Soaring (60 page)

Well, there she was; firefighter Misty.

“Then let’s see about getting you that,” Whitfield replied. His eyes went back to Boston. “Boston, please step down.”

Boston glared at him then turned, and without a glance at anyone he stalked down the center aisle. He didn’t wait for the vote. He walked right out of the room.

I couldn’t believe that Boston connived to put the entire town in danger because he was angry I was with Mickey.

But apparently, it was because he was angry I was with Mickey.

Which meant Mickey was even
more
right than I thought he was that day when he told me not to date the guy.

Brilliant.

“Anyone else have something to say?” Whitfield invited.

There was a low murmur of noise but no one moved to the podium.

“Excellent, then we’ll put it to the vote,” Whitfield declared. “All in favor of allocating further resources to the Magdalene Fire Department to hire a full-time salaried firefighter, say aye!”

There were five ayes.

I grinned.

“No nays, the resolution passes,” Whitefield announced. “Now, the next order of business…”

“So, now how you feelin’ about not takin’ my advice about that asshole?” Mickey muttered in my ear.

He didn’t sound angry.

He sounded teasing.

And patronizing.

I snapped my eyes to him and narrowed them.

He gave me an easy grin before he gave me a quick kiss.

I was still glaring at him when he finished, which set him to chuckling.

“Heard through the grapevine he had somethin’ up his sleeve,” Bobby whispered as Whitfield kept talking and both Mickey and I looked to him to see him again turned to us. “Good news, that’s done. Better news,” he smiled, “task force of the county councilmembers have full hiring authority when it comes to the fire chief. Nothin’ comes to a vote. And they do this volunteer themselves so they aren’t gonna spend months goin’ through some hiring process, which will end with them goin’ for whoever I recommend in the first place. This means, when I put you forward, you’re in, son.”

“Yeah, Bobby, that is good news,” Mickey replied.

Bobby slid his eyes to me. “You seriously dated Stone?”

“No. It was only one date. And I did it before Mickey and I were together because I was angry at Mickey who was, at the time, being annoyingly bossy,” I shared.

“Seems good reason,” he uttered these words as the obvious lie they were.

“I’ll have you over for dinner, explain the entire thing to your wife, then let her explain it to you,” I stated.

His eyes twinkled and he murmured, “Ah.”

“That’s done, Bob, gotta feed my family,” Mickey put in, already shifting like he was going to exit the bench.

“Right,” Bobby said to Mickey then looked back to me. “Nice meetin’ you, Amy. Lookin’ forward to that dinner invitation and my brownies.”

Staring into his kind eyes, I was looking forward to dinner too.

“We’ll plan through Mickey,” I said, shifting after Mickey.

“Right. Later, sweetheart.”

“Later, Bobby,” I replied.

Bobby looked to Cillian who was moving down the bench behind me. “Boy,” he greeted.

“Uncle Bobby,” Cillian replied, giving Bobby a high five when Bobby raised his hand.

Next came Ash. “You walked by me once without givin’ your Uncle Bobby a kiss, pretty girl. Don’t do it again.”

“Uncle Bobby,” she muttered, bending in to give him a quick kiss then moving fast to follow us.

Together, we walked down the aisle, out of the room, out of the Town Hall and Mickey stopped us on the sidewalk.

I looked up at him. “Happy?”

He smiled down at me. “Oh yeah.”

“So cool, Dad! You’re gonna be fire chief!” Cillian shouted, jumping at his dad, and Mickey caught his boy in his arms, giving him a squeeze Cillian gave back.

“Totally cool, Dad. Happy for you,” Aisling mumbled when Cillian moved away. She slunk in, ducked her head but gave her dad a sideways hug that was genuine.

“Thanks, baby,” he murmured against the top of her hair, obviously not caring it was greasy. He didn’t let her go far, keeping her close to his side with his arm around her shoulders, asking all of us. “Lobster Market, Breeze Point, the Boathouse or Tink’s?”

My choice was Lobster Market or the Boathouse because the former was wonderful and I’d never been to the latter but I’d heard it was good.

Cillian shouted, “Tink’s!” just as Aisling said, “Tink’s.” So even not voting, I was outvoted.

