by Josie Kerr
Ashley’s eyes got wide. “You what?”
“I’m going to ask her to marry me,” Mick repeated. He looked at Ashley, who just stood there in the hallway, her mouth open in shock, and fidgeted with the hem of his shirt. “Is that not a good idea?”
Ashley squealed and jumped on him with enough force to knock him back into the wall. “Mick, that’s the best idea ever!” She hugged the big man to her tightly, tears welling up in her eyes.
Suddenly she pulled back. “This isn’t just because she got hurt, is it? Because if you change your mind about any of this, each and every one of the Richards will kick your ass, and I’ll be the first.”
Mick chuckled again. “No, Ashley. I already have the ring. I...was going to ask her this evening, when I got the house. I stopped on the way to buy flowers for her.” He shook his head. “If I hadn’t stopped to get the flowers....”
“Mick, there’s no good to come from second guessing this, okay? The important thing is that you love Em!”
“I do, Ashley. Since she doesn’t have any family, I thought I would talk to you about it.”
Ashley’s lip quivered. “Oh, Mick. You’re such a good man,” she sniffled. “You give her so much that her parents didn’t even give her. I’ve waited so long for this.”
Mick frowned. He’d thought that Em’s relationship with her parents had been pretty good. Sure, maybe not the most affectionate, but not neglectful.
Seeing Mick’s face cloud, Ashley explained with a sigh.
“Em’s parents...were different, you know? Almost cold. They just expected her to excel. They didn’t punish her when she didn’t, but they sure as hell didn’t celebrate any of the fantastic things she did when she was in school because they just assumed she was going to achieve them. So any awards or recognition she received, she didn’t celebrate.
“I remember when she got first place at in the spelling bee. It was my mother who baked her a cake and told her ‘good job.’ Did you know she was valedictorian? And a National Merit finalist?”
Mick shook his head. “No, I had no idea about the valedictorian, but Johnny just mentioned the National Merit finalist thing.”
“Neither did anybody else really. Her parents told her it was ‘unbecoming to boast about your achievements.’ The worst thing you could do, in their minds, was make a spectacle of yourself. Em internalized that message to the extreme. I know you think she’s special, Mick. You need to make sure everybody knows how special she is. She deserves this.”
“You’re right, Ashley,” agreed Mick, a plan beginning to form in his head. “That’s the least she deserves.”
“Oi, what are you two doing out in the hallway, gossiping like old ladies?” Rory appeared from around the corner, his hand now encased in a small splint.
Mick shook his head. “What’s the deal with that, Rory?” he asked, nodding at his friend’s injured hand.
“Ah, I can’t get the cast until the swelling goes down, so it’ll be a couple of days. It’s not like I’ve never broken my hand before.” He shrugged.
“Last time you broke your hand, it almost cost you your piano playing, Rory.”
Ashley’s mouth dropped open. “What the hell did you do, Rory?”
Rory cringed. “I punched the brick wall of the fight club because Da wouldn’t let me beat Mick’s arse.”
Ashley pursed her lips and tapped her toe, waiting for the rest of the story.
Mick took mercy on his friend. “I got his sister pregnant. He didn’t take very kindly to it.”
“Oh, God, I don’t even want to think about what my brothers would do to someone who got me pregnant,” she said with a shudder and laugh.
Rory cringed and looked ill, and Ashley just laughed harder.
“When do they think Em can come home?” Ashley asked, changing the subject back to the reason they were all in the hallway at the hospital.
“Probably tomorrow morning, but it will be a while before she can go back to work, at least in the office. Probably good that she wasn’t really on a project.”
“About that, Mick. I’ve got some news for you.”
Chapter 41
“Are you ready?” she asked, smoothing Mick’s shirt over his broad chest.
“I’ve been ready for this for 30 years, Em.”
“Let’s go, then.”
They walked hand-in-hand into the little diner where she and Colin had had their first meeting.
Mick and Colin had spoken on the phone several times over the previous weeks but this was the first time that they were seeing each other face-to-face since that day so many years before. Colin’s father, Duke, was also meeting them.
