City Girl Pt. 10

He took a sharp breath and slowly let it out. "That, uhh... That ended up being the last time I ever saw my dad. A few hours later I got called down to the office at school and my mom told me that my dad had died in the hospital from," he paused trying to remember the exact term, "I think they said respiratory distress but I'm not completely sure on that. Regardless, it was because of the amount of gas he inhaled."

Things fell silent for a couple seconds before Sarah let out a sigh, or it might have been a bit of a sob, and hugged him tightly. Chase wasn't sure what to do other than return the gesture and let her process his story.

"I don't even know what to say to all that..." She half mumbled to herself. "I just... wow..."

Chase remained silent and rubbed her a bit, he really didn't know what else to do. Besides, something about holding her seemed to help him relax. If he was honest with himself, it was really nice. He wasn't one to go out of his way to hug someone or hold them unless it was asked for, that kind of physical contact was always something special to him anyway. That realization forced him to confront the way he thought about the woman he was holding. He always knew he found her attractive, but he hadn't really ever thought of her as anything more than his neighbor. Hell, if he was honest with himself, he never really thought that way about any women he met, all he really had ever worried about was work and making up for his dad's lost labor around the farm as best as he could.

"Maybe," he thought to himself, recalling his conversation with Randy and Stacy the night before, "maybe now is the time to 'get a move on' and make something happen..." Even having realized that, he still had no idea how to go about starting a relationship. After all, it wasn't exactly something he did often.

His thoughts were interrupted by a yawn from Sarah. "Sorry," she said, "just getting tired."

"Yeah, me too." He agreed. "We should probably finish getting ready for bed."

"But I don't wanna get up." Sarah bemoaned, failing to hide that she was exaggerating her feelings a bit.

Chase let a silence hang for a moment before responding. He took a breath, let it out and then replied, "me neither."

Sarah was silent for a moment as she snuggled into him again. "Yeah, this is kinda nice, isn't it?" She asked.

"Yeah..." Chase admitted. "I still don't want to sleep here though."

Sarah groaned in response, but she did get up and Chase proceeded to get up and go to the bathroom to brush his teeth. As he was finishing up, he heard his phone go off, indicating that he'd gotten a text message. He finished up what he was doing and headed out to his living room to tell Sarah that the bathroom was open.

"Hey," he said poking his head around the corner, "I'm done in the bathroom if you want to finish getting ready for bed." She looked up from her phone, apparently she was in the middle of texting someone, and nodded. Chase returned the nod and headed for his bedroom to check his phone.

He walked over to his nightstand and turned the light on to check his phone. The text he'd gotten was from Randy.

"Hey! Motherfucker!"

"Oh lord, what now..." He thought to himself.

"What?" He replied.

"How are you and your neighbor holding up over there?"

"How did you even know she was over here?"

"She's been texting Stacy all day and Stacy's been telling me all about it."

Chase took a moment to put 2 and 2 together before responding. "I'm guessing she's probably the one that put you up to whatever you're about to tell me, isn't she?"

"Hey! We're starting to get through that head of yours after all."

Chase rolled his eyes. "Ok, so what do you want?"

"Invite her into your bed."

"Excuse me?!"

"Did I misspell something? Ask her to sleep with in your bed. With you."

"I don't exactly fuck on the first date. Hell, I don't even think this counts as a date."

"We're not asking you to fuck her, we're asking you to sleep with her."

"Ok, but why?"

"SHE... FUCKING... LIKES... YOU!!!"

"And you think that because of that she'll want to sleep with me out of the blue."

"I don't think, I know."

"How the hell would you know?"

"Same way I knew she was at your house genius."

Chase didn't even know what to say so he didn't bother responding. He was about to lay down when he got another text. Clearly Randy had other ideas...

"Dude, when she gets done getting ready, just invite her to sleep with you."

"Fine." Was all Chase was willing to say in response.

"You'd better do it."

Chase put his phone down on his nightstand and plugged it in to charge. Right as he finished, he heard the sink turn off. Realizing that Sarah was probably done getting ready he decided to go follow through with Randy's demands, as if he had anything to gain from it.

