Helen looked at the young lady facing her, her chest tightening. She picked up the train ticket Jim had purchased for Trixie and tapped her daughter lightly on the nose.

Trixie looked up with a questioning smile. "What?"

"This weekend… with Jim… you’ll be… careful, right?"

"Moms, I promise. I’ll be careful," her daughter replied with a grin. "I’ll look both ways while crossing the street and everything."

"That’s not what I meant," Helen said pointedly.

Trixie looked at her, puzzled, for a moment before a telltale red blush ran up her cheeks. "Moms!"

"Tell me you’ll be careful," Helen said again, her blue eyes searching Trixie’s.

"We’re not… Moms… Jim wouldn’t…" she faltered for words.

"I remember what it was like to be seventeen, sweetheart."

"Seventeen and a half," Trixie corrected.

"Seventeen and a half," Helen said gently. "Jim is a wonderful person, but he’s human just like anyone else. Just promise me you’ll be careful."

Trixie nodded, feeling as if the blush on her cheeks would soon be a permanent one. "I promise," she said.

The conversation with her mother replayed in her head later as she sat on the train, gazing out unseeingly over the countryside. Gleeps. All I’ve ever done is kiss Jim. We haven’t done anything. A sharp pang shot through her as she thought of the intense way that Jim looked at her sometimes before he’d kiss her. We haven’t done anything because Jim’s waiting on me. She sighed and rested her head against the cool windowpane. All the feelings inside always raged up to a conflagration the minute she saw Jim, and she knew she’d never make a rational decision when she was in the middle of one of his long, slow kisses.

And I’m going to be alone with him all weekend. Just the thought sent a smile to her face. Jim’s roommate had taken off for Maine with friends for the long Columbus Day weekend. Jim had spent extra hours during the week finishing up homework, projects and, as he’d stated wryly, an intense cleaning marathon to bring his apartment up to visiting girlfriend standards.

The mess, of course, was brought about by Jim’s roommate, Scott Richards. The average height, leanly built man had been a surprising roommate match for Jim. He was as dark as Jim was fair with a wide, engaging grin. He had long dreadlocks and a penchant for trouble. His home in Las Vegas was fodder for many ribald stories that Trixie was sure she’d only heard the tip of the iceberg about.

The two had been assigned as roommates as freshmen and, despite their many differences, had become fast friends. Trixie still couldn’t get over the difference of the crowd that Jim hung around with at Harvard. Yet this crowd had instantaneously accepted Jim’s friends as their own and visiting Bob-Whites were always treated like visiting royalty.

More importantly, though, she still couldn’t get over that Jim preferred to ‘splore with her over dating Michelle or Lianna, two of his good friends in his group at school. Michelle, especially, had nearly sent her over the edge when she’d first met her.

Jim closed the door to his room, looking at Trixie speculatively. "What’s wrong?"

Jim chuckled. "It’s good to know we have that settled."

A reluctant grin spread across her face at the memory. Honey had burst in after that and had stalled any further discussions of touching. Her smile faded as she looked down at her hands. What are appropriate boundaries for us? How far do we go? All this time to think about it away from Jim’s distracting presence, and still, she had no answers.

Meanwhile, at the train station near Harvard…

Jim stood in the train station, trying to contain his excitement. The physical distance between the two of them wasn’t great, but it had really begun to eat away at his soul. Weekends with Scott and the rest were always fun. He enjoyed Boston; he loved exploring the historical sites as well as the new dance clubs, but he always felt a nagging loneliness. There wasn’t any place that he went where he wasn’t thinking of Trixie and how she would have enjoyed it or what she would have said or done. He smiled reluctantly, thinking of Trixie’s first reaction to Michelle. Little did Trixie know that, despite Michelle’s similarities to Trixie, Michelle was a pale shadow in comparison to the real thing.

David had tried several times to get Jim to date casually on campus, bringing extra girls along on their outings, winking at him and telling him not to worry, that it would be Bob-White morals only. Surprisingly, it was Michelle who listened and sympathized.

"Does Trixie have any idea how lucky she is?" Michelle murmured.

Michelle’s eyes softened as she looked at Jim. "I still say she’s the lucky one."

He shook his head. Whoever had organized their first meeting had given him an irreplaceable gift. When he’d awakened to meet a pair of incredulous blue eyes, he’d tumbled into a new world and never, ever had wanted to go back.

