Redhead Meets Redneck: First Date (17 page)

Laura walked to the sofa in front of the living room picture window and sat next to William. She pressed against him, and laid her head on his shoulder.

“William?”

“Yes?”

“You
’re getting along much better.”

“E
very day my strength is better than the day before. Why?”

“I haven’t been home for almost a week. I called Keisha, but we didn’t talk very long. I need to do some laundry, pay some bills, and—”

“I’m going to miss you. I know you have to go, but I’ve been dreading this moment. If it weren’t for you, I’d never have been able to get through Jimmy’s death and funeral.”

Laura’s eyes began to pool
, then tears started forming. Soon both cheeks were covered with tears and her shoulders were convulsing. William reached out and pulled her close. “Laura, it’s okay. You’re not going away forever. I know you need to catch up on things at home.”

“It’s not that. I—I—am—the reason—Jimmy—died.” As she finished the sentence, she began cr
ying in a desperate voice.

“No, no, it’s not your fault. The terrorists were the culprits. They tried to do evil deeds, and
that’s what caused his death.”

“But if I didn’t have such a terrible job, and if I hadn’t tried online dating, and if I hadn’t met you, he
’d still be alive.”

“First of all, if you hadn’t met me
, I would be missing out on the best thing that ever happened to me. Second, if you didn’t have that job, someone else would have had the job, and they and their friends would have been the target of the terrorists. So no matter how you look at it, innocent people would have died.”

Laura sniffled and pulled out Kleenex
, wiped her eyes and blew her nose. “You’re not mad a me for getting Jimmy killed?”

“Laura,
I’m madly in love with you. No, I don’t blame you. It’s not your fault. It’s strange, I lost my best friend and met my wife-to-be, all in the same weekend.”

Laura pulled out another Kleenex and blew her nose again. Looking into William’s eyes
, she said, “I love you, and I’m so glad you don’t hate me. I couldn’t bear the thought of your thinking that I was responsible for Jimmy’s death.”

William pau
sed, and then spoke. “This week has been the worst week of my life.” His voice had a ragged edge to it. “But it’s also been the best week of my life, thanks to you. I’ve been looking for the perfect match and never found it until now.”

“Perfect
match?”

“Before we met face to face, I began to fall in love with you, your intelligence, self sufficiency and independence, and of course
the pictures that showed your beautiful red hair.”

“So you thought I was the perfect match for you?”

“Almost.”

“Almost?”

“You never mentioned anything about having children. I’ve had so many women show an interest in me, but they didn’t want children, just a life of luxury, and a man with good looks. I learned that I shouldn’t mention things on the first date like the nice home I have, because that’s all that most worldly women want. I was concerned about how you felt about children. I’ve always wanted lots of kids, and that’s why I built this large house. I’ve just been waiting for a women to come along who wants the same things I do.”

“But we haven’t talked about children. What makes you think that I want th
em?”

“When I saw you at church hugging the little boy with red hair, I could tell. You had
a special spark in your smile afterwards.”

“Oh, William, I noticed the same thing about you when you talked about child
ren. That clinched it for me too.”

Laura slid her arm around William’s waist. “So, are we still engaged?”

“Absolutely. I’m looking forward to buying you a beautiful ring that you can show to Keisha and all your friends. Then we can have a big party and make the announcement to all of my friends. Then—”

“William,
before we do all that, don’t you think we should have a second date?”

“Hmm,
that would be a good idea.”

“Why don’t I come back Sunday, and we can have a wonderful second date.”

“Sunday? Well, lets see . . .” William took on a pensive mood.

“Hey, why aren’t you jumping at the chance to see me again?”

“Oh, well, it’s just that, I—ah . . .”

Laura’s lips began
poking out. “So, this is how our relationship is going to be. You have things that are more important than me? Are you going to watch football with your redneck friends? You have a tractor pull you’re going to? Maybe you have another girlfriend stashed away that you haven’t seen for a while?”

“Laura, no, no, no. Listen, it’s not like that.”

“Well, what is it like?”

“Laura, I was just making plans for Sunday and—”

“You made plans for Sunday! Why didn’t you check with me first? Maybe I’d like to have some say in what my fiancée is going to do on Sunday.”

“Laura.” William turned sideways so they were face to face. “I was just thinking about something that I might do Sunday morning.
Why don’t we have our second date Sunday afternoon?”

Laura jumped off the sofa
, stood in front of William, and stared down at him, “Sunday afternoon! What is so important about Sunday morning that we can’t get together?”

William slowly
stood; he winced at the pain that still throbbed in his chest when he moved. “I love you. I want us to spend our lives together. But—”

“But what? What’s her name?”

William took a deep breath. “It’s not a her, it’s a him.”

“Him?”

“I thought I’d go back to that biker church and listen to another of the pastor’s sermons. I’ve been thinking about what he said, and he made a lot of sense. I could come home immediately afterwards, and we could have a nice afternoon. Maybe we could go for a picnic.”

Laura
’s mouth hung open. She just stared at William. “I—I’d like that. But would you mind if I went with you to church?”

“Of course
. In fact, that would be wonderful. I would’ve asked you to go with me, but I didn’t think you’d want to be around a bunch of redneck bikers.”

“Hey, even rednecks are human beings.” Laura smiled.

“That sounds familiar.”

“William, I like the idea of a picnic . . .”

“But?”

“Well, the church is having a picnic afterwards. Why don’t we attend their picnic and then we could talk to the pastor
. I could talk to some of the ladies, you could talk to some of the guys about boring out flathead engines, and . . .”

“And what?”

“And, I want to give a Dr. Seuss book to a very special little boy who has a birthday coming up soon.”

William drew Laura into his arms and whispered into her ear, “It’s a date.”

###

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