Through The Grapevine: A BWWM Romance (4 page)

Colby watched her shake her head and the desperation in him to know the truth began to grip him. He reached out and took her hands in his, and a small gasp escaped her as he cupped his hands around hers.

     "Please! Shannon, I need to know! Please tell me!" he begged in a soft whisper, imploring her with his sky blue eyes.

She looked down; her mind was in turmoil, wrestling over the factors. "Colby, I can't tell you. I mean... I could, but, I'm going to say this; the truth would hurt you and I just can't bear to do that to you. I mean... you should know... but, I don't want you to hurt like I know you will."

He lowered his brows at her. "You have to tell me now."

Shannon leaned back in her seat and looked around the buzzing coffee shop, at all the people talking and laughing and working on their laptops. She knew this was no place to talk with him about it.

The battle of morality in her came to a head as she looked at him, watching her with painful hope, and she shook her head. "Alright. Let's go outside, this isn't a conversation for a coffee shop."

They walked out of the door and down the street to a little park. She sat on one of the park benches beneath a tree, and he sat beside her, watching her intently, not wanting to miss anything.

Shannon rubbed her forehead with her hand and then looked down at her lap for a moment before biting her lip and finally meeting his steady gaze with her eyes. "She is out of town with a guy she's been seeing."

He stared at her, as still as a statue, trying to comprehend the words that had touched his ears, and touched his heart, but had somehow managed to miss his brain. "What?" he whispered quietly as he looked at her in confusion.

Shannon hated saying the words to him to begin with, but repeating them was worse. She knew he was in shock, and that his shock would be followed by denial.

"I said she's out of town with a guy she's been seeing." Shannon repeated, feeling awful as she spoke the words aloud.

He shook his head slowly. "What do you mean? What guy? She's my... she's... we're getting married! How..."

Shannon watched him, lost and confused, and it was more than she could take. She reached over and wrapped her arms around him and he laid his head on her shoulder.

"I don't understand," he said softly. "She loves me. She wants to spend the rest of her life with me... how... how could this be true?"

She hugged him tightly and he was still for a moment as he processed the information, but then he pulled away from her and stood up. Determination colored his face and shone brightly in his blue eyes.

"I've got to get her back. I can get her back. I don't know why she's off with this other man, but we are three weeks from our wedding and I'm not about to lose her now. I want her for the rest of my life. I love her." he turned to look at Shannon, and she could see that he would not be swayed.

"Where is she?" 

Shannon sighed heavily. "She's in Aspen, Colorado."

Colby pulled out his cell phone and called his travel agent.

"I need to get to Aspen, Colorado, immediately, please." 

There was a bit of silence and his face clouded over with confusion and doubt. "No, that can't be. There has to be some way to get there. Please... please check every possible option. I'll wait."

His wait wasn't long.

"Nothing? There's no way at all? What about a train? How long?" He sat down on the bench beside Shannon and leaned back against it, raising his face upward and staring through the tree at the blue sky above him.

"That just can't be," he said in a low, sad tone. "There has to be some way that I can get there." There was another pause. "That's the only way?" he sighed deeply and looked down at his feet on the ground.

"Alright. Thank you." He  hung up the phone and closed his eyes, rubbing his hands over his face.

"What did they say?" Shannon asked sympathetically. From what she had heard of the conversation, there weren't many options for him to exercise.

He sat up and looked at Shannon. "There's a huge blizzard over the Rocky Mountains and there are no flights in or out anywhere near her, not even in Denver. There are no trains in or out for at least three more days, and even then, they aren't guaranteeing that there will be service. They are expecting another monster snowstorm right after this one. They said that the only way I can get to her is if I drive out, and even then I might not get there because the roads would most likely be closed."

Shannon shook her head, feeling awful for him. "I'm so sorry,” she said quietly. "I'm from there; I know how bad those storms are. You're just going to have to wait until she comes back when it clears up."

He turned and stared at her. "I can't do that! I can't wait! What if something happens to her in the storms? What if..." He  looked so worried. "What if she doesn't come back?" he looked at Shannon and shook his head in determination. "I have to go get her."

Shannon stood up from the bench in a rush. "You can't do that!" she exclaimed.

He frowned. "Why not?" he asked.

Shannon pursed her lips. "Colby, you drive a convertible. You are a native Californian, born and raised here. Have you ever driven in the snow?" she put her hands on her hips and he blinked and drew a breath, looking at her thoughtfully.

"No... I haven't. Is it difficult?   I could probably get the hang of it in no time,” he said with assurance.

