He grinned at me, “Nothin’ wrong with those.”
“Roast beef and swiss on rye with mayo and horseradish is better.”
His grin became a smile and he muttered, “Right.”
Then, as I intended, he turned back to the fridge and got out the roast beef, swiss, mayo, horseradish and rye.
He dumped it on the counter and I offered, “You want help?”
He didn’t look up when he declined with a murmured, “Yeah. Keep sittin’ there close, lookin’ pretty and smellin’ good.”
It was a simple compliment, murmured, throwaway but meant and it struck straight through to the heart of me. Straight to the heart. Piercing deep.
“Mike,” I called softly.
“Yeah,” he answered the bread he was arranging on the counter.
“Thanks for the flowers.” I was still talking softly.
I saw his small grin but he didn’t look up when he replied, “Called me and told me that when you got them, Dusty.”
“Mike,” I called again.
“Yeah,” he answered, opening up the mayo jar.
“Thanks for the flowers.”
His hands froze, his head came up and his eyes came to me. Then they moved over my face.
“They’re beautiful. Still. Perfect,” I went on quietly.
“Jesus,” he whispered and the way he did I knew he read my face and my tone. It helped that his eyes stopped roaming, locked on mine, looked deep and his were burning.
“Thank you,” I repeated on a whisper.
“You’re welcome, honey,” he whispered back.
We held each other’s eyes and I liked the look in his and I hoped like hell he liked the one he was getting from me.
Finally, since I was hungry and Mike made it clear the sex zone was in his bedroom so jumping him amidst bread and mayo in the kitchen was not an option, I decided to end it.
Unfortunately.
“I’d offer to kiss you all over but I did that half an hour ago,” I teased and his lips twitched.
“Darlin’, you didn’t kiss me. You licked me,” he reminded me, looking back down to the counter and reaching to open a drawer to get a knife.
I did and that roast beef looked great but I bet Mike tasted better.
“Oh yeah, right,” I mumbled.
“Before you sucked me off,” he paused then finished, “nearly.”
“So kissing you all over is still open?” I asked.
“Angel, you need to let me get some sustenance and give me some recuperation time and then you got until five to do whatever you want to me.”
“Deal,” I muttered and he grinned at the sandwiches.
Something to look forward to.
But now it was time to connect with Mike without physically connecting with him.
“So, since we’re in the kitchen and out of the sex zone, maybe we can –”
His head shot up, his eyes hit me, they were dancing with amusement and he interrupted. “What?”
“What what?” I asked back, confused.
“The sex zone?” he clarified.
“Yeah,” I replied. “The kitchen is not part of the sex zone at Mike Haines’s house. The sex zone includes your bed, the floor beside your bed that one time we rolled off and the shower. Couch, kitchen, stairs, etc. are out of the zone.”
He stared at me, his eyes still dancing and then his body started shaking then he burst out laughing.
Now I was more confused.
“What?” I asked through his hilarity.
Still chuckling he looked down at the bread he was spreading mayo on, muttering, “Sex zone. Fuck me.”
“What?” I asked again, louder this time.
“Sweetheart, I don’t have a sex zone. I have kids,” he explained to the bread.
“Right, I know. Which means there are sex boundaries.”
He started shaking his head and set the mayo aside, mumbling, “Sex boundaries.”
He thought something was funny, he wasn’t exactly sharing and thus I was getting peeved.
“Mike,” I cut his name sharp, “you wanna let me in on the joke?”
He clearly did and he also clearly wanted to let me on some other information too. I knew this when he dropped the knife, moved to me, jerked my legs open at my knees, stepped right in then with a hand at my lower back he yanked me so the outer regions of “Little Dusty” were pressed tight to his abs and the rest of me was pressed tight to him.
And thus the stringent boundaries of sex zone were obliterated.
“I know where my kids are right now,” he told me when he caught my surprised eyes. “I know they like where they are so I know they’re gonna stay where they are. When they’re at their Mom’s, except for their rooms, nothin’ is off-limits. But I’ve been a Dad long enough to know shit can happen and it does. Kids get sick. They get injured. My business, I could be anywhere. Audrey works in Indy. So something happens to my kids at school and time is of the essence, my next door neighbor gets first call from the school and she goes to get them and once they’re sorted, she calls me. I’m with you, my focus is you. I don’t wanna learn that that focus is so intense, one of my kids comes home, I’m fuckin’ you on the couch or eatin’ you on the kitchen table, their return doesn’t penetrate that until they see their Dad penetrating that. That would not be good for anybody. Upstairs, in my bed, behind closed doors, I’ll have warning and you’ll have an escape hatch. So there is no sex zone. That’s just bein’ smart and lookin’ out for you, my kids and me.”
“Oh,” I whispered.
“Oh,” Mike whispered back through a grin.
“But, the first weekend I was here, we didn’t explore.”
“The first weekend you were here was the first time I had you in my bed which was something I was lookin’ forward to a lot when I put your ass on a plane. Then I looked forward to it a lot more when I laid in that bed listenin’ to you get off, sometimes doin’ it while I was jackin’ off. So, when I finally got you there, I was enjoyin’ it. Next weekend, we’ll explore.”
