Love Everlasting

by Jerrica Knight-Catania

  Love Everlasting

  A Collection of Short Love Stories

  Smashwords Edition

  Jerrica Knight-Catania

  Jane Charles

  Aileen Fish

  ***

  This book is a work of fiction.

  Names, characters, locations and events are either a product of the

  author’s imagination, fictitious or used fictitiously.

  Any resemblance to any event, locale or person,

  living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Love Everlasting, Smashwords Edition

  Copyright 2012 by Jerrica Knight-Catania, Aileen Fish, Jane Charles

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or part in any format.

  Cover design by Jerrica Knight-Catania

  ***

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Passings in the Night

  Aileen Fish

  Epoch

  Jane Charles

  Spring Cleaning

  Jerrica Knight-Catania

  End to a Tradition

  Jane Charles

  Some Like it Hot

  Jerrica Knight-Catania

  The CPA’s Secret

  Jane Charles

  A Grand Beginning

  Aileen Fish

  ***

  Passings in the Night

  Aileen Fish

  The hours between two and four a.m. were the longest on the clock. Every dark, painful memory stashed in the deepest corner of my brain tiptoed into the quiet night and said, “Hey,” like one of Scrooge’s bedmates.

  I hated this part of my shift at the truck stop the most, and tonight, Friday, was twice as bad. Not only had all the truck drivers made it home for the weekend, but never really got over the myth that any single girl worth her weight in Ben & Jerry’s had a date on Friday night.

  To top it all off, it was raining.

  Although I fought desperately not to go there, I remembered another rainy night ten years ago. It had always rained the nights Rick and I fought…or was it the other way around? The result was the same—a black eye, some bruised ribs and a case of pneumonia from the four mile walk in the rain to Pete and Sue’s place for refuge.

  “Stop this”, I muttered under my breath. I swore the harder I shoved some memories away, the more likely they were to wander into a graveyard shift.

  Shaking off my dismal thoughts, I chuckled and went back to dusting the corners of the countertop with a feather duster. How appropriate, skeletons creeping out of the closet on graveyard shift. Tonight was the last night they could do so, however. My apartment was boxed up, furniture donated to a local thrift store, and tomorrow, after a few hours sleep, I was all set to move.

  “Fill up on pump thirteen.” Bruce’s voice crackled over the two-way radio. Bruce had it the worst, stuck outside in the “doghouse” between the fuel pumps. Wet or dry, he had to service the trucks that pulled in for fuel.

  I hit the switch that turned on pump thirteen, grateful for the warm draft of heated air swirling around my ankles. The downpour blurred the window, making it impossible to read the company name on the side of the trailer, so I waited for Bruce to give me the information.

  Static over the radio announced him. “Company name, Brothers’ Leasing. Truck number, 241…”

  I typed the information into the computer. The company name rang a bell, although it was not one of their regular accounts. As I punched a series of buttons to bring up an hourly report, it came to me. My best friend Sue’s brother had worked for Brothers’ Leasing after he dropped out of college.

  It wasn’t really a surprise to see a B.L. truck here, although they were a small company. Sue’s brother’s loads had taken him cross-country, much farther than the four hundred, or so, miles I put between myself and Woodland, my hometown. I refused to call it “running away.” The words “starting over” had a much nicer ring.

  Here in Springfield, no one knew about my abusive ex-husband. No one knew about the miscarriages. The nervous breakdown. The suicide attempt. It was easier to make a new life without the constant apologies for the old.

  A great vacuum sucked at my eardrums as a driver pulled open the glass door from outside. He stomped his feet on the doormat and shook himself before he took off his khaki-colored poncho. I couldn’t suppress the sigh that slipped past my lips.

  This one rang of “Hi, honey, I’m home.” Nice to look at. Brown hair pulled back into a small tail. His closely trimmed beard seemed right out of a movie about knights and chivalry. Pale, pale blue eyes—warm though, not icy. His navy blue T-shirt sleeves were rolled up to emphasize biceps, which were as lean and hard as the rest of him. Yes, this one would definitely be a keeper.

