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What I won’t tell her is, she’s the first woman to come into this house. The first woman who isn’t Ma. I don’t ever let women know where I live. I keep them at the club or we hook up at a hotel.
This one sure did a number on me and she’s acting like she should take care of me.
“Upstairs,” I answer.
“Lead the way,” she wiggles her fingers toward the stairs. I take her hand and lead her up there to my bedroom.
The motion sensor lights snap on the minute we step inside and I actually feel that refuge of being home.
That she’s with me only highlights it. She looks around the master bedroom that I admit looks as breathtaking as the rest of the place with the four poster wrought iron bed.
I have a thing for anything that looks like it could be from the Renaissance or medieval period in any way. The whole room looks like it could be from that time, with the chandelier in the center and candles in pewter colored candlesticks all around.
I also have floorboards in here and the windows are designed in tandem with everything else.
I look to the angel and see she’s really taken with the place. She even pulls in a surprised gasp when her eyes land on the painting on my wall of The Lady of Shallot.
“You like it?” I say, more of an observation than a question.
She looks back to me and her eyes sparkle.
“I love it.”
I can’t help it, I reach out to her and run my finger over her cheek.
She gives me a little smile. It’s the second time I’ve really seen her smile and it reminds me of happiness. I realize in that moment that I haven’t been happy in years.
Although nothing specific happened prior to Tommy to distress me, nothing’s happened to me that I can say has made me happy. But the time that I think back to as I look at the angel isn’t anything special. It’s a memory.
It was my twenty fifth birthday and Pa gave me my grandfather’s watch. He gives heirlooms and things like that for special birthdays. All the other guys got stuff like rings and pens. Pa wore that watch every day. He gave it to me and told me to remember the people who’d worn it and what they would do if they ever had a problem.
I was so hyped up on the fact that he gave me the fucking watch, that he was the boss of everything handing me something valuable to him, that I didn’t really heed what he was saying.
I’m actually looking at the watch now around my wrist as I touch the angel and both feel true to me.
She steps out of my grasp and the seriousness returns to her face.
“First aid box Nick,” she nods.
I move to my desk area, open the cupboard above and pull out the first aid box. She comes over and starts taking control. Mia then makes her way to the ensuite bathroom like she’s been here before and comes back with one of the little bowls I keep shit in and a rag. The bowl’s filled with water. While she’s fussing around sorting stuff out, I go to the wardrobe and dig around for something better for her to wear.
I find one of my old college jumpers and a pair of yoga pants Ma must have left behind. My mother is almost as slender as Mia so I reckon they’ll fit.
When I get back to her she tries to bite back a smile when she sees the yoga pants.
“I didn’t figure you for having women’s clothes at the ready.” Her eyes glitter with sassy humor.
“I’m not.”
“Girlfriends clothes?” she teases.
“You tell me?” I throw back and she blushes, catching my meaning straight away.
“This doesn’t look like mine.”
“Must be my mom’s then,” I raise my brows.
“Oh… must be. Silly me, I must have gotten confused again.”
