She's My Kind of Rain

"How do you know that," Rainey asked?

Her father laughed and said, "Because that is just what your mother god bless her soul did to me."

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I was coming home from doing my weekly grocery shopping on a Saturday morning about a month later when I came upon Rainey pulled off on the side of the road with the hood up. I threw on my four-way flashers and pulled in behind her. After climbing out of my truck I approached her vehicle.

"What's wrong, Rainey," I asked. "Why is the hood up?"

"Not sure the car just quit," Rainey said. "The gas tank says it's still half full."

I checked the plugs and cables to make sure that they were in order. After taking off the air filter I asked her to pump on the gas pedal a few times. When I smelt no gas. I got down and slid under the car and banged on the gasoline tank a few times. After climbing out I put the air filter back on and dropped the hood.

"Rainey you're out of gas," I said. "I think the gas gage has quit working. Lock up the vehicle. After I unload my groceries, I will drive you over to the nearest gasoline station to get a couple of gallons to put in your tank."

She climbed into the truck and we drove to the house I was staying in. I learned that her grandmother had lived in it until she had passed away. Rainey was quite surprised to see what I had done with it. It took us about twenty minutes to put the groceries away. It surprised her to discover that I had no fast food in my house at all. Everything I ate I made from scratch.

Once we had returned to her car and put in the gas it started right up. Sure enough, the gas gage had quit working and she hadn't noticed it.

"If you go to a parts store and pick up one stop by the house," I said. 'It will take me about half an hour to put the new one in."

About an hour later she was back at my door with the part in hand and a full tank of gas. I grabbed my toolbox and went to work replacing it. By the time I was done, I needed a cleanup and a shower. She laughed because she said I looked like Pigpen from the Charlie Brown comic strip. Just before she said goodbye, she looked at me with a big smile.

"Pick me up at seven," Rainey said. "I'm taking you out to a fancy restaurant for dinner as a thank you and I won't accept no for an answer."

I drove over at five to seven. The judge had been told the whole story. By this time, I was already more than halfway through my second year in just over twelve months. It was my hope to complete the four years in less than three.

"Hi Donald," I said after he answered the door. "Could you please let Rainey know that I'm here as she ordered."

The Judge laughed and roared, "Rainey, Dale is here. Dale, it's time you knew that I purposely had your grandfather and your case brought before the family court because I knew what your grandfather was up to. The District Attorney and I have been getting reports on your grades regularly. When you get your license, he plans on hiring you into the department."

Watching Rainey as she descended the stairs captured my attention. It was the first time I had seen her in a dress. It really had brought her femininity out. She was beautiful, her long brown hair hung down her back. The touches of makeup brought all her features out. I thought I had been smart to dress up in dress pants and a sports jacket.

Her parents watched us leave together as we headed out. We went to an upper-class restaurant in downtown Cape called Bythia's on Bythia and were led to a private setting. The Irish theme meal was outstanding. Where for the next two hours we spent eating and getting to know each other. We had just finished our meal around nine pm when the three-piece house band started playing.

We spent the rest of the dancing on the floor as much as we could. It was around one-thirty in the morning when I dropped her off and walked her to her door. Before leaving I kissed her good night.

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I had just finished writing the final two exams to complete my second year online. I was dressed in just in a pair of blue jeans walking around in bare feet. I hadn't shaved since Friday morning and now it was Sunday around noon and here, I was waiting for a fresh pot of coffee to finish brewing. Then came the knock at the front door.

Not thinking I went to answer it. It was Rainey who just walked in like she owned the place.

"Dam it Dale," Rainey said. "A girl could get old waiting for a second date from you."

That was when she saw the six legal books sitting on the floor. "You've been working on your final's, haven't you?"

"I just finished my last two to complete the second year in fifteen months," I said. "I can't start my third year until I get the results and I should have them by the end of next week. I just made a fresh pot of coffee would you like a cup."

"Yes please," Rainey said. "Dale, we have to lay down some ground rules if we're going to date."

