Chapter 22

I got up early Saturday morning to help Mom and Mary with the potato salad. Mom told me not to be ridiculous and made me breakfast for my trouble. She did allow Mary to help her.

John honked his horn just before 10:00. I yelled goodbye to Mom and Mary and ran out the front door.

John was up front by himself, Jill was in the back seat. I got in and scooted over next to her. I said hi to both of them, giving Jill a quick but thorough kiss.

She was wearing my letterman's jacket. I sat back and looked her over. She had a smile on her face like none I'd seen before.

"Your arms are too short. I better take it back."

"Don't you dare. Don't even think about it."

It was true. Last night I hadn't seen how it fit because I just threw it over her shoulders. Somehow she managed to eat peanuts and pizza and kiss me the rest of the time without actually putting it on or losing it. Including when I first put it on and she kissed me and practically sucked my tonsils out while sticking my hand under it and onto her tit. At the time, checking the length of the sleeves didn't occur to me.

Today she was wearing it. I could see the bottom part of her fingers sticking out of the sleeves. It was definitely too wide at the shoulders. And she loved it.

"So, did you sleep in it?"

John answered. "She would have if I hadn't told her not to."

"Don't worry, John, it'll wear off. I remember when I got it as a freshman. I'm sure mom thought I'd never take it off. Anyway, Jill, you might as well enjoy it. You won't be able to wear it to school on Monday."

"The hell I won't."

"You're going to wear a Fernmont letterman's jacket to Highpoint?"

"Just try and stop me."

"Well, I don't..."

"Jack?"

"Yeah?"

"Shut up."

She pulled me closer and did that thing where she shuts her eyes and opens her mouth. She had her tongue up against the inside of her lips, the tip just below her lower lip, the front part of her tongue covering the opening between them. It found my mouth when we kissed.

There was a movie about Tina Turner in which Ike tells her she has some cavities the first time he kisses her. Having a woman dig around in my mouth with her tongue has never appealed to me. Over at Jeff's house one Saturday night we watched a movie on Showtime that had a couple with their mouths close together and they looked like they were fighting with their tongues. I'd much rather kiss with my lips.

Jill changed my mind. Her tongue was like an extension of her mouth. It wasn't jabbing, digging. It just kind of melted into my mouth. I found myself playing with it, exploring it with my tongue, trying to suck it in further. As I turned up the intensity of the kiss with my lips, I felt its presence more in my mouth. Not hard or harsh. It just flowed, melted. Jill made me a believer.

Once again, we got to our destination and John had to tell us to break it off. Driving definitely has its advantages. Of course, it's kind of difficult to kiss the way we were when you're supposed to be driving. And if we had to have an adult take us around, we could do a lot worse than John.

He had a couple of patients who'd each delivered new patients in the last couple of days that he had to go see at the hospital. And a couple that could pop any minute. Talk about job security. He practiced both as an OB/GYN and a pediatrician. He took care of them till they started kindergarten. He told Jill to call when we were ready to leave the mall but warned us he might not be available. Jill had a couple of blocks to go, I had about 8 miles. I was going to have to make some phone calls if he got tied up.

Jill pulled up her right sleeve and got her hand out, taking my left. We just walked around the mall, glancing in the windows, not seeing anything. The photographs were gone and hadn't been replaced with another display.

"I've walked to school with Mary all week. I found out I really didn't know my sister. She's a pretty cool person."

"That's good. Is she behaving herself?"

"Yes, she is. She did say one thing I found hard to believe."

"What's that?"

"She said she got the idea that you felt you were on probation until we get to know each other. And that you think I might decide I don't want to be with you after we do. Is that what you think?"

"I don't know if I'd use the word 'probation, ' but yeah, that's pretty much it."

"Well, you're wrong. I know I did some stupid things last weekend when I found out how old you are, and I did some really stupid things when you seemed to be throwing yourself at me, but I have made my mind up. I told you last night that I was contemplating marriage with you. That wasn't something I said just to hear myself talk.

"Mary didn't want anything to do with you when Mom finally dragged her out of her room on Wednesday. She told me she didn't want to go to a football game with HER. I pretended not to know who she was talking about but I knew. I heard myself telling her that if she stayed away from you, she'd be sentencing herself to staying away from me because I was going to spend as much time with you as I could. And that I would miss her at my wedding because it seemed to me that you were the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.

"I didn't even think about it as I said it. And, to be honest, I wondered if I was crazy as the words came out of my mouth. But I realized I wasn't. If I'm not in love with you, I'm damn close.

"Do you know what I thought when I woke up in your lap and saw you for the first time?"

"No."

"I thought you were an angel. I thought I might be in heaven. Until Jeff opened his big mouth."

She laughed at that but had to wipe her eyes.

"I love you, Jack."

She grabbed my arms and pulled my face to hers.