Jason went home the afternoon they returned from the Poconos and although he waited anxiously for a call from Karen, none came. As the summer passed, he became more and more resigned to the fact that he never would get the call he fervently hoped for.
When school began that fall, he discovered that Sylvia had returned to her old snobby ways, her old style of dress, and her old group of friends. She hardly spoke two words to him the entire school year. He did occasionally see Brenda, but she acted as if she was embarrassed to see him and they didn't talk. He saw Karen, with her husband, at graduation, but she looked embarrassed when he tried to catch her eye and didn't acknowledge that she'd seen him.
Six years passed, six years that produced a remarkable change in the lives of all of the people involved in the fateful week that Jason visited to the Dooley cabin in the Poconos.
Jason continued to work at Biggie Burgers and, because his boss liked him and knew he was interested in computers, he asked the young man if he could write a computer program to help keep track of the company's business. Jason did write the program, which worked so well that when Biggie Burgers expanded into a small, but successful regional chain, he became quite wealthy. He listened to his father and got a royalty contract. Later he was able to sell the rights to the program he'd written to a large company that specialized in business software. He received a shockingly large sum plus stock options in the deal.
Jason invested most of his income in stocks, bonds, and property, and most of his investments proved quite lucrative. In fact, though few people in town knew it, he was a millionaire several times over by the time he was twenty-five.
Jason tried dating and even managed a few serious relationships, but none of them lasted very long. He dated one girl for almost two years, the longest he dated anyone. But, when he asked her to marry him, she surprised him by turning him down. "You don't love me, Jason," she told him, looking very sad. " I'm not sure you can love anyone. There's...there's someone else you love, I think. Someone who will always be there, someone I can't compete with."
Jason ruefully had to acknowledge that she was right. Even though he hadn't heard from her in six years, Karen Dooley was the only woman he loved and would ever love.
Wanting to keep busy, although he didn't need the money, he bought a small chain of computer stores. He worked part-time in all of them, but only a few people knew he was the owner and that was the way he wanted it.
And, although he owned several pricey apartment buildings, he chose to live in a small, one-bedroom apartment in one of the lower-rent buildings he owned. His only extravagances were a house he bought for his folks in Florida when his father retired, another piece of property he bought for sentimental reasons, and a couple of pickup trucks he'd restored.
He kept track of the Dooley family and knew a lot more about them than they realized he did, but he made no attempt to contact them. From time to time, he'd see Karen and Sylvia around town, but they never saw him; that was the way he wanted it. He'd heard Brenda had moved away somewhere and hadn't seen her in ages.
Then, almost seven years to the day he last had contact with Karen Dooley, Jason walked out of a branch bank in the local mall one afternoon and, as he was heading across the parking lot toward his pickup, he noticed two women walking toward him. One of the women - who looked familiar - was dark-haired, wore glasses, and was a bit on the husky side, but attractive. Her companion, who was shorter and red-haired, had a bit of a masculine look. Both of the women were dressed in jeans and sweatshirts and were wearing riding boots.
The dark-haired woman looked at Jason and smiled. "Jason...Jason Weeks, is that you?" she asked.
Jason looked at her a bit more carefully and a smile formed on his face. "Brenda. Brenda Dooley," he said, recognizing Sylvia's sister, who he hadn't seen in almost five years. She'd slimmed down a little, and was wearing her hair cut very short in a style that was almost mannish.
Brenda nodded. "God, it's been what, five years?" she asked. "I haven't seen you since you graduated from high school. How are you?"
"I'm fine, Brenda," Jason replied, "How are you?" He realized he was a little uncomfortable. Seeing Brenda brought back a lot of painful memories.
"Great!" she said. She gestured in the direction of her companion. "Jason, I'd like you to meet Anne Hanson. Anne's my partner."
"Pleased to meet you, Anne," Jason said. "It looks as if Karen's suspicion that her daughter was gay was right," he thought, recalling a conversation he'd had with Brenda's mother years earlier. He grinned. "I can tell by your outfits that you're both cowgirls," he said, misquoting an old song to tease the two women.
Both Brenda and Anne smiled and nodded. "Anne and I have a horse farm out on the old Millerville Road," she said. "We raise and train Lippet Morgans. What have you been up to since high school?"
"Lots of stuff," Jason said, "Hey, it's lunchtime and I was just about to go and get myself something to eat. Would you ladies like to join me? My treat. We can talk about old times, and what I've been doing since high school, over lunch."
Brenda looked at Anne, who smiled and nodded, then she turned to Jason. "Sure, why not? It will be fun to catch up," she said.
