Jack pulled back first.  He looked down at her beautiful face.  She had the same delicate features she’d had as the fifteen-year-old girl he’d know all those years before, but they had been refined and she had aged gracefully. 

“You are every bit as beautiful as you were the last time I saw you,” he said. 

She blushed, then beamed at him.  “I know it isn’t true, Jon, but thank you,” she replied.  “And you are still the same sweet, charming and adorable guy I knew in tenth grade.  You haven’t changed a bit.”  She paused a moment, “And I hope you never do.” 

The waitress walked up to the table to introduce herself and ask if they needed a minute to order.  Jack looked over at Nancy and she smiled back.  “Let me guess,” she said, “Bacon cheeseburger, medium, only ketchup and mustard, fries, extra crispy, no pickle… and a large Coke.”

Jack laughed.  “Nailed it.  And for this beautiful woman, I would guess she wants a jalapeño burger, pepperjack cheese, medium well, a small side salad and a large diet Coke.  And you might as well just put my pickle on her plate.”

She laughed… “Smitty’s didn’t have jalapeño burgers.  But they are also my favorite now.  That was pretty good, Jon.  Impressive.”

“My husband can’t order a meal for me to save his life,” the waitress joked.  “Even if we go someplace where I always order the same thing.”

“I haven’t seen him in forty years,” Nancy told the waitress.

“I’d say that you ought to keep a guy around that remembers everything you like after forty years,” she said before she winked at them and walked away. 

“Jon, I can’t tell you how nice it is to see you,” Nancy said after looking at him for a minute.  She wiped a tear from the corner of her eye.  “I don’t have words.”

“How have you been?  What have you been up to for the last four decades?” Jack asked, hoping to break the tension between them.   

He had no second thoughts about marrying Amy.  She was absolutely, without question, the love of his life.  And he loved his wife more than words could convey.  From the moment he’d met Amy Prince in fourth grade, he had never been able to shake his feelings for her.  They had a giant hiccup that kept them apart for six years, but his feelings never dimmed. 

But in sixth grade he met Nancy.  He’d seen around her before, but they ended up in the same class in school for the first time and started hanging out.  In seventh grade, she was the first girl he kissed.  She was the first girl he took to a school dance, or that he bought flowers. 

Amy was Jack’s first love, but Nancy was his first girlfriend.  And he did love her.  Had she not moved away and disappeared; he probably never would have reconnected with Amy.  As he sat across from her in the dimly lit restaurant, he knew he still had strong feelings for her. 

She looked into his eyes as her hand slipped across the table and rested on top of his.  She leaned forward and smiled.  “An entire life,” she said with smiling eyes.  “College, marriage, kids, divorced then,” she hesitated, “widowed.  I have two girls, a fairly successful gallery.  Mostly, life has been good, Jon.  How about you?”

“Close to the same, except one son, and Amy and I are still together.”

“Don’t be so modest, Jon.  You have been an amazingly successful photographer.  And I know that Amy has had a lot of success, too.”

“We’ve been blessed.  But I get the idea that you wanted to speak with me for a reason, Nancy.”

“You’re right, Jon.  Although, sitting here with you… I’ve dreamt about it for years.”  Her eyes were watery as she looked at Jack.  Tears started rolling down her cheek and she gulped back words that she’d wanted to tell him since the moment she’d last seen him. 

“I cried for a week.  I don’t know that I saw a single thing the entire drive from Virginia to California.  My family took a week, and it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say I didn’t look out of the window a dozen times.  Leaving you broke my heart.  It still does. 

“After we got settled, I sat down to write you.  I couldn’t do it.  I couldn’t put a single word on a piece of paper without bawling my eyes out.  I tried to call you, but as soon as I heard your voice I would choke up.  My mom finally told me that I couldn’t call anymore. 

“Eventually, I moved on, but I never forgot you, Jon.  I heard about you getting shot by Paul Murphy, and I almost ran away to go see you… just to know you were ok.  And then, I saved up the money to fly back to Virginia.  I’d heard you proposed to Amy, and I wanted to see you one more time before you got married… to see if there was still anything between us. 

“But I was too late.  I knew I had to move on.  So, I did… but you were always on my mind, Jon.”

“I’m sorry,” Jack said, a tear of his own slipping down his cheek. 

“Don’t be,” she said, reaching across the table to wipe away his tear.  “Jon, you and Amy were meant to be, and my husband was a wonderful man.  I am not here to try to win you back.  I need your help.”

“What do you need, Nancy?” Jack asked. 

“It’s bad, Jon.”

