Fletcher
Be my love bug. I’ll be your stallion.
Despite both of them agreeing to spend their free time together, it seemed pretty impossible. It wasn’t just Micah who was busy, in prepping for his Santa duty, had also stretched himself a little thin. Flora had finished his coat and hat, so he picked them up and dressed up for the mayor. She liked it, but wanted more Christmas , so Flora stitched faux wool at the ends of the sleeves and along the front, she even added big gold buttons to spruce it up a little more. Then made sure the mayor knew that was all she was willing to do. Nobody messed with Flora or questioned her work, so the mayor signed off on the outfit. Then her guests arrived a day early, while Santa’s Village was still being set up, so had to show up with his elves for the walk-through.
Texts and brief phone calls were all they managed for three days, but it was honestly more than enough. He was greedy, wanting to talk to Micah, eat with her, cook with her and just be with her . Maybe it was his age, maybe it was that he wanted more, but sex was the last thing on his mind. He liked kissing and touching and holding Micah, everything else could wait.
On his first day as Santa, Micah showed up at Big Waves during lunch. Armed with a beautiful smile, clothes suited for a corporate setting and a bag of food; she was the best sight of his day. They sat in his office, with the windows wide open, and ate their sandwiches while she told him all about her clients that morning. Despite being distracted by the way her mouth formed words and how good she looked, he actually registered most of what she was saying. As far as he could remember, she’d always been passionate about the things that meant something to her. Whether it was music or food, now her kid and her job, Micah was all in.
And he loved that about her.
The next morning, he showed up at the George house armed with coffee. Even though he was exhausted from the first night as Santa, he had decided he was going to do this. Every moment, right? He’d waited in his truck while Emery had climbed onto her bicycle and left for school. Only then did he ring the doorbell. Because as much as he wanted to throw the conditions out the window, he knew the rules were important to Micah.
“Oh god, what are you doing here?”
laughed at the half-dressed state she was in—hair sticking up, she wore only a long T-shirt that stopped mid-thigh and sleep marks were still on her face.
“Brought you coffee,” he said, eyes drinking her in with a wide smile. “And I was hoping to find out what you look like first thing in the morning.”
She grunted and took a coffee from him, before turning around and walking away. followed, eyes dropping to the stretch marks on the back of her thighs and up to the slight curve of her ass visible under the hem of her shirt. Forcing himself to focus, he instead took in the state of the house. Unlike the first time he’d been there, the place was a mess. In one corner, half a Christmas tree was set up. Boxes of decorations were strewn about, open with things spilling out. The dining table was covered in papers and the cushions that had once been on the couch were all over the floor.
“What happened here?”
“Christmas,” she grunted again, dropping onto the couch as she took the first sip of her coffee.
“What’s wrong with Christmas?”
“Nothing. Everything. I don’t know.”
He watched her for a moment, then lowered himself onto the coffee table in front of her. The idea that she wasn’t a fan of the holidays hadn’t even crossed his mind. He’d been so excited to show up on her front stoop one night dressed as Santa, but now that decision would have to be tabled. Outside of his family—and their reasons were still quite unknown— didn’t know anybody who didn’t like Christmas. It was one of his favorite times of the year and he liked everything that came with it.
Then it made him wonder if she hated the holiday or didn’t enjoy it. And if him being Santa would be a dealbreaker for this thing they were figuring out.
“Need some help?”
She blinked slowly and shook her head. “I’d rather we spend time together doing anything else. Besides, this is what Em and I do every year. It takes us weeks to get everything up and even longer to take everything down.”
“If you need assistance, you know where to find me,” he told her and Micah smiled, a soft and sleepy one that transformed her face. She scooted forward and climbed halfway into his lap, their lips meeting in a slow kiss. He hummed into the kiss, free arm sliding around her waist. “Morning.”
“Thank you for bringing me coffee, Fletch. And seeing you first thing is a pretty good treat too.”
He smiled and kissed her again. “All your free time, remember?”
“I seriously wish I had more free time.” She huffed and dropped her head to his shoulder, fingers moving through his hair. “But I have a session near the shop tomorrow evening, if you’re not busy.”
“As long as it’s before six, I’m yours.”
He wondered if she’d get tired of him working every evening for the rest of the month.
She yawned and said, “I’ll be there by four.”
