A/N: Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I have more written so should be another update coming soon, but figured I'd post this section first.
"Wait here, Jo," Pacey instructed. He jumped out of her truck, and reached under the driver's seat to retrieve a bag. Joey watched him curious, unsure of what he had planned. Pacey quickly disappeared from her sight. Her eyes caught him briefly in the rearview mirror. Joey turned to locate him again when he opened her door. "My lady," he said offering Joey his hand. She smiled unsure what he was up to. Pacey led her to the back of the truck where she saw he had put the tailgate down, and covered it with a blanket. Pacey placed his hands on either side of her waist gently hoisting her up before releasing her gently on the tailgate. Pacey hopped up next to her, and handed her a second blanket. Joey took the blanket from his hands unfolding it to place over them. She then heard the sound of a zip lock bag open, and turned to see Pacey's hand reaching inside the snack bag her sister had made. "That Bessie is a genius," Pacey said with food in his mouth. Joey giggled as she reached in to grab a handful of puppy chow.
"So what is this place, Pace?" she asked. "It's beautiful here," Joey added as she looked out over the cliff in front of her. She took a deep breath inhaling the familiar smell of the beach. The water appeared endless as it glistened below them.
"Remember when we picked Andie up from the hospital that summer?" Pacey began. Joey nodded remembering how she helped Pacey get passed the nurse only to find Andie talking with another man on her bed. "We actually drove by this area on that trip. Then I came back after we broke up. It was warm then, and this place was full of sailboats. Gorgeous, powerful sailboats, which is when I got the idea to find True Love." The pair smiled at the humor of his statement. "The boat, I mean," he clarified.
"I never knew that," Joey said. She began swinging her feet on the tailgate. "Thanks for bringing me here, Pacey. This is nice." She nudged her shoulder affectionately against his.
Pacey gently nudged her back. "I'm proud of you, Joey."
"Me, why?" she asked.
"You told your dad how you were feeling. I know that couldn't have been easy," he explained.
"Maybe it's all that emotional growth we've been working on together," Joey suggested.
"Could be," Pacey agreed. "Seems like we've been working on a lot of things together lately."
Joey considered his statement before agreeing, "Yeah, we have haven't we? I guess we make a pretty good team."
"That we do, Potter." They sat in comfortable silence for a while. Each taking turns eating from the bag of puppy chow. Joey watched a seagull fly overhead. She felt surprisingly content in spite of the difficult day she had. Being in Pacey's presence continued to have a calming effect on her; he set her at ease merely by being near.
"Hey, Jo?" Pacey said breaking the quiet.
"Yeah, Pace?" Joey turned her attention from the seagull to the boy sitting next to her.
"Would you like to go out with me sometime?" he asked as if he didn't already know her answer.
"With you?" she teased. Joey scrunched her face up at him in feigned disgust. Noticing that her joke did not have the intended affect, Joey quickly added, "I'm kidding!"
Pacey shook his head in exaggerated frustration. "I'm trying to do this right here, Jo, and you're not making it any easier on a guy."
"So serious," she mocked. Pacey pinched her arm softly. "Ow! OK, sorry, Pacey," she apologized rubbing her arm. "Yes, it would be my pleasure to accompany you on a date." Joey smiled brightly at him. "Is that official enough for you?"
Pacey smiled back at her. "Yes, that'll do nicely, Joey."
Joey reached over to hold Pacey's hand. She gently rested her head on his shoulder. "Pacey what do you think it would be like to just sail off somewhere together?" she asked looking out to the horizon.
He pondered her question for a moment. "I think it would be amazing. Probably the most perfect thing I could imagine," he admitted. "I think it would be peaceful and exhilarating all at once. Probably a bit scary too."
"Scary?" Joey asked clearly not pleased with his choice of words.
"That amount of freedom is bound to be a bit scary," Pacey explained. "We could do whatever we wanted whenever we wanted." Joey resumed her position on his shoulder as she relaxed hearing his explanation. "You know, without the pressures of being that Potter girl or the sheriff's screw up son."
"Or being Dawson's best friends," Joey added.
"Yes, without that too," he agreed. Pacey squeezed Joey's hand relishing the moment before potentially breaking the magic, "Speaking of Dawson …"
"No, I don't want to speak of him," Joey protested. "I'm sorry I mentioned it."