His father had talked him into buying a Sarge green Jeep Gladiator Rubicon, and so far, he was loving it.  It had made his dad a little crazy that he couldn’t leave it stock, but the old man had also been willing to hang out with him as Jack and his son installed the lift and a few other accessories.  He’d even told him that the Jeep looked good when he was done. 

Thinking about his dad made him a little wistful.  As Jack had been sweating and cussing under his Jeep, working with his son, Ed had chosen to flop out a camp chair and spectate.  In no way was Jack upset that Ed was watching instead of wrenching.  The man deserved to sit back and relax.  He had turned eighty-one a few months before.  And while Ed was a hale and hearty eighty-one, that was still a lot of candles on his cake to be sliding around on a cold concrete floor. 

For his whole life, Ed Dixon had been a rock.  He’d been Special Forces, and among the most elite of the elite.  He’d survived being shot, running head-on into a van on purpose, and too many things for Jack to count… and those were just the things he knew about.  So much of his father’s life had been a classified mystery.

But the reality was that his dad was slowing down.  His mind was still as sharp as ever, but his father had become something he’d never thought to associate with his old man.  Fragile. 

On the other hand, he knew how lucky he was.  Jack had lunch with his dad almost every week.  Just the two of them.  Where wasn’t important… it could be sitting at a picnic table with a couple of burgers from Smitty’s or sitting at the marina watching the boats come and go as they enjoyed fresh lobster, or more lately because of the pandemic, sitting on his deck overlooking the Chesapeake Bay while they ate homemade sandwiches.  What they talked about wasn’t really important, either.  Sometimes it was business, other times it was about Jack and Amy’s son, Colt.  His favorite conversations, though, involved him listening to his dad’s stories.  For the most part he’d heard them a hundred times, but every once in a while, a new detail would worm it’s way through.  But he just loved to watch his dad get excited about the old days.

Jack knew that what was important was that they both took the time to be together.  As much as he hated to face the thought, those days might be limited.  Could be a year, or it could be twenty, Jack thought, but I want to take advantage of every one of them. 

Jack’s cellphone rang, popping him out of his train of thought.  He glanced at the radio display, but it just showed the number of the caller.  That was highly unusual.  Even if they weren’t in his address book, his caller ID usually had a name.

The phone rang again. 

He could count the number of people that had his cell number.  Probably on two hands.  Even his lawyers didn’t know the number to his cell.  Wife, sister, kid, parents, wife’s parents, a few others.  He looked at the number on the screen. 

The phone rang for a third time. 

He didn’t recognize the area code.  He couldn’t place it… he knew it… but he couldn’t think of where the number originated.  Of course, now, people had numbers from all over.  Area codes meant little. 

His hand hovered over the two buttons as the phone rang for the fourth time. 

Accept.  Reject.

He didn’t like talking to people he didn’t know.  And he hated getting spam calls.  He didn’t need to renew his car’s warranty… he’d probably voided it anyway… and he knew that the calls telling him he needed to update ‘whatever’ information were scams. 

His gut said to answer the phone. 

“Hello.  This is Jack,” he said, unconsciously leaning forward.  The microphone for the hands free was near the top of the windshield, on the left. 

“Hi… Jon?” he heard the soft voice of a woman answer him through the Jeep’s stereo.  She’s hesitated, like she hadn’t expected him to answer.

He didn’t even realize he’d lifted his foot off the throttle and steered to the shoulder until he felt the rumble of the “wake-up” strips along the side of the road.  It had been forty years since he’d heard that voice, and she sounded different.  But he knew exactly who it was. 

“Jon,  is that you?  Are you there?” she said.

“Nancy?”

“You remembered.  That’s amazing,” she said.  Jack could hear the smile behind her voice.  Her image flashed into his mind.  Medium length, jet black wavy hair.  Her blue eyes were so bright that he thought they glowed.  For a moment, he could taste their last kiss, the last time he saw her or talked to her.  He could feel her tears on his chest, and her arms wrapped around him, clinging to him as she felt their last hug before she climbed into her parent’s car and disappeared from his life.  “Jon, are you ok?”

“Yeah… I’m here.  I’m fine.  How about you, Nancy?  Long time.”  A little anger crept into the back of his mind.

“It has been a long time.  Some days, though, it feels like yesterday,” she said. 

“Yeah,” Jack responded, his mind back in that day in Nineteen-eighty.  November twenty-second.  Her dad was being transferred to California. 

“Forty years, two months and seventeen days,” she said.  “But who’s counting, right?”  He heard a sadness in her voice.  It tugged at his heart, more than he expected.  Any anger he felt evaporated.

