Chapter 12

I slept in Sunday morning and woke up slow. I wanted to call Sally but knew she was a slow riser on weekends. I took stock of my homework. When I went into the kitchen, I told Mom I was going to spend the day on homework and try to get ahead for the week. She offered to bring bacon and eggs to my room and I accepted.

Ten minutes later, she brought a plate to me as I sat at my desk and worked on history, with the added attracted of buttered grits and toast. I knocked out that class’s homework for the entire week and moved on to math. By noon, I was done with homework for Monday and Tuesday in all my classes and had gotten a big jump for the week on most of them. I would have jumped in the pool for a swim but it looked cold outside. I walked through the kitchen to the mudroom and took a look at the thermometer. It was just above freezing. The day before we had played miniature golf without jackets and now, freezing.

I mentioned it to Mom. She said she had put the heater on in her greenhouse, a rarity. If you don’t like the weather in Charleston, wait five minutes. Thirty-four degrees. The thought of it made me shiver. The phone rang and I answered it.

“Pierce residence.”

“Is this the lord of the manor?” Kim asked.

“And whom might be asking?”

“Whom? Ha-ha. Busy?”

“Extremely, but not too busy for you.”

“Nice. I had a good time yesterday. My parents asked all about you. Mom thinks you’re a real gentleman. Dad isn’t sure.”

“What did you say to that?”

“I asked if he thought Mom had good judgment in men. What could he say? No? Obviously not, Dad. She picked you. I’m pretty sure he knew how the wrong answer to that would go.”

“That’s awesome. What about you. Am I a real gentleman?”

“Are you kidding? You grabbed my ass.”

“I did and I would gladly do it again.”

“You didn’t need much encouragement.”

“No. That was a big deal, wasn’t it? I mean, that’s pretty intimate and we’ve only been out twice.”

“Yeah, but we’ve talked about a lot of stuff, for a couple of months. I feel like I know you. But, yeah. That was a pretty big deal.”

“I meant what I said. That I wouldn’t do anything you don’t want me to.”

“I believe you. I trust you and that’s an even bigger deal. Wait a minute. You wouldn’t do anything I don’t want you to. But you’ll do anything I do want you to?”

“Possibly. It’s definitely a theory that needs testing. You make me feel good.”

“Same. You make me feel good. You say the right things, too. Without, you know, being cliché about it. You like being with me?”

“Yes. Absolutely. You make my heart race. It’s up ten beats per minute since I answered the phone.”

“That’s sweet. See? You always say nice things.”

“It’s easy to say nice things to some people.”

“Say some more.”

I could practically hear Karen screaming at me that this was a golden opportunity. I had experimented with female staff at Porter but this wasn’t practice. This was the reason for the experiment.

“How much time do you have? I wish I could see you face to face to say this but here goes. You are pleasant to look at but I’ll come back to that. My eyes smile when I see you. No, that’s wrong. My whole-body smiles when I see you. You have beautiful dark, wavy hair that is so soft. Don’t ever put it up again. When I feel your hair on me, I feel like I’m being spoiled. The only thing I don’t like about your hair is that sometimes it covers your neck. Oh man. Your neck looks just perfect for kissing and I want to do that. I haven’t done that yet but it’s pretty high on my list of things to do, if you’ll let me. I want to kiss your neck on the front and up high by your ears. I love your neck. I hope you’re smiling. You have beautiful deep brown eyes. They can be so soft and friendly they can melt me but they can pierce me, too. If Van Morrison hadn’t already written Brown Eyed Girl, I’d have to do it. You are my brown-eyed girl. I feel like you’re exploring who I am with your eyes. I like your eyebrows too. That sounds weird because who likes eyebrows, but I do. I like that they’re thin and almost sharp. I couldn’t imagine any other kind of eyebrow for you. And your nose. I like it too. It’s small but not too small. It’s perfect for your face.

“And your lips. Oh man. You have these incredibly kissable lips. I should know, because I’ve kissed them and it’s tough to be with you without thinking how much I want to kiss them again. They just beg to be kissed. They’re so perfect.”

