Love is the Key

He wasn't going to try and be a hero, so Dan put the bike rack on the back of his car and brought his bicycle to the starting point.

Jill laughed when she saw it, but when Dan got out of the car limping, she stopped.

"Are you all right?" she asked with real concern.

"I will be. I just overdid it yesterday."

"You should have taken it easy."

"I think I was trying to impress you," Dan told her as he began freeing the bike from the rack.

"You did that when you rescued me from Cliff," Jill told him in a very kind way.

Dan was so surprised by what she said that he stopped and turned around.

"What did you just say?" he asked, even though he heard every word.

Jill laughed and said, "I believe you heard me."

"I was just making sure," Dan told her as he smiled.

"I almost told you that when you showed up yesterday. Not that I doubted you would. It was just that I couldn't find the right time to bring it up, and to be honest, I'm still trying to work through how I feel about all of this."

Dan went back to work untying and loosening straps and asked, "So have you come to any conclusions."

Jill laughed as she stretched.

"Someone isn't paying attention."

Dan lifted the bike off the rack, turned around and set it down.

"Oh?"

"Yes. I believe I clearly said that I'm still working things through in my mind."

"Ah. Okay," Dan said with a smile. "That still sounds pretty encouraging to me."

Jill stood up, smiled at him then said, "Working things through could have one of two possible outcomes. Don't go assuming anything just yet, okay?"

"Me? Assume? Never!" Dan told her a little on the dramatic side.

Jill laughed again and assured him he was doing fine. So far.

"Just don't blow it, soldier," she told him as she hit the start button on her watch and took off like a shot.

"Okay, that was just rude!" Dan called out as he gingerly lifted one leg over the bike's frame saying, "ouch, ouch, ouch!" with every leg movement.

Pedaling stung, but it was at least bearable. Running, however, would not have been. He caught up to her in a few seconds then rode alongside. The day before Dan barely said two words during the run because it was all he could do to keep going. Today, he was able to talk in a conversational tone, and Jill was more than happy to talk as she ran.

They started with Dan asking where she grew up, and after learning she'd lived in Wichita her whole life, he asked how long she'd been running. That led to her asking about his upbringing, college, the Army, flight school, and flying for KAKE.

At the turnaround point, Dan decided to venture into the personal and asked about the state of affairs with Cliff.

"There is no state," Jill told him as she powered along.

Dan stayed just slightly behind her shoulder so he could see her from his favorite view point. Jill looked so stinking cute in the white ball cap and yellow sports bra, her ponytail swishing around as she ran, that he couldn't take his eyes off of her. Other than long enough to make sure he didn't run into her, of course.

"He called me late that night, but I didn't answer. He called again after our run, and that's when I told him it was over."

"I'm sure that didn't go over well," Dan mused.

"Ha! That's an understatement. He went on and on about all the time we've spent together and how much he cares for me, and blah, blah, blah."

"But?"

"Yes. But. Not once did he tell me he loved me. And when I mentioned wanting to have a baby, he got downright pedantic with me asking me to think about how old I'll be when the 'kid graduates from college'."

"That's always pleasant. I mean, who doesn't like being talked to like they're a child."

Jill laughed and said she totally agreed.

"Cliff isn't a pompous ass by any means, but he can get a little condescending, and although I 'only' have a bachelor's degree and didn't go to law school, I'm not exactly a hayseed."

She laughed as she said 'hayseed' but Dan didn't.

"No, you're not. You're not even close. In fact, you're one of the most intelligent people I've had the pleasure of meeting," he told her.

"You're really trying to speed up my internal deliberations, aren't you?" she teased.

Jill looked over at him when she said that, and Dan shivered when she did. For the life of him, he could not believe this beautiful woman could possibly be 43 years old. Her skin was fair and tight, and there were only the faintest of lines around her eyes when she laughed or smiled. He could tell she was older than he was, but the actual difference in their ages felt like it couldn't be possible.

"All's fair in love and war, right?" Dan joked back.

"We're not in love, so are you trying to tell me we're at war?" Jill asked, keeping the lively banter going.

"I'd call it more of a...siege."

"A siege. How so?"

"Well, a siege is part of an overall strategy where one makes an all-out effort to break down the enemy's will to fight. You know, pulling out all the stops and what not."

