by Gail Sattler
Amazingly, all five boys stayed in the living room, politely half watching the movie they’d spent their hard-earned money on, while Melissa’s attention remained glued. About halfway through, they paused it for Melissa and Tyler to go into the kitchen to make the popcorn.
The second they left the room, Andrew appeared at Josh’s side.
“Aren’t you, like, gonna put your arm around Miss Klassen or hold her hand or something, Uncle Josh? Tyler told me that’s what guys do when you gotta watch something like this with a girl.”
“He did, did he?” Josh decided to supervise Tyler’s activities with Allyson a little closer.
“Yeah. That’s how you make up for it when nothing gets blown up and there’s no racing.”
“You think so?”
Andrew grinned. “Not really. But that’s what Tyler said to the little kids.”
“You got a girlfriend yet, Andrew?”
“No, but Kaitlin always shares her snack with me at junior youth club. I guess that’s close.”
Another one coming up who would soon need more supervision. Josh wondered if he had bitten off more than he could chew.
“Popcorn, everyone! Let’s turn the movie back on.”
“Hold on. Let’s get these pizza boxes out of here first. And get rid of these empty drink cans.”
When all the boys hustled into the kitchen, Josh stepped up to Melissa.
“Andrew asked me why I haven’t put my arm around you or something.”
“Pardon me?”
“That’s why they rented this particular movie. They’re expecting to see some romance happening.”
She glanced at the doorway leading to the kitchen, where the noise level indicated they were all ready to return. “They think we were kissing the other day when we locked the door to the den. Isn’t that enough?”
“Apparently it only encouraged them.”
“What do you think we should do?”
“Maybe we should start acting a little more like we’re really dating in front of them. I think the reason they’re doing this is they thought we were going to split up. Let’s show them we’re not about to split up, and they’ll leave us alone.”
“Okay. . .”
Before Josh could comment further, the boys stampeded back to their spots.
After he flipped the movie back on, just as they’d agreed, he slipped his arm around Melissa. At first she stiffened, which made him wonder if he’d done it wrong, but after a few minutes, she relaxed and started to lean a little into him.
Josh smiled. He liked it. It wasn’t exactly kissing her, but under the circumstances, he figured it was the next best thing.
As the movie continued, the aroma of the popcorn and the sound of munching all around started getting to him. He was the only one not eating any, because he was the only one with one arm otherwise occupied and therefore without a bowl.
With his free hand he reached for a handful of popcorn from the bowl in Melissa’s lap. The action caused him to turn slightly, which in turn caused him to lean into her as she leaned into him.
The motion brought his face very close to hers.
He shoved the entire handful of popcorn into his mouth at once, leaned his face a little closer, and grinned like a squirrel with its cheeks stuffed full of nuts.
She turned to face him, one cheek bulging slightly from her smaller nibbles of popcorn. She froze, midchew. “What are you doing?” she mumbled around her mouthful.
When she turned, it brought her face close to his, barely a couple of inches apart. Close enough to kiss her. Except they both had their faces stuffed with popcorn, and they shared a room with five kids.
“I’m trying to be romantic,” he tried to whisper clearly through the popcorn puffing out both cheeks. “Is it working?”
“Stop it, and pay attention to the movie.”
Reluctantly, he turned back to the television, but studying Melissa interested him far more than the dumb movie.
He could feel her whole body stiffen at the tense moments and sag at the slow parts. At one romantic moment, she snuggled into him even more. Between the movie and holding her, he wanted to respond.
Again, he reached into the bowl in her lap, but this time when he leaned into her, he turned his head all the way and brushed her hair with his lips.
“Stop it,” she whispered without turning. “The kids.”
He grinned and nuzzled further into her hair and brushed a quick kiss on her ear. “I thought this was the whole idea. Besides, they’re all glued to the television. It’s finally a racing scene. If they’re lucky, the car will blow up.”
“Then turn around and watch it, and maybe you’ll get lucky too.”
Josh grinned and leaned closer to her ear. “Nothing, nothing,” he whispered.
She turned her head so fast he didn’t have a chance to move. Again, her mouth was so close to his that he could have kissed her. But this time he didn’t have his mouth stuffed full of popcorn. He really could have, if the kids weren’t in the room.
“What are you doing?” she ground out in a harsh whisper.
He felt his grin falter at where his thoughts were turning. “I was whispering sweet nothings in your ear.”
Her mouth dropped open, but no words came out. Abruptly, she tilted her head away and turned her face back to the television. “I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but quit it.”
Reluctantly, he turned back to the movie, but he couldn’t concentrate on the action on the screen. He could only think of the woman in his arms.
If he had thought he could keep their relationship to a platonic friendship, he now realized he had only been deluding himself. He’d been very careful not to touch her in any way since they first began their convoluted friendship, and this was exactly the reason why. He’d crossed the line, and he couldn’t go back. He wanted to deepen the relationship. He not only wanted to kiss her now, but he wanted to kiss her every time he said hello, every time he said good-bye, plus a little in between.