“Wow. I sound really good,” she said.

“I’m not done.” I’d thought this through and Kim was eating it up. I tried not to go too fast but it was difficult.

“No? Well, I’m sorry I interrupted you.”

“You’ve got about twenty little freckles from cheek to cheek, right across the middle of your nose. I think you try to cover them but I’ve seen them. They are super cute. I want to kiss each one.” I was on a roll. “You’ve got good posture, too. That probably sounds weird but it makes you look healthy and that’s really attractive. You have really beautiful legs. Like a dancer’s legs. I got to hold you the other day and you let me hold your butt. I want to hold your legs too. I want to slide my hands all over your legs, to see if they feel as good as they look. I know they do. I read somewhere that there’s such a thing as a hip to waist ratio. Whatever the perfect ratio is, you’ve got it and I’ll have strong words for anyone who disagrees.

“It seemed like you said something about other guys wanting to put their hands all over you. Any guy with any sense would want to do that. I want to do that. I won’t, unless you let me, but it’s not because I don’t want to. Your body practically begs to be explored.” I paused.

“Wow. Wait. Are you done? I don’t want to interrupt.” She was quiet for a moment. “You didn’t say anything about my boobs. Most guys would probably start there.”

“I’d be glad to start there,” I said and she laughed. “What I actually meant to say was, I’d be glad to start there.”

“Stop it,” she said laughing.

“You have nice boobs. They are proportional and full. They are perfect. I’d...” I stopped there.

“You’d what?”

“Sorry. Got carried away.”

“Good. You’d what?”

“No. I think I’ll quit while I’m ahead.”

“Take a risk. You were going to say something else.”

“I was going to say too much else. I’d be glad to start there. How’s that?” I was done. I’d laid awake thinking about her and the things I could compliment and the list was pretty long but I’d probably covered as much of the safe stuff as I could.

“I think I’d like you to say too much but I won’t press you. Jack?”

“Yes.”

She hesitated and I waited. “You feel pretty good, too. You definitely feel like a jock. Solid, you know? Swimming must be pretty good for your, you know, physique.”

“I lift, too. But thanks.”

“You lift weights?”

“Yeah. I’ve got my own gym in the garage and I lift weights six days a week.”

“You have dumbbells and stuff? You lift by yourself?”

“Dumbbells, yeah. But I’ve got a full gym. I think it’s better than Porter’s. Smaller but better. Mom lifts with me. She’s really doing good.”

“Your mom lifts weights with you? Isn’t she worried about, you know, about getting too big?”

“No. She’s lifting, I don’t know, because she likes it and she wants to have ... you can’t say anything, okay?”

“Sure. Not a word.”

“She wants to look sexy. She wants a tight butt and a vee shaped back. She works hard. She lifts more than me on some things. I know, it’s crazy, but Mom’s a great lifting partner. How funny is that?”

“It’s cool that you and your mom lift together. It seems weird, though. I like her. She doesn’t seem old enough to be Franklin’s mom. She barely seems old enough to be yours. But she lifts.”

“Well, you should come over some afternoon when we lift and I’ll show you. Anytime, really.”

“Six days a week. Wow.”

“I think it’s part of why I’m getting close to the seniors ahead of me in butterfly. I’ve really been working on the muscles I use swimming and I think it’s helped, you know?”

“I don’t know which muscles those are but I can feel that you’ve got them. They feel good.” I was quiet and she waited. “You’re not saying anything.”

“I’m too busy grinning.”

“That’s funny. But good. You should. Jack?”

“Yes?”

“I really like you. I feel stupid.”

“Why would you feel stupid?”

“Because of why I talked to you in the first place. Because I cared more about what other people think and didn’t want to go to a football game alone and all. It’s stupid. Even Friday night, I was, happy to be like the center of it all.”

“I don’t think it’s stupid. I think it’s pretty normal.”

