Beekeepers

“Where are we all gonna sleep?” Chrissa asked.

“Jimmy can bunk with me,” Jared offered. “Come on, dude. I’ll show you the coolest tiny house you’ve ever seen.”

Everyone was fairly toasted, and Chrissa was nearly drunk.

“Wait, wait, wait!” she slurred. “Jared? You’re not sleeping with Willa?”

“Chrissa! Oh, my...God!” Willa said through her own buzz.

“What? It’s obvious you two are hot for each other.”

Chrissa turned to Willa and asked, “Am I wrong?”

“Honey? We need to get you to bed,” her husband told her as he got up to lend her a hand.

“I’m fine,” she insisted. “And I’m also right, aren’t I?”

Willa was buzzed but still in control. She looked over at Jared who only smiled as if to say he knew it was the beer talking, and that made her feel better. And yet there was some amount of truth to Chrissa’s words. Willa was just too foggy-brained to sort through it all—whatever ‘it all’ meant.

Jared shook hands with Don and went to shake Chrissa’s when she grabbed his hand.

“If Willa won’t kiss you, I will!” she said as she pulled him onto her lap.

The way he landed sent searing waves of pain from his leg to his brain, and Willa felt sick when she heard him gasp from it and then again when Chrissa kissed him on the mouth.

Slowly, Jared began to get up, and when he did, Willa jumped to her feet, put one of his arms around her and helped him stand up while asking if he was okay.

“What? What’s going on?” Chrissa asked.

The way Willa stared at her shut her up immediately, and no one said another word other than Willa.

“Come on. I’ll walk with you,” she told Jared who was leaning on her heavily.

“Can I give you a hand?” Jimmy said.

“Go open the door for us, would you?” Willa asked.

He fast walked toward the little front porch light on the tiny house and Willa stopped to ask how Jared was doing.

“Are you really okay?” she asked, barely able to see his face.

His arm was still around her, and when he looked at her, he smiled then said, “I am now.”

Maybe it was the alcohol, but Willa never moved when he slowly leaned over and softly kissed her. She did kiss back, though, and Jared noticed.

“I’m sorry about Chrissa,” she said very quietly.

“Don’t be. She’s a little drunk, but she’s also very observant.”

Willa’s heart was racing again as she said, “Yes she is, isn’t she?”

“I’m ready,” Jared told her after just looking at her for a couple of seconds.

“All right. Come on. I got you,” Willa told him.

“Yes you do,” Jared replied.

The meaning was twofold and Willa understood both, the beer aside.

When they got to his front door she asked if he’d be all right.

“I will if you don’t forget what happened tonight,” he told her.

Jimmy was just inside and feeling like he should leave, and yet he didn’t want to disturb them so he stood there and waited to see what they might do. When Jared put his right hand on Willa’s cheek and kissed her, he looked away, but when he looked back a few seconds later, her arms were around them and they were still kissing.

“I won’t,” Willa whispered when the kiss finally ended.

“Promise?” Jared asked with a smile.

“I promise,” she told him as though she’d just been kissed for the first time in her life.

“Thank you. For...helping me.”

Knowing how independent Jared was those words meant more to her than anything he’d ever said to her.

“I...I’m glad you let me,” she told him as they held each others hands.

Willa let go and Jared wished her a goodnight.

“You, too,” she said very quietly before heading back.

“You’re not gonna mention that to Chrissa, right?” Jared said to Jimmy when he walked in.

Jimmy was maybe 20 years old and at least six inches shorter and rather shy. He’d only ever called Chrissa ‘doctor’ and her last name, but he understood.

“No. Not a word,” he nervously agreed.

“Great. You can have the top bunk if that’s okay,” Jared told him knowing it would be.

Without any need to move he pointed to where the bathroom was and with that the ‘orientation’ was over.

Jared popped two pills before laying down and in spite of the residual pain he was still experiencing, he smiled as he lay there waiting for sleep to come.

Don had to be on duty at 6am left around 4:30 just as Jared was getting up. With Jimmy sound asleep, Jared went out and set on the front steps and took in the silence of the early morning. To his very pleasant surprise, Willa’s front door opened around 5:30 and as she got closer, Jared saw she was carrying two cups of coffee, and that made him smile.

She said good morning, handed him a cup then asked if she could sit down.

“I haven’t had that much to drink since college,” she began.

“Oh?” Jared replied before taking a sip.

