Through The Grapevine: A BWWM Romance (5 page)

She didn't answer him. She just closed her eyes and held on to him tightly, wishing with all of her heart that this dream she found herself in could be real, and that it could be her name that he called out, and a while later, she fell asleep there in his arms, wishing herself into slumber.

Chapter Four

When the morning light broke through the window, he opened his eyes and looked around him, remembering where he was and what was happening, and then he looked down at the woman in his arms and smiled at her. She was sleeping soundly against him, her breath coming in soft sighs.

He thought he remembered a strange dream he had about her, a dream in which they were going down a long road together, and at one point, he had stopped on the road and taken her into his arms, kissing her for a while. Then he let her go and took her hand, and they walked down the road again. It was a sweet dream and it gave him a warm feeling, but he thought that it was a curious dream because it was Shannon in the dream and not Tiffany. It made him smile and shake his head in wonder.

He held her while she continued to sleep, his eyes taking in all the loveliness of her face that he had somehow never seen before. He laid there that way with her in the quiet room, in the silence of the snow that was still coming down hard outside, and just relaxed in the stillness and warmth of her.

She woke up to find that he was already awake and looking down at her silently. She looked up at him in surprise.

"What are you doing?" 

He smiled a little. "I was just watching you sleep. I've never actually watched anyone sleep before. It's interesting. Your guard is totally down and emotions cross your face as you dream. It's fascinating, actually." he touched the tip of her nose, "Also, you are a truly lovely woman, and it's nice to look at and appreciate beauty." He climbed out of bed and headed to the bathroom.

"I'll be out soon," he said. He showered, dressed, and was ready for the road again in record time. She followed suit and they were both out of motel door before eight in the morning.

She looked skeptically at the gas station. "Would you like to stop for coffee and donuts or wait for the next town?" she asked.

.

He looked from her to the gas station and then back to her again. "How far is the next town?"

She checked the map. "I'm judging this by hours instead of miles, because of the snow. It'll be past lunch time by the time we get to it."

Colby nodded. "Okay, we better get coffee and donuts here then."  They headed in to the gas station together and bought enough junk food to get them to the next town, and then they headed back into the snow again.

He asked her about her life growing up in Colorado and she told him what it was like. They traded childhood stories and memories, sharing sweet and funny things as well as life changing difficult things, and as the miles passed slowly behind them, their friendship grew stronger as they faced the road ahead.

She was singing along to one of the CDs later that morning and he was watching her quietly when his attention narrowed to her face, and then her lips and he remembered the dream he'd had. He remembered the kisses they had shared, and the memory of them made his heart skip.

He looked away from her, focusing on the snow outside of the window and the sheet of white that lay out all over the road and the landscape, but he could not get the kiss out of his head, and after a while, he stopped trying to forget it, and just enjoyed the memory of it.

They reached the next town in early afternoon and stopped for lunch, and then got back on the road again. Shannon yawned a few times and Colby looked at her in concern.

"Are you tired?" he asked, reaching over and touching her arm.

She nodded. "A little. I didn't sleep much last night. I'm okay, though. I'll catch up on it tonight.

He furrowed his brow. "Why didn't you get any sleep?"

She bit her lip and shrugged her shoulders. "Oh, it was probably just because it was an unfamiliar place. How did you sleep?" she asked. She didn't have to ask. She knew how he slept because she watched him sleeping most of the night, and he had slept fine, except for the few minutes that he held her and kissed her.

She sighed. She was going to hold that memory in the middle of her heart for the rest of her life. She just wished it had been her that he was kissing for real, instead of him kissing Tiffany in his dreams. She told herself she had to stop wishing for things that would never be.

"Can I ask you something?" she said a while later, looking over at him.

He nodded and offered her a cheese stick. She took it and broke a piece off it. "I know you love Tiffany, and I love her, too, but you know now that she's cheating on you with Ron, and yet you're still going after her so that you can marry her. Why are you marrying her when she hasn't been faithful to you?"

She knew it wasn't her business, but it had been eating at her ever since he decided they should get on the road to go to her.

Colby thought a moment and then looked at her with compassionate eyes. "Let me answer that with a question for you. Why are you friends with her?"

Shannon smiled. "That's easy. I'm friends with her because I love her." She saw where he was going with his train of thought. "That's different for me, though. It's not like she's cheating on me with other friends."

He nodded thoughtfully and said, "Yes and no. When two people are going to spend their lives together, the most important part of that bond is friendship. Love is what should be built on top of friendship, because even when passion fades with age and young people turn old, friendship is what keeps them together and strong; it's what sees them through all of the years together, and love binds that.

We all make mistakes, Shannon, every one of us, but she said she wanted to spend the rest of her life with me; she wants to grow old with me, and that's a lifelong commitment. What kind of friend would I be to her if I take off at the first sign of trouble, before we've even begun our journey together?"

