Hey! I feel like a "Loser," but I just saw this movie a few weeks ago when
it was shown on WB and now I just had to write a fic about it!!!!
And the sad thing is, I love MICHAEL VARTAN and I totally did not know he was in this movie! Can you believe this!!! Sorry "Vaughn," forgive me okay!!! Lol
All I can say is I don't own any of the characters and this fic is written if the producers of "Never Been Kissed," would ever do a sequel. But the idea is mine so hope you enjoy it!!!
Lots of love for ya! Enjoy
Leo's l'il sista
Prologue
Tap. Tap. Tap.
"It's almost twelve o'clock on Tuesday evening of August 18, 2000," Josie Geller typed onto her laptop. "But I anticipate the evening more than others, for when the hour hand and the minute hand meet at the highest point on the clock, it will be my first anniversary in marriage to the truly only man I love, my dearest husband~~~Sam Coulson."
She paused for a moment as she allowed her blue eyes to stare hard at the name on the screen. She curled her lip, debating whether it was unprofessional to put her husband's actual name in her article.
Was it corny?
Did it sound stuck up?
But then she thought~~~did she care?
She grinned as her eyes fell on the framed picture sitting next to her desk top. It was their wedding picture, their first portrait as Mr. And Mrs. Sam Coulson. She'd never liked her pictures and if she was the person she was last year, she wouldn't be caught dead displaying a picture of herself on her desk.
She'd never thought for a second that she was pretty, let alone beautiful. She was a nerd, a walking dictionary who's lifetime goal was to correct everyone's grammar, including what came out of the mouths of people who were unfortunate to come in contact with her.
But Sam Coulson had changed all that~~~he'd changed her. He made her feel that she was beautiful and that she did deserve to be loved. He constantly insisted that it was he who was lucky to have found her and not the other way around. And he loved Shakespeare and having perfect grammar as much as she did.
He was perfect.
And their August Wedding had been as picture perfect as the photo she was glancing at.
"And he hadn't complained about being in a penguin suit that day," Josie remembered. A flashback from prom materialized in her head when he'd told her that she made a beautiful prom queen and that he felt like he didn't belong.
"~~~Wearing these penguins suits~~~it's like I'm at my own wedding~~~"
Actually she had pointed that out to him on their wedding day and he had claimed that he wouldn't have had it any other way.
She stared at Sam's name once again and giggled.
Of course it had to be there! She'd created the article to convey to the world how things were going with her "mystery teacher," one year after she'd written the article to win his heart.
And Sam Coulson was the only reason she was this happy.
And it really had been one year of true bliss.
Why not let the world in on how happy she was? This world needed some literature that wasn't depressing as Dorothy Parker's works.
Plop!
Josie reached for a tissue after she was the tear splat again the table and dabbed her eyes.
It still got to her.
She'd never thought she would be happy. She'd stopped believing that dreams could come true after prom and that there was somebody out there that was meant just for her.
But after getting her first undercover story as a high school student, she'd not only wont he man of her wildest passionate day dreams, but she'd been able to discover herself, gotten the chance to live her lifelong high school dream of hanging out with the most popular girls in school, defended the denominators against their number-crunching rivals and gotten Rob into the minor league, right where he belonged.
Not in the lame job at the tiki post with the free lei's. And things had just continued to turn out better. She had now achieved the success of becoming a major reporter for the Chicago Sun Times, married to a man who loved her deeper than any love she could have ever hoped for. As for Sam, he was now teaching at the college, and even managed to squeeze in time for the local hockey team between spoiling her with romantic evenings and grading term papers.
She stared at her screen and gasped.
She'd written down everything she'd been thinking. She read it through and to her surprise she found she didn't need to change a thing, which was a first for Josie Geller who had managed to find at least one thing wrong in every paper she'd edited in her life.
But it was perfect
Life was perfect.
She took a composing breath and took the break from her screen as a chance to glance at the cuckoo clock on the wall.
Five minutes to twelve.
She hit save on the document and waited for the painstaking seconds it took to download onto her disk.
She heard the shower turn off and grinned, heat creeping into her already flushed cheeks.
