Jack & Diane (6 page)

“When I graduated from high school I moved to Nashville with dreams of becoming the next big thing. I worked odd jobs and played any gig that came along. After about two years I finally caught a break and started getting into some better places. I was writing and even had a couple of songs recorded by major artists. A manager of one of the artist liked my voice and started representing me. About a year later I had a contract. Half way through writing songs for the album I got a call from my momma saying that my dad was sick. She could not take care of him and the farm so I came home to help and I’ve been here ever since.”

“You gave up a lot. You gave up what you love.”

“No, I gave up my passion. What I love is my parents and this farm. Passion is something that has the tendency to burn out, but love can burn forever. I knew if I didn’t come back it would only be a matter of time before the farm would have to be sold. It’s been in our family forever and I didn’t want some pipe dream of mine be what ended the legacy. Having a record contract doesn’t guarantee success. Looking back, it was likely for the best.”
“Why is that?”

“Young and stupid was the best way to describe me. I was partying way too hard with no fame and a little money. If I had hit it big then I wouldn’t have handled it well. Money and fame would have been like striking a match to gasoline drenched TNT.”

“Were you doing drugs?”

“No, but Jack, Jim, and Jose were good friends.”

“Who are they?”

“Jack Daniels, Jim Beam, and Jose Cuervo.”

“Were you an alcoholic?”

“No, but the hard stuff makes me stupid. Some of my worst decisions were made after a night with any one of those three.”

“What was wrong with your father?”

“Cancer. After surgery and chemo it went into remission for a while.”

“A while? Did it come back?”

“Last month, his doctor found a tumor. They aren’t sure that it’s cancerous. He has a biopsy scheduled for after the holidays.”

“Jack. I’m so sorry to hear that.” He went quiet again. She could tell how much his father’s illness bothered him. “I didn’t know there were this many stars in the sky. It’s beautiful. Thank you for bringing me out here.”

“You’re beautiful Diane.”

“Thank you.” As they lay there her hand made its way under his jacket. Initially it was just for warmth, and then it began to move over his stomach muscles. He grabbed her hand to stop it from moving back and forth on his chest

“Diane, I need you to stop that before I, at the very least, kiss you again.”

“Maybe I’ll kiss you this time.”

She moved her mouth to his. The kiss started off tentative and sweet. He let her control the kiss at her pace until she let out a little moan and then he deepened the kiss. That caused her to moan again. He took the opportunity her parted lips offered and slipped his tongue into her mouth. She matched the movement. Heat exploded in her.

His hand moved down her back and cupped her jean clad bottom. Every nerve ending in her body came alive, craving more of his touch. She pressed her body closer to his. He kissed his way to her neck. She moaned his name. He stopped kissing her neck. He rested his face in the crook of her neck, inhaling her scent and trying to catch his breath. “Diane, we need to stop now or I won’t be able to. I don’t want to rush things.”

If he hadn’t stopped she wouldn’t have been able to. She realized she hadn’t wanted him to. This lack of control was foreign to her. The fog in her brain was clearing and she was embarrassed by the way she had behaved. Her body on the other hand wanted nothing more than for him to continue. Her heart was afraid it would be broken because she was falling hard for Jack.

“Jack, I don’t understand my feelings.”

“There’s no need understand. Let’s just enjoy it.” He knew if he let her think about her feelings too much she’d run from them and him. “We need to get you home. You have class tomorrow and I have an early morning. I know the proper etiquette is that I should take you home, but your car is ready and I thought you’d like to drive it. I can follow you to make sure you make it okay.”

“How much do I owe you for the repair?”

“Nothing. It was an easy fix.”

“You’re a farmer, and a musician, and a pseudo mechanic. What other talents do you have?”

“I’m a pretty good lover too.”

Diane laughed nervously. From the way he kissed her she was sure he was. “Is there anything you can’t do?”

“I can’t walk on water,” he smiled, “yet.”

