AN – I have no idea how long it takes to get from Blacksburg to Belleville with a Cessna or any plane for the matter. Well, I actually don't even know how long it would need to get there with a car lolol… Anyway, the stated time may not work in real life but since this isn't real life and simply fiction, I hope it doesn't matter that much… Just know that I tried my best to find an acceptable timeline…
Oh and last but not least… everyone who's still waiting for the username/password… I'm sorry for the delay but don't worry, you haven't missed anything :-) So far there's no smut in this story (it won't happen for a while) and I promise you get the needed information in time! Yesterday I had no chance to work on my mails. Thanks for your patience and kind words. Now I hope you enjoy the second part of ASDIB…
A Snowy Date In Belleville – Part 2
Disclaimer - See part one for all important information
On the road to the Rabb Farm
Outside Belleville, PA
2:16 PM
After they had landed at the small airfield near Belleville, Harm and Mac had rented a Jeep Grand Cherokee before making their way to Harm's grandmother's farm.
Belleville and the region around it got even more snow than the Washington area and Harm was sure that the nearer they got to his grandmother's farm, the more snow they could expect since her farm was farther up the hills. The roads up there were much more difficult to pass, but Harm knew the area and the way to his grandmother's inside out and therefore encountered no problems during their ride.
Mac enjoyed their ride up there immensely. Until this day she had thought she knew what 'a lot of snow' looked like from living in Washington, but today she learned just how beautiful this much snow could actually be.
The open landscape allowed her a wide view and to her it was simply spectacular. The fir trees around them were covered with a thick layer of snow causing their branches to hang low from the weight. At times she even saw a shy snow hare or a deer between them.
The sky was cloudless and the sun was shining down brightly, making the snow around them twinkle like a blanket of diamonds.
In the distance Mac spotted a slope where a bunch of happy looking children were having a blast conquering the hill with their sleds and tractor tires while other youngsters were obviously building a giant snowman with their parents or grandparents.
Every now and then, Harm's eyes left the road and he glanced over at Mac and it was obvious just how much she liked what she saw around her. To him she looked like a little child who had just walked into a candy shop for the very first time.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Harm tenderly asked her, breaking the delightful silence in the car.
Mac turned her head to look at him and a cheerful smile was covering her face, the shimmer in her eyes was even brighter than the shining of the sun above them, at least in Harm's opinion.
"Yes, it is. This is beyond beautiful and so calming. It is simply breathtaking."
Harm nodded his head with one of his flyboy-grins, knowing exactly what she was talking about. For him it always had been a place of peacefulness, relaxation, and sometimes even a place of recovering.
Harm pointed with his forefinger to the right side at some kids in the distance obviously having a lot of fun. "I bet Little AJ and Jimmy would love to spend some time out there".
Mac chuckled and turned her gaze for a short moment back to the slope. "I'm sure we would get the 'It's so cool' speech from Little AJ before he and Jimmy would spend hours on the slope with no hope of getting them away from the place before they had gotten their fill of fun and excitement."
Harm laughed as he took a right turn into a little dirt path, the right and the left sides planted with huge firs, nearly making an avenue out of it. "Very true and I know we would have loved and enjoyed every minute of it," he said with a bright grin and immediately got a nod from Mac in response.
"Very much so," she concurred with a ripple of laughter as Harm steered the car in front of the farmhouse and brought it to a halt.
Harm turned off the engine and slowly took the key out of the ignition, but instead of opening the door to get out of the car, he turned in his seat a little so that he could look a bit better at Mac. He took one of her hands into his to give it a little squeeze. "Maybe the next time we plan to come up here, we could take the kids with us," Harm suggested.
Mac's huge smile and her bright shining eyes already gave him the answer he had hoped for, and this time it seemed for him as if there were even more emotions displayed in her eyes. When she leaned forward a little to let her soft lips meet his, he knew for sure that her answer was a 'yes' and he couldn't suppress the huge smile which covered his face as soon as they broke their kiss.
