Chapter One

December 31st, 1989

It nearly midnight in the Forman House. Ten years since Eric had returned from Africa to Point Place. As he stood in the family living room holding a beer and watching the old gang mingle along with rest of their friends and family, Jackie sauntered over to him.

"How's it going, nerd?" she asked. Eric grinned. The animosity that the two had shared as teenagers had long since disappeared and had been replaced with a friendship that both had come to treasure in ways neither had imagined.

"I'm well, devil," Eric answered. "What about you?"

"Pretty good, actually, " Jackie replied. "Work's been flat out, but I now have a week off until my next event." Not long after Eric had come back, Jackie had taken a job working for Kenosha's premier events firm. Starting out at the bottom, Jackie had firmly set out to learn the business as best as she could and make the most of the opportunities that came her way.

In her first three years since starting there, Jackie had managed to make her way up to running her own territory in Wisconsin. It hadn't been big, but it had been the start of the internal drive that would eventually elevate her to becoming the national events coordinator for all of Wisconsin two years ago. Her new goal now was to eventually buy the company if the timing proved to be right and expand into other states.

Eric himself had had quite a journey since his return that day ten years ago, and not quite the one he had expected either. Shortly after New Year, he had headed into Kenosha and enrolled in college to get the teaching degree that he had always wanted. Two years down the road saw him teaching English at Kenosha High School to begin with and then add History a year later after that. His own fortunes changed for the better when he had taken the English seniors on a field trip to meet a celebrated author who had agreed to meet the class during his book tour. After the class had gotten thier books signed and headed back to the bus to take them back to school, Eric had thanked the author who had simply smiled and handed Eric his agent's card, telling him to give them a call when he had a chance in regards to possibly writing a book about his experience in Africa.

After thinking about it for several days, Eric had called the agent, who had been briefed by the author about Eric and was immediately interested in what Eric wanted to write about. The agent had outlined quickly what they wanted from him and had given Eric two weeks to write it. Eric had sat down and written the manuscipt and turned it over to the agent in the space of a week. The end result had seen Eric transformed from a local high school teacher to a national celebrity overnight. What had surprised him the most was how popular his book had beome with a large number of high school students across the country.

A book tour and several royalty cheques later, Eric had decided to become a full-time author. Five years, seven novels – three non-fiction including the first and four fiction – and more money than he could spend later, Eric was back at home for Kitty and Red's annual New Year's Eve family get-together.

If his mother had reminded him that it was also a costume party, he would've dressed the part for the occaision. As it was, he wasn't wearing his normal clothes, so he did feel like he was in dress-up. He had just come back from the first half of a three month research trip down in Texas, Florida and other parts of the Deep South of the U.S.

Jackie had dug her old cheerleading uniform out and was glad to see that it still fit after all these years. Eric was a bit surprised to find himself also glad that it did as well. He hadn't really noticed it before, but it seemed to fit in all the right places where it seemed to matter.

"That's great to hear, Jackie," Eric said. " Same here for myself as well. I'm about half way through my research trip and I think I've finally found that piece of heaven that I was telling you I was looking for the last time we spoke." Jackie remembered that occasion; it had been six months ago at a convention that she had coordinated for where Eric had been one of the featured guests promoting his latest novel, a sci-fi romance thriller. Though Jackie would never admit it, she had bought all of Eric's books and had read them front to back multiple times over. The non-fiction books had aided her on several occasions with her work and the fiction books were guilty pleasure to escape to late at night after she finshed at work and need to wind down.

"That's wonderful to hear! I know that your mom and dad have been worried for quite some time about if you ever had plans to settle down anywhere permanent. When do you plan on telling them?" she asked as she sipped her margarita.

Eric was about answer when Kitty came into the family room and announced that there were only twenty seconds left till the new year. Eric threw his arm over Jackie's shoulders and motioned to the crowd gathering around the tv. "Shall we?" he enquired, a wicked grin on his face.

Wrapping her arm around Eric's waist, Jackie grinned back. "Let's ."

Joining everyone else, Eric and Jackie had rung in 1990 with much fanfare and revelry. The only surprise that had totally caught both of them off-guard was when Jackie had grabbed Eric and kissed him.

The kiss had only intended to be a quick one. Despite his initial shock at the little spitfire locking lips with him, Eric had leaned into the kiss and wrapped his arms around Jackie as if it was something he had done many times over.

Jackie was shocked not only by how long the kiss lasted, but also by how electric it had felt. She had never intended for anything more than just a quick kiss between friends. Instead, the moment had shifted in a single heartbeat from innocent to passionate as Jackie had wrapped her arms around Eric's neck as he had hoisted her up, thier discovery of thier passion for one another akin to being struck by lightning.

The moment, though, was ruined by Kelso and Fez. Both of them already completely drunk off thier asses, both had started laughing and pointing at the pair making out. Seeing the dangerous glint in Jackie's eyes, Eric knew what was going to happen as he put her down and also knew better than to get in the way of a certain she-devil with a penchant for revenge.

Both idiots found themselves on the floor in pain seconds later, with Fez cradling his groin while Michael yelped from the pain of being kicked in the shins before somehow uttering his classic cry, "Ow! My eye!"

Satisfied with her handiwork, Jackie turned to Eric and said, "Let's go get some fresh air, Eric. The air's a bit stale at the moment in here." Eric just grinned at his two idiot friends on the floor and followed Jackie outside to the garage.