"Don't kid yourself," a voice in his head told him, "you know damn well you'd love to have her in your bed tonight."

"You're not helping." He told the voice, as if that made any sense to do. He decided to keep his mind on task and tried to come up with a way to ask the question that wouldn't be unbelievably awkward.

He started walking towards the bathroom and was a bit surprised to be greeted by Sarah walking out of his bathroom. "Well, here we go..." He thought to himself, still not entirely sure what to say.

"Oh..." Sarah said as she noticed him, "Hey..."

"Hey..." he managed to say in response. "Umm... If you don't want to sleep on the couch, I've got half of a full-size bed available."

Sarah looked at him, clearly a bit dumbfounded. And if Chase was honest with himself, he was too. He was actually impressed with himself after managing to pull a line like that out of his ass.

"I guess I'd be crazy to turn that offer down." Sarah eventually replied. "Give me a minute to put my things back and I'll be there."

"Alright." Was all Chase managed to say through his own dumbfounded state. He proceeded to return to his bedroom, entirely unsure what exactly was about to happen.

He didn't get much time to think before he heard Sarah coming down the hall towards his room.

"Hey, is there somewhere I can plug my phone in in here?" She asked as she walked in.

"Yeah, right here." He said as he pointed to the outlet behind his nightstand.

"Thanks." Sarah responded. She then proceeded to plug her phone charger in and walk around his bed to lay down beside where he was sitting.

Chase then turned the light off, casting the room into near total blackness before he laid down and pulled the covers over both of them. Sarah didn't take long to scoot herself over closer to him and rest her head on his chest. She also put one leg across his lower abdomen and snuggled in as close as she could.

"Well that didn't take you very long, did it?" He commented.

"You're warm." She responded, her pleasure evident in her voice.

Chase sighed in response and proceeded to wrap her in his arms. He then took to looking at the ceiling in his room and letting his mind wander until he managed to drift off.

Unfortunately for him, his mind wandered to the one thing that was different in his bedroom, the woman in bed with him. He closed his eyes only to have images of her from the last two days enter his thoughts.

"God," he thought to himself, "I still can't believe it took me until last night to realize just how easy she is to look at. Hell, in two days I went from thinking of her as a neighbor and nothing more to knowing she likes me and having her in my bed."

He knew the ball was definitely in his court and that Randy and Stacy were right about him needing to do something, but he didn't want to just ask her out randomly.

"Then again," he realized, "if I did just ask her out, it would probably be something she'd been waiting on for a while. From her side of the fence, it would probably come after a long time of wanting me to ask."

"Exactly," he heard his grandpa's voice in his head, "so what the hell are you waiting for? A sign?"

Chase sighed in response, as if it was anything other than his own thoughts he was frustrated with.

"Are you alright?" Sarah asked.

"Hmm?" Chase responded, unsure of what had tipped her off.

"I have my head resting on your chest..." she explained, "I felt that. And I heard it too."

"Oh..." Chase responded. "I'll be fine. I'm just thinking."

"About what?" She asked.

"Yeah, I walked right into that one..." He thought to himself. He knew he wasn't about to reveal that it was her that he was thinking about.

"Chase?" She asked again. "You know you can talk to me, right?"

"Look," he heard his grandpa's voice again, "she didn't run for the hills when you told her about your dad. Hell, she even came into your bed after you told her about it. Just bite the bullet and tell her what you're thinking."

"I..." he struggled to find the right words. "I was just thinking about what's happened over the last two days... Between the two of us specifically."

"Really?" She asked, lifting her head a bit to look at him.

"Yeah." He replied.

She laid her head back down. "Me too. I was just thinking about how, two nights ago, I was scared I had accidentally done something wrong when you stormed out of the barn like you did."

Chase felt something pull at his chest when she said that. "Yeah..." he said, mad at himself, "I really could have handled that better. It was just that the scene was too similar to what it looked like that morning with my dad and my emotions just got the best of me. But you still didn't do anything to deserve how I reacted."

"It's ok Chase." Sarah replied. "I struggled to talk about my dad for months after he passed away, and I can only imagine having to deal with it if I had been there when it happened."

