ROMEO AND JULIET
Billy Connors sat against the pillows on his bed as he normally did--bored, brooding, and bitter, with nothing else to do with his time but read and think. Sometimes he listened to the radio, but the happy broadcasts only made him more angry. Most times, he preferred the silence.
Lawrence Baker visited sometimes, along with their mutual chums. Billy accepted their presence, but deep down, it angered him to watch them all come and go with ease while it pained him to turn his body without the assistance of medication. He was a football star. A high school legend, a future college legend, and someday a professional legend. He didn't have time to be laid up in the bed with broken ribs.
But Zac Hanson had made sure to jeopardize that future for him. Billy seethed with anger every time he was reminded. And he was reminded today when his mother had driven him to the doctor--when he doctor informed him that his broken ribs were healing and that he would recover, but not in enough time to play ball in the next couple of months. As it stood, it seemed that he had to take the following year off of football. And what was worse than being out of practice was the damage to his reputation--that the football star was taken down in a fight, by a poor has-been, no less. Zac Hanson wouldn't get by with it. Not again.
Caught alone, in one of his frequent moments of self-loathing, his father entered his bedroom and helped himself to the edge of his bed. Billy was in no mood for conversation at the moment, but his father didn't ask his opinion on the matter. "So, your mother told me what happened with the doctor today. Says it's safe for you to get around like normal now, as long as you're careful. Figured you wouldn't have wasted any time catching up with the fellas."
"She apparently didn't tell you all of it," Billy muttered with disdain.
"She did. Just trying to help you see the optimistic side of things. Like, for instance, I saw Bessie Harlow at Anderson's today."
"There we go," Billy smirked with sarcasm. "Let's just jump right into that optimism with both feet, shall we?"
"Well, she hasn't technically wronged you--"
"Oh, please. She ran right off with that gypsy after he attacked me. She practically begged him to take her along. She never wanted to go out with me. Why'd you make me do it? She's the reason I'm in this mess to begin with."
"Excuse me for thinking you might like a girl..."
"She had potential. She's pretty enough. But she didn't have much to say and I had a hard time staying interested."
"Then maybe you deserved to get beat up on."
Billy widened his eyes with shock. "Excuse me?"
"Exactly what I said. You allowed yourself to lose interest in your date. You see, son, a man always controls his date. The woman depends on him for that. The man controls the conversation, the night's activities...the goodnight kiss. He leads it all. If you wait on your date to make a move, you haven't done your job."
"So...you're saying it was my fault that my date with Bessie went sour?"
"Essentially, yes. If you'd have poured on your usual charm, she would have never run off with the gypsy and you would have at least had your hands in her dress by now."
Billy smirked at this notion. "At least."
"That's my boy," his father boasted proudly.
Then Billy's smirk faded. "So what's your point?"
"The point is, I saw Bessie Harlow at Anderson's today and she's growing up mighty fine."
"Any idiot with eyes can see that," Billy spat.
"Any idiot with eyes would allow himself to lose a fine girl like that to a gypsy without getting his hands dirty first."
Billy glared at his father. "What are you getting at?"
"She was there seeing Zac Hanson. He was pawing all over her when he thought nobody was looking--"
"Zac Hanson...?"
"Old Burt's done gone and employed him."
"Employed him?" Billy asked incredulously. "What happened to Jeb White?"
"Bad back, couldn't work anymore. Anyway, Burt says he's going out of town for a couple of days, leaving Zac in charge of the store."
Billy let his head fall back onto the pillow in exasperation. "You've gotta be yanking my chain. What is this town coming to lately?"
"I'll tell you what it's coming to. You want rid of Zac Hanson, you gotta go deep and hit him where it hurts."
"Which is?"
"You're a smart boy," his father said, standing from the bed and straightening his leisure coat. "Anyway, you should try to get you some exercise. Would do you good, don't you think?"
With that, his father left the room and Billy was once more left alone with his thoughts.
With all the information he'd just been given, the wheels began to turn in Billy's head. Finally, after a few minutes, he mustered up the energy to place his bare feet on the wooden floor and make his way slowly down the stairs to the telephone. His father was right. He did need exercise. He'd been well overdue for some. And he planned on getting plenty of it over the next few days. But first, he needed to make a phone call.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
"You know what I love about today?" Zac murmured lovingly through Bessie's hair as it covered her ear.
"What's that?" She replied dreamily as she sat, curled up against his soft, warm frame, safe with his arm around her.
"It's raining."
Surprised, Bessie lifted her body and faced him with a smile. "But you hate the rain."
"Nope. Not anymore."
"What changed?"
"You."
"Me?"
"I'm glad it's raining. And I'm glad you rode your bicycle," he replied softly as his warm breath sent beautiful shivers directly down her spine. "Because now you're stranded. Trapped. Nowhere to go. No options. Nobody to rescue you. You are my captive. And there is no amount of ransom that could be paid that would make me release you."
"Until the rain lets up," she pointed out, matter-of-factly.
Zac shook his head and smiled. "Can't you just let me kidnap you this one time?"
"Well, it's hardly kidnapping when I'm more than happy to come along." Then she sighed happily as she snuggled back up against him. "Sometimes I wish we could just disappear. Just you and me. And maybe Scout."
He snorted. "Maybe Scout?"
"Okay, and Scout. That would be our little family, the three of us. Nobody else but us. Nobody to give us curfews or tell us how or when we can see each other. Just us and our tree and our wildflowers, night after night, day after day."
"It'll happen for us," he whispered. "It just takes time. You'll finish school and I'll find work. We'll get married--if you haven't found someone better before you're out of school."
Bessie giggled lightly. "I would never find someone better."
"It'll happen for us," he repeated. "I promise."
The two lovers sat on the bench that doubled as Zac's bed in the travel trailer and listened to the rain as it steadily beat down on the tin roof. Zac had opened the windows to let in the rare cool air that came with the rain, and then he had sat down next to her and pulled her to nestle against him. Every time she was with him she felt a brand new form of happiness, every time happier than the last, convinced each time that she couldn't ever be happier.
Now she had his free hand between hers, listlessly caressing the warm, calloused skin, a hand that she adored, a hand that belonged to her.
There were no lights on in the trailer. They sat in the dull, dim darkness of the clouds, a curtainless window across from them that was above the bench that turned into Taylor's bed. "Tell me a love poem," Bessie murmured softly.
She felt his arm tighten around her shoulder as he lifted her hand to his lips and pressed them to her skin firmly and gently. "How about something better?"
A smile crept across her face. "I'm intrigued..."
Disturbing her peace, he sat up and leaned forward, reaching underneath the bench. Pulling out a book, he blew some of the dust off and he leaned back and turned his body around to face her, his back leaning against the arm of the upholstered bench. He patted the cushion between his legs, signifying for her to take her place in the usual position they sat in under their tree. Grinning, she gladly obliged this silent request, kicking off her shoes and wiggling her stocking feet as she leaned her body back comfortably against him. "Now, don't get me wrong," he observed. "I love our tree. There's nowhere else I'd rather be. But I do find this just a tad more comfortable. Don't you?"
Bessie couldn't disagree. The cushioning was comfortable, they were out of the elements, and they weren't blazing hot from the summer heat. "It's nice." Then she looked at the front of the book he held out in front of them and she curled her lip up in disgust. "I told you how I feel about Romeo and Juliet."
"No," he corrected gently. "You told me how you feel about Shakespeare. Which I hardly acknowledge, anyway, seeing as a lack of understanding should, in no way, negate a dislike for him. Besides, you seemed to take to the sonnets just fine."
