by Redrae Gunn
Jenna pointed to a stack of railroad ties behind the garage as her father wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “I’m in the process of figuring out where to put an above-ground strawberry patch. Oh, and that’s my shop,” Jenna said as she pointed to the oddly shaped white barn with the red and blue racing stripes.”
“You must’ve painted that yourself,” Evan said.
“I did,” Jenna said proudly when she saw the twinkle in her father’s eyes. She pulled her father toward her shop. “It used to be Jace’s mom’s but he gave me the key to it and you should see all of the projects that she thought of. I’d never get them done unless I had a million dollars and a million years but she had all these great ideas. You should see what I’ve done with the loft…”
Jace looked at Tony as Jenna’s voice trailed off. “I haven’t been in there recently, have you?” Jace asked. He was about to start off to see all of what Jenna had accomplished when Joan sighed.
“I must get out of this sun,” Joan said as she fanned her perfectly colored platinum-blonde hair out of her face.
“This way, ma’am,” Jace said as he led her back into the house. It was going to be a very long couple of days.
“I think I’ll just head to the camper,” Joan said. “What time will lunch be served?”
“Jenna usually has lunch ready at noon,” Jace managed to say through gritted teeth as he folded his arms across his chest and shifted his weight to one leg.
“Jenna makes all the meals, too?” Joan rolled her eyes. “Don’t you boys do anything?”
The camper door slammed shut before Jace could say anything. Tony and Jace looked at each other. They both had grease streaks up and down their arms from working on the grain truck most of the morning. Joan had ended the conversation by calling them “boys.”
Jace was about to knock on the door but Tony stepped in front of him. Jace turned and started for the house. Fine, they would make lunch. He looked up at the sky. It was probably nearing noon now.
Jace and Tony were almost finished pulling the items out of the fridge and setting the table when Jace held up his hand. Voices were coming from the back porch. He stepped into the living room and heard Jenna and her dad on the back porch. He was going to go back to the kitchen but the mention of his name derailed the thought of not eavesdropping.
* * * *
“Jace and Tony seem to make you very happy,” Evan said.
“I am,” Jenna replied as she smiled at her father and rested her head on his arm. “You have no idea. I’m more than happy. I’m content. I like the chores and the work. I love working in the garden. There is something so fulfilling about growing your own food.”
“Do they swing your way?” Evan asked.
Jenna blushed and nodded her head. “Yes they do and I am completely satisfied in that department as well. I’m sorry I ever told you about that.”
“Don’t be,” Evan scolded. “If my daughter can’t tell me about her joys, sorrows, broken hearts, and dreams, then who can she tell?”
Jenna shrugged her shoulders. “It would be nice to tell Mom.”
“I’m sorry that you can’t,” Evan said and rested his cheek on the top of Jenna’s head.
“Why haven’t you left?” Jenna asked.
“I can’t,” Evan said. “I love her. You know this.”
“Now I know where I get the masochism from,” Jenna said as she sighed. Her dad laughed and she smiled. It was so nice to see him again. It was nice to see her mom as well, but it was really great to see her dad. He had asked questions about her projects instead of telling her that she couldn’t do them. He had wanted to know more about her life instead of telling her how to live it. “I love you, Dad.”
“I love you, too, sweetheart,” Evan replied.
“So tell me about this horse of yours,” Evan said.
“He bought me a saddle for my birthday.” Jenna laughed. “It was tied up in bows with a note from Strydor himself.”
“I think your men are fond of you,” Evan said.
Jenna felt the tingle in her stomach when her dad called them her men and not her employers. “I’m pretty of fond of them, too.”
“They sure don’t act like you will be here for only a year,” Evan said. “They act like this is a permanent arrangement.”
“A girl can dream,” Jenna replied. “I need to go make lunch. Do you want to help?”
“Of course,” Evan said.
Jenna stood up and walked through the door and into the porch. She saw Jace and Tony right as they ducked behind the kitchen wall. Little sneakers. They had been spying on her. Well she hadn’t said anything that she wouldn’t have said to their face. Hopefully they liked what they heard, because it had been the truth.
