Chapter 14
Tuesday and Thursday lessons have turned into Friday and Saturday dates with Sunday brunches and Mitch at the house all the time. I’m surprised how perfectly fine with it, thrilled with it, I am. My kids expect him to be at the house and are disappointed when he isn’t. I think he even got my parents’ phone number after we all had breakfast together.
He spends the night.
His toothbrush is in my bathroom.
I think we need to talk.
Van and Mitch have finished their Thursday lesson, and they are coming downstairs. I’m in my studio, putting the last touches on the #coolNerd album cover and associated ads, when Valley calls and asks if Shane and Van can spend the night because there’s no school tomorrow.
She must have been reading my mind. I love my children, but I desperately need to talk to Mitch alone. We’re moving at a pretty rapid rate and I’m anxious. Are we on the same page?
“Really, Valley? They can spend the night?”
“Posey, I’ll even feed them dinner. It’s clear you need to have an evening alone with Mitch.”
“How do you know?”
“Well, he’s been over at your house almost every night, but I know all too well how hard it is to let loose with kids in the house.”
I visualize her winking at me.
“More than you know. Plus, I think Mitch and I need to talk.”
“Uh-oh.”
“It’s nothing bad. I don’t think…”
“But?”
“But… Mitch is a lot younger than I am.”
“Oh, I know.” She draws out each one of the words and once again I visualize a wink with a seductive pucker of Valley’s lips this time.
“Annnnd… I just wonder if we want the same things. Long-term.”
“I don’t know about that, but short-term it appears you’re both getting what you want.”
“VAL-ley!”
“Just send the kids over.”
The boys pack up in nanoseconds and fly out the door and over to Valley’s house. Mitch and I stand in the doorway waving. I remind them to behave and mind Valley.
“K!” they shout back, loud enough for everyone in the cul-de-sac to hear.
The door barely shuts behind us when Mitch pushes me up against it firmly, takes my face in his hands and kisses me. It is not sweet. It is not cute. It is deep and probing and sets my thighs on fire. My nipples harden and my core clenches. My lips reciprocate but I’m so overwhelmed, I can’t move my arms. They just dangle at my sides, heavy and unmoving. He may have actually paralyzed me with his kiss.
Mitch breaks the kiss and leans his forehead against mine. We are both panting and breathless.
“I love Van and Shane, but I have been aching to be alone with you.” Mitch moves his hips and presses the straining in his jeans against mine as he says “aching.”
I nod. Mitch grasps my hand and pulls me down the hall to my bedroom.
It seems we’re getting right to it.
Mitch doesn’t stop when we get in the bedroom. He keeps walking, tugging me to the bathroom.
“I think we both need a little relaxation, Posey. So, we are going to take a bath in that great big tub of yours.”
I pull back on his hand. My bathroom is a mess. “Wait, I haven’t used the tub in a few weeks.”
“I know. I can tell by the piles of folded clothes in it.”
I’m about to stop him when Mitch turns on the water. I peek in the tub and exhale. The clothes have been removed.
Mitch checks the water temperature and adds some lavender bath salts. He straightens and spins back to me. He runs his hands up and down my arms.
“Well, I think it’s time for our first, of many to come, baths.”
Mitch grasps the bottom of my T-shirt and pulls it over my head. He’s undressing me for my bath. It’s sweet and hot.
The T-shirt gone, Mitch trails kisses from behind my ear, down my neck and across my shoulder.
I regain the use of my limbs well enough to return the favor of removing Mitch’s gray Henley.
I continue to rid him of the rest of his clothes, kissing the bared skin after each article is discarded. Mitch is successfully doing the same with mine until we’re both down to our underwear when I notice the tub is getting really full.
“Mitch… the water!”
He quickly shuts off the tap, and with a slow scorching look over his shoulder, reaches down and pushes his boxer briefs down and off in a single movement. Mitch steps into the tub then extends his hand to me. He’s erect. I can’t help noticing.
I slip out of my panties and toss them behind me, attempting a carefree vibe. Really, I can’t keep my eyes off him. His broad shoulders, rippled stomach and those v’s that direct my attention right to…
Mitch sits and positions me in front of him with my back to his front. The warmth of the water, the smell of lavender and his arms wrapped around me, slipping up and down my sides, occasionally moving high enough to graze my breasts, relaxes and excites.
