by Robin Deeter
Wheels was sweating by this point. “Yeah. We’re trying to figure it out, but haven’t come up with anything yet. If you do, let us know.”
“Will do. Now, how do you get out of it? Do you need help?”
“No.”
Wheels backed up to his wheelchair and unstrapped the hip section of the equipment. When his thighs bent at the hip, Wheels caught himself on the arms of the chair and lowered himself the rest of the way onto the seat. Then he unstrapped the rest of it and let it fall to the floor. With his arms, he lifted his legs onto the foot pedals and sat back in his chair, slightly out of breath.
Johnny picked up the strange “suit” and looked it over thoroughly. “Amazing. You guys are geniuses.”
“We try. You can just put it over in the corner,” Wheels said. “C’mon, Ollie. I’m in my chair.”
Ollie ran into the room and jumped up onto Wheels’ lap to be cuddled.
“We have to do this every time after I’ve had that on. I don’t think he’s used to me being that tall or maybe he just doesn’t like all the metal. I don’t know.”
He pet Ollie, smoothing down the handsome gray and black fur that covered him. Ollie made happy little chattering sounds, indicating his contentment. Once he was soothed, Ollie stood up on Wheels’ legs and faced Johnny, who patted his shoulder.
Ollie jumped over onto Johnny’s shoulder and then started playing with Johnny’s ear.
“Stop that,” Johnny said, chuckling. He pulled the wasna out of his coat pocket and Ollie chattered. “Give me a kiss first.”
Ollie wrapped his arms around Johnny’s neck and kissed his cheek hard. Johnny gave him half of the wasna and Ollie nicely took it before jumping down and hopping up on a hassock to eat it.
Wheels smiled. “He loves that stuff. I appreciate Cotton making it for him with just fruit.”
“He likes doing stuff like that. I like it that way, too,” Johnny said, sitting on the sofa.
“You guys can all have my share,” Wheels said. “I’d rather eat liver than that stuff and I hate liver.”
Johnny laughed.
“How’s everyone at home?”
“Good. I guess you know about Brock and Daphne getting engaged.”
Wheels nodded. “Yep. We got Brock a little drunk the other night buying him celebratory drinks. Of course, Sandy had to give Ollie a shot. Have you ever seen a drunk monkey? You’d think it would slow him down, but he just gets more hyper, bouncing all over the place even more than usual. He played pretty good poker, too. Won twenty bucks.”
Johnny laughed. “I can just imagine the faces of the fellas he beat.”
“Priceless. Well, c’mon and I’ll show you the drawings I came up with,” Wheels said, rolling into another room.
A draft table at the right height for Wheels sat over near a window. A child-sized draft table and chair sat on the other side of the room. Wheels rolled over to his desk and took off the linen sheet that covered it. Ollie knew better than to mess with Wheels’ desk, but just on the off chance that he got mischievous, Wheels always covered it to keep his work safe.
“I think your measurements for the scaffolding and framework are perfect. Here’s where the problem is gonna come—”
Wheels broke off as Ollie climbed up on his shoulder and looked over the drawing. He chattered and grunted as his quick gaze took it all in.
“Do you approve?” Wheels asked him.
Ollie squeaked once, kissed Wheels, and hopped down. He scurried over to the little draft table and sat on the chair. He picked up one of the pencils lying on it and began making his own drawing on the large tablet of paper in front of him. Every so often he would look at Wheels and then go back to drawing.
Wheels sighed. “I’m gonna have enough pictures to wallpaper with pretty soon. He keeps wanting me to hang them up. Anyway, back to this.”
They spent the next half hour finalizing the new plans before they were happy with them.
“I really appreciate all your help with this, Wheels,” Johnny said.
“Sure. It’s been fun and I can’t wait to actually start the construction,” Wheels said. “I was surprised that you weren’t at the Chowhound the other night. You usually come down on Wednesdays. Not feeling well?”
Johnny cursed the blush that crept up his neck. “Uh, well, I sort of had enough of the Chowhound for a while.”
