# Car 54

####
© 2005 / revised 2014
K Pelle

### Chapter 5:
Roadway Under Construction - Obey Signs and Signals

I'm not sure if I'll ever understand most people, I certainly didn't understand Sam McAdam's reaction to my story. I'd sat at his table and while I was eating his food, I had literally told him that I was a stupid fool who had allowed other people to get him drunk. I'd even admitted that I was a silly chicken who ran out of a house when I'd felt sexual pressure, and a damn idiot who got angry when someone else was slandered. Yet, he'd had a total about face of opinion and now seemed to want me to date his daughter. Then to top it off, he seemed to want me to chauffeur his twin daughters around as well.

His wife and daughters were even worse. Mrs. McAdam and Sandy seemed ecstatic for some reason and the twins, Jean and Jessica, were darn near as bad. Personally, I was starting to have second thoughts about the whole thing. I was wondering if I wouldn't have been better off if I had stayed at home and watched the twins clean out the chicken coop.

To my surprise Sandy excused herself and ran off. As I stared after her, her mother took sympathy on my puzzled look.

"She's just going to change out of her school clothes," Mrs. McAdam smiled then she turned slightly toward the twins. "Which reminds me, girls, it's Friday and you have a softball game tonight. So, you'd best go get your gym bags packed and your uniforms all ready to go hadn't you?"

When the twins ran off to grab those, Mrs. McAdam turned back to me with a wide smile.

"Thank you," she said reaching out and touching my hand gently. "Sam is a bit overprotective of his girls, so this is a huge change for them."

I must have frowned and looked questioning.

"Didn't you realise that?" she asked quietly.

I just shook my head slowly from side to side. "No, not really."

"Oh, he is very protective of them. In fact if I hadn't argued him out of it last night he was going to be at the school to pick up Sandra at lunch time. As it was, I only convinced him to allow you to give her a ride home if the two of you were accompanied by her sisters," she smiled wryly. "Sam wasn't a perfect gentleman when he was younger and I think he was expecting you to be like he was or like a lot of the other young men he's met. I think you've disarmed him at the moment and even I'm not positive why."

"I don't know either," I said quietly. "I'm not really an angel or anything."

"I don't for one minute imagine that you are, but I do hope you're a gentleman," she laughed softly.

"If I wasn't, Dad would whup my butt," I grinned. "Well, maybe he wouldn't have to. Mom might beat him to it."

"Oh, I think I could easily learn to like your parents," she laughed aloud, then sobered. "You do know that part of the reason Sam was so cooperative was because of your father don't you?"

"Pardon me? What did Dad do?"

"Well, perhaps I shouldn't say anything at all, but a few years ago when Sam had a problem, your father helped him out. Actually what happened is between the two of them, and I think it should be up to them whether they tell you or not, but I think Sam saw that you were a lot like your father," she said, then turned to watch for the girls.

For some reason I knew she wouldn't even give me a hint about what Dad had done, but that didn't mean I wasn't curious. Just then the twins came bouncing back into the room and I couldn't have asked a question if I'd wanted to.

"Well, we're all ready ..." One of them said.

"and Sandy won't be long ..." The other answered.

"but we wanted to talk to you ..."

"when she wasn't here to hear us ..."

"Whoa," I said, frowning at them. "I hate that twin whipsaw thing you do when you talk. It reminds me of the 'Ice Cubes,' and right now I've had about all of that I can take."

"He's right, girls, you know that isn't polite," Mrs. McAdam frowned at them and then smiled at me. "Now what was so important?"

"Sorry, we don't mean to upset people," one of the twins smiled slightly and I noticed a tiny dimple on her cheek as she spoke.

A quick glance at the other girl showed a matching dimple on the opposite cheek.

"That's alright. You couldn't know it upset me," I grinned, carefully looking just between them. "Now Jean, why don't you tell me what's so important?"

"Well, it's just that Sandy is so shy around guys," The twin with the dimple on her left cheek responded. "We didn't want you to think she was cold or anything if she doesn't talk much."

"That's why I like her, Jean," I chuckled. "I'm usually very shy myself."

"But ... you haven't been shy today!" Right cheek responded.

"No Jess, I forced myself to talk, which doesn't come easily unless I'm with people I know well. Besides, she and I aren't alone, that makes a big difference."