♥♥♥

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As usual, Jack showed up right on time Wednesday afternoon. Unfortunately, Diane was running behind because one of her professors had her come to her office to talk about a position at her firm after graduation. To get some experience straight out of college, even in a small college town, would be a great opportunity. The thought of being near Jack also crossed her mind. Jack’s truck was already in the lot when Diane arrived at the apartment.

It had been two full days since she’d seen him last and she couldn’t wait. She ran up the stairs excitedly. When she entered the apartment, her roommate, Megan, was cross examining Jack like he was on the witness stand. It’s the type of scene usually reserved for fathers and their teenage daughter’s first date.

“Sorry I’m late Jack. Hi Megan.”

“You’re worth the wait Di,” he whispered into her ear as he took her into her arms for a hug.

“Hi” Megan said and exited the living room to her bedroom.

“It was nice to meet you,” Jack said to Megan’s retreating body. She waved over her shoulder and closed her door.

“Can you give me a few minutes?”

“Of course, but hurry. It’s been two days and I’ve missed you.”

She smiled and hurried to freshen up. It only took her a few minutes to change shirts and touch up her lipstick. As she was changing from her tennis shoes to her boots, Megan walked in. “Is this the guy you met over break?”

“He is.” Diane smiled.

“Is he your type?”

“I don’t know that I have a type. If I did, he’d fit.”

“Really?”

“Really. He’s different than he seems on the outside.”

“Are you two serious?” her roommate asked concerned.

“We’re just getting to know each other.”

“Don’t let him get in the way of your finals.”

“I won’t and he wouldn’t. He knows how important school is to me.”

“If he knew how important school was to you, he wouldn’t be here to take you out when you have class tomorrow.”

“Listen Megan, it’s sweet of you to be concerned about me, but everything’s fine.”

“Fine,” was Megan’s final word as she left Diane’s room.

“Your roommate is intense.”

“She was more intense than usual. Finals have her on edge. What do you have planned for our second date?”

“Something fun as a break from the doldrums of studying.”

After a very brief drive, Jack parked near a building Diane vaguely recognized. “Is this the Wonderlab?”

“It is.”

“Isn’t this place for elementary school kids?”

“It’s for all ages. The website says so. I thought it would be fun for you to let your hair down and act like a kid again.”

For the next hour they did act like kids again. They played in a bubble room and shot at each other with an air cannon. She couldn’t remember how long it had been since she laughed so much that her stomach hurt. There was no longer any doubt in her mind that Jack was her type.

After their “play date” they went for pizza. Instead of sitting across from her in the booth, he sat next to her. She enjoyed the closeness.

“I’m nervous about meeting your parents.”

“Don’t be. If anything I should be nervous. My parents will likely drive you away with stories about me.”

“Let’s face it Jack, if the mullet didn’t scare me off, stories of childhood pranks certainly won’t.” She added to herself that the only thing that came close to running her off was the confederate flag on the front of his truck the night they met. The thought turned her mood serious. “How will your parents react when they find out I’m black? Do you think they won’t like me?”

“They didn’t react to it one way or the other. I don’t know that it mattered to them. Anyway, my father likes whatever my mother likes. The only things that could make my mother not like you is if you don’t like her cooking or if you break her little boy’s heart.”

“They already know?”

“Momma asked how you looked so I told her. How did your parents react when you told them about me?”

“I haven’t told them about you yet.”

“Hmm,” was his only response.

“It’s not like you’re a secret. I don’t talk with my parents the way you talk with yours. My mother hasn’t really talked to me much at all since Thanksgiving other than to make sure I was still alive. I did tell my best friend all about you.”

“When do you think you’ll tell your parents about us?”

“I was thinking around Christmas. It’s best if I tell my mother things face to face. She’s also still operating under the delusion that I’ll get back with Dr. Insincere.”

“Is that a possibility?”

She thought for a second how very deficient her ex-fiancée was in comparison to Jack. Jack was kinder, funnier, more thoughtful and sexier just to start. She didn’t know if any man would ever be able to compare to the man she was getting to know. The thought made her smile.

“No, it’s not possible.”

Her pause made his chest feel a little tight. She’d been planning a life in a big city with a doctor and maybe a life in the country with a farmer wasn’t as appealing. Perhaps she was just being nice and saying what she thought he wanted to hear.

