Boomtown

by Lani Lynn Vale

  Everyone ended up on the same floor, and we dropped off luggage at each door we passed until we arrived at our door. James had a connecting door to our room. I entered into my room and let the girls free to explore. They took off and started jumping from couch to couch. James walked out through the connecting room’s door and asked if Sam was ready, obviously overhearing my conversation with Sam earlier. Sam nodded, so I picked up the phone and gave Mrs. Nash a quick call to let her know that they were on the way.

  “We’ll be back.” Sam said while giving me a quick peck on the lips before him and James exited the hotel room.

  “Would y’all like to watch The Little Mermaid?” I asked them.

  They both got excited, so I turned on the TV and slid the DVD into the player and started the movie. Both girls became engrossed in the movie, and I rested my head against the couch and closed my eyes. I hadn’t slept much the last couple nights, and I was so glad to have James home healthy. I just wish I didn’t have to pay the price of having Dougie gone.

  Dougie was such a good man. He made me laugh without even trying, and it broke my heart that he was no longer here. His little girl would barely even know who he was. I promised myself that I was going to make sure that Kayla grew up knowing who her dad was, and that he was a hero.

  SAM

  “I am going to move to Kilgore.” Mrs. Nash rushed out. “I need help, and Dougie told me in a call a few days before he passed that you had offered. I am going to take you up on that offer.”

  “That would be wonderful, Mrs. Nash.” I said to her. “Do you have any places in mind on where you would like to live?”

  “I already have a rental there. I was planning on coming down anyway since he was moving there. I already had nearly all my boxes packed and the movers will be here next week. I have a place rented in the historical district.”

  I nodded and said “Okay, that sounds good. Do you need any help getting anything moved? I can hook up a U-Haul to the truck for the trip back.”

  “No dear.” She said quietly twisting her hands in her lap. “I wanted to talk to you both about Dougie. I have a feeling that you are both blaming yourselves. I want to make sure that y’all are okay.”

  I looked over at James, but he was looking down at his boots. His head hung limply down, with a defeated posture. He looked about how I felt. I had more experience hiding it though. Silence reigned on, and Mrs. Nash stood up from her chair across from us and walked over to us, placing her hands on the sides of both of our cheeks.

  She looked from one of us to the other and then said, “He loved that job. He loved you two also. He wouldn’t want you two blaming yourselves for this. Especially you, James. I think he had some sort of feeling that something would happen, because he made sure that Kayla and I had you two. He knew that if something happened to him, that you both would watch over us. Other than his daughter, you two were all he ever talked about. I don’t want you to blame yourselves. Life is too short. Live it and love it.”

  After that, we discussed what would happen at the funeral tomorrow and her moving to Kilgore. We spent nearly three hours talking about Dougie, and traded stories about some of the stuff he got up to.

  I felt lighter when we left, and with that came resolve. Whoever this guy was that took Dougie away from us would pay, but dying would be too good for him. He deserved something much, much worse. His little girl doesn’t deserve to grow up without her dad.

  Chapter 11

  The service was beautiful. The funeral procession was awe inspiring. The line of cars was over one hundred vehicles long, and that wasn’t even including the sheer craziness of motorcycles. There had to be at least three hundred of them. I’m sure the people that had to pull over were kind of put out with how long they had to stay on the side of the road waiting for us to pass. There were people pulled over on the side of the road with candles lit, and signs saying RIP and Thank you for your service. There were even fire trucks with their ladders raised and American flags flying on top of the over passes.

  I have never been so moved. I was so proud that Dougie was having this kind of sendoff.

  I cried throughout the entire service. One part in particular had nearly everyone weeping, or at least shedding a tear or two.

  Before the service started, the casket was opened so that our main group could put in what we felt Dougie needed. Kayla was playing in the back of the room with Janie and Blaine, oblivious to what was going on. No one was quite sure that she would even understand, so we decided to just let it be, and what happened, happened.

  Kayla was playing, or at least we thought she was, but all of a sudden we hear her call out, “DADDY!”

  Sam was able to catch her before she actually threw herself on the casket, but she just didn’t understand that that was no longer her daddy. Sam spoke to her in a quiet voice, explaining what had happened and that her daddy was in heaven. It was almost like she understood after Sam explained to her. She calmed down, but didn’t let go of Sam for the entire service. When Sam tried to put her down so he could speak she clung even tighter. He said his entire speech with her clutched to his neck and her tiny little legs wound around his torso.

  Once arriving at the grave side, the bag pipes started wailing, and people stood stoically and watched. The seven gun salute sounded, and then the flag was folded up and handed to Mrs. Nash. Everyone filed out until only the main group was left. The casket was lowered, and then we were asked if we had anything else we wanted to put in before they started covering it up. This was the moment I had been waiting for.

  I took the box that I picked up yesterday after the girls were put to sleep, and headed over to the grave. I opened up the box, and poured the five hundred golf balls that the local driving range had donated and poured them down into the side so they wouldn’t hit the casket. They all rolled to the side, and I whispered to him, “We’ll miss you Dougie. Sam’ll take good care of Kayla. Don’t worry. I love you. Watch over us.”

