First, many thanks for all the well wishes I got in regard to the hurricane.

Second, thanks for the continued comments and support on this story! I'm surprised I haven't gotten any flames. I guess if I have, they are "flames of silence'!

Onward now, from Jo's POV:

-

"Mom," Lizzie said evenly. "Gordo is in your bedroom."

"I know," I said, coming back in from the garage, where I had just put a load of clothes in the washing machine.

"He's in your bedroom," she repeated meaningfully. "And he's wearing Dad's clothes."

I went to the cabinet and pulled down two wine glasses. "I know," I said. "I gave them to him. He got splattered with mud, and he was such a mess. Oh, Lizzie! You should have seen! It was so funny---"

"Mom!" Lizzie said forcefully. "He's in your room. He's wearing Dad's clothes. And he's got---he's got…a hard on!"

I looked up at Lizzie. She was obviously mortified. I was not, though. I found this information amusing. I felt the hint of a smile beginning to try to creep on to my face. For Lizzie's sake, I held it back.

"Oh, Lizzie," I said breezily. "That happens to guys sometimes. You know that. It doesn't necessarily mean anything."

"And it doesn't necessarily not mean anything," she pointed out. "It could mean something very serious!" I could hear the frustration growing in her voice. She watched me pouring two glasses of wine, and I could tell by the look in her eye that she was going to say something more.

Here it was.

"Mom," she began. "I don't like what's happening with you and Gordo. I don't like him hanging around you so much. It isn't right. It looks bad. It is bad. You shouldn't have anything to do with him. And you definitely should not be drinking with him by the way! He's still underage, you know. And you don't know what kind of person he is. With girls, I mean. He's not very nice sometimes, he's not very fair. You can't trust him. He'll weasel his way into your heart, and then break it from the inside out. He did it to me. I just had no idea he would sink so low as to go after my mother…"

"Whoa!" I called, holding up my hand. "Hold on one minute, young lady. There are so many things I can say to all that, I don't even know where to begin. First of all, David is mature enough to handle a little glass of wine, and he's not driving, so I don't see what's wrong with it. But more importantly, you are so wrong about him breaking hearts. He would never do that intentionally. For your information, his heart was also broken when you refused to talk with him or even see him any more after that day at the beach.

"Yes, I know all about it. He told me all about it. And by the way, don't you remember his coming over that night, banging on your door, trying to see you, trying to explain and apologize? You were just as unfair to him as he was to you, maybe moreso.

"You made a mistake, Lizzie. You let him go. You lost his love, and you lost his friendship, and as far as I'm concerned, there's been no greater loss in your life, no greater tragedy. David was good for you, honey. He was so good for you…don't you remember? Don't you miss that?"

Lizzie was biting her lip. She folded her arms across her chest. "Mom…"

"I…I don't know," I said. "It might be too late for you to get that back. But if there's any chance, you should try to get that back. At least the friendship. Because he's such a sweetheart, and I think deep down he still cares for you, I think he's still hurting, because you obviously won't forgive him for what happened that summer."

"Mom, stop it," Lizzie said firmly.

I could tell she did not want to hear any of this. I figured I had given her enough to think about, but I had one more thing I had to say.

"And as for me and David," I informed my daughter, "you may not like it, and I'm sorry you feel that way, but I'm telling you that nothing is going on that you think is going on. Dad and I may be having some problems, but I'm not cheating on him, not with David or anyone else. And even if I was---"

I didn't get to finish my thought, because we suddenly heard a loud blaring horn honking from the driveway.

"That's Josh," Lizzie said. "I've got to go."

She turned to leave, and as she did, she bumped directly into David, who had just appeared in the room. Lizzie shrieked in surprise and David said "Sorry…"

They looked at each other uneasily. So much tension between these two who had formerly been so close! It was sad to see.

"Well," Lizzie said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "You two have a nice evening, all right?"

