by Adams, Zoe
“Would you like water or wine?” Lady waited for his answer.
“Well, ma’am…” Del’s mind raced as he searched which avenue to pursue. “I don’t want to get anything dirty.”
Lady patted the blanket beside her. “I brought the softest blanket I could find for a reason.”
“It might be the nicest. Isn’t that the quilt from the guest room?” Del looked at it dubiously.
“Yes,” Lady admitted shyly, and tilted her head.
“Would you like to know a little story about this blanket?”
Lady blinked twice. “Sure.”
“Well, ma’am. The first thing you need to know is that it’s survived a hundred years without stain or tear. I won’t be the first to do that.” Del looked at her hesitantly. “Do you mind if I sit here in my shorts?”
Lady held out her hand and smiled graciously.
Del lifted his leg and hopped out of his work jeans.
He didn’t feel much better with his clean side showing. He sat down and removed his socks as well. The things he wanted to say were deferred until he reached more comfort. He tried to lean back on his arm but felt like an assuming porn star.
Del wondered how people could be comfortable wearing nothing in romantic settings. He had shed his shirt, shoes, pants, and socks. A sudden thought came to him.
“Ha, I feel like I’ve been playing strip poker or something. And you’re winning.” Del squirmed and crossed his legs.
Lady pursed her lips and asked, “Do you feel like you’re losing the shirt off your back?”
Del grinned. “My grandmother’s aunt made the blanket as a wedding gift to her sister. It’s been bred into me to take care of everything. My grandmother didn’t have a lot of things, but the things she did have, she cherished and took care of. Most of her favorite things were homemade. She had a definitive theory about time and how to spend it. She stayed busy and optimistic all the time.”
Del shut his mouth and sucked air in through his nose. A slight breeze ruffled along the prairie and shook his chest hair. He didn’t need the gentle reminder of lacking clothes. He silently looked at Lady and willed her to confirm him.
She smiled. “You poor thing, sitting here with no clothes on. It’s endearing how you respect your elders. Even after they’re dead and gone, you still cherish these things.”
“Why is that strange?” Del asked. “Would you change your attitude for someone when they aren’t around?”
Del hadn’t planned on asking, but once it was out he didn’t regret it.
Lady straightened with dignity. “What?”
“Well, I don’t know,” Del blurted out. “We haven’t known each other very long. How do I know what you’re like in public? You won’t even let me take you to town. What if you have some kind of social deficiency? Or maybe it’s not a deficit, but maybe it’s too much of something.”
Lady tilted her head to a different angle at the occurrence of every new sentence. She leaned forward, fully expecting him to continue.
He raised his eyebrow and leaned back.
Lady shook her head to one side harshly. With a blink and a breath she broke out into full laughter. She slapped her thigh with a palm. “And here I was worrying about you! Mr. Del, you are too much.”
“Worried about me?” Del poked his chest with his thumb.
They both laughed for a moment. Lady’s cheeks flushed merry red, making her even more attractive in the joyful state.
Del leaned forward on his knees. He simultaneously laid her back.
“I think we can both be a little more comfortable before we eat.”
Del wasn’t expecting any resistance, and didn’t get any either.
An hour later they both sat naked in the sun. The fluffiness of the blanket beneath Del was greatly appreciated. Del silently admired the fortitude of Lady.
She smartly chose to bring a nice blanket. Their lunch plates were covered carefully in plastic. Real silverware and china was a bonus. Lady packed the perfect picnic. She could be spontaneous and spot on.
On every conceivable scale, Del could confidently give Lady a full, round ten. He had flipped the scorecard over and over, just to make sure, but the results remained the same.
He’d been willing her into his life since before she was born, but he’d always known her name. He’d always wanted a lady. It made him even more willing to succeed. She was with him because she liked him, so he tried to stay true to himself.
Del was a thinker and a talker. He may have been a tinkerer and a worker, but that only expanded his database of information.
Del wore honesty like a tattoo. Working a farm sheltered his brain. Society hadn’t jaded him yet. In a sense, he was the innocent one.
Lady had a kind, sometimes ditzy cover over her staggeringly intellectual brain. He didn’t question her morals, because she had been willing to wait for sex.
Lady lived in a self-absorbed world. She’d made plans and big expectations of what she wanted her first love to be like. And now she had plenty of time to enjoy it.
Del felt excitement and a little bit felicitous at being part of it. A heat spread up his neck as he took on the responsibility of her happiness. Lady liked to do things a certain way. He was the same way, except he talked about things. Lady would just surprise him, like right now with the picnic and assuring his comfort with the softest heirloom and antiques.
“I love your farm.” Lady leaned back and closed her eyes.
Her words floated out and seemed to exhaust her.
“It just doesn’t make sense that you are so nice about it. Come on. Was the will locked up? Was it laying around on the table? How could it disappear, and where could it be so easily neglected?” Lady’s brown eyes flashed golden specks when she was on fire for something. “Who would have a motive to steal from you?”
Lady said what Del always wanted to say. He looked at her gravely. He knew in his heart of hearts it was stolen land, but he could never come right out and say it.
