Living Off the Grid

He was leaning over with his head tilted sideways indicating, "Come on. That was bad!" but didn't say anything. He didn't have to. His body language said it all.

"So...don't quit my day job?" she asked rhetorically.

"No. Definitely do not do that."

He saw her reach for the door and said, "Gimme a sec, okay?" and hurried around to her side.

She thanked him then thanked him again for a truly amazing and enjoyable day.

"You're going back tomorrow, right?" he asked knowing she was. "I'd be happy to come by and give you a lift."

Jessica looked at him for a moment then said, "Okay. Sure. That would be great."

They agreed on a time then said goodnight.

As she expected, her mom was waiting for her when she came in.

"I was wondering when you'd be getting home."

"Mom, I love that you still worry about me, but I am a grown woman."

"I know. So then why did you agree to ride home with a man you barely know?" her mother asked.

"Well, by the time we left, I knew I could trust him. He's really nice and very passionate about living off the grid. You know, just like me."

Her mom gave her a look and shook her head.

"I'll never understand this no matter how long I live," Cathy told her. "So I assume you're going back tomorrow?"

"I am, and Lock's picking me up at 9 o'clock," Jessica told her with a smile.

"He's awfully young," Cathy reminded her.

"That's true but he's a very intelligent guy, Mom. He has a degrees in mechanical and structural engineering and can build a house or any of the stuff I'd need to live off the grid."

"Don't tell me you're falling for this guy you just met," her mother said with a tone indicating some level of distress.

"What? Falling for him? Lock? Mom, be serious! No, he's just a really nice guy. I don't think he'd be the one I'd hire to build my house anyway as he has a full-time job up in the Seattle area."

Cathy made a kind of 'harumph' sound then went into the kitchen to get a glass of water.

Jessica was up early the next morning and ready to go by 8am after a brisk, three-mile walk in the relatively cool morning air. She showered, ate some granola and half a banana then brushed her teeth and sat down to review her notes again.

Lock had put a ton of 'meat on the bones' for her by filling in a whole lot of blanks. She'd peppered him with questions off and on the entire day and he had a thoughtful reply to pretty much every one of them. In those rare cases where he didn't know he told her so and never tried to BS his way through something, and that went a long way to increasing her trust in him. Then again, he was going back to Seattle that evening so it wasn't that big of an issue regardless.

He pulled up right at nine and Jessica hollered out, "See you later, Mom!"

She knew she heard her but didn't reply. She was probably still stewing over her daughter's inexplicable choice of lifestyles which made no sense to her mother whatsoever.

Lock got out and opened her door after calling out, "Mornin'!"

"Good morning and thank you!" she said as he opened her door.

He put the car in reverse then in gear and off they went.

"Lock, I really had the best day yesterday. Thank you again for that."

"You're welcome and it was just as enjoyable for me," he told her. "Oh, and you look very nice today, by the way."

"Well gee, thank you," she told him.

She was wearing a sleeveless, white, knit top and a pair of blue shorts, and with her very cute haircut, Lock thought she looked amazing. Unlike most guys, he'd always had a thing for attractive girls with short hair, and he found Jessica's sexy as hell. Not all short hair, though, as either spiky or hair with gel in it was a huge turnoff. But short, smooth, silky hair like hers really 'did it' for him, but he wasn't about to share anything that personal with her just yet.

The morning flew by again, and they found themselves back at the food court eating lunch before they knew it.

As they ate, Lock couldn't stop staring at her in spite of his best efforts. She was not only cute as the proverbial button, she was just very...appealing in so many ways.

After the third or forth time she noticed, Jessica said, "What? What are you staring at? Did I get some mustard on my shirt or something?"

"Oh, no. Sorry. I didn't mean to stare," he said as he looked away.

A few minutes later he was doing it again and Jessica put her hotdog down and said, "Lock? Is everything okay?"

Caught redhanded again he just shrugged and said, "Sure. Yeah. Everything's just fine. I guess I'm just preoccupied or something."

"With work maybe?" she asked as she picked her food back up.

"No. Not work."

"Oh, okay. Maybe a hot date when you get back?" she asked with a smile.

