Ron, who had forgotten to get cream for his coffee, went back to the counter. Returning to their table, he noticed the couple in a booth across the room.
“J.P., is that Jaci over there? If that’s not her, it’s her twin.”
J.P.’s head snapped around to look in the direction Ron was pointing. Sure enough it was Jaci, in deep conversation with some man. His face—his whole body—tightened as he dropped his fork and slid out of the booth.
“Now, man, don’t go over there and start nothing. You don’t know who that dude is, it could be her brother.”
“I know it’s not her doggone brother,” J.P. said as he started across the room.
“Oh darn!” Ron said as he slid into the booth. “Why didn’t I keep my mouth shut. I ain’t in no mood for fighting this morning.”
J.P. leaned over the booth and planted a proprietary kiss on Jaci’s surprised mouth, then turned to the guy, extending his hand. “Good morning, J.P. Gilmore, Jaci’s fiancé. And you are?”
“Al Michaels,” the guy answered slowly. “I’m a coworker of Jaci’s. And a homeboy too. I hope you don’t mind, I coerced Jaci into having breakfast with me this morning.”
“I can see that,” J.P. said, looking hard at Jaci. “Come on over when you finish, sweetheart. Ron and I are right across the room over there.”
Jaci didn’t say a word, just sat there with an amused look on her face.
About twenty minutes later, Jaci stood beside their booth. “Good morning, Ron, how’re you doing?” She then turned to J.P. and just looked, waiting for him to speak. When he didn’t say anything she asked, “Did you need to say something to me? I’m getting ready to leave.”
She looked cool and collected in a red V-neck shell blouse and navy blue midthigh shorts. A pair of shades sat atop her head amidst her beautiful reddish-brown hair.
J.P. stood up quickly and guided her into the booth before slipping in beside her. “I don’t have anything to say to you. The question is, do you have anything to say to me?”
“No. I don’t. Why?”
“Well, if you walked in here and saw me in an intimate conversation with a woman, wouldn’t you want an explanation?” he asked with agitation.
“No. I would just assume she was a friend or something and leave ya’ll alone.”
“You’re a liar. You would’ve been over there pouring hot coffee all over the woman.”
“Maybe. Let’s just hope we’ll never find out. It may not be the woman getting the hot coffee.”
Ron choked on his coffee and started laughing. “I like your style, Sis. If you ever decide to dump this guy for a real man, give me a call.”
“In your dreams. Now butt out,” J.P. told him.
“Let me out, honey,” Jaci said. “I need to go. I’ve got lots of things to do today.”
“Like what?”
“Going shopping with C.J. for wedding stuff. And I promised to babysit for Randi tonight.”
“And where do you plan to fit me in?”
“Oh, come on! We talked about this yesterday, when we spent the entire day together. I told you then I was going to be running all day today.”
“You didn’t tell me you were having breakfast with another man.”
“I didn’t know it then. Al just called this morning. What is this anyway? The third degree? He is such a big baby,” Jaci said to Ron.
J.P. shot an irritated look at her and stood. “Ready, Ron?” Jaci slid out of the booth behind him and they started toward the door, Ron following close behind.
When they got to Jaci’s Jeep, J.P. said to Ron, “See you later, man.”
Jaci looked at him in surprise. “What are you doing? I told you, I have things to do.”
“Is it asking too much for you to drive your fiancé home?”
“Yes. I didn’t bring you here.”
“Well, you’re taking me home. Let’s go.”
“Jaa . . . son!” she said in exasperation.
“Well, we won’t have this problem after we get married. I’ll probably be pushing you out the door. Oh no. Wait a minute. Not to go meeting some other man.”
Jaci laughed. “You can’t have it both ways, babe. And you keep acting this way, we might never get married.”
He looked at her with a frown. “Don’t even think about it. Come on.” He took her keys, opened the passenger door of the truck, and motioned for her to get in. Then he went around and got behind the wheel.
“I’m not going in,” Jaci said as they pulled up in front of his house. “I’ll be late getting to C.J.’s.”
