After Midnight

by Lacy Hart

  “I’m Adrianne,” she said, extending her hand to Caleb.

  “I’m Caleb,” he said, wiping his hand on his shorts before shaking Adrianne’s hand. She then held her hand out to me.

  “Sarah,” I said to her.

  I looked around the house and saw we were standing just inside the door and there was a small living room to our right.

  “Well, it’s not a very big place,” she said to us. “This house was built in the 1960s when there weren’t nearly as many people in the area as there are now. It was an older couple that lived here and raised their family. It’s got two bedrooms, and an office space that could be another small bedroom if you wanted it to be. Do you two have any children?”

  I could feel myself blush at the question and shot Caleb a look. He smiled at me and turned to Adrianne.

  “Just one,” he said as he put his right arm around me, pulling me closer to him. “He’s seventeen and going to college next year.”

  “Then this house could be the perfect size for you,” Adrianne said with enthusiasm.

  She proceeded to walk us through the house, showing us the living room with its stone fireplace, the kitchen with new appliances, the bathroom downstairs, and then the rooms upstairs. It was a nice place and in good shape for an older home. Adrianne took us out to the backyard so we could see that there was a good deal of property and a stone patio perfect for outdoor entertaining.

  We stood on the back patio viewing everything, and I could see Caleb liked what he saw.

  “This would be a nice place,” Caleb said to me quietly.

  “What do you think?” Adrianne said to both of us hopefully.

  “I am definitely interested, Adrianne,” Caleb said to her. Adrianne’s face lit up immediately.

  “Oh, I think you two would be very happy here,” she said. I had to do all I could do to keep from laughing as she and Caleb discussed particulars. I let the two of them wander back into the house while I stayed outside and looked around. I could see that this would be a very warm and inviting home for whoever lived here. I found my mind wondering what it would be like to sit out on the patio at night with a fire pit out here, cuddling up under a blanket, Caleb with his arm around me…

  You’re getting a little ahead of yourself, Sarah, I thought to myself, snapping back into reality.

  I heard Caleb and Adrianne come back out the back door and turned around. Caleb was standing there with a stack of paperwork from Adrianne and then took another business card from her.

  “Come here, honey,” he said to me with a wink.

  I walked up to him and put my arm around his waist while listening to the last of Adrianne’s instructions about what she would need from “us” if we wanted to put in an offer on the house. Caleb then thanked her for her time, and she showed us out the front door.

  “I hope to hear from you soon!” she shouted to us as we walked down the driveway.

  When we got to the top of the driveway and started to walk away from the house, Caleb started laughing.

  “I’m sorry to put you on the spot like that,” he said to me.

  “It’s fine,” I said to him. “It was fun for me.”

  “There’s just something about this house that just… seems right.” Caleb looked down at the folder of material he had. “Do you mind if I put this in your backpack while we finish our run?”

  “Not at all,” I told him. He unzipped the pack on my back and slid the folder inside and closed it back up.

  We resumed our run, and I was grateful for the break as it gave me a chance to get my legs back under me to keep going. We worked our way around Munson Lane some more, which apparently looped all the way back towards Carson, where Caleb lived, going around the route that would take you back to my home. We were both sweating a bit at this point as the sun was out now and starting to get stronger.

  Caleb came to a stop at the corner for Carson Court, and I stood next to him. I could see the sweat dripping off me at this point, and my shirt was completely soaked through and clinging to my body.

  “If you want, we can walk over to my place and grab some water,” Caleb said, pointing to the large house just down the street a bit.

  “Sure, that’s fine,” I said to him as we walked slowly. I could feel my legs shaking a little underneath me and was glad the running was over.

  Caleb looked down at his watch and noted that we had done just about four miles for the morning.

  “Pretty good for someone who hasn’t run in years,” I said to him proudly.

  “It is,” he said to me. “You did great.”

  We stopped at the top of the driveway of a large home, and Caleb turned to walk down the driveway.

  “You live here?” I said to him. “Why are we looking at that little house when you have this?”

  Caleb laughed as we walked.

  “The house,” he said pointing to the big house, “belongs to my sister, Linda. My place is the apartment over the garage.”

  “You and Adam live in the apartment?”

  “No, just me,” Caleb said as we walked up the steps to the apartment door. “It’s kind of a long story. Adam moved in with Linda after Ella… my wife… passed away.”

  Caleb paused briefly before continuing. He unlocked the apartment door and let me in.

  “When I got home, I thought it would be easier if I just stayed here for now so I wasn’t a disruption.” Caleb went over to the fridge and grabbed two bottles of water, handing one to me.

  I rubbed the cold bottle on my forehead and then on my neck, cooling myself down. I looked around and saw the apartment was sparsely decorated, with just a couch and a chair with a TV in the living room and a small counter surrounding the kitchen with stools.

