Chapter One
Jack took one last look in the full-length
mirror. He thought to himself, I don’t know why I even bother worrying about
how I look. This is going to be another horrible date like all the rest.
Where am I finding these ladies? Oh, I know. I’m not. Denny is. While I’m
thinking about it, why do I keep letting him set me up? He
walked into the kitchen to find a snack since he had a couple hours before his
date. As he opened the refrigerator to grab a soda, he heard the front door
open. Jack looked up and said. “Mom.
Don’t you knock?”
Mary smiled
at her son. “Oh Jack. Come on now. What is wrong
with your mama making herself welcome in your home? Even if it is an apartment
and not a house with a nice fenced in yard so my grandchildren can play.”
Jack shook his head. “Oh, you have
grandchildren today? Yesterday I was just giving you one grandchild to play in
the yard. Today you have grandchildren and I’ve sprung for a fence for the
yard. Money is no object for your grandchildren.”
Mary walked over and gave her son a
kiss on the cheek and then helped herself to the refrigerator. “Well Jack I’m
not getting any younger. And while we are talking about it you aren’t getting
any younger.”
Jack let out a sigh. “Um Mom. I’m
only twenty-five. Not a hundred.” He
went over and sat down at the table. “So, what brings you here anyway Mom?”
Mary walked over and sat down across
from her son in the big comfy recliner that she knew he had gotten for her.
“I’m on my way to the church for our monthly fundraising meeting. It’s on the
way so I wanted to stop in and say hi.”
Jack loved to give his mom a hard
time and he knew deep down she enjoyed it too. “Well I’m glad you didn’t have
to go out of your way to stop by. At least it was on your way to somewhere else.”
Mary couldn’t help but laugh. “Very
funny Jack.”
The front door opened. Jade Summer
walked in with her long brown hair pulled back with a headband. She saw Mary
sitting in the chair and Jack on the couch. “Hey Jackie. I’m here. The fun can
begin.”
Mary smiled and then looked at Jack.
“Oh, I see. Jade can just walk right in without knocking but when I do it, I
get yelled at.”
Jack laughed and then smiled up at
Jade. “Jade is different. She’s actually welcome here.”
Mary got up and pretended to be upset.
“Oh, you are too much Jack Wyatt. I need to get going before I’m late. You two
have a fun day.” She walked over and gave her son a hug goodbye.
Jack looked over at Jade. “Whatcha
out doing?”
Jade got up and went to the
refrigerator to find a snack. She ate all the time but you couldn’t tell. She
was blessed with the small figure. “Nothing much. I have to do some errands for
my mom today. I promised her I would help her since it’s my day off. So being
my day off she filled it up with as much as she possibly could. You know how
busy she is.” she said sarcastically. “What are you doing today?”
Jack laughed. He knew what she meant
because he had the same kind of mom. “I have a date in a little while. I’m
going to a late lunch early dinner kind of date.”
“Oh, I see. Where did you meet this
one? The last few haven’t been all that great. You might want to try a new
place to meet your dates.” She laughed as she ate the candy bar she had picked
up from the counter.
Jack
shook his head back and forth with a smile. “I know. Right? I have got to stop
letting Denny fix me up. This one is somebody that one of his old girlfriends
from years ago knows. So, he doesn’t even know her at all.”
Jade almost spit her drink. “Oh my
gosh, Jackie. What in the world are you thinking? I know he’s been our friend
since grade school but he is not good at picking women for you. This is not
going to go well. And when it doesn’t and we both know it won’t, call me. I
can’t wait to hear what happened.”
“Way to stay positive. If you weren’t
my best friend and the only person, I trust with my life, I wouldn’t let you
get away with this kind of negative talk.”
Jade laughed as she stood up. “Well
I have stuff to do and you need to get ready. I’ll see you later and you can
fill me in on how it went.”
“Okay. I hope you enjoy your errands.”
he said with a grin full well knowing she was not going to have any fun. He
knew how her mother was. He knew she would be running all over town for one
item that would be really hard to find and not really needed at all.
Jack grabbed his keys and gave
himself a quick look in the mirror before heading out to meet his date. They
had decided to meet at the local diner down the road so it wasn’t too awkward
for either of them. Jack glanced down at his jeans and t-shirt and thought that
was fine for a diner.
He got into his blue four-wheel
drive Chevy truck and headed down the road. The diner was only a couple of
miles away and it had really good food so he didn’t mind having a laid-back
date like this. It wasn’t as good as
Taco Bell of course. Nothing would beat his favorite place to eat but it would
do for this date.
He walked in and looked around. He
had seen pictures of the girl he was meeting on his friend’s phone so he knew
that was her in the corner booth. She
was sitting there with short blonde hair wearing jeans and a white t-shirt. He walked over to her and said. “Hi. I’m
Jack. You must be Diane.”