  As if he’d ever consider a woman like me.

  My cheeks grew warm and I lowered my gaze to the computer monitor. I shouldn’t even be window shopping, since I didn’t plan on buying anytime soon. If ever. The driver turned down the hallway leading to the drivers’ lounge and restrooms and walked away.

  Another sigh. His jeans were as tight as his abs, showing off the finest butt I’d ever seen on a man who sat for a living. It didn’t hurt to look, did it?

  Not much later, the driver approached the fuel desk and stopped at my station. As I processed his fuel purchase, I made small talk. “Are you out of Woodland?”

  “Yeah, you know the town?”

  I nodded. “Grew up there.” A wave of homesickness battled with the desire to escape my past.

  The driver grinned. “Hey, no kidding, which high school?”

  I studied him again. “West.” It seemed I should know this man, but that was silly. So far from home, in years, too, why would I run into anyone, now?

  “Oh, I went to North. Class of ‘96!” he cheered mockingly, doing a fist pump in the air.

  “Me, too.” Something about him tugged at my brain. His face was as familiar as the bit-part actor whose name I could never remember. Had we known each other in spite of living in different parts of town? “Which junior high did you go to?”

  “Roosevelt.”

  “I thought so.” My words escaped barely above a whisper, as if I dared not break the spell of the handsome stranger, who wasn’t so strange, actually talking to me.

  His frown didn’t mar that Arthurian knight look one iota. “What is your name?”

  “Chrissy Hines.”

  He shook his head, looking slightly disappointed.

  “Yours?”

  “Jake Hunter.”

  “I thought so.” Another whisper.

  “I can’t remember…”

  I laughed, then realized he wouldn’t see the humor in the thought of him remembering the kid I had been. “It’s okay. I don’t think you ever knew my name. I was in that group you ate lunch with, at McDonalds, everyday. We all smoked and acted cool. I wore a headband all the time, with little peace signs all over it.”

  Jake continued to frown in thought.

  “The only ones who knew my name were April, Debbie and Libbet. Everyone else kind of ignored me.” Except you. You were always nice to me. But he’d never asked my name. None of them had. I’d lived on the fringe of acceptance all my years of schooling.

  “I’m sorry, Chrissy. I wish I could say I remembered you.”

  “I was a thirteen year old bundle of hormones. I could name all the cute guys more easily than remember my own address.”

  He laughed. “Well, Chrissy, it’s great to meet you at last.” With his goodbye, and another vacuum draw of air, he walked out into the stormy night.

  As I watched him leave, the image of his smile warmed me deep inside. Grabbing my coffee mug, I crossed the store into the coffee shop and sat down at the counter.

&nbs
p; The waitress, Rose, brought over the freshest pot of coffee and filled my mug. “Anything to eat?”

  “No thanks, this is fine.” I sipped a bit, staring ahead at the mirrored wall behind the soft drink dispenser. “You know, it’s funny.”

  “What’s that?”

  “This driver just came in. Fine to look at. Turns out, we grew up in the same town.”

  “Did he recognize you?” Rose set down the coffee pot and came back to stand opposite me.

  “No, but I’m not surprised.” I filled Rose in on junior high and Chrissy Hines. How, in elementary school I’d been popular, friends with all the popular kids. Then summer passed and I was allowed to hang around with the same crowd, but was no longer a part of it.

  That had hurt, of course. Thus began the first of many Friday night crying sessions. I’m still the same person! Why don’t they like me any more? Yet, my girlfriends, April, Debbie and Libbet had the guts to say to the bullies, “She’s with us.”

  And, obviously, time passed and I’d gone on to high school, where I faced a whole new set of friends and strangers, a whole new set of romances and rejections.

  I survived that, too. Then married too soon and divorced too late. Another survival, even if the scars were more obvious, some actually physical markings on my back.

