Page 49 of Love Song, Take Two

He snorted and squeezed her hip. “Would you like a refresher?”

“These terms are terrible,” she said, ignoring his question.

“Mick, be my love bug. And I’ll be your stallion.”

She turned to look at him, eyes fixed on his and then shook her head. “No.”

“Then I guess you’ll have to be Mick forever.”

Instead of responding, she rolled her eyes and sucked on her smoothie loud enough for it to be grating. When he pinched her side gently, she squeaked and pushed her elbow against his chest.

“Resorting to violence now? You’re better than that, love bug.”

“You’re unbelievable,” she muttered, but he saw the corner of her lip curve up into a smile before she took a sip of her smoothie.

“I say that about you all the time.” He smiled at her snort before she shifted on his lap to face him fully. “Love bug.”

She rolled her eyes, but her smile was still evident. “We’ll work on the nicknames later.”

“What do you wanna work on now?”

“Us being here together.”

He nodded and kissed her, smiling as Micah’s arm wrapped around his neck. He never imagined that he’d find someone to feel this way about, to have conversations about nicknames and go on midday dates with. After his marriage fell apart, meeting women became something of a challenge. Fletcher was either too old for half the single women or he didn’t fit into the ‘handsome, sexy and charming’ bracket they were all looking for. To cross paths with Micah again, to have her want him the way she did that one night many years ago, was pretty fucking special. And he wasn’t going to fuck it up.

It didn’t matter that he was forty-six, waking up every morning to texts from Micah made him feel like a teenager. Even during the work day, he’d catch himself smiling at texts or pictures on his phone. He’d never used his phone as much as he did now because of her. She was changing his life all over again and he was sure that she had no idea how much. He loved it. He loved her.

The thought caught him so off guard one afternoon while he was prepping for music lessons.

Sixteen years ago, when they had spent that night together, Fletcher had felt something akin to love tugging at his heart. He was convinced that was the reason why he was so disappointed when she was gone when he woke up. He’d written a song about her, for crying out loud. Nobody did that unless they loved someone or had their heart broken. He knew that it was too soon to fall in love, especially since they were only getting to know each other. But there had been a string that connected them for the last sixteen years that was now taut and stronger than ever before.

A string that kept drawing him back to her.

Thanks to Sam, his Santa double, taking the next two days, it was his first day off that week. Fletcher had texted Micah in the morning, asking her to meet him at Mermaid Mart when she finished work. The plan was simple—go grocery shopping, return to his house and make themselves dinner. He had never been the kind of guy to plan fancy dates or do anything extraordinary. And from everything he’d gleaned about Micah, she was the same way. He was also itching to get her alone and into his house. Whether the night ended with them in bed or not was besides the point, he wanted to be able to touch her and not have to worry about time limits or people catching them in the act.

Sneaking around wasn’t as fun as it sounded when she suggested it the first time.

“Hey you.”

He turned at the voice, pushing off the side of his truck when Micah appeared. “Damn, love bug,” he muttered.

She was draped in a lavender dress with tiny white flowers, thick straps holding the whole thing up. The dress hugged her breasts and fell down to her knees, not flaunting the rest of the delicious body he had mapped years ago. Fletcher did a slow sweep of her, spending a little extra time staring at her chest before lifting his eyes to hers.

“Seriously?” she asked, one hand on her hip, smirking at him.

“You’re a treat for the eyes.” She rolled her eyes at him and Fletcher gently tugged her into his arms. “Missed you these last few days.”

“Missed you too, Fletch,” she whispered, wrapping her arms loosely around his neck.

“You ready for an adult date night?”

“Oh, what makes it adult?”

“You’ll have to wait and find out.” He chuckled and kissed the tip of her nose. Fletcher locked their hands together as he tugged her into the store, one hand reaching for a shopping cart.

“Tease,” she grumbled and released his hand to walk ahead of him. “So, what are we making tonight?”

“Steak and potatoes. It’s comfort food.”

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