Ex's & Oh Nos

(28) Apologies

Two weeks later 

It was Sienna's tenth birthday but you could cut the tension between Emily and Bucky. Even his friends had never seen him be cold it was worse then his attitude towards Nikki. After the party was over Bucky stayed to help clean up and fix her phone for her. Ashlynn cried cause he wouldn't take her with him. 

After he left he headed to his parents. James pulled him down to the barn with a few beers they sat up in the loft. Where Bucky and Nikki shared many of their dates when he didn't have the extra money. 

"Son. I love you but you brought this on yourself. I told you all those years ago when you and I sat right here after you got mad at your mom. I told you there may be a chance that Nikki but never be able to forgive you. That she may not let you back in her life." James said 

Bucky sat with his knees up. "What you did to her? How you treated her?. It was cold and mean. She had to move to whole other state even then she was still dealing with it all. Nikki made a mistake but that doesn't mean you had to continue to punish her for it." James said 

"I know that now dad." He said as he took a sip of his beer. 

"And in order for her to feel like she is being accepted. You have to be the one that steps in and says okay enough is enough. All this started with you it has to end with you. If Emily and you can't get work this out or if you are still in love with Nikki then you don't need to be married to Emily. But you need to figure it out son. You can't keep playing this game. And if it is Nikki then you have a lot of apologizing to do." James said 

Bucky looked down. 

"You hurt her James and you continued to hurt her." James said 

"That's all I wanted to say." James said as he got up and left the barn loft.

Bucky sat there as their memories in the loft ran through his head. How he fixed up a makeshift theatre in the loft for their dates. He looked down as he wiped his tears away. 

The next morning he got her address from his mom after breakfast. He knocked on the door she opened the door. 

"Buck?" She said as she took the plate of food he had. 

He followed her inside. "More people are coming." He said as her driveway began to be filled with cars. She saw their old friends coming in. 

They all hugged her and whispered "We are sorry." They all stayed awhile and caught up on life explained why her marriage ended. It felt like old times again even if Nikki still felt weary of if she failed in their eyes again would they abandoned her. 

"Bucky said Emily asked you to lunch." Wanda said 

"Yeah that was awkward. I wanted to the floor to swallow me. She even grabbed my hand pleading." She said 

"Seriously!" Bobbi said 

"Yes seriously. She was all like please help me." Nikki said 

"Wow..talk about desperate. She's just like her sister then." Hope said 

"Whose her sister?" Nikki said 

"You don't remember who her sister is. Her sister is Taylor they are half sisters remember." Nat said 

"Oh shit I forgot about that." Nikki said as she sipped her coffee. 

After they left Nikki went to work after she dropped the baby off at her mom's. Bucky was working as the weekend manager at the shop. Campbell and Brady came into the office to have a management meeting with their cousins Jonah and Xavier. 

After her shift was over Bucky was waiting for her on her porch. 

"Change and ride with me." He said 

"To where?" She said as he followed her in. 

"You'll see." He said 

Nikki showered and changed she got in his truck. They drove out to his parents house went down in behind their house to the barn. 

"Okay your driving scares me." She said 

"What I'm a good driver. I've only got one speeding ticket and that was because Emily had Ashlynn went into labor when we went out for dinner. She was about to have her in the car." He said as he helped her out. 

They went up to the barn loft. "It's still up.." she said as she saw the fairy lights and sheet. 

"Yeah. I never took it down. I didn't want to be up here at all after we ended." He said 

She turned around. "Bucky I'm sorry.." she said 

"No let me go first. You always go first just like our first kiss. I'm sorry Nicole..I know that I wasn't an easy person to deal with that summer. I know that it probably wasn't fun just getting me a few hours and it was me sleeping. I was a stupid 16 year old kid who was dealing with a lot. You didn't deserve that..you didn't deserve any of it." He said 

She looked down. "I never meant to hurt you Nikki. I loved you and I screwed up. And as angry as I was at you. My heart was breaking and I just wanted to hurt you back. I shouldn't of done the things I did. I shouldn't of humiliated you to the point that you had to leave." He said 

"Bucky..I needed you." She whispered 

"I know. I'm sorry.." he whispered 

"I got some pizza..and the others will be here soon." He said as they shared a hug. 

The others began to come into the loft area. Emily was at home folding clothes when her sister called her. 

"Hey.." Emily said 

"You might wanna check your Facebook. It looks like your husband is hanging out with the whole group including Nikki." She said 

"What?" Emily said as she put it on speaker phone. 

She scrolled through and saw the girls posts. They were all singing and playing in the barn as they were drinking beers and eating pizza. 

"Oh my god!" She said as she hung up and threw her phone across the room. 

After everybody else left they laid down on the couch fell asleep.