o o p s
Oops
by Kaytee
Disclaimer: I own nothing
except the concept.
Author's Note: This
fic was inspired by Josh Jackson's new buzz cut. It takes place about
three weeks into their trip. Spoilers for nearly all of Season Three.
Special thanks: To
Teresa and Bianca and Bijal, who either bugged me to get off Fan Forum
or beta read for me. I love you guys at the We Love Pacey and Joey
thread! You rock!
Rating: PG 13
Feedback: Please, for
the love of God, send feedback.
Bright sunshine cascaded
through the small cabin of True Love, waking Pacey Witter from a
deep sleep. Turning over on the AirMattress, he noticed immediately
that he was alone in the room. The single bed was empty, and the
pillow was missing. Glancing at his watch, he saw that it was around
eight.
Quietly, he went up the few
stairs to the deck of the boat and stood there, watching her.
She sat sideways on the bench,
her body curled around the pillow in her arms. She faced away from
him, toward the sunrise, dressed in the clothes she'd worn to bed:
his favorite t-shirt and a kiped pair of boxers.
He watched her for a few
more moments, and then said, "Goodmorning."
Joey Potter jumped slightly,
and turned to face him, her smile more dazzling than the sun. Her
thick, chestnut hair was piled on top of her head in a messy bun, and his
t-shirt was huge on her small frame, and for the millionth, billionth time,
her beauty amazed him.
"Hey, sleepyhead. I
was wondering when you were going to wake up," she said. "We're
supposed to dock soon."
"I'm sorry I'm not quite
the morning person you are, Potter," he grumped playfully. "I don't
shine at eight a.m., unlike some."
"You and I both know that
I'm not a shiny person first thing in the morning, either, Pacey,
but I'm nervous. Worried," she continued. Her older sister,
Bessie, was going to meet them later for lunch. Partly to check on
Joey, partly to bring her the clothes and the money she hadn't brought
with her when she'd left Capeside the way she had. "I mean, Bessie
sounded like she wasn't going to be mad at me for the rest of her life,
but still."
He nodded, yawning and rubbing
the sleep out of his eyes with one hand, scratching his stomach with the
other. When he opened them, she was staring at him, a smile
on her face.
"What?"
"You," she said simply, getting
up and walking the few steps it took to get to him.
"What about me?" he
asked, smiling, wrapping his arms around her waist.
"You look . . . really
good," she said, her hands resting on his shoulders. She blushed,
which only made him grin.
And he did look good.
His bare feet were peeking out from the loose pantlegs of grey sweats and
a white wife-beater clung to his torso. He sported three-day beard
growth and sleepy hazel eyes, hair spiked out in every direction. Looking
at him made her belly quiver.
"Oh, yeah?" he questioned,
chuckling, his voice still rough from sleep. "How good?"
Over the past few weeks,
they'd been tentative with one another, getting used to being together.
She'd never been bold sexually, and that was part of her appeal.
The fact that she was becoming comfortable enough with him to tell him
when she thought he looked good made his heart nearly burst with happiness.
"When you first wake up,
you look so sleepy and scruffy and I just want to grab you and kiss you
over and over again," she said, her broad smile at odds with the blush
staining her cheeks.
He seemed to consider her
statement for a moment, stroking his stubbly chin before deciding, "That's
pretty damn good."
She laughed bashfully, reaching
up on her tip toes and kissing him. She ran her fingers through his
hair while she opened her mouth wider, deepening the kiss.
His hands had just slid to
her backside when she pulled back, saying, "You need a haircut."
Pacey released a short burst
of laughter, squeezing her ass before letting her go. "Didn't you
just get through telling me how my unkempt appearance turns you on?"
"I didn't exactly phrase
it that way, Pacey," she said, sticking her tongue out at him.
"And there's a fine line between "sexy" and "shaggy" when it comes to male
hairstyles. You're about to cross it."
"See, had I renewed my subscription
to GQ, I would know that. But this past year, I've been a
little busy with other things and unfortunately, my attention to new trends
in personal grooming has been somewhat lacking," he said, sighing dramatically.
"You're just gonna have to cut it for me."
"What? Surely we could
afford the fifteen bucks it takes to have it done in a barber shop," she
said, her mouth curving into a lopsided smile.
"See, that's where you'd
be wrong, Potter," he told her, walking over to adjust some settings on
the boat. "We have enough money to either eat today, or have my hair
cut."
"But Bessie is bringing me
some money," she pointed out, her tone a little desparate.
