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He started telling her about his favorite
sports teams when he abruptly yelled, “No!”

Julie bounced straight up and heard the
hissing at her feet. A snake about six feet long coiled around the
tip of her tennis shoe. She froze. She had spent enough time
outside to recognize the chestnut-colored cross bands as a
copperhead. What caught her attention was not the venomous snake,
ready to pounce on her foot, but that it obeyed Trucker. In a
lightning-quick movement, Trucker had the snake in his hand. Julie
screamed as the snake struck him, and Trucker crushed the snake’s
head between his thumb and pointer finger. He swung the limp snake
to the side and took a step closer.

“Your hand,” Julie whispered.

“What about my hand?” he asked.

The wicked gleam dimmed the light in his
eyes. He licked the corner of his mouth. A move she had already
learned meant he was not being entirely truthful.

“The snake bit it.”

He held his hand out and twisted it around.
“No, it didn’t,” he said, shifting his eyes from hers.

“Yes, it did. I may not know everything, but
I know what I saw.”

Julie jerked around on one foot. She didn’t
wait on an answer. The scene she witnessed went beyond a normal
explanation. The poisonous snake not only bit him but trembled at
the sound of his voice. She declared she didn’t care. It was the
first lie she had ever told herself. He followed right behind her,
matching her step by step. Before she could reach her next class,
Trucker had her arm and tenderly shoved her against the wall.

“Please don’t,” Trucker said in a controlled
voice.

“Don’t what? I’m not stupid. I know what I
saw.” Julie tried to wiggle her arm out of the death grip he had on
it.

“You told me you didn’t care,” he said as he
closed his eyes. Taking a deep breath, he released her arm. “Please
don’t.”

“Don’t what? Expect the truth,” she
asked.

“Baby, I want to tell you. I will tell you
everything when the timing is right. Just trust me.” He nuzzled his
nose against hers, pushing her firmly between the wall and him.
“Say you’ll trust me.” He caressed her chin and tipped her head
back. Her eyes looked up. “Angel, please,” he pleaded.

“It’s hard to, but I do trust you. You’ll
tell me everything?” She leaned against the wall, trying to regain
her equilibrium.

“Yes, but first I’ve got to go. I need to
take care of something. Can I pick you up after class?”

“Yeah, I’ll meet you behind Lang Hall.”

After a hurried kiss, he rushed out of there
so fast he left her head spinning and heart weeping. Julie wanted
to know what he was hiding, but she wanted Trucker more than she
did the truth.

Class passed in a muddled chaos. She took a
deep breath relieved it was finally over. Just as he had promised,
his car was parked at the curb behind Lang Hall. She climbed in,
not knowing what to expect. She felt relieved that Trucker was not
distant or brooding. She found the Trucker, who against her better
judgment, had slowly stolen her heart. She glanced at his hand. How
he took a snake bite like that was beyond her. But she reminded
herself she didn’t care if she could have him.

He took her by the drug store to get ice
cream. He stood behind her, his fingers entwined with hers, and
laid his chin on the top of her head. His smell consumed her. She
would never forget the lunch incident. However, he made it
impossible to concentrate on anything but him.

“I love the smell of your cologne. I’ve never
smelled anything like it.”

He kissed her on top of the head. “I don’t
wear cologne.”

“Can I help you?” Ms. Tammie, the little old
lady who had worked in the drugstore all of Julie’s life,
asked
.

“Yeah, can I have some Moose Tracks . . .
Trucker?” Julie turned her head to find Trucker’s mind elsewhere.
He stared intently at a missing person poster. His head cocked to
the side, his lip drawn in a discreet line, and his eyes pierced a
picture of a missing girl.

“Her mom brought that in early. Sad lady, her
daughter has been missing for a year now,” Ms. Tammie informed
them.

Julie looked at the girl. She had long,
curly, red hair and striking green eyes. She was from Nashville,
Trucker’s hometown. Surely he didn’t know her. Nashville had a
population of over six hundred thousand people. Trucker traced over
the picture with his index finger.

“Did you know her?” Julie asked. Trucker
simply nodded, never taking his eyes off the poster.

“How?” Julie asked, curious about his
reaction.

“We went to the same high school.” There was
a marked sadness to his voice.

“She’s beautiful.”

