Bob got up at his normal hour on Tuesday, despite a splitting headache from all the sleeping he’d been doing. It was quite early, so he headed downtown to a little restaurant he occasionally went into, ordered a small breakfast and lots of coffee. He’d eaten so little for days that he just about inhaled the breakfast when it came, and wound up ordering a second, larger one, to a mildly surprised look from the waitress. In spite of the extra time spent, he still made it to his office on time.

It was just as well that he’d returned, instead of possibly staying over like he’d given some thought to early on Sunday. Several things that he’d thought had been put together had fallen apart in his absence, and he was extremely busy reassembling them or working out alternatives. With the start of school only a couple of weeks off, this was no small matter – last minute orders were always a pain in the ass from one end to the other, and these proved no different.

All day long he hoped to get a phone call from Sharon – she had his office number – but there was no phone call and he decided it might be a little soon, anyway. After all, she had said she was going to take several days to think about it, and about all he could hope was that she really was having a long talk with Ralph about it. It didn’t seem quite real that she would be coming to join him; the whole weekend had been quite a fling, but now in the clear light of the western sky it didn’t seem likely that it would really happen.

He was, however, willing to bet that he’d be seeing Dale and Dawn in the next few days, and he still stuck with his prediction that he’d see them before he saw Sharon if he ever saw Sharon again. There really wasn’t much that he could do right then – he didn’t even know the last names of the kids, for Pete’s sake – but at least he could make a few phone calls around campus, touch base with a few people so he’d know who to get in touch with when the time came. He was pretty sure it would. He had a few fun visions of Dawn getting naked on the beach, in public, how scared she would be, how determined she would have to be – and frankly, how cute she would be. It would be a nice vision, and disappointing that he wouldn’t be there to see it.

He worked late on Tuesday, mostly just getting caught up from being gone, especially being gone on Monday. After work, he hopped in his car, did some grocery shopping with the idea of making himself some dinner, but on the way home decided just to stop at a restaurant again. He remembered telling Sharon how good the Mexican cooking was around town and it had been a while since he had eaten Mexican, so he went to a place where he’d had good luck in the past, and had a decent meal, even if it was going to leave him with heartburn when it was over. He headed on home, put the groceries away, and decided to read a book. He couldn’t even remember what he had been reading not a week ago before he left, so he grabbed one that he’d been meaning to get to, but after he did, it couldn’t hold his interest.

Suppose Sharon decided not to come? It was a possibility, after all – he was on edge, waiting for the phone to ring, for her to tell him if she was coming or if she wasn’t. This weekend had proved one thing, if nothing else, which was that he wasn’t the loner that he thought he had been. Maybe he ought to start dating a little, but, frankly, he had no idea of where to start. Maybe on the Internet, he thought, he’d heard of people having good luck with the dating sites, and it seemed a little more efficient and with a little more possibility of success than other things he might do. But there was no point in getting started on that right now, not until he heard from Sharon. All these years of living alone and liking it, of being considered a confirmed bachelor – they now seemed so barren after a day and two wonderful if all too short nights with a girl he’d known twenty years ago. Without her, things seemed awful damn dull, as dull as he was.

A dozen times that evening he reached for the phone, to call Sharon in Buffalo, to at least let her know he was still thinking of her. He could at least inquire if she’d made it home all right, that might not be too intrusive, but really, he didn’t want to joggle her elbow or make it look like he was pushing too hard, so each time he picked the phone up he set it back down.

That kind of resolution worked well on Tuesday, but it didn’t do much for him on Wednesday. He couldn’t stand it any longer; he dialed her number, but it did nothing but ring. There wasn’t even an answering machine to pick up. It just rang on, a dozen times or more before he gave up. He tried an hour later, two hours later, even late that night – but never was there an answer.

Nor was there on Thursday. Or Friday. But when he tried on Saturday, he got a recording: an irritatingly shrill whistle, followed by “The number you have reached is not in service …” The only conclusion he could jump to was that unless something was wrong with the phone, she’d had it cut off. That might have been a hopeful sign, that she was coming – or it might mean she was on her way to China, so maybe it wasn’t quite that hopeful a sign after all. There was no way of telling.

On the off chance that there might have been something wrong with the phone lines, he called again several times on Saturday, then on Sunday. Every time, he got the same irritating whistle, the same irritating recording. It was beginning to drive him up the wall.

