What Comes Next

by Desni Dantone

  He took my shaky left hand in his. “I know I don’t need to be convinced. I know I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I hope it’s a long life, and that I can give you everything you deserve.”

  My free hand lifted to cover my mouth, and the beaming smile on my lips, as I waited for him to say the words I didn’t know until that moment I desperately wanted to hear him say.

  With the ring positioned at the tip of my left ring finger, he asked, “Ana, will you marry me?”

  I wasn’t sure the squeal that came out of my mouth as I flew into his arms could count as an answer. The kiss to his lips and the following tears of joy would have to suffice. He got the message loud and clear, and slid the ring onto my finger.

  We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the ten acres that would be ours, christening the treasured spot with a series of kisses in between discussion of our plans for the future. Despite the dark clouds that we may have to pass through to get there, I’d never been more excited to take the steps toward the happiness I knew awaited us.

  As surprised as I was to find myself engaged, I was more surprised to discover that Ma already knew. Apparently, she had given Ben her blessing days ago. Her only request was that we waited until after Ben’s service in the Army was over. That was something we all easily agreed on.

  Jen nearly had a stroke at lunch on Monday, and by the end of the day, the entire school had heard about the gorgeous ring on my finger. I came home that afternoon to find Ben, Mitch, and Travis Winters in the driveway, chatting with Ma.

  While I got to enjoy a fleeting kiss from Ben, I learned he wasn’t there for me, but for my brother. They were going to get Ben’s truck out of the mud, and Jeffrey was more than happy to go along on their filthy adventure.

  As they left in Travis’s truck, Ma slipped an arm around my shoulders. “Katherine’s fixing up a dinner to celebrate your engagement this evening. Go get washed up, and we’ll go on over.”

  I didn’t see the point, considering the boys would likely be covered in mud by the time they were finished, but I did as Ma requested. An hour later, we arrived at the Sawyers’ place just ahead of the boys.

  The truck was in serious need of a wash. As were Ben, Jeffrey, and Mitch—though Ben was definitely the worst of the three. My eyes were glued on him as he stalked around the front of the truck, taking stock of the mess. The sight of his bare chest covered in the thick, brown mud sent my head spinning. I didn’t get to enjoy it long before Ma yanked me inside the house by the elbow while muttering something about being a lady.

  That didn’t prevent me from sneaking peeks out the kitchen window as the three of them sprayed each other off with the hose. Ms. Sawyer shook her head like it was an everyday occurrence as she finished the dinner preparations.

  She flashed me a smile. “Lord knows I love them, but those boys . . .”

  “They keep you busy?”

  “Let’s just say I’ve looked forward to the day I could claim a daughter for a long time.” She beamed at me from across the kitchen. “A granddaughter wouldn’t hurt either.” Catching the look of surprise on my face, she gave a dismissive wave. “In due time, of course.”

  Her comment stunned me so much, I overlooked the sound of the door opening behind me. I jumped as a cool, wet arm hooked my waist from behind.

  “Whoa. Easy. It’s just me,” Ben chuckled in my ear before planting a kiss to my cheek. To his mother, he said, “Don’t scare her off already, Mama.”

  “I’m doing no such thing.” Ms. Sawyer clucked her tongue before turning back to the stove. She pointed a wooden spoon over her shoulder, and demanded, “Shower. Now. I’m not having you sitting at the table looking like that.”

  Ben frowned at his mama’s back before shifting his gaze to me. A slow grin curved his lips. “You don’t think I look bad, do you, Ana?” he whispered only loud enough for me to hear.

  My eyes darted to the bare chest in front of me, and I shook my head. Catching a glance of my grandmother’s scowl over Ben’s shoulder, the smile spreading across my face slipped. “I approve, but Ma looks ready to burst.”

  Ben’s eyes widened slightly. “Shit,” he muttered.

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Shower it is then,” he concluded, and planted a kiss to the tip of my nose before backing away.

