Chapter 2

Having decided to let Melody set the pace of our relationship, I sat back and enjoyed the ride. We continued our play on the court, added a phone call to our weekly schedule, and sent each other notes through e-mail.

She made Saturday nights our date night. We combined dinner with a movie or a play; or stayed at her place eating take-out and watching old movies on video, and ended our evenings playing a running game of Scrabble. By our sixth date she was whipping my ass by eight thousand points.

My sister Faye had us over for lunch one Sunday afternoon. My brother Paul and his wife Cathy were there, too. They all loved her immediately and I knew if I wanted to keep my head attached to my shoulders that I had better treat Melody right; like I would do anything else! But it was nice to see their support for her.

Paul was amused to learn that I, a Deadhead and a blues lover, had fallen for a lady who was into folk and bluegrass. Not only that, she had a complete collection of John Denver.

After that first date, she limited herself to hugging me at the end of her lessons and at the end of our dates. Sometimes, we hugged more than once, and eventually she would, at one point, stay in my arms, letting me hold her.

One Saturday evening, three months into our relationship, we were sitting together on the green leather love-seat in her spare room, where she had her television, VCR, stereo, and computer. She was snuggled up to me and, as we watched Jimmy Stewart walk down the lane with Harvey, she asked, "Do you ever have fantasies about me?"

"Since the day I met you," I admitted, feeling my cheeks grow warm; I could not recall the last time I had blushed. "Do you have them about me?"

"Yeah." She sat up and reached for her glass of soda on the coffee table. She was wearing red baggy sweats with an over-sized black long-sleeved blouse. Her socks matched the shirt. Putting the glass down she took off her glasses and played with them. "I'd like to make out with you," she said softly.

I was so flattered that had she asked me to rob a bank, I would have gone out and done the deed without a second thought; thus, my heart was beating an interesting tempo when I said, "That sounds like fun, Kitten. Why don't you put in Mary Poppins and we'll go from there."

After the movie had started, she made herself comfortable on my lap. My senses reeled the way they had twenty years ago, when I was sixteen and Karen Estes had agreed to go out with me. And, when, a little while into the film, Melody turned and shyly feather kissed my lips, I momentarily saw stars.

I must have looked stunned or something, because Melody asked if I was okay. I assured her that I was and explained that I had seen stars.

She giggled. "How many?"

"A whole constellation."

"What do you see when I do this?"

She kissed the tip of my nose.

"Meteors."

She kissed my chin.

"And this?"

"Mars."

We made it through all the planets, the sun, the moon, and the Big Dipper, etc., with her kissing every section of my face, my ears, and my neck -- some of them more than a few times -- and me just sitting with my arms around her.