"Yes, but we don't know how
much, and besides, it's cheaper this way. Fifteen bucks is fifteen
bucks, Potter."
She was silent for a moment,
and he glanced over his shoulder at her from where he was adjusting the
sail. She was staring out over the ocean, the look on her face telling
him that she wished she'd never brought it up.
Turning back to the sail,
he grinned.
"Bodie, I just don't know.
Should I haul her ass back home? Let her keep going? I still can't
believe she just . . ."
"Followed her heart?" Bodie
asked his girlfriend and the mother of his child, Bessie Potter.
Bessie made a face, acknowledging
his point. "I was going to say 'I still can't believe she abandoned
us', but yeah, that works, too."
Bodie chuckled as he stood
in the doorway of Joey's bedroom, leaning on the jam. Bessie was
busy folding clothes into a suitcase.
"How much money do you think
we should give her?"
"I was looking over the books
last night, and because of the big boost over the holiday weekend, and
the hearty tip from Mrs. Leonowens, we could probably swing around four,
five hundred bucks," Bodie said, waiting for the reaction.
Bessie dropped the t-shirt
she'd been folding. "Five hundred dollars?! Are you crazy?
There are so many things that money could be used for, Bodie. The
still unfinished room? New curtains for the Nautical Room?
The extra bathroom we were talking about?"
"Those things are important,
yes I know, but Bessie. Honey . . . we have no idea how much
money Pacey has left to live on, we don't know if they're going to need
the money for repairs, or even if they're going to need it to get back
home if something happens to the boat," Bodie told her patiently.
"God," she muttered, picking
up the shirt she'd tossed. "I hate it when you do that."
"Do what, honey?"
"Use logic to win an argument."
Bodie laughed, walking over
and sitting on Joey's bed. "I know it's a lot of money, and I know
she's young and I know she's on a small boat with a teenage boy.
But Bessie, you've seen the way he looks at her. He's taking good
care of her. And Joey's got a good head on her shoulders. After
all she's been through, all the responsibilities thrust upon her, she needs
this."
Bessie remained silent for
a few more moments, packing Joey's suitcase. Finally, she let out
a sigh and said, "There is at least one really good thing about this, you
know."
"What's that?"
Bessie smiled, and had Pacey
seen that smile, a shiver would have run up and down his spine.
"The B&B always needs
work done," she said, quite reasonably. "And I own that boy now."
"Are you sure you want me
to do this?"
Pacey sat on a small stool
on the docks of Perry, Maryland, dressed in shorts and sneakers, his torso
bare but for the towel around his neck. Joey stood beside him, a
small pair of scissors in hand and a nervous expression on her face.
"Jo. Listen to me,"
he said, smiling. "If you screw up, I'll only blame you for the rest
of your life, because, as you know, it's impossible to grow hair after
it's cut badly."
She made a face at him, and
tapped him on the top of his head with the flat of the blades. "Alright,
fine. Okay. Okay?"
"Okay," he said, grinning.
She used a fine-tooth comb
through his hair first, and then, using her fingers as a guide, began to
cautiously snip away at his hair.
She was concentrating intently
on what she was doing, and after a few minutes, she was beginning to have
more confidence. Part of her was absolutely amazed that he was sitting
so still.
Her mind began to wander
as she worked, and soon she was caught up in the same thoughts that had
been creeping into her dreams lately. She'd been up for hours that
morning before Pacey had woken, thinking.
She worked quietly, finishing
with the back part of his head and moving around to the front. Concentrating,
she stood strandling his thighs, her breasts inches from his face as she
combed then cut the top part of his hair.
"I'm gonna go insane if you
don't distract me," he said. "Talk to me, Potter."
Joey smiled. "What
about?"
"Tell me about what's waking
you up in the middle of the night."
She'd known that he'd noticed
her tossing and turning, and she'd been wondering when he was going to
ask. She remained silent for a moment. "I've been feeling guilty,"
she said finally. "It gnaws at me whenever I'm not busy, and it's
horrible at night."
Pacey sighed. "He'll
forgive you, Joey."
"What?"
He brought his head up and
looked at her, his eyes a stormy gray-green. "Dawson will forgive
you."
Joey looked confused for
a moment, and then an obvious bulb lit above her head.
A little hurt, he asked,
"Is it really that important, what the all-mighty Dawson thinks of you?"
"No! You idiot!"
Now Pacey was confused. Huh?
"Huh?"
"I'm not especially worried
about what Dawson thinks of me right now. Ask me again when we dock
in Capeside."
