Page 23 of Country Road Romance

Jared had nothing to really say to that, and so they started off on this unlikely road trip.

For a while they just drove in silence. It wasn’t uncomfortable, though; it was more like a natural lull in the conversation. Each of them had a lot going on, and they didn’t feel the need to interrupt one another’s thoughts with idle chatter. Without really thinking about it, Jared reached out and turned on the radio.

At once, the plaintive sound of Patsy Cline’s “Crazy” came out of the speakers, and Jared felt himself getting a little swoony. Nothing got him square in his feelings like listening to Pasty sing about heartbreak and longing.

To his surprise, Charlie started singing along in a rather lovely, soft baritone.

“Youlike Patsy Cline?” he asked.

Charlie gave him one of those looks that was already becoming very familiar, the type of look that said: “you’ve got to stop making assumptions about me and the things I like.”

Jared shrugged. “Sorry. I just didn’t think that you know, you’d like Patsy Cline. It’s not like she’s the kind of gay icon that everyone loves nowadays. Don’t get me wrong. I’m always ready to belt out some tunes with Gaga, Cher, Madonna, and Reba, but for some reason Patsy gets me in a way that no one else does.”

If Charlie thought it was weird that Jared was talking about a country music singer that had been dead for several decades in the present tense, he gave no sign of it. In fact, his eyes were dancing with a bit of excitement of his own.

Jared felt something constrict in his chest. It was so rare to find someone his own age that shared his love of Patsy Cline, and that it was Charlie Garrett who was expressing so much interest was…well, it was something. He just didn’t know quite what yet. His eyes kept wandering over to where Charlie sat, tracing the way that the sun caught his blonde hair and made it glow, at the way that his jaw was so finely-chiseled that it looked like it could cut glass.

He got so caught up in looking at him while also trying to stay focused on the road that he almost missed what Charlie said next.

“In fact, I’ve been known to do a deep dive into Cline’s discography now and again. I mean sure, everyone knows her signature songs, the ones that come up right away when yousearch for her on Spotify, and there are quite a few heartbreak songs that she sings, but for my money the best thing she ever did was the song ‘Faded Love.’ There’s just something about that song…it reaches right inside you and tries to pluck your heart out through your chest. I don’t think it’s possible to listen to that song and not burst into tears.”

“Get out of here,” Jared said, unable to contain his excitement. “I’ve always thought the same thing, but whenever I ask other people what their favorite Patsy song is, they inevitably say it’s ‘Crazy’ or ‘I Fall to Pieces.’ They’re definitely sleeping on ‘Faded Love,’ and they absolutely don’t know what they’re missing.”

He might have been imagining it, but Jared could swear that he felt a tiny little crackle in the air around them, as if something fundamental had changed in their dynamic. They each shared a small little smile.

“I have a feeling I’m going to say this a lot this weekend, but you are definitely not the person that I was expecting when Rebecca told me that we were going to be having Charlie Garrett come to our film festival. To be honest it’s kind of rude of you not to be what I expected.”

This elicited another laugh. Jared wasn’t used to having people actually find his sense of humor amusing.

Perhaps this weekend isn’t going to be so bad after all.

Then he decided to just give in and start singing along to Cline. Something about her vocals made him forget how nervous and reluctant he usually was to sing in front of anyone, let alone someone he hardly knew.

“You have a really nice voice, you know,” Charlie said. “There’s a purity to it. Have you ever trained professionally?”

Jared scoffed. “No, I don’t think I’m quite that good.”

“But how will you ever know until you try?”

“Don’t you ever get tired of being the perfect man?” He hadn’t meant the words to come out quite that sharply, but there was something just a bit annoying about the fact that Charlie always seemed to know the perfect thing to say. Why couldn’t he just be a human being?

“I didn’t think that being a kind and supportive person was a character flaw.”

Jared rolled his eyes. “Forget I said anything.”

“I get the feeling that you say that a lot.”

This whole conversation was slipping out of his control again, and Jared reprimanded himself for not being able to just sit and have a pleasant chat without somehow managing to alienate someone.

Strangely enough, however, it was Charlie who came to the rescue.

“Um…so, we’re going to your parents’ place, yeah? What’s it like? And, uh, where do they live?”

Jared laughed at how little they’d actually talked about this weekend before setting out on this journey.

Thanks Rebecca. Thanks Sheri,he thought wryly.

“They live up in the northern panhandle in a little house in the country.” Aware that Charlie was looking at him with more than a little incredulity, he shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t look at me. Rebecca and Sheri cooked this up together, not me. Rebecca said that they’d take care of making sure no one bothered us.”

---