"Yes, but I know the story of Romeo and Juliet. Everybody does. And it's stupid."
"Wow, Bess. Such a harsh word."
She crossed her arms and she huffed a pout in protest. "Let's read something else."
"No," he replied simply, opening the dreaded book. "I like Shakespeare. And I like Romeo and Juliet. And this, my dear, is what I've selected for us to read today. If you hate it that much, you're welcome to ride your bicycle home in that torrential rain out there. My conscience is clear from my efforts to make you stay."
Bessie was silent as she thought his words over for a moment. "Would you really send me away?"
"Yes."
"But you love me."
"I do love you. But I won't sit here and listen to you disrespect something that I happen to have a passion for."
She swallowed a mouthful of shame, thankful that he couldn't see her face. Blinking her eyes in search of words, she replied meekly, "But that doesn't mean you have the right to shove it in my face if it's not my cup of tea."
"Oh? Just like you haven't forced me to endure that mangy scoundrel with the wet nose?"
"You love Scout."
"And you'll love Romeo and Juliet."
Bessie had no response for that. So she chose to accept defeat and decided to get by with focusing on the way it felt to be in his arms. After all, he could read her the dictionary and she would have been just as content.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Sitting with Bessie like this was nothing short of ecstasy, as it always was, even when she was being difficult. She was adorable even then, and Zac could never be truly put off by her on those occasions when she was being naive and closed-minded. He tried not to be distracted by the way her hand hooked around his forearm as he rested them on his knees to hold the book and the way her fingers sweetly caressed his skin, causing goose bumps to rise all the way up to his shoulder. She had to feel them. She had to know what she did to him every time she touched him.
As Zac began the story, reading aloud the rather comical exchange between Samson and Gregory of the house of Capulet, who are then joined by Abraham and Gregory of Montague, Bessie's fingers had stopped trailing through the hair on his arm and her breathing became steady and even. He smiled as he read to her, celebrating a silent victory in getting her to develop an interest in the story, and he turned the pages gently, animatedly reading the fight scene that followed between the Capulets and Montagues before the Prince showed up and broke it up.
It was when her hand limply fell from his arm that his delight turned into a scowl as he paused to stare at the legendary words on the page he held open in front of her. "Bessie," he said quietly, with the annoyed nudge of his foot into her leg. "Are you sleeping?"
The jerking of her head and the deep breath through her nose provided his answer and she needed not provide a verbal one. "No," she lied. "I wasn't sleeping."
"It breaks my heart that you just bold-faced lied to me, Bess. Shame on you, I thought you were better than that."
Bessie straightened up and smoothed her dress out around her legs. "Zac, I'm sorry. I just--you're just so warm and soft...and I was comfortable."
"Nice try," he replied flatly.
"I'm sorry," she repeated sheepishly. "I told you, I just--I have no idea what you're saying. I have no clue what's going on and for all I know, you could be sitting there, reading me a lullaby. I just like to listen to you read to me, Zac. You comfort me. You have such a nice voice."
Zac wasn't buying it. Not for a second. "Stop trying to butter me up."
"I'm not. I'm telling you the truth."
"Can't you just TRY to share this with me? Can't I just sit here with you and hold you and read you love stories and enjoy this time with you? Is that too much to ask?"
Bessie was silent for a moment before she whispered a sincere apology. "You can continue," she said, her voice breathless with shame. "I won't interrupt you again."
"Tell you what," he said, flipping more pages in the book. "I'm willing to compromise with you. Why don't we just hit the highlights? It would take us forever to finish anyway. How does that sound?"
Bessie nodded in agreement. "Okay," she said meekly.
Suddenly, Zac felt like a bastard. Her feelings were apparently hurt, though he wasn't sure why. Maybe she was right, maybe he shouldn't be forcing this on her if she wasn't interested in it. He just knew, though, that if she just gave Shakespeare a chance, that she would love his work as much as Zac did.
"Bess," he whispered gently, sweeping her hair back off her shoulder. "I didn't mean to hurt you. We can do something else if you want to, I won't make you sit through this."
"No, it's okay," she said, shaking her head. "You were right. I should give it a chance because it's something that's important to you. I was being unfair to you. Please. Continue. I won't be rude again, I promise."
"I love you," he whispered. "I love you so much."
"I love you, too," she replied, her fingers finding his arm again. "You're my everything."
He closed his eyes and he smiled, momentarily basking in the warmth of her words and the touch of her hand, and then he opened his eyes and flipped a couple more pages. "Okay. Here are the highlights. So here we are at Romeo--"
"Wait. Why were the people fighting?"
Zac grinned curiously. "I thought you were sleeping?"
"I was. But your voice sounded like they were arguing."
His smile didn't leave his face. As much as she grated on his nerves sometimes, there was no resisting her. None, whatsoever. "The Capulets and the Montagues are families who don't like each other. They have been feuding for generations and they're constantly fighting and killing each other and all this madness."
"Why?"
And then Zac was stumped. He found himself flipping pages back toward the beginning. "You know what? I don't think he ever said..."
"Well, that's stupid, to fight without a reason."
"Bessie," Zac warned.
"I'm sorry, but even you have to admit that's stupid. That's like...starting a sentence with a preposition. It's like..." and then she started in a mocking man's voice, "'I hate you! No, I hate you! We all hate each other!" and back to her normal voice, "And then never saying why. So, in essence, there's no real reason that they need to even be fighting, what Romeo and Juliet did was none of anybody's business, and everyone could just leave each other well enough alone."
Zac narrowed his eyes into the air, the corners of his mouth turning up in thought. "It is perfectly acceptable to start a sentence with a preposition. Further more, it's Shakespeare's play, so he can do whatever he wants with it, and it's a widely acclaimed piece of literature, one of his best and most popular, so it can't be that bad. And, finally, I don't really think it matters why they're fighting, the point is that they are. It's Romeo and Juliet. Not 'Why Do The Capulets Hate The Montagues?'"
Bessie huffed and unhooked her hand from around his arm so that she could haughtily cross her arms over her chest. His smile widened at his victory. "You're much too adorable when you get like this," he teased her softly.
"Let's just get this over with," she spat.
Shaking his head, Zac turned the pages back where he left off. "Okay. Here we were. So. Here we are with Romeo and he is depressed--"
"Why?"
And, suddenly, Zac had had enough. As if a trigger switched in him, he was through with the entire afternoon. "Okay. That's it," he said as he slammed the book shut loudly, the air from the impact blowing her hair lightly. "I've had it. I've had it with the sleeping and the interruptions and the attitude and the word stupid. You're not going to respect me and you're not going to respect the book and I think the rain has let up enough for you to ride home."
Her breath caught in her throat and her body grew rigid. "Zac, no. Please," she said, turning her body around and sitting on her knees to face him. "I'm sorry. Okay? I won't do it again, I swear. I promise. Please don't send me away. Please. Please, Zac," she pleaded with him, the tears welling up in her eyes. "Don't send me away. I don't ever want to be without you, not even for a minute."
Calmly, he laid the closed book down on the floor next to the bench and he straightened up to meet her again. He looked at the desperation in her face and his heart softened as it always did. Not wanting to see her cry, he gazed into her eyes and took her face gently in his hands. "Romeo is depressed because he loves Rosaline, who is a Capulet, but she doesn't return that love," he said tenderly. "He learns of a banquet that Lord Capulet is hosting and vows to crash the party to try to meet Rosaline."
