One Week in Maine (16 page)

A loud, fluttering sound to our left broke the moment and I let out a yelp of surprise as I spun to see what had caused the commotion. The deer all heard me and took off back into the woods with their white tails held high.

“It’s just a group of turkeys roosting for the night,” Will laughed.

He was right. A hundred yards or so away from us I spied them. The big, fat things were a
ll clumsily fluttering up to the lower branches of a nearby pine. I estimated that there were at least a dozen of them.

“I didn’t know they could fly!”

“Well, they’re not great at it, that’s for sure, but they can fly short distances when they need to, and they like to get up in a tree for the night to keep safe.”

I felt badly that I had accidentally scared off the deer, but Will didn’t seem to mind.

“It’s no big deal,” he shrugged. “I wasn’t even sure they’d show up at all, and we got to see the turkeys as a bonus!”

By the time we packed up our picnic and started heading back to the truck, night had fallen. I grabbed Will’s hand to calm myself down. We were out in the woods after dark, and who knew what kind of animal might be lying in wait to ambush us.

“Lions, and tigers, and bears–oh my!” he teased. “We’re fine, Calista, relax!”

His words calmed me a bit. I trusted him completely, and I had confidence that he would keep me safe. We made it back to the truck without incident.

“Thank you for that. It was amazing.” Even though it had been a puzzling start to the evening, in the end it was a wonderful surprise.

It was a quiet ride back to the Inn, as if a melancholy of sorts had fallen over the both of us. Though neither of us was mentioning it, the fact that this was our last night together
weighed heavily on both of us.

Back at the Inn, Will placed the picnic basket in the kitchen and then took me by the hand.

“Let’s go upstairs.”

I obliged without hesitation,
even though I dreaded it. We had always known the time would come, but its arrival felt surreal. This was our last night together before we parted ways.

-18-

Will kissed me slowly as if we had all the time in the world. That was just fine with me; I was in no hurry to see the night end, either. His lips caressed mine, softly at first, then with more force as our kiss deepened and his hands tangled in my long tresses.

While our kiss lacked the fire and heat we had shared in the past, it was incredible all the same. The animalistic need
had been taken over by a sense of passion that ran deeper than just physical attraction, as if it had been replaced by the yearning of our souls. It wasn’t just a kiss; it was an expression of all the things left unsaid between us.

He undressed me slowly, stopping to cover me with
kisses where ever he exposed me, and I struggled to hold back from moving things along as my body came to life beneath his adoring kisses and caresses. I wanted to enjoy this, every minute of it, and though my body demanded to have him as soon as possible, my heart begged it to take it slow.

When he had me down to
just my bra and panties, I gently removed his sweater and ran my hands up and down his proud chest, mesmerized by his solid flesh. He was simply exquisite, and I could never tire of admiring him.

When
he unhooked my bra, I reached down to free him from the jeans restraining him, and I felt the mood shift. The animal inside of him was ready to come out to play, and with a grunt he pushed me back onto the bed and stepped out of his jeans and boxers.

He pulled my panties
down with his teeth, one bit at a time as I squirmed beneath him, eager for more. Once I was completely naked as well, he remained down by my feet and slowly, ever so slowly, began kissing his way up my calf. I closed my eyes and lost myself in the sensation of his journey.

As he moved ever upward, I became anxious to feel his mouth upon me, but he skipped over my most sensitive parts and instead came up to my neck where he continued showering me with gentle kisses. He rubbed his hardness against the top of my thigh, and I parted my legs for him, eager to have him.

“Not yet,” he whispered. “Let’s try to make this last, shall we?”

I caressed his clavicle with my tongue in response, relishing the feel of his bare skin. He tossed back his head and moaned as I worked my mouth down to his right nipple, where I flicked it lightly with my tongue. My free hand slid down to stroke the length of him, and he shuddered slightly under my touch. One of his hands moved to feel the slickness of me, and we pleasured each other as our lips met once again.

Oh, how I would miss this. This moment when we forgot the world and found happiness in each other’s embrace as we indulged our carnal desires.

I gently pushed him away and he stood, confused as to why I halted our foreplay. With a sly grin and a gentle push with of my foot I moved him back, further away from me on the bed.

“What are you–”

“Patience!”
I got off the bed and knelt in front of him, but I took a moment to savor the naughty gleam in his eyes when he realized what I was playing at.

