I called the NEA group that had offered me the grant. Then I called my mother, who sighed.
“It took you long enough,” she chided me. “I thought maybe school had stolen your brain.”
“Mom,” I whined. “I got beat up. I wasn’t myself.”
“You were yourself in December,” she said. “You knew what you wanted then. Don’t tell me differently.”
There was a long pause.
“So have you talked it over with John?”
I shook my head, then realized we weren’t skyping.
“Not yet.”
Again she gave an annoyed grunt, which irked me even more.
“Well, don’t you think it’s about time you man up?”
Sometimes, even if she was the perfect mother with the perfect son, I hated her.
“Yes, Mother.”
* * * *
John was hiding out from the very few reporters who were still chasing after him. I joined the group of people trying to pin him down. Now he was leaving meals for me again. I heated them in the microwave after I got home from the nursery. We still slept in the same bed, but that was all we did in it. He came in after I fell asleep, and I left for the nursery before he woke. Two ships in the night had a greater chance of colliding, it seemed, than we did.
I’d had a long talk with Beth and Kate, and they’d approved my life plan. In fact, they were ecstatic about it.
Everybody seemed to be on board with Dr. Fenton Miller’s future path except the one person crucial to making it work out happily.
Just when I was getting really pissed off at how elusive John was, he was waiting for me at Blue Cottage when I got home one night. He was cooking dinner and fucking humming to himself. His tough features were smoothed out, and for the first time since I’d known him, which admittedly wasn’t very long, but long enough, he looked happy.
“So you had a good day?” I asked as I walked into the kitchen, grabbed him from behind, and planted a hickey-producing kiss on his neck.
He shook off my limpet-like hold and turned to give me a boner kiss.
“Yes. I plan to have an even better night.”
“Oh yeah?” I grinned.
“Oh yeah.”
“But first…” we both began.
After the requisite stop and start as we each tried to be polite and let the other one speak, we conceded that we needed to have a long-overdue talk before we relieved the pressure of being essentially apart for so long.
We both picked at the excellent dinner he’d cooked, sharing more grins and kisses than words, until we gave up and abandoned the food. After a quick cleanup, we went to lie under the naked fir that was still residing in his turret room. We’d removed the holiday decorations and were now waiting for the ground to thaw and warm up enough so that we could plant our trees.
“You go first,” I urged him.
He gave me a kiss and a long look as if he were assessing me.
“I quit my job at the Star,” he said as if I’d be surprised.
“Okay. So you’re buying the Limelight?”
He nodded.
“That’s good, right? Did you leave peacefully, or did you give Adam the finger as you stomped out?”
He grunted. Then snuggled closer, giving me another kiss, this one more powerful and longer than the first.
“It was tempting, but I asked myself, ‘How would Fen handle this?’”
I laughed as I turned. He stared at me stone-faced, then broke into laughter.
“You ass. You did not.” I was indignant.
“No. You’re right. I didn’t.” He sighed. “Adam and I talked about what I was planning on doing—breakfast and lunch—and how it might fit in with what he was doing at the Star—dinners only. We were very civilized about it. You would have approved.”
I snorted. As if he needed my approval about anything he did. It was nice knowing that as he made a big decision for himself, he was thinking of me, just as I’d been thinking about him.
“So have you decided what you want to be when you grow up?” he teased.
“Yes, dickhead, I have.” I took a breath and snuggled closer, putting my hand on his chest.
“All my life, I’ve always told myself I wanted to fall in love with a tall, strong guy who’d make it his life’s work to protect me from everything bad in the world, just as I would protect and take care of him. So I never dated guys as short as me. I didn’t become their friend either.” As he tried to move back, I pulled him to my side and clamped my hand down harder on his chest. He wasn’t getting away until I was done. “I know now it was an ass move, but after my dad and his comments, it seemed the only smart thing to do. You know?”
I didn’t wait for him to nod his head, though I was pleased when I felt it.
“Only it turns out what I wanted wasn’t a tall, dark, and handsome man at all. What I really wanted was a short, dark, and handsome man. Somebody who cooks great food and makes me feel ten feet tall when we’re together. Somebody who can make me feel like a real stud when we’re in bed.” I glanced over at him. “In short, I want you.”
“Real funny,” he said, even though I hadn’t realized I’d made a stupid joke. Then he rolled on top of me. “That’s good because what I want is you.”
His hands snuck down my body, and while I was aching for where this was going, I wasn’t done with my side of the conversation yet. So I gently and carefully rolled him back beside me, only breaking the kiss when his lips left mine.
“I have to tell you something else.” I put my hand back on his chest while with the other I hugged him. “I talked to the education association group that gave me the grant.”
He sighed. “They told you that
