“
When I swung open the door, there he was: Marlboro Man, wearing Wranglers and a crisp white shirt and boots. And a sweet, heart-melting smile.
What are you doing here? I thought. You’re supposed to be in the shower. You’re supposed to be with the sex kitten.
“Hey,” he said, wasting no time in stepping through the door and winding his arms around my waist. My arms couldn’t help but drape over his strong shoulders; my lips couldn’t help but find his. He felt soft, warm, safe…and our first kiss turned into a third, and a sixth, and a seventh. It was the same kiss as the night before, when the phone call alerting him to the fire had come. My eyes remained tightly closed as I savored every second, trying to reconcile the present with the horror movie I’d imagined just moments earlier. I had no idea what was going on. At that point, I didn’t even care.
“Ummmmm!!! I’m t-t-t-ttellin’!” Mike teased from the top of the stairs, just before running down and embracing Marlboro Man in a bear hug.
“Hi, Mike,” Marlboro Man said, politely patting him on the back.
“Mike?” I said, smiling and blinking my eyes. “Will you excuse us for a couple of minutes?”
Mike obliged, giggling and oooo-ing as he walked toward the kitchen.
Marlboro Man picked me up and brought my eyes to the level of his. Smiling, he said, “I’ve been trying to call you this afternoon.”
“You have?” I said. I hadn’t even heard the phone ring. “I, um…I sort of took a nine-hour nap.”
Marlboro Man chuckled. Oh, that chuckle. I needed it badly that night.
He set my feet back down on the floor. “So…,” he teased. “You still cranky?”
“Nope,” I finally answered, smiling. So, who is that woman in your house? So…what did you do all day? “Did you ever get any sleep?” So, who is that woman in your house?
“Well,” he began. “I had to help Tim with something this morning, then I crashed on the couch for a few hours…it felt pretty good.”
Who was the woman? What’s her name? What’s her cup size?
He continued. “I would’ve slept all day, but Katie and her family showed up in the middle of my nap,” he said. “I forgot they were staying at my house tonight.”
Katie. His cousin Katie. The one with the two young kids, who had probably just gone to bed when I’d called earlier.
“Oh…really?” I said, my chest relaxing with a long, quiet exhale.
“Yeah…but it’s a little crowded over there,” he said. “I thought I’d come over here and take you to a movie.”
I smiled, stroking his back with my hand. “A movie sounds perfect.” The busty, bronze mystery girl slowly faded into oblivion.
Mike came barreling out of the kitchen, where he’d been listening to every word.
“Hey--if you guys are goin’ to the movie, c-c-c-can you drive me to the mall?” he yelled.
“Sure, Mike,” Marlboro Man said. “We’ll drive you to the mall. It’ll cost you ten bucks, though.”
And as the three of us made our way outside to Marlboro Man’s diesel pickup, I had to bite my lip to keep myself from articulating the only seven words in the English language that were in my vocabulary at that moment:
God help me--I love that man.
”
”