The next couple weeks went by in a flash. Toby and I spent more than a few nights together.

Our love — long left dormant and forgotten — now blossomed, filling me with the deepest contentment and joy. He showed me how much he cared about me in more ways than one, leaving my heart full and happy. . I loved everything, especially the things he did that left us sweaty and winded and tangled in each other’s arms.

We also spent more time together out of the bedroom.

After pestering him about my exclusive photo shoot with the team, he came through, convincing his coach it was a good idea.

As I stood on the field with all the men, I glanced around, coming up with the perfect shot. Unlike a game where they were running around without thinking about me, they were awaiting my instructions.

“Where do you want us?” Toby asked as he walked up.

“I don’t know yet. You didn’t give me much time to think about this.”

“Coach is in control. It was his call.”

I smiled.

“How about you guys line up like it was a game. I can move around and get shots from different angles.”

“That works, I guess.”

“You guess?”

“Just seems boring, you know.”

“Do I come here on game day and tell you how to play football?”

He grinned.

“Fair enough. You’re the boss.”

I watched as he walked to the group of players. While they lined up, I walked around them on the field, snapping a few shots along the way.

“Look like you’re about to snap the ball,” I said after they were in position.

“This is about as good as you’re going to get, sweetheart,” the quarterback said.

Toby looked over at him with a nasty look.

“What?” the quarterback asked innocently.

“Knock it off,” Toby said.

Are they fighting? Over me?

“Let’s do this!” I yelled, surprising myself.

The huge, beefy players got down in position as I crouched to find an interesting angle.

“Go Browns!” Toby yelled out of nowhere.

“Go Browns!” the others responded with equal intensity.

I rushed forward and laid down on my stomach. Lifting the camera, I snapped a few more shots, loving the way the linebackers looked from that angle.

Snap. Snap. Snap.

After getting to my feet, I walked to the left of their front line, stopping every few feet to take another photograph. The more photos I snapped, the more I got into it.

Their head coach, Mr. Harris, surprised me when he walked up and tapped me on the shoulder.

“You about done?” he asked.

“A few more shots?” I begged.

“Make it quick. We have to start practice.”

“I will. Thank you.”

“Act casual,” I yelled to the players.

They straightened up, turning to talk to each other.

This is it, I thought excitedly. I’ll transpose this photo with one of them crouching down. It’s going to be incredible.

Scott wouldn’t like the artistic slant of the photo, but it would be shared at least a hundred thousand times online if not more.

I took a few more photos of them standing up in relatively the same position then looked over at their coach.

“Thank you so much!” I said.

“No problem, Haley, thanks for the publicity!”

As I walked off the field, I lifted a hand in the air to wave goodbye to Toby..

He nodded his head at me then went to work, yelling and motivating the players as their real practice began.

As they practiced, I shot a few more photos, hoping to come up with a really strong gallery to support my main photo of the team at least.

By the time they finished practicing and were heading for the locker room, I had three full memory cards of high-resolution photos to work with later when I returned to the newsroom.

I walked back to my car with a bounce in my step. No other photographers had been given such open access to the team. Scott, Billy and the others at the paper would have to be impressed.

* * *

As Scott stared at the main photo on my computer screen, I took a deep breath to calm my nerves. He had been staring at it for over three minutes without saying a word.

He usually muttered something non-committal about my photos before moving on, but this was different. I had spent a good three hours getting two photos to fit together.

Over a shot of the players crouched down at the scrimmage line, I had transposed another photo of them standing in relaxed states. They fit together beautifully.

“Damn, this is good,” Scott said, still staring at the screen.

“Thanks,” I said.

“No, I’m serious. I’m going to send the photo to the Associated Press and maybe enter it into a few photography contests. You don’t mind, do you?”

“Not at all.” I turned to Billy, standing next to me, and smiled.

He nodded his head, returning the smile. I turned my attention back to Scott.

“I’ve got to admit, I didn’t think you had it in you, but this is something special.”

Joyful and confident for the first time in a long while, I silently thanked Toby. Something about him had helped me open up to the world around me. I felt brand new.

“Thanks, Scott.”

I glanced over at Billy. He rolled his eyes.

“I’ll be back,” I said then walked up to Billy and took his hand. “Come on. We’re going for a smoke.”

“Girl, I don’t know what’s gotten into you,” he said but followed.

Outside, as soon as the door closed, I launched into him.

“What's going on, Billy?” He’d been distant for weeks.

“What are you talking about? I haven’t even said anything to you all day.”

“Exactly. I thought you would be happy for me. These photos are going to help my career.”