“What about your family? Will me being white matter?”

“I can’t see why it would. My mother won’t approve of you because you’re just Mr. Sloan and not Dr. Sloan. You could be a minotaur, as long as you were Dr. Minotaur my mom wouldn’t care.”

“It sounds like you have a complicated relationship with your mother.”

“It’s not complicated at all. It’s simple. She’s in charge. She is the Empress of my life and if I don’t live according to her dictates it’s like I stabbed her in the back on the steps of the senate.”

“Et tu Brute?”

She smiled that he got her Julius Caesar reference. “Exactly. I think she actually said that to me once.”

“Did you ever just do what you wanted to?”

“Yes, all the time.” She thought for a moment and then a smile crossed her face. “This one time, I went out for the high school basketball team. My mother thought sports, especially such a common sport, was improper for her children.”

“Did you make the team?”

“Heck no. I’d never played and it showed. I was awful. I’m just grateful no one got video of it.”

“I wish they did. I need proof that you’re not perfect.”

“Oh, I’m not perfect. Ask my mother. She’d tell I’m not perfect.” She rolled her eyes.

“Well I think you’re perfect.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I don’t understand why your mom can’t see that. Is she as hard on your brother?”

“Can we talk about something other than my mother? I have the rest of my life to discuss her with a therapist or four. What about your mom, where did she learn to cook?”

“She’s from down south, Arkansas. Knowing how to make great food is a requirement there.”

“How’d your parents meet?”

“The met at an FFA convention when they were in high school.”

“FFA?” She shook her head not knowing the abreviation.

“Future Farmers of America,” he explained. “They say it was love at first sight. The story goes they wrote each other a letter every night and talked on the phone once a week. At the next convention, he greeted her by falling on one knee and proposing. She said yes, but there was another year of letters and phone calls because her parents wouldn’t let her get married until she graduated high school. She got her diploma on Friday and was married on Saturday.”

“That is the sweetest and most irrational thing I’ve ever heard.”

“What’s irrational about it?”

“They were young. They barely knew each other.” She ticked each point off on a finger then threw her hands in the air. “How could they base the rest of their lives on two meetings? What about school? What about experiencing life before committing the rest of it to another person?”

“I was wondering where Nancy Grace was hiding.” He smiled when she rolled her eyes at him. “They didn’t want to live a life that didn’t include the person they loved. They found a way to do everything they wanted to with each other. Momma got her degree and became a teacher and daddy took over the farm.”

“But what if…”

“There are no what if’s Nancy Grace. They followed their hearts. They are living their happily ever after complete with a smart, handsome, and dang near perfect son.”

“I didn’t know you had a brother.”

“Oh you’re so funny. Let me get you back to your studying before your overprotective roommate tortures me for taking you away from your studying.”

♥♥♥

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Jack pulled up with Diane on Sunday. No matter what he said, Diane remained nervous. She’d also brought a gift though he insisted it wasn’t necessary. He helped her out of his truck in the traditional manner which consisted of a lot of body to body contact. He then kissed her on the forehead.

Before they could make it to the porch step, the door was opened. His mother came out onto the steps. She stood with her eyes narrowed and her hands on her hips as she looked at Diane from head to toe. Her perusal did not help ease Diane’s nervousness.

“Well aren’t you even more beautiful than Jack said.”

“Thank you.” Diane extended her hand towards the woman. “It’s nice to meet you Mrs. Sloan.”

Rose Sloan looked at her hand as if she had leprosy. Diane wished she had drove so she could flee back to the safety of her apartment. If his mother did not approve of her she was willing to cut her losses before her feelings developed any further.

“Get that hand nonsense out of here and give me a hug.” She said stepping in with a bright smile that instantly relieved all of Diane’s fears. Jack’s mother kept her arm around Diane and guided her into the house. “We need to decide what you’re going to call me. I’m either Rose or momma because I don’t nearly have enough wrinkles to be Mrs. Sloan.” Jack’s mother pulled her closer and smiled brightly at her. “I’ll show you a picture of my mother-in-law and you’ll see.”

