Read Where the Heart is (Interracial with Baby) (BWWM) Online
Authors: Cristina Grenier
Where the Heart is (Interracial with Baby) (BWWM)
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Copyright © 2014 Monster Media LLC
Chapter 4: Unexpected Surprises
Chapter 8: The Joy of Christmas
August 14, 2007
It was chilly for a night in August, and a breeze stirred the air up every once in a while, whipping tree branches and causing Jamie to lean closer to her best friend. The two of them were as far from any other people in their little town as they could get, spending the last night they had together for who knows how long cuddled up.
It was a clear night, and Jamie was stretched out, her back pressed against the chilly glass of her windshield as she watched the sky. The two of them were sitting on the hood of her car, eyes up turned, silence between them.
"You know, I bet the sky will never be this clear in Atlanta," Simon murmured with a sigh.
"Probably not. Bet you won't have any trouble finding girls to sit on your car with you and watch the smog roll across the sky, though," Jamie teased, the longing that she felt was easy to disguise with humor.
"Don't do that," Simon said, frowning. "You know it won't be the same."
He said that, but Jamie was never sure that he meant it. There was nothing she wanted more than for Simon to stay, but she knew that expressing that sentiment would be selfish beyond belief. Her best friend had worked hard to get to where he was now. Full scholarship to med school, ready to follow his dreams.
It wasn't his fault that she had to stay behind, and she wasn't going to waste their last hours together on trying to make him feel guilty for leaving. That wouldn't do anything anyway.
"Yeah, I know," she said, forcing a smile. "If they fawned all over you, then it wouldn't be like this at all."
Simon laughed, but if Jamie had been listening, she would have heard that there was very little actual humor in it.
Simon wasn't looking forward to leaving anymore than Jamie was looking forward to being without him. All that he knew was here. Their little down with its dusty roads and little shops that were within walking distance from his house. He'd spent his entire life here, and all the people he loved would still be here while he was moving over a hundred miles away to pursue his dreams.
And Jamie...
He never wanted to leave Jamie.
The two of them had known each other since the very first day of kindergarten all those years ago. They'd been seated next to each other in the circle in Mrs. Swanson's class. Jamie had made fun of Simon's glasses, causing him to start crying and her to get sent to the corner for ten minutes. When she'd come back, she'd been fuming, but when someone else in the class had made fun of the thick glasses that Simon had to keep pushing up on his nose, Jamie had leapt to his defense.
To this day, Simon had no idea why she had done that, but they'd ended up sitting next to each other and eating their lunches, swapping out halves of their sandwiches and chattering about everything and nothing.
It had been the beginning of a friendship that had lasted them through three levels of schooling and a lot of drama, and there was a part of Simon that worried that if he left, things would change.
And not for the better.
That had already happened sometime in high school when they'd realized that they were attracted to each other and could take advantage of that without starting something messy like a relationship.
He was going to miss that, too.
He watched as she leaned over and rummaged in the bag at her side, sitting up so she could start in on one of the massive cheeseburgers they'd picked up from their favorite diner on the way up there.
The hill they were parked on over looked the whole town just about, and they could see the lights of cars and buildings, looking smaller even than it was from their vantage point.
Simon watched Jamie as she ate, awed as he usually was at how beautiful she had become. She'd always been adorable with her chubby cheeks and masses of tight curls, but she'd grown into a woman right in front of Simon's face, and his mouth went dry every time he looked at her.
Her skin dark, the color of coffee with just a splash of milk, the way she always took it. Her hair was wound into twists at the moment, but Simon knew if she took them out, her hair would be a massive cloud around her head. He knew first hand how soft to the touch it would be, and for some reason he held himself back from touching her now.
Her eyes were a lighter shade of brown than people seemed to expect, and they usually startled people until they were narrowed in a glare. She was shorter than his six feet two inches by almost a full foot, but she more than made up for her lack of height in attitude and her sheer presence.
"You're staring at me," she said, arching an eyebrow and looking over at him. "Having second thoughts?"
Simon snorted. "You say that like I haven't been having second thoughts since day one."
Jamie frowned at him. "Don't, okay? I know you don't want to leave, but
you
know that this is your chance. You're not going to become a world famous doctor hanging around here. There's nothing here."
"That's not true. You're here and my family is here. Grandfather's Pizza is here."
She rolled her eyes. "Okay, there's a lot of stuff here. But maybe... maybe you're meant for bigger stuff. There's nothing wrong with that."
Even though her voice was firm and unwavering, Simon could see the brightness of her eyes and he had known her long enough to be able to tell when she was putting on a brave face.
It meant a lot to him, that she was being so supportive about this. Never once in the process of him applying to school and making arrangements for moving had she let her true feelings show. She'd cheered him on and been the first one to hug him when he'd gotten his acceptance letter and scholarship money.
She was careful only to look sad when she thought he wasn't looking. But he was always looking when it came to her.
It had been over a decade, and Simon was still sorting out his feelings when it came to his best friend. Jamie meant the world to him, but he didn't know what he wanted from her, and now wasn't really the time to be trying to figure it out, considering he was about to be spending most of the next few years far away from her.
He could tell that she knew that, and it hurt him just a little.
"How's the burger?" he asked in an effort to lighten the mood.
"Delicious as usual. Can't beat The Pit for greasy meat and melty cheese. Are you even going to eat yours?" Jamie asked. "Because if not, I have plenty of room in my stomach for it."