"Then why are you feeling
so guilty?"
"Because of you!" she exclaimed,
looking at him like he was thicker than a brick.
"Me? Why?"
"I treated you like shit,
Pacey!" she yelled, frustrated.
They stared at each other
for a moment before Joey broke the gaze, looking away.
"What if you decide I'm not
worth it, after all?" she asked quietly.
She felt him grab her hips
a moment before he pulled her down on him, wrapping his arms around her
waist. "Jo..."
She clung to him, holding
him tightly, the scissors falling from her fingers. "I'm so sorry,
Pacey."
He stroked her hair, telling
her, "You have nothing to be sorry about, Joey."
"Are you kidding? I
hurt you, over and over, because I was too afraid of losing both of you
to risk loving one. I was so stupid," she said, pulling back
to look into his eyes. "I was so stupid, Pacey."
Pacey took her face in his
large, calloused palms. Joey held onto his wrists, tears in her eyes.
"Listen to me, Joey. It was a crappy situation, all the way around,
and I put you in it. Me."
"No, it was my fault.
I should never have let myself be manipulated by his ultimatum, Pacey.
I nearly let him ruin us," she said, catching her full lower lip between
her teeth.
"But you didn't, Jo.
I don't know what happened at the wedding after I left, but whatever it
was, you came through in the end,"he told her.
"I was dancing with Dawson,
and we were talking about all the fun things we were going to do over the
summer," Joey said. "And I . . . I couldn't catch my breath."
"So what happened?"
"During his best-man speech,
he spoke about forgiveness and love beginning again. I went up to
him later and asked if he meant what he said, and he said yes, and that's
why I should turn around and go to you. He said that even he could
see that I love you like he loves me, that I want you like he wants me,
and that he wasn't going to stand in the way of this year's Paris."
She was speaking quickly,
her words partially choked by tears, but he understood what she meant.
Dawson had been the reason she decided not to study in Paris when it was
offered to her.
"So I turned and I ran away,"
she said, sniffling. "I ran home and changed out of my bridesmaid's
dress, and went to the docks to find you. I saw Doug, who told me
you had probably already set sail. Thank God I found you in time."
Using the pads of his thumbs,
he brushed away her tears, his voice hoarse as he told her not to cry.
"Please, Jo. I can't stand it."
"The look in your eyes when
I told you goodbye . . ." she said, sniffling. "I never meant to
hurt you."
He brought her face close
to his. "I'd go through it again, every day, if in the end you said
you loved me."
"Pacey, oh . . . Pacey,"
she cried. "I love you."
She kissed him then, in a
way no woman had ever kissed him before. It was sloppy, and wet,
and so packed with raw emotion that it nearly overwhelmed him. It
was a passionate kiss that spoke the volumes of her love, and it banished
every doubting thought in his head. He was scared by her, awed by
her, and so in love with her he couldn't see straight.
When she lifted her head,
her lips were swollen and her eyes were red and puffy, and his heart clenched
a little at the sight. How could he not have known what a beauty
she'd grow up to be?
"Well," he said, chuckling
a little. "I'm teary eyed, you're still bawling . . . all
in all, I'd say that was the most therapeutic haircut I've ever had."
She giggled a little, wiping
at her eyes. "I have a little bit more to do in front. I'll
try to get through it without sobbing."
Standing again, she retrieved
the scissors from where they'd fallen and went back to cutting his hair,
still sniffling a little. She worked silently, her brow furrowed.
When he spoke again, he surprised
her by saying what she least expected to hear.
"I can't remember saying
it," he said, a thoughtful expression his face. "Have I?"
Immediately she knew what
he was referring to.
"Nope," she said, "But I
know."
"Do you?"
"I can feel it in the way
you touch me, in the way you kiss," she said simply.
Pacey cleared his throat,
"Still would be kinda nice to hear, though, right?"
"Well, yeah. I mean,
here I've overturned my entire life, alienated my closest friends for a
guy who might turn out to have lukewarm feelings," she grinned. "No
matter what his eyes tell me."
"Joey," he began, and cleared
his throat again. Starting over, he said, "Joey Potter . . . Poster
Child for Angry Sarcastic Chicks of America . . . my worst enemy . . .
my best friend . . . I love you."
Her heart pounded and her
eyes closed and her hand slipped as she cut off a huge chunk of his hair
close to the scalp. "Oops."
"Joey," he said calmly.
"What did you do?"
"You said you wouldn't be
mad at me if I screwed up. Remember? You said."