"Oh ... hey, you can tell us apart?" Jess squeaked.

"Sometimes," I grinned, then I saw a motion at the dining room door.

Sandy was there, but she'd pulled her red hair back into a pony tail and was wearing a pretty blouse that was open at the neck along with shorts that looked like she'd cut off the legs of a pair of old jeans. She was wearing running shoes and carrying a little back pack.

"Wow," I sighed softly, making both of the twins giggle. "Sandy, you look wonderful."

"Oh my," she giggled and blushed bright red, looking at the floor. "I just tried to match what you were wearing, sorta."

"You know your father would have kittens if he saw you wearing that," Mrs. McAdam smiled.

"Daddy isn't here," Sandy said defiantly "And I want to look like a girl, not an old lady in a long dress, with a shawl and ..."

"Oh yeah," I hooted with laughter and made Sandy and her sisters giggle. "Oops sorry Mrs. McAdam. I was trying to picture Sandy in a yashmak and it just didn't fit."

"A what?" Jean asked.

"A yashmak is one of the names for the veil that Arabian women wear, but besides that they wear long dresses that hide their ankles. Moslem women aren't supposed to show very much skin," I grinned.

"Maybe Daddy is a closet Moslem then," Sandy giggled. "There are times I think he'd like me to dress like that."

"Now Sandra, he's not all that bad," Mrs. McAdam protested. "And I think you'd best take along a set of jeans just in case, okay?"

"In case I might run into Daddy?" Sandy grinned.

"No young lady, in case you get chilly," her mom laughed softly. "And you'd better hurry if you want to get the girls back to school before they're late."

"Okay, but I already have a pair of my jeans in my pack," Sandy grinned and moved to hug her mom.

Both of the twins hugged their mom after that, then I shook her hand and thanked her for lunch before the four of us raced out to my car. Well, the twins raced out to my car, I hobbled on my crutches and Sandy hovered at my side. She actually held the door and helped me get into the car, then passed the crutches to one of the twins to put into the back seat before running around and hopping in the other side of the front seat and sliding over next to me. We all waved to her mom as we backed out onto the street and turned to head back to the school.

"Mmm, this is much nicer than the ride home was," Sandy whispered as she snuggled against my arm.

"Unh huh," I grinned as I glanced at her.

"And what would happen if Daddy saw you snuggling like that?" One of the twins asked.

"I think maybe he expects it," I answered. "To be honest, I really don't find him to be half as much of an ogre as you guys make him out to be."

"You don't have to live with him," Sandy said emphatically.

"Right," both twins answered at once.

"He almost wouldn't let us play soccer because the uniforms were too revealing," one added.

"It was only because he loves the game that he did. He's even our coach now, on the weekends," the other giggled. "And we aren't whipsawing you either. This is just conversation."

Both Sandy and I laughed, but I wanted to comment.

"I don't think your Dad is an ogre at all," I said quickly. "He's just a man with three daughters and he wants to protect you from harm."

"I know," Sandy sighed. "But, sometimes it feels like he wants to shut us in a vault and throw away the key."

"Aww, he's not that bad," a twin answered. "But he is tougher on you than on us for some reason."

"That's 'cause she's older," the other answered. "Almost two years."

That's when it dawned on me that Sandy was actually a year older than I was, yet one grade behind me in school. It gave me a funny feeling for a minute, but I didn't have a chance to say anything because just then we turned onto the street that lead in front of the school. We could see the crowd of kids heading back after lunch.

"Oh great, we get to run the gauntlet of comments again," I sighed.

"Yeah," Sandy sighed as well, pulling away a bit. "You would be the school hero right now, wouldn't you?"

"Hey Sis, if he wasn't a hero, you wouldn't be sitting there."

"Hey, we could give them something to really talk about," the other twin giggled.

"What?" I snapped, wondering what they could be up to.

"Well, if Sandy shifts a bit, we could both lean over the seat and kiss you on the cheek before we got out," and they both giggled.

Since I was just pulling to a stop at the school and really didn't expect them to actually do anything like that, I wasn't prepared for Sandy to shift further away from me. Then darn if the twins didn't lean forward, and suddenly two arms snaked out over my shoulders. One hand pressed on my chest, coming from over my left shoulder and the other hand came from my right and held my chin, then I was being kissed on the cheek from both sides at once.