“Well, ma’am, I have been accused of being too trusting before. It’s a problem I have with family. I’m sure the problem will continue into my future.” He emphasized the word problem a little more with each repeat of the word. “I knew my family wanted part of the homestead. How can I blame them for that? It’s one thing I have in common with them, we all wanted the land. I just wanted to keep it and they just wanted money for it. But wanting something is wanting something, reasons get lost in history. I don’t judge them for it.”
Lady gave him a kind look. “But why would you pay for something you already own?”
“Yes, why?” Del looked up for a moment in thought. “Well, I’m an idealist. I honestly expected to buy a plot of land in my lifetime, at some point. This way I fulfill my destiny and it helps my family complete theirs. If this is how my life’s path is supposed to play out, then I will do it. I don’t hold grudges against my family.”
Lady’s jaw dropped and it snapped back to attention. “Just when I think I have you all figured out, you say something deep and spiritual. It makes perfect sense to me. I like your Zen attitude and your fair, sportsmanlike ways.”
Lady looked at him appreciatively.
Del could get lost forever right beside her. She appreciated all of him, and he felt like they were becoming conjoined twins.
Del knew what he lost as sole inheritor. He’d spent years atoning for fairness and favoritism. He wondered what Lady stood to inherit.
“I’m not sure if this is a subject to bring up with you,” Del began slowly, and looked for reassurances from her. He instantly realized it was his turn to talk about the things she wanted to say. He began again.
“I know you’re from a wealthy family. I’m not sure how wealthy but I’m sure it’s different than what I’m used to. I don’t know anything else about you.” Del quit talking.
Lady smiled. “I have one older sister named Elizabeth Ellen Steele-Frainz. She went to college, then decided to marry someone rich and hav
e lots of babies.”
She contemplated things for a moment. “I’m not sure how much money they have, but I’m always surprised there’s more. That’s why I’m glad you have your own things, and my family is far, far away.”
“Well, ma’am, I’m glad I can set your mind at ease. I aim to please, and as long as you like being pleasured by me, then we’ve got nothing to worry about.”
Lady’s smile turned into a disbelieving smirk. “Nothing to worry about? No one’s ever offered me that. I’m kind of invisible and don’t mind hiding from drama. There always seems to be so much more to do than just talk. Most of the time it’s just about what will, might, or shouldn’t happen. I’d rather just do things I enjoy.”
Del’s mind raced to the quickest agreement. “Yes, ma’am, there’s always things to do. But you actually surprise me. I had you figured for a planner.”
Lady grinned. “Good, because you really need to drop the whole ma’am thing. Only old women are called ma’am.”
Del grinned mischievously. “Well, you’re such a lady, I just want to call you ma’am, or miss something. How about missus?”
Lady brushed his hand away when he tried to touch her knee. “Yeah, I never thought that missus and Lady went together very well. My name was designed to be superior to being someone’s appendage.”
Del realized they still had a long way to go. He didn’t care how long it took. Life was better with her in it.
“You can be one of those career women who don’t marry or change their name, that’s fine. I’ll help you trademark a new kind of relationship.”
Lady’s voice lowered. “Or maybe an old-fashioned love.”
Del smiled at her regretfully. “Or maybe you are in love with an old man.”
“I don’t mind this age difference. What are you, thirty? That’s actually a sexy and primal age for you to be in. Your body has filled out, and it’s all the better to match a developed brain. I’ve always been attracted to men instead of boys. Being a teenager sucked.”
Del laughed at her mentality. She was adamantly secure about her age.
“Yeah, well, you’ll be a teenager for another year. I get to have a hot teenage girlfriend. So what do you want to do? Can I take you to a resort? I want to take you somewhere.”
Lady held up her hands in a peaceful gesture. “Why? So we can both be strangers in someone else’s world? I don’t want to stay in a hotel with you. I like your house.”
Del nodded. “I like it too.”
He wanted to spin her in his arms again. He wanted her to lose the control he felt crumbling by the second. He had very few defenses and wondered how he would fare the unseen future.
As it turned out, Del didn’t have much longer to question things. That evening all of Lady’s answers came in the form of a helicopter circling the farm for about an hour.
At the end of the large, uproarious hour, an escort of four sedans and two SUVs parked in the driveway. The cars were spread out on the front lawn.
Lady and Del stood on the front porch and waited. Lady’s arm slid between his palm and his hip. Del gripped her tightly.
“Don’t let them take me away. Okay? Del?” Lady commanded from his side.
He squeezed her hand for reassurance. But the time of their solitude and frolicking love was over. Del put his best foot forward. His future hung on a fine balance that day. Lady, and the prospective future of their children and family, hinged on this going smoothly.
Del hadn’t done much to catch Lady. He wondered what sort of conditions he would agree to just to keep her.
By the time the last car door was shut, the newcomers had seen Del and Lady on the porch.
“Hello. Howdy. Just come on in. My name is Delanore Franklin Ericson the Third. It’s nice to meet Lady’s family and friends. She’s told me a little about you all. But why don’t you just go ahead and say why you’re here.”
Del nodded his head and clamped his jaw.