“Yeah, she was.” Trucker turned his attention
back to Julie. “Come on, Angel, I really need to get you to the
pond.

*******

Trucker lounged in the soft grass, the
wildflowers swaying around him. He unbuttoned his shirt
,
baring his perfectly sculptured chest. He was enjoying the sun
washing over his face. Julie stayed balled up, her chin rested on
her knees. She reached out her hand to stroke the contour of his
stomach. His skin tingled. He thought he experienced pleasure
before her, but he was wrong. She made everything in his past fade
and his future worth living. He opened his eyes, sat up, and combed
his fingers through her hair that was tangled from the wind.

“Trucker, the first day of school, it was no
accident when you bumped into me.”

“No, baby, it wasn’t. I don’t have
accidents,” he answered.

Nothing was more planned or deliberated than
each encounter with her. Julie Emison was no accident. She was his
saving grace, his angel. He smiled as he took in her face, her
lips, her little pug nose, and her bright green eyes. He noticed
her long eyelashes and how they swept down over her cheeks. He saw
the tears pooling in her eyes and was stunned at how they stung
him. He felt a prickle from his own tear ducts. He had never cried
before, but he never cared either. He cared now.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“I’ve never ‘not’ cared before. Now all I
care about is this,” she answered, trying to hold back the
tears.

“That’s a good thing, right?” His voice was
loving but broken.

“I’m just scared.”

She was everything to him. But she had every
reason to be scared. That made him hate himself more than he ever
had.

“Oh, babe, please don’t be,” he begged.

He saw the heartbreak on her face. He leaned
in and stroked her ear with his nose.

“Angel, you’re the safest person in this
town,” he whispered in her ears.

He pulled a package out of his backpack. It
was a small box with a small blue card on top. Trucker placed the
box in Julie’s hand. She turned the card over and read it.

No one will ever compare to you in my
eyes.

“It’s hard to believe it’s true.” She glanced
up at him through her tearstained eyelashes. There was no doubt in
his mind she was worth everything.

“It is. Believe it. Now open it.”

It held a small charm bracelet. She held it
up and let it fall around her fingers. The chain held two
charms.

Trucker touched the first one. “This is the
Japanese symbol for hope.” Trucker rubbed his thumb over it.
“Angel, I lay all my hope for the future in your hands.”

He didn’t look up at her. He struggled with
the fact he freely opened himself up to her. He had never laid his
fate in anyone’s hands before. The second one was an ornate crest.
It matched the crest on his leather bracelet.

“This is a talisman.” He paused. “It’ll keep
the boogie man away.” He finally looked up at her but still didn’t
smile. “Please wear it. It’ll mean a lot to me.”

He took it from her grasp, slid it around her
arm, and snapped the clasp. Kissing the back of her wrist, he
lingered his nose over it. “Come on, we need to get home and get
our homework done.” He hopped up and helped her gently to her
feet.

*******

Trucker sprawled across her living room floor
as they worked on homework. It felt normal and right to have him
there. She sat beside him and ran her finger through his hair as he
read his history assignment.

Trucker playfully swatted at her hand. “I’m
trying to study, and you’re distracting me,” he said and
chuckled.

Julie suppressed a smile, leaned back on the
couch, and pretended to read. Trucker sat up, placed his fingers
around her jawline, and gently lifted her chin. Closing her eyes,
she gave into him as he caressed her face. There was an extra
softness to his touch.

“You’re the one distracting me,” Julie
whispered.

His lip parted. He ran his tongue across his
teeth. A bolt of electricity sizzled through her at the image of
another kiss by
him.

“There you are. I wondered why you didn’t
come by the office today,” Dan said as he walked through the front
door.

Trucker sat straight up and slid a finger
around Julie’s hand. Julie quietly cussed her daddy’s timing and
their abandoned kiss. She yearned for Trucker’s touch in a way she
never had with anyone else.

“Your daughter wouldn’t leave me alone, so I
decided I’d give in and follow her home,” Trucker answered and gave
Julie a wink.

She loved watching him joke with her dad. She
even smiled at his playful flirting with her mom. She was most
relieved the threatening look in his eye almost disappeared.

“Hey, son, are you staying for supper?” Dan
asked.

“I’m staying till someone tells me to
leave.”