"See you later, Sexy," one twin giggled as she flipped away and out the door.

"Keep him happy for us, Sis," the other said, loudly enough to get a reaction from the crowd of kids outside as she laughed, sliding out the other door.

The slamming of the back doors left me with a blushing face, while Sandy was giggling loudly. I didn't wait to see what the follow up reaction of the crowd was, I simply drove away as quickly as I dared.

"They got you to blush," Sandy giggled, sliding over even tighter to my side than before.

"Of course they did" I glanced at her. "Hey, you're blushing too."

"I do that," she snorted. "Mom says it's a sympathy blush."

"I see, now where would you like to go?"

"Umm, somewhere that's quiet and where we can be alone?"

"The campsite at the river? No one will be there right now."

"Oh, that would be perfect," she sighed.

I glanced down at my gas gauge and sighed. "Uh oh, I'll need to get gas first."

"Well, there's Mr. Dolens' place. It's on the way and he sells gas."

"That's a great idea; I want to thank him again for this car anyway."

"I heard about that, did you really trade him an old junk heap for this car?"

"It wasn't a junk heap. It ran great," I laughed. "And he was the one who suggested the trade."

"Yeah, whatever," she laughed. "So you traded a great running old junk heap for a newer car."

"Actually we traded two old Model A Fords for a good car, a decent car, and a junk heap car," I grinned. "Tom and George did so much work on this car though, that I gave them the decent car and permission to use parts from the junker to fix their car too."

"I heard about that, I just can't believe you. You work your butt off to get things, then give those things away and you do stuff like the other day, when you helped out the Coulter twins. What are you anyway, a white knight?"

"Hey, Tom and George worked their butts off, both on the Model A and on this car. They earned the car that I gave them and the deal the Ice Cubes were getting was just wrong!" I was getting tired of justifying myself. "You heard the story about the twins. What would you have done if you were me?"

"Me, I think that if I was a guy, I'd have stayed in bed, even if I'm glad you didn't," she giggled. "But actually, I probably wouldn't have gone to the party in the first place. I think I'm even more shy than you are and probably more cautious in other ways too."

"You'd have stayed in the bed?" I looked at her in astonishment.

"Yes, and keep your eyes on the road, huh? I don't want to be in an accident."

"Sorry, but you astonished me."

"Why? You mean about admitting that if I was a guy and I was offered something like that, I'd have taken advantage of the situation?" she said firmly. "Heck, I know that most guys would have ... well, let's just say that the twins wouldn't have been able to brag about being virgins anymore, not with any of the guys I know anyway, other than you."

"Hold that thought, I want to ask you another question later," I said as I turned into Mr. Dolens' service station, which was right beside his used car lot.

"Hi Billy," I greeted the guy at the pumps. "Fill er up please."

"Hi Chris, is everything okay under the hood?" he grinned.

"Do you think Tom would let me drive it otherwise?" I cracked back. "Is Mr. Dolens in?"

"Yeah, I think he wants to see you too. He's in the office over at the sales lot."

So I turned and bent over to look in the window. "Want to hobble over to Mr. Dolens office with me, Sandy?" I asked.

"Sure," she grinned, sliding out of the car as I pulled the crutches out of the back.

"I see that damn horse of yours finally nailed you huh?" Billy said.

"Nope, I finally fell off," I grinned. "Do you want me to leave the keys in the car so you can move it after you're done?"

"Nah, we've got two pumps, you keep the keys. I'd just get your seats dirty with these coveralls anyway," he laughed

Sandy and I were only about half way over to Mr. Dolens' office when he came hurrying out the door.

"Hold it, Chris, stop right there, no sense in hobbling over here on those crutches when I'm just going to ask you to hobble right back out again," he called.

"Hi, Mr. Dolens, what's up?"

"Well, I have something I want to show you and a favour to ask of you too," he grinned. "I bought a trailer the other day and it has a piece of junk sitting on it that you might be interested in. If you are, you and your two friends can have it for nothing. It's sitting out behind the garage. By the way, who's your girlfriend?"

"Oh, sorry, This is Sandy McAdam. Sandy, meet my friend, Mr. Dolens."

"Hi, Mr. Dolens," Sandy smiled.

