Chapter 11

Okay. So Key worries about Jo. Can't fault her for that. I worry about Jo too. It's not hard. I close my eyes, let my mind drift, and there's Jo.

So she was grocery shopping on a Saturday morning. I picked up my phone, pushed the button and said "Johanna".

Siri replied, "Calling Johanna Solheim mobile". I held the phone to my ear.

"Hi, Stoney," she said.

"Hi, my baby," I replied. "Why didn't you call?"

"Let you sleep late. I'm just getting some groceries for the week. The milk in the fridge smells funny. No bananas. Key ate the last of the Cheetos. We're in dire straits."

"You still have a smile in your voice."

"And you called me to see what I was doing, so apparently neither of us is regretting last night, then."

"Nope," I said. "I stand by my previous statement."

"Good," she said. "How about we hang out together after I dump the groceries at the apartment?"

"Love it," I said. "Plans? Ideas?"

"I dunno. Did Mom and Dad scare you the other night?"

"Of course not," I said. "It's not like we announced the impending birth of our illegitimate child."

Giggle. "No, really. They're going back to Denver tomorrow. I'd like to have dinner with them tonight. With you at my side, because that's just the way I want to do it."

"Jo, are you sure? Your parents might want some time with just you and themselves. I don't want to intrude on that."

"Oh, for heaven's sake, Stoney, you don't understand. I want you there. My parents want me to be normal. You're a lot of normal, guy. More than they expected."

"Dress up like last night?" was my way of surrendering.

"Oh, no. I'm going to guide them to a good informal Italian place. Mom doesn't quite do jeans, but that's what I'm wearing. You may dress in your work clothes."

"What's your dad gonna wear?"

Giggle. "Dad will wear a business dress shirt. The lack of necktie will be his concession to informality."

"You make him sound stuffy."

"Oh, really, he's not. He's a great dad. But he does have his public persona and he frets."

"So you and I, we just go boppin' into the restaurant and meet them?"

"Just like Thursday."

"Jo, just so you don't have to have your hearing checked..."

"What?"

"I love you."

A little squeal of delight came over the phone. "Do you really, Stoney? Really?"

"Yes I do."

"I love you too," she said. "Let me check out. Pick me up at my place in half an hour. And thank you."

"Thank me?"

"For being who you are. You know what I mean."

I showered, shaved, slipped into my Saturday schlepping around ('schlep' is one of those good words I learned from a Jewish buddy in the army) togs, grabbed my crash bag of essentials that are part of the prepared engineer's repertoire, and headed out the door. With a little more of a spring in my step, in case you're wondering.

I pulled into Jo's parking lot in a space that was empty because it was farther away than the desirable spots, and I waited. It wasn't long before Jo's car pulled in, and I went to help her bring the bags in.

She unlocked her door and barged in, yelling, "Key, make sure you're decent! Stoney's here!"

Key peeked around the corner from her bedroom. "My, my, my! Look at him! Carrying bags. You already got 'im trained, Jo!" Key's smile lights up a room. "You all domesticated, Stoney?"

"I come from a long line of civilized males," I said. "We've evolved. Knuckles don't even drag the ground."

"I can see that," she said. Jo lead me into the kitchen and I handed her items from the bags as she put them away.

"Got your Cheetos," she told Key cheerfully.

"Yeah, like I'm the only one that eats 'em."

"She hasn't gotten you to eat anchovy pizza, has she?" I asked.

"Oh HELL no! It comes from the box smelling like bad leftovers."

I shook my head as Jo smiled.

Key gasped. "No! YOU?!?!"

"I love it. Have loved it for years."

"Figures," Key smiled. "Four million guys in the city and Jo picks the one that actually likes anchovies."

"That's actually not that rare," I said.

"Maybe not, but it ain't that common, either." She smirked at me. "And you know it."

"Destiny," Jo chirped. "And you know it." She grabbed my hand, tugging me toward the door as she laughed. "See ya!"

"Y'all have fun!" Key said.

Spending a sunny autumn day walking around parks with a pretty, intelligent redhead is good. Late afternoon, though I asked, "DO I need to take you home to get ready for dinner?"

"Certainly not! My parents are used to seeing me dressed like this. We're a couple spending the afternoon at the park, and we're meeting them at an informal restaurant." She paused, lips forming a pretty bow. "Do you feel like YOU need to get cleaned up?"

"Not when you put it that way," I said.

"Look! Nice green spot under that tree over there. Let's go sit!" We held hands and walked across the green. "Sit!"

"Yes, ma'am," I said. I backed up against a tree trunk and eased down. She turned away from me, sat, and leaned back into my arms.

"Perfect!" she said. "Stoney, I'm getting terribly fond of you, you know."

"I have the same issue," I said. "What do we do about it? Are you scared? Uncomfortable? Uneasy?"