Wheels said, “C’mon and have a beer while you explain it to me. I can tell that there’s more to this story.”
Ollie heard “beer” and ran out to the kitchen, hopping up on the icebox.
Wheels pointed a finger at him. “No. No drunk monkey tonight.”
Ollie grimaced at him.
They settled in the parlor and Johnny recounted the events of his night of debauchery to Wheels, ending with his friendship-ending fight with Ray.
“He said I’m too innocent, too judgmental,” Johnny said. “Am I?”
“Here’s what I think. I think you were mainly raised by your mother and she sort of sheltered you a little. Most likely because of your father. So you didn’t get into the sort of trouble that most teenage boys get into. Drinking, women, fighting—all of that. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. You’re a good man, Johnny.”
Johnny blew out a breath as Ollie crawled onto his lap, curling up. “Are you tired?” he asked the monkey. “Is it your bedtime? Maybe I’m too good. Did you know about Ray?”
Wheels said, “Yeah. It’s not something that I could ever do, but it’s his life and if that’s how he wants to make his money, it’s none of my business.”
“But he sleeps with married women.”
“I know, but the girls sleep with married men. You know, Johnny, it’s possible to love someone, but not like what they do,” Wheels said. “I know that what Sandy’s girls do isn’t approved of by most of society, but some of those girls have had a hard life growing up. They don’t have any family and no other way to make a living unless they want to scrub floors for the rest of their lives.”
Johnny said, “They could get married and let their husbands take care of them.”
Wheels said, “True, but my guess is that about half of them would rather not depend on a man to support them, most likely because a man let them down or hurt them in the past. You should talk to Sandy about that sometime. As for Ray, I’d talk to him and maybe try to understand why he’s doing what he is. Don’t judge him, just talk to him.”
“Do you know why he’s doing it?”
“No. I never asked, but, then again, I’m not his best friend, either,” Wheels said.
“Neither am I anymore.”
Wheels grinned. “Johnny, if you apologize to him and hear him out, I’m sure he’ll come around.”
Johnny laughed. “He told me that I could make good money doing what he does, that women would love to corrupt me because I’m so …”
“Innocent?”
Johnny tried to ward off the blush he felt coming on. “Yeah.”
Wheels’ shoulders shook with silent laughter.
“Shut up!” Johnny gave him a fierce scowl.
“I reckon Ray’s right. You’d be surprised how much women think about sex,” Wheels said. “And they like sweet guys such as yourself.”
“I feel so stupid about all of this,” Johnny said.
“You’re not stupid, Johnny. Just uneducated, that’s all. I’ll tell you what, though. It takes a lot of strength not to give in to that particular urge. It’s hard to walk away from a pretty woman instead of taking her to bed,” Wheels said.
Johnny said, “I ain’t even been tested. I don’t know if I have that kind of strength or not.”
“If ever a fella did, it’s you, Johnny. I can tell that about you. You’re a better man than I am about it.”
Johnny was quiet for a few moments. “So you’ve been with women?”
“Yep.”
“Recently?”
Wheels laughed. “You mean since I got paralyzed? Yeah. Sometimes things work
and sometimes they don’t, but I’ve learned to live with that. I’ll take sometimes over never. Even if things don’t go right, just holding and kissing a woman feels good. And I never leave her unsatisfied whether or not things work right.”
Johnny had no idea what that entailed exactly, but he wasn’t about to ask. “Don’t you want to get married?”
“I’d love to get married and have kids, but only a very special woman would want to marry a man like me,” Wheels said. “I hope to find one someday, but until then, I’m fine with things as they are. Besides, Ollie’s like having a kid.”
Hearing his name, Ollie raised his head and blinked sleepily at Wheels, chattering faintly.
“Well, I better get going and let you guys get some rest. So we’ll start the day after tomorrow then?” Johnny said, getting up.
“That’s right. Be careful going home.”
Johnny hugged Ollie and deposited him gently onto Wheels’ lap. “Thanks again. Goodnight.”