They had been together off and on… mostly on… for almost three years before she moved.  And aside from the time leading up to her move, she had almost always been full of joy.  Nancy was the girl that would laugh and dance around even when she was caught in a cloudburst.  She would look up at the sky, watching the rain zoom past her and drink it in. 

“What happened?” Jack asked, layers of meaning behind the question. 

“I tried.  I wanted to write.  I wanted to call.  I just couldn’t,” she said, her voice halting and unsure.  Jack could feel the tears rolling down her cheeks, even through the phone as she talked.  He could hear anguish in her voice.  “Every time I tried…” she trailed off.  “When I was eighteen, I flew back to Virginia.  I was looking around for you, but I found out you and Amy Prince had just gotten married.  I knew you had always loved her.  I was happy for you.”

“What prompted you to call me now?” Jack asked. 

“I need to see you, Jon.  I can get up to Virginia, but I need to talk to you in person,” she said.  He could hear desperation in her plea but had no idea why. 

“What did you need to talk with me about?”

“I can’t go into it on the phone.  I just need to see you.”

“Where are you now?” Jack asked, desperate for a subject change.  Part of him desperately wanted to see her, to look into her eyes.  The other part of him was scared to death of Nancy Jordan.  The idea of sitting down with her filling him with excitement and dread. 

“I’m in Savannah.  In Georgia.  I’ve been here about twenty years.”

“There is a little restaurant on River Street, across from the Market Place,” Jack said. 

“You mean Lizzy’s?”

“That’s the one.  Meet me there in two hours,” Jack said.  “We can have an early dinner and talk.”

“Where are you?” she asked. 

“Obviously about two hours away,” Jack laughed.  “I need to go, Nancy, but I’ll see you there, ok?”

“I can’t wait,” she said, her voice back to the velvety smooth tone he remembered.  “Bye.” 

The stereo changed back over from the call to music.  Atomic Punk by Van Halen blasted through the speakers as he pulled back onto I-95.  He passed the exit for I-26 a few minutes later. 

He tapped the screen a few times and waited for the phone to ring. 

“Hi gorgeous,” he said when Amy picked up.

“I was just thinking about you.  How’s the drive?” she said, her smile shing through the phone. 

“Good.  It’s nice to have the time just sitting here with my thoughts.”

“I missed you.  I can’t wait to see you tomorrow.  I’m looking forward to the drive down to Key West.”

“Me, too, Amy.  I just wanted to hear your voice.  I love you,” he told his wife.

“I love you, too.  And you’re so sweet, calling just to hear me.”

She hung up.  He knew that she had a big project getting ready to go out, which was part of the reason he was driving alone. 

***

The lifted Gladiator rolled through the streets in the old section of Savannah, by the river.  It wasn’t the most well-suited vehicle to a narrow, crowded area, but it handled the bumpy streets well.  Jack had tried to park in a garage at one of the hotels, but he was a couple of inches too tall to fit, so he had to find a surface lot or street parking.

After a few minutes he managed to find a spot that wasn’t too long of a walk from the restaurant.  He backed into his space and hopped out of the truck, locking it as he walked away.  He glanced at his watch.  It was almost four-thirty, a few minutes early.  He slipped on his facemask for the short stroll on the crowded sidewalk.

Walking into Lizzy’s, it was just how he remembered it.  They had a carefully curated “dive” look, but he liked the food and the atmosphere.  He walked up to the bored hostess.  

“I’m meeting someone here,” he told her.

“Sugar, you are the only one here, so I can take you to a table, if you’d like,” she said, her accent sweet and very southern.

“That would be great,” he replied before she grabbed a couple of menus and the wound through the restaurant. 

“Do you have a booth?  Maybe one that is quiet and out of the way?” he asked her as they stopped in the middle of the floor. 

She smiled at him, “I sure do.  Heck, you can pick anywhere you want to sit, but this booth right over here will probably fit the bill.”  She led him to the back corner. 

“Thank you,” he said, taking the menu and slipping into the booth.  His back was against the wall, and he had excellent sightlines through the whole place.  Old habits.

He looked down at the menu.  He knew he would be ordering a burger, and he knew exactly how he’d be ordering, but he wondered if there might be an appetizer or dessert that might catch his eye. 

He was lost in the menu when he felt the presence next to him.  He looked up.  Nancy’s blue eyes still glowed, and while there were a few streaks of gray, she still had the same wavy, jet black hair.  He stood up to greet her.  She pulled him into a hug, holding him as tightly as she had the last time they saw each other, if only for a moment. 

listing in my post directly. It gives the option for a free preview of the book, as well as sending you STRAIGHT to my book’s Kindle listing.

It’s kind of spiffy.