“The way you cook, I’ll call you whatever you tell me to.”

“You’re right she is a beautiful and smart one Jack.”

Jack took her hand and gently pulled her away from his mother. “I’ll return her to you in a moment. I want to give her a tour of the house.”

“Take your time. I’ll call you when dinner’s ready.”

Jack took Diane on a tour of the surprisingly large house. The last room they visit was his. She felt nervous being in his room alone with him with his parents in the house. His room was almost like a master suite. It had its own bathroom and a sitting area. He sat on the bed and she sat across from him in a chair.

“Did you really tell your mom I was beautiful and smart?”

“I just told her the truth.”

“We have some time before dinner, why don’t I play you a song.”

“Are you going to play something original?”

“I thought I would.”

As he began to play she saw that his love for music showed in his eyes. He was really talented. He played the guitar as if it were an extension of himself. Every strum of the strings made a beautiful sound that felt as though he were caressing her skin. His lyrics were beautiful in its simplicity and realness. His voice that heated her when he spoke made her erupt like a volcano when he sang. If this was him rusty she wondered what he sounded like polished.

Her silence when he finished playing made him nervous. She just sat there with her eyes closed. He was afraid he either put her to sleep or she hated it so much that she was afraid to even look at him.

“That was beautiful,” she said finally. Her voice had the soft quality usually reserved for her first delicious bite of a baked good.

“Thank you,” he said genuinely modest. He’d missed a note or two and if he were on American Idol they would have said he was a little pitchy.

“You’re really good. Why haven’t you played in a while?”

“Who am I going to play for? The pigs? Maybe the corn and soy.”

“Play for you. It’s obvious how happy you are when you play.”

“What’s the point? I don’t want to chase an old dream. This farm is my dream now.”

“Do you love music because it can make you money and bring you fame or do you love it because it satisfies your soul.”

He didn’t answer. She came to sit next to him on the bed and placed a reassuring hand on his arm. “What if you play for me? I’d love to be your audience.”

He began to play another song. This one had no lyrics, but his fingers on the strings spoke to her. When he finished playing Diane initiated a kiss. Her hands cupped his face as she brought her lips to his. Like all her kisses, it started off hesitant and sweet. He let her control it for a while. It made him happy when she initiated the contact. It meant that he wasn’t in this alone and she wanted him too. Her tongue touched his lips and he parted them instinctively. When her tongue touched his he took over control.

He moved his guitar from between them and pulled Diane closer so that her legs straddled his lap. His hands were on her back and he pulled her body into his. Her fingers were in his hair pulling his head into her. His hands slid down her body stopping to cup the firm roundness of her butt. He pulled it forward into him. She moaned and pulled forward into his rising desire. Her movement elicited a deep groan from him.

He kissed his way down her neck settling into her collar bone. Her body began to move on its own accord in search of more contact with him. His hands were on her waist gently guiding her back and forth against his hardening need. Her hands gripped his shoulders. She was afraid if she did not hold tight she’d float off the face of the earth. One of his hands moved back to cup her bottom while the other trailed a path up her torso, under her shirt until it reached the fullness of her breast. He gently squeezed its softness. His thumb traced circles around her hardened nipple.

“Oh Jack,” she gasped in response to the feelings that were rushing through her body. She’d never felt this much desire. She’d never felt this close to anyone before.

He wanted her so much that he knew he had to stop. He wanted their first time to be more than a quickie before dinner. He wanted more for her than that. He stopped kissing her neck, but his face remained nestled there while he tried to catch his breath and corral his hormones. His hands weren’t as quick to follow the order his brain had given to stop. His thumb continued to stimulate her nipple while his other had continued to keep her pressed against his erection. Slowly he mustered enough control to wrap his arms around her and pull her into a tight hug.

“I love you, Diane,” he said softly into her ear.

She pushed back from him so that she could look him in the face. “You can’t.”

He smiled at her. “You can’t deny me my feelings.”

“We’ve only known each other for such a short time. We can’t have these feelings for each other.”