Mick sat in the booth, alone. They had agreed that only family members should meet initially, but now Mick was second guessing that decision. He needed Em here. His phone chimed.
You’re going to do great. I love you.
He smiled at Em’s message and blew out a breath.
He saw them walk into the diner. Good grief, that kid is huge. Mick, at 6’6 and 200 pounds, was lean. Colin had two inches and 60 pounds of solid muscle on his older brother.
The sight of the man at Colin’s side made Mick’s breath catch. Duke was the only one of his mother’s lovers who had ever taken the time to acknowledge Mick. Mick looked from Colin’s face to Duke’s, noticing that they shared a nose. They probably shared a hair color as well, though Duke’s hair was now white.
Mick wiped his hands on his jeans and stood up and out from the booth. The three men searched each other’s faces, seeking similarities and differences.
Mick stuck his hand out awkwardly.
“Now, son, that is hardly an appropriate greeting,” rasped Duke in his drawl, and he grabbed Mick around the shoulder and held him in a bear hug. Tears coursed down Mick’s cheeks and he looked over at Colin to see the same mirrored on the younger man’s face. Colin stepped into Mick and his father, and clasped them both around the shoulders. The waitresses gawked at the three huge men hugging and crying in the middle of the diner. When the men broke their embrace, they were all smiles and booming laughs as they sat down in the booth.
“Where’s your girl?” Duke asked when they had gotten their drinks. “I want to meet the woman who was able track my family down.”
“She was giving us some space, Duke, but I’d like her to join us.”
“She’d better join us,” Colin said. “She’s responsible for this meeting.”
Mick chuckled and proceeded to call Em. He heard her familiar ringtone phone jingling from the back, and Em emerged from the back of the restaurant.
“I couldn’t not see y’all’s first meeting,” she admitted sheepishly.
Duke stood up from the booth, towering over Em. Em blinked up at him and he swept her up in a hug. Em hugged him back, as hard as she could, grinning and sniffling. Duke finally set her down and they both slid back into the booth.
Colin frowned when he looked at Em. “What happened to you?” he said, his eyes sweeping over her bruised face.
“Oh….” Em stammered. Mick squeezed her hand and quickly recounted the events of the previous week.
“Is that Tripp guy in jail?” Colin asked.
Em nodded.
“Good. Mick, I don’t know how you didn’t go beat his ass,” Colin said.
Mick merely grunted. Em didn’t know about his little visit to Tripp’s hospital room and near arrest. The only reason he wasn’t in jail is because Ashley’s brother had stepped in.
“So. Now what?”
“I think we should eat. Colin over there looks like he’s going to blow away,” Mick laughed.
They sat in the booth for most of day, eating all three meals at the diner and talking about what had happened during the previous 30 years.
They met at the diner again the next day. The day after that, they went to Colin’s apartment, where Duke made them dinner and they continued to talk through the hours.
The three reunited men stayed a week in Wisc
onsin, with Em sometimes staying at the hotel and working, and sometimes joining them. Her heart was so full when she saw them together, the two brothers sharing so many mannerisms.
On their last night, at Colin’s apartment, Em caught Duke looking at his two boys, as he called them, with a bit of sadness in his eyes.
“How long do you have?” Em said as she slipped an arm around the older man.
“You’re very observant, young lady,” Duke chuckled. He then grew serious. “Six months maybe, give or take. But who knows. The doctors said I had six weeks, and that was a year and half ago. Colin says I’m too stubborn for anyone to tell me what to do.”
Em nodded.
“He looks so much like her. It’s uncanny,” Duke said, somewhat wistfully. “He’s got her height and hair, sure, but those eyes? Those eyes are 100 percent Moira. Those eyes could pierce you to your very soul.”
“You loved her, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I did. She was broken, as I’m sure you know, but I loved her anyway, or at least I thought so at the time. Now, I’m not so sure. I think I just wanted a family and Moira and Mickey were right there and ready, or at least Mickey was ready. Moira definitely wasn’t. I had asked her to marry me, let me adopt Mick.”
