We talked about how each other felt and what our goals would be. I did tell her that once I found a woman that I wanted to be my gal then it would be a one on one commitment. In other words if she were to become my girl, no other guy could be in the picture for any reason at all. That would include hugging and kissing, especially kissing. Of course sex with someone else would be a real deal breaker and I could not tolerate that sort of behavior. I said I was a one woman man and I expected my girl to be a one man woman. We discussed what type of behavior would and would not be tolerated. My parents were married when mom was just sixteen and dad was nineteen and had been solely exclusive to each other. Imagine my surprise when she told me she fully agreed with all I said.
We discussed her family. She has two brothers and one sister all of which were younger that she. I told her I have two brothers, one older and one younger. Since she already knew I was raised on a farm there really was not a lot more to tell her about me that we had not already discussed while she was riding shot gun. She was still somewhat vague about her parents and what they did for a living. But I just thought she was not real proud of them for some reason. I knew I would have to meet them sooner or later if we decided to co-drive my rig.
Five and one half months after I dropped her off she called me with the news that she now had her commercial driver's license and for me to head that direction. Since I was only seven states away I told her I could be in the area in about three weeks give or take a day or two. I also informed her I wanted to meet her parents and siblings. She did not seem real excited about that but agreed to have everyone over to her parent's house the first weekend I would be in town. I got there two days earlier than expected. I had her address already so I dropped the trailer in a truck stop and just drove to her house. I did surprise her because I was two days early. She lived in a small community just outside of Oklahoma City. She said her parents lived inside of Oklahoma City about fifteen miles from her. She called her parents and asked them if they still wanted to meet me and they did say yes. So now there was going to be some sort of get together at her parent's house in three days. I was looking forward to it with just a little interpretation.
As she was driving her car to her parent's house I did notice that we were not heading towards a part of that town that would be considered the wrong side of the tracks. We were now driving through a locked gate community with homes costing in the upwards of the six figure range. When we finally stopped in front of a small mansion, I almost backed out of this meeting. Shoot I was concerned I was way underdressed to meet royalty. Both of her parents were high powered lawyers making big bucks. They owned the business and had three partners. OK so now someone tell me what to do. Do I go in? Do I run like a scalded dog? Someone tell me what to do in this instance. Darlene told me we were there and to just act as natural as possible. Oh yeah, and get out of the damn car because no one was going to bite.
Well it seems that not only were they rich but they were down to earth about their lives. They explained that since Darlene was the eldest of their children they had a serious concern about her learning to drive such a large truck all over the country. I did go on to tell them how Darlene and I met and what had transpired during our four week trip to Oklahoma. I explained the type of money I was making owning my own rig versus driving for someone else. Of course I left out the sex part and the part of her riding naked and any other parts that did not seem appropriate discussing with her parents. I went on to explain that once friends were made in the industry that we all looked after each other like brothers or sisters. Of course there were those truckers out there that did not have any scruples and did their level best to give all truckers bad names. Most of us were truly family guys and all they wanted to do was their jobs and get home to the family.
I was genuinely surprised at how smoothly things went that day. I had a real attraction to her family and it appears as if they accepted me. Things were looking good to me because I was about to take their daughter on as a driving partner. I would pay her thirty percent of whatever the load paid. Even that was more than she would have made driving for someone else. The rest went for maintenance, fuel, food, showers and other expenses associated with driving and owning your own "Ground Ship". Her dad mentioned that maybe we should get it in writing and I told him I would only if Darlene agreed that it would be a good idea. She told them she trusted me because I was the only guy she spent more than a couple of days with while touring the country. She said he (me) was a really upfront type of person. Her mom had mixed feeling about Darlene's side of it and her husband's side of it. So mom put it back in my court and I just said let's do it. I have nothing to hide and so we signed a binding contract about the share of each load. OK so I would lose a little of money up front but team drivers made more in the long run because they were not having to stop as often as the law required for single drivers.
Darlene and I spent the next nine months on the road with occasional side trips to her parent's house or my family's farm. The "Ground Ship" now had over two million miles on her and it was getting time to replace her. I was reluctant but agreed to do it because she was showing her age in other areas such cosmetics and few mechanical problems that were popping up. Since I kept meticulous records on her I was given a pretty good deal on a brand new Kenworth. Since I had saved a lot of money because the only expense I had to handle was life as I was now living I was only going to have to finance about twenty-five percent of the cost of the truck. That is when Darlene asked if she could speak to me in private. So we talked.
She offered to pay for one half of the cost of the truck. That would make us equal partners. A fifty-fifty split for all including expenses. No strings attached. I told her we should at least talk to her parents about it because the rig I was looking at with all the extras I wanted would be somewhere in the neighborhood of $200,000.00. She told me it was her decision because she was of legal age of consent and her parents really did not matter in this. What was I to say other than OK was, I agree? But I would still want something on paper just to show her that I wanted to keep it legal in case she decided she wanted out of the deal. Even though she agreed to my terms she did not like it. Also note we were have very intimate encounters as often as possible. We had been co-driving for about nine months now so we now have known each other for somewhere around fifteen months. I really cared for her and I believed she cared for me. If one of us got sick the other would make sure the loads were delivered on time and also we nursed each other back to health.
Like I said, we'd known each other for fifteen months and during our first trip in the new rig, "Ground Ship II" we were making love. It could not be called sex because we were putting everything we had into our relationship. Sex would just be a thing for one or the other to get off on but we did make sure that we both could as much out of it so it was making love. She let it slip one night while we were trying to make a load to California that she loved me. She said this as she was drifting off to sleep. That got me to thinking, did I love her or was this just a business arrangement we had. We got to the designated drop off spot and have about three days to layover before the next load. I rented a motel room nearby. I also rented a car so we could go site seeing.
We toured around the first day acting like love struck teenagers and broke in the back seat of the rental car. Day two of the layover we pretty much just lounged around the motel pool and enjoyed watching some kids on vacation playing in the pool. Darlene leaned over to me and asked me what I thought about those kids. I did tell her that I liked the idea of being a father some day but I still wanted to wait until I was sure that the woman I eventually married could be the wife of a trucker. I do like, no I loved my job. Just as soon as I finished saying that she found a way to dump me out of the chair I was setting in and into the pool with one swift move and then stormed off to the room. What the hell just happened? What did I say to set her off? What was I going to do now? Boy men really are stupid or dense! It dawned on me what I heard just two nights ago as she was going to sleep. I was able to answer my questions because of what I had heard the other night. Yes, I do love her. She has been everything to me for the past seventeen months now, and I realized I had not had intimate relations with anyone since I met her in North Dakota. Even when she was in driving school, I was with no one. Now what exactly is my next move? Of course I already knew what that would be. I got up, went to the motel room, cleaned up and got in the car and took off. I did not tell Darlene where I was going or what I was going to do. She thought I left her. It took me two hours to find what I wanted. When I got back to the room she was laying in bed asleep. It looked like she had been crying.