Sam had five minutes to come out so they could be in each other's arms the moment Aug 19 began. She wondered if he would make it this time. He'd been a devastating one minute and a half late to meet her on the pitcher's mound two May's ago. And what nerve he had after she'd taken the risk of totally humiliating herself and her reputation by not only writing a full page on how she'd been a geek during her high school years, but revealing her truest feelings to who else but the English teacher she'd deceived while she'd acted as a seventeen-year old Josie Geller high school student at South Glen High last spring by proposing he meet her at the final baseball game of the season and give her her first real kiss in front of the whole stadium.
"Hmm~~~" she thought, reopened her laptop and began typing again.
"A good writer only wrote what she knew," that was her motto and she knew putting her exact feelings down on paper would be the best way to be personable with her readers and create an excellent article.
"Josie, you still typing on that thing?" Sam Coulson chuckled as he closed the bathroom door behind him. "It's almost our anniversary." Josie felt her heart jump into her throat. "You remembered," she beamed and turned around in her seat, dropping everything she was doing for that minute.
Sam was standing there with only a pair of sweats on. His tanned chest and abdomen were exposed, and still dripping with water from the hot shower he'd just taken. The room was filled with the aromatic scent of the soap that had been absorbed into his skin.
Josie blushed when she saw Sam raise an eyebrow at her. He frequently did that when he caught her staring at him.
God, could she help it if her husband was sexy?
"Of course I did," he crooned as he trotted up to her and slipped his strong arms around her waist and nuzzled his cheek against hers. "This marks one year of the best year of my life too."
"Sam, that is so sweet," she giggled, leaning against his bare chest. "You've definitely made it this time too."
Confusion grew in Sam's emerald eyes and Josie felt humiliated that he didn't recall what she was referring too. But then he glanced over at the clock and when he looked back at her, he was grinning. "Have you been counting five minutes till?"
"Maybe."
"Well honey, we've got two more minutes and I don't think it counts if you're focusing on the screen and not me," he chided her in a husky voice.
"I'm just saving my work," she put in hurridely and let out a contented sigh when the screen notified her that the process for saving had been completed on both her floppy disk as well as her hard drive.
"Is this your new article?" he inquired as his wife stretched her arms into the air and locked them behind his neck.
"It certainly is!" she beamed, kissing him on the cheek.
"Wow! I bet Chicago can't wait to read about this," Sam praised, placing a kiss on her forehead. "Remember all the fan-mail you received from that first article?"
Josie nodded. She did.
"Never Been Kissed," had not only bumped her up to the position of major reporter, but she'd gotten the whole of Chicago to believe in her as well as her writing. "That's who I'm writing it for. To let everyone know that I'm still in love with you and will be for years to come," she stammered. "And they can all serve as witnesses that~~~this isn't a dream," she added then looked up into his eyes. "This is all really happening."
Sam couldn't bear to see the hurt in her eyes. "Aww Josie," he crooned and held her face in his hands as tears continued to well in her eyes and streamed down her cheeks. "I'm sorry, I've just~~~never been this happy before. I'm afraid that I'm going to wake up one morning and you're not going to be by my side. I'm going to go crazy if I can never see your sleeping face next to mine."
Sam's heart melted. She was really the most amazing woman and he always felt he didn't tell her that enough. She was so confident and happy, but then there were times when she revealed how worried she was that all this that was happening was too good to be true and he found that bittersweetly reassuring.
She was going to stick around for life.
"Josie," he scolded her gently and waited for her to look at him. "Josie, this is real. I'm real, you're real and this marriage is the best real thing in my life," Sam promised her. "And truth is sometimes I start thinking that I'm dreaming, that life can't be this good, but then," he sighed affectionately and gently caressed her face. "When I look into those big blue eyes and see the love there, all my doubts disappear."
Josie hid her head, knowing she had to be completely red in the face.
He then raised her head and moved his head to hers until he could kiss her lips. In the next second all of her doubts disappeared. In fact the only thing that was left existing was Sam and Sam warm familiar lips kissing her. The rest of the world slipped away.
Except for the cuckoo from the clock.
Josie counted them in her mind while the rest of her was attached to her husband, both physically and emotionally.
Ten~~~eleven~~~twelve~~~
He gently bit her on the lip and broke away allowing Josie time to catch her breath. He had been counting the chimes himself.