"Oh, so now I'm the enemy, huh?" Jill replied with a laugh as she kicked it into high gear for the last half mile.

Dan pedaled harder, matched her speed, then said, "In a way, yes. The part of you that's resisting my charms kind of is the enemy."

Even at the increased pace, Jill could still talk with very little effort.

"So let me see here. I'm the enemy, you're employing siege tactics, and and it's all part of your overall war strategy, and you call those things 'charms'. Do I have that about right?"

She looked at him again, smiled a very happy smile, her perfectly straight, very white teeth showing through her two soft, full lips before she began sprinting the last 200 yards or so.

Dan didn't try to keep up this time. He pulled the bike in directly behind her and just enjoyed the view. He'd never admit to enjoying the sight of her tight tushy in the tiny, yellow shorts or her long, shapely legs, but he was most definitely loving both of them.

Jill hit the 'stop' button then slowed down and started walking it off.

"How'd we do?" Dan asked when he came coasting up to her.

Jill tossed her head back and laughed.

"We? Um...WE...did very well, thank you."

She looked back down at her watch and said, "That would be 27:42 well."

"Nice!" Dan replied. "Less than seven minutes a mile."

"That's my best four-mile time in...two years or so."

She stopped and waited for Dan to do so, too, then said, "It's really nice to have someone to run with."

"Or ride alongside you because he's too wimpy to run?"

This time it was Dan's smile that got to Jill who realized she really did like this very attractive, much-younger man. She wasn't quite ready to say that out loud yet, but she knew he was very close to winning her over, something she could admit during the post-run endorphin rush she was experiencing. But she'd need to see if it lasted when she was home alone and imagining herself out in public with someone who wasn't even 30 years old.

"The station is sponsoring a 10k in the middle of September. It's an annual thing. Is that something you'd consider doing?" Jill asked as they turned around.

"Yeah. Sure. Definitely. As long as you'll let me keep training with you."

"Keep training?" she asked with a smile. "Don't you have to at least do something more than once to call it training?"

Dan loved her playful sense of humor as much as he loved looking at her. And another quick glance at her midriff revealed an extremely tight waist with no fat anywhere. And yet Jill didn't look overly thin at all.

"Ouch. And...touché!" Dan said with a painful wince.

As they got close to their cars Jill said much more seriously, "I'd like to keep training with you, Dan."

"Yeah?"

"Uh-huh. Maybe even a lot," she admitted, a smile on her pretty face.

"Then I'll out be out here again tomorrow."

"Promise?" Jill asked, her beautiful smile slaying Dan like a weapon.

"Cross my heart."

"Okay. I'll see you then," she told him as she opened her trunk and grabbed a towel to dry off with.

"With any luck, I'll actually be able to run again," Dan said with a laugh.

"Well, don't forget. You're not getting any younger, Dan," Jill said before using the towel to hide her laugh.

Pretending to say it under his breath, he said loudly enough for her to hear, "Pot? Meet Kettle."

"I beg your pardon?" Jill said as she lowered the towel and feigned being hurt.

"Oh, nothing," Dan replied as he looked up in the sky as though he hadn't said a word.

"Your siege tactics need serious work, soldier," Jill informed him as she tossed the damp towel into her trunk.

"Just another piece of the strategic puzzle going into place," Dan informed her.

She laughed then said, "Yeah. Right."

"You'll see," Dan warned.

Then, just as he'd done, she pretended to say something under her breath.

"Like THAT'S ever gonna happen."

"I heard that!" Dan said as he started tightening straps on the bike rack.

"I think you're hearing things," Jill told him. "Isn't hearing one of the first things to go? You know, at...your age?"

Dan turned around, narrowed his eyes, pointed at Jill then said, "Uh-huh. Keep it up over there!"

He used his first two fingers like a 'V' then pointed to his eyes and said, "I'm watching you, Missy."

"Oh, I noticed," she told him without any hint of teasing.

Dan was truly surprised, and Jill saw it. She tried not to laugh but couldn't help it.

"Oh, if you could see the look on your face!" she said, as she covered her mouth as she laughed.

"Ha-ha! Very funny," Dan replied, pretending to be offended.

