Kevin was going to leave her a note and tell her to call Kay to come and get her when she woke because he didn’t want to wake her. She woke on her own when she heard his alarm, and he tried to move her quietly out of his arms.
“Why didn’t we have sex last night?” was the first words out of her mouth. It was what she had gone to bed thinking about, and it was the first thing on her mind when her eyes opened.
Kevin laughed and propped himself up on one elbow to look at her.
“Did you want to?”
“Isn’t that why you wanted me to come home with you?”
“No, I don’t need to have sex with you. You sleeping in my arms gives me just as much satisfaction.”
“I thought we were done with the serious crap.”
“I didn’t mean that to be serious, I mean I’m serious, but not in the same context that you’re talking about. I will make love to you right now,” he added and kissed her lightly, just once.
“Sex,” she corrected, and he smiled down at her.
Kevin did make love to her before they got up, and she knew they were not just having sex. Sex didn’t cause the feeling in her chest the way this did. Sex didn’t make her stare into his dark eyes the way this did. Sex didn’t take over her entire existence the way this did.
Kevin showered, and while he was in the shower she took her own toothbrush out of her bag and washed her face and got dressed. He left the bathroom and came back to her pulling her hair into a pony tail. He was buttoning his shirt and tucked it into his dress pants, and they watched each other through their reflections in the mirror. He pulled the collar up on his shirt and placed the tie in its designated position. She turned to him and held both ends of the tie in her hands and pulled him to her and kissed him.
“You taste like mouthwash,” he teased.
“I thought it was you,” she replied, with a smile.
“Are you going to tie it or just hold onto it?” he asked.
“I have no clue how to tie a tie,” she admitted.
“You can’t shoot pool, you can’t play basketball, you can’t play poker and you can’t tie a tie,” he joked.
“I kicked your ass in poker, and I ‘m a pretty good cook. Teach me how to tie it,”
He smiled down at her. “Start with the wide end and pull it to the just below the belt,” he explained.
“Here?” she asked, touching his crotch as she did.
“No. Not there, about right here,” he said, moving it himself. “Cross the wide end over the narrow end and bring the wide end behind the narrow end,” he explained, holding his hands over hers to show her. Once he was done with all of the steps he took it and tightened, putting it in place.
“There, you just learned how to tie a Windsor knot,” he said with a kiss. “Are you ready, I have to get going?”
“Do you mind if I hang around here for a little while, and I will call Kay to come and get me. I need to make some calls and use your laptop if you don’t mind.”
“I don’t mind a bit, and there’s plenty of coffee left.”
Kevin kissed her in the kitchen before leaving. “Am I going to see you tonight?” he asked, hoping that she said yes.
“Maybe, let me see what Kay has planned.”
“Kay is very boring, she has nothing planned,” he teased.
That was one of the calls she was planning on making with her alone time. She was going to call Carter and set up an arrangement for them to get Don and Kay together. Kevin left her at the table with his laptop, and she Googled Alley’s name to read up on all of the gossip, and that was exactly what it was. They had her pregnant wondering if the baby belonged to the hot bodyguard or Jerrod Jackson. The tattoo was speculated to be a cult symbol, and her drug habit was out of control, and she was checking into rehab once the premier was over.
She tried to call Alley, and didn’t get an answer, and she tried Trevas.
“Hey Peyton,” he answered.
“Hey Trevas, where’s Alley?”
“She is upstairs throwing an Alley tantrum.”
“Why now?”
“Her stylist is making her wear a beautiful dress that looks amazing on her.”
Peyton laughed. “Are you guys still flying out here Wednesday?”
“We are still coming, but we are driving. We’ve had enough flying and people for a while.”
“What time will you be here?”
“I am not sure, but it will probably be late. We will more than likely just go straight to the cabin and see you guys Thursday.”
Kay hesitated on the next call and dialed the number on the little piece of paper.
“Hey Carter, its Peyton Paxton.”
“I was hoping you had come to your senses,” he replied.
“Not a chance. Do you think Don would go to the Warehouse tomorrow night?”
“I don’t know if he would go there. That is kind of her place.”
“Well you know more about this place than I do. You tell me where.”
“I will try and get him to go to the Warehouse, but I am not making any promises, and I think this is a mistake.”
“Okay, that sounds like a plan,” she told him, ignoring the mistake remark. “What time?”
“I work till eight tomorrow so it can’t be till like nine.”
“That is perfect, see you tomorrow,” she told him, and thought that it was indeed perfect. They would get there around seven, and she would make sure she had enough alcohol in her before nine, or was her being drunk when she saw him a bad idea?
Peyton of course had to explore Kevin’s home before she called Kay. It was a normal cul-de-sac home, one that you would expect to see in a neighborhood like that. The dining room had a beautiful oak table with six chairs and a matching china cabinet with a very elegant set of china displayed inside. She looked at the tiny yellow roses around the plates and cups with a gold etching and wondered if they were a family heirloom or if they had been something that his wife had left behind.