"Jo."
"My eyes might have
shut when I cut this last bit, but that's because you said you loved me,"
she said, speaking quickly like she always did when upset. "It's
really your fault."
"My fault?"
"Uh huh."
"Well, that certainly is
in an interesting way to look at it," he commented drily. "What does
it look like?"
"It looks like I gave you
a bald spot," she sighed. "Right in front."
Great. "Can you fix
it?"
She bit her lower lip, shaking
her head. "I cut it right against your scalp."
He was silent for a moment,
and she began to wonder if he was mad or not. She was mounting a
defense in her head when he surprised her once again.
"Shave it off."
When she regained the use
of her jaw, she said, "What?"
"Shave it," he said, shrugging.
"It'll grow back."
"We don't have time!
We're supposed to meet Bessie and Bodie in fifteen minutes!"
Pacey let out an mockingly
exasperated breath. "Well, it's a good thing for you that nobody
knows us here. It'll be bad enough having Bessie see it. I'll
never hear the end of it."
"I'm sorry," she said, looking
worried as he stood up. "I told you we should have spent the fifteen
bucks."
Pacey smiled, his palms immediately
moving to cup her face. "Honey, it's just hair."
"I know. But it's your
hair," she said. "And you look like an idiot."
Pacey laughed, the deep sound
rumbling up from within his chest. "Don't worry, Jo. I'll make
sure everyone's well aware you're with the idiot."
"Why don't we stop by the
barber shop after lunch?"
Pacey climbed back on the
boat, starting down the steps to finish getting dressed, and to check out
the damage. "No can do, Potter. You hacked at my head, you
have to shave it."
"You're getting a perverse
pleasure out of this, aren't you?"
He grinned wolfishly before
disappearing below. "Absolutely."
"Oh dear God. What
the hell happened to your head?"
"Always a pleasure to see
you too, Bessie," Pacey replied with an easy smile, leaning down to hug
her.
From where she stood hugging
Bodie, Joey defended him. "Actually, I did it. And we're going
to have it fixed later. It's not that bad."
"Actually," Pacey grinned,
mocking her, "she's going to fix it herself. She's going to
shave it off later."
"Well, whatever. You
need to do something with it, because you look like an escaped mental patient."
Pacey laughed, slipping an
arm around Bessie's shoulders as they walked into the resteraunt.
"See, and I would have thought you'd be bitter about your hired help running
off with your sister. Let me tell you, this warm and fuzzy moment
we're having has eased my fears."
The older woman looped her
arm around his waist affectionately. "Me? Bitter? Never."
Behind them, Bodie began
to cough, choking on his own laughter. Joey wasn't even bothering
to cover it up.
"And when I said "hired help",
I meant, of course, "the Potter's slave boy."
"Of course," Bessie said.
"I never thought differently."
They seated themselves at
a booth in the corner, and a girl that looked too young to legally work
came over to greet them. She gave Pacey an obvious double-take, staring
at his hair.
"Hi," he said, offering his
hand to the young girl. She took it nervously. "My name is
Jeb, and it's been an awful long time since I've been outside."
Quickly, she drew her hand
back, stammered out the specials, and waited just long enough for Bessie
to order for cheeseburgers with fries and Pepsis. Joey slapped him
on the arm, laughing. "You scared her."
"Hey! I'm just trying
to live up to the new look I've got going on," he told her reasonably.
"It's hard work when you've been this debonair, good-looking guy all your
life. Then your girlfriend whacks a chunk of your hair off and there
you have it, a whole new personality: scary mental patient guy."
"So I take it from the annoyingly
witty banter that the two of you are doing fine? You're not about
to kill each other?" Bessie asked, sitting across from Joey on the inside
by the window.
"Not yet," Joey answered,
giving Pacey a withering look.
"How are you all doing, moneywise?"
Bodie asked.
"Well, look at my hair, dude.
This reeks of 'home job,' doesn't it?"
Joey elbowed him in the stomach.
"Pacey. For the love of God, I'm sorry, okay?"
"Let's just hope I have the
kind of head that can pull the bald look off well," he said, nudging her
with his shoulder. "For your benefit. You're the one who'll
have to look at me hour after hour, day after day."
"Okay, okay, let's get to
it," Bessie said, cutting in. "Are you broke?"
Serious, Pacey answered,
"Yes."
Bodie reached for his wallet,
opening it and pulling out five crisp bills, handing them to Pacey.
Joey's eyes widened when she saw the Benjamins.
