The worry slithered through his features again before he hid it.
We got dinner together. We ate it in front of the TV (except Cill, who ate his outside by the fire) and Mickey did this sitting close to his daughter instead of me. He also did it teasing her by bumping her foot with his or elbowing her until she cried out in a way she didn’t mean, “Stop it, Dad!” to which he replied fake innocently, “Stop what?” To that she gifted him with rolled eyes and a smile she tried but couldn’t hide, and as Mickey continued to do it, she started sighing audibly and heavily, but said no more.
It was cute.
But it didn’t work.
After dinner, we did the cleanup. Then everyone got bound up in jackets and scarves and we went out and made s’mores.
Aisling had three.
Then she went back inside to her room to watch a movie.
*
I lay naked in my tub leaned back against Mickey, who was, obviously, naked with me. He had his arms around me, his knees cocked beside me as I drifted the bubbly water with my hands and stared out to the sea.
It was Sunday. A Sunday where my hopes of trying new ploys with Aisling were foiled when she announced at breakfast that some of her friends wanted to go to a movie then do some hanging, and that one of her friends’ parents had agreed to do the carting around. Mickey said she could go.
The good news about this included Aisling showering before she went.
The bad news included me not being able to try new ploys.
Not long after, Cillian announced one of his friends wanted him over for a day of gaming, which also included his friend’s mom offering to come pick him up and bring him home.
Mickey agreed to that too but both his kids had the caveat that they were home for dinner so he could make sure they were both done with homework and ready for next week’s school. I figured he also agreed because he was losing them for a week and he wanted them home for one last dinner.
In the meantime, my kids had texted me and said they’d be over for dinner and to spend the night and Auden had added, We’re staying until Wednesday, if that’s cool with you.
It absolutely was so I’d agreed.
This unexpectedly gave Mickey and me the whole day to be together.
But it was me who suggested we do it at my place and we do it naked.
I did not have to twist Mickey’s arm.
“Freaky, like we’re floating,” he muttered, his hand sliding soothingly up and down my side through the warm water.
“Amazing, isn’t it?” I asked.
“That Cameron guy knew what he was doin’,” he replied.
He did, which caused me some dejection because everything was pointing to the hopeful, marvelous fact that we were going to have a future together.
But that meant I’d lose Cliff Blue and I loved Cliff Blue.
However, I loved Mickey more than my house so I’d let it go.
“Thanks for trying with my girl,” Mickey said in my ear, his hand gliding through the water along my belly then back to curve again at my side.
“I’m not surprised she didn’t open up upon me sharing an interest in her makeup usage and bare her soul to me. It’ll take time. It’s just a bummer I started my work right when she was going back to her mom.”
“Maybe Rhiannon’ll get in there.”
“Maybe she will.”
And I hoped she would. If Rhiannon was pulling herself together, three adults who loved Aisling and were looking after her were far better than one, that one being a father who loved her but he was also a guy who was uncertain what he was doing.
“Got somethin’ to talk to you about,” Mickey announced.
I stared out at the day, which didn’t know whether to be gray or sunny so it treated us to both at thirty to forty-five minute intervals (at that moment, it was gray).
He sounded serious. Relaxed but serious.
And I didn’t know what could come from Mickey Donovan when he was relaxed but serious.
Realizing I hadn’t said anything, I invited, “Go for it.”
“Last week, Mom and Dad called,” he told me.
This was not a huge revelation. He spoke of his parents often. They had a great relationship. They doted on their grandchildren. Even from far away, they liked to be in the know about their son and his kids, but they weren’t intrusive. However, they did contact Mickey regularly, always when he had his kids and in the evenings so they had a chance to talk to everyone.
“Okay,” I prompted, wondering if he’d told them about me and hoping he had, he’d shared it was serious and going somewhere and now they wanted to come up and meet me.
Then I didn’t hope that because that meant me meeting them and Mickey was so close to them, I’d need to make a good impression. And even if they were also rolling in it, I worried that the heiress next door might not go over too great.
“Told Dad about my plans,” Mickey said into my thoughts.
“Your plans?” I asked.
“Quittin’ Ralph, goin’ into business for myself.”
“Oh,” I mumbled.
“He’s excited about it.”
I smiled at the view. “He would be. It’s exciting.”
“He wants to invest.”
I twisted my neck to look up at him and Mickey adjusted so he could look down at me.
“Really?” I asked.
“Yep,” he answered.
“I…that…” I shook my head slightly. “What do you think of that?”
“Dad lived here near on his whole life too, that bein’ ‘near on’ only because he moved to Florida. Still knows practically the whole town. Him and Mom are friendly, they come back, see people, while they’re gone, they stay in touch. They know Ralph’s reputation and not just from me bitchin’ about workin’ for him for the last fifteen years.”
“Okay,” I said when he stopped talking.
“What I’m sayin’ is, he’s heard folks complaining about Ralph too. He thinks, if I go into business, I’ll hit faster than I thought I would.”
“That’s great,” I remarked.
“He’s also still a member of the Club. He knows he can get them to entertain a bid from me but he thinks he could even get them to consider me as the contractor for that whole project. Their golf course development.”
I felt elated.
Then I deflated.
“I hesitate to mention this, but Boston Stone is also a member of that Club,” I reminded him.
“Yeah, babe, but that Club is about a lot of things and legacy is a big one. They might be racist and Stone’s family may have been in Magdalene awhile, but the Donovans have lived in this town for six generations.”
“That didn’t stop him from getting whatever he presented to the town council signed,” I noted.
“I seriously doubt he shared that whatever-that-was was about him losin’ out against me for you. If he did, they would have laughed in his face.”
This was likely correct.