Wired

She'd lived in an apartment for years, and in most places, that meant dealing with tough guys and assholes, and she'd expected the 'owner' to laugh at her and force her call the police. That, in turn, would potentially ruin any chance of ever being friends with whoever lived there, but she'd been so tired that when she pulled in and saw the party, she'd lost it. When she'd initially walked inside her unit and couldn't even hear herself think, she'd stormed back outside, banged on the other door, and asked for the owner.

"Too late now," she said to herself as she finally laid down after a very long, exhausting day.

The last thing she thought of before falling asleep was that if her neighbor really wasn't a total jerk she'd try and patch things up with him the next time she saw him. If he was, well, she didn't know what she'd do, and for now, she was too tired to think about it.

Unlike his nearly all of friends, Dalton Burke didn't sleep in. He was up by 5:30 am every morning, and normally either went for a run or worked out. He'd have to bring his weight bench over along with his dumbbells for that, but he could definitely go for a run.

Also unlike his friends, many of whom were already so far out of shape less than a year after their last football game they couldn't run a mile, Dalton worked hard to keep his body in good condition. He loved the way a workout made him feel, and it set a positive tone for the rest of his day.

So while his co-workers were still in bed nursing hangovers, Dalton was getting ready to 'hit the bricks' and log another 4-5 miles.

Another place where he was very different from his friends was that the early morning was his favorite time of the day. Almost no one else was up, and when he was out running it made him feel like he 'owned' the town. Sunday mornings were the best, but Saturdays were a close second, and he reveled in the cooler Fall air as he headed toward town where he'd follow the main street for another mile then head back on a parallel road to his new place.

The sun had just started peeking up about a mile before he got back, and he poured it on the last quarter of a mile. The endorphin rush was something he never got tired of, and when it hit him, he felt like a million bucks. He sprinted the last fifty yards then slowed down just as he got to the short driveway of the duplex.

He was on top of the world until he turned into the driveway and saw someone sitting on the steps outside the other unit. With nowhere to go but straight ahead, Dalton braced for a second round of fire as he walked up.

"Mornin', ma'am," he said very humbly as he got close.

The sun was right in her eyes so she was squinting and then raised her hand to cover them before speaking.

"Oh, hey there. I thought I heard you leave."

"I uh, I hope I didn't wake you up," he said, raising his hands to the 'I surrender' position.

"No. It's just that I'm a really light sleeper, and pretty much any noise wakes me up."

"Oh, speaking of noise, I'm real sorry about last night. We were celebratin', and I honestly didn't think anyone was next door. I felt awful when I saw you and your boy standin' there."

"No, I'm the one who should apologize. I totally overreacted," she told him.

"No, not really," Dalton said. "You've got a right to your peace and quiet, and I promise you that won't ever happen again."

She stood up, faced him, and smiled, then stuck out her hand and said, "Could we maybe start over?"

"I'd like that," Dalton said as they shook hands.

"I'm Brooke Mitchell, and my son's name is Bo."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, ma'am. I'm Dalton Burke."

"I know who you are," she said in a much quieter, kinder tone of voice.

"Ma'am?" he said, a confused look on his face.

"I lived in Union for several years. In fact, Bo and I were at the championship game last year. He loves Union football. All he could say after he saw you was, 'Momma. Do you know who that was?' And before I could answer, he told me your name, how many touchdown passes you threw, and even your shoe size. Okay, maybe not your shoe size."

Dalton laughed then kind of cocked his head, took a good look at her then said, "No offense, but I'd never forget a pretty face like yours, and I don't believe we've ever met."

She smiled and when she did, he saw she was indeed a very pretty woman. Even with her hair in a ponytail and no makeup, she looked very nice.

"Thank you for saying that, Dalton. You just made my day," she told him.

Then he took a closer look and smiled.

"Wait a second. I do know you! Yeah. I remember now. You were the new girl who was a cheerleader back in...um...what year was that?"

"That was me," she said with a smile. "You uh, you probably know my ex-husband, Craig Mitchell. We dated our last two years in high school. He was a big-time...."

"Running back. Class of 2006," Dalton said with a smile. "Man that guy could run!"

"Yes. Yes, he could," Brooke agreed. "But he could also drink."

