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Reaching down over his belly, she felt his erection. She opened her legs for him and pulled him on top, ready for love.
“I missed you so much,” Mike confessed. “All I wanted was to get home to you.”
“I’m so glad you’re safe,” she said, grasping his shoulders. “I just wanted you home with me, just like this.”
“I love you so much,” he cried out, looking down at her face and her beautiful body.
Shuddering, he stopped moving and she knew it was happening for Mike. She was right on the edge, she started to move again under him, and soon, she was there, too.
In seconds, he was snoring next to her. As much as Aisling would have liked to stay in bed, she was excited about her day off. The weekends were so important to her. Hating it that she wished the weekdays would be over with, she just wanted Friday to arrive so she could start her forty-eight hours of freedom.
She slid out of bed gently so as not to disturb him. Ralph lay on the floor next to Mike’s side of the bed, but he lifted his head to join Aisling as she tiptoed to the closet to grab clean clothes. She’d bathe out in the guest bathroom.
Gently closing their bedroom door, she motioned for Ralph to join her. Mike was out for the count. Unlike Devon, who would sleep for only a couple of hours and begin his day, Mike would sleep a full eight hours, staying on his night-shift routine.
“It’s too difficult to switch shifts sleeping on and off,” he’d explained.
Aisling would go about her Saturday routine alone. That meant catching up with her mother and sisters, who lived down in the city of San Diego. She’d spend an hour on the phone with them while she finished up the cleaning that didn’t get done on Friday night.
Then because Devon was coming for dinner, she’d start cooking. Tonight she was making Mike’s favorite, chicken parmesan. She used her mother-in-law’s authentic recipe with homemade sauce. Starting the sauce that morning would give it the entire day to simmer, and then later that afternoon she’d fry the chicken cutlets and assemble the dish. Also, in honor of their upcoming anniversary, she was going to make Mike’s favorite dessert, a chocolate layer cake with vanilla ice cream.
Once she had the sauce going, she whispered to Ralph, “Let’s go for a hike.”
His ears perked up and he popped up on all fours so she could attach his leash. The development they lived in had extensive hiking trails on the edge of a large nature preserve. She’d purchased this house with money Granny Murphy had given her, knowing that soon it would be too expensive to buy anything in that area. Before she married Mike, she’d worked hard to make the payments, but now with his help, it was a little easier.
Grabbing a bottle of water, Aisling and Ralph were off. By noon, after being out for over an hour, they were on their way home.
By noon in Elfin Forest, Devon was up and starting his day with the same excitement Aisling had. He’d planned the delivery of a truckload of rocks during the long hours at the fire station. Placing the rocks around the trees and plantings he’d added over the rainy winter, which were established now that the warmer weather had started, would help to protect them from the lawnmower. The house was his legacy, and in addition to planning and executing improvements, he spent his spare time doing two more things: perusing flea markets for interesting artifacts for the garden, and working in it.
The rocks were of varying sizes from three to six inches, and he spent his time carefully aligning each one at the edge of the grass. His neighbor, Lila Conner, pulled up in time to see him shirtless, squatting in the yard with a bucket of rocks, his jeans inched down below his waist, dimples of Venus staring her in the face.
She rolled down the window and called out so as not to scare him. “Isn’t it a little cool out to be shirtless? And why isn’t Tilly barking at me?”
He looked over his shoulder and waved, laughing. “Tilly, attack,” he said. But Tilly kept her head down, resting in the sun. “She knows you’re harmless.”
“Yeah, that’s what you think,” Lila muttered, watching in admiration as he stood up, walked to his chair, and grabbed a T-shirt to pull over his head.
She reached across the console for a bakery box. “I bought donuts if you have the coffee.”
He really didn’t want to stop, but out of courtesy he’d make her a cup of coffee, and if she insisted, she could watch him work.
“I have coffee if you have muscles. I want to get these rocks out before dinner.”
“Where you going? Gotta date?” she asked.
“Mike and Aisling invited me tonight. God forbid I’m alone on Saturday night,” he said, laughing.
“You know that would never be an issue if you’d give me a chance,” she said, walking toward him.
“Aw, Lila, you know that would be a mistake. If it didn’t work out between us, we’d be hostile neighbors. I’d much rather have your friendship.”
“That sucks,” she said but, laughing, knew it was a hopeless conversation.
Devon Lyon was a confirmed bachelor. He wasn’t gay, although some people still wondered.
“Come on, I’ll make coffee,” he said, giving in. He didn’t want to be rude. “I haven’t had my full quota yet.”
When Aisling arrived home, at the same time Devon was making coffee for Lila Conner, she smelled her tomato sauce before she entered the house.
