Jack & Diane (5 page)

Sunday morning he knocked on her door. Usually she’s very punctual, but last night was restless and she did not want to give the bed up this morning. He’d sent her a text telling her what time to be ready for their date, but wouldn’t tell her what to wear. She chose jeans and a lavender V-neck sweater as a casual dressy option. The color always looked good against her mocha brown skin.

He was in jeans too, with a baby blue shirt that made his eyes stand out even more than usual. He was also clean shaven. She had grown used to the rough shadow of growth on his face. It was sexy. His smooth skin showed his dimple even more. That was sexy too. Something was different about him.

“You cut your hair.”

“I figured there were no mullets in your perfect date.”

“What about your bet?”

“I’m sure he’ll make me suffer, but messing up this date with you was a steeper price than I was willing to pay.”

She quickly threw on a pair of brown boots with a wedge heel that made him tower over her just a little less and glossed her lips. He unconsciously licked his lips remembering the taste of that gloss. He liked that she did not put on a mask of makeup. She did not need makeup to be beautiful. Her large brown eyes were framed with naturally long eyelashes that were soft without thick black mascara.

“I wanted to start the day at church.”

“I should maybe change.” She turned towards her room

He took her hand to stop her. “You’re dressed just fine. I’ve been to this church before. You may even be a little fancy.” She grabbed her purse and let her hand stay in his. It felt both natural and comfortable, and exhilarating at the same time.

She was surprised that during the service he knew many of the songs the praise band was singing and sang along in a smooth baritone voice. Diane would have never planned a date at a church, but this was perfect. Knowing he had a relationship with the Lord made him even more attractive. During service, he reached over and took her hand in his.

The sermon was about God doing things in His perfect time. Sometimes we needed to be patient and wait for His time to come and other times we needed to hurry up and jump on board because God had the train leaving the station sooner than we would like. They were greeted by a few worshippers after service and invited back.

“Did you know what the sermon topic was today?” Diane asked because she did not think he could have planned it that way, but found it peculiar that it was right in line with what he’d said to her yesterday.

“I didn’t.”

“Well, that’s some coincidence that you just said us meeting was God’s timing.”

“There’s no such thing as coincidences. There are only God instances.” He turned to her in the truck. “The day I met you I’d been driving going nowhere, just driving and listening to music and thinking. I had just turned around to head back home when a song called “God Gave Me You” came on the radio. I prayed that He give me someone. No sooner than I’d finished that prayer, I saw your car. Now, it could all be a huge coincidence that your car broke down in that exact place at that exact time that I was randomly out for a drive and heard that song and prayed that prayer. It could be just chance, but that’s a whole lot of chance.”

She did not say anything when he finished talking. He could not read her face either. Though she was looking at him, he could tell that she was thinking something. He was afraid he had said too much and she was thinking he was crazy. She turned and looked out the side window.

“You ever wonder why I was headed back to school to be alone on the evening before Thanksgiving?”

“I wondered, but I figured you had your reasons but I didn’t know you well enough to ask.”

“Uncharacteristically, on the spur of the moment, I decided to go surprise my fiancée in Chicago before spending the holiday with my family. I was surprised by him with another woman. When my mother encouraged me to return to him and work things out instead of providing me a shoulder to cry on, I decided to come back to school and study. My ex’s and mother’s repeated texts and calls ran my battery down.”

She turned back to look at him. “I’d waited for quite some time without a single car passing me by so I prayed God would send me some help before I froze to death. When I opened my eyes, you were getting out of your truck and headed my way.”

That was a lot of information for him to take in and he thought she still had more to say so he stayed silent. She was quiet too, lost in her thoughts.

“You have a valid argument. Those are quite a few coincidences. It would seem that we were meant to meet but it doesn’t mean we were meant to be together.”

“You’re right, but I think this is a strong argument that we are suppose to be together.” He kissed her again. It was a brief brush of his lips on hers.

“You really need to stop doing that brain scrambling thing to me.”