“Woo, woo, good for you,” he said sarcastically.

“Come on, Billy. Why do you have to be this way?”

“You’re changing on me, and I’m not sure I like it.”

“Aren’t you the one always telling me to stand up for myself?”

“Well, yeah, but I think you’re going too far. We don’t hang out anymore, and my whole life is a mess, okay? Are you happy now?”

He turned around, facing away from me, as his voice faltered.

“Hey,” I said, putting on a hand on his shoulder. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m happy your life is going so well now that you’ve reunited with your high school sweetheart, but some of us still have problems.”

Uh oh.

“You’ll find someone that’s right for you,” I said.

He turned to face me.

“It’s not even about finding someone.”

“I’m so sorry. What else is going on?”

“It’s just weird, that’s all. For years, it’s been just the two of us and now you’re rarely home.”

He was right. I’d been distracted.

Once I’d told him about Toby’s confession about overhearing our conversation, I’d assumed he would be understanding. And forgiving. He’d been anything but.

“Look, I’ll be fine, but I’m stressed. I'm glad you’re doing so great, I really am. I am proud of you standing up for yourself.”

“Billy, I know things are crazy right now. I’ve been asking a lot of you. I really appreciate you, I do. I’ll try to straighten up.”

“We should get inside.”

“Billy,” I said, following behind him as he turned to walk away, my heart sinking that I’d disappointed him.

“Forget it, okay?” he said, flashing me a fake smile over his shoulder. “Let’s just get back to work.”

“Yeah, I’m not done hearing Scott say how great I did today,” I joked, hoping to get a real smile from him.

He rolled his eyes, but he smiled.

We went back into the newsroom and I vowed to make time to spend with him in the near future.

The rest of the day flew by and all the praise from Scott was nice, but what I was looking forward to was another weekend with Toby.

He had invited me to his house for a pool party this weekend. I agreed to come, but not telling him I didn’t have any intention of bringing a swim suit with me.

I had no problem showing him my body, but I didn’t want to flounce around half-naked with his other guests.

Would there be other players from his team there? Ex-girlfriends?

I hadn’t asked and I wanted to not be nervous about it, but my palms got sweaty every time I thought about it. I looked over at Billy before walking back to my desk, ignoring the twinge of guilt I felt.

I realized it was only because I was seeing Toby. If I’d been working, or meeting up with another friend, I wouldn’t have felt a bit of guilt about it.

I’m just being silly, I thought, pushing it all away before turning back to my computer. Once Billy met Toby again, everything else would fall into place. They’d love each other, I just knew it.

The problem was, I didn’t know when that was going to happen.

I was more than ready for it.

It was Billy and Toby that were being reluctant about the whole thing.

Billy, because he was being protective.

And Toby? Well, I wasn’t sure exactly why he was avoiding the inevitable. We’d all have to hang out together eventually, and yet Toby kept insisting we should take things slowly in that area.

The bedroom was another story. We’d hardly kept things slow there. He’d been devouring me every night and every second of it had been exquisitely delicious. It didn’t help that I let him have me anytime he wanted me, which seemed to be most of the time we were together.

Setting up a date for all of us to be in the same room together had proven more difficult over the last few weeks than one might expect. I’d actually scheduled a quiet dinner for all of us at home last week, but Billy had been called away by the paper to photograph the scene of a gang shooting downtown a few hours before Toby was expected to show up.

We’d canceled, and rescheduling had been a nightmare so far.

And yet, Toby didn’t seem to mind.

Which partly bothered me and partly didn’t.

He was doing a good job of keeping me distracted.

We’d come back together like a couple of flames joining to make a raging passionate bonfire, our flesh the only thing keeping us apart and keeping us from bursting into a fiery, exploding collision.

Everything about him left me breathless and begging for more.

Now that he knew he had my complete consent, he’d unleashed on me fully, taking me in every room of his beautiful house, in the back of his car parked on a cliff overlooking the sparkling lights of the city, and most thrillingly, in his beloved truck, now beautifully restored and just begging for us to break it in all over again.

And we did.

Over and over, he’d fucked me on the bench seat, till the sun came up, rising like a beacon over the horizon, throwing red and orange light over our naked skin as we clung to each other like teenagers.

Being in his arms had been like coming home, to being bathed in the past, suspended in some ethereal realm between now and then.

I’d run home at dawn, just in time to get ready for work and do it all over again.

Breathless.

That was my normal state of being these days and it seemed my heart was racing just a little bit faster the deeper I let myself get with Toby.

We’d been having a lot of fun these last few weeks. Where that led remained to be seen, but the journey was definitely keeping me enchanted…