"Hello, Sandra, are you Sam and Ann's oldest girl?"

"Yes sir," she smiled.

"Well, you tell your Dad 'Hi' from me and tell him that you've got one of the nicest young men in town as a boyfriend, huh?"

"I think he already knows that," Sandy blushed. "Otherwise, I don't think I'd be here."

"I'll just bet he does," Mr. Dolens laughed as he started to lead us toward the back of the garage.

On the way he turned to me and grinned. "I hear that you've been rather busy," he chuckled.

"Oh, you mean my crutches? I sorta fell off my horse."

"Hmmph, I heard that it was because my silly nieces wanted to have a horse ride," he snorted. "And that was after you saved their spoiled little asses from being humiliated too. Just wait until I get a chance to talk to those spoiled little bitches."

"Unh, Mr. Dolens? I don't think they're bitches, actually I kinda like 'em. Not as much as I like Sandy here, but when they're out of town and away from their school chums, they don't act the same. Besides, I think after what they've gone through in the last little while; they might be a lot nicer from now on too. For instance, right now, they're on the farm and they're cleaning out the chicken coop with my sister Beth."

"You're defending them again? Wait a minute, you said they're at your farm, shovelling chicken shit out of your hen house?" he asked in surprise. "How the hell did that happen?"

"Well, after the ruckus at the school the other day, all four of us, I mean Beth, the 'Ice Cubes', and I ... Oops, I mean Beth, the Coulter twins, and I ..."

"Oh, no need to apologise, I've heard about their reputation with boys and I've heard their nickname. My son, Billy isn't that much older than you are," he smiled ruefully. "Just carry on with your story."

"Well, we all got sent home for the rest of the week. Mom 'n' Dad, and Mr. Coulter decided that it would serve his daughters right if they sort of returned the favour for trying to get me into trouble by helping us out with the chores and stuff around the farm. So to make a long story short, they've ended up kinda taking my place around the farm since I'm out of commission with a busted hand and leg."

"Oh that's wonderful," he laughed loudly. "But what does my sister, Wilma, I mean, Mrs. Coulter, think of that?"

"I don't know. You'd have to ask her yourself," I grinned and Sandy giggled.

"I heard a rumour from Dad," she said. "But I don't know if it's true or not."

"Well, Sam is a good friend of John Coulter's. So, what did he say?" Mr. Dolens smiled at her.

"He said Mr. Coulter was spending the rest of the week sleeping on the couch," she giggled. "And I know I shouldn't repeat rumours, but Daddy doesn't usually either so ..."

"Honey, Wilma is my sister and that sounds just like her. Besides, I know your dad and John really well. I imagine I'll hear the story from them," he chuckled. "Now to change the subject, there's my problem."

He pointed ahead of us to a car sitting on a trailer. It was a stripped down version of a car like mine, only it was a two-door, not a four-door. Not only that, but it had been rebuilt as a stock car.

"There it is Chris and the car is yours, if you and the other boys want it. There's a spare motor and transmission that goes with it and a lot of other parts. I heard that you gave the other boys your second car, so if you want this one, you can have it for parts," he offered. "Of course, there is the other option."

I turned and simply stared at him in surprise.

"You're just giving it to us?" I whispered. "But why?"

"Because I bought this rig for the trailer, not the car. The car didn't cost me a red cent and if you can give away a car, I can certainly give away a car," he grinned at me, then he rested a hand on my shoulder. "I did talk to your Dad about it this morning, and he even came to town and looked at it. He was with your mother, who was on her way to pick you up at the hospital, so they both know about it."

I just shook my head and snorted. "Boy, can Mom ever keep secrets."

That made both of them laugh.

"Wait a minute, Mom knows about it? Really? And she didn't say no?"

"Well, she did ask me if I thought it was a safe thing to give to a sixteen-year-old kid," he smiled. "So I grinned at her and asked if a Quarter Horse stud was a safe thing to give to a thirteen-year-old kid. She said you'd earned that horse and if it was handled right the horse wasn't dangerous. So I told her I thought you had earned the car and if you handled it right, it wasn't dangerous either."

"You don't mean that you think they'd let me race it?" I stared at him.

"Perhaps," he said in a noncommital tone. "Parents will do strange things if you handle them right too."

