Ash and Cillian had elected to keep the bedroom furniture I had in the guestrooms, Cillian doing this stating an excited, “I feel like a lumberjack in that bed! Totally cool. And I’m so lumberjacking when I’m not going Mach three.”
Lumberjacking, which included axes and chainsaws, as a hobby did not thrill me, but I kept my mouth shut.
Much of Mickey and his kids’ stuff was dotted here there and everywhere with some of his furniture filling in empty spaces. But most of it I’d taken pictures of and now it was in a storage unit awaiting me selling it on Craig’s List.
The move had been such a huge project, I hadn’t thought of it until right then, when I was in Ash’s room, vacuuming.
She’d kept the beachy feel of the room but switched out the bed linens and added her knickknacks and posters, making the room hers.
The candle didn’t fit in it.
And further, the candle was too important to be hidden in her room.
I probably should have asked but I didn’t. I didn’t because I didn’t want her to think she had to be nice and thus say no.
The statement had to be made.
So I turned off the vacuum and grabbed the candle.
I moved my fabulous bowl to the corner of the kitchen counter.
I put the candle in the middle of the dining room table.
It worked perfectly.
I made a mental note to chat with Rhiannon before she came over again so she wouldn’t be blindsided by seeing it and possibly hurt.
I then went back to cleaning.
I was at the desk in the den when the kids got home from school.
“Drop off, Mom!” Auden shouted. “I’m going to Lacey’s.”
I blocked out the second part of what he said because I was even less of a fan of my son dating than Mickey was of his daughter doing it.
“Okay, kiddo!” I shouted back.
“What’s for dinner?” Cill yelled.
“Cheesy chicken!” I yelled back.
“Awesome!” he returned.
“Oh my God!” Pippa screeched. “Did someone erase my Vampire Diaries?”
“It’s right there, Pip, jeez!” Cillian told her loudly.
“Homework, Pip!” I shouted.
“I know, Mom!” she shouted back.
I had my eyes to the computer but turned them to the door when I sensed something there.
Aisling was leaning against the jamb, hair curled, understated makeup making her pretty face even prettier, her curvy body encased in a cute short skirt, tights, cuter low-heeled boots and a pretty sweater.
“Hey, blossom,” I called.
“Love you, Amy,” she replied quietly.
She’d seen the candle.
Sitting at the desk, working, suddenly I was flying.
“Love you too, kiddo,” I returned.
She gave me a small smile and disappeared.
I drew in a deep breath so I could get my feet closer to the ground in order to concentrate on work.
When I accomplished that, I turned back to my computer and went back to work on the invoices.
* * * * *
“I’m gonna vomit,” Robin mumbled.
“You’re not gonna vomit,” I retorted.
“If she doesn’t vomit, I’m gonna vomit,” Alyssa stated.
I looked to Josie, who was standing with the rest of my girls in our klatch.
All my girls together.
Happy.
I saw Josie was looking at me and when I caught her eyes, she said, “It is nauseating.”
I gave my attention back to what was happening across the room, this being my mother and father fawning over Mickey’s mother and father.
We were at Mickey and my rehearsal dinner in the back room of The Eaves. A grand spectacle dripping with flowers and free-flowing champagne with the dress code my mother decreed as strictly cocktail, something that didn’t bother me or anybody but the guys.
I liked dressing up.
And it meant I got to give Mickey his own personal LBD.
Mom could decree this since she and my dad were paying for everything, the food, the flowers, the hostess gifts (two expensive crystal champagne flutes for everyone, except the kids who got boxes of imported Belgian chocolates) and the open bar.
Needless to say, my parents’ freeze out had ended. This happened when Lawr told them I was marrying into the Maine Fresh Maritime family. In fact, it wasn’t just that the freeze had ended, they were beside themselves with delight.
This was because Mickey’s family had more money than Conrad’s and they felt this move on my part was me again toeing the line.
Mickey’s family didn’t have as much money as my family did (and this wouldn’t do, the Bourne-Hathaways always had to have the upper hand). Not to mention, Mickey didn’t work in the family business.
But surprisingly, this last didn’t bother Mom and Dad.
“Runs his own business,” Dad had stated arrogantly over the phone during the official end of the freeze out call he’d made to me months before. “There’s a lot to be said about a man who’s his own man.”
I already knew that so I’d said nothing.
They’d arrived the day before, and since their arrival they’d spent nearly all of their time crawling right up Mickey’s family’s asses. Including Mickey’s brothers.
Genteelly, of course.
Mickey’s family was great, just like Mickey. Friendly. Teasing. Affectionate. Loving.
Mine, not so much.
“It’s just their way,” I said to the girls.
“How you and Lawr are of their loins, I’ll never know,” Robin replied.
Since I agreed with this statement, I had no comment.
But at hearing it, I looked through the room to find Lawr standing talking with Jake, Jake’s son Conner and Conner’s girl, Sofie. Conner had his arm around her and was holding her close. She was comfortable there. Safe and content and happy.