By Monday it was beginning to drive him nuts. If she were coming, he would have thought that he’d have given him a call or dropped him an e-mail, or something. The same thing went if she’d decided not to come. Had something else happened? Had she maybe crashed her car? Could she be hurt? Could she even be dead? All he really had was her address in Buffalo for a hint – would it be worth while to take off a couple days, fly back there and check it out himself? If the phone were disconnected she was probably gone somewhere, and the odds were that it would be not worth the trip. Her folks? He knew they were down in Florida somewhere. It wasn’t New Smyrna Beach, he remembered her saying they’d been there when they’d first gone to Florida but had gone on to somewhere else, Port St. Lucie stuck in his head but he wasn’t sure now that was it. About the only lead he could think of was that Emily might know of her parent’s address, but he couldn’t be sure about it. Right then, it seemed a pretty slim straw to clutch, but he was thinking real hard about getting Emily’s number from information and giving her a call when the phone on his desk rang.

He grabbed for it in sheer desperation, to discover that it was Jill, his secretary. “There are some people here to see you,” she said, and all of a sudden his heart fell. Multiple people meant that it couldn’t very well be Sharon.

“Sure,” he said in resignation. “Send them back.”

In a minute, a couple familiar faces appeared at his office door, and brightened his day a little. “Wow, I didn’t figure you two for a week or so yet,” he said to Dale and Dawn. He was wearing jeans and a T-shirt; she had on a thin, clinging camisole top and a short, lightweight print skirt over bare legs. Since he’d seen her in a swimsuit he knew she had a nice body, but comparing the dowdy little religious girl he’d seen at the airport a week before and this casual co-ed told him that things had changed big in a week. “Come on in, grab a chair.”

“It is a little quick,” Dale said as the two of them sat, “but we decided that once the decision had been made we’d better get on with it before it got too stale.”

“Good thinking,” Bob told them. “Have you been around campus yet?”

“Only what it took to find this building,” Dale nodded. “We haven’t been in town an hour, but what we saw looks like a pretty decent place.”

“I like to think so,” he told them. “So I take it that you decided to do the whole nine yards?”

“Yeah,” Dale nodded. “It wasn’t an easy decision, but we decided we’d better go all the way.”

“We didn’t tell you when we saw you at the airport last week,” Dawn said, “but after you and Sharon talked to us in the hot tub, we went back to the room and had a long talk. I think we had about decided that it wasn’t a good idea to cut our ties with our families and just go along with them.”

“Well, it had to be your decision to make,” Bob told them. “So how come you’re here?”

“Oh, dear,” Dawn said. “This is a little embarrassing. We hadn’t totally decided not to follow your advice, and Sharon’s, at least not all of it. Do you know what she suggested that we do?”

“Probably some of it,” he nodded, not wanting to commit himself further and risk embarrassing them more.

“We were right in the middle of it,” Dale said. “When the phone rang. It was her father, wanting to pray with us before we consummated the marriage.”

“Boy,” Bob shook his head. “That takes balls.”

“Goddamn right,” Dale said, using the phrase like he wasn’t totally comfortable with it but was trying to get used to it. “We thought that was pretty Goddamn forward of him.”

“It proved to us that you were right,” she said. “I think that made the decision for us right there, and it was just a case of how we went about dealing with it.”

“So we went down to Florida and were able to get the money back on our cruise,” Dale continued. “We were able to get it in cash, thank God. So, anyway, we went to Disney World to have somewhat of a honeymoon. It was OK, but we realized there were more important things we ought to be doing, so we drove over to Apollo beach, laid around in the sun for a while, got a little sunburn and took some pictures.”

“So how did that go?” Bob asked, not wanting to come right straight out and ask if they’d actually gone nude.

“It wasn’t easy at first, but we decided that if we were going to throw off our old lives our old clothes had to be the first things to go,” Dawn said. “Symbolically, that’s where we did it. A week ago I would never have been willing to be seen in public in an outfit like this. Now I’m ashamed to think that it’s too conservative. What do you think?”

“Dawn,” Bob grinned. “You look good, kid. Those clothes make you look like you want your husband to take them off of you at every opportunity.”

“Well, uh,” she blushed. “We sorta have been, uh, if you know what I mean.”

“Hey, you’re still newlyweds, that’s part of the job description,” he laughed, inwardly relieved that several issues between the two of them had been thoroughly settled, after all. “Everybody figures that’s what newlyweds are supposed to be doing, there’s no reason to be embarrassed about it. So you’re still here a lot sooner than I figured you would be. What happened?”

Dale took up the story. “After we got done at Apollo Beach, we decided to quit worrying about how we were going to do things when the honeymoon was over, and go get them done. We got a plane back to Detroit the next day. Our folks were supposed to pick us up and take us back to our apartment, so they weren’t expecting us to be back yet anyway. We rented a car, drove in and got mine, and started cleaning stuff out of the apartment. We didn’t get started until after dark, and worked at it all night. We had to leave a lot of stuff behind, but the car was packed to the headliner.”

“We left a lot of my ugly old clothes behind,” Dawn explained. “I wouldn’t want to wear any of that, uh, shit again.”

