Chapter 8

Your body is moving in perfect rhythm with mine, pretty lady... Diana's arms were wrapped around his shoulders and neck—one of her hands on the back of his head with her fingers digging in his hair. She was groaning the same way as he as she rolled her hips against his.

She started to moan constantly. "Yes! Oh, yes! Oh, yes... !" Then her back arched as her hips froze and she groaned loudly, "Oh, God, Charles ... I love you!"

He felt her flesh throb forcefully and his heart nearly burst from his emotional reaction to hearing her say she loved him at the moment she climaxed. It triggered an intense emotional and physical response from him. He lifted his head just far enough to look at her. He whispered desperately, "I love you, too!"

He crushed his mouth to hers as her lips were already parted. She continued to moan from her orgasm as his tongue stroked into her mouth and he groaned with pleasure from the pulses of his climax. He slowed his thrusting until he was just barely grinding his hips against hers, still buried inside her as he lifted his head to look at her. When she opened her eyes, he could see she had tears in them ... the same as he.

He carefully moved his arms out from under her body to prop himself on his forearms so he could stroke her beautiful face with his hands. He murmured huskily, "I'm so glad God finally brought you to me. I just wish it could've been years ago!"

"Me, too, my sexy man! Me, too!" she whispered, as she pulled him down for a soft kiss. She whimpered softly as he lifted off of her and lay next to her on his back. He motioned her to come lay against his right side.

Charles took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "You know, it's strange that we grew up in neighboring states, but we didn't meet each other until years later after we both moved 3,000 miles away! I even used to spend some time during the summers in Virginia with my grandparents in my teens. I wonder how close we might've been to each other sometimes? You said you used to enjoy fishing. Did you ever go fishing on the Chesapeake?"

"Of course," she replied. "That's where I did most of my saltwater fishing. My father has owned a fishing boat since before I was born and we fished all over the bay. But most of it was up around the Rappahannock River. He had a friend who owned some property on the water in Lancaster County and we used to take the boat up there on weekends or for a week during the summers sometimes..."

She stopped when she heard Charles mutter, "Oh, my God!" When she looked up at him he asked her, "When was that? What years?"

She frowned as she thought back. "Starting in about... 1937 until about 1944. Why?" she asked as she saw the surprise on his face.

"My grandparents lived in Northumberland County, right near the border with Lancaster County on Indian Creek. I used to come visit them off and on during the summers starting in 1939. Do you realize how close we might have been to each other during that time? Did you ever go other places while you were on those vacations?"

"Well, sure!" she exclaimed. "My father's friend's property was right on the river near a very small town. But we used to travel a little further up the road to a larger town to do most of our grocery shopping. One summer while we were there for a week, the town's local Volunteer Fire Department was having a carnival to raise money. Daddy took me to the carnival on the last evening we were there. I must've been about ... thirteen at the time."

Diana paused as her eyes took on a far away look. "I remember that night ... I saw a boy who kept looking at me with the most intense look I'd ever seen in a boy's eyes before ... and never saw again after that. I remember I wished I'd had enough guts to walk over to that boy and say 'hi!' He showed more interest in me with just that brief look in his eyes than any boy I came in contact with all during high school."

When she looked at Charles again, he had a stunned look on his face. "What?"

"What year was that?" Charles could scarcely breathe... Is it you?

"That was... 1939. Why?" Diana continued to frown in confusion.

He sucked in a shallow breath. "What were you wearing that night?"

She frowned as she thought back and remembered that warm, humid evening. She pictured herself in the sleeveless, bright yellow sundress with a daisy print that had tied behind her back. She had been afraid to wear it because it emphasized how much her breasts had grown during the previous year. Why are you so interested in what I was wearing? That boy only stared at my face and eyes. He never glanced at my body—that I saw... She'd kept glancing away from him.

She started to describe her dress and Charles took over. " ... yellow dress with flowers on it, that hugged your body with curves in all the right places. Your light, golden hair was tied back with a yellow ribbon. And sparkling gray-blue eyes almost just like mine—in the prettiest face I'd ever seen ... glancing and smiling at me shyly..."

Chills ran through Diana's body. "Oh, my God! That was YOU?" She closed her eyes and tried to picture the boy's face. He'd been relegated to the back of her memory as soon as she'd developed her crush on John Wayne. She pictured herself glancing at the boy; she saw his wavy brown hair, his intense gray-blue eyes—and a flash of a dimple in his right cheek as he'd grinned at her the last time she glanced back at him...

