No Deal Breakers (16 page)

"Nope, I didn't go to high…" her voice
trailed off, and he could see the shutters coming down, he wasn't
ready for her to close him out yet, she always did when he got too
close to her past.

"Never mind, I am honored to be your first,
and only dance partner." She flushed and giggled, and he sagged
with relief that he hadn't lost her to her memories again.

They continued swaying to the music, standing
much further apart than any normal husband and wife should, but at
this point, he'd take touching her, and being touched by her in
whatever form he could get it. She let go of their joined hands to
fix her hair, while his hung awkwardly by his side, not knowing
where to put it while he waited for her to finish. She surprised
him by stepping in closer to him, so that their bodies were almost
touching, and twining her fingers around his neck.

Hesitantly, he brought his loose hand up to
rest on the other side of her waist, asking permission with his
eyes.

"It's okay. I'm not sure what's changed, but
I'm…okay with you touching me like this, I never thought I would
be, and I still don't want to lead you on or anything, but I like
dancing with you like this." There were no words to express his
feelings at that moment, this was the longest he'd ever been able
to hold her for, and he was going to savor every single millisecond
of it.

"I like dancing with you, too, and no
worries, our agreement is still in place." He winked at her, and
was shocked when she simply nodded and rested her cheek on his
chest. He wasn't sure how to react, he knew how his body wanted him
to react, but he knew that he had to be rational and allow her to
set the limits and boundaries, they had taken leaps forward
tonight, and there was no way he was going to ruin that by going
too far. Instead of holding her closer or kissing her like he
desperately wanted to do, he kept his hands firmly in place, and
let her lead him.

After another two hours of holding her close
during the slow songs, teaching her a few dances, and one
disastrous attempt at teaching her to two-step, they were finally
on their way home. She surprised him yet again by taking his hand
in hers on the walk back to the truck, and then again on their way
out of town. He didn't mention the change, and neither did she.

"Thank you." He said when they turned onto to
the gravel road leading them home.

"For what?"

"For making this the best birthday I've ever
had, and for making my birthday wish come true." He hoped he hadn't
overstepped by adding in that last part. She looked at him with her
brows furrowed in confusion.

"You went out of your way to make my favorite
breakfast, my favorite cake, entertain my family, and even got me a
gift, though you still haven't given it to me, you did all of that
in between preparing all of those sides and desserts for tomorrow's
barbecue. Plus this," he said, holding up their joined hands as he
parked the truck in the garage. "You have no idea how happy you
make me, every single day, but, especially today."

"What was the wish I made come true?" Her
cheeks were flushed, and her voice was barely above a whisper, they
were facing each other in the dim light of the garage.

"Well, maybe I exaggerated on that point a
bit, my wish was that I could start dating my wife, and, well,
tonight sure felt like a date, so I was thinking…hoping…maybe we
could go beyond friends and start dating?" He prayed he hadn't
pushed her too far with that, he'd been dreaming about the day when
they could take their relationship to the next level, and
married-dating-couple seemed like the next logical step after
married-friends.

Her laughter startled him, that wasn't at all
the reaction he had expected. "We're married and you're asking me
out, like to be your girlfriend?" He waited for her laughter to
finally subside before answering; he didn't find this as funny as
she obviously did.

"Well, I guess, yeah. I mean, in a normal
relationship we would have started out as strangers, become
acquaintances, gotten to know each other and become friends,
started dating, and then fallen in love and gotten engaged, and
then married."

"Except, we're already married."

"Yes, but we've been married while getting to
know each other and have become friends, and if this were a normal
relationship this is the point where I would think I knew you well
enough to start taking you out on dates, and working towards the
end goal of marriage. Sure, we've already achieved the end goal,
but we still need to do all of the things that lead up to that
goal." She dropped his hand and started to protest, he held up a
hand to stop her.

"Before you even start, I know we may never
get to the just being a normal married couple stage, we may level
off in married-friends or even married-dating-couple, I understand
that, but I still want to try. If you don't like me as your
husband-boyfriend, I'll stop trying to woo you and go back to being
your husband-friend. All the other rules will remain in place, I
won't touch you unless you give me permission, and I will have no
expectations of moving out of this stage until you tell me you want
to. And if that day never comes, then I'll be happy to have had
this." She was just staring, and it was making him nervous, maybe
this was the wrong time, maybe he'd misread her affections.

"What exactly would the difference be? We
already go out on dates every Friday night, so how would this be
any different." His heart filled with hope; maybe his stupid plan
would work after all.

"In most marriages the relationship and the
marriage are intertwined, in ours, they're two separate things. Our
marriage has a solid foundation with open communication, teamwork,
trust, understanding, and respect. The dates I take you on every
Friday are a way to ensure our marriage stays solid, Dad always
says that dating your spouse is one of the keys to a happy
marriage. These dates would be for the relationship part of our
marriage, the part that involves being more than friends." He again
held up a hand to stop any protests.

"Please, let me finish. Right now, I take you
on dates as your husband, just like I will for the rest of our
lives, what I'm proposing is also taking you on dates as your
boyfriend. Our date night usually consists of dinner at Zimmer's or
in town. I want to take you on real dates, where we get nervous and
dressed up, I bring you flowers, and plan something that will knock
your socks off, I'll spend the whole night bumbling like an idiot,
trying to woo you and get you to like me." She was smiling now,
that was good, he hoped.

"So, we'll just go on more dates, and they'll
be slightly different?" He nodded. "But, you'll still respect my
space? You won't expect…uh…" Her cheeks flamed in the pale light as
she looked away from him, worrying her bottom lip with her
teeth,

"No! Of course not, I won't ever demand or
expect that out of you. All rules on touching remain in place, just
because we'd be dating doesn't mean that would change. That would
still be at your pace, whatever you're comfortable with, and never
anything more."