* * * *
The day continued with Jenna’s mom locked in the RV and Jenna showing her dad the entire farm. She had even taken him for a ride in the old Ford. Her dad had laughed with delight when Jenna pulled out of the driveway, knowing exactly how to work the gears. He shared stories of the first time he had driven a vehicle just like it.
After supper Jenna’s mom took her pills and headed to the RV. She had complimented how relatively fresh the produce had been and it took all the resolve that Jace had not to tell her that it didn’t get much fresher than picking it off of the damned plant. It was the closest she had come to giving Jenna a compliment all day. It was pissing him off.
Evan had calmed him down by suggesting that they get drunk by the fire. Tony nearly ran to the fridge to oblige the older man. Joan was brutal. Even he couldn’t stomach the shit that she was dishing to Jenna.
Evan had declined the beer that Jace offered but he had smiled enthusiastically at the strawberry-rhubarb wine that Jace had chilled for Jenna. After that bottle Jenna produced a pumpkin wine and Evan had dived in with the same enthusiasm that Jenna showed daily.
“So are you two planning on marrying my daughter?” Evan asked. His words slurred a bit as he looked into the fire.
“Dad!” Jenna scolded.
“That is illegal,” Tony said as he drowned his seventh beer. It just wasn’t enough yet to take off the edge in his voice. Dealing with Jenna’s mom had been no small chore.
“We’ve heard Jenna’s dream of being swept away,” Jace said. He was way past Tony in terms of alcohol consumption. He had decided that the grass around the burn barrel needed to be watered and had stopped going inside to pee. Jace shook his penis twice and stuffed it back in his pants. He looked over his shoulder and called to Evan. “Wanna hear our dream?”
“I would like that very much,” Evan said as he belched loudly. He had switched to beer after the pumpkin wine was finished.
“I lost my parents when I was four in a boating accident,” Tony started. “My parents were good friends with Jace’s parents. I’ve known Jace since I was born, literally. So his parents take me in. My sister had just graduated high school and couldn’t take in a four-year-old while starting college.”
“She would’ve if she had no other choice,” Jace said, defending Tony’s sister.
“She would’ve,” Tony admitted. “But Jace’s parents did it. They took me in and raised me like I was their own son. Jace and I were never far apart. Anyway, we go to this wedding.”
“Tony is seven years old,” Jace said. “I’m nine and he looks at me and tells me that someday we will get married to a girl, too. I agree. Someday we will get married to a girl, too.”
“That night, after the wedding,” Tony said, “I asked Mom about it. I asked her if Jace and I can marry a girl, too. She told me that we would marry different girls. I couldn’t understand that. I mean, what if we loved the same girl? She told me that we couldn’t love the same girl. I cried. We both loved her as our mom. She said that it was different. I told her that I didn’t want it to be different.”
“When I heard Tony talking to Mom about it and when Mom said we couldn’t marry the same woman I hid under my covers and cried,” Jace said. “It just didn’t
seem fair. He’d been my best friend since he could follow me around the farm.”
“So we get into high school and there are dances and prom,” Tony continued. “We never went because it wasn’t right to take the same girl to dances.”
“Soon we have graduated,” Jace said. “We tried the dating scene but we each ended up dating the same girl right after each other. It was a nightmare since we lived here at the farm together.”
“Jace’s parents, technically my parents, too, died a month after I graduated,” Tony said. “Natural causes. So here are me and Jace, alone but together on the farm. So we decide to take a trip to Denver. For some reason we end up at this club.”
“A fetish club,” Jace clarified, liking the way that Jenna blushed and covered her face.
“We did it,” Tony said. “We shared the same woman. Sorry, Jenna, for bringing up the past, but we never looked back. We’ve always been looking for that one woman to share for the rest of our lives.”
“Have you found her?” Jenna asked as she looked at Tony and then at Jace.
