CHAPTER 23
Lowe
I collapse on top of Mely, my sweaty body pressing hers down into the mattress. Rubbing my cheek against hers, I mutter, “I can’t get enough of you, Mrs. Mancinkus. I knew it would be good. Just didn’t know it would be this good.”
Mely laughs, tightening her hands around my back. I can feel her heartbeat still galloping hard through her chest wall right into mine. “You’re going to have to let me out of bed, Lowe. I’ve got to meet with Paula and her husband in a few hours.”
I roll off Mely with a groan, and then pull her right into the side of my body. Her arm goes over my waist and her face presses into my neck. I look to the window and the early morning sunlight shining in. To say that we made the most of our wedding night is an understatement. If Mely didn’t have her design appointment soon, I’d insist on room service breakfast and another round of sweaty, marital bliss before we even bothered to think about what to do with the rest of the day.
We’re silent for a while, both of us trying to regulate pulse, breathing patterns, and such. We definitely share a “vigorous” appreciation for all marital rights in the bed.
Mely’s voice is soft and sated when she asks me, “What do you want to do for the rest of the day after I get back from my appointment?”
I smile to myself. If I had my druthers, we’d stay in the hotel room the rest of the day and evening. But I know what she’s asking, and it’s time we talk about what to do.
Planting one hand into the mattress, I pull myself up to sit against the headboard before dragging Mely over me so she’s straddling my lap. Face to face is best for this conversation.
She immediately makes a grab for the sheet to cover herself, but I yank it from her hands. “Don’t cover that up. Not until we decide what to do, and until that time, you’re still my wife and I like looking at you naked. Okay?”
Mely rolls her eyes at me but drops her hold on the sheet, instead putting her hands on my chest where she looks at me with more seriousness than I’ve ever seen in her eyes. “What should we do?”
“Are you hungover?” I ask her instead. “Headache? Upset stomach?”
“Lowe,” she says with exasperation. “We just had sex. And I’ll gladly have it again with you later regardless of what we decide to do about—”
I lean forward and kiss her hard to shut her up, just as quickly leaning back to stare at her. “Baby… you are dynamite in the sack but you nearly broke me a few minutes ago, so I need more time to recharge. I merely ask how hungover you are because I want to gauge how drunk you were last night.”
Mely blinks at me several times as she comprehends what I’m saying. Her lips curl slightly as she shakes her head. “I’m not… hungover at all, actually.”
“Me either,” I say pointedly.
Truth of the matter is, we’d had several cocktails but over a really lengthy period. Sure… we were buzzed by the time we stumbled into the Chapel O’Love or whatever the hell that place was called where we decided to just peek inside as a lark. But neither of us were as drunk as Cooter Brown, that’s for sure.
“Maybe it wasn’t all that crazy what we did,” I suggest to her.
“But we hardly know each other.” A damn valid point in return.
“What I know I really like,” I say with a charming grin.
She grins back at me, but just a moment before lowering her eyes to my chest. When she looks back up, the smile is gone and her expression is grave. “What about what we don’t know about each other?”
“I snore,” I admit.
“I heard that last night,” she says dryly.
“I sometimes drop my towel on the floor after my shower and don’t pick it up.”
She snickers. “So you’re saying we should move in with each other, huh?”
I let my smile drop, only so she knows I’m never kidding about this. “Mely… I’ve never felt for another woman the way I feel for you. That’s the honest-to-God truth. I’d be around you 24/7 if I could, because you’re just that magnetic to me. I know we’re doing everything backward and wrong, and we sure as heck didn’t start off right. But I do know that I want to be with you. Marriage paper or not, I want to be with you, and frankly… if that’s for the rest of my life, I’m really okay with that.”
Mely sucks in air even as her eyes soften. “You have quite a way with words, Lowe.”
“Not really,” I say. “If I was really any good, I would have gotten in your panties a lot faster.”
With almost a cackle, Mely slaps lightly at my chest and tosses her head back. I’m slightly distracted by her breasts, which are now hovering right in my line of sight, but when she looks back to me with those clear blue eyes, I think my life really starts.
“Okay,” she says, her eyes still shining with amusement but also with excitement. “Maybe we should give this a try. Not rush off to get an annulment.”
“We’re crazy for doing this,” I warn her.
“Totally,” she agrees as she wiggles on my lap, and well, hello there Lowe, Jr.
“You realize we just now made this decision, so it’s probably already gossip in Whynot right now, right?”
Mely snickers and leans in to kiss me on my jaw, then slides her mouth to my ear. “I think I’m going to like being the talk of the town with you.”
