Soaring (Magdalene #2)(141)

We all hopped to, moving around the kitchen doing our assigned tasks. While Mickey and Pip did theirs, he asked how she was liking high school and that was all he had to do. In mile-a-minute speak, Pippa answered, telling him even more than what I knew about how she felt about high school (in summary, it was awesome).

We got dinner together and were seated, Mickey at the end of the bar, me, Auden and Pippa down the front, and Mickey told my son that I’d told him Auden wrestled.

“Yeah,” Auden confirmed.

“You any good?” Mickey asked.

“Made all-county and won regionals last year,” Auden answered, his tone bordering between proud and humble.

My good son.

“You’re good,” Mickey muttered, took a forked-up bite of his pulled chicken sandwich (the only way you could eat it since it was piled high with cheese and slaw). He swallowed and his eyes slid to me. “And this is good.”

I grinned at him. “Thanks, honey.”

He gave me a moment to take in his eyes dancing before he looked back to Auden. “Obviously, you’re gonna wrestle again this year.”

“Yeah,” Auden replied. “We’ve already started conditioning.” He looked at me and teased, “You don’t have to come, Mom.”

I rolled my eyes at him and shoved a forkful of sandwich in my mouth.

“Why wouldn’t you go?” Mickey asked me.

“Mom hates wrestling,” Auden answered for me.

I quickly chewed, swallowed and denied, “I don’t hate wrestling. I just hate watching people wrestle my son.”

“It’s a sport. No one gets hurt,” Auden returned.

“I know,” I replied, falling into a conversation we’d had several times before. “But I’m a mom. This is a feeling you’ll never feel so you’ll never understand it so you just have to let me feel it and deal.”

“I usually pin them,” Auden pointed out.

“This, and the fact you’re my son and I’d go even if you didn’t, is why it doesn’t drive me totally crazy. Just borderline crazy.”

Auden shook his head, his lips quirking.

“You don’t like your kid wrestling, you’re gonna be a basket case at my fights,” Mickey remarked.

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.