Don’t Deny Me: Part Two Read online

  “Mick! We’re getting ready to leave!” Mary’s voice from the hallway pushed Mick and Alice apart as fast as if they’d been in high school, caught doing what they shouldn’t. Alice skipped backward to the dresser to look over the collection of rocks and shells in a tray there, while Mick adjusted his jeans on the other side of the room. His sister poked her head around the doorway. “Come say good-bye.”

  “Good-bye,” Mick said, deadpan, knowing it would make her crazy.

  Mary narrowed her eyes. “Come say good-bye to your nephews, you giant ass.”

  Alice laughed. Mary gave her an assessing look, but Alice had already passed inspection and was now safe from his sister’s disdain. She did give Mick another frown, though.

  “I’m coming,” he told her. “We’ll be down in a minute.”

  Mary didn’t budge. Mick gave her a fierce look of his own until she capitulated with a toss of her hair. That hadn’t changed much since high school, either.

  When she’d gone, he went to Alice and took her in his arms. He had to kiss her again. One more time, before he had to share her again with everyone else.

  She let him, but only for a few seconds, before she nipped his lower lip and pushed him away. “Later.”

  “Promise?”

  With his hand in hers, leading him to the doorway, she glanced over her shoulder at him. “Oh, yeah. I promise.”

  * * *

  “You met his family? That’s kind of a big deal, right? How long have you been seeing this guy?” Alice’s sister Wendy coughed into the phone. “Sorry. I feel like crap. I didn’t want to miss our lunch.”

  “Better than giving me whatever you have.” Alice twirled in her desk chair, glad she’d packed a yogurt and some fruit that would take the place of the lunch she was now going to be missing. “I met him about three months ago. Going on four. Is it a big deal? I feel like it is.”

  “Meeting a guy’s family is always a big deal. Feels like it, anyway. Which reminds me, when are we going to meet him?”

  Alice laughed. “I don’t know. His family has this big Sunday dinner thing every week, it was kind of convenient and not like we had to plan something special.”

  “You don’t have to plan anything special to meet me.”

  “I know. It’s the time and distance thing. Too hard to get together on ‘school’ nights. We only get to see each other on the weekends.”

  Wendy’s laugh became another cough. “Yeah, yeah, I get it. And you want to spend all your time together making kissy face.”

  “Um, duh.” Alice let her chair tip back so she could close her eyes, thinking of it now.

  It was only Wednesday. Two more days until she could see him, though they hadn’t made any specific plans. In four months, she could count on two hands the times they’d actually decided anything in advance. They spent the weekends together, usually ending up at her place because she was the one who always asked if he wanted to spend the night. She should start packing a bag, just to be ready, she thought, in case he ever asked her to stay over.

  “You like him that much, huh?”

  “Yeah. He’s different, Wendy. We have this spark. It’s more than just the sex stuff, though I’m not going to lie, that part is amazing.”

  “TMI,” her sister said.

  “Shut up.” Alice laughed. “Like I didn’t have to listen to you raving on and on about Joe Murphey’s—”

  “Never speak of it again!” Wendy’s hoarse voice turned the command into a bark. “We shall refer to it only as the dream penis. Don’t remind me of its loss. My lady garden has never bloomed the same way since.”

  Alice choked with laughter, shaking her head. “His boner might’ve been a dream, but the rest of him was a nightmare.”

  “True.”

  “Mick is … he’s just …” Alice trailed off into a happy sigh. “He makes me laugh. We talk for hours and hours, and we never run out of things to say.”

  “Sounds like true love to me.”

  “Ugh.” Alice shook her head, though the protest was automatic and not necessarily heartfelt.

  Wendy coughed another laugh. “Don’t try to deny it. You’ve got it bad for this guy. I can tell. When’s the last time you spent more than a month with someone who didn’t annoy you? Oh, let me think about that, maybe I guess never!”

  “I didn’t say he didn’t annoy me,” Alice said.

  “Now we’re getting somewhere.”

  “He’s always late,” Alice added. “Always because something came up he wasn’t expecting. He barely makes plans, and then changes them at the last minute because he’s running behind or decides something else would be more fun.”

  “Well. Is it?”

  “Sometimes,” Alice admitted reluctantly. “But sometimes I really just want to do whatever it is I was planning on doing with him. I don’t care if it’s dinner or a movie or bowling or whatever, but if I’m thinking about doing one thing and he switches it up, I get … you know how I get.”

  Wendy coughed. “Yeah. I know how you get. Doesn’t he? Do you fight about it?”

  “We haven’t fought, not exactly. I’ve tried to tell him that I don’t like it when he’s constantly changing plans we didn’t really make in the first place, but I guess I don’t want to sound uptight. Because it is fun being with him. I think he’s amazing and wonderful, and …” She let her words trail away, trying to think of how to describe her insecurities without sounding like one of those girls who started picking out china patterns after two dates.

  “And what?”

  “I’m not sure what he thinks about me. I know he likes sleeping with me,” Alice said, a little harder than she’d intended. “I figure he likes me well enough, too. You don’t spend so much time with a person if you don’t actually like them aside from the sex parts.”

  Wendy cleared her throat. “Yeah. I’d agree with you, there. So what’s the problem? I’ve never really known you to be worried about how a guy felt about you before, Alice.”

  “He doesn’t say it.” There it was, out loud, and saying it, even to her sister, felt embarrassing and a little needy. Gross. “I mean, he doesn’t say anything about how he feels about me. I say something like, ‘I think you’re amazing,’ and he gives me an uncomfortable punch on the shoulder and calls me ‘dude.’”

  “Shit,” Wendy said. “Ouch.”

  “Yeah. Unless we’re fucking or just finished fucking,” Alice said flatly. “He’s a lot more vocal about what he likes about me then.”

  “You can spare me the details on that. But you should tell him how you feel, Alice. No good relationship grows without honesty. And not telling him about what makes you mad isn’t honest.” Wendy cleared her throat with a sigh. “I’m gonna go take some more meds and a hot shower. Sorry about lunch. Good luck with your new boy toy. Don’t keep him a secret too much longer, or I’ll think he’s got a tail or something.”

  Alice burst into laughter. “Maybe that’s why I like him so much.”

  “You would,” Wendy answered and hung up.

  With her lunch plans canceled, Alice grudgingly ate the snacks she’d packed instead of going out for pasta and meatballs, which is what she’d been craving. Her resentment fled, though, when Mick’s name popped up on her IM list. If she’d been out of the office, she’d have missed him.

  Hey, she typed. Fancy meeting you here.

  No answer. With a sigh, Alice shook her finger at the computer screen. “Pay attention to your messages, McManus!”

  Of course that didn’t do any good. He’d probably popped online for a second and then left his office again to do something else. Her job as administrative assistant to the head of human resources for Snazzy Nailz nail polish chained her to her chair for most of the day, but most of Mick’s time was spent onsite or in meetings about those onsite visits. Still, seeing the green dot beside his name was like a grain of sand in an oyster … only there was no pearl, Alice thought a half hour later when she’d finished her meager lunch and he wa