Chapter Nine
- Beware of Pot Holes
I don't know for sure what anyone else was thinking about, but at that moment, I was staring at Carissa. Her face was going through a plethora of expressions, then she was slowly turning white and I thought she was going to fall down.
"Dad!" I hollered and reached out for her, but my damn crutches were in my way.
To my surprise, it was Beth who got to her first and supported her as Carissa seemed to melt. Mom wasn't far behind Beth and helped move her to a seat on a kitchen chair, then she turned to Dad and I've never seen her look angrier.
"Willard, that was stupid! Just what were you thinking?"
"I thought she'd be happy I suppose." Dad's voice was almost a whisper. "I didn't think that she'd . . ."
"That's the trouble. You really didn't think." Mom snapped and then seemed to totally ignore him.
Both Beth and I were giving most of our attention to Carissa, but I think that at the same time both of us were realising that this was the first time we'd ever seen Mom or Dad be openly critical of the other in front of us. It wasn't that they didn't disagree, but until today, neither of them had ever shown this sort of annoyance nor criticism, at least not openly in front of us.
Dad stood there quietly for a moment and then he walked slowly outside. Since there wasn't much I could do with both Mom and Beth fussing around Carissa, I followed him. I found him standing on the front porch, his hands clutching the top bar of the porch railing in both hands so tightly his knuckles were turning white.
"Damn, I didn't mean to hurt her." He whispered softly.
"I don't think it was really you that hurt her." I said quietly as I stood next to him.
I felt an almost overpowering urge to give him a hug, but instead of doing something so 'unmanly', I just reached out and rested my hand on his arm for a minute.
"I think Carissa was shocked that Corinna would do something like that without at least warning her first, Dad." I said almost in a whisper. "I think she'd have been extremely upset, no matter who told her and no matter how they told her."
" What do you mean?" He sighed. "I just plain fucked up."
"Dad, you didn't make it easy, but it might have been the best way after all." I was thinking of the changing expressions I had seen flash over Carissa's face as Dad had spoken. "Carissa saw that it made you happy and I think that registered before the idea that Corinna had done something that Carissa didn't suspect was coming. I think that might have been a good thing."
"I don't see that."
"Well, aren't you happy that Wil and Corinna are thinking of getting married?"
"Of course I am, even if it's too damn soon and they're too damn young. I like Corinna. In fact, I like both of those two girls. They've got spunk and I don't care what anyone says about them, they're both damn intelligent."
"Right, and Carissa saw that on your face." I smiled. "So did I and I'm glad."
"Huh?" He turned to me with a strange frown on his face. "Why should it matter to you?"
"Dad, I told you before, last night when I took Sandy home, she did something that made me question her whole outlook on life. She insisted I take her home and from the way she acted, I don't think I'll be taking her out again. When I came back here, Wil and the twins were sitting out here on the porch drinking so I had a few drinks along with them. Carissa and I were almost as bad as Corinna and Wil, but we managed to hold our sanity together a bit longer than they did."
Dad just stared at me, totally speechless for a moment and I didn't know what to say or what to do.
"So, you and Carissa . . .?"
"We didn't do anything, well except kiss and cuddle, but I found out I like her an awful lot more than I thought I did and she told me that she likes me just as much."
"Holy Smoke!" He stared at me. "Does your mother know?"
"Dad, we stood there and told you guys about it."
"But you didn't make it sound so . . .so serious before."
"That's probably because I don't know how serious it is myself, at least not yet." I sighed. "I'm the guy who ran away from this girl last week. Cripes Dad, I'm about as virgin as I could possibly be and still like girls."
"Just a moment Chris, Carissa said she and Corinna took their clothes off again didn't she?"
"All but their panties, Dad." I sighed.
"And you never tried to . . .?"
"No, I didn't, and I'm not sure whether I'm happy about that or not." I frowned. "I mean I know if I'd tried I think I could have gone further, but for some reason it just didn't seem right to try to . . . well, force things. Oh, I don't know if even . . ."
