Daydreams

by Marcia Lynn McClure

  Sayler swallowed hard, squeezed her eyes tightly shut, and tried to breathe. She would do her job. At least she’d do it for one day. Then she’d go home and consider whether or not she could do it another day, whether or not she could endure being near Bo another day without being in his arms for part of it.

  Bo sighed, ran his fingers through is hair. He couldn’t take it! He couldn’t possibly keep his hands off her day in and day out!

  All weekend he’d obsessed over Sayler Christy. All weekend he’d tried to convince himself she felt a fraction for him of what he felt for her. All weekend he’d paced back and forth in his house, trying to make sense of it all, trying to convince himself he hadn’t really fallen in love with a teenager three years before. He’d only just begun to feel that way. At least that’s what he tried to convince himself. And now, now where was he? He was completely twisted around her little finger, that’s where he was! Completely twisted and trying to find ways to get her alone again, to own her entirely.

  He was crazy, wasn’t he? Yet Joey didn’t think so. Deep down inside, Bo didn’t think so either. It was simply a matter of whether or not Sayler would think so.

  Leaning back in his chair, he stared out the window. From where he sat, he could see down into the courtyard. He smiled, thinking again of the day she passed him in the courtyard. It had felt like he’d inhaled a breath of heaven when he’d seen her. All at once, the feelings he’d had for her three years before flooded his soul like a warm rain. He thought of the way her eyes had literally sparkled as she’d looked at him that day, the way they’d sparkled when she’d looked at him every day since. He couldn’t be wrong about her. He couldn’t! He knew she felt the same way he did. She’d as good as told him after the infernal Bennett Ball. He was sure her kisses, her caresses, her sighs had told him she loved him.

  Bo’s eyes narrowed; he inhaled a courageous breath and nodded. Enough! Either it would be or it wouldn’t. He’d find out. Enough messing around because of appearances or propriety’s sake.

  As the day wore on, Bo did not appear once. His office door was still closed when Sayler left for lunch but open when she returned. However, he was not in his office when Sayler returned from lunch. He’d gone in her absence, and the fact both relieved and unsettled her. Where was he? Was he angry with her? He’d asked her if she were angry, but she’d never thought to ask him if he was mad.

  Agony was all she knew for the remainder of the day. With each minute that passed without her knowing where he was, Sayler grew more and more anxious. She was a bundle of nerves and emotions as she left the office building and made her way to the parking garage.

  Keeping her head down, she looked up only long enough to make certain she didn’t trip over anyone and that the light at the crosswalk really was green. Her hands were trembling as she dug through her purse for her keys as she approached her car. Ten yards and she could melt. Ten yards and she’d be in her car, able to burst into tears as her heart began breaking.

  Sayler reached her car, her hands violently trembling as she pressed the unlock button on her keychain.

  “Sayler,” he called from behind. Sayler gasped, entirely startled by the sound of Bo’s voice.

  She spun around to see Bo Booker striding toward her. He wore the same determined expression on his face he’d worn at his house Friday night, the expression of a panther stalking its prey.

  Cupping her chin in one hand, he used his body to push her back against the car. His jaw was tightly clenched, his eyes smoldering with emotion, and she was blissfully tremulous in his grasp.

  “Did…did I forget to do something?” she stammered.

  He shook his head slightly as he mumbled, “Be quiet, and give me your mouth!” Sayler gasped, dropping her purse from one hand, her keys from the other, as his mouth captured hers. His arms enveloped her next, drawing her tightly against his body, and he rained passion over her with his kiss. Sayler returned his kiss with ardent fervor, tears spilling from her eyes as her arms went round his neck. The way he kissed her, it was nearly brutal! He kissed her hard, as if he were dying of some sort of desperate thirst and the warm taste of her was the only thing that would quench it. He endeavored to pull her closer to him, but it was impossible, and he broke the seal of their lips, taking hold of the back of her head and pressing her face against his shoulder.

  Sayler was breathless, her lips throbbing from his wonderful assault! She inhaled deeply, savoring the scent of him.

