'Til you Can't

Challenge Accepted Part 1

Cody's POV:

Thank God for the music softly playing in the background as I drove us towards the drive-in movie a few towns over. Since picking her up, Naomi hadn't said more than ten words, choosing to look out the passenger side window and watch the fields pass by as the last of the days sunlight danced off the growing crops. Of course, I hadn't helped matters any by not volunteering to talk either. Small talk was never something that I was good at. Just then, the words to a new song by a fellow artists popped into my mind. BG had hit the nail on the head with his "How to talk to Girls" song because even at 33, I was still learning much like he said he was in the song.

Then again, my lack of wanting to talk to a woman -especially a woman that had always been the type that I had been drawn too- could be blamed on the fact that I had just been though a pretty nasty divorce where my now ex wife had tried everything in her power to make me out to be a horrible husband and father. Even thinking about the things she's said in mediation about me and my life out on the road had my blood threatening to reach a boiling point. I was still trying to figure out how someone that I had adored with all of my heart, whom I had promised to spend the rest of my life with and cherish for all of time could be so damn vindictive all because I had missed one little family function. Granted, it was her sister's wedding but that was beside the point. It still didn't give her the right to hook up with the DJ and send video proof of it to me just because she was pissed off. She knew better than anyone that I can't just cancel a show at a moment's notice unless it was a family emergency. Her wanting to rub it in that she was with an up-and-coming artist didn't qualify as an emergency by anyone's definition of the word.

The disembodied voice coming from the GPS pulled me from my wayward thoughts, telling me that the drive-in was just up ahead. Taking deep breaths to calm my simmering temper, I eased off the gas as I neared the entrance. There was a line of cars and trucks already waiting to get in.

"I haven't been here since I was a kid. Aunt Reba and Uncle Narval brought me here to see Gone with the Wind when I was about 10." Said Naomi as we slowly moved towards the ticket booth.

"Looks like we will be watching Twister tonight." I said when I was close enough to read the marquee sign close to the ticket booth. "Lets just hope that the same thing that happened at he drive-in in that movie doesn't happen tonight."

The look that came over her face in that moment was one of sheer panic, making me feel like an asshole for even putting that juju into the air. I can't explain why but seeing that look of panic -and the slight glimpse of fear that she tried desperately to hide- made me want to kick my own ass. Once again, the lyrics to BG's song came to mind. See, I'm still learning how to talk to girls. Scrubbing a hand over my face as a low groan rumbled in my chest, I took a deep breath as I racked my brain on how to fix this. Deciding that there wasn't anything else I could say aside from I'm sorry and I'm an asshole, I reached across the cab of the truck and placed a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry Naomi. Can we just go with the fact that I'm an asshole and that small talk is not my forte? I know it's a pretty lame excuse, but I spend most of my time with guys who are extremely fluent in smartassery and strive to be the first one with the quick comeback. The words were out of my mouth before I even realized what I was saying."

"I think you better send an apology to the big man upstairs and tell him that you were just kidding. I don't want to spend my night in the belly of an auto shop wondering if I'm going to make it out or not." Said Naomi. "Helen Hunt might have made it out alive, but that don't mean that Naomi McEntire would."

"You come from tough stock. Pretty sure you could hold you own with mother nature." I hadn't meant for my statement to come out as flirty, but even to my own ears -and lets face it, men weren't known for catching this type of thing- it had sounded like a pick-up line straight from a movie. You know the ones I'm talking about. The ones where the girl blushes, the man smirks, and then 10 minutes later they are sucking face and proclaiming their love for one another. Not that I was looking for that to happen tonight. No way, no how. That was the absolute last thing that I needed in my life right now.