Summer, 1985

Suzanne March stood in line with her fellow student nurses at the local rail yard. Standing as straight as possible with her nurse whites gleaming against the grimy interior of the break area, she felt that surely her expression alone would keep the railroad employees from flirting or making unappreciated comments. Her Uncle Dan had worked on the railroad, and she knew just how obscene a group of men working together could be. But doing a free health screening for Allegheny West Virginia Railroad employees was not an optional activity; it was a clinical experience her nursing instructor mandated to pass the term. Truth be told, it was a pretty simple thing – taking blood pressures and checking heartrates, doing low-level bloodwork. But the idea of being in such a place caused her some anxiety. She had her uncle's stories to thank for that, and she'd always heard that her curvy frame was likely to bring on all kinds of unwanted attention.

Separating into three lines alongside the other students, Suzi began taking blood pressures of the men filing through her queue, attempting to be as polite as possible yet not making lingering eye contact with any of them. "Alright, everything looks very good. Your blood pressure is one hundred forty over ninety eight," she gave a quick smile. "You can move along to the pulse and respiration line. Take care." Handing the clipboard to the older gentlemen she had just attended, Suzi turned toward her next charge, realizing she had to look up a bit. A tall, lanky young man with golden brown hair stood, shifting his weight restlessly as he held his own clipboard. Taking it, Suzi read, "Judd Stewart. You're twenty-four years old…" she scanned the flow chart. "Alright, have a seat."

The young man slunk into a chair and held out his arm, smiling up at her. She gave a brief smile back, but kept her eyes focused on rolling the sleeve of his flannel shirt up.

"…So I'm Judd."

Suzi wrapped the cuff above his elbow. "I know, we just established that. Judd Stewart," she replied.

She could feel his eyes on her as he continued. "Who're you? Oh…" she could tell out of her periphery that he was tilting his head to read her name tag. "Suzanne."

Flushing under his gaze and trying to get this over with, Suzi listened to the measurements quickly and scrawled them down on the chart.

"… You go by anything else? Maybe like Suzi?"

"Not really." She unstrapped the cuff.

"Yeah, I'm gonna call you Suzi."

Letting out a small smirk, Suzi looked up at him. "Okay, you do that." After all, she might be in contact with him for another five seconds.

"Was my blood pressure high?"

Realizing she had been a little too distracted by the young man's attention to have let his numbers register, Suzi glanced back at the chart. "… It is, a little," she frowned.

"Want to try it again? Maybe the other side?" he was already rolling up his other sleeve.

"I don't think that's going to matter, Mr. Stewart, if it's high, it's high. It isn't too far out of range, though, so that's good. The head nurse just down that way will give you a sheet with pointers on how to lower—"

"Well… thing is, I know it's high. It's been high since I saw you come in here, Suzi." He continued to smile as he emphasized the name he'd elected to call her. "I coulda told you that."

Suzi looked up at him for a second, not terribly surprised at his flirtation, but pretty taken aback by the blueness of his eyes. They bore a certain light-hearted warmth that made her look away quickly. "She'll probably talk to you about your daily activities. You're too young to need medication just yet, but—"

"—But, maybe if you just say you'll go out with me one time, I can stop being so nervous, and it'll work itself out."

Suzi stammered for a moment, blindsided by his forwardness. "I'm… I'm sorry, but no. I'm just here for clinical, and… to help you monitor your health, Sir." She was working extra hard at keeping a professional tone.

"One date. Just one, and if you still don't like me, that's okay. 'Cause I can tell you don't really like me now, and… I get it, but what's the harm just going out somewhere and having some fun?" He still sat with both sleeves rolled up, like he had nowhere else to go.

Suzi sat still a moment, then chided herself for taking that time to think about it. She didn't know a thing about this guy, she had sworn off ever dating anyone from the railroad, or anybody for that matter, because it was terrible timing. Nursing exams were in one month.

But he was so sincere, so confident. He had nice eyes, and all throughout the exchange, he'd kept his eyes on her face – at least when she was looking, which was better than many of the other men had done to her and the other girls. So… maybe if just to move him on down the line…

"O-Okay. Okay fine," she spoke hastily, cheeks burning. "One date." She hesitated, feeling awkward as she realized he might need her number and she had nothing to write it down on. Refreshing his smile, he held out the back of his hand.

