I just hugged him so tight and took my hands and wiped the tears away from the sides of his face. By now I was crying too. Here we were, the two kids, as Cookie had called us that long ago night when the roads had washed out and she stuck her head into the den. Well, these kids were crying their hearts out now over their Cookie.
After a good cry and just laying there awhile, Shay reached for me in that tender lovemaking way. We had to move forward, but Cookie would leave a hole in both our hearts.
***
A few weeks later, Joe told Sterling he was lonely living in that three-bedroom house by himself, and wondered if he could move into the bunkhouse with the guys; said he needed the companionship. Sterling had no problem with that and they moved the new hand and his family into Cookie and Joe’s old house, leaving the five-bedroom house I’d wanted available for us; a final gift. Leave it to Cookie.
The Surprise
I couldn't have been more elated than I was to see the inside of the old house that would be ours. Shay and I walked through the rooms while I visualized what I wanted and where.
Shay asked me what I wanted done, adding, “Just give me a few ideas. Don't get carried away, princess. You know I want to do all the work myself, at least most of it anyway, and time is of the essence."
“Well,” I said, thinking, "I want glass in the kitchen cupboard doors so I can display things.”
He looked at me like I'd lost my mind, remarking that everything would have to be perfect all the time in there, or everyone would see the mess. Boy, didn't he know me yet? I was little miss perfectionist.
In the kitchen I told him I wanted a huge built-in table with a granite surface and matching countertops. Shay said he could make a wrought-iron pot rack and hang it above the kitchen table. The formal dining room was off the kitchen and I wanted it to match the sunken living room it flowed into. Yes, I wanted a sunken living room. It wasn’t sunken yet but Shay said he’d think about how to make one. The passageway between the living room and the dining room was marked by an ornate, leaf-scroll wrought-iron railing, which was attached to two round floor-to-ceiling wooden pillars.
I told Shay I wanted these antiqued white. I wanted a white French table with seating for at least twelve people in the formal dining room. We’d buy a white china hutch that lit up and would match the table and display our fancy dishes. All my childhood days of looking into storefronts, dreaming rooms together, came flooding back to me. I was like a painter set loose with every imaginable color.
I said I wanted beautiful chandeliers! A white satin sofa! The furniture would all be white French provincial.
“What color will the wallpaper and the carpet be, princess?”
Well, this was the Sixties, and flocked wallpaper was the big ‘in’ thing, along with shag carpet.
“Plum,” I said, “like a mulberry. With flocked, striped paper in two-tone plum to match the carpet, with a lighter strip of coin-gold to offset it.”
Maybe I’d lean toward coin-gold for my accent color, I thought. I wanted satin drapes in plum, with plum colored pinch-pleated sheers. When the sun shone through the plum sheers it would give the room a beautiful light. I’d swag the heavy drapes with gold braided tassels. There’d be beautiful swag valances…
“I want it elegant, Shay,” I said. “The drapes should go across one whole wall, and that big fireplace should be a focal point. I see two gold satin wingback chairs on each side of the fireplace, with matching ottomans. Oh, Shay, please antique the fireplace white, and put a marble surround on it,” I begged.
“I'll have two tall vases on each side of the fireplace, with beautiful fresh flowers from the hot house and a huge gold leaf scrolled mirror above the fireplace!”
“You don't want much do you, princess?"
“Well, darling, you asked what I wanted. Now let’s move onto the bedrooms!"
The master bedroom and bathroom were on the main floor, with four bedrooms upstairs, all about the same size.
“We’ll paint the upstairs guest rooms in two shades of blue,” I said. “The master bedroom, our love nest…” I mused, “red. Sexy fire-red! I want a huge master bath with a soaking tub for two and a big shower with a built-in seating area—a place we can have wild sex if we feel like it!”
This certainly got Shay's attention.
“I like your style, princess. But hold up a minute, slow down. Let me do the bedrooms, ’cause, woman, I have an idea and I want to make it a surprise.”
“Oh, Shay, I don’t know about that…”
“Trust me, Callie.” He picked up my hand and gently kissed the top. “You pick the colors and furniture. Let me surprise you with the rest.”
“Okay,” I said uncertainly.
“Hell, right now I’m trying to figure out how I'm going to give you a sunken living room!” He rubbed his chin. “Babe, lets just go to bed so I can think about this and try to get a picture of the whole thing in my head.”
He took my hand and led me toward the door. “I swear, woman, I should make you live in a tent. You always think you have to have the best.”
***
Later that night, after a few fun hours of rolling around on, and off, the bed, I was almost asleep when Shay jumped up and said excitedly:
“That’s it! That’s it! I'll raise the formal dining room two steps up, so you'll have to go down two steps to get in the formal living room! There ya have it,” he grinned, relieved. “Your sunken living room.”
