Love, Always and Forever

by Alexis Morgan

  He could just imagine how Jack and Caitlyn would react if he made that offer. “It’s not up to me, kid. Ask your parents.”

  The boy’s shoulders slumped in defeat. “I did. They said I had to go. They also said your mom was excited that the entire family would be there. She even bought some new shoes that she says will be comfortable for all the dancing she plans to do with the men in the family. How come that doesn’t include you?”

  “Because they know I might have to work.”

  But he already knew that he didn’t, so the trap was closing in on him. “But if I don’t have to cover a shift, I’ll be there.”

  “So are you going to ask Amy to come with you?”

  He wasn’t ready to answer that question. “Tell Tino I’ll let him know in a couple of days.”

  Ricky immediately shook his head. “No can do. He and Natalie have to have a firm head count by tomorrow afternoon at the latest.”

  “Fine. Tell him I’ll text him my answer in the morning.”

  Suddenly, any desire to keep working in the yard disappeared. Even with only Ricky there, he was feeling crowded, cornered, and in desperate need of some alone time. He dumped the last bag of mulch on the flower bed and made a halfhearted effort to spread it out.

  “Ricky, it’s quitting time. Go wash up and then you can head on home.”

  “But—”

  Mikhail cut his nephew off mid-protest. “I’ll still pay you for the full day. It’s not your fault I ran out of”—patience, energy, interest, control—“compost. I don’t feel like picking up another load this late in the day.”

  Not that it was much past noon. “While I’m thinking about it, would you be willing to come spend a little time with Sarge on the days I have to work this week? If you could walk him, feed him, and hang out for a while, I’d really appreciate it. Just keep track of the hours, and I’ll pay you when I see you again.”

  “Sure thing. If it’s okay with my folks, I’ll come straight from school and do my homework here to keep him company.”

  “Sounds good.”

  They headed into the garage to put the tools away. As they stepped into the shady interior, another of his late father’s lectures rose to the surface. He fought the urge to grin, knowing his nephew wouldn’t appreciate the reminder any more than Mikhail and his brothers had back when it had been aimed at them. “I don’t have to tell you not to bring any friends over, right? Especially that gaggle of girls.”

  Ricky gave him one of those looks that never failed to put an adult’s teeth on edge. “I’m not that stupid, so you can save the ‘I’ll kick your ass if you do’ speech for some other special occasion.”

  Mikhail bumped Ricky’s shoulder with his. “God, you remind me of your dad and Tino back in the day.”

  The teenager laughed. “To hear them talk, you were the one with the smart mouth.”

  No use in denying the truth. “Maybe, but we all had more than our fair share of attitude. Now, get washed up, so you can go home and pester Jack instead of me.”

  “One last question?”

  Did he really want to hear what it was? Absolutely not, but he nodded anyway.

  “Why don’t you want to ask Amy to the dance? Because I’ve got tell you, she’s really nice, not to mention totally hot.”

  What the hell? The last thing he needed—or wanted—was dating advice from a seventeen-year-old kid. “We aren’t dating.”

  Ricky clearly wasn’t buying what Mikhail was selling. “I probably shouldn’t mention that I heard Dad and Grandma talking about the two of you the other day. She thinks that you are dating Amy even if you don’t call it that.”

  Great, now he was the topic of even more family discussions. “Listen, kid, the two of us are friends. Friends sometimes do things together. You know, watch television, share a pizza, go for a drive.”

  Now Ricky looked genuinely puzzled. “So how is that any different than dating? Especially when you’re not seeing anyone else. Well, unless she’s got a boyfriend we don’t know about.”

  “She doesn’t have a boyfriend. If she did, I wouldn’t hang out with her as much as I do. Lukash men don’t poach. So like I said, we’re friends.”

  Because that’s how they’d agreed to define their relationship. Because Amy got all skittish anytime they skirted the edge of anything more, and he couldn’t figure out why.