I just let my last sentence die, sighed deeply and moved over to the seat where I'd been sitting last night.
"You really don't have to explain, Chris." Dad said quietly. "I think the way you acted is outstanding. You're more of a gentleman than either your brother or I would have been. Actually, with Wil in the situation he's in, I think you can understand what I mean."
I'd just started to wonder about his last sentence when Dad suddenly stood up straight and sighed. "I'd better go apologise to Carissa."
Before I could tell him that I didn't think that was a good idea, he was gone, heading back into the house. I wasn't about to argue with him anyway and I wasn't exactly in a good mood either. I had a bit of a hangover from last night's drinking and I hadn't even had a cup of coffee to wake up on.
That might explain why when George came around the end of the porch with the milk we'd need for the house and started a conversation by asking me where my car was, I wasn't very patient.
"Wil took it, I guess." I snapped. "I suppose he thought he needed it."
"Hey man. I'm sorry I asked." He said setting down the bottles and then looking at me like he was a bit uncomfortable.
"Unh, is Beth feeling better?" He said after a moment of my stony silence.
Oh my, another thing that I'd let slip out of my mind. I looked at him almost in surprise and I had to grin. The term 'love sick pup' popped to mind when I looked at the expression of his face.
"I think she'll be fine." I said quietly. "Right now, she's got her hands full, but I'm sure she's going to want to see you later today."
"She's not mad at me?" He sounded relieved and hopeful.
"No, George, I don't think she was ever upset with you. I think she was upset with herself."
"But why? Just because she's so good at baseball?"
"No, George. She's just too darn kind for her own good. I think she felt she was showing off and that she hurt other people's feelings. It's funny, but she gets really down on herself when she does that."
"That's silly." He argued. "I guess it's a good thing you and Sandy are going out together and she was along with us last night, huh?"
I sighed and then I decided that I had to give him a quick run down of all the things that had happened last night. He sat there and stared at me, his face showing his total surprise.
"Oh wow." He sighed. " So, do you think it would be okay for me to take the milk inside? I sort of thought that Beth might be there and we could talk."
"Maybe you'd better not. I think that would just complicate things right now. Look, I'll pass on that you were here and wanted to talk to her, then she can talk to you later." I was trying to think on my feet and not leave any loose ends or make any mistakes. "I know she's going to want to see you, but there's just so much happening right now."
"Yeah, I guess I understand." George looked at me suspiciously. "You're sure you'll tell her that I was asking?"
"I'm sure George." I managed to smile. "I think you'd probably kick my butt if I didn't."
"You got that right." He snorted and then pulled off a grin that I hadn't expected to see. "You hang in there huh, Cowboy. I've got to go help Tom finish off your chores. We'll talk to you later."
"Yeah."
"And no more surprises, huh?" He chuckled.
"No promises, George." I said quite loudly as he disappeared around the corner of the porch on his way to help Tom.
Hardly a moment passed before the door popped open and Mom came out carrying a couple of cups of coffee.
"Here Chris, I imagine you need a coffee as much as I do." She said with a deep sigh as she sat down in the chair beside me.
"Thanks Mom. I could have gone inside and gotten one myself, you know."
"I needed to talk to you anyway." She said quietly. "Sandy McAdam's mother called earlier."
"Oh boy." I grunted, not knowing what to expect.
"She said that Sam had told her what you said to him and that she'd talked to Sandy."
"Umm, yeah, so what did . . .?"
"Wait a moment." Mom held up a hand, interrupting me. "Let me finish what I started and then you can talk."
She paused and had a sip of coffee. Then she looked at me and smiled almost apologetically.
"Your father and I almost made a blunder this morning. When your father and I got up, we saw that your car wasn't here and we'd last seen you with Sandy late last night, we assumed that the two of you had . . ."
"Oh Mom." I snorted.