Obviously she hadn't heard or didn't want to believe anything I had just told her.

"You know," David said. "Maybe I should just go…"

"Don't you dare!" I cried. "Don't you let her chase you away."

"Oh, don't worry," Lizzie said. " I'm out of here. I won't be in your way to stop you from anything you want to do."

"Lizzie!" I screamed.

"I'm telling you, Mom. Be careful," Lizzie warned, and then she was gone, slamming the front door behind her.

The slam reverberated through the now quiet house. I had my hand over my forehead, and I heard David say again, "Jo…maybe….I should go…"

I looked up at him. "Don't you dare," I said again, but more quietly than before. "Don't you let her scare you away."

"But I'm causing so much friction between you and Lizzie---"

"Listen, David, there was friction between me and Lizzie before you came along, and there will be friction between us when you're gone. Most of the time we're okay, but there are moments, and we have to deal with them. This is our issue, and really has nothing to do with you. I am not going to let her chase you away."

He looked at me across the room, and I could tell there was something different about him. Had Lizzie really upset him that much? He seemed tense, uneasy…maybe even guilty? I walked over, took his hand, and led him to the couch. He didn't resist.

"You're going to stay," I said. "You're going to sit down and have a glass of wine, and some Chinese food, and watch this movie with me. We're going to forget about everything else. We're going to put the world on pause. For just a little while, okay? Would you do this for me, David? I really feel like I need to forget about everything else, for just a little while. Okay?"

He was sitting, he was nodding. I brought over the glasses of wine, and I saw his eyes following me intently. His eyes were so blue against the bright blue of the tee shirt he was wearing, but there was something else I was seeing in them, that had nothing to do with the clothes he was wearing. Subconsciously I knew that something was happening between us. But after just self-righteously proclaiming to my daughter that I was not cheating on her father, that was also on the list of things I didn't want to deal with at this moment.

David took his wineglass and I held mine, and I said, "How about a toast?"

He nodded. "How about toasting…the Pause Button?"

"I like it!" I smiled. "Yes, I'll certainly drink to that! To the Pause Button!"

And so that evening we put our lives on pause for two blessed hours as we drank the wine and ate the Chinese food that arrived moments after our toast, and watched this incredible movie. Not once during that time did I think about anything that was troubling me. It was enough to be here with David at this moment, with no interruptions.

He didn't know, but when I got up briefly to move the laundry (and here we actually did use the pause button) I took the phone off the hook to be sure nobody would bother us. Sam might call, and I did not want to ruin this moment by talking to Sam.

When I got back to the couch, I took a throw pillow and leaned it against David's leg, as I sometimes did, and lay down next to him.

"You're not going to go to sleep now?" he teased.

"No, of course not. I'm just getting comfortable."

After that, from time to time I felt his hand pushing back my hair, as he checked, "Still awake?"

"Uh hu," I smiled up at him.

I made it through the movie this way, but afterwards, when the TV came back on, David flipped through the channels and we watched an episode of Seinfeld, for which I also remained awake, but after that, he got stuck on a sports news station, checking out baseball scores or some such thing, and then I felt myself drifting away…

-

Some undetermined amount of time later I woke up to the sensation of his fingers once again brushing back my hair. I turned and looked up at David. "Hey," I smiled. "What time is it?"

"I think it must be about four a.m."

I sat up suddenly. "Oh my God, David! Why didn't you wake me?"

"How could I wake you?" he wondered. "You looked so peaceful, sleeping like that, everything about you so totally set on the Pause Button."

"The Pause Button has been deactivated," I announced. "Full force re-entry into real life. First, where is Lizzie?"

"She came home hours ago," David said. "She wasn't happy to see me here. She went straight to her room."

"Oh, good. She's in," I said, breathing a sigh of relief. "And what about you? What about your parents?"

"They're not even home," David said. "Date night got extended to an overnight getaway. They're in San Francisco, I think."