That made me laugh and Sandy giggled, then I looked at her closely because she sounded a bit different. She was staring at the car, her face was flushed and her hands were clenched tightly. I could see that the car fascinated her, then she turned to look at me and her eyes were as big as saucers.

"Please. Take the car, I want to see you drive it and maybe just one time I can ..." she whispered, but her voice trailed off to nothing before she finished the sentence.

"Drive it?" I asked.

"Unh huh, please, just once," she sighed.

I almost said yes, then I had another serious thought and I turned to look at Mr. Dolens. "But Mr. Dolens don't you have to have a sponsor to have a stock car? It takes a bunch of money doesn't it and I really don't have any money to waste."

"Oh, you are a sharp kid," he laughed. "You think of questions that need answers and you can still do it under pressure. On top of that I've heard about your driving ability from your two buddies. I think a stock car might be very good advertising for me. I'd be able to spend enough money on it to get you entered in a few races and to give you tires and such. But there are no strings attached as far as I'm concerned. You can have the car for no charge, okay? If you use it for parts that's fine, or if you race it, I'll back you for at least most of the money it takes to run it for at least a half dozen races."

"Wow, how much will you charge me to haul it out to the farm?"

"If we do it right now, not a penny," he laughed, reaching out to shake my hand. "You own another car. Now let's hurry. I'll do this job myself and I want to get to the farm before my nieces finish shovelling chicken shit. I want a picture of that to wave in front of my sister's nose."

"You mean the car is Chris's now?" Sandy squeaked.

"Yes it is," he laughed. "We can make out the papers later. I'm going to get my tow truck and my camera, then I'll get you to follow me and show me where you want it unloaded when we get to the farm."

As he walked away, Sandy grabbed my shirt front near the collar and pulled, bringing my head down toward hers. Her lips crushed mine tightly and ground my lips against my teeth for a minute before she pulled back.

"And don't you dare wipe your lips," she grinned. "If we're going out to your farm and meeting the 'Ice Cubes,' I want you wearing my lipstick."

"So now they'll know that I'm branded huh?" I grinned at her.

"Yeah and as slow as you walk right now, we'd better hurry back to the car and pay for that gas, so we can follow Mr. Dolens."

"The gas just goes on the farm account as long as I'm using the car mostly for school and stuff. This time I think the fill is on Beth and the twins anyway. Mom and Dad will collect payment for it."

"I guess I was just raised differently than you. You get your gas for nothing. You get free cars. Man, but you've got it soft."

"I work on the farm for what I get," I smiled. "I think I should get you to ask the Coulter girls if they think Beth and I get much for free."

"I intend to," she grinned at me. "I promise I won't tear their hair out either. I'll try to be good, just as long as they keep their claws off of you. Now hurry up. Here comes Mr. Dolens with his truck."

So she hurried me over to my car and we hopped into it, then followed Mr. Dolens as he drove out toward the farm with Sandy snuggled closely at my side. About a mile out of town, I saw a hitch hiker standing on the side of the road. That really surprised me since we never get hitch hikers out our way and what surprised me even more is that Mr. Dolens flashed his tail lights, but didn't stop for the guy. As I got closer, I knew why. It was my brother Wil. I pulled up beside him and stopped. Mr. Dolens had stirred up a lot of dust and Wil's eyes were half closed when he threw his suitcase in the back. Then he looked up, and stared at me in astonishment.

"Chris?" he asked. "Is this the car that Mom said you got in trade for that old Model A?"

"Yep, meet my girl, Sandy McAdam. Sandy, this is my brother Wil."

"Hi Sandy. Damn it, son, this is a nice car," Wil was staring around the car, then he did a mental double take. "WHOA there! Did you say girlfriend?"

"It's okay Sandy, he isn't violent, just a bit slow," I grinned as I lifted my arm in it's cast and slipped it around her shoulders, pulling her tight against me. "I promise I'll protect you if he does anything strange."

"Jeez, you've got a busted hand. Cripes, what's going on?"

"Oh, you haven't seen anything yet, brother. By the way, you're the answer to my prayers, but what are you doing home a week early?"

"Hah, well old son, you are looking at a man who aced his first year at Ag. College. I did so well on everything that I was passed without having to write one single final. I'm home for the summer. Now when did you bust your hand?"