"Back off the burger, lady," Simon said, laughing as he reached over her and snatched the bag away, rummaging in it to find his own burger.
The two of them ate in silence for long minutes, both lost in thought as they stared up at the sky and then out over the town.
Neither of them were sure what the right thing to do or say was here, and they both regretted the air of awkwardness that had settled between them, though it seemed that neither one of them knew how to dispel it.
Jamie knew that it was going to be their last chance to say goodbye properly, but she didn't want Simon to think that it was all about sex. They'd had some wonderful times in the year or so that they had been sleeping together, and she didn't regret that he was the only boy she'd slept with at all.
Other girls seemed to be racing each other when it came to how many boys in their class they could sleep with, but Jamie was content with the one she had.
Simon respected her and made her feel pretty, and she was going to miss him in that respect, too.
He kept telling her that nothing was going to change aside from the fact that he would be miles away from her, but she didn't seem to understand how he couldn't see that it was going to change everything to not have him close.
Her own dreams were easy to chase from right here at home, and with her mother getting sick so often, she didn't feel right leaving anyway.
Someone had to stay and take care of her, and no matter how many times her mother said that everything would be fine if she wanted to go somewhere else, they both knew that she wasn't going anywhere.
"Hey," Simon said softly, tired of watching the conflict play out over her face. He leaned in and took the half eaten burger out of her hands, reaching up to cup her face with his fingers. "Stop worrying so much." It was one thing to tell her that everything was going to be alright, but Simon knew that he was going to have to do better than that.
So he leaned forward and kissed her, pressing his lips hard against hers and pouring all of his feeling into it.
He tried to convey that there was no way he could just leave and not come back to her. Not with how he felt. They'd never truly dated, but it wasn't because Simon didn't want to or because he thought Jamie didn't want to. He could see them together so clearly, but it had never been the right time or place to bring that up. And now was definitely not the time to do so.
So he kissed her instead, fingers tugging at her hair while he moved his lips with hers, pulling her closer and sinking into it, letting everything else fade away.
When they had to pull apart to breath, Jamie looked dazed. "What was that for?"
"I'm leaving in the morning. Don't you want to say goodbye?"
She snorted. "Leave it to you to try and get in my pants on the night before you move away." But she didn't complain. Instead she moved the bag of food out of the way and moved to straddle Simon's lap, hands on the windshield of her car on either side of his head. "How far do you want to take this?" she asked.
Simon arched an eyebrow. "As far as you'll let me."
The gleam in her eyes proved that she wasn't going to be stopping him anytime soon, and she leaned back down to kiss him, biting his lower lip and tugging it with her teeth. The noise he made in response made her smile, and she did it again before kissing him properly.
His hands went to her waist, holding on and slipping underneath her shirt to stroke the warm skin he found there.
This was good. This felt right. He wanted to hold onto this until he saw her again, and there was no way he was going to stop now. Not when she was so close and smelled so good and tasted like beer and everything that he was going to miss.
"What am I going to do without you?" he mouthed against her lips, glad that he hadn't said it out loud. He didn't want to ruin the mood.
Now that she had something else to focus on, Jamie seemed to be doing alright. She was preoccupied with getting her hands under Simon's shirt, tracing the abs that always seemed out of place on someone who was a self proclaimed nerd.
Her mouth moved from his lips to his neck, careful not to leave marks, though in the back of her mind she had the thought of staking her claim and biting down so that everyone he saw when he checked into his new fancy school would know that he belonged to her and no one else.
But she held herself back from that, focusing on the kissing, on licking over his pulse point and delighting in the little shiver that got out of him.
"Jamie," he breathed softly, fingers digging into her hips. "I want you."
"Isn't it lucky that you can have me, then?" she teased, rolling her hips and pressing their groins together. She could feel him getting hard under her, and she wanted more of it.
It would have been smarter to do it inside the car, or even on the grass in the shadow of the car, anywhere where they weren't just exposed as they were now, but something about the thrill of it appealed to her and when she looked up and into Simon's hazel eyes, she could tell that he was feeling the same way she was.
It was simple to move from there into something more heated. Simon pulled a condom out of his pocket, prepared as always, and Jamie pulled the wide leg of her shorts to the side enough that she could sit on Simon's dick when he pushed it into her.
He always felt so good inside of her, so right, and this was no exception. Now she was determined to savor it, to make it last, so she moved slowly, working her hips up and down and taking him in again and again.
It felt amazing, and she couldn't hold herself back. Every time he pushed up, she thrust down, meeting him in the middle and holding eye contact until it got to be too much and she had to look away before she ended up losing herself completely.
Their moans filled the air, and they kissed hard, trying to muffle each other and get closer if at all possible.
It went on for long minutes, the two of them joined and taking pleasure in each other, and when they finally reached their peak, one right after the other, they looked into each other's eyes.
"I promise you, Jamie," Simon panted, reaching up to cup her face. "Nothing's going to change." He had never meant anything the way he meant that. There was no way he could be complete without having her in his life in some way, shape, or form, and just forgetting about her would never happen.
Jamie swallowed hard and nodded, leaning down to press her forehead to his. He'd never let her down before, and she didn't have any reason to think he'd start now. Simon wasn't her father. He wasn't like the men in her family who had a history of leaving and never coming back. Their bond was stronger than that and she had to believe it.
"Okay," she whispered. "Okay."