“Hello?”
“I’m here.”
“Can you come inside the garden center? I want your opinion on something.”
“Mike, what are you doing?” she asked annoyed.
“Waiting for you,” he replied evasively and she could practically picture the goofy grin on his face. She wondered what he could be up to as she got out of the vehicle.
Cora punched the button to hang up the call and threw her phone in her purse. She didn’t have time for him to play his games or be evasive. She wanted to get home, take some Tylenol for her headache and get back to work.
If he bought her a plant, she’d just get a refund immediately. There was no way she was going to attempt to take care of anything like that again. Walking inside, she saw that he had a basket full of things already bagged up and it was filled to the brim.
“Did you buy out the entire store?”
“No, of course not.”
“I don’t know if I can get all of that in my car.”
“Then that’s going to be a problem.”
“Why?” she asked hesitantly, watching him closely, and saw the cashier was smiling at them.
“Come here, beautiful,” he smiled, extending his hand towards her. Cora slipped her hand in his as he suddenly twirled her around happily. The man exuded happiness and she couldn’t help the smile that touched her face. “Cover your eyes, sweetheart.”
“Mike, what’s going on?” she asked, feeling his hands cover her eyes as they began to walk slowly away from the front of the store.
“Trust me, Cora. I won’t let you fall or get hurt,” he whispered in her ear, “I want to show you something.”
“Like what? Where the lawn furniture is displayed?”
“Think bigger.”
“The really big lawn furniture on display then?”
“Cora – play along with me,” he teased, chuckling as he walked her down the aisle against his body to indicate the direction. Coming to a stop, her face pulled against his hands and she stopped moving.
“Can I open my eyes?”
“It depends.”
“On what you believe in,” he whispered playfully. “Do you believe in magic or fantasy? Or are you more of a traditional kind of girl?”
“What kind of question is that?”
“One you have to answer in order to open your eyes. I’m not pulling my hands away until you confess, even though I think I know who you are deep down inside.”
“Oh, you know me, huh?”
“I’d like to think so.”
“So, let’s hear your theories then, Smarty-pants.”
“I think you’d pick traditional every single time because it’s safe but deep down inside, in the darkest part of your soul – you believe in magic so wonderful and fragile that its breathtaking to behold,” he whispered in her ear and gently kissed her earlobe.
“Am I right, my lovely Cora?”
“Yes,” she whispered, entranced and in utter awe at the feelings coursing through her right now. She loved this playful, mysterious side of him and was touched by how right he was. He did know how she thought or how she would react. She felt his hands move from her eyes before they rested on her shoulders. Opening her eyes slowly, she stared at the pale white tinsel tree in front of her that practically glowed with all the lights on it. It was covered in frosted turquoise ornaments that looked like the tree had been snowed on.
“That one?”
“It’s lovely.”
“Is that the one you’d pick?”
“Pick for what?”
“I want to celebrate Christmas with you and that involves us putting up a tree together, ornaments, baking cookies, and other stuff that couples do… and before you argue with me about it? Yes, we are a couple. We are going to do the boyfriend/girlfriend thing,” he said smiling down at her.
“I think you are amazing, incredible, and utterly lovely. I can think of no better way to spend this Saturday than hanging around with you and putting up decorations. Now, having me spill my guts out right here in the middle of Walmart - what do you think?”
Cora watched completely stunned as Mike got down on one knee. Her heart hammered in her chest as she felt herself trying hard to draw air into her lungs. If he proposed, she’d faint dead-out onto this concrete floor! Mike held up a large candy cane pole towards her that he pulled from his pocket and grinned.
“Cora Dillion, will you do me the honor of spending Christmas with me?”
“Get up Mike!”
“It’s a yes or no question, honey.”
“Mike…”
“Let me try it again in case I made a mistake the first time I said it,” Mike said stubbornly, clearing his throat and smiling earnestly as he wiggled the large candy cane at her. They were drawing a crowd and people were getting out their cell phones to video tape the scene they were making in the middle of the garden center.
“My breathtakingly beautiful Cora Dillion, the woman I adore more than the air I breathe, would you do this poor wretched soldier the honor of having Christmas with me? Let’s put up a tree together, roast marshmallows, and sing Christmas carols. I will bake you Christmas cookies and rub those pretty little feet…”
“He can come home with me, honey, if you aren’t going to say yes!” some woman jeered from the crowd, causing several people to laugh and titter with delight around them. Mike just sat there and wagged his eyebrows mockingly as he waited patiently.
“Yes,” Cora answered as a large cheer rose up around them. Mike handed her the cane triumphantly and kissed her on the cheek.
“Good, because I already had them ring this tree up and I’m ready to go. I just need my bankcard, sweetheart.”
“What you need is your head examined.”
“You can feel free to do a thorough physical on me anytime you want,” he quipped, winking at her as her face turned bright red at the intimate innuendo he announced so boldly, causing more laughter. She wasn’t about to let him have the last word though.
“I might be tempted if you weren’t so absolutely ticklish,” she smarted. “You fix that problem and maybe I’d be tempted to kiss you more often.”
