I didn’t tell Nikki I was meeting her at the airport, partly because I wanted to surprise her and partly because I wasn’t sure that I would be able to break away. Fortunately, Taylor agreed to handle the radio interview since his family flow home the day before. We were starting to take turns with publicity and business when our individual families were out on the road together. I was glad that even with all the problems we had experienced the past year that we were still able to compromise when it mattered.
I stayed in the car while the driver went into the baggage claim area with the sign.
I heard her sweet voice before I saw her, “Thank you so . . .” She told the driver as he opened the door for her. “IKE!” she slid over right next to me, as close as she could without sitting in my lap. She threaded her fingers through mine and leaned in for a long kiss.
The driver ignored us, or at least pretended to. I guessed he was used to this.
“I didn’t know you would be here! I thought I was meeting you at the venue.”
“Well, I wanted to surprise you! And I didn’t want to make a promise I couldn’t keep in case our schedule changed unexpectedly.”
“I can respect that,” she said.
“Also,” I reached into my bag, “I know we were supposed to go shopping together, but I got a little bit of a head start. I hope you don’t mind,” I pulled out a robin’s egg-blue bag.
Her eyes got wide. “Tiffany’s. Wow.”
“Consider it an early Christmas present. It’s not even close to as beautiful as you are, though,” I told her as she opened the velvet box to reveal a teardrop shaped diamond pendant on a dainty silver chain.
“It’s perfect. I love it so much,” she wrapped her arms around me. “I actually brought a dress this will be perfect with. I can’t wait to wear it.”
“I can’t wait to see it on you,” I said.
“Well, that’s funny,” she said.
“What?”
She glanced up at the driver, then leaned over a whispered right into my ear “Usually you can’t wait to get things off of me.”
I couldn’t help it, I burst out laughing.
She smiled and said “I believe that’s how our two boys happened. I suppose this means you don’t want to try for a girl?”
“Oh, we can try. How are the boys?”
“They are good. I decided I wasn’t brave enough to bring them both out by myself. I was thinking maybe we could plan a family vacation at and you could help, at least the first time we fly with them. I know that your parents brought Mac and the girls out when you were on your first tour, so I figure you know lots about traveling with kids.”
“I know some. My parents would really be the best people to talk to, though. You know we were mostly working, so I didn’t see everything they did. But I’ll invite them over before we go and see what they can tell us. Where should we go on vacation?”
“We don’t have to go far. I would love to go to a beach, though. We can book a family friendly hotel with a pool. Hopefully in a town with a children’s museum or an aquarium.”
“What about San Antonio? It isn’t on an ocean beach, but it does have the river.”
“Hmm, sounds nice, actually. Ok, I’ll do some research when you are gone and see what I can come up with. When should we go?”
“How about early December? That’s after tour, we won’t be busy with band stuff, and it will be nice to get a break between Christmas and Thanksgiving.”
“Well, it will sure . . .” She trailed off.
“Be better than last December” I finished for her. “It’s ok. I agree.”
“I just didn’t want to bring back bad memories for you.”
“Thank you for that, but I’m just trying to replace those memories with better ones. Most of the details are still a blur,” I told her, even though I still had dreams about the night they had to drain the infection. I still got phantom pain in my side sometimes, but it wasn’t so bad I couldn’t manage it.
She looked at me like she didn’t quite believe me, “You can’t lie about your dreams to the person that sleeps with you.”
“Alright, sometimes I dream about it. But I can handle it. Like I said, replacing bad memories with better ones.”
“Part of my job as your wife is to help you handle the hard stuff, but you have to let me.”
And wasn’t that exactly what I had been trying to get Zac to do, let me help him? Further proof we are more alike than either of us cares to admit. Probably because we see in each other the very things that we don’t like in ourselves. Maybe we think that fixing each other’s flaws will help us fix ourselves.
“Here we are,” our driver pulled up to the hotel.
“We aren’t going straight to the venue?” Nikki asked.
“No, we have some time. I thought you might like to freshen up after your flight. Taylor said he would make an excuse for me during the walk, and a tech can take my place during sound check. I don’t need to be at the venue for a couple of hours. And we have all day tomorrow.”
“I can’t wait! Christmas shopping in New York City! It’s too bad the Christmas decorations aren’t up yet. I’ve always wanted to see the big tree in Rockefeller Center.”
“We can always come back one Christmas if you want,” I told her.
“That would be nice, maybe when the boys are older and they can enjoy it, too.”
“That is a wonderful idea! I bet they would love it. We can take them to see Santa Clause in Macy’s. You know, I hear they have the real one.”
She laughed, and I laughed along with her.
I promised myself that I would enjoy every second of our time together in New York and not worry about how fast the seconds might slip away.