Wheels watched Johnny leave and then looked at Ollie. “You’d like to have a mama wouldn’t you? Maybe someday I’ll find a pretty lady. Would you like that?”
Ollie grunted his assent and Wheels laughed.
“C’mon. Time for all good little monkeys to go to bed.”
Chapter Twenty-One
The next morning, Johnny made his family join him in back of the bathhouse. Then he handed Cy a packet of rolled up papers tied with a red ribbon.
“Merry Christmas to you all,” he said, grinning.
The other three all glanced at each other before Cy untied the ribbon and opened the large papers to reveal blue prints. Daphne and Leigh stood on either side of him, trying to figure out what the drawings were of.
Leigh grinned. “If I’m looking at this right, you’re gonna build a big hot water tank.”
“Yes!” Johnny grinned. “That way, we won’t have to haul hot water to the bathhouse when we want it and we can even use it for cooking. It’ll cut down on the time it takes to boil water and save on wood.”
Cy stared at him in wonder. “That’s incredible. Don’t take this the wrong way, but I didn’t know you were so smart. I’m sorry for not giving you more credit, Johnny.”
Johnny grinned. “That’s ok. I know you don’t mean nothing by it.”
Daphne shook her head at the complex drawings. “I’m all for making cooking easier, but how are you going to get the water in the tank? It would take a long time to fill it with buckets.”
“Follow me.”
Johnny took them about twenty feet from where they’d been and launched into a complex explanation involving gravity, water pressure, and piping. Leigh nodded, fully understanding what Johnny had just said, but Daphne and Cy’s eyes reflected their confusion.
Johnny finished with, “We might have to play with it once it’s all built, but you always have to do that when you build experimental stuff. That creek doesn’t freeze over, either, so we’ll have water pressure year round,” he explained.
Leigh took the drawings from Cy so she could look them over. “And this boiler would heat the water?”
“Right and we’re gonna burn dried cow dung. It burns hot and long and God knows we have enough of that around here.”
Cy frowned. “That’s gonna stink to high heaven when it burns.”
“Only when you actually load the boiler,” Johnny said. “Plus, we can keep the pastures clear of dung so there’ll be more grazing land for the cattle since they won’t eat where they poop.”
Daphne shook her head. “You’ve thought all of this out thoroughly.”
“Well, I had a lot of help from Sly, Wheels, and Mr. Ellis,” Johnny said. “In fact, we’re gonna start construction tomorrow morning.”
“Tomorrow? I didn’t think you’d be able to do anything until warmer weather,” Daphne said.
Johnny tapped the drawings. “No need to wait. That’s why I gave you these now. It’s an early Christmas gift.”
The women hugged him and Cy thumped him on the shoulder as they thanked him. As they went back inside to eat breakfast, Johnny felt better about things than he had since getting shot. Things were looking up.
*****
Resting with Daphne in their tipi that night, Brock said, “New Year’s Day.”
“No.”
“The day after?”
“No.”
“Aw, c’mon. That’s after the holidays.”
Daphne giggled as she looked down into his eyes as she lay draped on top of him. “Boy, I guess you’re really in a hurry to live with Cy.”
His dark scowl made her laugh harder. “I’ll be glad when spring comes and they can build their house. I’d dig the foundation myself if it would get it done faster.” He closed his arms around her. “I’m just in a hurry to live with the woman I love.”
“I still want to come to our love tipi.”
Grinning, he asked, “You’re not going to let me forget that, are you?”
She kissed him. “No, I’m not.”
He put a hand over his eyes and groaned.
“Don’t you know how much women like it when big, virile men are sweet like that?”
Looking into her luminous eyes, he said, “Is that a fact? I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Good. The last weekend in January?”
Brock considered it. “Yeah, I think that’ll work. Hunter will definitely be settled in at work by then, so they won’t be shorthanded while we’re away on our honeymoon. He’s already doing great.”
Daphne said, “It helps that his uncle trained him so well.”