“We hope so,” Jace said softly. He was about to continue but he heard Joan calling from the RV.
“Evan, you better not be drinking,” Joan warned and then she closed the door to the RV.
“Drunk as a skunk,” Evan yelled at the closed door. “Someone pass me another, please.”
* * * *
Jenna woke and smiled. Jace and Tony had crawled into her queen-sized bed with her after they had finished talking to Evan. She wasn’t sure exactly how late the men stayed up because she’d had to call it early. There was no way she could stay drink for drink with any of them. Both men groaned when she extracted herself from their arms and legs.
Jenna went to her closet and found the pretty lace white skirt that she had bought on the last trip to town with Kira. It hung just past her knees and was perfect for a day like today. She pulled out a pale yellow top, matching sandals, and the laciest matching bra and panty set that she had, and headed to the shower downstairs.
Fifteen minutes later she applied her makeup upstairs and started preparing breakfast. She heard Jace groan when the aromas of coffee and breakfast permeated the house. Jenna had made a breakfast quiche, waffles, an assortment of crepes, and her dad’s favorite eggs Benedict.
Tony and Jace were coming upstairs from their showers just as Jenna’s mom came in the front door. She muttered something about decency and Tony had said that at least they had their towels on. Jace had laughed hard, admitting to Joan that usually they came upstairs stark naked.
Jenna grabbed an apple and then her mother, taking both outside with her. “You get to give Strydor his apple this morning,” Jenna said and continued to pull her mother along with her despite the protests.
“He’s very gentle,” Jenna said when they were at the corral. Strydor was tossing his head like a fool. Then he bowed his head and came up to the fence. “Just put it in your palm and let him take it. Keep your fingers flat. His whiskers tickle a little but he won’t bite if you keep your hand flat.”
Jenna watched as her mom held out the apple to Strydor. Then she watched as her mom actually smiled when Strydor took the apple and brushed her hand. Joan pulled her hand back quickly but Strydor didn’t flinch away.
“You’re not supposed to make sudden movements,” Jenna said. “That’s what Jace and Tony tell me, anyway, but he’s always very calm around me, even when I’m waving my hands in the air like a maniac.”
“He’s very big,” Joan said curtly, and then her voice softened. “He’s also rather pretty.”
“Come on,” Jenna said as she pulled her mom to the chicken coop. “We feed the chickens next.”
By the time that Jenna walked her mother to the house she had actually heard the woman laugh twice. Once was when Jenna said that she had named five of the chickens and again when Jenna had said the others were peckers.
“Those men are very handsome, Jenna,” Joan said. “I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
“Mama, handsome men don’t always hurt the woman that they are with,” Jenna said. “Dad never hurt you.”
“But he could’ve,” Joan said. “He still could.”
“He loves you,” Jenna said. “He’d never, ever hurt you.”
“I know,” Joan replied. “Can I help you in the garden later? I mean, picking some of the ripe things. If it’s a problem I won’t.”
“It’s not a problem,” Jenna said. She had never seen her mother offer to help anyone do anything. “I’d like the help.”
Jenna opened the door for her mom and the sound of the three men eating and laughing at the table made her smile. Her men had obviously won over her father but they had an ice cube’s chance in hell of winning over her mother. Jenna followed her mom inside and made room for her at the table.
“Jenna, are you expecting company?” Joan asked.
“No,” Jenna said as she looked through her room and out the window into the driveway. Jenna heard the vehicle pull into the driveway but it had pulled behind the RV so Jenna couldn’t see it. Jenna saw Kira’s little Smart car pull up to the garage. “It’s Kira. She is one of our closest neighbors. Kira and Rock live not far from here.”
“His name is Rock?” Joan asked and raised her eyebrows.
“Don’t ask him about that,” Jenna said seriously as Kira bounced in the front door carrying balloons and flowers.
“Happy birthday, girlfriend,” Kira called.
“I didn’t tell anyone that today was my birthday,” Jenna said as she hugged Kira and took the flowers from her.
