Everwood

"Because...because...you know why, Bryce. We already discussed this. You're still in high school. I'm eight years older than you. I work for your father. Does any of that sound familiar?" Her voice was imploring but not angry.

"I vaguely remember some of that, yes," he said smiling at her.

"Please don't be mean," she said still using that same tone. "This is really important. I don't want to lose this job. I love working here and I really need the money, okay?"

"That's interesting," he said without taking his eyes of hers. She was wearing makeup again and was wearing a very nice, pale-pink blouse with a darker pink cardigan sweater with a strand of white pearls and a pair of jeans.

"Interesting?" she said not sure what he meant.

"Well, yeah. You listed off a whole bunch of reasons why that can't happen again, but what you didn't say is what really interests me."

"And...what might that be?" she said lowering her head slightly and raising her left eyebrow.

"Well, you never mentioned that it can't happen again because you don't want it to."

Flustered, Shania sat up straight and said, "Well, no. I mean, I didn't think I had to actually say that. I mean..."

He reached out and took her hand as he continued looking into her eyes. "I'm listening," he told her noting that she didn't take her hand away.

"Well, what I was saying was...what I meant was..."

She stopped talking as he leaned closer. "Bryce, please don't do..."

When his lips met hers she didn't initially kiss back, but he did see her close her eyes. He pulled back the slightest bit then kissed her again and this time it was unmistakable as she softly kissed him back. The kiss lasted maybe three seconds but it was definitely mutual.

"Why are you doing this?" she whispered.

"I'll stop if you'd like," he said quietly. "Just tell me to stop and I will."

He put his hand on her face then leaned in again. In less than a second he felt the tip of her tongue touch his for the briefest of moments and he offered his in return.

"This is so...wrong," she said as their lips parted briefly before kissing him.

The sound of Tatum's footsteps on the stairs caused Shania to snap back and sit bolt upright. "Oh, my God!" she said quietly as she looked toward the stairs. Tatum hadn't seen anything and had no idea what had happened.

"Why are you guys so quiet?" she asked. "Are you done talking yet? Shania, do you wanna do something with me?"

Shania shook her head just a bit then said, "Oh...sure. Let's just get everything cleaned up in here first, okay?"

She never so much as looked at Bryce who didn't say another word.

He just got up and went to the family room and started playing. Shania stopped what she was doing the moment the first notes reached her.

"Bryce is playing again!" Tatum announced. "How cool is that?"

"I hear that," Shania said quietly. "Wow. He's really good."

"My brother is the best!" she told her friend. "He played with Lindsey Stirling when he was 16."

Shania turned around and looked at Tatum. "Bryce played with Lindsey Stirling? She's incredible."

"Uh-huh. Bryce played but didn't dance or sing like she does. She did all of that. He's the only person she's ever let play with her." Tatum asked.

Suddenly, the sounds of a violin concerto filled the house as Shania said too quietly for Tatum to hear, "Wow! He's really good."

"Come on! Let's go listen to him play," Tatum said once things were cleaned up.

Shania sat down next to Tatum and marveled as Bryce continued to play after the briefest acknowledgement she was there. Her head was spinning and her heart was pounding as she took it all in.

It went on for quite some time and she wasn't sure it had ended even after it had. Then, almost reflexively, she began to applaud and Tatum joined in.

"Thank you," Bryce said bowing at the waist. "That was Mendelssohn's Concerto in E minor, Opus 64."

Shania had no idea what that meant but she excitedly called out, "Encore!"

Dr. Harper came in and sat beside Tatum just as Bryce said, "Encore, eh? Okay, this is called Vivaldi's Concerto Number 4 in F minor." He bowed from the waist then replaced the music with another score and opened it to the first page. He drew back his bow then began to play.

"I told you he was really good, didn't I?" Dr. Harper said when Bryce finished.

"I...I had no idea," she said.

"And he's rusty. I can't really tell the difference because I don't have an ear for music. I just know he's out of practice."

Bryce paused and said, "My dad's right. I'm making all kinds of mistakes, but it's coming back to me."

"Well, I don't know what to say other than I am thoroughly impressed," she said staring back at his doe eyes and that shock of dark hair almost touching the brow.

Dr. Harper told Bryce how glad he was to know he was playing again and as he said it, nodded at his son's muse now that he'd put two and two together. He couldn't stop smiling as he walked our whistling a tune.