“Amy, babe?” Mickey asked me.

“Absolutely,” I replied. “Tink’s.”

Cillian raced toward my car, yelling, “I ride with Amy!”

Mickey turned his daughter around but did this stretching out a hand to me. I took it and Mickey got to walk with both his girls close as we made our way to our vehicles.

The only thing that happened during this brief trek was seeing the tall, good-looking sheriff Mickey had been talking to standing with his back to us between a car and an Explorer decorated in sheriff colors with a county sheriff insignia on the driver’s side door.

He was on his phone and I heard him asking tersely, “Trouble follow you from Denver?” and before whoever he was talking to could possibly reply, he demanded, “Answer me!”

I looked up at Mickey as we kept walking. He felt my eyes and gave his to me.

I lifted my brows.

He gave a shrug.

I let it go and we went to Tink’s, Cillian riding with me, Aisling riding with Mickey.

The burgers were again phenomenal.

But the place still scared me.

* * * * *

“Yeah. Right.” Pause. “Yeah, I get it. You forgot. That’s okay. I appreciate you showing.”

Mickey was pacing his room in nothing but a pair of pajama bottoms (these flannel also, but navy), his broad chest and cut abs bare.

Usually, I would watch this with great fascination.

But since I’d told him Rhiannon had come over and he was speaking with her while I sat cross-legged on his bed in one of my nighties, I decided to give them a modicum of privacy.

I did this tearing my eyes away from my guy, giving my attention to my own phone, and texting Robin.

Did you call Lawrie?

I sent that and then reached for the moisturizer Mickey bought me that was sitting on his nightstand.

I was rubbing it in when she texted back.

I finished rubbing before I grabbed my phone again and read,
Yes. He’s coming to town. Wants to get drinks.

My hand curled around my phone and I just stopped myself from pumping my arm in victory.

Instead I texted back.
Lovely, are you going?

To which she quickly replied,
Of course, he’s Lawrie.

Fabulous!

“Okay, Rhiannon. That’d be good. Like I told you this morning, the scene with Ash didn’t sit great with me,” Mickey said and I looked up at him. “Right. It’ll be good you do that.” Pause. “Okay. Later.”

He took the phone from his ear and sauntered around the bed to his nightstand.

I looked to my phone and swiftly texted,
Good. Have fun! Now going to bed. Talk to you later.

Then I looked to Mickey. “All that okay?”

He nodded. His phone was on his nightstand and he was throwing back the covers.

He got in, settled with his back to the headboard and gave his attention to me.

“Like I said after you told me she came ’round, I ended our détente this morning to give her the info on the scene with Ash. She says she’s also noticed the deterioration, came by to check in, talk to me, maybe speak with Ash. She forgot about the council meeting. Now she says, when she gets her back, she’s gonna give it a go.”

“That’s good,” I whispered, my phone chiming.

I looked to it and saw,
‘Night sweets. Cuddle your hottie for all the single ladies.

I grinned, set the phone on the nightstand, but stopped grinning when I turned back to Mickey.

“Have you seen the movie
Dogfight
?” I asked.

“Nope, it new?” he asked back then offered immediately, “You wanna see it?”

I adjusted myself so I was facing him fully, feeling my features soften at his offer but also in preparation for what I had to do. “No, baby, it’s an old movie. Ash has a movie poster for it on her wall.”

His eyes went unfocused before they refocused on me. “Try not to pay too much attention to her room. Place is a sty.”

It was and a strict-ish dad should probably do something about that but I didn’t address that.

I asked, “Do you know what a dogfight is?”

His brows drew together. “Everyone does, Amy.”

“No,” I replied quietly, leaning toward him putting my forearms in the bed between us. “A dogfight in regards to a nasty game a pack of boys play on a girl.”

His entire body stilled and his eyes started burning into me.

“You know,” I whispered.

“Do not fuckin’ tell me…” he trailed off like he couldn’t finish.

“I don’t know. I brought it up with Aisling, didn’t get very far. I asked if that movie spoke to her and she just said ‘obviously.’ I didn’t get more out of her before Cill interrupted us.”

