Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
Atlee woke from a dream that she was in the desert, with sweat pouring down her temples and dying of thirst. She knew immediately where she was and why she was so hot.
Partly because she was of that age, where her body was hot one second and freezing the next, but also because she’d never woken up being cuddled so closely by a man.
Not any man.
Simon Hill.
It made the night sweats she had more and more frequently almost worth it.
She was still on her side, and Simon was curled up behind her.
They were touching from torso to knees. He was plastered to her as if he couldn’t bear to have even one speck of space between them.
One arm was around her waist, holding her against him, and she could feel his warm breath against the top of her head.
She smiled.
She’d tried to stay up and wait for him to get back to the room, but she was asleep almost before her head hit the pillow. She had no idea what time it was now, but the room was pitch black, no sunlight coming through the curtains she’d tried to pull closed before she’d lain down.
Even though she loved waking up in Simon’s arms, she was gonna die if she didn’t get out from under the comforter. Moving slowly, she lifted the covers to try to get some much-needed cooler air on her body.
But even that small movement woke the man behind her.
He kind of grunted, shifting before his arm tightened around her for a moment.
Then as he came awake, he jerked—and suddenly he was gone from against her back.
Looking over her shoulder, Atlee was dismayed to see a look of what she could only describe as horror on his face as he scrambled to move back. To put as much space as he could between them.
Disappointment hit her hard and fast.
She would’ve laughed at how Simon almost fell off the bed trying to get away from her, if she wasn’t so disheartened. What had been the best wake-up of her life was obviously one more befitting a horror movie for him.
He stood at the side of the bed, and neither of them moved for a moment. Then Atlee told herself to put her big-girl panties on and deal with it. Yesterday was obviously a dream. Maybe he changed his mind about wanting to be with her for as long as she’d have him.
She turned her back on him and slowly sat up. The cool air in the room felt heavenly against her sweaty body, but she was too depressed and embarrassed to fully appreciate it.
“Damn, I’m so sorry, sweetheart.”
Atlee frowned at the term of endearment.
And because he truly sounded distraught.
Not distraught in a what-the-hell-have-I-done kind of way, but in a way that she thought he was maybe blaming himself for something.
How she knew that, she had no idea, but it had her glancing over her shoulder to look at him.
“For what?” she asked boldly. She wasn’t fifteen anymore. She wasn’t afraid to speak her mind. And to find out what the hell was going on here.
“I didn’t mean to touch you without your permission. I fell asleep, and I guess I moved into your personal space while I was sleeping. You’re okay. I swear you’re safe.”
Atlee’s frown deepened. She was confused. “I know I am. Safe. You’re here.”
He stared back at her and ran a hand through his dark hair, making it stick up even more than it was before. He looked…off-kilter. And she’d never seen Simon Hill, police chief of Fallport PD, look that way before.
It hit her then. What he’d said. Why he was upset. Relief made her almost dizzy. “You have nothing to apologize for,” she told him. “You want to know what my first thought was when I woke up?”
“Who is this psycho behind me and why is he touching me?” Simon asked dryly.
But Atlee didn’t even crack a smile.
“No. I was wondering how I’d gotten so lucky.”
Simon’s entire demeanor shifted. It was subtle, but his shoulders relaxed and the stressed look around his eyes and mouth smoothed out. “Yeah?”
“Uh-huh.”
“You were trying to get out of bed. Away from me.”
“No,” Atlee said with a firm shake of her head. “I’m a woman in her fifties. Going through perimenopause. I was hot. Burning up. And you aren’t exactly cool. I was simply trying to remove the covers to get some air. Not leave the bed. Does that turn you off? I’m not exactly young anymore.”
Simon chuckled. “You aren’t going to scare me off by telling me about your hot flashes. I’m not a spring chicken myself. My hair is thinning, I get tired more easily these days, and I find my moods are unpredictable. Doc says it’s andropause. Nothing like what women go through, but still a thing.”
Atlee smiled. “Listen to us. Are we trying to talk each other out of dating or what?”
“I’m not,” Simon said immediately. “I just don’t want you to be ashamed of yourself in any way.
We’re human, and our bodies change as we get older.
I like you for who you are as a person, Atlee.
You really aren’t upset that I touched you while you were sleeping?
