“Guilty,” I said as I took a seat across from her. “So are you going to stay here with me and keep stalling or go talk to Jax?”
Georgie scowled. “I hate that ye’ know what I’m doin’.”
“Baby girl.” I chuckled. “You are your mother’s daughter.”
She leaned back in her chair and sighed before she nodded, took another gulp of her tea, then got to her feet.
“Wish me luck, unc,” she said. “And if ye’ hear shoutin’, just let us argue. We have to fight before we make up. It’s a ritual I have with all me cousins. If ye’ hear a whole lot of silence, that’s when ye’ should come runnin’ because we’re probably stranglin’ each other.”
I snorted as she left the room with her back straight and her chin lifted.
“Good luck,” I said as she left, but I wasn’t wishing her luck, I was wishing my son it.
I poured the remainder of Georgie’s tea into the sink, then washed the cup and set it aside on the draining board.
“Was that Georgie?”
“Yeah.” I answered my wife without turning around. “She and Jax argued, so she’s here to apologise.”
“I was wonderin’ what he was sulkin’ around for. I knew what happened this mornin’ wasn’t bummin’ him out that much.”
I turned around and leaned my butt against the countertop. I watched my wife as she opened the fridge and removed her almond milk as she moved to the kettle and flipped it back on. My eyes roamed over her, lingering on her endowed chest and rounded behind. I grinned when she clicked her tongue at me. I looked up at her face, and said, “You’re hot.”
She giggled. “Shut up.”
I moved away from the counter and came up behind her, my hands going to her hips.
“Make me.”
Aideen laughed. “In other words, play fight me until we have sex.”
“Basically.”
Aideen shook her head, amused. “The children are home.”
“We’ll be quiet,” I assured her, scrapping my teeth over her neck.
My wife looked over her shoulder at me. “When am I ever quiet when we have sex?”
I paused, then grinned. “Never.”
“Exactly,” she replied. “The boys will come in and fight ye’. D’ye remember last month when we were havin’ sex and Locke screamed from his bedroom that he was on the phone to Childline to report emotional trauma?”
I tipped my head back and laughed. My second born severely disliked whenever I touched his mother. Out of all my sons, he was the mommy’s boy, and he wore the title with pride.
“I’ll settle for cuddling with you then.”
Aideen turned in my arms and looked up at me.
“What’s wrong?”
I smiled. “Why does something have to be wrong for me to hold you?”
“It doesn’t,” she replied, “but ye’ seem very hands on with me today. Always touchin’ me in some way whenever I walk into a room ... why?”
I hadn’t realised I had been doing that.
“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “I went down memory lane earlier. My mind navigated through the good, the bad, and damn ugly, and I guess I subconsciously just want your comfort.”
Aideen’s arms slid around my waist as she frowned up at me.
“Anythin’ ye’ want to talk about?”
I shook my head. “It’s just memories we’ve already talked about before. I just was blindsided when I started thinking of my past, that’s all.”
Aideen slid her hands up to my shoulders, then onto my face where she cupped my cheeks.
“You’re still the bravest, strongest, and most amazin’ man I have ever met,” she said, her love and adoration for me shining within her eyes. “I wake up every single day in disbelief that you are me husband. I love ye’ more than words could accurately describe. Always know that. Okay?”
My response was a kiss, a toe-curling, mind-numbing kiss that drew a soft moan from my wife. I hugged her tightly to my body and slid my hands over the curves I knew so well. I had had many years of loving and protecting this woman, and knowing I had many more ahead of me made me love my life that little bit more. She was my rock, the mother of my children, and then reason my heart beat. She was the reason for everything that was good in my life, and I loved her.
“Ye’ have two seconds to back away from me mother, good sir.”
Aideen suddenly giggled against my lips while I sighed and stepped away from my wife just so I could turn and stare my second eldest son.
“We’ve talked about ye’ gropin’ her in public,” Locke said. “It’s got to stop.”
“We aren’t in public. We’re in the privacy of our home.”
“A home ye’ share with five dashin’ and very impressionable young lads.”
Aideen said, “He’s got ye’ there, handsome.”
Locke grinned because she agreed with him, then crossed the room and put his arm around his mom’s shoulder. He was a couple of inches taller than her at fifteen which amused me and baffled my wife. She slid her arm around his waist and hugged him. We didn’t have favourite children, but Locke was the only son who let his mother fuss and be affectionate towards him whenever she wanted. Even our youngest son set boundaries but not Locke. He loved her attention.