"Nope, nope and no," she said. "It's just uncharted territory. And I'm quite happy to be here." She languished back, wiggling to encourage me to hold her tightly. "What do we do? We keep doing what we're doing."

"You like it."

"I love it. Johanna is in love. I have a reason to smile."

"Don't give me that!" I injected. "That was the very first thing I noticed. Well, there were a lot of things I noticed, but the smile was what ties them all together."

She leaned her head back, rubbing it against my cheek. "You don't do badly yourself, Stoney."

"I smile more, too, Jo." I turned my head slightly, teasing a few strands of her hair with my lips. "You have no idea..."

She purred, "Why don't you tell me..."

"Because I'm just an engineer. Language is a tool I use to describe and define finite, specific elements of structure and design. I'd need to have the heart of a Beethoven or a Mozart and the vocabulary of a Keats or a Shelley to put words to what I feel right now."

She rolled over, planted her lips on my own. Time ceased to exist until she pulled back ever so slightly. "I think you do just fine, my Stoney."

"Your Stoney?"

"Do you want to be possessed? Owned. Connected? If you do, then you're MY Stoney. If you don't, you're yourself, but in my heart you're My Stoney."

'Jo, Jo, Jo," I said, "Why is it so easy to love you?"

She smiled. "You know, I've asked myself the same question, Stoney. I sort of figured I'd run into some guy in the orchestra, common music interests, my age, all that. And that would be it. Jo and whomever would slide off into a long relationship followed by a marriage. You're just so far off the scope. D'you know you're the first real engineer I've ever known? Well, you are. And I find the heart of a poet and the heart of an artist and the heart of a warrior ... all those different hearts, beating right here..." and she kissed my chest.

"You're serious," I said.

She looked up at me with those clear blue eyes. "Stoney, we used the 'L-word'. Isn't that the epitome of 'serious'? I know it's not, not with a lot of people, but I thought that you..."

"I was dead serious, Jo, my little flower. I worried that I might have missed something and you were one of that 'lot of people'."

"See. You listen to what I say." The smile was there. "And no, I'm not one of 'a lot of people.' Words mean things. Specific things. 'Love' doesn't mean 'for tonight' or 'this week' or 'until that other guys is free'. Dad loves Mom. Mom loves Dad. That's how love is supposed to be."

"I'm not one of those people either, Johanna Elise," I said, the sound of her name a salve for my soul. "This is sounding serious."

"Never has been this way before, Stoney. You're the first."

"The first?"

"The first guy I ever told that I love him."

"How many are you supposed to have?"

"Depends on the venue. Fairy tales? Just one. The life of the average co-ed? One every two weeks for a decade."

"And where does my Jo fall out in that distribution?"

A long, public kiss. "Far, far out on the fairy tale side. What about Stoney."

I brushed my fingers gently over that smooth cheek. "Waiting at the fairy tale end of the curve. People don't seem to be out here any more."

"Just me and you. Like we really need the rest of the world." She slid up a little on me, kissing.

We stopped talking. I guess she was digesting what we had just told each other. I know I was. The sound of city traffic penetrated into the park, but it was mitigated by the sounds of squirrels and birds and people. Little kids played a hundred yards away, climbing, swinging, running, laughing. And I had Jo.

Equally strange, she had me.

We watched squirrels chasing. "Territory," Jo said. "Or mates. Or just plain 'my belly's full and let's play'."

"All of those. The territory is because the male wants the female and wants the other male to leave."

"Like a guy I know who protected a certain female?"

"There's a difference between 'protect', that was me, and 'possess', that was, apparently, him."

"So I'm protected, not possessed, with you?"

"We're talking about a human," I said. "You don't get to be owned by anybody unless you want to be."

"Stoney, maybe I want to be."

I looked at the face before me. Physically attractive? Very much yes. Intelligent? Another yes. I wondered what I was holding back. Jo seemed to be pressing forward.

"You're charging right in, aren't you?" I said.

"Is it the wrong approach? Stoney, we're both adults." Her smile faded. "Are you expecting subtlety? I can do that."

"No, I'm expecting Jo, startling in so many ways."

"So in this relationship, I'm the impetuous one."

"And I think it's an entirely charming trait. You have me off balance, Jo. I love you. I know I love you. I'm kind of startled at both the fact that I find myself with that feeling, and that I have risked announcing it to you. What do you know about the care and feeding of the human heart?"

"I'll take care of yours if you'll take care of mine."

"I am your possession, Miss Johanna," I said. Verbalizing it made it so in my own mind.

The smile came back. "Good! Now it's my turn to sit. You put your head in my lap." She got up. I moved, she sat down, and I lay back, putting my head on a soft thigh. I might just as well relax and enjoy being captured. I only wished it would be a long captivity.