Starting Over by Mia Malone

Chapter Six

That would be me

Tony

He was laughing loudly, partially because his fucking dumplings looked like something a preschooler had made but mostly in anticipation of what might happen later that evening.

Rosie had walked into Finn’s house with a smile on her lips that mostly was a smirk, and he didn’t care what had put that look on her face or the sway in her hips because it was fucking hot.

She hugged Addie and turned.

“Is this a double-date?” she drawled. “Because Momo and Chao seemed to think so.”

Then she put a hand on her hip and raised a brow.

Finn started laughing, but Tony slowly pulled his black shirt out of his pants, hoping that it would cover how his goddamned dick had jumped to attention.

“Yeah,” he said, cleared a slight but embarrassing hoarseness out of his voice, and added. “That’s exactly what this is, Rosalind. And for the record, it’s also our fifth date.”

She watched him in silence for a beat, and then her lips twitched.

“Okay,” she said and turned to Addie. “Let’s make some kickass dumplings then.”

Fucking finally, were the only words that seemed to suddenly echo on repeat in Tony’s head.

When she told him that she hadn’t had a man in her life in a long time, several things immediately made sense. She’d seemed almost surprised when men handed her drinks at the party and had been more relaxed around the group of women and their spouses.

And it wasn’t as if his dick was gargantuan enough to split her in half, but she’d know if they had sex, so asking him about it had been oddly naïve. She’d told him her ex moved out about a year earlier, but it had sounded like their marriage had gone down the drain over a longer period than that.

So, he’d decided that pushing her into his bed at the earliest possible opportunity was a douchey thing to do and worked hard on convincing himself to take it slow. It had been a month since he first laid eyes on her, a couple of weeks since the party, and if anyone were to ask him, they had indeed been on four dates already, which wasn’t exactly slow.

But still.

He’d also come up with what he silently thought were pretty slick excuses for why they should spend time together and how none of it was even remotely close to being dates.

Finn had seen right through it and laughed for fifteen minutes when he heard that Addie suggested they’d cook together. When he calmed down, he mumbled something about a double date and added, “Wear a shirt and don’t tuck it in.”

“What?”

“Even someone as oblivious as Rosie will notice that you’re a walking, talking hard-on these days. So, wear a loose shirt, and don’t tuck it in.”

Tony had pushed the shirt down his fucking jeans just out of principle because, brother or not, he couldn’t let Finnegan Dawry dictate his appearance.

Then Rosie showed up with that smirk on her lips and called him on his non-dating strategy. Unless he was very much mistaken, they would move on from that strategy to other things. Other completely naked things. Which meant –

“That looks...” Rosie cut into his thoughts and laughed openly at the scrunched-up piece of shit in front of him.

“Too big fingers,” he said and slid his index finger over her cheek. “Yours look good, though.”

“My fingers,” she raised a hand, “are very,” she wiggled her fingers a little, “nimble.”

Then the goddamned woman slid her tongue along her index finger, closed her lips around the tip to suck off some flour or stuffing or whatever.

“Nimble,” Tony echoed and leaned in closer.

“Yeah,” she breathed out, pursed her mouth in a way that made his dick twitch, and added, “Deft.”

He moved his hands over her hips and down to cup her behind and pull her closer.

“Deft,” he murmured against her neck.

“Of for fuck’s sake,” Finn snapped. “A little focus?”

“I am focusing,” Tony said but straightened and grinned when he saw the blush on Rosie’s cheeks.

“You should focus on the food,” Finn muttered. “Why waste a perfectly good dumpling?”

Addie coughed out air as if someone had poked her in the belly, and Tony had to clamp his jaws together hard to keep from laughing. Rosie suddenly pressed her face into his shirt, and her shoulders shook slightly.

“Finnegan?” Addie said slowly. “I hope you’re not implying that we are at the stage in our relationship when you can’t come up with a single reason for why one would waste any kind of dumpling?”

“Baby,” Finn snorted. “Calm down. They’re not gonna stay for dessert. We’ll have plenty of time to go through at least ten good reasons.”

“Of course, they’re going to –”

“Adeline,” Finn said with a chuckle and shook his head slightly.

“But I made vanilla bean ice cream and caramel fudge sauce.”

“And we’ll eat it.”

“But –”

“In ways that mean you won’t want them in the same room as us.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah,” Finn said and grinned at Tony. “We’ll steam a few dumplings, and you’ll get dessert to go.”

“Works for me,” Tony said and looked down at Rosie.

She opened her mouth to answer, but her phone suddenly buzzed.

“Crap,” she mumbled. “I’ll have to check. It could be about Nana...”