  “I thought that house might be a good place for Adam and me to have a place of our own. It’s something… well, something I always thought about having when I retired.” Caleb took a sip of water. I could see he was feeling a little melancholy about it all and was probably thinking about how he thought his life would be different right now.

  “I think it’s a beautiful place,” I said to him quietly. “It will be perfect for… for you and Adam.”

  I pulled off my backpack and took out the folder for him and handed it to him.

  “Thanks,” he said to me. His hand overlapped mine on the folder, and he held it there for a moment. I could feel his index finger lightly rub on mine, and I felt a chill run through my body.

  Caleb must have seen me shiver and took the folder from me.

  “Your shirt is soaked,” he said to me. “I… I can lend you a t-shirt if you want to put something dry on.”

  Before I could say anything to him, he was off down the small hallway to get a t-shirt. I glanced down at the shirt I was wearing and saw it covered in moisture, so much so that you could clearly see the outline of my sports bra underneath. I felt a bit embarrassed, thinking Caleb had seen me this way.

  Caleb reappeared with a t-shirt in hand, a black t-shirt with the same print of ODA 3211 on the left chest.

  “Thank you, Caleb,” but you don’t have to…”

  “It’s fine,” he interrupted. “I have dozens of those t-shirts. I certainly won’t miss one, and you don’t want to wear a wet shirt any longer than you have to.”

  I held the shirt in my hand and looked at Caleb for a moment. I could see that we locked eyes and gazed at each other. I was looking deep into his eyes, and I could feel myself getting that chill again.

  “The bathroom is just down the hall, on the left,” Caleb said, breaking the spell between us.

  I walked down the hall to the bathroom and shut the door behind me. I stripped out of the wet shirt and held the black t-shirt in my hands. It had a particular scent to it, one I noticed from the time I held it in my hands to when I pulled it over my head and onto my body. I inhaled deeply and felt that chill again. I could see the t-shirt was a bit form-fitting on me because of my figure, but I was glad to have it on, not just because it was dr
y, but because it reminded me of Caleb.

  I came out of the bathroom and stuffed the blue t-shirt into my backpack. Caleb stared at me and watched me, fumbling with his bottle of water. I giggled slightly and could see he was a little flustered.

  I went to put the backpack on and was having some trouble with one of the straps, so Caleb walked over to me to give me a hand. He helped slide the strap up my arm and onto my shoulder from behind. I turned around to thank him, and he was standing inches away from me. I could feel the electricity between us, and I could also see the strong definition of his abs and chest showing through his own sweat-soaked t-shirt. I looked up at Caleb as he slid his hands from my shoulders and down my arms.

  In an instant, Caleb was leaning in and gave me a soft kiss. His kiss, and his actions caught me off guard, and while I gasped lightly at first, I quickly found myself kissing him back, putting my hands at his waist and holding him there while he kissed me. The kiss was long, slow, and amazing, and when he slowly moved his lips from mine, I felt a little woozy.

  “I’m sorry,” he said to me, stepping back a bit. “I didn’t mean… I mean I wasn’t planning that or anything,” he said as he struggled for words.

  I put my left hand on his right arm, touching him lightly.

  “Caleb, it’s okay,” I said to him gently.

  Without thinking, we found ourselves locked in another embrace, this time kissing more passionately and with more meaning. I felt myself pulling my body tightly to his, wanting to kiss Caleb deeper, and over and over. We just kept kissing, with slight breaks to catch our breath, before I finally stepped back to try to regain some control over myself.

  I looked down at my watch and saw that it was well after eight.

  “I really should go,” I said to Caleb. I could see the disappointment on his face, and I felt it in my stomach as well.

  “Yeah, I’m sorry, I know it’s been a long night for you,” Caleb said apologetically. I walked over to the apartment door, and Caleb walked with me, opening it for me. I stepped over the sill and turned back to face him.

  “Thank you for the run, and for… for everything else today,” I said to him with a wry smile. “I had fun.”

  “Me too,” he said softly, looking down into my eyes again. Part of me wanted to just push my way back inside the apartment and push Caleb back onto the couch, but another part of me knew maybe that wasn’t the best thing to do just now.

  “Do you want me to walk you home?” Caleb asked.

  “No, that’s okay,” I answered. “You’re already home. It’s not a far walk from here. I’ll be there in a few minutes. Thank you though. You’re such a gentleman.” I leaned in and gave him a small kiss on the lips.

  “I’ll come by the diner later,” he yelled to me as I walked down the steps and onto the driveway.

  I stopped and looked back at him. “That will be great,” I yelled back, and gave him a wave as I started on my way home.

  Suddenly, I felt energized even though I knew my body was tired. The kisses were not something I had thought would happen, but I was so glad that they did. I felt so good about myself, and about Caleb that I was home before I knew it. I’m sure all the daydreaming I did along the way made all the difference. At one point I even felt like I was skipping.