Shannon shook her head in disagreement. "Colby, that would probably be true and work if it went both ways, but she is all wrapped up in Ron and she intends to continue their affair even after you're married! Doesn't that mean anything to you? Doesn't that make you want to think twice about marrying her? What if she gets bored with Ron and has other affairs after him?"

Colby nodded. "I know what you're saying, Shannon, but I have to try. I have to be sure for the sake of both of our futures; hers and mine, I need to know if she will let him go to be with me."

Shannon didn't say anything back to him. She didn't know what to say, and she supposed it was because she knew too much about what had been going on.

A few minutes later Colby asked her, "What is it about this guy Ron, anyway. What is it about him that she likes so much?"

Shannon bit her lip and glanced at him, and then realized that he really wanted to know. She thought about it and admitted that if it was her in his seat right then, she would want to know.

"She loves the way he looks and she loves having sex with him. She said the naughtiness of them being together makes her feel hot." Shannon regretted saying it the minute it was out of her mouth. Colby grew very quiet and looked out of the window.

Shannon sighed. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have told you that much."

Colby just shook his head. "I asked." It was all he said for the rest of the ride until they came to a roadblock.

Shannon pulled over and a sheriff walked up to the window. She lowered the glass and smiled at him, feeling sorry for him having to be out in a white out blizzard.

He leaned in close to the car and raised his voice so he could be heard. "The highway is closed, ma'am, and it looks like it's not going to open up until tomorrow afternoon."

Shannon sighed and asked, "Is there any other road we could take? A state highway or something? We really need to get through."

He shook his head, "No ma'am, all the roads are closed. This storm has everything shut down across most of the Rocky Mountains. There's no way to get through. You'll have to turn back and get a hotel room, but you better hurry. I've been sending people back down the road all afternoon and I bet everything is filled up already."

She rubbed her forehead. "Do you know of any places we could go nearby?"

The sheriff thought for a minute and nodded. "There is one place, if you go back down this road and take the second exit and then turn right, you follow that road for about ten miles and there's a little town with a general store and a resort that offers cabins. I think they may have some cabins open still.

They usually let me know when they're full up on days like this and I haven't heard from them. Give that a try first, and if you can't find anything, you'll have to go further down this highway, but that's your best bet right now. It's the closest place to this exit."

Shannon nodded. "Thank you, Sir. Stay safe and warm out here." He  waved at them and went back to his car.

Colby shook his head. "I can't believe this weather. It's frustrating. It feels like we're in some sort of twilight zone and we aren't ever going to get there!"

"We'll get there. It may take a week, but by God we will get there."

Colby frowned. "I just want to get there in time," he said quietly.

Shannon didn't say anything. She honestly didn't know what Tiffany would do when Colby showed up insisting that she choose him over Ron.

She drove slowly down the road and followed the sheriff's directions, and an hour later they found themselves in the tiny town with the general store and the resort with the cabins. Colby was stunned.

"This is a town? There are only three buildings!" He  looked at them in wonder.

"Well, there are eight buildings if you count each of the cabins as an independent structure,”  Shannon teased him.

"You're smart at both ends, I see!" he cracked a smile and laughed. They walked into the main office at the small resort and a man greeted them in his fifties. He waved at them and said hello.

"You folks get caught in the storm?" he asked in a friendly way.

Shannon nodded. "We did. Do you happen to have a room available for tonight?"

The man nodded and pulled a key down from the wall. It was the only key on the wall.

"Yeah, I have one cabin left. It's the furthest one down the hill. It's already made up and waiting for you. If you want to pick up some groceries or anything, you could stop in at the general store there down the way, but you'll want to hurry. They close at five.

Get whatever you'll need for tonight and tomorrow, and I will run down to your cabin and get a fire started in the fireplace for you to warm it up." 

Colby could not hide his surprise. "There's a fireplace?" 

The man nodded. "There sure is, and a whole wall of logs behind the cabin so you won't run out while you're trying to keep warm."

Colby and Shannon were both glad to hear that. The man finished up their registration and sent them on their way to the general store.

"I like this place so much better than the place we stayed at last night." Colby said with a smile. She agreed one hundred percent.

They walked through the general store picking out a few things and then they checked out and headed to the cabin.

When they walked in, they both grinned at the sweet little place. It was all done with light pine wood and there was thick carpeting around all of the floor except near the fireplace where marble tile was laid out. There was only one bed again, but this one was larger and would fit them comfortably.

There was a full sized bathroom with a shower and tub, and a mini kitchen in the corner of the room. True to his word, the man at the office had started a roaring fire for them and the cabin was the definition of cozy and warm.

Colby walked around and checked it all out. "I like this place! It's so much better than the last place."

She agreed and went to the bed, pulling the covers back. "I'm sorry to have to do this, but I'm exhausted. I've got to get some sleep." she pulled her shoes off and crawled beneath the covers, falling off to sleep in no time.