My Heart Says Yes (8 page)

"I did have a nice
time with them, they are a very cute couple and very sweet. It's nice to see
romance still alive at that age.”

“Oh, they aren’t a
couple. They just usually sit together at all of the functions that we have
here.”

"They might not be
an official couple Caleb, but they definitely are interested in each other.”

“I don’t know Emma, you
might be reading into something that isn’t there.”

“Trust me, women know
these things.”

Caleb then stood right
beside me and leaned back against the counter with his arms crossed and caught,
and held, my gaze as his eyes danced.

“Oh really? What else do
women know?”

There was that sexy,
flirtatious smile again and my belly went crazy with fluttering butterflies as
I struggled to form a sentence. 
It is just not normal to be so damned
good-looking! 
I decided to flirt right back.

“Women know of a lot of
things Caleb, and one of the most important things we know is we know what men
want.  We know how to make them happy.”

He raised his eyebrows
and I could see his interest in what I was saying increasing even more.

“Oh yeah?  Tell me Emma,
what is it that I want?”  His eyes smoldered as they slowly wandered up and
down my body.

Just then blondie came
bouncing into the kitchen. 
Damn.

“There you are, I was
looking all over for you.  What are you doing in here?” 

She saw me and her eyes
narrowed, and then she quickly put on a saccharin smile for Caleb and stuck out
her hand.

“Hi, I’m Carrie.”

She must have been the
world’s biggest moron because clearly she could see that my hands had soap all
over them because I was doing the dishes. I looked at her hand, looked into the
sink at my hands, shrugged my shoulders and returned her fake smile.

“Sorry I can’t shake
your hand but it’s nice to meet you also, I’m Emma.”

“You look familiar Emma,
have we met before?” 

Her perfect hair, her
perfect teeth, and her perfect body were beginning to make me feel extremely
insecure, especially having Caleb standing between us looking back and forth at
us.  I was sure that he was comparing us and, physically, there was just no
comparison.  She was absolutely stunning and I wanted to disappear.

“No, but we were at the
same party a few weeks ago.”

“
We
were?!”

The look of shock on her
face would have been funny if it wasn’t about me.  I could see her brain trying
to register how she and I could ever possibly be at the same party.  I really
didn’t like girls like her.

I couldn’t hold back the
sarcasm as I slowly drew out my words.

“Yeah…
we
…were. 
Imagine that, huh?”  I saw Caleb holding back a grin out of the corner of my
eye and I was now bored talking with her so I went back to washing the dishes. 
I decided to rub it in a bit to her that I knew Caleb.

“Caleb, would you mind
handing me that pot over there and then how about helping me dry these dishes?”

He looked surprised but
then quickly handed me the pot and grabbed a towel and started drying the
dishes.

Carrie’s mouth fell open
and then she quickly snapped it shut and I almost laughed out loud.  I don’t
think she was expecting me to know Caleb like that and she certainly wasn’t
expecting to see him helping me with the dishes.  I know I shouldn’t have, but
I got a lot of pleasure out of the shocked look on her face.  She stood there
confused for a minute and then made an excuse and told Caleb she would talk to
him later, and left the kitchen.

Caleb started laughing
as soon as she was out of the kitchen.

“I don’t think anyone
has ever put Carrie in her place like that!”

“She seems a bit
possessive of you, is she your girlfriend?” 

I don’t know where I got
the nerve to ask that question but it was something that had been bothering me
since I saw them together at the party.  I found myself saying things that I
normally wouldn’t say ever since I had met Caleb. He had some kind of influence
over me and all I know is I wanted to know as much as possible about him
because no one had ever made me feel the way I felt when I was around him.

He gave me a sly
sideways look, raised an eyebrow, and then a small flirtatious smile turned up
the corner of his mouth.

“Hmmm, I wonder what
you’re hoping the answer will be.”

I was instantly
embarrassed and became very defensive.

“Oh, I’m not hoping
anything one way or the other. I’m just trying to figure out why a girl that I
just met was basically shooting daggers at me the entire time she was in the
kitchen. The only reason that I can come up with is that she is your girlfriend
and she did not like that you were in the kitchen talking with me.”

       I could feel my cheeks burning and I
wanted to just crawl inside the cupboard and hide.  I wanted to kick myself for
opening my mouth.
Why did you even ask him that question Emma? Who knows
what he thinks now.

       “Carrie is harmless, it just takes
her a little while to warm up to people. I'm sure you were just imagining any
sort of dirty looks she may have been sending your way. She’s always been very
nice to
me
.”

       He still had that little sexy smile
dancing at the corner of his mouth.

      
Well of course she’s always been
nice to you, she probably wants to hookup with you, if she’s not already doing
that.
 Men could be so clueless sometimes, so even though he didn’t answer
the question I just dropped it.

       I think he saw that I was bothered
so he sidled up to me and gently nudged my hip with his.

       “Hey,” I turned to look at him and
my stomach did a major flip.  I had never been
this
close to him and he
was beyond beautiful.  “She’s not my girlfriend.”

       A smile slowly spread across my face
and there was nothing I could do to stop it.  He looked down at my mouth and
then his eyes searched mine as his face slowly moved toward me.  My heart was
thumping out of my chest in anticipation of what was about to happen.  His soft
lips touched mine and lingered for a couple of seconds before he slowly pulled
away and searched my eyes again, his finger gently touching my cheek.  “That
was nice.”

