# Car 54

####
© 2005 / revised 2014
K Pelle

### Chapter 32:
Caution - Sharp Curves Ahead

I sighed deeply and looked at my watch. It was only an hour into the afternoon and I really did have some work that needed to be done. After all, I had to try to get the ranch ready for winter in the next few weeks. I really didn't need this sort of thing interrupting my carefully laid plans of how I was going to spend my days. After all, between those stupid thugs coming out and getting into trouble the other night and now this, I'd lost most of two days. On top of that, I was going to be racing and partying on Sunday, so any work I'd hoped to do would have to be curtailed that day as well.

"Shit," I said loudly.

I knew I had to go inside and calm both of the women down before I could do anything else, but I really didn't know what I could say or do to make them see my side of the situation. With another huge sigh, I stood up, grabbed my empty coffee mug to go back inside the cabin and face the music.

Once more, the kitchen was empty, but this time, the bedroom door was wide open.

"We're both in here," Carissa called, and I knew that she'd heard me come inside.

Steeling myself to a confrontation of some sort, I walked over and looked into the bedroom. Both Carissa and Sandy were on the bed, but now, although they had their arms wrapped about each other, they were only hugging each other gently.

"So, are you going to kick us out?" Sandy asked, looking at me rather coldly.

"Why would I do that?" I frowned at her, then shook my head. "I'm not upset with you. I was just surprised."

"You acted upset and you acted like you were going to make some snide comment. When I came outside, you were smirking at me," Carissa accused him.

"Well, it was supposed to be a grin. At least I think it was. I was trying my best to be civil and happy for you. After all, you'd just tried something you wanted to do for years."

"What you said didn't mean that to me," she snapped. "We've been together for a while, then suddenly you found me in bed, making love to someone else and you said it wasn't your business. That sounded like a dismissal to me, like you were washing your hands of the two of us."

"What should I have said? I really don't know what I want to do yet and I don't know what to say or do to make you see what I mean. I'm still worried about what will happen if both of us make love to Sandy while you and I are involved. No, actually, I worry about what will happen afterward," I sighed and sat on the edge of the bed, turned sideways to face them, but trying to stare at their faces instead of lower down.

"Oh, Chris," Sandy shook her head. "I'm not out to steal your woman, but I'd like to be here with you for now. For one thing, Carissa is so happy with you that I can't help feeling envious."

"Besides, I don't think I like women as much as I thought. Sorry Sandy, you were wonderful and I loved it, but somehow I like part of my lover inside me and fingers just don't cut it. I guess I like men. Well actually, I like Chris, maybe more than I realized before," Carissa spoke quietly. "I really did like making love to you, but it just wasn't quite the same."

"I thought for a first time we did okay," Sandy sounded hurt.

"Oh you were wonderful, but I kept wanting more," Carissa sighed as she hugged Sandy tightly. "I'm sorry if I'm being brutally honest, but I thought both of you should know what I felt."

"It's okay," Sandy sniffed, then giggled slightly. "You weren't the same as a guy either and that's for sure. But then, this was an experiment for me, I really didn't know what to expect. I do know that I enjoyed myself more than I thought I would though."

"Yeah, it was fun wasn't it?" Carissa grinned, then the two of them kissed each other for a few seconds.

I was going to get up and leave them again, but I didn't get the chance because Sandy broke the kiss and reached over Carissa to grab my hand.

"Don't you dare leave yet," she snapped. "Does our showing affection for each other bother you that much?"

"Not really, I do have conflicting feelings though," I sighed. "My body wants to strip off my clothes and join you, but my brain is telling me that if I do I could lose you both."

"You aren't about to chase me away that easily, Mister," Carissa almost growled.

"I'm not about to leave either, not yet anyway," Sandy giggled. "Now that I know what Carissa has to offer, and how she feels about your loving, I want to find out what she sees in you."

"So, with that assurance, are you coming to bed?" Carissa looked up at me hopefully.

"Oh my," I found myself sighing again. "I just can't, at least not yet. I know right now you honestly feel that you're secure in your future reactions, but I'm not. I'm worried about how I'm going to feel as much as anything. Then I worry about our folks and I worry about other things. I'm sorry, but until I get everything straight in my head, this whole idea is just too much for me to handle right now."

