Chapter 12

We were timing things and that's what kept us moving. At my apartment there was time for the washing of faces and brushing of teeth and then there was a flurry of kisses and I'm not sure who initiated that but we ended up in a knot on the sofa, hot, breathless and quite happily bothered.

She was mostly on top of me, I was noticeably erect inside my jeans, and she knew it. I know she knew it. She smiled, cradled my face between her hands and kissed me, adding a wiggle to her snuggle that just had to be intentional.

"Stoney, there are people who expect us this evening." Kiss. Wiggle. "And I love you and I love them and we shouldn't keep them waiting."

I kept my smile and got up with an uncomfortable protrusion. When I was standing, she pulled me to her and insinuated her lithe form against me. I know she knew what was going on.

"Jo," I started.

"Don't say it, Stoney. Do you think you're the only one in this room who responds to stimuli? Well, Mister Jackson, you're not." But she kept herself against me.

"As long as you realize that I am indeed male and you are a beautifully, arousingly attractive female..."

"Who is just a bit flattered and who enjoys the same feelings herself. I think it's like looking at a menu."

"As long as one of us doesn't get ravenous and charge into the kitchen," I said.

She giggled. "I don't worry about you, guy," she said softly. "Let's go meet Mom and Dad."

People are starting to get used to seeing me and Jo. She's easy to remember. Red hair like that isn't common, even if it comes from a bottle. Jo's didn't, of course, but people can't tell that from a distance. Still, the two of us turn heads walking up the sidewalk. We got in the car.

"You don't have to drive all the time," she said.

"I don't mind."

"I don't either, but I just want you to know..."

"I could sit here and gaze at you while you drive. Watch the expressions on your face."

"You already watch me, Stoney."

"Because you're beautiful and I'm falling..."

She smiled. "We're together on the way down, then. Let's see if we can maintain our sanity while we have dinner with the parents."

"We can do that," I said. "But away from the parents..."

"We can do that, too," she said.

"Your use of 'that' in your previous comment is imprecise and ambiguous," I said.

"You an astute listener, Stoney. And I meant it just like I said it." She giggled. "Do you really want me to just come out and say that after we eat dinner, I'm going back to your apartment and..."

"And we'll tease each other senseless."

"Stoney, I have a delicious glow going right now..." she smiled.

I had to smile back. "Me too. I'll survive, I'm sure..."

"We will survive. Stoney, I'm ... maybe I'm premature, but I think a lot in terms of 'us'."

I smiled. "Thank, Jo. I like being us."

"Really?"

"Very much so." I sighed. "Jo, sometimes you come off as terribly self—assured, and then there's like now, that you seem scared."

"I know, Stoney. I'm trying really hard to level out. It's you. You're real and you're nice and you're smart and you're decent and a few weeks ago I wanted just to be your girlfriend and now we're going steady and I really am falling."

I smiled. I felt good. But I was worried that she was falling because she wanted to be in love, that the idea of being in love was more important than who she was in love with. That would be bad for both of us, because I was falling in love more and more each day, and if she was just enjoying the feelings, then we could both end up hurt. I'd been hurt before. Jo tells me she hasn't. I don't want to be the guy that breaks the heart of Johanna Solheim.

This wasn't the time to get into it. I wanted to have dinner with a happy Jo and her parents.

"Jo, we're new in this relationship. We're trying to decide what it is and where it's going, and on top of that, we've been friends for a while." I took a breath. "If you fall, I'll catch you."

That last statement was made as I turned off the street into the crowded parking lot of a little 'hole-in-the-wall' restaurant. It was positioned in one of those accursed strip mall developments that might make sense in a climate other than the Texas Gulf Coast region, where six months out of the year it didn't have the oppressive heat and humidity. But it's autumn now and actually quite pleasant.

Okay, we did the 'holding hands' thing after we got past the door and we found Jo's parents sitting at the bar waiting on a table. After the usual greetings, Jo's mom said, "Jo, while we're waiting on a table, let's you and I go to the shop next door."

Jo looked at me, gave a little shrug and said, "Sure, Mom. Stoney and Dad can survive for a few minutes without us."

I wasn't quite as sure as she sounded, but I slid onto a barstool next to her dad.

"Would you be interested in a beer, Stoney?" he asked.

"If you let me buy the next ones," I said.

He smiled. "If we are not finished by the time they return, I'll let you do that," he said, smiling.

"They're good, Jo. Let's go see what's next door," Bridgette said. Jo gave me a little kiss on the cheek before she left.

