Free Autumn Calling by T. Lynne Tolles

wrong, or maybe he knew what had happened and knew
she’d need him. Either way, she was thankful he was there. No words
were said or needed. He held her and she cried in the curve of his
neck until she could cry no more, then fell into exhausted
sleep.
    She was happy to see, like before, that
Daniel stayed the night, never moving. When her eyes opened to meet
his dreamy, golden-brown eyes filled with concern, she simply said,
“Hi.”
    “You want to talk?”
    “I wouldn’t know where to start,” she said,
rubbing the sleep from her swollen eyes.
    “Where ever you like,” he responded lightly,
brushing her hair with his fingertips.
    “You already know what’s happened,” she
said.
    “That’s not the point. The point is
sometimes you need to verbalize your feelings in order to make
sense of them or put them in perspective.”
    “You really have been studying human nature,
haven’t you?”
    “Yes. I have.”
    “Why? Why are you making such an effort to
understand humans after all this time on earth?” she asked point
blank.
    “Isn’t it obvious?”
    “Not to me.”
    “I’m surprised at that, since you’re the one
who has taught me most of what I know about humans and their
feelings.”
    “But you’re not a human, and I haven’t a
clue as to what you’re thinking or feeling.”
    “Right. Okay then, I’ve never much cared to
know humans. I was here to observe and protect, but not interact,
and that was fine for a very long time. But when I was asked to
watch over you, something different happened. I found you
fascinating in ways I’d never found other humans. I became
obsessive, you might say, in doing so, and found myself looking for
ways or reasons to interact with you. And when I did, I wanted
nothing else but to do so again. And when you clung to me the night
you found out Sister Mary Louise had died, I realized I want
nothing more than to protect and comfort you for the rest of
time.”
    “Are you telling me you’re in love with
me?”
    “I believe that is the phrase humans use for
such a pursuit. Yes, I now understand what my brothers meant when
they tried to describe their ‘feelings’ after finding a human woman
they laid with.”
    “Whoa, now. Love is not the same thing as
lust.”
    “I realize that. I think many of them went
into their laying with women for lust. It’s a powerful tug at the
physical body, but most of them stayed with the one they found this
intimacy with and began to love them. I have opted to do things
differently than my brothers, and hopefully that is the proper way
to win your heart.”
    “So far so good,” Summer said with a
smile.
    “Then you have these feeling for me too?” he
asked.
    “I’m not sure what my feelings are for you.
I mean, I like you a lot and I find you very attractive. But unlike
you, I’ve only known you for a short while, where you on the other
hand have known me all my life. I need some time to figure out how
I feel about you before I can say.”
    “I understand. Should we lie together? Would
that help you understand?”
    “Um, no. At least, not yet. I realize your
brothers mixed their love with sex, but I prefer to find love
before the sex part happens. It’s just a little quirk of mine.”
    “Oh. I see. But technically, haven’t we
already lain together?”
    “ No, we’ve held one another while sleeping,
or while I was sleeping, I guess, but that is not sex, or ‘laying’
with someone as your brothers called it,” she said. But as she
spoke, it dawned on her that he’d been on Earth all this time and
never had sex with anyone? That blew her away. How was that
possible?
    Most of the men she knew could barely keep
their hands to themselves, and their fascination with breasts was
unnerving. Being a watcher, he must have come across humans having
sex, but maybe he’d never put the two things together since he
never really found humans to be as intriguing as his brothers had.
Either way, if and when they came to that bridge,