That sounded nice.
So nice, against my will, my eyes drifted to the kitchen table.
Mike caught it and burst out laughing. This time it was better though since he did it with his arms locked tight around me, his face shoved in my neck and me in on the joke.
Yes. Much, much better.
I held him until he’d burned out his amusement and I let him go when he touched his smiling mouth to mine, let me go and stepped away.
He went back to his sandwiches. I decided again to change the subject so I wasn’t tempted to jump him.
“That’s all good to know but we still have more to discuss.”
He glanced at me and invited, “Shoot.”
“Actually, I was thinking you should shoot since something has been on your mind and it’s been on it since that scene with Debbie.”
I didn’t have his eyes but I saw his body get slightly tense even though he continued making sandwiches.
He also didn’t speak.
I didn’t think that was good.
“Mike?” I prompted and he sighed.
Then he gave me his eyes. “Bernie McGrath?” he asked weirdly and I felt my brows draw together.
“Sorry?”
“That guy who was with Debbie. The developer. Bernie McGrath.”
At the reminder, my body got tense, my memory opened up and I remembered that name being said.
“Yeah?” I asked.
Mike looked back down to the sandwiches. “Livin’ away for a while, comin’ back, probably it’s crystal that around The ‘Burg as well as throughout the county there’s been massive change. Thirty years the county went from mostly rural to mostly one vast suburban jungle attached to Indy.”
“Right,” I said when he stopped talking.
Mike flipped the top piece of bread on the sandwiches and looked at me. “Lots of developers. Lots of work done. But probably the primary developer is McGrath.”
“Okay,” I replied. “So?”
“So, a number of farms have fallen into McGrath’s hands.”
I was again confused. To build you needed land. And rural in Indiana was almost exclusively, at one point, farmland.
“Right,” I muttered then repeated, “So?”
“So, I don’t know. What I do know is that the fact I don’t know, I don’t like. Cops, we know shit. That’s our job. We pay attention. Or we know people who pay attention. Shit we don’t know or can’t find someone who does, we don’t like. No one knows shit about this guy. They just know he gets property no one else seems to be able to lay their hands on and develops it.”
I still didn’t understand.
“So…what? You’re thinking he’ll do what he has to do to back Debbie to get her quarter?”
Mike turned fully to me and rested a hip against the counter. “No,” he said quietly, carefully and the way he did, I braced. “I think Colt was right. I thought the same as he did before he said it. And the boys all agree. Debbie opened up the door, McGrath stepped through and he doesn’t want her quarter, he wants the Holliday Farm.”
“He can want it all he wants, babe. He’s not gonna get it,” I reminded him of something he had to know and his eyes went funny, guarded and alert.
I didn’t like that look.
“Mike,” I said softly, “I think you’re scaring me.”
“Lots of farms have fallen to Bernie McGrath, Dusty and I use that language purposefully.”
I pulled in breath.
Mike moved to me, leaning back into the counter, his hip also touching my knee, he slid a hand from belly to waist and his face got close.
“Like I said,” he carried on gently, “I do not know this guy. I don’t like shit goin’ down I don’t know especially if that shit involves you. Merry doesn’t know. Colt doesn’t know. Sully. No complaints have been made. Nothin’ overt. But some of it’s shady. Seeing as I don’t know, I didn’t know if I should alarm you. So I went about gettin’ in the know. Colt has an informant who also happens to be tight with Rocky’s man, Tanner Layne. He and I sat down. He’s gonna see what he can find out.”
“And in the meantime?” I asked.
“In the meantime, we talk to your Dad tomorrow night and I’ll brief him about this. It’s highly likely he knows of McGrath and possibly has been approached by him in the past. He has the head’s up. He also, along with you, needs to lean on Debbie to back the fuck down. And I wanna see Darrin’s will. You told me Debbie was the one who explained it to Rhonda and you haven’t read it. I wanna read it. You’ve explained twice why Darrin did what he did and still, knowin’ Darrin, I cannot believe he’d do it. He loved his sister. He saw the good in people. But he was far from a fool. And the only two people on this earth he loved as much as his wife were his boys. I’ve tried but for the life of me I cannot believe he’d not see Debbie for Debbie and be stupid enough to lay his family’s legacy and his sons’ future in her hands. Even a quarter of it.”
He was not wrong.
“I’ll get the will,” I promised.
“Good,” he returned. “And in the meantime, you keep your eye out. Is Fin still monitoring Rhonda’s cell, you all her calls?”
I nodded.
“Keep doin’ it. But tomorrow, the word I have with your Dad will also be a word with Fin, Kirb and Rhonda. If McGrath does what I think he’ll do, he won’t care who he targets to get an in on the other three fourths of that land. And that includes the boys.”
I felt my chest freeze but through the ice I forced out, “You’re joking.”
“I wish I was. I wish I knew the threat was real so we could form a plan or could assure you it wasn’t. It’s just a feeling but I’ve been in my business long enough to go with my gut. And what my gut is saying is what Merry’s, Colt’s and Sully’s said when they saw that man in your yard. So we’re gonna start by bein’ vigilant while we gather intel. Then, we find we have a fight on our hands, we’ll set about winnin’ it.”