Shannon laughed just a little and shook her head. "No, you can't. Driving in the snow is something that is learned over time. Driving in a white-out blizzard is something else entirely and requires years of experience, and even then, fatal accidents can happen. You have no business trying to drive out there to her in a monster storm like that. You won't make it. I'm sorry to say it like that, but that's the truth. There's no way you'll make it."

Colby was silent for a long moment, taking in everything she said and watching her as she shook her head at him.

"Just wait until she comes back and then work it out with her." Shannon wished that he had never been curious enough to find out what Tiffany was doing.

He shook his head. "I can't wait. I don't want to lose her. She made a mistake, that's all; she just... got confused about some guy who was probably really persuasive with her. I'm not going to lose my wife to some strange guy. I won't. I love her, and I'm going after her. Now, I know you're probably right about inexperienced drivers in white-out winter conditions; I probably wouldn't make it there." He stepped closer to her, his eyes steady as lasers on hers. "But you could."

She blinked up at him. "What?" She asked, surprised.

"You could make it out there. You could drive both of us out there, and we would make it. You grew up there, you learned how to drive in weather like that, and you're probably an ace at it. Drive me out there, please!" he implored of her, reaching for her hands and holding them snugly in his as he looked at her with hopeful eyes.

"Help me, Shannon, please help me." 

She was shocked, to say the least. The idea of a long road trip through winter conditions did not appeal to her. She had come to love the mild sunny winters of Los Angeles.

She shook her head. "I can't do that!"

Colby pulled her close to him and looked down at her, his eyes anxious and his grip on her hands tight. He was so close to her that she could feel the warmth of his body.

"I'll pay you. Anything you want, name it and it's done." He  lifted their enclosed hands to his chin, his eyes steady on her, still.

She frowned and looked away from him. "You don't need to pay me. Don't be silly."

One look at the anguish in his eyes; the eyes she felt she may well be falling into, and she sighed in resignation.

"Alright. I'll drive you out there. You don't have to pay me, but you do have to pay for the trip," she said with a disheartened voice. "You know, Colby, I really wish you wouldn't do this. I don't know what you're going to find when you get there, and I don't want to see you get hurt. Please reconsider it!" She pursed her lips together and eyed him with a worried look.

He stepped back from her. "No, we're going. Right away. I'll rent a car." He pulled his phone out and she reached out and placed her hand over the top of it.

"You don't need to rent a car, I have a Highlander. It has four wheel drive, and if you can believe it, I think I still have good snow tires at my house." She let go of his phone as he looked up at her and raised his eyebrows.

"Snow tires. Okay. Well, I'll go pack, and you come pick me up as soon as you're ready, please?"

Shannon shook her head, wondering how in the world she had gotten herself into the mess she was facing. The only good aspect of it, as far as she was concerned, was that she would be spending a long time in the car with the man she loved most in the world, and though he wasn't hers, it was still a precious gift, and one she would cherish, even though he was intent on getting to his fiancé.

"Alright. I'll be by your place in about two hours,” she said with a sigh. He wrapped his arms around her tightly and pressed his cheek to the side of her head.

"Thank you so much, Shannon, this means everything to me." He spoke softly in her ear and she felt her heart lurch as she closed her eyes and nodded.

  "I know it does. That's why I'm helping you."

They said goodbye and she went home to pack, practically shaking her head the whole way. She could not believe she was going to go on a road trip with him to try to get Tiffany back to Los Angeles and away from her boyfriend.

She had wanted to assure him that Tiffany was coming back because of his money, but then again, there was no way she could promise him that for sure, and it would be a horrible thing for him to know.

Two hours later, her car had clean oil and a full tank of gas, her bags were packed and set into the back seat. There were snow tires in the cargo area, a mug of coffee in the cup holder, a stack of CDs in the console, and she had emergency kits tucked into the space between the tires and the back seat. She picked Colby up from his house and the two of them set out from Los Angeles toward Denver on a mission to reclaim the woman that Colby loved.     

Chapter Three

Their journey started out easily, with only L.A. traffic to deal with, which was nothing to them. Colby worked on his laptop and tablet and tried to keep his mind off everything that he was heading into, but they weren't an hour down the road before he turned to look at Shannon, pushing his glasses further up his nose so he could get a clear view of her.

"How long did you know about him?"

Shannon let a big breath out and looked straight ahead on the road. "I just found out about him."

"When?" he insisted.

"The day of your pool party,” she answered.

