Just a Matter of Time
Lee drummed his fingers on the steering wheel of the car. Should he leave or should he stay? He hadn’t even realized he’d driven to Arlington. It was like the ‘Vette had been on automatic pilot and steered itself directly toward her street.
For some reason, he’d been restless tonight. When he’d started pacing the living room floor, after channel surfing and finding nothing even remotely interesting to watch, and found himself eyeing his liquor cabinet, he knew he had to do something. He wasn’t a bit tired, and sleeping was not an option; he’d just toss and turn or have dreams that, upon waking, would leave him frustrated.
He needed to get out, but the thought of calling any of the names in his black books held no appeal for him. In fact, he hadn’t been on a date in several months. A night out at a bar or nightclub alone, avoiding women who would no doubt throw themselves at him, held even less interest. So he’d gotten into his car and started driving.
There was only one woman he wanted to see or spend any time with.
Now he was parked a few houses down from her house, debating whether or not he should check on her. Aside from just wanting to see her, he did have a legitimate reason for stopping by. Two reasons, really. One, he wanted to follow up on a report she’d left on his desk that he wasn’t sure which file it belonged in. Two, the time for their meeting tomorrow had been changed.
Okay, so they weren’t great reasons, but one of them would work under the circumstances. He could’ve called her, but it wasn’t the same. Something inside him needed to see Amanda. To see her smile, the sparkle in her eyes. Not just a voice over the phone.
Light peeked through the curtains in the upstairs and downstairs. One thing bothered him; Amanda’s car wasn’t in the driveway. The rental car parked in front of her house was even more troubling. He knew it was Joe’s. Maybe they’d gone out to a family dinner and they needed the bigger wagon to accommodate everyone. That would be a logical excuse.
Ever since Joe returned from Estoccia, Lee had felt a little out of sorts. He couldn’t get a handle on his feelings. It was like his world had suddenly been turned upside down, his emotions constantly conflicting. He was happy for Phillip and Jamie--they had their father back--but at the same time, unhappy that Joe was once again in Amanda’s life. He didn’t want to share Amanda with anyone. That was why he’d ended up at Dooley’s. It had been an attempt to sort out his feelings.
He’d gone to the bar, intending to order a drink, when something had pulled at him to look out over the throng of customers. The last two people he expected to see were Amanda and Joe. Dancing. They looked so comfortable with each other. She glanced up and saw him watching her; their eyes locked for a split second. Then she turned back to Joe, and Lee couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d intruded on a private moment. The conflict inside him hadn’t abated. Only intensified.
A few days later, while they were filing in the Q, she informed him Joe had decided to move back to the states and that she was glad he was staying in D.C. so he could get to know his sons better. She’d rambled about all the things he planned to do with the boys and the family.
Deep down, Lee knew that Joe wanted Amanda back. What man wouldn’t want her in his life?
‘Come on, Stetson.’ He smacked his palm against the dashboard. ‘The man is the father of her children. She was married to him. She loved him at one time. They’re divorced now.’
But how many times had couples remarried after years apart? And, in the gym last week, they’d looked like the perfect family, concern for each other’s safety etched on their faces.
He shook his head. He needed to stop stalling and just go check on her. Amanda had an uncanny knack for getting into trouble, even when she was doing absolutely nothing. He wanted to make sure she was safe and sound. And home alone, preferably.
No, he should rephrase that. Home, with no adult male in the house.
Lee took a deep breath and stepped out of the car, closing the door silently to not disturb the neighbors. Shoving his hands in his pockets, he strolled a short distance down the street. After a quick glance around to make sure he was unobserved, he rounded a hedge and crept along a path that was so ingrained in his mind he needed no light to show him the route to her backyard.
Carefully, he stepped between the flowers beneath the kitchen window. He’d trampled so many over the years that Amanda had told him her mother was becoming suspicious about having to replace them every spring. At least she hadn’t planted as many this season. Amanda had convinced her mother that the neighbor’s dog had been trampling them and that they were planted too close together. Fewer plants for him to worry about squashing made it easier to reach the window.
He crouched down and then peeked over the windowsill. He couldn’t see anyone. Maybe no one was home.
No, someone was home. Amanda wouldn’t leave the inside lights blazing. It’d be a waste of energy and money in her eyes. The outside porch light, yes, she’d leave that on so they could see to unlock the door. From what he’d seen from the street earlier, there were at least two lights burning, one downstairs and one upstairs.