“But then we spent the day together, with Franklin and Karen. And no one was watching. No one but us could see us together and what a good time we had and all and it didn’t matter. So...”

“Hey, it’s okay. Really. I didn’t mind being the center of it all on Friday night either.”

“Really?”

“I don’t want it all the time but it was fun for the evening. But I felt like we were spending it with everybody else. I liked being at White Point Gardens when it was just the two of us a lot more.”

“That was pretty nice. I liked...”

“Yes? You liked what?”

“I liked to be held the way you hold me. You feel good.”

“I’m grinning again. I think we can do that some more.”

“Jack?”

“Uh huh?”

“This is going to sound weird. I liked your hands on me. That sounds weird. I did though. You weren’t all grabby. But it felt good. I’ve never heard any of my friends say that. They’ll talk about some guy, like, he’s an octopus. His hands were all over me. It’s a bad thing. But this was different.”

“Good. You know, not trying to defend other guys or anything, but I had someone explain it to me. You know who? Karen. She kind of clued me in.”

“So, she’s your tutor too? I love it. Should I thank her? Oh my gosh.”

“It’s not like she taught me how to squeeze a butt or anything. More like she gave me a girl’s perspective. Don’t say anything though. I don’t want you to blame her if I do something wrong.”

“Okay,” she said laughing. “What would you do wrong?” She stopped laughing.

“Probably the things I want to do.”

She got a real serious tone. “What things do you want to do?”

I was at a loss for how to answer. I didn’t want to say what I was thinking but I kind of wanted her to know, too. “You know when we were at the park, just hugging each other. I heard you sigh. That’s like the best sound in the world. I want to hold you, put my hands on you, so that you do a lot more of that.”

“Wow. I think I like that. I want to be together right now. I want to feel like that now.”

“Nice, huh. I’d ride my bike over but it’s freezing outside.”

“Ha. So, now we know your limit. You like me but not enough to brave the cold.”

“Busted. I was going to go for a swim today, right until I saw how cold it was. This is crazy. There’s a chance of snow tonight.”

“Changing the subject, huh.”

“Trying to. Guess it didn’t work. I’d ride my bike over there right now, for another kiss. But I don’t think either of us would last long on the front porch.”

“You could come over for dinner.”

“And meet your parents?”

“Yeah. I guess so. I met yours. Your mom.”

“I think it’s different for guys.”

“Probably. They’ll like you, though. My mom already does and she doesn’t even know you. My dad will too.”

I was warming up to the idea. “You think your dad will like me? I’m not so sure. Okay. If you mean it, I’ll check. I’ll call you right back.”

I found Mom and asked. She said ‘yes’ but wouldn’t let me ride my bike home in the snow. She would drop me off and pick me up. She cautioned me about rushing things and I remembered I was going to call Sally. I was definitely glad I knocked out my homework early because I was getting enough of a mental workout. I called Kim back and she told me when.

After we hung up, I took a deep breath and called Sally. “Hey.”

“Hey, you. I miss you, you big stud.”

“Ha, ha. You doing okay?”

“Yes. Better than okay. I love our house, getting used to school and making a lot of friends. It’s way better than St. John’s. I still liked Porter though. People aren’t snooty. I think people at St. John’s were trying too hard, you know, like Avis.”

“Got it. What kind of new friends?”

“My mom told yours, didn’t she? I got asked to this dance.”

“Mom said you got asked by three different guys.”

“Yeah. Crazy, huh?”

“I don’t think so. I think those three guys were the smart ones. The other guys are dopes. Those three have good taste and know a good thing when they see it. Have you decided who to go with?”

“If I go. I wish I knew them better. They all seem nice. One’s a jock and pretty good looking. He’s a junior. Another is nice but he’s goofy. Goofy in a funny way. I should check the yearbook from last year. I bet he’s in the chess club. He’s really nice though and even if he is in the chess club and goofy, he asked me out, so he’s got some guts, I guess.”

“And the third guy?”