“Challenge accepted, sweetheart.”
Within ten minutes, they were unloading the contents of the shopping cart into the trunk of her car. Mike wouldn’t let her lift a thing, insisting on picking it all up for her. She stopped him when she saw the large bag of dog food and the twenty-four pack of diet soda.
“Mike, stop! You got someone else’s cart!”
“Nope. This is mine,” he said lifting the massive bag onto his shoulder and dropping it into the large trunk of her old Buick.
“You have a dog?”
“No, and we need to talk about that.”
“What? I don’t have a dog. What are we going to talk about?”
“The dog.”
“Mike, I can’t take care of a dog. I kill plants because of lack of care.”
“You’ll be fine and Dino is super sweet.”
“Dino? As in the Dino from group?”
“Daisy said you’ve already met him a few times. He’s the big dog that is part Golden Retriever and who knows what.”
“Wait – what? First the tree and now you are getting me a dog? This is my life, not yours, Mike. I don’t know if I am responsible enough to maintain taking care of a dog, plus they are expensive. What if he has to go to the vet or gets sick? What if something happens to him and I can’t get him help? I can’t do this…” Cora whispered, backing away from him. “I can’t have you putting responsibility on me that I am not ready for.”
“Cora, sweetheart,” Mike said gently, gathering her into his arms. She could feel her mind swirling, a mixture of dismay and excitement. She’d always wanted a dog, but was afraid to adopt one. They stood there for several moments in front of the open trunk of her car together, Mike just holding her and kissing her tenderly on the head.
“I know it’s hard, honey but just trust me on t
his. I think a dog would give you something to care for and love. He would protect you and make you feel not quite so worried all the time. I happen to think you are going to be the best doggy-mommy ever,” he said gently, smoothing her hair.
“Mike, what if he gets sick when I’m not home.”
“Then you’ll get him to the vet as soon as you get home.”
“The Golden mix is a big dog and I have a little apartment.”
“Which I haven’t seen yet.”
“It’s not a great idea to have a big dog in the apartment.”
“No, you’ll have to walk him a lot or take him to the park.”
“I don’t have time.”
“You should make time for yourself. You have to take care of yourself until I come back and I can pamper you like I’m supposed to.”
“You don’t have to do any of this.”
“I want to,” Mike said smoothing back her hair from her face. She looked up at him and was stunned by the raw emotion in his eyes as he looked at her. “I’m only here for a few more weeks and Dino would be something to love you when I am gone.”
Cora opened her mouth to say something and he smiled sadly, putting his finger on her lips. He still held her in his arms as if he didn’t want this moment to end.
“Don’t say anything yet. I probably shouldn’t have told you how crazy I am about you, but I can’t help myself. Let me earn your trust and your love. Let me be the person you can depend on when you need something. Give me a chance to be everything you need before you say no.”
“Is this about the dog?”
“This is about everything between us.”
“You are so… so…” she stammered, unsure what to say.
“In love with you?”
“I was going to say pushy.”
“I’ll take that too,” he grinned and let out a whoop of laughter as she began to tickle him out of sheer annoyance. His reaction made her giggle as he jumped away from her like he’d been burned.
“Come here you!” he bit out through gritted teeth, trying to keep from laughing as he gathered her in his arms, pinning hers. She was barely able to wiggle her fingers against his side. Cora grinned wickedly as he smiled at her.
“You’ve got a mischievous streak, don’t you?”
“About a mile wide.”
“I love it – and I love you,” he admitted, kissing her. “Now, let’s get this stuff delivered to your place. We have a full day planned for tomorrow that doesn’t include tickling at all.”
Chapter 9
Cora spent the entire weekend with Mike. They took hours decorating the Christmas tree he’d selected as well as a variety of plastic ornaments. She laughed at some of the childish things he’d picked up – things she’d not seen since she was a girl. They baked Colorforms and she laughed when he refused to bake the Hulk because he was supposed to be larger than the rest of the team. They also made some stained-glass kits for the holiday and stuck them to the sliding glass door of her little apartment as suncatchers. He never said a thing about her studio apartment.
“Sorry there isn’t much to sit on, just the one chair.”
“It’s nothing, Cora. You are worrying about the small stuff, sweetheart.”
“It’s kind of a big thing to me.”
“Why?”
“One chair, two people,” she quipped obnoxiously, smiling at him.
“One wonderful solution,” Mike announced mischievously, sweeping her up in his arms and sitting down in the worn-out recliner. Cora was draped across his lap comfortably as they watched Rudolph on the television.
“You really don’t mind?”
“This is a perfect afternoon and I’d use any reason to be close to you,” he admitted, kissing her forehead, “furniture was just a little bit lower on my list of excuses, but it will definitely do.”
They were supposed to go together to pick up Dino from Daisy’s house later this evening. She was a little nervous about the dog, but Mike insisted it would be alright. He’d put out a refillable bowl of water, a large puffy dog bed, and a bowl of dog food in order to prepare the home. He also made sure and zip-tied her cords together, encasing them in a plastic protective sleeve, just to be on the safe side. He chatted amicably about how when he was growing up, he’d had a chocolate Labrador that used to chew on furniture. Glancing around her place, she realized there wasn’t much that Dino could destroy here. She was heartily impressed that he seemed to think of everything that could possibly go wrong and addressed it in a reasonable manner. Just when she was lost in thought, he suddenly spoke up.