“Call her and tell her you’ll be late then. We need to talk.”
“Talk about what?”
He walked around the truck and opened her door. “Come on in for a few minutes.” Jaci groaned as she reluctantly climbed out of the truck. They entered the house and sat down at the kitchen table. He went to the refrigerator to retrieve two bottles of water.
“Do you realize that in two weeks, you’ll be my wife?”
“Yes, I do. I guarantee you, I don’t need to be reminded. There’s so many things I have to get done between now and then that I can’t forget.”
“I’m reminding you because frankly, I think you do forget sometimes. My point is, how do you think I felt when I walked into that place this morning and found you sitting there with another man? I’ll tell you! I didn’t like it one bit. We need to come to some kind of understanding.”
Jaci heard a tinge of anger in Jason’s voice and knew he was upset. She honestly hadn’t thought about her upcoming marriage when she agreed to meet Al. She suddenly realized she had a lot of adjustments to make in her thinking. Everything would have to be considered in a different light. She was about to become somebody’s wife. “Jason. I’m sorry, honey. I didn’t even think about it in those terms.” She spoke softly. “But don’t you trust me?”
“Yeah. I trust you. But I think you’re too naïve sometimes. I don’t know what kind of bull that guy was laying on you, but from the way he was looking at you, I’d say it was all about you . . . and him!”
“Aha! You’re jealous! That’s what this is all about.”
“Doggone right, I’m jealous! I know what I have, sweetheart.”
“Jason,” she sighed impatiently. “I think the fact that I’ve lived all these years without even a serious prospect for marriage should tell you something. Think about it. Remember our first serious conversation? What did I tell you then? I don’t play games, and contrary to what you think, I can easily tell when someone is trying to run a game on me. There was nothing like that going on with Al. He just likes to talk to me when he’s having woman problems. I love you. I wouldn’t do anything to hurt you or destroy what we have between us. Trust works both ways, honey. You know how I’ve had to struggle with the trust issue. Because I know if we don’t trust each other, it’s over before it even begins, and we may as well call everything off right now.”
“We’re not calling off anything. But . . . Okay, so I let jealousy kind of cloud my vision. I do trust you, sweetheart. But that’s not to say I appreciate seeing you out with another man. I’m never going to like that. And like I said before, you’re too naïve. Remember, I told you Maxie was going to try something when you went to Dallas. But you didn’t believe me, did you? I know how men think, sweetheart. ’Cause I’m one.”
Jaci smiled. “Yeah, you did. But I handled it, just like I said I would. And if you think I’ll appreciate seeing you in the company of some other woman, you should think again. But realistically, it’s something we’re both going to have to deal with. We both work with the public and interact regularly with the opposite sex. I guess we need to set some ground rules and agree on what’s acceptable and unacceptable. I’m not going to be nothing nice if you ever step outside the boundaries, I’m telling you that right now. And I know the same applies to you.”
Jason grinned as he grabbed her hands, squeezing them. “You better believe it.”
Jaci looked do
wn at their entwined fingers, thinking now was as good a time as any to approach her job situation with him. Jason kept putting her off, but she had already kept Ed Shannon waiting too long for her answer. “Jason, while we’re having this talk to settle some things, we need to talk about my job. I have to give Ed Shannon an answer on his offer.”
“Dang! I was hoping you would decide to turn it down, honey. You know I want you working with me. In fact, I need you. Have you even given that any thought?”
Jaci pulled away from him and drew a deep breath. “Yes, I have. And to be honest, beyond practical considerations, there are some other issues involved in this for me. The primary one being my need for independence. I . . .” Before she could continue, Jason jumped up and walked across the room to look out of the window, agitatedly running his hand through his hair.
“Here we go again with this blasted independence thing! Don’t you realize you’re going to be my wife and as such, under my care and protection? I take my responsibility toward you seriously. If you want to work, then like I said, work for me and I’ll pay you. And you can do whatever you want to with your money, because I’ll take care of your needs and wants. Now any other woman would be standing on her doggone head to have something like this. Why the heck can’t you accept it?” His voice escalated several decibels as he spoke.