He lowered his brows at her. "Why didn't you tell me then?"

Shannon put her elbow against the window on the doorframe, and rubbed her temple.

"There were a few reasons. First, and this is the biggest reason, I didn't want to see you get hurt. Second, I felt like I would be betraying Tiffany's trust. She made me promise not to tell anyone, ever, and I broke my promise to her."

"Some promises are worth breaking,” he replied, watching her. "I might have been able to stop her and try to fix whatever it is that's wrong between us if I had known sooner."

Shannon thought back to the way that Ron and Tiffany were with each other when they embraced and kissed at the hospital. "No, you wouldn't have been able to fix it."

"Why not?" he asked defensively.

Her voice got quiet and she frowned, wishing he would quit his line of questioning. "Because she wants him. She wants you both."

Colby hadn't expected her answer. It was something else that he couldn't understand, and he turned and looked out of the window at the world passing by the car. It was quickly becoming desert, and with nothing in particular to look at, it enabled him to think quite clearly about everything that was happening.

They played music and talked about light fare as they passed four hours and entered Las Vegas. They stopped for dinner there, and then got back on the road and directed the vehicle toward Utah. The weather turned on them almost instantly, once they passed Saint George, Utah, and small flakes began to buzz through the air, followed quickly by big fat flakes that filled all of the space outside of the vehicle, and covered the ground beneath them.

Colby was growing increasingly nervous and Shannon had slowed down to a crawl on the road. She made mention of the fact that they hadn't seen another car in over two hours, and the snow was getting much worse by the minute.

He was focused like a hawk on the road ahead, even though he wasn't driving, and aside from the music playing, there was no sound inside the vehicle. After another hour of driving at less than twenty miles per hour, Shannon shook her head and yawned.

"We have to stop. I can't keep driving in this, it's pitch black outside except for this raging blizzard and I'm exhausted. We've got to pull over in the next town and get a room."

Colby agreed and changed the music for her to help her stay awake. Thirty minutes later, they happened upon a wide spot in the road where they found a gas station and a motel with six rooms total. She parked the car and they went to the front desk.

An old woman with a permanent frown took her time shuffling out of the room behind the counter where she was watching late night TV. She stopped in the doorway from her room into the tiny reception area and stared at the two of them, as they stood there, freezing and tired.

She looked them up and down for a long minute and then shuffled over to the counter and leaned herself on it.

"What can I do for you?" she asked.

Colby stepped forward and smiled at her. "We'd like a room for the night, please." 

The old woman looked suspiciously from him to Shannon and then back to him again. "This ain't that kind of establishment," she said, with a snide voice, narrowing her eyes at them and deepening her frown.

Shannon, realizing what it must look like to the woman, smiled brightly and shook her head. "Oh, no... ma'am, we're married."

Colby looked down at her in surprise and she kicked his shoe softly. His head shot straight back up to face the old woman and he nodded seriously. "Yes ma'am, that's right. We're married."

She eyed them suspiciously for a few long moments, and then looked down her nose at them. "What're you doing out this late on the road?"

Shannon answered again. "Oh, well my sister and her husband are baptizing my nephew the day after tomorrow and we were traveling to go be a part of that. We got stuck in the snowstorm, though; it's so bad outside. We just need a place to stay for the night so we can rest up and get back on the road in the morning. This looked like such a nice safe place that we thought we'd like to stop here."

"We only have one room left and it ain't that big," she warned them.

Shannon shrugged. "That's alright, we'll be okay with whatever you have available. We aren't choosey."

The old woman grunted and considered them for a moment, and then nodded and sighed. "Alright. Sign in here. Pay it in cash."

They completed their transaction with her and she handed them the key with a look of suspicion on her face.

"What time is check out, ma'am?" Colby asked.

"You need to be out by ten. We offer coffee here in the lobby, for a dollar a cup, or you can get coffee and donuts at the gas station next door,” she said, still looking down her nose at them.

"Thank you so much, ma'am. You have a good night. Keep warm!" Shannon said with a wide smile and then practically pulled Colby out into the freezing night air. They grabbed their bags in silence and didn't speak until the door of their room was shut. They turned to see that there was one bed in the room and it was only a single sized bed.

Colby looked at it in surprise. "Why did you tell her we were married? And what was all that about your sister and a baptism?"

Shannon shrugged her shoulders. "We're in the middle of nowhere in Utah, Colby, this is an extremely conservative state. Did you hear the first thing she said to us? 'This ain't that kind of establishment'. That's what she said. She thought I was a hooker and you were bringing me here for... the night.

