Soaring (Magdalene #2)(130)
He burst out laughing.
“Do I speak truth?” I asked.
His brows shot up. “You’d be happy with six inches?”
“I was happy with less than that for sixteen years so I guess the answer is yes.”
He kept laughing but started doing it so hard the bed shook.
In the face of his hilarity, I started grinning and said, “It was amusing, honey, but not that amusing.”
He sobered but not entirely, and replied, “Knew that guy had a small dick.”
“Without extensive study, I would hazard to guess that it was average and you’re…not.”
He kept smiling, doing it big, as he returned, “Guess I can give you somethin’ else you can only get from me.”
“Like you didn’t know you were endowed,” I scoffed.
“Never got out a ruler and do my best not to compare.”
“Guys do that all the time,” I told him.
“Uh…no they don’t,” he told me. “And I’m in a rare situation where a guy is doin’ that shit, he gets a look from me he knows if he doesn’t mind his own f*ckin’ business, he’s gonna find his nasal passages at the back of his skull.”
My focus shifted to his ear as I mumbled, “I find this interesting.”
“You thought guys stood around comparing dicks?”
I focused back on him. “Actually, yes.”
He grinned at me. “My heiress and her perverted fantasies about guys comparing dicks.”
“It’s not a fantasy, Mickey.”
“Good you got one that’s a winner.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Can we stop talking about this?”
Suddenly, he pulled me close to his face and sobered entirely.
“I’ll try my best not to be a dick, not to bring it up, not to hurt your feelings or make you worry about it. I hate that I made somethin’ good you did that you were excited about, that I should have been excited about, into a fight. I may stumble along the way, Amy, but you got my word I’ll work on it.”
That, just that, was all I needed.
I melted into him, glided my hand to his jaw and slid my thumb along his lower lip, replying, “All I can ask, honey.”
He pulled me even closer, touched his lips to mine and then pushed me an inch away.
“Clean up,” he ordered quietly. “Get in one of your nighties and come back to me. Need sleep.”
“Okay, Mickey.”
I bent and gave him my own touch before I lifted up and again glided my thumb over his lower lip. After that, I rolled off, cleaned up, donned a nightgown and went back to him.
Mickey turned out the lights and tangled himself up in me.
I was almost asleep when Mickey mumbled, “My heiress thinks men compare dicks.”
My eyes shot open and I snapped drowsily at his throat, “Stop teasing me when I’m half-asleep.”
He gathered me closer. “You got it, baby.”
I sighed loudly, closed my eyes, snuggled into his heat and fell asleep tangled up in Mickey.
Chapter Twenty-One
Stamp Me Approved
“Truth be told!” Mrs. Porter shrieked at the TV.
“Jesus, what is that?” Lawrie asked in my ear as I moved away from the lounge at Dove House with my phone.
“Mrs. Porter. Wheel of Fortune.” I shared. “She got it on only the r.”
“Impressive,” he replied. “But are your ears bleeding?”
I grinned. “Since they got a TV they can actually see, Wheel of Fortune gets extreme. And you don’t want to be anywhere near the lounge during Jeopardy.”
I heard Lawrie chuckling.
My grin turned into a smile as I got into a much quieter hall, leaned against a wall between two residents’ rooms and gave him my attention.
“Why are you calling, big brother?”
“The invitation still stands, I’m coming for Thanksgiving.”
I felt joy.
Then I felt fear.
“Mariel?” I asked.
“Only me.”
I felt more fear. “Not the boys?”
“It’s time they got used not having me around, even on special occasions.”
Oh no.
“Lawrie,” I whispered. “Marriage counselling isn’t working?”
“Our counselor never touches us,” he told me. “Never even looks like she’s going to. Last session, she grabbed Mariel’s hand for no purpose except, my guess, to see if she had a pulse.”
I didn’t laugh. His words were funny but the tone he delivered them in was not amusing.
I pushed away from the wall and wandered further down the hall saying, “I’m so sorry.”
“I wanted to know.”
I stopped and braced because now he was being quiet but fierce.
“Wanted to know what, honey?” I asked softly.
“What went wrong,” he answered instantly. “What I was doing that took her away from me. I wanted to know. I didn’t care what it was. How big. How small. How petty. If she’d mentioned some bracelet she had to have that I didn’t notice she’d asked for and I didn’t get her. If she was hurt I stopped telling her she was beautiful. I wanted to know so I could change it. I wanted to know what took away the girl I fell in love with so I could get her back. The girl who made me laugh. The girl who’d ruin a complicated soufflé and toss it in the trash without giving that first shit and pull out Chips Ahoy and slather them in Cool Whip for dessert. Rather than that being something that heralded an ice storm the boys and me would have to endure for a week. The girl who wanted nothing more than to stay in bed naked all day with me. I wanted to know how she became our mother. I wanted to know why she surpassed that until we had nothing.”