"Well, is it still okay for me to stay here with the two of you?" Sandy asked plaintively.

"Oh yeah, I'm not going to chase either of you away. I'm just not sure what's going to happen. You see, I know that with you here, you and Carissa will still be working on me to try to get me in bed with you, but I think I can live with that," I smiled at her. "Just don't be surprised if I act quiet, I'm still doing a lot of thinking and I have a lot of work to do before I can leave to go to Calgary."

"Hey, I'm not only going to try to get her to sleep is this bed, I'm going to insist that she sleeps with us," Carissa laughed softly. "Now, before you start to argue again what did you want to do today? Since you're not kicking us out we can both help."

"Well, you aren't going to like the job I had in mind," I shrugged. "I was thinking of stacking all the hay that Tom baled last week. I want to load it on the wagon and move it to the upper pasture and stack it inside the hayshed at the feed yard, so the bales are behind fences, but still handy for the winter."

"Oh Damn. You would pick a job like that."

"Well, it has to be done."

"What's wrong with moving hay?" Sandy asked.

"It's bloody hard work and it's dirty," Carissa sighed as she sat upright. "Your hands get all cut up by sharp bits from the bales. It's hot. It's dusty. You get sweaty and the chaff from the bales sticks in the most inconvenient places. You itch and ... Well, it's a shitty job, okay?"

"Sorry, I don't like the job any more than you do, but it has to be done," I shrugged. "I'll tell you what, I'll throw all the bales from the ground up to the wagon. One of you can ride the hayrack and stack the bales a couple high and the other one can drive the tractor. You can switch back and forth, that way I do all the hard lifting."

"Thanks," Carissa sighed, but at least she smiled a bit. "Can we use bale hooks?"

"Sure, as long as you don't get careless with them and hurt yourself. I'll go get the tractor and hayrack ready; meanwhile you guys can get dressed," I stood up and left.

What developed that afternoon started out as a circus, and not a very funny one. Neither of them had ever used a hand clutch on a tractor before and while it seemed that Carissa wasn't the world's best tractor driver, Sandy was worse. However, both of them learned quickly and managed to do okay after a short time.

The surprising thing to me was the difference in the way they worked on the hayrack that we used as a bale hauling wagon. Each of those bales weighed between forty and fifty pounds and they were awkward to handle for any beginner. When each of them worked on the wagon, it soon was plain to me that Sandy was the surprise package. Even though she was smaller and looked less muscular, she stacked the bales tighter, moved them more easily, and even managed to stack the bales three high on the wagon before needing help. Carissa was slower, and tired more easily, but was the better at driving the tractor.

We moved about a quarter of the bales and got them stacked in the hayshed that afternoon before I called a halt, but by then I had two very tired young women on my hands. When I suggested a short swim before we did the chores and made supper, I was astounded at the energy they displayed. I was tackled and knocked to the ground, where I ended up underneath two wriggling, squirming female bodies. After a moment, I broke free and stood to face them.

"Well, if I'd known you had that much energy, I'd have suggested we get another load of bales," I teased.

"Don't ... even ... think ... about ... it," Sandy spaced her words as if she was furious, then softened her statement with a grin. "I really am too tired to do more today."

"Same here," Carissa sighed. "I knew it was going to be a hard job, but I had no idea I'd be this beat."

"But you've helped move bales before," I reached out a hand to offer her a lift.

"Sure, with Beth to help and either you, Tom or George on the tractor. Today was hell!" she grabbed my hand and pulled herself up, then into a hug. "I want a kiss as partial payment for working my butt off."

Let's just say that the kiss was almost enough to set me on fire and leave it at that. When she was done kissing me and stepped away, Sandy was still lying on the ground and smiled, holding out her hand.

"Me too?" she asked.

Okay, I'll admit I looked at Carissa to check her reaction, but she just grinned and nodded so I went along with the idea. If the kiss from Carissa had been hot, then Sandy's kiss was almost incendiary. I think I staggered when we broke off.

"Someone has been giving you lessons," I suggested.

"Nope, that's natural talent," Sandy giggled. "Besides, as number two I have to try harder."