Tatum wanted Shania to spend time with her, but she asked to have some more time with Bryce.

"What? Alone? Again?" She got up and huffed out of the room leaving Shania sitting on the sofa unable to stop looking at this unbelievably talented young man.

"So...what did you think?" he asked her.

"Bryce, you have to share this talent with the world. Oh, my gosh! You are...amazing!"

He sat next to her still holding his instrument. "If it wasn't for you I wouldn't be playing again."

"Well, I'm glad you are...whatever the reason." For the first time she felt like she was the younger, less experienced of the two of them. It was hard to explain, but she felt like she was in the presence of greatness or something beyond her ability to grasp.

"You inspire me," he told her sincerely.

Shania looked into her lap where her hands were folded together. She wanted to look at him but couldn't.

"You're so beautiful," Bryce told her.

"Thank you," she said quietly.

"I know I'm not exactly handsome but..."

"Handsome is overrated," she said still not looking at him. "Bryce? You have something far more appealing than handsome." She finally looked over at him then said, "Don't get me wrong. I think you're very cute." She smiled then told him, "In that sweet, boyish way."

This time he didn't take offense at the reference to being a boy. He just sat and listened.

"It wouldn't matter to me if you had muscles in your... you know. That wouldn't impress me in the least. But what you do with the violin..."

She looked directly into his eyes then told him, "That impresses me. A lot."

"Enough to go out with me?" he asked deciding to press his luck.

"Yes," she told him very quietly and with a bashful smile. "But that doesn't mean I'm still not very concerned about your father and my job and..."

He leaned over and kissed her and she not only stopped talking, she kissed him back. She sighed deeply when it ended.

"I wish we didn't have to hide how we feel," she said very quietly.

He sat his violin down then took her hand in his. "We? I think I like the sound of that. So...how do we feel?" he asked gently brushing her hair back.

"Confused?" she offered. "Happy. Afraid. Excited. Anxious. Hopeful. All of those and more, I guess."

"Not me," he told her. "I feel happy, excited, hopeful, and...confident. And just like I owe it all to you for playing again, I owe my newfound confidence to you, too."

"Doesn't it bother you that I'm so much older?" she asked with raised eyebrows.

"No. Not at all. Not one bit." He was almost afraid to ask, but his confidence pushed him to do just that. "It bothers you though, doesn't it?"

"Bryce, I can't help it. All of my friends are between 21 and 45. I hope your unusual level of maturity will allow to understand that."

"Intellectually, I get it. Or at least I think I do. And yet, all I know for sure is how I feel about you, Shania."

"How do you feel about me, Bryce?" she asked feeling like a little girl in his presence.

"Like I love you," he told her smiling his best smile.

"Bryce, please. You can't...love me. You barely even know me. You don't know anything about me. What I like or value." She put her hand on his face, his skin so young and smooth, then said, "You are so sweet and so kind. And so very talented. You could be a world-class violinist. But me? I'm going to be a nurse and never anything more. I could only hold you back."

"I don't care," he told her. "None of that matters. All that matters to me is...you."

"Bryce? I need some time to think," she told him sweetly with a warm smile. "I really do like you, Bryce. I really, really do. And I even admire you."

"But you don't love me," he said is spirits falling.

"The best I can offer is 'not yet'. Can that be enough? At least for now?"

"I guess it'll have to be," he replied. "But that doesn't mean I can't and won't be hoping that will change. Is that fair?"

"Yes. It's more than fair," she said. "Look. I will go out with you and I will spend time...a lot of time...thinking about...this...whatever this may be."

He went to lean over and kiss her again when they heard, "Can I come back in yet?"

"Okay, that is exactly what I'm talking about," Shania said as she nodded toward Tatum.

"Come on in, squirt," Bryce called out.

"Don't call me that, Beavis!" she said as she ran in.

"Okay, fine. Come on in, Butthead. Is that better?" He reached over and gave her side a quick tickle causing her to pull away and laugh. She lost her balance and fell straight into Shania's lap.

"Well, hello there...friend!" she said. She looked at Bryce who nodded.

"Oh, yeah, we are so doing this!" Shania said as she attacked the younger girl's sides.

Tatum shrieked and tried to pull away but Bryce jumped in and grabbed her taking one side and letting Shania have the other.

