“I’ll remind you that was your fault,” she said with a mock scowl.

“Baby, you made us take the longest fucking shower known to mankind while you washed your hair and cleaned your face with all that skin care shit you have in there.”

She placed her hands on her hips and glared at me. And fuck if her tits didn’t jiggle when she did that, sending desire straight to my dick. “I was regrouping after you made me come three times, Griff. And you didn’t have to stay in there with me.”

“A man is hardly gonna leave his woman when she’s naked in the shower with him.”

I’d expected something smart to come out of her mouth, but she surprised me when her eyes softened and she didn’t say a word.

“What?” I asked.

“What, what?” she asked as she took her hands off her hips.

“What was that look?”

She gave me one of her amazing smiles. “You called me your woman. I liked being called that,” she said softly.

Fuck me.

The pure honesty she gave me never failed to amaze and surprised the fuck out of me.

“I’ll be sure to call you that more often, sweetheart. Now go and get dressed. You’ve got a date with my bike.”

She shook her head in mock irritation at me, but she did as I’d said.

And I began counting down the minutes till I got to see her again.

* * *

Later that day I headed to Josie’s for lunch. I took her steps two at a time, and met her at the top of them. She sat in her chair and smiled at me. “Michael, what a nice surprise.”

“I brought some lunch. You hungry?”

“Depends. What you got?”

I chuckled. Typical Josie – she never held back with me like she would have if it were anyone else who’d brought her food. “Oh, I don’t know…just your favourite from Subway, but if you don’t want it, I’ll eat it.”

She stood and swiped the bag from me. “I see that woman is bringing out your sarcasm again. It’s been too long since I’ve seen that, and while I thought I missed it, I may have been mistaken.” Turning to walk inside, she threw over her shoulder, “Be a good man and get an old lady a drink, will you?”

Laughing, I grabbed cold drinks from the fridge and joined her at the table.

We ate in silence for a few minutes, but Josie was never good with silence. “I’m glad you two got yourselves sorted out. It’s good to see a smile in your eyes again.”

“We never really stood a chance against you, did we?”

She didn’t even blink, but just kept eating her lunch, and said, “I know a good thing when I see it, and as soon as that girl tripped through my front door, I knew she was made for you.”

“Jesus, how long have you been planning this?” Nothing would surprise me with Josie.

She shrugged. “The day she moved in, she came over to ask me if I had any milk. I invited her in and she tripped, and when she got all embarrassed she began rambling – I’m sure you know what I mean by that – and with all the honesty that came out of her mouth, and the vulnerability that fell from her, I knew you would love her as much as I did.”

I raised my brows. “How the hell did you know I would love that about her?”

She put her lunch down and stared at me. “I know a few things about you, Michael. Number one – you loved your mother more than most sons love their mothers. And your mother used to ramble like that. And, number two – some woman broke your heart so badly somewhere along the way that you don’t trust women anymore. It was always going to take a woman who bared her heart easily and spoke with blatant honesty for you to even consider trusting her and letting her in. Sophia is that woman, and the minute I saw it, I had to make it happen, because if there’s one thing I want to see before I take my last breath, it’s my sister’s child happy.”

I sat back in my chair as if some unseen force had shoved me back into it.

Fuck.

I’d forgotten my mother rambled like Sophia. How the fuck could I have forgotten that? And everything else she’d said was so damn true. I’d just never realised it or put it all together. What I did know, though, was that Josie was a smart woman.

I leaned forward again, and placed my elbows on the table. “So the night you sent me over there for gravy powder was a set-up?”

She scoffed. “Do you think an old woman like me doesn’t know how to make gravy from scratch? My boy, for a smart man, there are times you are easily manipulated. I only hope Sophia works that out.”

I chuckled. “I have no doubt she will,” I muttered.

She drank some of her drink. “Bring her to dinner soon. I’ll cook you roast with gravy.” The woman winked as she said gravy, and I shook my head as I laughed.

Jesus, I could see how this was going to go down, and I wasn’t convinced it was safe to bring the two women in my life together.

But a man never said no to his aunt. “I’ll bring her over on Sunday.”

She smiled at me, and I couldn’t be anything but grateful for her.

Without Josie, I wouldn’t have Sophia.

* * *

As I was leaving Josie’s, my phone sounded with a text.

Sophia: You have no idea how wet I am for you, handsome.

Fuck.

Not the kind of text I would have expected from her, but more than fucking welcome.

Me: I see you’re enjoying the ball.

Sophia: Every time it vibrates, I imagine it’s you in there.