Jackie couldn't help but think about how funny it seemed that just two weeks ago she was crying and begging not to come to Point Place, but now she wouldn't want to be anywhere else. If she was still in Dallas she would be there in the pool hall flirting with men for free beers and shocking the hell out of the men dumb enough to take her on in a pool game. That used to be the best way to spend a Friday night before this moment. Nothing has ever beat the feeling she had as she sat on her bed watching Hyde as he sat on the floor skimming over her 'secrets'. In reality they weren't secrets just a bunch of sheet music. Some of it was stuff she had written, others were covers that she would play back in Dallas with her friends. "So, you never did answer my question why do you hide all this in Abba albums?" Hyde asked as he looked up at her.
"I had a friend back in Dallas who used to buy Abba records by the dozens and toss them at the wall when she got angry. I took some of the covers." Jackie replied as she smiled down at him before moving to sit down next to him.
"I never knew Dallas had so many disco hating angry chicks." Hyde said with a laugh as he looked at her.
"The whole two you know about." She laughed as she replied. "Don't worry I am the original." She said with a smile before she leaned in to kiss him. He just smiled before their lips met. He never pictured himself with a girl like Jackie before. Honestly, he used to always have a thing for Donna before this beautiful woman came into his life. They had only been like this for a week, but he already knew he never wanted to settle for any other girl ever again. She just smiled at him as they pulled apart. "It's only six want to go somewhere?" Jackie asked him softly.
"What do you have in mind?" He asked her.
"You will see." She said with a smile as she jumped up. "So you in or what?" She asked him as she stood in the doorway.
"Hell, why not?" He said as he got up.
"Good." She said with a smile before she ran down stairs. "Uncle Red!" She called as she walked into the den. Hyde just followed behind her.
"Yes." Red said as he looked up at her.
"Can I borrow the car?" She asked as she put on her best sad face.
"Steven don't let her go out of town." Red said as he tossed the young girl the keys.
"I will do my best." Hyde said as Jackie headed off to the driveway before following her. Red just walked into the kitchen and watched as the two pulled away.
"Why do I feel like I should be waiting for the police to call?" Red asked as he looked at his wife who was cooking.
"Trust her." Kitty said softly as she looked at her husband.
"You know in my whole life I don't think I have ever been to this place." Hyde said as he looked around the baseball field that apparently rested in the middle of the park. "Seriously I had no freaking clue that this was here." He said with a laugh as he watched Jackie pull out a duffel bag from the trunk of the car.
"Well now you do." Jackie said with a laugh as she pulled a bat out of the bag.
"How did you know about this place?" Hyde asked her.
"Red brought me here last night. He wants me to try out for softball." She explained as she led him out to the middle of the field. "But, I don't know." She said as she shrugged at him.
"You just keep getting more interesting." Hyde said as he pulled her close to him.
"I wouldn't be able to keep a man like you if I wasn't." She said with a laugh as she looked up into his big blue eyes. "So you any good as a pitcher?" She asked as she handed him a bag of balls.
"I guess we are about to figure out." He said with a laugh before she rose up on her tip toes and kissed him softly. "So how did you get into softball?" He asked as he watched her run to home plate.
"I was finally allowed to hit something." She said with a laugh as she lined up for the ball. "Honestly, I don't know. My mother said that she took me to the store one time to buy a tutu, but I cried until she let me have a baseball mitt." Jackie said with a smile. "She signed me up for t-ball the next day."
"Tutu?" Hyde asked as he looked at her.
"I was in ballet." She said with a laugh as he finally tossed the ball. He just watched as the ball speed toward Jackie before she hit it across the field.
"So you dropped ballet for t-ball?" Hyde asked as he dug another ball out of the bag.
"Well, no. I didn't give up ballet till I lost my mom." Jackie said as she looked at him with glossy eyes.
"Oh." He said as he looked at her.