Like the words were difficult to say, he ground out, “If some fuckwads played that game with her, you’re a chick, you think she’d have that poster on her wall?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. If it was me, no. I wouldn’t want the reminder. But, Mickey, in that movie, the boy falls in love with the girl. He goes to war and he comes back to her.”

“I’m not—”

“My fear, honey, is that she identifies with the plain, overweight girl in that movie and maybe looks at it in a twisted way as hope for her future. I’ll say that saying that the actress in that film is extraordinary and she was beautiful in so many ways. But my concern is, Ash doesn’t see
all
of them.”

“Been worried about her weight,” he muttered.

“Don’t. That’s not the issue,” I stated firmly. “She carries extra weight but not that much. And she’s pretty, she’s sweet. She’s a little shy, but it’s cute. And she’s probably
supremely
aware of her weight when she’s far from obese. You mentioning it at this juncture would not be a good thing. From you, she has to feel she’s nothing but beautiful no matter what. The issue is that’s one symptom in many and some of those include overall not caring about her appearance. For a girl her age, that concerns me. It isn’t that she has to cake on the makeup and spend an hour doing her hair every day. But I don’t think she’s showering, Mickey.”

“Yeah, me mentioning that was when things blew up last night,” he reminded me.

I nodded. “I hope Rhiannon can get through to her. But I’d like to hang out with you guys this weekend, just in case I have another shot.”

“Then you’re here, babe, happy for that for more than the fact you wanna look after my girl.”

I smiled at him.

He didn’t smile back but lifted his hand and sifted his finger through my bangs.

“You didn’t say much about meeting Rhiannon, Amy,” he noted after his hand dropped.

“It went fast and was a surprise for both of us,” I told him.

“And she was cool with you?” he asked, even though I’d already told him she was.

I nodded again.

“She’s worried about our girl,” he said. “Think that’s a good sign. Maybe she’s gettin’ her shit together.”

“Worry about your kids can kick a mom’s ass right into gear,” I reported.

That got me a grin. “Yeah.”

“If my crew can go through what they did and bounce back, Mickey, then really, anything can happen.”

His grin died as he repeated unconvincingly, “Yeah.”

“Yeah,” I stated more firmly.

He changed the subject.

“You gonna sit there all night like that, or you gonna get in bed with me?”

“Get in bed with you.”

“Then do it.”

I sat up. “You do know that kind of thing forced me to go on a date with the slimy Boston Stone.”

He stared at me and asked disbelievingly, “Now that shit’s my fault?”

“It was always your fault,” I retorted haughtily then I cried out when he reached out and yanked me to him.

I landed on his chest. He curved an arm around me as he rolled into me and yanked the covers from under me. He then flicked them over, moved to his back and turned out the light, then rolled my way and gave me his weight when he reached out to turn out mine.

He then arranged us tangled in the middle of the bed.

“I take it discussion of Boston Stone is over,” I remarked.

“That name said in this bed again gets my woman spanked.”

I shut up.

For a second.

Then I asked, “Can we finish this discussion in
my
bed?”

I heard the smile in his voice as he muttered, “Smartass.”

I smiled right into his chest as I cuddled there.

We were snuggled, quiet and I was drooping when Mickey called, “Amy?”

“Yeah, honey?”

“You find out boys did that to my girl, you don’t tell me that shit. You sort it. You dig deep in there with her and you dig it out. You get her to share it with her mother. But you do not bring that to me.”

I knew what he was saying.

“Mickey,” I whispered.

“She’s beautiful,” he stated.

“I know,” I replied.

“Gotta be responsible. That’d make me not be able to be responsible.”

Yes, I knew what he was saying.

“Okay, Mickey. But, just to say, honestly, I don’t think that poster would be on her wall if that actually happened.”

“Right,” he grunted.

“Right,” I repeated.

“Okay, Amy.”

“Let that go and go to sleep, baby.”

He drew in breath, drawing his arms closer around me as he did.

He let the breath go but not me.

“’Night, babe.”

I kissed his chest and replied, “Goodnight, Mickey.”

It took me a lot longer to get droopy because I spent a lot of time hoping in all that was happening with Rhiannon and Aisling that I hadn’t lied and the Donovan family could bounce back.

And be happy.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Luck o’ the Irish