"What…?"

"Just write it there. Trust me, that way I won't lose it. You know… your number."

The student at the beginning of the next line had run out of men, and was looking over at Suzi imploringly.

Hoping this was discreet enough, she leaned down and scribbled her number on the back of this fool's hand. She still wasn't sure at this point that she didn't want him to wash it off by accident.

No such luck, however – Judd called her that very night. Their first date was two nights later at the drive-in A&W. Judd, she discovered to her surprise, talked to her as though he knew her already – about his dad, and how much getting a job on the railroad had meant to him; about his plans to move up the company ladder; about rail cars and engines; and finally about his good buddy, Frank, who had been good to welcome him onto the line after having started AWVR himself about two years prior.

Unless you had family that worked in the railroad, it could be difficult to break in. Judd's father and uncle had worked AWVR, and that had given him a small opening, but the company seemed to care a lot less for family ties than other, older railway lines did. Judd had had to prove himself on his own when being hired into the company the year before as a brakeman.

"People don't really understand the politics of the railroad," he told her. "It's kind of its own world, with its own rules. You know?"

Having grown up in a railroad town as she did, she understood this much – particularly given what she'd learned from her uncle. He was the one who had followed his own father onto the railroad, leaving his brother, her father, as the "odd one" who preferred books and accounting over the blue collar railroad work. As a result of that, and of her uncle's reckless, wild ape behavior, her father had used every opportunity to blame railroading and the transient lifestyle it provided as the source of all instability in the town. She herself had grown up with such prejudice, though she attempted to break it down in regards to Judd.

He talked about a lot of things, that was for sure, but he also asked Suzi a lot of questions about her life, and listened to her answers. It wasn't at all bad, and Suzi thought she might just go back out with him some time.

"Some time" came only three days later when Judd showed up at her doorstep again.

"Suzanne?" her dad came to knock on her bedroom door. "That Stewart boy, here to see you again."

Suzi stood quickly, surprised Judd would just show up like this so soon. But part of her felt smug satisfaction at the idea that it rankled her dad so much that she was talking to a guy from the railroad. For too long, he had assumed Suzi was set to follow the exact life plan he'd laid out for her. Judd's new presence was stalling that a bit, and she could be thankful to him for that if nothing else.

"Hey," she greeted him quickly in the foyer as she made her way briskly down the stairs. Judd was a nice guy, and she wouldn't mind seeing him again, but she didn't want him to get the wrong idea this quickly. "What's up?" She paused on the bottom stair, regarding him politely, yet hopefully sounding distracted enough to give him the message she wasn't interested in a date tonight.

"Hey!" he cheerfully replied. "Not a lot, just got in from Stanton. But it's just a little windy, and… I wanted to show you something."

Suzi blinked. "…What?" What did the wind have to do with anything whatsoever?

"Down by the lake. There's… something I want you to do with me."

Suzi stared at him a moment before narrowing her eyes, opening her mouth to speak.

"No no, nothing like… that," she detected a flush to his cheeks as he lowered his voice and looked around, most likely for her dad. "… It's hard to explain, will you just come out for a little while? I won't keep you out long, I promise."

Now Suzi had always been a sensible girl. She had always held the upper hand with the men she'd dated in high school and college, and if truth be told, that could be kind of boring. She had always prided herself on knowing just what to expect out of a guy's next move. But Judd Stewart? He was a total anomaly. And it pricked her insides enough to make her ticklish. So she tilted her head.

"You promise to have me back in thirty minutes, and maybe."

"An hour."

She cut her eyes to him again, but gave a smirk.

"Forty-five minutes?"

"Okay. Let me grab my jacket."

Judd drove her down to the lake then, parking under a tree, and jumping out of his truck quickly to come open the door for her. It was a charming little gesture she'd heard about, but had never seen her dad do for her mom. She let him have his chivalry and jumped down as well, wrapping her arms about her as he took something out of a small box in the back. She walked over to see what they were.

Boats. Made out of tin foil.

"You've got to be kidding me," she turned her eyes to him, breaking out into a chuckle. "What are we going to do, race them?"

"Yup," he handed her one. "Come on, I used to do this when I was a kid! And I've not had anyone to do it with in a long time, so… humor me?"