"I gather from your reaction that this is your way of saying 'Yes, we should bring them with us the next time we come up here'," Harm said confidently with a boyish grin, not even thinking about making a question out of it.
Mac just tapped his nose with her forefinger and then opened the door. "You're too smart for your own good, Commander," she told him with a laugh and was on her way out of the car, just to be held back by Harm's arms, which quickly embraced her from behind.
She turned her head and before Mac could say or ask anything, Harm's lips were covering hers for another kiss. This one wasn't short, soft or simple, but rather demanding and heated. Harm put all the passion, desire, and love he felt for her into this single kiss and got each of these feelings back from Mac in response while everything around them seemed to fade into nonexistence as their kiss grew and grew.
"Yeah, you're right, Colonel. I'm really too smart for my own good and to catch and kiss you just now was the best idea I had in… hmmm… let's see… twenty minutes or so," Harm huskily told her with a smirk, remembering their little make-out session in the plane after they'd landed at the airfield near Belleville.
"Twenty-three minutes and fourteen seconds…," Mac corrected him with a seductive voice and completed it with a wink, making Harm chuckle and roll his eyes about her correction in response. "… but who's counting," she concluded and suddenly started to blush.
Harm raised his eyebrow in wonder when he saw her reaction and then slowly followed Mac's gaze with his eyes, only to start laughing aloud while shaking his head. "Oops," he said and gave Mac's hand another quick squeeze before opening the door of the car to jump out. Then he stuck his head back into the car and smiled at the still brightly blushing Mac.
"Come on, Marine. It's time for you to meet the other important woman in my life," he told her and Mac could only nod since she was still too embarrassed after being caught by Harm's grandmother while she was practically making out with her grandson in the car; right in front of her house nonetheless. 'Oops indeed,' she thought to herself. 'Make that a very big oops.'
Mac took a deep breath, exhaling it slowly and then just like Harm got out of the car, suddenly feeling very nervous and moreover, she felt shy about meeting someone from Harm's family. Up to now the thought had never occurred to her, but this was actually the first time she would meet a member of his family.
She slowly closed the car door behind her and stood back to watch the reunion between the man who owned her heart, and whom she loved dearly, and his grandmother. Just watching this scene in front of her warmed Mac's heart immensely and right then and there she knew that this was what family was all about. 'I just hope she likes me,' Mac unintentionally thought to herself and was surprised about the uncertainty she was feeling at that moment.
xoxoxoxoxo
"Harmon, my dear, it is so good to see you," Sarah Rabb happily welcomed her grandson pulling him into a bear hug. "It has been too long, my boy," she mockingly added and closed her eyes for a moment, trying her hardest to hold her emotions in check.
"Hi Grandma, it's so good to see you too," he tenderly told her with a bright smile before they broke their embrace so that he could give her a peck on the cheek. "You're looking great, Granny," he continued and gave her one of his best flyboy-grins.
Harm's grandmother laughed heartily while giving his arm a little slap. "You're the same old charmer like always, Harmon. Boy, you're so much like your dad," she gently told him with a smile and immediately got a ripple of laughter from Harm in response. Then he gave her forehead a quick kiss before taking her once more into a loving embrace.
Mac, who was still observing them from a few feet away, could see that Harm's grandmother had tears in her eyes, and she had to smile as Harm started to wipe off a tear from his grandmother's cheek. It was such a familiar gesture to her and Mac took another deep breath, feeling that her emotions too were getting a bit out of control by all this.
Harm instinctively turned his head around a little and saw that Mac was still standing by the car, obviously nervous since she was biting her lower lip, and playing with her fingers all while her eyes seemed to be glued to them.
Right then and there he fell in love with her all over again. She looked so shy and uncertain to him that Harm only wanted to take her into his arms so he could hold her for eternity.