I took him in my hands again and stroked him hard and fast before suddenly setting him free, but just for a second before I wrapped my lips around him. I plunged down around him
quickly, only to slide back up and release him. His hands found my head and urged me back, but I shook my head playfully and licked him up and down with my tongue instead.

“Oh, woman, you don’t know what you do to me,” he sighed, lost in his own pleasure.

I teased him for a few minutes, giving every part of him there gentle attention with my lips and tongue alone until I felt his fingers tightening in my hair in anticipation. Without warning, I fully encompassed him again, and he pulled my hair to the brink of pain as I worked my oral magic.

“Enough,” he gasped as he pushed me roughly away. His eyes were wild and we both climbed back onto the bed. I
laid on my back, but he maneuvered me onto my side so I was facing away from him. I didn’t protest. I heard the condom wrapper open, and it felt like forever before I felt him seek his mark.

He wrapped his arms around me and fondled my breast as he entered me. My hands had nowhere to go, so I clung to the sheets for dear life as he filled me to my limits and our bodies fell into our own familiar rhythm. He kissed my neck gently my breath quickened. Closer and closer to the edge I came, and he increased his pace when he sensed that my time was approaching. With a shuddering cry, my release came, but still he kept at me, harder and faster until I felt like I couldn’t take it anymore. He was close as well, I could tell.

His mouth moved to my ear and I heard him whisper, “I love you, Calista”, just as I went over the edge a second time. Unable to hold back any longer, he joined me in my release, and our cries of passion mingled as our bodies gave out in ultimate bliss.

When we
finished, we laid there and tried to catch our breath. I didn’t dare move yet, but not just because my body was spent. He had told me that he loved me, and I was overcome by the joy that welled up inside of me until I thought that I might burst.

“I love you too, Will,” I whispered finally. And I did. Never had I felt anything close to what I felt for this man. I never planned to fall in love on my trip to Maine, yet I had. Love had found me a
t the most unexpected of times in the most unexpected of places. I knew that I loved him even before tonight, but had he not said it to me first, I never would have let him know. Now that I knew that he felt the same, it was impossible to keep it bottled up inside me any longer.

He pulled away from me and disappeared to clean himself up. I stayed on his bed, on my side, just as he had left me. If I moved, maybe the night would slip away from us, but if I stayed perfectly still, perhaps time would as well.

When Will returned, he lay on his back and pulled me to him, and I eagerly snuggled down with my head on his chest so that I could enjoy his heartbeat one final time. He stroked my hair lazily as we lay together.

“Did you mean what you said?” I asked him quietly.

“Absolutely. You’ve stolen my heart, just when I thought no one ever would again. Are you really leaving me tomorrow?”

“Please, Will, don’t
spoil it.”

We stayed awake for hours, not speaking, just enjoying each other’s quiet presence. I don’t know when I finally drifted off, but all too soon I felt him pulling away from me to start his day.

“I have to go to work now, but you text me before you leave, okay? I’ll do my best to stay local today so I can see you off. Promise me you won’t leave without saying goodbye?”

“I promise.”

“You’d better keep that promise,” he grumbled. He leaned over to kiss me goodbye, and I refrained from begging him to call out of work to spend the rest of the day with me. There was no point in it when in a few short hours I’d be out of town, and Will’s life, for good.

I never did fall back to sleep. His scent still lingered on his sheets, and I
didn’t want to move yet. When I got up and out of this bed, that was it. It would be the official beginning of the end for us.

When I could deny it no longer, I slipped out of bed and headed for the shower to prepare for my trip. My drive home would be a long one, and I aimed to be ready to go when Bobby called to let me know that my vehicle was ready. It was my preference not to get home at midnight if it could be helped.

I packed up my meager things and took one last look around the room. It wasn’t much, but it had been home for the week. As unenthusiastic as I had been about staying there originally, it had grown on me, much like the rest of the Inn.

I dropped my bag in the hall and paused in Will’s doorway. It was just a room, but it was the room where I spent much of one of the best weeks of my life. Suddenly I realized that I didn’t have a single picture of my week at the Inn or my time with Will, so I hastily pulled out my cell phone and snapped one of his
bedroom. Even though every last detail felt burned into my brain already, I never wanted to forget it. I had spent some magical hours with Will there in his room.

Dottie had a hot cup of coffee ready for me when I went down to the kitchen, and she sipped a cup of tea at the table with me.

