Room 212 (25 page)

“Look, you won’t see how high up we are. Just breathe, baby.”

“I will never have sex with you again, ever! I hate you for this.” I heard the people behind us in line laughing and couldn’t control my anger. I was terrified. Two glasses of wine hadn’t done a thing to calm me. I had no idea how I had let him talk me into this. Of course it’s what he wanted to do, so we did it. I was so close to throwing my first punch at him, it was a good thing I couldn’t see him. It was an irrational fear of heights and I knew it, but terrifying just the same. I felt my chest expanding with fast breaths as our feet left the ground. I was hyperventilating and could feel the cold sweat seeping from my forehead. There was no way I was going to make it to the top of this mountain.

I opened my mouth to protest when he started to whisper to me.

“You know how I knew that you were the one for me?” He nuzzled my neck and held me tight to him, grabbing my hand that was gripping my knee. He leaned us back into the lift his arm around me.

“Seth, I am so scared. Please, I am so scared.”

“Because of the way I kissed you, Laura. I have never kissed anyone the way I kiss you. It’s a part of me that only you get, no one else, ever.”

“I’m sure you’re lying. Your wedding night, when your son was born...”

“You’re calling me a liar?”

“No, Seth, you just might not know how incredibly romantic you really are.” I was still very aware we were moving up a mountain.

“I know that this Seth didn’t exist until I met you. The first time I kissed you at Chantilly was the first time I was him.”

“That’s sweet, Seth. Are we going to die?’

“Laura, I’m only this way with you. I’m only gentle with you. I can only be this way with you.” He lifted the scarf off of my eyes as we approached the longest distance from the ground. I kept my scream inside as I looked into his eyes. I was no longer afraid. It felt amazing. I smiled at him. He was so perfect.

“You are the love of my life, baby.”

He leaned in so gently, I whimpered. I couldn’t shake his stare, it was so breathtaking. I saw all I had ever wanted to see in his eyes.

“And you are the love of mine, Seth, always. I love you.” He covered my mouth with his kiss as we reached the peak and I wrapped my arms around him and didn’t let go…until the son of a bitch threw me down the mountain skis first.

*****

“So what, Laura? Colorado is beautiful. The seasons change, your motels are here and you don’t want to give it up. I get it. I have a son to think about!”

“I hate to point out the obvious, you stupid, selfish ass, but this is the exact reason I broke up with you a few months back.”

“Well, I expected you to budge, just a little. I mean, come on. You left Texas because of me, shouldn’t I be the reason you come back?”

“I have nothing to do there!”

“Oh bullshit, that’s just an excuse. You have plenty of money and if you didn’t, I would still take care of you.”

“Oh my God, you fucking caveman. Are you serious? It’s like you assume I have no skills and didn’t build my business from the ground up!” I took a small rubber piggy bank off my study shelf and threw it at his head, narrowly missing him.

“Wow, psycho, if that would have landed, I would have kicked your ass!” I burst out laughing as he huffed on the other side of the room. I put my hands on my thighs and laughed at him fuming in the corner. His lips twitched and he fought the smile that eventually won, and started to laugh with me.

“You were going to kick my ass? Please tell me you are not a wife beater.”

“You know I would never hurt you. I don’t know why I said that,” he chuckled, coming toward me and kissing me before I plopped myself into my study chair.

“Okay, all bullshit aside, you are seriously acting like a caveman and in no way, no matter who moves where, are you going to tell me what I can and can’t do, right?”

“Wrong. I’m pretty sure you will like what I tell you to do. Ow, ow... I’m joking, just joking…hey, watch the family jewels,” he chuckled, dodging my playful fists.

“Great, so we’re both old and set in our ways. This should be interesting.”

“Oh, I have no doubt it will never be boring.”

“How are you so sure it’s going to work?”

“Because, baby, we can’t survive the opposite.”

