Chapter 3
"No, what I meant was I will kick Nicky's ass if you want me too." Catherine said with a smirk.
Jackie burst out laughing.
"Thanks Catherine, I needed that." She said after she had finally quit laughing.
"No problem." Catherine said with a grin.
"But shouldn't you take Nick's side? I mean you are his coworker and all." Jackie said.
"Hell no, us women have to stick together."
Jackie laughed again. "Very true." She said with a smile.
"I'm going to go order a coffee, I'll be back in a minute." Catherine said as she stood up.
After she had gotten her drink she came back to Jackie's table.
"Jackie I'm sorry but I better get going, I have to work tonight and I still have a couple of things to do before that." Catherine said with an apologetic look on her face.
"I hate to ask but could you give me a ride home?" Jackie asked.
"Of course."
"Thanks, I'm sorry you have to do that."
"It's no problem, it's just a couple blocks, and I have to drive by your house anyways." Catherine assured her.
Jackie grabbed her purse, folder, and her coffee and then the two women were out the door.
"Thanks again for giving me a ride." Jackie said as she fished her house key out of her purse after Catherine had pulled into Jackie's driveway.
"No problem, I'll see you later." Catherine said as Jackie got out of her car.
"Bye Cath." Jackie said.
"Bye Jackie, and don't forget about option B." Catherine said with a grin.
"I won't." Jackie said with a laugh and then she turned and walked up to her front door.
After she had gotten it unlocked she turned and gave Catherine one last wave, as Cath sat in her car watching her to make sure she got in safely. When Jackie walked in the door Nick was sitting on the couch.
"How'd you get home?" he asked.
"Catherine gave me a ride." Jackie said flatly.
"You called Catherine instead of calling me?" Nick asked sounding more hurt than angry.
"No I didn't call her, she just happened to be in the coffee shop so I asked her if she would give me a ride home." Jackie said.
She then started to walk out of the living room.
Nick sighed "Jackie wait." He said.
Jackie turned back around and looked at him.
"What?" she asked not really wanting to talk to Nick right now.
"Come here a minute." Nick said as he patted the seat next to him, indicating that he wanted her to come and sit down.
She sighed but went and sat down.
"Listen Jackie, I'm sorry for what I said, you were right, I had absolutely no right to call you a workaholic. It's just that I was really looking forward to this evening, but that is no excuse and I truly am sorry."
She gave him a slight smile.
"I appreciate that, and I accept your apology, and I'm sorry too." She said.
"Sorry for what? You didn't do anything." Nick said.
"I'm sorry for the hurtful things I said, and for ruining our evening."
"That's alright, you were just justifiably upset." He said as he wrapped his arm around her.
She sighed "Look Nicky, in a marriage the kids come first, then the couple's relationship, and then their jobs, but our jobs are so demanding that they often come before our relationship, not intentionally but it happens, we've got to change that. I'm willing to work really hard at putting us at number two and our jobs at number three if you are."
"I'm more than willing." He said.
"Good." She said with a smile.
He smiled back and grabbed her hand. "So we're ok?" he asked.
"Yeah, we're ok." She answered.
She sat there with him for a couple more minutes and then she got up off the couch.
"Where are you going?" he asked.
"Upstairs, I have to get these shoes off, they're killing me, and while I'm at it I might as well take this dress off." She said.
He nodded.
She was on the second step before she turned back around to face Nick.
"Hey Nicky, I might need some help getting this dress off." She said with a sexy tone in her voice and a seductive smile on her face.
Nick got up off the couch so fast he nearly fell over.
Before either of them knew it, her black dress was on the floor, along with every other item of clothing she had been wearing, Nick's clothes were in a heap right next to hers. He picked her up and tossed her lightly on the bed and then began to devour her lips.
"Oh God." She moaned softly as his lips moved to her neck.
"Oh you like that do you?" he asked with a Texas sized smile on his face.
"No, I mean yes, but that's not why I said it."
"Then what is it?" he asked as he stopped kissing her.
"We forgot to pick up the kids from my parents house." She said.
"Oops." He said quietly as he realized she was right.
"Oh my God we are horrible parents." Jackie said as she scrambled out of bed and grabbed a pair of jeans out of the closet.
"No we're not." He assured her as he too hurriedly got dressed.
"Nick, we forgot our own children, I'm pretty sure that's the definition of horrible parents." She said as she put on a pair of tennis shoes.
Nick just smiled as he slipped on a t-shirt.
Pretty soon they were out the door. When they arrived at her parent's house she knocked on the door. Her mom answered.
"Hi, how was your evening?" she asked.
"It was nice." Jackie answered.
"That's good." Her mom said and then she looked at her daughter and son in law's clothing.
"What?" Jackie asked as she noticed the look on her mom's face.
"Oh nothing, it's just that you told me you were excited about getting all dressed up for dinner at a fancy restaurant so I'm a little surprised by your outfits. What happened, did you change your minds and just go somewhere casual?" she asked as she looked at Jackie.
"No we didn't change our minds, we did get dressed up and go to a nice restaurant but my high heels made my feet hurt so we went home and changed our clothes before we came and got the kids, that's why we are a little late. Sorry about that by the way, I was going to call but it was late and I know dad works in the morning so I didn't want to wake him." Jackie said.
"Oh, don't worry about it, the kids have been asleep for quite a while now anyways, and I'm actually glad you didn't call because you probably would have woke your dad."
"Thanks." Jackie said.
She felt bad about lying to her mother but she didn't want her mother to know the real reason she and Nick were late picking up the kids, that would be really embarrassing. Jackie looked at Nick and gave him a slight smile, she noticed his face was just a little bit red but he smiled back.
"The kiddos are upstairs." Her mom said, unaware of the smile shared between the couple.
Jasmine and Houston spent so much time at her parents' house that they had their own bedrooms there. Nick and Jackie went upstairs.
"You get the baby, I'll get Jasmine." Nick said in the upstairs hallway.
She nodded and went into Houston's room. She picked the baby up and smiled at him because he just continued to saw logs, completely unaware of what was happening.
Jasmine however did wake up, at least partially.
"Hi dada." She said sleepily with a cute little smile on her face as one of her eyes opened when Nick picked her up.
"Hi angel." Nick whispered with a smile of his own.
Jasmine immediately fell back asleep with her head resting on Nick's shoulder. He carried her downstairs, Jackie was already down there with the baby waiting for him. Jackie grabbed the baby's diaper bag and then turned to her mother.
"Thanks again mom." She whispered and then the happy family headed home.
Once they had gotten home and they had put the kids to bed Nick and Jackie got ready for bed themselves.
"Hey, what do you say we finish what we started earlier?" he asked with a grin as he leaned over and gave her a kiss.
"Rain check?" she asked.
He stuck out his bottom lip in a pouting motion.
"I'm tired." She said with a little smile as she stared at his lip.
"Alright." He said giving up.
She smiled and then she laid her head on his arm.
"You know what Jackie. We should fight more often." He said with a grin.
"Why?" she asked him thinking he was completely crazy.
His grin got bigger "Because what people say about make up sex is true, it's pretty damn good, at least it would have been had we been able to finish." He said.
"Oh for Pete sake." She said with a shake of her head and a little smile as she slapped his side.
He laughed.
"Goodnight hon." He said as he leaned over and gave her a loving peck on the check.
"Goodnight Nicky." She said before falling asleep in his arms.
The End! Thanks for reading, and remember I love reviews!