“What?” gasped Em. “Does Mick know this?”
Duke shook his head. “He didn’t until this visit. Honestly, I debated even telling him, but ultimately, I needed him to know that I didn’t forget him or abandon him.”
“So what happened, exactly? Mick is very vague, but I don’t think it’s his usual reticence. I really don’t think he knows.”
Duke coughed out a mirthless laugh. “Hell if I know what happened, either. I asked Moira to marry me and gave her a couple of days to mull it over. I remember going to their little house, and finding it completely empty. She just up and disappeared, taking Mickey with her. I always wondered where they went.” Duke swallowed hard, overcome with emotion for a second.
“When Moira called me to come get Colin, I was shocked. I didn’t even know I had a son. I got the next flight up there. I asked about Mickey, but she said he was ‘lost to her.’ I tried to find out where he was, but because I wasn’t his father, the powers that be wouldn’t tell me jack squat. The first thing Colin asked me when we got in the car that afternoon was if we were going to get Mickey. It broke my heart. He loved his brother so much. I’ll never forgive myself for not finding him.”
Em didn’t say anything, because really, what was there to say? She bumped against Duke’s hip and he put his arm around her, and they watched the two brothers, sitting across from one another, each one’s posture mirroring the other.
*****
That night, Mick was even quieter than usual. He sat on the balcony, smoking like he wasn’t supposed to do, and thought about everything he learned on this trip.
He had been surprised that Duke had kept tabs on his mother, even after she gave up Colin. Duke had claimed that he wanted Colin to be able to have a relationship with her if he ever decided he wanted one, and to hopefully get in touch with Mick. Mick had suspicions that Duke just wanted to make sure that he and Colin weren’t blindsided yet again.
Mick hadn’t been surprised at all that Moira was dead, but he was at how affected emotionally he was at hearing the news. Apparently Duke had paid for Moira’s cremation and internment and had even gone up to St. John’s, though Colin had refused to go. Mick didn’t know what he would have done if he had known.
Hell, he couldn’t lie to himself. He’d have gone up there in a heartbeat just to confirm that she was dead in the ground, or in an urn, in her case.
Mick lit another cigarette from the one he’d just finished and put the used butt in his soda can.
“You know you’re going to be fined out the ass for smoking up here,” Em said, stepping up behind him and placing a soft hand on the back of his neck.
“The smoking area is directly below us; it’ll be fine. And if not, I’ll pay the fee.” Mick pulled her hand from his neck and kissed the palm, then pressed his cheek into it. Leaning his head back to look at her, he said, “Thank you for coming with me.”
She patted his chest with her free hand. “I was honored that you asked me, Mick. I’m just glad you’ve gotten a chance to reconnect with them.”
Em ran her fingers through Mick’s hair, massaging his scalp and temples. Mick closed his eyes and reveled in the comfort of her firm, yet gentle, touch.
“He’s dying, you know,” Mick said after a long pause.
“I know. My mother had that same look.”
“How’d you do it, Em? How did you stand to watch her fade away?” Tears leaked out of his eyes. He had just gotten Duke back, and how he was losing him all over again.
“You just do it, Mick. You breathe in and out. You say goodbye.”
“Colin would like us to come to Vegas for his fight on New Year’s Eve: you, me, and Duke. Would you be up for that?”
“No,” Em said, carefully. “And let me explain before you start balking. Duke already mentioned it. I think the three of you need this for yourselves. I’ll stay at home with Colin’s biggest fan.”
Mick had to laugh at that. Ashley had completely lost it when she found out that Mick’s baby brother, Colin, was, in fact, Bren Carmichael. She could have broken the sound barrier with her high-pitched squealing.
“We’ll talk about this more later, Em,” Mick said sternly, stubbing out his cigarette and disposing of the butt.
“Okay, Michael,” mimicked Em in the same tone. “But I’m going to win this argument.”