His smile widened and his eyes sparkled. “You love me too,” he stated.

“I-I did not say that.”

“You said ‘we’ have these feelings. If you didn’t mean love, what are your feelings for me?”

Her eyes began to water. “My feelings are, well, I feel…” she was at a loss for words to describe how she felt other than love. “I do think I might possibly be falling in love with you, but it’s not logical to feel that way this soon. I feel scared because I don’t have any control of my feelings. Being out of control is scary. I’m afraid my heart’s falling too fast and my head is going to have to clean up the mess when I get hurt.”

“Di, I would never do anything to hurt you. I promise you that as fast as you’re falling, I am falling faster and will be waiting to catch you when you land.”

“You promise?” The question sounded the same way it would if a child were asking a parent for reassurance on the first day of school.

“I promise. But if you kiss me one more time I can’t promise you that I’ll be able to control myself enough to stop again.”

She kissed him again. “What if I don’t want you to stop?”

He gently slid her off of his lap. “Sweetheart I don’t want our first time to be a quickie while my momma’s cooking dinner downstairs.”

That sobered her. “You’re right. My first time should be more planned than this.” She didn’t realize she’d change the pronoun until it was too late.

“What do you mean your first time? Are you saying that you’re a_”

“Virgin,” she completed. “Yes, I am.” She moved into him and nestled herself against his chest to avoid having to look him in the face during this conversation.

“But you were engaged and dating for four years. Are you saving yourself for marriage?”

“I wasn’t, but it became that. He never brought the passion out of me. My relationship with him was always very logical and not very emotional. It made everyone else happy.”

“Were you happy?”

“I was happy enough with him. I didn’t really believe in love. It was a fictional concept to me until I saw a pair of blue eyes that made my heart start to act and feel independently of my head. Then I thought it was a possibility for me.”

“Sounds like, I won’t have to wait four years for us to make love?”

“You’re the one that stopped tonight not me. The only thought that my body let my mind think was ‘oh that feels so good’. I didn’t even remember your mother’s downstairs. My mother would roll over in her grave if she knew I was behaving so wantonly.”

His expression grew serious. “I didn’t think your mother was dead.”

“She’s not, but if she knew that I was behaving so wantonly she’d kill herself so that she could roll over in her grave.”

There was a knock on the door that made her jump off the bed so quickly she almost broke the sound barrier. He just smiled at her over reaction. His mother’s voice floated through the door telling them dinner was ready.

If it was possible, Diane thought that dinner fresh off the stove was even better than the leftovers she’d been warming in the microwave. Over the course of dinner she saw where Jack got his character from.

By the end of the meal Diane was instructed to call Jack’s parents momma and dad because that’s what everyone calls them. The word momma seemed strange coming off her lips since she’d not used it since she was in pre-K and her mother told her she preferred to be called mother.

Dinner that night was how she always imagined family dinners should be. It was so foreign from her family’s meals. Her family meals felt more like a staff meeting with talk of goals and strategy. There was rarely any laughter and the food was barely edible.

Diane was re-evaluating her life goals. Power suits and corner offices with windows no longer held the same appeal as they did before her car broke down. There was now a longing for family dinners and kisses from the man she loved in its place.

♥♥♥

Driving out to the farm for dinner each night became a nightly ritual for Diane. The food was far better than the normal college fare. Each evening after dinner, they would go out to the empty field to spend some time alone together. They would lay under the stars. Jack liked it because the cold December nights forced Diane to move close to him. She would never say, but that was her favorite part too. She also liked how time seemed to stand still and left them in a world of their own.

There were also the kisses. He’d kiss her to within an inch of her life each time they came out. She did not know kisses could feel the way his did. She’d only ever kissed two men. There was her high school boyfriend that had no clue what he was doing so he couldn’t make it enjoyable for her. Then there was Alan that was too self-centered to care if it was enjoyable for her. Jack would always stop just before she was about to lose total control.

There was no doubt in her mind that she was full-fledged in love with Jack. It still scared her too much to say the words. When he confessed his love for her, she’d just say “me too” which seemed just fine with him.

♥♥♥

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