"Man, I can't take this much,"
Pacey immediately protested. "What about the repairs around the B&B?
The unfinished room?"
"Pacey, you're sailing along
the coast in a small boat with my sister," Bodie said. "I want you
to have this money to take care of her, and to make sure the both of you
come back safe and sound if something happens to the boat."
"Bessie, I will pay you back
every cent of it, I promise," Pacey said earnestly.
"No, you won't. You
have to save money for college," Bessie answered, offering him her own
take on the Potter lopsided smile.
Pacey took a deep breath,
smiling. "You Potter women, you're unbelievable."
Laughing, Bodie agreed.
"Tell me about it."
"And Pacey, dear boy, why
are you acting as if I'm not going to take this out in trade?"
Pacey playfully groaned.
"Just remember to feed me and I'll do any type of manual labor you need."
Joey was still stunned.
"Bessie, I can't believe you're not pissed."
Bodie broke in at that.
"No, she's not pissed now."
"How bad was she?" Joey asked
him.
"Well . . . Doug had come
by the house, telling us that you'd taken off with Pacey on his boat.
That was a fun night. I especially loved the part where she threw
things at my head when I suggested that you'd done the right thing."
"But after awhile I calmed
down and saw that yes, you had made the right decision. You needed
to get the hell away from Dawson for awhile. Who, by the way, came
by the next day to talk to you."
Pacey wasn't surprised, but
Joey was. "What?"
"He said he needed to take
something back before you did anything," Bessie said.
"Oh my God. What did
you tell him?"
"I told him that he needed
to leave you alone for awhile," she continued, smiling at the timid waitress
who had brought their food and was sitting it out before them. She
never met Pacey's eyes, scampering away as quickly as she'd come.
"I'm sure he was thrilled
with that," Pacey commented, sticking a fry in his mouth.
Bessie rolled her eyes.
"He said it was important that he talked to Joey, and so I told him straight
out, "Look, Dawson, she left with him." And he asked where, like
he was going to hunt you down. And when I said Key West, he looked
at me like I was insane."
"I've seen that look a million
times. Eyebrows raised, whites around the eyes?" Pacey asked,
taking the pickles off Joey's plate.
"That's the one," Bessie
said. "And he actually asked me why I didn't go after you."
"Not that she didn't want
to, mind you," Bodie interjected.
"So I told him I'd been rooting
for Pacey for a good long while, longer than even Pacey knows," Bessie
said, munching on her hamburger. "He stormed off, and he rowed away
so fast I thought he'd capsize."
"I should have figured he'd
do something like that," Joey said thoughtfully.
"Let me ask you this," Bessie
said, taking Joey's hands in her own. "Are you happy?"
She felt all three pairs
of eyes watching her, and she never hesitated when she replied, "Yes."
"Then I'm happy for you.
This is the last summer you have to be a kid, and you should enjoy it to
the fullest," Bessie told her. "You both should."
They ate the rest of their
lunch gabbing about the eccentricities of some of the B&B's guests,
and where Joey and Pacey had docked along the way.
Near the end of the meal,
Bessie said, "Joey, I'm going to the ladies room."
Joey looked into her eyes
and immediately understood that she was to follow. "Me too.
Move it, Pace."
Bodie and Pacey got up while
the Potters slid out from the booth, heading toward the bathroom. After
sitting down again, Bodie said, "You do know, of course, that if you bring
her back knocked up, I'll kill you."
Pacey nodded, taking a drink
of Pepsi. "Yup."
"So, did you happen to catch
the game the other night on the radio?"
"No, actually, we were too
far out. Who won?"
"Are you two having sex?"
"No!"
"If you are, I have no room
to judge you," Bessie said from within her stall. "You just have
to be careful about it."
Joey rolled her eyes, leaning
against the sink, "Believe me, Bessie, I've learned from your mistakes."
Bessie flushed and opened
the door, walking over to the sink. "Have you? Because I know
all about being swept up in the moment, and letting things go too far."
"Bessie, we're not having
sex, okay?"
Bessie washed her hands,
grinning at her. "How far have you gone?"
Joey blushed. "Not
so far."
"How far?"
"Not all that far, Bessie."
"Come on!"
"All I'm saying is he has
nice
hands."
Bessie smiled knowingly.
"Be careful, Joey."
"I will."
Bessie looked at her for
a moment, searching her eyes. Then she reached in her purse, and
pulled out a box, handing it to Joey.
"Oh my God."
When Joey and Bessie came
out of the bathroom, Bodie and Pacey were waiting by the door, having paid
the bill.