"Romeo is a Montague..." Bessie clarified tentatively as she slowly lowered her body to rest on her heels as she focused her attention on Zac's eyes.
"Yes. Meanwhile, Count Paris comes to Lord Capulet to ask for Juliet's hand in marriage. Lord Capulet asks that he wait a couple of years, seeing as she is still very young, but Paris is able to convince him otherwise. So he has the banquet to gague Juliet's interest in Paris, but it's already pretty much a done deal that the marriage will be arranged."
"That's horrible," Bessie muttered under her breath.
"So Romeo crashes the banquet and is discovered by Tybalt, Lady Capulet's cousin, who aims to kill Romeo, but is stopped by Lord Capulet because he doesn't want any blood shed in his house. Meanwhile, Romeo, in search of Rosaline, lays eyes on Juliet and is absolutely captivated by her. He falls hopelessly in love with her, right there on the spot. And she, him." He paused for a moment to gaze at his own love's face. "Exactly the same thing that happened to me the very moment I saw you at the fair."
"My heart belonged to you, Zac. You stole it instantly, the way you came to me with the trick flowers and the way you winked at me, and your smile...you didn't know it, but I gave you everything there was of me in that moment. Everything that I possibly had to give was yours forever. I think...I think I understand..."
Zac let in a breath, swallowing the emotions that were quickly rising to the surface and, instead, took Bessie's delicate hands in his. "That evening, after the banquet, Romeo can't bear to go without seeing his true love, so he sneaks into the garden just beyond her window. There, he overhears her on her balcony, declaring her love for him, and he reveals his presence to her. They express their love for each other, despite their families' hate, and they agree to be married the next morning. He goes to Friar Laurence, who agrees to marry the two, and Juliet enlists her nurse for help. The next morning, they are married in secret. Soon after, Tybalt seeks his revenge for Romeo's presence at the banquet and challenges him to a duel. Romeo refuses, seeing him as family now, and Mercutio accepts the duel on Romeo's behalf. Tybalt kills Mercutio and Romeo avenges Mercutio's death by killing Tybalt. Because Romeo killed Tybalt in return for killing Mercutio, he is not sentenced to death, but is sentenced to exile. Juliet's nurse learns all of this and tells Juliet of the news. Juliet is devastated, not so much for Tybalt's death, but for her new husband's exile. Romeo comes to see her one more time before has to leave, vowing to send messages to her every day, vowing that they will see each other again. And then he is gone and Juliet is heartbroken."
"I would be too..." Bessie breathed.
"In the meantime, the Capulets find Juliet's uncanny devastation over cousin, Tybalt's, death so disconcerting that they are convinced that a wedding will cheer her up and arrange for her to be married to Paris only days later. Unable to bear it, Juliet goes to Friar Laurence for help and he gives her a potion that will put her in a death-like coma for forty-two hours. That will give the friar enough time to get word to Romeo about Juliet's fake death so that can come and take his love into exile with him."
"Oh, that's brilliant!" Bessie exclaimed.
"Except that the message never gets to Romeo. The family finds her dead and the friar closes her up in the family tomb as she lay in wait for Romeo. Instead of getting word of her fake death, Romeo gets word of what is believed to be her real death and goes in search of the apothecary, who gives him a deadly poison that he intends to use on himself after he's seen Juliet's body for the last time. Upon the last half hour or so of Juliet's sleep, Paris and Romeo end up at the tomb at the same time and Romeo slays Paris and lays him in the tomb. He, then, looks upon his beautiful love's face one last time before he drinks the deadly potion and dies."
Bessie's hand was shaking as she covered her mouth with shock. "But Juliet's not dead..."
"While this is going on, Friar Laurence learns of Romeo's presence and goes to the tomb immediately, but he's too late. Paris is dead, Romeo is dead, and Juliet wakes up. Knowing that she will not live without Romeo, she sends the friar away. She discovers the empty poison vial, not a drop left for her, and tries to kiss Romeo's lips for anything that might be left over. In desperation, she stabs herself with Romeo's dagger and she dies beside her husband, her one and only true love."
"Oh, Zac..."
"After, the families discover both deaths and they reconcile--"
"Oh, I don't care about the families," Bessie's voice cracked as she spat out he words and wiped a tear from her cheek. "That was the most heartbreaking thing I've ever heard." Then her hazel eyes looked up into Zac's, bewildered. "Zac. Are we like Romeo and Juliet? Do we...? Are we...?"
Zac nodded, starting to feel the emotions again. He reached out and swept her hair off of her shoulder with the back of his hand and let his palm cover the silk of her cheek. "There are a lot of similarities. I mean, except for the dying part. But--Bessie--if it ever came down to that, I wouldn't live without you. I wouldn't--I wouldn't go on, I wouldn't live my life, I wouldn't remarry--I couldn't. There is no me without you and without you...yeah, I'd end it all. Maybe...I don't know, maybe I am Romeo..."
The tears spilled over now as Bessie continued to wipe them from her face. "Then I'm Juliet. I'm Juliet through and through. I'll do anything it takes to be with you--in life and in death--no matter the cost. I, too, could never live without you. The mere thought kills me here and now."
He could feel her. She wouldn't have even had to say the words and he would have felt them. He could only stare at her, studying her face as her eyes gazed intently into his. No one had ever been willing to die for him before. Most people he knew probably didn't care if he were dead at all. He wasn't sure if they were caught up in the romance of the story or not, but he knew that every word he had spoken to her was the truth and he knew she meant hers, too.
"My sweet Bessie," he whispered.
To his surprise, she sprung up to her knees and wrapped her arms around his neck, crashing her lips hard into his. Aggressively, she parted his lips with her tongue and pulled him by the collar of his shirt, kissing him with a fire so intense that time stopped and the earth stood still and the only two people in existence were the two of them.
When she finally pulled her face away, he sucked in a gasp for air as she pulled his head back by his hair and devoured his neck. Her breath on his skin did dangerous things to his nerves from his head to his toes, and his jaw slackened and his eyes closed upon surrendering to her. Momentarily, he came to his senses, lowering his head and opening his eyes. "Bessie. Hold on a minute--"
"No," she said firmly, surprising him. Then she shook her head. "No. I don't want to stop. I don't ever want to stop. What if this is it, Zac? What if there is no tomorrow for us? Why stop, wait, or hold on when there's so much love and passion right now? Why? Why would we not want to love each other the way we feel like loving each other? They may have been Romeo and Juliet, but we're Zac and Bessie. And I don't know about you, but I sure wouldn't want to spend my last day on earth without having felt your heart beat against mine while in the throes of passion. That's where Romeo and Juliet messed up."
"Bessie, this isn't our last day on earth..."
"Nobody is promised tomorrow," she replied solemnly.
Both pairs of their hands unbuttoned his shirt with a quickness. As she tore it back off his shoulders, his arms wrapped around her, his fingertips clawing at the material on her dress. She wasn't much interested in taking off her own clothing as she was closing her mouth all over the skin of his shoulder and collar bone and her eagerness only turned him on more and more.
In an effort to pull her body closer to him, he cupped his hands around her backside and pulled her pelvis into him, sliding his hands down to her thighs and pulling them apart to straddle his lap. Her kisses continued to litter his face as his hands drifted up her dress and his heartbeat started to race when he felt the small buckles on the edges of her stockings. His pants grew instantly tighter and his eyes flashed up into hers as his fingertips hooked underneath the elastic cords that held her stockings in place. "Shit, Bessie," he whispered raggedly. "Are you wearing that sexy underwear again?"