"Hmm, I dunno about that. Anyway, let's go get some towels and the Jeep. I want a swim," I suggested and didn't get any arguments.

The girls both had a different attitude when we went swimming that day. It was as if they were too tired to play around much, either that or they were setting me up for later. All we really did was wash off, rinse and dry, then they wanted to head back to the cabin. We didn't even talk much either on the way down to the swimming hole or on the way back to the cabin. That evening, Carissa cooked again while Sandy and I did the chores and since we were all tired from the work we'd done, we didn't even sit on the porch long before heading for bed.

I gave in and let Sandy sleep with us. I suppose I'd given in to Carissa, at least a little, but at the time I thought I was still in control. Besides, I knew they were quite tired from all the hard work we'd done that afternoon. Actually, that night I was right. We flaked out and I was the first one to awaken in the morning.

It was after chores and while I was eating breakfast that I remembered that I still had to go to town to sign a complaint against 'Rotten' Ray and 'Slimy' Sid. I wasn't happy about that because I wanted to get the bales moved fairly soon just in case the weather broke. However, since I was going to town, I decided to get some fuel for the tractor, so I loaded a fuel barrel into the back of my Jeep and tied it in place. Then I was totally surprised that the girls didn't want to go with me, but I didn't argue. Instead I cleaned up and drove to town by myself.

At the cop shop, I found that the complaint was for trespass and attempted mischief. I signed that, then talked to the cops for a while, finding out that they expected the 'dastardly duo' to be out on bail by the weekend. I just sighed when he warned me that they were madder than wet hens about being caught and that he expected they'd still try to stir up trouble for me and mine. In fact he thought they might go after the rest of my family in some way.

"They are fucking idiots," I snarled. "Do me a favour and warn them that both Uncle Tom and my brother Wil are a lot less patient than I am. If those assholes screw around with either of them, they'll end up getting hurt badly, but my family will make sure that anything they do is done in self defence."

"What about you, would you make sure anything you did was made to look like it was done in self defence?" The RCMP officer asked.

"I don't think I need to answer that, in other words, I'm pleading the fifth."

"Unfortunately, Canada doesn't have a fifth amendment," he smiled, almost sardonically.

"Then it's a good thing we're not in court, isn't it?" I said as I got up and walked out.

After leaving the police station, I did a bit of shopping for things we needed at the ranch. Then, since I was at his service station to get fuel anyway, I stopped by Frank Dolens' office to visit him for a few minutes. To be honest, I wanted to get an idea what was happening on Sunday, other than the race.

"Just a family barbecue. I wanted to make sure we had a few people in the stands this weekend and free food is a good draw," he told me with a grin. "Having a rooting section in the stands is good for advertising."

"Okay, if that's the case, you might want to invite the McAdam family. We've had Sandy visiting us for a few days."

"I heard," he frowned then. "It's none of my business, but is she still there because she's your friend, or is it because she's Carissa's friend?"

"What do you mean, I don't get you? She's there as our friend, both of us like her."

"Well, it's not really my place to say anything, but I always wondered about Carissa. Jennifer and I have often wondered if she didn't like girls more than guys."

"Well if she did, why the heck would she have moved in with me in the first place? Besides, it wouldn't be my place to say anything to you or anyone else about something like that. I've seen what folks in this town do to others who are a bit different, so I wouldn't want to draw trouble to her or anyone else by expounding on rumours or speculation," I frowned. "Actually, I'm surprised that you'd even ask me something like that."

"Chris, I'm sorry, it's just that we thought you might ... that she might be hiding her true feelings from you and that you might get hurt," he really did look sorry.

"Frank, we're young and we care for each other, but as we grow older, we're going to change. We may do things and say things that alter the way we feel about each other or about other people, but at the moment we've been completely honest with each other. Right now we want to remain together as a couple," I sighed. "But we're bound to change. Whether we're still together in ten days or ten years is something only time will reveal. In other words, we're taking life one day at a time, okay?"

He looked at me and his face slowly broke into a grin, then he chuckled and shook his head.

"I think I just got told to mind my own business and I deserved it," he snorted. "But dammit, kid, you are one surprising sixteen-year-old."

"Well, you're partly responsible," I laughed.

"Me? What did I do?"