"We have to go back, we left
Alexander with Grams and her Bible group is going to arrive at seven,"
Bodie said as they walked outside. "We're afraid a bunch of old ladies
fawning over him will scare him."
When they reached the truck,
Joey hugged him tightly while Pacey pulled her suitcase out of the back
of the truck. "Thank you for letting me do this."
"Just be careful, okay?"
"I promise."
Bessie hugged her next.
"Remember what I said."
"I'll never forget it, as
long as I live," Joey said.
Bodie and Pacey made their
manly goodbyes, and Bessie kissed him on the cheek. "Bring yourselves
back in one piece. I've already started a list of things I need done."
Pacey laughed, hugging her
one-armed, the other struggling with Joey's suitcase. "I'm sure you
have."
As Bessie and Bodie drove
away, they began walking back toward the docks. "She packed everything
you own."
"And then some," Joey commented.
"Did you get the sex talk?"
"Yeah," Pacey said.
"Did you?"
From her back pocket, Joey
pulled out the slim box Bessie had given her. "Oh my God, Pacey."
Pacey dropped the suitcase,
taking the box from her hand. "'Ribbed for Her Pleasure'?"
"She gave me instructions."
Pacey howled with laughter.
"I love that woman!"
The sun was nearing the horizon
when Joey began to lather his scalp with shaving foam. He sat on
the dock, perched on the same stool he'd sat on hours before. True
Love was docked beside him, and on the ledge of the boat rested a towel,
a bowel of water, and a straight edge razor.
"Explain to me again why
I'm not doing this with a Bic," Joey said as she washed her hands off on
the towel.
"Because, Josephine, if you're
going to shave someone's head, you should do it with the right equipment,"
Pacey explained, bullshit coloring his tone.
"This is going to take me
longer, you do realize that, of course," she said. "And don't call
me that."
"Of course, Josephine."
"Pacey."
"Yes, dear?"
Joey took the razor in hand,
and slowly began to scrape it along the side of his head. "Don't
piss off the person with a razor to your head."
"Point taken, Your Majesty,"
he said, leaning his head back and grinning up at her.
Taking his head in her hands,
she repositioned him. "Sit still, Pacey."
"I love it when your forceful,
Potter."
Joey blushed, wiping her
hands again. "Hush."
Joey once again began to
scrape the razor along his head, shaving a few inches then rinsing the
blade, wiping it on the towel before shaving a few more.
"So what do you think Bessie
meant when she said 'I've been rooting for Pacey longer than even Pacey
knows'?" Joey asked.
There was a moment of silence
before he answered her, a moment where he seemed to screw his courage up
before saying, "Bessie has known I've had feelings for you since the night
I knew I had feelings for you."
"What?"
"Just what I said, Potter,
she's known since as long as I've known."
Joey was quiet a moment as
more and more of his scalp became visible. "When did you know?"
"Well, I think I've always
had feelings for you," he said. "Always. But I never gave much
thought to them until that weekend Mr. Fricke came to review the B&B."
"That was six months ago,
Pacey."
"I know."
"Well, tell me more," Joey
said. He could tell from her voice that she was surprised.
"Actually, it was Mitch who
made me realize how my feelings for you had deepened into something more
than friendship. He came outside while I was chopping wood for the
fire, and we had a father-not-real-son heart-to-heart, and he asked me
point blank why I care so much about what happens to the B&B, and I
couldn't give him an answer," he said, watching the sky turn shades of
pink and gold as the sun slipped a little lower in the sky. "Which
made me wonder why."
"And so you went and talked
to Bessie?"
"No, silly. Do you
want me to tell you, or do you want to guess?"
"I'll be quiet."
Pacey snorted. "Hallelujah."
"Hey!"
"Anyway, the next day I put
it out of my head. Me, Pacey Witter, falling for Joey Potter?
Nah," he said, his watching the water now. "Couldn't be. Besides,
by then we'd just gotten to be comfortable around each other, as friends."
Joey moved a little slower,
the sound of his voice lulling her. She couldn't believe what she
was hearing.
"That night, I came over
to tell you that I'd talked to the furnace guy. I barged into your
house like I'd done a hundred times before, and I called for you up and
down the hall. I came back toward the living room, and I saw you
there, sleeping on the couch by the fire."
Joey remembered how tired
she'd been, and how all day long, she wanted nothing more than a little
peace and quiet and a nap. When she came home from the store, Bessie
and Bodie and Alex were outside in the cold, bundled up and having a candlelit
picnic. She'd gone inside and built a fire, curling up with a blanket
while the the room warmed up.