  I watched as he made his way past Ma and Jeffrey on his way toward the back of the house. I hadn’t been back there since we were kids, but I knew the bathroom and all the bedrooms were found down that hallway. Once he disappeared from sight, my gaze drifted around the rest of the house, then settled on Mitch where he sat at the kitchen table a few feet away.

  He was still shirtless, and dressed in wet, mud-speckled jeans. His eyes were narrowed on me as if he were in serious contemplation. It was anyone’s guess what he was thinking.

  I tilted my head to the side with a silent question directed at him, and he glanced behind me.

  “Hey, Mama!” he called. “Mind if I steal Ana? I told her I’d show her that new record I got last week.”

  He was already out of his seat, and taking my hand in his, when Ms. Sawyer shouted out her permission. Mitch muttered something to Ma as we passed, and since it was Mitch leading me off and not Ben, she didn’t really seem to mind that we were heading toward the back of the house.

  I was more than a little confused when he pulled me into a room. Across the hall, I heard the shower running behind a closed door. I glanced around, searching for this album—or even a record player—but found nothing but a well-kept boy’s room decorated with an assortment of football and baseball trophies and memorabilia.

  I turned to Mitch with raised eyebrows when I realized this wasn’t even his room. It was Ben’s.

  He pushed me down onto the edge of the mattress, and ordered, “Sit, and wait.” He winked as he backed out of the room. With a wave of his hand, he added, “You’re welcome.”

  Moments after he disappeared down the hallway, I heard the door across the hall open. I glanced up as Ben hurried into the room. He froze when his gaze landed on me sitting on his bed. My confusion morphed into embarrassment when I saw he was dressed in nothing but a white towel around his waist. Beads of water collected on his chest and slid down his toned stomach, where they were soaked up by the towel.

  Ben tilted his head to the side with a grin. “Mitch?”

  I nodded once. “Yeah,” I tried to say, but it came out raspy.

  Ben’s smile broadened. “He told me my engagement present was in my room.”

  A laugh burst out of me, because it was kind of funny. Seriously, what did Mitch think we were going to do with my grandmother, my little brother, and his mother a few steps away? I had to give him credit for trying, at least.

  With a shake of my head, I stood up to leave, but Ben shifted to block the door. He gazed down at me with hooded eyes, and murmured, “You’re already in here. No sense in hurrying off so soon.”

  We drew closer together. My fingers grazed the slightly damp skin over his ribs as they slid toward his back. His lips were a breath away from touching mine when the obscenely loud lyrics of The Isley’s Brothers’ “It’s Your Thing” shattered the moment.

  Ben froze and tilted his head with a wry smile as the harmonic words, “do what you wanna do,” vibrated through the wall of his bedroom.

  “I’m going to kill him,” he muttered.

  “You’re going to have to get in line,” I giggled.

  Ben stared at me for several long seconds, as if deliberating whether to go through with kissing me or not. Finally, he settled on a soft brush of his lips against mine. Not exactly what either of us wanted at the moment, nor what Mitch was unsuccessfully attempting to initiate, but unlike Mitch, we both knew nothing more was going to happen now. But later?

  There was a look in Ben’s eyes that told me that would change very, very soon.

  The moon was exceptionally bright when I climbed out my bedroom window later that night. I hurried past the barn and sl
ipped through the fence to follow the path to the creek with quick and sure steps. Because Ma had retired to bed later than usual, I was a little late, and I wanted every minute I could squeeze out of this night.

  Bands of moonlight revealed the treehouse in the distance. Though my heart sped up at the sight of my destination, my feet never faltered as I drew closer to where I knew Ben waited. I found him exactly where I expected to find him, waiting patiently in the moonlit enclosure at the top of the ladder.

  “I wasn’t sure you were going to make it,” he said as he pulled me inside.

  “Ma stayed up late,” I explained.

  Ben shot me a worried look. “She doesn’t know you snuck out, does she?”

  “Ben.” I placed a comforting hand on his arm. “We’re getting married. She put me on birth control months ago. She knows we’re going to find a way, no matter what she does to prevent it, and it’s going to happen before we’re married.”