“Mine, too,” Dale said. “It’s blue jeans or shorts for me till I graduate, maybe longer. Anyway, we left a note with one of our honeymoon photos on the kitchen table like you suggested. It basically told them we’d decided to live our own lives and were going to school somewhere else. We didn’t say where.”

“I presume your honeymoon photo was one of those from Apollo Beach?” Bob grinned. “I don’t suppose it was what’s called a ‘full frontal’?”

“Of course it was,” Dawn grinned, with no hint of a blush. “We think you were right, they might get the message from that.”

“It was almost sun-up by then,” Dale continued. “So we just basically drove most of the day trying to stay awake. We finally couldn’t hack it any longer outside Omaha, so we got a motel for the night, and then drove straight here. That’s pretty much what happened.”

“You realize that your folks are going to be beyond pissed when they find out what happened, don’t you?”

“I’d say that would be a pretty good way to describe it,” Dawn nodded.

“OK, important question, kids. Did you use any credit cards on the way here, after you left Michigan?”

“Told you, honey,” Dale grinned at his wife.

“He said that you’d ask that,” Dawn smiled. “Don’t worry, you got us sufficiently paranoid to be a little cautious. We maxed out all the folk’s credit cards we have at ATMs in Florida and Michigan, and only paid cash.”

“Good, there’s no trail that easily leads you here, then,” Bob replied. “Since I didn’t know for sure that you kids were coming here, I couldn’t make any real arrangements, but if you want to write home or give your folks an address, I have a friend in Tulsa, Oklahoma who will act as a mail drop. That will lay a little false trail, one that might give them the wrong ideas.”

“I don’t follow,” Dale frowned. “What’s in Tulsa?”

“Oral Roberts University, for one thing,” Bob grinned. “If you contact them, don’t lie, just don’t tell them the truth. There is a difference. But I wouldn’t contact them right away, not until they realize that you didn’t go on that cruise and aren’t flying home to their loving arms. They might not discover your note until you’re late getting back. You might not want to contact them right away, anyway, but that’s another issue and not pertinent at the moment. We’ve got plenty to do to get you set up here, and some of those things will involve obscuring your identity a little. I couldn’t make any major preparations until I knew you were here, but I nosed around enough to know who to talk to.”

“Bob,” Dale said. “We don’t know how we can thank you for all this. You and Sharon both. You’ve given us new lives, ones we can live on our own.”

“Don’t thank me yet, the worst is yet to come,” he advised. “You’re going to be facing some real challenges before you really have your independence established. Don’t forget, they signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 but it was 1783 before the war was over with and it took the War of 1812 to settle most of the rest of the outstanding issues.” He smiled, snorted, and added, “And some people think that history can’t teach them anything.”

“Yeah, we’re going to have to remember that,” Dale said quietly.

“Tell you what,” Bob said. “It’s almost quitting time. What do you say we knock this off for now? You kids are staying with me tonight. We’ll have a decent dinner, and we can explore some of the things we have yet to do. Like I said back in Detroit, we can’t make you impossible to find, but we can make it hard for them, though we’ll have to be careful about some things, so we might as well get some planning done. I’ll take off part of tomorrow so I can take you around and expedite the process of getting you set up here.”

“Once again, Bob,” Dawn said. “I don’t see any way we can thank you for this.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “I’m just passing along a favor. The U.S. Army got me out of the clutches of the Disciples of the Savior, but it took the help of a few people to manage that. Sometime in the future you’re going to have the same opportunity, so pass the favor along.”

“I hope it’s not too soon,” Dawn sighed. “I’m afraid they’re going to try pushing an arranged marriage on my sister, and I wouldn’t be too surprised if Burke is who they have in mind.” She let out a sigh. “Fortunately, she’s in high school for three more years, so we’ve got some time.”

Oh, shit, Bob thought. That’s what happens when you take in stray kittens – they often have fleas. “Yeah, let’s solve the current problem first,” Bob advised. “If she’s fairly safe for a couple years, you can cross that bridge later. Give me about two minutes to clean up my desk, and then we can head over to my house.”

“You’re being good to us,” Dale said. “Is Sharon here with you now?”

“I don’t know where Sharon is,” Bob said. “I don’t know how much she told you, Dawn. But Sharon has been living in Buffalo, and I’m here, of course. All the weekend we were together I was trying to get her to move out here and move in with me. When I last saw her, which was just before I met the two of you in the motel lobby the morning we flew out, she still hadn’t made up her mind, and I haven’t been able to find out what she decided, if she decided anything. I can’t even get her on the phone. She could literally be in China for all I know. She had a job offer there, I understand.”

“Well, if I had anything to say about it,” Dawn smiled, “I’d want her to be here with you. The two of you seem like you work very well together.”