  It’s great to feel happy, I told myself as I turned into our driveway and walked towards the front door.

  13

  Caleb

  Those kisses lingered with me all throughout the morning and well into my dreams once I fell asleep. I never planned on kissing Sarah like that. It wasn’t something I had plotted out, waiting for just the right moment. The moment just came upon me as we stood there together in my apartment. There was something about the whole day – the run, the house visit, and her coming back to my place – that just made it feel right to do.

  The guilt was there too after I did it. I didn’t feel guilty about Sarah – she responded better than I could have hoped to it. I did feel guilty that I had, in some way, betrayed Ella by letting myself fall for someone else. I knew somewhere in my mind that there was no rational reason to feel this way, but I still did. All these years Ella had always been the only woman in my life, going back to when we started dating in high school.

  There had been plenty of opportunities that came up over the years since we had been separated so often, but it never crossed my mind to do anything like that with anyone else. Ella was always first and last in my heart and mind. I saw plenty of other soldiers that didn’t think twice about getting together with other women wherever we happened to be stationed or assigned at the time. To them, they never felt like they were doing anything wrong or betraying anyone. They just saw it as purely physical, something they needed to do, and then went back to their regular lives. I could never see it that way.

  But now there was no reason for me to see it that way, and yet I still felt like there was something wrong with what I just did. It was a tough thing for me to reconcile in my brain, and in my heart. Part of me felt like I had to remain loyal to Ella, even if that didn’t make sense, but another part of me was growing, and that was the part that wanted to get closer and closer to Sarah.

  After a few hours of fitful sleep and then a shower, I got dressed and walked over to the house to see what Linda and Adam were up to. It was already early afternoon, so both were up and about, doing their own thing. I ran into Linda working out in the yard, doing some spring cleaning to get the property in shape for some planting she always said she was going to do but never seemed to have time for. Linda was loading up a wheelbarrow with weeds, fallen branches and other clutter from the yard.

  “Hey there,” she said to me, looking at me as she was pulling some weeds from one of the garden beds. Even though she was wearing sunglasses and a wide-brimmed hat, she still raised her hand to shade her eyes from the bright sun of the day.

  “Need some help?” I asked her as I knelt with her.

  “Thanks,” she said, grabbing an extra pair of gloves she had in the straw bag she had at her side. “I’m just trying to get some of this weeding done while I have the time and energy.”

  I went about pulling up some of the obvious weeds around the flower bed.

  “You know, Linda,” I said to her as I tugged a weed out, “You could just hire a service to come in and do this for you instead of complaining about how the garden looks. You have had the house for years, and you never have time to do the garden the way you want it.”

  “I know,” she said, sitting back on the grass. “I want to do it, I really do. I just can’t find the time to do it all.”

  Linda went back to pulling some more weeds out.

  “So how was last night?” she asked me casually.

  “Oh, the game was great. Adam was the hero. I am glad I was there to see it. And we had a nice time afterward at the diner.”

  “I know, Adam told me all about it,” Linda said. “I’m glad you two got some time together like that.”

  There was a long pause before she started up again.

  “So, when were you going to tell me about Sarah?” she asked me without looking up from her chore.

  I put down the small shovel I was using to dig out some weeds and stared at her.

  Linda looked over at me and smiled.

  “What? Did you think Adam wouldn’t mention it to me? It was all he could talk about at breakfast. If you were awake, you could have joined us and answered everything then. Oh, that’s right, you were out on your run… with Sarah.”

  I knew she was giving me a hard time, like the big sister she is. I sat back on the grass as well, facing her.

  “What do you want to know?” I said bluntly.

  Anything you want to share would be nice,” she answered. “Apparently, you’ve been sneaking out for 2 AM feedings at the diner to see her, and today you went running together, so you obviously like her. Why wouldn’t you tell me about her?”

  “I don’t know, Linda. I do like her. She is friendly and kind and
smart, and I find her very attractive. I didn’t tell you, well because I didn’t want you to judge me for it.”

  Linda came closer to me.

  “Caleb, I would never do that. You’re a grown man, and you can do what you want and see who you want. I would never pass judgment on anything you do.”

  “I know that I guess. I just feel like… like I am betraying Ella in some way, and that you would feel that way too, even if you didn’t say it to me.”

  I looked over at Linda, and she looked a bit hurt.

  “Caleb, you know I loved Ella like a sister. While you were away, she was my connection to you. You, and Adam and Ella – you’re the only family I really have. When she died, it devastated me the way it did you and Adam. No one can replace her in my heart – but that doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be someone else at some point for you. You’re not betraying her by being happy and finding someone you like to spend time with. And goodness knows I would welcome someone else that can put up with you.”