  “We…we have rules in the office, Sayler,” he rather panted. “Employees can date one another, become romantically involved, but it can’t affect their work, and they can’t display any…any affection while at the office.” He held her away from him, taking her face in his powerful hands. His face had softened, and he grinned, an impish twinkle in his eyes. “But we ain’t in the office anymore, are we?”

  “But…but you’re still my boss,” Sayler stammered, mesmerized by the alluring expression on his face.

  Bo smiled, chuckled, and caressed her lips with one thumb. “I’ll be your boss in the morning,” he said. “Right now…I just want to be your boyfriend. Okay?”

  Sayler smiled, glanced away shyly as a tear trickled down her cheek. Did she hear him correctly? Surely she’d been imagining it. Yet there he stood, gazing down at her with far more than admiration, the sparkles of her lip gloss still evident on his delicious lips.

  “O-okay,” she whispered.

  “Good,” he said, caressing her lips with his thumb again.

  He bent, taking her mouth with his once more in a softer, yet thoroughly impassioned, blending of lips and emotion. After several moments, during which Sayler wondered if she would ever be able to stop kissing him, he broke from her, chuckling.

  “What?” Sayler asked, as he gazed down at her.

  He kissed her cheek and brushed a strand of hair from it before releasing her.

  “I was just thinking this looks like some major drama show on TV,” he said, hunkering down and retrieving her keys and purse from the garage floor. “And I can see the headlines in tomorrow’s paper.”

  Sayler smiled at him as he pressed the lock button on her keychain before putting her keys in her purse.

  “And what will they say?” she asked.

  Bo kissed her directly on the mouth once more before answering, “City’s most eligible bachelor goes off the market and straight to jail! ‘But she told me she was already eighteen,’ claims defendant.”

  “Oh, you’re really funny,” Sayler giggled.

  “Am I funny enough that you’ll let me take you to dinner?” he asked, putting his arm around her shoulders and turning away from her car and back toward the city.

  “Yes,” Sayler said, smiling at him and slipping her arm around his waist. “You are funny enough.”

  “Whew!” Bo breathed dramatically. He smiled down at her, kissing her temple as they walked. “Okay then,” he said. “What do you want? Italian, Mexican?”

  “How about Bo-ican?” Sayler teased.

  “You got it, baby,” he said, stopping and pulling her into his arms. He kissed her neck then, and she giggled, sighing when his lips traveled slowly over her throat. Goose bumps like she’d never known riddled her body, and she let her fingers be lost in the softness of his hair.

  *

  Denay Brandy and Fabiana Hoffman had nearly dropped dead when Sayler walked into her grandpa’s retirement party at the Center on the arm of Bo Booker. Though she tried to bury her sinful pride, she couldn’t. She’d been Bo Booker’s girlfriend for nearly two weeks, and she was proud of it. She was also more desperately in love with him than ever.

  She watched him talking to her father and then her grandfather. He was fabulous to look at and even more fabulous to know! She sipped punch from her cup as her mouth began to water for want of his as she watched him. Part of her still couldn’t believe she’d managed to capture his attention, managed to find herself in his company so often, the object of his affection.

 
“How’d you manage it, Sayler?” Denay asked. Sayler turned to face the snooty nurse and her counterpart.

  “How’d I manage what?” Sayler asked, feigning ignorance.

  “How did you manage to talk Bo Booker into coming with you tonight?” Fabiana asked.

  “Actually, you managed it,” Sayler said. She smiled at Bo as he started toward her. Setting her punch cup down on a nearby table, she added, “Remember, you’re the ones who sent me into his room that day three years ago.”

  “Hey, baby,” Bo greeted, taking her waist in his hands and kissing her lightly on the lips.

  “Hey,” Sayler said to Bo, smiling at him. She looked back to Denay and Fabiana and said, “I did remember to thank you for that, didn’t I?”

  “Come here,” Bo said to Sayler as Denay and Fabiana frowned and scowled the expressions of the seriously one-upped. “I want to show you something.”