She opened the door beside of the dining room, and it was a small home office. She sat at the desk and noticed the picture of the middle school on the corner of the desk, and it puzzled her as to why he would have a picture of the old school displayed on his desk. It was a normal school, small with only one story, but Kevin had told her that was why they had built the new one and closed this one seven years prior. They had grown out of it, and it was old.
Next to that picture was a picture of a handsome young man that she was sure was Jonathon, his son, because he looked so much like him.
She nosily opened the desk drawer and pulled out a thick folder that read, ‘Project in Progress.’ She opened it to find photo shopped pictures of the middle school. The rooms had been converted into boy’s dorm rooms with beds and desks. There was another room with three sofas, a huge flat screen T.V. and videos. What was all of this? She wondered as she turned and saw the books that read, ‘How to get government grants’ and ‘Running a nonprofit organization.’ Was he planning on opening a home for boys with the old school? She was going to ask Kay about it and see if she knew anything about it.
Peyton called Kay to come and get her around nine.
“What happened to staying away from him?” Kay asked as soon as she was in the car.
“I’m an idiot. I don’t know what happened, he showed up at your house, and I was consumed. I can’t say no to that the man,” she replied, light heartily.
“Does that mean you won’t mind if I run to my office really quick?”
“No, I don’t mind,” she said, trying to contain the excitement of seeing him.
“I really didn’t think so,” she told her honestly.
“Kay, I found something at Kevin’s this morning that I don’t understand.”
“Let me guess, something that is probably none of your business?”
“Exactly,” she smiled. “It was a bunch of stuff on the school.”
Peyton didn’t have to explain any more, Kay knew exactly
what it was.
“Yeah he has talked about it for years. He wanted to open up a boy’s home for boys that get into trouble or are headed down the wrong road. He thinks he can be superman and help them turn their lives around or something like that. I don’t think he has mentioned it for a while though, there’s a lot of red tape, plus he doesn’t have the funds to convert it anyway.
“Why would he want to do that?” Peyton asked, not understanding.
Kay looked at her and smiled. “He was really there for Trevas when he got into drugs and almost went to prison. His son Jonathon also got into drugs when he was a senior in high school, and his mother sent him here with his dad when she couldn’t do anything with him. I don’t know where either of those boys would be right now if Kevin hadn’t intervened.”
“Why must you make this man sound so perfect?” Peyton asked, and was out of her comfort zone again with him. She was used to men who cared about themselves and expected other people to bow down to their arrogant egos.
“I have to go out on the floor for a little bit,” Kay explained to Peyton as they walked through the office doors. “You can come with me if you want or you can go see Kevin,” she gave her the choice but already knew she was going to choose Kevin over the loud factory.
Peyton didn’t answer and stopped at his door, and Kay shook her head and continued on her way.
Peyton knocked on his door, and he opened it with a smile and as soon as it was closed he had her in his arms kissing her. “What are you doing here?” he finally asked.
“I don’t know. Kay needed to come in for something.”
“She did a lot better taking vacation in California than she does here,” he told her aggravated at his friend who couldn’t go a day without knowing what was happening there.
Kevin looked down at his watch. “I have a conference call in five minutes,” he told her, letting her know that he didn’t have time for her right now.
“That’s okay, I just wanted to stop and say hi,” she said letting him off the hook.
Kevin kissed her, and it was enough to cause her arms and legs to go limp and want more. “Am I going to see you tonight?” he asked, hoping she said yes.
“Sure, what do you want to do?” she asked, with an idea already in mind.
“Besides, making love to you?”
“Stop saying that,” she demanded.
“I am not going to call it sex, Peyton,” he assured her.
“Why? That’s what it is. You don’t have to be Mr. freaking Goodbar, I don’t need it sugar coated.”
“And I am not going to make it sound cheap either,” he replied.
Peyton had no clue how to respond to that. Did it make it sound cheap? Did that make her cheap? Because, if so than her whole adult life had been cheap and if she didn’t feel that way before she did now. Thanks Kevin.
She kissed him and told him he needed get on his call.
“I will pick you up after work,” he told her kissing her back.
“Can we go shoot hoops in the gym?”
He looked baffled. “Um…yeah if that’s what you want to do.”
“Yes, it is,” she replied with another kiss, before leaving him.
*****
Kevin picked her up from Kay’s around six, after running home and grabbing a shower and getting rid of the business clothes first and replacing them with jeans and sneakers.
They messed around with the ball for a little bit and then Peyton asked him if they could walk through the school. He unlocked the hall door and let her go in front of him.
“It’s kind of spooky,” she said, looking down the dark hall.