Her smile was as cute as her hair and Lock realized—he had feelings for her. He'd had feelings for other girls but never for a woman her age, let alone someone who'd been married before. He knew he was leaving that evening, but having met Jessica, a part of him didn't want to go.

"You done?" she asked after finishing the last bite of her bun.

"Yeah, I wasn't too hungry for some reason," he told her as he grabbed the trash to toss in one of the many bins lined up on the side of the food court.

She got up with him and walked toward the trash cans when she stopped and said, "Lock. Look over there! Isn't that Bodie Edwards?"

He looked up and saw the man many consider the 'godfather' of living off the grid. He'd agreed to drive in from eastern Montana and give a two-hour presentation on how it's done, and both of them considered it the highlight of the expo.

"Yes, it is," Lock said, momentarily forgetting his growing crush on the attractive, older woman.

That is, until she reached instinctively reached out and grabbed his hand and said, "Come on! Let's get over there before it gets too crowded."

Jessica went to pull him along with her and he laughed when she tugged and he didn't follow. It wasn't that he was trying to stop her, he just wasn't expecting the pull and because he outweighed her by a good 60 pounds she ended up getting pulled back into him instead.

She also nearly lost her balance when she 'boomeranged' into him, so Lock let go of her hand and grabbed her by the upper arms to steady her.

"Oops!" she said before realizing they were face to face and very close to one another.

"You okay?" he asked as their eyes met.

"Sure. I guess I thought you'd follow me."

"I wasn't trying to resist," he told her. "I just wasn't expecting you to pull me."

Jessica could see by the way he was looking at her that something had changed, and that feeling caused her body to react in a way that surprised her even more than Lock not moving when she tried to pull him with her.

She couldn't hold his gaze and looked down before saying, "Maybe we should, you know, head over that way now."

Lock then realized he'd had his hands on her arms all that time and let go.

"Right. I agree. We should get going."

As they headed toward the temporary stage Bodie would be speaking from, Jessica realized she, too, was feeling differently about Lock. She couldn't allow herself to think it was something romantic or anything even close to that, but something had indeed changed. What it was she couldn't say. All she knew was that it had.

They were halfway there and she'd pushed the thought out of her mind for maybe two seconds when she felt his hand touch hers. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw him glance over at her then down at their hands.

Without saying a word she placed hers in his as they continued walking in silence.

Those thoughts she'd been having were back and screaming at her as she forgot all about Bodie and the presentation she'd looked forward to for so long.

Lock led them to a row of chairs near the front then let go of her hand to allow her to go in first. She moved close to the middle then sat down and realized her heart was beating fast. What she didn't notice was Lock carefully wiping his sweaty palm on his jeans as though he was just stretching out and bending over a little.

"This should be great," he said once he sat up straight.

"Yeah. I...I'm really looking forward to it," she said as they both seemed to be pretending nothing had just happened.

She briefly looked at him and saw him smile. She smiled back but it was a kind of nervous smile and she turned away just as quickly.

After a few minutes, most of the seats were full, and Bodie got up behind the microphone and tapped it.

"Testing. One, two."

Satisfied it was working, he introduced himself and gave a quick overview of who he was and how he'd gotten the idea to live off the grid.

Both Lock and Jessica forgot about the handholding and whatever feelings they were having until about 30 minutes into the presentation when Lock slowly raised his left arm up and put it around the back of her chair and then a moment later around her shoulder.

Jessica not only didn't flinch or pull her body away from him, she did her best to move closer even though the metal chairs were already touching. Again, she found it hard to concentrate on the speaker's words as what was going on with Lock took center stage in her mind.

A few minutes later, he put his hand on her shoulder then gently ran a finger maybe an inch or two up and down it now and then as they sat there listening. Again, she not only didn't stop him, she leaned over and put her head on his shoulder the best she could. It wasn't at all comfortable, and yet that made no difference to her.

In fact, it was so uncomfortable, it didn't last long, but Lock kept his arm around her for quite some time and when he finally needed to move it, Jessica looked at him out of the corner of her eye, smiled, then took his hand in hers and rested them on his leg.

When the presentation ended, the two of them sat there as people stepped around them and filed out.