Her eyes darted into his, her innocence nearly ending him for good. "I had to have something to hold my stockings up."
"Let me see," he breathed with desperation, hurrying to shove her dress up over her thighs. Maybe it was a fetish he was discovering, he didn't know. And he knew that the underwear she wore were common and typical fashion for women, but something about the fact that they were on her...the truth was, he had never seen a woman look sexier in any kind of underwear than Bessie did. And she didn't even have to try. Her inadvertent allure never ceased to amaze him.
The garter belt was black. Sweet God, it was black. Her stockings were nude-colored, but he didn't care. The underwear was black and it was naughty and the fact that she left absolutely nothing to the imagination between her legs was all the invitation he needed.
He was barely afforded the opportunity to brush his fingers over her soft, hot skin, when the trailer door flung open and Taylor's voice rang out, "Hey, check this out!"
With lightning speed, barely able to gauge the fear on Bessie's face, Zac jerked the blanket off the back of the bench and threw it around her, pulling her forcefully into his body, covering the both of them up. The glare he threw his obnoxious brother could have killed him. "God damn it, Tay, don't you fucking knock?"
Taylor blinked at him, bewildered, seemingly unphased by the couple now under the blanket. "But I live here."
"GET OUT!"
It took a moment for the pair's compromising position to register with Taylor before his eyes widened in embarrassment and his cheeks turned several shades of red. "Shit, Zac, I'm sorry. I'm out."
He darted back out the door, Zac faintly hearing his voice talking to Isaac amidst the still-falling rain.
Zac was beyond livid. Why couldn't he ever get to where he could have a moment's peace with Bessie anymore? If it was raining, they couldn't go to their tree, her barn always bred fear that someone might show up and catch them, and then there was always the issue of her having to be at home at a decent hour. As much as he wanted every minute to last forever with her, time also couldn't fly by fast enough so that the two of them could get on with their lives as they pleased.
Bessie's chest heaved with humiliation, her eyes wide as saucers. "Did he see us?"
Zac sighed, defeated, as he pulled his shirt back onto his shoulders and began to button it up. "I don't think he was paying attention."
Then her face fell in disappointment. "I wish he hadn't come in. But I guess I can't fault him because he lives here..."
"I can fault him," he spat. "I can and I will."
"Someday," she said quietly as she put herself back together and fixed her hair. "Someday the day will come where this won't happen anymore. Where we can be alone and I won't have to go home and we can spend all day in bed together if we want to."
It was as if they shared a brain. He swore sometimes she had the ability to read his mind. That was one of the many magical talents she had that mystified him beyond belief. She amazed him more than he'd amazed theatres full of spectators and he wished he was only half the person she was.
"Bessie," he whispered, gazing into her eyes. "I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault."
"It is my fault. If--if I didn't lead this wretched life--"
"Then you and I would have never met," she finished. "Your life is not wretched and I wouldn't change a thing about it because it makes you who you are. I love you and I love your trailer and I love your family and I love everything about you." Then she lowered her head and said in a whisper, "I even love Romeo and Juliet."
Zac's heart warmed as a bright grin spread across his face. "Really? You do?"
"A wise man said to me once that maybe I don't enjoy Shakespeare because I haven't had it read to me the right way. Turns out, he was right."
"God, I love you," he breathed.
"Come on, you guys, it's raining!" Taylor's voice whined from outside the trailer.
Bessie stifled a giggle as Zac rolled his eyes and huffed out a sigh. "Come in!"
Bessie scooted away from Zac and smoothed her dress down as his brothers entered the trailer, Taylor's smile bright and oblivious as it had been the first time. "So, you guys, check this out!"
"Where have you been?" Zac asked.
"You wouldn't believe the rain," Isaac muttered as he removed his jacket.
Taylor ignored them as he fiddled with the object in his hand.
"Well?" Zac pressed. "What are we looking at?"
"Ike and I went and poked around at a secondhand store," Taylor finally said, his blue eyes glittering with delight as he whipped the strand of hair out of them. "The shop keep gave us a really good deal on this old camera. She works like a charm, she's beautiful!"
"Well, Ike's just full of gifts lately, isn't he?" Zac observed.
"I do what I can," Ike muttered. "He saw that thing and it was like a puppy with a ball--there was no getting out of it."
"Let me take a photo of you," Taylor said to Zac and Bessie enthusiastically.
Zac looked over at Bessie, unsure of whether this was a good idea or not, but Bessie was much too excited about it, smoothing out her dress and fixing her hair. Then, to his surprise, she turned and she started fixing him up, as well. He sat in stunned silence as she buttoned his collar and adjusted the shoulders of his shirt before brushing her fingers through his hair. Sitting up straighter, and crossing her legs, she intertwined her fingers in Zac's and leaned her shoulder against his, her beautiful smile radiating all the way to Taylor's camera.
"Come on, Zac," Taylor prodded. "You act like you've never had your photo taken before. We've had tons of photographs taken of us before, this is no different."
Yes, it was. In those, Zac hadn't just had his hand up Bessie's dress moments before, he hadn't been wildly aroused and then let down, and he hadn't been ready to murder his brother.
His eyes cut over to Isaac, who only shook his head and massaged the bridge of his nose. Then he looked at Bessie again, whose smile brightened. "Come on, Zac. It's our first photo together. Oh, I can't wait until it's developed, I'll treasure it forever!"
Sold.
It felt like Taylor took a million photos before Bessie whispered to Zac, "I think it's getting close to time for me to go home."
"I wish it wasn't so," he whispered to her.
"Me, too."
"You should probably drive her," Isaac spoke up while Zac cursed the small trailer for the prevention of private conversation. "It's still pouring out there."
Zac nodded as Bessie's eyes fell with regret. He'd never felt so many emotions at once as he did when he was with her. How can one person feel so much joy one minute and then complete heartbreak the next? He already missed her like crazy and she was still sitting right next to him.
Minutes later, minutes that passed much too fast, Bessie was sitting snuggled next to him, her arms wrapped around his free arm as he drove her through the torrents of rain. He drove slowly, blaming it on the rain on the surface, the truth being the prolonging of his love's warm body depending on him for her comfort and safety. God, he loved the way she depended on him. All he wanted in this life was to take care of her, day after day and night after night. Why was that too much to ask?
In the silence of the car, as he estimated they were roughly halfway to her house, Bessie's voice rang quiet and soft. "You know, I feel a little like Romeo, the way he was banished. I want to stay with you, I don't want to go home."
"Parting is such sweet sorrow," he whispered.
"It really isn't," she said, shaking her head. "There's nothing sweet about it."
And there she went again, crawling right into the depths of his mind, indulging on what was hers for the taking. And she could have it, gladly, anything and everything he had to offer belonged to her and what he didn't have, he would create just so he could have something more to give. She could have it all. Mind, body, and soul, anything she wanted.
"If the rain stops, I'll come to your window tonight. It's getting harder and harder to live these nights without you."
She turned her body toward him and reached up to brush her fingers through his hair as he concentrated on the muddy road in front of them. "I'll wait for you, my Romeo," she whispered. "I'll stay awake all night until the rain stops if that will bring you to me."
Zac couldn't help himself anymore. She could spare him a few more minutes and he knew it. So he slowed the car to a stop as he pulled over to the side of the road. Taking her face in his hands, he turned to her and kissed her with feverish passion, and they finished what they had started earlier in the trailer.