Jaci’s head was lowered and she was almost in tears. “Don’t yell at me!” she said quietly. “Surely, we can discuss this calmly and reasonably. We already know we have differing opinions on this issue. If we can’t talk without yelling at each other, then I don’t know how we’re ever going to resolve anything.”
“Okay. Okay. You’re right. I’m sorry, but when I get emotional, my voice tends to go up. I’m just having difficulty understanding. Sweetheart, don’t you trust me to take care of you? To treat you right? I’m not trying to make you so dependent on me that you won’t have any freedom. Don’t you know that?”
“No, Jason, I don’t. Maybe it’s because of all my years of struggle with no one to depend on but myself. But what I see is your desire to control. And I can’t give you that right now. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to. It has nothing to do with my love for you. I guess it’s all about my own insecurities. We went over this in our counseling sessions and you said you could handle that. Now what’s it going to be? Either you can or you can’t.”
He grabbed her hand again and began rubbing his thumb over the back of it. “Do I have to? Baby, you’re messing with my pride here. As your husband I need to be everything to you.”
“You can’t be everything to me. If I were younger and not used to taking care of myself, then maybe I would be standing on my head and clicking my heels together. But that’s not the case. I promise you, as my husband, you’ll be honored as the head of our household and I’ll do everything in my power to make you feel like a king. You’re the love of my life, and if this wasn’t such an important issue for me, I wouldn’t fight you on it. But . . . as it stands, I would like to accept that position and work in it at least until I reach twenty-five years of service. That’s not a long time. But I don’t want to do so if you don’t agree. We need to settle this one way or another.”
He gave her an intense look. “I love you, you know that?” At her nod, he continued. “I’ve made my position clear. You know what I’d prefer, but I’m not unreasonable or selfish. If it’s that important to you, I can’t ask you not to accept that position. But let me say this, you do so with it clearly understood by you and everybody else that it’ll just be for the time it takes you to make twenty-five years, and that the job will not ever come before your husband, and under no circumstances do I want you going into those dangerous buildings anymore. Do you know how many nightmares I’ve had about that? If you agree with those stipulations, I’ll go along with it, unhappily.”
“Okay, understood. Now. Is this matter closed? I mean you’re not going to be bringing it up every time we get into a fight are you?”
He shook his head slowly. “Naw. I won’t do that.”
She jumped into his arms and hugged him tightly. “Thanks, baby, you won’t be sorry. Now are we straight? I have so much to do. I need to go.”
“I don’t promise not to be sorry, but yeah, sweetheart, we’re straight.” He hugged her close and kissed her tenderly. “I’ll be so glad when you don’t have to leave me.”
Jaci
The next two weeks passed in a frenzy of activity, leaving Jaci exhausted to the point of collapsing. She worked almost around the clock tying up loose ends for the wedding, packing and securing storage for the belongings and furniture she wouldn’t be taking, and moving things she was taking to Jason’s house and getting settled in. She had talked to Ed Shannon and set things up to start her new position after her wedding and honeymoon. But she was trying to get as much as possible squared away so she wouldn’t be too swamped when she returned.
On the week of the wedding relatives began to arrive, and she had to deal with those who refused to stay in the hotel rooms she had reserved, preferring instead to stay at her house. She tried to discourage this since she didn’t have time to play hostess. But some, like her parents and a few others, insisted, because they wanted to be near her and in the mix of things, believing they would be able to help her. Her cousins Nita and Gina were the exceptions. She welcomed their presence and their help since they understood what needed to be done and went about doing it. Although the plan had been for them to stay with Jaci, with the convening of so many other houseguests, they decided to spend their nights with C.J.
She’d had little quality time with Jason, who was also extremely busy. By the time the rehearsal dinner rolled around, Jaci was almost asleep on her feet. She just wanted everything to be over.
