“No, not so much.” Nikki smiled up at him as he set her on her feet. Glancing over her shoulder, she told Mads, “Nobody likes to travel on the holiday. Especially when they’re already in the exact place they want to be.”
Mads clapped a bit more, bouncing on the balls of her feet. Her eyes watered. “I’m so glad you’re here,” she told Nikki. Then she pointed to her face and excitedly added, “You did see my eyebrows, right?”
They were stamped with rainbows.
Nikki’s arms were still around Damen and neither one of them were giving up their hold on the other, but Nikki remained focused on his niece.
“You did them perfectly,” she said. “You practiced.”
“All morning.” She sighed with dramatic exasperation. “I wanted them to be just right.”
“You nailed it,” Nikki assured her.
“Awesome! So,” Mads rushed on, “you’re here for lunch. And that means you’re also here for cake! We just finished baking one. Now, we need to decorate it. You can help.”
“Let me guess,” Nikki ventured. “With unicorns and rainbows?”
“No, silly.” Mads laughed. “It’s a Christmas cake. We’re decorating it with snowmen and presents and trees. We just need a few more minutes for it to cool. Then come into the kitchen to help us. Plllleeeaaasssseeee?”
Tears filled her eyes as Nikki realized this really and truly was where she wanted to be today. So she nodded and Mads skipped off.
Shifting her gaze back to Damen, she asked, “How’d I get the cake decorations wrong?”
He grinned. Slowly. Sexily.
Almost making her forget her query.
He said, “She’s nine. There is absolutely no predictability involved here.”
“Excellent point.”
Finally, he released her. But his gaze remained locked with hers as he quietly said, “Tell me exactly why you came back.”
“It’s really very simple. I just had to allow my psyche to latch onto it all, let all the pieces fall into place. Most definitely, I want to continue assisting people in traumatic situations. But it occurred to me that, within this house, there are three people whose lives were shattered. Three people who tragically lost two special someones who meant so much to them. Just recently. And I didn’t want to walk away from that, Damen.”
“It’s not your responsibility, Nik,” he asserted.
“Maybe it’s more of… An opportunity. We all have something from which we need to heal.”
“Strength in numbers, hmm?”
“It’s a very sensible theory. Also…” She whisked her fingers along his temple and into his hair. “I couldn’t go off to do my work without you. I don’t want to go anywhere without you.”
His eyes clouded. “I can’t always be available, Nik.”
“I know. That’s okay. I have a huge network, people who can appear anywhere at anytime in my stead. And there’s something to be said for learning about your mental health, Damen, as well as the operations of the med facility on the ops campus. The more immersed I am there, if viable, the more I’ll learn about what you do, what you go through—and how I can effectively counsel you and your agents.”
“You want to join my team?”
“I still have my own team,” she reminded him. “But, yes. I happen to have mad skills, myself,” she teasingly said. Though more seriously added, “I want to utilize them not only to the best of my ability, but also to the benefit of anyone who needs them.”
“You are truly an amazing woman, Dr. Nikki Kane.”
The tears crested her eyes and tumbled down her cheeks.
Damen said, “We could be extremely good together as our own team, too.”
He removed the ring from the black velvet folds and slid it on his finger. The all-important one.