by Unknown
Shane watched George disappear around a corner of the veranda while he stood motionless. The kiss on the swing, making love to her, holding her body next to his, he’d wanted all those things.
When he finally forced himself to walk up the stairs, the urge to have all those things again and again slowed his steps.
But that’s what girlfriends were for.
He opened the door to Alexis’s room and let out a groan. “Alexis is not my girlfriend.” After the night in which she’d creamed over his cock, they were back to being platonic friends.
“Fuck.” He went to her suitcase lying open on the bed and grabbed a pair of jeans, a T-shirt, and a matching set of blue bra and panties. He resisted the urge to run his fingers over their lacy edgings.
Alexis had promised he wouldn’t lose her even with the knowledge of his track record with women.
Now he wondered if he was the one endangering the bargain.
Shane walked out into the hallway, meeting a huffing George on the second floor landing.
“I grabbed what I could. Margie will probably be knocking at just before nine for her interview, so if y’all could finish before your secret is exposed on the internet, then I suggest you eat fast.”
“Thanks.” Shane accepted a warm plastic bag in his free hand then wheeled around and kicked the door closed.
“That took forever.” Alexis grabbed the clothes and scurried into the bathroom.
Her crumpled robe inched up, revealing the smooth skin of her light brown thighs. Hours before she’d hugged his hips with those thighs and squeezed him until he came. “Damn.”
Shane busied himself with arranging the bag’s contents on the writing desk, putting thoughts of last night aside. He set four oversized blueberry muffins on a plate along with an assortment of jams. Next to that he plunked down two bottles of water and some napkins. Shit, there wasn’t any coffee.
Amid the clutter of his files and the camera equipment, the set-up looked even more unappetizing. It wasn’t the scrumptious breakfast he’d wanted Alexis to enjoy on this particular morning.
Since he heard the shower still running, he blazed around the room stuffing paper files into his laptop bag and video equipment into the armoire.
The bed. In the midst of his attempt to untangle the twisted sheets, Alexis flew out of the bathroom.
“I love the bathtub, but it’s hard to shower in that thing so we’ll have to mention that.” She stuffed a bottle of water under arm with her robe and waved a keycard at him. “Is this one mine?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, then I’ll drive myself to the library.”
“You hate driving.”
“I know, but you can get the exterior shots before it rains. I thought I heard thunder.” She picked up the truck’s keys from the desk and left, taking the air from the room with her.
This was more than a sweaty night grunting over each other. Was she feeling it too, that just friends wasn’t enough?
****
Voicemail.
Shane blew out a long breath, tapping his cell phone against the veranda’s windows. It didn’t take four hours for the kind of interviews they did on scouting. They typically only lasted ten minutes each, and that was with prompting a shy interviewee.
“Why aren’t you answering your phone, Alexis?”
He wandered through the dining area out to the sitting room, still empty as it had been that morning. Punching in Alexis’s number for the tenth time, he dropped down onto one of the sofas around the fireplace.
Voicemail.
He wouldn’t allow the thought to take hold that Alexis was in any other state than the one she’d left in. Preferring not to drive, and not knowing how to drive were two different things.
Besides, there was a lot less traffic on the curving two-lane roads of the rural community than there was in Dallas.
Yet the roads were lined with dense brush and treacherous ditches.
Shane surged up from the sofa, and stalked out onto the front porch. Tension tightened his muscles until he heard the grinding of his teeth.
He dialed their boss and his friend.
“What’s wrong?” Michael barked after a few rings. “Did something happen to the camera?”
“Call Alexis, and ask her where she is?”
“Did you two have a fight?”
“Something like that. Call her and call me back.”
“Okay.” Michael disconnected with a chuckle.
Shane avoided the swing, opting for a rocking chair instead. Rain whipped across the yard in wide white sheets. She knows to pull over in this.
After a few moments of watching the downpour, his phone rang. “Hello?” he asked without looking at the display of the device clenched in his fist.
“Must have been some fight since she almost took my head off. She’s sitting out the storm at a coffee shop.”
Thank God, she’s not in danger of an accident.
“Why am I fielding calls between you and your buddy? What happened?”
Outside of Alexis, Michael was his most trusted confident. And since she wasn't in the mood to discuss the matter with him, he had to tell someone. “I slept with Alexis last night.”
“So?”
“She’s answering your calls and not mine.”
“Why? ’Cause you’re leaving?”
“I guess that could be a part of it. Maybe if this had happened before I found about Chicago.”
“Wait. Are you honestly saying you never slept with her before?”
“I’ve told you that.”