As promised, Micah was waiting outside Big Waves at 4 p.m. armed with a picnic basket that was bursting at the seams. She was wearing a beautiful smile—it lit up her entire face, brightening her eyes and drawing his attention to the smattering of freckles she’d developed living in a beach town.
The woman he’d seen in the crowd sixteen years ago had been breathtaking, it’s why he’d singled her out and invited her back. The woman he was looking at in the parking lot of his music store was heart-stopping.
“Hey rockstar,” she greeted him as he walked up to where she was leaning against his truck. “You ready for the best two hours of your life?”
“I already had the best two hours. More in fact. How are you going to top that?”
Her eyebrows dipped in confusion, but then she snorted out a laugh. “Aren’t you the romantic.”
“I wrote you a song, didn’t I?”
“Indeed you did. An award-winning song too.”
“For an award-winning woman,” he added and leaned in to press a soft kiss to the corner of her mouth. “All right, where are you taking me?”
She held a hand out, blush rising up her neck and cheeks. “Come with me.”
Fingers linked, palms pressed together, they headed down the boardwalk and towards the section of the beach where the concrete vanished into sand. As much as he loved living in Sirena Beach, did not enjoy finding sand in all his clothes. So he was about to protest, when she directed them away from the beach itself and towards a set of picnic tables.
“Ta da!” She set the basket on the table and gestured towards the area with a wide grin. “I used to come here on hard days when I needed a distraction from life and all the chaos of it.”
He nodded and sat down, their hands still linked. “Seems like a good place to be distracted.”
She stepped between his spread legs and smiled, squeezing his hand. “This table has seen more than a few of my tears.”
He had so many questions, but Micah released his hand to unpack the basket. watched her, taking in the way her smile was authentic and her excitement palpable. There were obviously lots of dark parts of her life that she didn’t like talking about, but he hoped that one day she would be open to sharing some of that with him.
“Okay, we’ve got smoothies and cookies for all the sugar rush,” she started, ignoring his silent pleas to share everything about her past. “And we’ve got sandwiches if you want something a little more substantial.”
He tugged Micah back towards him, gently pulling her into his lap, one arm snaking around her waist. “Cookies and smoothies, always.”
“Man after my own heart.” She grinned and kissed the side of his head, lifting off his lap briefly to grab the smoothies. Without asking him, because she already knew what he’d pick, she handed him the pink one and kept the purple one for herself.
He took a sip of his drink, the tarty goodness of the strawberry hitting him instantly. Smiling, he enjoyed the feel of her leaning against him and let his eyes wander over her exposed arms.
“Tell me about these tattoos.”
“Which ones?”
“All of them.”
She laughed and stretched her left arm out, twisting it slightly as she examined the random smattering of ink. “I saw this flower band at the shop when I went to get my mermaid tail and loved it so much. So a few years later, I got someone else to do it for me,” she said as she pointed at the flowers that wrapped around her arm below the elbow. Smiling, she dragged her finger down to the one that read Emery in a messy font. “When she was six, Emery told me that I should get a tattoo of her. We settled on her name and handwriting instead.”
“What about these two?” traced the speech bubbles and then the safety pin.
“The speech bubbles are in honor of my job and working through my own stutter. Some days can be harder than others, but we push through. The pin is about solidarity, about standing by those who are marginalized and providing support no matter what.”
Soon after Brandy went through her transition, she’d gotten a similar tattoo as well, but he’d never thought to ask. But now it made sense. Micah wanted to support those like herself who were often mistreated and pushed aside because they were different , the same way Brandy felt about the world today.
“The origami elephants are also for Emery. I’ve got a couple more on this arm too,” she said, holding out her right arm to show him the cute little stick figures of a mother and daughter.
“You made a special kid, Mick.”
She grinned, leaning against him as she nodded. “I take full credit for how fantastic she turned out, but she did get some of my ex’s genetics and I’m sort of grateful for that.”
“She’s all you, baby,” he added softly and then arched an eyebrow when she turned to him with the most adorable glower.
“Absolutely not.”
“She’s not all you?”
“ Baby .” Micah shook her head and took a long sip of her smoothie. “Geoffrey used to call me that. Always sounded so condescending.”
couldn’t even stop the growl that slipped out. “Maybe I can reclaim it.”
