Country Lovin': Chapter Thirteen

"Your eye looks good." Auny Kitty said as she touched the area around Valene's eye gingerly.

"It looks good, sis." Nadine agreed.

"Thanks. I'm just glad to have that stupid patch off for good. I can see with both eyes now." She said with a smile.

"I'm happy for you. I want to thank you again for taking me to dinner last night." Aunt Kitty said with a smile as she crumpled up the bandage in her hand and walked into the kitchen and threw it away.

"It was nothing. It was the least I could do for you." Valene told her.

"Yeah, I was left all alone to watch some stupid old show on television." Nadine huffed as she fell back onto the couch.

"Yeah right, you probably liked it. You like those old black and white movies. So, don't even go there, Naddie." Valene said with a grin as she felt down next to her.

"I'm going to go upstairs and take a nap. This heat is draining me." Aunt Kitty said with a smile.

"Okay Aunt Kitty." Nadine said with a soft wave as she watched her Aunt Kitty walk up the steps.

"Was she mom's aunt?" She asked Valene who had picked up an old magazine.

"What?" Valene asked.

"Was Aunt Kitty mom's aunt? Or dad's?" Nadine replied.

"Mom's I think. Why?" Valene asked, looking over at her sister.

"Because Aunt Kitty looks and reminds me so much of mom." Nadine replied as she thought about her answer.

"Oh." Valene replied as she inched the magazine back up and she began to read the article.

"So, what is it with you and Jessie?" Nadine asked.

Valene smirked and tossed the magazine onto the coffee table. "What's with the twenty questions?"

"Well, are you and Jessie together?" She asked.

"No. We aren't...together. We're just good friends. That's all." She shook her head and stood. "What time is it?"

"Almost five." Nadine replied.

Valene stretched, standing on her tip toes. "He's so nice." She told her sister.

"What?" Nadine had picked up the magazine and had begun to look through it.

"Jessie, he's nice."

Nadine smiled. "And he's very hot."

"Hot?"

"Hot. He's got that to-die-for smile and those big chocolate brown eyes, and that body..." Nadine purred.

"You're such a softy for men." Valene told her.

"And you need to go over to that man and just be like...take me away." Nadine grinned and when Valene gave her a weird look, she tossed the magazine at her. "You need some adventure. Get wild, get freaky, get kinky!"

"You need to go take a nap, I think the heat is frying your brain." Valene replied as she sunk down into the overstuffed chair.

"It's true, you know." Nadine told her.

"Naddie..."

"Don't call me Naddie. That is such a stupid name." Nadine told her as she crossed her legs. "Anyway, I know you have a thing for Jessie. I can tell. Does he have a thing for you?" She asked.

"More or less." Valene replied giving in. Her eyes lit up and she smiled. "He's so sweet and when he kissed me last night, I felt....I didn't even feel. I was flying."

Nadine grinned. "I am so happy for you, girl! You so deserve a man who can make you happy. You guys are going to be together forever."

"If we ever get together." Valene murmured.

"Aren't you guys already together?" Nadine asked.

"I don't know. I guess...I think. I haven't seem him since that night. I've been so busy being with Aunt Kitty that I haven't really gone out."

"You should call him. Maybe go out...spend the day together. I mean, you have four days left of vacation." Nadine pointed out as she stood.

"You really think so? Should I do it tonight?" Valene asked.

"Yes. Definitely tonight. Didn't you hear a word I just said?"

Valene smiled. "Thanks Naddie. I'm so glad you're my sister. Even though you are my younger sister."

"I told you not to call me Naddie. I might have to kick your ass." Nadine laughed and walked into the kitchen.

Valene sighed and looked out the window. She was almost afraid of what he'd say. She had become so much more conscious of what she said and how she said it.

She went to the phone on the side table and dialed Jessie's phone number. It rang three times and when the answering machine picked up, she rubbed her forehead. She always hated answering machines.