"Just throw the ball." Jackie said with a laugh as she smiled at him. She didn't know why he felt like he had to tread to gently when it came to her mother. Jackie loved to think about all the good times. She would probably lose her mind if she ever really forgot any of those stupid ballet recitals. No she wanted to remember how her mother would smile as she watched her only daughter look like a fool. And how bright those yellow sunflowers seemed in comparison to all the others girl's pink roses. She thought back to all the pictures of her and her mother that sat in the bottom of her closet. They were right there in a cardboard box along with the notes that her mother left on her dresser whenever she felt like it. Thinking about everything got to her like it always does and she just dropped her bat on the dirt. Hyde took no time running over to her side and wrapping his arms around her. He didn't have to ask what was wrong once the tears started falling. She was mumbling into his chest but all he could make out was "sunflowers." He didn't say anything just held her tight. She thought about how he would never know how much this meant to her. In the last two years this is the one thing no one would do for her. No one wanted to stick with her through the hard parts.
"I will buy you sunflowers if you want me to?" Hyde said as he whipped the tears from her eyes. She just smiled at him before she wrapped her arms around his neck in hug.
"Why do you have to be so perfect?" Jackie asked him as she looked into his eyes as she pulled away from him.
"Jackie I am far from perfect." Hyde said as he looked down into her beautiful missed matched eyes. "But, we can be screwed up together." He said as he smiled at her.
"I am going to hold you to that." She said softly.
"I am completely fine with that." He said as he moved a piece of her amazing black hair out of her face.
Jackie walked into the living room after dropping off Hyde to see Red fighting with Laurie. "How is this fair to me?" Laurie asked as she looked at her father. "You go and give my room away so I have to sleep on a damn cot."
"Look you are here for the weekend and it's not like we can make her sleep on the sofa. That is her room now." Red said as he looked at his daughter.
"You know she is standing right here." Jackie said before running up stairs and locking her door. She just walked over to her bed and sat down before grabbing the phone from her bedside table. Kitty had fought Red tooth and nail for her to have a phone up here. It was funny to think this was the first time she used it ever. She dialed the only Point Place number she had memorized.
"Hello?" She heard his voice on the other line and her face lite up.
"Steven, I am not bugging you am I?" She asked as she laid back to rest her head on the pillow.
"When have you ever bugged me?" He replied with a laughed on the other line. "What's wrong, doll?" He asked knowing that his Jackie wouldn't call for no reason.
"Laurie is here." She said softly.
"And what you are worried that she is going to steal your boyfriend. Because trust me you don't have any reason to ever worry about that." She sat there looking at the door in front of her as a smile came over her face.
"You just called me your girlfriend." She said as her voice cheered up.
"No I didn't." He replied with a laugh.
"Fine you implied it." She said softly.
"Jacks we both know that you're my girl, so why are we fighting about this?" He asked.
"I have no clue." She replied.
"So what are you getting Eric for his birthday?" He asked.
"I don't know, I know he asked for a tape player. So, I would play it safe and go with 8 track tapes because there is no way that Kitty and Red are going to get him what he wants." She replied.
"You are picking up on this crazy place quickly." Hyde replied with a laugh.
"Well I have had a great teacher, Mr. Hyde." She said with a laugh.
"Never call me that again." He replied.
"How are you going to make me?" She asked.
"That's my secret." He replied. "Now get some sleep doll, we have a party to attend tomorrow night."
"I don't even know how Kitty could think that he doesn't know." She said softly. "Sleep tight Steven."
"Nighty night doll." He replied before she hung up. He just sat there on his sofa thinking about how much he wanted that girl in his arms right now.
"You're in love with that girl." His drunken mother said as she stumbled in from the kitchen.
"Go to bed, Edna." He replied as he let his mind go back to Jackie. His Jackie could make even this crap shack house seem amazing. If only she were here in his arms tonight. He closed his eyes as he stretched out on the sofa. There in his dreams he found his doll smiling up at him as she cuddled closer to him.
Jackie sat in her room letting her heart speak out on a page of sheet music. She knew that no one could understand her need to write this down before she forgot. Then again no one else saw her Steven the way she did. It was nearing one in the morning when she sat the piece of paper on her desk that read across the top: Hey Steven. After that she just climbed into bed and slowly fell asleep thinking about her strong Wisconsin man. She was never going to let him go. He was the only one on her side, the most important person in her life. He was her Steven.