I didn’t like this and I didn’t need this. Dealing with Debbie’s acrimony was enough. But also, Rhonda wasn’t even showing signs she was close to snapping out of it. And every time I saw Fin or Kirby, I was reminded not two months ago I lost my brother. Worse, I looked in their eyes or the time was not right, I saw it shadow their face and I remember they lost their Dad. Their pain was ten times mine. They were kids no matter how mature Fin was. I was adult enough to understand I needed to find ways to process my pain. Someone had to guide them and with Rhonda out, I was up.
I didn’t need some rabid real estate developer breathing down the necks of my family.
“You either,” Mike said strangely, cutting in my thoughts.
“What?” I asked, focusing on him.
“This guy or any guy even if they don’t identify they belong to McGrath’s dealings, approaches you about the land, your quarter, Rhonda and the kids, you shut him down. Do not engage at all. Shut him down and call me. Immediately.”
“Right, full on scared now, honey,” I whispered and Mike moved closer.
“I’m across the way,” he declared and I stared into his eyes.
“Yes, but –”
“I’m…across…the way. You don’t go it alone, ever. I don’t give a shit when, where, how, if you’re at home, you’re at J&J’s, you get a wild hair, rally Rhonda and head down south to spend a day on a riverboat gambling. You get someone up in your space about that shit or any shit, you…call…me.”
I call him.
No matter when, where, how. I call Mike.
I took in a deep breath and let it out.
He had my back. He had my front. He had my family.
He had my heart.
My head fell forward and gently collided forehead to forehead with his.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
“Gratitude is good seein’ as my informant Ryker heard about Reesee’s birthday cake and he wants one as payback.”
I grinned. “I can do that. He helps, I’ll make him ten.”
Mike lifted a hand and curled it around my neck. “Glad to hear that sweetheart, considering I already told him that.”
My grin became a smile and I said softly, “You so know me.”
I watched close up as his eyes got serious and he whispered, “Yeah.”
And there it was, when it hit me. He knew me as a kid. On one occasion I’d rather forget, I was a bitch to him as a teen. Not even two months ago, he stormed into my hotel room and my life and that bond he mentioned snapping tight did just that.
He knew me. He paid attention to me as a kid and he’d known my family for years. He knew what was in my heart. He knew what made me. He knew the love I grew up in. And he just knew me.
“I’ll bake you a cake, you tell me what’s workin’ behind your eyes,” Mike muttered, not lifting his forehead or taking his hand from me.
“I thought you said you’d never baked a cake,” I remarked.
“I said I’d bake you one. I didn’t say it would be a good one.”
Laughter bubbled up instantly and then rolled out of me. I moved back but lifted a hand and curled my fingers around his at my neck.
Still chuckling, my hand holding his, I did what I always did.
I gave it straight.
“I like that you know me. I like that we’ve been together for weeks, back in each other’s lives for less than two months and you know me. I like it that you stepping into family business seems right and natural. I like that everything about us seems natural. I like that I’m thirty-eight and starting again with another guy but I get the best of both worlds, I get the new, I get the discovery but we still have the history. I like that we started with something deep and rich where we could plant the seed of wherever this is going instead of still digging.”
I was so busy laying it out I didn’t catch the look on his face changing. And I almost still didn’t catch it because he moved fast. He went from standing at my side to forcing his hips between my l
egs. Then from “Little Dusty” to my breasts I was plastered tight to Mike, his arms steel bands around me and his mouth had crushed down on mine.
And then he was kissing me.
This kiss was not a slow burn. This kiss didn’t start sweet and end in an inferno.
This kiss was not like any kiss he ever gave me.
This kiss was not like any kiss anyone ever gave me.
His kiss was a once in a lifetime kiss. It was the kind of thorough, heart-melting, stomach-plummeting, mind-numbing, soul-enriching kiss that altered lives.
And I swear to God, it altered two, right there, in Mike’s kitchen.
His and mine.
When he broke his mouth from mine he instantly uttered his understatement.
“I like all that shit too.”
“I think I got that,” I wheezed, still recovering from the kiss and holding onto Mike like I was about to fall down even though my ass was planted on a counter.
“And I like that No is totally cool with you and I’ve seen more of my girl in the past couple of weeks than I have in a long time. Her comin’ out from under whatever cloud was followin’ her around because you shined on her the light that’s you. And I like that so much, I’m not fuckin’ it up by bakin’ a cake. DQ ice cream cake. All the way. We’ll get it after we eat lunch and then we’ll dig in with Reesee after we have dinner.”
DQ ice cream cake.
Nothing said celebration like an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen.
And better, having it with Mike and his girl.
His girl who liked me.
“We have to save No a piece,” I said quietly and watched Mike’s face get soft.
Seriously, that was the hottest of it all.
“I can lay waste to a DQ cake so if you want No to have a piece, we’ll get a big one,” he murmured.
“Big one it is.”
Mike smiled at me but didn’t let me go.
I smiled back.
Then I thought it, I felt it so I said it.
And I did it by whispering, “I’m falling in love with you, Mike Haines.”