“I love you.” I stood up, grabbing his hand and leading him to the kitchen. “I’ll make you a peace omelet.”

“I love you too, baby,” he said, wrapping his arm around my neck to give my temple a quick kiss.

“It’s only two weeks away from the ribbon cutting. We have to figure this out. I can live here, leave for whatever job that needs me. I can just design, you know that, but I would have to visit Squirt on the weekends and I would have to give up my house and being a builder. How in the hell is that a compromise on your part?”

“It’s not, but the only thing I can do to compromise is move to Texas.” I pinched my nose at him.

“What exactly is it that you hate so much?”

I didn’t have to think long and hard, I could tell him it was the heat, the terrifying highways, the lack of natural scenery. I tried to pinpoint the reason for my hate and couldn’t figure it out.

“I don’t know, I just don’t like it, Seth. I don’t want to move there and hate you for it. And I don’t want you to move here and hate me.”

I chopped up chives and tomato and started whipping the eggs.

“Laura, I can’t leave Squirt. I can’t. I know you know that, but moving here would be leaving him. I gave up on my marriage, it hurt him. I love that kid and I can’t hurt him.”

“God, you think I would be happy if you hated me for that one? What if I go where you are, where each job is?”

“And sit at a motel all day waiting to see me a few hours a day? Should I pay you by the hour?” I threw a piece of tomato at him and he caught it in his mouth, chewing it up with an exaggerated swallow despite me.

“I hate being a grownup.”

“Me too, baby.”

“Oh, bullshit. You were old for you age when I met you.”

“I was being agreeable.” Another tomato, he almost had it again.

“What are we going to do?”

“Well, first you are going to finish my omelet. Then you’re going to pull your panties down so I can make you come up against the counter.”

I took the omelets off and slid them on a plate. I grabbed my panties by the hip, facing away from him, pulling them down and leaned over the counter, eyebrow raised at him, rocking back and forth on my legs, wiggling my bare ass. It took him a few seconds of mouth gaping to get it together and walk to me.

He licked my ear as he found the sweet spot between my legs and whispered, “I told you, baby, you would like what I tell you to do.”

*****

“Ahhhhhhhh, stop it! God, I am going to pee my pants. Stop it, Seth.” I couldn’t stop the nervous laughter as he held the bass puckering up to my face. We were sitting in my fishing boat, freezing our asses off and I had spent the better part of the last hour begging him to take us back. We were in a locked battle of wills and he was refusing to let up.

My argument was that it was too damn cold for the fish to bite. He was determined to prove me wrong, and now I was stuck holding my foot in my mouth. I shot daggers at him, but he refused to let up.

“A bet is a bet, Laura. Kiss this damn fish.”

“It was a damn joke, Seth. I said if you caught a fish first I would kiss it, I meant cook it. It was word confusion.”

“KISS ME.” He held the fish less than an inch from my face and I went backward off the boat. “Laura! Oh shit, baby! Laura!” I quickly came to in the freezing cold water, needles stabbing me everywhere. I was waiving my arms like a lunatic, praying somehow I could fly out of there with them. I looked up to see a relieved Seth start laughing hysterically at me. I narrowed my eyes as he started to help me back into the boat and yanked him into the water with me.

“I knew that was coming,” he said spurting, out the water as he emerged. His smile quickly faded when he realized how cold the water really was. “I think my nuts are gone and my dick shrank. I hope you weren’t planning on using either tonight. This is dangerously cold.”

“Ya think!” He pulled himself back in the boat and quickly turned to help me while I was cursing him with a dictionary of choice words. He got us back to the house in minutes. We warmed in front of the fire and laughed at our stupidity. Wrapped in a blanket, the heavy silence grew between us.

“So, you cut the ribbon tomorrow?”

“Yeah, baby, at noon. You are coming, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, and then you leave with the crew, when?”

“At two. I have to get my truck back, and I have a new job starting soon and have to iron out the details.”

“Okay, so we are still at an impasse?”

