Who Names The Colors

In Bed The Kiss

Jo opened her eyes to weak morning light, but sun in late January was shocking enough for her to blink open after just one or two sleepy drawn out blinks. It was definitely morning, and she could see her phone just out of reach on the nightstand. If the sun was up, she should probably be up, but she had very little incentive to reach for the phone.

Doing that would probably wake up Harry, and she was tangled up in him in a gooey pile of limbs that made her wish it was a Saturday when she could stay in bed until her daughter made her way down the stairs and they could scramble from bed together and giggle while a naked Harry hid in her bathroom while she cuddled her daughter. He could appear then in the kitchen and this time, Jo could make him breakfast.

But it was Tuesday. Jo needed to go to her office today and she had some classes to teach in the afternoon.

Her head was pillowed on Harry's bicep and she turned her face into his skin and inhaled his scent. She kissed the star she found there and thought about his celestial body. He made her see and feel like she was a part of the stars last night. Beyond the boundaries of her own body. Beyond space, and time, even. 

He had said he wanted to wait on her I love you, to see if she still felt it when she had recovered her spine. Jo was aware of her vertebrae this morning, every bone of it was pressed against his chest, and though she had places to be all she could think was how she wanted to stay pressed against him in bed all day. A day near him, even doing nothing, resting or giggling,  would be no waste.

There was no chance that today could be one of those days. Jo had classes to teach and Zoe had preschool today and toddler gymnastics tonight. She wished Harry could watch that. It was the cutest mess Jo had ever witnessed and Zoe looked more than adorable in her leotard with shorts attached. Jo loved watching her do the somersaults and stretches. That streak of fierce determination that made Jo crazy when it was about what t-shirt she wanted, usually the one covered in tomato sauce, came out and she would narrow her little blue eyes and focus every bit of her attention and try again and again until she got it. It filled Jo with pride and hope for her future.

She had always worried about Ethan. He always was the life of the party and center of his friend groups. People gravitated to him. That could be such a good thing, but she often saw him molding himself into what his friend's  wanted. He wanted to please the people around him more than to follow his own heart. He also always seemed to be seeking out bigger and better friends, especially before they moved. Jo had been so thankful when he had found Harry. Harry and Ethan stuck like glue.

She understood why. Harry was a lover and once he was in your life, a part of you, it was hard to shake him. You didn't want to. Like right now, she never wanted to. Maybe one day they could tell Ethan and they could really try to be together, like Harry suggested, after he wasn't her student. Jo wanted that, but thinking about it, telling her son made a cold block of ice form in the warm heart of her belly. She couldn't think about that, not right now. She wasn't ready, she was still terrified of how the most important man in her life would react to find out about her new superlative male being his best mate, his longest friend. Jo shook her head and the motion brought a little life back to Harry's body.

Jo felt the changes more than saw them. The bicep she was laying on twitched on her earlobe, his chest expanded with oxygen against her back, she could feel his torso lengthen then contract and his hips came up against her own tighter. She knew he was awake when she heard him rub his feet together. The swishing sound they made signaled he was just about to nod off as well. A hazy habit he had when he was going into or coming out of drowsing. It made her smile.

"You awake?" He rumbled into her hair. Jo thought about the creaks and rolls of his vowels when he first woke up all the time. It made her skin feel too tight and her heart huge. "I can feel your smile on my arm, so I'm gonna guess you are." His arms tightened around her. He nuzzled down into her neck and kissed the skin he cleared with his chin. She could hear her hair get stuck in the sparse stubble on his chin. "Good morning, Jo."