Mac, sensing that she was being watched, slowly lifted her gaze from her hands, and her eyes immediately found Harm's smiling ones. She gave him a little shy smile in response before continuing to nibble on her lower lip without breaking their eye contact.
Sarah Rabb silently watched the interaction between her grandson and the young woman who stood just a few feet away from them and could only smile about what she discovered. She was amazed about the conversation, which happened between these two young people while everything around them obviously didn't exist anymore. It was a conversation spoken not with words but with the look in their eyes. The love between them was as clear to her as the sky above her head, and it made Sarah Rabb's smile brighten even more.
When Harm had called her a few days ago to ask her if he and Mac could come for a quick visit, she was delighted about it. Back then he may not have told her that he and his Marine had finally found their way to each other's heart, but in his voice she had clearly discovered the sound of happiness and love right away, it'd been so much clearer than at any time before.
And now, while letting her eyes wander once more between her grandson and Mac, she knew for sure that Harm got his girl… his soulmate. 'About damn time,' Sarah Rabb whooped in joy to herself.
"Harmon, dear, don't you want to introduce the young lady to me?" Sarah Rabb curiously asked her grandson bringing him down from cloud nine and back to earth with her question.
She didn't wait for him to answer or move, instead, Sarah made her way over to the car to welcome Mac with wide-open arms. "You have to be the other Sarah in Harmon's life, my dear," Harm's grandmother said delightfully as she took Mac into a warm embrace. "I'm so glad to finally meet you. Harm has told me so much about you that it feels like I know you already."
Mac softly returned Mrs. Rabb's embrace and noticed that Harm was still standing back, watching them with a sweet smile on his lips, looking totally happy and content to her. "I'm glad to finally meet you too, Mrs. Rabb," Mac responded with a gentle voice as they broke their embrace.
Harm's grandmother took Mac's hands into hers and gave them a gentle squeeze. "My dear, call me Grandma, please. Mrs. Rabb is way too formal up here and it makes me feel even older than I already am."
Mac immediately recognized that smile and slowly let her eyes wander back to Harm, seeing that he was coming over to them now. "I think I can do that, Grandma," she replied still feeling a little shy, but a lot less nervous all the while thinking that Harm and his grandmother shared more than just the same eyes.
Harm stopped next to Mac and laid his right arm around her hips, pulling her a bit closer to him. He looked down at Mac giving her a smile before moving his gaze to his grandmother. "Grandma, this is my Sarah," Harm introduced Mac and especially dwelled on the word 'my' since his grandmother always had said 'your Sarah' when she and Harm had spoken to each other.
"Oh, I know, dear. And I'm so happy to finally meet your Sarah," Mrs. Rabb told him with a wink and gently squeezed Mac's arm. Harm chuckled because just as he had dwelled on the word 'my', had his grandmother had lingered on the word 'your'.
Mac knew there was a story behind the 'my Sarah' and 'your Sarah' comment and looked questioningly at Harm who just shrugged his shoulders and moved his head down to hers. "I'll tell you later," he whispered into her ear before turning his gaze back to his grandmother. "I know, Grandma. Believe me, I know."
"So, Harmon…. If I may ask… what are your plans for today? Why did I have to call my neighbor and best friend Maria to ask her if I could borrow her daughter's skates and also have to polish your old ones? Back then on the phone you didn't have enough time to tell me more about this plan of yours," Sarah Rabb said and chuckled. "Or did you simply not want to tell me?"
Harm laughed and quickly kissed his grandmother's cheek. "Now would I really do something like that?"
"All the time," his grandmother and Mac answered at the same time before joining Harm's laughter.
"Cute, really cute," Harm retorted with a smirk. "Anyway, I'm hoping that Maria's daughter Marilyn has the same shoe size as Mac so that she could borrow her skates for our first date. And since I know that I haven't used mine in ages, I feared that they would be a bit rusted and; therefore, I asked if you could polish them."
