Waiting For Nick

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

"So what's for dinner?" Nick asked Lily, the sixty-something year old who had been the Trenton household cook for seven years straight, a year after his mom had died in the fire outbreak, when he was ten and the twins were four. The same day he'd lost his facial personality trying to save the mother he loved.
"Nothing extravagant." Lily's voice brought him out of his reverie. She placed plates and cutlery on the table. "Just chicken roast, potato salad with red onions, cheesy corn casserole and vanilla cake with ice cream for dessert."
"Yeah, that totally ain't extravagant." Victoria said sarcastically, coming down the stairs and into the kitchen.
"Isn't." Nick corrected his younger sister.
"Whatever." She replied, opening the refrigerator and taking out an apple. Nick couldn't help but smile at his sister. Victoria was one truly smart and pretty girl. Even at twelve, he could see how she'd grow into a stunning young lady. 
Vincent, the boy twin throttled down the stairs and planted himself in the chair next to Nick, as Lily began to place bowls of chicken and potato salad on the table.
Vincent rubbed his palms together and stared at the food in front of him. "Lily, I think I'm gonna marry you."
Lily laughed and patted him on the head. "Well, I don't think so, Vinny. Some girl's gonna come steal your heart someday." She said before squishing his cheek.
"Pft, oh please," Victoria said, "He's such a dickhead, no girl's ever gonna fall for him."
Vincent snorted at that and Nick chuckled at her analysis. "He's not like someone I know." She continued and winked at Nick to indicate she was referring to him before coming to sit at the table. Nick laughed and shook his head at her.
"Its not like he's some handsome God, Vicky." Vincent said, a playful smirk on his face.
"Oh yeah, the hell he is!" She retorted, ignoring Lily's warning look on her language. "At least, Ava Thomas back in LA thought so. She used to fuss over him a lot I actually wanted to throw something at her head." Everyone burst into laughter. "Really, Nicky, if you weren't my damn brother, I swear I'd have run off with you ages ago."
"Uh uh, there isn't going to be any running off under my roof and definitely not while I'm here." Nick turned to find his dad coming down the stairs from his study.
Lily and Victoria laughed. "Really, Dean, these kids are going to be the death of me." Lily said.
"Well, we're stuck, Lily." He said, "And what's that I smell?"
"Nothing extravagant." Nick said, mimicking Lily.
Dean Trenton sat at the head of the table and his eyes hovered around the food. He took a huge bite of chicken and sighed. "Lily, you're one hell of a cook. How haven't I married you?"
Lily laughed and Nick covered his face with his hands and shook his head. These two were really very annoying. Lily was a year or two older than his Dad. Scratch that, make that twenty. Okay, he was exaggerating but she was old. But she'd loved them all like her own family from the very day she'd set foot in the Trenton household. Hell, she'd even moved with them here all the way from LA. Lily was one incredible woman. She had two grown up kids of her own, both married.
"No, no, Dad. Lily's mine for the marrying." Nick heard Vincent say.
"Alright, alright." Dean said to his son, hands up in the air in mock surrender. "She's all yours Vinny."
Lily and Victoria laughed at them both and gave each other high fives, as everyone settled to eat. Lily never ate with them at the table. She'd refused to, insisting firmly that a worker had their limits. And knowing Lily, no one succeeded in refuting her claim. The woman was really confusing. Just as they began to eat, she left to place a call to her daughter who'd just given birth to a child.
"So, how's school going for you all?" Dad asked.
"Just fine." Vincent said.
Victoria, being... Victoria didn't concur. "Speak for yourself." She told her twin brother and turned to her dad. "Dad, there's just so much to do and its tiring."
Vincent rolled his eyes and Nick prayed his pupils didn't get stuck at the other side of the socket. The boy just didn't understand he was just that, a boy.
"Well, sorry about that, pumpkin, but you really have got no choice but to defeat them all. Man up, no, woman up." Dean said to Victoria, grinning. He turned to Nick. "And you, Nicky?"
And this was one incredible thing he loved about his dad. The man was downright...incredible. In his own way. In tears, he'd promised three grieving kids, when their mother died, that he was going to take the best care of them, no matter what it'd cost. And Nick knew he was living every second of that promise. He was a single dad, but definitely the greatest one that walked the face of the earth.
"All's well, dad. Made a handful of friends. No hitches. Just fine."
"See, I told you it was going to work out."
"Yeah. You definitely did." Nick said, smiling at him.
Nick thought about school, everyone and everything, but avoided thoughts of a pair of spectacular blue eyes that seemed to haunt his being.