Southern Justice, Part Nine

I’m Fixin’ To present part nine of Southern Justice:

B. Wendell was correct about the timing. It took an hour and 10 minutes to drive to the lake, during which time he related every detail about Rick to Jackie. He had committed it all to memory and she had done the same by the time they pulled into the driveway of his potential second home on the lake.

The real estate agent had left the key in the mailbox, but B. Wendell cautiously waited until a slowly moving car went by before he retrieved it.

As he unlocked the door he said, “Come on in Jackie. I’ll be interested to hear what you think about the place. You know—a woman’s point of view.”

Jackie was stunned when they walked into the great room with a multi-colored flagstone fireplace in the center of it extending up to a 17 foot ceiling with giant glass windows left and right of it, and below the windows on the left and on the right of the fireplace were French doors leading out to a deck overlooking the water.

She walked out through one of those doors onto the deck. It was early in March and the lake still bore signs of winter. The water was slightly muddy and the trees were bare, however, she noticed a row of daffodils in full bloom along the seawall, which promised that spring was just around the corner. Overall, the house, the water and the daffodils had a soothing effect on Jackie.

There was a bench against the chimney on which she took a seat and leaned back to feel the warm stone that had been heated by the sun.

B. Wendell came out behind her, took a seat beside her and asked, “Well, what do you think so far?”

“I think it’s beautiful and so quiet. You ought to buy it.”

“Well, that’s true, it is quite lovely, but I meant about the information I gathered on your new boyfriend.”

“I think that’s great, too, but if you don’t buy this house, I will.”

“Forget the house for now, Jackie. I want to know what your plans are. I think you should go to work for the company and we could get a huge settlement.”

“I already told you, B. W., that I have bigger plans than that.”

“Want to share them with me?”

At the same time that Jackie and B. Wendell were discussing him, Rick was perplexed and confused. He had met Jackie one week and one day ago. Since then they had been together every night and some days, but so far the closest they had come to intimacy was holding hands. She hadn’t come on to him and he was afraid to attempt to make a move because he was wary of rejection, and didn’t want to spoil what might possibly come to be between them.

It was Saturday afternoon and he had wanted to spend it with her, but she insisted she had to spend some time with an old friend, so he had sat around all afternoon thinking jealous thoughts. Then at 6 o’clock the phone rang.

“Hello, this is Rick.”

It was Jackie and he could sense a new tone to her voice when she sweetly said, “I missed you this afternoon.”

In his excitement Rick didn’t know how to respond. Finally Jackie said, “Rick, Rick, are you there?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m here,” he replied.

“Well, aren’t you glad to hear from me?”

Rick regained his composure and said, “Real glad, and I missed you, too.”

“You know what?” Jackie crooned. “you’ve never invited me to your place before. How come?”

Rick stuttered, “I-I-I didn’t want to frighten you away.”

“Well, I don’t scare real easy, so how about if I just invite myself?”

Blood surged to Rick’s head and his heart pounded faster. Finally, he managed to say, “I think that would be great.”

Rick lived on the 25th floor of a high-rise in the center of Buckhead. He had never told or shown Jackie where he lived because he didn’t want her to know he was a man of means.

After he gave her the address she whispered, “I’ll be there by seven. Get ready!” she said and hung up the phone.