"Your blanket had fallen
a little, and I went over and tucked you in a little tighter. Then
I went over and sat in the rocker by the fire, and watched you sleep.
And I remember thinking, 'No. Please, God, no.' And there were other
thoughts along the lines of how beautiful you looked," he said, his voice
soft. Being a devil, he added, "How quiet."
"Oh my God, Pacey,"
she said, her voice barely audible.
"And I kept hearing Grams's
voice, telling us about her husband. You remember?"
Joey nodded, whispering Jennifer
Lindley's grandmother's words. "You know you love someone when you
can sit by the fire all night, watching them sleep."
"Yeah," he said. "And
I found out how true that really is."
"Really?"
"I watched you sleep, and
I dug around inside and realized, truly realized, that while we'd been
hanging out, working on the B&B, I'd gone and fallen in love with you,"
he said. "And I knew that if I ever told you, it would wreck not
only my life, but possibly yours too."
"How long were you there
that night?" she asked when she found her voice.
"Honestly, Jo, I have no
idea," he said. "I was so lost in thought that when Bessie put her
hand on my shoulder, I nearly shed my skin."
"What did she say?"
"First she asked me how long
I'd been there. When I couldn't tell her, she took my hand and led
me to the kitchen. She sat me down at the table and made me hot chocolate."
"She always does that when
it's obvious I need to talk about something," Joey commented. She
could see her older sister offering him cocoa and her ear.
"So I sat there, silently,
while she made the hot chocolate. And then she said, 'Mom said this
would happen.' I asked, 'What, that some guy would fall for Joey?"
"What did she say?"
"She said that no, she had
said specifically that I'd fall in love with you. That one
day, I'd worship the ground you walked on."
Her heart clenched at his
words, and she could remember clearly the day she'd told her mother that
she was in love with Dawson Leery. She'd been twelve, and while her
mother had been amused, she'd also been worried. "I remember her
telling me that maybe, between the two of you, I'd picked the wrong one
to pin my hopes and dreams on. I thought she was crazy, and told
her so. I'd forgotten about that..."
Joey was halfway through
shaving his head. There was a strange initmacy involved in the process
of shaving the head of your man, something nearly primitive, and she found
herself enjoying it. She'd never admit to it, though.
"I told Bessie that your
mother had been right. She told me that she'd seen this coming a
mile away, and when I asked her how, she told me she'd seen the way I looked
at you recently. And that when I wasn't aware of it, you were looking
at me the same way."
"Not much gets by her."
"I asked her not to say anything
to you. And I told her that I was going to do my best to keep it
to myself. And I did pretty good, for awhile."
"And then . . .?"
There was silence then, and
only the lap of the waves and the caw of the birds were heard. Quietly
he said, "Then there was College Guy, and opening night of the play.
After you left with A.J., Bessie fed me and went over some of the tougher
lines of the play with me. She told me that I needed to get my ass
in gear and do something about how I felt, because she couldn't stand A.J."
"I had no idea you and Bessie
had this whole . . . thing going on that I didn't know about," she
said.
"Well, that was the point,
Jo."
"That actually clears up
a whole lot, come to think of it," Joey said. "She had no advice
to offer me, and she has opinions on everything I say or do, practically."
"I wanted you to figure it
out for yourself without being coerced by others."
"I'm sorry it took me so
long," she said, shaving another strip of hair off.
"It did take you a damn long
time, didn't it?" he asked in a jovial tone.
"You'd be surprised, Pacey,"
she said, moving around in front of him, straddling him mid-thigh.
"Are you saying you weren't
as oblivious to my charm as you appeared, Ice Queen?" he teased.
Joey smiled. "Remember
that day you were working on the roof last September? And it was
nearly a hundred degrees?"
"Yeah?"
"I walked around the corner,
bringing you a glass of lemonade. I looked up and there you were
on the ladder, shirtless and sweaty."
A huge smile broke over his
face as he remembered that day. "You dropped the glass and blamed
it on a bee sting!"
She giggled, embarassed.
"I remember thinking, "Look at those abs! Too bad they're
attached to Pacey Witter."
He chuckled as she concentrated
on shaving the hair near his temple, and he watched her face. "Tell
me more."
"I can pinpoint the moment
I truly knew I had feelings for you that weren't going away."
"Oh really?" he asked.
"Do tell."