  He could blow Ricky off with some smartass comment, but he didn’t feel right doing that. “If I knew what the difference was between that and dating, I’d tell you. For one thing, I’m still adjusting to life outside of the Corps. For another, all I can tell you is that while I like Amy a lot and wouldn’t mind actually dating her, she’s not ready for anything more. Until she is, I’m willing to be her friend.”

  “Well, that sucks for you.” Ricky opened the door that led from the garage into the house. Before disappearing inside, he turned back. “I’m pretty sure there aren’t any rules against asking a friend to a dinner dance. After all, Aunt Natalie dragged Uncle Tino to one right after they first met, and we all know how that turned out.”

  Then he walked away, leaving Mikhail staring at the closed door. Huh, when had the kid gotten so smart?

  —

  Thanks to his time as a marine, Mikhail had learned something about battle tactics, including how to stage an ambush. Rather than approach Amy directly about needing a date for the dinner dance, he would come at her from another angle. After all, he’d helped her with the motorcycle and picking up her puppy. This was the same kind of deal. Sort of, anyway. A friend helping out a friend. Nothing more.

  Yeah, right.

  After Ricky left, Mikhail put the rest of the yard tools away and then took a quick shower and put on clean clothes. While he made himself more presentable, he considered the best way to achieve his current objective—convincing Amy that taking her to a dinner dance didn’t constitute a breach of their friends-only policy.

  He didn’t want to lie to her, but surely there was some way to convince her that a night out with his family wasn’t a date. It wasn’t too much of a stretch to say that he might need her support to get through an evening surrounded by a crowd of strangers. Considering the messed-up shape he’d been in that night when she’d coaxed him back off the ledge with a banana split, she was sure to believe him.

  Obviously some people thought the whole meet-the-family thing was a big deal. However, in this case, she already knew his brothers and his nephew, leaving only the female members of the clan for her to meet the night of the dance. He’d have to lay down some ground rules for his mother and his two sisters-in-law ahead of time. He didn’t want Amy to be pestered with questions about their relationship. Maybe he and the other guys could keep the women too busy out on the dance floor to allow for much in the way of an inquisition.

  Her car just pulled into her driveway. Using the excuse of taking Panda home, he whistled for Sarge and headed next door. The bulldog came trotting out of the kitchen with the puppy following right in his tracks.

  “Let’s go, guys. It’s time for Panda to go home.”

  And time for Mikhail to convince Amy that she really wanted to hang out at the country club for an evening with the entire Lukash clan. Since she’d never mentioned the possibility of introducing him to her family, he wasn’t at all sure how she’d react to the idea. And come to think of it, he had no idea if Amy even liked to dance. Only one way to find out.

  She’d already disappeared into the house with a load of groceries by the time he walked into her garage. He snagged several more of the bags before herding the dogs in the door ahead of him. He called out to warn her she was no longer alone. “Hey, Amy, I brought Panda home.”

  She poked her head out of the kitchen. “Thanks. I was going to come get him after I got the groceries put away.”

  He set the bags on the kitchen table where sneaky dogs couldn’t reach them. “I’ll get the rest of the bags for you.”

  Another quick trip out to the car, and he’d run
out of excuses to delay the execution of his plan, such as it was. He leaned against the counter and watched as Amy unpacked her purchases. “I have a question for you.”

  She closed the refrigerator. “Ask away.”

  “We agreed to be friends, no benefits.”

  Amy had been unloading another bag, but she paused to look at him. “Yeah, we did. We are.”

  Okay, so far, so good.

  “But we’ve never clearly defined the actual limits of that friendship.”

  By this point Amy’s efforts to put away her groceries had coasted to a complete stop. “Meaning?”

  “Well, obviously it includes visits to dog breeders, shared yard work, fence building, and casual meals like barbecue runs.”

  She frowned a little and went back to shoving canned goods in her pantry. “It does.”

  “And then there was the whole banana split rescue mission for which I’ll forever be grateful.”