"Hey Jess, it's me. Uh, I was wondering if you had plans for tonight? I'll be here, because I don't have any plans. Sorry I haven't called, I've been busy with Aunt Kitty. I hope everything is well....uh...talk with you later. You should know the number...bye." Feeling rediculous, she hung up the phone.

"So, what did he say?" Nadine came rushing back into the living room, the sound of a flushing toilet could be heard.

"Nothing. I got the answering machine." Valene replied dryly.

"I hate those things. Don't you?"

"Always. Make everything seem so damn final. Like you want something." Nadine replied.

"Exactly. I'm going to go sit outside." Valene said finally.

"All right. I'm going to go make some dinner. You want anything?" Nadine asked.

"No. Not at the moment. Not really hungry. If I want something, I'll fix it." She replied. Nadine nodded and walked off into the kitchen.

º º º º º º º

Jessie wiped his forehead with the sleeve of his flannel shirt. He had just finished herding the cattle into the large barn. The bottom floor, almost like a basement, of the barn. It was where they slept and where they were milked.

He made sure each one of them were in their stalls, and made sure each of them had their hay, their food, and their water. Which each of them did.

He took off his flannel, finding that he was too sweaty and it was sticking to him. The flimsy, almost see through white tank top he was wearing beneath it had traces of dust, dirt, and grass stains. Which, by the way, matched his jeans and even his skin. Most of the stains were old. He couldn't help those, and particularly didn't want to.

Climbing up the steps of his porch, he sombered through the front door and into the living room where he slumped down onto the couch. He kicked off his boots and laid down, tossing his hat off and laying down in the process. He was bushed, and it was so damn hazy outside, he just wished he could sleep.

Something caught the corner of his eye before he closed it. A blinking red light on the small stand in front of the stairs. Someone had left a message while he was outside.

Grunting, he stood up and strolled over to it. He pushed the button, and the beautiful sound of Valene's voice wavered through the speakers...

"Hey Jess, it's me. Uh, I was wondering if you had plans for tonight? I'll be here, because I don't have any plans. Sorry I haven't called, I've been busy with Aunt Kitty. I hope everything is well....uh...talk with you later. You should know the number...bye."

After the message, came a beep and the sound of a male voice saying there were no more messages. He smiled and cleared the message. Did he feel like being with her? Did he have the energy? Hell yeah he did. Yes to both questions. He could muster up any energy needed to spend time with Valene. It had been almost four days since seeing her and he missed her. Missed hearing her voice, her laugh, and her eyes.

He lifted his own phone off the receiver and punched in Kitty's number, and the phone rang twice before it was picked up.

"Hello? Nadine Zimmerman speaking."

"Hey Nadine, Valene there?" He asked.

"Jessie?" The voice came almost as a shock.

"Yup, it's me."

"All right. I'll go get Val."

He heard as Nadine set the phone down and heard faintly, the sound of the screen door being opened. He didn't hear Nadine calling out to her. But heard the faint sound of the screen door being opened again, and the laughter he recognized, Valene's.

The phone was being picked up and he smiled in the anticipation of hearing her voice. "Jess?"

"Hey, what's up?"

"Nothing. You got my message?" She asked.

"Yeah. If I didn't, I'd probably be sleepin' on my couch, with my feet up, letting the cool summer breeze blow me over." He let out a hearty laugh.

"Then, we don't have to do anything tonight, if your tired, then—"

"Nonsense. I'm never too tired to meet you. To prove it, I'll bring you over to my house, and I'll cook you dinner."

"Cook me dinner?" She sounded stunned, which was good. He wanted her to be.

"Yup. I'm a good cook, to let you know. Ask your Aunt Kitty. She'll back me up on that. Don't talk to Laremy, he'll tell you otherwise, and he's a liar." Jessie told her with a laugh.

Valene laughed. "As long as you don't try and posion me, I'll come over."

"Let me come and get you." Jessie insisted.

"I know where you live." Valene retorted.

"I know, but still. It's only proper, and plus it would make me more of a gentleman if I did so." He was grinning as he spoke.

"Only if it is the proper thing to do, and if it'll make a gentleman out of you. Two big incentives there."