“You had to list it on your application,” Kira said as she pointed at Jace and Tony.
Jenna watched as Kira instantly won over her mom and dad with her firm but polite ways. Then Rock walked in the house. Jenna noticed that the look her mom gave Rock was the same look that she had given Jace. Yes, Jace was enormous. Rock wasn’t nearly as tall but it was the way that the men carried themselves. Rock was also older than Jace and had been in the BDSM lifestyle for over two decades.
Jenna shivered thinking of Jace twenty years from now. Yes, he would probably have that same look, the look of a Master. Thank goodness that Jace didn’t want to be a Master now. Jenna knew that if he did she would be in serious trouble. Tony usually issued more demands than she could handle and she was not about to kneel when they entered the room.
As quickly as they came, Kira and Rock left. Jenna was a little surprised because they usually stayed for a while.
“Happy birthday, Jenna,” Tony said, and then he looked at Jace.
“Happy birthday,” Jace said as he handed Jenna a small white box with two tiny bows on top. One bow was red and the other one was blue.
Jenna looked at her men. They weren’t on their knees. They hadn’t whisked her away. They were looking at her with anticipation, not the thousand other emotions that would come with a proposal. Her hand still shook as she opened the box.
Chapter 14
Jenna opened the box and saw a small fuzzy skunk attached to a keychain. She started laughing at the little skunk, remembering the kittens that she’d had altered to send Jace into panic mode.
“What is it?” Joan asked.
Jenna looked at her mom and saw her eyes dance. Her mom loved being spoiled. Her mother was terribly spoiled by Jenna’s father. Of course Mom would want to know how much the men had spent on her. Jenna pushed the negative thoughts out of her head. Her mother wanted to know what it was. Jenna held up the keychain.
“What does that go to?” Joan asked.
“I don’t know,” Jenna said, still smiling. “Come on, Mom, let’s go find out.”
Jenna thought she was going to have to pull her mom out the door and was surprised when her mom beat her down the stairs and held open the front door. Jenna ran down the sidewalk and her mom was right beside her. Jenna nearly plowed into her mom when Joan stopped as she rounded the RV.
“Wow,” Joan said.
“Wow,” Jenna
replied as she looked at the brand-new pickup that had two enormous bows tied to the top. Of course one was red and the other blue.
“Jenna, there are gifts inside the truck,” Joan called.
“What?”
“There are more presents,” Joan said.
Jenna watched her mom open the passenger side of the truck and hold up a very expensive-looking decorative bag. Jenna walked over to the truck and saw that the front seat had several decorative bags. She glanced in the back of the truck and saw three large wrapped presents.
“We’ll carry them inside so that you can open them out of the sun,” Jace said and he handed the lightest box to Evan, whispering that it was extremely fragile. Then he and Tony picked up the others and headed inside.
“Well come on, dear,” Joan said as she handed Jenna two of the five decorative bags and gathered up the other three. “I can’t wait to see what else they bought you.”
“The truck was more than enough,” Jenna said loud enough that Jace and Tony could hear her. “I’ll never be able to make the payments.”
“It’s a gift!” Jace and Tony yelled at the same time.
“It’s paid for?” Joan smiled and raised her eyebrows as she went into the house.
“All she has to do is wait for the title and then sign it,” Tony said as he sat one of the presents in the living room. “It was a gift from us for all of her hard work. If she won’t accept it as a birthday gift then she can accept it as a signing bonus for the one-year contract.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that they had money, Jenna?” Joan asked.
Jenna looked at the floor, completely embarrassed by her mother’s focus on the men’s financial status.
“Money is not high on my priority list, Mom,” Jenna confessed. “I love the farm, the work, and them, so I really wasn’t going to share any more than that.”
Tony looked at Jace. Jace raised his eyebrows. Yes, Jenna had just told her parents that she loved both Tony and Jace. Evan had caught it, too, because Tony saw that he was smiling at his daughter with happiness that only a father could feel when he found out that she had chosen the perfect person, or in this case persons, to complete her life.