"The same time I busted my foot," I snuck a quick kiss on Sandy's cheek. "Say, would you like to drive, that way I and my girl could neck."

"You'd let me drive your car?" he squawked. "But no, I don't want to drive, I want to know how you broke your hand and your foot too."

"Oh, I fell off a horse, then when I went to the hospital, I met Sandy. She saved my life, so now her dad says we can date," I was grinning and Sandy was giggling. "By the way the reason I'm glad you're home is that you can take over training the 'Ice Cubes' to be farmers, so I can spend more time with Sandy."

"Number one; you do not fall off of horses," Wil snapped. "Number two; people with broken legs don't need to have their lives saved. Number three; any father who would say you can date his daughter in the condition you are in is nuts. And number four; the only 'Ice Cubes' I know of are the Coulter twins and they're sheer poison for guys. So since all of that is BS, just what is going on?"

I turned my head and looked into Sandy's face for a second, winking at her. "See what I told you Sandy? Even my own brother won't believe me when I tell him the absolute truth."

"Aww, shit, are you crazy?" Wil moaned. "And why are we following old man Dolens and that damn trailer? The dust is terrible. Can't we either pass him or pull over and let the dust settle?"

"Sorry Wil, he's hauling my latest and newest car. I'm following him in case anything goes wrong and I'm also following him because I have to show him where to unload it."

"Another car? But I heard that you already have three of the damn things."

"I did, but I gave one to Tom and George, so Mr. Dolens gave me another one to take its place."

"Oh Fuck! Oops, sorry Sandy. Maybe you can tell me, has he been eating loco weed?"

"No Wil, he's been telling you the truth, it's just that he's skipped a few details," she was laughing so hard I was surprised that she spoke clearly.

"A few? I think he skipped the whole dictionary, maybe the encyclopaedia," At least Wil was laughing. "Now, the last time I talked to Mom was a week ago and you were heading off that night to your grad, has all this happened since then?"

"Yup," I grunted. "And a whole bunch more too."

Then I sighed. "Look, if you won't drive, at least crawl over into the front seat and sit beside Sandy. Then I can explain without looking in the mirror."

He did and as we drove along in the dust from the trailer, I explained about the grad, the party after it, what happened when I awoke the next morning, the ruckus at the school when the pictures came out, how Mr. Coulter sent the girls to stay at the farm, and on and on, finally ending up at the time when we saw him at the side of the road.

"Jeez Chris, you must have a horse shoe stuffed so far up your aaaa ... Oops, sorry Sandy. Oh, by the way, what is it you see in him anyway?"

"It's that horse shoe," she giggled. "I'm hanging around in case it ever falls out. If it does, then I'm going to pick it up and run like hell."

I was laughing so hard, I almost missed the turn into our own driveway and I almost missed the fun as Mr. Dolens stopped the truck and hopped out with the camera. One of the twins was just pushing a load of chicken manure up the ramp and onto the pile outside when he called to her.

"Hey Carissa, smile pretty!"

"It's not Carissa. I'm Corinna," she answered, turning her head with a grin and then in an instant she dropped the handles of the wheelbarrow, trying to hide her face. "No, Uncle Frank! Please! I don't want my picture taken dressed like this."

"Too late, sweety, I already got you, twice," he hooted at her. "Now, where's your sister?"

Corinna must have decided that if he had her picture, he should have her sister's picture too.

"Hey, Carissa, Beth, come and look at this. I think Chris has another car," she shouted loud enough to be heard over the fans venting the stench from the chicken coop.

When Carissa and Beth came out of the chicken coop, Mr. Dolens snapped their pictures too. Then while they were still flustered, I slipped out of the car and Sandy slipped out my side to stand beside me. All three of the girls simply stared open mouthed as she snuggled at my side.

Then Wil came into their view as he handed me my crutches. Beth squealed like a stuck pig and she sprinted toward us. Luckily Wil saw her coming and had time to brace himself, but he couldn't have been prepared as well as he should have been. She knocked him onto his butt as she leaped up and hit him high, her legs up and around his waist while her arms were thrown around his neck in a killer hug.

All the ruckus drew Mom and Dad out of the house. There was another slight ruckus as they saw and greeted Wil. Then I had to introduce Sandy to Mom, because unlike Dad, while Mom had seen Sandy around the hospital, she had never really been introduced to her.