He could just hear her smile. She must be grinning from ear to ear, he thought happily. "As long as I get to pick you up and bring ya on out, I'll do just about anything."

"Anything."

"Almost anything." Jessie told her.

"What time?" She asked.

"Give me about three hours...so eight?" He asked.

"What are you going to fix me? A grand French buffet?" She asked.

"I still haven't decided what I'm going to fix, so you have to going to have to wait. You're probably going to be spending all that time looking all foxy for me anyway." Jessie grinned at just the thought of her doing so. He rubbed the nape of his neck and then ran his hand through his hair. "Plus, I have to go and take a shower myself. I do work outside, sweating out in that heat."

"You poor baby." Valene cooed. "I'll be waiting for your rust to pull up in my driveway. Better be cooking me something good, or I'll be ordering take-out." She laughed and they both said their good-byes.

Jessie hung up his phone and hurried up the wooden steps to his bedroom. The bed was made, something he had picked up from childhood, when his mother used make to him and his sister make the bed every day before school. It had just stuck with him.

He grabbed a pair of recently purchased jeans, a good dress shirt, and a pair of his good boots. He grabbed some underwear and hurried off into the bathroom where he quickly showered. He had already had an idea of what to cook for Valene.

º º º º º º º

"He's going to cook for you?" Nadine was excited as she followed her sister up the stairs.

"Yes he is, scary as that may sound." Valene replied as she reached the second floor and walked towards her bedroom.

"Do you know what he's going to cook?" Nadine asked.

Valene shook her head and she walked over to the closet. "No. I hope it is something good. Something to make my mouth water."

"I think just himself is going to make your mouth water." Nadine smirked and sat down on Valene's bed.

"Oh Naddie!" Valene said with a giggle as she searched through her closet. She pulled out a long black skirt and showed it to Nadine.

Nadine showed a face of disgust. "Wear something sexy! Do you have anything short? Like mid-thigh or something?"

Valene shook her head. "No. I never had the need for something like that." She replied hanging up the skirt.

Nadine's face lit up as she grinned. "Good. I do." She hopped off the bed and hurried over to the other spare room where she was sleeping.

Valene was looking at some shirts when Nadine rushed back into the bedroom. She was holding a skirt and shirt in her hand. "Here." She said handing them to Valene.

Valene looked at the skirt, then up at Nadine and raised her eye brows. "This isn't me, Naddie."

Nadine laughed. "You're going to look hot and you're going to knock his little cowboy boots right off of his feet. You need to be daring. Got to show him just how you feel."

"I'll look like a complete idiot." Valene whined.

"Don't make me attack you, tie you up and put that skirt on you." Nadine told her with an evil grin.

"All right. All right. If I look stupid, I'm taking it off." Valene proclaimed.

Valene shed her clothes and put on the crimsen skirt which went mid-thigh. The skirt hugged her thighs and she felt almost self-conscious. She wasn't sure how she would feel. She then put on the black tank top, which revealed some of her stomach. She looked over at Nadine, pleading her with her eyes.

"You look so hot! Oh my God, Valene! He is going to have to control himself!" Nadine giggled. "Do you have strapy high heels?" She asked, getting excited.

Valene felt embarrassed. "No. I feel like a hooker or something." She told her honestly.

"You look sexy! I think it looks better on you than me!" Nadine replied and hurried out of the room, returning with a pair of shoes. "You wear eights, right?"

Valene nodded and took the shoes, feeling almost embarrassed. "I don't know, Naddie."

"Don't look at me like this. Put on those shoes! I want to see you! I might just have to get out my camera too! Oh my God, Valene, you are so sexy in that outfit. You're lucky your my sister and that I am straight." She grinned evily.

"Don't even go there, sister. I might just have to smack you back into reality." Valene laughed nervously and slipped on the shoes, straping them on her ankle. She shut the bedroom door again to see herself in the mirror. "Do you seriously think he'll like this?" Valene glanced over at her sister.