Her wedding day began with overcast skies and the threat of rain. Jaci’s heart sank when she saw the clouds. Houston had a reputation for sudden storms, accompanied by torrential rains and widespread flooding. If that happened, she knew people would be unable to attend. She prayed for sunshine as she went through the rituals—getting her hair and nails done, taking care of final details, dealing with the constantly ringing telephone.
By noon, the Lord answered her prayer. The clouds moved on, leaving a blue cloudless sky and moderate temperatures. It was a perfect day for a wedding. But Jaci was petrified!
The air in the small room set aside as the bride’s dressing room was nonexistent, and the tormenting doubts and fears had affected her so badly that Jaci’s shaky legs refused to support her any longer. The one conclusion she had come to was that she loved Jason. She made it to a chair and was about to sit down when she heard Sister Sadie yelling from across the room. “Don’t even think about sitting down. You’ll ruin your dress.” Jaci sighed heavily and grabbed the back of the chair. “I’m so nervous, I’m about to fall. Is everything ready? Oh Lord, I’m really stressing, Sister Sadie.”
“Jaci! Everybody’s here and ready. Everyth—” A knock on the door interrupted her, and Sadie hurried across the room to answer it. One of the hostesses stood there smiling. “Jason sent this to Jaci,” she said, handing Sadie a long-stem rose and a small envelope. Sadie walked back and handed Jaci the items.
“Here. This is from Jason. Maybe it will help settle you down.”
Jaci looked at the rose and the envelope. Fear gripped her again. “What if he’s telling me he’s changed his mind?” She took a deep strengthening breath. “Oh well, better to find out now than when I’m walking down the aisle.” She tore open the envelope and pulled out the folded note. Tears quickly flooded her eyes as she read:
Sweetheart.
We’re almost there and I can’t wait to meet you at the altar. In just a little while we will become husband and wife. P.S. Don’t be nervous. It will all be over in a few hours. I love you.
‘J.’
Seeing the tears in Jaci’s eyes caused alarm for Sadie. She grabbed one of Jaci’s hands. “What’s wrong, baby? Is everything all right?” Jaci handed h
er the note.
“Now ya’ll about to get me to crying,” Sadie said as she read it and handed it back to Jaci. She turned and walked into the adjoining room, clapping her hands to get attention. “Okay, bridesmaids. Let’s get you lined up and ready.” She ushered them from the room.
Sadie reentered the room a few minutes later. “Things are going beautifully,” she joyfully announced.
“Randi! We need to get you into place.” Randi ran to give her mother a quick hug and followed one of the other coordinators out of the room.
“Baby, your moment is almost here.” Sadie stood back, looking at her from head to toe. “You look absolutely beautiful, honey. I am so proud of you. Now let me say something to you. I know you’re nervous, but remember this is your hour. You can’t do anything wrong today. So walk proud, girl. Walk in the strength and power of the Lord!”
“I just pray I’m doing the right thing. I guess I’m just having some last-minute jitters.”
“You are, and that’s normal. But you know yourself well enough to know you said yes because you can’t stand to see Jason in misery.” They both laughed and Sadie Brooks drew a relieved breath.
“It’s been a long journey to this moment, Sister Sadie,” Jaci said softly, thinking reflectively back over her life.
“I know what a long journey it’s been, honey.” Sadie took Jaci’s hands into hers and squeezed them tightly. “But here you are! Jaci, I’m going to talk to you like a mother, ’cause that’s what I consider myself. God has sent you a good, handsome, wonderful man. Focus on God’s grace and goodness that brought you to this point. And honey, you have to accept this great gift God has given you. Don’t question it or try to figure out why He’s doing it or why it’s taken so long. In order to move beyond the years of trouble and struggle and into this new life, you have to accept His good and perfect gift, and His perfect timing for bringing it to you. Now come on, let’s get you into place.” She hesitated. “Baby, I just wish you had agreed to let your father or someone escort you. So many wanted to, you know that. They considered it an honor.”
Seasons Page 30