As Mom shook Sandy's hand, she leaned forward between us and whispered. "Chris, you have lipstick on your lips."

"Yep," I grinned. "Sandy insisted that I wear her brand until the twins get used to the idea that I'm not available."

Mom stared at me in surprise, then had a second look at Sandy and to my astonishment, she wrapped Sandy and me in a big hug. I was still blushing from that when I could see the light dawn in Beth's eyes. As she started to come toward us, I pinched my nose and nodded at Sandy who jabbed me in the ribs.

"It's an honest stink," she said shortly and to my surprise she stepped toward Beth and held out her arms.

"Just cheek to cheek," Beth giggled. "This stench travels and you'll get it in your clothes."

"Okay, but once you wash I want a real hug," Sandy grinned as they touched cheeks, then pulled back and Beth giggled as she turned toward Wil.

"I've been telling the twin 'C's about you this afternoon," she said archly. "They thought I was exaggerating when I said you were so strong that you could throw them both over a shoulder at once and carry them across the yard."

Then I heard her stage whisper. "But you'd better be careful, they've got a protector," she nodded her head toward me.

"I think he's busy. He's got a new car and a new girl to protect," Wil stage whispered back.

"He's very busy," Sandy said aloud. "He has to tell Mr. Dolens where to unload his new car and he needs to keep his new girl company while he protects her too."

I guess Mr. Dolens heard his name mentioned because he and the twins had been standing and talking quietly by the tow truck, but now they came walking our way. I felt Sandy tense and since I was holding her hand, I tightened mine just a touch to let her know it was okay. That was all it took, she seemed to relax. To be honest, I think I needed to be holding her hand as much as she needed to hold mine, but Mr. Dolens defused the situation in seconds.

"Chris, Corinna says that she thinks you're a fink for telling me that she and Carissa were cleaning out your chicken coop. She said if I embarrass her with these pictures that I got that she'll haunt you and I forever."

"Hey, haunting him is my job now," Sandy grinned, then giggled loudly.

Both Carissa and Corinna stared at her for a few seconds, then looked at each other and sighed.

"You win ..."

"for now anyway."

Sandy grinned, even wider. "That doesn't work on me. Don't you two know my little sisters, the McAdam twins? They do the whipsaw even better than you do. By the way, what's wrong with a picture in those clothes, I think you two look great."

"Are you nuts? The clothes have the style of tents, our hair is messy, we aren't wearing makeup, we're dirty and sweaty and ..."

"Huh, both of you look cute as buttons and sexy as heck, although I must admit, your perfume leaves a bit to be desired."

"Hah, come help us in the chicken coop for an hour and see what your perfume smells like."

"If I thought I'd look as good as you when I came out, I might," Sandy grinned. "But actually, Chris needs company and I am supposed to be on a date. To be honest, we were going to go somewhere and talk when we got shanghaied by your uncle and he stole my new guy's attention by giving him a car."

"Well young lady, if you'd let Chris tell me where to put the car, I'd gladly let him get back to his date with you," Mr. Dolens spoke up with a grin.

"Oh, just down by the old shed where we keep the other cars I guess. Tom and George can help me shift things around tonight."

"The boys moved their car over to Tom's last night. They wanted it there to do some body work or something. Besides, since it's their car now I think it's only right that they should store it too," Dad spoke up. "Why don't I go down to the shed with Frank and we can shift this one right in where the boy's car was sitting?"

"Do you want some help Dad?" Wil asked. "That way Chris can sit down and get off those blinkin' crutches. If it drives, I could ..."

Suddenly it dawned on Wil to really look at the car and he did a double take. "It's a bloody race car," he whispered. "Dad, you aren't going to let Chris ... ?"

"It's a stock car Wil," I said firmly, interrupting him. "And it might only be a parts car for the ones that I and the guys have. At this point I don't know for sure. Since it was free I couldn't really turn it down, but I haven't had time to discuss it with Mom and Dad so I can find out what they think I should do. Okay?"

"Unh, yeah, I guess."

Dad grinned at me and winked, then he, Wil and Mr. Dolens went off to unload the trailer, leaving me surrounded by women. On top of everything else my foot was hurting a bit and I was extremely thirsty as well, so I wanted to go inside and sit down.

"How are you feeling Chris?" Mom asked, reminding me that there are times when I think she's psychic.