"Well, every time you dealt with me, I gained a little more confidence. You've never treated me like I was a kid."

"You've never acted like one," he laughed. "So are you sticking around town until lunch time? If you are, I'll buy you lunch."

"Nope, I've got to go visit Grampa Bender, then I should get home and move some more bales out of the field. Right now, you're busy, so I'll let you get back to things."

"Okay, we'll see you on Sunday then," he nodded and went back to the paperwork he'd been working on when I'd come in to visit him.

He never even looked up when I said "So long."

Grampa Bender was in a good mood when I went to see him, but he looked like he'd aged. He looked about a hundred years old, but he wanted to talk. Of course he wanted to know what I'd been doing and how things were at the ranch. I thought he'd have a heart attack because he laughed so hard when I told him about the pig and the dogs keeping the two hoodlums on the roof of the pig shed until the cops got there. I wasn't able to tell him everything that had gone on because the hospital served the patients lunch at shortly after eleven in the morning, so I had to leave.

That did mean that I was home in time for lunch and I found that the girls were all ready to go to work on the bales. In fact they had the tractor out of the lean-to and hooked up to the hayrack, all it needed was to be fuelled up and we'd be ready to go. Then I found out that while I was gone they'd dug the last of the potatoes, beets, turnips and carrots out of the garden and had stored them all in boxes of dry sand in the rootcellar. They'd had to call Mom to find out the proper way to do it though. To say that I was astonished would have been putting it mildly, because they'd done a good job of it, even if they'd never done anything like that before.

That afternoon, we got several more loads of bales moved, then had another swim and once more we went to bed early.

When we woke up on Friday morning, it looked like it was going to rain. We all worked our butts off that day, hoping to finish moving the last of the bales we had in the field and late that afternoon we loaded the last load. Once the last bale was on the hayrack, I took over driving the tractor and when we were at the barnyard, I backed the load under the lean-to next to the barn.

"We can unload these into the barn tomorrow," I sighed as I got down from the tractor. "Now, it's too damn chilly for a swim, but I want to get cleaned up, so let's call home and see if we can go down there. That way each of us can at least have a shower."

"Oh, sometimes you're a hard taskmaster, but at other times, you're a sweetheart," Sandy moaned softly as she slipped down from load of bales.

"Yeah, we were just saying that we need a shower installed up here," Carissa dropped down and hugged Sandy, then me.

"Shower, hell, we need a whole bathroom," Sandy laughed softly, moving over and wrapping her arms around both of us. "This ranching stuff is tough and if you want women in your life, Mr. Man, you had best think about some conveniences. I don't know how Carissa has made it for damn near two months. Amongst other things, I hate your outhouse."

"Yeah, but wait until you have to go out there when it's cold," Carissa giggled. "That's when you know why almost all older farm women have piles."

"Oh BS," Sandy giggled.

"It's the truth," Carissa argued. "When you sit down on a cold seat, your arsehole puckers up tight so you have to strain to go, and when you fight like that you get piles. Anyone knows that."

"That's an old wives' tale," Sandy giggled all the more.

"Enough already, you can argue about it later," I grinned at the two of them. "Let's get the chores done and have something to eat, then call Mom. In fact, let's call Mom first, maybe we can cadge an invite to eat with them, then neither of you would need to cook."

Both of the girls just grinned and nodded, so I went into the barn and called home. When I said that we were wondering if we could bum a shower, she said yes. Then she invited us to eat with them before I could suggest it to her and even suggested that we could eat later, so we'd have time to clean up first. I doubt if we ever did the chores faster than we did them that night. It wasn't quite five o'clock when we were pulling into the yard at home, but on the way there we'd had time for a serious talk. We thought that since it was Friday night, Wil would be going out somewhere and Beth would have a date with George, that would mean we'd be alone with Mom and Dad. I wanted to ask them for advice and Carissa agreed that Mom and Dad would keep quiet, but we had to convince Sandy that it was a good idea to talk to my folks about our situation. She went along with us grudgingly, but insisted that if either Beth or Wil stayed home we wouldn't say anything.

