They rode for over an hour before meandering back towards the ranch house. Gus figured the city girl by then would have a sore butt and he didn’t want to hear any complaints although she had surprised him on a number of occasions since she had arrived. She seemed to be a pretty game bird. He was beginning to admire her and could see some of the points his daughter liked about her. She shore was pretty and smarter than hell; he could enjoy that in a woman.
As they entered the ranch yard and Gus and Cassie had swung off their mounts the phone at Karin’s waist went off. Her mount went crazy in reaction. The noise drove him insane and he immediately began bucking and fishtailing. Karin grabbed the pommel for dear life with both hands and held on tighter with her thighs. First one way and then the other as the ringing continued. She hesitated to let go to hit the button on the side of her phone but she had to if she wanted it to stop ringing and soon. Faintly she heard “hang on Karin! HANG ON!” but knew only she could get it to stop. She let go with one hand as he bucked and see-sawed trying to get the rider off of him and get rid of the unfamiliar noise that had scared him. Karin tried to push the button but then cursed her touch phone; with the glove on she couldn’t get to the thin button on the side to silence the ringer. She tried to remove the glove and nearly punched herself as she put her finger to her mouth. The bucking horse wasn’t helping her balance or her concentration to keep from being thrown from the saddle. Finally she was able to whip off the glove and she spit it out to slam her finger on the small button and silence the annoying ring. The horse calmed but only marginally and took off running with her still barely clinging to its back. She lost her already cockeyed hat and her hair streamed out behind her in the wind. Faintly she heard “HOLD ON!” and could recognize the scream coming from Cassie.
Cassie stared stunned momentarily before she called “hang on Karin! HANG ON!” and she moved towards the bucking bronc. Gus held her arm back and said “careful honey” as they both watched Karin try to shut off her ringing phone and finally rip off her glove. She was holding her own as he whipped and swung trying to get her off his back. When the horse took off running Cassie mounted her own horse and took off after them. “HOLD ON!” she screamed her heart in her throat at the danger that Karin was in.
Karin let the horse have its head and then gently began pulling back on the reins. “Shh boy, shhh” she crooned to him trying to calm him a little as she became a little more firm and pulled a little harder. He was listening as he slowed and she was able to get him under control. She began to slow his head long rush and began to turn him using her legs and the reigns to get him to slow and turn at the same time. She finally got him to stop when Cassie galloped up out of breath and pulled her horse to a violent stop. She felt weak in the legs and in the arms as she looked up and over at Cassie.
Cassie had never seen her look so alive or excited for that matter. Her eyes snapped and her hair streamed out behind her. She looked strangely wanton. Her chest was heaving from her exertions. Cassie didn’t know if it was relief on her part but she wanted Karin as she had never wanted her before. “Are you okay?” she asked concerned.
Karin smiled shakily “yeah, if I don’t get any more phone calls I will be” she gave a small laugh.
Cassie walked her horse close and pulled Karin into her arms. “Oh my god, I am so sorry! I thought you were a goner there for a moment.” She felt suddenly like crying in her relief.
Karin found herself comforting Cassie now “shh, its okay, shhh.” She patted her back as she tried to get her breath back. It had been very exciting. She certainly hadn’t been prepared for it but now that she was okay and the horse had calmed she was feeling pretty damn good.
Cassie pulled back and looked deeply into Karin’s jade green eyes her own flicking back and forth between Karin’s and asking “Are you sure you’re okay?”
Karin smiled “I am now.”
“Jeezus” Cassie let out as she let her go. “Let’s head back” she looked over her shoulder and saw her daddy watching them from far away. They had galloped a longer way than either had realized. “Can you ride him back or would you like to ride double?” she offered watching Karin closely.
“As much as I’d love to have my arms around you, I’ll ride him back” Karin smiled again to reassure her.
They set out carefully and Cassie watched her closely from the corner of her eye. Karin handled the reins as though she knew what she was doing. “You’ve ridden before?” she asked cautiously.