“My head is pounding, and I’m hoping the Tylenol I took will kick in here soon.”

“Are you telling me you regret what happened last night?” Jared quietly asked.

“I don’t know,” Willa replied. “Maybe I’m giving you a chance to back out based on my rather inebriated state.”

“Does that mean you think I’m looking for an excuse to pretend last night didn’t happen?”

“What other reason could there be for it?”

“I’m not following,” Jared told her.

“Do you know I’ll be 40 years old in a few months?” she quietly said without looking at him.

“No, I didn’t know that,” he replied just as quietly.

“And my whole life revolves around bees, so I’m not exactly a lot of fun.”

“So you’ve moved on from ‘it was the beer’ to ‘you can’t actually have feelings for me because I’m really, really old and not a party girl’. I see.”

Willa looked over at him and said, “Be serious, Jared. There are just too many differences between us.”

“Are you trying to convince me or convince yourself?”

“I hate it when you do that,” she told him as she looked away.

“Is that because if forces you to confront your feelings? Feelings you know you have but don’t want to admit even exist because you’re afraid you’ll get hurt again?”

“My ex-fiancé and I had very little in common, and I swore I’d never get involved with anyone who wasn’t a lot like me.”

“And yet here I am in the middle of nowhere taking care of bees.”

He paused then said, “Or I will be starting tomorrow.”

“Right. Mr. Dyer’s bringing them tonight after it gets dark.”

“Willa?” he said then waited until she looked at him.

“I don’t want a party girl. I want someone who’s committed to being committed. For life. And I need someone who knows what happened to me and doesn’t see me as....”

“Disabled?” she said without judgment.

Jared smiled at her then continued talking.

“I have some baggage from everything I’ve been through. That’s a given. I’ve lost a lot of weight, and maybe I’m not that much to look at. But it’s also made me someone who appreciates the smallest little things. Like just being alive. Or having a....”

He smiled at her again then said, “A very, very, tiny house. Or an incredibly intelligent, very kind, caring, and beautiful neighbor I can trust.”

“First of all, thank you, but it’s not like I don’t find you attractive, too, Jared. So please don’t sell yourself short where looks are concerned. I mean, in spite of what you’ve been through, you’re so young and...handsome...while I’m...almost 40.”

Willa managed a smile and Jared just let her talk.

“I love that you feel you can trust me, and my fear of being hurt again aside, I feel like I can trust you, too. In fact, in a way, I’m kind of trusting you with my life just being out here.”

He knew that was true not because he was any kind of threat, but in the sense of him being a kind of security guard for her.

“And as far as, you know, what happened to you over there, I can only say it really changed the way I see you.”

“For the good or...something else?” he asked.

“Let’s just say you went from being a trust-fund kid to someone I see as an incredibly brave man that I...look up to.”

When she said that, she actually did look up to him, and after their eyes met, Jared smiled at her then leaned down to kiss when the front door opened.

He quickly pulled back just as Jimmy said ‘good morning’. Jared and Willa said it back to him, and Jimmy asked if Doctor Chrissa was awake yet, daring to use her first name.

“No, and she may not be up for a good while yet,” Willa told him.

“Yeah, she had a pretty good time last night, didn’t she?” Jimmy said as tactfully as he could.

“You don’t have to wait for her, Jimmy. One of us can take her home later on. You’re welcome to stay, but don’t feel like you have to,” Jared told him.

“I kinda would like to get out here. This place gives me the creeps.”

Both Jared and Willa laughed as he got up and told them he was going to go ahead and leave. They thanked him for all of his help getting the lab equipment set up then said goodbye.

A minute later, he fired up the big box-bodied van and turned it around. He waved on the way out, and once the engine noise was gone, it was eerily quiet.

“So?” Jared asked maybe a minute later.

“Honestly? I think I’m afraid.”

“Not of me, I hope.”

“No. Not of you, just...what you could do to me,” she told him as she stared straight ahead.

“Willa?” he said again waiting for her to look at him.

When she did, he smiled like he’d done before then told her, “I will never hurt you.”

“But...what if I...hurt you?” she asked.

“Knowing what I know now, I would still have gone in the Navy and then through SEAL training, and I would also willingly go back to Afghanistan.”

Willa did her best to smile as she waited to hear the rest of what he had to say.