"Happy Anniversary, Josie darling," he pronounced then added, "and let us pray we'll have many more of these to come."
She stared at Sam who looked so handsome in the golden lamplight. His light hair shone blond and his green eyes glistened even more if that was even possible. "You know what, I've got something to give you," he revealed and to Josie it sounded like he'd said it as an after thought to their previous conversation.
She watched him reach into the a pocket of his coat that had been hanging on a nearby chair. Her heart jumped into her throat when she saw a small velvet box.
She felt as though she were in a good romance movie.
"I~Is that for me?" she gasped, covering her mouth.
"Of course it is, silly," he teased her good naturedly and handed the box to her awaiting hands. "Who else would I buy an anniversary gift for?"
Josie stared at the object in her hand, in awe.
And Sam Coulson was a very patient man. He had to be since he actually chose to teach kids he was sure didn't want to be taught to. But the drama of the moment was playing on his last nerve.
"Aren't you going to open it?"
She was startled by his anxious expression and let out an embarrassed giggle. She calmed her trembling fingers long enough to pry the box open.
The next second her mouth dropped.
"Mr. Coulson!"
"No, Sam, sweetheart. My name is now Sam," he smiled, pleased to see her beautiful smile that had been caused by his little gift. "You like it?"
"L~like it? Sam, it's beautiful!" she gushed, her eyes glued to the trinket glistening in the box. Nestled there was a silver ring adorned with a jeweled version of the Adeli penguin.
"I was going to save it till our dinner tonight but knowing you, you're always busy with articles not to mention you're working on an extra one for your admirers. And you were getting emotional again and our conversation conveniently led up to it," he pointed out and then he dropped to his knee and dreamily declared, "you are my Adeli penguin, Josie."
Sam pulled her away from her chair, not listening to any objection and sat her down on the bed. "This is a one-of-a kind, Josie honey, so don't lose it okay," he pleaded with her as he took her hand and slipped the ring onto her finger.
"I won't," she whispered, afraid to that she would start crying again if she said anything out loud. Sam watched her raise her hand in the air and he wallowed in seeing her happy. "Sam Coulson, you are the greatest! I love you!" she cried and pulled him impulsively into a hug.
"Hey!" he laughed, and patted her back. "Okay, I love you too."
"You have no idea how I feel right now," she told him, slowly releasing her hold on him.
"Yeah? Why don't you tell me then?"
"I am truly~~~lucky~~~to have you."
"Ditto," he replied then kissed her again and continued the kiss until he felt a yawn in the back of his throat. He gently peel her reluctant arms off of him.
"Sam? You okay?" she asked with concern.
"Hmm? Oh yeah, just~~~I feel like a loser to spoil this romantic moment but you've got an article due and don't you have a meeting with that one guy tomorrow?"
"Gus?" she groaned, leaning against him. She'd totally forgotten.
"Yeah. And I have four classes to teach tomorrow and I've got to squeeze in hockey practice before dinner," he continued, trying not to feel guilty. "So I really need some shut-eye, and you'll need it too if you don't want to go to work with bags under your eyes."
Josie looked less than thrilled. Personally, bags under her eyes didn't sound like a bad idea if the cause was staying up with her husband the previous evening, even if they were talking about nothing.
"Come on, don't look at me like that. If you'll go to sleep now, I'll edit your article before I go to work tomorrow," he offered as he got under the covers.
"You're funny Mr. Coulson!" she giggled and smacked him on the shoulder, knowing very well Sam had added that comment just to tease her. Grammar was a sore point with her and no one knew that better than Sam.
"It's Sam, Josie, SAM!" he laughed.
Josie slipped into bed beside him and was trying to get comfortable when she spied a thick wad of papers sitting on the table on his side of the bed.
"Sam?" "Hmm?" he replied sleepily, his eyelids droopy, almost completely hiding his gorgeous green eyes from view.
"Isn't that the book you've been working on?" she inquired.
Sam forced his eyes open and followed her gaze.
"Yeah, I was wondering where I'd put that," he muttered, sat up in bed as he pulled the papers off the table then straightened them out.
"Will you read me some of that?"