  I paused, sipping my coffee. “Do you know what, Rose? I think that truck driver did more for me than the last ten years of therapy.”

  “But, I thought he didn’t know you.”

  “He didn’t. And it didn’t matter. That’s the key! Once I would have been crushed, taken a direct blow to the ego, even though I doubt Jake Hunter had ever heard my name. But I finally know it doesn’t change who I am. The fact I didn’t make a big enough splash in somebody’s pond doesn’t mean I’m nobody.”

  Smiling, I set down my mug. “It could just mean I was too busy shoveling the muck out of my own water hole, getting it ready for the big splash I’ll make on my own, just as soon as I’m ready.”

  And I suddenly knew I was reaching the end of the shoveling. Maybe it was time to start practicing my swan dive.

  Or, perhaps, a cannonball.

  *

  The next three months passed quickly as I settled into my new job in Woodland. Accounting was dull work but the numbers kept my mind busy so I could focus on the present. I was surprised at how often Jake came into my thoughts. Part of me hoped I might stumble across him at the grocery store or gas station. I knew he was just a figurehead to me, a representation of the perfect man. But every moment spent thinking of him kept me from noticing the men around me, who could turn out to be just as wonderful.

  My new apartment was slowly taking on the feel of home, which seemed odd because for most of my life, Woodland had been my home. I tried to explain it to Sue one day when we had lunch together. “I feel like a stranger even when I’m with my family.”

  Sue waited for the waiter to refresh the water in their glasses and move on to the next table. “You aren’t the same person who left here.”

  “I guess I’m not.”

  “You’re stronger, you don’t put up with the crap they used to give you.” She smiled. “You were always too nice to everyone.”

  “I didn’t want anyone to hate me.”

  “But they couldn’t get to know the real you because you kept her padded with bubble wrap. Now you seem to trust others to treat you kindly.”

  I supposed that was true. I knew what I wanted in life, finally, and trusted the world not to keep me from getting it. Or trusted my judgment more in keeping the riffraff away.

  I lifted a scoop of my sundae toward my mouth and caught a drip of fudge on my tongue. As I savored the rich taste, a deep voice spoke from beside our table.

  “Chrissy? It’s Chrissy Hines, right?”

  Jake Hunter stood two feet away from me, as sexy and kissable as he appeared in the fantasies I’d never admit to having since he’d passed through the truck stop that night.

  I choked down the ice cream in my mouth. “Hi, Jake. What a surprise to run into you.”

  “Are you in town long?”

  Nodding, I said, “I moved back right after I saw you.” Oh, Lord. I prayed that didn’t sound like I’d moved here because of seeing him.

  “That’s great. Your family must be glad to have you close again.”

  I simply smiled. I wasn’t about to get into the drama that was my family. I wracked my brain in search of conversation that didn’t involve truck driving. I hadn’t dated in ten years and had no idea what to say to a good looking man.

  That train of thought proved how lame I was at people skills. It wasn’t as if Jake had asked me out. He’d just said hello. “I’ve enjoyed catching up with a few old friends.”

  “Oh, speaking of which, I’m having a barbecue on Saturday. I’ve kept in touch with a few of the crowd from Roosevelt, so you might know some people. I’d love to have you come.” He reached for his wallet and pulled out a business card, which he handed to me. “Give me a call and I’ll give you my address.”

  I willed my hand not to shake as I took the card. “That sounds fun, thanks.”

  He looked at Sue. “You’re welcome to come, too. Any time after five. Bring your suits if you want to swim. I’ll see you then.”

  Jake flashed that warm grin once more and left. I didn’t realize I was watching his tight jeans until Sue spoke.

  “Who was that?”

  “That was the one and only Jake Hunter.” I couldn’t claim to have had a crush on him in junior high, when he hadn’t reigned in my dreams any longer than any of the other cute guys, but he had always seemed more approachable than the rest. I just never tested the approach, I guessed.

  After telling Sue how I had run into Jake at the truck stop, I asked, “Do you and Pete want to go?”