Karin smiled “every chance I got as a kid.”
Cassie looked at her incredulously “you never said a word; you let us assume you’d never been on a horse.”
Karin shrugged her elegant shoulders “you know what they say about assumptions. It isn’t my fault you made them.”
“You could have at least told me!” Cassie said annoyed.
“You could have at least asked me!” Karin retorted with a grin.
She had to concede that was a valid point. “Are you really okay?” she had never been more relieved seeing Karin still in the saddle when she rode up.
Karin nodded “I don’t want a repeat of that though, whew that was somethin’” she said imitating their drawl.
“I can’t believe you stayed in the saddle!” Cassie said admiredly.
“I have the feeling I’m going to be feeling that later. My crotch is going to be sore.” She laughed at herself.
“I’ll massage it” Cassie offered slyly still feeling some of the arousal of a few minutes before when she had seen the wonderful look of excitement on Karin’s face.
Karin grinned in response and increased the pace of their ride back.
“You okay lil lady?” Gus asked concerned as they rode up into the paddock.
Karin nodded. “I’ll just take it a little easier from now on.”
“You might want to turn that contraption off around the animals” he indicated her ever present phone that had caused all of the problems.
“Are you kidding? This is my lifeline” she grinned.
He had noticed it was always with her and that she was frequently on it. She had excused herself during dinner last night and while he had thought it rude Cassie explained it was part of her job. He didn’t have to like it but if it helped his little girl he wasn’t going to complain. He looked at her differently now though. He had thought Cassie was just smitten by the big city gal and now he realized there was a whole lot more to her than he had thought. She sure could ride and after what he had just witnessed she sure had a lot of gumption.
Karin gingerly got off her horse. She was a little wobbly but thought she hid it well as she leaned against her horse and whispered to him. He seemed to understand and one of the ranch hands came to take the two girls horses. Karin walked with bowed legs towards the house feeling muscles that hadn’t been used in a long time. She knew she was going to have some bruises too.
“Do you need some help” Cassie grinned watching her.
Karin looked over at her and laughed “naw, I’ll manage” and tried to walk normally. She stepped in a big pile of manure which was just like hitting a banana peel and slipped nearly doing the splits and winding up flat on her back side.
“My God Karin are you okay?” Cassie stood over her instantly trying to help her up but Karin waved her away. Cassie was looking concerned but trying to keep from laughing at the same time.
Karin beat her to it she started with a giggle and ended up with a big belly laugh. “If they could only see me now” she got out before collapsing in laughter that brought tears to her eyes. The other two couldn’t help but join in. It took a long time for it to wind down.
Gus and Cassie helped her to her feet and tried to brush her off. Gus handed her the hat he had collected for her when her horse took off. From that moment on Gus liked this big city gal a whole lot more, she certainly could roll with the punches.
Karin stopped at the back porch and pried off her boots and left them to dry on a mat so she could clean them
off later. “How bad is my backside” she asked Cassie who was still giggling sporadically. She tried to look over her own shoulder.
“You’re going to have to take your pants off” Cassie told her and Gus turned away mumbling about work in the barns.
“Could you go get me something to put around my middle?” Karin asked her as she realized her predicament. She peeled off the blouse that was covering her camisole and looked at the back of it. It was covered in muck.
Cassie went into the house and returned carrying a robe. Karin stripped her pants off right there with Cassie holding up the robe to block the view from the barns and hoping none of the ranch hands could see the French cut bikini’s that Karin always wore. They threw the shirt and pants over the railing to dry out and Karin wrapped the robe around her middle and walked in looking very fetching in her satin camisole and white ankle socks.
Karin was dressed in another pair of jeans and a camisole after taking a hot shower to remove the muck from her hair. She had it back in a ponytail and for once was not wearing make-up. She looked a far cry from Fifth Avenue but had a wholesome clean look about her. Cassie certainly appreciated it as they ate their lunch. Gus came in and suggested they take out some of the ATV’s to the farther reaches of the ranch. He grinned as he added “since horseback riding was out.” Karin laughed with him.