"What makes you think I want to date you," I asked to tease her?

"You always sit in the back yard when your reading," She responded, "So that when you stop you can look at the big house to see if you can see me."

"How to do you know that," I asked?

"Because I have been watching you just as much you big dummy," She laughed.

Ruth walked into her husband's den and said, "Donald, Rainey has finally got tired of waiting for Dale to get off his butt and ask her out. She walked over to talk to him about an hour ago."

Donald looked up at his wife of almost thirty years and said, "Isn't that what you had to do to me?"

"Very much so," Ruth said with a huge grin. "Took me eight months from that point to get you to ask me. Even now I have to remind you to get your head out of a legal book for a while at times."

"He's a good man Ruth, our daughter couldn't do better," He said. "She's been interested in him since she heard him present a mock case."

"She told me he reminded her of you, "Ruth said. "Remember when you practiced law and had to prepare your oral closing arguments how you would rehearse them in the den. Rainey used to sit on the floor watching you as you rehearsed them over and over again."

Rainey and I were just enjoying being in each other's company. We had already enjoyed a couple of cups of coffee. I decided I better get cleaned up. So, I went and had a shower and a shave. When I had come out, I found that Rainey had tidied the kitchen up.

"Come on let's go," I said. "I think it's time you met the three kids that started all of this."

So off we went to my grandfather's and grandmother's place. The kids were helping my grandfather out in the yard when we pulled into the place. My grandfather watched as Rainey and I climbed out of the truck.

"Who's the young in you got with you Dale," Grandfather Jim said. "You're not robbing the cradle, are you?"

"I'll have you know," Rainey responded with a bit of attitude. "I'm twenty-two."

"As of this morning she's my girlfriend," I responded. "She's also Judge McDonald's daughter Rainey."

"He's always had a soft spot for you," My grandfather reminded me. "Every father believes his daughters the marrying kind. Don't let your relationship with Rainey hurt your relationship with the Judge."

We spent the day on the farm, my grandparents, my three cousins, Rainey and I went all went down to the pond to have a quick dip. Grandmother had provided us with clothes that we could swim in. The kids had a blast. After supper, we went to a movie theater before I took her home. We sat down on the porch swing at the back of her dad's house to talk.

"My main focus has to be getting through the bar," I said. "I agreed to your Dad's terms so that my grandfather could get my aunts kids. But I found that I have fallen in love with the law. I see that same view in your dad."

"It took my mother coming into his life," Rainey said. "To get him to slow down and develop some balance. Mom said it wasn't easy because he like you was so focused on what he was doing that she had to teach him to slow down and allow time for other things."

I thought about it for a while then said, "I've always run through life. I don't know if I can slow down."

I don't know why Rainey smiled the way she did. I guess what I had said had meant something important to her.

"Dale do you remember a little girl stopping you one day to thank you," Rainey asked? "From saving her from her father's wrath."

"Vaguely," I responded. "I remember the father. I thought the father had been a complete ass. So, what if I had cut him off with my bike. To me, it was not a big deal."

Rainey started laughing.

"What's so funny about that?" I asked.

"That was my dad," She said.

I looked at her in complete shock.

"Dale our lives have been intertwined longer than that." She said. "My dad and I were having a father-daughter afternoon the day you came back to return to your aunt the plastic bag you borrowed."

"When did you figure this all out," I had to ask?

"It came to me when you and I were playing water volleyball with your younger cousins," Rainey said. "Carrie looks so much like her mother."

Before I headed back to my place, we had discussed my schedule and we worked dating into it.

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Ruth and Donald were having breakfast when Rainey showed up ready for the day. Just by the way their daughter looked, they knew something had changed.

"You and Dale had a very long talk last night after he brought you home," Ruth said. "Anything we should be concerned about?"

"Other than I got myself a boyfriend that looks promising nothing at all," Rainey said with a big smile. "Dad just so you know Dale has written his finals to finish the second year."

Donald looked at his daughter and said, "how does he feel he did on them?"

