“It’s very nice to meet you, Keith. You from the Salem area?” Keith had a light accent that I couldn’t place until he told me he was originally from Boston before joining the army, where he had met Daniel. Conversation flowed without pause and I found myself enjoying the evening. The food was delicious and I wasn’t the least bit shy about asking for a second helping of Mrs. Wright’s homemade apple crumb pie. The woman made her own vanilla bean ice cream, for heaven’s sake.
“So, has my thick headed son asked you to the barn dance tomorrow night yet?” Pastor Wright sat next to his wife on a double seated rocker out on the front porch. I was sitting in a rocker next to Matt while Hunter was lounging on the steps of the porch. Daniel and Keith had already left to go back to their place because they had an early morning on the following day. Matt groaned beside me and Hunter chuckled from his spot on the steps.
“What?” His dad asked with a wicked gleam in his eye. Now I knew where Matt got that look from.
“There’s going to be dancing, pie eatin’ contests, and a bake off. Should be a lot of fun, just about the whole town will be there.” Mrs. Wright sat back and snuggled into her husband’s side and sighed. “I do love a southern barn dance.” I grinned up into Matt’s laughing eyes and raised a brow.
“I was going to ask you … later.” Matt shot over at his dad.
“Well, in that case, I’d love to … oh.” Jen. I couldn’t leave her alone now, not when I knew how much she was going through. I shouldn’t be off leaving her at home by herself at night again.
“What is it?” Matt asked, his forehead furrowed in concern.
“It’s Jen … I really can’t leave her alone all night again.” I gave him a regretful smile and shrugged. I really did want to enter that baking contest. There would always be time to have fun, though … once I took care of Jen.
“Why can’t Hunter take Jen?” Mrs. Wright commented sweetly. “She could use a little fun, the poor sweetheart.” I glanced over at Hunter who had a look of utter shock and mortification on his face that his mother was actually playing match maker. His mouth hung open for a while before he gathered himself enough to snap it closed.
“I don’t need anyone to get a date for me,” he gritted out.
“I wasn’t trying to get you a date …” she sputtered.
“I’m perfectly capable of getting my own date …” he muttered
“I was just saying that she’s far too pretty and young to stay at home. And you could get out a little more too. You don’t think she’s pretty?”
“Of course I think she’s pretty,” he snapped.
“And you’re not doing anything tomorrow are you?” She shrugged her shoulder and I hid a smile. Matt was full out grinning next to me, enjoying his brother’s discomfort.
“No, I’m not doing anything tomorrow, but…”
“So if you think she’s pretty and aren’t doing anything anyway, I guess it would make perfect sense for you two to go together.” Mrs. Wright waved a hand as if that settled the matter.
“Well … I guess I wouldn’t mind getting out of the house for few hours,” Hunter replied with a scowl. His mom gave me a knowing wink.
“It’s settled then, Beth will break the news to Jen tonight and we’ll all go together tomorrow night.” Matt paused for a second. “Would you care to make a friendly wager around the pie eating contest?” I groaned when Matt, Hunter, and his dad all argued how they would be the winners this year. Evidently it was a pretty big thing to win the title of Salem’s Pie Pig. Who knew?
A profound weight had been lifted off of my heart by the time we left the Wright home. I guess stereotyping can go both ways. Did that mean I would be comfortable going to church and hearing hour long sermons? Absolutely not. But at least I could feel more comfortable around Matt and his family—and that’s all that was really important to me right then.
“Hey, where are you right now?” Matt asked from beside me.
“Just thinking about how much I enjoyed time with your family tonight.” Mrs. Wright was something else. I smiled as I recalled how she managed to get Hunter to do what she wanted without him ever realizing it. She had mad momma skills. “I’m also wondering if I should be concerned that you carry around an inflatable bed for your truck.” Matt brought our intertwined hands up and kissed the back of my knuckles, raising little goose bumps along my arm as he did. My eyes left the beautiful starry sky we were lying under in the back of his truck bed to find Matt gazing fixedly at me. My breath caught in my chest and I reached up to push a wayward lock of his hair off of his forehead.