He was about to stand up and check the back door to see if it was unlocked when the bathroom door adjacent to the laundry room opened. Amanda walked into the kitchen clad in a bathrobe. Wet tendrils of hair caressed her cheek. Just as he reached to tap his knuckles on the window to get her attention, the same door opened and Joe King sauntered out, wearing nothing but a white towel wrapped around his lower body.
Lee stepped back into the shadows and stood ramrod straight, making sure he wasn’t in sight of the two people inside. His chest tightened, and his hands clenched and unclenched as the two laughed about something one or the other had said.
He couldn’t watch anymore. His legs had lost the strength to hold him up, and he sank down into the flowerbed, his back against the wall. He raked his hand through his hair and closed his eyes. They were getting back together. He knew it. She’d been talking about Joe a lot lately--how they were doing this and that with the boys. It was only a matter of time before she fell back in love with him. Why else would they have been sharing a bathroom?
‘Damn it, Stetson. You waited too long. You’ve lost your partner.’ A partner who had somehow embedded herself into his life. Into his very being. A partnership that he had fought against, tooth and nail, for a long time.
He couldn’t put a finger on when he’d stopped fighting the relationship. One day he’d realized that he no longer wanted to continue the battle. That he felt differently about the housewife from Arlington. That she no longer got on his nerves. That he looked forward to seeing her smiling face and sparkling eyes. That he’d become used to her rambling and it even made sense to him at times--which, in reality, should scare him.
Now she was more than a partner to him. She was his friend. More than a friend, really. But he didn’t want to analyze that feeling. It seemed pointless. He would never know what the future might hold for the two of them.
He should go home, instead of just sitting here, but his legs refused to move. An unknown force kept him rooted to the spot in the garden among the flowers. He’d crushed a few. Dotty would not be pleased. With extreme effort, he pulled his knees to his chest, and, crossing his arms, he rested them on his knees and dropped his forehead onto his forearms. He needed time to think about what he'd just seen and the ramifications they would have on his life.
Time stood still. He didn’t know how long he sat there, lamenting a relationship that was never going to be. If he had to do it all over again, would he change the course of his actions? Done anything differently over the years? Would that have made a difference?
No.
He remembered what she’d told him when they’d questioned Agnes Snow a few weeks ago.
When you’re talking about love, you have to be patient.
Had she been referring to him?
Had she been telling him to be patient?
Or was she the one who was patient?
He lifted his head and looked up at the darkened sky. A full moon had emerged from behind a cloud. He stared at it for several moments, as if it would tell him the answers to his questions.
Until recently, he’d considered himself a playboy. No-strings-attached kind of man. In the last few months, he’d realized that he was no longer just the Scarecrow. That Lee Stetson, the man, wanted something more permanent in his life. He wanted and needed those strings. But not just strings from anyone. He needed Amanda in his life.
“Lee! What are you doing sitting in my flower garden?” Amanda placed her hands on her hips. She no longer wore the robe. Her attire now consisted of her Hot Mama T-shirt and a pair of loose-fitting pants.
Lee raked his fingers through his hair. “Sorry.” He gave her the first excuse he could think of. “I came over to tell you that our meeting tomorrow has been changed to ten. When I saw Joe, I figured I’d better wait until you were alone.”
“You should’ve let me know you were here.”
“I didn’t want to interrupt.”
“Mother and the boys went to the store to pick up some school supplies. We’d gone on a family picnic earlier. The boys wanted to practice baseball, so we played an impromptu game this afternoon. We’d forgotten it’d rained last night, and somehow or other, we ended up muddy. Of course, the boys didn’t get a speck of dirt on them. How they managed that I have no idea.”
Lee smiled at her rambling. “So, ah, where’s Joe?” He pointed up at the kitchen window and tried to keep his voice neutral, not sound in the least bit jealous. She hated when he acted that way, but he couldn’t help himself. He’d always been overprotective of her where men were concerned. None of them, in his opinion, were good enough for her.
“He left five minutes ago. Come on inside.” She extended her hand to him.
When he placed his hand in hers, her warm fingers wrapped around his, and she led him into the house. “Would you like some coffee? I made a fresh pot a little while ago.”
“That’d be nice.” He sat down on a stool at the kitchen island and watched her prepare the coffee. He didn’t even have to tell her what to put in it. Automatically, she went to the refrigerator and pulled out a container of Half-n-Half.
