The Road to the Country, Part III

Giddy excitement over the new intriguing romance enveloped me. He was all I thought about. The next night he called and asked to talk to me instead of my roommate who had been his friend for nearly 5 years. She raised her eye brows as she handed me the phone, “He asked for you. He must be hooked.” That was the first of many phone calls that lasted late into the night. It was as though our relationship was in turbo drive and how we felt about each other was never vague. At the State Fair, just a week after our combine ride, I went as his date and he held my hand in front of our friends. And on the way home, it was just me and him in his pick-up truck. 

I asked coyly, “So, when does a girl get the honor of sitting in the middle seat next to her guy?”

“Right now, if you would like.” He responded. I undid my seat belt and scooted over to sit beside him. I had arrived. I felt special as he smiled his approval. There was no question from that moment on, that we were together. I had never known a relationship to be so simple and perfect.

One night just a few weeks later, we were sitting in a mostly dark living room at my house talking late into the night. We were holding hands and we started talking about the future. Normally a dreaded subject, I didn’t hesitate when I told him my feelings. I told him about past relationships and how they ended. I had decided the year before that the next relationship I had would be different. I shared about what a youth pastor had told me when I was in high school that a guy should never say, “I love you” to a girl unless he was down on one knee ready to propose. If “I love you's" are exchanged sooner, they become empty. I found that to be true and I wanted this special guy to know that I wanted this relationship to be different. 

He agreed but asked, “So what do I say when I feel more than just “like” for you?”

I giggled. I thought for a moment and said, “How about “I really, really super like you’.”

“OK then. How do you feel about kissing? Does that need to wait until I am down on bended knee too? Because that would be kind of an awkward angle.” He teased.

Through the humor, my heart hammered inside my chest. I wanted to kiss him more than anything in the world. We were sitting so close. He smelled so good. The way his strong fingers stroked my hand made me crazy with anticipation. Somewhere, deep, deep inside my consciousness, I remembered making some personal decision about kissing. Seemed like, if my faulting memory was correct, that taking the step to the physical relationship was always dangerous. Instead of talking and getting to know each other better, all we would want to do was kiss and then kiss some more. And pretty soon our relationship would be more physical than either of us could handle. It sounded more than appealing at the time, but I reigned in my emotion. As I gazed into his earth shattering blue eyes, I knew I had many more days to feel this excitement. It was still the hardest thing I've ever done to say, "Not yet."

“I think kissing should wait too. Maybe not until engagement, but close. Maybe. Um, I don’t know. It is just special, you know? And it means so much. And I don’t want to get carried away. I’m not sure.” My words stumbled out.

“I guess you will just have to tell me when you are ready to be kissed then.” He said and I groaned. 

I wanted to say, “Right now,” but I didn’t. He soon needed to leave for his home 20 minutes away. How long could a person exist on 5 hours of sleep a night? We hugged at the door and whispered good byes. Could it be that just 2 weeks before I was happy to just be in the same room with this guy and now I felt his arms around me? I felt so blessed. My toes tingled with happiness. This relationship felt more “right” than anything before in my life. 

This is something better, I thought.

To be continued...