Cassie took her out on the ATV over the hills and Karin loved every minute of it as she had her arms locked around her. They laughed and talked and scared up birds as they road on and off the trails. Cassie had never seen this side of Karin and she fell deeper into love with this amazing and diverse woman.
That night they had a barbeque with the ranch hands and some of their wives and family milling around. Karin played beer pong with some of the younger hands much to Cassie and Gus’s surprise. She was good too which had them amazed and disgruntled by turns. A couple of them tried to hit on her but she pointed out she was too old for them, was in love with a beautiful woman, and they played beer games too poorly for her to even consider it.
“How in the world did you ever learn to play beer pong?” Cassie asked when they had a moment alone. They watched as some of the hands got a fire going in the fire pit.
“Cassie, I was young once too you know. I haven’t always lived in New York or worn designer clothes. You’ve known me for a year and a half and you will never know everything there is to know about me.” She took a swig of her beer; Cassie had made sure they had a case of Corona in the house which she knew Karin preferred.
“Yes but some things I think I should know” Cassie began.
“Like beer pong?” Karin laughed and drew her into her arms to hold her. It was nice and relaxed and no one seemed to mind their easy affection.
“Yes, like beer pong” Cassie replied as she leaned in for a kiss.
One of the hands began to play the guitar and they called Cassie to join him. She had brought one of hers with her and began singing one of her ballads. This one was one Karin hadn’t heard before and she soon realized it was because Cassie was singing it directly to her. It told of the love a country girl had for a Phoenix, how it always seemed beyond her grasp, how she was afraid to touch it because she might get burned but how happy it made her with its beauty how it made her feel born again. Gus looked from his daughter to Karin several times as she sang the song to her girlfriend, he couldn’t have been prouder of his daughter at that moment. Karin had tears in her eyes when Cassie finished. Another of the hands brought out a violin and started playing so everyone could dance. Cassie pulled Karin protesting out onto the grass to dance with her.
“What’s going on?” another cowboy walked up as Gus watched how happy that city gal made his daughter.
“Well hello Wally, where the hell you been?” Gus looked at his son.
“Had to go up to Nebraska for a horse Molly wanted” he told his daddy as he looked to see what was going on. He spotted his sister dancing with another woman and looked around to see people’s reactions. Everyone was having a good time.
“Did you bring Molly and the girls?” Gus asked looking behind him.
“Naw, she was tired and put them to bed. I’ll bring them by tomorrow. I wanted to see Cassie. Who’s that dancing with her?” he asked as if he didn’t know. He had heard a lot about the gal from New York City as relayed by his daddy and from Cassie.
“That’s the gal” Gus said knowingly. He didn’t have to name names. They had known about her for a long time and how happy she made Cassie. Cassie had bragged endlessly about the deals Karin had gotten for her.
“She don’t look like much” he saw her in her jeans, cowboy boots, and camisole.
“You shoulda seen her up on Fish today” Gus said with a smile. He was still impressed by that.
“Why, what happened?”
“He gave her a lively ride. She stuck by him too. He shoulda been called Fishtail the way he bucked and swung trying to get her off him. She rode clear out until he was done.”
“What caused him to do that?” Wally asked surprised.
“She’s got one of them contraptions cell phones and it went off when she was riding him. He didn’t like the sound of it and tried to get her off. He didn’t and she brought ‘im back herself.”
“She upset?”
“Didn’t even turn a hair, she fell in the paddock too, got herself all mucked up and didn’t even let it bother her.” He was bragging now and Wally could hear how impressed he was.
He looked at her speculatively now wondering what his sister saw in her. He had been prepared to be impressed by her New York ways but he didn’t see much. She was having a delightful time dancing with his sister.
Cassie saw her brother standing over by her daddy and she pulled Karin with her to introduce her. Karin was wearing no makeup and her hair was a mess from having it down all day and dancing. “Wally! I want you to meet Karin, Karin this is my disreputable older brother Wally.”
