by Anne Hagan
I stood too. She turned me toward her with a tug on my shoulder. I offered my elbow. She took it with a grateful lift of her lips. “Let’s go.”
We walked out of the kitchen toward her makeshift room in my den but she stopped me at the base of the stairs and pointed upward. I shook my head. “You really shouldn’t be doing stairs.”
“I want to see your room Mel.”
Her eyes sparkled back at me and I could only agree, “Okay.” I gave her my right shoulder for support and we made our way slowly up the stairs, with me holding her close.
Swinging open my bedroom door, I held it for her. She limped visibly but she didn’t complain about the climb. Every morning, I wake up praying that she will not be in anymore pain and cursing the injury that makes her so uncomfortable.
She stood in the middle of my room and turned about, taking it all in. The sparkle was still in her eyes and I beamed right back at her.
Moving to the side of my bed, she faced me and waited for me to acknowledge her. As soon as I did, she stripped her shirt over her head and threw it in my face.
Her scent, unique to her alone and unencumbered with perfume, filled my nostrils. I sighed and moaned. Before swiping the fabric away, I heard the scratch of her zipper and my desire sprang forth, erupting from my every pore. I was already wet, my nipples hard, and my skin tingling. I brushed aside the fabric covering my eyes and feasted upon my fantasied image of her bared for me in reality.
Dana’s slim body makes me drool. She is a wisp of a woman, delicate in features, yet strong in character and proud in the bearing of a true law enforcement officer, whether she was still on the job or not. It was a heady combination.
“You going to join me?”
Her voice was husky, heavy with desire. She climbed gingerly onto the bed and laid spread eagle on top of the cool cotton sheets. I saw more than heard the sharp hissing intake of breath as her warm skin sizzled at the first touch.
Wasting no time, I stepped from my clothes and moved to stand over her at the bedside. My gaze slid across her smooth skin, taking her in and memorizing the moment.
She extended an arm and caressed my chest, down my cleavage, with her fingertips.
“Get up here, Mel, and love me.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
I shifted onto the bed then crawled between her legs, up into the vee of her thighs. Lying flat on the sheets, I closed my eyes and inhaled. Good God, her scent was so powerful. Dipping my nose to her clit, I nudged it and reveled in her cry. I slipped up and licked around her sensitive nub. I teased her with just the tiniest bit of pressure. She reacted and bucked, nearly knocking my teeth out. I chuckled low over her shaved pussy. Her flesh trembled.
I wrapped my arms around her hips and tried to hold her still. This time, I lapped with long, slow strokes of my tongue, across and over her clitoris. She yelped, whimpering, in my embrace and under my mouth.
“Mel...” My name, her lips. I moaned.
My fingers worked along her slit, spreading her folds and easing inside her sheath to find and tickle her G-spot. I pushed two, then three fingers deep. Her body responded, her nectar coating my digits. I lifted my chin to rest on her pelvic bone. She lifted her head and our eyes met. I sucked the juice from my fingers slowly, erotically, holding her half-lidded gaze hostage. She was as sweet as she was salty. Like salted caramel.
“My turn.”
We flipped positions, me reclining back and she crouched over me. She settled beside me, tucked against my side. From there, I could finger her pussy easily and kiss her lips as I wanted. And she, well she captured one nipple in her mouth and proceeded to tease me until no other thought existed within my mind but her. She suckled on my pebbled peak, flicking the tip with her tongue and nibbling the tender flesh.
Her hand, unlike her intense mouth, wandered over my skin aimlessly, enticingly. I shivered at each simple touch of her fingertips.
Finally, she found my clit. Pressing her thumb to it, she built a quick and steady rhythm. Her fingers then pushed with a strong thrust through my ready, wet lips. She counterbalanced the quick pulses of her thumb with the slow and gentle strokes of her digits within my sheath. Her pinkie tickled my ass. The sensation sent me reeling.
