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.