“Yep,” he said dryly. “We are.”

“I love you, Seth.”

“I love you, too.” We didn’t say another word as we watched the fire crackle and the snow start to fall.

Seth had been gone a month before his first visit back to Colorado and had become cold and distant in my refusal to join him in Texas. I felt the distance between us when I picked him up from the airport. We had promised each other we would try and steal every bit of happiness we could. The miles between us seemed to grow longer and longer. He had started a new project in Oklahoma and I had broken my promise to visit him there. A fire had taken a wing down in one of my motels and I had a huge mess to deal with insurance adjusters and couldn’t break away.

The excuse, no matter how legit, seemed to anger him more. He had been slowly letting his vicious bite enter our conversations more often. We stopped at the motel to check in with Linda and went to my room there so I could get showered and changed for dinner. I had been cleaning again that day and hadn’t been able to shower before I picked him up. He didn’t seem to notice my disheveled appearance and spent most of his time staring out the window on the car ride to the motel. I ended up confronting him less than twenty minutes after he landed.

“What is it, Seth? Are you going to ruin our first day together in a month with your shitty attitude?” I snapped at him as I took of my jeans and started the shower.

“Everything is great, Laurs.”

“What the hell is that, sarcasm?”

“That’s what your friends call you isn’t it? Isn’t that what we are, friends?”

“What? Where are you going with this?”

“NO WHERE.”

“Fine.” I grabbed the shower curtain and snatched it back, leaving it open so he could watch me shower. I knew he was as desperate to touch me as I was to touch him. I slowly lathered my hair and took my time caressing my body with the soap. He pretended not to see me in the mirror as he watched a game on TV, but I had his full attention. I decided to test my theory.

“What’s the score?”

“What?” He snapped through clenched teeth.

“The score of the game, what is it?”

“Score? Oh…14-10, Broncos.”

“Where do you want to eat?” I bent over to shave my legs and saw his mouth press into a hard line. He wasn’t even looking at the TV at that point.

“I don’t care.”

I smiled in satisfaction as I watched him shift in bed and started on my other leg. “I’m so hungry,” I moaned. I grabbed the bar and lathered up my breasts, taking special care to touch my nipples as I rinsed off. I got out of the shower and toweled my hair, but left my body to air dry. I reached for the lotion bottle.

“Don’t.”

“Don’t?”

“Don’t you dare.”

I took a handful and covered my breasts and worked the rest onto my body, down to my toes. I took the towel from my hair and slowly brushed my hair out. I walked into the room and saw him ready to burst. I laughed out loud at his discomfort.

“Bitch.”

“Bastard. I missed you.” I climbed on top of his lap and rubbed my bare crotch over his.

“Laura, stop, this is serious. We need to figure something out.”

“Yes, it is serious, that bitchy demeanor of yours needs my attention.” I put my hands on his chest, batting my lashes and he pushed me off of him onto the bed.

“What the hell, Seth! You said you would do whatever it took. It’s only been a month and you’re ready to give up!”

“That’s just it, Laura. I am nowhere near ready to give up, but you already have. What steps have you taken to be mine?”

“To be…yours? I am yours. What are you talking about?”

“You didn’t make one trip to Texas, or Oklahoma. You could have let Linda handle your fire. Why didn’t you come?”

“Seth a month is not that big of a deal. We have—“

“It’s a huge deal. We decided to build a life together, one that would last, one that we could both live with and you won’t even get on a fucking plane to come see me.”

“I wanted to, Seth, I swear. Why are you so angry?”

“Because I miss you. I hate not being with you, not being able to see you every day. I miss you too much, and I shouldn’t have to.”

“Well, you have a hell of a way of showing it, Seth Whitaker! You are acting like a child!”

“What is it, baby? Are you mad that I turned you down, Laura? Is that why you are so pissed now? It’s not the distance between us or that you miss me, it’s that you wanted to get off?”