When we walked into the house, it was empty, so we headed out to the barn. That's when we found that Beth was still in town with the McAdam twins and Wil had left earlier to go see Corinna. That left Mom to help Dad with the chores as well as to make supper. It didn't take long for the three of us to change that. I stayed to help Dad and the three women went inside to clean up and cook.

We'd taken care of the milking and were feeding the range cattle and Beth's one horse that she kept at home when Dad looked at me questioningly, but with a smile on his face.

"Well, how do you like having two women around all the time?" he asked, very quietly.

"It's really strange," I sighed. "Probably stranger than you'd believe."

"Oh, I don't know about that," he chuckled. "I lived through something similar, you know, but I was probably under a lot more stress than you were."

"Yeah, but Mom and Mama Kate weren't both sleeping in your bed," I sighed.

"Ah, I see," he smiled and shook his head. "You've been sleeping with both of them."

"Sleeping, yes, but nothing else, at least not so far," I shook my head negatively. "However, they're not as frustrated by the circumstances as I am."

"Oh my. Your mother and I wondered about that. They both want to be involved with you though?"

"Yeah, that's why I need to ask someone some questions. I'm lost. I didn't realize that Carissa had a thing for other women and I didn't know that Sandy's mom had been raised in a Mormon family who looked the other way at polygamy."

"Hmm, we had our suspicions on both counts. That was part of the reason your mother went along with their mothers in this mad scheme. She felt you should know the truth about both Carissa and Sandy."

"What?" I turned and stared at him in astonishment.

"Well, the idea worked. You know what's going on now," he grinned. "Now you can make up your mind whether you remain involved with either one of them."

"Huh, my problem isn't choosing between them, my problem is that they both want to be involved at the same time."

"Well, I have to admit that could get complicated."

"Slightly," I growled. "It already is. It's driving me crazy right now. I haven't been able to think of much else since Sandy showed up and Carissa started acting weird. They want us to live together in Calgary and they want to stay with me until then."

"They want to make this relatively permanent?"

"Yes, Dad," I snapped. "To be honest, the idea is driving me nuts. I'm really tempted, but Carissa and I have already gone through the hell of one attempted suicide this year. I'm simply scared silly that if it doesn't work out there will be another tragedy."

"And on top of that you're probably thinking about the reaction of others, aren't you."

"Yeah, I am. You and Mom most of all," I managed a weak grin.

"Oh, your mother and I are fairly tolerant," he laughed. "After what happened to the two of us, we're not too big on judging others for being different. And you've got no worries about the rest of the family, Toby has managed to squash any complaints that any of the family might have, just by setting you up the way he did. His will and the new lease agreement have made it rather obvious that he thinks the you're the person he wants to control the government lease."

"I really don't understand why he did that."

"That's easy enough to explain, he told me you're like he was as a kid, but he thinks you're more ambitious," Dad chuckled. "Oh, you should know, it seems his lawyer managed to slip a fast one in on the department that handles leasing of crown lands. When he changed the lease over into your hands, he also adjusted the date of expiry. You'll have a renewed ninety-nine year lease on everything from your lake quarter to our upper boundary."

"How did he manage that?"

"He slipped it in under something called Naturalized Land Management. You have to maintain the major acreage in native plants. That shouldn't be a problem, because there's no way to farm the darn hills, but the whole area will still be great for raising cattle and horses," Dad got a faraway look in his eyes then. "Will and I have been talking to George and the two Toms about that. We were wondering what you'd think of us taking over the sublease of the lower ranch."

"You mean the group of you would get into ranching more heavily?"

"Yeah, the sublease is up this fall and since his health has been acting up on him, Byron Williams, the man who has been leasing from us, wants to pack it in and move to Victoria. We've talked it over and the bunch of us could afford to buy out his stock. The only hurdle we have left is getting you to agree."

"Well, I don't see a problem with that," I shrugged my shoulders. "If you can handle it go for it."

"Good, but we still have Beth to consider. I think she and George are permanent fixtures, which could complicate things a bit."

"I like George. What's the complication?"

"Well, after talking to George's dad, I know that he'd like George to stay down here and manage their farm. To be honest, I don't think George would want to live up on your ranch anyway. From what he's said, he thinks it's too darn isolated. After spending as much time up there this year as she has, I think Beth has lost her fascination with the place as well. She must have talked to Toby about that too, since the government lease is set up in your name alone, not in conjunction with hers."

