Chapter 5

"It's gonna happen???? I can't believe! It's REALLY gonna happen! Dan!"

"Nikki, you need to be sure. I'm not the guy that thinks marriage is just a way to get a tax deduction. If you think it's forever..."

She wrapped me in her arms and kissed me. "Dan, you're mine! I will never leave you or forsake you. Forever!"

"Forever's a long time, babe," I said. "I can see it from forty-one. Can you see it from fifteen?"

She looked into my eyes. "I'm walkin' into it with you, no matter what, Dan!" she exclaimed. "You'd better get used to it."

"I love you, babe," I said, holding her.

"I love you too..." she giggled. "Let's get the kitchen straight an' get us a shower, 'kay?"

"You betcha, brown-haired girl."

We had the kitchen squared away in half an hour. And into the shower. She was not the least bit ashamed of her own nudity this time. And as I stripped, she watched.

"Danny," she said, "D'you think I'm pretty?"

"I do, Nikki. You're very pretty. And it's not the clothes you wear or make-up or anything you have to put on or add. You're just a naturally pretty girl."

"But I'm not blonde."

I laughed, "Sweetie, blondes don't have a monopoly on pretty. You have beautiful hair. It's clean and shiny and has that little curl, and I adore your bangs."

"Really?"

"Really," I said. "And besides, a guy in love gets to say that his girl is pretty. But you were pretty that first night you were here, before I found out I loved you."

She pressed her nakedness against me. "I just want to be what makes you happy, babe!" and she kissed me.

"You make me way past happy, babe," I answered.

The next two weeks were surreal. I'd never been like this when I was married before, juggling a career for me and a career for my wife, waking up and going in separate directions, coming home, it wasn't the same. Of major importance, though, was that first wife, Shelley, was NO Nikki.

Nikki and I just clicked. She had the most amazingly placid demeanor, and the more I talked with her, the more I came to realize that there was a world-class brain behind that wry smile and those blue eyes. I mean, first, she just took over the household like she'd been doing it for years. I kept a clean house, but she made it shine. Meals? Breakfast every morning, a snack in a bag for me to take off to work, and when I came in there was always something ready for me.

There was another thing. I'd come in and find the books she was reading. Yes, she did Mark Twain. And downloaded a few to my e-book reader, and I tracked titles and progress, and she was a reader. A pretty fast one.

But one of the big surprises was, "Dan, when school starts back up, you're gonna fix me up!"

"Fix you up? Are you broken?"

"Nope. Just I'm thinkin' about my grades. Uh, do YOU think I'm smart?"

"Hah! Not since you were helping me with storm damage stuff. You learn amazingly fast. That's "smart" as far as I'm concerned. So what are you asking, little doll?"

"I'm asking you to HELP me. I never worked in school. I just sit through the class. I think I can do better. I want you to help me."

"I'll help you, baby."

"Okay, then. I need to write down some stuff about math an' see if we can get up to speed from there. I'll do that tomorrow, 'kay?" Her eyes twinkled. "And when school starts back ... Your Nikki is gonna turn over a new leaf."

Nights were our time. Nikki put a whole physical dimension to my life that even my wildest fantasies never imagined. She was a temptress in teen body. Most evenings we showered together, but sometimes we didn't, and I'd get out of the shower and find her in the bed lying seductively, reading, and she'd look at me and giggle and wink, and off we'd go.

I'm trying to say that life was good.

So I was at one of the client sites mid-morning when my cellphone rang. I didn't recognize the number.

"Hello. Dan Granger. Can I help you?"

Laughter. A voice I recognized. "Dan, this is Ernie. I got some news for you."

"Oh, hi, Ernie! Figured you'd been busy. How're things going?"

"Hell, Dan! We got our butts kicked by a hurricane. But we're getting things back together. Lemme ask you up front. Are you still serious about Miss Nikki?"

"Yes I am, Ernie. Why?"

"Then you're gonna like what I have for you."

"Whatcha got?" I was excited. My heart was pounding.

"I got a judge who let me explain the situation. Now he wants to talk to Miss Nikki. And you. Separately."

"When?"

"You know, Dan, I can move this along pretty fast. Can you call Miss Nikki? I'm about twenty minutes away from ya'll's house. I can bring her into town to talk with the judge this afternoon."

"Ernie, straight up ... this isn't some way to get Nikki out of my house for good, is it?"

"Oh, no way, Dan. If I thought that, I'd tell you. This judge is straight up. He's not gonna be stupid. Just wants to hear it from her. And if you can see 'im tomorrow morning, then that's what we need."

"Okay, Ernie. I'll call her and tell her." I thought for a second. "Say! I could talk to 'im this morning myself, before or after Nikki."

"Okay. You call Nikki, and I'll call Judge Lanford, and we'll talk afterward."

As soon as I hung up on the sheriff, I was on the phone to Nikki. "Hey, sweetie," she answered.

I told her what was going on.

"Dan, I'm worried."

"Sheriff Ernie says not to worry. Just tell the judge what you told him the other night."

Small voice. "Okay. And Dan?"

"Yes, babe?"

"I love you!"

"I love you too, sweetie!" I hung up with Nikki and shoved the phone into its holster. It rang almost immediately.

"Yeah, Ernie?"

"You're set up for eleven this morning." He told me the address of the judge's office.

My next call was to the office. "Steve," I said, "I'm tying up loose ends right now. I have a domestic emergency. I may be in and out for the rest of today and tomorrow. Ledbetter has a handle on this project and he can call me if he needs me. I'll be on my phone if you need me."

"Dammit! Okay, Dan. Do what you have to do, I suppose!" Steve knew better than to think I was going to screw my clients.

"That's a good little boss," I laughed.

