Okay, this is my first attempt at a romance, it could probably be a novel but I’m only giving three perspectives. Basically this is going to be an ongoing story, with lots of twists and turns. Wait until you see the coming chapters. And of you’re wondering about the title of the story it’s a country song, but I’ll explain the title later on. Trust me it’ll make sense.
NOW: Frank
A cool breeze sent the smoke from the barbeque wafting gently away as a man wearing hot mitts and holding a large fork busily tended the food that was in danger of burning. The sound of sputtering grease and the muted whisper of the propane grill was drowned out by the other sounds of the party. This didn’t come as much of a surprise considering the event was a long awaited one.
Dozens of tables were set up around the spacious backyard and were filled with people talking, laughing and busily eating. Groups of people dotted the luscious green lawn holding conversations, spreading rumors and gossip and generally having a good time. Amidst the legs of the adults and the tables scrambled dozens of kids ranging from toddlers to ones as old as twelve and thirteen. They seemed to be having the most fun.
The kid who the party was being held for was holding court in the garage just around a small white fence from the backyard. He and his friends were sitting at a few tables drinking beer, eating, smoking cigarettes, holding conversations and yelling playfully at one another. He had just graduated from five years of college with his CPA and was glad to finally be done with all the term papers and studying.
This was his party and he was enjoying it. His pockets were already filled with a large number of checks and some folding green. He would be smiling all the way to the bank on Monday.
Despite the fact that this was his party he had already picked up on the fact that most of the whispered conversations and underlying topic of the party was centered on his brother. Well more specifically, it was all centered on the girl who hadn’t yet left his side through the entire event. This didn’t bother him much, he had always been proud of his brother and as equally in awe of this girl as everyone else was.
Frank, the kid who the party was in honor of, kind of wondered deep down how his brother, Jason, could have ever gotten this girl all for himself. Not that everyone there didn’t respect Jason; in fact he had always been a source of pride for the family. He had been the first grandson on either side of their parents’ families to graduate college.
When Jason had recovered from his accident and realized that his dream of becoming a police officer would never be realized he had gone down hill. Somewhere along the way he had gotten himself back together, which was right about the time he met this girl, Melissa. After that, Jason had taken over their father’s construction company, running it with an iron fist and an unsettling intensity and confidence that surprised everyone. Through all that this girl had become an ever increasing fixture in Jason’s life, which surprised everyone who was privileged to know who she was and where she came from.
Frank looked out the door of the garage at the front lawn. The front yard had so far been spared the intense racket that permeated the backyard. The only thing sitting on the front lawn was Jason’s pickup truck, which was one bad ass creation. Beyond that, Frank could see the hammock.
Jason was lying in the hammock, sound asleep, Melissa against him, also asleep and the nine week old Golden Retriever puppy they had bought sleeping in her arms. Frank could clearly see Melissa’s curly blonde hair draped over his brother’s arm and her cute face against his chest. Smiling, Frank sipped his beer and tried to push thoughts of Melissa out of his head.
He wasn’t ashamed of those thoughts, every one of his friends had made some disgusting comment about her already. They all knew, though, that should Jason hear those comments they would end up through a wall. Frank knew his brother well enough to remind his friends about his brother’s barely suppressed aggression. In fact, were it not for Melissa, he was sure Jason would have killed someone already. Actually to be more precise, because of Melissa he had almost killed someone.
“ Hey, Frank,” called Joe, Frank’s best friend since grade school.
Frank smiled and turned to face his friend.
“ What, loser?”
Joe smiled. “ Andrea wants to know the story about your brother and his girlfriend.”
Frank smiled as Andrea, Joe’s girlfriend, turned to face him. All their other friends kind of turned also, none of them really knowing the story, and the few that did always liked to hear it again. Knowing how good the story really was, Frank couldn’t resist.
“ Well, you’d have to go back about three years ago. Actually, it’s more like seven years ago. . .
THEN: Jason
Jason Cooper had gone to a Catholic High School. He hadn’t been popular, which wasn’t to say he was unpopular, merely that he hadn’t been involved or interested in high school politics. He played football for four years and made a bunch of friends through the sport and had a pretty good time.
Jason walked through the school with a giant chip on his shoulder, his ego being bigger than his muscle. His attitude got him in trouble on more than one occasion, which eventually lead to more than a few fistfights. He won a few and lost a few, but usually broke even.
Along with his father, Jason enjoyed hunting and working on cars. When he finally got his license and first car, he was more than a terror on the streets, racing anyone and everything to prove his supremacy. His vehicular adventures also got him in a little trouble.
Through it all, though, Jason always wanted to become a police officer. But more than that he wanted to be in love. Nevertheless, love would not find him in high school. He went through four years without having a single girlfriend or a date. Which wasn’t to say he was ugly, just completely clueless when it came to talking to girls.
Melissa Gambino also went to a Catholic High School. In fact she went to the same school as Jason, but she was a year ahead of him. She was very popular, she was incredibly gorgeous and she was very rich.
Melissa owned the school, but not in a snotty, stuck up way. She was very sweet, very nice and very smart. She never had a problem getting a date or having a boyfriend. She could take her pick among the guys at school and she kind of enjoyed having all that power.