More or less alone, Jessica said rather quietly, "Lock? What's going on here?"

"Well, there's an 'off the grid' exposition and Bodie Edwards just gave a really in-depth talk about how to do it successfully, and..."

"Don't tease, Lock," Jessica said as she looked down at their hands before letting go of his. "What...what is this?"

He'd been kidding around and now was very serious as he turned his chair to face her.

"Were I not leaving so soon, I'd never um...move this fast, but since I am, I can't afford to wait."

He paused for a moment then said, "I'm crazy into you, Jessica. I don't think I've ever met anyone I've enjoyed being with more than you, and I...I don't want to scare you off, but...I have feelings for you. So...that's what's going on here."

"Lock. Be serious," she said. "You can't be serious. I mean, I was married longer than you were in school."

"I believe you told me you were married for 15 years," he said very seriously before smiling and saying, "But I was in school for SIX-teen years so, yeah. You kinda blew that one."

Jessica tried not to laugh but couldn't stop herself.

"Okay, that was funny. But you're not thinking this through."

"No, you're not thinking it through," he said in reply in a very friendly but direct way.

"How so?"

"I believe you liked it when I put my arm around you, and I distinctly remember you taking my hand when I moved my arm. That tells me you at least have some kind of similar feelings for me."

"Maybe I just felt sorry for you. You've been very nice to me, and I didn't want you to feel rejected. Did you think of that?" she said trying to sound serious while be very sweet.

"Jessica," he began.

He inched his chair toward her then said, "We're perfect for each other. There's obvious physical attraction, and we both have a huge passion for this kind of living."

"Okay, I'll admit to not finding you...hideous or anything," she said trying not to smile. "And maybe I didn't hate it when you put your arm around me. And yes, I did take your hand. But that doesn't mean I'm in love with you or ready to move off to God-knows-where and shack up with you."

Deep down, she thought she might just be willing to try that without knowing another thing about him, but her practical side was going to have its day in court and not go down without a fight, even if it was a very weak defense.

He reached out for her hands and she let him take them.

"Let me take you to dinner tonight. Not fast food. A real date. Someplace nice."

"But you have to leave, don't you?"

"I, uh, I already called and asked for an extra day," he told her. "Just in case you said 'yes'."

"If I do agree to have dinner with you...then what? You're still leaving tomorrow."

He leaned closer and said, "I don't have all the answers, Jessica. I just know I've never felt like this about anyone before, and if I don't at least try, I'll regret it the rest of my life."

Her defenses were coming down fast so she played her trump card.

"Lock. I'm...40 years old. Forty. You can't pretend you don't know or care. You have to stop and think about what that means for you and your future."

He reached out and gently touched her face and as he looked into her eyes he said, "You are so beautiful, Jessica. But not just on the outside. You're...you're exactly what I've been looking for but never thought I'd find."

She sat there watching him, her heart beating like a drum. And then he lifted himself off the chair, leaned in even more, and softly kissed her for the first time.

"Please don't say 'no' just because of a few years difference in age," he whispered once it ended.

"Lock. It's more than a few. It's...a lot," she said quietly as she held his stare this time.

"Po-tay-to, po-tah-to," he said with a smile. "I really like you, Jessica. And you're not going to convince me you don't at least have some feelings for me, too."

"I'm not?" she asked as their eyes danced.

"Nope. Never gonna happen," he told her before smiling and kissing her again. This time he reached over and pulled her onto his lap as they kissed and Jessica yelped happily as she kissed him back.

This one lasted for several seconds and when it ended, Jessica said, "Okay. You win. I may possibly feelings for you, too."

"You see. I knew it," he teased.

"Hey! Don't gloat. I don't like gloaters," she told him as she pulled his ball cap down over his face then started laughing.

She tried to get up and run away but he grabbed her wrist and pulled her back onto his lap and held her tight. She, in turn, put her arms around him then used her nose to lift his cap back up then asked, "So now what?"

"So now we get to know each other," he told her before pulling her closer for one more kiss. This time, tongues softly touched and Jessica moaned quietly for the first time since she and Norm...

