The Lovely Garden by Emma Mohr Page B

be so excited.”
    “He is! Now, let’s hurry up so you can go tell him!”
     
    Even though I had planned on visiting him anyways, it was still a shock when I found myself on Charles’ front porch, a bottle of wine in hand. I rang the doorbell, praying that I wasn’t interrupting something even though I knew I wasn’t since I had called him before leaving the restaurant. In the silence left in the wake of the loudest doorbell I had ever heard, I shifted from foot to foot, dancing in the porchlight.
    When the door was finally opened I was met with a disheveled Charles. His hair was all over the place and his clothes wrinkled, as if he had fallen asleep. Mixed with his bare feet, it was a very sexy look. I wanted to run my fingers through his hair while my lips were on his our tongues exploring each other’s mouths. Instead, I cleared my throat and held up the bottle of wine. “I brought wine!” Came out a little more excited than intended, but I would just go with it.
    A lazy smile spread across his face slowly. Oh yes, this man had just woken up, and all I wanted to do was get him back in bed. I had to bit my lip to keep myself from rushing to him. “Come in,” he said, moving out of the doorway so I could do just that. And I had to say, he looked quite sexy in his sweatpants and t-shirt.
    Entering the house set my nerves on edge. I had spent the entire weekend here, with Charles, but it still made me twitchy coming in. As if I was waiting for it to fall apart. Which it very well was and I knew it. The intensity of this relationship, only three days in and I was already looking for comfort from him, frightened me.
    He was shutting the door as I turned back to him. “Where to?”
    “I’ll be going to the kitchen,” he said, plucking the bottle of wine from my hands. “You head to the living room. You can have your pick of the TV.” I got a quick peck on the lips before he disappeared toward the kitchen, and I headed toward the living room.
    The living room was modest in size and decor. A white couch and matching loveseat sat against the walls, and a flat screen television was mounted to the wall in front of the couch, a wooden coffee table between them. The carpet was beige in color and fluffy. Felt good on my bare feet; I left my shoes outside of the room, not wanting to ruin the nice carpet.
    The couch was calling to me, but went for the floor. Sometimes, a woman just needed to sprawl out on the floor. At least, the carpet was pretty comfy. Felt as if it had hardly been walked on, and it probably hadn’t. From what I gathered, Charles spent most of his time in his office working or in his room sleeping.  And his parents hadn’t been ones to sit and do nothing either. So, that left me with a nice soft floor to lay on.
    Charles came in a few moments later, two glasses of wine between his fingers and the open bottle of wine in the other hand. He smiled down at me as he set the bottle and glasses on the coffee table. “That looks pretty comfortable.”
    I gave him a lazy smile, stretching my arms above my head. “It is.” I moved over enough for him to fit between me and the coffee table. “Join me.”
    He didn’t hesitate. He flopped down on the floor, lying on his side with his head propped into his hand, looking at me. I just turned my head to smile at him. “What brings you here this fine evening?”
    “Aside from drinking wine and hoping to get you in bed?” He hummed, tracing my jaw with the barest of touches. My eyes closed at the touch, and I had to push back a moan. “Honestly, comfort,” I said, my voice a little hoarse. “I got fired today.” And I found out my best friend was pregnant with her second child before I had even managed to find someone to have a stable relationship with. That I could keep to myself though.
    There was a storm brewing in his light brown eyes and his touch turned rougher. A moan managed to escape through my lips. “I should have dragged you out of there like I