Mountains Wanted (12 page)

***

James was running late. The
kids had dispersed to their respective friends’ houses hours ago and Sarah was
puttering around the kitchen, straightening the pile of mail that had
accumulated on the counter and wiping down the countertops once again. She had
already texted Rachel to let her know that they’d missed the target departure
time. Rachel seemed unfazed and texted back:
No worries, Apple Dumpling. You
feeling better?
Sarah was very relieved to reply:
Yes. Much!

Sarah had chosen a
simple, low cut black dress for the evening and had added some sparkly silver
jewelry and her red heels. She did a once over in the mirror and was pleased
with the way the fabric hugged her curves, concealed her tummy and accentuated
her creamy décolletage. Her heels clicked on the tile floor as she walked back
to the counter once again. She had a birthday gift for Rachel tucked inside a
card that she had signed with only her name.
Should I have signed James’
name too?
she pondered, not really knowing the appropriate etiquette.
 
No, no, that would make us seem like a couple. And, we’re not.
 

She realized she was
pacing so she went back into the living room and picked up her stack of essay
questions from the exam she’d administered on Wednesday. She started to score a
few papers when she heard the familiar rap at the back door. She grabbed
her jacket from the back of the couch and went to let James in. He looked a bit
discombobulated, not his normal relaxed and confident self.  

“What’s wrong?” Sarah
questioned immediately, feeling the tension rising off him and evaporating into
the chilly November air.

He gave her a quick kiss
on the lips. “My mom called right as I was leaving,” he explained. “My
sister’s water broke and she’s at the hospital. She’s about 5 weeks
early.”

Sarah knew she shouldn’t
be surprised to see such concern for his loved one carved into his facial
features; the more she had gotten to know him, the more she realized how
compassionate he was. She noticed that his furrowed eyebrows had produced two
fine lines between his eyes that she’d never seen before. She wasn’t used to
seeing him agitated, either. Little by little, she was peeling away his layers,
seeing what made him tick. She took his hand and squeezed it. “Are you
going to be okay to go to dinner?” she asked.

Without hesitation he
smiled, “Of course. There’s nothing I can do anyway but wait. They have to
induce labor.” She could tell by the way those words tumbled off his tongue
that they were foreign.  

“Both of my labors were
induced,” Sarah reassured him. “Everything will be fine, and five weeks is
not that early these days.”

He looked genuinely
grateful for her faith that all would be well. They headed to his car and
he chivalrously opened the passenger side door for her. The moonless night sky
was layered with thick gray clouds and a bit of icy drizzle had started to
fall. Sarah momentarily thought about Abby heading to the birthday party
that night and hoped she had already safely arrived. She settled herself in the
seat and sent her daughter a request via text:
Let me know when you get back
to Chloe’s house tonight.

All the way to the
restaurant, Sarah considered how this venture was a new milestone in her
relationship with James. They were on a date. And, although she had never been
in his vehicle before, it felt comfortable and familiar somehow. She took
advantage of his attention being on the road to study his profile, the serious
cast emanating from the icy blue eyes, topped off by those furrowed brows she’d
never witnessed before. He had his phone in the drink holder inches away from
his hand on the gearshift. She hated that he was so distracted, so on edge. She
silently sent his sister Allie easy labor vibes and wondered if she would be
creeped out by a strange lady six hundred miles away wishing an easy passage
down the birth canal for her newborn.

She slipped a little
further into reflection mode, traveling fifteen years into the past to her first
time in the delivery room. She was just past her twenty-third birthday and
thought by virtue of having read every piece of literature known to mankind
about childbirth that she was fully prepared for anything and everything that
could possibly happen. She mused for a second about how much more research she
could have done if the internet had been in wide use at that time. She’d
sailed through childbirth classes and stood staunchly and vehemently opposed to
any type of pain relieving intervention. She was going to do this the
completely natural way: drug-free or not at all.

