Chapter 6 #4
“Yeah, that’s her.” She read the caption and could see why her sister hadn’t been to the apartment all week. She was obviously having fun with her super doctor.
“She’s a knockout,” Jason said clinically, but Mickie wasn’t the kind of woman who appealed to him at all.
Physical perfection, but she looked like she had no soul.
All beauty and no heart. He thought her expression was ice cold, unlike Billie, who was warm, bubbly, and fun, and pretty too, in a natural way.
She wasn’t a stunner like Mickie, but she was real.
He knew Michaela’s type and had dated a few of them, but not for long.
He much preferred Billie sitting next to him, with her hair piled up in a banana clip, in her faded blue bathing suit from high school, and her almost adolescent body.
She looked like a little elf to him sometimes, and she had the innocence of youth and honesty in her eyes.
Her sister was all woman, and there wasn’t a shred of innocence about her.
She looked like she knew exactly what she was doing at all times.
There was no naivete there. She was a pro.
Her flawless beauty held no lure for him.
“She must be having fun. That’s the doctor.
She works for him now, as an ambassador,” Billie said without a hint of jealousy.
She was happy for her sister. “That’s the life she’s always wanted, ever since she was a kid.
I’m glad if she’s getting what she wants.
” It wasn’t the life she wanted, but she wished her sister well. Billie had a generous spirit.
“I probably have a missing chromosome or something, but I don’t find women like that sexy at all. There’s no softness there, no heart. Is she like that in person? So perfect and sophisticated, I mean?”
“Totally,” Billie said without criticism.
“Mickie knows exactly what she wants, and she goes for it, and always gets it. She’s been like that since she was five.
She had my father totally under her spell from the minute she could talk, and everyone else.
She was a rotten little kid and I got blamed for everything she did, as I told you, but she’s a lot nicer now.
” Jason doubted it, but didn’t say so. The look on Michaela’s face wasn’t nice, in his opinion. There was no sweetness there at all.
“Is she in love with the doctor?” He was curious.
“I don’t know. I doubt it. She never is.
And she only met him recently. But he’s a way to get where she wants to go.
He’s awfully old for her to fall in love with.
I don’t think Mickie’s ever been in love, except maybe with herself.
” It was an astute observation, and accurate.
She was a classic narcissist. And Jason was much happier with the other sister.
He doubted that he would like Mickie if he ever met her.
Billie hadn’t suggested it since the night of their first date and didn’t intend to again.
She instinctively sensed that they wouldn’t like each other.
And Mickie would never make the effort to meet a friend of her sister’s.
Billie was curious about the doctor and would have liked to meet him, but she knew Mickie would never let that happen.
They both swam for a while, and went to their respective apartments to dress for the Dodgers game Jason was taking her to that night.
She was looking forward to it, and they had a ball when they got there.
He had very good seats, behind home plate, with an unobstructed view.
Jason bought hot dogs, popcorn, sodas, fries, and eventually ice cream, and it was a good game against the San Francisco Giants.
The Dodgers had been on a winning streak and Jason was ecstatic when they won.
Billie had loved it, and they wound up back at the pool at the apartment for a late-night swim.
She was lying on the deck chair, drying off afterward, looking up at a starry sky, when he sat down on the edge of her chair, leaned down and gently kissed her, and she responded and pulled him closer.
He lay on the chair next to her, overwhelmed with desire for her.
It had been a perfect day for both of them.
They hadn’t known each other for long, but he already had the feeling that he knew her well, and he liked everything about her, and he found her petite, graceful body incredibly sexy.
He was constantly aware that he wanted to protect her, but he didn’t know from what.
There were no evils lurking, but she brought out the best in him.
His life was pleasant before, but he had been happier ever since he met her.
They kissed for a long time, cautiously exploring each other’s bodies, and he whispered to her.
“Do you want to come to my place?” he asked her.
She didn’t want to suggest hers, it was so starkly furnished, and everything in it was battered and ugly.
Mickie had wasted neither time nor money decorating it, and his place would inevitably be better.
They walked up the stairs to his apartment, not rushing, savoring the moment, hand in hand.
He opened the door with his key, and she immediately saw the warm atmosphere he had created, with vintage furniture, a big brown leather couch, comfortable overstuffed chairs, and cozy fabrics.
It had the feel of a western country home, with a touch of Santa Fe.