“I thought you were lying. Hell, The Metroplex thinks you two are lying. That’s why the show is a success. For real, as the fourth groomsmen to the right at my wedding, this is the first time you two had sex?” Michael’s voice rose to a high-pitched squeal.
“Yeah.”
“Shane, what about the party at your house last month? You both disappeared for an hour.”
“We were watching this show she likes. I told you that.”
“Are you seriously telling me you’ve been doing boyfriend shit for two years, getting her coffee in the morning, driving her to the mall and watching TV with her, without getting laid?”
“Yes.”
“And she never even sucked you off?”
“Hey.”
Michael snickered. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, go on.”
“Mike I can’t stop thinking about being with her again, and we promised each other we wouldn’t lose our friendship over it. She’s important to me.”
“You know, Shane. It’s not often I get to tell you this, but you fucked up. Mind you, I don’t blame you because even a skinny bastard like me wouldn’t have waited two years, but understand that this we’re just friends shit is over. By the way you look at her when you think nobody’s watching, you aren’t going to be satisfied with only sitting next to her and catching a baseball game from now on.”
From George to Michael to the viewing audience, was it so obvious that the two of them were only fooling themselves?
Chapter Six
According to the truck’s navigation system, the drive was supposed to take ten to twelve minutes. It took twenty. By the time Alexis mounted the steps to the inn’s front entrance, her legs shook.
She’d stalled the interviews, fumbling with the equipment, asking the same questions in different ways, and engaging in needless banter. She simply didn’t want to think about Shane. However, it hadn’t been her intent to become stranded for ten hours while the dim morning sun became the dim early evening sun, leaving her alone to think about nothing else except him.
Unlike when she’d arrived, she groaned when she opened the door to the inn.
At the front desk, George and Margie were leaning with their heads close together and holding hands.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“Oh, you weren’t interrupting us.” Margie giggled.
“Yes, she was.” George kissed his wife’s chee
k, making Margie giggle even harder.
“That’s my exit cue.” She smiled at the couple and started up the stairs.
“Honey, aren’t you having dinner with Shane? He’s already on the veranda.”
“No, I have to type up my report.” All day thoughts of Shane and their agreement crowded her thoughts. It was time for a rest. “And I may be coming down with a cold, all the rain. Just bring up a cheeseburger and a coffee and I’ll be in heaven.” Alexis raced up to her room.
First stalling then hiding. She threw her bag onto her bed, and headed out to the balcony.
Gray-black clouds swirled together, covering the early evening in gloominess. Perfect night for a movie with her partner, but she couldn’t force herself to talk him. In two years of scouting expeditions, company lunches, work-outs and family dinners, she’d never not known what to say to Shane. Everything. She said everything to him.
But after last night, she’d come to realize it wasn’t about kissing him and squeezing his ass as part of some fantasy. Yes, she wanted that and the baseball games and the history lessons, and all of him. Just for herself. However fear snaked through her, and she couldn’t force herself to ask what he wanted. Perhaps last night had only been about getting laid for him.
A knock sounded beyond the balcony, drowning out her sigh. “Coming.”
Alexis crossed the distance from the balcony to the door and whipped it open, expecting Margie or George. She almost choked on her sudden intake of air. “Shane. Hey, come in.”
He pushed a serving cart into the room. “Those must have been some very interesting interviews.” He toed off his shoes and sat down on the bed.
Normally she’d plop down next to him, start devouring the cheeseburger, and talk about the day. This wasn’t normal. It took everything she had to sit.
“I figured you’d let me have these.” He bit into one of the country cut fries and smiled.
She could do this, if he could. Alexis flashed her own camera-ready smile. “How were the exterior shots?”
“Great. I walked all the way out to the lake. I’ll take you up there in the morning before we head out if the doesn’t start raining again.”
“I’m going to pass. I’m coming down with a cold.” She bit into the burger.
His lopsided grin sparkled up to his eyes, and he continued chatting about the lake.
The damn lake when her insides were shaking so bad she couldn’t stomach another bite. With a small groan, she placed the burger back on the plate.
Each of his cheerful words about tall grasses and early settlers churned in her stomach. At any moment, brimstone threatened to spew from her pores.
“I figured something out while I was up there.”
“What was that?” Alexis whooshed out a calming breath.
“Why I haven’t had a date in almost two years.”
“That’s it.”Alexis jabbed her fingers centimeters in front of Shane’s nose. “Are you seriously going to talk about dating when we just slept together? Even with us back to being friends, that’s going too far.”
He grinned, ignoring her shout. “Alexis, I’ve been dating you for almost two years.”
“Huh?” Just in case she’d misunderstood, she crawled up next to him. “What are you saying?”
