Chapter 8

As always nothing belongs to me except the plot

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Since Hardison had given her the laptop two days ago, Sarah and he had been attached at the hip. It was like they had known each other for years. If Eliot didn't catch her playing with Cam or reading, she was playing on the laptop with Hardison. He realized he was jealous. He knew he was attracted to her, but he didn't know if it was a good idea in his line of work. 'Doesn't mean I can't spend time with her' he reasoned with himself.

"What do you do for fun?" he asked curiously as he walked over to sit next to her on the couch.

She looked up from the crossword she was doing to regard him. "I used to do a lot of things before….all of this. Why do you ask?"

He shrugged, "I was just curious. I thought I'd get you and Cam out of the house. If you'd like," he added as an afterthought.

"That would be wonderful. I have to admit I'm goin' a little stir crazy bein' cooped up in here. Daniel and I used to take Cam to the zoo and the park all the time. We love the outdoors. I haven't been able to take him in a while though."

"Well how about I take you guys tomorrow" he suggested as he ran his hand through his hair.

She noticed that he did that sometimes when he was nervous and it made her smile. "That would be great" she answered as she put her hand on his arm.

The next morning after eating, her and Cam met Eliot in the living room. When he saw what she was wearing his eyes went wide. 'The woman's tryin' to kill me,' he thought. The shorts she was wearing were showing off her legs to perfection. 'For someone so short, she sure is all leg' he thought.

Eliot observed how excited Cameron looked. Sarah chuckled when she saw him grin. "Yeah, if you couldn't tell, he's a little excited."

Cameron was a force of nature as he dragged them from animal to animal pointing and smiling. Sarah observed how comfortable he was with Eliot and it made her heart happy. Cam hadn't been this happy in a long time.

She also noticed how Eliot was constantly touching her. Just little things like his hand on the small of her back or a hand on her elbow. She was attracted to him and it scared her. She realized it was ok to move on. Daniel had been dead for over two years and he would want her to be happy. But none of that changed the fact that she still didn't know that much about Eliot. He kept himself so closed off, but she noticed that the others got the same treatment. She wished he would be more open with her.

She was startled out of her thoughts by a sound she hadn't heard in two years. "Mama! Mama! Guess what Eliot did?" She froze, and stared in shock at her four-year-old. He was standing there in front of her jumping up and down trying to get her attention. "Mama! Eliot put me on his shoulders so I could reach the elephant. I got to touch him. He felt really rough, it was so neat!" he exclaimed, his face flush with excitement.

Eliot chose that moment to walk up to them and saw the tears in her eyes. His eyes were immediately filled with concern as he tried to figure out what happened. "Eliot! I told mama how you picked me up to touch the elephant." He looked down at Cameron in shock. 'Well that would explain it,' he thought. She walked over to Eliot and before he knew what was going on she pressed her lips to his.

He barely had time to register what was happening before she pulled away. He looked into her eyes and was shocked by the amount of emotion in them. "Thank you" she whispered. Then she bent down and pulled her son to her in a hug. "That's wonderful sweetie. Was the elephant really big?"

They didn't get back to Nate's place until eight in the evening. The rest of their zoo experience had been a huge success. Cameron had continued to talk excitedly about all the animals they looked at. It was like he had never stopped talking to begin with. When they got inside she walked away with Cam to put him to bed.

Eliot realized at that moment that he didn't know if he wanted to fight his feelings for her. He saw the emotion in her eyes when she kissed him. God he was scared. He didn't know how to go forward with this. He didn't know if he even should.

She walked back into the living room and he saw that she had changed into a tank and black yoga pants. "Wanna to join me for tai chi?" she asked him softly. He nodded and went to change.

They went through the forms in perfect synchronicity, flowing smoothly from one move to the next. They both seemed to realize that from this point on, their relationship would be different. After they were finished she suggested they sit on the couch and get to know one another. So they each grabbed a beer and moved to the couch.

She told him a little about her life before she met Daniel. That she was born in Houston, but moved to Dallas after her mother died. Her father had left when she was twelve and had died the next year. Her mother started having heart problems shortly thereafter. "When she died, I filed for guardianship of my sister since she was only fourteen. I had to put off college to work."

"That had to be hard. You were hardly an adult yourself" he remarked.

"It was very hard, I won't lie. But I don't regret it though. My sister and I are so much closer because of it."

He changed the subject. "When you were married to Daniel, what did you guys do for fun? You didn't really answer before" he inquired. She chuckled. "What?" he asked her.

"I always told Daniel that he lucked out in the wife department. I don't enjoy a lot of things most women do. I detest shoppin' for clothes. I don't see the point in having twenty pairs of shoes. We used to go to movies, dancing, hiking, camping, and fishing. I could never get him to go horseback riding with me though. I miss that the most. I love horses."

She looked at him from across the couch. "What about you? I hardly know anything about you."

"Well I was born in Dallas. My family moved to Kensington, Kentucky when I was ten. Met a girl and fell in love. Her name was Aimee. We had planned to get married when we turned eighteen. I promised her that I would always be there for her."

She saw the look of loss on his face. "What happened?" she asked him softly.

"I made the same promise to the US Government. I was called out and gone for seven years. When I came back she was married."

"I'm so sorry" she whispered as she took his hand.

"Since then I've traveled doin' odd jobs and then Nate found me two and a half years ago. I've been with this bunch ever since." She took notice how he didn't exactly state what he had done. He called it "odd jobs", but she knew there was more to it than that.

"What do you do for fun?" she asked, throwing the question back at him.

"Not much. I work out, watch sports, play chess and pool."

'Ok, so he doesn't get to have much fun with this job' she thought to herself.

"I'll have to challenge you to a game of pool sometimes" she stated. "How about I go and get us another beer and then we can watch somethin' on TV." He smiled at her in agreement. He wasn't ready to end the night yet. When she came back she sat down, but this time closer than she had before.

They watched some show on discovery about sharks, but he wasn't paying attention. It didn't escape his notice how much closer she was sitting now. Her thigh was pressed against his and he had his arm behind her neck on the back of the couch. He could smell the citrus scent she used in her hair and his eyes closed in pleasure.

After half an hour he felt her head come to rest on his shoulder and he heard her breathing slow. He knew she had fallen asleep and he should put her in her bed. But it felt good to have her there beside him. So he put his beer down, turned off the TV, and pulled her to his side and drifted off to sleep.