He walked her to a custodian’s closet and unlocked that door as well and flipped on lights in the breaker box.
“Better?” he asked with no reply.
They looked in the abandoned classrooms and she noticed the paint peeling off of walls, the tiled floors cracked and missing pieces, left over desks, and unwanted school supplies strung about.
“How many classrooms are here?” she asked.
“Twenty four, why the sudden interest Peyton?” he asked, wondering if Kay had told her what he wanted to do with this place.
She shrugged her shoulders. “Curious, I never went to a normal school.”
“Where did you go to school?” he asked as he continued to follow her through the halls of the uninhibited school.
“I was home schooled.”
“Why?”
She snorted and looked up at him as she slid her hands into her jean pockets.
“My dad is a Baptist preacher. He thought public school would be a bad influence.”
“I hope he hasn’t seen any of your movies,” he joked.
“He has, he thinks its devils work. Hell, it probably is,” she halfheartedly agreed.
“Did you grow up in Florida?”
“Yes, I left there as soon as I turned eighteen.”
“To get away from daddy?”
“Yes and all of his ridiculous rules.”
“And you went to Los Angeles?”
“I went to art school there, and that is where I met Fletcher.”
“So you do have to go to college to be an actor. I often wondered about that.”
“You do not have to go to college to be an actor. I was only in school for one semester before Joan Hughes picked me out of the first show I had ever done. She was my first agent and got me my first role.”
“What was your first role?” he asked curious.
She laughed. “Toothpaste commercial.”
“Hmmm, I am going to have to Google that.
“And then I was the president’s daughter in my first movie, and I got to say, Okay, dad. I will see you at Christmas.” She laughed, reciting her first and only line from her first movie.
“I’m hungry, let’s get out of here,” Kevin told her taking her hand.
Peyton stopped him by pulling on his hand. “Bet I can beat you back to the end of the hall.”
“You better get a head start,” he replied, accepting her challenge.
Peyton walked backwards, looking at him and holding up one finger, telling him to wait. “Not yet, not yet,” she kept saying, making sure she had plenty of leeway, knowing that his long legs would catch her in no time.
“Now!” she yelled, and darted as fast as she could away from him.
He caught her way before she reached the end of the hall and grabbed her around the waist and spun her around with him. “You lose,” he boasted.
Peyton turned to him, and both their happy smiles were replaced by serious, longing expressions as he slowly moved into her, gazing at her eyes and then to her lips as she parted them for him and he kissed her for the longest time.
“You need to stop,” she whispered, ready to rip his clothes off and she felt his smile on her lips.
“Do you like fish?” he asked.
“Sure,” she replied with an amused expression at the sudden change in his thought pattern.
*****
They picked Kay up, and the three of them went to a restaurant at a local mom and pop diner and Kevin ate his share plus their share of the all you could eat fish special. They had a good time, but she was asked for her autograph a few times, and people there seemed to gawk at her more. They enjoyed their meal, but she did have to tell Kevin not to touch her because she didn’t want the publicity, and she had turned her head away from him once when he had tried to kiss her. Kevin of course took it the wrong way, and decided that she didn’t want people to see her with him on account of him being a nobody, and not wanting her reputation to be jeopardized by him.
Kevin was quiet on the ride back home, and she wasn’t sure if she was going in the house with Kay or she was going home with him. She waited in the car, once Kay got out and turned to him.
“Are you not asking me to go home with you tonight?” she asked, and he turned to look at her too.
“Are you sure that is what you want to do?”
“Wh
at does that mean Kevin?” she asked, not understanding.
“You wanted nothing to do with me all night Peyton,” he reminded her.
“That’s not true. Kevin I am Peyton Paxton, and just because I’m here in Logan Utah, doesn’t mean that someone in that restaurant didn’t take our picture, and it’s already all over the internet.”
“And you being seen with me is horrible, right?”
“Being seen with you, no…Being intimate with you …yes.”
“You do have a silly life.”
“Why do you do that? Why can’t you just say what you mean rather than making me constantly ask you, what that is supposed to mean?”
“I think you know what it means Peyton.”
“I’ll talk to you later,” she replied, shaking her head frustrated with him, and really having no idea at all, what he was talking about.
Kevin didn’t stop her, and she went in with Kay. She closed the door behind her and let out an irritated groan.
“Lovers quarrel?” Kay asked.
“That man is ridiculous, no wonder he is single.”
“What’s his problem?” Kay asked, sensing the tension from the quiet ride home as well.
“From what I can decipher, he is pissed because I wouldn’t let him touch me at the restaurant. We finally agreed that we were not going to talk about anything serious and just have fun while I am here, and he acts like this. What the hell Kay?”
“Honey, I quit trying to figure men out a long time ago. Why do you think I’m still single?”
“Whatever, we are going back to that bar tomorrow night Kay, and drinking lots of screaming orgasms.”