"Oh... For your first date?" Harm's grandmother asked him astonished while raising an eyebrow, giving him a look that Mac had seen quite a few times in the past on Harm's face too.
"Yes, Grandma, I asked Mac for a date and thought we could go skating on the family pond and have a little winter picnic there."
"Skating on the family pond? Oh, my dear, that is such a lovely idea. That's just perfect," Sarah Rabb softly said with a nearly tearful voice and quickly took her grandson into another bear hug, feeling totally moved about what her grandson had just told her.
Harm gladly returned the hug, knowing that his grandmother knew just how special that place had always been for him.
The reaction from Harm's grandmother and the fact that Mac could see just how much she had been moved by Harm's plans for their first date, once more in a short time made her look questioningly at him, just to get a mouthed 'later' from him as an answer.
Mac just gave him a nod before she took a deep breath, finally noticing that she had been just as moved by this scene as Grandma. 'Grandma…. It feels good to call her that,' Mac thought and quickly wiped off a single tear, which had formed in the corner of her left eye and started to run down her cheek. 'You're such a sap, Marine,' she told herself with a chuckle and couldn't hold back the little grin that covered her face as she remembered Harm's words from years ago. 'You give the Marine corps a bad name, Marine.'
Harm saw Mac's reaction and smiled at her before blowing her a kiss Then he broke the embrace with his grandmother and took Mac's hand into his. "Yeah, I'm sure it will be perfect," Harm finally answered his grandmother with a gentle voice.
"And I gather the hot apple cider you love so much and asked me to make is for your winter picnic," Sarah Rabb said, understanding more now the phone call between her and Harm. "Well, the cider is ready whenever you two are."
"Great! Thank you, Grandma," Harm retorted and then looked at Mac. "So, what do you say, Marine? Are you ready for our first date?"
Mac sweetly smiled at him. "As ready as I'll ever be," she softly let him know in a whisper before his lips came down on hers to give her a short but lovely kiss.
Sarah Rabb could only sigh in happiness about the scene in front of her and knew that she couldn't possibly be any happier for her grandson than she was at that very moment. "Good. Since that's settled, why don't you two bring your bags up to your room before you make your way to the pond?" Harm's grandmother stated and started making her way back to the house before stopping midway to turn her head back to her grandson and Mac. "Oh, and if I may suggest… Harm, you two should take Dopey up with you. I think he'll be very helpful," she added before disappearing through the doorway of her house.
xoxoxoxoxo
"Who's Dopey?" Mac asked bewildered with a raised eyebrow while she and Harm got their bags, a wool blanket, and the picnic basket out of the jeep.
"Dopey is Grandma's Dutch Draft horse," Harm answered as he leaned against the hood of the car.
"She named her horse Dopey? As in Snow White and the seven dwarfs, huh?" Mac inquired in amusement.
Harm just shrugged his shoulders and wasn't able to hold back the bright and boyish looking grin that covered his face. "Yup. The one and only."
Mac's look at him revealed to Harm that she had just figured out who had actually named the horse after the Disney figure. "What? I loved the movie as a kid and the horse reminded me a lot of Dopey," he explained with another shrug.
"How so?"
"Well, Dopey the dwarf was loose-limbed, had never spoken a word, and was very childlike. The same goes for Grandma's horse. Then there's the fact that the dwarf always tried to steal a second and third kiss from Snow White, right? Well, back then Grandma had a horse named Snow White, and Dopey was very much in love with her. And last, but not least, I always thought that Dopey the dwarf was very smart, and the same goes for my Dopey."
"This is so cute," Mac said with a sweet smile. "My Harm loves Disney."
Harm chuckled and shook his head. "Anyway, I think my grandmother has a point. The way up to the pond may be difficult to pass on foot, but with Dopey it should go very easily," Harm explained as they made their way to follow his grandmother into the house.