"Lock? Do you want to stay here the rest of the afternoon or maybe go someplace else? There are some really nice, very quiet places we could go and maybe just sit and talk," she suggested. "You know, so we could try getting to know one another better."

"I'd like that," he told her. "As long as it involves you and me, yes, sign me up."

"I know the perfect place," she told him. "Come on."

Less than 20 minutes later, they were pulling into a place called Alton Baker Park where Jessica led them to a wooden bench surrounded by beautiful flowers and plants. They could also see the Willamette River from the bench as various songbirds chirped around them.

"I've always loved this place," she told him after they sat down and looked around.

"It's very peaceful."

She snuggled up close as soon as he went to put his arm around her again and after sitting quietly together for a few minutes Jessica asked a question.

"Lock? You said you were saving to buy some land and build a house, right?"

"Yes. I've put pretty much everything I've made at the firm in the bank, but I'm still way short. But now that I've found you, I have motivation to work ever harder and save even more."

She smiled at him then said, "You just need to find your girl with the spare hundred grand, right?"

She loved that he'd never once asked her about money or assumed that she had any. His answer reinforced what she already thought was true.

"I don't need anyone else's money, Jessica. I just need someone I could love for the rest of my life to share it with."

He paused then said very sincerely, "Someone like you."

"Lock?"

"Yes?"

"Please think very carefully about this, okay? If you want children one day, then I'm not..."

He gently pulled his arm away, turned toward her and said, "Jessica. Please stop trying to convince me you're not the woman I want, okay? I may be younger than you, but I'm not one to make decisions without thinking them through. I thought about that all night last night and the answer is, I don't care. At all. Besides, you're only 40 not...60. So I don't see it as a big deal."

He hesitated then said, "Unless...you do."

He looked right at her then asked, "Do you? Do you really want children?"

She looked away then looked back at him.

"My husband couldn't have children so I learned to stop wanting them. But I'd be lying if I told you I don't want a child. And honestly? Had I not met you...had you not, I don't know, ignited this spark inside of me again...I'm sure that wouldn't even be on my mind. But you have and now that you've asked, I won't say anything I don't feel or believe. I think I could be happy without children, but I can't help but think I'd be happy-er, with them. Or at least one."

"I understand," he said, and that really surprised her. "I'm obviously not a woman, and I know not all women are the same. But I think most women do, at some point, want children, and I guess 40 is the time when your so-called biological clock starts making a lot of noise."

"It starts ticking around 30 and gets louder each year, but yes, that's true. And I can't believe you have such a mature perspective at..."

"At my age?" he said with a smile. "I'm 23. And a half."

He smiled and Jessica laughed at the 'and a half' quip.

"Wow. That sounds so young," she said as she looked into his eyes. "But you don't seem that young. Your'e so intelligent and...charming."

"I don't think I've ever been called 'charming' before," Lock said not sure what to make of that.

"Charming is good," Jessica assured him. "It's very good, in fact. And smart is a huge turn on."

"Oh, so size does matter, huh?" he said with a smile.

Before she could ask he added, "Brain...size."

Jessica playfully hit him then said, "I think I can deal with the age issue as long as I know you understand what that means. But how do we make this work with me here and you in Seattle?"

"Well, you could come visit me every weekend," he told her with a smile.

"Oh. I see. Meaning I could stay at your mom and dad's house, too?" she said mostly teasing.

"Noooo," he replied. "We could find...somewhere else to spend our time."

"Ah, okay. Meaning you and I would be, you know, sharing this place?"

"I guess we could get separate rooms," he said with a smile.

"I suppose we could," she agreed before smiling and adding, "but I'm not sure I'd want to travel that far to just stay in my own room."

"Oh. Okay. Well, perhaps we should find out if there's any reason we'd want something other than separate rooms. You know, after dinner tonight."

"Why, Lachlan James. Are you asking me to...sleep with you?" she asked feigning disbelief.

"I'd never come right out and ask," he said as he put his hand on her cheek. "But were you to let me know you'd be interested in that I wouldn't argue too strenuously."

Jessica smiled then laughed as she put her arms around him.

"This is so...incredible and unlikely and crazy and...wonderful," she told him as they held one another.

He pulled back then told her, "Yes, you really are incredible, Jessica."