"Oh boy, there goes half of the horse herd," I laughed.

"That's between you and Beth," Dad smiled.

Just then the dinner gong rang, so we headed for the house.

Mom met us at the door.

"I rang the bell a few minutes before the meal was ready, which means Chris will have time to have a shower and you can wash up, Willard. The two of you have got fifteen minutes, then I'm setting the food on the table," she winked at me then. "Chris has been working the girls so hard that they haven't even had time to eat right and I refuse to make them starve any longer than that."

"Hey, don't put all the blame on him. Carissa is a worse slave driver than he is," Sandy snapped from behind Mom as she paused towelling her red hair.

"You whelp," Carissa squawked, snapping her towel at Sandy.

"Ladies, we don't allow towel whipping amongst members of the family in this household," Mom barked instantly. "Ask Chris about the scar on his butt sometime if you want to know why."

"Members of the family?" My mind leaped on the phrase, staring at Mom first and then the girls; to my astonishment, Carissa grinned slightly, nodding her head.

"Well, don't stand there swallowing flies, Chris. Go take a shower," Mom ordered.

"Your clean clothes are in your old bedroom," Carissa added very quietly as she walked with me toward the bathroom. "As you can guess, Sandy and I talked to your mom. Did you talk to your dad?"

"Sorta," I sighed. "Did you know that Mom knew about you, even before you and I got involved."

"Yeah. Your mom said she realized how I felt just from the way I acted around her and Beth, about the time we were cleaning out the chicken coop," she shook her head as if she was slightly dazed. "She had Sandy and Mrs. McAdam pegged too, that is one smart lady."

"I knew that, and now you do too," I laughed, then went into the bathroom to shower and clean up.

Sitting at the table and eating that night was slightly weird for me. We talked about everything else but Carissa, Sandy and me, or rather about what I had been wanting to talk about, which was what their advice was and their ideas about what I should do. I finally realized they were leaving it up to me, but when we were leaving and at the door, Mom wrapped me in a tight hug.

"Honey, enjoy whatever happens, but don't be surprised if this doesn't last until the spring," she whispered in my ear, then kissed my cheek and pressed away from me.

All I could do was stare at her, but she turned and went inside.

We were on the road when Carissa spoke quietly. "Chris, I'd like to bring my Jeep up to ranch. Do you think we could go to town now? I can drive it up to the ranch. That way Sandy and I won't have to borrow your car if we want to run to town."

"Tonight?"

"Yes, please. After talking to your mom, I think I should talk to my folks too," she sighed, then grinned sheepishly. "I guess I wasn't being as cautious or as circumspect as I thought, and I'd feel better if that was out in the open between us."

"You know they're going to ask about us too, don't you?"

"Unh huh, and I'll tell them that you've been dithering and thinking," she grinned. "Which is also all we told your mom, so the ball is still in your court."

"Yeah, I know. Did you want to go talk to your folks too, Sandy?"

"Hell no! I'm still pissed off at Mom," she snapped, but a second later she giggled. "I think she'd probably have a fit about Carissa and me anyway, so the less time I spend with her for now, the better."

"Is she homophobic?" Carissa asked.

"Oh yeah!" Sandy hooted, then proceeded to regale us with stories from past events to illustrate her belief in her mother's dislike of gays and lesbians.

She was still talking about it when we got to the Coulter house.

"You guys wouldn't mind if I didn't invite you in tonight, would you? That might make Mom and Dad a bit uncomfortable right now and it would even bother me until I've talked to them about us," Carissa asked before getting out of the car.

"No problem," I shrugged.

She gave both of us a hug and kiss, then hurried off and once we were on the road, Sandy slid over to snuggle against my side as we drove home to the ranch. It was when we were walking through the door into the cabin that she let the other shoe fall.

"You do realize that Carissa won't be coming back tonight don't you?" she said quietly as she turned and lifted her arms to wrap them around my neck.

I just stared at her in surprise.

"I'm sure Carissa won't be back here tonight," Sandy repeated.

I stood there speechless, simply staring into her eyes and wondering what I was going to do.