"My leg hurts a bit," I sighed. "And I'm thirsty."

"Inside young man," she ordered. "I wondered if you weren't pushing things a little."

"But I have to make sure that Sandy gets to work on time and ..."

"Then we should let you rest now," she said shortly. "Sandy, would you help me get this stubborn young man inside, please."

"And I guess we'd better get back to the chicken coop, so we can get that job done before chore time," Beth sighed.

"I think you should go inside and clean up for today. Besides, I'll bet that Carissa and Corinna could talk Wil into helping you finish it tomorrow," Mom said with a grin over her shoulder as she, Sandy, and I moved toward the porch.

Beth and the twins beat us to the door. When we were inside, Mom got me to sit on the couch in the living room and had Sandy bring over a stool and a cushion for me to rest my foot on. The funny thing was as soon as my foot was up in the air a bit it stopped hurting so much.

"Of course it does, you silly man," Sandy smiled at me. "Elevating it reduces the blood pressure. To start with, your foot is in a restricted space and it's swollen because it's still an aggravated injury. Then too you've been sitting and standing so much that the blood is ... well, I guess you could call it settling in your foot. That adds even more swelling. What you need is to sit for an hour or so with your foot up and you need aspirin to reduce the pain and swelling."

"Very good!" Mom smiled at her, having already gone to the kitchen for a glass of water and her ever present bottle of aspirin. "Here Chris, take two of these and drink the whole glass of water."

Sandy had seated herself at my side and took the empty glass when I was done because Mom had sat down and was looking at us.

"Okay, since everyone else is busy, what's this about boyfriend - girlfriend business between you two?" she asked. "Don't you think that you're moving just a bit fast?"

"Unh huh," Sandy giggled. "It's sort of funny in a way. We got kinda trapped into it in a way."

"You may have gotten trapped," I winked at her. "I kind of like it, but it's nothing serious Mom. It'd a bit soon for that, since this really is only our first date."

So I explained about asking Sandy out and about her father's reaction, then about sitting and explaining things over lunch with Sandy's whole family there. I told her about Sam McAdam's reaction to my story and how he somehow assumed we were going to be dating, so he'd established time limits and curfews.

Then Sandy explained about Mr. Dolens and his assumptions, even telling Mom about how we'd teased Wil after we picked him up on the way home. She threw in the fact that she liked the idea of one-upping the Coulter girl's and admitted that she knew that it wasn't nice, but she said she was going to explain that to them later.

"I'd hold off on telling them that for a day or two," Mom grinned at her. "Now, I have an idea of how you two could just sit and talk, but still be nearby in case you want anything. Why don't you both go sit on the front porch and pull up the old stool for Chris' foot? That way you'll get at least some time alone and not be disturbed a lot."

She was right that we got to talk alone for a while, but it wasn't for long and she was sure wrong about our not being disturbed.

It was only a short time before Dad and Mr. Dolens came to see me so I could sign the papers that made the car mine. Of course we had a short talk before Mr. Dolens left and then Dad went inside.

Next Wil came and asked if I was really going to tear the stock car apart or if I was going to race it. That developed into a heated discussion which was still going on when Beth came out of the house, freshly showered and drying her hair. Of course she joined in on the discussion.

By then we were making enough noise that both Mom and Dad came out of the house and a family discussion broke out. Dad and Wil were both in favour of seeing me race the car at least once or twice, but Mom and Beth felt it was silly and unsafe. I was undecided. I was surprised that Sandy hadn't said anything, but then I thought I knew how she felt because of the way she'd reacted at the car lot when we first saw the stock car.

We were still talking when the Carissa and Corinna came out on the porch, bringing a big jug of lemonade and a bunch of glasses. They refused to express an opinion about the stock car and when we asked why, they admitted that their uncle had asked them not to, which surprised everyone.

In fact, we were still discussing that stupid car when we saw the bus pull up at our drive and both Tom and George hopped out. I thought I knew how they would feel, so I suggested quite strongly that we change topics for the time being. When everyone stared at me, I had to explain that I had too much on my mind right then and I wanted to think about the situation without Tom and George adding to the pressures I was feeling.

I didn't realise it then, but those comments were a key piece in setting me up for another watershed moment in my life.

### Chapter 6