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* * * * *
It was Friday afternoon, the start of Labor Day weekend, and Josie was finally going to meet Sam's parents. The idea both excited her and scared her to death. From what Sam had told her of them, she felt sure she would love them; the only question was: Would they love her? She sighed. She'd been torturing herself with that question ever since Sam suggested this weekend trip.
She looked down at her soft-sided bag. She was almost finished packing. All that was left to pack was her personal items like her make up, curling iron, and her toothbrush. She took a quick glance at her watch and exclaimed aloud, "Oh, my gosh! Sam will be here at any minute!"
And in that instant the doorbell rang. He was early, as usual. But unusual for Josie, she wasn't even changed yet. It had taken her over an hour to decide what she wanted to wear for her first meeting with his parents. But, at least now she had picked out her clothes, which were now hanging in her bathroom. Taking a glance at the bathroom door, she briefly considered running in there and never coming out. But then the doorbell rang a second time, followed with Sam's voice calling, "Josie? You okay in there?"
Sighing and shrugging her shoulders, she went to open the door, with only her red silk robe to cover her undergarments. Sam stood before the door dressed in khaki colored shorts and a navy blue polo shirt. He took one look at Josie's attire and invited himself in, shutting the door behind him without ever taking his eyes off the woman who owned his heart. "Come here," he said huskily.
Josie slipped her hands around his waist and allowed him to pull her into his embrace. Sam scorched her with a searing kiss, running his hands up and down over the smooth silk covering her back. After a few moments, Josie reluctantly pushed him away a bit. "Mmmm…Sam I still have to finish getting ready."
"Oh, I thought you were ready," Sam teased. "I'm sure you'd make quite an impression in that outfit." He grinned widely. He got an elbow in the ribs for his efforts.
Sam continued, "Seriously, though, I can't believe you aren't ready yet. You're usually ready for all our dates."
"Well in case you didn't know," Josie joked as she pulled Sam towards her bedroom, "this isn't just a date. Besides, you don't know how nerve wracking it is for me to know I'll be meeting your parents…"
Sam spoke softly, kindly, "Josie, I told you before, you don't have to worry about them. They are going to love you no matter what you're wearing."
Josie sighed deeply. "I know, but it doesn't stop me from worrying." She let go of his hands as they reached the middle of her bedroom. "I'm almost done packing." Josie then sent him a playful smile and a stare straight into his eyes and said, "Of course, I could finish faster if I got a little help." She knew he couldn't resist the eyes… well, there was that one occasion… but other than that her eyes were always the clincher.
"Okay, what do you need help on?" Sam asked.
"Hold on a sec," Josie answered. She then went to the bathroom and closed the door behind her. About three minutes later she came out wearing a ¾ sleeve knee-length dress with small printed blue flowers, and a dark indigo denim jacket in her hand. She slowly walked toward him and turned around before him, "If you don't mind, I need help with the zipper."
Sam shook his head as he realized that Josie did this purposefully to tease him. She knew that he couldn't stand being late for anything; but moreover, the view of her back, bare except for a flimsy, lacy bra strap was driving him crazy. She knew darn well they didn't have time for him to do anything about it. Since it was getting close to rush-hour time, and it was a holiday weekend besides, it would take a while longer to get to Racine than the usual hour and a half the drive normally took.
He gently grasped a handful of fabric on the small of her back with his right hand, and with his left hand he reluctantly zipped her up, bringing his left hand back down to wrap around Josie's waist. He fervently hoped that he'd be the one to help her unzip her dress later on that night.
After a moment, Josie turned in Sam's arms to face him. "Okay, I think I'm just about ready." She turned to the bed and closed her bag. "But I keep feeling like I'm forgetting something…"
"Oh! Did you remember to pack your swimsuit?" he asked from behind her, his head resting over her shoulder.
"That's it! I forgot your parents had a swimming pool," she answered and responded by releasing herself from his grip, smiling and crossing the room to look in her drawers for her bathing suit. She turned toward Sam holding a scrap of material in each hand. "Well, I have two. Which one should I take?" she teasingly asked. She lifted a trendy pink surfer-like two-piece that looked like it was purchased from an Abercrombie & Fitch catalog, and the other was a black traditional high-neck, low back, one-piece suit.
Sam swallowed past the lump in his throat, and his mouth felt dry. It was torture trying not to make his temptations seem too obvious to Josie. He'd already seen her completely nude, of course, which in this case, wasn't helping matters any. Besides, at that time, he wasn't as tense and nervous as he was now. He was worried about pulling off his plan without Josie figuring him out. And now, on top of all that, Josie held the fate of his temptations in his face: he had to choose which sexy bathing suit she would wear. He loved the two-piece and made a mental picture of what it would look like on Josie. He gulped as he felt heat flushing his face. On the other hand, (or in the other hand…) he felt Josie looked very sexy in anything black. Still, the black one covered more skin and he felt it was the less dangerous of the two. "Well, I think you should bring the black one," he fibbed.
"Okay then, I'll take the pink one," Josie replied with a knowing smile, tossing it onto the bed next to her bag, and putting the black one back into her dresser. "I know you're lying, the tone in your voice tells me you are," she said as she turned to neatly fold the suit in her duffel bag.