It looked like a Ralph Lauren ad, which suited him, casual but made up of elements of quality, and his bedroom was masculine but inviting, in beige and navy, with a big cozy plaid blanket on the bed.
He carefully laid her on it as they peeled off their wet bathing suits and dropped them on the floor, and he gently made love to her with mounting passion.
He reached a crescendo more rapidly than he intended, but he wanted her so badly and found her so irresistibly feminine and appealing that he couldn’t hold back for long, although he was an artful lover.
She’d never made love feeling that way before, compared to her loveless, fumbling, beer-driven college experiences that had never stirred any emotion in her other than embarrassment afterward.
Making love with Jason was entirely different, and although they had only met recently, she already knew she was falling in love with him, and so was he with her.
She was the woman he had been waiting for and didn’t know it.
And he felt jubilant as he lay in bed with her, and looked at her afterward with a broad smile.
“You are the most wonderful woman I have ever met,” he said, and kissed her, and held her tight for a minute and then looked down at her again. She had a dreamy-eyed expression, still in the after haze of their lovemaking.
“It’s never been like that for me with anyone,” she said, still surprised.
But he was a dozen years older than the inexperienced boys she had slept with, and a practiced lover, and it made a difference.
The feelings he already had for her made it different for him than it was with the women he had met at bars or parties or at work, where sex was a weekend activity, like a sport, with no emotion, only physical skill or prowess.
He almost expected to get a score from them when it was over, or ask who won.
He never felt that he did. They were never the right women for him, but this little elf of a woman from a dairy farm in Iowa was the one he had been looking for.
They talked late into the night, now that they had found each other, made love again, and she slept in his apartment.
She woke up the next morning with the sun streaming into the room, as he began making love to her to wake her up.
He had been watching her sleep for an hour and couldn’t wait a moment longer to make love to her again.
It was an exquisite way to wake up, and afterward they dozed for a little longer and took a shower together, and then he made a big country breakfast of fried eggs, sausages, and bacon.
She made toast and burned it and he didn’t care.
Sitting in his apartment with him, over breakfast, talking and laughing and telling him stories about taking care of the cows, she felt as though she had come home at last. His apartment was twice the size of hers, and she felt totally at ease.
He made her feel comfortable, and safe, which was an unfamiliar feeling for her.
She had been fighting her own battles for years, defending and protecting herself from her father, her sister, the mean girls at school, and in Jason’s world there were no dangers, no predators.
“There’s someone I want you to meet,” she said when they finished breakfast.
“Your sister?” He wasn’t looking forward to it, but didn’t say so.
“No, you’ll meet her at some point when she comes to pick something up at the apartment. I want you to meet my friend Tom Carter when he comes back from his mission in the Middle East. He’s like a brother to me, and you two would love each other.”
“You two never had a romance?” Jason asked, curious about Tom. She had mentioned him several times when talking about her childhood.
“Never. He was my family. He and my mom.” Her father had been a disinterested bystander. And her sister had been the enemy for most of it, even if the war was over now.
“I look forward to meeting him,” he said warmly.
“And I want you to meet my family. They will love you,” he said with assurance.
They had been good about never bugging him about why he didn’t have a serious woman in his life.
At thirty-three, they didn’t think there was any rush.
His sister was thirty-five now, and they hadn’t bothered her either.
They figured it would happen at the right time when the right person came along.
His sister had finally met her man two years before, and was happy living with him, with no plans for marriage, which was fine with his parents too.
Jason had an idea about when he wanted Billie to meet them but it was too soon to say anything.
He was just enjoying the wonders they had discovered the night before, and looking forward to more of them as they got to know each other better.
That night, they went back to their own apartments, and lasted about an hour. Jason called her and she answered, wide awake, lying in the dark in her bed, thinking about him.
“I can’t sleep without you,” he said in a husky voice, and she smiled.
“Me too. I was thinking about you, and last night.”
“Will you come back now?” he asked her, sounding boyish and sexy, and she laughed.
“See you in two minutes.” She hopped out of bed, slipped her feet into slippers, locked her door and ran up the stairs to his apartment on the floor above. He was holding the door open for her in his boxers, and she was wearing an old cotton nightgown. He smiled as soon as he saw her.
“Welcome home,” he said as he kissed her, swept her into his arms as though she were weightless, carried her to his bed, and laid her there. The boxers and the old cotton nightgown lay on the floor seconds later.