I've Loved You Before

Chapter 35 - Thunder Road

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The screen door slams, Mary's dress sways

Like a vision she dances across the porch as the radio plays

Roy Orbison's singing for the lonely

Hey, that's me and I want you only

Don't turn me home again, I just can't face myself alone again

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The soft sound of singing met John's ears when he stepped into the hallway. He'd woken to hear Brady fussing on the baby monitor, and after a quick run to the bathroom, he was going to check on him. The soft sound of Marlena's voice drifted from Brady's room, and John stopped for a moment to listen. In all the time he'd spent with her he'd never heard her sing. Peeking into the room, he watched her in profile as she rocked his son back and forth singing a song he'd heard a hundred times, but never imagined as a lullaby. It didn't matter, not to Brady. He stared up at Marlena with adoring, drowsy brown eyes as she sang, "Well don't you run back inside, darlin' you know just what I'm here for. So, you're scared, and you're thinking that maybe we ain't that young anymore..."

Stepping into the room, he'd never seen her more beautiful. As he fell deeper in love with her, she glowed with the beauty he saw in her. He closed his eyes for a moment, remembering their honeymoon. The road trip to West Virginia when her hair had been pinned down with a white bandana, and the top to the convertible was down. Thunder Road had been playing that night as he'd reached over and laced their fingers together thinking that they had the rest of their lives together. He couldn't hear that song without thinking of Marlena, and now she was singing it to Brady.

"You can hide 'neath your covers and study your pain. Make crosses from your lovers, throw roses in the rain–" Marlena stopped singing when John stepped into her line of vision. Heat rose up the column of her neck, as she whispered, "Oh, I didn't realize you were awake."

"Don't stop on my account," he said softly, kneeling down beside the rocking chair. He stroked his finger gently across Brady's cheek, watching his son as he yawned and rubbed his cheek across Marlena's soft cotton covered breasts. John wanted to be the one finding comfort in her body for completely different reasons. "I recognize the song."

"It's not much of a lullaby is it?" she asked him with a shy smile.

"It makes me remember–"

" –our honeymoon," Marlena said softly. "We listened to the radio for the whole drive. Do you remember when you teased me about some women named Jackie Lou?"

"Did I?" he asked, grinning at her widely.

Brady sighed deeply. His eyes were closed and Marlena knew he'd fallen back asleep. She brushed her hand gently over his head as John reached for him. To John she said, "You know you did! That song by Ella Fitzgerald was playing on the radio..."

"Remember that song, Doc? We used to dance to it," he said, trying to keep his eyes on the dark road ahead of them.

"We never danced to that," she said.

"Sure we did. C'mon." He glanced over at her.

"No, we didn't," Marlena insisted. "It must have been somebody else before you met me–"

" –nah, nah. It–" He paused for a moment, and then he said with a teasing grin, "You're right it was... Jackie Lou! Jackie Lou! Whoo! What a dish she was! Wow, how could I forget that?" He cocked his eyebrow and gave her side eye, only to see her watching him with a smirk. "You see that, Doc? I'm starting to remember more and more all the time–"