Unable to focus on any one point of her passionate attack, I settled for making her scream with one of my own. Capturing her resulting shout with a kiss, I pulled away to whisper all the other dirty things I have planned for our respite from my family.
With my sweet whispered nothings caressing the whorls of her ear, my fingers inside her, her mouth on my breast, and her own fingers inside me... we both came. A sudden, earth-shattering explosion of thunder and lightning, our nerves sparked and caught flame and our throats resounded with our pent-up passion.
Sweating and shaking, we relaxed and cuddled together, arms and legs wrapped around each other.
“Five minutes, Mel, and I want more.”
Chapter 13 – Last Ride
Saturday Morning, August 16th, 2014
I was exhausted, totally spent. I didn’t know if it was from the combination of a week spent running between the fair and the department or if it was from my night with Dana...probably a combination of all three.
My focus was on getting the calves home and getting the family through the rest of the weekend of cleaning and putting away. I just needed to stay awake and alert for it. There’d be time to sleep later.
By 7:30 AM we were loading the calves in the stock trailer along with a half dozen other families. People were moving about here, there and everywhere. Intent on leading Beth’s as yet unnamed calf toward our hauler, I didn’t even see my old high school classmate Brian McRae approaching.
“That’s a fine looking feeder calf there.”
I about jumped out of my skin until I realized who was speaking. “Hey Brian, what’s up with you?”
“Just another week at the Muskingum County Fair. I’m whipped!”
I blew out a breath and let my shoulders sag, “You aren’t kidding. So what brings you by? Out scoping out livestock?”
“Actually, yes. My boy got a dairy feeder earlier this year that got sick and didn’t make it. We didn’t get a back-up. Now he won’t have a steer to show next year that’s already been tagged in unless we buy one.”
“You’re interested in Beth’s calf, I take it?”
Before he could reply, dad stuck his nose into the conversation, “That one ain’t for sale! She has a back-up out to the farm what’s tagged and Cole does too. You can look at those if you’re wantin’ a calf.”
Brian nodded at dad, “Mr. Crane, it’s always good to talk to you and I may just take you up on that. How about I drop by later in the week and have a look?”
Dad grumbled out a response. Brian winked at me, sketched a wave and was gone.
The calf was now half way up the ramp and standing immobile while I tried to push it in. Beth was inside the trailer with a little bucket of grain trying to coax it in. Out of nowhere a hand landed on the calf’s rump and started pushing too. I looked up into the face of Nevil Harper Sr.
“You don’t have to get it in there if you sell it to me. Then it will be my problem.”
“Thanks, but it isn’t for sale Mr. Harper.”
“Just not to me or not to anyone? I’ll give you double what McRae offered you for it.”
“It’s really not for sale. My niece in there will be showing it as a steer next year. We appreciate the offer.”
Silently he continued to help push the calf into the trailer where Beth tied it off and then he was gone.
“His kids all had calves Aunt Mel; why would he want to buy mine?”
“Don’t know kiddo. I guess just because it’s a really nice looking calf that could make a great show steer.” Or because he needs a clean, undrugged slate to work from for the kids that are allowed to compete next year... I shook myself. I was assuming the worst and that wasn’t fair to him and especially to his children.
With the
calves finally in the trailer and the stuff that was in the barn loaded into the back of dad’s pickup, he, Lance and the kids headed to the farm to deal with all of it. They’d all be back to help with the hauling of the campers off the grounds later.
Dragging butt, I walked slowly back over to the campers. Lots of folks had pulled out already. Since we had animals that showed but weren’t sold, we always waited until the last day. It was a chore any time but it was easier to maneuver with less others in the way.
Mom and Kris were fast at work breaking stuff down when I got there. I collapsed into the only chair that wasn’t already stowed away or holding a pile of stuff.
My twin looked at me, “Rough night?” Her face cracked into a grin.
“Ha, ha. Very funny!” I sighed, “It’s been a tough week.”
“I know, just teasing.”