The woman smiled and said. “Yes.
It’s nice to meet you. Denny told me so much about you.”
Jack smiled as he sat down. “Well I
hope it was all nice.”
Dianne started laughing in a loud
obnoxious laugh. “Oh my gosh. I just heard it.”
Jack looking confused said. “Heard
what?”
Dianne was getting really excited
and pointed at him. “You are Jack.”
Jack still looking confused nodded.
“Yes.”
“And I’m Dianne.” Dianne said
excitedly.
Jack still confused. “Yes. I thought
we knew that?”
“Oh my gosh. You don’t see it.” she said
almost jumping out of her seat.”
Jack glanced around the diner to see
if anyone else saw her acting odd and luckily nobody was looking. “I guess you
will need to tell me.” he said.
“Dianne started to calm down a
little bit. “You are Jack and I am Dianne.” You know. The song. Jack and Diane
by John Cougar. I love that song. I always thought it would be amazing if I
found a Jack to marry. Then we would forever be Jack and Diane.”
Jack picked up his menu and held his
phone behind it so it couldn’t be seen and hurriedly sent a text to Jade.
“Help. SOS.”
***
Jade had just got in her car finishing
up her last errand when she saw the text and started laughing but knew she had
to save him so headed to the diner where he had mentioned going.
***
Jack sat there trying to make small
talk hoping Jade would get there soon. He knew she would know just what to say.
She always did. Once he saw her walk in, he started to relax.
Jade walked over to the booth and
sat down beside Jack. “Hey Jack. What’s up?”
Dianne looked over at Jade. “Excuse
me. But who are you? We are on a date here.”
Jade smiled. “Oh, I’m sorry. I
didn’t know it was date night. Jack and I need to finish planning our baby’s birthday
party and I can’t do that and watch our other kids.” Jade looked at him. “Honey.
You said you would only be gone an hour. We need you back home now.”
Jack tried to hold in his laugh as
much as he could. “I’m sorry sweety but you know I get hungry and I wanted
diner food. I knew I could get a date to
pay for it if I came here.”
Dianne jumped up. “I’m sorry but you
are crazy. The man is supposed to pay. You have kids? What in the world is wrong
with you? I’m out of here.” And She stormed off.
Jack laughed so hard that his
stomach hurt. “Thank you so much. I owe you.”
Jade nodded. “Yes, you do. Big
time.”
“Well if it makes you feel any
better my mom will love the fact that I have a house full of kids.” He laughed.
“She just told me this morning that I’m getting older and need to give her
grandkids. Now I can tell her I have a houseful.”
Jade laughed as she picked up the
menu. “Well you drug me out here so you are buying me dinner.”
The waitress walked up just then and
asked if she could take their order.
Jack looked at Jade and then back to
the waitress. “Whatever she wants. I owe her big time.”
The waitress smiled and turned to
Jade. “What can I get for you?”
Jade glanced it over for a quick
minute. “Well it’s not Taco Bell but I’ll have a burger and fries I guess.”
Jack couldn’t help but smile because
he had been thinking that same thing earlier. “I’ll take the same.” He said to
the waitress. “And can you bring us a couple of sodas too?”
The waitress nodded and walked off.
***
Jack picked up his phone when the
text notification went off. He saw that it was Denny checking on the date. He
started typing ‘are you kidding me dude’ as the waitress walked over with their
food.
“Here are your burgers and fries.
Let me know if you need anything else.”
They thanked her and immediately
started eating.
Jade said in between bites. “I’m
starving. My mom had me running all over town today and I didn’t take a minute
to stop and eat. I just wanted to get all her errands done.”
“I know how you feel. I was getting
hungry too. I swear I have got to stop going on dates that Denny sets up. This
one was out there.” He said as he snickered.
“Really?” Jade said sarcastically.
“I thought this one looked like a real winner.” She couldn’t hold back the laugh
anymore.
“Oh yeah a real winner. She had us
married before we even ordered any food.” Jack shook his head in disbelief.
They sat there eating their food and
sharing stories of some of their worst dates for about an hour before deciding
they should probably leave. They said their goodbyes and both headed in
different directions to their car and truck.
Jack pulled into his drive and
started to his front door when his text notification went off. He glanced down
to see that Denny was apologizing for this one, but had another great girl for
him. Jack couldn’t help but say to him self ‘great’ yeah right. He didn’t want
to even think about it right then. He just wanted to go inside and relax for
the night.
He sent a text back that said, “I’ll
think about it.”
Instantly his friend sent back.
“I’ll get it set up and send you the details. I knew you would say yes.”
Jack sighed louder than he had
thought as he shook his head. ‘I didn’t say yes.’ He said out loud to nobody
but himself. He couldn’t wait to get
inside and go to bed.
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