"I didn't realize that," I managed to say. "She picked one hell of a day to play hooky, but I'll wager she still expects us to get together."

"What do you mean? It's the perfect chance," she was frowning and looked like she was ready to cry.

"No, not really it isn't," I sighed. "Just for fun, let's review the day. What time did we get out of bed this morning?"

"You rolled out of bed early, before five. Then you took one look outside, got us up, then we worked all day and afterward we rushed down to your folks, then into town."

"Right, we rushed through chores, rushed through breakfast and rushed out to the field in order to try to finish picking up the bales. We had a hurried bite to eat for lunch, then rushed right back out in the field again," I sighed. "We worked our asses off all day long, then ran down home and helped out Mom and Dad before we really ate a decent meal. Now we've been rushing around again, taking Carissa to town and getting back home. What time is it anyway?"

"About eleven," she said quietly.

"Holy crap, that means we've been up for around eighteen hours, and we worked for about fourteen or fifteen of those. It seems that Carissa has decided to leave me alone with you for the night, but I'm not sure why. She chose a night when I'm so pooped, I can't pop, or to put it in other words, I'm exhausted," I leaned down and kissed her lips lightly. "Heck, I don't know if I can even walk to the bedroom and manage to undress before I fall asleep, let alone do a decent job of making love to someone."

"Oh," she whimpered.

"Sandy, you're a gorgeous woman. On top of that, you're a virgin. You deserve a wonderful first time and I know that I'm too damn tired tonight to do that sort of thing justice," I hugged her tightly.

"You're not turning me down then?"

"Nope, I'm not," I sighed, then chuckled. "If you insist on it, I'll be your first, but I'm still worried about the future because of possible complications."

"I worry too, but I'm willing to take things one day at a time," she sighed. "Let's go to bed and talk there. I'm really tired myself, but I need a cuddle. I hope you don't mind doing that."

I bent and kissed her, cupping her soft bottom in my hands, but it was a short kiss. We moved to the bedroom and undressed for bed.

"Jeez, look at all the scratches on my arms," Sandy held out both hands, rolling them from side to side.

Both of her wrists and lower arms were quite heavily marked by small scratches and she had a few tiny blisters on each hand.

"What happened, and why didn't you say anything?" I frowned. "You were wearing a long sleeved shirt and gloves; did you take them off for a while or something?"

"No, but nothing I was wearing fit quite right. Both the shirt and the gloves were awfully big on me" She sighed. "Your mom did put some ointment on all my scratches, but she didn't want to bandage them. She said they'd heal faster if they were left open."

"Damn, you should have said something to me before."

"No," she said flatly. "If I'd said something, you'd have stopped to look after my piddly little scratches and we wouldn't have gotten all the hay in the shed. Let's just go to bed."

"Kitchen first, we need to treat those hands, especially the blisters."

"But I don't want to go to bed with you when I'm stinking of ointment."

"I don't plan on using a stinky ointment. Didn't you see that big aloe plant in the kitchen window? It's there to treat scratches, burns and stuff like that. Grampa Bender kept it just to treat small wounds. I don't know why it works, but it does."

It took some argument, but in the long run I won out. We took the time to cut a leaf from the aloe plant and rub the juice on her scratches and blisters. By the time I was done, she was a believer in what the plant could do, because the sap was soon giving her relief from the irritation. Then, as soon as we were done, I herded her to the bedroom and into bed.

We really didn't get a chance to talk much. She fell asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow, but I wasn't able to stay awake long either. When I fell asleep she was cuddled tightly in my arms.

I awoke to find Sandy's eyes staring deeply into mine.

"Hi sexy," she grinned at me. "I'd love to stay here, but we slept in. I need to run to the outhouse and I'll bet the animals aren't happy about us being late."

"Well, I suppose we needed the sleep," I managed a smile, then kissed her nose before I started to pull away.

"Hey, you missed," she squawked, grabbing me and kissing me on the lips for a second.

"And I want a better kiss later," she laughed as she rolled out of the bed on the other side, grabbing a robe and some shoes before running out the bedroom door.

I heard the back door slam as I got out of bed and pulled on my clothes. I was in the kitchen, putting the coffee pot on the stove when Sandy came dashing back inside.