  He slipped his fingers between mine with a smile, and raised my left hand to observe the ring on my finger. “It looks good on you.”

  “It feels good,” I returned.

  “Nearly two years until we can get married,” he mused quietly, then flashed me a playful grin. “Sure you don’t want to wait?”

  “We both know there’s not a chance of that happening.” Unless he was deployed, and we spent the better part of two years in different countries. But not even then, because we still had tonight, and I had high hopes for tonight.

  For the first time since I got here, I glanced around the inside of the treehouse. The children’s furniture that had previously taken up much of the space was gone, replaced by a mound of blankets along one wall. When we’d initially crafted this idea earlier, we’d simply discussed spending the night together. No promises were made, nor expectations discussed, but we both knew where the night would lead us.

  Ben followed the direction of my gaze, and his grin suddenly dropped. “You know I will wait if you—”

  “I don’t want to wait.”

  I felt not one flicker of doubt when I wrapped my arms around his neck. My intentions were clear when I pulled his mouth to mine. His rigid shoulders gradually relaxed under the caress of my hands, and his arms dropped to my hips to pull me flush against him. With a strangled groan, he captured my mouth with a feverish kiss.

  Without wasting any time, I fisted the hem of his shirt with both hands, and in one smooth motion, I tugged it over his head. I took a moment to admire his smooth chest and rippled stomach before pressing my lips over his heart. His hands clenched my hips tight as a shudder rocked through him.

  His head tipped back with a throaty moan. “Jesus, Ana, you’re killing me.”

  “Sorry,” I muttered. But I wasn’t sorry. I’d do it all over again if I knew it would force that sexy sound out of his mouth again.

  His fingers grazed my stomach as he grasped the bottom of my shirt. “Don’t ever apologize for what you do to me,” he ordered gruffly before pulling the material over my head.

  He swooped down, stilling me with a kiss, as his fingers found the clasp at my back. With a flick of his wrist, the soft fabric slid from my shoulders and onto the floor at our feet. I sank into him, relishing the feel of his warm flesh against mine, as he deepened our kiss with a sweep of his tongue.

  His hands tightened their grip on my hips, and in one quick and powerful move, Ben hoisted me up. My legs looped around his waist as he strode backward. His lips never left mine as he gently lowered me onto the blankets. He hovered above me as he trailed a path of kisses down my body. I was putty in his hands, completely at his mercy, as he elicited sounds out of me that I never knew I could make. He stopped only when he could go no further.

  His eyes flicked up to my face, and I answered his unspoken question with an enthusiastic nod of my head. He hooked his fingers under the waistband of my thin cotton shorts and slid them down my legs. His eyes stayed locked on mine as he came back for my panties next. Heat shot through me like molten lava and settled between my legs, as his eyes devoured me. His hand slipped between us, finding my most sensitive spot, as he slid up the length of my body to claim my mouth again.

  With a certainty I never felt before, my hands reached for the waistband of his jeans. Nothing we had done up until this point crossed the threshold we were about to pass. Despite the nervousness I felt at experiencing something previously unknown to me, I undid the button with sure and steady hands. The zipper quickly followed, and Ben moaned into my mouth as my fingers grazed him.

  “Now?” I breathed.

  With a grunt, Ben lurched back onto his knees to shuck off the rest of his clothes. My eyes traveled over his chest, down the hard planes of his stomach, and lower. Finally seeing him in all of his perfection, I nibbled on my lip nervously as a little voice in my head questioned how the next part would even be possible.

  With a grin, Ben stretched across me, capturing my wrists to halt the fidgeting of my fingers. “I’ll go slow, Ana,” he promised. Lacing his fingers through mine, he moved them above my head. His mouth covered mine as he pressed against me exactly where I ached for him.

  His lips slid from mine long enough to whisper, “You’re sure?”

  “Definitely.”

  My fingers dug into his shoulders in an attempt to pull him closer, to finally put an end to the anticipation. His hips shifted, and my breath caught at the sudden unknown intrusion. Braced on his forearms above me, Ben stilled. Aside from his lips peppering my face with gentle kisses, he didn’t move for a long time. Finally, slowly, the discomfort subsided, and I felt him everywhere at once—behind every kiss, every touch, and every whisper.