  The guys were all smiling when they saw what I had given Dougie. Even Mrs. Nash. Obviously I had done well. I walked up to Sam, who still had Kayla and gave him a quick hug before heading over to Mrs. Nash and wrapping her up in my arms, giving her support as we watched the dirt slowly fill up the hole.

  Chapter 12

  Groaning, I rolled over into bed. This was supposed to be a day I could sleep in, but of course not. It had been a little over three weeks since Dougie’s funeral and we were just starting to get back into the groove. Kayla and Anne (Mrs. Nash) were settled into the duplex that was in the historical district downtown. We spent a lot of time together, and we tried to have Kayla over every couple of days so Anne could have some me time.

  Sam was in the garage working on a new Chopper for his friend that he went into the service with. Luckily I still had around three more weeks until school started again, and I also had the day off of work. Sam had kissed me before he left telling me to get a little more sleep and to come see him when I woke.

  I had been asleep for what felt like minutes, but turning over and glancing at the clock it was 3 hours since Sam had left to start work. Oops. The shrill ringing of the house phone sounded again, so I rolled over and picked up the phone that Sam had on his side of the bed.

  “Hello?” I answered into the phone.

  “Who the fuck is this? Where is Sam?” a woman asked, sounding more than a little bitchy.

  “Cheyenne. Can I help you?” I asked, trying to hold on to my patience.

  “Cheyenne who? And what are you doing in my house?” she said a little more shrill like this time.

  “I live here. Now, I am not trying to start anything with you, but I don’t really like being yelled at for no reason. Now, what can I help you with?” I said, standing up now then picking my phone up and texting Sam at the same time telling him he needed to get here now.

  “Listen Bitch, go trot your fat ass out to Sam and tell him that Leah is on the phone.” She said snottily. “You know, his girlfriend?”
<
br />   At that I came unglued. I didn’t know this bitch thought she was, but it definitely wasn’t Sam’s girlfriend, since I was his girlfriend. Glancing down at my bear legs that were covered up a little bit with Sam’s old ratty army t-shirt that had the sleeves cut out, I counted to ten very slowly. Then I started over because it was obvious that ten wasn’t enough. I gripped the phone a little tighter and looked up when Sam started in through the door. Seeing him didn’t assuage my anger though.

  “No, you listen you cumdumpster. I don’t really care who you are, but I’m not going to listen to you call me names when you don’t even know who I am, and I sure as fuck am not going to go get Sam. All you had to do was ask nicely and I would have gotten him for you. You must be delusional if you think he is yours since he has been seeing me for months, I don’t hear him groaning your name when I make him come.” I hung up and then glared daggers at Sam.

  “Who. The. Fuck. Is Leah?” I asked him quite bitchily.

  Sam’s eyebrows raised, and he started walking towards me. I held up my hand to stop him from coming near me. He stopped, and then crossed his arms across his massive chest.

  “Was that who was on the phone?” he asked calmly. But his copper eyes looked like they were on fire. He was obviously pissed, whether it was at me or the mysterious Leah I didn’t know. I nodded since I was still a little enraged, and didn’t trust myself not to say something mean.

  He let out a breath of air and said, “Leah used to by my girlfriend. It was an on and off relationship. I haven’t seen or talked to her in about six months.”

  “So where does she come off talking to me that way?” I asked irately.

  “I don’t know, but if she does it again she won’t like the consequences. It never occurred to me that she would call here. We didn’t leave on the best of terms.” He said.

  “Why am I just now hearing about her? You knew about my lack of past relationships. I would think she at least warranted a little FYI. The topic has been discussed before! And why would she have your new number if you only got it five months ago?” I yelled at him. I’m not quite sure why, but she had really upset me and he was here, so I took it out on him. I knew I wasn’t acting too rational, but my mouth wouldn’t listen to my mind.

  When I finished my last sentence he decided he wasn’t going to stay away from me anymore. I tried to back up but my back hit the wall, it wouldn’t have mattered if I had room anyway because he was on me in seconds. He pushed me up against the wall harder with his body and I started struggling.

  I was really putting all that I had into it, kicking my legs and flailing my arms. He controlled me effortlessly though. He had my arms pinned above my head and wedged his body in between my legs. He placed his hand under my butt and lifted me so that my core was against his erection. Once he had me subdued, he reached down with his free hand and ripped my panties off. Then reaching between our bodies he unzipped his pants and with no preamble thrust forward and impaled me on his cock. He withdrew all the way until his cock was poised at the entrance of my vagina, and then thrust forward so hard I wasn’t sure if it was pleasure of pain that I felt. All the while he looked me in the eyes.

  He pumped his cock into me over and over again, at some point I had wrapped my legs around him, and he had let my legs go so he could hold onto my hips for better traction. My hands found their way to his hair and I yanked pulling his head back so he knew I wanted him to kiss me. His head tilted to the side and we kissed savagely, our teeth clicking together. I nipped his lip a little hard and he growled and started fucking me harder almost like he was trying to fuck me through the wall.

