Getting to Me

For the entire five hours that Zacky was gone, Mandy couldn’t stop worrying about him. She had known that their argument had gotten to him, even if she didn’t understand quite why. She kept thinking of all sorts of horrible scenarios that could have happened after he’d driven away from the farmhouse. He could have lost control of the vehicle on a patch of black ice and driven into a ditch somewhere, or perhaps he could have hit a deer and wrecked. Maybe he had just kept driving all the way to Fargo, and wasn’t coming back to her. What if something else that she hadn’t thought of had happened to him? The possibilities were endless in her mind, and it scared her to death that she hadn’t heard back from him yet. She just needed to know that he was okay.

Finally, she heard Cheyenne start barking in the front yard, and she let out a sigh of relief when she saw Zacky get out of the driver’s seat. She watched him with confusion as he reached into the back seat for something, and then watched as he made his way to the front door. Before he even had the screen door all the way open, she flung herself into his arms and gave him a tight hug.

“Don’t ever scare me like that again, Zachary James Baker,” she scolded him, holding him tightly as she looked up at his face, seeing an amused smile on his face. He had obviously cooled down by now, and she was glad to know it.

“I’m sorry I worried you, baby,” he murmured before leaning down to peck her lips softly with his. She rolled her eyes at his apology, because that wasn’t what she wanted from him. Everyone got mad every now and again, and she wasn’t mad about him losing his temper.

“It’s fine,” she murmured, pulling him into the living room with her. He let her lead him, and then smiled when she sat down. He was still holding his hand behind his back, and she raised her eyebrow at him. “What have you got there, baby?” She murmured softly, trying to reach behind him. He shook his head, and then gave her an apologetic look before sitting down next to her, still holding his hand behind his back so she couldn’t see the bouquet of flowers.

“I know I fucked up big time by storming out of the house this morning, Mandy. I know that I scared you, and I want you to know that that’s not what I was trying to do. All my life, my first instinct when I’m upset is to run…and I don’t want to do that anymore. I couldn’t think of anything I could do that might make you forgive me for scaring you, so I brought you these,” he murmured, pulling the flowers out from behind his back and offering them to her.

She was completely floored by his words. It wasn’t often that he talked like that around her, and it was a true window into his personality that she enjoyed seeing. This was the reason she fell in love with him a little more each and every day. He did little things like this to let her know that he was thinking about her even if he wasn’t around her, and it made her realize just how much he loved her as well. She took the flowers from him and set them on the side table before pulling him down so that he was sitting next to her on the couch. After she had done that, she moved so that she was sitting on his lap, straddling him as she looked down into his eyes, a small smile on her face.

“Baby, you didn’t have to do that for me,” she murmured, looping her arms around his neck, meeting his gaze with her own dark brown eyes. A smile had formed on her lips, and Zacky thought it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, except for maybe the time she’d smiled after he’d confessed he loved her for the first time.

“I wanted to,” he assured her, moving his lips to kiss her jaw before trailing them up her neck and towards her ear. Mandy closed her eyes as he kissed her, and braced her hands on his shoulders to stop herself from falling off of him. His lips never failed to make her feel like she was on fire in the most amazing way, and when he finally covered her mouth with his, it was all she could do to not rip his clothes off right there and make love to him. But she knew that it wasn’t time for that, yet. They still needed to wait for a little bit, to find the perfect time.

“You’re killing me, Mandy,” he groaned when she tugged on his lip ring with her teeth. She smirked as she opened her eyes to look at him and released his lip before settling down against his chest, curling her legs up and nestling against him. He wrapped his arms around her, and then rested his head on top of hers. “I didn’t mean anything I said this morning. You know that, right? I just…sometimes it’s hard to feel good enough for a girl as amazing as you are.”

She smiled at his words and nodded before reaching up and pushing his hair out of his face before kissing the tip of his nose softly. “You just have to realize that we’re perfect for one another, Zacky. We’re from two different worlds, but that’s why we’ve fallen in love with each other.”

He didn’t respond vocally, because he knew she was right. When he thought about the argument he had started this morning, it made him feel like shit. She didn’t deserve that kind of argument and he was only now starting to realize how bad he had probably made her feel. He held her tighter, and then kissed the side of her face once before she nestled down against him once again.

“I love you so much,” she whispered against his chest. He smiled at his words, and then closed his eyes as he held her in his arms. It was the most amazing feeling in the world, holding the girl you loved and hearing her say those words to you first.

“Not as much as I love you, Mandy,” he chuckled. Mandy giggled at him, and then closed her own eyes. The argument from this morning was now long since forgotten, and all they wanted was to spend a little bit of time together. They were going to take a nap for now, content just being in one another’s arms. They’d figure out what they wanted to do this evening.

-x-

By the time they both woke up, the sun had set over the North Dakota countryside, and it was too late to do much other than sit in the house and watch TV together. Mandy made some Swiss bratwursts for them while Zacky watched some sports game on TV, and then they ate together in the living room while making small talk over the game. She got to know him just a little more, and even though they already knew one another well, it was nice to get to know this side of him.

When it came time to go to bed, Mandy could tell he was somewhat frustrated, though it wasn’t an anger sort of frustration. She giggled as they walked up to their bedroom, and gasped when he pushed her back onto the mattress before covering her body with his, kissing her lips fully. She was a little caught off guard by his sudden show of affection, but she returned the kiss as she looped her arms around his neck.

“What’s with all the kissing and touching, babe?” She giggled as she felt his hands slide just underneath of the sweater she was wearing. He opened his eyes and met her gaze, wondering if he’d made another mistake, but she quickly cleared any doubt in his mind before kissing his lips.

“I just want to show you how much you mean to me,” he murmured, lowering his lips to her neck and sucking gently before he slid his hands further up her tan-colored stomach. “Tell me if this is too much,” he whispered, keeping his eyes on hers as he slowly, teasingly moved his hand to cup one of her breasts.

Mandy gasped and instinctively arched her body up into his touch. She wasn’t going to say she had never been touched, because she had fooled around with a few of her boyfriends in the past. However, feeling Zacky’s touch felt so much different, and just knowing that he loved her made it that much more sexy for her.

She bit her bottom lip and stopped a moan from leaving her lips as Zacky pushed her bra up, letting her breasts fall free from them. Her t-shirt was still covering her, but that wasn’t going to stop Zacky from feeling her and teasing her by flicking his thumb back and forth over her nipple, causing her to groan out lowly.

He continued to fondle her for several minutes until it was too much for him to handle. He kissed her lips softly before standing up, and she watched as he walked into the bathroom, leaving the door half-open, though she couldn’t fully see him. She knew what he was doing when she heard low moans and several strings of curse words falling out of his mouth, and she couldn’t deny the overwhelming sense of sexual attraction she had for him. They wouldn’t be doing anything else tonight, she knew, but things between them were only going to get hotter.