She'd been smiling but the smile was long gone.

"And when he drank he could really...hit, too, and not the football kind of hitting."

"Whoa! Are you sayin' he hit you?" Dalton asked, the disbelief in his voice strong.

Brooke didn't answer him directly. Instead she told him why she was back.

"Craig has family up in Tulsa. They moved here within a few weeks of the time when my folks and I moved here. His parents moved down here just so he could be a star. Up in Tulsa he'd have been good, but not all-state. Anyway, after graduation, his daddy got an offer to go back to his company in Tulsa, and Craig asked me to marry him. I was 18 and naive...."

She paused then said, "I was also pregnant...so I went with them. He had a heck of a time finding work there, and that made the drinkin' worse. Bo came along and things were better for a year a two then they went back to the way they were. That was tough, but it was tolerable. Then he hurt his back real bad and got hooked on pain pills. Things went from bad to worse, and I took Bo and moved out. We separated for a year, and he quit drinkin' and takin' pills, so I agreed to give him another chance—mostly for Bo. To make a long story short, he hit me for the last time a few months ago, and I moved out, and Union was the first place I thought of. I had a lot of pleasant memories here."

"I am so sorry," Dalton said.

"Me, too. I couldn't afford to move back right away, so I moved back in with my folks, who, believe it or not, also moved to Tulsa, but that just didn't work for anything more than the short-term. Anyway, once we had enough money to get out of Tulsa, I drove down about week ago and looked at places, and this was the nicest thing I could afford. I signed the lease then we went back and got the U-Haul and well, we kinda met last night after my first few minutes back in Union. Again, I'm really sorry for being such a crazy bitch."

"No, ma'am. That was all on me. One-hundred percent. And like I said, that won't ever happen again."

"Well, I don't expect you to never have friends over, Dalton," she told him.

"They can come over, they're just gonna have to respect your privacy. Plain and simple."

"I heard you were a good guy. Now I know it's true," she told him with a warm smile.

He thanked her then Brooke said, "I need to take a shower so I can get to work by 8 o'clock. Being late on your first day is never a good thing."

"If you don't mind me askin', what kinda job starts on a Saturday?" he asked politely.

"One I really, really need?" she told him with a smile.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to be nosey," he said.

"It's okay. Maybe we can talk one of these times or something," Brooke said.

"Yes, ma'am. I'd like that," he replied.

"And would you please not call me ma'am? I just turned 30, and I feel bad enough about that."

"Seriously? You don't look 30," Dalton told her truthfully.

"Ah! That's twice you've made my day, and it hasn't even gotten started!" she said. "But I really do need to run."

She looked at him then said, "Well, not...run. Not like you do. But run as in...hurry."

Dalton laughed and said, "No, I gotcha, ma'...Brooke."

"Okay, well, I'll uh, I'll see you around, QB," she told him using the common abbreviation for quarterback.

"Nice meetin' you," he told her.

"Yeah. Same here," Brooke said before going back inside.

Dalton also went inside, and the first thing he noticed was the sound of water running next door. He smiled when he thought about his very attractive, recently-single neighbor in the shower. Then again, she was 30 and had a kid half his age, and he was all of 19—and barely that.

Even so, Dalton was well aware she was a hottie, even though he'd never say that to her—or to anyone else for that matter. He might mention his new neighbor was a very attractive, older woman, but his momma didn't like the word 'hottie' so it was something he almost never said out loud.

Dalton took a shower a few minutes later, and somewhere around 7:40, he heard Brooke saying, "Come on, baby. Momma can't be late on her first day."

A minute later their front door opened, and Dalton took a peek as the two of them headed out. The U-Haul had towed a small, white car that looked like an older, beat-up, Ford Fiesta, and he saw Brooke open the door for her son then go around to the driver's side.

When she finally turned around to get in, Dalton whistled very quietly.

"Dang!" he said when he saw her in a very nice looking blue dress with a white cardigan sweater.

The sun was high enough by then that he could see her quite well, and from what he saw she was even better looking than he'd assumed. Her long, very-dark hair was worn down and fell around her shoulders, framing her very pretty face which had what looked like a small amount of makeup on it giving it a very smooth look.