Mom bustled about boxing and bagging stuff. I said to neither of them in particular, “We had a couple of offers from people who want to buy Beth’s calf.”
“Because it’s a nice one,” Beth said while mom said simultaneously, “Because it’s going to be a champion steer.”
Beth eyed me critically, “Who offered?”
“Brian McRae that we graduated with for his boy. He had a calf that died.” I got mom’s attention again, “Dad told him we had back-ups that have been tagged and he could look at those. Brian said he’d stop by the farm later this week. If he does, will you remind dad about his offer?”
Mom mumbled something about always having liked Brian and went on about her task.
“You said a couple of offers. Who else,” Kris quizzed me.
“Nevil Harper Sr.”
“Oh hell no!”
Dad lived all of fair week for two things, his grandchildren and the truck and tractor pulls that were always on the last night of the run. The animals safely home, the campers parked, the perishables put away and everyone fed and freshened up, it was an event the whole family usually attended with him.
His health still very suspect to me, I tried to convince him not to go back to the grounds for the show but to rest instead. He would hear none of it so off we all went.
The fairgrounds always seems so weird to me the last Saturday night of the fair. The animals are all gone, the barns mostly empty. Vendors that have run out of stock or who have other events starting have pulled out, the camper lot is practically a ghost town and the coliseum stands silently but the midways are packed. People are always riding and playing games and eating talking and laughing in droves with no idea of the week that went before. I just shake my head in wonder when we go back on Saturday evening every year.
We adults climbed into the grandstands en masse when we finally saw where mom, who’d avoided the midway, had managed to secure us seats several rows up. Dad huffed and puffed his way to the top but he was smiling like a kid in a candy store when we finally got to her. I handed mom the drink I’d secured for her and we all settled in.
Dad knew every tractor and every driver in the tractor classes. In the most he ever talks about anything, he provided running commentary through all of their heats, even the super modifieds.
The kids didn’t care much about the tractors. They stayed on the midway riding rides and playing games until the truck pull classes started. Then they joined us. They loved the trucks and, it appeared, Lance did too. The three of them carried on and high fived after each pull. I watched a little of those runs but I was more concerned with keeping an eye on dad who, once the tractors were done, seemed to flag in his energy level exponentially.
I caught mom’s eye for a second. She looked at him, shook her head and looked at me. He was oblivious. I leaned across Dana and got my sister’s attention, “Will you Lance and the kids be okay if Dana and I take mom and dad home? Dad’s about out of it.”
Kris leaned out from her seat and peered down the row at our father. Obvious concern filled her eyes. “Do you think we should take him to a hospital?”
I shook my head. “Stay here. The kids are enjoying the show. They worked hard this week. He’s not been complaining of anything other than being tired. I’ll take his blood pressure when we get back to the house and look him over. I’ll call you if anything seems off.” She nodded her assent.
Chapter 14 – Just Another Fun Day
Sunday, August 17th, 2014
Family Fun Day at the Crane Family Farm
Dragging myself out of bed, I tapped on both of the kids doors before I headed downstairs. We were facing one last family fun day for a while and then we’d take a break until it was time for new calves in the late winter.
Kris was already up and making coffee. Lance had spent the night, supposedly on the couch. He was lacing on his boots. If he’d crept upstairs to be with Kris in the night, I’d been too dead to the world to hear him.
“Is Dana up?”
“I haven’t heard a peep. I talked to mom already. Dad’s still asleep too.”
“Good, he needs the rest.” His blood pressure had been slightly elevated when I’d taken it the night before but not dangerously high. He insisted he was just stressed over the fair and worn out from working in the heat of a very hot August. He went to bed leaving Dana, mom and me standing there staring at each other and worried.
“We’re hoping to get a lot of the work done today without him having to exert himself too much. Mom’s going to make him an appointment with their doctor for this week.”
“That’s why I hung out here last night. I’ll do as much as I can today and I took the next couple of days off too what with the funeral and all,” Lance said. “I figured you could use the extra hands.”
