A tear escaped and ran down her cheek. I brushed it away with my thumb.
“Everything will be fine,” I whispered. “You trust me, right?”
She nodded.
“What was in the bag you took to Jenny’s?”
She swallowed hard. “A pregnancy test.”
“Oh, man. I hope it was positive; they’ve been trying for so long.”
Jenny had had a miscarriage earlier that year and afterward she and Tyler had tried without success for several months to get pregnant.
“Yeah,” Mia said, staring out the window. “I left June at Jenny’s. I need to go get her and then we can head home.”
When I stood up, I looked over to Martha at the counter. She was standing with her hand on her hip, giving Mia a disapproving look.
“What?” Mia said to her.
Martha huffed. “Where’s my hug?”
We both laughed as we walked toward her.
She hugged us at the same time for longer than usual and then said, “You have all you need right here between the two of you.”
As we walked out of the café, I said to Mia, “What do you think she meant?”
Mia shrugged and said, “Who knows?”
Back at our loft in Brooklyn, Mia made dinner while wearing nothing but a frilly apron. It covered most of the front of her body but left her backside completely exposed. I loved that Mia was unaware of what her body did to me or to anyone, for that matter. She didn’t prance around sexily, but she wasn’t insecure either. She was just comfortable in her skin.
She set a steaming bowl of mushroom risotto in front of me as I sat quietly at the counter. “Why are you so quiet, Will? More importantly, why are you still dressed? This is not fair.”
“I’m just thinking about the bullshit that went down with Chad.”
“That’s what you’re thinking about right now?” She turned toward the stove and glanced back at her naked backside before giving me a displeased look.
“I’m also admiring the view.” I smirked.
She strutted back to me and pulled my bowl away just as I was about to reach for the fork. “You said it yourself, everything will be fine. Now go get naked or no dinner for you.”
I came back out wearing boxers. Mia had moved dinner to our small square table near the edge of the kitchen. We normally sat at the bar to eat unless we were having a more formal dinner. I sat down at the table. Mia came over and set her bowl right next to mine, then took a seat on my lap.
“Mm. Good choice,” I whispered behind her ear and then took in the crisp, clean scent of her hair.
“I thought you would like it.” She leaned over and began eating.
I sat back and ran my hands up and down her bare sides, all the way up to where the sides of her br**sts were peeking from the apron and back down to her hips. I gripped her hard and pulled her back so that her ass was more flush against me. She moaned and then set down her fork.
“We’ll starve to death if we keep up this naked dinner tradition.”
“I don’t care.” She stood up but kept her back to me. “Take off your boxers.”
My hands moved so fast that my boxers were a blur as I flung them into the other room. I sat back on the chair as she slowly lowered herself onto me, never turning around to see my expression. She probably knew it would resemble something like ecstasy.
She whimpered and then quickly sucked in a breath through her teeth. At first the friction was more intense in that position.
“Does it hurt, baby?”
“No, I just have to get used to it.” She moved slowly and very gently up and down, and then after a minute, I could tell she became more comfortable as she started moving in small circles.
I undid the knot of her apron, pulled it over her head, and tossed it aside as she continued grinding on top of me. I ran my hands up and down the soft skin at her sides and then to the front, where I cupped her br**sts and pulled her harder so that her back was against my chest. She cried out but didn’t let up on her movements. Her breathing became rapid along with mine. I moved my hand down her front, between her br**sts, and past her stomach until my fingers reached the place where our bodies joined. I touched her and moved my hand with the rhythm.
“No, stop!” she cried out. Reaching for my hand, she tried to pull it away but she didn’t stop writhing on top of me. Her back was arched but her head was thrown all the way back and resting on my shoulder as she whimpered and breathed with her eyes focused on the ceiling.
I licked and sucked at her neck. “You’re so close,” I said as I started to let her pull my hand away.
The moment my fingers lost contact with her body, she slammed my hand back down. “Don’t stop,” she said and then cried out, “Oh, God!” before breaking into a boneless fit of spasms.
She lay back on me, her body convulsing as I gripped her and felt my own release. I nuzzled my face into her neck and shoulder and just waited until our breaths returned to normal.
“I’m sure the risotto is cold,” she murmured.
“I’ve never cared less about anything in my life,” I said as I lifted her off me to stand.
She turned and reached up on her toes and then threw her arms around my neck.
“Let’s go take a shower. I’ll heat up dinner afterward.”
Lying in bed that night, something peculiar happened. Weeks prior, Mia had convinced me that we should crate train June. That meant putting her in a little cage at night so she wouldn’t chew things and poop all over our loft. We’d spent several miserable nights listening to her yelp from the cage, but Mia kept saying, “This will work, trust me. We did it with Jackson. June will eventually love it in there.”