Lowe, Jr. now has his second wind and wants to join in on the conversation.
I bring my arms up to band around her waist, but before I even know what’s going on, Mely’s rolling out of bed and grabbing her clothes off the floor. “I’m going to head over to my room to get in the shower.”
“Oh, hell no,” I mutter as I lean over the side of the bed and make a grab for her.
She giggles and jumps away from me. I absolutely ache as I watch her shimmy her panties up her legs, but I know she should get ready for this appointment. Mely has the luxury of picking and choosing what work she does, but this could be a huge design project for her and I understand that.
So I flop onto my back and stare at the ceiling as she gets dressed.
Then her face is in my line of vision as she bends over me and presses her lips against mine in a sweet kiss. “I’ve got to go. I should be back in time for lunch.”
“Naked room-service lunch?” I ask mischievously.
“Is there any other kind?” she quips. Before I can even think of a comeback, she’s breezing out of the room.
My wife.
I watch the door for several long moments, and with a sigh, I reach over to the nightstand to grab my phone. I pull myself back up to lean against the headboard and dial my mama. She needs to be the first to hear the news.
“Hey, honey,” Mama answers on the second ring. “Enjoying Vegas?”
“It’s a city I’d only ever been able to take in small doses, but this has been a great trip so far,” I tell her.
“Do any gambling?”
“A little. Didn’t win anything.”
“See any shows?” she asks, and I can hear pans rattling around so I assume she’s up cooking an early breakfast for my dad and Colt or washing up after.
“Nah,” I tell her. “Not my thing.”
“What have you done then?” she asks a little distractedly as I can hear my dad say something in the background.
“Got married by Elvis,” I say, and then I hear something loud crash to the floor.
“Lowe Christopher Mancinkus,” my mama gasps. “Please tell me you’re joking.”
“Not joking,” I tell her solemnly.
“Is she pregnant?” she asks in a low whisper and I can tell she’s moved away so my dad can’t hear.
“Who?” I ask, just to pull her leg a little.
“Mely, of course,” she says harshly and I can tell she’s getting frustrated.
“Who says I married Mely?” I have to bite down on my tongue not to laugh. “Maybe it was a Vegas stripper.”
“Lowe,” she says through gritted teeth. “What is going on?”
I do laugh this time, but I keep it short and not overly mocking toward my mama. “We had a little too much to drink yesterday, and we went into this little chapel just to check things out, and honestly… we thought it would be hilarious at first, and we knew we could get it annulled, and well… we did it. And then we woke up this morning, and it wasn’t so funny anymore.”
“So, you got it annulled?” she asks curiously.
“We didn’t get an annulment,” I tell her quietly. “We decided to give this a go.”
“Oh,” she says softly, and even louder as the implication her son just got married hits her. “Oh.”
“Mama,” I say as I look out the window, past the buildings to the Mojave Desert. “I’m pretty damn sure I’m falling in love with her. Or maybe I’m there. I don’t know, but I know this is different and she’s the one. There is no doubt we’re taking a big leap here and faith is the only thing leading us at this point. But I feel good about it.”
“Honey… Lowe,” she says tenderly, immediately accepting me at face value that I might not know what I’m doing, but at least I’m following my heart, which isn’t a bad thing. “You’ve always been the one I never feared for when it came to love. I knew you’d find the deepest kind one day because you’re the one who got all the heart in this family. If you tell me she’s the one, then she’s the one.”
“Thanks, Mama,” I say, relieved that the one person in the world whose opinion would truly matter on this has just reassured me. “I love you.”
“Love you too, my baby boy.”
“Grown man here,” I remind her with a grin only I can see, but I know she can hear.
She laughs in return and murmurs, “I’m going to go tell your dad the news. He just headed out to the barn.”
“Okay.”
“We’re having another wedding though,” she warns. “I want pictures. And cake. A beautiful embroidered handkerchief I can cry into.”
“Okay, Mama.”
“Not joking about this, Lowe. You make sure Mely understands,” she says, feeling the need to press her position.
“Okay. I’ll see you when we get back tomorrow, and we can talk all about it.”
“You going to move into Mainer House?” my mom asks.
“Mama… I have no clue about anything other than I have a wife. When I know, you’ll know.”
“Too soon to talk about grandbabies, I’m guessin’?”
“Goodbye, Mama,” I say without even giving into that crazy talk right now.
She’s still laughing when I hang up the phone.
Babies are definitely not on the agenda anytime soon.
But the practicing of making babies will be a daily thing as far as I’m concerned.