Then she’d gone over her
due date.  A week passed and she was so swollen and uncomfortable that
when her OB suggested inducing labor, she really didn’t think twice. Of course,
she’d had that idyllic vision of the contractions starting and slowly but
surely becoming regular, all timed out perfectly with a stopwatch. Then the instinctual
maternal revelation that it was time to head to the hospital would gently dawn
upon her. But no amount of idealism could ease the discomfort she was feeling
and her desperation to evict the little one who had taken up what seemed like
permanent residency in her womb.

She settled into her
suite in the child birthing wing of the hospital and braced herself for what
was to come. Little did she know that the evil drug Pitocin had a reputation
for making contractions hard and painful from the beginning, giving her no
chance to ease into labor. She was about 10 hours into the grueling ordeal
when she succumbed to the siren lure of the anesthesiologist who was pushing
epidurals. In the end, it was the right choice. She ended up taking
another 10 hours to fully dilate and she wasn’t sure that she could have endured
the marathon without the pain relief. It was just another example of
stubbornness resulting in Sarah having to eat her words. But at least she had a
beautiful newborn daughter to show for her efforts!

She thought again of
James’ sister, surrounded by her husband and perhaps other family members,
everyone supportive and rooting her on. Sarah had mostly labored alone. Her
mother had arrived at the hospital by the time of the delivery so at least
someone had been by her side to share in the joy of bringing a new life into
the world.  She remembered staring into her daughter’s tiny, precious,
scrunched up newborn face, marveling over her impossibly pinchable cheeks and
delicate nose and lips, her eyes tightly closed and fully dedicated to the
business of sleeping. Sarah was suddenly seized by an overwhelming sense of
love and responsibility. All she knew was that this tiny bundle in her arms was
completely hers to take care of, to guide and teach and protect.  

“You okay?” James
startled her from her fifteen year old flashback.

“Oh, sure,” Sarah
replied. “Sorry, I was thinking about your sister and remembering the day Abby
was born.”

“Oh yeah?”  He
glanced over at her briefly, the tension he emanated seeming to well up again,
but then turned his eyes back to the road. They had nearly reached their
destination.

Sarah decided not to
elaborate at this time. She was still unsure how he felt about her being a
mother. Plus she didn’t want to remind him any more than necessary about
his sister’s situation. She reached over and touched James’ hand and the
corner of his lips curled up at the feel of her skin against his. He steered
the car into the parking lot, turned off the ignition and turned to her,
stroking her cheek with his forefinger. “You look beautiful tonight,” he said.

Sarah nearly blushed,
which was not a natural state for her. There was something about receiving a
compliment from such a handsome man that made it more meaningful than hearing
it from someone else. Sarah considered for a moment how coming from James, who
was frugal with his compliments, it was entirely different than if it had come
from Pawel, who showered her with compliments generously and frequently. They
walked hand in hand into the restaurant and after pausing briefly at the
hostess station, Sarah caught sight of Rachel waving at them in her usual
boisterous, vivacious manner. They headed for the table and introductions were
made all around. Sarah handed the birthday card over to Rachel whose hazel eyes
lit up with excitement. “Oooh!  I love being the birthday girl!” she squealed
in a high-pitched voice. Sarah studied James’ reaction to her. She’d never
been around James with other people before and she had no idea what he would
think of her best friend.

Rachel tore into the
envelope and as soon as she opened the card, a plastic gift card to the local
adult store fell out with a click onto the table. Rachel’s eyes became even
more animated, if that was possible. “Oh my god, Sarah, you are the best
girlfriend ever!” She slid out of her seat and around the table to Sarah
in a flash, practically sitting on her lap, throwing her arms around her in a
tight embrace. “Thank you so much! You have to come with me to pick some stuff
out!”