“Shay Westover,” I said in a sweet voice, “will you get back in bed before you wake the kids? We can talk about it in the morning. I swear I thought you’d lost your mind jumping out of bed like that. You scared me to death, now come to bed."
***
Shay worked on the house almost every night. He told me not to visit while he worked. He said he didn’t want me getting wind of the big surprise.
One night when Kelly was at Mom and Dad’s, I bundled Wessy up, got in the car and drove to our new house where Shay was working. I wanted to see how he was doing. Surely one little visit wouldn’t reveal too much. I’d just peep in and say hello.
To my amazement, as I walked in the door I saw that there were two girls sitting there, watching Shay work, talking and laughing. Everyone, including Shay, had a beer can in their hand.
“I can see why you don’t need me here,” I said and stormed out. I drove to the Big House, put Wessy down and went to bed.
Less than an hour later, I heard Shay come in. I heard the sound of the shower and then he came to bed, smelling clean and sweet.
"Well, little fire pants, see what happens when you spy?"
“I wasn’t spying on you, Shay, you’re my husband! I just wanted to surprise you, but I guess I was the one who got the surprise.”
“Callie,” Shay said. “I didn't invite them out, they just showed up. Now tell me you’ll stay out of the house, princess. Promise. I really want it to be a surprise.”
He looked over at me. “You know you really don’t have to check up on me,” he added in his sweet voice.
“Okay, okay, I won’t go there. But I don’t really like surprises,” I reminded him.
I kept that promise and didn’t go into the house. I did walk past it once when I took the kids on their afternoon walk. It was really taking shape. Shay had put two new round pillars on the horseshoe-shaped front porch. In back of the house, I saw the huge balcony he was building on the upper level. Also shaped like a horseshoe, it was supported with five huge pillars. He had put a stone patio under the upper balcony, a sheltered place to sit, even if it was raining. He had put in all new windows. It was looking good.
Just as I turned to go, I noticed a huge rubbish pile that was waiting to be taken away. On the rubbish pile I saw a used condom. After a rush of condom anger, I told myself to reason it out. Now be sensible, I told myself, it wasn’t necessarily Shay’s…it could have been one of the ranch hands’. That was, in fact, more possible, as I had never known Shay to use a condom (we didn
’t have so much to worry about then, except getting pregnant, and you remember, he had his “pull-out method.” If you call that a method.)
I was feeling better as I walked with the kids toward the Big House. It was probably just one of the crew’s, I told myself.
At supper, I was quiet. Shay noticed and asked about it. I just said I was tired, and I was going to go to bed early. He went out to work on the house and the kids and I went upstairs and played a little. I read them a bedtime story and bathed them. I bathed myself and went to bed. Naturally, Shay woke me when he came in. He never liked to go to sleep without making love first. That was fine by me. At least if he wanted me, he wasn't with some other girl using a condom.
***
We had a great few months with me designing the layout of the house, the placement of furniture, etc. All on paper, mind you, as I wasn’t allowed to look inside the house ’til it was done. I picked steel gray for the outside, with white for the pillars, black shutters, and a fire-red front door.
At one point, Shay asked me to go buy the bedroom set of my dreams. That was a major decision, so I told him he was helping with that. We went to Lincoln to furniture shop and found the most beautiful pecan lightwood bedroom set. It caught both of our attentions; love at first sight. We bought a king bed, a dresser with a huge mirror, two side tables, a television armoire, and a chest of drawers. I might not know what the big bedroom surprise was, but at least I knew what the bed looked like.
Shay told me we were going to spend our first night at the new house the night of our anniversary on July 3rd. He asked me to ask Mom to keep the kids that night. She agreed and we had a plan.
That night Shay took me to the club for supper. After we’d had dinner and danced a couple of dances, Shay whispered in my ear, “Princess, lets go home. I have a surprise for you. But I want you to know, babe, I haven’t arranged any furniture; you get to do that. I just put the bed in.” He winked at me.
Of course, the bed, I thought, feeling sexy—most important part of our life to this point, with the exception of Kelly and Wessy.
***
When we got to the house, Shay opened the door and my eyes widened like a kid on Christmas. Everything I could have imagined, he’d done! He’d put a huge window in over the kitchen sink. He knew I loved looking out at that beautiful view—grassy land that stretched for miles, with little glades of trees. I could even see the pastures where they set Samson and Sunset loose in the day to run around. I would be able to watch them shaking out their gleaming white mains and tails like two tamed unicorns. I was especially thrilled to be able to see the beautiful horse stable, and a few of the old farm buildings, like the milk house. The only eyesore was the old Straw House, which Maggie hated and I wasn’t too fond of myself, old as it was. It would have been torn down long ago if it weren’t a piece of Westover history, built by Shay’s grandfather.