“I promised my girl some Christmas cookies,” he taunted playfully, setting them back to work. It was as if he was trying to squeeze as much life as possible into their limited time together. She hated that her work seemed to interrupt her thoughts. She was afraid of getting behind.
“I’d love a few fresh baked cookies. Can I start a pan and check my email to see what’s going on?” she hesitated, wondering if he’d get upset. He looked almost apologetic and dismayed.
“Oh Cora, I’m so sorry. I’ve kept you from your programming by insisting we spend time celebrating. Go ahead, honey. I’ll make the cookies for us and I’d like to see what it is you can do – if you don’t mind showing me?”
“I’d love to – are you sure you don’t mind?”
“Not in the slightest.”
She started up her computer and waited for it to load. A few minutes later, she walked into the kitchen and microwaved a cup of water to make herself some tea.
“Do you want some hot tea, Mike?”
“I thought you were going to check your mail?”
“I am – it just takes a bit to load. Tea?” she repeated, wincing as she heard the computer fan start to make a squeaking and whirring sound before quieting down. “That’s new,” she joked, making light of it when his eyebrows shot up in alarm.
“Should you turn it off?”
“Oh gosh no,” she immediately argued, “then it will take twice as long. Oh look – there’s the screen. I’ll be right back.” Cora walked over to the table and immediately scanned through her emails. Sure enough, there were two jobs due out today and thankfully they were fairly small in size. She immediately set to work and ignored the noises coming from the kitchen as Mike sliced the roll of sugar cookie dough. Hearing the pan slide into the oven, she glanced up to see him walking to her side. Thankfully, she had two dining room chairs that could be used at the makeshift desk. Mike sat down silently beside her as her fingers flew over the keyboard. After several minutes, he rubbed his eyes and interrupted her train of thought.
“I can’t read any of that. The screen is blurry and there’s a green spot.”
“It’s coding.”
“It’s blurry, Cora – either that or I need glasses.”
“Mike, it’s not that bad – besides, ol’ Bessie has everything I need saved to her hard drive and an external one. I couldn’t bear to part with her,” she said lamely hiding the fact that she was planning on doing that very thing as soon as she could afford to.
“What if Bessie died a violent hard-drive death?”
“I’d be crushed and my work would be lost – and she is fine. Now, I’m almost finished encrypting this if you’ll give me about another ten minutes.”
“Take all the time you need,” Mike offered and kissed her on the cheek tenderly before he got up. As the timer went off on the microwave, she smelled the warm vanilla scent of the cookies and kept on typing. It wasn’t until she realized her neck was hurting that she glanced up to see it was getting dark outside. Turning around, Cora’s heart leapt as she saw Mike was sound asleep in the recliner. He’d moved to let her work uninterrupted and occupied himself by watching TV until he’d dozed off. Getting up, she walked over and tenderly kissed him on the lips.
“Wake up, sleeping beauty.”
“I don’t wanna,” he whispered softly. “I was having this amazing dream that you kissed me.”
; “I did.”
“Without tickling me either.”
“I know.”
“Must be love, huh?” Mike quipped lightly, shutting his eyes again and smiling.
“It just might be,” she admitted shyly, feeling strangely relieved to admit the feelings she was having for him. His dark eyes opened and stared up at her silently. Cora sat gingerly on the armrest of the chair and brushed a lock of his hair off his forehead. “I’ve never met anyone else quite so amazing as you are and it’s a little scary to realize that I want to share all of my time with you.”
“It shouldn’t be scary.”
“Only because I set these insane deadlines and have a crazy work schedule.”
“Loving someone means accepting them regardless of their crazy work schedule or how far away they are from home.”
“I somehow know that,” she confessed, “but what am I going to do when you have to leave?”
“If I know you, you’ll probably throw yourself into your work to make time fly by, but I’m hoping somewhere in that beautiful mind you’ll find time to miss me and wish I was here.”
“I will miss you – more that I want to think about.”
“Why do you think I push so hard to be with you all the time? Cora, I was half in love with you when I got off the airplane. Seeing how beautiful you are on the outside only heightened my feelings for you.”
“What do we do next?”
“We go pick up our Dino and try not to think about what’s coming. Let’s just enjoy the time we have together while we can. We’ll figure something out, sweetheart, but I want to hear it again,” he asked tenderly, cupping her cheek.
“What do we do next?” she teased playfully repeating the same sentence again. She felt extremely shy and so very vulnerable right now. It would only take one wrong thing to crush this precious fragile emotion growing in her soul.
“Tell me you love me, sweetheart,” he urged, smiling at her response. “Don’t ever be concerned to tell me exactly what’s on your mind or in your heart. You can tell me I’m a dork all you want, get frustrated with me, or even get angry – but I still want to know I have a spot in your heart at the end of the day.”
Remember Joy Page 8