“You mean kiss you?”

She pointed at him nodding. “Exactly. That thing.”

“Darlin’, I’d have to go to rehab to stop that.” He put another quick kiss on her lips to emphasize his point.

“Coincidences and kisses aren’t enough to build a relationship on.”

“Diane, I’m not saying marry me before the night is done. I’m just hoping you won’t turn me into a pumpkin at the stroke of midnight.”

“That’s not how that goes.”

“Details,” he reached into the extended cab of his truck and brought out a simply wrapped box. “This is for you. You’ll need it for the next part of our date.”

She unwrapped it nervously. It was too soon for gifts. Her mind was racing trying to figure out what he’d gotten her. Blankly she starred at the content of the box then began to smile. “Thank you,” she said holding a Colts sweatshirt to her.

“I know you’re a Bears fan, but I was hoping you’d route for the Colts with me today.”

“Of course. I’m a Colts fan too. They’re my AFC team, but Da Bears are first in my heart.”

“Someday I want to be first in your heart.”

“I think maybe someday you could be.” When she saw his smile broaden she realized that she said it out loud and did not just think it. She was nervous because not only did she mean it, but she knew deep down that he may already be. Falling fast usually means landing hard. She laughed to brush her fear aside. “Was that a sufficiently cheesy response to your corny line?”

He saw the fear flash in her eyes so he used humor to defuse it. “It may have been corny, but admit you liked it.”

“I will admit to no such thing.”

“Feel free to change right here in front of me. I won’t look,” he said putting his hands over his eyes with his fingers spread apart.

She did not respond verbally but instead surprised him by beginning to take her sweater off. He was excited as she began to pull her sweater up until he saw the t-shirt she was wearing underneath it. He was still rewarded because the V-neck of her t-shirt was deep and revealed some cleavage that the sweater hadn’t. As she pulled the sweater over her head, her t-shirt came up an inch or two, revealing the smooth brown skin of her stomach. His eyes were transfixed on her. He was enjoying this flirty side of her, but he thought it may be the death of him as he could feel his heart beating harder.

He then pulled another Colts’ jersey from the back. Jack pulled his shirt off revealing his bare chest. Diane held her breath at the sight of his stomach. His abs were perfectly rippled like sand that had been blown by the wind. She let out a breath slowly. Her fingers tickled with desire to reach out and touch him again. He pulled on a t-shirt and smoothed it out far more than necessary. He pulled the jersey over his head and started the truck as though what he’d done had not been intended to raise her blood pressure.

They went and watched football together. Her passion for the game excited him almost as much as her passion for greasy bar food. Something had changed. The wall she’d had up was down and she was fully the person she’d only shown glimpses of before. She’d even drank a beer. The more time they spent together, the more they surprised each other in good ways. When the game was over they stayed and talked.

“This was a great date Jack,” she said as they walked to his truck outside of the bar.

“It’s not over yet. The best is still to come, unless you’re tired.”

“There’s more? There’s not going to be anything left for a second date.”

“You told me this was my one chance. I planned like there may not be a second date.”

“There may not be.” She smiled at him. “So, what’s next?”

“Just wait and see.”

He drove for what seemed like forever. Four days ago she sat in a broken down car in front of this truck freaked the freak out that he was going to brutalize her. Despite her growing attraction to him, there was still the thought in the back of her head that this was all part of some evil plan. The deeper they drove into nowhere Indiana, the more she believed this to be true. There was a small part of her that just wanted to drive with Jack in this truck all night. He reached out and took her hand, bringing it to his lips to brush a kiss across it then returning their entwined hands to the center console. They drove hand in hand quietly for a little while longer.

He turned the truck off the road and into a harvested field. Two factions of nervous butterflies warred in her stomach as her body was feeling a physical attraction she wasn’t certain she could control and her mind was considering various possibilities of impending peril. They drove far enough into the field that any direction you looked you just saw more field. He pointed the truck so that the bed was facing west.