“I’m about as surprised at that as anything,” Bob said. “Sharon and I have, uh, issues that you kids didn’t see much of. We’re both rather hard-headed individuals in different ways, and there are some rough corners. We’re not at all sure that our getting together would be a success. I know I want her to be here. I think she wants to be here. Because we’re so different, though, neither one of us is sure that it’s a good idea.”

“Well,” Dale said. “At least you’re honest about it. But I think you’re missing a lesson that the two of you taught us. We came here on a leap of faith, a faith in you. Maybe the two of you need to take your own leap of faith.”

“I’m ready, tell that to Sharon if you can find her,” Bob shrugged. “But, yeah, maybe you’re right, maybe if she shows up we’re just going to have to jump off the deep end and make it work.”

It took Bob longer than a couple minutes to clear his desk, deal with a couple urgent items, and let it be known he was taking off early and probably wouldn’t be back until later tomorrow.

It wasn’t far from Bob’s office to his home. When school was in session he often walked the distance rather than driving, because the parking on the CSU campus was about as bad as it is on college campuses anywhere – which is to say, next to impossible. This day, however, since school wasn’t in session he’d driven, so he went to get his car to lead Dale and Dawn home. When he saw their car, he saw what they had been talking about – it was literally stacked to the roof line and also had stuff piled between them like the refugees from the Disciples of the Savior that they were. Fucking Disciples, Bob thought. They’d be happy to be the American Taliban. Somebody should do something about them, but somehow he had the gut feeling that the situation was going to be worse before it was better. At least he’d gotten out long ago, and seemed to be well on the way to getting the two kids out, so he felt like he was doing his part.

When they got to his house, Bob parked his car on the street, and told Dale to run his up the driveway to the garage so they could unload their stuff inside and it not be left in the car. There had been a rash of car cloutings recently, and there was no point in asking for trouble. He went inside, got out of his suit and into shorts and a T-shirt, then came out and helped the kids unload their car.

It had been a fairly hot day, although a comfortable heat in the dry Colorado air. Rather than heading out for dinner, Bob suggested that they do something there, figuring that the kids might appreciate the homelike atmosphere. They wouldn’t be having much of that for a while, except for what they made themselves, and he was pretty sure he was going to have to help provide it. Once again, he wished that Sharon was there to be a part of it, but his hope of that happening had been slipping day by day.

It seemed like a good evening for steaks. Bob was certifiably old fashioned in some ways, and one of them was that he believed in real charcoal, not a gas grill – the flavor just wasn’t right and that was that. He got the charcoal started in the grill outside, and was inside helping Dawn peel potatoes when he heard a knocking on his front door. “Good question who that is,” he muttered, putting down the knife, drying his hands and heading for the door.

He opened it, and Sharon flew into his arms. Immediately, they were in a very serious kiss that went on and on for a long time. “Sharon,” he said in huge relief. “I’d just about given up hope.”

“I tried to call,” she said, tears coming to her eyes, “but I must have taken your number down wrong. At least I got the house number right.”

“Oh, God, babe, it’s so good to see you,” he said. He stepped back; like Dawn, she was wearing a short lightweight skirt and a tight fitting camisole top. She didn’t have on a bra; he could tell because he could see the lovely areolas surrounding her nipples through the thin fabric.

“Bob, you’re still willing to take me in, aren’t you?” she said. “I got back and I had a firm offer for China. I can go there for more money than I expected, but I don’t want to go.”

“No, babe, I want you here,” he said, throwing his arms around her again, getting a good grip on that sweet ass of hers through the thin fabric of her skirt.

“I want to be here,” she said. “I’ve been driving since midday on Saturday. Bob, all the way here Ralph and I have been talking through the whole range of options. I’m willing to do it however you want to do it, but I’ve come to the conclusion that if I’m going to live with you I’m going to have to have something to keep me from getting flighty and wanting to do something else. Bob, it might be hard on both of us and it would force us to try, but would you be willing to consider Option One?”

“Option One? You mean a quick trip to Las Vegas, or maybe just waiting out the time here?”

“Yes,” she said. “That’s exactly what I mean. I don’t know if it’s the wisest choice or the stupidest one, but I think it would be the best one.”

“Well, come on in, future lady of the household,” he grinned. “I want you to meet the maid of honor and the best man.”

It was a wonderful reunion of the four, who were well on the way to being fast friends. It was an interesting evening, with several tales being told, but it ended early. Dale and Dawn headed for the spare bedroom, while Bob took Sharon to the master.

Bob and Sharon were just getting into what they really wanted to do, when they heard a noise from the neighboring bedroom. Well, not a noise, a moan: “Ohhhh, Dale! I love it when you do me back … AAAHHHHHHHHHH!”

“Oh, good,” Bob grinned. “Another screamer.”

“Shut up and shove it in hard, Bob,” Sharon grinned. “Let’s see who screams the loudest.”

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