He pulled the last strap tight then looked at Jill and said, "You can't really blame me, though, right? I mean, the uh...rearview look is pretty amazing."

"Why Dan Summers! I'm...shocked!" Jill teased, loving the compliment.

"Sorry, Ms. Asbury, but thems just the facts."

Dan came over to open her front door when Jill suddenly said, "Are you...doing anything this evening?" surprising herself even more than Dan.

"No, but even if I was I wouldn't be. Why?" he asked with a smile.

"I don't know. I guess maybe your siege has made some progress."

"Oh, okay. And?"

"And...I was wondering if you might like to maybe have dinner with me."

Jill was well aware the endorphin rush was doing the talking, but she also knew there was something about Dan she found more than a little interesting. She might even call it 'intriguing', his age aside.

"I could probably be convinced to juggle my heavy social calendar to fit you in," he told her.

"How magnanimous of you," she said with little tilt of her head and a twinkle in her eye before asking for his phone.

Dan handed it to her and almost said, "I like when a woman takes charge."

But in spite of her playfulness, Dan still saw 'classy' written all over her, and that wasn't a classy thing to say.

She entered her name and number then said, "If you text me, I'll send you my address and the time."

"I'll do that," Dan promised as he opened her door.

She slid by him and also thanked him.

Dan told her she was welcome then closed her door.

By the time she started the car and put it in reverse to back up, he'd sent her a text.

Dan heard her laugh through the car window which she rolled down.

"I had a nice time, too," she told him in response to what he'd written.

"Six o'clock," Jill said as she started to back out.

When the car stopped, she reeled off her address, and Dan told her he'd see her there.

Jill only smiled as she drove off, but Dan realized he was nearly hard, and looked down praying 'he' wasn't showing. Mercifully, no bulge was visible and he breathed a sigh of relief as Jill's car disappeared.

As he walked back to his own car he said out loud, "I have a date with the hottest woman in Wichita, Kansas!"

On his ride home, Dan also realized this was a first for him. He'd never met a woman he found attractive where his first thought was getting laid. So far, that thought had never even crossed his mind as the only thing that mattered to him was getting an opportunity to know Jill better. And the most pleasant aspect of this self discovery was how he didn't care at all that sex was the last thing on his mind.

Jill was busy with her own thoughts as she headed home, not the least of which was her fear that once the high wore off she'd have second thoughts—or worse. But she had an even stronger sense that she'd made a good call. Yes, Dan would still be 29 regardless of what happened, but Jill couldn't stop thinking about how she felt each time she'd been with him.

It was true that amount of time was extremely small, but wasn't that how relationships worked? Didn't two people have to meet then have an impression of one another? From there one of them had to risk rejection and ask the other out, and for the first time in her life, Jill Asbury had just asked a man on a date. Or a kind of date anyway.

So while she had no idea what would follow, she felt good about asking him, and even a little bit hopeful that they could at least become friends. And while anything more seemed unlikely, it had been a very, very long time since Jill had had really, really good sex. Cliff was a solid 'satisfactory' in that arena but no more than just 'okay'.

Even her late husband hadn't been amazing in bed, but she'd loved him so much it hadn't mattered. And for what it was worth, he was still better on his worse days than Cliff was on his best, so it wasn't like she'd suffered.

But the last time she'd had really amazing, mind-blowing sex was in college. So while it wasn't the kind of thing she normally thought about, were she and Dan to become say...friends with benefits...and were he say...amazing in bed...

By the time Jill got home, she was nearly dry with one new exception that had grown very wet just thinking about the possibility of having sex with someone as handsome as Dan Summers who was almost certainly a very-experienced young man.

Neither had any idea the other was fantasizing about them as they showered separately, miles apart. Dan had never needed a...hand where his sex life was concerned until very recently. And because Jill was the reason for that, a reason more than worth waiting for, he found himself doing something he hadn't done since Afghanistan and even then only a few times during the months he was there.

Jill rarely ever pleasured herself, either. It had nothing to do with being a 'prude'. It was more that she didn't find it all that...pleasurable. It was nice to be sure, but the real thing was just SO much better, even when it was with Cliff. But as she stood there under the warm water and allowed her mind to drift, her fingers did the walking, eventually causing her body to spasm most pleasantly several times just before she got out of the shower.