"STOP!!" she screamed laughing so hard it brought Dr. Harper back in who ran to join in.

When Tatum was reduced to a ball of tears and snot, they finally let her go. She was gasping for breath and Dr. Harper was still laughing.

"I can't remember the last time they did that!" he said wiping a tear of laughter from his eye. He looked at Shania and said, "You really are a miracle worker."

"Yes, she is," Bryce agreed.

Later on he walked her outside when she was finally ready to leave.

"Bryce? Would you mind terribly if our first date was at my place?" she asked hoping he wouldn't.

"Oh, I see," he said with a smile. "You don't want to be seen with me in public." She went to speak but he kept talking. "No, that's okay. If I can finally spend some time alone with you, your place will be fine."

"I wish you could kiss me," she said quietly as she began to shiver.

"I'll try and make up for it at your place. Which will be...when?"

"Is tomorrow okay? It's only Thursday and you were going to play for me on Friday, but I...I think tonight was more than enough to convince me."

"Tomorrow is very okay," he assured her.

"And I'll see you here tomorrow, too. Bryce? You really are very talented. Please keep playing, okay?"

"I will," he told her. "I promise."

He opened her door and wished her a goodnight. "You, too," she said blowing him a kiss just as he closed her door.

When she got home Daria was still up studying.

"Hey! How was your day with the new fam?" she asked.

"Pretty amazing, actually," she told her truthfully. "Bryce, the high school kid...guy...I told you about?"

"Yeah, the guy with the sad eyes, right? What about him?"

"He plays the violin."

"Okay. So?"

"He doesn't just play. He really plays. I'm talking playing with Lindsay Stirling playing."

"Am I supposed to know who that is?" she asked but not in a snide way.

"Google the name sometime. Trust me, she's big. But Bryce is a future concert violinist. He's that good. He quit playing when his mother died, and he just started again. He played for me tonight and I gotta tell you I was very impressed."

"Oh, no. Uh-uh. Do not tell me you're falling for some kid in high school. You're not telling me that, right?"

"I think I kinda maybe am," she said only mildly embarrassed to be saying it.

"Oh, my God. You're serious! You really like this guy, don't you?"

"I think I kinda do," she replied sticking to short answers. "Is there anyway you could maybe give us a little...you know...privacy tomorrow night?"

"Um...please tell me you didn't just say that. Are you seriously going to bring him here and...you know?"

"No! Oh, God no! No way! No, I...I just want to be able to spend some time getting to know him a little better. I kind of agreed to...to a date if he'd start playing again and well, he's playing again so..."

"Okay, sure. I can hang out with Lydia tomorrow night. But just to be sure, we're not talking about all night, right?"

"Absolutely not! No, no way. Just a few hours. Maybe from around nine until midnight or so. I don't get off work until around 8pm anyway so will that work?"

"Yeah, I guess. I mean, if you want to bring jailbait into our apartment, who am I to stop you, right?" She smiled but the implication was very clear.

"He is 18. For the record."

"Oh, okay. Whew! For a minute I thought he was just a boy. But since he's eighteen then..."

Both of them laughed then talked sincerely about Bryce and whatever was going on between them for a good hour. Shania was only slightly less confused and conflicted than she'd been before they talked, but she did feel better having shared her secret with another human being and more importantly one she could trust to keep it between the two of them.

The tension at the Harper House was thick enough to cut with the proverbial knife that next day. Bryce and Shania said hello to one another, but there were no conversations or even any kind of further exchange of pleasantries. Instead, the sounds of the violin filled the house every minute of the day that Bryce was home, and those sounds were both splendid and torturous for Shania who couldn't focus on anything but the music and boy...the person...making it.

Shania felt almost silly that evening when she made such an overt show of leaving knowing that Bryce would be leaving right behind her. Even so, Dr. Harper didn't think anything about his son going out for a few hours especially since Friday was a teacher planning day and no one had school in the district. He was so pleased not only with Bryce's music but his turnaround in behavior that he was all too happy so see his son doing something besides moping around or sitting in his room.

He didn't say when he'd be back although it was understood he was supposed to be in by 1am. Bryce was hoping against hope he'd have a reason not to meet his unofficial curfew but knew that was a long shot to say the least. As much as he'd fantasized about the possibility of making love to a woman for the first time, he would be content just to get to second base. No, he'd be thrilled just to be able to really get to kiss Shania even if it didn't lead to anything else.