Jim looked at his watch impatiently. "Come on," he muttered to himself.

The woman standing next to him overheard him and smiled. "Someone important on the train?"

Jim’s startled glance changed to a sheepish one as a smile curved his lips. "My girlfriend."

"Coming in from New York?"

"Yes," he said with a grin. "I haven’t seen her since summer break."

"I hope you two have a wonderful time," the woman said with a small smile.

"Thanks," he replied.

The train from New York slowly pulled into the station. With a fleeting half-grin at the woman beside him, Jim moved closer to the gate, looking for a head of tousled blonde curls. He didn’t want to stop and think about how pathetic he was. He didn’t want to chastise himself and try to look cool. All he wanted was her.

*******

Trixie gathered her duffel bag, unable to keep the grin from sneaking across her face. A whole weekend of Jim to myself. No Bob-Whites. No Harvard people. Just me and him. After a year of ‘splorin’ and many anguished arguments with her parents, she was finally able to make the journey by herself.

She ran a hand through her curls, trying to ignore the butterflies in her stomach. Why is it that he does this to me? I’ve never been this nervous around him before. As the train came to a halt, Trixie was already the first in line at the door. A graying businessman folded his paper and tucked it into his briefcase as he smiled at her obvious eagerness to be off the train. Oblivious, Trixie pushed open the doors and ran down the cement walkway toward the gate.

Almost immediately, she saw a glimpse of red hair and her heart began to pound. She hurried through the gate, looking around for Jim. Before she even had time to realize what was happening, she was grasped in a pair of muscled arms and pulled off the ground, her duffel bag falling to the ground with a thud. Trixie’s wide blue eyes met a pair of twinkling green ones. A wide grin spread across her face and she threw her arms around his neck, her forehead touching his. "Hello, you," she said breathlessly.

"Hello, you," he replied. Without any further word, he kissed her soundly, his arms tightening around her waist.

Trixie deepened the kiss, oblivious to the grinning passers-by. Finally, reluctantly, she pushed away, her heart pounding in tandem with his. "I’ve missed you so."

"Not as much as I’ve missed you, Shamus," he teased, Eskimo kissing her. He set her down on her feet again and grabbed her bag. She took his hand in hers as Jim blithely ignored the knowing smiles and steered her toward the exit of the train station.

Trixie reveled in the feel of his hand around hers, scarcely believing that she was here without Honey or Mart playing chaperone. She grinned up at him. "I have you all to myself!"

Jim looked down at her in surprise, a wide grin spreading across his face. "Yes, I guess you do!" He wiggled his eyebrows at her. "Are you going to have your evil way with me?"

She giggled. "Maybe so. Beware!" She squeezed his hand tightly and gestured with her free one. "I just can’t remember the last time we had so much you and me time. Honey or Mart is always around."

"I must say I do like having you to myself," he murmured, leaning down to kiss her quickly. "So… now that we’re all alone…"

Trixie laughed as she looked at the hordes of people entering the station as they exited. "Now that we’re alone?"

Jim grinned. "Yes, alone… what do you want to do?"

She shook her head. "I’ll let you decide. You live here. You know all the hot spots."

"But you’re the guest!" he protested.

"Gleeps, Jim, I don’t know!" Trixie smiled shyly at him. "I just want to be here with you."

He kissed her lightly, almost as if he couldn’t help himself. "Well, gleeps," he said, his voice teasing, "that’s exactly what I want. To be with you."

Trixie laughed, her blue eyes shining with excitement. "Well, if you aren’t going to decide, then I guess I’ll have to." She glanced around her, breathing in the fresh, crisp air, reveling in the crackle of the leaves underfoot and she grinned. "It’s perfect football weather, you know. Is there a game this weekend?"

Jim shook his head as he pointed her to his Jeep parked in the lot. "It’s Columbus Day weekend, remember? The campus is pretty deserted."

Trixie waited as Jim opened the door for her and then scrambled into the passenger seat. Jim walked around to the other side, tossed Trixie’s bag in the back seat and got in. Trixie buckled her seatbelt and then said, "Okay. No football game." She grinned. "Besides, you’re a basketball man yourself, right?"

