His plan failed. Her head flew up, and her drink flew into the air. From that moment, everything went in slow motion.
She yelled, “Noooooo—” as her left hand swung up in the air in what Niko assumed was an attempt to catch the flyaway beverage but only served in swatting it away.
Luckily, Niko’s hand-eye coordination had been described by coaches, sports writers, physicians, and teammates as superhero level. He managed to catch the cup in his right hand as if it was a ball he cradled in his glove.
The second his fingers wrapped around the drink, time returned to normal speed. Both he and Lauren stood there, stunned silent for what felt like an eternity but in reality was probably one or two seconds, before he cut to the chase as to why he had accosted her on the wooden sidewalk.
“Looks like that ninja training paid off,” Lauren teased.
When Niko was a kid, he would always say he had ninja training whenever he did something remotely athletic. He’d forgotten that until now. Lauren Harrison hung out with three other girls who called themselves the Fabulous Four: Amanda, who now owned Mountain Ridge Adventures, which was where douchebag Brock and his family were staying, Karina, who ended up being an international pop star, and Samantha, who was a gold medalist Olympian. They were a year or so older thanNiko, and he had to admit he showed off any chance he got when he was around them.
“Sorry,” he apologized for the not-so-smooth approach. “I was driving by, and I have been wanting to stop by your office to talk to you, so I figured I’d hop out and see if you had any time free in the next couple of days.”
“I have time now.”
“Are you sure?” Niko would love to get the appointment out of the way. “I didn’t mean to hijack your morning.”
“You didn’t. I couldn’t sleep, so I figured I’d come down and do a little work.”
“Yeah, now works.”
They made the short walk down three doors to Lauren’s realty office.
“Heard AJ got engaged.”
“He did.”
“Have to say, I didn’t have that on my bingo card.”
“Me neither.”
“I always thought it would be you heading down to the altar first.”
“Really?”
He’dneverheard that before.
She nodded. “You were always the one every summer helping with the kids’ camps. Whenever there were any family nights at the church, you went and hung out with the families to play the games, in between making out with girls behind the church.”
Niko forgot about that. He loved those nights. He did hang out with families. The families had moms that didn’t drink every night to fall asleep and dads who were still alive. Siblings who fought and bickered like normal, without having trauma bonded.
“All you talked about back then was when you were a dad this and when you were a dad that.”
“Did I?” Niko was trying to remember being like that.
“You did. Karina had a big crush on you. She thought she was going to have your babies.” Lauren stopped when we got to her office and turned back to Niko. “We were twelve, not anymore.”
“Yeah, obviously.” He didn’t think Karina Black was in love with him, but it was nice to know his showing off had not gone unnoticed. Hopefully he still had it and it would work with Tiana.
They walked into Lauren’s offices, and he was trying to remember when he used to talk about being a dad. He did remember being obsessed with having a family after his dad passed away. He just wanted what he had before he was gone. He still wanted that. If he was being honest with himself, it was all he’d ever really wanted.
Niko waited at Lauren’s desk while she did a few things around the office to open up. When she sat down in front of him, she asked, “What can I do for you?”
Niko was torn between wanting to look at properties to buy to stay and live in or just to look at properties to flip. Buying was so permanent, and he just wasn’t ready to make that leap yet.
“I’m interested in doing some flipping in town. It was something AJ and I did in college.”
Lauren clicked on the keyboard as she spoke. “I’m gonna be honest, we don’t a ton of inventory. With the influx of tourists over the past five years or so, investors have come in and wiped out the inventory as far as residential properties. But if you’d consider commercial properties, I know a very motivated seller with a prime location here on Main Street.”
