The Homecoming

  “I think so.”

  “You were crying and drinking my beer?” he asked.

  “Don’t flatter yourself, I didn’t cry that much. But I did drink a little of your beer.”

  He touched her lips with his again. “Good idea,” he said. He ran a tongue over her lips. “You have excellent lips, Iris. Just excellent.”

  As they made their way to the bedroom, he pulled her wet shirt off, then his own, tossing them both on the floor. He kissed her; he unsnapped her jeans and pushed them down over her hips, never letting her go. “Sit,” he said, sitting on the edge of the bed himself. While she kicked off her pants, he took some time to remove his shoes and that secret gun he wore around his ankle. He started to put it on the bedside table, then cast a narrow-eyed glance her way, lifted a thoughtful eyebrow and moved the gun to the dresser across the room.

  “I can still get to it there,” she said, laughter in her voice.

  “With you, I have to worry. If I don’t perform well, I might get shot.”

  He pulled his jeans down and stood in his plaid boxers. “Sexy,” she said.

  “Be careful. It’s the family tartan.”

  “The Sileski clan has a tartan?” she asked.

  “I didn’t think I was getting lucky tonight. I also didn’t think I was getting thrown out. A guy has to be ready for anything with you, Iris.” He lifted an edge of the covers. “And I am. Crawl in.”

  He slid in right beside her, pulling her close. They were face-to-face, nose to nose, forehead to forehead. His hands ran up and down her back, over her hips. “Iris, you’re wearing fancy underwear,” he said.

  “I always wear nice underwear. Sometimes downright slutty underwear...”

  “I’m on board for some of that,” he said with a sigh. “Iris, you have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do this, to feel you against me like this. Still and close.” Then he slid her panties down and unhooked her bra. “Hmm. This is even better,” he said, pulling her against him, feeling the length of her in his arms. “Please say you’re on the pill.”

  “I am, but what about you?”

  “Clean as a whistle, no danger. I have a condom if you’re concerned.”

  “I can trust you?”

  “Not only has it been a long time, I was screened recently. I’m disease-and virus-free. But beware, I could be potent as the devil.” He smiled against her lips. “I want you. I want to do things to you.”

  Her hands were on the waist of his boxers. “In the family tartan?”

  He let go of her just long enough to ditch the boxers. “You’re right. We don’t need anything between us.”

  “If tomorrow comes and you’ve forgotten...”

  “Honey, I lost more in that disaster than you did. Things would’ve been so different if I’d remembered. I don’t know how, but I know everything would’ve been different. Now, you have to do something for me, Iris. I need you to shut up for a while.” And with that he was hard on her mouth, crushing her against him. With a bent knee, he separated her legs and his fingers gently investigated her inner thighs, her lower belly, her soft butt, her damp center. Just as he began to probe a little bit, his lips dropped to her breast.

  She moaned and arched slightly, wanting more of him. With his mouth on her sensitive nipples and his fingers on her, in her, she was squirming with pleasure. His touch was so sweet, so powerful.

  He moved slowly until he was over her and her knees were spread, his mouth on hers again, his kiss deepening and his tongue inside her mouth at the very moment he entered her. He lifted himself, looking into her eyes. “God,” he whispered. “Iris...”

  Then his mouth was on hers again and he began to move inside her, slowly and deeply. She drifted away as she clutched at him—every nerve in her body was focused on their coupling and she rocked toward him just as he pushed harder into her. His mouth was everywhere—on hers, on her neck, on her breasts, on her mouth again. She began to pant, she mewled in anticipation of the payoff. It didn’t take very long; she felt a molten heat gather in her core and then there was the beautiful clench and throb she’d been searching for. He pushed deeper and was still, holding her tight against him, mouth to mouth, pelvis to pelvis. He hummed softly as Iris saw stars.

  Then she felt him pulse inside her just as he groaned deep in his throat.

  It was a long time coming down from that. It seemed to last forever. And it was so good.

  There they were together again, forehead to forehead, nose to nose, kisses coming softer and sweeter, panting a little and breathing each other’s warm breath. He held his weight off her while keeping them so close that not even a sigh could come between them. They were like that, still and quiet and close, for a long time.

  “Iris, I love you,” he said.

  “How do you know?” she asked in a whisper.

  “I’ve known for a long time,” he said. He gently left her body, rolled onto his back beside her and pulled her into his arms so that her head rested on his shoulder. “I thought about the fact that I never forgave myself for hurting you years ago. I didn’t even know the extent of that hurt, yet I never got over it, either. Then, a couple of years ago I started letting people in the department know that I was looking for an assignment in Thunder Point. I told them it was my hometown, that I grew up here, that my parents lived here. I didn’t think it would help my case to tell them there was a girl in Thunder Point I couldn’t forget, but you were one of the reasons I wanted to be here. Right here where you are, where I’d see you every day so I could figure out how to have you in my life again.”

  “What if I hated you?”

  “In fact, I thought you did. I didn’t know you had a crush on me in high school—how would I know that? But that aside, you loved me once. I didn’t think you loved me the way I wanted, but what the hell, Iris—it was a place to start. Because I couldn’t forget you—you were always on my mind. I dreamed about you, for God’s sake!”

