“Found her babe. Nikko walked her to the restroom.” Jay winked at Nikko who smiled and nodded his appreciation. Nikko stayed long enough to make polite small talk with Ronnie’s suspicious mother, and soon had her laughing and blushing as he pronounced her too beautiful and young to have a twenty-one year old daughter.
Ronnie took a sip of the water Jay thrust into her hand, and watched as Nikko worked her mom over. Damn, he was good. She couldn’t help but smile though, when he grabbed her mother and pulled her onto the dance floor. Yes, the man was better than good.
When he returned minutes later, he hastily made his goodbyes to Jay and Louisa, saying he wanted to check in on his brothers and aunt; he kissed Ronnie on the cheek, and whispered a promise to return for another dance later. Yes, why not, she thought, the butterflies in her stomach swarming again at his closeness. You only live once.
***
One hour later that dance never happened. The reception winding down, Ronnie began her search for Nikko. She had seen neither hide nor hair of him since he left. About half of the guests had said their goodbyes and Monica and Victor were about to announce their departure for their honeymoon in Cancun.
Even Jay and Louisa were making preparations to leave, and she told them that Nikko had promised to give her a ride home. She’d braved her mom’s cool look, and now she couldn’t even find him. Where the heck was he? She wanted to finish what they started. She thought he did too.
Ronnie searched high and low. He wasn’t in the reception. She signaled to her mom to go ahead and leave, that she would be fine, then ducked outside after she saw Lou nod her understanding.
She began to make her way around the tent. There were people outside, but not one of them was Nikko. She went to the restrooms, and he wasn’t there either. She began the trek back to the tent, disappointed that her summer fling apparently was not to be. Even though the summer had just begun, she had been excited by the possibility of starting something new. Nikko had not taken the hint apparently. Resigned that tonight would not be the night, she began to walk back to the reception, in the hopes that her mother had not already left. She wasn’t too concerned though. Many of the guests were friends of her mom and would be willing to give her a ride home. Maybe she could get his number from Victor when he and Monica returned from their honeymoon in a week, she thought glumly.
Just a few feet from the tent’s entrance, she heard something. Nikko’s laugh; she stopped short. Her heart leapt. The parking lot! She turned in that direction and saw his head just over the top of a black SUV. Yes! Score! Her plans were not ruined after all. She quickened her pace. His head disappeared from sight, but she could still hear him.
“Really?” His deep, sexy laugh floated across the lot. Her steps faltered when she heard a woman’s voice.
“Yes.” In Veronica’s mind, that sound came out like a seductive purr.
Her pace remained slow, but she walked softly not wanting the sound of her heels on the pavement to give her away. She wanted to surprise the couple. Surely, she thought, he wouldn’t. An hour later? She took those last few steps around the corner of the vehicle. Then she knew. He would!
All was silent for a moment and then the blood rushed into her ears like a tsunami. She lost it.
“You ass!” Ronnie hissed at Nikko and the scene she stormed upon.
Nikko’s blue eyes widened in surprise and shock as Ronnie began to turn on her heel. He was at a momentary loss, but recovered quickly. “Wait!” Nikko tried to explain as he pushed the other woman’s hand off of the fastening of his slacks again, but Ronnie had already fled. The red head, Nancy, was still trying to clutch his waist band with her greedy hands. She pulled him back to her with a strength he didn’t know a woman could possess all the while laughing. By the time he wrestled Nancy’s fingers off of him and freed himself from the drunken woman’s clutches, it was too late. He wanted to give chase to the beautiful bounty he truly desired, but Ronnie wasn’t anywhere to be seen.
Minutes later Ronnie saw him still searching for her, and fumed as she sat in the back of Francine and Tom’s car. She was lucky she had seen them just pulling out. She bummed a ride home from them since her mom had already left. Nikko looked upset as his eyes scanned the parking lot, and she sunk lower into her seat to avoid him seeing her. Great, just ab-so-lute-ly great, Ronnie thought. That image of him and the red head with her raspy laugh would plague her all summer long! Even though it seemed he had left the willowy vixen to come in search of her, she was disappointed. Her earlier judgment of him had been correct all along. Nikko Marino was a dirty dog, slime-ball Casanova who chased anything with tits and a skirt. Although she wanted a summer fling, wanted to experience a bit more than her limited world, she didn’t want to be just another notch on his bed post. Good riddance, she thought as the car slipped out of the parking lot along Pier Sixty. As mad as she was at herself for even considering him a possibility in the first place, albeit briefly, she couldn’t help but turn and gaze one more time at the fine specimen of a man that was Nikko Marino.