Two people stood forward dominantly.
Lady took one step further, then wavered. “Del, this is my mother and father, Lucy and Tom.”
Her father vaguely nodded at Del.
Lady’s mother spoke right away. “Delanore.”
She put her head to one side and said the name again, like it might sound better from a different angle.
“My friends call me Del. The people in town call me Minister Del. I don’t go around picking or calling names. It’s just like throwing stones. Someone else has time for that. You can just call me Del.”
Lucy nodded and considered him. “All right, Del. I can see why my daughter likes you. She was smart to look for love in the country. Who are you?”
Lucy was a well refined woman, and liked straight answers. She stood slightly away from the rest of the clan. Del could see where Lady received her adamant grace. But where Lady was strong, her mother slightly shook.
“I’m just a farmer and a good person.” Del reserved himself any more defense.
“A minister?” Lady’s father snorted.
Lady jumped into the conversation. “It’s just a nickname. What’s wrong with a good reputation? Del’s like a dream come true. He works hard and plans ahead. He cares for miles of land. He can easily handle me. Besides, I like living in the country.”
Lady proudly swung his arm. Del liked the stubborn sound of her voice. But as he looked around, he felt like an exotic exhibit. He reasserted his dominance.
“Your daughter has good taste. It must be hereditary. That’s kind of how my family is too. We all like the same things.” Del warmed up like a steam motor and continued to roll along. “I was hoping to meet you all. Lady is very loveable and I am happy to be her man. Please come inside, we should be celebrating.”
Del knew his house might fail in some of the finer points of austerity, but his wine would not. He opened the front door and walked into the house.
Del ignored the humble room with shabby furniture. He wanted them by the door, and he and his Lady in the heart of the home. Thank goodness they’d already been given an hour to prepare. He had repositioned the dining room table to face the living room. Now the living room and dining area were a large rectangular space.
A big fireplace took up one side of the living room. Usually things were further from the hearth. But it wasn’t in use, so things could be seasonally repositioned. The crowd of about fifteen people piled into the room and stared at the new couple.
Lady had helped him set the table with fine linen and wine. Del already uncorked ten bottles of wine. The room smelled of it. He knew the wine would taste like sherry and come from a dark, dry, and spicy place.
Del began pouring the burgundy liquid into crystal. First he filled the wine glasses. When he ran out of those, he used star cut punch bowl glasses.
Lady handed out glasses. Del poured the drinks with timely consideration. It wasn’t the first time he’d faced a family full of questions. But last time it had been his own family, and this could be his potential future.
Wine would be the only part to come easy. Alcohol made socializing better. He willed himself through the situation.
These people were supposed to pre-screen any of Lady’s likely suitors. He didn’t mind them taking a predatory stance with the teenager beside him. Lady’s biggest downfall was youth.
Del was happy to be part of her situation. As long as he remained on the good side of things. He knew she needed him, because she clutched onto him so tightly.
Del could appreciate the grim appearance of the newcomers to the situation. Any girl should be so lucky to have such a caring family.
Everyone had a glass of wine and they sniffed and waited anxiously for their host.
“To family.” Del raised his glass then took a sip of wine. He planned on controlling the scene completely. While the group took their drinks, he began speaking again.
“I was hoping you were the type of family to care so much about Lady. She is too amazing to be anywhere, really. She could be here, or
there in the city, but she would still outshine everyone else. I like her right here on my farm. That way I can keep both my eyes on her and make sure she gets everything she needs.”
Del raised his glass and pointed around the room. “Now, I know that anyone related to this little prize beside me is going to be just as bright a firecracker. You have no choice but to have more sense than most.”
He held her hand with his other fist. “Lady is here because she wants to be. She can leave any time she wants. Until recently, I left the farm whenever I wanted. But now I don’t mind staying home with someone like Lady. If she wants to leave, she can leave. And I will do anything and everything in my power to make sure to go with her. Or I will make sure she will want to come back to me.”
Del shook his head. “It really does matter what everyone’s impressions are. Whether you fear me for money or whatever you think you might lose. The only thing you will lose to me is the quiet girl beside me. I don’t want money, fame, or popularity. I’m not expecting an easy life just because an heiress likes me. In fact, I’m expecting it to be quite hard. But the only problems I am anticipating are in keeping Lady happy. If that involves fighting her loved ones, then so be it. But it would go directly against my beliefs about happiness and how to spend time.”
Del didn’t plan on giving any of them a chance to argue with him. He had seen a few audible sighs and heard the rest of the room stand down. He felt like he was dealing with a wild animal. The beast of a group was currently backed into a corner, but that didn’t mean much.
Only time would establish his presence in Lady’s life more firmly. He impatiently willed himself into cement.
Lady’s mother stepped forward. “I am just concerned about where she is rather than who she is with. I don’t know that I like this one bit.”
Del raised his eyebrows, then smiled placidly. “Obviously, Mrs. Steele, your daughter looks fine. She’s dressed, fed, and smiling. Or she’s usually smiling. You can trust me when I say her smile will stay in place.”
There were a few exchanged looks between them and Del filled in the gaps.
