Taken By Surprise

  ***

  We end up stopping overnight in a small town called Gregory. It’s in South Dakota, just on the border of entering Nebraska. After a full day of sitting in a car, I’m exhausted.

  Charlie and I manage to get Joel into the hotel room where Charlie is able to get him to eat while I shower and get ready for bed. I had planned to let Charlie go first, given that he ended up doing most of the driving, but I can’t bring myself to face Joel just yet. I’m not ready for that conversation.

  The hot water soothes my tense body and sore muscles. When I come out of the bathroom, I see Joel is in the other room, already asleep. There is no door attached to his room so I can hear his soft breathing.

  As I walk towards the bed, I shiver from the chilled air that permeates the room; moving over to the heater, I find it’s barely doing anything and it’s on high. I walk to the bed, climbing in to find bliss at being able to rest my head on the pillow. I close my eyes while I wait for Charlie and listen to the water running in the shower. It feels as though only seconds later that I’m opening my eyes as Charlie, too, climbs in.

  His arms come around me as I move and rest my head upon his chest. It feels completely natural to be like this with him. My body is craving this, in fact. A familiar feeling while in another new bed, in another new place.

  “Good night, Zoe.”

  “Good night.” His arms tighten around me and I lift my head, my lips finding his instantly.

  We kiss softly and slowly, each relishing in the feel of one another. I move my hand to rest on the side of his neck and he brings his right hand to rest on my hip at first, but then it moves up slowly under my shirt and he gently caresses my back, giving me shivers all over my body.

  Using his other arm, he moves my body so that I’m now lying over him. I pull away from our kiss, breathing heavily to try and catch my breath.

  “I could do that all night with you,” Charlie sighs.

  “We both need to sleep. We need to be alert to drive.” I smile, resting my head on his chest once more, feeling his heart beating hard under me.

  “I would be willing to forgo sleep for this.” Charlie wraps his arms around me.

  “There is always tomorrow night.”

  “I’m going to hold you to that.” Charlie tightens his hold around me and I feel his heart rate slowly start to go back down. It has a calming effect on me and, soon after, he starts to softly snore. It’s not long after that I find myself also giving into exhaustion.