“And while every relationship carries with it the possibility of getting hurt, I won’t ever let fear control my life. So were you to one day tell me you no longer want to see me, it would be...pretty awful. But I would be grateful for whatever good times we may have had before then and focus on that and not on the breakup.”

“You are without doubt the strongest, most courageous man I’ve ever met,” Willa told him.

“But?” Jared replied with a smile, wondering if a ‘but’ was coming.

“No ‘but’, just an observation.”

“I’m listening.”

“Well, I can’t help but believe that one day, you’ll realize how much older I am than you are and....”

When she looked away, Jared set his cup down, then put his arm around her.

“I told you I will never hurt you, Willa.”

Again, he waited for her to look at him.

When she did, he asked her, “Did you not believe me?”

“I...I want to,” she said just above a whisper.

“It’s true,” Jared whispered back as he leaned closer and kissed her again.

When their lips parted, Willa quietly said, “I believe you.”

When he smiled at her again she asked, “So now what?”

“Now we start doing what we came here for. But first you need to take your friend home.”

“Yes. Right. She’s probably going to be hurting even more than me.”

“I think she had six beers last night.”

“If that’s true, she’s going to need some TLC,” Willa told him. “I should be there when she wakes up.”

“See? Kind and caring,” Jared said as they stood up together.

“Are you really sure about this?” Willa asked as they looked at one another.

“Uh-huh. Very sure.”

She smiled at him then said, “Me, too,” before kissing him one more time before heading back the cabin.

Chrissa woke up around 9:30 with a splitting headache. Willa offered her Tylenol with some milk, then suggested her friend drink as much water as she could stand and take a hot shower. Chrissa was feeling a little better when she finished with the shower, and Willa asked if she felt like eating.

“No way. Just the thought makes me want to....”

“Okay. Fair enough. Just let me know when you’re ready to leave.”

“Now is fine,” she said. “I just hate having to face Jared again after last night.”

“Oh, stop! I’m sure he’s seen a whole lot worse than that.”

Chrissa looked at her friend then said, “You really like him, don’t you?”

Willa looked away then turned back and said, “Is it that obvious?”

“As obvious as it is that I had way too much to drink last night.”

“After all he’s been through, I don’t think seeing you get a little tipsy will even register on his radar.”

Chrissa stopped in with Willa and said goodbye on her way out and apologized for her ‘lushness’, and that made Jared laugh.

“I’m not only glad to meet you, I know Willa loves having a friend nearby. And you and Don are welcome anytime.”

Chrissa turned to Willa and said, “It sounds like Jared is speaking for both of you.”

Her friend smiled at her then moved next to Jared and took his hand before saying, “I kind of like that.”

Chrissa smiled, and in spite of her aching head, said, “I knew it!”

They all laughed, hugged, then said goodbye.

“I’ll be back soon, okay?” Willa told Jared as Chrissa watched.

When Willa kissed him, she smiled but didn’t say anything until they got back in the truck.

“He is SO cute!” Chrissa told her friend. “And so young!”

“Don’t remind me, okay?” Willa said before Chrissa laughed then put a hand on her forehead as though it would stop the pain.

“Listen, if I wasn’t crazy in love with my husband, I’d be playing around with all these hot, young undergraduates. I won’t, but you’re not married.”

Chrissa realized what she’d just said then apologized.

“Don’t. If whats-his-name hadn’t dumped me, I’d have never met Jared,” Willa told her.

Jared spent the first few hours after Willa got back letting her explain what the lab equipment was and what it did. He asked a lot of questions that showed he wasn’t just listening but also understood a fair amount of it. That he did only made her feel better about the decision she’d made to open her heart to this younger man, and she told him so.

“We have even more in common now, huh?” he told her as he put his arms around her.

Willa smiled at him and told him she agreed. But almost as soon as she did, she made a face.

“What’s wrong?” Jared asked.

“You um...you don’t smell so good again.”

“Wait. I just took a shower here....”

“You need another one,” she told him with a very different kind of look in her eyes.

“I do, huh?” he asked as he smiled at her.

“Yes. You really do.”

“So...should I go back to my place and take one?”

“You could. Or...you could stay here and take another one.”

She smiled happily then added, “With me.”

“Gee. Let’s see. Alone at my place, or....hmmm. Tough call.”

“It better not be or I made a very bad decision this morning,” she told him, unable to stop smiling.

“And what decision did you make?” he asked as though he had no idea.