Tears came into her eyes. "Oh, my God! That WAS you! I dreamed about you for the next couple years—until I saw my first John Wayne movie! I never got back to that area during the carnival week after that summer. But I used to look for you everywhere whenever we went back to that town during our visits over the next couple years ... I had so hoped to find you!"

Charles hugged her to him. "I kept looking for you every time I went back over the next four years, but I didn't get into town very often. And I made sure I was there during the week of the carnival and tried to go every night. I chased down I don't know how many girls with hair color that was anything close to what I remembered ... only to have them look at me like I was crazy! After a while, I started to believe that I had only imagined you. It seemed impossible that, at thirteen years old, I had seen and recognized my soul mate. And now ... here you are!"

She looked up at him as the tears started to flow. She squeaked painfully, "All those wasted years! We were so close ... and it just ... slipped away! Why? All the pain we've suffered in our lives that could've been prevented. Why did God allow that to happen? I would never have believed He could be so deliberately cruel! What had we done to deserve that then? I could understand it now—I've sinned in more ways than I care to think about! But missing out on you then is probably what caused me all those sins! I just don't understand! Why?!!!"

I understand why... "Diana ... we're both very different people now than we were then. God knew we were young and innocent but ... but what did we really know about love then? We would probably have recognized that we belonged together. But without all the pain we've experienced, we would have taken what we could've had for granted. It would not have been as wonderful, exciting and meaningful as it will be for us now."

It has to be why... "As bad as my first marriage turned out, it did make me realize what I wanted in a marriage. And would you risk trading your dreams—or memories—of your encounter with John Wayne to go back and take a chance on what we MIGHT have had together then?"

She frowned. "I guess not." How did you get so smart? Well ... you do have a degree in psychology! She looked upward for a moment. "I'm sorry, God. I shouldn't have said You were cruel. I know You must have a plan about everything and I was wrong to question it. And I'm sorry if I've disappointed You in the way I've handled what You've thrown at me so far, but I've had a confusing life. I'll try to do better from now on! Thanks for listening!"

She looked back at Charles. He was frowning as he grinned. "Is that how you pray?"

She chuckled. "No. I was just talking to God. Praying is when you're asking or thanking God for something. God is omnipresent and omnipotent ... He's everywhere and the power behind everything. You can talk to Him any time—I don't need a church to do that." Do we see eye to eye on religion? Better figure that out soon...

She continued. "He sent His Son to try to teach us that—and how to treat each other; about basic goodness and how to recognize evil. But I don't think God expected there to be so many ... blind, sick and stupid humans who just can't or won't see how everything would work for the good of everyone if we humans would just do what Jesus tried to teach! He even made His Son suffer a cruel death to try to make those who cannot, see what is right and what is wrong! And now, here we are, almost two thousand years later and still ... most humans don't get it! Do you get it?"

Charles was stunned. We think exactly alike! "Yes. I get it very clearly. We won't be having any arguments over religious differences! Just don't try to talk to my mother about this! She's dyed-in-the-wool Catholic and she doesn't do anything without The Church's approval. When she finds out how we got married, she's going to throw a fit! But, I don't care and I won't let her attack you. I don't get along with most of my family, so getting transferred to L.A. was a blessing—boy was it a blessing!" He leaned down and kissed her tenderly.

When he lifted his head, Diana asked, "Why don't you get along with your family?"

"My parents have a loveless marriage. I don't understand why they've stayed together when they share nothing other than children, and all of us are now grown and on our own. I think it's mostly my mother; she's so 'Catholic' that she just doesn't believe in divorce—period. She tried to talk me out of divorcing my ex-wife—until I told her everything I found out. She relented and said that my ex-wife didn't deserve me. It was the nicest thing she ever said to me.

"Usually Mom just used me as her own free handy man because my father was always away on business. Fix this, repair that; help her with whatever she needed. I have two older brothers and a younger sister. All of them managed to escape our parents' strange existence, but not me. I stuck around like a dutiful son and tried to convince Mom that she deserved to be happy. But she told me not to worry about her and that I should be the one looking for happiness.

"That was another reason why I took the transfer to L.A. I knew it was the only way to distance myself from Mom without making it obvious to her that I was trying to escape. I felt the need to start fresh and try to find something ... or someone ... that I could be happy with."

He hugged Diana to him again. "I almost turned down the transfer to L.A. because it was so much further than New York, but my gut instinct told me I needed to go. I've been in L.A. less than a month and already I've found what I've been looking for all my life—my dream girl ... my soul mate! I'll never ignore my instincts again!"