She turned back to face him, "Like tonight?
Is that how the dates would be?"

"Basically, it was a little different than
normal, right? That wasn't just me?" A little. He wanted to scoff
at that, that didn't even begin to describe the changes in tonight,
starting the moment she'd come into the bathroom to leave his
clothes. The chemistry between them had been so thick all night
you'd have a hard time chopping through it with a hacksaw.

"Yeah, it was a little different. I liked it,
but you're right, something changed. This new direction, the added
dates, that's the only thing that will change? We're still
friends?"

"Of course, we'll always be friends, even if
my crazy idea doesn't work out, we'll still be friends. Now that I
think of it, no, that won't be the only change." Her eyebrows rose
in question.

"As your husband-boyfriend I don't have to
hold back on telling you how beautiful you are, or how much you
mean to me, like I do as your husband-friend. I'll get to buy you
gifts and flowers whenever I want, and you can't complain, because
that's part of the dating process." He gave her a mischievous
smile, and she giggled, gifts were their biggest source of
argument.

"So, Aria, will you be my
wife-girlfriend…wow, I feel like I'm fifteen all over again." He
had never felt this nervous with Kara or any other girl.

She studied him for several long moments
before nodding and saying "Come on, husband-boyfriend, we've got
another long day tomorrow, and you still haven't seen your birthday
present." Before getting out and walking into the house. He heard
her utter, "I've never dated anyone before," as she got out of the
car.

He felt like he was walking on air as he
followed her into the house, he loved this woman more than he would
have ever thought possible, and now, he was at the very least going
to get an opportunity to show her.

Brian stopped in the doorway of his bedroom
and just stared, sure his jaw was on the ground. Aria had taken off
her boots and was removing her jean jacket, standing there in that
slip of a dress, a flash of desire ran through him. He was normally
good at reigning in his rampant thoughts, but lately, and
especially tonight, they were getting near impossible to tamp
down.

They weren't really inappropriate if they
were about one's wife, were they? He wasn't sure how that
translated to their strange relationship, so he tried to keep them
at bay, but she was the most beautiful woman he'd ever laid on
eyes. She had a heart of gold, and was everything he'd every
thought he'd want in a wife, inside and out.

The way she looked tonight was beyond
description, her chestnut colored hair was kissed with light honey
streaks from the sun, and she had it styled in loose waves that
spilled over her shoulders and down her back. The off-white lace
dress was a perfect compliment to her tanned skin, and revealed
much more of it than he cared for any other man to see. He would
never tell her what to wear, but he was relieved when she'd worn
the jacket he'd suggested, and it made her look like the perfect
county girl. He had to admit, he was even more relieved now that
she'd taken it off and he could admire her silky smooth skin in the
privacy of their bedroom…though, he had to admire it from much
further away than he would like. She had put on a little weight
since she'd been with him, and it just enhanced her beauty. She
finally looked healthy, she was still rail-thin, but now she was
more of a healthy rail than the fragile bag of bones he brought
home with him.

"Brian?" She had caught him staring.

"Sorry." It was his turn to blush and look
away.

"Here's your present. I hope you like it,
it's not much…in fact, it's probably pretty silly…" Thankfully, she
was going to let him off the hook for staring, but she had
definitely noticed. He took the gift that she held out to him. It
was heavy and felt like clothes, possibly. Aria was watching him
with a nervous expression as he opened the package.

It was a large quilt folded with the black
backing facing him. He shook it out and looked at the right side
and his breath caught in his lungs, it was the most thoughtful,
beautiful gift he had ever been given. He spread it out on the bed
to get a better look at it.

She had used printable fabric and made a
giant collage of his entire life, some of the photos were large,
and others were small and a part of a winding pattern that she'd
used to link it all together. All of the photos were printed in
black and white, the photos were interspersed with colorful fabric
scraps that all looked familiar, but he couldn't quite place
them.

"This is…wow, this is amazing." He couldn't
believe how much work and thought had gone into this gift.

"You like it? I wasn't sure, I thought it
might be too cheesy." He tore his gaze from the quilt to stare into
her eyes, which were pointed at the floor, fighting the urge to
hook his finger under her chin and bring her face up to meet his
eyes he asked her to look at him.

"This is the most thoughtful thing I've ever
been given, hands down. I may not know much about quilting, but I
do know how much work and thought went into this. These photographs
are all in chronological order, I know that alone took some serious
planning, I also know that you've been toiling away in that little
craft room of yours every night for the last several weeks, is this
what you've been working on?"

"Yes." He nodded and continued to study the
quilt, the photos spanned from his birth up to the month before he
met Aria.

"I do see one big flaw, though," he said,
trying to remain stoic.

"You do?" Her voice and face were filled with
panic.

"Yes, you missed one, big, important person
in my life."

"I did? I tried to get at least a few from
every year, I didn't know which friends you stayed close with, or
which ones had Kara in them so I tried to stick to just family, I'm
so sorry—" Her voice was rising with every word, and it broke his
heart. He hadn't intended for her to get so upset, he decided to
cut her off, before she went into cardiac arrest.

"Aria, honey, calm down. I was talking about
you. You aren't in any of these pictures, and you are one of the
most important members of my family. This is perfect, absolutely
amazing, and I can't thank you enough for it. Would it be okay if I
showed it to my family tomorrow? My mom will love this." Her eyes
were wide at his declaration, and she simply nodded and ran to the
bathroom after gathering her pajamas.

"What are you doing?" Brian froze, holding
the blanket he had been laying on the floor.