  He didn’t bring up how that evening had progressed from sharing ice cream to almost losing control after a few hot kisses on his front porch. “I helped you pick out a motorcycle.”

  “Which I love, and I really appreciate your giving up your afternoon to help with that.”

  He waved off her gratitude. “It was fun, and I had a good time. So here’s my question: would spending an evening as my plus-one at a charity dinner dance with my family fall within the parameters of our agreement?”

  Before answering, Amy mirrored his position, leaning against the opposing counter as she considered the question. After a brief hesitation, she asked, “Am I correct in assuming that we’d actually have to dance?”

  Okay, that wasn’t the response he’d been expecting. Considering the worried look on her face right now, saying yes might just be a deal breaker. Or maybe she saw dancing with him as skirting too close to the line.

  “If you’re worried about me trouncing on your toes, my mom made sure all of us learned our way around the dance floor. If you don’t want to dance with me, you could still dance with the other guys.”

  Jack and Tino were both married, so they’d be safe choices. So would Ricky because he was too young. Not Jay, though. The former Seal was a little too full of himself, not to mention single, available, and had no friends-only agreement with Amy.

  At first, she had actually looked shocked by his suggestion that she’d be willing to dance with everybody except him. “Don’t be silly. Of course I’d want to dance with you. The problem is that I don’t dance.”

  Her shocked expression faded into chagrin. “I never learned how.”

  His own glum reaction morphed into stunned surprise. How was that even possible? “Really? Didn’t your high school have proms and things?”

  Granted, high school dances weren’t exactly known for the foxtrot or the waltz, but they certainly had their own version of a slow dance. Some of his fondest memories from that time in his life involved swaying slowly in one spot with his date.

  “Yes, the school had dances.” Amy turned away from him, using the excuse of getting treats for the dogs to avoid looking in his direction. “I just never went to any.”

  What the hell? Who wouldn’t have leapt at the chance to take Amy to a dance? With those long legs and dark chocolate eyes? Personally, he would’ve been all over that. “Was there something wrong with the guys in your school? Were they all idiots?”

  She knelt down to pick up Panda, who promptly launched a major face-licking campaign. While his antics weren’t conducive to continuing their conversation, it did bring a smile back to her face. Obviously the subject of dancing, and school dances in particular, had hit a nerve. An especially painful one judging by the way she buried her face in Panda’s fur to avoid looking at Mikhail.

  He couldn’t stand to see her hurting like this. Without asking permission, he wrapped his arms around her and held her close. “I didn’t mean to upset you. Forget I said anything about the dinner dance. It was a bad idea.”

  Although this new bit of information about her past only added to the questions he had about Amy’s life up to the point their paths had crossed. What kind of background had she come from that had left so many gaps in her life experience? Now wasn’t the time to press for answers just to satisfy his curiosity.

  Amy tucked her head under his chin and cuddled her puppy between them. “I’d be glad to go with you, Mikhail, as long as you promise you won’t feel obligated to sit by me all night instead of dancing with other people.”

  So not happening. There had to be some other alternative to both of them watching everyone else out on the dance floor. Well, duh, the solution was obvious.

  “How about I teach you how to dance?”

  Her head came up fast, bumping his chin and knocking his teeth together with an audible crunch. She jumped back out of his embrace. “Oh, God, did I hurt you?”

  “No, I’m fine.” He smiled at her to show her no harm done. “Now, about those dance lessons. We won’t be winning any trophies for our dazzling skills with the limited time we have, but I’m pretty sure we won’t embarrass ourselves in front of everybody, either. What do you say?”

  She set Panda back down on the ground; he promptly trotted off to lay down next to Sarge on their favorite throw rug in the living room. Meanwhile, Amy studied Mikhail for several seconds. “Are you sure you want to spend even more of your time off helping me?”

  “I’d actually be helping myself, wouldn’t I? After all, I’m the one in need of a plus-one friend for that night.” He offered her a hopeful smile. “In fact, we could enlist the aid of my mom to make sure you get good info on how it’s done right. She successfully taught her husband, three sons, and even Ricky how to dance. You’ve got to be a lot more graceful than any of us were, so I know you’ll do great.”