Dalton hadn't dated anyone since his longtime girlfriend, Amanda, who'd also been a cheerleader, had left for college. She'd tried telling him a long-distance relationship could work out, but he'd insisted on letting her have her freedom knowing their worlds were rapidly diverging and heading down very different paths.

In four years she'd be a registered nurse with a bachelor of science degree, and he'd still be an electrician with a high school diploma. He didn't know whether or not she'd end up staying in Union, but his sense was this town was too small for her, and he felt pretty sure she'd end up in Tulsa or Oklahoma City or maybe even leave the state for greener pastures.

He, on the other hand, had no intention of ever leaving Union or his momma. Like most southern boys, there was no shame in being a 'momma's boy'. In other places that term meant weakness and clinginess. But not in Oklahoma. So while he wasn't anything like what one typically associated with that term, he loved his mother too much to ever leave the only town he'd ever known; a town that also loved and revered him.

So he and Amanda had parted company the last week of July—the last time he'd had sex—and Dalton hadn't even been on a date with a girl since.

For now, at least, that was okay. Work was his top priority, and he knew that at some point, another pretty girl would come along. Whenever that happened, be it sooner or later, it would be just fine. Until then, he had plenty to keep him busy, and it didn't take a whole lot to make him happy.

For now, just having an attractive woman living next door was enough to make him very happy.

Around 10 am, Dalton went outside to take a look at the wiring on the satellite dish just to make sure everything was ready to go. As he walked around the building he noticed the gutter on Brooke's side needed repair and wondered who'd done the work on the place he'd been told 'had just been fixed up'. He checked her dish, too, while he was there, and everything looked fine, so he went around back and saw another problem.

One of the posts supporting the cheap pergola in back was wobbly. Really wobbly. It was a simple fix, and he couldn't believe anyone who knew anything about home repair could have missed that. It wasn't just unsightly, it was a safety issue, and with a young boy living there, any hard bump could bring the whole thing down on top of him or his mother.

Dalton ran back to his mother's house to get some tools, and the way she hugged him made him feel like she thought he'd been gone for a month of Sundays. She insisted he come in and have lunch, and since he was there to borrow both tools and supplies, he was happy to do it. The fact that his momma made the best grilled cheese sandwich in Union didn't hurt, either.

Samantha, of course, wanted to know what was wrong with his new place. He let her know it was just little stuff, and mostly with his neighbors' side, then happened to mention Bo.

"Oh, so there's a family next door?" she asked.

"Um, yes. Well, it's a mom and her son," he explained.

He quickly added, "Which, of course, is a family."

"Oh, okay. There's a lot of that goin' on these days, huh?" his mother said referring to them, as well.

"I suppose that's true. She's a right pretty woman, and she's real nice, so it's kinda hard to understand. But I guess her ex is a drunk, too, and evidently, he believes in 'the layin' on of hands."

"Bastard," his mother hissed. Just the thought of a man who'd hit a woman sent her through the roof.

She looked at her son then said, "You know, I have to give your daddy a little credit. For all the things he's done wrong, he's never once laid a hand on me."

Dalton already knew that, but he also knew it was his mother's way of trying to say something positive about his father no matter how lame it might sound.

After lunch, Dalton grabbed the things he needed, gave his momma hug, then thanked her for the meal.

"Will you be back for supper, honey?" she asked, referring to the evening meal by its more traditional name.

"I'm not sure, Momma. If not, I'll definitely come over tomorrow for Sunday dinner."

"I hope that'll be a given every week," she said with a smile.

"I'm pretty sure it will be," her son told her. "Nobody makes a pot roast or fried chicken like my momma."

"Okay, I suppose I could have dinner by myself one night this week," she told him.

Samatha was wondering what that nice man who ran Union Electric might be doing for dinner, and decided to call and find out—just in case.

She walked her son out to his truck and just as he got ready to leave she said, "Oh. Did you hear they're fixin' to build a Walmart in Union?"

"Seriously?" Dalton replied.

"As a heart attack," she told him. "The mayor's secretary let me know after your celebration last night. Actually, it was at the bar, but it's a done deal. And with Union Electric being the only real game in town, something tells me you might be spending a lot of your time on that building gettin' it wired."

