by Lass Small
They were lucky to be in a house.
Eight
It wasn’t too late in the day when Kyle and Lauren wakened in what was a cold room, but they were in a nice warm bed. The thick clouds of the mean storm made it seem later than it was.
The new lovers sighed and smiled at each other. Then Kyle looked at his watch. Why do men always look at their watches at such a time? It took a while because the light was poor.
They were so cozy under those heavy quilts. Lauren still had on his flannel shirt. It wasn’t buttoned. Her feet were encased in his thick woolen socks. She moved and sighed in contentment.
She triggered Homer, but Kyle silently told his sex to back off. That led to a mental debate that amused Kyle. Homer asked how could he “back off” when he was as attached to Kyle as he—
Lauren said in a murmuring way, “I shouldn’t have waited so long.”
Kyle’s bliss was jolted. He immediately told her with grave seriousness, “We waited for this time. It wouldn’t have been as magical if we’d been sorting out partners and experimenting before now.”
“You did.”
How rude of her.
And he told her seriously, “Once I was a victim. I had no choice.”
“Balderdash. You are too big and strong to be the victim of a woman’s voracious lust. Don’t try to tell me you were a victim.”
He said earnestly, “Some women won’t take no for an answer. They’re pushy and mean.”
She curled over to him and rubbed the magical hair on his chest and stomach. She told him intimately, “You would tempt any woman.”
His voice was honest as he said earnestly, “I don’t want just any woman.”
“Then how come a woman could lure Homer and not you, as you claim?”
“A man hesitates to physically reject a woman. He could hurt an aggressive woman. She takes him by surprise. The woman who used Homer was a shock to me. I didn’t even like her.”
Caught by Kyle’s earnestness, Lauren told him, “I never before thought of a man as being just. used.”
“We’re vulnerable.” He was serious as he said the words, “You’re a nice woman. Like the mean or wicked men in this world, there are mean and wicked women. They use men. It is true. There are women voyeurs who are just like such men. I’ve run into them. I had to learn how to protect myself.”
Lauren replied, “I have trouble thinking about a women…using…you against your will.”
“With an aggressive man, you can rough him up, but any man hates hurting a woman while he’s defending himself. He can be charged with assault.”
“What about Homer?” Lauren asked with real curiosity. “Was he shocked? Indignant? Did he go limp and faint?”
“Homer lives his own life. He can be lured against my rejection.”
“Ahh!” she exclaimed, “Then I just need to work on Homer?”
“No. If you’re serious about Homer, you have to work through me. We’re an entity.”
After a silence as she lay beside Kyle and petted his chest hair, she asked, “What did your daddy tell you about handling such an episode as you had?”
“He’d never run into anything like that. He was dog mad. We waited to see the testing. It was a tough time.” Then Kyle told Lauren very seriously, “I’m clean.”
She asked with curiosity, “How did you know that I was?”
He replied softly, “Everybody calls you the Virgin Queen. They’ve done that since you were Queen of the Fiesta when you were eighteen.” Then he added softly with a throat clack of emotion, “I have proof you were a virgin.”
“I suppose that would be a clue.”
Kyle inquired with soft care, “Why did you wait for me?”
“You’ve just said it.” She shrugged. “I was ready. I found you.”
“Actually, I was the one who found you out there on that plain. You were really stupid to ignore the coming storm and try to get that damned pod. The only reason I don’t scold you—”
“You are now.”
“—is because I’m glad you did all that stupid stuff, and that I found you. in time. It would have killed my very soul if I’d stumbled onto you out there and you’d been dead. And frozen. Gone.”
She slid in the comment, “It would have upset me a little, too.”
“You were just this side of freezing. I saved your neck. Don’t you forget that. You owe me.”
She lifted her eyebrows in a very snubby manner and said, “I just paid you off with my precious body.”
He hugged her closer- and made male sounds of relish. “Let’s do it again.”
She sighed with dramatic endurance and inquired, “Just how many times will I have to ‘do it’ in order to pay off this burden of debt?”
“I’ll keep track,” he promised. Then he added, “And I’ll let you know when you’re debt free.”
“That sounds rather vague and not at all original. Even banks tell you how long it’ll be and how much. How long and how much will this rescue cost me?”
“I’ll have to see how much you eat.” He had to again look at his watch because he wasn’t looking at time but at how long the roast had cooked. He told her kindly, “The potatoes and roast should be about done. Are you any good at making us a salad?”
In some obviously restrained brag, she replied, “Goldilocks does, on occasion, allow us to cut up the makings for a salad.”
“Glory be.”
She looked superior in a disgustingly elegant manner.
That made him laugh. Then he was generous: “You get to make the salad.”
“I’m so grateful.” She batted her eyelashes. “What sort of dressings do you have?”
“I got all the fixings.”
Then he had to lie there and watch as she tried to dress without getting out of bed. She was fascinating! She wiggled and slithered and drove him absolutely wild.