She was a cheerleader for four years and the crowd at all the football games loved her. So did Jason, who spent most of the games watching her and all the other girls from the sidelines. Neither of them had an opinion on the other.
Jason’s opinion was merely that he didn’t have a chance in hell, so he never thought of her as anything other than some very fine eye candy. Melissa didn’t even know him so of course she wouldn’t have an opinion. Actually, in the three years they went to school together they only met and talked once, though that conversation became the foundation for something that would happen many years later.
It was after the school picnic in Melissa’s senior year. Jason had brought a duffel bag full of water guns. This had been the reason for the large amount of drenched students and the ensuing ban on water guns for all future school picnics.
Jason was walking around the lawn behind school, picking up all his guns and putting them back in the duffel bag. His mother was waiting nearby, talking to one of the teachers. As he placed the last gun in the bag, Melissa walked over to him.
“ Hey,” she said.
Jason turned and saw her, startled that she was speaking to him. “ Hey,” he replied.
“ What’s in there?” she asked, looking at the bag.
Jason smiled as he looked down at her. She was only five-three compared to his six foot one inch height. He opened the bag and showed her all the water guns.
“ Oh,” she said. “ So you’re the reason I got all wet today?”
Trying not to laugh, Jason merely smiled.
“ Yeah,” he replied.
Melissa nodded. “ Thanks. Well, see you later.”
And with that she walked away, leaving Jason speechless, not really believing that after three years he finally got a chance to talk to her and had only said two words. Little did he realize that fate would bring the two of them back together one day.
Jason graduated high school the following year. He began his college career at Seton Hall the following fall, with little on his itinerary aside from studying. But, fate would change that as well.
Through a series of chance meetings and quick decisions, coupled with a night with nothing to do, Jason found himself on the cheerleading team. The decision shocked everyone that knew him, not being able to picture him as a cheerleader. He got some good natured ribbing from his friends, but took it all in stride. He figured he had played with sweaty guys for four years on the football team and hadn’t gotten a single girl. So he might as well play with some of the finest looking women on campus and at least get to touch what he couldn’t have.
Jason was actually the best guy cheerleader on the team. Pretty soon, his large physical size had him throwing girls into the air and doing all sorts of dangerous stunts. As time went by he became very popular on campus and pretty much everyone knew him whether from class or from cheering the basketball games.
Despite being friends with some of the hottest girls on campus, Jason couldn’t get a girlfriend. It wasn’t until he got a job at an auto parts store that he finally got his first girlfriend. She was a cute girl, who worked at the store but before long she became too attached for Jason’s tastes and they broke up.
The reason he had gotten the job at the auto parts store in the first place was to support his hobby. He had gotten into cars right after graduating high school. Before that he had raced on the street but never really built anything. Now he was fully involved in building a sick street car out of an ’87 Monte Carlo Super Sport. That car was how he got his second girlfriend.
She was another really cute girl and it seemed to be working, until she dumped him out of the blue. As it turned out she had used him to make another guy that worked right down the street jealous. It worked, they started going out and eventually got married. But the event had left Jason scarred, making it very difficult for him to trust any girl.
Then in the fall of his senior year at Seton Hall, it happened. Jason was walking across the street at work to get a part from their warehouse. He had done it hundreds of times in the year and a half he had worked there, it was common practice for all the counter guys. But there had never been a drunk driver barreling down that road before.
The impact broke both Jason’s legs and left him bleeding, unconscious and beat up really bad. Though his legs healed, the damage was so extensive that it was immediately apparent that his chances of becoming a police officer were gone. The event left Jason in a pit of self-loathing and depression.
Amazingly, Jason graduated on time, his grades barely suffering. He never returned to his job at the auto parts store after the accident, instead he went to work for his father, who owned his own construction company. Jason also sold his Monte Carlo, though he never told anyone why, Frank suspected because it was that car that had lead him to take the job that shattered his dream of becoming a cop.
Jason managed to get his commercial driver’s license and solidify his skills at running heavy equipment enough before his graduation to prove he was a valuable employee in his father’s company. Jason’s father had always been proud of both his sons, though, and had wanted Jason to come and work for him for a long time. When Jason graduated he even gave him the money for a down payment on a new truck.
It was about a month after Jason graduated from Seton Hall that Melissa came back into his life. Once again it was fate playing out its intriguing design. In fact neither Melissa nor Jason could really believe that any of this had happened.
Jason had slept in one morning, merely because he had stayed up too late the night before. He woke up late, showered, dressed and left to meet his father at one of their jobs in the next town over. On the way he stopped to grab coffee for himself, his father and the two guys working for them.
He walked into the QuikChek that he always went too, because they had the best coffee besides Dunkin’ Donuts. He stood in front of the counter where the coffee was sitting and scanned the cups protruding from the counter. It was the kind of setup where the cups were placed in special holders so they stick straight out from the counter. You know, where you have to reach over them to get the coffee.
So Jason was standing there, trying to find the ‘large’ cups, but not seeing them. Looking further down the row he saw them, but couldn’t reach them because of the blonde leaning over them to fill a cup with flavored coffee. Jason couldn’t help but admire this girl.
