WARNINGS: So much cuteness!
NOTES: Takes place before Lost That Loving Feeling, probably not to long after Nick and Juliette moved in together.
"You've got a letter from the Beaverton School District," Juliette said, waving the envelope at Nick who ignored it in favor of digging the ice cream and frozen pizza out of the shopping bags.
"Probably another fundraiser," Nick said.
"You want me to open it?"
"Sure," Nick said, head-deep in the freezer.
Juliette rolled her eyes and worked open the flap, skimming the letter inside. In the months they'd been living together, she'd learned that if Nick didn't put a lock on it, he had no expectation of privacy, and the only thing he locked up was his gun. "Oh, hey, your high school reunion is coming up."
Balancing a cantaloupe in one hand, he made a face. "Shred."
"Come on it could be fun."
"Doubtful."
Skimming through the rest of the mail, she abandoned it on the table to help him finish unloading the groceries. "You really don't want to go?"
"Do you?"
"Meet all your old friends, hear the tales of your high school escapades…." She smiled at his grimace. "Heck yeah."
"You will be sadly disappointed in my high school escapades." He put the cantaloupe in the sink for washing. "Or lack thereof."
"You didn't get into trouble," Juliette said. "Not once. I don't believe it."
He gave her a mischievous look that said, yeah, there most certainly had been escapades; he'd just never gotten caught. "We moved here about a week before school started so I didn't know anyone. I tested into senior classes so I was younger than any of them anyway. I didn't make that many friends before I graduated." He shrugged. "Anyone I want to keep in touch with I keep in touch with. The rest…not so much."
"Just how early did you graduate?"
"Not that much. I turned seventeen the week of graduation."
She regarded him with narrowed eyes. "You told me your Aunt Marie was traveling most of your senior year." Pulling two boxes of baking soda out of the last bag, she ripped both of them open. They'd done a complete clean out and scrub down when they moved it, but the fridge was starting to smell funny again. Hopefully baking soda would cure it and they wouldn't end up having to call a repair man. Might be a blocked drain. She thought that, between the two of them, she thought they could handle a blocked drain.
"Ummm, yeah," Nick said. "She had a job that took her out of state a lot."
"As a librarian?"
Nick nodded. "She specializes in old books. Preservation, collectibles, that sort of thing."
"And she left you at home alone when you were sixteen?" Given what Nick had shared about his aunt, she wasn't at all surprised by that. She would never say that out loud of course. Nick would be the first to admit his Aunt hadn't been the perfect homemaker, but he was fiercely protective of her efforts.
"I was a very mature sixteen," Nick informed her loftily.
Juliette moved close to him, resting her arms across his shoulders. "I'm sure you were, but we're talking mental maturity here."
"Wow. That was both an insult and a compliment at the same time." He rested his hands on her hips, tugging her closer. "I'm impressed."
"Oh, honey, I've got depths you haven't even seen yet."
"That I don't doubt."
"And…" She tangled her fingers in the thick hair at the nape of his neck. "If you help me with dinner we might just explore some of those hidden depths later."
"What do you need me to do?" he asked immediately.
"For now, cut up the cantaloupe for the fruit salad."
"I can cut up cantaloupe," Nick promised eagerly." I can dice, slice, cube, or chop the cantaloupe."
"You have no idea how much that turns me on," she said teasingly.
"If you like that, you should see me with a can opener." He smiled, bright and happy, and guilt twisted Juliette's insides to know that someday she was going to have to tell him the truth and give him up.
"What?" he asked, smile fading as he scanned her face.
"Nothing," she lied. "I was just thinking about how much I love you."
The smile came back full force. "How much is that?"
"Hmmm…." She pretended to think it over. "A whole bunch."
"A whole bunch. That sounds like a lot." He dropped a kiss on her lips. "I love you too. A whole bunch." Another kiss that he would have cheerfully turned into more.
"Uh uh, mister. You have a cantaloupe to cube, remember?
"Ma'am, yes, ma'am." He threw out a sloppy salute and turned to pull the cutting board out of the drawer. "Tell you what, when your high school reunion comes around again you can dress me up and show me off to your friends."
"I'm going to hold you to that," she promised and stepped up to kiss him on the cheek, resting her chin on his shoulder. She wouldn't have him forever but she had him now and she was going to make the most of it.
The End