Except he didn’t have that right. The circumstances of his life did not allow for the time or energy to participate in a two-sided relationship. He had nothing to offer her past his friendship on days it was convenient for him, and a few kisses, which would have been entirely for his benefit. Not only that, she still had her job to deal with. A friendship based on helping one of her students she could defend. She couldn’t defend a blossoming romance with a student’s guardian because that was exactly what her principal was pressuring her into abstaining from.
Just because her boss was wrong and had no jurisdiction to interfere with her personal life didn’t change the fact that it was happening. He didn’t want to encourage her to get the teacher’s union to do battle for him when it was a dead issue before it started. He simply couldn’t have that kind of relationship with her anyway.
All he could do was continue to hold her through the movie, which was approaching the pivotal moment and therefore the end. Suddenly, he didn’t want the movie to end. He wanted it to last at least another hour, because when it ended, he would have to let her go.
He strengthened his grasp around her shoulder when her body made a slight jerk. He wondered if he’d maybe squeezed her too tight because of the million conflicting thoughts cascading through his brain, but then she turned to him.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the credits rolling down the screen. A few tears dribbled down her cheeks, and she smiled at him. The combination punched a hole in his heart that he knew would never heal.
“That was so good,” she sniffled. “Thanks for inviting me.”
Josh froze. He wanted to kiss those tears away, then hold her and kiss her just because he wanted to. He didn’t know what to do.
“Miss Klassen? Why are you crying? The movie had a happy ending. Nothing got blowed up.”
Melissa backed up, forcing Josh to let his arm drop to his side. She wiped her tears away with the back of her hand. “Sometimes girls cry at hap
py endings, Ryan,” she sniffled. “That was a very good movie.”
“Really?”
Josh cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention. “Everybody pick up your popcorn bowls before Cleo gets into them, and put them on the counter, not on the table where she can get them. Then you can go play video games until bed. But only if you’re quiet.”
Melissa checked her watch as the boys diligently picked up the bowls and filed into the kitchen. “I know it’s still fairly early, but I should be going. I have a Sunday school teacher’s meeting before the service starts tomorrow morning, and I have to get up early. I’ll see you all at church tomorrow.”
“I’ll see you to your car. This feels so strange, me seeing you out. This isn’t the way a date is supposed to end.”
“Don’t worry about it,” she said as he escorted her outside. “I had a nice evening, and that’s what’s important.”
Melissa unlocked her car door and opened it, but before she got in, Josh gently touched her on the shoulder and turned her to face him.
He stepped closer. “This is the way a date is supposed to end.” He rested one hand at the side of her waist and trailed the fingers of his other hand down the soft skin of her cheek, stopping when his index finger reached the bottom of her dainty little chin.
Slowly, he tipped her chin up and slid his other hand around her back.
“Josh? What are you doing? I saw the blinds move. The boys are watching.”
“The boys can mind their own business for a change.”
Without waiting for her response, he lowered his head, closed his eyes, and claimed her mouth, kissing her with all the love in his heart. She stiffened for a brief second, relaxed, and then kissed him back the same way he was kissing her.
Slowly, he could feel her fingers at his waist, then her hands flattened against him and slid around his back.
His heart pounded. He might have died and gone to heaven, except he was still breathing. Actually, he wasn’t breathing.
Josh released her mouth and told himself to breathe, but he didn’t release his embrace. Gradually he opened his eyes to see Melissa’s shimmering eyes staring right back at him, and her lips showed the trace of a slight smile.
He couldn’t stand it. He didn’t care if the boys or half the neighborhood was watching. Josh only cared about the woman in his arms. The woman he loved.
He tilted his head slightly and kissed her again. All the emptiness in his soul filled to overflowing. He felt contentment and excitement at the same time. Kissing Melissa was like shooting stars.
Like. . .
Fifteen
Fireworks!
Ever since the kids had caught them in the den behind the locked door, Melissa had wondered what it would be like if Josh ever kissed her. She’d dreamed about it.
Her dreams paled in comparison to the reality of his kiss and his tender embrace.
Very slowly, his mouth released hers. Instead of letting her go, his fingers threaded into her hair and guided her head to rest against his chest while he continued to hold her tightly, almost desperately, like he didn’t want to let her go. She could almost feel the frantic beating of his heart against her cheek, because she could certainly hear it.
Melissa knew her own was no different. She also knew that in the last minute, everything had changed, and her life would never be the same again.
Josh lowered his face into her hair and pressed his cheek into her temple, completing his embrace from head to toe.
“Wow,” he said, his voice echoing strangely in his chest with her ear pressed against it. “I never knew.”
“Me neither.”
“What are we going to do?” he whispered huskily.
“I don’t know.”
The only thing she did know was that she had to go home. She couldn’t think properly with Josh wrapped around her. Never mind think properly—she couldn’t think at all.
“Will you come over for lunch after church? I think we have to talk.”
“Yes,” she said as she backed up a step, forcing him to drop his arms and lift his head.
