He was forty-three. She was thirty-eight.

He’d done it before and he was almost through it with only minor bumps along the way for the kids, the only major one being their parents’ divorce.

He looked to Reesee smiling up at Fin as he murmured something to her Mike couldn’t hear. Then he looked to No who was bumping fists with Joaquin, one or the other of them had apparently done well at the game.

His eyes went back to Dusty to see she’d leaned deeper into Adriana, she had her hand wrapped around the side of the little girl’s head and she was pressing their foreheads together while they both giggled softly about something.

He raised two great kids even doing it mostly alone.

Watching Dusty, suddenly he was looking forward to doing the same thing but together. With her.

His eyes shifted from his woman to the door to see Layla out there going nuts.

“Reesee, beautiful, go let Layla in before she explodes,” he called.

Reesee looked at him and called back, “Sure, Daddy,” but it wasn’t her who headed to the door. It was Fin.

Christ, who would have thought Finley Holliday would be a gentleman.

Fuck.

Smiling at the same time shaking his head, he turned to walk upstairs to change.

* * *

Wednesday late night…


“Mike, honey, uh…maybe you’re not in the state right now to make that decision.”

This was Dusty. They were in bed after dinner, after the Riveras had gone to their hotel, after his kids had gone to bed and after sex. He was mellow. They’d had a good time that night. For some reason Mike did not get, No loved Swank’s, a high end restaurant in Indianapolis. For the past three years, Mike had been taking him and Reesee there even though they had to dress up and it cost half a fortune, this year with everyone there and Mike firm on paying for them all, a full one. No got it once a year so it was a once a year hit Mike was willing to take for his boy on his birthday.

And Mike had just told Dusty that when she was ready to try for a baby he was ready to talk about it.

He was on his back. She was pressed to his side but her torso was angled up and she was looking down at him.

“In what state?” he asked.

“This is a big day for you,” she said quietly.

“How’s that?”

“No turned seventeen. This is on the heels of all that’s gone down with Rees. They’re getting older and fast. That’s gonna make you feel –”

Before she said something that might piss him off, he did an ab curl, rolling into her and switching their positions, taking her to her back. At the same time, he lifted a hand and cupped her jaw, his thumb resting lightly on her lips.

“Stop right there, darlin’,” he ordered softly. “Yeah, I’ll admit, comin’ home tonight, I felt what you’re sayin’. But comin’ home tonight, I also heard Adriana laughin’, I saw you with her and I liked what I saw. I’m not sayin’ you need to go off the pill tomorrow. I’m sayin’ I know you want this, seein’ you with Adriana it’s come to my understanding I want this with you so when you’re ready, we’ll talk so we can plan.”

Her eyes were wide and her lips moved against his thumb so he slid it away while she said, “You want this with me?”

“Yeah.”

“So it’s not just you giving me what I want, it’s you wanting it too?”

He grinned and repeated, “Yeah.”

She studied him closely and asked softly, “Sure?”

He dipped his head and against her lips whispered, “Yeah.”

Her arms slid around him and he felt her lips smile against his while he watched up close her eyes doing the same.

He brushed his mouth against hers and lifted his head away an inch as she held his eyes and whispered back, “Then we need to plan.”

She wanted a kid and she wanted to start now. He wasn’t surprised. Dusty knew what she wanted and when she did she wasn’t one to fuck around.

“Right,” he replied gently. “Then this is the thing. I want more time just you and me. Not years but some time. And I’m not plantin’ a baby in you if you aren’t wearin’ my rings and don’t have my name so our baby has our name.”

Her eyebrows drew together and she told him, “Our baby would have your name anyway.”

“That’s not what I said. We bring a kid into this world, our baby will have our name.”

Her brow relaxed but her teeth bit her upper lip for a second.

Mike did not take that as a good sign and he’d know why when she stated, “I was, um…so you’re talking marriage?”

Fuck.

“Uh…yeah. That is the next step, Angel.”

Her face went soft and she whispered, “Right. I like that.”

“Well, good,” Mike muttered and her lips twitched.

“But, the thing is, I was thinking of keeping my name. I kinda like it but also in my business I’m known by it.”