"Let's put it this way," Rainey said. "He's already ordered the textbooks needed for the third year."

"Two years in less than sixteen months," Donald said. "If he doesn't slow down, he might burn himself out."

"That may not be a problem Dad," Rainey said. "We reworked his schedule to include time for us to be us."

Ruth looked at her daughter with a big smile as if she already knew something and said, "When are you going to start heading him towards the alter and how long have you known he was your one?"

Rainey sat down with her coffee cup in hand and told her parents about the time I had cut off her father with my bike.

"Dale was the first person I had never seen stand up to my dad," Rainey said. "When I thanked him for saving me from Dad's anger, he saw it as no big deal. Then when he stopped to help me out with no agenda when I ran out of gas. I saw a gentleness in him that he allows a few to see. That night as we danced, he went over and stopped a man from taking his anger physically out on his wife."

"When I asked Dale about it later, he explained that he had gotten the man to agree to take some anger management classes after explaining what anger had done to his Uncle and Aunt," Rainey explained. "Yesterday we were at his grandfather's and it was a day that was filled with making his cousin feel loved and appreciated. What sets Dale is the fact that he is already comfortable with who he is. So, he doesn't feel like he has to prove himself."

"In his home, he keeps things simple, and organized," Rainey said. "I watched him make us a pizza for lunch from scratch. I helped him do something and he was curious enough why I was doing it a certain way. When I explained he said I never knew that now it makes sense."

"But it was the day I watched him as he debated for two hours in a mock trial that I knew where he stood morally and that said it all," Rainey said. "His views are like mine which will make it easier than going forward. As for falling in love with him, I think I knew the day he stood up to dad that he would be the type of man that I would fall in love with."

"For now, we just have to wait and see if that happens," Rainey said as she refiled her travel mug before heading out for the day.

As soon as their daughter was out the door Ruth said, "She's in love but she not ready to admit it yet."

"Why would you say that," Donald asked?

"Did you notice that she couldn't stop talking about him or smiling?" Ruth said. "That's the way I was with you when we became exclusive with each other."

"I found it interesting that Dale is changing his schedule to make room for her," Donald said. "He must be seriously interested In Rainey to make her a priority."

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With Rainey coming into my life I found myself enjoying doing things with her and for her. I had attended her graduation ceremony with her parents. Rainey was now employed in the social serves department in Southeastern Missouri's Hospital.

We were just finishing a dinner we had made together when I got a phone call concerning the restaurant chain that I had help start. The call took about an hour and she heard one side of it. They were having a growth problem that was resolved easily because I was able to get the investor to look outside of the box.

During that time Rainey had discovered the real estate book lying under a couple of my textbooks. It was open to land that was available.

"You're thinking of buying some land," Rainey asked?

"Yes, I am," I replied. "I think I need to get some distance from my neighbor because I feel that their eyes are on us whenever you're here?"

"You feel like their smothering us too," Rainey said with a grin. "That explains why you have sent me home leaving us both frustrated."

I took her into my arms, as I looked into her eyes I said. "The other reason is I don't want my wife running home to her mother every time we have a disagreement over something stupid."

A smile came over her face and she responded, "I was getting too tired of waiting for you to ask me that I was about to ask you."

That Saturday we went out looking at some land that a local farmer had for sale. It was ten acres and Rainey loved the lay of it. I asked the real estate salesperson to ask the owner if he knew how deep the soil level was. She phoned him and he told her he had dug down ten feet to put clay drainage lines in years ago.

I offered five thousand less than he was asking for the acreage with a one-week closing date. He accepted the offer verbally as soon as she told him what my offer was after we had written it up on the hood of her car.

At closing, I asked the previous owner if he could walk the land with me and help me by showing me were springs might be. He smiled I know of three areas that I could never till up and they are quite close together.

Unknown to Rainey's parents we had invited them out to dinner that night so I could officially propose. Rainey and I met the farmer. Before we started walking with him, I got a handful of six-foot garden stakes with red flags on them out of the back of the truck.