“I don’t know. He’s a junior. He’s pretty quiet. I don’t know if he’s in sports but he should be. He looks like he’s really strong. I think I’m attracted to him more but I’m not sure why. Kind of a mystery guy.”

“How do you know him?”

“I’m friends with his sister and we ride the bus together. She’s nice.”

“Ask her. Ask her about her brother. She might say nice things about him but listen to what she doesn’t say, too. If you’d asked Franklin about me, would you have gone out with me?”

“That’s not really a good comparison. I knew you before Franklin and I wanted to go out with you before you knew I did. I miss you.”

“I miss you too. I went out with Kim,” I said, suddenly.

“I knew you would. I was kind of hoping you would. She seems like she would be really nice. She hangs out with all these stuck up clicky girls but I don’t think she’s like that. But I don’t know.”

“I didn’t think you knew her, or at least not well.”

“I don’t. When she talked to you and you set her up with Birch, I asked around. I’m really proud of you for that. I know you think she’s attractive, more than me, and that was probably pretty hard to do.”

“Not more attractive, just different and it wasn’t as hard as you think. She mentioned you the other day and I told her not to, then Karen talked to her. You know what Karen told her? She shouldn’t try to compete with you because she’d lose and then she added at least for now.”

“Wow. That’s really nice. You shouldn’t compare. You know why not? Because one day I might lose and I couldn’t stand it. I want you to date her though. It makes it easier for me so I guess it’s a little selfish.”

“If I date Kim, you can date mystery man?”

“Yeah. I think that’s it. I’ll ask his sister.”

“If you dated him and then didn’t date him anymore, would it mess up your friendship with his sister?”

“If it did, she’s not much of a friend, right?”

“True. I miss you.”

“Yeah. I’m gonna cry. We should hang up.”

“Date mystery guy. Go to the dance, have fun, don’t compare.”

“Okay. Thanks. Kim’s really pretty. Is she nice, too?”

“Yeah. She’s like a cowgirl. She hunts and fishes and rides horses and stuff. I called her frontier woman.”

‘Kim McTighe? Seriously? That’s crazy. Who would have guessed? Does everybody else know that?”

“I don’t think so. I think all they see is this beautiful cheerleader.”

“Well then, that’s really cool. I’m glad. I always thought of cheerleaders as sort of one-dimensional beauty snobs but I guess I have to change that. I’m going to hang up and call Shelli. That’s mystery man’s sister. The dance is next Friday night and if I’m going to go, I need to decide soon.”

“You already know all the stuff I’d say. Would you have asked him out? Not now, obviously, but if you knew him better, would you have chosen him? I think what’s cool about us is that we kind of chose each other at the same time. Well, maybe I was later but you get it.”

“Thanks, Jack. I’m glad I can talk to you. It’s weird talking to you about other guys after we’ve, you know. It’s hard to think of you without love and sex involved. You made me feel so good.”

“Love is still involved. It will always be involved. I’m going to Kim’s for dinner tonight. Do not get me worked up. Love you.”

“Love you, too. Bye,” she said and we hung up.

That went way better than I thought. A couple of deep breaths and a moment to analyze. I loved Sally. I knew that. I realized I was okay with her dating someone else. That was weird but it was true. It wouldn’t have been true if she’d still been in Charleston. I’d done my best to treat her right and don’t know if I set the standard or not but I hoped so. And I don’t know how good of a standard it was but it was my best. I felt better about dating Kim and was pretty happy we’d cleared the air, at least a little. I thought we might have to have that same conversation a couple of times. What else? I’d learned by doing with Sally and that was a lot of fun. Oh, yeah, I wasn’t a dad, so that was good.

I thought about how fortunate I was. All in all, I was living what some people would call a charmed life. Still, it would be nice to have a dad. It would be nice if Mom had someone to share it all with. That bothered me more than I had admitted until right then. I thought I should encourage her. I wished Ronnie had been ... No. There was no point in that.