"Ahem," Sam cleared his throat and blushed, knowing she had him there. "Yeah, guilty as charged…"
"I've never heard of anyone having a swimming pool in Wisconsin," Josie mused.
"Josie, it's only an hour and a half north of here; it's not the Antarctic. It's certainly not unheard of for Wisconsin to have warm weather in the summer, even if it does tend to get cold in the winter," Sam responded.
"Sorry. I guess I'm one of those poor, ignorant people…you know, we equate Wisconsin with blizzards and cheese?" Josie joked as she nudged him.
Sam laughed, "I think you forgot Laverne & Shirley, Little House on the Prairie, and the Green Bay Packers…"
"Oh, yes, silly me…" Josie said, grinning. But after a moment, she exclaimed, "No, wait! Sam! You trickster!" Josie poked him in the ribs. "Little House on the Prairie was in Minnesota, not Wisconsin…"
Sam chuckled, amused but not surprised that Josie had caught his deliberate error.
"Okay mister," Josie said, giving him a quelling look, "I think I'm ready," she confirmed. Then she grabbed the long strap of the duffel bag and prepared to fling it over her shoulder. But Sam, being the complete gentleman that he was, took the duffel bag away from Josie, and also carried the smaller bag containing her personal items, taking both bags to his car.
On the way out to his car, Sam's cell phone began to ring. He quickly tossed Josie's bags in the backseat right next to his, pulled the phone from his front pocket and answered the call.
"Hello?" Sam noticed Josie coming up behind him and he lowered his voice. "Yeah we'll be there in a few hours. Did you do what I asked? Great, thanks! There's something extra in it for you just for doing that. I want this to be extra special…Thanks a lot!"
Josie suddenly became very suspicious, wondering what Sam was up to. She was pretty sure it wasn't one of his parents, because why would there be "something extra in it" for them? Her curious, reporter's mind was spinning and she just had to find out who Sam was making plans with. "Who was that, honey?"
"Huh?" Sam had to think fast. "It was my brother Russ. He got us tickets to this hockey game in Racine tonight that I'd asked him to try and get. They were supposed to be sold out," Sam replied, hoping that Josie would buy his answer.
"What hockey game? There's no NHL team in Wisconsin, Sam! Besides, it's the summer; they don't play hockey in the summer…do they?" Josie asked.
Geez. Josie was too darn smart for his own good sometimes! It was times like these that he was truly amazed at how well Josie had been able to hide the truth of her identity from everyone at the school for weeks. He could never have done it. It'd be a miracle if he could pull this little bit of deception off…"Well, actually its this annual all-star invitational where some friends of mine will be playing against some retired pro players," he said, hoping it was a good enough cover. He knew Josie was very good at "scooping" people out, and he didn't want his plan to backfire on him.
Josie took this information in, thought about it for a moment, and then shrugged. "So what are the plans for tonight, then?" she asked as Sam opened the passenger side door for her.
'Whew! She bought it!' Sam thought. "Well, we should be arriving in Racine hopefully at around 5. Of course, that's if the vacationing/rush-hour traffic isn't too bad. My dad's going to be making his famous barbecue, and Russ may be there as well." Sam put on his turn indicator, pulled out into the street, and began the trek to Wisconsin.
"That sounds nice. I'm so nervous on meeting your parents. I hope they'll like me," Josie commented, twisting her hands in her lap.
Sam reached over to hold her hands. He noticed her hands were a bit sweaty. "Oh, won't like you; they'll love you. But one thing's for sure," Sam said and then turned to meet Josie's gaze, "they won't love you as much as I do." He smiled and noticed the twinkle in her eyes.
"Oh sweetie, I love you too," she said as she traced small circles on his hand with her fingers, reassured that everything was going to be just fine.
* * *
Sam and Josie had already been driving for about an hour and a half and, according to Sam; they were still a good hour away from his parents' house. The sun was just low enough in the sky to create some awful glare on the windshield, so much so that Sam asked Josie to scour his glove compartment looking for his sunglasses.
Josie looked up to hand Sam his sunglasses just as he drove by the main exchange for Racine. She commented, "I'm guessing we just missed the off-ramp to the expressway that takes us near your parents' house."
"Huh? Oh, don't worry hon, I know another way," he answered in a slightly nervous tone.
"Oh, okay," Josie replied, assured that their destination was in the near future.
* * * * *
About an hour later they were still on Interstate 94 and traveling north. Josie decided Sam must be up to something. After all, if he had grown up in Racine, he could not have possibly gotten lost on his way there, she reasoned. But she knew that he had deliberately been avoiding every off-ramp going in that direction and now they were fast closing in on Milwaukee. She thought back to that mysterious phone call Sam had received.
After another few minutes of driving did not show Josie that Sam had any intention of turning the car around to head back toward Racine, she asked, "Sam where are we going? I obviously know we're going somewhere other than Racine. Please tell me."
He hated keeping her in suspense, but he had a very good reason. "I can just tell you one thing--it's a surprise," Sam said as he noticed the look of utter confusion on her face. Her mouth was open and she just gave him this look that just told him, 'I can't believe you!' He was very satisfied with that look.
To be continued…