So…when they finally got downstairs, the sweet potatoes had no resistance at all, to anything, and the meat was very well-done. But the salad was fresh and crisp. And she made biscuits. He was astonished. And he was cautious. The biscuits were absolutely delicious.
He asked, “Does…Goldilocks know about you making biscuits?”
“She broke her arm once. She sat and directed us all. I made the biscuits.”
“What did your momma do?”
“She sat by Goldilocks and held her good hand. Mother is very compassionate with Goldilocks. She lives in terror that Goldilocks will up and leave us. We all have to be very kind to her and endure her criticisms and scoldings like ladies. That means we can’t answer back.”
“I didn’t know ladies had rules.”
She curled her fingers, just so, put the back of her hand to her forehead and shared. “It’s a burden. I can hardly wait to marry and get out of the household.”
“You’re old enough to leave if you want to.”
She went back to eating but said dismissively, “I’d be lonely. Being raised with all those people around was a thwarting to the urge for independence.”
“You could come stay with me for a while. We could see how we rub together.”
“That again.”
“I’ll behave for a while,” he vowed rashly. “Think about moving out here.”
With complete rebuttal, she replied a nothing, “Sure.”
“What’s that mean?”
She flopped her arms out in acceptance that it would be true and said, “My daddy would be out here with his shotgun. He’s a hard-nosed man.”
And Kyle said in a dead voice, “I’m terrified.”
It was only then that Lauren realized Kyle could well be a match for her daddy. How strange. It was a fact that Kyle never would bow and scrape. He might not even listen to what her daddy had to say. How amazing. Out there in the sticks, she had met a man who not only wasn’t interested in her daddy’s money, but he didn’t care what her daddy thought of him!
Could she be with a man who was indifferent to her father? And her
humor jiggled around inside her. All that time she’d spent discarding men because they were awed by her daddy. Now, here was a man who didn’t care two hoots? Shouldn’t that offend her?
Was Kyle really indifferent to approval or was he just pretending to be interested only in her?
Yeah.
With the old Davie family businesses in TEXAS, it was vital to have the approval of the head of the woman’s family. The petitioner needed the moral support in his ventures, and he needed the financial backup.
“You a loner?” She asked that with her head tilted back and her eyes slitted.
“I got one daddy. I don’t need no more.”
And she lied. She said, “My daddy backs me.”
“He’s why you were Queen of the Fiesta. He wanted it. You didn’t.”
She almost hid her surprise. “How’d you know that?”
With compassion, he told her earnestly, “I’ve never before seen such a straight standing, smiling young woman who was so miserable.”
“How’d…you know…that?”
He said softly, “Your eyes.”
Staunchly, she declared, “I did not shed one tear!”
How telling for her to admit that. He told her, “It took all your skill and discipline to keep those tears in your eyes.”
She considered the time, almost ten years ago, and she remembered. “You might be right.”
He took hold of her hand on the table. “I watched you. You were something to see. I could see you as a settler in this virgin, unclaimed land.” Then he acknowledged honestly, “There were already nine hundred Indian tribes here in TEXAS when the Spanish arrived. The Indians tried their darnedest to keep us Europeans out. If you’d been here then, you’d have helped your man. You’d have been a backup for any man.”
She shook her head. “I’m a total coward. How could you contrive all that balderdash?”
He replied easily, “I made a study of you then when you were queen.”
“How?”
“I was a tad bored,” he admitted with a shrug. “You were in the spotlight. I studied you because you’re really something to look at. Then I studied you when I realized you didn’t want to be there.”
She scoffed. “You dreamed it all.”
“At the club, I saw you save that dog from the guys who thought it was funny to sic it on a sick cat.”
She hesitated before she commented, “I’d forgotten that.” Then she asked, “You were at the club then? I don’t remember seeing you there.”
“I was on the screened porch just a way over. I told you later that I was proud of you. You blushed and discarded doing anything.”
She looked up at his face. “I saw you then?”
“I’m a little older. You were of the age, then, as the nubile female who didn’t notice older men. I was a guest. You were so positive in defense of the dog. I was impressed that the shrinking violet I had known could stand up for a dog. What else do you protect?”
“Carefully, just me. Back then, I wasn’t at all brave. I don’t like dogs particularly. I just thought the dog might get whatever disease the cat had.”
“The grounds man solved them both.”
Quickly, she protested, “I don’t believe I want to hear how he did that.”
“He called the shelter.”
“Thank you.”
“He really did. He’s as tenderhearted as you. I once saw him cry over a dog hit by a car.”
“Anybody does that. Dogs have wiggled their way into the human structure, and we accept them as needed creatures. They are a polluting nuisance. Their time is past.”
He chuckled and tried not to. Then he laughed.
“Hush.”
The dog chose that time to come into the kitchen. The hound came over wagging his tail as if they would celebrate seeing him.
Lauren asked, “How’d he get out of the storage room?” Then she gasped. “Someone is here!”
“I would doubt that. There’s not been any call. And this dog opens doors.”
“How?”
“With his mouth. And teeth. Every now and then I’m not wearing gloves and I find a doorknob all lathered with dog saliva.”