  “Okay,” Sayler said as he took her hand and pulled her away from the recreation room and out into the hall. She followed him like a careless puppy and was glad to do so. In the two weeks since Bo had nearly assaulted her in the parking garage, Sayler had come to feel completely secure and safe in his company. Surprisingly, she didn’t even fear heartache anymore. She had faith, from what she saw in his eyes and the general way he treated her, that he would not break her heart. An impish nagging doubt sometimes whispered to her, reminding her he was Bo Booker, the city’s most sought-after bachelor. But she always managed to shoo away the doubt, reassured by his smile and what she was beginning to recognize as love in his eyes.

  Sayler smiled, delighted as he led her down the physical therapy wing to room 116.

  Stopping in front of the room, he put an index finger to his lips and whispered, “Shhh.”

  “Bo!” Sayler argued. “There’s probably a patient in there!”

  “No,” he assured her as he opened the door and pulled her in. “I asked at the front desk when we first got here.”

  Sayler giggled, biting her lip, thoroughly delighted by his bringing her to the place where they’d first met. As he gathered her in his arms, he kissed her lightly on the lips.

  “This is it,” he said. “The place it happened. The room that secrets the moment I first fell in love with you.”

  Sayler gasped, her smile fading at the words she’d just heard pass from his lips.

  “Wh-what?” she stammered.

  Bo winked at her, releasing her and crossing the room to the sound system. Sayler felt tears filling her eyes as she heard the first few notes of “Ooh Baby Baby” quietly fill the room.

  Returning to her, he pulled her against him in a loving dance position. As he began to sway with her, kissing her mouth temptingly, letting the moisture of his kiss linger, Sayler let her tears trickle down her face. In that moment, she could not believe she was there, in his arms, kissing him. She could not believe he’d said he had fallen in love with her. She couldn’t believe he’d said it at all, let alone confessing he’d begun to fall in love with her three years before.

  “Do you…do you believe in love at first sight, Bo Booker?” she asked. She felt her heart might burst! She was so overcome with her love for him, the affirmed knowledge that he loved her.

  “Absolutely,” he told her, brushing a tear from her cheek with the back of his hand.

  “I loved you the moment I walked into this room,” Sayler confessed. “The moment I first saw you…before you were even awake.”

  “Liar,” Bo said, smiling.

  “No, I mean it,” she told him. “I…I thought I was going to die that day you left.”

  “So did I,” Bo admitted. “I was all messed up for months after that.”

  “You’re the liar,” Sayler said.

  “No,” Bo told her. He ran a hand through her soft hair, drawing it to his face and inhaling deeply. He smiled. “You were amazing, like no one I’d ever met. Not to mention the fact you were one hot little candy stripper.”

  “You’re so bad,” Sayler said, smiling at him.

  He laughed and kissed her forehead. “Your touch woke me up…remember?” he asked. “When you touched me, put that stupid lip balm on me?”

  “I remember,” Sayler said. And she did remember—remembered the feel of his lips beneath her finger, the way her silly daydreaming mind had wondered what it would be like to kiss him. Now she knew.

  “That’s the moment,” he said. “When I opened my eyes and saw what I’d grabbed hold of. That’s the moment I first wanted you to love me. That’s the moment I first thought of you and love in the same breath.”

  “And you made me read the dumb book,” Sayler said, smiling through her tears.

  “It’s not a dumb book,” he said, pulling her head into his shoulder. Sayler let her arms slide around his waist, up his back, until she clutched the fabric of his shirt tightly in her fists.

  “And will you love me in this room…and on a broom?” he chuckled, mimicking the rhythm and rhyme of the famous children’s book. He took her face in his hands then, gazing down at her, his eyes filled with excess moisture. “In this room? And on a broom?” he repeated. “And…and as your groom?”

  “What?” Sayler breathed. Was he teasing her? Had he really just inferred…

  “Marry me, Sayler,” he said. “Marry me. Will you marry me?” he asked.

  “Bo!” Sayler breathed as her knees gave way beneath her. He caught her in his arms, holding her securely against him.

