Romantic - Enemies to Lovers - Forbidden Love
•✦───✧✦✧───✦•
In the peacetime following World War II, Jean Ward loses everything and is sent to live with her best friend, Clyde Mayberry, and his brood of brothers on his family's cattle ranch.
For a...
^^^if you want to listen to jazz while you read^^^
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•✦─Early Winter, 1956─✦• Jean, age 18
For New Year's Eve, Mr. Mayberry decided to take the family out for a fancy dinner downtown.
They dressed in their finest, much of which Jean had either picked out or made for the occasion, and were seated at a long stretch of table next to a pianist.
Dinner was delicious, but Jean was more excited about what came after. Paulie had talked his siblings into swinging by the new jazz club that had opened up down the street from the restaurant.
Even standing in the long line to get in, Jean was excited. She knew the night was going to be a good one—could just feel it in the air.
"It's colder than a witch's tit out here," Paulie cursed as he wrapped his arms around himself. "This line needs to hurry up."
"Quit being such a baby," his eldest brother said. Simon had his Australian wife, Winnie, tucked under his arm.
Jean hardly saw the two, usually only here and there during the holidays and birthdays.
She didn't see much of the second eldest, either. Hank usually kept to himself and hadn't joined them that night. Jean didn't mind. He was usually too prickly to have much conversation with.
"I should've brought a warmer jacket," Paulie mentioned. He eyed the woolen pea coat Jean wore over a dress she had been dying to make—a form-fitting black dress with sharp angles and a deep V-shape studded with faux pearls in the back.
"Hey, Pipsqueak, you mind tradin' jackets with me?" Paulie asked sweetly.
Jean frowned at him. "Not a chance."
He sulked playfully, looking to Jory next. "What about you, City Boy? That jacket looks mighty warm."
Jory ignored him, his eyes trained on the line ahead of them. It had taken a bit of persuading to get him to come. Jean was shocked he had yielded to Paulie's begging in the first place.
"Hey, you can't call him City Boy anymore," Rudy said with a grin. "He's not in the city no more."
Paulie smiled, moving along with the group as the line shifted forward. "Right," he agreed. "We need a new nickname."
Jean smirked to herself, thinking of a few select names she thought would fit him, though she didn't dare speak them aloud.
"Golden Boy," Simon threw out.
"Nah, something funnier," Paulie said.
"Ma's Favorite?" Rudy joked.
"How 'bout Drop Out?" Clyde chimed in, a smile of self-satisfaction on his lips. The boys snickered to themselves, even Simon was unable to hold back his laughter.