"Dammit, Dan! Don't rub it in!"

I worked up until a quarter to eleven and headed across town. Walked into a tastefully appointed law office, gave my name to the receptionist, and she walked back to report my arrival. A sixtyish man appeared in the door wearing shirt and tie.

"So you're Dan Granger!" Shaking my hand he said, "I'm James Lanford. Sheriff Richard told me about you. Can you join me?"

"Yessir," I said.

Laughing, he said, "Oh, don't do 'sir' with me. Ernie and I gut ducks together. I'm just James, okay? You coming in from work?" He asked. "Ernie told me you were at one of the plants."

"Yes, James. I feel under-dressed."

"Don't," he said. "Sit!" He motioned me to a chair equally as luxurious as the one behind his desk. I sat.

"So Ernie explained to me a, well, a situation."

"Yes, James. A situation I wasn't out looking for. It just happened."

"So he said." He folded his hands together. "And I had an interesting talk with a Miss Dominique Domingue."

"She's an intelligent young lady who's had a rotten life right up to the point where an apartment building fell in on her."

He looked at me. "That's what she said. And the sheriff updated me on the status of her mother, now in the custody of the State of Arkansas."

"So I've heard."

"And her mom's stepfather is out of the picture. I looked into him. Not the sort of character I'd want to turn over the custody of a fifteen year old girl to, I'm told."

"I didn't know that."

He looked at a legal pad on his desk. "Says here that he divorced Nikki's grandmother a couple of years after they married, when Nikki's mom was sixteen. In and out of jail since then."

"I didn't know that, either."

"And you, according to our sheriff, are, in his words, 'an honorable man'. He skirted the law to get some of that information, apparently."

"It's amazing the kind of help you can get with a cold coke after a hurricane," I said.

The judge chuckled. "If you'd've given 'im a cold beer, he'd have rented a chapel for you. Uh ... chapel. So let me get this straight. You've known Miss Nikki for three, three and a half weeks, and you're willing to take care of her?"

"Yes, I am, James."

"More than take care of her?"

"Uh ... yes..."

"Marry her, except that according to state law, she can't get married without parental permission until she's eighteen. Sixteen WITH parental permission."

I looked at him straight on. "Yes, James, I would like to marry her. She and I have talked about this. As I am sure you've discovered."

"Dan," he said, "She had tears in her eyes. Swears her un-dying love for you. And for some reason, I am inclined to believe her."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Most unusual young lady. I asked her how she spent her days while you were working and she gave me the names of Mozart concertos and Beethoven symphonies and Handel and Telemann and Boccherini and Twain and Heinlein. Sounds like she's quite the sponge for culture."

"Then she didn't mention being an engineering assistant?"

"No."

"The first couple of days after the storm, when I got phone and internet back, I worked from my home office. She sat there and watched, then started catching on, and talking about it, and dammit! She picks up things fast!"

"Sounds like she's picked up an electrical engineer along the way."

"Yeah. She did."

"You love her? I mean, bullshit aside, you LOVE her? Not for a housekeeper or a sex toy? Love her?"

"James, I know that some people could do that. But I couldn't. I would kill myself before I let myself add one tear to Nikki's life. She's had it hard enough already."

"Dan, she said the same thing about you. Except she said your hard life was from women. I can understand that, as many cases as come across my desk."

"Nothing else I can say then."

"Well," he smiled, "I took the liberty of having Miss Dominique Domingue affix her signature to this legal document. I will have you affix your own. And I will sign it. And Mizz Helen," He punched the intercom, "Mizz Helen will come in here with her handy dandy court seal and seal it, making it binding and legal. And I think that if you take this to the courthouse, those people will issue you and Miss Nikki a marriage license. I think you'll find that Sheriff Richard is having a hamburger with her at the diner up the street." He laughed.

Mizz Helen appeared just as he signed under my somewhat shaking signature. She stamped the papers and gave me several copies.

"Mizz Helen," he said, "Give the sheriff a call and have him bring Miss Nikki back here." He looked at me. "Oh, and call your sister at the courthouse and see if she's too busy to bring us over a marriage license. I'm finding that I feel particularly judgish today. I like helping people from time to time."

"W-what???"

"Well, Dan," he said. "If you want, and she wants..."

I stammered, "Y-you ask her..."

I sat back in my chair. "Wow!"

"So," he said, "how's work?"

We chatted for five or ten minutes when Nikki walked in wearing a blouse and skirt and pumps, an outfit she'd bought with me on our trip to Houston. Her eyes twinkled when she saw me. She stood at my side.

"Hi, Miss Nikki," said the judge.

"Hello, Mister James," she said. She looked at me, smiled, and took my hand in hers. "Since you're smiling..."

"Dan told me to ask you something," James said.

"Yessir," she said softly.

"You told me you wanted to marry him. He wants to know if today's too soon."

Squeal! I got a kiss. Ernie got a hug and a kiss on the cheek. And so did the judge. And Nikki was back at my side. "Really?"

"Yes, really."

The front door opened and closed. Helen and her sister showed up with a marriage license form. In the presence of a judge it was filled out and signed by me, by Nikki, by the judge as the official performing the marriage, and by Sheriff Ernie Richard and Miss Helen as witnesses. And holding hands in a judge's office, we exchanged vows and promised our lives to each other forever.

And in our topsy turvy day, THEN we went and bought two simple gold bands.

Leaving the jeweler with my brand new fifteen year old bride sitting in my truck beside me, I said, "Missus Granger, I need to make a phone call."

She glowed. "Wow! I get it! I'm really married to you!" She giggled. "Make your call, husband!"

I flipped the phone open and called Steve.

"Where ARE you?" he asked.

"Leaving a judge's office," I said.

"W-whaaa???"