With his help, we staked the area out.

"Peter," I said to him. "Is there any area along your property line that would affect the drainage of water off your property if I brought in a few earthmovers and took a few feet off the top."

He thought for a second and replied, "If your sloping it down from the property line it will help me a lot. What is it your thinking of doing?"

"Digging down the area where the springs are located," I said. "Moving the soil to the area in which I plan to build the house. At the edge of the property, I want to slope it so the water will naturally flow towards the spring which I hope will provide me enough water for a nice deep pond."

He smiles and said, "You're doing this at the right time. Four years ago, the Epa would have been down your throat."

Rainey looked at me with a bit of puzzlement. I explained "By having a raised area where the house is it will lessen the chance of us having a leaky basement"

We went to Bythia's on Bythia for dinner. Donald and Ruth had never been in there. But the owners knew who they were so Kaleb and Carrie came over and said hello to the judge. It took him a while to remember him, but he did.

We had just had the table cleared and were waiting for dessert when I got down on one knee and proposed. Rainey made a big deal by seeming to be taken by complete surprise. Donald was so overjoyed he ordered a bottle of their best champagne.

We danced until the band quit playing.

Rainey wanted a log home if we could afford it, so we decided on a two-story home three-bedroom home with roughly twenty-five hundred square feet of total space. It was a kit ordered online and they would send in a crew to assemble it when we were ready. I also ordered a double bay door garage as a detached building.

It took the earthmovers two weeks to move the soil around. We slopped the land towards the pond in the back with the layered flat area so there was lots of room for doing things. Then hauled rock in from the quarry for the pond area as quickly as possible because with the natural springs it was starting to slowly fill up. At the same time, they laid the rock down for the foundation of the driveway. Rainey made sure she went out and caught an image of the progress of it taking shape.

After the concrete foundation was poured for the house and detached garage. The materials arrived and they started constructing the buildings.

It took them less than two months to have the two buildings completed. I was left with about thirty thousand dollars but had no mortgage. Rainey loved the place and the privacy. We decided as a couple that we would finish furnishing as we could afford it.

It was a beautiful outdoor wedding. We got married out at my grandfather's farm on a spring day. I was now twenty-nine years old Rainey was twenty-four. The Judge quite proudly married us. Ruth gave Rainey away. I was in my final year of law school with just a few months to go.

After the wedding pictures were taken the Judge and Ruth took us aside and handed their daughter an envelope.

"This is our wedding president to the two of you," The judge said. "Ruth and I would like you to use it to finish furnishing the house. Whatever is left over, use it to landscape the rest of the property."

"One of the first things I would do is pave the driveway" Ruth added.

Later when we got back home, we opened the envelope it was a cashier cheque for forty thousand dollars.

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(The court appearance. For it to be effective had to be written from Judge Donald McDonalds point of view. As you read through it you will understand why.)

Judge Donald McDonald look out at the two parties and their lawyers. The plaintiff was suing the defendant for child support. For the last ten years, there had been a steady stream of these cases appearing before the court. Casual sex and one-night stand are caused by parents who refuse to teach their children morals with a firm hand. The lifestyle encouraged by programs like I am a teenage mom only encouraged the conduct.

This was an unusual case because the young man had offered to step up and marry the girl, but the girl's parents had decided that for some reason that he was not good enough. He had no clue that he was a father until after the child was born.

The girl's father was now being questioned by the defendant's lawyer. The judge had set the whole day for this case because he was looking forward to it. A newly appointed lawyer was presenting his first defense since passing the Bar.

"Mr. Thomas is it true you had to step in and stop your daughter from going through an abortion she had scheduled with Planned Parenthood." The defense lawyer asked.

The Judge looked at the defense lawyer with a raised eyebrow wondering why he was bringing it up.

Yes, her mother and I did," Mr. Thomas said. "She had found the appointment in the garbage when she was collecting it to put it out. Until then we didn't even know she was with child."