After a couple of hours with Kara making sure she had everything under control, Jill went back home and spent some time deciding what to make for dinner. And just as importantly to her, she needed to decide what to wear. Between those two things plus shopping for fresh food and the actual meal and personal preparations, the rest of her day was filled with more than enough things to do to keep her mind off of...other things.

While dinner was in the oven and Jill was drying her hair, she sat down and typed 'May-December' romances into a browser and started looking. She was no Hollywood actress, and every example she found was (or a male actor), and the ones with the really large age differences were almost all with the man being older. Yes, there were a few older women dating younger men, but by the time she got to the end of the second list of celebrities, Jill asked herself what in the world she was doing.

The runner's high was long gone, and as the time got closer to six o'clock, Jill's confidence waned more and more.

After checking things in the kitchen Jill blowdried her hair then did her makeup, something she rarely ever did unless she was at work.

Fortunately, she didn't agonize over what to wear for very long. She had a very cute top that was white with spaghetti straps and made of a satiny material. It was soft and shimmery, and with a strapless bra it looked sensational on her. That plus a size-six black skirt that fell to about three inches above her knees was all she needed. Satisfied, Jill slipped into a pair of black flats and was all set.

As she looked at herself, her long, blonde hair cascaded down over her bare shoulders as the silky blouse hung loosely on her upper body. Even without any jewelry, Jill looked sensational although that's not how she saw things. Like most women, she was her own worst critic, and Jill saw every tiny little line or crease and asked herself again what she thought she was doing with someone so young. But it was too late to worry about that, so she returned to the kitchen.

One of things Jill missed the most about being married was having someone to share her day with during dinner. Cliff was willing to listen, but 90% of their conversations were one way with him talking about this client or that trial or some other senior partner's mistress, and that was so very different than the pleasant exchanges she and her husband had enjoyed for so many years.

That aside, Jill knew she was pretty good cook, and the roasted rack of lamb she was pulling out of the oven looked perfect and smelled wonderful. Served with fresh asparagus, it was one of Jill's favorite meals. Along with a very crisp garden salad and a bottle of Chardonnay it made for a very nice dinner indeed.

It was exactly 6pm when Jill set the last piece of flatware on the table and just seconds later her doorbell rang. When she noticed the time, it made her laugh, but most of it was due to a sudden case of nerves.

She got to the door, took a deep breath then exhaled slowly before smiling and opening it.

"Military promptness?" she said with a smile to her very handsome gentleman caller.

Dan was smiling, too, and holding a bouquet of red roses. But when he saw her, the smile vanished and his hand holding the flowers slowly lowered itself to his side as his eyes did something similar with regard to Jill's amazing body.

"What? Did I get something on my blouse?" Jill asked as she looked down when she saw him looking.

A second or two later Dan spoke.

"Um...no. It's just that you look...amazing. As in...wow!...amazing."

Dan looked very nice to her, too, in his dark-blue Dockers, blue and yellow checked shirt, and a pair of cordova-brown shoes.

"Oh, my gosh! Thank you," Jill told him before sharing her impression of him, too.

"And these are for you," Dan said as he re-raised the bouquet.

"Another part of your siege strategy?" she teased before thanking him sincerely and asking him to come inside.

"If it's working, then, yes," he told her.

"It's still too early to say for sure, but I believe it might be, at least to some very small, nearly insignificant degree," Jill told him with a laugh as she took the flowers to the kitchen to find a vase.

"Well, okay then! In that case, yes, it's all part of my master plan."

Jill laughed again then asked Dan if he wanted anything to drink.

"No, thank you. And this smells great!" he said as the aroma of oven-roasted lamb wafted his way.

"I hope you like it. I do love to cook, so it should at least be edible," she told him as she trimmed stems and placed them one at a time in the crystal vase.

"Edible? This looks like a five-star restaurant quality meal."

Dan was a guy, but he did notice things, and the very nice china on a beautiful, white linen tablecloth caught his eyes.

"Are these crystal?" he asked as he held up a very heavy glass.

"Yes. My husband bought those for me as a 10th wedding gift."

"This is all very nice, Jill. And so is your home."