Sam blushed when he heard the question and by the time he turned to look at his wife, he was sure his body temperature had gone up a few degrees.
"Josie, I~~~I don't like sharing my writing, especially when it's not finished," he protested. "Besides, my work is nowhere near as good as yours."
Josie rolled her eyes. Obviously flattery wasn't going to get him out of this mess. "Says the Yale graduate," she grumbled then she clambered onto his chest and raised her eyes. "Please, Sam, just one chapter? You're always hearing about my work and I want to hear about yours."
Sam was thinking about scolding her and suggest they turn out the lights but he didn't want to fight with her now. Besides he never got that far, not after seeing the soft golden curls that caressed her angel-like face, complete with the most beautiful eyes, rosy cheeks and pouty lips he'd ever laid eyes on.
"Please?" she repeated.
Sam sighed heavily, though he had to admit he was flattered that she wanted so much to do with his writing and her support for him was unbelieveable.
But still.
"F~fine," he exhaled, giving in. "You know there's no way I can say no when you look at me like that."
"I know," she grinned.
He reached his hand to cover up his yawn and peered at the clock. It was thirty minutes past twelve. "Okay, but just thirty minutes, the lights go out at one."
"Okay," she agreed.
Sam flipped gingerly through the pages and pulled out a chapter that he was sure wouldn't embarrass him too much.
"All right, ready?" he asked Josie, who was currently laying her head on his built but soft abdomen.
"Yup~~~"
"Just to warn you, I haven't edited this yet so it's~~~it's not perfect."
"I'm not here to judge," she promised him and wriggled around to make herself more comfortable.
He took a deep breath, braced himself for the cringing his wife would probably do over his bad grammar and began reading, his french accent thick from nervousness.
But after half a page, he realized she hadn't made one crude remark about his writing. He gazed down at his wife and saw that she was smiling peacefully.
"Josie?"
"Keep reading Sam. It's very well written."
Trust Josie's grammar to be perfect even if she was half asleep.
Sam, having gained renewed confidence, plunged forward as his wife slowly drifted to a slumber, comforted by the warmth of his skin, the tempo of his breathing and the sound of his beautiful french-accented voice.
Stay tuned for Chapter One! Things are about to get interesting!
And the sad thing is, I love MICHAEL VARTAN and I totally did not know he was in this movie! Can you believe this!!! Sorry "Vaughn," forgive me okay!!! Lol
All I can say is I don't own any of the characters and this fic is written if the producers of "Never Been Kissed," would ever do a sequel. But the idea is mine so hope you enjoy it!!!
Lots of love for ya! Enjoy
Leo's l'il sista
Prologue
Tap. Tap. Tap.
"It's almost twelve o'clock on Tuesday evening of August 18, 2000," Josie Geller typed onto her laptop. "But I anticipate the evening more than others, for when the hour hand and the minute hand meet at the highest point on the clock, it will be my first anniversary in marriage to the truly only man I love, my dearest husband~~~Sam Coulson."
She paused for a moment as she allowed her blue eyes to stare hard at the name on the screen. She curled her lip, debating whether it was unprofessional to put her husband's actual name in her article.
Was it corny?
Did it sound stuck up?
But then she thought~~~did she care?
She grinned as her eyes fell on the framed picture sitting next to her desk top. It was their wedding picture, their first portrait as Mr. And Mrs. Sam Coulson. She'd never liked her pictures and if she was the person she was last year, she wouldn't be caught dead displaying a picture of herself on her desk.
She'd never thought for a second that she was pretty, let alone beautiful. She was a nerd, a walking dictionary who's lifetime goal was to correct everyone's grammar, including what came out of the mouths of people who were unfortunate to come in contact with her.
But Sam Coulson had changed all that~~~he'd changed her. He made her feel that she was beautiful and that she did deserve to be loved. He constantly insisted that it was he who was lucky to have found her and not the other way around. And he loved Shakespeare and having perfect grammar as much as she did.
He was perfect.
And their August Wedding had been as picture perfect as the photo she was glancing at.
"And he hadn't complained about being in a penguin suit that day," Josie remembered. A flashback from prom materialized in her head when he'd told her that she made a beautiful prom queen and that he felt like he didn't belong.
