The Rock Season (15 page)

“You startled me,” I laughed and she kissed me lightly. Her eyes went to her computer screen, then sharply to mine. “I made sure to look if it was a private blog before I read it.” She let her gaze drift away for a minute.

“You are so incredibly brave, Stevie.”

She smiled sadly at me. “Thanks. Sometimes I don’t feel really brave.”

I let my hands roam her back and looked into her eyes. I couldn’t tell what she was feeling so I asked her.

“What am I feeling,” she said with a laugh. “Nervous and excited? It’s ok you read that. I’m kinda glad.”

I raised an eyebrow at her and said, “I’m curious to read your review. I’m wondering how close it will be to mine.”

Her eyes turned sultry again and she said, “I can say for sure it was my favorite time seeing Heart. I’ll never forget it. The encores, especially.”

My hands came up to her face. “I couldn’t have said it better myself.”

This time when I kissed her it felt different. It was like the proximity to her bed and the notion of the potentially uninterrupted hours we could spend there allowed me to slow down and really savor her.

She’d put on a fitted tank and a loose, gauzy, long skirt. I was dying to get a look at her legs. Hell, I wanted all of her. But I didn’t want to scare her. She seemed comfortable, so I was willing to follow her lead. She pulled back and rested her head on my shoulder.

“Did you sleep ok last night,” I asked her, concerned she might be tired.

She nuzzled my neck and said, “I did. I slept better than I have in a long time. How about you?”

How did I tell her I barely slept because I wanted to watch her, and not sound creepy?

“I loved having you in my bed. I loved holding you.”

She sighed and snuggled closer to me. “Aaron,” she whispered and I answered in a whisper, “Yes Stevie?”

She exhaled. “Last night I was ready to have sex with you and today I’m afraid.”

 I frowned. Worried I’d done something to make her uncomfortable. I started to speak and she put a finger to my lips.

“No, let me finish, please?”

I nodded, worried for her to go on.       

“See, last night, when we left the show, I thought you were wonderful and would be fun to sleep with. I knew you would be gentle and patient with me and that part hasn’t changed.”

I didn’t know where she was going with this and my worry increased.

“When I woke up with you this morning, and you held me through my meltdown, I knew you were even more precious. And then listening to your family this morning...Hell, I’m just smitten with you, Aaron McShane, and that scares me. Just like when you said you didn’t want to disappoint me, I don’t want to disappoint you, either. So what do we do now? Because I really wanted to come out of that bathroom in just my towel like you did this morning. I wanted to see what would happen.” She smiled at the end and I was floored. Smitten with me?

“Stevie, I don’t know what to say other than the only way you could disappoint me is if you would have walked away from me at the show and never came back. I want to know you, Stevie. I want to be your shoulder to lean on, just like you did at the shows. I want to take you places, do things with you...I don’t know! My head is spinning,” I laughed. “And I don’t know if smitten is a strong enough word for me, love.”

She stood up, taking my hand. I stood before her and waited for her to make the next move.

Stevie

His words significantly diminished my fear, so much so that I decided enough was enough. I had to have faith that this man had been put in my path too many times for me to let him pass me by. I needed to grab hold with both hands. Of his shirt. And pull it off.

His breath caught and his eyes looked pained. “Stevie, if you’re not sure-”

My hands on his waistband, pulling on his fly, put a stop to his protests. I unbuttoned and unzipped and was starting to slide his jeans down his legs when his pocket started to vibrate.

“Did you bring something to play with,” I teased. He chuckled, and then realized that it was his phone.

“Wha- Damn.” He pulled it out and we both saw Hayward Police on the screen. He cursed again and I shook my head.

“Please, it’s important, Aaron. I’m not going anywhere.” I kissed his cheek as he answered the phone.

“Aaron McShane...Yes, they’re my brothers...Yes, they told me what happened...When? 4:00?” We both looked at the clock. It was already noon. He let out a breath. “Yes...Yes, I’ll be there...My mother is working and my father is not well. I am authorized to act as their guardian for school, will that work? Fine...I’ll have my mother join us...Thank you, Detective.” He squeezed his eyes shut and slid his phone back into his jeans.