They’d survived the first year of college apart and now Sofie was down in Boston with him.
Although Junior and Alyssa were happy she got into a good school, during a mani-pedi session prior to her move south, Alyssa had declared, “If my girl comes up pregnant her freshman year, it’s gonna suck, seein’ as I’ll have to help raise the kid because her dad’ll be doin’ life for killin’ the kid’s baby daddy.”
I didn’t want to think of these goings-on, so I didn’t. Auden was dating. Ash was still with Kellan (who could now drive, which meant car dates, which in turn was driving Ash’s father ’round the bend) and my daughter was also dating (serially, she’d been out with four different boys since school started, all this impatiently awaiting Joe asking her out, something she hoped he would do, something, being tight with Auden, he wasn’t doing).
No, I absolutely did not want to think of these goings-on.
So, I didn’t.
Whatever happened, I’d survive. So would Mickey. That had been proven beyond a doubt.
Instead, I watched my big brother’s eyes move around the room, catch on the woman beside me, and warm.
Robin and Lawr were no longer dating. Robin and Lawr were now an item.
It was serious.
They couldn’t make any big moves since her oldest was in college but her youngest was still a junior and she didn’t want to be far away. They had to wait a couple of years before she moved up to Santa Barbara to be with Lawrie permanently, but that was the plan. Now, every other week, she was up there with my brother and it was working.
Splendidly.
I knew it would and, of course, rubbed that fact in at every available opportunity.
Like right then, when his attention shifted from Robin to me and I assumed a superior look to which he shook his head, his lips twitching, and turned his focus back to Jake.
“Gonna steal her.”
I jumped slightly at hearing Mickey’s murmur and turned just in time for him to slide my glass of champagne out of my hand and set it on the table.
“Of course,” Josie murmured.
“If I wasn’t taken and you weren’t seriously taken, as evidenced by the proceedings,” Robin said to my guy. “I’d want you to steal me.”
My best girl liked my guy.
And I liked this.
Mickey gave Robin a smile, and I gave Robin a fake glare as he took my hand.
While he was moving me toward the door, I felt a hint of chill and glanced my mother’s way to see her aiming that chill at me as Mickey pulled me into the main restaurant.
“We’re sitting down to dinner in a few minutes, honey,” I told him as he guided me through the tables.
“Can’t do that without us,” he replied.
“This is why we can’t leave,” I pointed out.
He said nothing.
I didn’t either when he led me to the hallway that took you to the bathrooms.
My belly started to warm and my legs started to get shaky as he turned right at the end of the hall then took us past the bathrooms.
At the end of that hall, he shoved aside the coats (I knew it was a cloak area) and pushed me to the back wall.
It was dark.
It was quiet.
There was likely going to be a hostess invading our space to hang up a coat at any second.
I didn’t care about any of this when Mickey put his hands to my hips.
Weird how a coat closet was our place.
But it was.
This was not where it began.
But it was where it began.
And I loved Mickey Donovan even more for taking me there the night before he was officially going to make me his and I was going to make him mine.
His eyes were down, taking me in through the shadows.
Then they lifted to mine. “Nice dress, baby.”
There I was again.
Soaring.
Though, these days, I’d learned how to live with my head in the clouds.
“God, I love you,” I whispered.
That got me one of his easy grins.
Yes, I absolutely loved him.
“Good, means you’ll make out with me in the coat closet,” he replied.
“My mother will be displeased,” I noted.
“Only reason we’re goin’ back at all is so I can save my mother from yours.”
I moved into him, sliding a hand up his chest. “I’m sorry, Mickey. They’re—”
He interrupted me, “Relax, Amy. They don’t care. They know people like that. They know how to deal with people like that. They know you’re not like that. They like you and they like your kids. That’s what matters.”
It was.
This meant it was time to relax.
It was also time to make out.
I tipped my head to the side. “So, are we gonna make out or what?”
I felt the heat from his eyes before I felt his lips take mine.
I slid my arms around his shoulders.
He slid one hand to curl it around the back of my neck, the other one he curved around the cheek of my ass.
At the intimate touch, I gasped against his tongue.
Mickey pressed me into the wall.
Thus, we made out at our rehearsal dinner in the coat closet, and we did it a long time.
Long enough to totally piss off my mother (something she didn’t show, except for the glacial looks she aimed at me), which was fabulous.
And long enough to get me hot and bothered so, much later, when my cell on my nightstand chimed, waking me from a restless sleep, and I took the call to hear Mickey growl, “Door,” I’d run to the front door (but I probably would have done that anyway).
He, at my mother’s demand due to “tradition” was staying with Cillian and Auden at Jake and Josie’s.
He, obviously, had the key.
So he was through it before I got there.
But the warning call was seriously sexy.
And last, we’d made out long enough for Mickey to get so hot and bothered he’d fairly dragged me down the hall to my room.
We’d fucked on my daybed.
