ever WERE nerds. Even an ROTC uniform didn't change that."

Slade laughed. "Holly, he's hiding something. We'll ask Nikki when he's not around. She'll fill us in."

"Nuh-uh," Nikki said. "Me an' Dan have our secrets."

"You sound like my big brother and his wife," Slade said.

We did actually, well, THEY actually did some studying. I left them to their books and went into my office to look at some email. I thought I detected footsteps. I turned and there was Holly.

"Hi, Mister Dan," she said softly.

"Oh, hi, Holly," I said. "Got something you need help with?"

"Kinda," she said. Her hand softly landed on my shoulder.

I turned to face her, letting her hand fall away. I looked into her eyes. I didn't see a "Help me with quadratic equations" look.