Anders watched that. I experienced it. He raised his beer like he was saluting them as they left. He smiled. "There go my life's greatest loves, Stoney. I guess you understand that."

"I do," I said. "The way a man should be about his family."

His expression turned a bit more serious. "I don't worry about Bridgette at all. She's been the perfect wife, even through a couple of bad deployments. Jo, on the other hand..."

"Is your daughter."

"You know where I'm heading, don't you."

"Yessir," I said.

"She tells her mom much more than she tells me. Of course her mom then repeats it to me, suitably formatted to keep me from turning colors and charging off, saber in hand."

"She seems to me to be doing a pretty good job of taking care of herself, so far. Sir, If you..."

"If you keep calling me 'sir' I'm gonna start calling you 'lieutenant'."

"Okay, Anders," I said. "If she was the archetypical college babe, you and I would not be sitting here having this conversation. That's not my type."

"Oh, you have a type?"

"No, at least I didn't until I met your daughter. I don't treat her like an object. She returns the favor. She's intelligent and level-headed. And pretty. Lots of pretty. But the first two come first."

"She talks about you a lot. My daughter calls us several times a week. I like that. And for the last few weeks there's been just one name that comes up every time."

"That's what her mom said, sort of."

He smiled slightly. "I know."

"Anders, I am an honorable man. I am not some guy running up a score or whatever. I didn't even do that when I was a college kid myself, and I certainly am not doing it now, especially with Jo. I couldn't live with myself if I did."

"I'm happy to hear you say it, Stoney," he said.

"MY biggest worry is not that I'll do something to hurt her but that she'll do something to hurt me."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, come on, Anders! You know what I mean. It happens all the time: two people connect for a while, then one of them just drifts off to greener pastures or something."

"You say you know Jo and you see in her something you find unusual among her peers. As her dad, I can tell you that I've spent a decade waiting for her to turn into one of those horrible teens that seem to populate the lives of my contemporaries. It never happened. Yes, she rebelled a bit. I think it's because she thought she was supposed to. She tested the boundaries. Bridgette and I did not relent. Then that thing happened to her in high school and I think it sort of reset her mind. She got serious."

"Serious? I can't remember her not smiling."

"Yes, I know. Beautiful. Gets that from Bridgette. Bridgette says I've too much Viking in me and the only time I smile is when there's looting and pillaging and mayhem afoot."

"A perfectly fine characteristic for a colonel," I said.

"And a typical observation for a lieutenant," he countered, smiling. "I wonder how you would have fared had you stayed in the Army. You're a serious engineer, Jo tells us, and I venture that you would have been a more than competent officer."

"Not saying it was wrong, just that as a lieutenant it was a scary thing to unexpectedly find oneself in the presence of a colonel."

"How does it feel to find yourself in the presence of the father of a girl who tells us that she's in love with you?"

"She told you that?!?!"

"By the approved method of telling her mother," he said. "She further said that the sentiment was mutual. Is that incorrect?"

"No. That's the point. It's true from my side."

"And it's true from her side. Why would she lie about that? My greater fear here is that she misread your feelings."

"It's kind of hard to misread 'I love you, Jo, ' don't you think? But neither of us is brave enough to offer suggestion as to where this is heading for us."

He smiled. "Oh, I can imagine. Her mother and I tiptoed around to the point I was afraid I was going to get orders pulling me out of my cushy position at the American Embassy in Oslo before I worked up the courage to propose."

"And apparently you found the courage."

"Yes, I did. With a set of orders in my possession that had me returning to the States for my branch advanced course. I did not want to leave Bridgette behind. There were many who had the same eyes I had for the woman."

"And twenty-odd years later..."

"I still am surprised with whichever it is, my luck or my innate intelligence that we ended up together."

"I should be so lucky," I said. "But we're talking about your daughter here."

"And my daughter has made it past her twenty-first birthday with no more than a traffic ticket and a couple of skinned knees, is a few months from graduating college with a double major and has no bad habits. By the way, why did you not mention the incident with her last boyfriend. If you can call him that. They dated once."

"Honestly, it didn't cross my mind the other night. And if it had crossed my mind, I don't know that I would have brought it up. Most fathers would get worried if their daughter was dating a guy who gets into fights."

"You know, Stoney, if I believe what my daughter says, you just completely misrepresented your actions in that incident."

"I understand, but it's a kinder, gentler world. I don't want to appear to be the dangerous type."

"To me? Or to her mom?"

"Less you. More of her mom."

"She told the story to her mom first. Bridgette's reaction was quite positive. You protected her child. I concur with her assessment."