Then he’d kissed me deep and sweet at our front door and gone back to Lavender House because it was bad luck to see the bride on the wedding day.
And even though the time said it technically was our wedding day, I decided it didn’t count because the sun hadn’t yet gone up.
So I ignored that and just slid into Mickey and my bed, put my head to the pillows and fell back to sleep.
But I did it with my head still in the clouds.
* * * * *
Mickey
Mickey lay naked in the bed, the fireplace blazing, his eyes to the kitchen, waiting.
She walked to him wearing her sequined fuzzy slippers and a short robe, carrying a tray.
“I have squirtable cheese and crackers,” she announced. “I also have a can of whipped cream and vanilla wafers. I have a fresh beer. Thus I have on my magical tray the makings of dinner and dessert, no muss, no fuss, no cleanup.”
He had no idea what she intended with that whipped cream but he knew what he was going to do with it.
He watched as Amy placed the tray at the end of the bed, moved to her side, slid off her slippers, shrugged off her robe and he took in the curves of his wife’s naked body as she joined him under the covers.
He rolled into her.
Her arms slid around him even as she warned, “You’re gonna knock over the beer, Mickey.”
He moved away from her, grabbed the beer, leaned into her to put it beside her glass of champagne and the bottle in its bucket on her nightstand before he went back to her.
He took in her soft skin, her fresh floral scent, the warmth in her pretty hazel eyes.
And he saw it there.
Ten hours ago, with her kids standing with her and his kids standing with him, they were married in Reverend Fletcher’s church.
They’d had two parties after.
One, a big, fancy one that Josie and Alyssa threw at Lavender House.
The other, a small, quieter one the old folks threw at Dove House.
His kids went to Rhiannon.
Her kids went to her ex.
And Mickey took his new wife to Jimbo’s hunting cabin for their three day honeymoon.
She had no idea where they were going.
When they parked outside it, they hadn’t even got out of his truck before he had to piss her off to stop her from crying.
That took no effort but she lost the pissed real quick when he carried her over the threshold.
If he still had any question, which he didn’t, her reaction to their honeymoon destination would have told him everything he needed to know.
His new wife needed his body beside her in their bed.
And anything else life threw at them, she would deal.
Then again, she was dealing with a five carat diamond on her finger.
“Finest woman I ever met,” he whispered.
Her hand cupped his jaw. “Mickey.”
“Love you, Mrs. Donovan.”
She closed her eyes and it swept through her face, something he’d seen countless times, something that never failed to move him, and fuck, fuck, he gave her that.
He gave it to her.
And each time he did, he got it.
She didn’t need fifteen million dollars.
She didn’t need all her money.
She needed to feel that feeling.
That was all she needed.
And it was only him who could give it.
She opened her eyes.
“Same here, Mickey.”
He grinned at her before he kissed her and he did that a lot for three days (and beyond).
Then he made love to her and they did that a lot for three days (and beyond).
After, they ate squirtable cheese and did good things with whipped cream.
They also slept together and they woke up together.
And last, they spent three days naked together in that bed (
also in the shower).
And that was all either of them needed.
The Magdalene series will conclude with the story of Coert.
*****
Read an excerpt from the first book in the Magdalene series, The Will.
The Safest Place I Could Be
“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”
My mouth filled with saliva when I heard these words, my eyes—shaded by both sunglasses and a big black hat—moving from the shining casket covered in a massive spray of deep red roses to the preacher standing at its side.
I wanted to rise up from my chair, snatch the words from the air and shove them down his throat.
This was an unusual reaction for me. I wasn’t like that.
But he was talking about Gran.
Gran, my Gran, the Gran whose body was in that casket.
She wasn’t exactly young, this was true. I knew it was coming, seeing as she was ninety-three.
That didn’t mean I wanted her to be gone. I never wanted her to be gone.
Outside of Henry, she was the only person I had. The only person in this whole world.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
Gran wasn’t dust.
My Gran was everything.
On this thought, I felt them coming and I couldn’t stop them. Fortunately, when they spilled over, they were silent. Then again, they always were. The last time I let loose that kind of emotion was decades ago.
I never let it happen again.
I felt the wet crawling down my cheeks from under my sunglasses as I moved my eyes back to the casket. I felt them drip off my jaw but I didn’t lift a hand. I wanted no one to notice the tears so I wouldn’t give them any reason to do so, not even movement.
On that thought, I felt something else—a strange prickling sensation of awareness gliding over my skin. My eyes behind my sunglasses lifted and slid through the crowd standing around the casket.
They stopped when my sunglasses hit his.
And when they did, my breath also stopped.
This was because in all my life, and I’d had a long one, and in all my wandering, and I’d wandered far, I’d never seen a man like him.
Not once.
He was wearing a dark blue suit, monochromatic shirt and monochromatic tie. His clothes fit him well and suited him even better. I knew this from experience not just liking clothes but also being on the fringe of the fashion world for the last twenty-two years.
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