"We were sitting on the couch
one night in February, after the whole Valentine's Day thing, and we were
watching some stupid teen drama, making fun of it. You kept tickling
me, and it was making me really mad because you wouldn't stop it," she
told him. "I yelled at you to quit it, and when you did, I thought,
'I don't really want him to stop touching me.'"
"I was dying to touch you,
anyway I could."
"I laid awake all night wondering
when the hell this had happened."
"I know all about those kind
of nights."
Joey began shaving the last
strip, carefully. "Do you ever regret kissing me that day?
It turned our world upside down."
"I'll never regret kissing
you that day," he said. "It was the best kiss I'd ever had, and better
than I dreamed it could be to kiss Joey Potter."
"Even after the pain and
misplaced anger that followed?"
"It's worth it. You're
worth it," he said sincerely. "Do you? Have any regrets?"
Setting down the razor, she
looked deep into his eyes. "I haven't looked back once."
When he exhaled suddenly,
she realized he'd held his breath, which just made her love him that much
more.
"So . . . how's it look?"
he asked a little too brightly.
Joey smiled, putting her
hands in the bowl of water and rinsing his head, then toweling it off.
"You look . . . really good."
"Oh, yeah?" he replied, catching
on quickly. His eyes darkened as he held her gaze. "How good?"
The teasing smile fell from
her lips as she scooted closer on his lap, leaning in. "When you look at
me like that, I just want to grab you and kiss you over and over again,"
she said.
"That's pretty damn good,"
he whispered against her lips just before he kissed her.
PEOPLE Magazine, August 2015
HOLLYWOOD, Calif.
Keeping the Pace
For multi-million dollar
actor Pacey J. Witter (The Ocean Between Us, Born of Tragedy), life
couldn't be more hectic. He's got his hands full with the press tour
for the upcoming drama Divided, which is already generating Oscar-buzz.
He's starting a production company with his wife, author Josephine Witter
(Legend). He's the proud father of four girls; Emily, 10,
Bianca, 8, Grace, 6, and Teresa, 3. And as if that wasn't enough
to keep any man hopping, he and his wife are expecting their fifth baby,
another girl, next month. His life may be chaotic, but, he says,
"I wouldn't have it any other way."
Finding a peaceful moment
with the engaging actor proved to be quite tasking. Recently I finally
caught up with him and his heavily pregnant wife, Josephine, 31, at their
main home in Capeside, Massachusettes, where they were both born and raised.
Unlike some actors who build
fortresses in the Hollywood hills to keep themselves separated from their
fans, the Witters have their home on the waterfront, overlooking the Pacific.
When asked why they stay in the small coastal town, instead of living in
the more convenient Los Angeles, Witter is quick to tell me that he wants
his daughters to have as much of a normal childhood as possible.
All three girls attend the
Capeside Public School system, and their parents are very active in the
PTO. In fact, Witter, 32, has attended every single school event
each of his daughters have participated in, which isn't an easy feat when
you regularly work on the opposite side of the country.
He takes a lot of ribbing
from his friends for how much he dotes on his girls. "But that's
okay, that's alright," he says, chuckling. "I come home and see them
smile up at me with their mother's lopsided smile, and my whole world looks
brighter."
Does he ever wish at least
one of them was a boy? "Nah. The way we're going, I'm gonna
have my own softball team in a few years."
The day after the interview,
the actor is scheduled to leave on a press tour for Divided, where he's
also going to promote his production company, Daydream Believers, which
involves every one of his closest friends from high school.
"Joey (his wife) wrote a
novel while she was pregnant with Teresa, called That Summer, based
on our first few years together, which weren't easy. She wrote it
for our daughters, so they could read it later on and feel more connected
to their own history. When I read it, I immediately wanted to make
a movie out of it," the actor explains, his voice animated. "So I
decided to produce the movie based on her script. I asked my childhood
best friend, Dawson Leery (critically acclaimed director of The Girl
Next Door), to direct it. One of our other best friends, Jennifer
Lindley (Oscar-winning set decorator for such movies as the recent The
Matrix 7) is going to do our sets."
Witter goes on to explain
that Leery's wife, Andrea McPhee (of Silence is Golden fame),
another childhood friend, is going to star as Josephine's older sister,
Bessie. Her brother Jack is going to serve as the company's official
lawyer.
"It should be fun," Witter
laughs. "We've all dated each other. We've stolen girlfriends,
broken friendships, the whole nine yards together."
Sounds like the basis for
a teen drama to me.
-with additional photos
by B. Patel.