Mick barked a laugh. She probably would win. She was as stubborn as he was.
She patted his chest again. “I think you need to hop in the shower and come to bed, sugar. Let me take care of you tonight.”
Chapter 42
“Sweet Janey Mac, that’s the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen,” muttered Mick. “Em will love it.”
He looked at what Em had called a “beautiful example of a Depression-era Carnival glass lemonade set,” but he just saw four ugly glasses and an even uglier pitcher.
“Isn’t it stunning?” the shop clerk asked, who went on to gush about the rich color and to point out the various aspects of the lemonade set that made it so special.
“It’s definitely…something,” Mick agreed. “I’d like to purchase it.”
The lemonade set in his possession, Mick made his way home.
He’d hoped that the set wasn’t too much. Em had been eyeing it for weeks, but couldn’t bring herself to actually buy it. Most of her beloved glassware had been destroyed when Tripp pulled his little stunt, and Mick knew she missed it.
He hurriedly wrapped the gift, knowing that Em was going to be popping down soon for their early Christmas celebration. Duke had gone downhill rapidly after their reunion in Wisconsin, so Mick had decided to spend the holiday with Colin and Duke.
“Knock, knock,” Em called as she bustled in the front door. She paused to give Mick a kiss on the cheek and then continued into the kitchen to set down her bags. She pulled out a brightly wrapped, be-bowed package and set it on the coffee table.
“That’s for you,” she said with a wink. “You can try to guess what it is.” Mick grinned.
He picked up the package. It was very light and didn’t shift when he shook it, but he heard a small rattle. He frowned. He had absolutely no idea what it was.
Em grinned at him as he scowled at the gift. “Can you guess?”
“No idea, ducky. I’m totally stumped,” Mick said. “I like it. Your gift is over here, but I’m not going to let you shake it.”
Em stuck her lip out in a pretend-pout, but soon grinned. She set a tray of finger food down on the coffee table and plopped down next to Mick.
“You ready to go see Colin and Duke?” she asked, popping a canapé in his mouth. Mick nodded.
“You sure you don’t want to come with me? I know the guys would love to see you.”
“You need to see them by y
ourself. Spend some quality time with them.”
“Colin asked me to stay with Duke through his fight. Duke’s not up to traveling to Vegas.”
“You definitely need to do that, Mick.”
“What about you? I don’t want to leave you alone for the holidays.”
Em shrugged. “It’s not like this is the first holiday I’ve spent alone. I’ll be fine.”
Mick looked skeptical but wasn’t going to argue with her, at least tonight. “How about we open gifts now?”
Em squealed in delight and thrust Mick’s present back into his hands. “You first!”
Mick opened the gift carefully, not really wanting to tear the thick paper. Em’s eyes danced with excitement. When he pulled off the top of the box, he laughed. A paperclip sat on top of the record albums.
“The rattle,” he said, shaking his head. “You’re a sneaky thing, Em. I love them. Where on Earth did you find these?” Mick pulled the vinyl records out of the box: the entire 2 Tone Records catalogue.
“Oh, here and there,” she said. Em must have scoured every used record store in every city she visited.
“Thank you,” he murmured and kissed her sweetly on the lips. “Now you.”
Mick lifted the heavy box to the coffee table. Em narrowed her eyes. “And I can’t shake it?”
“Nope. Just open it, love.”
Em pulled open the paper with a grin, and then her mouth dropped open. “How did you remember this? We saw this set months ago!” Mick just grinned in answer.
“I love it, Mick! Oh, I love it!” she exclaimed.
Em lifted up the pitcher to more closely examine it. “Oh, it’s so beautiful. Thank you, Mick.”
“Merry Christmas, Em,” Mick whispered.
“Merry Christmas.”
They sat on the couch for the rest of the evening, snacking and kissing and listening to Christmas carols and then kissing some more. Mick twirled a piece of her hair in his fingers and gazed at her.
“I’ve got something else for you, if you think you’re up for it,” he said softly.