“Disreputable eh?” he grinned as he gave his sister a hug and then shook Karin’s hand. He looked hard but couldn’t see the attraction in the woman and what his sister saw in her. He thought perhaps she had been stretchin’ the truth a might in what this woman had done for her.
“Well, if I told tales...” she began.
“Don’t you dare!” he grinned.
They bantered back and forth for a while and Karin held Cassie’s hand the entire time watching them appreciatively. She herself didn’t have such a good relationship with her own brothers so it was interesting to watch the two siblings.
Later Karin was drinking her third and final Corona. Her muscles were letting her know that today had been a little too much. She had popped some ibuprofen but suspected she was going to be in agony the following morning. She watched Cassie play her guitar with the violin player and the other guitar player. Her eyes were sparkling and she was enjoying herself as she sat around the bonfire. Wally came over to sit with her.
“Enjoying your stay?” he asked.
Karin nodded “yes, I’ve had a real pleasant time.”
“Heard about you riding Fish today” he mentioned casually.
“Fish?” she wondered if she had missed something.
“The Appy that Daddy had you up today” he drawled.
Karin started to laugh “his name is Fish?”
Wally started to smile “yep, we get to runnin’ out of names sometimes.”
“Yeah, he gave me a bit of a ride” Karin grinned at the understatement.
Wally chuckled knowingly.
That night Karin was asleep before Cassie even got into bed. She lay there a while with the light on watching her. She was astounding. She was willing to try almost anything and was usually good at it. She kept surprising her and Cassie was captivated by her. She loved her so much it almost hurt her heart it was squeezing her so mightily. She thought about that amazing ride today and how well Karin had done, she could have fallen or been killed! She was amazing and exciting and she could feel her arousal f
rom the way Karin had looked that day, she tamped it down though as she let Karin sleep. She thought about her relationship with Karin and how she got along with everyone she had met. She was pleased that Karin got along so well with her Daddy and Wally, two of the most important people in her life.
The next day Karin was very stiff but that didn’t keep her from going along when they went into town. They had lunch at a diner and everyone knew everyone else. She got introduced and reintroduced to people. She recognized people from the other night and was able to even call some of them by name which impressed and surprised them. Cassie was proud of the way everyone welcomed her in.
As Cassie and Karin took off in the private jet she thought about the few days they had managed to squeeze in together. Karin had fit in with her family so well. She wondered if she would fit in with Karin’s boys. They were close by their phone calls and the fact that Karin saw them at least once a month or so when she went to Milwaukee but in all the time they had been together Cassie had never met them and this for some reason bothered her. She trusted Karin but she knew with her abilities to make things happen that for some reason this meeting wasn’t happening. She wondered why.
Cassie became impossibly busy by the schedule Karin and her teams worked out. Between appearances on talk shows, promotions for her new album, talks she gave for Glaad and the GLBT as well as concerts she was in a constant state. Karin saw her maybe once or twice a month with her own busy schedule and she was getting a little tense about it. “Can’t you come to the fairgrounds?” she asked as she was appearing at the Minnesota State Fair in Minneapolis.
“I’m sorry babe, I can’t. I got so many things to juggle right now. I miss you too but I just can’t.” She was in Vancouver with another client and couldn’t drop everything for a booty call or for an attack of stage fright or whatever Cassie needed. She tried, she tried very hard to be there for her when it mattered but Cassie was becoming more demanding these days. They had abandoned the bus for a while and she was flying everywhere by jet. Karin had started another division of Cassie Summers Enterprises after reading that Reba McIntire had her own jet company. Karin had copied it and it was already doing well. She hired the best people she could find who were ambitious and didn’t require constant supervision, they just wanted the opportunity. The return on Cassie’s investment was very good and it provided her with the means to fly from one venue to another easier than driving and a whole lot less time consuming. She spent more time in Nashville but still not enough time with Karin who was equally busy.
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