“Ugh.”
Kyle sat back and sighed in defeat. “Now, you’ll be suspicious of all doorknobs and-”
In a companionable, friendly manner, the dog jumped up on the chair across the table.
Lauren screeched, “No!”
The dog was startled to be rejected. He just stood there unmoving. Like there was something else that was disturbing the woman? He looked around to see what it might be.
Kyle chided the dog, “You know better!”
And the dog got off the chair with an Oh, yeah! I’d forgotten! sort of laughing look.
Dogs are crafty and sly. And they push limits every time!
Come to think of it, so do men. They were very similar to dogs. They were susceptible to human females. They got in earnest or hilarious scraps. Yep. They even howl at the moon on occasion.
What was she doing in Kyle’s house with him all this time? Well, outside that, she shouldn’t be sharing his companionship this way. But with the storm, she could hardly say, ‘Thanks for the experience. You did well” and leave…with that storm and her car somewhere else and filled with snow?
She looked at the covered windows but noted the small movement of the drapes as the storm’s fierce winds found tiny cracks. It was cold.
She shivered and automatically wanted to have him against her as she sought his warmth. How shocking for her to do such? How could a man be so like a furnace? Ummmm. And her knees rubbed together discreetly. And she was sitting at the table.
Kyle told the dog, “Go back to the storage roomand close the door!”
The dog smiled as he wagged his tail. Then he went out of the room and on beyond. They heard nothing after that.
She inquired, “When did you know he could open and close doors?”
“Almost right away. I gave him a lecture on being sure the doors were closed. For a while he went around closing doors. Then I had to tell him to close them only if he had opened them. That took a while.”
“Is he neutered?”
He was aghast! “Now how in this world could I do that to another dog?”
Did Kyle mean that he had neutered other dogs, or was he putting himself into the dog category? Did he realize he was one of them?
In those odd three days, the oddest thing was that they made ice cream. Yes. They could make ice cream because he hadn’t had to turn off the gas. There was no need to half freeze her after she’d willingly slept with him. He even put the electricity back on.
Men are especially crafty around and about women. Women have to pay close attention to male conduct. Lauren wasn’t very good in her judgment. She was grateful he’d found her on the plain, warmed her and brought her to his place.
She was even more grateful that he had been willing for her to experience him. Twice. Each time, she was amazed it could be so. nice. She was glad she hadn’t tried it with any one else. Kyle was perfect.
Across the table from her, eating ice cream in spite of the storm, Kyle asked, “How did you hold out for so long? I’m glad you did, but how did you manage to…not?”
“I was called the Ice Princess?” That was the TEXAS do-you-understand questioning statement. “No guy expected me to. They’d go with me in order to catch my daddy’s eye. They didn’t court me for me, they just wanted to be my daddy’s son-in-law.”
“So if I’m going to catch your attention, I have to ignore your daddy?”
“That would help my confidence in myself. But he would be fascinated by you.”
“You’re a jewel.” He rose from his place at the table and gathered up all his dishes and utensils.
So she automatically helped with the cleanup.
Kyle said, “I’ve got to go out and milk those cows. Want to come along?”
“No boots.”
“I think my mama’s are here
. You all’s feet are near the same size. Let me see.”
He went from the kitchen, leaving the door to the hall open. It didn’t occur to Lauren right away but eventually she realized the air from the hall was heated.
When he returned, she told him in delight, “The electricity is back on!”
He asked, “How did you know?”
“The hall’s air was warmer, so I turned on the light, and it worked!”
He looked at the light with some irritation. She’d probably want her own bed in another room now. He assured her, “It’s still cold. This has to be another Storm of the Century.”
Considering, she speculated, “The Storm of the Century! Do you suppose every storm will be called the Storm of the Century until we get past the change in centuries?”
He pushed up his lower lip as he contemplated her premise. Then he said solidly, “We could do that more than likely.”
He found the boots for her. They didn’t fit too badly. And he saw to it that she was covered from the blowing winds and snow. The gloves on her hands were simply too large. She said they were warm. He frowned and wasn’t sure she ought to be outside. He considered her so female and fragile.
She was someone he should protect. When had he ever wanted to be so protective? When had he felt the need to be a shield to a woman?
She was snippy. She told him, “I am woman. I can roar.”
He asked, “Why do you want to roar? No close neighbors. And it’s not that I’d mind, you understand, but I’m just curious.”
“That’s from a long-ago song about women standing on their own two feet and roaring.”
“That right.” Not a question, it was an acknowledging statement.
She grinned and her eyes danced.
He asked carefully, “You gonna roar?”
“I just might. I’ve had my way, so far.” She was just so sassy.
He said, “Warn me so’s I’m not too surprised, just before you…roar.”
“Okay.”
He let her go with him to the barn. She was animated and cheeky with the freedom. She acted as if she was the one who was in charge.
She went to the door and opened it. The winds snatched it from her hand and it banged against the wall. She staggered back and bumped against Kyle’s solid chest.