"~~~Wearing these penguins suits~~~it's like I'm at my own wedding~~~"
Actually she had pointed that out to him on their wedding day and he had claimed that he wouldn't have had it any other way.
She stared at Sam's name once again and giggled.
Of course it had to be there! She'd created the article to convey to the world how things were going with her "mystery teacher," one year after she'd written the article to win his heart.
And Sam Coulson was the only reason she was this happy.
And it really had been one year of true bliss.
Why not let the world in on how happy she was? This world needed some literature that wasn't depressing as Dorothy Parker's works.
Plop!
Josie reached for a tissue after she was the tear splat again the table and dabbed her eyes.
It still got to her.
She'd never thought she would be happy. She'd stopped believing that dreams could come true after prom and that there was somebody out there that was meant just for her.
But after getting her first undercover story as a high school student, she'd not only wont he man of her wildest passionate day dreams, but she'd been able to discover herself, gotten the chance to live her lifelong high school dream of hanging out with the most popular girls in school, defended the denominators against their number-crunching rivals and gotten Rob into the minor league, right where he belonged.
Not in the lame job at the tiki post with the free lei's. And things had just continued to turn out better. She had now achieved the success of becoming a major reporter for the Chicago Sun Times, married to a man who loved her deeper than any love she could have ever hoped for. As for Sam, he was now teaching at the college, and even managed to squeeze in time for the local hockey team between spoiling her with romantic evenings and grading term papers.
She stared at her screen and gasped.
She'd written down everything she'd been thinking. She read it through and to her surprise she found she didn't need to change a thing, which was a first for Josie Geller who had managed to find at least one thing wrong in every paper she'd edited in her life.
But it was perfect
Life was perfect.
She took a composing breath and took the break from her screen as a chance to glance at the cuckoo clock on the wall.
Five minutes to twelve.
She hit save on the document and waited for the painstaking seconds it took to download onto her disk.
She heard the shower turn off and grinned, heat creeping into her already flushed cheeks.
Sam had five minutes to come out so they could be in each other's arms the moment Aug 19 began. She wondered if he would make it this time. He'd been a devastating one minute and a half late to meet her on the pitcher's mound two May's ago. And what nerve he had after she'd taken the risk of totally humiliating herself and her reputation by not only writing a full page on how she'd been a geek during her high school years, but revealing her truest feelings to who else but the English teacher she'd deceived while she'd acted as a seventeen-year old Josie Geller high school student at South Glen High last spring by proposing he meet her at the final baseball game of the season and give her her first real kiss in front of the whole stadium.
"Hmm~~~" she thought, reopened her laptop and began typing again.
"A good writer only wrote what she knew," that was her motto and she knew putting her exact feelings down on paper would be the best way to be personable with her readers and create an excellent article.
"Josie, you still typing on that thing?" Sam Coulson chuckled as he closed the bathroom door behind him. "It's almost our anniversary." Josie felt her heart jump into her throat. "You remembered," she beamed and turned around in her seat, dropping everything she was doing for that minute.
Sam was standing there with only a pair of sweats on. His tanned chest and abdomen were exposed, and still dripping with water from the hot shower he'd just taken. The room was filled with the aromatic scent of the soap that had been absorbed into his skin.
Josie blushed when she saw Sam raise an eyebrow at her. He frequently did that when he caught her staring at him.
God, could she help it if her husband was sexy?
"Of course I did," he crooned as he trotted up to her and slipped his strong arms around her waist and nuzzled his cheek against hers. "This marks one year of the best year of my life too."
"Sam, that is so sweet," she giggled, leaning against his bare chest. "You've definitely made it this time too."
Confusion grew in Sam's emerald eyes and Josie felt humiliated that he didn't recall what she was referring too. But then he glanced over at the clock and when he looked back at her, he was grinning. "Have you been counting five minutes till?"
"Maybe."
"Well honey, we've got two more minutes and I don't think it counts if you're focusing on the screen and not me," he chided her in a husky voice.
"I'm just saving my work," she put in hurridely and let out a contented sigh when the screen notified her that the process for saving had been completed on both her floppy disk as well as her hard drive.
"Is this your new article?" he inquired as his wife stretched her arms into the air and locked them behind his neck.