“You’re way too smart to play dumb,” Willa told him. “Now get undressed and get in the shower.”

Jared laughed and said, “Aye, aye, Captain!”

The water had just gotten hot when Willa stepped in and joined him. There was barely enough room for them to turn around, but neither of them complained.

They kissed and touched one another for a good while before Willa grabbed the bar of soap and a washcloth and began scrubbing his body. She’d only gotten a short glimpse of what she knew she’d be seeing close up. But even when she saw it, it didn’t have the effect she thought it might.

The burns were as awful as the scars, but as she very gently washed them, always asking if it was too hard or hurting him, she could only think about the kind of man he was. By the time he finished doing the same to her body, Willa knew she was falling in love with him, scars and all. And when he entered her a few moments later she gave herself to him completely, giving no thought to anything other than who he was and how much she cared for him.

Jared had already fallen for her the day before but wouldn’t admit it to himself until he saw the way she looked at him when they made love. He didn’t mention it for fear he’d scare her away, but there was no doubt in his mind he was in love with this older woman he thought was more beautiful than any woman he’d ever known.

As they dried off, Willa started laughing and Jared asked her what was so funny.

“Remember when you told me you thought I might have seen something else when I saw you in the shower? Something else you said was very tiny?”

“Ah, right! I do remember that,” he told her.

She turned around, let her towel fall to the floor, then said, “Let me assure you, it is NOT tiny.”

Jared let his fall, too, and smiled when she looked down at ‘him’.

“Yeah? So...no complaints?”

“Only one,” she told him as she tried not to laugh.

“Yes?”

“I’m not very happy that we’re not in bed together right now. Other than that....”

Jared knew he could pick her up, but he also knew that doing so would cause him a lot of pain. So instead of doing that, he pointed to the bed and asked her why she wasn’t laying on it waiting for him.

“Are you ordering me to bed, sir?” she asked as though she were a little girl in trouble.

“That I am, Missy,” he told her.

Somehow she didn’t laugh as she tried her best to salute him then, just like him, said, “Aye, aye, Captain!” before laying down and laughing.

Jared sat on the edge of the bed and looked at her, and that made Willa ask if he was hurting.

“No. I just wanted to sit here and take in how beautiful you are for a little while,” he told her so seriously it nearly made her tear up.

She thought about making a joke about her age or not really being very pretty, but Jared made her believe that she was like someone else once had, but this time it was very different.

“Thank you,” she said very sweetly as she held out a hand.

As he gingerly found his way on top of her, Willa looked into his eyes and told him, “I’m still afraid.”

“Why?” Jared asked with real concern. “Are you having second thoughts?”

“Uh-huh,” Willa told him with a shake of her head. “I’m afraid because I think I’m already falling in love with you.”

When he didn’t say anything, she said, “How’s that for foolishness?”

“If it is, then I’m an idiot because that’s exactly how I feel about you/”

She could tell he was serious, and once she knew it she reached for him and said, “Make love to me again. Please?”

When the bees arrived that night, even Mr. Dyer could tell something was different with the two people with whom he’d done business. He was in his golden years, but he wasn’t blind. The laughter, the teasing, and the occasional touching told him this unlikely pair had become a couple. He wasn’t interested in their personal lives, so he didn’t say anything. He was just thankful to be rid of the bees he’d loved for so many years and that had provided a lot of honey—and money—or his family.

“I’m really glad you two kids are taking our bees,” he told Willa both after the hives were all in place.

“We promise to take good care of them,” Willa assured him. By speaking for both of them, she helped confirm his unspoken suspicions.

“And uh, I’m really sorry about the mix up. You know, with me selling a couple of the hives and all.”

“As it turns out, Jared and I have kind of agreed to be partners. Where the bees are concerned.”

He walked up just in time to hear her last sentence then asked, “Just where the bees are concerned?”

The way she smiled at him also told Milton Dyer more than a thousand words could have as he said it was time to get back home.

“Good luck to you findin’ a cure, young lady,” he said to Willa.

“That’s been my dream for years,” she told him.

Mr. Dyer pretended not to notice when she took the younger man’s hand. But he did hear her say, “Now I have other things to dream about, as well.”

He just tipped his ball cap to her, then shook their hands and wished them all the best.

“He’s a nice man,” Willa said as he drove away.

“So you’re not still upset about him selling the hives to me?” Jared asked as he turned to face her.

Willa put her arms around his neck and shook her head.