"We will have to talk more about him." Pacey instructed.
"I know, Pace, and we will." Joey looked up at him effectively melting his resolve. "But you know what I want to talk about right now?"
"What's that?" he asked lost in her dark brown eyes.
"Us, sailing on True Love. Where would we go?" she queried as she pulled the blanket tighter around them.
"Anywhere you wanted, m'dear."
"Somewhere warm?" she suggested.
"As you wish," Pacey responded.
"And I could just draw all day. Or read," she stated longingly.
"Sure, Potter," he agreed. "In between all of the fishing and cooking you'd be doing."
"What? No, you're ruining my daydream," she pouted. Pacey found his heartbeat quicken at the sight of her pushed out bottom lip.
"I mean we gotta eat something, woman," he responded. "Besides it's my dream too."
"Oh yeah? And what happens in your version."
"The things you said so far sound nice. We can do those, but I also want you in one of those bikinis all the time," Pacey looked at Joey to measure her reaction. Sensing her amusement, he continued. "There's really no room for other clothes in such tight quarters."
Joey giggled at his crude attempts to separate her from her clothes. Now that these attempts we directed at her, Joey found herself being amused by them. She was discovering the perfect balance of comfort and tension that made her feel in control, which was definitely a turn on to this one-time 'prude.' "Well, I do imagine space will be a consideration, so sounds reasonable to me," she said easily.
"And kissing, lots of kissing," Pacey started. "On the beach, on deck…"
"In the hammocks." Joey added.
"Definitely in the hammocks," he quickly agreed as his lips met hers.
"You know we'd probably end up fighting all the time," Joey said mid-kiss.
Without creating any additional space, Pacey responded, "You and me? Of course!" He pressed his lips against hers, "We'd fight on the beach, on deck…"
"In the hammocks," she finished. Joey smiled widely showing her tongue stuck between her teeth. She then turned serious as she resumed her position resting on his chest. "Pacey that sounds blissful. Do you really think we could do it?"
"Jo, I think you and I could do anything."
Pacey and Joey remained on the tailgate of the Potter's truck watching the sunset before continuing the drive back to Capeside. They didn't say much during the drive, but Joey's gaze settled on Pacey instead of the moving trees outside her window. Joey had always ridiculed girls who sat in the middle of the seat next to their boyfriends, but now that Pacey was becoming that person for her, she was beginning to understand why they did it. Joey forced herself to resist the temptation to curl up next to him as he drove her home.
"So how do you want to do tomorrow?" Pacey asked breaking the silence.
"What do you mean?" Joey questioned as they neared her house.
"Grams' Thanksgiving? You know, the whole everyone is going to be there?" Pacey clarified.
Joey nodded her head as the realization sank in, "Asking questions that we don't have the answer to."
"Yep," he agreed.
"Well, I guess we tell them we have a date," she suggested. "How does Friday night sound?"
Pacey grinned from ear-to-ear. He was pleasantly surprised that the answer seemed so clear to her. "Friday night sounds great, Jo." He pulled the truck into her driveway.
"So I guess I'll see you tomorrow?" Joey asked as he put the truck in park.
"Guess so," he replied wishing for more time with her now.
"Hey, Pace?" she began as he turned to face her. "You think maybe you can come by early tomorrow? Before we go to Thanksgiving?"
His eyes lit up as he joked, "You're gonna put me to work, aren't you?"
"Well, yes, Bessie did mention something about stripping wallpaper," Joey admitted.
"I swear you Potter women are going to be the death of me," he laughed.
"But I also want to see you before I have to share you with everyone," she explained honestly.
"I think we can arrange that, Potter," Pacey agreed.
The two climbed out of the truck. Joey met Pacey at the bottom of her porch steps. She took his hand as they walked up the stairs. Joey turned to face him, "Thanks for coming with me today, Pace."
"My pleasure, Jo." He kissed her softly on her cheek before turning to descend the stairs. Pacey walked over to the tree where he had left his bike.
"What's with the bike?" Joey asked confused.
"Just getting a little exercise. Gotta keep up my physique, you know?" He grinned as he mounted his bike.
There's that boyish charm, Joey thought. She watched him pedal away before turning to enter her house.