She’d told him about her elderly grandmother, so he stepped back as she brought out her phone, glanced at it, tapped on it, and froze with her mouth half-open.

“Rosie?” Tony asked, but she raised a hand and showed him the palm.

“Look,” she breathed out, but her eyes were on Addie. “Jesus fucking... look.”

She slowly turned the phone around, and Addie squinted, but then her eyes widened, and they stared at each other.

And then they both screamed.

It wasn’t a ‘something awful happened, and I just can’t take the pain’ kind of scream.

It was the sound of complete and utterly astonished joy, and Tony had no clue what it was about but also didn’t care because they looked so happy.

Addie threw the dumpling she’d just formed over her shoulder, and it slid down the wall leaving an oily trail behind. Rosie tossed her phone on the kitchen table, and then they hugged and laughed and cheered.

“The fuck?” Finn asked.

“No idea,” Tony said but leaned over Rosie’s phone and felt his brows go way up toward his hairline. “Ah. Offer on the house, and it’s a lot of cash.”

“A lot?” Rosie squealed. “It’s... oh my God, I can’t believe it. Fuck yes, it’s a lot.”

Since she was watching him and not protesting, Tony used his index finger to scroll further down, and then he grinned.

“And you get ten percent more if you can move out quickly.”

“Ten perc –” Rosie choked, coughed, and wheezed out, “How quickly?”

“By the end of Saturday, next weekend.”

“I have nowhere to stay, and there’s the furniture and –” She grinned and added with a shrug, “I have a debt to pay, but I’m more than okay with the offer without the additional incentive.”

“It’s ten percent extra on a huge amount,” Tony protested. “You could put whatever you want to keep in storage, and I’m sure you can find somewhere to live.”

He had some ideas about that, but Addie was faster.

“Yes,” she agreed. “You’re welcome to use our guest room.”

“Fuck no,” Tony said.

“What?”

“Old house, thin walls. You’d spend months listening to them every fucking night.”

“This is true,” Finn mumbled, trying to hide a smile and not sharing that the guest room actually was downstairs and in the other end of the house. “She could use a room at the House.”

The House was what everyone called the huge Cascadia MC property where they’d had the party. There were rooms on the second floor and a couple of studios in a smaller building next to the main house.

It was also filled with way too many single men for Tony’s taste, and he repeated, “Fuck no,” with some emphasis.

“Of course not,” Rosie said. “I’ll find a hotel somewhere.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Tony said immediately. “You’ll be uncomfortable living in a hotel for a longer period, and it’s unnecessary to pay for it.” He smiled what he hoped was a landlordly and un-horny smile and went on, “I have a spare room. It’s on top of my garage, has a separate entrance.”

“Oh,” Rosie said.

“It’s a dump, and there’s a bathroom but no shower and no kitchen,” Finn protested.

“I have two showers and a kitchen in the house, and it’s not a dump. Need to move some things out of there, that’s all.”

Finn chuckled and tried to disguise it as a cough.

“I’m not sure if –” Rosie started, but he interrupted her.

“Do you think you’ll get a better offer if you wait?”

“It’s a lot more than I was hoping for, and with the bonus for leaving early...”

Rosie trailed off, and their eyes met.

“Call the realtor,” Tony said and moved his hand over her cheek. “Start out on top of my garage and move on if you don’t like it, or once you decide where you want to live. We’ll help you move your shit out to storage or whatever.”

“Okay,” she said after a short pause. “If you’re sure?”

“Do you really think I’m the kind of guy who says shit for no reason at all?”

“Okay,” Rosie repeated. “I’ll just...”

Then she walked into the living room, tapping furiously on her phone.

“That was a quick decision, brother. Are you really sure?” Finn asked quietly.

“Don’t think I’ve been this sure about anything ever before,” Tony said quietly.

They both looked at Addie, who was calmly sorting out their dinner, and Rosie, who was talking animatedly in the living room.

“You managed to get from insulting her to double dating in a shorter time than I could ever imagine. What the hell did you tell her?” Finn asked.

“The truth.”

“Really?”

“Not the kind of woman you lie to.”

They’d never been assholes, but there had been occasions of evasion and white lies over the years, so Tony knew Finn would understand what he meant.

“Yeah. I thought that’s where this was heading,” Finn said.

“Yeah,” Tony echoed. “Probably gonna need a little help sorting that room out tomorrow.”

“Nothing probable about it,” Finn retorted with a snort of laughter and added, “And nothing little about it either.”

“I’ll text Coop,” Tony said but couldn’t hold his own laughter back because Finn had a point.

It would take some effort to clear out his shit, and the walls could probably use a coat of paint.

The room wasn’t a dump, though.

Not exactly, anyway.