Jim shrugged slightly as he backed out of the parking space. "I love basketball, yes," he said slowly, "but there’s something about cuddling under a blanket, drinking hot chocolate and watching a football game with your girlfriend that’s distinctly appealing." He winked at her as he pulled out into the street.

"Rats," Trixie said with a mock pout on her lips. "Makes me terribly disappointed that there’s no football game this weekend." At his grin, her own lips curved in response. "Okay, so…let’s see…we could tour the campus, although I’ve seen it many, many times. We could take a tour of the historical sights," she paused here with a roll of her eyes. "We’ve done that too, but surely, the tour might be slightly more interesting without Mart pontificating about the real story of what happened the night of Paul Revere’s famous ride."

Jim laughed. "Maybe Mart should take over doing the tour. He sure does know a lot about Revolutionary history."

Trixie snorted. "He only knows what he had to know for this project he was working on. He had to do a report on significant events in Boston in Revolutionary times for his U.S. History class. Bobby and I were relieved beyond belief when his class finally went forward in time to the Constitution."

A rich chuckle escaped his lips as Jim maneuvered his car through the tightly crowded streets, heading for the compactly nestled buildings of Harvard University in Cambridge. "Maybe we should leave the past in the past for this weekend."

"An excellent idea," Trixie agreed.

The two fell into companionable silence for the remainder of the short drive to Jim and Scott’s apartment. They reached Jim’s place, and he indicated that Trixie was to sleep in his room and he’d take Scott’s. While Jim went to get fresh towels for her, she tossed her bag on his bed and looked around with great satisfaction.

The room was neat as a pin as always. With Jim, it was never anything but. The room was simple…masculine. He had a picture of the two of them together on his bureau, one of his family, one of his cousin, Juliana, and her husband, Hans, and one of the Bob-Whites clowning around. It always pleased her that even though he’d been gone from Sleepyside for three years, his roots were still firmly tangled with those who remained behind.

Trixie glanced from his closet to her bag thoughtfully. She hadn’t brought anything that needed hanging up, but he had left her hangers and pushed some of his clothes aside to make room for hers. I wonder what it’d be like to always share a closet. The thought came unbidden to her mind and a tell-tale blush stole up her cheeks. To cover her embarrassment, she turned and focused on a new forest green sweater she didn’t recognize hanging at the edge of the clothes in the closet.

Jim came up behind her and tweaked a blonde curl. "Looking for new clothes to wear?" he teased.

She grinned back at him, feeling her embarrassment ebb away. Shaking her head, she just pulled on the sleeve of the green sweater. "I just haven’t seen that one before."

"Ah," he said with a wink. "Well, it reminded me of another one I liked very much and no longer fits." He shrugged. "So I bought it."

Trixie looked at him curiously, but as no further comment was forthcoming, she let him close the closet doors and turn her back toward the living room.

"You still haven’t told me what you want to do yet," he said chidingly. "Do you want to go out? We could play some pool. Or maybe go dancing? Or out to eat somewhere?"

Trixie mulled over his suggestions for a moment, but started to get distracted by the wave of his red hair that just never lay as flat as he wanted it to. Her eyes traveled down to his face with its myriad of dark freckles, the questioning green eyes with their flecks of gold and the well-formed lips that always had a way of stealing her very thoughts and making her feel lightheaded, woozy and so very, very good.

"Trixie?"

She blinked, staring at him in confusion. Jim passed a hand in front of her face with a teasing smile. "Earth to Trixie," he repeated.

"In," she said huskily. She cleared her throat to rid herself of the sudden sensation that had made her feel surprisingly choked up. "I want to stay in with you."

Two rented movies and several boxes of Chinese food later, Jim found himself cuddled on the floor with Trixie resting her head against his chest, a blanket wrapped around their legs as they watched some detective thriller that Trixie had been wanting to see. He idly wondered if he could die from unquenched desire.

Every shift she made, he felt. Even the soft scrape of her curls against his throat was nearly more than he could handle. He couldn’t remember wanting anything or anyone as badly as he wanted Trixie.

"…and I think she looks like Juliana, don’t you think so?"

Jim blinked rapidly a few times and tried to refocus his attention. "Um…what? What did you say?"

Trixie turned around and looked up at him with a grin on her face. "Are you even watching this movie, Jim Frayne?"

