Meadow smiles. "Yeah. For a couple nights at least."
"My parents, my family, they have a hunting cabin up in the woods. It's nothing fancy, but I could always take her up there for a few nights too."
"A cabin's different than camping in a tent though," Meadow says.
"Do you like being in the outdoors?" I ask her.
"I love it. I basically grew up outside,” she says. “I love new campsites and sometimes still, even though we have the RVs, if we go to a really beautiful place, I like to set up a tent in the summer when the weather's good because there's something about waking up with the birds chirping and the morning dew." She smiles, her cheeks rosy. She's beaming. "It feels like a fresh start all over again. Do you know what I mean?"
I nod. "I totally get it. So," I say, "it must be pretty hard to date if you're on the road."
Meadow laughs. "Yeah. A little bit. Besides being on the road and traveling so much, it’s also hard to date when your family is always up in your business.” She pauses. “It might be a red flag, right? The fact I haven’t dated before and you’ve experienced so much in life."
I nod, sitting back in my chair, wiping my mouth with my napkin. "We do have different life experiences. That's for sure. I had so much love and loss all packed into such a short amount of time, enough to last a lifetime, really. I loved Beth, but I’m no longer the man I was when I met her. Back then I was just a kid. I didn't really know what I wanted. What really mattered. Losing her changed me. You know? Taking care of Plum on my own made me grow up real fast. And I always knew that family was important, but I know that on a deeper level now," I say, blinking back tears. "Damn. Sorry. It's just, family's everything to me. I like that about you, Meadow. Your family and you, you're as thick as thieves."
She exhales. "You're making me real emotional. You know that, Reuben?”
"Do you not usually cry?" I ask, seeing the tears in her eyes.
"I'm not all hard edges, no, but I don't know. Just sitting here with you, talking, I feel like you see me in a way no one else ever has. Is that crazy?" She pushes back from the table. "Sorry," she says, "I feel like..."
I stand, walking over to her, pulling her out of her chair. I take her hand in mine. "What do you feel, Meadow?"
"I just feel like I was supposed to meet you today. Like maybe I fell just so that you could carry me here."
"So I could carry you home?"
She looks up at me and I lean down. I kiss that girl again deeply, with passion, with care. I kiss her knowing I don't want to stop, but eventually she pulls away.
"I'm sorry," she says with a grimace. "I'm balancing on one foot and it's hard as hell."
I chuckle. "Let me help with that," I say. I lift her up in my arms and I carry her over to the couch. Sitting beside her, I ask, "Is that better?"
She lets her legs rest over my knees, her hand cupping my cheek, running through my beard. "That's better," she says. "Now kiss me again, Reuben." So I do.
8
MEADOW
Reuben and I just met today, but I feel, deep down in my soul, like I've known him my whole life. When he looks into my eyes, when his lips press against my own, I feel a longing that won't be satisfied by anyone but him. I pull back from the kiss, my heart pounding, my whole body hot, warm, wanting him. "Are you okay?" he asks.
"I've never felt so good in my life."
"Damn," he says. "You're incredible, Meadow."
I smile. "You're pretty special too, Reuben." He laces his fingers with mine, and then I confess, "I have to tell you something. I know you're experienced. In a lot of things that I'm not. You've been married. You have a daughter, but I've never even..." I swallow. "The thing is, I am a virgin, Reuben."
His eyes meet mine. He nods. "I wondered," he said. "When you mentioned the fact you haven't really left home and spread your wings."
"Does that make you...?"
"What?" he asks.
"Does it make you not want to be intimate with me?"
He gives me a soft smile. "That's the last thing I'm thinking."
"Really? I didn't know if it would turn you off. If it would make you think, I don't know, that I was too precious."
"You are precious, Meadow. But when I hear that you're a virgin, that no man has ever been with you, damn. It makes me feel like a fucking caveman."
I laugh softly, "Really?"