Page 74 of Fire

“That is so gonna be a thing,” Micah whispers to me as the conversation moves on. “Charlie, and Nick. They eye-bang each other whenever they’re both in town at the same time. Which happens a lot more than you’d think.”

Micah keeps his arm around me the entire night, as if he’s afraid to let me go. We talk to his parents, his aunts and uncles, and so many cousins I only half-remember from my childhood, plus a few I don’t. When his mom finally brings Nell back around, my daughter is grinning from ear to ear, her eyes bright, her energy high.

“I love having a big family,” she says. “There’s so many people to talk to and everyone’s so nice and says I look just like my dad. And I’m sorry mama but I’ve had a lot of cookies but Grandma Hope and Aunt Cat said it was okay because it’s a party and that’s what parties are for. And everyone loves my nails.” She holds out her hands, wiggling her fingers, then frowns. “Except that girl who’s all wet. She said they were the stupidest things she ever saw but I don’t care because I like them and that’s what matters, right? I tooked the big breath Daddy told me about and didn’t say she looked like a soggy sandwich even though I really wanted to.” She barely pauses for an answer before, “Oh! Grandpa Eli said I could spend the night at their house tonight if that’s okay with you. I told him about getting sup-spended and he said he has lots of funny stories about my dad when he was a kid.”

I put a hand on her shoulder. “Breathe, Nell Bell.”

“It’s pretty exciting here, isn’t it Lightning Girl?” Micah looks happy just to see her happy. Love shines in his eyes without the cloud of judgment I’m used to seeing from Julian.

“It sure is, Captain Thunder!”

And with that, she takes off, running towards Micah’s parents, stopping after a few steps to turn around and run right back. “Can I spend the night? Please? Can I? Can I? Can I?”

A quick glance at Micah has him shrugging his shoulders and me nodding my head and she’s off again, whooping her excitement as she races to his parents to share the news.

“She is perfect.” Charlie laughs. “What I wouldn’t do with all that energy!”

“She is you,” Garrett says to his sister. “And I remember exactly what you did with all that energy. It was…intense.”

“No…” She shakes her head. “You were intense. I was fun.”

“Nell’s really sweet,” says Angela and Levi nods.

“I couldn’t ask for a better surprise niece,” he says, bumping his shoulder against Micah’s.

Julian would have called Nell’s conversation an ‘outburst.’ He would have shushed her and pushed her away and then finally made her stand in the corner until she could remember her manners. By comparison, the Huttons embrace her. I know my daughter’s a lot. She thinks fast. She talks fast. She’s not like other girls her age and instead of trying to force her into some predetermined mold of what she’s ‘supposed’ to be, these people are celebrating the parts that make her wonderful and forgiving what makes her different.

It feels right. Like the world could take a lesson from this family. Judge less. Accept more.

“You having a nice time?” Micah nuzzles my ear.

“The best time. I forgot how awesome your family is.”

“Seems like Nell’s enjoying herself.”

“I’d say. Your parents are going to have a hard time getting her to go to sleep.”

“That’s okay. I don’t think we’ll be getting much sleep either. That dress looks amazing on you, but it’s begging to find its way to my bedroom floor.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

Micah

The second Ivy and I step into my house, I take her wrist and pull her into my arms, closing the door behind us and backing her against it. My hands are on her waist, her back, her tits. My fingers thread through her hair, tilting her lips to mine.

“You have no idea how much I want you,” I whisper, then lose myself to the feel of her. “This dress. These curves.”

She tastes sweet and smells like heaven. I slide the straps on her dress off her shoulders and kiss every inch of skin. She’s soft, warm. Her hands grip my back, her head tilting, her lips parted. She opens for me, her tongue sweeping against mine as I spread her thighs with my knee.

Ivy groans, her fingers gliding under my shirt, nails dragging up my back. It makes me want to rip her dress off her, shred her underwear and bra and discard them on the floor like the useless things they are, then bury myself so deep, she screams.

“You have to work in the morning.” She nips at my throat, like she wasn’t already driving me crazy.

“I don’t care.”

“Don’t you need to get to bed?”

“I need to get you into bed.” I lift her skirt and grip her ass. “Or maybe here is fine. Right against the door.”

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