Mikey
I’m lying in my bed watching my beautiful woman sleep. Her light brown hair fans out across her pillow and the small smile on her face makes me wonder if she’s dreaming. I can’t believe in all the time we’ve been together this is the first time I’m having her over. Not that I haven’t wanted to have her over, but it’s been hard with her having a son. Plus, with her classes, it’s easier for me to stay at her place than it is for her to come here. I’m hoping despite her classes she’ll start spending more time here, but I’m not going to rush her. She starts to stir, her chocolate brown eyes flutter open and she greets me with the most beautiful smile. “Good morning, baby.”
“Good morning. What time is it?”
“Eight-thirty. We’re going to have to get up and get in the shower soon or we’ll be late to Logan’s.” She stretches and curls into my side. She kisses my pec and smiles up at me. “What?”
“I have a question for you.” She has this silly grin on her face. My brows shoot up, waiting. “How did you know what size clothes to get me?”
“I asked your sister. She gave me Ryker’s sizes too.” I kiss her on the nose.
Her eyes go wide. “My sister knows that you did all of this?”
I chuckle. “She does, and she thought it was a great idea. She said it was about time someone stepped up and took care of you two.” I couldn’t wait to call Brea to discuss this with her. I know what it’s like to not only grow up with very little, but to grow up without a father, and it sucks. My mother did what she could, but she was a single mother who worked two jobs just to keep up with the rent and keep food on the table. I never realized it as a kid, but as an adult, I feel bad that my mom never got the chance to find a good man, someone to take care of her the way I want to take care of Shelly. “Come, I’ll show you his room.” I climb out of bed, throw on some gym shorts, and then pull her up with me. I take her down the hall to Ryker’s room. It has a full size bed that I had my housekeeper Zoe do up in a cool Lego set for him. A huge smile spreads across her face.
“I can’t believe you did all this. When?” she asks in shock.
“Well, I have to admit I had the help of my housekeeper, Zoe. I ordered the set, she cleaned it and set it up.” She opens his closet to find khakis, jeans, polos, sneakers, and dress shoes.
“Mikey, I don’t even know what to say.” She looks so torn. Her smile says she’s thrilled but her eyes tell me she’s concerned.
“This is something my mother never had, and I didn’t realize what it would have meant for her to have a man in her life until I was a grown man and she was gone.” I step up to her and lift her chin, forcing her to look me in the eye. “I mean it when I say I want to take care of you. I love you both and I want to give you the world…please let me.” She throws her arms around my neck and wraps me in a huge hug. It’ makes me laugh, but when I pull away, I see tears running down her face. “Don’t cry, baby.”
“We’re so lucky to have met you.”
I wipe away her tears. “I’d like to have the both of you over this weekend. I want to show him his room. We’ve been seeing each other for over two months now, and we’ve spent a lot of time together around him. I think he’ll be excited to see I’ve set this up for him.”
She nods her agreement, making me so happy that I pick her up and spin her around. “You make me so happy. I love you so much.” She giggles with excitement.
“Come on, let’s go get showered so we can give Ryker the news and see what he thinks.”
We pull up to Logan and Sky’s house two hours later, and Shelly is so excited she can barely contain herself. As soon as I stop the SUV, she jumps out and stands there waiting for me, impatiently shifting her weight from one foot to the other. When I see her, I chuckle, take her hand, and walk up the porch. I press the doorbell and suddenly we hear squealing coming from the other side of the door. Logan opens it and there are two little boys.
“Mommy, Mommy! I did it, I slept all night in Stephan’s room.” He’s so excited he’s jumping up and down.
“Good job, buddy. Mommy missed you.” She scoops him up and wraps him in a big hug.
“Mikey, can I run something by you in the office?” Logan taps me on the arm with the back of his hand.
“Yeah sure. Baby, I’ll be right back.”
I follow Logan to his home office on the second floor. He shuts the door, locking it behind him so we aren’t disturbed. “Have you spoken to her yet?”
“I brought her to my place last night and showed her what I did in Ryker’s room. They’re spending the weekend with me, but that’s as far as I got.”