"It certainly is!" she beamed, kissing him on the cheek.
"Wow! I bet Chicago can't wait to read about this," Sam praised, placing a kiss on her forehead. "Remember all the fan-mail you received from that first article?"
Josie nodded. She did.
"Never Been Kissed," had not only bumped her up to the position of major reporter, but she'd gotten the whole of Chicago to believe in her as well as her writing. "That's who I'm writing it for. To let everyone know that I'm still in love with you and will be for years to come," she stammered. "And they can all serve as witnesses that~~~this isn't a dream," she added then looked up into his eyes. "This is all really happening."
Sam couldn't bear to see the hurt in her eyes. "Aww Josie," he crooned and held her face in his hands as tears continued to well in her eyes and streamed down her cheeks. "I'm sorry, I've just~~~never been this happy before. I'm afraid that I'm going to wake up one morning and you're not going to be by my side. I'm going to go crazy if I can never see your sleeping face next to mine."
Sam's heart melted. She was really the most amazing woman and he always felt he didn't tell her that enough. She was so confident and happy, but then there were times when she revealed how worried she was that all this that was happening was too good to be true and he found that bittersweetly reassuring.
She was going to stick around for life.
"Josie," he scolded her gently and waited for her to look at him. "Josie, this is real. I'm real, you're real and this marriage is the best real thing in my life," Sam promised her. "And truth is sometimes I start thinking that I'm dreaming, that life can't be this good, but then," he sighed affectionately and gently caressed her face. "When I look into those big blue eyes and see the love there, all my doubts disappear."
Josie hid her head, knowing she had to be completely red in the face.
He then raised her head and moved his head to hers until he could kiss her lips. In the next second all of her doubts disappeared. In fact the only thing that was left existing was Sam and Sam warm familiar lips kissing her. The rest of the world slipped away.
Except for the cuckoo from the clock.
Josie counted them in her mind while the rest of her was attached to her husband, both physically and emotionally.
Ten~~~eleven~~~twelve~~~
He gently bit her on the lip and broke away allowing Josie time to catch her breath. He had been counting the chimes himself.
"Happy Anniversary, Josie darling," he pronounced then added, "and let us pray we'll have many more of these to come."
She stared at Sam who looked so handsome in the golden lamplight. His light hair shone blond and his green eyes glistened even more if that was even possible. "You know what, I've got something to give you," he revealed and to Josie it sounded like he'd said it as an after thought to their previous conversation.
She watched him reach into the a pocket of his coat that had been hanging on a nearby chair. Her heart jumped into her throat when she saw a small velvet box.
She felt as though she were in a good romance movie.
"I~Is that for me?" she gasped, covering her mouth.
"Of course it is, silly," he teased her good naturedly and handed the box to her awaiting hands. "Who else would I buy an anniversary gift for?"
Josie stared at the object in her hand, in awe.
And Sam Coulson was a very patient man. He had to be since he actually chose to teach kids he was sure didn't want to be taught to. But the drama of the moment was playing on his last nerve.
"Aren't you going to open it?"
She was startled by his anxious expression and let out an embarrassed giggle. She calmed her trembling fingers long enough to pry the box open.
The next second her mouth dropped.
"Mr. Coulson!"
"No, Sam, sweetheart. My name is now Sam," he smiled, pleased to see her beautiful smile that had been caused by his little gift. "You like it?"
"L~like it? Sam, it's beautiful!" she gushed, her eyes glued to the trinket glistening in the box. Nestled there was a silver ring adorned with a jeweled version of the Adeli penguin.
"I was going to save it till our dinner tonight but knowing you, you're always busy with articles not to mention you're working on an extra one for your admirers. And you were getting emotional again and our conversation conveniently led up to it," he pointed out and then he dropped to his knee and dreamily declared, "you are my Adeli penguin, Josie."
Sam pulled her away from her chair, not listening to any objection and sat her down on the bed. "This is a one-of-a kind, Josie honey, so don't lose it okay," he pleaded with her as he took her hand and slipped the ring onto her finger.
"I won't," she whispered, afraid to that she would start crying again if she said anything out loud. Sam watched her raise her hand in the air and he wallowed in seeing her happy. "Sam Coulson, you are the greatest! I love you!" she cried and pulled him impulsively into a hug.
