I didn’t know what to say to that so I didn’t say anything. I just stayed silent.

He watched me for awhile then he said, “I’d be happy with fightin’ too. If what happened ten minutes ago is any indication, maybe I’d rather it be fightin’.”

I didn’t know if he was joking or being serious.

I decided to go with joking. “Stop joking,” I said quietly.

“I wasn’t joking.”

Okay then, he wasn’t joking.

That got a belly flutter.

“Well, I’ve decided to be sweet,” I said, just to be contrary.

He grinned and his grin was so at the ready it made me wonder if he’d used reverse psychology on me. Then his face came down and disappeared in my neck and I felt his lips there.

The belly flutter escalated to Grade Two.

“I’ve changed my mind,” I told the ceiling, “I’m going back to fighting.”

His hands went down my sides to my hips, he lifted them and then, I kid you not, he slid inside me slowly, gently but I could feel he was again rock hard.

My breath went out in a rush at the surprise of it and the fact that I moved from a Grade Two to a Grade Six in about three seconds.

“Vance,” I said softly and his lips moved from my neck to my mouth.

“That’s it, beautiful. Every time I slide inside you, I want you to say my name,” he muttered there.

He’d started moving and I started moving with him.

“I thought it was every time I came,” I whispered and his hands moved on me, a thumb sliding across my nipple as my hands roamed his back.

“I want you to say it then too.”

“Why?” I asked.

“I like it.”

“But why?”

“I don’t know why. It doesn’t matter why. I just do.”

That seemed plausible to me.

“Okay,” I said agreeably, my hands going over his ass and either my word or my hands (or both) made him grin again and he kissed me and started moving faster.

When he stopped kissing me and his mouth went to my ear I said in his, “You have to get a condom.”

“In a minute.”

“Vance.”

“In a minute.”

I rolled my eyes.

He drove in deep.

When he did it felt so good, I whispered his name low into his ear.

Then I slid my hands in his hair, pulling it back and I traced the outer edges of his ear with my tongue just like he’d done to me last night and I’d liked that too.

* * * * *

After the second time, when it was dark and I was curled into Vance’s side, his fingers drawing on my hip, the moonlight coming in from the two windows on either side of the fireplace and the one at the back of the room, I asked him in a whisper, “Were you mad at me when we got here?”

“I wasn’t happy to walk in the down room and see Luke on top of you. I wasn’t happy that you ignored me at the party. And I wasn’t happy you were breakin’ up with me. So yeah, I was mad at you when we got here.”

I went silent because I knew the answer already. I didn’t even know why I asked. I supposed if that was the way he took out his anger it wasn’t all that bad.

The minutes ticked away.

Then I asked, “Why do you have so many books in the living room?”

“I like to read when I’m here,” he answered.

“Why don’t you get a bookshelf?”

“Don’t need one.”

I supposed he didn’t. Still, he could use one.

For some reason I went on advising him about the décor of his cabin. “You should put new countertops in and refinish the cabinets in the kitchen,” I told him.

“Why?”

“It’ll look nicer.”

“It doesn’t have to look nice. It needs to keep me dry and warm.”

“But it’s your home,” I said.

“It’s just a cabin.”

Something about that hit me somewhere deep. If this wasn’t what he considered his home and he had no place in Denver, where was home?

I decided not to ask. He wouldn’t answer anyway and considering we were breaking up, I had no right to know.

Instead, I said, “I like my space to be special.”

His hand went still and he rolled into me. “Yeah,” he said, “I noticed.”

I stared at his face in the moonlight not sure if what he said was good or bad. Considering the way his space was, I decided it was bad.

“You don’t like it.”

He looked me in my eyes for a moment then he kissed my forehead. “I like it,” he said softly when he was looking at me again.

I stared at him, memorizing his face when it was like it was now, beautiful and gentle.

“The moon seems brighter here,” I whispered.

“It is.” His hand came up and he started to play with my hair and I pressed in closer to his warm body.

“It’s been a weird birthday,” I told him, my voice still quiet.

He didn’t answer.

I kept silent for a few minutes then, knowing I should tell him, needing to tell him and knowing I’d only have the courage in the dark, I said, “I don’t know if you saw the roses but they were beautiful.”

His arm came tighter around me and fitted me to his body but he didn’t say anything. He just looked at me in the moonlight.

“They were perfect, each one of them. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

He still didn’t say anything.

“You should know that everyone was there when I saw them; Indy, Ally, Jet, Daisy, Roxie, even Tod and Stevie.”

He kept quiet.

“Daisy said you have class.”

He finally spoke. “I’m not certain how to take that, comin’ from Daisy.”

I smiled at him. “Believe me, she meant it as a compliment.”

The smile was still on my face when his hand came to my jaw and even though I couldn’t see it in the dark I just knew his eyes had changed. I felt them warm on my face.

Then he kissed me, it was long, slow and sweet. He carefully pulled the covers down our bodies, the air in the cabin was no longer bitter cold but it still hit me.

“What are you doing?” I asked as he rolled over me.

“I’m gonna f**k you in the moonlight.”

“It’s cold,” I told him.