  “What makes you think that?”

  He held up his foot and wiggled it. “For one thing, you don’t wear a man’s size thirteen shoe. That poor woman had bruised toes for years. Ricky’s given her a whole new crop of them with his lessons.”

  At least now Amy was smiling again. “You sure she won’t mind?”

  Marlene would jump at the chance to meet the woman Mikhail was “not dating,” but he kept that tidbit to himself. “I’m sure she won’t. Mom loves to dance.”

  “Okay, if she’s willing and you have the time.”

  Time for a quick demonstration. Mikhail caught Amy’s hands in his and pulled her in close. Humming the tune to a favorite slow country ballad, he shuffled the two of them around the kitchen floor. At first it was like dancing with a board, but things improved considerably when Amy finally relaxed in his hold. He closed out their first dance with a flourish, spinning her out and then back in. Then he dipped her back over his arm and lifted her upright again.

  “Ta-da!” He grinned at her. “Well done, lady. I knew you’d be a natural!”

  Her pretty face was flushed from the brief exertion. “That was fun! Thank you.”

  “I’ll call Mom and set up a time. For now, I’d better get back home and mow the backyard.”

  She followed Mikhail to the door. “Let me know what works best for the two of you. My schedule is pretty flexible.”

  “I will.”

  On the way out, he rewarded them both with a quick kiss, careful to keep it friendly and hide the heat the slow dance had generated, at least in his imagination. Suddenly, he wasn’t dreading the whole dinner-dance thing anymore, not when he could spend much of the evening with Amy in his arms.

  “Sarge, let’s go, boy.”

  The bulldog whined, reluctant to leave his buddy and the pretty lady with the special treats. Funny, but Mikhail knew just how he felt.

  Chapter 13

  After Mikhail steered his motorcycle into the driveway of a well-kept older home, Amy rode in behind him and parked her bike next to his. Her hands trembled as she turned off the engine and dismounted. As nervous as she had been about meeting Mikhail’s mother, it might have been safer to drive her car, but he’d wa
nted to ride their bikes. In the end, she’d opted to follow his example, partly because the weather was bright and sunny. The other reason was that it allowed her to hide her anxiety from him for a little longer.

  As she took off her helmet, she noticed Mikhail was frowning big-time. “What the hell is he doing here?”

  She glanced back down the driveway to see who he was talking about. A pickup truck had just stopped in front of the house. It took her a second to remember where she’d seen it before. That same truck had been parked in Mikhail’s driveway the day he’d called in reinforcements to finish their fences. Her guess was proven correct when Jay got out and started up the driveway.

  “Maybe he’s here to see your mom, too.”

  “That seems obvious. The question is why.”

  She didn’t take offense at the growl in his voice, knowing his displeasure wasn’t directed at her. But why would he be mad at Jay? She trailed after him down the driveway to meet Jay halfway. As they drew closer, she realized the former Seal looked different for some reason, but then she realized she’d never seen him wearing long pants and dress shoes before.

  “Jay, it’s good see you.”

  He nodded but kept his eyes firmly on her companion. “I hope you don’t mind, but your mom called and invited me to join in on the dance lessons with you and Amy.”

  Mikhail didn’t immediately answer, which had the other man looking more than a little uncomfortable. Amy wasn’t happy with Mikhail’s attitude right now and considered punching him on the arm for being less than welcoming. After all, Jay was a family friend. Why wouldn’t he want him there?

  Rather than waiting for the grumpy blond giant next to her to come to his senses, she answered for both of them. “Of course we don’t mind. It’s going to pretty much be a beginner’s class, though. I hope you don’t get bored watching me stumbling around.”

  Jay patted his leg. “Even before this happened, I was never great shakes when it came to dancing, and I haven’t tried it at all since. Marlene said she wouldn’t mind giving me some pointers.”