  She pushed herself up to look into his eyes. “Yeah, about that...”

  “The dreams. I dream about women from time to time—sometimes strangers, sometimes celebrities, sometimes random women I’d seen a time or two, but you were the only encore performer. I even had dreams that we had sex in the flower van. Maybe I remembered it in my sleep but not when I was conscious.” He smiled. “It was much better for me than it was for you.”

  “That part of your memory is correct,” she said.

  He growled in some shame but kissed her neck. “How did you ever manage to forgive me?”

  “Reality eventually sank in. You’re not much of a drinker, Seth. At least you weren’t then. You were practically sleepwalking. And then you passed out. It was a crappy set of circumstances, but I don’t think I was wrong and I don’t think you were malicious. I think we were in different realities. I wonder what would have happened if I’d told you the very next day, the second I realized you didn’t remember.”

  “I don’t know,” he said. “I’d like to think just knowing, we would have gotten together. But were we mature or intelligent enough for that? You had a crush—were you capable of dealing with a seventeen-year-old athlete so self-centered and arrogant the world revolved around me? That’s a big job for any girl. And I cared about you so much, but was I mature enough to know the responsibility of that? I don’t know, Iris. I know everything would’ve been different, but I don’t know in what ways.”

  He rolled her over so he was looking down at her again. “I know that after all we’ve been through and after the years we’ve put in, we should know now. What do you think?”

  “I think I love you,” she said. “I always loved you, but I think we would’ve screwed it up seventeen years ago. We might’ve ended up in the same place as now—making amends and promising to do better. Or we might’ve been estranged forever.”

  “I’ll
do better, Iris,” he said. “I’m not saying I’ll be perfect, I know better. But there’s one thing—you’re one woman I never forgot. Never got over. That’s got to mean something.” He ran a big hand down her body and she shivered. “It means a lot right now.”

  The next thing she knew, she was sighing and arching again. Then she was exploding, a shower of sparkling stars raining down on her while he pulsed inside her. Then there was the panting, the sighing, the gratitude neither of them spoke of. And that precious closeness. They were quiet in the dark for so long.

  “Are you leaving now?” she finally asked.

  “If you want me to, I’ll go. But you have to promise me we’ll see each other tomorrow and we’ll be all right.”

  “But don’t you have to go? Your car is in my drive and it’s—” She looked at the clock. “It’s after midnight. People will know you spent the night.”

  “I want people to know I spent the night. I’m not hiding anything, I’m an adult and this was consensual. And beautiful, it was beautiful. But if it makes you uncomfortable, I can leave. We can be more discreet. You’re a high school counselor.”

  “I’m an adult, too,” she said. “I know you won’t be upset to learn you are not the first man in my life. Nor the first to stay overnight.”

  “I have no trouble believing that.”

  “But your mother lives next door,” she reminded him, as if he needed reminding.

  “Even more reason. My mother is probably typical—she has a hard time remembering her sons are not twelve. Even if you lived a mile away, don’t you think she’d find out? And soon? She’s very nosy. A good mother, but very nosy.”

  Iris giggled. “I have a confession. I’ve only slept all night with a man a couple of times. College and once later. And I didn’t sleep well.”

  “I suppose it takes getting used to.”

  “You suppose?”

  “I’ve had a few girlfriends, but I never lived with any of them. They were perfectly nice, terrific girls, but it just wasn’t that serious. We didn’t do sleepovers. I didn’t want to stay over.”

  “God, we’re pathetic,” she said.

  “How’s that?”

  “Thirty-four, never married, never had sleepovers, never got serious...”

  He snuggled closer to her. “Maybe this sleepover will be okay,” he said. “It’s completely up to you.”

  “I’m in,” she said. “Stay.”

  * * *

  It was no grand test for Seth. He slept like a baby. Somewhere in the dark of night he felt Iris stir and get up. When she came back to bed, she brought him a glass of water. Then she reached for him, kissing his shoulder, his ear, his neck. He roused to her naked softness against him and he rolled with her, devouring her all over again, taking her, loving her until she cried out. Then he cradled her, covering her with soft kisses all over her body, holding her until her breathing came deep and even. He nuzzled against the delicious smell of her skin and slept. He was pressed up against her, spooning her or holding her through the night.

  He’d never felt more at home, more at peace.

  He’d thought he was in love a couple of times before, or maybe it was more accurate to say he wanted to be in love and hoped to be. But this was so different and no one had ever explained it to him. He felt his love for Iris deep in his bones. He felt it in his soul. His life would be half a life without her. He wanted everything with her. It was like he’d waited for a woman like her. He wondered if it would terrify her to learn how much he wanted. He was ready for everything with her—commitment, family, a lifetime. It was going to be hard to go slowly.

  He woke at the same time as Iris. Someone was at the door. He looked at the clock and it was seven, a rare hour for him to be asleep. But then the woman beside him had been greedy and tired him out. She mumbled and started to get out of bed. “No, let me,” he said. “Stay right where you are.”