"He'd have to be blind and stupid not to." Nadine informed her. "Now," Nadine said as she grabbed her sister's arm. "Let's go do something with your hair."

º º º º º º º

Jessie glanced at himself once last time. Dinner was almost ready, and he had to go pick up Valene. He turned down everything on warm so he didn't burn the house down while he was away.

Smiling, he grabbed his keys and left the house, making sure to grab his hat before he closed the door behind him.

When he pulled into the drive way, only the first floor lights were on. He felt almost nervous. He climbed out and walked up to the front door. Sighing, he lifted up his hand and knocked.

Nadine came to the door, dressed in a pair of green plaid pajama pants and a white pajama tank top. "You here for Valene?" She asked with a smile.

Jessie grinned. "Sure is. She ready?"

Nadine nodded and turned her head. "Mr. Romantic is here for you."

His jaw about dropped when he saw her. Her hair was swept up in a twist, with a few tendrils of hair hanging from her temple, her lips were a soft crimsen, and the gray eye shadow made her beautiful blue eyes stand out. The shirt she was wearing hugged her breasts and the skirt did wonders for her legs. It made them look longer and more stunning. This woman had conquered in the task of making him speechless.

"Do you like it?" She asked.

He couldn't bring himself to speak. His throat seemed to have closed up on him, so he nodded. She smiled and walked over to him. She was a few inches taller with the heeled shoes. He noticed she had pretty toes.

"You're...beautiful." He finally managed to speak it.

"Do you think?" She asked.

"How many times do you want him to repeat it? He already thinks your a walking, talking, piece of sexy woman, so go already." Nadine said with a slight giggle. "See you tomorrow." She laughed and closed the door behind the screen door.

Valene stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the black T-topped Corvette sitting in her driveway. "Who...Who's is that?" She asked, finally finding the opportunity to speak.

"It's mine." He replied.

"Your's?" She asked, wanting to hear it again.

"Yup. It's been mine for the past three years. Haven't really found a reason to drive it until I thought about it tonight. You said you didn't like my truck." Jessie took her hand into his and led her to the car, and opened the door for her.

He hurried over to the driver's side of the car and climbed in. "I thought you'd like it." He told her with a grin.

"Yeah, I do. This car is so beautiful. Where did you have it?" She asked him as she ran her hand down the side of the seat.

"I had it parked on the side of the barn beneath a tarp." He replied. "I had no room in my barn, or that's where I'd keep it."

"What do you have cooked?" She asked him.

"Well, it's still cooking, but I'm going to let you guess when we get back to my place." He told her as he started up the car and headed out of the drive way.

She smiled when he helped her out of the car. "I thought you'd like it. I didn't even think about it when I took you out to dinner the other night." He told her as he led her up the steps of the front porch.

"It's all right. I like it just the same anyhow. I've never seen a car so beautiful." She told him.

Her heart was beating at an unbelievable rate. Her breathing was in short rasps. His hand felt so warm and strong as it wrapped around hers.

He led her into the kitchen and to the table. The house looked different somehow, than what it did the first time she had been there. Probably because she was looking through it with a different set of eyes.

"It smells good." She told him as she breathed in the vibrant smells swimming over from the stove and oven.

"Thank you. I thought you'd like it. Know what it is?" He asked.

She breathed the smells in again and a smile spread across her face. "Spaghetti with tomato sauce, garlic bread, and sausage...I think the cheese and garlic flavor."

"I bow to thee." Jessie bowed while he pulled up the lid of a larger pot and picked up a wooden spoon to stir the sauce.

"It's pretty obvious." Valene declared as she crossed her legs and kept her eyes on Jessie as he came over to the table.

He had taken off his hat, and his hair looked good. He had put mousse in it and it looked good. His white dress shirt looked good, maybe too good. It hugged the broadth of his shoulders and the muscles of his chest. His jeans were just the same, hugging his hips and thighs, she felt her throat go dry.

"Are you hungry?" He asked as he took a seat in the chair across from her.

"Of course. Haven't eaten since lunch." She replied.