A rueful grin spread across his face. "I’m nineteen, I’m a guy, and I’ve got my girlfriend in my arms. You tell me."

Her smile grew wider and she clicked off the movie. She turned around, knocking the blanket off and faced him. "All I said was that the girl who was the long lost relative in this movie reminded me of Juliana who is your long, lost relative. She really did look like Juliana."

"Well, seeing as how I put Juliana on a plane to the Netherlands just two months ago, I don’t think she had time to run out and jump into this videotape," Jim teased. He gestured behind her. "Are we done with the movie then? I’ll pay attention if you turn it back on. There was a long lost relative, right? And she…"

His voice stopped abruptly as Trixie took his mouth with hers and kissed him. The effect on him was instantaneous. His arms came up to wrap around her, pulling her on to his lap. Her kisses sang through his veins like a drug he was only too happy to be addicted to. He deepened the kisses, wrapping his tongue around hers, until they finally broke apart, needing air.

He could feel his heart pounding in his chest as he stared at her swollen lips, her flushed cheeks and her eyelids heavy with a matching desire. "Trixie," he said roughly.

Trixie ran a slightly shaky hand through her curls. "What are we going to do, Jim?" she asked huskily. "All I can think about is kissing you."

Jim groaned, trying to ignore the jolt that shot through him at her words…to ignore his libido’s immediate reminder that his bed was made for two and they were completely and utterly alone until Sunday. "I don’t know, Trixie," he admitted. He glanced at her and hesitated before he said, "I know what I’d like to do, but I don’t know if you or even I am ready for that."

She bit her lip as a blush stole up her cheeks. "I’ve thought about that too," she whispered shyly. "Moms even said something about being careful," Trixie admitted with a rueful smile.

Jim flushed and shifted his legs underneath her. "Gosh, Trixie. Your parents will have me drawn and quartered. Your father especially," he said morosely.

Trixie shook her head. "No, they won’t. They trust you. And more importantly, they trust me. Whatever I decided to do, they would trust that I would do what was the best thing for me." She took a deep breath and raised her blue eyes to meet his green ones. "I just can’t do this now, Jim. I’ve always wanted to wait…but then I look at you and all I can think about is how much I want to kiss you and touch you and oh, I don’t know. I’m not making any sense at all, am I?" Trixie looked away, her face flushed and embarrassed.

He placed one light finger underneath her chin and turned her face back to his, smiling gently. "You are making sense. And I do understand. If you want to wait, then I want to wait."

Trixie gave him a searching glance. "Are you sure? You wouldn’t rather have someone like Michelle or Lianna who probably wouldn’t want to wait?"

Jim reached forward and grabbed one long, blonde curl with his finger and said quietly, "You really don’t get it, do you?"

"Get what?" she demanded, her blue eyes questioning and puzzled.

He hesitated a moment and continued, "Dad always said I should have sex when I had my heart along for the ride." He gave her a wry smile. "Since you’ve had my heart since you were thirteen, sex with anyone else would be kind of pointless, don’t you think?"

Tears pricked behind her eyes as she nodded wordlessly. He kissed her briefly, a hard, searching, confirming kiss, before he broke away from her, grabbed the remote and turned the movie back on.

Trixie smiled softly at him before she turned and settled back in his arms, pulling the blanket around them again. The detective hero and his heroine had just finished a "calm-before-the-storm-relationship-building" scene where they’d carved a pumpkin and frolicked like kids, jumping into a pile of leaves in the front of the old mansion they were staying in.  She giggled as she said, "Lucky they didn't have a sucker like Linus did."

"What do you mean?  You don't like suckers with that extra crunch?" Jim teased.

Trixie shook her blonde curls, giggled again and turned her attention back to the television.

"Is it just me? Or is Scott’s television a little worse for the wear?" Jim asked. "That pumpkin looks awfully green to me."

"Maybe they just wanted to buy the pumpkin early and let it ripen with time," Trixie said thoughtfully, leaning her head against his chest.

Jim glanced at the couple on the screen. His lips curved with a gentle smile and he kissed Trixie’s curls before he settled back against the couch. "I think that’s exactly what they did," he agreed, tightening his arms around her. "Exactly."

Disclaimer:  These characters are the property of Golden/Western/Random House Publishing.  No profit is being made from their use.  All other characters are of my own creation and should not be used without permission.