***

Rosie

We ate the dumplings and talked about how to empty my house and get it cleaned in such a short time, but it actually seemed doable.

Since I quit my job, I’d been a little restless, so I’d started to prepare for a move when I called the realtor. The house was in okay shape, but both the kitchen and a couple of the bathrooms needed to be upgraded. The patio would look better with new bricks, or even better with a deck, and the garage door snagged sometimes, but all in all, it was not bad.

The market was apparently hot, and the salivating realtor assured me that the location was way beyond excellent. This would, according to him, be the selling point, and I was told quite firmly that I shouldn’t do any kind of renovations on the place, not that I’d planned to.

Addie had been there a couple of times already to help me pack up stuff that I didn’t want anymore, and we’d donated it together with my clothes.

My daughters still had some things in the house, even though they’d both moved out several years ago, but they knew I was selling the place, so I’d just tell them that I’d box up and store their things somewhere for a while. Richard had taken a lot of the furniture, so a few rooms were already empty and closed off. The garage was mostly sorted out since I hadn’t wanted any of the power tools he apparently needed to maintain his Harley.

Packing and moving the rest would be totally doable if I got some help.

I wasn’t going to rush home to fold bath towels or clean out kitchen cabinets, though, and the way Tony’s thigh rubbed against mine every now and then had made me start to wonder how that would feel if we were a lot more naked. Finn’s words about dessert to go kept bouncing around in my head, and I started to wonder if it perhaps wouldn’t be appropriate to get up and start clearing the table when my phone signaled that my oldest daughter wanted to facetime.

“Excuse me,” I said. “It’s Chrissy. I’ll just let her know what happened and that I’ll call her tomorrow.”

“Take your time,” Tony said. “We’ll clear the table.”

I took the call and explained quickly about the offer and my imminent move. Chrissy was as astonished as I’d been about the amount but happy for me.

And then she asked where I would stay.

This was a perfectly reasonable question, and I should have come up with a perfectly reasonable answer before putting my girl on video in the same room as three people who suddenly weren’t moving but grinning widely.

“A friend has a room that I’ll stay in to start with,” I said breezily, hoping that she’d leave it like that.

Except, she was a journalist by trade and asker of a gazillion questions by nature, so she narrowed her eyes, clearly sensing there was something off about the topic.

“One of your new friends?”

Well, shit.

“You can say that,” I said, stalling for time to come up with something clever to say.

“I know I can say that because I just did,” Chrissy quipped. “So, who is it? Addie?”

“Hey there, Chrissy,” Addie called out.

“Hey, Addie,” Chrissy said and waved even though I kept the camera firmly aimed at me. “So, Addie’s place?”

“No,” I said and tried to come up with something about calling her tomorrow.

“Momo? What friend?”

I heard Addie stifle a giggle, but then someone appeared behind my left shoulder, and a big hand turned the phone slightly.

Tony raised a hand in a wave, grinned, and said in his deep voice, “That would be me.”

“Huh-ey,” Chrissy pushed out, but she did this smiling.

Tony suddenly narrowed his eyes, leaned in a little closer to the phone, and raised his head to look at Finn.

“Fuck,” he said. “You’re gonna have to talk to the boys.”

“What?”

Tony slowly pulled the phone out of my hand and turned it so Finn could look at the screen.

“Shit,” he said and winced when his eyes met Tony’s again. “I’ll talk to the boys.”

“What boys?” I asked, which was stupid because they meant the Cascadia members but what they would talk to them about was a mystery to me.

“Babe,” Tony said and gave the phone back to me. “Your daughter is gorgeous. We’ll make sure the boys know to stay far away from her.”

Oh, God. That was so stupid, but also really, really sweet.

“Mom?” Chrissy said with a chuckle. “Don’t they realize I’m an adult and right here?”

“Who knows what they realize,” I said with a sigh.

“We should probably not tell them about Charlie,” Chrissy said, and I couldn’t hold back a burst of laughter.

“Well, if either or both of you come home for the weekend to help out, then there will be bikers carrying our things, but you will apparently not have to worry about unwanted attention,” I said.

“Or any attention,” Tony muttered, but I kicked his leg, which shut him up.

His mutter had not been quiet enough because Chrissy started laughing again.

“Oh, Mom, I’m totally coming home this weekend to help you with the house, and when I’ve told Charlie about your... friends, I’m pretty sure she’ll be in the car with me. I’ll call you as soon as we’ve made plans.”

“Good. And Chrissy, we should go see Nana.” I swallowed and murmured. “She’s... we should go see her.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. Might be nothing. You know how she is, but... yeah.”

“Right. We’ll take Friday off, so expect us late Thursday. I’ll text you.”

When we’d said goodbye, I put the phone down and found three people staring at me.