“So you’re really going?”

“I really am. Oh!” I jumped up and grabbed my purse from the front room where I had left my things in anticipation of my departure. “What do I owe you, anyway?” I asked with my check book in hand. If I recalled correctly, she had quoted me $20 a night.

With a wave of her hand, Dottie tried to dismiss my question. “Nothing, really. After all the help you gave me, and seeing how happy you made Will, I couldn’t possibly charge you a dime.”

“Don’t be ridiculous! I slept in your bed and ate your food for a week!”

“And I only wish it had been for longer,” she mused with a twinkle in her eye. “You started here as a last minute guest, but you’ve turned into family, Calista. Just forget about it!”

I wasn’t going to argue with her, but
when I went to return my checkbook to my purse in the front entryway, I wrote out a check for the amount I thought was correct and slipped it under the bell on the desk. I could tell Will about it later. Even though money was tight at the moment, there was no way I was going to take advantage of Dottie’s generosity.

“It’s going to be awfully quiet without you around,” Dottie mused. “I’ve really enjoyed your company, you know. Leon and I never did manage to have any children. Will’
s like a son to me, but these last few days with you make me regretful that we weren’t blessed with a daughter.”

Her sincerity touched me. “Thanks, Dottie. I’ve really enjoyed my time with you as well.”

“I do hope you’ll come back and visit!”

“We’ll see.” I had been too preoccupied about leaving Will to consider visiting in the future. I didn’t have the heart to tell Dottie, but I doubted that I would. It just didn’t make sense to torture myself by visiting the man I could never have,
not without uprooting my life completely. Visits would probably do more harm than good for both of us.

Bobby called a few minutes later to let me know that my car was ready. I told him that I’d be there shortly and then texted Will that I’d be leaving soon. My plan was to pick up my vehicle and then run back to the Inn to say my goodbyes.

The sun shone down as the fallen leaves danced in the wind on my walk to the garage. Bobby was waiting for me, and I paid him my deductible after looking over my car. He had done such a nice job on it that I couldn’t even tell it had been in an accident.

With a sigh, I started my engine and headed back to the Inn. It was time to get this over and done with. As much as I hated to leave Will, it had to be done. I couldn’t give up who I was for any man; not even him.

His cruiser was already parked in the driveway when I arrived, and I took my time walking up the front path to the house. I didn’t want to do this, not one little bit, but what I wanted and what needed doing were two different things.

He was in the kitchen with Dottie, sipping a cup of coffee, and his chair scraped loudly against the wood floor as he stood when I walked in. Our
eyes met, and I saw my pain mirrored in his eyes.

“Well, I guess this is it,” I said softly.

Dottie rose shakily from her chair, and to my surprise, came over and gave me a big hug. Her old body felt fragile in my arms, and she smelt of rose water. As I wrapped my arms around her, I realized that I would miss her as well. She had been a constant, upbeat presence for me this past week, and she had really grown on me.

“You come back anytime you like,” she reminded me. “There’s always room for you here.” She gave me a pointed look that only I could see as her back was to Will. The meaning of it was clear–she felt like I belonged there with them.

“I’ll take your bag out,” Will offered when Dottie and I had finished our goodbyes.

We walked hand in hand to my vehicle but neither of us spoke. Will placed my bag in the back and turned to face me.

He pulled me to him and hugged me close, leaning in to breathe in the scent of my shampoo.

“I don’t want you to go.” He spoke so quietly that for a split second I wondered if I had imagined it.

“You know that I have to.”

He pulled back and tucked his index finger under my chin to encourage me to meet his gaze. “You know that’s not true.”

I gave him a rueful smile. Even now, moments from my departure, he was still fighting for me to stay. “And you know that I can’t.”

Those eyes.
Those dark, intense eyes would haunt me forever. I had seen them smolder with lust and anger, and shine with happiness, but never this. Never this deep, stabbing pain that seemed to radiate from within him.

“Let’s not draw this out, okay?” It’s not that I
wanted to leave him, but I feared that if we stayed like this much longer it would only make it harder for both of us to say our goodbyes.

“Let me know that you got home safely,” he prodded. “
And I want to know if there’s any news on Monday, one way or another.”

Monday.
How could I have forgotten about the day my period was due? In all the stress of leaving, I hadn’t thought about it even once that morning.