I looked to him. “Probably. But if you ask me, I’m still going.”
Mickey appeared surprised before his attention turned to Auden who asked, “You fight?”
Mickey nodded. “Adult league.”
“Wow. Cool,” Auden murmured.
“I’m sooooo…totally…going to the junior league fights,” Pippa declared.
“You are?” I asked, stunned at her declaration.
“Totally,” she confirmed.
“Totally because she’s got a thing for Joe,” Auden muttered.
“Auden!” Pippa snapped.
My son raised his brows. “Do I not speak truth?”
“No,” she bit out.
Auden ducked his face to his plate, and before tossing a fry into his mouth, mumbled, “Full of it.”
Before Pippa could explode, I shared, “Met Joe at the league signups. He seems very nice.” I looked to my girl. “And very cute.”
Pink hit her cheeks and she looked away to concentrate on her meal.
“Too bad Polly’s got a thing for Joe too,” Auden added.
This did not make me feel good things, especially when Pippa’s head jerked Auden’s way.
“She does?”
Auden looked to his sister, to me, to Mickey then said to Olympia, “She’s kinda big on anything you’re big on.”
They were friends. That would be the case.
However, this should not include boys.
Pip looked a little startled, a little confused as she turned her attention back to her plate and before I could wade in and change the subject, Mickey, clearly noticing Pippa’s discomfiture as well, did it for me.
“So, Auden, you gonna be a doctor like your dad or you thinkin’ you got other plans?”
This was so smooth, his mention of Conrad in a casual way, no nastiness, not even a tinge of ugly to his tone, I wanted to grab his head, yank him to me and kiss him.
Both kids caught it too. I knew it when both looked his way appearing surprised.
But Auden, my good boy, followed Mickey’s lead and went with it.
“Dad’s job is awesome but I’m not thinking it’s for me. My uncle Lawrie let me observe him in court once, and he ruled. It was freaking cool. So I don’t know, I got some time to decide, but I might be an attorney.”
Mickey gave no indication he comprehensively disliked that profession and replied, “Big plans. You already thinking of colleges?”
Auden answered his question and thus began easy chatting while eating that Mickey skillfully guided, mostly with the kids showing he was interested in them in a natural way that wasn’t nosy or eager to please.
As for me, I ate, listened to the casualness of their getting to know each other and just felt the happy.
I was feeling this when I also felt Mickey’s knee brush my knee and I turned my head his way.
His lips hitched up very slightly but it was his eyes that were communicating.
They said, See? It’s going fine.
I pressed my knee against his and hoped I gave him the message back that I agreed and it was making me happy.
Dinner done, the kids cleared and rinsed the dishes, putting them in the dishwasher as Mickey got out the dessert plates and I got out the apple pie and ice cream.
Conversation was still flowing but it was at this juncture that it occurred to me that Mickey inserting himself into dinner activities rather than sitting on a stool, drinking beer and being removed, was another skillful move. He’d been to my house often. He was welcome at my house any time I could get him there. I couldn’t say we made dinner together or ate together there but he really wasn’t a guest in my home. He was part of my life and thus part of my home.
And he didn’t cast himself in the role of guest in my home when my children were present either. Something they couldn’t miss and something that again Mickey made easy.
I was grinning to myself at how smart Mickey was when his phone in his jeans pocket rang.
I didn’t think much of this, didn’t even look at him until I felt the shiver trill down my spine.
My head snapped his way to see his focus completely on his phone, his lips muttering, “Sorry, gotta take this,” and his legs moving him out of the kitchen.
I had one eye on Mickey wandering across the landing, one hand on the handle of the knife I was pulling out of the block and half a mind on my daughter who was asking me, “Mom, you want me to nuke the caramel sauce?” when Mickey stopped, turned and started back our way.
“Right. There in ten,” he stated, took his phone from his ear and looked to me. “Gotta go, babe. Fire on the jetty.”
My body stilled completely.
Mickey’s didn’t. His long legs brought him in my space where he bent quick, hand cupped on the back of my head to tilt it, and he brushed his lips against mine so briefly, it was a memory while it was happening.
“Sorry,” he muttered.
“That’s okay,” I forced out.
He let me go and looked between the kids. “Sorry to cut this short. Good meal. Cool to meet you.”
“No probs,” Auden replied as Mickey moved swiftly to the door. “Cool to meet you too.”
“Be safe!” my daughter, far more together than me, called as the door was closing on Mickey.
I stared at the door.
There in ten.
I kept staring at the door.
Fire on the jetty.
“Mom, you okay?”
Mickey was off to fight a fire on the jetty.
“Hey, Mom, you okay?”
I blinked and saw Pippa in my space.
“There’s a fire on the jetty,” I whispered and watched my daughter watching me and then I saw her face twist.
Fear.
For Mickey, maybe.
For me, that was the bigger possibility.
I’d proved to both my kids that I couldn’t handle extreme situations.
She thought I was going to lose it.
So I had to pull myself together for a variety of reasons.
For my daughter, who, like my son possibly was with his father, had me to look to to learn how to cope with life and all it could throw at you.
For Mickey, who loved being a firefighter and wanted me in his life so I had to prove I had it in me to deal when something like this happened. He fought fires. He didn’t need to do it at the same time worried his woman was at home falling apart with worry.
And for my son, who possibly was manning up, thinking he had to take care of his mom, and who also didn’t need to worry about his mother falling apart.
Mickey was trained. Mickey was experienced. Mickey had done this before.