“What?” I asked.

“What is it you shouldn’t share about Charlie?” Tony asked.

Addie started laughing because she’d seen pictures of my other daughter.

“Charlie likes makeup,” I mumbled. “And, you know? Hair products.”

“Shit,” Finn sighed and raised both hands when Tony made a weird growl. “Yeah, I know. I’ll talk to the boys.”

“My girls are not some silly twits,” I said, wondering if they’d lost their minds. “I’d appreciate it if the members in Cascadia could, you know, not assault or rape them, but other than that, they are perfectly able to send a group of horny bikers packing.”

“Of course, they are,” Addie said calmly.

I grinned at Tony, but my smile faltered because of the way his eyes had darkened.

“I think it’s time for dessert,” he said, and his voice had changed, which sent a mini-shiver down my spine.

Within no time at all, we were outside, Addie shouted a happy goodnight as she closed the door, and I heard her squeal something from inside but also Finn’s deep laughter. Tony threw the containers with dessert on the passenger seat of his car, and walked back to me.

“I don’t want you to feel like you don’t have a choice,” he said and watched me with eyes that were suddenly focused, but in the dim light, I couldn’t interpret the look in them.

“What?” I asked, wondering if he’d suddenly changed his mind.

“I can be a pretty pushy guy,” he said. “I know I walk all over people sometimes, so if you feel like passing on dessert and go straight home instead, then that’s what you should do.”

“Um,” I mumbled, but I did this to his back because he was walking away, and then I stood there, staring at his taillights.

What the hell had just happened?

Was he trying to be a gentleman, or had he become Tony-the-jerk again and decided that he wasn’t all that interested after all?

It was confusing and frustrating, and a blast of anger shot through me, so I got into my car and sped down Finn’s street and toward Tony’s house, mumbling curse words the whole way.

Tony was in his living room, which was also in his kitchen and dining room, since he had a pretty amazing open floor plan.

“Hey, ba –”

I made a frustrated sound, and he froze, brows going high on his forehead.

“If you don’t want to have,” I raised my hands to make ironic quotation marks, “dessert with me, then you should just say so. Don’t give me hints that I can’t understand.”

“Babe –”

“I told you I haven’t done something like this in a really long time,” I said and pointed at him.

“Rosie –”

“I know you’re supposed to be this alpha-male dominant macho-dude, but really? Remember the first time we met?” I sucked in air and snapped, “I can be a pretty bossy bitch when I have to.”

“Baby...”

“I need you to take the lead here because I have no clue what we’re doing, and I also don’t want to be the one who calls the shots.”

“Okay.”

“I just want to – “ His last word registered, and I stared at him. “Okay?”

“Yeah. I can totally take the lead, Rosalind.”

“Then why are we fighting?”

“I’m mostly pushing back laughter, so if we’re fighting, it’s pretty one-sided,” he said and put his hands on my hips to pull me closer.

I tilted my head back to look up at him. His eyes were full of humor, his lips twitched, and he was gorgeous, which meant that I lost hold of my anger pretty much immediately.

“You’re frustrating sometimes,” I said, trying to not look as foolish as I felt. “You know that, right?”

“I know,” he said and failed at pushing back his laughter. “Pretty sure a bossy bitch like you can put me in my place.”

I tried to scowl but ended up laughing with him.

Dear Lord, what a silly thing to have said.

True, but silly.

“You’re spending the night,” Tony murmured into my hair. “Do you need to go and get your dog?”

Oh, God. My insides went from mush to mushier when I realized that he’d remembered Blue.

“He’s with my neighbors. I don’t think they’ll mind having him for the night, but I’ll text them.”

“Okay. I’ll lock up.”

I sent my text and got a quick reply that they would love to have Blue for as long as I needed it, and I pushed back the realization that I’d have to tell them that we were moving. They’d seen the signs on my lawn and knew that the house was up for sale, but like me, they wouldn’t have expected it to happen within a week.

“You got the dog covered?”

“Yes,” I said and turned.

Jittery anticipation suddenly mingled with a nervous flutter of butterflies in my belly.

I wanted this. Wanted him more than I could remember wanting anyone before, but I hadn’t done this for so long, and what if I wasn’t any good at it anymore?

Tony was watching me, and then he grinned.

“Don’t look so scared, Rosie,” he mumbled. “We’ll ease you into it.”

He’d said that about dating, and he’d been right. I was pretty sure I’d never met someone like Tony Ryan ever before, but I trusted him.

“Okay,” I said and had to stifle a small giggle.

“Okay,” he echoed calmly, pulled the containers Addie had given us out of the freezer and fridge, and took my hand. “Let’s have dessert.”