“I’ve never taken a girl out like this before, sweetheart. You’re the only girl I’ve ever wanted to sleep under the starry night sky with. You make the stars shine a little bit brighter and the night bloomin’ jasmine smell a little bit sweeter.” My heart fluttered wildly at his words. No man had ever said such beautiful things to me before and I knew no man ever would again. Matt was one of a kind and every time we were together I fell a little more in love with him. I leaned over and kissed him gently, savoring the feel of his lips against mine, the complicated woodsy scent of him, and the way his arms held me gently as if he were touching the most precious thing on earth.
“I’ve never wanted anything as much as I do right now.” I murmured against his lips. “I’ve never felt more alive than I do when you’re touching me, Matt.” I melted into him as his mouth crashed down on mine, his lips soaking up my confession and his body showing me exactly how he felt. No matter how many years I live, I will always remember the tiniest details of that night out in the middle of a field, miles away from another human being. How the stars twinkled just for us, like a million, tiny, flickering candles lighting the night sky. How even though the evening was cool and flowers scented the air around us, that it was Matt’s embrace that kept me warm and his scent that lingered more vividly than any flower ever could. How that as we made love to each other, the world fell away and nothing else mattered except the rise and fall of our synchronized breathing, the wildness of our hearts, beating as one, and the words I love you floating all around me, planting themselves into my heart, as Matt whispered them into my hair.
he cloud of contentment and peace when I woke up in the next morning quickly faded as soon as I got a look at the puffy, dark circles under Jen’s eyes. She was sitting on the edge of her bed, staring out into space and I could see the stress and strain of all the she had endured etched clearly onto her face.
“Jen?” I asked softly. She jumped and then shook her head gently to clear it, managing a small smile. I went in and sat cross legged on the bed beside her. I pushed a strand of her hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ear. I sighed deeply and took her hand in mine. “We’ll get through this. We’ll call today to make an appointment and then we’ll go together.” Jen sucked in a breath sharply, her eyes widened and then she released her breath with her shoulders slumping a little.
“How long have you known?” she asked, deflated.
“Since yesterday morning.”
“How?” She chewed her bottom lip.
“I found the letter in your night stand when I was searching for my ipod.” She nodded with her head still bowed, her eyes on her lap.
“I’m sorry. I should have told you, I just couldn’t think about it right then, not with my mom ….” She stopped as her voice broke and cleared her throat.
“I know. It’s okay. I’m here and now that I know, you don’t need to keep so much on your shoulders. Let me help, let me be the person you yell at, cry on, or whatever you need. You’re strong and no matter what, you’re going to be okay. You have to be.” Jen sighed deeply again before leaning over and laying her head on my shoulder. I smoothed my hand over her head and kept saying all the things I knew she needed to hear, all the things I needed to hear, and all the things I hoped with all my heart would turn out to be true.
When we went down stairs, Jen called for an appointment and they said they wanted to see her the n
ext day. I tried not to think about that and about her mom dying of cancer. What were Jen’s odds of having it? I didn’t know and I really didn’t want to. I just couldn’t.
“So, tomorrow is a long way away when you have something coming you don’t want to think about,” I said conversationally as we ate our Chunky Monkey ice cream, which we’d decided was perfect for breakfast that morning.
“It is. We should do something. Movie?” She dug out what was left of her ice cream and licked her spoon.
“I actually have something planned,” I said, my eyes still on my ice cream.
“Oh no,” Jen groaned.
“What?” I asked around a spoonful of what could aptly be described as heaven.
“You had that tone.” I raised a brow and Jen rolled her eyes. “You know … that one where you have an idea and I ended up knee deep in some kinda trouble.” I smirked and pointed my now-empty-spoon at her.
“I’ll have you know it wasn’t entirely my idea.” It was Jen’s turn to lift her brow.
“Oh really? Pray tell, what exactly is your idea and whom have you been conspiring with?” Jen crossed her arms over her chest and I beamed at her.
“Conspire is such a nasty word.” I complained. Jen signaled for me to get on with it.