Chase sighed and squeezed her a bit. "Thanks." He said. "I was worried that hearing about my dad would scare you off."

"No." She assured him. "My first instinct was to help, not run."

"Well, I can definitely appreciate that..." He admitted.

"I do kinda wish I could do more than listen..." she mumbled.

"You don't have to do more than that." He assured her. "Sometimes that's all it takes."

Sarah sighed in response. "Well, thanks." She told him before letting the room fall silent for a few moments. "So what exactly do you consider us after the last two days?"

"Well..." Chase began, again trying to choose his words carefully. "If you'd have asked me two days ago, I'd have said neighbors and nothing more."

"And now?" Sarah asked, not missing a beat.

"Now," he replied, "especially after last night, I've started to wonder if maybe something more could become of this."

Sarah was silent for moment, and he could tell that she was thinking about something. "I mean... if you want to give 'something more' a try, I've been thinking about that for a while."

Chase debated whether he should tell her that Randy and Stacy had given her away.

"Screw it." He thought to himself. "What's the worst she could do?"

"I've heard." He admitted.

"Wait, what?!" The surprise in her voice almost made him laugh. He could only imagine the look on her face. "Who told you?!"

Chase had to stifle another laugh before answering. "Randy and Stacy may or may not have given you away." He confessed.

"Well those little..." Sarah said, not finishing her sentence.

"Well, before you get too mad," he replied, "if they hadn't pointed it out last night, we probably wouldn't be doing this right now."

Sarah huffed before responding. "I guess..." she muttered, clearly still a bit upset.

"Now are you gonna ask?" He heard his grandpa's voice in his head. "She already told you she's been thinking about it."

Chase took a deep breath. "If it makes you feel any better," he began, "I'm willing to give 'something more' a try now too."

"Really?" She asked.

"Yes." He answered. "Let's just agree not to rush things."

She responded by crawling to get her face closer to his and snuggling in again. "Deal." She whispered.

Chase took a deep breath as the tension broke and moved his arms to cradle her better. He felt a notable urge to kiss the top of her head, but he ignored it and closed his eyes to relax. Before he knew it, he could feel himself drifting off to sleep.

As he came to the next morning, he felt more relaxed than he had felt in a while. He tried to move a bit, but was quickly reminded that Sarah was in bed with him.

"Man," he thought to himself as he found a comfortable position again, "I don't think I've slept that well in forever." He reached over and picked up his phone to check the time, and found that it was 4:45. He couldn't help but chuckle. Over a decade of getting up every morning to feed and milk cows had seasoned him to wake up at the same time virtually every day.

He put his phone down and laid still for a few minutes, enjoying the peacefulness. Unfortunately, that didn't last long as he soon felt the urge to go to the bathroom. "Heh, for once I actually feel bad about having to get out of bed early in the morning." He thought to himself.

He did his best to not disturb Sarah as he slowly worked his way out from underneath her and got out of bed. He covered her back up and went to take care of his own business in the bathroom. He left the bathroom and headed out to the kitchen to make himself breakfast. Being as quiet as possible, he got out a frying pan and set it on the stove. He'd decided to make some bacon and eggs, something quick and easy and he could make enough for Sarah, assuming she wanted some. He turned the stove on and got a package of bacon and a dozen eggs out of the fridge.

As he was waiting for the bacon to cook, he got the toaster out and set it on the counter. After doing that, he returned his attention to the bacon and watched it, waiting for the time to flip it.

After flipping the bacon and getting a plate for it, he was standing by the stove waiting for it to finish cooking. As he waited, he felt a pair of arms wrap him in a tight hug, sending a bit of a shiver down his spine until he realized who it was.

"Good morning." He said just loud enough to be heard over the sound of the bacon sizzling. "Did I wake you up?"

"Kind of." Sarah responded, yawning before continuing. "I woke up because I was cold and was going to go back to sleep, but then I smelled bacon and heard you out here and, well, now I'm here."

Chase smiled, not that she could see him. "Why don't you go ahead and get around and maybe by the time you get back I'll have some stuff ready to eat."

"But you're warm though..." She protested.

