About thirty minutes later I walked into the back door of Laura’s house just as she poured two glasses of that awesome lemonade she made from scratch. A bottle of Jack Daniels sat on the table right next to where she placed the pitcher down.

“Hi, gorgeous!” I greeted. “Are you planning on us needing a little liquid courage?”

She grinned with a bit of a blush from my greeting. “I figured it may help at some point, depending on where this conversation goes.”

“Good thought!”

She cutely plopped into the chair next to me. I didn’t think she could do anything that wasn’t cute.

“I can’t believe how hot that was!” she sighed.

“How hot what was?” I asked feigning ignorance.

She hit me again. I was hoping she would. Then she put her hand on the back of my neck and pulled our faces together, so she could look me in the eyes from about six inches away. I couldn’t see her mouth but the smile in and around her eyes could light up all of Chicago.

“Sucking face, you jerk,” she said as if she were talking to a toddler. Before the last word left her lips, they were planted on mine in yet another electric kiss.

She pulled back after twenty or thirty seconds with her eyes closed and a blissful smile. She opened her eyes, then looking deeply into mine. I was lost in her gaze and yet felt more “found” than I had ever felt.

Regaining a little composure, I thought we’d better get the conversation started or we were going to go right back to make-out heaven.

“So…. I guess we should start this meeting”

She grinned. “You always seem to have these kinds of discussions planned out! Where do you want to start?”

“Sorry!” I said feeling a bit sheepish. “It helps me focus, and that’s really hard to do when I’m around you… unless you’re the object of my focus… which is just about my every waking moment!”

There was that cute blush and smile. Dang, she was gorgeous!

“I have three main topics,” I continued.

“Only three!” She faked her surprise.

“Sorry. Organized to a fault,” I said, pointing at myself.

She laughed at me. “Don’t be sorry. I love it!”

“Okay… three topics. The last we may not get to until the girls go to bed. So let me focus on the first.”

I sighed and frowned a bit. She picked up on the fact that she may not like this topic.

“The first shouldn’t take long and won’t be a discussion. It’s something I have to get off my chest that really bothers me.” I wanted to look in her eyes, but I was a bit uncomfortable and I couldn’t help but show it.

Stolen novel; please report.

“Oh-oh!” She winced. “You know your feelings are really transparent! What did I do wrong?”

“Well,” I continued a little hesitantly, “you kinda suck at taking a compliment.”

“What?”

“Listen.” I pushed forward. “I love absolutely everything I know about you. I really love how you can be so honestly humble and unassuming, and still maintain a beautiful confidence.”

“I hear a ‘but’ coming!” she interrupted with a slightly worried look.

I continued. “Something happened… or someone in your past said something that has heightened some undeserved insecurities. When I look at you, I see the most perfectly beautiful woman imaginable. Your physical beauty stuns me every time I look at you. But that’s not the whole story. I see a strong, deeply passionate, loving, intelligent, warm, and desirable woman. You’re an awesome mother. And you have an inner joy that radiates like the sun even though you’ve had things in your past that could dampen that light if you let them.”

Laura was misty-eyed and had an embarrassed look on her face, but she held her loving gaze into my eyes. I let her have a moment because I saw her struggling to say something.

“You make me feel so good… but my ex really did a number on me.” She spoke softly as a tear trickled down. “He would pick apart any little thing to make me feel ugly or unfit for his attention… you know… like baby stretch marks… or he’d say my butt was getting fat.”

I was tearing up myself as I kissed her hers away. She continued.

“But I think the biggest thing is... just how damned embarrassed I am with how he fooled me all those… all those wasted years!” she said with increasing emotion and volume as the tears flowed full force. “It has really worn down my image of myself… made me feel like something about me wasn’t really good enough. I fought past a lot of that, but some of it lingers on and I can’t shake it!”

I pulled her close and just held her, letting her tears soak into my shoulder. I needed to hear her say that.

