I didn’t and not because I was avoiding him (which I also was) but because I completely forgot.
“I didn’t, Mickey,” I admitted. “I’m so sorry.”
He kept grinning. “No apologies, babe. Not lost on me your house has been a hub of activity the past week. But the kids and I had a troll through our place and thought we’d pop these by to do our bit.”
“And to get a cupcake.”
This came from one of the beings with him and I finally gave my attention to the boy and girl that were standing on either side of Mickey. Taking them in, I saw that Mickey and his ex-wife had flip-flopped what Conrad and I had created.
This included his daughter clearly being the oldest and looking a lot like her father, except female, shorter and very curvy to the point of being a little plump, still carrying what was probably some pre-adolescent baby fat.
His boy had dark blond hair, but luckily got his father’s blue eyes. He also had a body that had yet to declare its full intentions seeing as, at a guess, Mickey’s daughter was around thirteen or fourteen and his son was maybe ten or eleven.
“My girl, Aisling,” he said, jerking his head to the girl. “Said starting with the Ash, but spelled Irish with an a, i and s.” This came out practiced and I knew he’d given his girl a beautiful name but one many messed up. “Cillian, also spelled Irish,” he stated, jerking his head the other way, to the boy. “Spelled with a c not a k.”
“Got it,” I mumbled. “Ash with an a, i, s and kill. I’ll be certain to get that right on your Christmas card.” This made Mickey smile, Cillian grin and Aisling’s blue eyes twinkle like her dad’s. “How about the three of you come in, drop that and get a cupcake?” I invited.
“Awesome,” Cillian decreed and raced in, straight to the kitchen, something that caused a pang around my heart, most likely because I wished just one of my own children had done that.
“Thanks, uh…Miz…” Aisling said, allowing that to hang.
“Miz nothing,” I replied on a smile to her, moving out of the way. “I’m Amelia.”
She looked to her father as he shifted into the house, then nodded to me and followed him.
I closed the door behind them and repeated my invitation. “Help yourself to a cupcake. Or a bag of cookies if you prefer.”
Aisling wandered toward the kitchen.
“Just sayin’,” Mickey started and I looked to him to see he’d put the box on the floor at the lip of the top step to the sunken living room. “My kids aren’t allowed to call adults by their given names.”
“Oh,” I murmured, feeling rattled, thinking I’d put my foot in it.
“Not a big deal,” he said quietly and quickly, then came another of his easy grins. “She wouldn’t have called you Amelia anyway. She woulda probably avoided calling you anything until the go-ahead was given to call you Aunt Amelia, which is how they address their elders that they’re tight with.”
It would seem that Mickey was kind of strict with his kids.
I didn’t know how to take this outside of reminding myself it wasn’t mine to take in any way. So I just nodded.
“And also just sayin’,” he went on, talking lower, “you’ve worked your ass off, that’s plain to see.” He tossed a hand toward the room. “So we’ll unload this and tag it. Not cool for us to dump last minute shit on you.”
It felt good he noticed.
I still didn’t think it was healthy for him to hang around (this being healthy for me), so I assured him, “That’s very nice but I’ll be okay. Your box is small, it won’t take too long.”
He didn’t look assured and he didn’t look this for a while and this was because he did it studying me.
Then he asked, “You doin’ okay?”
I thought that was an odd question so I answered, “Sure.”
He kept studying me as he continued, “You eatin’?”
It was then I realized I hadn’t had anything except licking the spatula of cupcake batter since I had my Cream of Wheat that morning.
“I’m fine, Mickey,” I told him.
He didn’t stop studying me for several moments before he looked to the kitchen, murmuring, “It’ll be good this sale gets done, you can settle in and then relax.”
He was wrong.
I had been relaxing a good long while.
Now I needed to kick my own behind for a variety of reasons.
“Yes, it will,” I fibbed and kept on doing it. “When tomorrow’s done, it’ll all be good.”
“Help with that,” he stated. “Sunday, I’ll get in the food and the booze and you come over. I’ll fire up the grill, cook some brats, some chicken. You kick back with a beer and shoot the shit with me and my kids, get as loose as you want.” He awarded me another grin with dancing blue eyes, something I wanted at the same time I wished fervently he wouldn’t keep giving them to me. “You need me to pour you into my truck to drive you across the street at the end of the night, won’t be any skin off my nose.”
As good as his comment about my house smelling like heaven felt, that invitation felt the same amount of bad.
A bad I wasn’t allowed to feel.
A bad that I felt because no man who was interested in a woman in a certain way would bring his kids over to her house on the spur of the moment then invite her over for a Sunday cookout to “kick back” and “get loose.”
A man who was interested in a woman would carefully time and meticulously plan such meetings with progeny, and they would happen only after he knew he wanted the woman he was inviting to be invited again.
And again.
Until she stayed, maybe forever.
Or, at least, that was what I would do with my kids.
And that was what Conrad did with them. Unfortunately, when he started these endeavors, he’d still been married to me.
“Jesus, Amelia, you asleep on your feet?” Mickey asked and again I jerked to attention and focused on him.
“Sorry,” I said. “So sorry. I’ve got my mind on a million things.”
Before Mickey could reply, “I don’t know what to pick!” was shouted from the kitchen.
We both turned that way to see Cillian standing amongst the sprinkled cupcakes and bags of cookies looking like he’d just been let into Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory but hadn’t been given the go ahead to make a glutton of himself.
“Take whatever you want, Cillian,” I called.