Chapter 2 Jack Stevenson

It had been Jack who had stopped his truck to help me fix my puncture that cold winter evening as I stood, lost and uncertain by the side of the road in the gathering dusk. A tall, lean man with a head of coppery hair, he had smiled reassuringly at me as he jumped down from his truck and approached me. He was wearing an old brown jacket over a plaid cotton shirt and a pair of well-worn jeans. But his manner was comforting and I felt a sense of comfort, of knowing that I could trust him.

'Trouble, young lady?' he had asked, a lop-sided grin on his craggy face, disarming me with his genuine concern. Unlike most of the men I had met, Jack had not stared at my body, at my large breasts to be precise. Instead, he had fetched the tools from his truck and soon, my little Mini was back on the road. As I thanked him shyly, he had smiled gently and asked,' So where are you heading to, then?'

I had smiled and told him the truth.

I had no particular destination in mind, I was travelling around before I headed home, back to the commune on the East Coast.

He had frowned, concern writ large on his face.

Then he had said,

'You can stay here tonight if you wish.'

I had learnt the hard way that the offers from strangers one met on the road were not made out of the goodness of their heart, there were always strings attached. Particularly if they found out that I had belonged to a commune and had spent my childhood and youth there. There was a strange notion that such a girl would be willing to jump into bed with any man who spoke to her.

Automatically, I stepped back at once.

Seeing the look of alarm on my face, he had hastily added,

'No, I meant, I have a friend who stays in town. You can stay the night with his wife and him before heading on. It's not safe ...' he murmured as he looked at me and glanced around at the gathering dark,

I coloured. The look of intense admiration he gave me as he ran his eyes over my face and body made me feel desired. Not in a filthy way.

Instinctively, I had taken him up on his offer.

***

He had helped me find a place to stay that night in the small town as he had promised. The lawyer who happened to be a good friend of his, named Joe Seaton and his wife Beth,, had agreed to let me stay the night.

Jack had turned up the next morning to help me try and get a job. It amused me to see the eagerness in his earnest face as he seemed so desperate to make me stay on in the small town. I was a trained preschool teacher, having done my courses online and I loved little kids. My experience was of course, limited to helping out with the little kids in the commune but I was willing to learn more.

But there was no vacancy in the local school.

As we walked back to his truck, I mused; I was grateful to him for his chivalrous behaviour, for his obvious genuine concern towards me. After a long while, I had met a man who reminded me of my own Dad, a man who could be trusted, a man who treated a woman with respect, not regarding her as just an object of lust.

***

Mrs Seaton had told me a little about Jack as we sat sipping coffee the next morning before Jack arrived. His wife had been a glamorous beauty. They had been high school sweethearts at Carrow Hill High but she had trained as a model and had gone on to work in the city.

Jack had followed her, taken up a job and later, set up his own accounting business with a partner. He had been wildly successful and Andrea had reunited with him. Beth Seaton said darkly at this point,

"Jack was doing fantastically. He had made a lot of money as he had invested wisely. He had a great career going for him. That scheming woman saw him as a way to lead a luxurious life and clung to him. Poor fool. He was besotted by her and could not see the mean streak in her.'

Beth told me that Jack's former wife, Andrea, was manipulative. Once they were married, she had soon tired of poor Jack who had worshipped her. She had a lot of flings, nothing serious. But when Carter came onboard Jack's firm as a legal advisor, it was the last straw. According to Beth, Andrea flung herself at him openly. But Jack had chosen to look the other way.

Matters came to a head one day.

'When Jack discovered them making out in his office, he gave her an ultimatum. She walked out on him.' Said Beth sadly, nibbling on a cookie.

But Andrea had managed to get him to sign huge alimony. Poor Jack was too broken to put up a fight. He sold out his shares in the company and returned to Carrow Hill, to lick his wounds.

Beth sighed as she rose to refill the coffee. I sat at the kitchen table, my chin in my hands, contemplating the fate of poor Jack.

He continued to work, she went on, he was too good at his job to be written off. But he handed over his house in the city to Andrea and only kept the cabin for himself. He had yet to find himself a good woman who would help him get over that evil nymphomaniac, added Breth savagely.

Curious, I asked,

"Didn't Jack...he could have ...?

Beth caught on to my confused thoughts immediately. Sliding me an old fashioned look she pushed a new platter of cookies to me and munching on one, she said,

"That man has not had another woman since Andrea.' She sighed and scowled. "He is still young, just thirty-eight, not ancient, but he hides away in the woods, only comes to pick up provisions.'

Beth shook her head

'Kept waiting for months he did, thinking she would return to him. Carter walked out on her, you see. But ...'

Here Beth shook her head, dusting the crumbs from the surface of the table as she went on,

'He's never even gone out with another woman. Stays in that cabin of his like a monk.'

I looked up and caught a look on her face as she studied me for a second.

But Jack's truck drove up just then and whatever Beth had been about to tell me, was forgotten.