Here at Last (18 page)

“Not everything," he said tenderly. "I was in love with you in San Diego."

“You were?"
Although
h
e
’d
told me before I left that he woul
d
have asked me out under different circumstances
, this surprised me.

“I was,” h
e
smiled,
“
b
ut I
wasn’t ready for you
then
. I
couldn't do anything about it
, anyway,
since we were working together
,” he paused
,
“
but
I
can
do something about it now."

He
leaned
down to kiss me, and the intensity of his desire caught me off guard. He untied his robe
and let it slide off his arms before helping me
pull my nightgown off over my head.
Then, h
e
slid one hand up
along my inner thigh, teasing me with it before moving it along my belly and over my breasts. He seemed to enjoy watching me get excited.

“
JT,” I
whispered
in the darkness
.

“I love you,” he said softly as h
e leaned down to kiss
me
.

After
we made love
, we lay together quietly with his arm around my shoulders.

Staring at the ceiling, he finally said,
“My parents will leave the day after tomorrow
, and I’ll need to spend some more time with them
.”
JT turned to
look at me
.
"After they leave, I want to spend as much time with you as I can. We only have a few days left
together
. I
’ll
fly out
on
January 2
nd
."

"Okay
,
"
I said, imagining
how January 3
rd
would feel
. "It's going to be hard when you leave."

He nodded. "I know. I'm thinking of using the ticket you gave me to come back
for
Valentine's Day."

Smiling, I asked,
"Would you really?"

He laughed. "Why is that such a surprise?"

I shook my head. "I don't know.
I've just never been with anyone like you before.
You're so
thoughtful
.
"

JT
’s brows
furrowed
. "What really broke you and David up?
You said there were two things.
"

I hesitated.
“
In reality,
there were
two
small
er
things and two big things
.
First, there wa
s the issue of kids. He was ready to start a family, and I didn't know if I wanted
children
.
”
I
paused. “He also had a hard time with my being gone so much
, and what made it worse was that he
became
jealous.
”

“Of
what
?”

I hesitated.
“You.”

This took him by surprise. “Me?”

I nodded.
“H
e knew that we were working long
hours to set up the lab. I’d never seen him jealous before, and it eroded our trust.”

JT
looked concerned that he might have been part of the reason for our breakup, and I shook my head.

“Those weren’t the biggest issues.
David and I loved each other
very much
. It was a good relationship, and we never fought
although he yelled at
the end
. But there
were two
bigger
things
missing
with us
, and I
finally
realized that I couldn't live without
them
."

JT was curious.
"What
were they
?"

“
Chemistry and u
nconditional love."

He stroked my neck with one hand and asked,
"Do you think we have those?"

“I know we have the chemistry," I smiled
,
"
a
nd I know
that
we're in love. I suppose time will tell
the rest
."

“
What do you think
?"
he asked.

“I'm optimistic,” I said looking deeply into his eyes
.

“Yeah
,” he said, taking me into his arms and
holding
me
close to him
.
“
Me, too."

Chapter
1
7

After Christmas, we spent most of every day together when he wasn’t with his
family
. We cherished the time that we had together and tried not to discuss work too much. We went for short walks around the city
,
watched movies
,
and went to see a symphony orchestra that was playing in town over the holidays.
We
also
went to the Adler
Planetarium
and Astronomy Museum on Northerly Island and loved every minute of it.

More than anything else, however, we talked. We talked about ourselves and our dreams and the lives that we had led thus far and that we
still
hoped to live.

JT repeated what a mistake it had been to let me go when I’d left San Diego.
He told me about the few dates
that
he’d gone on at the urging of his friends after I’d left. When they didn’t go well, he
accepted that he would be alone and focused his energy on
work.
He hadn’t th
ought that he would ever see me
again
. Now
, he felt
that
destiny had drawn us together.

He explained that he
ha
d always hoped to find someone like me – a strong, intelligent woman who could take care of herself but didn’t mind being pampered by her man
and someone who would give him the sense of security and
feeling
of being loved that Lucinda had taken away. Having been left by the love of his life had
damaged
his confidence when it came to relationships
, and he still struggled with a deep-seated insecurity
.
I
privately
vowed
that
I
would do
everything in my power to
return
his
self-confidence
when it came to
feeling
love
d
.

On
the topic of having children, we were somewhat similar.
Though he’d never felt a strong desire to have
them
, JT told me that he was open to it if his partner wanted them. I shared that I’d never had a strong desire, either, and that I’d focused so much on my education and career that I hadn’t really thought about building a family of my own. I was happy with the way things were although I wanted to find someone with whom to share the rest of my life.

We spent New Year’s
Eve
having a quiet dinner at my
apartment
.
W
hen the clock struck midnight
, we kissed under the mistletoe
before going
to bed and
making
love.
Our
relationship
had been
an
unexpected
and extraordinary
gift
, and I was grateful to wake up in JT’s arms on the first day of the
new year
.
When January 2
nd
finally arrived, I
drove
JT to the airport. It was difficult to watch him leave, but we had committed to moving forward with our relationship. We agreed that we would both make a point of seeing one another whenever
possible
and that we would do whatever it took to make this work.

Chapter
1
8

Alt
hough we missed each other very much,
JT and I
connected daily through Skype. Some days, when I was working in my home office, we would Skype one another and work quietly on our own projects, still able to
see
one another and chat every now and again. It was a great way to keep each other company
from a distance
.

JT
flew in to see me the day before
Valentine's
Day using the ticket that I had
bought
for
him. He insisted that
it c
ount as
my gift to him even though I told him that
I’d bought him that ticket for
Christmas, not Valentine
’
s
Day
. I
bought him
flowers
and
a nice card and waited for him at the airport with a
single red rose
.

As soon as he walked past the security checkpoint, he lifted me up and
held me
before putting me back down on the ground. Then, we moved off to the side to get out of the
way
, and he wrapped his arms around me. I inhaled that same musky scent
mixed
with aftershave
that I’d come to associate with him
.

“I've missed you so much," he said
, his face buried in my neck
.

"I've missed you, too," I told him. "I never thought
that
six weeks could
feel
so long."

He
stepped back
to look at
me. "Come on. Let's go home."

We pulled his luggage to the short-term parking
lot
and
put
it in
to
the back
seat of
my
car.
A s
hort while later, we were at my apartment. When we walked in, he saw
that
the lights were low and there was a
bouquet of red roses in a vase
for him in the middle of the coffee table.

“You shouldn’t have,” he said, kissing my neck.

“I wanted to.
”

We removed our coats and took his suitcase into the bedroom.
Tired from traveling, he took a quick shower
and
emerged from the bathroom
a few minutes later
wearing a towel. I smiled and crooked my finger, motioning for him to come closer. He stepped into the living room where I pointed upward.

He smiled. "The mistletoe."

“The mistletoe," I said, and we kissed. "I'm going to leave it there forever."

He took my hand and led me to the bedroom where he proceeded to undress me before dropping his towel to the floor. Both naked, we stood and kissed one another until
I
pulled
him
onto the bed. After we made love, we lay on our side
s
and faced with another.

"Happy Valentine's Day," he said.

I smiled. "Thank you so much for coming
back
to Chicago
so we could be together
."

"I wouldn't miss it for the world." He lay
quietly for a few minutes, and I thought that he might be asleep.
Finally, he broke the silence and turned his head to face me.
“I may not be able to
get back here
for a few months.
W
e have
some
pretty tight deadlines
at work
from late spring all the way through
the end of August
.”

“Okay,”
I nodded. "Would it be
al
right
if I came to see you, or will you not have any time?"