Chase couldn't help but smile, he really did enjoy the physical contact, especially since she seemed to like it as much as he did. He did even feel a little disappointed when Sarah actually did let go and, he assumed, went to the bathroom to get herself around. In the meantime, he managed to finish cooking the bacon he had out and then cracked a couple eggs into the skillet. Everyone in his family had always cooked their eggs in the bacon grease. Perhaps it wasn't the healthiest way to do it, but it meant less grease to clean up and that they didn't have to use any oil. Plus, in his opinion at least, it made the eggs taste better.

After finishing his eggs and putting his eggs and some bacon on a plate, he put a couple slices of bread in the toaster and went to ask Sarah what she wanted. He made his way to the bathroom and knocked on the door.

"Yes?" She replied.

"Do you want any eggs?" He asked.

"Yeah, can you do two eggs over medium?" She asked.

"Sure can." He replied. "That's all I needed."

He then headed back out to the kitchen to start her eggs. Shortly after doing so, his toast was done so he buttered it and put it on the plate with the rest of his breakfast, and then returned his attention to Sarah's eggs.

Within a few minutes, he'd finished Sarah's breakfast and had taken his own plate to the table and sat down to eat. Soon enough, Sarah emerged from the bathroom and sat down to eat as well.

The two of them ate while making a tiny bit of small talk. After they'd finished Chase had a thought occur to him. "Hey Sarah..." He asked.

"Hmm?" She responded.

"Do you have to go in for work today?"

She was silent for a moment. "I haven't heard anything about her not opening today so probably."

"Ok, what time do you have to be there again? Seven?" He asked, glad he'd happened to think of it.

"I try to get there around a quarter till if possible." She replied. "What time is it anyway?"

"It's probably around 5:15." He said. "So you don't have to panic yet."

"It's only 5:15?!" Sarah asked, clearly surprised. "What time did you even get up?"

"4:45, same time as every morning." He answered.

"You get up at 4:45 every morning?" She asked.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Force of habit. Back home we milk cows at 5:30 and over the years I got conditioned to it."

"Geez."

"Well, for now I probably should head out and see if I can get our driveways cleared enough for you to get to work."

"Well... Be careful."

"I will." Chase assured her. He then headed back to his bedroom and got his thermals on and then went and put on his outside clothes. He trudged his way through the more than a foot of snow that the blizzard had dumped on them to the shed to start the 2755 and get to work. To his surprise, the tractor started fairly easily and he could get to work right away after unplugging the block heater.

Clearing their driveways was a fairly uneventful endeavor. He even found out that the county had made their rounds and gotten the snow cleared.

After he had finished, he brought the tractor back and parked it in his driveway. He'd figured he'd just take Sarah back over to her house with it rather than mess with starting his truck.

He was about to head inside to get Sarah when she came out towards him with her bag she'd brought over the day before. She climbed up into the cab with him and he immediately took off towards her house.

"Thanks for letting me stay here yesterday and thanks for the breakfast." She said.

"No problem." He replied. "When you told me you'd lost power I wasn't about to let you freeze over there."

"Yeah..." She said thoughtfully. "Thanks again."

"Hey, before you head inside," he told her as she was climbing out of the cab, "go ahead and make sure your car starts before I leave."

She nodded and headed to her garage, opened the door and then started her car. She gave him a thumbs up, a gesture he returned, and then he turned the tractor and headed back to his own house.

After parking the tractor and heading inside, he found that all the dishes were cleaned and were sitting in the sink drying. He finished getting out of his outside clothes and texted Sarah.

"You didn't have to do the dishes." He told her.

"No but I didn't have anything else to do." She replied.

"Well now what am I supposed to do all day?"

"Nothing. Need I remind you that you're in recovery from surgery?"

"I think I can handle dishes..."

"Well, now you don't have to. I'm gonna get going, have a nice day."

"I'll try. Be careful."

"I will. Ttyl."

Chase then put his phone down smiling and let his mind wander as he went back out to the couch and sat down. It didn't take his mind long to wander to the woman that was now his girlfriend. As images of her went through his mind, the feeling of her body against his joined in and he quickly felt his anatomy reacting to his thoughts. "Ok fine..." he thought to himself, "I guess I can finally take care of this."