Billy Connors sat against the pillows on his bed as he normally did--bored, brooding, and bitter, with nothing else to do with his time but read and think. Sometimes he listened to the radio, but the happy broadcasts only made him more angry. Most times, he preferred the silence.
Lawrence Baker visited sometimes, along with their mutual chums. Billy accepted their presence, but deep down, it angered him to watch them all come and go with ease while it pained him to turn his body without the assistance of medication. He was a football star. A high school legend, a future college legend, and someday a professional legend. He didn't have time to be laid up in the bed with broken ribs.
But Zac Hanson had made sure to jeopardize that future for him. Billy seethed with anger every time he was reminded. And he was reminded today when his mother had driven him to the doctor--when he doctor informed him that his broken ribs were healing and that he would recover, but not in enough time to play ball in the next couple of months. As it stood, it seemed that he had to take the following year off of football. And what was worse than being out of practice was the damage to his reputation--that the football star was taken down in a fight, by a poor has-been, no less. Zac Hanson wouldn't get by with it. Not again.
Caught alone, in one of his frequent moments of self-loathing, his father entered his bedroom and helped himself to the edge of his bed. Billy was in no mood for conversation at the moment, but his father didn't ask his opinion on the matter. "So, your mother told me what happened with the doctor today. Says it's safe for you to get around like normal now, as long as you're careful. Figured you wouldn't have wasted any time catching up with the fellas."
"She apparently didn't tell you all of it," Billy muttered with disdain.
"She did. Just trying to help you see the optimistic side of things. Like, for instance, I saw Bessie Harlow at Anderson's today."
"There we go," Billy smirked with sarcasm. "Let's just jump right into that optimism with both feet, shall we?"
"Well, she hasn't technically wronged you--"
"Oh, please. She ran right off with that gypsy after he attacked me. She practically begged him to take her along. She never wanted to go out with me. Why'd you make me do it? She's the reason I'm in this mess to begin with."
"Excuse me for thinking you might like a girl..."
"She had potential. She's pretty enough. But she didn't have much to say and I had a hard time staying interested."
"Then maybe you deserved to get beat up on."
Billy widened his eyes with shock. "Excuse me?"
"Exactly what I said. You allowed yourself to lose interest in your date. You see, son, a man always controls his date. The woman depends on him for that. The man controls the conversation, the night's activities...the goodnight kiss. He leads it all. If you wait on your date to make a move, you haven't done your job."
"So...you're saying it was my fault that my date with Bessie went sour?"
"Essentially, yes. If you'd have poured on your usual charm, she would have never run off with the gypsy and you would have at least had your hands in her dress by now."
Billy smirked at this notion. "At least."
"That's my boy," his father boasted proudly.
Then Billy's smirk faded. "So what's your point?"
"The point is, I saw Bessie Harlow at Anderson's today and she's growing up mighty fine."
"Any idiot with eyes can see that," Billy spat.
"Any idiot with eyes would allow himself to lose a fine girl like that to a gypsy without getting his hands dirty first."
Billy glared at his father. "What are you getting at?"
"She was there seeing Zac Hanson. He was pawing all over her when he thought nobody was looking--"
"Zac Hanson...?"
"Old Burt's done gone and employed him."
"Employed him?" Billy asked incredulously. "What happened to Jeb White?"
"Bad back, couldn't work anymore. Anyway, Burt says he's going out of town for a couple of days, leaving Zac in charge of the store."
Billy let his head fall back onto the pillow in exasperation. "You've gotta be yanking my chain. What is this town coming to lately?"
"I'll tell you what it's coming to. You want rid of Zac Hanson, you gotta go deep and hit him where it hurts."
"Which is?"
"You're a smart boy," his father said, standing from the bed and straightening his leisure coat. "Anyway, you should try to get you some exercise. Would do you good, don't you think?"
With that, his father left the room and Billy was once more left alone with his thoughts.
With all the information he'd just been given, the wheels began to turn in Billy's head. Finally, after a few minutes, he mustered up the energy to place his bare feet on the wooden floor and make his way slowly down the stairs to the telephone. His father was right. He did need exercise. He'd been well overdue for some. And he planned on getting plenty of it over the next few days. But first, he needed to make a phone call.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
"You know what I love about today?" Zac murmured lovingly through Bessie's hair as it covered her ear.
"What's that?" She replied dreamily as she sat, curled up against his soft, warm frame, safe with his arm around her.
"It's raining."
Surprised, Bessie lifted her body and faced him with a smile. "But you hate the rain."
"Nope. Not anymore."
"What changed?"
"You."
"Me?"
"I'm glad it's raining. And I'm glad you rode your bicycle," he replied softly as his warm breath sent beautiful shivers directly down her spine. "Because now you're stranded. Trapped. Nowhere to go. No options. Nobody to rescue you. You are my captive. And there is no amount of ransom that could be paid that would make me release you."
"Until the rain lets up," she pointed out, matter-of-factly.
Zac shook his head and smiled. "Can't you just let me kidnap you this one time?"
"Well, it's hardly kidnapping when I'm more than happy to come along." Then she sighed happily as she snuggled back up against him. "Sometimes I wish we could just disappear. Just you and me. And maybe Scout."
He snorted. "Maybe Scout?"
"Okay, and Scout. That would be our little family, the three of us. Nobody else but us. Nobody to give us curfews or tell us how or when we can see each other. Just us and our tree and our wildflowers, night after night, day after day."
"It'll happen for us," he whispered. "It just takes time. You'll finish school and I'll find work. We'll get married--if you haven't found someone better before you're out of school."
Bessie giggled lightly. "I would never find someone better."
"It'll happen for us," he repeated. "I promise."
The two lovers sat on the bench that doubled as Zac's bed in the travel trailer and listened to the rain as it steadily beat down on the tin roof. Zac had opened the windows to let in the rare cool air that came with the rain, and then he had sat down next to her and pulled her to nestle against him. Every time she was with him she felt a brand new form of happiness, every time happier than the last, convinced each time that she couldn't ever be happier.
Now she had his free hand between hers, listlessly caressing the warm, calloused skin, a hand that she adored, a hand that belonged to her.
There were no lights on in the trailer. They sat in the dull, dim darkness of the clouds, a curtainless window across from them that was above the bench that turned into Taylor's bed. "Tell me a love poem," Bessie murmured softly.
She felt his arm tighten around her shoulder as he lifted her hand to his lips and pressed them to her skin firmly and gently. "How about something better?"
A smile crept across her face. "I'm intrigued..."
Disturbing her peace, he sat up and leaned forward, reaching underneath the bench. Pulling out a book, he blew some of the dust off and he leaned back and turned his body around to face her, his back leaning against the arm of the upholstered bench. He patted the cushion between his legs, signifying for her to take her place in the usual position they sat in under their tree. Grinning, she gladly obliged this silent request, kicking off her shoes and wiggling her stocking feet as she leaned her body back comfortably against him. "Now, don't get me wrong," he observed. "I love our tree. There's nowhere else I'd rather be. But I do find this just a tad more comfortable. Don't you?"
Bessie couldn't disagree. The cushioning was comfortable, they were out of the elements, and they weren't blazing hot from the summer heat. "It's nice." Then she looked at the front of the book he held out in front of them and she curled her lip up in disgust. "I told you how I feel about Romeo and Juliet."
"No," he corrected gently. "You told me how you feel about Shakespeare. Which I hardly acknowledge, anyway, seeing as a lack of understanding should, in no way, negate a dislike for him. Besides, you seemed to take to the sonnets just fine."