“Matt is taking me to the barn dance tonight.” Jen’s face fell. “And Hunter is taking you.” Jen gasped and vaulted out of her chair.
“You set me up on a double date?” she yelped. I flinched.
“It was Hunter’s mom too,” I pouted. Jen gasped and collapsed back down into her chair.
“Oh this just keeps getting better and better. I went from my best friend setting me up with her boyfriends’ brother, to a guy’s mother setting me up with her son.” Jen plunked her head down on the table in front of her. “I’m pathetic.” I began laughing until Jen threatened to tell all my dirty little childhood secrets to Matt.
“It’s not as bad as all that … he said you’re pretty.” I smiled when her eyes grew thoughtful.
“Did he now?” she asked softly. “Well, it really doesn’t matter. He’s definitely not my type and it’s obvious that this is a pity date, so I won’t worry about it. You better realize how much I love you, I’d have killed anyone else for this.” Her eyes narrowed and I kept my grin in check … barely.
“So, what are we entering in the baking contest?” I asked. I rubbed my hands together in anticipation. Two things I adored—baking and a good, healthy competition. Jen laughed as she got out her mom’s hand written cookbook.
“You’re going to be nice if you lose, right?” I put a hand on my chest and gave her the most innocent look I could muster. She laughed even harder, so I’m not entirely sure I could pull off innocent.
“I promise to be a good sport.” I held up my hand in what I hoped was the boy scout salute and not some sort of gang symbol. Jen still looked unconvinced, so I shrugged and began on a first draft of my acceptance speech for the first place ribbon we’d be taking home. Jen’s laughter was a wonderful sound to my ears.
By the time we baked several batches of goodies and made huge batch of blackberry jam, the kitchen was a disaster area. But, we were too busy baking, tasting, cleaning, and laughing to take too close a look at Jen’s impending appointment the next day and that’s exactly what I wanted.
“What do you think of this one?” Jen pulled out a pretty dress and a cardigan from her closet to add to the growing pile of clothing on her bed. She was putting an awful lot of thought into an outfit for her “pity date”. I didn’t bring that little fact up though.
“It’s cute.” I said. She dropped her arms and glanced over at me.
“By cute, you mean boring?” She groaned. “I have no idea what to wear, maybe I need a change or something.” I jumped up off the floor and went over to her very over-stuffed closet.
“You’ve got tons of great things in here, you just need a fresh perspective.” I tugged the outfit out of her grasp and shooed her over to a chair. When I opened her closet door, I knew exactly what her problem was. She had everything already matched … a lot of her outfits had purses hanging from them to go the extra-matching-mile. I grimaced. She had nice stuff and I always knew she was a little bit of a perfectionist, but her closet was over the top. It screamed to be torn apart and everything jammed back in at random. Jen had issues with being random and spontaneous. She liked order, but sometimes chaos is exactly what the doctor ordered. I jerked out several outfits from the closet and unmatched them before tossing leftovers onto the bed.
“Wait. What are you doing? Those are already complete outfits.” Jen snatched a blouse out of the air before it hit the bed. I ignored her. “Why are you mismatching everything?” Jen waved the shirt at me. I put a hand on my hip to scowl over at her.
“Jennifer Collins, you need to live a little and the first step is to understand that wearing flowered panties under a striped dress is perfectly acceptable. Freeing, even.” I tossed a striped dress into the try on pile and tried to keep from smiling as Jen bounced back and forth on the balls of her feet to keep from snatching her clothes out of my hand and reorganizing them all.
When she stood in front of the mirror after several outfits had been tried on and discarded, she scrunched up her nose and I sighed. She looked amazing.
“It’s going to kill me to say this … but, I love it!” She let out a squee and hugged me tightly. She turned around to admire herself in the mirror. She wore a pink, jean skirt paired with a flowing, floral, cap-sleeved top. Over that she had on a cream colored corduroy vest. All three pieces were from different outfits in her closet, but the different textured pieces together looked trendy and yet still Jen. I glanced down at my watch. It was an hour before the guys would be picking us up. Time for me to get ready.