She probably thought that because I'm black, but no matter why she thought it, I had to change her mind. She would never have believed that we are just friends who need a place to sleep for the night. When she believed we were married, that made everything alright in her mind. Well... not everything, I think, but that's beside the point.

I added the part about the baptism because she was suspicious about why were out so late and it's obvious that she only wants good people here, so I told her that so she would think we are good people."

He cocked his head at her. "We are good people."

Shannon just shook her head at him. "We are a mixed race couple showing up in the middle of the night looking for a room. That was enough to make her worried about what kind of people we are. Don't sweat it. We are nice people and now she believes that, and I'm glad she believes it, because now we have a place to stay."

Colby looked at the bed. "That's not a very big bed." .

Shannon looked down at the bed and shook her head. "Well, we'll just have to share it and make it work. I promise not to steal the covers from you."

There was a tiny bathroom on the other side of the tiny room, and after taking a peek in it, Colby looked at Shannon and said, "You can use the restroom first if you want to."

She agreed and spent just a few minutes in the close confines of the room, dressing herself in her pajamas and brushing her teeth, then she relinquished it to him and she walked around the room looking for a heater. There wasn't one, and it was freezing cold. Giving up, she headed for the bed and crawled beneath the covers, exhausted from their long day.

A few minutes later, Colby came out of the bathroom and stood next to the bed, looking down at her.

"Are you sure about this?" he asked with uncertainty.

She looked up at him in all seriousness. "Colby, it is freezing cold in here and there is no thermostat to be found. If we are going to get any sleep tonight, we're going to have to keep each other warm. Get in bed and let's go to sleep." She reached her arm up and switched the lamp off and darkness cloaked the room.

He nodded and climbed in beside her awkwardly, unsure of how to be so near her without crossing any lines.

She looked up at him as they shared the single pillow on the bed. "Colby,” she said  quietly.

"What?" he asked in a thin voice.

"You're never going to get to sleep if you're stiff as a board. You know how comfortable it feels when you hug me?" she asked, hoping that it was indeed comfortable for him.

"Yes." He realized just he said, realizing just then that it was quite comfortable for him whenever he hugged her.

"Wrap your arms around me and hug me, and then get comfortable and go to sleep," she said matter-of-factly.

He reached his arms around her and she snuggled up to his chest and in moments, she felt him relax finally, and his breathing grew long and deep.

"Is that better?"

"Yes." He  chuckled and nuzzled the top of her head. "Your hair smells really good."

"Go to sleep."

"Goodnight,” he told her and then he began to doze off.

She laid there awake, her face resting against his chest, his breath warming her head, his arms wrapped close around her, and she could not believe that they were where they were, in the position that they were in. It astounded her that they had gotten to this point.

She was also on edge because she was closer to him just then than she had ever been, and she was afraid that if she breathed him in that closely, she might never exhale and let him back out again, and it might suffocate her beyond recovery.

There was a faint light in the room that cut through the slit in the curtains. It was bright fluorescent light from the gas station, and it gave just enough illumination to the darkness around them that she could see his face as he slept beside her. She traced the contours of his cheek and jawline with her eyes over and over.

She gazed at his lips, so close to hers, wondering what it would feel like to kiss him, wondering what it would be like to feel those lips on her skin. She smiled at his long thick dark eyelashes that brushed his cheeks, and she watched him breathing and wondered what he was dreaming.

She was so tired and she wished that she could sleep, but his close proximity and the wonder of spending a night in his arms, even on a platonic level, was so powerful to her that it was a long while before she let herself close her eyes on the experience of lying beside him in the night. He stirred slightly after a while, and pulled her closer to him in the cold night, kissing her forehead in his sleep.

She looked up at his face and couldn't stop herself from reaching her finger up to touch his lips ever so lightly, but when she did, he nuzzled her face; his eyes closed and him still dreaming, and then he kissed her mouth softly, holding her firmly in his arms, his lips tender and sweet on hers. Everything in her came alive all at once and she felt as though she was melting beside him. She closed her eyes and kissed him back slowly, taking her time as she tasted his lips and felt his kiss.

Her body tingled everywhere and she held her breath in her lungs as though if she breathed out, the moment might disappear and the magic of it would vanish.

Their kiss ended as softly and delicately as it had begun, and he whispered as he slept, "I love you."

She looked at him and one tear escaped her eye. "I love you, too," she whispered back.

"Goodnight Tiffany." He smiled  and rested his cheek on her head.