  “It sounds like fun. We’ll probably know some people there.”

  I carried that thought through the week as I tried to decide what to wear. Was I strong enough to face some of the old crowd? What would people think when they saw me?

  Standing in front of the closet I made a decision. They would see the new me. A haircut was in order, and maybe I’d add highlights. Buy a new sundress, and some flirty sandals with heels. My twenty-year high school reunion was still two years away, but I imagined what I felt was pretty close to the same set of emotions.

  Sue did a double-take when she and Pete picked me up. I hadn’t told her my plans since I didn’t want her to think I was making a big deal out of the night. I didn’t think Jake planned to ask me out, but there was always a chance I might meet someone.

  And I finally felt ready to meet someone.

  Jake answered the door when I rang the bell. His tropical print shirt hung open over long shorts and I had to keep my teeth clenched to prevent my jaw from dropping. His abs were even more developed than I had imagined. There was no chance in hell he’d ever be interested in me. I wasn’t really overweight, but walking was the only exercise I got, so I was far from toned.

  “Chrissy, you made it. I’m glad you came.” He pulled the door wider, taking the bottle of wine I handed him.

  I motioned to my friends. “Jake Hunter, this is Pete and Sue Maxwell.”

  Pete and Jake shook hands. Jake waved us deeper into the house. “Everyone is in the game room or out back. There are drinks on ice on the patio, and the meat is grilling as we speak.”

  I began to follow Pete and Sue but was slowed by Jake’s hand on my back. “You look amazing.”

  “Back at you.” Wow, I sounded stupid.

  “I really am glad you came, Chrissy.” His voice had a smooth quality like whiskey warming my insides.

  “I’m glad for the chance to make some new friends. Or refresh some old ones, as the case may be.”

  “I hope I fall into the new friend category. I would hate to think you’d hold anything I did in junior high against me.”

  I searched his eyes to see if he teased, but saw only sincerity in the liquid blue. “Yo
u were never mean to me.” That sounded a bit maudlin, so I cracked a grin. “You have nothing to atone for.”

  His gaze rested on my lips for a long moment before he returned the smile. “That’s good. I need to make sure the food is being set out, but I hope you’ll have some time to talk with me later.”

  While he walked into the kitchen, I searched for Sue and Pete and found them on the patio. The evening was warm but not humid, and bugs weren’t yet a nuisance. Pete introduced me to a coworker of his, a sweet looking guy around our age. I found myself checking out his ring finger when he lifted his beer bottle to his lips. The sight of a bare finger didn’t stir any emotion in me. Still, he was interesting to talk to.

  Jake set a full platter on the table where the buffet had been laid out, then came over to us. “The meat’s done. Burgers, bratwurst and chicken, take your pick.”

  “Sounds great,” Pete said as he turned and led the way.

  Jake’s hand on my shoulder held me back. “I have to make sure everyone knows the food is ready. Save me the seat next to you, will you?”

  Small tables were set up throughout the large backyard, and the three of us picked an empty one. I nibbled at my salads until Jake joined us.

  “Oh, good, you get to eat while the food is still hot, I said, unable to keep the smile from my face as he settled into the seat next to me.”

  “Yeah, I rarely have to use the microwave when I throw a party. Everybody serves themselves pretty quickly.”

  “Jake, Chrissy tells us you two knew each other in junior high,” Sue said.

  I almost choked on my food. “No, I said we went to the same school. We ran in different circles.”

  Jake took a drink from his beer. “I thought we ran in the same circle. That group was large. I honestly can only recall six or seven names.”

  I nodded and explained to Sue and Pete, “There were maybe a dozen kids who were central, and a dozen more who kind of circled around them wanting to be a part.”

  “It’s a good thing we left all that behind.”

  Throwing what I hoped was a casual glance beside me, I caught Jake watching me. I wondered what he was thinking. I worried he was being nice to me out of guilt. But he didn’t have anything to feel guilty about. I smiled at him. “Yes, it’s way in the past.”