“At the end of your third week on the show, you’d been complaining about not finding a good grocery store in your neighborhood so I took you to the one near my house after work. We shopped, ended up having coffee, and your ice cream melted in my trunk. That was our first date.”
“I remember that.”
Sunshine radiated from his face as he draped an arm over her shoulder, securing her against him. “And the baseball games I drag you to, waiting for you to tell me you’re bored so I can see your pretty pout. The movie nights on your couch. Dinners with my dad. Those were all dates.”
“You’re my longest lasting adult relationship, Alexis.” He brought her hand to rest over his heart. “And I know I’ve written it in birthday cards and Christmas cards, but I’ve never told you. I love you. I’m in love with you, and I have been for a long time.”
Beneath her hand, his beat of his heart sped up. Just like hers.
“If this is one sided, I’ll get up and leave. Tell me the truth.”
“I love you, too.” She slid her fingers through his hair, glided them down his face, and drew him into a kiss.
Shane kissed back, gently at first, and then with deepening passion. In a few moments they found themselves twisted in a tangle of half-buttoned shirts and unzipped jeans.
Alexis tore out of their heated kiss. “Just get undressed.” She’d already wasted so much time, two years of sneaking glances at him across the conference table. She wasn’t going to waste anymore. She flung the clothes from her body.
Shane watched her, undressing slower than she, but soon covered her body with his own. He kissed her again, their tongues gliding each other’s in rhythm to their bodies moving together.
Alexis held Shane tightly against her, releasing her hold only when an orgasmic tremor shook her arms loose.
Once the hot wash of his breath cooled over her cheek, she kissed over his face like she’d once imagined doing slowly and lovingly. “This has been the best inn, ever,” she whispered.
“Agreed.” He laughed and kissed her again.
****
Six months after saying I love you and agreeing to long distance dating, Alexis finished the last scrumptious bite of creamy grilled chicken pasta in Shane’s Chicago apartment.
“You made this?” she asked as he shuffled their plates off the tiny table into the kitchen. During the three weeks they spent together as officially dating in Texas, he attempted making dinner twice, and both occasions ended with them going out to eat.
“Yes.”
She cocked her head to the side, watching the grin twitch up at the corners of his mouth.
“Alright, I heated it from that restaurant I was telling you about.” Shane grabbed her around the waist and he led her into his bedroom.
It was as tiny as the rest of the place. The bed, wedged between two nightstands, took up the majority of the space. His desk, crammed with files, books and video equipment, took up the rest.
“Are we ever going to actually eat there?”
“How can we? I have less than twenty-four hours with you every other weekend.”
Complete with air travel between the two cities and his weekend shoot times, their weekends only a short time. At ten at night, Shane wore a pair of pajama bottoms and she’d just arrived. They had twenty hours left.
“You have to take the job take here.”
“Michael’s going to be pissed.” Alexis flopped down onto the messy bed, and kicked off her shoes.
Without Shane, Overnight Stays had seen a drop in the ratings during the first quarter. Michael chewed his tablets and dropped about fifteen pounds. Though recently she and Shelly found their rhythm, and the show gained some percentage points in the ratings.
“I don’t care. Seeing you twice a month is killing me.” Shane slid in next to her, fingering the buttons on her blouse with a twinkle in his eyes. She missed his twinkling gaze.
Still, she waffled about the idea of accepting a position as a host for a cable network program showcasing honeymoon destinations within the US. Her pitch for the show used footage from the Ballard Inn, and she’d received an offer from the show within an unheard of two weeks.
Now there was just the question of whether or not to accept it. “It’s only been six months. Do you really think we’re ready to move in together?”
“Alexis, look at this room. Take-out boxes because I don’t have time to show you the city and introduce you to my friends. Some of them think I made you up.”
“You should have admitted you loved me sooner.” She rose on her elbow, kissing the lines of frustration creasing his forehead.
“I should have. And to make sure I don’t miss anything else, I got something for you. Keep
in mind, this isn’t meant to sway your decision about the job.” He hopped out of bed, grabbing a plastic bag from the nightstand.
“What are you doing?”
Shane dropped to his knees with the crinkled bag clutched to his chest. “I know we’ve have trouble in the past knowing what things mean so I want to be very clear. This is an engagement ring.” Shane held out a gold ring, sparkling beneath the overhead lights. “This version dates back to the Golden Age of Hollywood, but the concept is far older than that.”
“I know what it is.” Alexis sat immobilized. “I know what it means.” Yes, her heart sang.
“In that case, Alexis Joplin, will you marry me?”
She nodded as he drew her down next to him, and slid the ring onto her finger.
“Friends forever?” He squeezed her into a tight hug.
“Friends and lovers forever.”
The End
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