Still holding her, I talked softly into her ear. “He was a manipulative misogynistic jerk. He used his powers and skills as a salesman and took advantage of a loving, trusting woman. Don’t let him keep winning by holding on to the lies he told you.”

“I missed some early signs of what he was… I guess I was caught up in… in the idea of love… and he was a good-looking man. Little things I noticed started to give me hints of a problem… I talked myself out of them. I should have seen it so much earlier!” She was clearly angry with herself.

I pulled back and looked into her eyes again. She struggled to look at me at first, then succumbed.

“Look!” I said. “It’s in the past. Don’t let him hurt you anymore. He can’t. He’s in the ground! I can’t force you to put it all in perspective, but I can suggest a thought that may help.”

“What?” she asked.

“What he put you through was a price. For all the crap that surrounded him and that horrible experience, you now have two beautiful little girls that wouldn’t exist otherwise. I know I’d pay a pretty high price for that reward. You need to make up your mind if they are worth it! If so, I think you can put the cost in perspective and accept it as paid in full, and maybe move on.”

She clenched onto me as hard as she possibly could as she emptied what remaining tears she had. With every ounce of emotion, Laura touched my heart with her exclamation. “God, thank You for this man! I love him so much!”

We held onto each other for a good five minutes as she let the emotions pass.

“I never thought about it like that… but you’re so right, Ben! Oh my gosh. Why didn’t I realize that before?”

When she eventually pulled back into her seat, I said, “Stand up!”

She looked at me like I was a little weird, which I was.

“Let me see your tummy,” I asked. Now she was sure I was weird. I pulled her toward me, raised her top below her bra, and started kissing her stomach where stretch marks should be. Frankly, I didn’t see any.

“I don’t see any stretch marks, but if they’re here, I’d see them as beauty marks that are evidence of the miracle of your two little girls!”

She giggled as I continued to kiss and hit a few ticklish spots… accidentally on purpose. Then I looked up at her and said, “Turn around.” I could tell she caught on to what I was doing.

She turned, and I grabbed both cheeks and started to kiss them as well. “I don’t know what you had back here before I met you, but you must have had a really skinny butt, ‘cause this is just right!” She laughed, turned, and quickly gave me a kiss. I loved the kiss, but I wanted to fondle her butt a bit more.

“You’re an amazing guy!” she sighed. She slowly sat down and looked me square in the eyes again.

“I’ve pushed others away since my ex. I didn’t know if I could ever trust another guy to let go of my deepest emotions. What I’ve experienced with you, learned about you, how the girls respond to you, and what Sarah, Bobby, and others at church have told me… I trust you with my life, Ben Hawkins. I’m giving you my everything. You’ve got the keys to me!”

I had to kiss her, and I mean deeply kiss her as I let some moisture escape my eyes. As we parted lips, I told her, “My love, you have me as well. I may have those keys, but I swear I will constantly work to keep earning them!”

We softly kissed, and I felt satisfied that we were almost done with this part of our talk. But I had to add one more point.

“Please, please, please… when I tell you that you’re the most beautiful woman in the world, believe what I say. Even if you think I’m the only one who sees that, believe it. I should be the only one that matters anyway. But if you didn’t notice every guy watching you and drooling at the restaurant and the jazz club, you must have had blinders on.”

“Are you serious?” She seemed surprised.

“Oh yeah!” I replied with a laugh. “I thought I was going to have to fight for you that night! But it’s deeper than that for me. Physical appearances change with age. I hope we get to grow old together, and if we do I know you’ll still be the most beautiful woman in the world… because I see all of you… the real you… the outside and the inside… the depths of your being. And I love it all!”

We began to kiss but were quickly interrupted by the door opening and two thirsty girls running at us. They both ran at me with a hug, which I think both thrilled and slightly upset Laura. But then they made up for it by running into her arms. The girls and I had become very close in a very short amount of time.

The girls gulped down some lemonade, we discussed ordering Chinese delivery for dinner, which was met with cheers, and off they went back to playtime.