If you haven’t read this one, feel free to hit up the free preview and check it out. If you have read it, check out one of my titles you haven’t read, and/or share it with a friend.

As I mention sharing… there are two meanings to this. You can actually share my book if you bought it… once. You can send a friend the book for free for 14 days for them to read it. There is no additional cost to either of you. But I’m pretty sure you can only do it once.

Also in the vein of sharing, I would LOVE it if you shared any of my posts, or that you enjoyed any of my books, with as many people as you dare.

Getting noticed without a giant ad budget is tough. The deal I made with myself when I started this was that I wouldn’t spend more to market than what was coming in from sales. And that is a rough road. Even effectively giving away free books is expensive. Some of the “book deal” newsletters charge over $100 to give away FREE books. And there is no type of guarantee of a single future sale.

And then there is the whole business of buying artwork for covers, paying editors and all of the other gears in the mechanism. I will say that the background stuff (not the marketing) gets a little easier with each book.

Miss Keller was the stuff of dreams.  When she walked into the skating rink, every guy would turn to watch her.  Skate Dads would always try to sit by her when they were watching figure skating practice.  He’d never been this close to her before, and close up she was even more beautiful. 

“Please, Nick, call me Linda,” she said as she sipped her own Coke.  “Let’s go move some furniture.”

He followed her back out to the living room and spent the next hour dragging furniture from one spot to another, interspersed with carrying boxes to and from the attic as she completely made the room over, the two of them chatting the whole time.  By the time she called a halt, they were both sweaty and tired. 

“I really appreciate it, Nick.  It sure was nice to have a strong man around for a change,” she said with a wink.  She handed him another Coke and dropped onto the couch next to him.  “Kat told me that you and Heather broke up.  Bummer, you guys were so cute together,” she said between sips of her margarita.  It had been a few weeks since the break-up.  He and Heather were still friends, but he wasn’t sure what had happened. 

They sat together, continuing the conversation they’d had while working.  Linda was on her second margarita when she asked Nick if he was hungry.  “It’s the least I can do.  You have been here all afternoon and you won’t let me pay you.  At least let me take you out for dinner.  Nothing fancy… ok?”

“I guess,” he replied. 

“I’ll only be a minute,” she said, jumping up from the couch.  “Let me clean up and change.  Back in a flash,” she said as he watched her sweep up the stairs. 

Nick stood up and went to the hall bath.  He combed his hair and checked his pits to see if he smelled bad.  He quickly rinsed his face before going back to the living room to wait for Kat’s mom. 

Linda came back down the steps and Nick struggled to keep from doing a double take.  She was in tight jeans and a curve-hugging, long sleeve t-shirt.  If he hadn’t known she was his friend’s mother, he would have sworn she was a dozen years younger than he assumed she was. 

“We can take my car, but you’re going to have to drive.  You drive a stick?” she asked. 

“Yes, Ma’am,” he replied.  He’d seen her little blue BMW convertible, and was looking forward to taking it for a spin. 

She led him out to the garage.  The car was sitting there with the top down, ready to go.  She quickly put her hair in a ponytail and climbed into the passenger seat as Nick went around to the driver’s side of the car.  A moment later they were backing out of the driveway and heading toward Espinoza’s Taqueria, Nick at the wheel. 

“I know that Kat is at skating practice, where is Nicole?” Nick asked as they pulled up to a traffic light.

“Spending the weekend with her friend.  You know the Tolivers, don’t you?  She hangs out with Chrissy.”

“I know Chrissy Toliver.  I drive all three of the Toliver kids home sometimes,” Nick replied. 

Linda sat up a little and turned toward Nick, “How many kids do you drive home after skating?  Kat has said you had a carful most of the time.”

Nick laughed.  “Depends.  I’ve had a dozen in the wagon before.”

“Right after we moved here last year, when I was at the rink, one of the moms pointed you out and said that you were a ‘nice, reliable boy’ and that I could trust you with my girls.  She said you drove half of the figure skating team home after the Saturday and Sunday sessions.”

“Maybe.  It changes from week to week,” he said as he pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant. 

“How did you end up being the rink’s transit system?”

Nick laughed, “I never thought of it like that.  But… I guess…  I don’t know.  Someone’s parents asked if I could take their kid home, I guess and then it spun out of control.  It’s no big deal.”

He parked the car and they both headed into the restaurant.  A moment later they were seated in a booth in the back corner.  Before long they were talking as they munched on chips and queso, sipping their drinks.  Nick had been a little surprised at how easy the conversation was with Linda.  By the time they’d finished dinner, he knew a lot more about her, and the struggles she’s faced owning her own photography studio.  He didn’t understand some of it, but she seemed to enjoy being able to vent to him. 