"Yes, but I know the story of Romeo and Juliet. Everybody does. And it's stupid."
"Wow, Bess. Such a harsh word."
She crossed her arms and she huffed a pout in protest. "Let's read something else."
"No," he replied simply, opening the dreaded book. "I like Shakespeare. And I like Romeo and Juliet. And this, my dear, is what I've selected for us to read today. If you hate it that much, you're welcome to ride your bicycle home in that torrential rain out there. My conscience is clear from my efforts to make you stay."
Bessie was silent as she thought his words over for a moment. "Would you really send me away?"
"Yes."
"But you love me."
"I do love you. But I won't sit here and listen to you disrespect something that I happen to have a passion for."
She swallowed a mouthful of shame, thankful that he couldn't see her face. Blinking her eyes in search of words, she replied meekly, "But that doesn't mean you have the right to shove it in my face if it's not my cup of tea."
"Oh? Just like you haven't forced me to endure that mangy scoundrel with the wet nose?"
"You love Scout."
"And you'll love Romeo and Juliet."
Bessie had no response for that. So she chose to accept defeat and decided to get by with focusing on the way it felt to be in his arms. After all, he could read her the dictionary and she would have been just as content.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Sitting with Bessie like this was nothing short of ecstasy, as it always was, even when she was being difficult. She was adorable even then, and Zac could never be truly put off by her on those occasions when she was being naive and closed-minded. He tried not to be distracted by the way her hand hooked around his forearm as he rested them on his knees to hold the book and the way her fingers sweetly caressed his skin, causing goose bumps to rise all the way up to his shoulder. She had to feel them. She had to know what she did to him every time she touched him.
As Zac began the story, reading aloud the rather comical exchange between Samson and Gregory of the house of Capulet, who are then joined by Abraham and Gregory of Montague, Bessie's fingers had stopped trailing through the hair on his arm and her breathing became steady and even. He smiled as he read to her, celebrating a silent victory in getting her to develop an interest in the story, and he turned the pages gently, animatedly reading the fight scene that followed between the Capulets and Montagues before the Prince showed up and broke it up.
It was when her hand limply fell from his arm that his delight turned into a scowl as he paused to stare at the legendary words on the page he held open in front of her. "Bessie," he said quietly, with the annoyed nudge of his foot into her leg. "Are you sleeping?"
The jerking of her head and the deep breath through her nose provided his answer and she needed not provide a verbal one. "No," she lied. "I wasn't sleeping."
"It breaks my heart that you just bold-faced lied to me, Bess. Shame on you, I thought you were better than that."
Bessie straightened up and smoothed her dress out around her legs. "Zac, I'm sorry. I just--you're just so warm and soft...and I was comfortable."
"Nice try," he replied flatly.
"I'm sorry," she repeated sheepishly. "I told you, I just--I have no idea what you're saying. I have no clue what's going on and for all I know, you could be sitting there, reading me a lullaby. I just like to listen to you read to me, Zac. You comfort me. You have such a nice voice."
Zac wasn't buying it. Not for a second. "Stop trying to butter me up."
"I'm not. I'm telling you the truth."
"Can't you just TRY to share this with me? Can't I just sit here with you and hold you and read you love stories and enjoy this time with you? Is that too much to ask?"
Bessie was silent for a moment before she whispered a sincere apology. "You can continue," she said, her voice breathless with shame. "I won't interrupt you again."
"Tell you what," he said, flipping more pages in the book. "I'm willing to compromise with you. Why don't we just hit the highlights? It would take us forever to finish anyway. How does that sound?"
Bessie nodded in agreement. "Okay," she said meekly.
Suddenly, Zac felt like a bastard. Her feelings were apparently hurt, though he wasn't sure why. Maybe she was right, maybe he shouldn't be forcing this on her if she wasn't interested in it. He just knew, though, that if she just gave Shakespeare a chance, that she would love his work as much as Zac did.
"Bess," he whispered gently, sweeping her hair back off her shoulder. "I didn't mean to hurt you. We can do something else if you want to, I won't make you sit through this."
"No, it's okay," she said, shaking her head. "You were right. I should give it a chance because it's something that's important to you. I was being unfair to you. Please. Continue. I won't be rude again, I promise."
"I love you," he whispered. "I love you so much."
"I love you, too," she replied, her fingers finding his arm again. "You're my everything."
He closed his eyes and he smiled, momentarily basking in the warmth of her words and the touch of her hand, and then he opened his eyes and flipped a couple more pages. "Okay. Here are the highlights. So here we are at Romeo--"
"Wait. Why were the people fighting?"
Zac grinned curiously. "I thought you were sleeping?"
"I was. But your voice sounded like they were arguing."
His smile didn't leave his face. As much as she grated on his nerves sometimes, there was no resisting her. None, whatsoever. "The Capulets and the Montagues are families who don't like each other. They have been feuding for generations and they're constantly fighting and killing each other and all this madness."
"Why?"
And then Zac was stumped. He found himself flipping pages back toward the beginning. "You know what? I don't think he ever said..."
"Well, that's stupid, to fight without a reason."
"Bessie," Zac warned.
"I'm sorry, but even you have to admit that's stupid. That's like...starting a sentence with a preposition. It's like..." and then she started in a mocking man's voice, "'I hate you! No, I hate you! We all hate each other!" and back to her normal voice, "And then never saying why. So, in essence, there's no real reason that they need to even be fighting, what Romeo and Juliet did was none of anybody's business, and everyone could just leave each other well enough alone."
Zac narrowed his eyes into the air, the corners of his mouth turning up in thought. "It is perfectly acceptable to start a sentence with a preposition. Further more, it's Shakespeare's play, so he can do whatever he wants with it, and it's a widely acclaimed piece of literature, one of his best and most popular, so it can't be that bad. And, finally, I don't really think it matters why they're fighting, the point is that they are. It's Romeo and Juliet. Not 'Why Do The Capulets Hate The Montagues?'"
Bessie huffed and unhooked her hand from around his arm so that she could haughtily cross her arms over her chest. His smile widened at his victory. "You're much too adorable when you get like this," he teased her softly.
"Let's just get this over with," she spat.
Shaking his head, Zac turned the pages back where he left off. "Okay. Here we were. So. Here we are with Romeo and he is depressed--"
"Why?"
And, suddenly, Zac had had enough. As if a trigger switched in him, he was through with the entire afternoon. "Okay. That's it," he said as he slammed the book shut loudly, the air from the impact blowing her hair lightly. "I've had it. I've had it with the sleeping and the interruptions and the attitude and the word stupid. You're not going to respect me and you're not going to respect the book and I think the rain has let up enough for you to ride home."
Her breath caught in her throat and her body grew rigid. "Zac, no. Please," she said, turning her body around and sitting on her knees to face him. "I'm sorry. Okay? I won't do it again, I swear. I promise. Please don't send me away. Please. Please, Zac," she pleaded with him, the tears welling up in her eyes. "Don't send me away. I don't ever want to be without you, not even for a minute."
Calmly, he laid the closed book down on the floor next to the bench and he straightened up to meet her again. He looked at the desperation in her face and his heart softened as it always did. Not wanting to see her cry, he gazed into her eyes and took her face gently in his hands. "Romeo is depressed because he loves Rosaline, who is a Capulet, but she doesn't return that love," he said tenderly. "He learns of a banquet that Lord Capulet is hosting and vows to crash the party to try to meet Rosaline."