"Chris, be quiet. Yesterday morning when I talked to you, you expressed anxiety at being around Carissa and Corinna. Yesterday afternoon when I spoke to you, you seemed to have developed quite a liking toward Sandy, but didn't know how far it would go. By last night, it looked to me like both of you were developing quite a crush on each other. Is it any wonder that your father and I thought that you might have gotten carried away and done something rash?"
"Can I talk now?" I asked quietly.
"Yes Chris, you can talk now." She smiled.
"Okay, to start with Carissa and Corinna, when they're together, they scare hell out of me, but I like to be with Carissa when she's by herself. I don't know why."
"All right, I suppose I can understand that, but what about Sandy?"
"Sandy has some weird ideas." I shook my head. "Actually, she scared me last night, far more than either Carissa or Corinna has done at any time."
I paused to sip some coffee and try to choose my words.
"When we left here last night, we had lots of time to get her home by her curfew. I pulled off of the road and stopped so we could talk and I thought I might eventually get up the nerve to kiss her. However, I'd hardly gotten stopped before she was climbing into my lap and sticking her tongue down my throat. If the horn button wasn't built into the steering wheel and she hadn't sat on it, I might very well have been out all night."
"As it was, I reacted in surprise when the horn went off and we broke apart, then we actually talked for a bit. That's when I got a shock, I think she actually expected me to have sex with her last night and she was certain that her father had literally given us permission to do it. She thought he expected her to come home having had sex with me on our first date because she said he'd told her all her life that all boys would expect her to do things if she went out on a date. I couldn't seem to get it through her head that I want to know the girl really well before I have sex with her."
"She just started screaming for me to take her home, so I did. I decided I had to talk to her Dad and not run off because I didn't feel I'd done anything wrong and he should know my side of the story as well as hers."
Mom sat very still for a minute and then she reached out a hand and patted my arm.
"Ann McAdam said this morning that she felt that both Sam and Sandra should apologise to you, but that she doubted if it would ever happen. You must have laid it on the line with Sam and you must have been pretty convincing."
"Actually, I think maybe I was a bit too angry to be nice. I think I sort of chewed him out for teaching Sandy to expect every guy she went out with to try to get into her pants."
"Oh Chris, you didn't?" She broke into laughter. "Poor Sam."
She sighed, then continued what she'd been saying. "You might as well know, before I ever met your father, I dated Sam once. We went to a country barn dance and when we parked at the hall, Sam got a little too friendly to suit me. I slapped his face, then ran inside. Your Aunt Alice and Uncle Tom were there and Alice guessed right away what had happened. I didn't find out until years later that your father and your uncle talked to Sam and explained that Tom and Alice would be giving me a ride home and that Sam should go home and sober up. I'd always thought that Sam had gotten angry when I wouldn't cooperate and had left me to find my own way home."
"Oh wow. What happened last night must be like pouring battery acid on a wound for Mr. McAdam."
"I'd think it might be, except I think Sam may have grown up somewhat from when I went dancing with him that one night."
"From what Sandy said he hasn't changed much." I griped. "I think any man who would teach his daughters stuff like that needs to be . . . I don't know what he needs, but he sure needs something."
I was annoyed and Mom could see it, but I don't think she had any better idea than I did about how the situation should be handled. Finally she sighed softly.
"It's not as if I can do anything, but would you like me to talk to Ann McAdam?"
"Mom, that's up to you. I like Sandy, but after last night, I just wouldn't feel right taking her out again. It would be like making a date with a . . ."
"Chris, don't you dare say that word." Mom snapped. "The young lady I had in my house last night is a very nice young person, even if she is a trifle misguided at the moment. You have made my mind up though. I am going to talk to Ann and I'm going to have Willard talk to Sam as well. I may even have Beth invite her sisters out here to ride horses so she can talk to them as well."
"Okay Mom."
I knew better than to argue. Mom was off on what Dad called 'one of her campaigns' meant to improve the world, no matter the cost. Only a fool would get in the way of the steam roller she could become.
Then I thought Mom changed the subject.