"Hey, I'll make breakfast, while you go look after the animals, but wear a coat, it's raining."

"I know, but it's only a drizzle," I grinned at her. "I had to go as well, so I was already outside for a minute or two."

"Oh, yeah. I forgot for a second that you had more accessible plumbing," she giggled. "Anyway, go do your darn chores, I'll get dressed, then have eggs and bacon ready so we can eat when you come back inside."

I was just grabbing a coat when the phone rang. Since I was nearby, I grabbed it.

"Hello."

"Good morning, lover. How are you this morning?" Carissa asked.

"Just fine. Both Sandy and I flopped into bed and slept like logs, in fact we just woke up. We haven't even done the chores or had breakfast."

"You're kidding me, aren't you?" she squeaked.

"You heard me," I laughed. "I think you forgot that we both worked our butts off yesterday. We were both worn out and Sandy's hands were bothering her."

"Oh Hell. I should have thought of that," she sighed. "I guess it won't matter though. Mom and Dad are off to see if we can find your brother today and I'm going along to try to stop Dad from killing Wil when we find them. I probably won't see you until sometime tomorrow."

"Would you explain that? What's Wil done now?"

"Sorry, I guess you haven't heard. Late yesterday afternoon, he dropped by to visit Corinna and they went out for a walk around the grounds at the hospital. Only they didn't come back last night," Carissa sounded disappointed, not angry. "I don't think either one of them knew about it, but Mom and Dad were going up there tomorrow to accept Corinna's release into their care. That was one of the main reasons for the barbecue that Uncle Frank has planned on Sunday, a welcome back for Corinna. Now we don't know what's going on and Dad is furious. Mom isn't in much better shape. For once I think I'm the calmest one in the house."

"That sounds like a change," I snorted.

"Yeah, Mom says you're a good influence on my temper," I could hear the grin in her voice.

"So, what did they think of you staying there and leaving us come home alone? Or did you tell them that was what you'd done?"

"I think they've decided that I'm a gambler, but they've also decided they won't interfere," she sighed. "I think they've grown used to me being independent. The funny thing was that none of what's happened was a surprise to either one of them. That shocks me because I thought I was so good about hiding my feelings about ... things."

"You mean about women?" I couldn't help chuckling softly.

"Yes, dammit," she snorted. "Anyway, we're leaving soon and I thought I should let you know what was going on."

"Before you hang up, do you need any help?"

"No, we don't want to go bananas over this. After all, we know Wil isn't a nut or anything. Mom phoned your parents a few minutes ago to find out if they'd seen Corinna and Wil, but she turned down their offer to help too," she'd suddenly become very serious. "We'd like you and your folks to have someone stick around the house, just in case they show up there. We'll call you every once in a while to let you know what we've found and to check if they showed up down here. I know it's probably a pain in the butt, because you'd like to get some more work done, but ..."

"Hey, that's no problem," I interrupted her. "It's drizzling rain here, so I can't do too much outside work anyway. There's a phone at the barn too, remember? So even if I do some work out there, it won't be a problem. Are you sure there isn't anything else we can do?"

"No, I don't think so," she sighed. "Before you hang up though, is Sandy up and around?"

"Sure. Would you like to talk to her?"

"Yes, please, you dough-head. Why else would I ask?"

"Okay, here she is. I'll talk to you later then."

"Okay, Chris. See ya later."

I handed the phone to Sandy who was back and dressed. "We're going to have to stick around the buildings today. It seems Wil and Corinna may have run off, but I'll let Carissa explain what's going on."

As she took the phone, I grabbed a coat and went to care for the animals. When I went outside, it wasn't really raining so much as misty, a heavy mist, the sort drizzle that soaks through almost any coat. Grampa Bender would have called it a 'Scotch Mist' and he disliked this sort of weather as much as I do. He used to say that when you had to work out in a 'Scotch Mist', you might as well be nude, because the humidity was so high that your own sweat built up inside your clothing and soaked your clothes from the inside out. That usually made you almost as wet as the mist would have made you if you took off your clothes, but it added the stench of stale sweat to make you even more uncomfortable.

Needless to say I wanted to do the chores as quickly as possible to get out of the weather.

### Chapter 33