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Sam looked across the table at Mercedes, waiting for her to feel his eyes on her. When she looked up, he grinned, and she ducked her chin and grinned back.
Would he ever get tired of making her smile?
Yeah, probably never.
They’d only been seeing each other again for a couple weeks, and this was the first time he’d been back over to her house since before he went to Kentucky. He loved how her parents were with each other, and he hoped he and Mercedes would be like that someday.
Mr. Jones cleared his throat and Sam saw Mercedes snap her head back up to look at her father.
“Well,” Mr. Jones said, wiping his mouth with his red cloth napkin, “this was delicious, Evie sweetheart.”
Mrs. Jones glowed with the praise, and replied, “I’m glad you enjoyed it. You always do.” She nodded to his waistband, stretched to the seams, and raised her eyebrow.
Sam choked back a laugh at the look of pretend hurt on Mr. Jones’ face.
“Did you like your supper, Sam?” Mrs. Jones asked, smiling at his empty plate.
“Yes, it was very good, ma’am. And thank you for the seconds on the collard greens.” He felt his cheeks heat up. “They’re just like my momma makes them.”
Mrs. Jones glowed with the praise, and turned to Mercedes who was standing with her plate, “You don’t have to clear, honey, I’ll do it later.”
“I don’t mind.” Sam thought she might be a little nervous to have him back in her house with her parents, too.
But her father gently put a hand on his daughter’s wrist and said to his wife, “Why don’t we have a little after-dinner dancing? Huh, Mama? Show these two how it was done in our day?”
Evie laughed and swatted her hand at her husband.
“Oh, Roland, they don’t wanna see a couple of old folks boogie.”
Mr. Jones turned to the tiered stereo in the built-in bookcase on the back wall and rummaged around until he found just what he was looking for. His hips started swaying, and Mercedes groaned and rolled her eyes at Sam. But he was loving this. Not everyone comes from a good home, and he felt thankful that he and Mercedes had.
“Just ignore them, Sam. I always do.” But she was laughing, and Sam, well he didn’t think he’d ever get tired of hearing her laugh either.
The first notes came out of the record player, and Evie grinned and jumped up, obviously not immune to her husband’s charms, or to a classic song.
Mr. and Mrs. Jones started dancing and opened the door to the back patio, dancing through it without missing a beat. Roland called out to his daughter, “C’mon baby girl.”
“Daddy, seriously?”
Evie reached out to Sam through the doorway, “How about you, Mr. Evans?”
Always a good sport, he got up to join Mercedes’ parents, then started dancing his way to his girl, singing as he went:
I don’t need all those things that used to bring me joy
You make me such a happy boy
And honey you’ll always be the only one for me
Maybe Mercedes had her mother’s same weakness for the men in their lives, because, still laughing, she got to her feet, and joined in with Sam:
Meeting you was my destiny
What her voice did to his insides, Sam would never be able to describe if he lived to be 187.
He liked her singing, happy like this, so he just listened to her take over the next verse:
You can be sure I will never let you down
When you need me I’ll be around
And darling you’ll always be
The only one for me
Making Mercedes grin again, Sam took her hands and spun her into his arms.
He held her tight, warm and soft against his hands as they both sang:
Could it be I’m falling in love, Mr. and Mrs. Jones joining in, “with you baby”
Could it be I’m falling in love, and again, “oooooooooh”
Mercedes’ parents shared a look Sam didn’t notice, having eyes only for the girl in his arms, and quietly moved away from the other couple.
Could it be I’m falling in love
With you
With you
with you,
With you...
Sam looked around, in a daze, and saw that Mr. and Mrs. Jones were back in the dining room taking the dishes from the table to the kitchen, so he looked back down at Mercedes.
They had stopped singing and just let the song continue floating around them, like the white fairy lights he could see twinkling out of the corner of his eye.
Every time he looked into her face, so special to him, now that he felt free to look, he knew he’d done something right to deserve this.
To get to be with her.
“I feel like the luckiest girl in the world,” Mercedes breathed.
“I know the feeling,” Sam whispered back, smoothing the hair back from around her face as the wind gently brushed their skin, bringing with it the smell of some kind of flower. It was almost summer, and everything was in bloom.
Mercedes brought her hand up to his forearm and traced it back to find his own hand, lingering behind her ear.
Could it be I’m falling in love
With you
“You know I do, right?”
“What’s that, Mercedes?”
“Love you.”
He’d known it, of course he had, but hearing her finally say it after all this time, at her parents' house, with her parents themselves only about twenty feet away in the kitchen, it felt like a brand new day. He felt like Peter Parker after Mary Jane found out he was Spider-man. He felt like the planets had aligned and let Pluto back in. He felt like Frodo after he’d destroyed The Ring.
He felt like Sam Evans in love with Mercedes Jones.
She brought her other hand, the one that wasn’t making his forearm tingle all over, up to the neck of his shirt and tugged him down to her.
Their lips were only a centimeter apart, and he moved his thumb up and down over the silky skin of her neck, his other hand moving to the top of her hip, resting over her shirt there.
Too many layers, he thought through the fog in his brain.
Watching her eyes refocus on his, breathing her air, he said, “I love you, too.”
The next song came on, but they didn't notice, as that centimeter became nothing.