Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

by MaverickLover2

Bret Maverick and Mary Alice Tompkins tried everything they could to get married the summer he was fifteen, but Bret needed his father's permission and Beauregard wouldn't give it. Mary Alice was supposed to return the next year when Bret was old enough to marry on his own, but the wedding never happened. This is the story of what really took place the following year.

1. Prologue

Prologue

Zeke Holloway. That was the name that he kept reading in letter after letter that arrived from Mary Alice, and it was about to drive him crazy.

He remembered the first time she'd mentioned Holloway, along with several other new friends she'd made in Louisiana. He didn't think anything of it, but as time passed the other names faded away and this one remained, appearing more and more often. Until the mere mention of the name caused him untold hours of misery.

Bret Maverick was only fifteen years old but he was sure he'd found the love of his life. At least he'd been sure when Mary Alice Tompkins was sent to Louisiana to live with her Aunt in September. At first he was so angry he stopped talking to his father, for not letting them marry, and his brother Bart, for telling that they'd run off to get married, and it continued until almost Christmas. That was all over now, and the year had made the turn into January, but things had not improved much on the home front. Even though he spoke to his father things were still strained, and even his relationship with his brother was different.

And then there were the letters, and the name. Zeke Holloway. And that was an even bigger concern.