And he did it thoroughly.
My arms were tight around his neck and my entire body was alive when his lips slid along my cheek to my ear and he whispered, “You’ve made me a happy man, honey.”
I closed my eyes and shoved my face in his neck.
“You forget how to talk?” he teased and I grinned.
“No,” I whispered. “But this is a lot.”
“It is,” his arms gave me a squeeze, “you’ll get used to it.”
God, I hoped so. I really, really hoped so. Because I hadn’t lied. If he hurt me again, I wouldn’t survive it. All the men before (not that there was a million of them but still) that I lost didn’t hurt as much as losing him did.
He lifted his head and caught my eyes.
“I wanna take you to bed, celebrate this extensively. But to do that would mean Rhonda, who blushed when she mentioned just talkin’ to your brother in bed, will come home to us on the couch or in whatever room you’re sleepin’ in and I don’t wanna do that to her and my guess is, you don’t either.”
This wasn’t true. I wanted to “celebrate this extensively”. But I didn’t want to do that to Rhonda either.
“I don’t either,” I told him.
“I also am not gonna go,” he told me and I relaxed in his arms because I didn’t want him to go. He felt it and smiled a gentle smile so I knew he liked it. “So, you got a choice, camp out in front of the TV or talk.”
“Will the talk be deep and meaningful?” I asked.
“If you want it to be,” he replied.
“I think I’m topped up on that for tonight,” I informed him and he chuckled.
“Then it can be about nothing,” he offered.
“Okay,” I accepted.
“Except,” he started and I braced, “you gotta know one thing. Audrey will be at Reesee’s birthday party.”
“Oh God,” I blurted and he grinned.
“Not nice, you bein’ sweet, givin’ me another shot and me treatin’ you to trial by fire as payback.”
He could say that again. Dinner with his kids and then his daughter’s birthday party with his ex in attendance.
“At least tell me Vi won’t be there,” I demanded and his grin grew to a smile.
“No, Vi won’t be there.”
“Then I’m good. Your ex, I can handle. Some chick who you fell for, uh…no.”
“She’s married.”
“Uh…no.”
“With a baby.”
“Did I say no?”
He started chuckling.
Then he stopped abruptly, took one arm from around me and cupped my jaw in his hand.
I held my breath at the look in his eyes.
But he just repeated, “You made me a happy man, Dusty.”
“Good,” I replied softly.
“No, Angel, you don’t get it. I haven’t been happy, truly happy without anything fucking it up in eighteen years.”
I stared at him feeling my lips part.
“And tonight, givin’ me another shot, you made me happy. Truly happy without anything fucking it up.”
I felt my throat clog and my nose sting and the word was husky when I repeated, “Good.”
His voice was thick when he replied, “Yeah, it is.”
I took in a stuttering breath.
Then I asked, “Can we start talking about nothing before I start bawling?”
He grinned again and whispered, “Yeah.”
To that I whispered back another, “Good.”
Then he led me to the couch. He flicked off the TV and we started out talking about nothing then we talked about bitchface Debbie’s antics and then before he had to get back home to his kids, we ended up talking about nothing again (with not a small amount of making out mixed in).
As with everything I did with Mike, it came naturally.
Chapter Eight
Way Past Curfew
“Have you lost your mind?”
“Jerra, honey, Mike’s gonna be here in a couple of minutes.”
Suffice it to say, I shouldn’t have taken my girl Jerra’s call while in the midst of preparing to meet Mike’s kids and go out to dinner. And I definitely shouldn’t have shared that I’d driven myself and my babies up to my childhood home and then approximately three and a half hours later reconciled with the guy I fell for who broke my heart, both happening in the expanse of two weeks.
She was not as happy as Rhonda was when I told her Mike and me hooked up that morning after the boys went off to school. Rhonda was kind of a prude but definitely a romantic and clearly Darrin had shared his dreams about Mike and me with his wife. So I left out all the juicy stuff and definitely the Mike being a dick stuff. And I told her the whole thing cautiously because she’d just lost her husband and I didn’t want to rub my new relationship in her face however crazy it might be (not that I told her the crazy parts).