*******

Trucker gave a fleeting look at his
undesirable surroundings and threw his backpack onto a nearby
chair. Larry Castleman’s opulent apartment was not a place he
wanted to be but where he was propelled. Fate had brought him to
that place and to
her.
His father forced him there that
night for an urgent matter. Anything Larry wanted was not a good
thing. Trucker smirked thinking about his father’s human
facade.

He was recently appointed as the new State
District Attorney General of the Middle Division of Tennessee
because of his impeccable record. Trucker wondered who got hurt to
make that move happen. He really didn’t want to be anywhere around
his father. At one point in time, he tried to have a relationship
with him. He wanted a father he could be proud of and share a bond
with, but his father was not the type of man who could share a bond
with anybody. Trucker learned as a small boy his only value to his
dad was what he could do for him.

“Hey, son, you decided to do as you were told
for once?”

Larry Castleman paraded in the room with an
air of confidence that made Trucker’s skin crawl. Trucker made a
beeline to the wet bar to make a drink. Larry was in one of his
moods. Trucker had an inkling that Larry’s request was not going to
be pleasant. He dropped an ice cube in a glass as Larry took a seat
at the bar and leaned over until his face was mere inches from
Trucker’s. Trucker’s lips formed a tight seam, and his eyes burned
with undealt with pain.

“Tomorrow is a council meeting, and you will
be there,” Larry said and tapped the glass sitting on the bar. “I
know it will be hard to be away from the angel, but you have
duties. I won’t let you ignore them anymore.”

The way he snarled the word angel unnerved
Trucker. He was around the bar and in his father’s face in a blink
of an eye, growling from deep in his chest. “If you ever talk about
her again without the upmost respect, I’ll finally show you what
I’m capable of,” Trucker said, shoving him to the side and plopping
down on the couch.

“Son, you will go. Understood?” He growled,
hovering over him with his hands planted firmly on the back of the
sofa.

“Sure,” Trucker said, somberly. The idea of
spending the day without her was not as bad as the outcome if he
didn’t live up to his obligations.

I’ve had the greatest two weeks ever with
her. I’m finally at peace with myself. She gave me that peace. I
have so many secrets to tell. I wish I could bottle them up
forever, but she deserves the truth. I just hope those secrets
don’t destroy her. No matter what, she is and will always be my
girl. Truck

Trucker stared at the window overlooking
downtown Franklin. It was a rather small city, but people still
bustled about taking care of business. Trucker couldn’t help but
envision their reaction if they knew what was living in the heart
of their little city. He caught his phone lighting up on his desk
out of the corner of his eye. He scooped it up, looked at the text
flashing on the screen, and smiled.

Hey my beautiful man

Seeing if you made it in safely.

Miss you already

till tomorrow

(like my new signature)

Truck’s Girl <3

I made it just fine.

I missed you since I walked out the door.

Damn right you’re my girl

and I like you saying it :)

PS can’t wait to hold you

XOXOX

Nighty Nite

going to bed

Truck’s Girl <3

First, I have one

small request?

What?

Truck’s Girl <3

Dream of me ;)

‘That one is easy. I always dream of
you.’
Julie sighed and looked at a picture she had made of
Trucker and her on the phone that very night.

Chapter 8

Dear Diary,

The last two weeks has been a whirlwind of
school, homework, our little pond, and Trucker and not necessarily
in that order. Everything in my life is absolutely perfect. The
talisman Trucker gave me has kept the bad away. I haven’t felt an
ounce of evil from him or seen anything unexplainable since he
placed it on my arm. I just keep waiting for the other shoe to
drop. My sweet Truck is hiding something from me. I know I told him
I didn’t care. I just wished he understood that he doesn’t have to
hide from me. Sometimes when he holds me it is like he is on top of
the world. Then there are the times my lost little boy surfaces.
There is so much sadness in him. I’ve yet to meet his family. He
promises I will when the time is right. When will the time ever be
right? He is with me from the time I get up till I go to bed every
day. Well, everyday but Sunday. On Sunday, he meets me after church
at the Diner. He declares he attends a service with his dad. But
the way he feels about his dad, I can’t see Trucker going anywhere
with him. I wish I could at least meet his mom and sister. Maybe
then, I could figure out what makes him tick. One thing is for sure
no matter what secrets he is hiding, he has left his handprint on
my heart.