I lay on my stomach in the middle of Ally’s bed, and Ally sits on the backs of my thighs, naked and warm, trailing her fingers along the lines of ink on my shoulder blades. I don’t have to ask what she’s pointing at. I don’t need to stretch my neck around for clarification.
“That one’s for my mom.” But then I do twist and try to catch her eye. “Tease me about being a mommy’s boy. Dare you.”
Snickering, she shakes her head and continues to study my skin. “I talk to my mom for an hour every single day. I’m not taking that dare. This one for your dad?” She points at a small patch right beside the ink I have for my mom.
“No, that’s for the baby they had before they had us. It never happened, the baby never got to live, but that doesn’t mean he never existed, right? Cells still joined, and love made a baby, and if things were different, that baby would be my big brother or sister.” I smile and lay my head back down again. “If I can get ink for a favorite car, or a favorite poem, then I sure as shit can get something for my big brother or sister.”
“I think that’s sweet.” In the quiet, she leans forward and presses a gentle kiss over the design I had made up for that child. A heartbeat. A Hart. “So that must mean your dad is on the other side. To make a team with your mom.”
“Right. He’s there. He’d be offended as fuck if I got everyone except him.” I pause for a moment, frown, and consider before venturing, “I’m not sure we’ve ever talked about your dad.”
“Mm.” Ally is lazy like a sleepy cat, languid and warm as she strokes my skin. “I told you,” she murmurs. “He and Mom were teen parents.”
“Right, but she stuck. Where’s he?”
Shrugging, she continues to trail gentle fingertips along the column of my spine. “It all went down before I was born, so honestly, I don’t know where he is. They were young, and Mom was kicked out of home… whether the guy couldn’t help her out or chose not to, I don’t know. They went their separate ways, and years later, she married again, rendering the first guy unneeded and unwanted.”
“And you?”
I turn over when the energy in the room changes. From lazy satisfaction and undemanding chit-chat, to furrowed brows.
I settle on my back, and leave Ally exactly where she was, on my thighs. But now I take her hands and twine our fingers together so the unicorn bracelet on her wrist twinkles. “Ally?”
“And me what?” she asks. “I don’t understand your question.”
Smiling, though it’s small and subtle, I push up to sit so our chests press together. Turning around might have been a bad move for me, because despite the heavy topic floating in the air, my body has other ideas. My cock thickens when her breasts rest against my chest, and when I’m sitting tall and my dick touches her thigh, I think we both realize what I’ve done. “Quick answers.”
She nods. “Yeah. Then this other thing.”
“Deal.” I bark out a loud laugh. “I meant, and you… you didn’t want him? You didn’t need him?”
“Nope. My mom was always enough. We’re fiercely independent women, and we love it that way. We done?”
“Yup.” I grab her hips and flip her over to her back, and just a second later, I glide inside her warmth, and groan at how good it feels to be inside her like this. “Hey, Ally?”
Her eyes are shut, her hair fanned out on the pillow beneath her head, but her lips quirk up. “Mm?”
Chuckling, I continue to ride her and pepper kisses along her jaw. “Love you.”
Morning sunlight filters through the curtains and onto the side of my face, while I try to remain in the half-asleep, half-awake, dreamlike state where everything feels warm and perfect. The bed feels extra soft, the sheets particularly smooth. The air is the perfect temperature, and though there’s no sexy lady-body laying here beside me, I hear her. I smell her.
“He slept over last night, Mom. I can see his butt right now.”
I smile as Ally’s voice echoes from the bathroom. Slitting my eyes open, I look in that direction and groan at the sight of her standing buck-ass naked in front of the mirror while she styles her hair.
Our eyes meet in the mirror. She holds a hair clip between her lips while she works, and when she realizes I’m staring, she smiles back. “Yeah, he’s awake now too.”
“Good morning, Luke!” Miranda’s voice echoes first from the phone, and then because of the bathroom. “It’s Miranda here, honey. Sleep well?”
“Yeah, because that’s not weird,” Ally grumbles around her hair clip. “He’s still sleepy, Mom. But he looks good, all rumpled in my bed. He has a tramp stamp, though.” Her brows knit while she works and tries to study me in the mirror. “It’s a flower… but, like, just above his ass. Between the dimples.”
“It was a dare.” I flop back on my pillow and go back to sleep. Or, well, I pray for sleep. “Rob dared me to do it, and Emma made me follow through.”
“It was a dare,” Ally repeats for her mom. “Because his family is just as crazy as he is.”
“Rob got a dolphin above his ass,” I speak into my pillow. “I won.”
Laughing, Ally runs a hair straightener along her long, red locks, and curls the very ends. When she’s satisfied with the way they bounce, she yanks the cord from the wall and sets down the straightener. “I’m gonna have to hang up in a sec, Mom. I have to get ready for work, and I have this freeloader in my room, so I have to get rid of him too.”
“You’re smiling,” Miranda teases. “Just admit it.”
I lift my head and catch Ally’s grin before she makes it disappear. “Yeah, she’s smiling.”
I turn onto my hip with a groan, and when Ally passes by the bed, I whip an arm out and hook it around her naked ribs. Pulling her down into my little spoon, I press a kiss to her flushed cheek, and take the phone with my free hand.
“Mrs. Laramie. How are you doing today?”
“I’m well, honey. And you?”
“Better this morning than I was yesterday morning.”
“Bet you are,” she snickers. “You’re a man, right? A good man.”
“Um…”
“Treat my Ally right, and we’ll have no troubles. But make her cry, and I’m coming over that way to rip your fucking head off.”
“Uh…”
“We good?”
I clear my throat and remind myself that this woman, while seemingly kind and innocent, was also once a homeless, pregnant teen. It would do me good to remember that. “We’re good.”
“You swear?”
“Yeah, I swear. I’m gonna do it right.”
“Are you in love with my daughter?”
I choke out a soft laugh. “Yes, ma’am. I’m certain I am.”
“I’m going to make a plan to swing by in the next few weeks. Dinner, family time, getting to know you. Doesn’t that sound nice?”
“Er… yup.”
“At your home. Your apartment. Do not ask your mother to host me.”
My smile drops away. “You don’t wanna meet my mom?”