I pulled him in for a hug. I knew he was stressed.

“I wish I could tell you that these interruptions were an anomaly but-”

“Aaron, listen to me,” I said with my hands on his face, forcing him to look at me. “One of the many things I find attractive about you is your commitment to your family. Please do not ever apologize to me for that.”

He gave me a small smile and then pulled me back against his warm body.

“I just really wanted some we-time.”

I snorted and he laughed, too. “You’ll have it. Let me do this. I’ll make an appointment online at DMV, print out the confirmation, it’s as good as a license, right? We can hurry and pick up my car, and then you can go to your mom and explain before you all go to the police station.”

His face had a far off look, like he was trying to visualize all the things he needed to take care of.

“Shit! Grandma Samadi’s medication,” he said, exasperated. “I need to pick that up, too.”

I grabbed his shirt and went to hand it to him, but I didn’t let go.

“How about I go pick it up and take it to her? It gives you one less thing to worry about.”

He blanched. “You would do that? Purposely subject yourself to more of her machinations?”  

I giggled and straightened his shirt before reaching up to pull it over his neck. “I would, if um, maybe I could be there for you when you returned from the police station? I could take you to dinner or just be there with a cup of tea?”

His eyes were wet. He looked like he was fighting to keep it together.

“Aaron? I just want to be there for you.” I grew very afraid that I’d overstepped my bounds. Until he pulled me into an asphyxiating hug. He buried his face in my neck and I felt him take a shaky breath and let it out.

“Stevie, you are unbelievable. I cannot tell you how much it would mean to me for you to be there when I got back. But I need to warn you. You keep this up? This being perfect? And I’m going to fall in love with you. I might have already, because you’re really killing me right now.”

I laughed, shocked at his pronouncement. Did he really have no one just for him? Stupid, of course he didn’t! “So do we have a deal? You take me to get my car, I go get your grandmother’s medicine and bring it to her, and I’ll wait for you to take care of your brothers?”

He raised an eyebrow and said, “Will you sleep over again? Just so I can hold you, I promise. Nothing else needs to happen. It’s just that last night went by too quickly and I’m not sure I did it right. I might need more practice.”

My cheeks were about to break from smiling so wide. “Ok. But this time, I’m bringing my hair stuff. I don’t want to go to breakfast tomorrow with crazy hair.”

He bit down on his lip for a minute and then he was smiling. He scooped me up in his arms and kissed me deeply.

“You’re incredible,” he said against my lips.

I smiled at him. “You’re pretty incredible yourself. Now put me down so I can pack and make my appointment. We’ll go get my car and then you’ll have to give me instructions on where to go to get her medicine. I have Kaiser, too, but I don’t know where her pharmacy is.”

He pulled out his phone and texted me all the information, including directions back to his place, while I threw some clothes and toiletries in an overnight bag. When I came back over to him at the desk he had the DMV website up on my computer screen. He handed me his grandmother’s card as he was saying, “It looks like the soonest appointment here would be next week Friday, or there’s one in Hayward on Tuesday.” He wiggled his eyebrows up at me.

“Well, heavens, I wouldn’t even begin to know where that was! It’s too bad I don’t know a Hayward resident who could point me in the right direction.”

He laughed and shook his head at me. “You know, you could have anything you wanted if you keep looking at me like that.”

I winked at him and threw a couple more things in my bag before turning to him.

“Let’s get a move on, McShane. Grandma Samadi needs her medicine.”

His smile warmed my heart. I was determined to keep him smiling like that. It reminded me of the smile his father gave his mother this morning at breakfast. Full of love and affection and the promise of more to come. I could really dig that.

We left my apartment holding hands, Aaron carrying my bag. He put it in the back seat of the Camry and came around to open my door. I kissed his cheek before climbing in and I noticed him touching the spot where I’d kissed him as he walked around the front of the car to get in. The drive to Shoreline took a while because of traffic on 101 South. We spent the drive talking and learning more about each other. I asked him about coming to see the shop and he said he was working tomorrow and that maybe I’d want to hang out for a bit.

“I don’t want to monopolize your time, Stevie. I know you have a life,” he said quietly and I turned to face him.