He'd only made it to second base once before, so the prospect of going any further created a lot of internal tension. Having a desire to go further—a lot further—ran headlong into the reality of his having absolutely no experience whatsoever. He'd spent some time watching porn videos, and thought he had a general idea what guys did with girls once they got their clothes off but that was no substitute for actually knowing what to do so maybe second base would be just fine.

"Second base. Yeah, right," he told himself as he pulled up the curb next to her apartment. Shania lived in a triplex and hers was the furthest to the left as one viewed the building from the street.

Inside, Shania was a wreck. She'd gone from telling herself all day this was nothing but hanging out with a nice kid to wondering...what if? She'd tried to decide what 'what if' meant the entire evening. She'd done her hair, nails, and makeup and had changed clothes four times before finally deciding what to wear.

She settled on a beige-colored knit dress with a deep, vee neckline, and that fell to about four inches above her knees. The clingly material beautifully showcased every curve of her hard, tight body, especially her gorgeous, soft, perky, very full-B cup breasts. She'd also gone from heels to flats and back to heels and ended up wearing a pair that were three inches high and ended in something close to a spike.

When she added both a pair of long, dangling earrings and a beautiful, chunky-gold necklace all she could say to justify it was, "There's nothing wrong with looking nice, right?" So she went ahead and added a thin gold chain to her right wrist and another around her right ankle because...well, just because.

The next to last thing she said to herself before she heard his knock on the door was, "What in God's name are you doing, Shania?"

The sound almost stopped her heart, and it didn't help at all when she realized she hadn't reacted like this to any guy of any age in many years.

"It's not even a real date. It's not a real date," was the last thing she said. She took a deep breath, smiled, then opened the door.

"Bryce! Hi! Come in, please," she said stepping aside.

"Oh, wow," he said unable not to stare. He'd bought a dozen roses he meant to hand to her, but he lost his train of thought as soon as he took a first look at her. "Oh, wow," he said again.

"Are those for me?" she asked breaking him out of the trance he was in.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry." He handed them to her and when she accepted them, she kissed him on the cheek and thanked him.

"They're beautiful! Thank you, Bryce. This was really sweet," she said. The kitchen was only 4-5 steps away but she headed that way to put them in some water. "I'll trim the stems later on," she said just sliding them into a vase. She took a deep breath and the scent was incredible. "I can't believe they have flowers that are so beautiful and fresh in this kind of weather. Thank you again. I love them."

"Oh, here. Let me get your coat," Shania said as she saw him standing there holding it. "This isn't exactly the Harper House, is it?"

It was maybe ten steps to her bedroom where she laid his coat on her bed. "My roommate was kind enough to give us some privacy so..." She swept her hand around in a semi-circle then said, "So...this is it. You've had the tour."

"It looks great," he told her honestly. "I'd love to have a place of my own this nice."

"It's adequate for a college girl, I suppose," she said. "Would you like something to drink?"

"You mean alcohol?" he asked showing his inexperience with older women immediately.

"We could have coffee or tea if you'd prefer," she said. "I bought a bottle of red wine, but it's kind of an acquired taste. What do you think?"

"Sure, I'll have some wine," he said. Bryce had had a few beers before, but only tasted wine once and the taste was so disgusting he'd spit it out. It tasted like vinegar to him and he'd avoided it ever since.

Shania brought in two glasses and handed him one. "Cheers!" she said as they clinked glasses.

"You look very nice yourself," she told him.

Bryce had worn a nice-looking black sweater over a dark-blue shirt with a pair of khaki-colored Dockers.

"Thank you and you look...sensational," he said. He'd had a raging hard on since he stepped inside and he'd been unable to take his eyes off her since. He was trying his best to keep his own eyes on hers, but the way the knit fabric hugged all the right parts in all the right ways made it extremely difficult. Shania noticed the quick glances every now and then and not only wasn't bothered by them but found herself flattered by the attention.

"So tell me how you got started playing the violin, Bryce," she said getting the ball rolling.

"Well, my mom bought me my first violin when I was four, and when I took an interest in it, she signed me up to take lessons. I guess I kind of had a knack for it and after about six months my teacher asked my mom to consider finding someone who could handle a child prodigy. I had no idea what that meant at the time. I just knew my teacher thought I could play pretty well."