He sighs and crosses his arms at his chest. “I heard from Cooper.” He lowers his voice.
“Her ex is not a nice guy. He was in jail for some pretty nasty things.”
“Was?” I question. “If it was nasty, then why is he out?”
“He was accused of breaking and entering as well as attempted rape, but they didn’t have enough proof to nail him on the attempted rape. Cooper says this isn’t the first time he’s been accused of rape, either.”
My brows furrow. “Did he rape Shelly?”
Logan puts a hand on my shoulder. “It doesn’t look that way. The reports seem to be after Shelly ran. He’s been out for two months, Mikey. You need to get them protection. Get them to move in with you. It’s not safe for them at her place.”
“Do you think she knows that he’s out?” I let out a slow, deep breath and shake my head. I know she has no idea because she keeps talking about him like he’s still in.
“You need to tell her.”
Looking out the second floor window to the front yard, I stare, thinking about what to do. “If I tell her this is totally going to freak her out.” I turn to face Logan. “Maybe I can naturally ask her to move in with me. That will buy us some time to figure out what to do.”
“You keep this from her and it’s going to really piss her off.”
I sigh. “I think the dude has been hanging out downstairs from her building. I’ve spotted a car there a few times. Always with someone in it. The same car went speeding off one night while I was kissing Shelly good night. That’s when I became concerned that it had to do with Shelly and I got you the info for Cooper to look into.”
“This isn’t good, man.”
“I know, and I have to let her go to work tonight.”
Logan grabs my arm. “We’ll watch over her, I promise.” I nod and walk out of his office, but not before slipping on my mask. I’m not quite ready to worry her just yet.
Logan follows behind me, and when we get downstairs, the girls are in the kitchen finishing up our brunch. “There you are. Is there ever going to be a time when you two aren’t discussing business?” Sky scolds them.
“Sorry, but sometimes there are things that just can’t wait.” Logan kisses her on the cheek.
I put my arm around Shelly. “Where’s Ryker?”
“Playing with his new best friend.” Shelly shows me her beautiful smile.
I press a kiss to her lips. “I love you,” I whisper.
“I love you too.”
“Stephan, Ryker, time to eat,” Skyler calls the boys, who come racing into the kitchen to eat at the smaller table in here.
Shelly makes Ryker a plate and gets him started before coming back to make us a plate. Sky went all out. She has pancakes, bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, and muffins. “Sky, this looks awesome, but I think you went a little overboard.”
She shrugs. “I learned from my husband.”
We laugh, taking a seat at the table to enjoy this delicious meal.
***
Shelly
It has been an amazing morning. I was so touched when Mikey showed me Ryker’s room at his place. He did an amazing job of decorating it. He picked a Lego bed set and got him a really cute Lego lamp for the side of the bed. It looks totally like a kid’s room. There are even some toys in there for him to play with. It was so thoughtful of him and made me fall in love with him that much more. We spoke with him on the way home about spending the weekend at Mikey’s and he was really excited. It was so cute when he asked Mikey if Mr. Bear could sleep over with him. Mikey teased him and told him as long as he was potty trained. Ryker giggled and told him that his bear has never had an accident. All this news makes it really hard to go to work tonight, but I still need to make money, so once I say good night to Mikey and Ryker is settled, I hit the shower and begin the process of getting ready.
When I finally come out of the bathroom, Ryker has finished up the dinner my sister made him and he’s telling her how we’re spending the weekend at Mikey’s house. “Really, that sounds like a lot of fun,” Brea exclaims.
“He made me a Lego bedroom,” he shouts, clapping his hands.
My sister looks over at me. “I guess that means I can spend the weekend at Eric’s.”
“Sure. I’m working tomorrow, but I’m not sure that Mikey is, so I would think he’d spend the night with him.”
“Cool. I can’t wait to tell Eric.”
