So, at school's end, Jill went to Texas, to her parents' summer house near the coast, and Tim went to Detroit, to live with his mother and sell tools for John Binford. Both were absolutely miserable.

Detroit:

"Now, Timothy, what is wrong with you? You've been moping around this house all week," Lucille Taylor asked her middle son.

"I wish I was in Texas."

"Texas? What's in Texas? Her?"

"Who?"

"I don't know. This girl who broke your heart. Why don't you give Stacey Lewis a call? I'm sure she'd love to hear from you."

"She's not Jill."

"So her name's Jill. Jill what?"

"Patterson. Her name is Jillian Elizabeth Patterson, Mom. Her father's a colonel in the Army and she's got four sisters."

"You seem to know a lot about this girl."

"I love her, Mom."

"Then tell her that. I'm sure you can sell tools to folks in Texas."

Texas, near the Gulf Coast:

"Linda! Tracy! Jillian! Carrie! Robin! Fall in!" The five Patterson girls groaned good-naturedly as they lined up to humor their father. "All right girls, your mission is to have fun. Get going!" On vacation, sometimes, the Colonel could almost be like a completely different person.

"Jill!" Lillian Patterson called as the girls headed away. "Can I talk to you?"

"Sure, Mom. What's up?"

"I could ask you the same thing. What's wrong?"

"It's nothing, Mom."

"It's not nothing. Jillian, you haven't smiled all week."

"I've smiled," Jill protested weakly.

"No, you haven't. Not really. Not like my little Jilly-Dilly."

"Mom."

"What's wrong, Jill."

"Nothing. I just broke up with this great guy is all."

"That's all?"

"Well, he was a really great guy. With a really nice butt."

"Jill! Who broke it off?"

"I did."

"And why did you do that?"

"So he could be free over the summer."

"That's why? So he could see whoever he wanted while you were gone? What'd he say?"

"That he didn't want to see anyone else."

"And?"

"And that's it, Mother. He's in Detroit doing God-knows-what with God-knows-who while I'm here, lonely and depressed. I miss him so much and it's only been a week. And we only dated two months!"

"A whirlwind courtship, huh?"

"Yeah. Something like that."

"Go call him. See what he's up to. Come back ready to do something other than mope."

"Yes, mother."

Ten minutes later:

"Hello?" Lucille answered her phone.

"Hi. Is Tim there?" Jill asked, feeling suddenly, inexplicably shy. After all, she was speaking for the first time to the mother of the man she was in love with… and had been sleeping with for the past month.

"No, he's not. Can I take a message?"

"Mrs. Taylor, will you just tell him that Jill called? Please?"

"Jill? You're Jill?"

"Yes. Can you just tell him I called, please?"

"Yes. Jill, I'll tell him the next time I see him."

"Is he gone a lot?"

"He's a traveling salesman."

"Does he go alone?"

"You know, I was under the impression that the two of you had split up."

"Well, Mrs. Taylor, it's hard to explain."

"Jill, don't worry. I understand. Tim's father and I had these kids of tiffs all the time. I'll tell him you called."

"Thank you. Good-bye, Mrs. Taylor."

"Good-bye, Jill."

Two days later:

"Excuse me, uh, is this the Patterson place?" Tim hesitantly approached a young woman, younger than Jill. Maybe her sister; they looked alike, in that vague way all siblings looked like each other.

"Yes, it is. Can I help you?"

"Is Jill here?"

"You know Jill? Yeah. Just a second," she turned toward the door to the house, "Jill!" she screamed, "there's a guy here to see you."

"Okay, okay. You don't need to yell, Robbie," Jill said, coming through the door. "Who is it?" she jerked back a little when she saw him, "Tim!" she gasped.

"Hi."

"Hi. What are you doing here?"

"I came to see you, Jill."

"Oh, Tim."

"Listen, I know you said you didn't want to see me, but—"

"I never said that. I just didn't want you to feel committed and---"

"Jill, that's just stupid! I don't want to see anyone else."

"Well, I know that now. I've been just miserable without you."

"Aw…"

"Robin!" Jill said, suddenly reminded of her sister's presence. "Come on, Tim. We need to talk. Alone," she shot a glare to her youngest sibling.

She led him to the room she shared with Carrie. "Tim," she began.

"So you've been miserable without me, huh?"

"Yes," she answered.

"Good."

"Good?"

"Yeah, 'cause I've been miserable without you."

"Really?"

"Would a happy guy get transferred cross-country to be with you?"

"I guess not. You know, that is very sweet."

"Sweet?"

"Yes, sweet. I like sweet." And she kissed him. Hard.

"Does this mean we're back together?"

"What do you think?" she giggled a little as she pulled him to her and eased back on the bed.

"Oh, yeah…" were the last words spoken for a while. The silence was, however, occasionally punctuated with moans, groans, gasps, and the sporadic scream.