“Maybe.”
He hated that her asshole ex had ruined so many things. Sure baby was a little silly of a term of endearment, but it rolled off the tongue easily. would call Micah whatever she wanted. Hell, she could stay Mick for the rest of eternity if she didn’t want to be called anything else.
She pulled out her phone, typing furiously with one hand while looked over her shoulder: terms of endearment for your partner that are not baby . “Okay, here we go… beau, flame, love bug, hunk, stallion, my man or my girl, bubba.”
“I would like to be known as your stallion.” She shook her head and he grinned, pressing a kiss to her shoulder. Dropping his voice to a whisper, he added, “Come on, love bug . We both know how much you like to ride me.”
“Do we? I don’t remember this.”
He snorted and squeezed her hip. “Would you like a refresher?”
“These terms are terrible,” she said, ignoring his question.
“Mick, be my love bug. And I’ll be your stallion.”
She turned to look at him, eyes fixed on his and then shook her head. “No.”
“Then I guess you’ll have to be Mick forever.”
Instead of responding, she rolled her eyes and sucked on her smoothie loud enough for it to be grating. When he pinched her side gently, she squeaked and pushed her elbow against his chest.
“Resorting to violence now? You’re better than that, love bug.”
“You’re unbelievable,” she muttered, but he saw the corner of her lip curve up into a smile before she took a sip of her smoothie.
“I say that about you all the time.” He smiled at her snort before she shifted on his lap to face him fully. “Love bug.”
She rolled her eyes, but her smile was still evident. “We’ll work on the nicknames later.”
“What do you wanna work on now?”
“Us being here together.”
He nodded and kissed her, smiling as Micah’s arm wrapped around his neck. He never imagined that he’d find someone to feel this way about, to have conversations about nicknames and go on midday dates with. After his marriage fell apart, meeting women became something of a challenge. was either too old for half the single women or he didn’t fit into the ‘handsome, sexy and charming’ bracket they were all looking for. To cross paths with Micah again, to have her want him the way she did that one night many years ago, was pretty fucking special. And he wasn’t going to fuck it up.
It didn’t matter that he was forty-six, waking up every morning to texts from Micah made him feel like a teenager. Even during the work day, he’d catch himself smiling at texts or pictures on his phone. He’d never used his phone as much as he did now because of her. She was changing his life all over again and he was sure that she had no idea how much. He loved it. He loved her .
The thought caught him so off guard one afternoon while he was prepping for music lessons.
Sixteen years ago, when they had spent that night together, had felt something akin to love tugging at his heart. He was convinced that was the reason why he was so disappointed when she was gone when he woke up. He’d written a song about her, for crying out loud. Nobody did that unless they loved someone or had their heart broken. He knew that it was too soon to fall in love, especially since they were only getting to know each other. But there had been a string that connected them for the last sixteen years that was now taut and stronger than ever before.
A string that kept drawing him back to her.
Thanks to Sam, his Santa double, taking the next two days, it was his first day off that week. had texted Micah in the morning, asking her to meet him at Mermaid Mart when she finished work. The plan was simple—go grocery shopping, return to his house and make themselves dinner. He had never been the kind of guy to plan fancy dates or do anything extraordinary. And from everything he’d gleaned about Micah, she was the same way. He was also itching to get her alone and into his house. Whether the night ended with them in bed or not was besides the point, he wanted to be able to touch her and not have to worry about time limits or people catching them in the act.
Sneaking around wasn’t as fun as it sounded when she suggested it the first time.
“Hey you.”
He turned at the voice, pushing off the side of his truck when Micah appeared. “Damn, love bug,” he muttered.
She was draped in a lavender dress with tiny white flowers, thick straps holding the whole thing up. The dress hugged her breasts and fell down to her knees, not flaunting the rest of the delicious body he had mapped years ago. did a slow sweep of her, spending a little extra time staring at her chest before lifting his eyes to hers.
“Seriously?” she asked, one hand on her hip, smirking at him.
“You’re a treat for the eyes.” She rolled her eyes at him and gently tugged her into his arms. “Missed you these last few days.”
“Missed you too, Fletch,” she whispered, wrapping her arms loosely around his neck.
“You ready for an adult date night?”
“Oh, what makes it adult ?”