I’m actually happy to have someone else to help me with my son. Brea has been a huge help, but I feel like she’s put her life on hold for me, and to be honest it’s really not fair. I appreciate it and she knows that, but it doesn’t mean I don’t feel bad. She doesn’t know this, but I’ve heard her and Eric having conversations about her moving in with him when I’m ready and able to handle Ryker on my own. As soon as I’m done with my clinicals later this year, I’ll be ready to graduate, and then move onto my residencies. I’m looking forward to it. Then, I’ll be able to hopefully get into a practice and have some normalcy in our lives. Of course, knowing she’s waiting on me has been even more of a motivator to stay focused and graduate on time.
I pull my phone from my purse and dial Mikey’s number to be sure he’ll be good with this, since I basically just gave my sister the night off. He answers on the second ring, sounding very happy to hear from me. “Hey, baby. What’s up?”
“Well, I kind of made an assumption that I hope won’t be an issue.”
“What’s that? If it is, we’ll figure it out.” I can hear his chair creak as he leans back, and I can picture him looking all sexy behind his desk lounging, crossing his leg at his ankle. “Baby, you still there?”
“Yeah, sorry. Um, well, I assumed that since you invited us to stay the night that you would be good staying with Ryker tomorrow while I’m at work. I thought you had told me you weren’t working.”
“You are correct. I’m not working, and I’m good staying with Ryker. I’m hoping to make him comfortable at my place.” He sounds really excited for this.
A smile spreads across my face. “You’re really happy that we’re spending the weekend aren’t you?”
“I am, and I’m hoping once you see Ryker comfortable at my place, you’ll consider moving in with me.” I’m a bit surprised by his confession. I know he’s mentioned it but I didn’t think he meant right away. “Did I freak you out?” he asks, pulling me from my thoughts.
“I wouldn’t say freaked me out, but I didn’t expect you to want that so quickly. I mean, you’ve lived alone for so long, and now you’re talking about not only taking on a live-in girlfriend, but her kid too. That’s a lot.” Brea catches my conversation and a huge grin spreads across her face. She squeals quietly and claps her hands.
“That’s so awesome,” she whispers. I shake my head.
“Listen, babe, I have to get going so I can get to work on time but I’ll see you tomorrow.” My mind is reeling.
“Do me a favor?” He sounds a little concerned.
“Sure.”
“Stay safe tonight and think about it. I’m not saying it has to happen this weekend, but I really want this.”
I start to nod like he can see me. “I will.”
He laughs. “To which one?”
“Both. Have a good night, Mikey.”
“Good night, baby.” I cut the call and tell my sister that we’re good for tomorrow. She starts to jump on me about moving in with Mikey. Telling me how awesome it is that he wants that, but I put my hands up, stopping her.
“First, I haven’t agreed, and second, I have to go.” She shakes her head and gives me a look like I’m crazy for not saying yes.
“I don’t know what the big deal is. The guy treats you and Ryker like gold, and he certainly has the money to take care of you.”
I put my hands on my hips. “I’m no gold digger, and you know me. I have worked hard to be able to care for my son on my own. The last thing I want is someone who thinks I want him for his money.”
“That’s not what I’m saying,” she defends herself. “I’m just saying that he isn’t Eli, where you’re going to bust your ass to go to school and take care of his lazy ass. Mikey works hard and he wants to take care of you.”
“We’ll see. Right now I can’t think about this because I have to go to work.”
“Ryker,” I call out to my son, who comes running into the dining room. “Mommy has to go to work. Get some rest, because we’re going to Mikey’s tomorrow so you can see the room he decorated for you.”
He jumps up and down, excited. “Yay!”
“Calm down, please.” I bend over to give a hug. “Are you okay with staying with Mikey while Mommy goes to work tomorrow?”
He nods his head. “I’ll be a good boy, Mommy.”
“That’s my boy. You have a good night and I’ll see you in the morning.”
I hug my boy goodbye and head down to my car for work with thoughts of my conversation with Mikey running through my mind. I’m so lost in thought I bump into a woman on my way to my car because I didn’t see her. She gives me a dirty look as I apologize, then runs off across the street, nearly getting hit by another car. It’s time to clear my head and make some money. I climb into my car and take off to the club, focused on work.