"Do you suppose Willard and I can leave you here with Carissa and Beth for a few hours today?"
"Unh, I guess." I was surprised she'd even ask.
"Well, I thought I had better ask since it seems that all three of my children have suddenly become sexually aware. Inside of a week you've all decided to drive Willard and me around the bend with your actions. I wouldn't want to come home to an orgy or something where my two youngest were involved with their paramours."
"Oh Mom." I snorted. "Carissa and I are just getting to know each other and after this morning, I don't think she's about to be in any mood to do anything."
"You don't know much about either women or about twins, do you? Right about now, Carissa is probably thinking that her sister is 'ahead' of her somehow. I'm sure she's certain that Corinna and Wil got carried away and that's why they want to get married. She's not exactly thinking straight." She looked me right in the eye. "You're going to have to be the rational one when you two are alone together."
"And why did you mention Beth? She won't listen to me."
"Oh Chris, she always listens to you. She listens to you even better than she does to either your father or me. And on top of that, George worships the ground you walk on. If you tell the two of them to cool it and give them a reason, both of them will listen to you."
"Oh sure Mom, and pigs fly."
"Chris, how many things have you started around here and had Tom and George at your beck and call instantly? Don't you realise that they've realized that you think things through before you do them? Why do you suppose that when there is a prank pulled around here your father and I look at you first? You're the one who thinks ahead and schemes. The others follow your lead."
I just stared at her. She smiled and looked down at my cup/
"If you want more coffee, you're going to have to get it yourself. I'm going to be busy getting your father and myself ready to go talk to Mr. and Mrs. Coulter about the fate of our son and their daughter."
"Is Carissa going with you?"
"No and that worries me." Mom frowned. "That's one of the reasons I'm out here talking to you right now. I'm sure you can add up the reasons and come to your own conclusion."
I sat there for several minutes thinking about what we'd talked about after she went inside. When I finally did hobble inside, Beth and Carissa were sitting in the kitchen and talking quietly.
"Hi girls, can I come in, or is this a woman's only meeting?"
"Oh Chris, don't be an idiot." Beth snapped. "Carissa is practically family now."
"Oh I hope not." Carissa giggled.
Beth stared at her and then at me and I could see the light come on.
"Holy Smoke! Do Mom and Dad know?"
"Yeah." I said as I poured a second cup of coffee and grabbed a bran muffin. "Mom just had a talk to me about being responsible, while they go straighten out Wil and Corinna. I'm supposed to prevent you and George from running off while running away from Carissa's hungry arms as well."
I slid into the seat beside Carissa and she giggled as she leaned over and rested her head on my shoulder for a second.
"Fat chance, I'll get Beth to trip you and I'll hold you down while she runs off with George." She teased.
"Wow, what happened to you? You're sure in a better mood." I smiled at her.
"She talked to Corinna on the phone. Her Mom made Corinna call."
"Ah, I see." I nodded, trying to look like I had a clue why that would make Carissa look so perky.
"They didn't do anything stupid." Beth said sharply, realising I was bluffing about understanding. "They were sitting on the front porch looking at the sunrise while huddling together under a blanket and they just decided that they wanted to be able to see a lot of sunrises while holding each other in their arms. I think it's really romantic."
"You would." I grinned at her, knowing I was teasing her.
Carissa giggled and poked me in the ribs.
"Hey, that hurts." I was surprised more than anything.
"Oh, I like her." Beth giggled. "For once Chris is outnumbered and right now, he can't run worth a darn."
"Well, he'd better still be in one piece when we come home." Mom said as she came in having changed into a really nice dress.
"Wow, looking good Mom." I smiled at her "And thanks, I need all the protection I can get from these two."
"I'm not sure it's protection that you're looking for." She said quietly, obviously noticing how close Carissa was sitting to me.
"Mom, Carissa likes Chris a lot, but they aren't any sillier than Corinna and Wil are. Besides, I'm here to chaperone them while you're gone."
"And if George happens to come over, who will chaperone you?"