"They are?" I knew he could probably hear the edge of jealousy in my voice. When had Sam and I last enjoyed a getaway? I couldn't even think back that far.

"Well then," I said. "I guess you're alright. And I'm just thinking, as long as it's so late all ready, does it even make sense for you to go home at this point? Why don't you just stay and sleep on the couch?"

David shook his head. "No. Lizzie looked like she was about to bite my head off when she came in and found me here a few hours ago. If I'm still here in the morning when she wakes up, I'm not sure what she might do to me."

I leaned over and wrapped my arms around him, laying my head against his chest. "Oh, David, don't you worry," I said. "I would not let her do anything to harm you."

He pat my back and said, "Now I really should go, Jo. I really can't put this off any longer."

"I know," I said sadly.

"Besides," he said, "Mom and Dad will be back around three in the afternoon, and then Dad and I are going car shopping."

"A big day," I said, letting him go. "And you haven't had any sleep!"

"I dozed a little," he said. "But right now, I have to admit, I am thinking about my own bed."

"Okay," I said, standing up. "What about your clothes in the dryer?."

"Not a biggie," he said. "I'll get them next time. I just need my wallet and my keys."

"On the table in the foyer."

As we walked towards the front door, I thought about everything that had happened tonight, and by the time we got to the door, I was laughing lightly.

"What?" David smiled.

"I'm just remembering how you looked with all that mud all over you, and shaking your hair out, like an English Sheepdog…"

He tried to frown at me for taking pleasure in his misfortune, but he could not keep his frown from turning into a grin, and then he was laughing too.

"See!" I exclaimed. "I told you you would be laughing about it before you knew it!"

"It's so easy to laugh when I'm with you, Jo," he said, that same strange look in his sleepy blue eyes that I had seen earlier.

I looked at him and thought about him sleeping in his own bed, then getting up to go car shopping with his dad, then buying the car that was going to take him away from me. My smile turned to a pout as I moved close and wrapped my arms around him, saying suddenly, sadly, "I'm going to miss you so much, my sweet young man."

I felt him take a deep breath as his arms came up to envelop me in a hug that would not let go. I know he was feeling the sadness too. And then he whispered, directly into my ear, in the softest voice I'd ever heard him use, "I'm going to miss you too, Jo."

We didn't say anything else, we just remained in that tight embrace in the foyer for such a long time, until we were almost swaying, almost dancing again. I could have stood there like that with him until the sun rose, but I knew he had to get home and get some sleep for his big day, so at last I gave him a squeeze to let him know it was time to let go.

We pulled apart a little, and then, as was my habit, I reached up to give him a quick kiss on the cheek. But something happened this time. It may have been my fault. I'm not exactly sure. Maybe I misjudged or maybe he moved too much, or maybe a little of both. But my kiss did not land on his cheek. It landed on his lips, and it kind of got stuck there for a moment longer than it should have.

I think he was as shocked as I was, because I heard him mutter a little "mmm…" It was the exact sound he had made earlier in the evening when I had been so flirtatiously rubbing his chest, and it tied that moment to this, charging it with the sexual energy I have alternately been embracing and trying to avoid. At the moment I preferred to avoid it, and so did he, I suppose, because as we pulled apart he instantly said, "Sorry…"

I smiled at him. "It's okay," I said, gently. "It was an accident."

"An accident," he agreed, nodding.

"You'd better get home," I said.

"I'd better get home," he agreed, nodding.

"Good night, David."

"Good night," he said. "I'd better get home."

He started to walk out the door and I said, "Oh! Don't forget your wallet and your keys."

"My wallet," he said, taking it from me. "And my keys. Thanks, Jo. And sorry…"

"No need to be sorry," I said. "It was an accident."

"Okay," he said. "An accident."

He left nodding and mumbling, probably from lack of sleep, but possibly also from shock. I locked up after him and stood for a moment with my head against the door, laughing lightly and thinking, My sweet…sweet young man…