Page 22 of Nixon’s Promise

“We’ll be back.”

Nixon’s leg went up and over the seat. As soon as he’d settled in, Zack jumped on the back, leaving plenty of space between the two of them, and leaned back holding onto the metal bars behind him.

Mandy and I were still standing in the yard watching them as they took off like a shot toward the woods when she turned to me.

“Your boyfriend’s a dick.”

My annoyance spiked. “Watch it, Mandy. First, Nixon is not my boyfriend. And he’s never been anything but nice to all of us.”

“Um…uh. He kisses your ass and gives Zack a dirt bike.”

“What’s your problem?” I asked, ignoring her nasty comment.

“I don’t have a problem. I just want to be left alone.”

“That’s not how a family works.”

“I don’t have a family. Not anymore.”

With that she dashed into the house, leaving me standing there with my heart in pieces.

10

Nixon was coming down the stairs when there was a knock at the door. It was late, he hadn’t even come into the house until after dark. Old man Adams had come over to talk about renting the extra acreage Nix’d opened up in the pasture.

Adams knew he was getting one hell of a deal renting the land under market value and had insisted on thanking Nix over and over about his generosity. The older man had been a good friend of Wayne’s and he was respectful. He was under the school of thought that you left what you borrowed in better condition than you’d received it. Nixon liked that about the man, and his fields had never looked smoother.

Fresh out of the shower, hair still damp, and with only a pair of mesh athletic shorts on, he answered the door. Surprised but not unwelcomed, he found McKenna standing on his porch. He pushed open the storm door, which she caught. Nix stepped out of the way, wordlessly inviting her in.

“Sorry to bother you.”

“No bother. Come in.”

Nix continued to walk in the direction of his kitchen, not waiting to see if she followed. The old farmhouse was big, it also hadn’t been renovated or kept up to date. Yet another task on his ever-growing list of shit he had to repair or replace.

The downstairs was sparse. He’d only purchased a few things since he’d been home; a new TV, a couch, a coffee table, and a bed. Everything had been donated after his father’s death. Nixon didn’t even have a dresser and he ate mostly standing at the kitchen counter or with his ass planted on the couch in front of the TV. Not that he watched much, it only came on when there was a game on or in the rare case he wanted to catch the news. He much preferred to read.

“Wow. This is…”

“Bare?” Nix helpfully added.

“Yeah, I guess you could say that.”

“I was in the Navy when my dad died. I came home on leave, but only had thirty days to get everything in order. Making sure the land was taken care of was a bigger concern than the house. That and my dad had left very specific instructions on what to do with his stuff.”

McKenna looked around the near-empty downstairs and he’d guessed she was thinking about her own parents. He knew about her father and stepmother, but Zack hadn’t told him where her real mother was.

“That had to have made things a little easier. Not that losing a parent is ever easy. My dad and Carla only left instructions for Mandy and Zack, and the finances. But we still had a house full of stuff to contend with. And not knowing what they’d want done with it was, well, hard. I’m sorry about your dad, by the way.”

Nixon continued to study McKenna. She was in a pair of loose-fitting drawstring pants, flip-flops on her feet, and a tight white t-shirt with a big red M on the front with a terrapin holding a basketball under the letter. Nix was finding she looked hot no matter what she was wearing.

“Terps fan?”

“Oh. Yeah. I went to UMUC,” she told him.

Zack had left that out, as well. Nix hadn’t known why McKenna had moved from Los Angeles to Maryland.

“Big change, leaving California for Maryland.”