She’d also had four margaritas in two hours, and they’d hit her a little harder than she would have expected.  Nick walked her to her car and drove her home as they continued to talk.  He pulled into the garage and gently helped her from her car.  When they walked into the kitchen, she turned to hug him. 

“Can I tell you something, Nick?” she asked. 

He was leaned back against the kitchen island, hands casually resting on the edge behind him.  As she talked, she stepped toward him.

“Sure, Linda.”

“Kat has a giant crush on you.  She has for a while.  But you can’t tell her,” she said, holding her finger in front of her lips.

“I won’t say a word,” he said, zipping his fingers across his lips then smiling. 

“And I don’t want you to date her, either,” she added, looking into his eyes.  He could see just how serious she was.  “To start with, she’s just too young.  She’s terribly mature, but she is barely fourteen.  There is no way she has the strength to deal with a man like you, Nick.  I know about you getting stuck in Heather’s room.  I know a lot about you.”  She took a step toward him, standing just past his feet.

“We didn’t do anything, Linda… Heather and I, I mean, we just kind of messed around a bit, but nothing serious.”

“I know.  But, Nick, you are a hard man to resist,” she said, smiling.  “Like right now, if you don’t leave, I don’t think I’ll be able to resist you.  But you should also know that I have thoroughly enjoyed spending the afternoon and this evening with you.”  She stepped forward again, now standing between his feet.

Nick smiled, uncomfortably.  As he looked back at her, Kat’s mom looked incredibly beautiful.  There was no more than six inches between them.  Standing in her kitchen, she was between his knees as he stood leaned back against the counter.  Her perfume was intoxicating.  Her lips were inviting. 

She reached over and wrapped her arms around him and pulled him closer to her.  As he felt her body squeezed against him, she gently kissed him on the cheek, then the neck.  “You should probably call me Miss Keller around everyone else, Nick,” she whispered.  She pulled away from him and then pulled him back into her and kissed him passionately. 

The kiss was over too soon for both of them.  “And we can’t ever talk about what just happened, ok?” she said, a slight slur in her speech. 

“Ok,” he responded shakily. 

She melted into his arms and kissed him again.  And again, it was over too soon.  She moved closer and they ended with a hug.  “You need to go, Nick.  I need you to go.”  Her arms were still draped around him and he forehead resting against his.

Kat walked around the corner from the living room, seeing her mother wrapped around Nick.  She could see that they had kissed. 

“Mom!”

“Oh, hi Kat.  I didn’t know you were home yet,” she replied, her voice quiet.  

“I guess,” Kat said back to her mom, her voice holding a quiver. 

“I should go,” Nick said as he hustled back through the garage to get to his car.  He could hear a heated discussion in his wake. 

***

The next day Nick was in the skate room, building a pair of skates for one of the figure skaters.  Kat rolled into the skate room and over next to him.  She hopped up onto the bench next to the skates he was working on.

“Have a minute?” she asked.  “We need to talk about my mom.”

“Can I meet you on the floor in a minute?  I’m almost done with this,” he replied.  Then quietly added, “and Doug is on the other side of the rack and might hear us.”

“Ok.  I’ll be out skating.”

Nick finished up with the skates he was working on and then slipped his skates on.  He grabbed a whistle from the hook next to the door, told Doug he was going to work the floor for a bit, and rolled out of the room.  A moment later he slipped up behind Kat and tapped her on the shoulder. 

“What’s going on between you and my mom,” she said quietly.  He could barely hear her above the music. 

“Nothing, Kat.  I helped her with the furniture, and then we grabbed some dinner.  We had a nice talk… that’s all.”

“Right,” she said sarcastically.  “Whatever.  You can’t say anything to anyone, ok?  She has enough trouble with some of the moms here without adding you to the mix… and what you are saying didn’t happen.  By the way, she told me that she kissed you.  We tell each other everything.  So… I know that you are lying about nothing having happened.  But I also know why.  It’s ok… but you can’t tell ANYONE, ok?” she said, a nervous look in her eye. 

“Kat, I really like your mom…  She’s really nice.  I mean, not like, like, but like friends, ok?  I’m not going to say anything.”

Nick took her hand and spun her around facing him as the lights dimmed for a couple’s skate.  She dropped into the skating Waltz easily, as if they had practiced it. 

“You, know,” she said, “if you ever decide you’ve had enough of the speed skating, we could use some more boys for dance skating partners.”

“They want me to skate on the hockey team, too.  The girls are cuter, though,” he joked as she blushed.