"Good." He replied with a smile. "You do looking stunning, Val. Never thought any woman could make me speechless, but you've done it." His smile went into a smirk, making her blush.

"It was my sister's idea." Valene confessed.

"I like your sister." Jessie declared. "And I see you removed your eye patch. Now, I get to see both of your beautiful eyes."

The intensity of his gaze on her made her heart beat erratically. She was so scared that she might just blurt out that she liked him as he did her. She was afraid that she would have to leave him behind when she went back to New York. She was afraid she might never see him again.

"What did you do on the farm?" She asked, changing the subject and the temperature in the room.

"I let the cows out to pasture, like I do every morning, fed the pigs, the goats, then I had to clean out the cow stalls, the pig stalls, and even the goat stalls, lay out new hay, put food and fresh water into each stall, then I brought the cows back in. I'm sending a few out tomorrow to be butchered."

"Butchered?" Valene almost felt afraid to use the word.

"Yeah, it's how I get my money. I'll have to send off some pigs next week." Jessie informed her. "It's what my father used to do for a living. That meat you buy from the store, here in Almira, comes from this farm. Even the goat cheese."

"Wow." Valene replied, not knowing the extent of it.

Jessie stood and walked over the stove where he stirred the sauce. "I just have to boil the spaghetti and then we can eat. I think I have some wine down in the cellar. Would you like some with dinner?" He asked, looking over at her.

"Sure." She smiled and nodded.

Jessie hurried down the basement steps and went to the far back wall. There was a rack that had some dusty bottles of wine, some even new, some old. He grabbed one w. a bit more dust and pulled it out. It was from 1956. He smiled and pulled it out. It was made the year his mother was born.

When he came back upstairs, Valene was in the living room, looking at pictures on the mantle. He gazed from foot to head, and back down. She was so beautiful and breath taking that it was unbelievable. Her legs were long and slim and she had the cutest backside.

A few tendrils of hair had fallen softly onto the back of her neck, and it made her so beautiful. It was so hard for him to find the words to explain how his heart felt. He had never once in his life felt this way about any woman, especially a city woman. He never in his life thought that he would've fallen in love with a city woman.

In love... Could he really be in love? With Valene Zimmerman? She was so beautiful. What would she see in him? He was a cattle farmer who lived on a farm and worked hard every day. He didn't have vacation time, didn't have the money to go to Las Vegas, or the Bahamas. She was from the city, she'd want that. She'd want to get away from life, to the tropical paradises, where she didn't have to worry about anything.

"Hey." He said with a dry smile. She turned around and her face lit up when she smiled.

"Hey." She walked back over towards him and they walked into the kitchen together. "Is that one of you when you were a kid?" She asked.

"Heh, the one of me in a cowboy hat too big for my head?" When she nodded, "Yup, that was me."

She laughed and sat down at the kitchen table. "You were a cutie." She told him.

"I am a cutie." Jessie corrected.

Valene laughed. "Yes, you still are." She blushed as she spoke the words.

Jessie turned around as he picked up the bowling pot of spaghetti and carried it to the sink. "You think so? I always thought I was the only one who thought that." He grinned as he poured the spaghetti into the strainer.

She giggled and leaned back into the chair. "I doubt you are or were the only one who thinks that." She confessed. "I mean...you are very hunky. My sister even thinks so. I mean, Aunt Kitty even thinks so."

"Nadine and even Aunt Kitty?" Jessie shook the the pot, making sure everything was out and placed it back onto the stove, turning off the heat. "Hungry?"

"Yes." She replied with a smile.

Dinner went by as they talked. They talked about their childhood experiences, their future dreams, and what they truly expected of themselves. Valene felt herself opening up to him in ways that she hadn't with anyone else. She just felt like she could trust him. That made her smile and open up to him even more. Even about her worst fears then and now.

She stared into his eyes as he talked about himself and she found herself falling in love with him. No matter how afraid she was about what would happen, she was only aware of tonight and how she was feeling tonight.

"Country Lovin': Chapter Fourteen"