“You’ll have to wait and find out.” He chuckled and kissed the tip of her nose. locked their hands together as he tugged her into the store, one hand reaching for a shopping cart.
“Tease,” she grumbled and released his hand to walk ahead of him. “So, what are we making tonight?”
“Steak and potatoes. It’s comfort food.”
“And dessert?”
You , he thought to himself and smiled. “Whatever you’re in the mood for.”
With a lingering glance, she nodded and then walked off, leaving him alone with the cart. He chuckled as he walked to the meat section, grateful that he’d called ahead so they would have the cut he wanted ready for him. A quick conversation with the butcher later, grabbed the potatoes and pushed the cart through the aisles until he found Micah staring into the display window of the bakery section.
“I feel like we deserve pie, but I can’t decide which one we should get.”
He came up behind her and peered into the selection. “Apple pie and ice cream is always a safe bet.”
“They’ve also got rhubarb and strawberry,” she said, leaning back against him.
“What about we go for something both of us like with the chocolate pie.”
“Isn’t that a little boring?”
He kissed the side of her head and smiled. “Nothing is boring when it’s with you, love bug.”
Micah huffed, but he caught the slight smile, before she told the lady behind the counter what they wanted. With everything paid for, they hopped into his truck and headed back to his place. Even though it was the first time she’d come to his house, Micah made herself comfortable by kicking off her shoes and wandering through the space.
“You know, a long time ago, Emery and I visited Hank here. I don’t remember it looking this nice.”
He followed her through the house, smiling as she touched bookshelves, fingers brushing over the photographs on the wall. To think that she’d been in the same place he’d spent so much time blew his mind. How was it that in the last sixteen years, and Micah had never once crossed paths when she knew such a big part of his life?
“First order of business when I moved in was to fix up this place.”
“Drummer of the year, incredible chef and talented handyman,” she said, spinning around to smile at him as they stepped into the kitchen. “Is there anything you can’t do?”
“Nope. I’m an all round awesome person.”
Micah laughed and closed the gap between them, her hands cupping his face as she pulled his mouth to hers. “I’m honored to know this awesome person.”
“Honored to be known by you, Mick,” he whispered against her mouth and kissed her again, free arm sliding around her waist to hold her close.
She hummed and pulled back, stepping out of his way as he unloaded their grocery purchases. Micah moved around him, taking a bowl to fill it up with water before dunking the potatoes in there. She pulled out all the drawers until she found the peeler and stole kisses along the way. focused on slicing up the meat, his eyes following Micah every so often. There was something so fucking special about sharing this space with her and wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.
“What’s your least favorite food item?” he asked, glancing at Micah briefly.
She pursed her lips and dunked her hands in the potatoes. “I hate …and I mean despise oranges. And I have a teenager who is obsessed with everything citrus.”
snorted, nudging her gently. “So that’s Christmas and oranges that you don’t like, but endure for your kid.”
“It’s what parents do, right? Sacrifice shit for their kids.”
“That’s what I’ve been told, yeah,” he said it softly, because it wasn’t like he had good experience with positive parenting and good life choices. When he looked up, he found her watching him with a slight frown. “What’s wrong?”
“Did you ever want kids?”
For years, the answer had always been a resounding no . But of late? Maybe. When he was young and starting out, the idea of a family sounded crazy. During his marriage to Alice, both of them knew it was a bad idea. Because he’d be on tour and in the studio a lot, which meant that Alice would have to stay home and raise the kids on her own. And she would resent him for it. Then there was the whole being raised by an average dad who didn’t really love or care for them much that made think he’d turn out the same way. While Emery was a fully-grown teenager with a sparkling personality, the thought of being a father to her didn’t scare him as much as he thought it would.
“I like kids, not sure I’d make a good dad.”
“I said that about myself when I found out I was pregnant. I turned out pretty okay.”
He smiled as she dusted off her shoulders. He could say it a million times, but Micah really was a great mother. Besides keeping her kid alive for fourteen years, Emery was a damn great kid too. He could feel Micah watching him, but he focused on slicing the meat and getting it prepped. When the weight of her gaze left him, let his shoulders droop. He never wanted to bring his family drama into their relationship. That was a past life, one he no longer had anything to do with.
This… this life with Micah, it was the only one he wanted to focus on.