I hadn’t even thought about JD’s funeral in all of the other craziness that had gone on since Wednesday morning. Giving him a half smile, I replied, “Thanks. We appreciate that. The more hands the better.”
At the farm, mom Kris and I worked all morning on cleaning out the campers, while Dana scrubbed down and dried out everything we brought her. Lance and the kids cleaned and stowed all the barn stuff and then Lance hitched up and moved the campers to their winter resting spot. Since we sometimes used them in the fall, dad and I decided together to wait to winterize and cover them.
We gave dad the title of inspector for the day and put up with him going around critiquing things that weren’t done quite to his liking. With two extra people on hand to help than in past years, Dana and Lance, he didn’t need to do much but we didn’t want him to think we were pushing him aside either. He seemed to relish his new found quality control role.
Spent but finished fairly early, we all adjourned to the wrap around front porch for a slightly late lunch.
Mom had thrown a couple of chickens and some seasoning in her big roaster that morning and picked fresh vegetables from the garden for salad. I tucked in with abandon and I wasn’t alone.
“This is so good Faye,” Dana congratulated her.
I mock bowed from my seat in agreement. “It seems like forever since I’ve eaten a vegetable or something that wasn’t deep fried or grilled. I always feel like a slug after the fair.” There were nods all around.
Kris cleared her throat, “I hate to dampen the mood but now that the work is done, we need to talk about Tuesday.”
Cole looked up from his plate, “What happens Tuesday, Mom?”
“Cole, Beth while we were at fair all week your Aunt Gloria worked on setting up a funeral for your father. It’s on Tuesday, at a funeral home in Zanesville.”
Beth, who’d never grown attached to JD like Cole had, asked, “Do I have to go? Funerals scare me.”
Cole’s lips quivered, “Yes you have to go dummy! He’s our dad!” His eyes glistened with tears that threatened to fall.
“Easy Cole,” I cautioned him, “we’re all going and Beth, honey, we’ll all be right there with you.” There were nods all around.
“When we get back to the house,” Kris eyed them, “you need to pull out some dress clothes and your good shoes so we can see what fit
s and what doesn’t. We’ll go shopping tomorrow for replacements if we need to.”
“Mom, I know my suit doesn’t fit anymore. I could barely get the pants on for Aunt Jackie’s wedding, remember?”
Kris looked crestfallen at the thought of having to buy Cole a suit on short notice but then dad spoke up, “The boy’s still a little shorter than me but about the same build. He can wear one of mine if grandma can get it hemmed up for him.”
My mom nodded. “Let’s have you go ahead and try one on right after we finish supper Cole. There’s no sense in rushing to do tomorrow what we can start today.”
I gave my dad a silent smile.
“What are you grinning at me like that for?” he chastised me. “Boy’s got to have a decent suit and heaven knows I don’t need three. Need one for weddings and one for funerals, including my own.”
“Jesse!” Mom cried out, “Don’t say such things!”
“Well it’s true!”
My mother looked like she was about to cry herself. I decided it was time to change the subject. “I have some happy news to share.”
Kris pleaded, “Please, let’s hear it!”
“Dana and I talked to Larry and Karen on Friday. We’ve decided to buy their house!”
Beth tilted her head and looked at me quizzically, “You mean you’re moving out and you won’t be living with us anymore?”
“Yes, I’m moving out but I’ll be right next door.”
“Dibs on the den for my room,” Cole yelled.
“Oh no, no!” Kris cried back. That’s going to be my room if she’s leaving. You and Beth can split the whole upstairs between you.”
The two kids started to argue immediately over who got what when Lance stood up and cleared his throat causing them to grow quiet. He looked at Kris, “I would like that to be our room.” Moving toward her, he said, “I was going to wait to do this later but a very wise woman recently said, ‘There’s no sense in rushing to do tomorrow what we can start today.’”