I placed my hand on his thigh and said, “Aaron, it’s actually the opposite. I told you, I took this time off so I could spend some time figuring out what I wanted to do with my life. Right now, this is what I want to do so I’m doing it. You’re the one who’s going to have to kick me out when you get sick of me.”

He linked fingers with me on his thigh and said, “Yeah, like that’s going to happen.”

I rested my head on that perfect shoulder and just breathed in and out. That’s what life was telling me I needed to do at that minute.

We pulled up to the gate and we were stopped by security. “Hey, McShane! I didn’t think you were working today.”

Aaron shook his head. “I’m not. My friend had to leave her car here last night because her purse got stolen. Tyson said it would be fine to leave it until today. Jason, this is Stevie.”

The kid in the yellow jacket waved and said “Oh! You mean the bug? We were all sort of admiring it when we got here today.” He leaned in to look at me through the window. “Is that a ‘73?”

I nodded, noticing Aaron’s appraising look. “Yes, it is. It’s a 1973 Super Beetle. My father restored VWs. He did it himself.”  

“Nice,” the kid said and told Aaron to go ahead. “It’s just a private party going on tonight, nothing exciting. You working next week’s Rock The Bells?”  

“I am. I’ll see you then,” Aaron said and waved to the kid. “Hope they didn’t drool on your car,” he said to me. “I’ve seen them crowd around a classic car and I swear they get too excited.”

Not a good visual. “Well, at least I know they took care of my baby.”

He asked me more about my father’s business and what my mother did.

“She worked as a paralegal for an environmental law non-profit. They were both major hippies. Our place in Santa Cruz was really a hangout for all of their friends. Dad worked in a garage out back and we regularly had their friends staying around. Pot was consumed like it was a fifth food group. I hated it, still hate the smell of it, and I hated the way they all were when they were high. They sat around bitching about the system, but besides my mom’s job, they were all too high to really do anything about it. Whatever. Get a life.”

Wow, I hadn’t thought about those days in a long time. My students would often ask me what it was like being raised by hippies. I’d tell them it was all they could imagine, just with more consequences.

Aaron seemed to really be thinking about what I said. He turned to me when we parked next to my car. “It’s a gorgeous car. Does it still run well?”  

I shrugged. “It’s ok. I shouldn’t really be driving it as much as I do. I’ve thought about putting it in storage with my other things and buying something else but I just love driving it.”

We looked at each other for a long time before I gave his leg a squeeze.

“So you’re going to see your mom?”  

He nodded. “I texted her and told her I needed to come by her work to talk to her. She’s worried, I can tell. I hate to run off, but...”

“No, please do! Let me take care of the medication and then I’ll meet you back at your place. Maybe if your father is around, he’ll let me play in his flower beds. I miss gardening!”

He shook his head and laughed. “He’d love that. But feel free to hide at my place if you want. I would never pressure you to spend time with my family. That’s just a lot to ask anyone.”

My turn to laugh. “Aaron, they are wonderful people. Now you get going, don’t keep your mother waiting. I’ll see you when you are finished,” I said and leaned in to kiss him. I could feel him start to tremble under my hands and I smiled. Then I thought of something.

“Aaron, do you want me to explain to your father what happened? Will he wonder why I’m there?”

“You don’t have to do that, love. Just tell him I had to take care of some things and I wanted you to wait for me. He’ll probably suspect you aren’t telling him everything, but that’s just him. He’s quick to pick up on things. I don’t know, maybe this isn’t...”

“Aaron, do you trust me?”  

His face was pulled into a scowl as he took my hands in his. “I do, Stevie. It’s not you. It’s just that this is such a heavy time for my family and I hate to put you in the middle...”

“I know you just met me and are only just getting to know me. Let me just tell you that I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t want to be and I’m good at setting boundaries. I’m always going to tell you if I’m not ok with something.”

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Stevie you need to get out of the car before I really make an ass out of myself. Go.” He kissed me once more and leaned across me to open the door. “I’m barely holding on over here. You have to go, love.” He was chuckling to himself and I could only guess what his definition of being an ass entailed.