“Here ya go.” She handed him a cup of the hot brew.
“Thanks.” He sipped his coffee. Perfect. Just the way he liked it. How could he bring up the fact that Joe had been standing half-naked in this very kitchen not too long ago? He didn’t want her to think he’d been spying. Well, okay, he had been. But she didn’t need to know that.
Amanda sat down on a stool next to him and placed her coffee cup on a saucer. “Go ahead, ask.”
“Ask what?”
“You saw Joe in here earlier in a towel, and you’re wondering what he was doing here.”
Lee took a big gulp of coffee and set the cup down next to hers. How had she known? Then again, this was Amanda. She could read him like a book.
“Guilty.” He stared at his hands. Before she could answer, he tried to explain. He looked into her eyes. “You know, I was concerned about you. I didn’t see your car in the driveway, and the lights were on. I was worried. I wanted to make sure nothing was wrong. That you were all right. That you weren’t in any sort of trouble. Then I saw you come out of the bathroom. I was about to let you know I was here when I saw Joe come out after you.” Realizing he was rambling, he abruptly closed his mouth.
Amanda laughed. “I told you we were muddy after playing baseball with the boys. He didn’t want to get the rental car dirty, so he took a shower here. He’d been to the dry cleaner earlier today and had some clean clothes in the car he could change into. I showered upstairs, and he used the one down here. When I came downstairs, he yelled that there were no clean towels. So I took him some. Plain and simple. Then I came back out here. You saw him in a towel because he forgot to bring his clean clothes with him. He’d left them in the den.”
Lee’s heart began to beat again. He’d jumped to the wrong conclusion. It had been innocent; she was just being helpful to her ex.
“Oh my gosh! You thought we were having an affair, didn’t you?”
“Well.” He looked up and studied the pattern on the ceiling. “He is the father of your children, and you did love him at one time.”
“Did is the operative word. We’re friends now. Just friends. We do activities together, from time to time, with the boys as a family. They need to get to know their father and he them. But it doesn’t mean I’m falling back in love with him. Look at me, Lee.” She placed her hand on his cheek.
Lee looked into Amanda’s eyes. His cheek felt warm from her touch.
“Joe is my past. My future has yet to be decided.”
He lifted her hand from his cheek and squeezed it in response. The waves of emotional turmoil ceased. A warm feeling swept over him. He didn’t know if it was the coffee or the knowledge that there was still a possibility for the two of them that sent the warmth coursing through him.
There was still a chance for them.
There was hope.
He picked up his coffee cup. “To unknown futures.”
Amanda raised her cup. “To the unknown,” she toasted and clicked the edge of her cup to his.
When a car door slammed in the driveway, Lee jumped up, splashing coffee onto the counter. “I better get out of here.”
“See you tomorrow morning.” She wiped up his spill, giving him a bright smile.
He nodded in reply and swiftly left her house, disappearing into the shadows as he heard her sons and mother chattering at the back door.
On his way home, he found himself whistling as he drove out of the safe haven of Amanda’s neighborhood. Soon. It would happen soon. His chance would come. They would take that next step. Take their relationship to the next level. Beyond friendship. He could be patient a while longer.
Enormous strides had been made in their relationship. Who would’ve thought that the housewife from Arlington would capture the Scarecrow’s heart? And his heart was hers. It was just a matter of time before he found the courage to tell her. And he knew, with almost certainty, one day they would become the team of Scarecrow and Mrs. Stetson.
It was just a matter of time.
The End
Story Notes:
Disclaimer: Scarecrow and Mrs. King and its characters belong to WB and Shoot the Moon Productions. No infringement is intended. This is written for entertainment purposes only. Please do not redistribute or reproduce this story without my permission.
Thanks: Rita and Miss Edna, you make my stories readable by catching all my grammar and other errors. Also, Amy, who read an earlier version of this story and gave me pointers on expansion. And lastly, Lisa, who said she could see this scene happening and gave Elvira the inspiration to write.
Season Three. Story takes place the week after “Wrong Way Home.”
Thanks: Rita and Miss Edna, you make my stories readable by catching all my grammar and other errors. Also, Amy, who read an earlier version of this story and gave me pointers on expansion. And lastly, Lisa, who said she could see this scene happening and gave Elvira the inspiration to write.
Season Three. Story takes place the week after “Wrong Way Home.”