Sarah was relieved to
see that James was amused by this display. He was grinning at Rachel and the
tension he’d worn on his face earlier in the evening had dissolved. Rachel
proceeded to rant about how hard it was to find a vibrator that could stand up
to vigorous use and James seemed rather entertained by her best friend. Jack
was also looking on with a wicked grin, clearly adoring his girlfriend’s fetish
for being the center of attention. Sarah loved watching how her friend could
captivate men so readily with her over-the-topness. She couldn’t really think
of a better word for it than that.
Over-the-topness, yes, if you look it up
in the dictionary, there’s a picture of Rachel for the definition,
Sarah
mused.

Although Sarah was quite
gregarious and open in her own right, she always played the “straight man” to
Rachel’s antics. They really made a good team, in fact, complementing each
other perfectly. She thought for a moment about all the times they’d hit the
town as single women and played “wingman” for each other. They never failed to
leave a swath of smitten admirers wherever they went.  
Looks like Jack
and James are just two more of the fish we’ve easily hooked
, Sarah joked to
herself.

Dinner was a roaring
success. That adjective was all the more appropriate because Rachel had the waiter
roaring in laughter because it seemed she was in the middle of some erotic tale
of adventure every time he came by to refill drinks and check in on his guests. He
overheard quite a display of vocabulary being tossed nonchalantly out of
Rachel’s mouth including such gems as “cocksucker,” “dripping wet pussy,”
“perfectly sober orgy” and James and Jack’s personal favorite of the evening:
“gold medal winner in the kink olympics.” The waiter, who, much to Sarah’s
relief looked too old to be a college student, confided in the foursome that
they were the most fun table he had ever had the pleasure of serving. And
he also wanted them to know he had been waiting tables for over five years.
 

Two hours later, Sarah
and James headed back to his car, James sober as the designated driver, but
Sarah a wee bit tipsy after three glasses of wine. “Where to, milady?” he
asked, grinning ear to ear.

“My house, and stat!” She
plopped down into the seat and slammed the door as if time was of the essence. “Take
me to bed or lose me forever!” she exclaimed as James revved up the engine and
peeled out of the lot. He made it back to Sarah’s house in record time. Sarah
had sobered up a bit and was starting to think of James’ sister again. She
hadn’t heard his phone go off and he hadn’t looked at it. She wondered if
she should remind him or wait a bit longer. 
I’ll remind him after the
first time
...she settled it as he came around to her side of the car,
opened the door and scooped her out into the brisk night air.

He swept her into his
arms, his lips warm and wet, pressed against her own. She felt his tongue
dart into her mouth as his hand grasped the small of her back, drawing her even
closer to him. His musky scent filled her nose and she felt her insides quiver
at the thought of him stripping her black dress away and having his hands run
down the length of her torso and legs. He took the house keys from her
hand and unlocked the door for them. After all the times of her leading him up
to the bedroom, this time, he led her.

Sarah’s dress was the
first thing to go as soon as they passed over the threshold.  James was
unbuckling his pants and stripping away his shirt all at the same time.
Wow,
I didn’t realize he was so good at multitasking
, Sarah noted as they became
naked in record time.

“I’ve been dying to feel
your body against mine all night,” James whispered as he gently lowered her
onto the mattress.

Sarah heard the chime of
her phone from within her purse, which had been haphazardly tossed to the other
side of the room.
Oh, that’s Abby, telling me she got back to Chloe’s house
,
Sarah reasoned. She felt a little bit relieved and sighed as James’ mouth found
the sweet spot on her neck that sent a thousand tingles up and down her spine
when activated.  Her face buried in his shoulder, she breathed in the
delicious masculine scent of him again, pledging to ask him what cologne he
wore when she was able to coherently formulate words again. 

There was a sense of
urgency that came from an unknown source, but both James and Sarah seemed to
feel it. He was sliding his cock into her just moments after they became
horizontal. She wrapped her legs around him, gripping his cheeks to push him to
the depth of her, her nails buried in his flesh, thrusting her hips up to meet
him. “Oh my god,” she breathed into his ear, “I can’t believe how fucking
good you feel,” as he stroked slow and deep inside her.