"Romeo is a Montague..." Bessie clarified tentatively as she slowly lowered her body to rest on her heels as she focused her attention on Zac's eyes.
"Yes. Meanwhile, Count Paris comes to Lord Capulet to ask for Juliet's hand in marriage. Lord Capulet asks that he wait a couple of years, seeing as she is still very young, but Paris is able to convince him otherwise. So he has the banquet to gague Juliet's interest in Paris, but it's already pretty much a done deal that the marriage will be arranged."
"That's horrible," Bessie muttered under her breath.
"So Romeo crashes the banquet and is discovered by Tybalt, Lady Capulet's cousin, who aims to kill Romeo, but is stopped by Lord Capulet because he doesn't want any blood shed in his house. Meanwhile, Romeo, in search of Rosaline, lays eyes on Juliet and is absolutely captivated by her. He falls hopelessly in love with her, right there on the spot. And she, him." He paused for a moment to gaze at his own love's face. "Exactly the same thing that happened to me the very moment I saw you at the fair."
"My heart belonged to you, Zac. You stole it instantly, the way you came to me with the trick flowers and the way you winked at me, and your smile...you didn't know it, but I gave you everything there was of me in that moment. Everything that I possibly had to give was yours forever. I think...I think I understand..."
Zac let in a breath, swallowing the emotions that were quickly rising to the surface and, instead, took Bessie's delicate hands in his. "That evening, after the banquet, Romeo can't bear to go without seeing his true love, so he sneaks into the garden just beyond her window. There, he overhears her on her balcony, declaring her love for him, and he reveals his presence to her. They express their love for each other, despite their families' hate, and they agree to be married the next morning. He goes to Friar Laurence, who agrees to marry the two, and Juliet enlists her nurse for help. The next morning, they are married in secret. Soon after, Tybalt seeks his revenge for Romeo's presence at the banquet and challenges him to a duel. Romeo refuses, seeing him as family now, and Mercutio accepts the duel on Romeo's behalf. Tybalt kills Mercutio and Romeo avenges Mercutio's death by killing Tybalt. Because Romeo killed Tybalt in return for killing Mercutio, he is not sentenced to death, but is sentenced to exile. Juliet's nurse learns all of this and tells Juliet of the news. Juliet is devastated, not so much for Tybalt's death, but for her new husband's exile. Romeo comes to see her one more time before has to leave, vowing to send messages to her every day, vowing that they will see each other again. And then he is gone and Juliet is heartbroken."
"I would be too..." Bessie breathed.
"In the meantime, the Capulets find Juliet's uncanny devastation over cousin, Tybalt's, death so disconcerting that they are convinced that a wedding will cheer her up and arrange for her to be married to Paris only days later. Unable to bear it, Juliet goes to Friar Laurence for help and he gives her a potion that will put her in a death-like coma for forty-two hours. That will give the friar enough time to get word to Romeo about Juliet's fake death so that can come and take his love into exile with him."
"Oh, that's brilliant!" Bessie exclaimed.
"Except that the message never gets to Romeo. The family finds her dead and the friar closes her up in the family tomb as she lay in wait for Romeo. Instead of getting word of her fake death, Romeo gets word of what is believed to be her real death and goes in search of the apothecary, who gives him a deadly poison that he intends to use on himself after he's seen Juliet's body for the last time. Upon the last half hour or so of Juliet's sleep, Paris and Romeo end up at the tomb at the same time and Romeo slays Paris and lays him in the tomb. He, then, looks upon his beautiful love's face one last time before he drinks the deadly potion and dies."
Bessie's hand was shaking as she covered her mouth with shock. "But Juliet's not dead..."
"While this is going on, Friar Laurence learns of Romeo's presence and goes to the tomb immediately, but he's too late. Paris is dead, Romeo is dead, and Juliet wakes up. Knowing that she will not live without Romeo, she sends the friar away. She discovers the empty poison vial, not a drop left for her, and tries to kiss Romeo's lips for anything that might be left over. In desperation, she stabs herself with Romeo's dagger and she dies beside her husband, her one and only true love."
"Oh, Zac..."
"After, the families discover both deaths and they reconcile--"
"Oh, I don't care about the families," Bessie's voice cracked as she spat out he words and wiped a tear from her cheek. "That was the most heartbreaking thing I've ever heard." Then her hazel eyes looked up into Zac's, bewildered. "Zac. Are we like Romeo and Juliet? Do we...? Are we...?"
Zac nodded, starting to feel the emotions again. He reached out and swept her hair off of her shoulder with the back of his hand and let his palm cover the silk of her cheek. "There are a lot of similarities. I mean, except for the dying part. But--Bessie--if it ever came down to that, I wouldn't live without you. I wouldn't--I wouldn't go on, I wouldn't live my life, I wouldn't remarry--I couldn't. There is no me without you and without you...yeah, I'd end it all. Maybe...I don't know, maybe I am Romeo..."
The tears spilled over now as Bessie continued to wipe them from her face. "Then I'm Juliet. I'm Juliet through and through. I'll do anything it takes to be with you--in life and in death--no matter the cost. I, too, could never live without you. The mere thought kills me here and now."
He could feel her. She wouldn't have even had to say the words and he would have felt them. He could only stare at her, studying her face as her eyes gazed intently into his. No one had ever been willing to die for him before. Most people he knew probably didn't care if he were dead at all. He wasn't sure if they were caught up in the romance of the story or not, but he knew that every word he had spoken to her was the truth and he knew she meant hers, too.
"My sweet Bessie," he whispered.
To his surprise, she sprung up to her knees and wrapped her arms around his neck, crashing her lips hard into his. Aggressively, she parted his lips with her tongue and pulled him by the collar of his shirt, kissing him with a fire so intense that time stopped and the earth stood still and the only two people in existence were the two of them.
When she finally pulled her face away, he sucked in a gasp for air as she pulled his head back by his hair and devoured his neck. Her breath on his skin did dangerous things to his nerves from his head to his toes, and his jaw slackened and his eyes closed upon surrendering to her. Momentarily, he came to his senses, lowering his head and opening his eyes. "Bessie. Hold on a minute--"
"No," she said firmly, surprising him. Then she shook her head. "No. I don't want to stop. I don't ever want to stop. What if this is it, Zac? What if there is no tomorrow for us? Why stop, wait, or hold on when there's so much love and passion right now? Why? Why would we not want to love each other the way we feel like loving each other? They may have been Romeo and Juliet, but we're Zac and Bessie. And I don't know about you, but I sure wouldn't want to spend my last day on earth without having felt your heart beat against mine while in the throes of passion. That's where Romeo and Juliet messed up."
"Bessie, this isn't our last day on earth..."
"Nobody is promised tomorrow," she replied solemnly.
Both pairs of their hands unbuttoned his shirt with a quickness. As she tore it back off his shoulders, his arms wrapped around her, his fingertips clawing at the material on her dress. She wasn't much interested in taking off her own clothing as she was closing her mouth all over the skin of his shoulder and collar bone and her eagerness only turned him on more and more.
In an effort to pull her body closer to him, he cupped his hands around her backside and pulled her pelvis into him, sliding his hands down to her thighs and pulling them apart to straddle his lap. Her kisses continued to litter his face as his hands drifted up her dress and his heartbeat started to race when he felt the small buckles on the edges of her stockings. His pants grew instantly tighter and his eyes flashed up into hers as his fingertips hooked underneath the elastic cords that held her stockings in place. "Shit, Bessie," he whispered raggedly. "Are you wearing that sexy underwear again?"