“Where are we?”

“This is my farm. Well, it’s my family’s farm.”

“What are we doing here?”

“I brought you to watch the sunset. Have you ever seen a clear sunset?”

“I don’t think I’ve ever watched the sunset. I’ve seen it set, but not on purpose, usually it was just an outcome of driving west in the evening.”

He pulled a cooler out of the extended cab then walked around to help her out. Every time he helped her down out of the truck he did it so that her body would have to slide next to his. He let down the tailgate. He attempted to help her up but she motioned that she could do it on her own. If he touched her one more time she thought she’d melt into a puddle of hormones under a sexy smelling sweatshirt. He was disappointed he did not get the opportunity to touch her again, but he received the reward of watching her lovely backside as she momentarily struggled to get up on the tailgate. With ease he hopped onto it and sat next to her.

“Is this a normal first date out of the Jack playboy playbook?”

“Why do you think I’m a playboy?”

“You’re far too charming not to be.”

“So, you think I’m charming?” he said with a smile.

“Yes, but it’s far from a compliment.” She laughed.

His smile broadened at the lilt of her laughter. “This is not a normal first date for me. I wanted as much opportunity as possible for us to get to know each other. FYI, players don’t take dates to church.”

“Oh but they do. It’s all part of throwing unsuspecting women off their scent.” He just smiled in response. “How does one watch the sunset? Do you just look west and wait to see if it goes down or maybe even wait to see if it will surprise you and go back up?”

He sat the cooler next to her and headed back to the cab of the truck. He grabbed his iPod, a pillow and a couple of blankets from the back. When he returned to the back of the truck she was lifting a forkful of cheesecake to her perfect mouth. She paused like a child does when their mother finds them eating from her private stash of candy. Watching her eat was a sensual experience. When she enjoyed what she was eating her face had the same look as it does just after they kiss.

He hopped up onto the tailgate like a pro. He put one of the blankets down on the bed of the truck and propped the pillow up against the side. He took a seat. “I have some songs I want you to listen to.”

“Is this part of your attempted conversion to country?” She scooted the other pillow a little further away from him and sat down.

“It’s not a conversion attempt. I just want you to give it a chance.” He had a headphone splitter and two pairs of headphones. He handed one set to her. He was crafty because she had to scoot back next to him, even closer than she was originally, for the headphones to reach.

“The first song isn’t country, but since you didn’t get my reference the other day I thought I’d play ‘Jack and Diane’ for you.”

After the Mellencamp song there were drums followed by the twang of a guitar or banjo then a deep baritone similar to Jack’s began to sing. Then a different voice began to sing. It seemed familiar. Recognition dawned on her and she looked at Jack with her bright brown eyes.

“Is that Anthony Hamilton?”

“It sure is.” He smiled at her. “He’s singing with Josh Turner.”

They sat listening to music as the sun dipped below the horizon. The sky was alight with hues of purple, blue, peach and orange. There were still remnants of snow that had survived the unseasonable rise in temperature since the holiday.

As they listened to more songs by many of the names she did not recognize on his iPod she moved closer to his warmth as it grew cooler without the warmth of the sun. The gentle rhythms of the music and soothing vocals about love wound a spell around her. She leaned into him and he took her hand into his. With each song that played he told her who it was and would interject musical knowledge into it.

“This is the song that I heard just before I met you.”

“I’ve heard that song before. A different version though, on the contemporary Christian station I listen to sometimes.”

“Dave Barnes did it last year.”

“You know a lot about music.”

He sat quietly for a moment and looked out over the horizon. “I had a record deal once.”

She waited for him to elaborate, but he did not. He seemed lost in thought. “What happened?”

“It’s a long story. I don’t want to bore you.”

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.” She was disappointed that he did not want to tell her. Without thinking she took her hand from his.

He could feel their emotional closeness change with the physical distance. He wrapped his arm around her a pulled her back into him. She came easily without a fight because that’s where she wanted to be.