The appliances had been installed, and my cupboards—oh how marvelous!—had beveled glass doors. There was a mudroom entrance to the kitchen, with a shower and a bench to sit on, so you could take your dirty boots off when you came in from the ranch. There was a chest of drawers with towels and some of Shay's underwear, t-shirts and tube socks, old sweatshirts and jeans. Shay always entered through the mudroom, so he always smelled fresh when he came into the house.
Now for the big moment: the master bedroom! I was surprised to see that it was light and dark blue, with plum carpeting to match the living room. I had asked for a red bedroom, hot and spicy. My heart dropped.
I moved on to inspect the bath. It matched the bedroom with blue walls plum shag carpet, but Shay had put tile around the toilet and the tub, so the carpet wouldn’t get wet.
“You don’t like it,” Shay said.
“I like it. But this is what I wanted for the guest room. You got it mixed up, Shay.”
“Well, do you want to see the upstairs?” he asked.
“First I want to see my sunken living room!” I said, hoping it would lift my spirits after the disappointment of the bedroom.
We proceeded to the dining and living room area. It was perfection: two steps down and we were in the sunken living room. It was fantastic!
At the end of the living room we took the grand stairway up to the next level. Shay had antiqued the banister white with a dark cherry wood handrail. He did such perfect work you would have thought he bought it that way. He was a perfectionist, and did everything exact. He could have done it for a living.
The steps were carpeted in plum shag, and there was a magnificent chandelier hanging down in the center of the hall. Shay led me up the stairs and opened a door on the left. I found myself in a cute little room, all done in pink.
“Kelly’s room!” I said, clapping my hands.
“Now go through that door,” he said, pointing.
Voila! We were in a darling bathroom with two sinks; white fixtures, pink, blue and yellow walls. He guided me through to the next room. It was painted little-boy blue. “Wessy’s room!” I exclaimed, delighted.
Both children would be sharing the bathroom between their rooms.
“Ready to see the room across the hall, princess?”
We walked across the hall.
This room had a double-door entrance. Shay took hold of both handles and opened the doors. It was dark outside, but someone had come over before us and turned on all the lights. My eyes widened to the size of golf balls.
Red walls! I saw beautiful, hot sexy red walls.
“This is our bedroom, isn’t it,” I squealed, knowing the answer.
Shay had removed a wall and made the two guest bedrooms into one large suite with a huge attached bathroom.
I got everything I wanted in that bathroom: double sinks, a vanity, beautiful light fixtures, and marble. That marble amazed me. A marble tub and marble floors. Shay had sent all the way to Koehler, Wisconsin for the grand tub and fixtures. When I inspected the shower, I found that it had two showerheads, one on each side of the big shower, with a long marble bench along the inner wall.
I told Shay I was sure the bench was going to became our private amusement park.
“Good thing I put in a non-skid surface,” he remarked.
We dubbed it “Water Paradise.”
There was a loveseat set flush against the back of the headboard, that looked out into a wonderful sitting area. Shay had built a huge stone fireplace; on either side of which, I already knew, I would place two matching chairs. Plus there was room for Shay’s desk and chair. Shay always needed a place to do his farmstead business.
The king bed was in the middle of the room, raised up eighteen inches above everything else. Shay had upholstered the back of the headboard in red velvet and had the bed made precisely with just red satin sheets.
“It feels like being inside a rose,” I said.
“Well, you’re the hot house rose, remember?” he said, twirling me.
The bed faced the huge balcony he'd built, with two huge sliding glass doors.
“Gosh,” I said. “I wonder if we can see the stars from bed. Let’s go out on the balcony!”
“Nope, not yet woman, I have plans first.” Shay flipped on the surround sound and “Love Is A Many Splendored Thing” came on. He crossed the room and put his arms around me in his sexy, loving way—one hand supporting my back, the other cradling the back of my neck. He started dancing with me slowly, while unbuttoning several of my blouse buttons, recreating our first time. That night, which was really not so long ago, when he took a young girl into his parents’ suite and taught her what it was to be made love to by a real man.
As we danced, Shay gently unrobed me and then pinned me to the wall for those sensual kisses. I forgot all about the new house. When he had us totally undressed, and scooped me up in his arms and carried me to the bed, putting his sensuous lips on mine and giving me a long, breathtaking kiss. He always smelled so damn good. He lay me down on the right side of the bed, my side.
“Just lay there, princess, don’
t move,” he said. “I think it's warm in here.”
“Really? I feel fine.” The air conditioning was on.
Shay walked across to the sliding glass doors and slid them wide open. It opened up the whole wall, so that a light breeze came in, filling the room with the smell of night and the soft sound of wind through the leaves.
He went to the dresser and got a little red satin sleep mask out.
"Lift your head, princess," he said, slipping the mask over my eyes.
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