Her eyes darted into his, her innocence nearly ending him for good. "I had to have something to hold my stockings up."
"Let me see," he breathed with desperation, hurrying to shove her dress up over her thighs. Maybe it was a fetish he was discovering, he didn't know. And he knew that the underwear she wore were common and typical fashion for women, but something about the fact that they were on her...the truth was, he had never seen a woman look sexier in any kind of underwear than Bessie did. And she didn't even have to try. Her inadvertent allure never ceased to amaze him.
The garter belt was black. Sweet God, it was black. Her stockings were nude-colored, but he didn't care. The underwear was black and it was naughty and the fact that she left absolutely nothing to the imagination between her legs was all the invitation he needed.
He was barely afforded the opportunity to brush his fingers over her soft, hot skin, when the trailer door flung open and Taylor's voice rang out, "Hey, check this out!"
With lightning speed, barely able to gauge the fear on Bessie's face, Zac jerked the blanket off the back of the bench and threw it around her, pulling her forcefully into his body, covering the both of them up. The glare he threw his obnoxious brother could have killed him. "God damn it, Tay, don't you fucking knock?"
Taylor blinked at him, bewildered, seemingly unphased by the couple now under the blanket. "But I live here."
"GET OUT!"
It took a moment for the pair's compromising position to register with Taylor before his eyes widened in embarrassment and his cheeks turned several shades of red. "Shit, Zac, I'm sorry. I'm out."
He darted back out the door, Zac faintly hearing his voice talking to Isaac amidst the still-falling rain.
Zac was beyond livid. Why couldn't he ever get to where he could have a moment's peace with Bessie anymore? If it was raining, they couldn't go to their tree, her barn always bred fear that someone might show up and catch them, and then there was always the issue of her having to be at home at a decent hour. As much as he wanted every minute to last forever with her, time also couldn't fly by fast enough so that the two of them could get on with their lives as they pleased.
Bessie's chest heaved with humiliation, her eyes wide as saucers. "Did he see us?"
Zac sighed, defeated, as he pulled his shirt back onto his shoulders and began to button it up. "I don't think he was paying attention."
Then her face fell in disappointment. "I wish he hadn't come in. But I guess I can't fault him because he lives here..."
"I can fault him," he spat. "I can and I will."
"Someday," she said quietly as she put herself back together and fixed her hair. "Someday the day will come where this won't happen anymore. Where we can be alone and I won't have to go home and we can spend all day in bed together if we want to."
It was as if they shared a brain. He swore sometimes she had the ability to read his mind. That was one of the many magical talents she had that mystified him beyond belief. She amazed him more than he'd amazed theatres full of spectators and he wished he was only half the person she was.
"Bessie," he whispered, gazing into her eyes. "I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault."
"It is my fault. If--if I didn't lead this wretched life--"
"Then you and I would have never met," she finished. "Your life is not wretched and I wouldn't change a thing about it because it makes you who you are. I love you and I love your trailer and I love your family and I love everything about you." Then she lowered her head and said in a whisper, "I even love Romeo and Juliet."
Zac's heart warmed as a bright grin spread across his face. "Really? You do?"
"A wise man said to me once that maybe I don't enjoy Shakespeare because I haven't had it read to me the right way. Turns out, he was right."
"God, I love you," he breathed.
"Come on, you guys, it's raining!" Taylor's voice whined from outside the trailer.
Bessie stifled a giggle as Zac rolled his eyes and huffed out a sigh. "Come in!"
Bessie scooted away from Zac and smoothed her dress down as his brothers entered the trailer, Taylor's smile bright and oblivious as it had been the first time. "So, you guys, check this out!"
"Where have you been?" Zac asked.
"You wouldn't believe the rain," Isaac muttered as he removed his jacket.
Taylor ignored them as he fiddled with the object in his hand.
"Well?" Zac pressed. "What are we looking at?"
"Ike and I went and poked around at a secondhand store," Taylor finally said, his blue eyes glittering with delight as he whipped the strand of hair out of them. "The shop keep gave us a really good deal on this old camera. She works like a charm, she's beautiful!"
"Well, Ike's just full of gifts lately, isn't he?" Zac observed.
"I do what I can," Ike muttered. "He saw that thing and it was like a puppy with a ball--there was no getting out of it."
"Let me take a photo of you," Taylor said to Zac and Bessie enthusiastically.
Zac looked over at Bessie, unsure of whether this was a good idea or not, but Bessie was much too excited about it, smoothing out her dress and fixing her hair. Then, to his surprise, she turned and she started fixing him up, as well. He sat in stunned silence as she buttoned his collar and adjusted the shoulders of his shirt before brushing her fingers through his hair. Sitting up straighter, and crossing her legs, she intertwined her fingers in Zac's and leaned her shoulder against his, her beautiful smile radiating all the way to Taylor's camera.
"Come on, Zac," Taylor prodded. "You act like you've never had your photo taken before. We've had tons of photographs taken of us before, this is no different."
Yes, it was. In those, Zac hadn't just had his hand up Bessie's dress moments before, he hadn't been wildly aroused and then let down, and he hadn't been ready to murder his brother.
His eyes cut over to Isaac, who only shook his head and massaged the bridge of his nose. Then he looked at Bessie again, whose smile brightened. "Come on, Zac. It's our first photo together. Oh, I can't wait until it's developed, I'll treasure it forever!"
Sold.
It felt like Taylor took a million photos before Bessie whispered to Zac, "I think it's getting close to time for me to go home."
"I wish it wasn't so," he whispered to her.
"Me, too."
"You should probably drive her," Isaac spoke up while Zac cursed the small trailer for the prevention of private conversation. "It's still pouring out there."
Zac nodded as Bessie's eyes fell with regret. He'd never felt so many emotions at once as he did when he was with her. How can one person feel so much joy one minute and then complete heartbreak the next? He already missed her like crazy and she was still sitting right next to him.
Minutes later, minutes that passed much too fast, Bessie was sitting snuggled next to him, her arms wrapped around his free arm as he drove her through the torrents of rain. He drove slowly, blaming it on the rain on the surface, the truth being the prolonging of his love's warm body depending on him for her comfort and safety. God, he loved the way she depended on him. All he wanted in this life was to take care of her, day after day and night after night. Why was that too much to ask?
In the silence of the car, as he estimated they were roughly halfway to her house, Bessie's voice rang quiet and soft. "You know, I feel a little like Romeo, the way he was banished. I want to stay with you, I don't want to go home."
"Parting is such sweet sorrow," he whispered.
"It really isn't," she said, shaking her head. "There's nothing sweet about it."
And there she went again, crawling right into the depths of his mind, indulging on what was hers for the taking. And she could have it, gladly, anything and everything he had to offer belonged to her and what he didn't have, he would create just so he could have something more to give. She could have it all. Mind, body, and soul, anything she wanted.
"If the rain stops, I'll come to your window tonight. It's getting harder and harder to live these nights without you."
She turned her body toward him and reached up to brush her fingers through his hair as he concentrated on the muddy road in front of them. "I'll wait for you, my Romeo," she whispered. "I'll stay awake all night until the rain stops if that will bring you to me."
Zac couldn't help himself anymore. She could spare him a few more minutes and he knew it. So he slowed the car to a stop as he pulled over to the side of the road. Taking her face in his hands, he turned to her and kissed her with feverish passion, and they finished what they had started earlier in the trailer.