I thought I was done taking stock but there was one more thing. How would Kim like me talking to Sally, even though she was all the way in Nashville? And if Kim and I did more, she would know that my experience was because of Sally. Basically, how jealous might Kim be of a long-distance relationship with a former lover? Would she ask me to stop? That, was the big issue. Hopefully, it was one I wouldn’t have to worry about. I thought about that one some more and decided it would probably depend on the issue of security. If Kim felt secure in our relationship, she wouldn’t feel threatened by Sally. That seemed right. That was it. I decided there was nothing to be gained by telling Kim that Sally and I still talked. At least for right now.

I still had the phone in my hand and laughed at myself for getting sidetracked. Instead of putting it up, I called Franklin. When he answered, I asked for Karen. I told her about my two conversations and then all the things I’d been thinking about. She thought I’d hit the nail on the head. If Kim felt secure, all would be good. I thought about that for a minute.

What was the cure for teenage insecurity? They turn twenty. Was Mom insecure? Holy crap. I never even imagined it. Why wouldn’t she be dating? She was lifting weights not to get stronger but to look better. Holy crap. I thanked Karen and went looking for Mom and found her in the library, reading. I took a seat across from her and waited.

She stopped reading and looked up. “Mom, would you do me a favor?”

“Sure, Jack. Anything. You look serious.”

“Stand up.” She gave me a look. “Please. You said anything.” She stood. “Thank you. This might sound weird but would you turn around but not too fast.” She did and then motioned at the seat and I nodded.

“What is it, Jack? What’s on your mind?” she asked as she sat back down.

I took a deep breath. “Do you think Sally is pretty?”

“Of course, I do.”

“But probably more like cute pretty than beautiful pretty.”

“I guess,” she said slowly and I knew she wondered where this was going.

“How about Kim?”

“Kim’s in a different class. She’s beautiful now. Sally will grow into that. Yes.”

“And Karen? She pretty nice on the eyes too.”

“Yes, she is. Where are you going with this, Jack?”

“So are you.”

“Well, thank you Jack. Nice to hear.”

“I asked about the girls because I wanted you to know I recognize beauty when I see it. I asked you to turn around because I’ve always looked at you like a mom. Mom, you’re beautiful. If I married Kim or Sally or whoever, I’d be lucky if they were as beautiful as you when they turned forty.”

“Why, thank you again. Forty-four, just to set the record straight. But why are you telling me this?”

“Date. Date. You don’t need mystery motorcycle chick lats or a tighter butt. I don’t want my lifting partner to stop but you don’t need to lift just to look good. You’re already there. You should date, Mom. Think about it. How often did you and Ronnie go out on a date?” She didn’t say anything. “How much romance was there? I’m not trying to be harsh or mean or anything. I just realized how cool it is to be in a romantic relationship and that you’re not. You’re too young not to. And, I don’t need a dad. I needed a dad but Franklin is great. He’s like a dad. But it would be good for you to have a sweetheart. Whew.”

“You really think I look good, huh?”

“Absolutely. You’re beautiful, smart, and rich to boot. Date.”

“I would...”

“But?”

“I’m not keen on heartbreak. I’m not looking for a third strike. I’ll think about it.”

“When we were out yesterday, Kim and I ended up at White Point and it was deserted. We kissed and then we hugged. I held her tight and she sighed. She sighed, Mom. Like she was really content. It was like the best sound in the world. You know? Just, the best. I want that for you.”

“Thanks, Buddy. You could hug me,” she offered.

“And you could sigh but it’s not the same thing.”

“No, but it’s still pretty good.” She stood up and we hugged and she sighed and we both laughed. She let me go and backed up. “I’ll think about it. Maybe Veronica and I will go on the prowl.”

“Oh my gosh. That sounds like trouble. Please don’t ask me to hug her.”

“No. That wouldn’t be a good idea. I think she’s probably got more confidence than me.” I laughed and started to leave but Mom called out to me and I looked back. “Jackson, thanks. I needed to hear that. Probably more than either of us know. Leave here about five till?” she asked and I nodded.