Jo found it impossible to sleep that night. A suddenly occurring thought had shaken her badly, and try as she might, she couldn't get it out of her head. After hours of tossing and turning, she decided that she couldn't stand it anymore and got up and walked into the living room where Doug was. She hated to awaken him but didn't feel that her question could wait until the morning.

When she got there, she saw that, to her surprise and delight, Doug was awake as well, and was sitting up on the sofa as if he'd been expecting her. When he saw her, he held his arms out to her, and she silently went into them. The whole thing seemed as natural as could be.

Resting her head against Doug's shoulder as she relished the warm softness of his embrace, she felt her eyelids begin to get heavy, and she almost, but not quite, for what she'd wanted to ask him.

"Doug?"

"Hm?"

"How long did it take you to get me to the hospital after I...well, after what happened to me?"

"I don't know. I didn't time it, exactly. Why?"

"Well...it's just that I thought allergic reactions that severe usually killed people pretty fast, and I was wondering how I...how I lived long enough to get to the hospital."

"Earl was with us, you know."

Jo instantly snapped fully awake, shocked. "He was? But how did he know..."

"I called for him, and he came."

"You mean...he was right there in the car with us the whole time?"

"He was, and he also sat with me in your hospital room until we knew that you were going to be all right."

"Doug..." Suddenly Jo was crying, hard. As Doug tenderly kissed her tears away, gentle comfort soon gave way to ardent passion, and with a shock Jo felt his tongue slide into her mouth, his hands busily wandering all over her breasts.

A long-repressed desire sprang up inside her, and her erect nipples straining against the thin fabric of her nightshirt ached underneath the warmth of Doug's hands cupping them, until suddenly he was pulling the nightshirt over her head and then taking them into his mouth to gently suckle them in turn. Jo moaned and thrashed. "Oh, yes...oh, yes..."

She felt the hardness of his stiff erection pressing urgently against her as he lay her back on the sofa and began to cover her body with his own.

"Uh...Doug?"

"Hm?"

"Want to finish this in my bedroom?"

The spell seemed broken as Doug hesitated. "Um...Jo? I don't have a condom," he said awkwardly.

"I'm forty-three, Doug. I don't think it's gonna happen."

"You sure?"

"I'm sure."

They quickly adjourned to Jo's bedroom, where they eagerly peeled off their remaining clothing and climbed onto the bed, and then he was inside her,thrusting and grunting. She clung to his back as she rose up to meet him with each thrust.

It ended far too quickly for Jo.

"I'm sorry," Doug said sheepishly as she felt him limply slide out of her. "It's just that it's been so long..."

"It's been a long time for me, too," Jo replied. She basked in the warmth of his embrace as he gently rubbed her back.

"Are you all right, Jo? I didn't mean for this to happen, really..."

"That's OK. I wanted it too," Jo assured him. Suddenly very sleepy, she dozed off in his arms.

She awakened the following morning to find herself alone in bed. She wandered into the kitchen to see that Doug was not only already up and fully dressed but that he was in the process of serving up a plate of steaming hot pancakes to a beaming Jamie.

He grinned at her when he saw her. "Morning, sleepyhead! Hope you're hungry. I cooked up plenty."

"Oh, wow!" Overwhelmed, all Jo could do was stare.