Page 72 of After Care

“I’m so proud of you.” Silence followed the statement, and I worried I’d lost her. “Ivy?” I questioned, thinking the connection was cut.

“Thanks, Edie. That…that means a lot to me. A lot.” Her tone had shifted, and the weight of her appreciation hit me in the chest. This is what Ivy had wanted, someone to be proud of her, like her mother would have been.

+ + +

Over the next two weeks, Tommy and I talked nightly, and Skyped often, including some risky, sexy time over the wires.

“Darlin’, whatcha doin’?” he asked me one night when Masie was at her dad’s, and Caleb had taken off for team meetings in Iowa.

In an exhibitionist sort of way, I took more risks with Tommy than I’d ever taken before. I slipped out of view, stripped, and re-dressed. Reappearing before the screen, his dark eyes turned to obsidian.

“Is that my jacket?” He swiped through his hair, pressing his face closer to the screen. “I’m so fucking jealous of that leather.” He sat back, and his hand lowered below the table where his laptop sat.

“Open it a little more.” I parted the jacket, exposing a hint of breast, and then slipping lower, revealed a touch of thigh. He swallowed, and I watched the roll of his Adam’s apple. “Fuck,” he groaned.

I moved the laptop to rest on my bed. Crawling toward the screen, I laid on my side, facing him. I shifted the jacket to cover me like a blanket. The sharp sound of his zipper ripped over the wires. We’d gotten a little out of control one night, and he showed me himself as he took care of his business. I drew the line at holding the phone between my thighs as I worked myself.

“I don’t need this on some foreign internet porn site,” I had teased.

I rolled to my back. The sound of gentle vibration echoed in my room, and I heard Tommy’s breath hitch.

“Is that…Mr. Bob?” he choked. He couldn’t see what I was doing. Everything was under the jacket, but with the weight of the material, the scent of him surrounding me, and Mr. Bob between my thighs, it was as if Tommy were present. Not quite, but close enough. His voice increased my arousal, encouraging me with dirty words, and I rolled my head to focus on his face as I took my own pleasure with a little battery assistance. We came together.

“Fuck, you’re better than porn, beautiful.” He reached for something outside the screen and wiped his fist.

I laughed, rolling to my side to face him. “Not quite.”

“My private porn star,” he muttered. His laptop rose and movement rattled my view of him. The mattress dipped, and he settled on his own bed. Setting the computer in the same manner as mine, he lay facing me, propped up on an elbow. The position was awkward, with computer screens and not so perfect angles, but it was as close as we could get.

“I love you, darlin’,” he said, his raspy voice lowering.

“I love you, too, baby.”

His plump lips curled. “You know I love it when you call me that.” We just stared at one another a moment. “I wish I was there.”

“Me, too. I’d kind of…it’s been hard for me.” I swallowed down the nerves to speak my mind. “I wish we lived closer. I want to see you. In person.” His eyes opened wide, and I worried I’d said too much. As if I love you wasn’t revealing enough, but they were only words. Admitting to my desire to live closer, spend more time with him, be near him, seemed more exposing.

“Hang on.” He disappeared and returned with his phone, lying back down. “What time do you get off work on Friday?”

“Around five.” I hadn’t told Tommy that I accepted The Nights concert ticket. I told myself it was nothing. Max was younger than me by a few years, but we were close enough in age. We’d been chatting more often about personal things, as well as business, and the attention was refreshing. He seemed tortured that he only had his kids twice a week and every other weekend. He said his ex-wife had been his best friend, and strangely they remained amicable despite their separation. It didn’t change the fact he still missed his children. He was alone, like me, and I’d convinced myself a concert wasn’t a date, just two lonely people listening to music. It wasn’t that I wanted to date someone other than Tommy, but I didn’t want to be alone any longer.

“Can you get off work earlier?” Tommy addressed me, but stared on his phone, and I grew a bit agitated that I lay under his leather jacket, replete and warm, while he played with his cell phone.

“Why?” He chuckled at my response, and my phone pinged on my dresser. Flipping his phone to face me, my eyes narrowed, but I couldn’t read the information.

“Grab your phone, darlin’.” I sat up and reached for it. Opening up the text messages, he had typed, Check email. Clicking over to my email, I found a confirmation message from an airline.

“What’s this?” I snorted, staring as I read the information. Friday afternoon flight from O’Hare Airport to SFO, San Francisco International Airport. “You sent me a plane ticket?”

“I told you, you say you love me and you want to see me, and I’ll bring you here. I’ll be in that area this week.” He was proud of himself; it showed in his expression. “It’s the first time you asked.” He’d been waiting for those words from me, and I wanted to kick myself for holding out on saying anything sooner.

So much for the concert.

That Friday, I was going to California for the first time in my life.

14

California dreaming