  It was nothing like I expected, but everything that I had hoped. While my head spun from the wonderfully intense sensations he created, my body adjusted and responded in ways I never imagined, and never could have prepared for. Enveloped in our love for one another, we raced toward the edge together. In that moment, we weren’t sweethearts threatened by a long separation, nor two friends that found once-in-a-lifetime love in each other. We were two halves that became one.

  We lay entwined, arms and legs wrapped around each other, long after it was over. Our heavy breaths mingled, and our hearts pounded in synch. Finally, Ben’s head lifted. His eyes pierced mine before he kissed me with a level of tenderness I’d never felt before, and I knew that, after tonight, I would never be the same again.

  With nothing but a lifetime of this waiting for us in the future, I knew there was no turning back from Bennett Sawyer now.

  A smile was permanently affixed on my lips. Since that first night in the treehouse, we tried to meet there a few times a week. It wasn’t just the sex that brought us back there—though that was amazing—but it was the closeness that came with having that physical relationship. Everything had changed, in a fantastic kind of way. Most days, not even the realization that Ben’s time here with me might come to an end at any time could wipe the smile from my face.

  Not even when he made me confront the possibility, like the day he forced a huge wad of money into my hands—money he had worked hard for over the past few weeks—and made me promise to use it if I needed it. He insisted that it was mine if anything should ever happen to him. I kissed him to shut him up, then grudgingly tucked the money away in a shoe box in my bedroom closet.

  It was one of the few times he was permitted to be in my room, and the last thing I wanted to do was talk about the possibility of him leaving and not coming home. I sprawled across him where he reclined on my bed, zoning in on his curved lips.

  His eyes darted to the door. “Your grandmother is right down the hall,” he reminded me.

  The door was open, as she insisted, but my desire to kiss him outweighed the unlikely risk of getting caught in a compromising position. Besides, it wasn’t like she hadn’t seen us kissing before, and that was all we were going to do. The other stuff was reserved for the seclusion of the treehouse.

  Ben gave in with some reluctance, and
I giggled against his lips after I got what I wanted. “I can’t believe you are this terrified of Ma.”

  “I’m not terrified of her,” he fired back. At the dubious look on my face, he shrugged. “Maybe a little . . . but some things are worth her wrath.”

  Ben suddenly rolled, and I found myself on my back, my head cushioned by a pillow. His mouth muffled my squeal of surprise as he pressed against me. Already, I couldn’t wait for the day to be over, because we had plans to meet again tonight.

  At the sound of a knock at my open door, Ben jumped to his feet, and I bolted straight up. I heaved a sigh of relief when I saw it wasn’t Ma, but Jeffrey. He glanced sheepishly between the two of us, and muttered, “You need to come downstairs and see this.”

  Ben’s confusion matched my own as he held his hand out to help me off the bed. Hand in hand, we followed my brother into the living room, where the early evening news was coming back from a commercial break. Immediately, the anchor dove into the hour’s breaking news segment. Flashes of video and pictures depicting the horrors of the war trickled across the screen as an emotionless voice informed us of the most recent developments.

  “In light of the increase in resistance to American forces, and the number of casualties sustained in heavy fighting earlier this week, military officials have announced that 30,000 inactive U.S. soldiers will be activated within the next week . . .”

  The broadcast shifted to an interview of someone who insisted that the temporary increase in numbers was vital for the U.S. to eventually get out of Vietnam, but I stopped listening. It took me a moment to realize that Ben was no longer standing beside me, but directly in front of the television.

  I looked up to find his eyes already on me, and sagged at the resigned look on his face. He didn’t need to say anything. We both knew what this meant. The time had come.

  Ben received his orders early the next day. Within hours, his bags were packed and his ride to the base in Louisiana was arranged. Instead of his mama or brother driving him there, he’d called one of the guys in his unit who lived nearby, and asked him for a ride.