Before she could contemplate if she should kiss him good-bye after all that, she hustled into the car, shut the door, and drove off. She had a lot to think about before tomorrow. And a lot of praying to do.
❧
Melissa stopped to think, her arms immersed nearly up to her elbows in the sudsy water, halfway in the middle of scrubbing the cooked-on eggs from the bottom of the pan. Having such a serious conversation while doing dishes may have been rather bizarre, but she needed the distraction.
They both did.
“So we’re agreed, then?”
Melissa nodded. “Yes.”
Josh stuffed the dish towel over the handle for the oven door, stared at it, then yanked it off and handed it to her. “Leave that. Let’s go talk to the boys and get it over with.”
She sat on the recliner to wait for Josh to get the boys from the den, not because she liked the chair, but because it was the only single chair in the room. She didn’t want anyone to sit beside her today, not even Josh.
Josh sat all the boys down. “We have to talk to you guys.”
Everyone became deathly silent.
“Miss Klassen and I know what you guys have been doing. You’ve been pretty good, but we’ve known almost from the beginning about all these little matchmaking schemes.”
If her stomach wasn’t churning so badly, and if she wasn’t on the verge of a major stress headache, Melissa would have laughed at their instantly red faces and mouths dropping open. They alternated between staring at the floor and studying some unknown blank space on the wall.
“What we’re going to tell you now is that we’ve decided to stop pretending to be dating for you guys. Miss Klassen and I are just friends, and we’ll always be just friends. We weren’t dating, and we never were.”
“But you went out on lots of dates! We know you did!”
“We were together, but it wasn’t real dating. Most of the time we just stayed at Miss Klassen’s house and talked and stuff. Sometimes we did grocery shopping. Sometimes I helped her with school stuff. Lots of times I was so tired all I did was lay on the couch and have a nap while Miss Klassen did her housework.”
Josh stopped talking, probably to let the magnitude of what he said sink in. Not one of them said a word.
“Most of all, we’re not going to date for real because neither one of us is in a position to do that.”
Kyle blinked repeatedly and squirmed in his chair.
Josh nodded at him. “Yes, Kyle?”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s not fair. Dating is a special kind of relationship that takes a lot of things that I just can’t do right now. You know what it’s like when you do something with a partner at school, and you get stuck doing all the hard stuff, and the other kid does nothing?”
All five boys nodded in unison.
“When you go out with a girl, it’s kind of the same thing. Two people have to put in equal shares of the work as well as the fun stuff, or it’s not fair. You understand about being fair?”
They all nodded again.
Melissa thought Josh explained things very well. He’d only left out the reason that he couldn’t commit to a two-sided relationship, and that was something he couldn’t say. It was because of his responsibilities to his brother and sister-in-law in raising the boys and being the head of their household until Brian and Sasha returned.
If it wasn’t for the boys, they could have dated for real. But then again, if it wasn’t for the boys, he would be engaged or possibly even married to Theresa by now. Either way, she couldn’t have him. It was only because of the boys that she’d met him at all, and for the short space of her life that she had him, she had to be thankful.
“Miss Klassen also has something to say to you.”
All eyes turned to her.
“There’s another reason I can’t date your uncle Josh for real, and it’s very com
plicated. At the school there is a rule that a teacher isn’t allowed to date anyone who has kids in their class. That’s for two reasons, but only one is really important to you. Do you understand the meaning of the word ‘favoritism’?”
Tyler and Andrew nodded, but the other three stared at her blankly.
Finally Ryan spoke. “Is that like having a favorite toy?”
“In a way, but it’s different with people. Think of your favorite toy.”
The three younger boys nodded. She wasn’t exactly sure about Andrew, but she knew Tyler already understood what she was going to say.
“When you have a favorite toy, you treat it special. It’s kind of the same with people, but a teacher can’t have a favorite student because that wouldn’t be fair to the other students, to treat one better than the rest.”
Bradley thrust his hand in the air, as if he was in the classroom instead of his own living room. “But I know you’d never do that. I don’t have to be your favorite student if you do dating with Uncle Josh.”
“That’s only part of it, Bradley. Even if I didn’t show any favoritism, there would be other kids who would say I treated you better, even if it weren’t true. And that causes problems in the class. There’s only one way to stop that from happening, and that’s not to do dating with anyone in a student’s family.”
Bradley’s eyes filled with tears. “Then I can change classes. I can move into Miss Henry’s class. I don’t want no fabratizm.”
“There’s nothing you can do about it, Bradley. It’s just one of those unfair things in life that happens and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Tyler’s voice came out in a rather low rumble for a fifteen year old. “Does that mean you and Uncle Josh are splitting up?”
Melissa cleared her throat. “Tyler, we were never together. We only pretended to be, in order to make everyone feel better. We can’t pretend anymore. Okay?”
“I guess. . .”
Rather than prolong the agony, Melissa stood. “I have to go now. Don’t worry, Uncle Josh and I are still friends. We always will be. Right, Uncle Josh?”