My outfit took a lot less time. My favorite blue jeans, an embroidered, cream colored boho blouse and my brown boots and I was ready for some country dancing and good, old fashioned, country food.
e arrived at the Peterson barn along with several other truckloads of people ready and raring for a good time. Matt helped me out of the truck and Hunter helped Jen out. The guys looked great. Matt wore jeans and boots that would make any country girl beg to cool her boots under his bed. Jen’s face had been priceless when she caught a glimpse of Hunter when he came to pick us up. He’d dressed in black jeans, a little baggier than what was “in” for a country boy, a black, Johnny Cash, Man in Black tee that was plenty tight enough to highlight ripped abs and very muscular arms. They also showed of a tattoo of a rose on his bicep that was squeezed by thorns until red drops of blood fell from it. The initials A.C. and H. W. were on either side of the rose.
We could hear the strains of country music filtering out from the huge barn, and from the sound of it, the place was going to be packed. People were still driving up too. My stomach dropped a little, I wasn’t too sure how much I wanted to run in some of the people I’d gone to school with.
“Tell me again why we can’t have a little taste of this?” Matt pulled at the lid of the casserole dish he was carrying and I smacked his hand lightly.
“Because I plan on winning a blue ribbon for that triple berry crumble and I doubt the judges would look too kindly on large spoonsful being missing from it. Matt groaned again making me laugh.
“Beth, put the poor guy out of his misery,” Jen chided. I rolled my eyes and placed my arm through Matt’s.
“I may or may not have put a second berry crumble away to share later with everyone.” Matt’s eyes glinted dangerously.
“Elizabeth Michaels, you might have just earned yourself a smack on the behind.”
“Promises, promises,” I murmured.
“Oh, gag. Get a room, guys.” Jen stuck a finger in her mouth and Hunter grumbled his agreement.
“But it’s so much more fun when you do it outdoors,” I quipped. I slapped a hand over my mouth just as Hunter broke out in a fit of bellowing laughs. Jen just stood there with her mouth hanging open, glan
cing between me and a beet red Matt, who was trying his very best to become one with the surrounding darkness. Jen gulped.
“Well, then, I’ll have to remember that,” Jen tossed over her shoulder as she began walking toward the barn again. Hunter’s laughter cut off as instantly as it had begun. His eyes darkened as he watched Jen saunter away. We caught up with Jen just outside the barn doors. People were pouring in and out and it seemed like the entire town had turned out for the shindig. I swallowed back the sliver of fear that had snaked its way into my chest and followed everyone inside.
Rock my World had my foot tapping before we ever made it over to the long table that ran down the length of a wall on the far side of the barn. I saw at least two dozen pies, cakes and other baked items sitting out on the table. I placed mine on it and received my number from an elderly woman who was about a foot shorter than me. When she spoke, though, she seemed about a foot taller than anyone else in the room. I was pretty sure she had been an army general in another life. Jen drug me away from the table so I wouldn’t evil eye all the competition.
Matt laced his fingers through mine and pulled me across the room when he spotted Pastor and Mrs. Wright talking and laughing with a large group. As we passed by a group of young women, I noticed several of them turned my way, a couple to openly stare to see who the new girl was, I assumed. But, one young woman with short, blond hair, big blue eyes, and a perfect body stopped to stare at me with contempt and hate in her eyes. I blinked in astonishment. What had I done to her? I wracked my brain trying to think of who she might be, but came up empty handed. When we reached the Wrights all thoughts of the girl flew out of my head.
“Beth, I’d love for you to meet a couple people.”
“Mrs. Wright, it’s good to see you again,” I answered. Mrs. Wright smiled widely at me and took my hand in hers.
“Please call me Anne, I don’t want to feel any older than I already do,” she reprimanded. I smiled and nodded my head. “Marge, Tilly, this is Matt’s girlfriend, Beth.” I blushed furiously, feeling like a fifth grader being introduced as Matt’s girlfriend. But it was true, wasn’t it? Things just seemed to be progressing so quickly that they sometimes took my breath away. Pastor Wright took his wife’s hand and tucked it under his arm.
Sweet Contradiction Page 8