That Blue Gibson

CH 84

Dave set her limp body on the bed and began to pull off his jeans, bracing himself on the nightstand when his legs protested. The entire way up to the room from the bar earlier, he had devised a plan. He would light the candles in the bedroom, turn on the fireplace, make everything beautiful and romantic so she wouldn't feel as if their entire night was ruined by his ex-wife turning up in the bar, but knowing that Jordyn was in the same building waiting for her boyfriend was just too much for him to ignore.

When he had turned on the fireplace, it was like a switch went off in his head as well. He finally understood exactly how Liz had felt that day in Oregon when she pounced on him in her kitchen, she wanted to feel like she was finally with someone that wouldn't leave her. Not that he could ever blame Jordyn for leaving him, he had pretty much driven her away, but he still felt abandoned and unwanted that year before Liz had been thrust into his world wearing a blue dress and smiling at him over her beer.

"Will you take this fucking thing off of me please?" she whined, throwing her arms into the soft pillows beside her head.

"You're alive!" he pulled off his shirt and crawled across the bed to carefully pick the thread out of the stuck zipper. 

"Just barely," she muttered, putting her arm around his shoulders so it wouldn't be in his way and sighed in relief when he finally freed the zipper.

"Sorry I got kinda bossy in there," he said quietly. 

"I'm not," she smiled and moved only as much as he needed her to in order to pull off the dress. "You know it's a good birthday when you have to be carried to bed." He watched her lazily stretch out her limbs and settle back into the pillows with a satisfied smile. "Wait, how did you know what I said?"

"What?"

"When I used French to uh... demand your attention."

"Oh," he laughed when she blushed. "I know some basics and I know how to swear so I put them together."

She went quiet for a moment, running her fingers through his hair and he knew she was trying to think of a way to bring up what happened in the bar.

"Come on," he coaxed her to sit up and pulled back the blankets, crawling under them with her and pulling them up and over their heads to create a shield against the outside world.

"You okay?" she finally asked.

"Yeah, I just wasn't expecting... her," he hesitated, not wanting to bring her up in the safety of their bed.

"I don't think she was expecting us either," she smiled.

"Was she nice to you?"

"Very. She said she doesn't want things to be weird."

"Yeah, the girls will pick up on that," he said, knowing immediately by the look on Liz's face that he must have repeated Jordyn's sentiments, if not her exact words. He had been with her for the better part of two decades and they had brought three people into the world, so it was inevitable that they were working on the same wavelength, especially when it came to the girls. 

The silence from her was crushing him and the night's events were like a wedge forcing them apart even though they were physically tangled up together in the sheets. Unable to stand it any longer, he pushed her hips into the bed and lay above her, feeling more at ease when she locked her legs around his to keep him in place. 

"I can't..." she feigned exhaustion but her body betrayed her in every way, showing him how badly she wanted him.

"Yes, you can," he traced his fingers across her cheek and she took his hand so she could kiss the back of it.