  “Don’t make me fire you, Miss Christy,” he whispered into her hair. “You know, don’t you, that Joey had to fire Ashley a couple of years ago. They couldn’t keep their hands off each other at work.” He took her face in his hands again, forcing her to look at him. “You will marry me, won’t you, Sayler?”

  “Yes,” Sayler managed to breathe, overcome with happiness. “Yes!” She threw her arms around his neck, and he chuckled, embracing her, enveloping her in his arms as he kissed her neck.

  “Good,” he whispered between kisses. “Good, good, good, good, good,” he breathed. She felt the tension leaving him as relief flooded his body. “In which case,” he said, holding her away from him as he reached into the front pocket of his pants.

  Sayler’s heart began to race, violent with anticipation. Had he actually planned to propose to her at that moment? Had he actually already purchased such a thing as an engagement ring for her?

  She held her breath as he held one fisted hand out to her.

  “Here,” he said, taking her hand. He turned her palm up and dropped something into it.

  Sayler frowned, yet smiled too, puzzled by what lay in her palm. It was a small jar of lip balm.

  “Do you recognize it?” he asked. Sayler smiled. How sweet! It was a little jar of lip balm, just like the one that had been the means of their introduction.

  “It’s the same brand,” she said, reaching out and caressing his cheek with her free hand.

  “It’s the same jar,” he told her.

  “What?” Sayler said, looking at him in astonished awe. “It…it can’t possibly be.”

  Bo smiled, a gorgeous, handsome, alluring smile of triumph. “But it is. You left it in my room the day I made you empty your pockets when I was trying to find out how old you were.”

  Sayler gasped and covered her mouth with one hand. Tears escaped her eyes once more as she studied the small jar of lip balm in her hand.

  “I told you, Sayler,” Bo said. “I’ve loved you since I met you.”

  Sayler brushed the tears from her cheeks, unable to believe what he was telling her, what he was showing her by giving her the precious little jar.

  “Open it,” he said then. Sayler looked up at him, questioning. “Go ahead,” he urged with a nod.

  With trembling hands, Sayler twisted the top to the jar. Again she gasped, bursting into tears and throwing her arms around Bo’s neck when she saw the diamond solitaire ring, positioned in the jar.

  “But…but you’ve only been dating me for two weeks,” Sayle
r whispered, thrilled by the feel of his hands at her waist. “Are you sure you really…that you really want me?”

  “Baby, I’ve been dating you in my dreams for three years,” he told her, kissing her neck. “I’ve been kissing you for two weeks, and as far as whether or not I want you…”

  Sayler stood on her tiptoes, melding her mouth to his, kissing him deeply, warmly, moistly.

  Sayler smiled, lovingly placing one palm against Bo’s face. “Bo Booker,” she whispered. “I…I can’t believe it.”

  “Sayler Christy,” he mumbled, kissing her cheek. “I can’t believe it.”

  “I love you,” she told him, gazing into his handsome, beloved face.

  “I love you,” he whispered, caressing her face with the back of his hand. “Now put that ring on and marry me, you little candy stripper, you.”

  “You mean, your little candy stripper,” Sayler said.

  “Exactly,” Bo said. “My little candy stripper,” he added, taking her in his arms.

  As Linda Ronstadt sang softly in the background, as Bo held her against him, raining alluring kisses on her neck, Sayler let herself believe again—believe in the truth that daydreams do come true.

  ###

  And now, enjoy the first chapter of

  An Old-Fashioned Romance

  by Marcia Lynn McClure.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Breck McCall ran her fingers through her long, chestnut hair, sighing heavily as she waited for the traffic light to turn green. If she kept hitting every light on red, she would never make it to work on time. Still, she smiled as she watched the crossing guard motion for the group of distracted children to cross the street. The crossing guard—an elderly man with sparse silvery hair—waved to the children frantically with one hand, holding tightly to the stop sign in his other. Breck giggled, sympathetic as she watched one little red-haired girl tugging on her purple rolling backpack. It tipped over a moment later, of course, and the frantic crossing guard rushed over to help the child right it. The little girl and her purple rolling backpack were off again soon enough, and Breck smiled and waved at the tired traffic guard as the light turned green. She was on her way to work again.