  He pulled on the family tartan and headed barefoot to the front door. His limp was much more pronounced when he didn’t wear shoes with a little lift in the heel. He looked out the window in the front door and saw only the top of someone’s head, but her hair was curly and silver.

  He opened the door and she jumped. “Seth!” she said.

  “Who did you expect?”

  “Well, I wasn’t sure, but I saw your car and you hadn’t come home and—”

  “Because I’m here,” he said.

  “But...where’s Iris?” she asked.

  “Where do you think she is, Mom?”

  “Oh! Oh, dear.”

  “I think from now on, you should call when you feel like popping over. What do you say?”

  “I...ah...I...”

  “That’s right, Mom. You have the number so if you need something, just call. Or you can always call my cell—I’ll let you know that everything is all right. Okay?”

  “Yes! Of course! But I...” She shook her head. “Oh, the hell with it. You might warn a person! I went out to get the paper and saw your car, but I couldn’t find you!”

  “I’d like you to consider it a pleasant surprise, say no more about it and go home. I’ll call you later.”

  “Yes,” she said. “Yes, call later.”

  And she turned to waddle down the walk, crossing the yards to her front door. He chuckled and went back to bed. He slipped under the covers and pulled Iris close. “Check that one off. Gwen has found us out.”

  “Oh, Seth!”

  “What? It was bound to happen. At least it’s over with. Now maybe we can sleep in. Although, you might be bad for my career—I never stay in bed this late in the morning.”

  “Oh, God, that was your mother at the door! That’s like a dating nightmare! The worst kind! She thinks I debauched her little boy.”

  “Would it help if I told her I debauched twice and you only once?”

  “Ack,” she barked, slapping him on the arm. “That was your mother.”

  “Yes, it was. I sent her away and told her to call ahead next time. She’s old enough to know better.”

  “I’ll have to say something to her,” Iris said. “What in the world am I supposed to say?”

  “Tell her you’re sorry you missed her this morning, but you were naked, warm and hoping to get laid again before breakfast.”

  “Seth!”

  “I slept like the dead. Right up until your greedy little hands were on me, teasing me, getting me up. Literally.” He grinned. “Best sleepover I’ve ever had. I think I’ll do it again.”

  “You’re not the least bit troubled by her early-morning visit, are you?”

  He shook his head. “Not the least.”

  “What are we supposed to do now?”

  “I think we should at least go steady, but that’s about the most patience I have. For two cents I’d take you right to the justice of the peace and stake my claim. I love you, Iris. And you sleep very well.”

  “You’re in a bit of a hurry, I think.”

  “I am, I guess. Sorry. Take your time, Iris. Don’t let me rush you.”

  “What is it you think you want?” she asked.

  “Everything. I want all of you. Happily ever after, a couple of kids, a permanent home, waking up together in the morning, fighting over who has to get up to get breakfast for the kids, arguments over chores and finances and then make-up sex and then we do it all over again. I want to be the person you love the most, get mad at most often, make up with because you can’t help it. I want to be the guy you laugh with, lean on, cry on, yell at, reach for. I can do it, Iris. I can be the one.”

  “Seth, everyone is going to think this is too sudden,” she said.

  “Screw ’em. Even not counting the past thirty years, we’ve been working our way back to each other for a couple of months. No one knows me like you do—
there’s no woman in the world I will ever know the way I know you. Take your time, Iris. I’m ready when you are.”

  “What if I decide this is just not for me?”

  He was shaking his head. “After last night? Bullshit.”

  She curled up close. “I think you should try to convince me one more time. Then we’ll shower and go get breakfast. Then I’ll think of something to say to your mother.”

  His hand moved smoothly over her breast. “Please don’t talk to me about my mother while I’m making love to you. I want to be able to do my best.”

  And she laughed until he successfully stopped her.

  * * *

  Iris found it was a transition that took minutes, not weeks. Seth took her to the diner for breakfast where they sat at the counter together and no one blinked an eye at them having breakfast together on a Saturday morning. They ran into Dr. Grant and his little boy having breakfast. They got to hear all about how Scott and Peyton had set a date and there was to be a big Basque wedding at her family’s farm in the spring. Mac stopped by to check in with Gina and get a shopping list from her so he could make a store run, but he paused for a cup of coffee. Eric from the service station came in for a late breakfast and there was a little small talk about classic cars taking up residence in his body shop. Then Seth said he had some paperwork and told Iris to come over when she was ready for a lift home.

  “Don’t be silly,” she said. “I’m walking. In fact, I might take a long walk across the beach.”

  “I’ll talk to you later.” He kissed her on the cheek as he left.

  “That was nice,” Gina said after he had gone.

  “He’s nice.”

  “So, you two?”

  “Recently, sort of. Except that we’ve known each other since we were four. So it wasn’t exactly a blind date.”

  Gina laughed. “A couple of old friends getting together has great odds. Mac and I were best friends for years before we became Mr. and Mrs. Mac.”

  “That’s right,” Iris said. “I had forgotten that.”