Chapter 2

Alma rang Jack's doorbell with a plan. His wife answered.

"Hi, I'm looking for Jack Twist," she greeted Lureen. "My name is Alma, I'm his friend Ennis's daughter."

"Hang on, I'll go get him," she responded. A few seconds later Jack appeared.

"Hi," he greeted her with a worried expression. "Nice to see ya again. Is everything alright with Ennis?"

"Yes, sir, no emergency or anything like that," she replied. "But I am worried about him. May we talk in private?"

"Sure," he said, and opened the door for her to come in, "And please, call me Jack."

He led her into the kitchen. "My son is at football practice and my wife is upstairs in the office with the door closed workin', so we should be okay in here." He pulled out a chair for her to sit.

"Would you like a glass of water?" he asked. She nodded in response, so he went to get hit for her. "I heard you just got married. Congratulations."

"Thank you, sir…Jack," Alma responded nervously.

Jack handed her the water and sat down in the chair next to her. "So..you said you were worried about Ennis?" he asked her, concerned. "What's goin' on?"

"Well. I just came back from visitin' him," she explained. "And he seems real sad and lonely. It seems that outside of work he doesn't really leave his home. I came to you because I know what has been goin' on between you two, and I thought you may be able to help. You see, I remember meetin' you when I was a little girl and you drove up to our house."

"Yeah," Jack said as his thoughts drifted back to that day so long ago. "I thought since your parents was now divorced your daddy and I may try to have a life together. But, he was always so scared of what other people might think. So it never happened. I was so happy driving to your house that day, but I was never so sad as I was driving back."

Alma was now getting a good idea of the man in front of her, and what he shared with her father. "Jack… do you love my daddy?"

Jack was silent for a second. Of course he did not have to hesitate to think of the answer, for he had known it for nearly twenty years now. But he had never admitted it aloud to anybody, least of all Ennis's own daughter. But, perhaps it would be cathartic to finally get everything out in the open after all this time.

"Yes, I do," he finally spoke up. It was liberating to finally let those feeling out. "I always have. That's why I keep meetin' up with him on Brokeback. It's all I can get of him. And like he said to me before. 'If ya can't fix it, ya gotta stand it'. So I've just always had to accept that that is as good as it's gonna get."

Hearing Jack's words and how much her father meant to him truly warmed her heart and made her smile. "I wish my daddy wasn't so scared," she told him. "You two deserve to be happy."

"Well, that's just life I guess," Jack rebuttled sadly. He hated that he had become this cynical, but he couldn't help it. His life just hadn't turned out the way he had wanted it to.

"I told him the same thing," she informed him. "And that my sister and I would be okay with you two together, because it would make him happy. I think he just needs more of a push."

Jack got an idea. "Well, we haven't talked about our next trip to Brokeback yet. I think it will be real soon, though, 'cause he won't be workin' as much. I'll talk to him about it then, and how all that matters is that all of us our happy, including our kids."

"Thank you, Jack." She did not want to bring up the idea of the ranch to Jack, because she thought it better if her father did. And if he didn't, she did not want Jack to be hurt again by having the hope of a future together dangled in front of him and then taken away.

"Thank you," he replied. "It really means a lot that you came and talked to me, and that you are okay with me and your daddy."

"I hope between the two of us we'll get through that stubborn head of his," she said as they both chuckled.

Alma got up to leave and Jack escorted her to the door.

"I hope I'll be seein' you again real soon," she said to him.

"Same here," he reciprocated. "And thanks again for dropping by."

Once Alma had left, Jack wrote a postcard to Ennis asking to meet up as soon as possible. He knew better than to just drop by at his home, after last time. Ennis needed to not be taken off guard. If all was handled right then, maybe, just maybe, this next trip to Brokeback would not have to end with the usual agonizing good-bye.