“I don’t care what you need to do for you, for the rest of the world, for your business. In this ‘Burg, this house and for our family, you’ll be a Haines.”

Her brows drew together again. “What?”

“Women use two names all the time. One for business, one for personal and family shit. You need to be a Holliday for business and out there in the world, fine. Whatever you need. In this house, in this ‘Burg and with our family, you’re a Haines.”

She held his eyes then she said quietly, “I could do that.”

He was glad since she didn’t have a choice.

He didn’t inform her of that.

“Good,” he muttered again.

She grinned.

Then her grin faded but her gaze on him grew warm and intense when she whispered, “Are you asking me to marry you, honey?”

“No, I’m tellin’ you by the end of this year you’ll be wearing my rings, bearing my name and, probably, pregnant with my baby.”

Her gaze was no less warm and intense but her lips twitched again.

“So you said we’d plan but actually what you meant was that you already have it planned.”

“Yep,” he agreed.

He felt her body start shaking against his.

“You got a problem with any of that?” he asked.

She shook her head and forced out a vibrating with humor, “No.”

“Good,” Mike muttered.

One of her arms disengaged from around him, her hand sliding around his lat, in, up his chest to curl around his neck and even as she chuckled she lifted up and touched her mouth to his.

When she fell back to the pillows, her fingers at his neck gave him a squeeze and her humor was gone but the warmth remained.

“I love you, babe,” she whispered.

“Love you too, Angel,” Mike whispered back.

“Now I need my nightie and panties and you need to go get Layla from No.”

Mike nodded, bent his neck, kissed her throat and rolled away. Then he grabbed her nightie and undies and handed them to her. As she was shimmying them on, he tugged up his pajamas.

Then he went to get his dog.

Then he closed them in and, like every night, the three of them fell asleep in the six thousand dollar bed he’d fucking hated for years but for the last two months he fucking loved.

* * *

Thursday early evening…


Mike walked into Mimi’s and, to his surprise, he saw Audrey sitting at the back corner table. She had a mug of coffee in front of her and that was it. No white bag. No coffee for him. No sitting at a window to show to anyone who passed they were having a sit down.

He strode directly to her. She’d seen him arrive and she’d gone for her purse right after. She was digging through it when he made it to the table.

Out of habit, his eyes went to the words scratched into the table he’d seen time and again. Feb’s Spot, sit here and die. Before Colt and Feb reunited, Colt’s wife spent a lot of time here and she sat at that table. Mimi’s kids were terrors, they loved their Aunt Feb and they went about making sure she always had her favorite spot. Mike thought it was hilarious. He doubted Mimi felt the same but still, it had been years and she’d never replaced that table or sanded it out.

Mike pulled out the chair opposite Audrey and folded into it.

Her eyes went from her purse to him.

“Hey,” he greeted.

“Hey,” she greeted back, put a rectangular piece of paper on the table and slid it to him. “I know you’re busy. So you can just take that. It’s for Rees’s school.”

Mike felt his brow furrow and he looked down to see the paper was a check. His hand came up, his fingers shifting it around on the table so it faced him then he stared down at it, his eyes now narrowed.

It was for fifteen thousand five hundred dollars.

What the fuck?

His eyes cut back to Audrey.

“What the fuck?” he whispered.

“Like I said, for Rees’s school,” she answered. “I talked with Mrs. Layne. She said tuition for that school up in Chicago, the one that she thinks will suit Clarisse better, is fourteen thousand dollars a semester and that doesn’t include the room and board. She gets in, I’ll pay the first semester and the rest is for supplies or living quarters or whatever. We can, um…figure out how to split the rest of her living expenses. Then you can pay the second semester and I’ll see what I can do for the year after that.”

Mike stared at her hard. “Where did you get this money?”

She licked her lips, her head shifted strangely on her neck for a second then she locked eyes with him and answered, “I sold the Mercedes this week. I got a secondhand Hyundai. And since we sat down with Clarisse and Mrs. Layne I’ve been putting things on on-line auctions, selling shoes, handbags, stuff that…uh, you got me. They, well…I took care of them so they sold well. I have some other stuff to sell but I’m setting that aside to do it when it’s my turn again to cover her tuition.”