"Hey!" he laughed, and patted her back. "Okay, I love you too."
"You have no idea how I feel right now," she told him, slowly releasing her hold on him.
"Yeah? Why don't you tell me then?"
"I am truly~~~lucky~~~to have you."
"Ditto," he replied then kissed her again and continued the kiss until he felt a yawn in the back of his throat. He gently peel her reluctant arms off of him.
"Sam? You okay?" she asked with concern.
"Hmm? Oh yeah, just~~~I feel like a loser to spoil this romantic moment but you've got an article due and don't you have a meeting with that one guy tomorrow?"
"Gus?" she groaned, leaning against him. She'd totally forgotten.
"Yeah. And I have four classes to teach tomorrow and I've got to squeeze in hockey practice before dinner," he continued, trying not to feel guilty. "So I really need some shut-eye, and you'll need it too if you don't want to go to work with bags under your eyes."
Josie looked less than thrilled. Personally, bags under her eyes didn't sound like a bad idea if the cause was staying up with her husband the previous evening, even if they were talking about nothing.
"Come on, don't look at me like that. If you'll go to sleep now, I'll edit your article before I go to work tomorrow," he offered as he got under the covers.
"You're funny Mr. Coulson!" she giggled and smacked him on the shoulder, knowing very well Sam had added that comment just to tease her. Grammar was a sore point with her and no one knew that better than Sam.
"It's Sam, Josie, SAM!" he laughed.
Josie slipped into bed beside him and was trying to get comfortable when she spied a thick wad of papers sitting on the table on his side of the bed.
"Sam?" "Hmm?" he replied sleepily, his eyelids droopy, almost completely hiding his gorgeous green eyes from view.
"Isn't that the book you've been working on?" she inquired.
Sam forced his eyes open and followed her gaze.
"Yeah, I was wondering where I'd put that," he muttered, sat up in bed as he pulled the papers off the table then straightened them out.
"Will you read me some of that?"
Sam blushed when he heard the question and by the time he turned to look at his wife, he was sure his body temperature had gone up a few degrees.
"Josie, I~~~I don't like sharing my writing, especially when it's not finished," he protested. "Besides, my work is nowhere near as good as yours."
Josie rolled her eyes. Obviously flattery wasn't going to get him out of this mess. "Says the Yale graduate," she grumbled then she clambered onto his chest and raised her eyes. "Please, Sam, just one chapter? You're always hearing about my work and I want to hear about yours."
Sam was thinking about scolding her and suggest they turn out the lights but he didn't want to fight with her now. Besides he never got that far, not after seeing the soft golden curls that caressed her angel-like face, complete with the most beautiful eyes, rosy cheeks and pouty lips he'd ever laid eyes on.
"Please?" she repeated.
Sam sighed heavily, though he had to admit he was flattered that she wanted so much to do with his writing and her support for him was unbelieveable.
But still.
"F~fine," he exhaled, giving in. "You know there's no way I can say no when you look at me like that."
"I know," she grinned.
He reached his hand to cover up his yawn and peered at the clock. It was thirty minutes past twelve. "Okay, but just thirty minutes, the lights go out at one."
"Okay," she agreed.
Sam flipped gingerly through the pages and pulled out a chapter that he was sure wouldn't embarrass him too much.
"All right, ready?" he asked Josie, who was currently laying her head on his built but soft abdomen.
"Yup~~~"
"Just to warn you, I haven't edited this yet so it's~~~it's not perfect."
"I'm not here to judge," she promised him and wriggled around to make herself more comfortable.
He took a deep breath, braced himself for the cringing his wife would probably do over his bad grammar and began reading, his french accent thick from nervousness.
But after half a page, he realized she hadn't made one crude remark about his writing. He gazed down at his wife and saw that she was smiling peacefully.
"Josie?"
"Keep reading Sam. It's very well written."
Trust Josie's grammar to be perfect even if she was half asleep.
Sam, having gained renewed confidence, plunged forward as his wife slowly drifted to a slumber, comforted by the warmth of his skin, the tempo of his breathing and the sound of his beautiful french-accented voice.
Stay tuned for Chapter One! Things are about to get interesting!