Author's note: This is turning into quite a series here. Don't know how that happened. :) Must be because I love these two so much. Anyone coming in late here might want to read my first two stories, "When it's Right" and "Going Home." Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated at [email protected].
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Sam navigated the Chicago streets, following the directions Josie gave him, and the two of them took the opportunity to satisfy in some small way the curiosity each felt about the other. She learned that his favorite color was blue. He learned her favorite movie was "The Sound of Music". They were delighted to find out that coffee, bagels and the morning paper were routine for both of them every Sunday morning.
"Which section do you like to read first?" she asked.
"Sports, especially during hockey season."
"Do you still play at all? Turn left there."
"I don't play as much as I used to, but a group of guys and I get together whenever we can."
"I'd love to watch you sometime."
"You would?" he asked, obviously surprised.
"Of course I would! I think it would be terribly exciting, watching you in action." He quirked an eyebrow at her with a grin, and she added with a smile, "So to speak."
"I'd love to have you come with me. I think the guys would love you."
She noticed a slight emphasis on "you," and, after a short but fierce internal debate, asked in as nonchalant a tone as she could manage, "They didn't care for Lara?"
"No, not really." He winced, this not being the topic he most wanted to discuss with Josie at this point in time, but he also didn't want her to think he was hiding anything or that she to worry about any lingering feelings he might have for Lara. He knew she must be curious, so he took a deep breath and plunged right in. "Lara ... changed after college. She moved to New York and suddenly the "corporate image" became all-important to her. I don't know, maybe I changed too. My ambitions shifted direction, and as far as Lara was concerned, it wasn't for the better. My friends sort of bore the brunt of that. I think, for Lara, they represented everything she didn't want me to be."
Josie was silent, contemplating the incredible thought that some woman could be insane enough to want Sam to be any different from the kind, funny, intelligent man that he was. She opened her mouth to ask another question then gave a start as she realized her street was coming up.
"Oh, take a right here - it's the third building on the left. There's a spot behind that red car."
Sam parked the car in the space she indicated and got out. Josie fumbled with her seat belt, finding the unfamiliar clasp difficult to release. It finally snapped free and the seat belt slid away. She reached for the door handle, only to see the door swing open. She raised startled eyes to see Sam holding the door with one hand and extending the other to help her from the car. She put her hand in his and said a somewhat breathless, "Thank you." She was inordinately pleased by the simple courtesy.
"You're welcome." Sam threaded his fingers with hers after closing and locking the car, and they walked in companionable silence to her building.
Josie held her breath a little as she unlocked and opened the door to her apartment. It suddenly hit her that Sam was the first man - or at least, the first non-related man - to enter her home. She ushered him in and waved him in the direction of the sofa, then stood a little uncertainly as he sat on one end.
"Can I get you anything? Something to drink, maybe?"
"Just...come sit down?" He patted the cushion next to him.
She sat next to him, leaving a little distance between them, and clasped her hands together in her lap. Sam turned sideways, putting his arm along the back of the sofa, and took one of her hands in his, playing gently with her fingers. In a low, encouraging voice, he asked, "What are you thinking?"
She watched their hands together, enjoying the sight and the feel. "Did you love her?" Though part of her felt it was best to drop the subject, the rest of her just had to know.
"I thought I did, once. But, I think I was more in love with who I thought she was than with who she really was." His thumb made tiny little circles on her palm, leaving a tingling path with every circuit. "It's like...there was always something missing, some - some element, some... *moment* when it's supposed to feel right. I kept thinking, maybe I was expecting too much or maybe I wasn't trying hard enough. Then I met you..."
Okay, this was getting good. "And?" She prodded.
"And..." He huffed a laugh. "You scared the hell out of me."
"I scared you?" She laughed, somehow delighted by the idea. "Why?"
"Josie, I may have a lot of faults, but I like to think of myself as a loyal, law-abiding man, and here I was feeling things I shouldn't have felt for a woman who was not my girlfriend, who was not old enough and who was my STUDENT. Morally, ethically...I was finding myself in deep waters and it was very uncomfortable."
He saw the smile she was fighting to hide. "What? You think this was funny?"
"No! It's not funny, really." She squeezed his hand in apology, but she couldn't suppress the smile. "It's just the idea of me as some sort of irresistible femme fatale that amuses me."
"Well, you were irresistible, at least to me. I mean, at first - at first, I just loved having a student who enjoyed and appreciated words and language, one who actually LIKED reading and discussing Shakespeare. And the more I got to know you, the more I liked you, and the more I thought about you." He shook his head. "You have no idea how difficult these last few weeks have been."
"Sam, what were you going to tell me at the Prom?"
"I don't know, not exactly." He looked at her, and she could suddenly tell that he was remembering her in her Rosalinde costume. "You were so beautiful, so...radiant. I was so proud of you and so happy for you. And the thought of you going away to college, of walking out of my life ...I just had to let you know how I felt."
"What would you have done if I really had been seventeen?"
"I'd have waited for you." He grinned. "And taken lots of cold showers."
She smiled wonderingly. "Really? You would have waited for me?"
"Of course I would have waited. Josie, this kind of thing doesn't come along every day. Some people never find it, and I'd just spent five years trying to make it happen where it was never going to happen." He lifted her hand to his mouth and pressed a kiss to the very center of her palm, and when he spoke, his voice was low and husky. "I've waited my whole life for you...what's a year or two more?"
She found her eyes drifting shut and a sigh escaping her mouth as he lingered, his mouth brushing against her wrist and working it's way up her arm. "You know what?" she breathed.
"What?"
"I'm not seventeen."
As his head lifted, she opened her eyes and met his tender, caring ones. He shook his head with a crooked smile. "No, you're not."
She rose to her feet and tugged lightly on his hand. "Come on."
He resisted just long enough to ask, "Are you sure?"
"Sam, I've never been more sure about anything in my life. I've waited twenty-five years for this."
One brow rose high and he grinned rakishly at her. "Well, since I've already kept you waiting once tonight..." With her next tug, he came willingly to his feet and followed her into her bedroom.
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To Be Continued
Please let me know what you think at [email protected]
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