One of Mitch’s hands slides down to find my most sensitive spot. The other cups and massages my breast. I squirm and rotate my pelvis in response to his touch. The build comes on slowly but then notches up in waves. I pitch my head back and rest it on Mitch’s shoulder. He turns and brings his lips crashing down on mine, kissing me into a fervor as my body tumbles into a spasming, mind-blowing orgasm. If he wasn’t kissing me, I’m sure all the neighbors would have heard me moaning with joy.
Pushing myself away, I turn to face Mitch and lower myself onto him, splashing gallons of water out of the tub and onto the floor.
Mitch wraps his arms around my waist and seats me completely on him. I kiss him, and when he opens his mouth I suckle and swipe at his tongue. All while I ride and rock him until he grips my hips and thrusts into me while pulling me down.
His head falls back as he groans, “PO-sey!”
My core pulses around him as he lets go.
We’ve been in the bath so long getting dirty, we are now squeaky clean.
***
Cuddled in bed with Mitch, I’m far more at ease. We’re spooning. Me in one of his concert T-shirts and him in a pair of soft joggers. Without underwear, I must note.
Mitch strokes some hair behind my ear, kisses the lobe and whispers, “Remember when I said I had a second question for you?”
“Yeah, that was a while ago. I thought maybe you’d already asked it.”
“No, I’ve been waiting for the right moment.”
“Oh.” What could be so important he needed to wait for the right moment?
“You know the concert at the end of the semester?”
“Yes.”
“Van is playing in it.”
“He is?”
“Yes. Posey, can we go… together… as a couple?
I pause.
“What about…?” I sit up in bed.
Mitch sits up seconds after me, cups my shoulders and turns me to face him. “Don’t finish that sentence. Who cares what anyone thinks? Anyone who matters is on board with this.” He waves his hand in a circle between us. “Your kids, your parents, hell, even my parents and they haven’t met you yet.”
“What about the school moms? They talk. I know they do.”
“The hell with them! They’re just jealous because you are sexy as fuck. You could be, like, twenty-five years old.”
“But I’m not.”
“So, we should what? Wait? Until I’m twenty-six or twenty-eight or thirty? What would be appropriate, Posey? What would be right? What is the rule?”
“I don’t know.”
“No, we’re not waiting, because I’m in love with you now. And I’m not wasting any time. If you’ve taught me one thing, it’s don’t waste time away from the one you love.”
“You love me?”
“Yes.”
I don’t say it back. I change the subject. I have to be sure before I say those words. “Do you want kids?”
“I don’t know.”
“Because I’m thirty-eight and I don’t know how much longer I have to do that.”
“I’m not thinking about kids, but if I was I would only want them with you. And if we didn’t, that would be OK, too, because the kids you have are already great. I could easily think of them as mine. Sort of already do.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, Posey. This hesitancy isn’t about Donovan, is it? This isn’t about feeling wrong about… me… us?”
“No. No, no, no. I’m ashamed to say this but… this sounds so bad… but I don’t feel him anymore. Actually, after he died, I never did. I missed him, but I never felt him. His spirit. People told me I’d feel him after he was gone, but I didn’t. I never thought I’d seen him just around the corner or in another’s face… until I met you.”
“What?”
“I know it sounds nuts, but I saw things I loved and missed about him in you. I see all the things that made me fall in love with Donovan in you. Is that weird?”
“Little bit.”
“Mostly, I love how much you love my kids and the way your eyes crinkle up when you smile. Like his did. Oh, I’m making this so weird.” A single tear falls from my eye.
Mitch scoops me up in his arms. “It’s OK, I’m OK with weird. If you can be OK with breaking the rules, even though they’re really stupid rules.”
“I know they are. I can be OK with that. Mitch, you know it’s not just that, right. Not just that you remind me of him. Uhhhhh… how do I say this? It’s the ways you’re not him. It’s more. I feel…” I take a deep breath and let it all spill out. “It’s just you. I love the way you’re honest and open with your feelings. How you let them show. To me. To everyone. I love how I am when I’m with you. I’m better—a better mom, a better me because of you.” I finally wipe the tear away before it drips off my cheek.
Mitch’s eyes are wet and he smiles crookedly. “Posey, baby, it’s OK. I know. I know. I can tell how you feel about me. I’m just checking, but are you saying you… love me?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. I love you, too.”
“Finally! I thought you’d never say it back.”