His eyes gleamed as the breeze picked up a little. The moment was drawing her in somehow in a way she never would have guessed as she took a tin foil boat. "I want you to know this is the weirdest date I've ever been on."

"Oh! Okay, so this gets to be another 'date?'" he playfully bumped into her side as they walked toward the stream, leading to the mouth of the river.

"We'll see how it goes, then we'll define it," Suzi replied, giving him a return bump before trailing away to get on her knees next to the water. "Where do we start?"

"Right there, where you are." He nimbly jumped a couple rocks over to where he was standing across the small stream from her, and got on his stomach to put his boat down, eye level as though giving this great focus. "And when we used to do this? Whoever won got to ask for something."

"Oh, okay, so now I see why we're doing this," Suzi laughed. "You want to kiss me. Is that what this is for?"

Judd's eyes widened a second in surprise as he paused.

"I can tell you want to," she smiled, feeling not at all adverse to the idea, as she stared across the stream at him. "And you were trying to be creative about it."

"… Okay, then, yeah. That's what I would have asked for," Judd finally relented, chuckling nervously. "You weren't supposed to guess, though, until I could deliver the line perfectly."

Suzi shook her head. "You do realize we've only been on one date. And… even though you've already told me a lot about yourself, I'm not so sure I'm ready to let you have this so easily. So… we'll revisit this whole thing, IF you win. And if I win…" she stopped to think a moment. "… then you get to buy me a Coke Float from the A&W again, and then take me home."

The disappointment flashed on his face for more than a split-second, but Judd recovered quickly, grinning smugly. "Okay, fair enough."

And so, they let the boats go, watching the flecks of metal, made shiny by the moonlight, meander this way and that in the breeze-tossed stream. She had to say, it was impressive how he managed to make boats out of tin foil that actually went somewhere.

Suzi found herself interested to see who was going to win this thing, and crawled slowly beside her boat, only half-realizing what a twenty-one year old must look like on her hands and knees in the grass like a kid. Just as they left her sight, however, Judd jumped up and ran down to where the brook emptied into the river, and snatched the boats out of the water.

"Hey, I didn't get to see who won!" she protested, pulling herself upright finally.

"Do you trust me?"

She laughed. "NO."

"Well… what kind of idiot would I be to tell you you won…" he jumped across the rocks again to her side of the brook, presenting her with her boat, "…when it would've suited my purposes to lie and tell you I did."

"I won?"

He nodded, giving her a resigned half-smile. "Yeah… it was you."

Suzi watched his face for what felt like a long time before playfully slapping his arm. "Rematch, then. Let's see who can get the most out of three."

Three races turned into five, and Suzi began to realize the issue was that she wanted him to win. Judd had been creative and a little romantic, and had worked for this kiss. And she realized she didn't mind at all to give it to him.

But just to keep up appearances, she tried to mask the fun she was having as rematching him again and again for the sake of winning.

"Gosh, you're competitive!" he laughed when they finally made it through five rounds. He sat down next to her on the bank, surprisingly good-spirited to have lost to her four times. "So does this mean I owe you four Coke floats now?"

"No…" she smiled, warmed by his closeness. "It means I changed my mind about what I want. And you owe me… maybe four kisses."

Judd stared at her as his brow began to lift in shock. "You… I thought you said this was… you know, too early and you weren't into it…"

"I wasn't then," Suzi answered matter-of-factly, "but I changed my mind. So… kiss me. Just once for now," she chuckled as he was already leaning in toward her. "We'll spread the other three out."

And so, he did. He gave her a deep, lusty kiss, and one she finally had to pull back from. "I had fun," she told him as they broke it off. She began to get up, giving him one quick peck on the cheek. "Really. Who knew a girl could enjoy racing tin foil boats at night?"

Before he could say anything else, she headed back toward his truck.

That night was Suzi's first glimpse of what dating Judd Stewart might truly be like, and she was pretty eager to continue it. They began seeing one another at least three nights a week, sometimes more if he wasn't working. The forward, persistent guy she had committed to just one date with at first turned out to be the first person she thought of in the mornings when she woke up. She found herself pining after him more than a little when he was off on long hauls with AWVR, and when they were together again, they were never bored. Being something of a city girl, Suzi had always preferred to drive to Stanton for dates. But Judd loved their hometown, and could always be counted upon to invent the craziest things for them to do together. They soon began to have rituals; every night when he would come in from a haul, he brought over her favorite ice cream and they would lie on a blanket out on her balcony and eat it together. When nursing exams came, he faithfully stayed by her side to help her study for them. Soon after she graduated from nursing school, he decided he wanted to study up to be promoted to a conductor, and Suzi returned the favor. Doing life with him was far more fun and companionable than it had been not only with other guys she'd dated, but even with her own aloof family.