I swear I was totally out and didn’t know. ”
“If you think I’m gonna get mad that you were drawn to me in your sleep, you’re dead wrong. I was married to a man who got mad if my foot even crossed onto his side of the bed. I’m amazed he touched me long enough to get me pregnant with my daughter. He wasn’t exactly a touchy-feely kind of guy.”
“I am,” Simon said quickly.
Atlee smiled at him a little shyly. “Good.”
Simon grinned at her, and Atlee felt it between her legs. Good Lord, it had been a long time since she’d experienced the kind of lust she was feeling right now.
“What do you want to do? It’s,” he looked at his watch, then back at her, “midnight. We could go back to sleep, eat the sandwiches I picked up, watch TV, head back to Fallport…whatever you want.”
“I don’t think I could go back to sleep now. I’m pretty hungry. Would you mind if we ate and hung out and…talked?”
“That sounds perfect. You need to use the restroom?”
As a matter of fact, she did. Another aspect of growing older that was annoying. The need to pee all the time. Atlee nodded.
“Go ahead. I’ll get our meal ready.”
Atlee did her thing in the bathroom, including washing her face and doing her best to remove the last remnants of the night sweats from her body before heading back out into the room.
Simon had set up a picnic of sorts on the bed for them.
The sandwiches were laid out, along with a couple of cookies from the restaurant and two bottles of water.
It wasn’t fancy, it wasn’t anything special, but to her it was the most romantic thing anyone had done for her in a long time…
which was both sad and sweet at the same time.
“Go ahead and start, I’ll be right back,” Simon told her, as he went to take his turn in the bathroom.
But Atlee wasn’t about to eat without him. Her mama would roll over in her grave if she displayed such bad manners.
Simon returned and got onto the bed next to her. He fluffed the pillowed behind his back and smiled. “Not exactly gourmet.”
“I don’t need gourmet,” she reassured him.
As they ate, they talked. About their pasts, their jobs, their favorite things about Fallport.
Anything and everything. The more time she spent with this man, the more she liked him.
He was exactly what she thought he was. Honorable, fun, dedicated, and fair.
By the time she licked her fingers and finished off the last of the cookie—which wasn’t nearly as good as the ones she’d made with Renee, but decent enough—Atlee’s crush on Simon had turned into something more.
And if the looks he kept giving her were any indication, he felt the same.
She felt nervous and giddy at the same time. It was hard to believe this was actually happening. That she was alone in a hotel room, in her pajamas, with the man she’d admired from afar for so long.
“How are you feeling right now?”
Atlee tilted her head as she looked over at Simon. “Um…fine?”
“I mean, are you hot? Comfortable?”
“No, I’m good.”
“Good. Would it be…would you mind… Shit.”
Him being nervous and tongue-tied was adorable. And so unlike the Simon Hill she thought she knew. But it fit with the man she was getting to know in the wee hours of the night. “Would I mind what?” she asked gently.
“It’s too early to get up…nothing good happens after two in the morning, I know that better than most. I don’t want to get on the road because the odds of drunk drivers being out right now are higher than at any other time.
But I thought maybe now that we’re done eating, we could lie down and continue talking.
But I’d like to hold you while we do. This isn’t a come on or a prelude to anything else, but you felt so good in the split second after I woke up that I’d love to do it again, this time when I can fully appreciate it. ”
This man.
He was a miracle.
Her miracle.
“I’d like that,” she told him.
He smiled, a relieved grin that expressed what she was feeling deep down. She liked that he didn’t try to hide what he was feeling from her.
He scooted down on the mattress and rearranged his pillows before opening his arms.
Atlee snuggled into him and rested her head on his shoulder.
He was on his back, and she was plastered against his side.
The warmth of his body seeped into her own.
But this time it wasn’t uncomfortable in the least. It was intimate.
More so than anything she’d done in a very long time.
As he said, it wasn’t foreplay. It was simply two humans enjoying touching each other.
She felt more than heard him sigh.
“This is…nice.”
“Yeah.”
“Much more so than being in my cramped squad car.”
Atlee giggled. “Very.”
“Tell me more about Renee. What kind of kid was she? Does she like living in Roanoke? What about this guy she’s seeing? Do you like him? Is he good to her? Do you think they’ll get married?”
Nothing could endear this man to her more than his interest in her daughter.