They had nearly reached the front door when Mac suddenly stopped dead in her tracks as if a lightning bolt had just hit her. When Harm noticed that she wasn't walking beside him anymore, he stopped and slowly turned around to look at her, and saw for the second time that day a brightly blushing Mac.
"Umm… Mac?" Harm tried to get her attention. "Is everything okay?"
Mac looked at him with wide-open eyes, and it seemed like she wanted to answer him, but for now no words were coming out of her mouth. Harm had to chuckle as the thought that she reminded him of a fish was now running through his mind. "Mac, what's wrong with you?" He asked after clearing his throat.
"Umm… did… did she… I mean… did she just…," Was all Mac could stutter before she took a deep breath, trying to get herself under control again.
"Did she what?" Harm asked and stepped forward so that he stood directly in front of her. 'What did Grandma do now?' He asked himself, not understanding what made Mac react like that.
"Did… did she just say the word 'room'?" She finally was able to ask. "Like… 'room' as in singular and not plural?"
Harm couldn't resist and smirked, giving her a wink. "Yeah, I actually think she did. I mean the plural of 'room' would be 'rooms' and she said 'your room'," Harm answered her with a teasing note in his voice, barely able to keep himself from laughing aloud.
However, the moment he recognized that she was blushing even more, if that was even possible, he gave up and started to laugh heartily. "Oh my, and you once told me that I'm a prude."
"I'm not a prude," Mac retorted emphatically. "It's just… I never thought… I just can't believe she assumed… I mean, I just can't believe she said that," quickly spitting out the words.
Harm took Mac's head into his palms and softly kissed her lips. "Honey, my grandmother is anything but a prude when it comes to… well, to you-know-what," Harm tenderly told her as he avoided using the word.
"Sex," Mac said out loud, since Harm obviously didn't want to say it and she knew that he had done it only to make her relax a bit. 'It apparently worked like a charm,' she thought and that made her smile at him.
Harm chuckled and nodded his head. "Yes, that's what I was talking about," he concurred with another wink and was glad that the blush on Mac's face vanished slowly but steadily. "To tell you the truth, she was the one who told me everything about the birds and the bees after my mom obviously surrendered and begged her to do it."
Mac started to giggle. "Now that sounds like fun. I bet you really enjoyed that."
"Oh yeah, I sure did. It really was a lot of fun… not," Harm said with another chuckle.
"Well, she may have enjoyed it, but I can't tell you just how embarrassed I was during the entire conversation. Grandma dealt with it open-mindedly though, and she did a damn good job if I may add."
"That she did."
"But seriously. Mac, if it makes you uncomfortable to spend the night together with me in the same room while we're under her roof, I'm sure I can sleep in another guestroom," Harm offered as they started to make their way to the house again.
Mac immediately shook her head and gave him a little smile. "I'm not really uncomfortable about it. Her assuming simply surprised me… caught me off-guard… somehow. And no, I don't want to be separated from you, neither during the day or at night."
"Oh, is that so?" Harm jokingly asked, but felt happy to hear that.
"Yes, it is. I mean, I barely got any sleep over the last ten days because I missed having you right next to me. I for sure don't want to go through that again, at least not of my own free will," Mac stated and then walked through the front door, which Harm held open for her.
"You really missed me, huh?" Harm asked flashing her his flyboy grin that she loved so much.
Mac smirked and looked through the doorway of the kitchen, where Harm's grandmother was busy getting the hot cider into a thermos bottle. Mac then stoodup on her tiptoes and moved her mouth right next to his left ear. "Terribly," she breathed her answer softly into his ear before sucking on it. "You certainly have a way of keeping me warm at night."
"Hmmm, just wait 'till tonight and I'll show you how warm I really can keep you," Harm replied with a husky voice and gave her a quick peck on the lips before starting to walk up the stairs, which would lead them to their room for the night.
"I can't wait," she whispered and quickly followed Harm upstairs while a silly grin formed on her lips.
TBC…