But there was something about being on her guard that Suzi had come to thrive on and need in her twenty-one years. When it came to men, in particular, she always felt she had to protect herself first and foremost and give only what was left to whomever was in her life. It was something she hated about herself, but didn't know the first thing about how to change, or even why she was that way.

That's why she had no idea what to say when Judd finally gathered his nerves and told her outright that he loved her, almost six months to the date of their boat race.

It warmed her heart. It gave the world color, and it gave wings to her very spirit. But she could not respond. Not the way she knew he wanted her to, not the way she wanted to.

He waited for a moment, but when no words came, he pulled to look at her directly. "Suzi, I'm not your dad. When I say that I give a d*mn about you, I actually do."

Something about his ability to identify the problem, even when she couldn't, spoke to her that day. And even though she still couldn't respond to him with the same phrase, she felt like, with that statement, she'd come just a little closer.

He let the matter go, even though he didn't make things awkward by saying it again for almost another month. It was when he took her one evening to explore an old decrepit steam engine he'd discovered in the back of Brewster Yard that she was finally able to put words to what she had felt for so long.

"Not my idea of a way to spend a Saturday, Judd," she joked, as he lead her into the dusty cab.

"Yeah, I know," he replied distractedly. "But maybe you'll learn something you didn't know."

She rolled her eyes playfully and took a few steps toward the back, before hearing a slight chirping sound. Taking a few more steps toward the corner, she bent down to hear better. Was it a bird's nest?

"Suzi, what are you doing? Don't go back in these corners," he was immediately behind her. "There could be snakes and who knows what else—"

But he stopped immediately as she lifted the corner of a tarp. There on the ground in front of them was about four kittens tangled together, nursing from a mother cat who stared back up at them tensely.

"Oh. Oh wow," she heard him murmur over her shoulder. "Cats…"

Suzi smiled and reached her hand out tentatively to the mother cat. "Guess someone else decided to check this old thing out before you did, huh?"

"Guess so," he knelt down beside her. "I wonder if she'll let us pick one of them up."

Suzi turned and gave a curious look to Judd. "Are you serious? Somehow I never saw you being a cat person."

"Me either," he chuckled. "But just look at them."

The mother cat did let Suzi pet her, and after a moment, she let Judd pick up a gray kitten.

"She must be somebody's pet," Suzi remarked. "She doesn't seem wild."

"Not at all," he cradled the little kitten in a way that seemed so alien to his character, yet so adorable at the same time. "I think you're wilder." He looked up at her and grinned.

That's when the words suddenly formed, and not only formed, but fell out of her mouth in a tumble. "Judd Stewart, I love you."

His eyes widened as he seemed to study her face to be sure she meant it.

"Really."

Calmly, he turned to put the kitten back down in its litter, and then stood up, pulling her to her feet and into a passionate embrace.

That was officially the end of all Suzi's doubts.

Within the year, they had been married out by that very lake, in a quiet ceremony with a few friends and Judd's dad and brother. Her own father had refused to attend in his own passive-aggressive way, by having booked an anniversary cruise for he and Suzi's mom for the very same weekend. It was no surprise to her, since he approved of neither the groom nor the "classless" wedding she had chosen over the society fanfare he'd expected her to make. She knew her dad well enough to realize he wouldn't pass up an opportunity to make Judd look like a backwater idiot if at all possible, so she had decided to do things her way.

Years later, when Suzi closed her eyes, she could still smell the shaving soap Judd wore that day, still feel him playfully tugging at the bow on the back of her simple dress as they had left for the car after the small reception. John Mellencamp played on the radio as they had driven away for a New York honeymoon. Frank Barnes and a few of the other guys from the rail yard sent up a round of whoops and whistles as empty beer cans tinkered against the gravel they were dragged across from the back of Judd's truck.

Spring had turned to summer in their lives. Suzi expected it would stay there forever, and it did stay for quite awhile.