“Yeah, we really got lucky finding someone who worked for a great sheriff like Shane Stetson,” Brock agreed. “We’ve even heard of him up here. I didn’t know that’s who his uncle was until Rob mentioned it. Hunter’s not a bragger. That’s a good thing.”
“Is he still trying to treat Ellie special?”
Brock chuckled. “He’s getting better about it. At least he’s not jumping up to hold the door for her every time she leaves. He wants to, though. You can see it in his eyes. Cy was walking through the office yesterday when Hunter started for the door. Cy snapped his fingers at him and told him to sit back down and stay. Hunter was so surprised that he did it. I thought Rob was gonna piss his pants laughing. Poor kid.”
Daphne laughed despite feeling badly for Hunter. “You guys are so bad.”
Brock said, “Don’t worry. I’m sure before long, he’ll be pulling his own pranks on all of us.”
Daphne sighed and looked into the fire. “We have to go back soon.”
Brock ran his hands along the smooth light copper skin of her back and sides. “I know. How shall we make use of our time, m’lady?”
Daphne was always amused when he used a British accent. She’d tried several times and couldn’t pull it off. “Well, I have an idea.”
“Care to share, madam?”
Daphne whispered in his ear and then let out a surprised yelp when he rolled her over and proceeded to carry out her idea.
*****
“You gonna actually drink that coffee or just hold it?”
With a start, Daphne realized that Leigh had spoken to her. “I’m sorry. What was that?”
Leigh smiled as she sat down at the table. She’d been outside watching the water tank construction for a little while and had decided to come inside for some coffee before she went back to work out in the barn. It had only been a week, but the men were making excellent progress.
“Boy, you were a million miles away. Thinking about your man?”
Daphne sat her cup down with a chuckle. “That obvious?”
“Yep. I’m real happy that you finally roped him and hauled him down from that fence he was on.”
“Me, too. Of course, you gave me the advice to go after him, so I owe you. We’ve decided to get married on the last Saturday of the month. Thank you for being my maid of honor,” Daphne said.
“You were mine, so I’m just returning the favor. You two aren
’t waiting long. That’s good.”
Daphne fiddled with her cup and glance shyly at Leigh. “We don’t want to wait for several reasons. One being that it’s hard being apart and we want to start out life together. But, um, we’ve been intimate.”
Leigh’s eyes rounded. “You have?”
Daphne bit her lip as she nodded. “I know we should’ve waited, but we just couldn’t. And I don’t regret it one bit.”
Leigh’s expression relaxed into a smile. “I remember how hard it was to wait, both for Walt, and Cy.”
“But you did it. You must think that I don’t have any morals.”
Leigh patted her forearm. “I don’t think that at all. I think that you waited long enough for your man and you got swept away. It’s happened to plenty of people and it always will. I’m not judging you. It’s just a good thing you’re not waiting long in case you get in the family way.”
Daphne nodded. “I know. I’ve already considered that. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case as of today.”
Leigh smiled tightly at her meaningful statement. “That’s a good thing. I’m sure it won’t be too long until there are a bunch of little Brocks running around here, though.”
Her smile faded quickly and she blinked back tears.
“Leigh, what’s wrong?” Daphne asked.
Unfilled longing filled Leigh, painfully squeezing her heart. She tried to rein in the hurt, but she couldn’t quite manage it. “I’m fine. It’s just that I can’t have children. I’m barren and I want to give Cy a child so bad. Walt and I tried so hard, but I never conceived. I went to doctors and everything, but they didn’t really have any answers for me. Most of the time I can deal with it, but once in a while it gets to me.”
Daphne moved her chair closer and put her arm around Leigh. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know. Cy never mentioned anything.”
“Well, you know how he is. He says that we’ll just keep trying and if it doesn’t happen we’ll adopt,” Leigh said. “I’m all right with that, but I want to feel his child grow inside me. I feel guilty because I keep hopin’ that there was something wrong with Walt, but I can’t help it.”