"Dang, Momma. That's good news for everyone," he said.

"Well, unless you're a small business that gets run outta town," she said.

"Yeah. That'd be tough to take."

"Well, nothin' stays the same. We either adapt...."

"Or die," her son said, finishing the saying he'd heard more times than he could count.

Dalton didn't follow politics, but he'd heard the debate about Walmarts several times. The good side was lots of products at cheap prices. The bad side was that little stores couldn't compete, and many times a business closed its doors and the employees who lost their jobs ended up working at Walmart.

Did those new jobs include benefits? Could a man or woman make a living there?

Then there was the environmental debate. Did these stores just come in and ruin some large part of the local area as some folks said or were they 'environmentally conscientious' as the big store claimed?

He knew he should care, but like so many other things, Dalton was well aware he was just one man against the backdrop of the entire country. So from who became president to the governor of his state to things like a big company coming in and building a store, no one was asking him for his opinion. Therefore, he chose to take things as they came and deal with them rather than spend his time trying to influence events well beyond his control. Activism was fine; it just wasn't fine for him.

They'd built a Home Depot in Union a few years earlier and there were drugstores in town with corporate names, and life had gone on so how the hell did he know whether or not a Walmart was a good thing? Dalton's last thought on this issue was that life would keep right on goin' on no matter what he thought or did.

As he drove back to his new place, Dalton was loving the weather. Fall was his favorite time of year. The brutal heat was gone for six months and the winters tended to be fairly mild although January cold be downright cold.

When he got home the temperature was about 72 degrees, and to Dalton, that was as about as ideal as it got. He set his tools down outside then went in and stripped off his tee-shirt and tossed it on the bed. He gave his long, messy-looking hair a shake and thought about maybe getting it trimmed a little one of these days.

His hair had been his 'trademark' for several years, and based on the numerous compliments he'd gotten on it from cute girls (and many women) ever since, he was pretty sure it was working for him. The truth was he'd been blessed with good looks and the longer hair made him look like a sexy lead singer in a rock band. Or so he'd been told more than a few times.

He took a look at his still rock-hard body and patted the flat stomach that showed off his obliques along with his abs then headed back outside in a pair of jeans and cowboy boots to get to work.

He went around back and tackled the more serious problem first. He jammed a 4x4 he had in the back of his truck in between the patio and the pergola to serve as a temporary support before drilling some new holes in the concrete then moving the existing support rod to the new location and securing it. He gave it a good shake, and when he saw that it was rock steady, he removed the brace and headed back around to the side.

Dalton grabbed the ladder and propped it up, then went to work fixing the gutter. It was a simple job, and in less than five minutes, it was done. He put the ladder away then went to pick up the rest of the tools just as a little Fiesta pulled into the driveway.

The passenger door flung open, and the boy who's face he'd only seen the one time jumped out and said, "Hey!"

The boy waved wildly and had a big old smile on his face.

Dalton waved back and said, "Hey, yourself. You must be Bo."

"Yes, sir!" he said loudly as his mom got out.

"Come on over and say hello," Dalton told him.

The boy glanced at his mother who said, "Go ahead," and the boy quickly walked over to meet the QB he'd idolized.

"I'm Dalton," the shirtless young man said as he stuck out his hand.

"Yes, sir. I know who are you," he said as he pumped his hand. "Me and Momma watched you in the championship game last year."

Brooke walked up and said, "Momma and I," correcting her son's grammar.

"Sorry, Momma," he said, unable to stop smiling or take his eyes off of his hero.

"Well, that was then and this is now," Dalton told him. "Do you play?"

"My momma's thinkin' about lettin' me," he said as he looked over at his mother.

Dalton looked at her, and once he got a look at her close up, he was 100% sure she was indeed a 'hottie'.

"He's only 10, so there's still time," she said as she roughed up the hair on top of his head.

"I'm almost 11 and I'm already missin' Pee Wee this year," the boy said, the disappointment obvious in his voice.

"I never played Pee Wee at all," Dalton told him.

"Really?" Bo said as though that couldn't possibly be true.

"Nope. My daddy wouldn't let me play until I was 12. He was too afraid I'd get hurt."