  My orgasm blindsided me, and I threw my head back so hard it slammed into the wall with a thud, but I didn’t care. We hadn’t had this kind of sex before, and the orgasm that came with this type of sex wasn’t anything I had ever experienced before. It seemed like my whole body clenched, my vision started going black, and all the breath left my lungs.

  Sam started coming shortly after me, and I felt his teeth bite into the cord on my neck and hang on while he shot his come into my waiting body. Slowly we both came down from our orgasms, both of us panting hard, looking into each other’s eyes.

  “Holy shit.” I whispered.

  He smiled that cocky smile of his and kissed my lips softly. My legs fell from around his waist and I unwound my fingers from his hair, letting them drop to his shoulders. He pulled out of me slowly, and come and other fluids started running down my inner thighs.

  “You ripped my favorite panties.” I said to him.

  “I’ll buy you more.” He said, stuffing his cock back into his pants very carefully, since he had only released the zipper and pulled his cock out through the tiny space that the zipper provided.

  “You forgot the condom.” I said to him.

  He gave me a look, and then went to the phone and picked it up. I glared at his back.

  “Don’t you dare call her while I still have your come dripping down my leg. You owe me an explanation first.” I said vehemently to him.

  He replaced the receiver and turned back around to me, eyes hot again.

  “I wasn’t calling her; I was looking at the caller ID to see where she was calling from. It says she is calling from a Starlight Motel off the interstate.” He said calmly.

  I felt a little foolish and walked to the bathroom to clean up. I hopped into the shower and heard him follow me. I turned to look and raised my eyebrows at him as if to say, “Get on with it.”

  He let out an annoyed breath and then began, “We were together on and off since I joined the army. I met her when I got done with boot camp. She followed me to where ever I happen to be when I am on leave. This last time that we broke up it was because I caught her cheating on me. I had come home from a 6 month deployment to find her two months pregnant. She tried a whole slew of excuses, one of which the guy had forced her. I believed her at first, so I went looking for the guy, but when I finally caught up with him he was deployed in Afghanistan, and had been so for four months, so it didn’t compute. When I came back and confronted her she gave me a different guy’s name, saying she forgot his name. By that point I was on to her game, and kept pushing her about it until she finally told me the truth that she was with multiple men the entire time we were dating. So I told her it was over for good. That was the last I had heard from her, and that was six months ago. I don’t know how she got my home number, but I intend to find out.”

  I let his explanation sit for a while as I rinsed the soap out of my hair, then picked up the bar of soap and started rubbing myself down. All the while Sam’s eyes followed the bar of soap, watching intently to my every mood. He was getting hard again, as evidence of the long thick column running down the right side of his pants.

  “Okay, well she was awfully rude. And I didn’t like it. So she better watch herself if I ever see or talk to her again. In fact, I am more inspired now to kick her ass than earlier.” I said to him finally. “And I am really sorry to hear what she did. No one deserves that. I’m sorry, Sam. That is truly awful.”

  I reached out my hand from the shower and touched the scruff on his face and he leaned into my hand. He nodded and was about to say something else when the phone rang again. I tensed and we stared at me for a couple of seconds before coming to a decision and leaving the room to answer it.

  I rinsed off quickly, turned off the shower, hopped out, grabbed a towel and wrapped it around myself on the way out of the room. He had the phone up to his ear and was talking quietly when I came in the room.

  “Listen, you need to forget it. I’m engaged now, and you need to be respectful to her from now on if you call. No, I do not want you coming here. Where did you get my number?” he paused and waited for her answer. “Well that is fine, but it’s over, so you should make sure you don’t show up here. You need to go home.”

  I rolled my eyes and walked to the dresser and pulled on a new pair of panties, jeans, socks, a sports bra, and a red tank top. Comfy was my midd
le name. I went back into the bathroom and put on some deodorant and then threw my hair into a messy bun on top of my head.

  “Ember and I are going to derby practice tonight, and then out to eat. Who is my tail today?” I asked when he leaned against the door frame of the bathroom.

  “Me.” He said.

  “I get the boss man today? What do I owe to this pleasure?” I asked him.

  “I wanted to see you in action. You don’t mind do you?”

  “No, but I don’t think you will like it. I get knocked around a lot. The girls are pretty vicious.” I said with a smile.

  “Well it sure will be interesting. I have to get back to work. Don’t talk to her if she calls back, just hang up and then let me know.” He said as he kissed me softly and then rubbed his nose to mine in a butterfly kiss, and then headed out the door, closing it softly behind him.

  I came out of the bathroom and spied my panties that were torn on the floor beside the door. I picked them up and dropped them into the trash can on the way out the door. My cell phone lay neglected on the floor by the door so I scooped it up and texted Ember so I could tell her what had just happened.

  Ember: “You have got to be shitting me! I don’t have a problem kicking pregnant ass.”

  Me: “That is not what I was getting at! But I guess she is pregnant still. It would make her about 8 months along right now.”

  Ember: “She probably has run out of options, and is trying to get Sam to help her now.

  Me: “I guess that is possible. But Sam was pretty pissed about the whole thing.”

  Ember: “I’ll be there in ten; we can talk more when I get there. Love you.”

  Me: “Thank you. See you soon. Love you too.”