I don’t know how I was
able to remain standing because my knees felt so weak that I thought I was
going to melt right into the floor.  It was easily the best first kiss I had
ever had.  I was completely tongue-tied because I did not expect for him to kiss
me, and it was such an amazing kiss that I was on cloud nine.

“We should probably get
back to the party, I'm sure people are going to start wondering where we are.
There's still a little bit of time left before these guys go back home so we
have time to play at least one more game with them.” 

I heard him talking and
I saw his lips moving but it was difficult for me to comprehend what he had
just said to me, so when he started to walk out of the kitchen I just followed
behind him.

When we re-joined the
party everyone was sitting around playing different games of cards, so Caleb
and I joined Jack, Mary and a couple of others at their table to play with
them.  I saw Carrie staring at us and it looked like she was seething, and I
know it sounds terrible but it made me feel good to know that a guy like Caleb
was more interested in me than he was in a girl like Carrie. I had never had
this kind of attention from a guy like this before, and I have to say it really
boosted my confidence.

“We were wondering what
happened to you Emma, but now that I see you were with Caleb I know you are in
good hands. Caleb has been coming here for years and is such a nice young man.
You make sure you look after my new friend Caleb, okay?”

Caleb chuckled at Jack’s
protective words.  “Sure thing Jack, she is safe with me.”

I smiled at them and it
felt really good to be me right then because I had Jack looking out for me, and
Caleb promising to protect me.  I wondered if my dad saw how these two new men
in my life were treating me already, if he would feel badly about the way he
treated me. 
One of these days I am going to have a real heart to heart with
dad.
  I pushed any more thoughts of him out of my mind because if I were to
dwell on my relationship with him, it would dampen the mood and I wanted to
revel in this happy time.

We finished playing our
game of cards with them and it was time for everyone to leave.  Caleb took
charge making sure everyone had a ride home.

“Jack and Mary I can
give you guys a ride home since you both live close to each other if you want. 
This way Mary, Amy, who drove you here with your group, can give a ride to a
group who live close together, if that’s okay with you.  Because I think she
had to drive 20 minutes in different directions each time to pick you all up,
is that right?”  Caleb had a concerned look on his face and I was so touched
because he truly wanted Mary to be comfortable with the arrangement.

He is nothing
like I thought he would be.

“Yes, the poor dear. 
She told us that one of the drivers was sick so that’s why it took so long to
get all of us.”

“Well we have a couple
of people that have volunteered to drive groups of people home so we should be
fine now.”  Caleb turned to look at me.  “How are you getting home?”

“Oh, I’m just going to
take the bus.”

“No, you’re not. I’ll
give you a ride home.”

I didn’t argue with him
because I really did not want to ride the bus home and, of course, I would
rather be with him.  We all said our goodbyes to everyone and then we were on
our way.

 We had a lot of fun
riding in the jeep with Jack and Mary.  I found that Jack had an incredible
sense of humor and he had all of us laughing almost the entire way to Mary’s
place.  When we pulled up to Mary’s building, I told Mary how nice it had been
to see her again and I looked forward to seeing her again soon.  Jack got out
and asked us to wait for him while he walked her to the door.

I watched them through
the window and saw that Mary had her arm linked through Jack’s arm.  
Aren’t
they sweet
?  I didn’t realize I had said it out loud until I heard Caleb
respond.

“You’re a bit of a
romantic, aren’t you? And to answer your question, yes they are very sweet, as
you say.”

I turned around and
realized that this was the first time Caleb and I had been alone since he
kissed me in the kitchen and suddenly, I felt just a little bit nervous.  I
felt him looking at me and I slowly turned to look at him and a smile slowly spread
across my face.

“Do I have a hair out of
place or something?”

My hands were resting in
my lap and he looked a bit serious as he reached out and linked a finger
through mine, his eyes gently searching mine.   “I really enjoyed today.”

The butterflies in my
belly were getting out of control and once again I was speechless.  Instead of
dwelling on why Caleb would be interested in someone like me, I decided to just
go with it and see what happens.  No, I was not used to this kind of attention
from a guy like him, but it felt really good and I didn’t want it to end.

I gave him a small smile
in return. “Me too.”

He started to lean
toward me and I could feel my palms getting sweaty as my heart was thumping,
and right then is when Jack came back to the jeep.

“Okay kids, now that I
have walked my lady friend to her door we can get going.”

Caleb backed away and decided
to tease Jack about Mary and have a little fun with him.

“You know Jack, I think
you might have a little crush on Mary.”

I glanced at Jack in the
mirror and saw him blushing and it was so cute.

“Oh no, no, Mary and I
are just friends. She is a wonderful woman and I enjoy spending time with her,
that’s all.”

I decided to chime in. 
“I don’t know Jack, it looks like you and Mary have a little bit of chemistry
going on, and I think she likes you too.”

“Oh now, now, you two,
have you become professional matchmakers?”

“Maybe we should because
I think I see a love connection!”  I couldn’t help but have a little fun with
him.

“Hey Jack, have you ever
spent any time with Mary outside of the functions at Friends of Seniors?” 
Caleb looked genuinely curious.

“Well no, I’m sure Mary
has other things to do during the week.  I know she plays bridge and her book
club meets once a week. I wouldn’t want to intrude on her time.”

Caleb decided to give
him some encouragement.  “Jack, in all honesty, I really think that maybe you should
ask Mary out on a date.  You know, just go for a cup of coffee or something
simple like that where you guys can talk to each other.  Actually, if you don’t
feel comfortable going out with her alone, just the two of you, then Emma and I
could always double date with you two.  What you think about that?”