"If she's chaperoning us, then we're sure going to chaperone her." Carissa giggled. "We won't do anything that we'd be ashamed of, I promise."
"Aww, you're a spoilsport." I said, winking at Mom.
"Chris there are times . . ." Mom said, but she was laughing.
"Well, what have we here?" Dad said as he came in, but he was dressed well too.
I looked at him and smiled. "I don't know what you did while Mom was talking to me, Dad, but I certainly like the mood the girls are in now much better than the one they were in before."
"Your father . . . Chris, you whelp." Mom laughed. "Come on Willard, before I murder our middle child."
"All right dear, but in his case I think a jury would see it as justifiable homicide." Dad grinned and winked at me. "You kids be good, huh? We have to go see if we can put out a fire in the Coulter household."
So they left with our shouted goodbyes echoing in their ears. And for a few seconds there was silence.
"Oh, George said he'd like to talk to you sometime today." I broke the silence.
"He called." Beth grinned. "From Tom's house. He didn't even wait to get home after doing our chores."
"You're not mad at me for telling him not to come in?"
"No, from what he said, he'd have gotten told off for disturbing me right then." She grinned. "You did good."
"Whew." I mocked wiping my brow.
"But he was going to watch for the pickup truck to go by and then he's going to come over." She grinned.
"Umm, so Carissa and I are chaperoning you two, I guess."
"I guess." Beth winked at Carissa. "But then he and I can return the favour, in spades."
"So what are we going to do?"
"Well, first Carissa and I are going to cook you and George brunch and after that we'll see." Beth grinned and hopped to her feet. "Come on, Princess, we need to cook for our princes."
"First things first." Carissa laughed and suddenly she was crawling into my lap.
While we were kissing and cuddling, George came to the door. When Beth let him in, he wrapped Beth in his arms after calling a good morning to Carissa. I think perhaps she waved hello, but she certainly didn't speak, we were too busy. I soon decided that kissing was almost as good an idea as brunch, maybe better.
When I realised in a few minutes just how much my body was enjoying the idea of necking and petting Carissa, I came to my senses somewhat and pulled back.
"Sorry everyone, but I think we'd better take a break." I announced. "Besides, I'm starving, how about you George?"
"Mmmmph." He mumbled first, then managed to break away from my little sister.
"I could eat a horse." He announced.
"George, you couldn't even ride one." I laughed. "And if you want to eat anything that Beth cooks, you'd better forget about eating her horses."
"He sure had." She snorted. "What a guy I pick for a fellow, he can't even ride a darn horse."
"That's why they made cars, right Carissa?" He laughed.
"Oh, they both have their good points." Carissa already knew better than to get into that argument.
"So Beth, are you and Carissa cooking, or are Chris and I burning something?" George demanded.
"Oh God, I don't want to die of ptomaine poisoning, that means Chris isn't touching the food." Beth declared, heading for the fridge.
"Is he that bad?" Carissa asked as she slipped off of my lap after giving me one final peck on the lips.
"Worse." Beth declared. "He can burn water, without the pot ever touching the stove."
Carissa giggled as she moved to join Beth. About then George nodded his head toward the porch so I grabbed my crutches and joined him out there.
"Damn it, Chris, what's going on with you and Carissa? Or is it Corinna?" He asked quietly.
"It's Carissa and without Corinna, she's neat." I smiled.
"But are you and Sandy kaput? Already? Or are you . . .?"
"Long story." I sighed. "The short version is that we fought and I don't see us going out any more. I guess you haven't heard about Corinna and Wil either then?"
"No! Are they together too?" His eyes were the size of saucers.
"Yeah, that's where Mom and Dad went. Wil swiped my car this morning without asking me because he and Corinna decided they liked watching sunrises together."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"They want to get hitched. So they rushed to town to ask Mr Coulter before his Sunday morning golf game." I grinned.
"Holy Shit! Married?" He gasped.
"Yeah, I came home last night after the fight with Sandy and joined Wil and the twins here on the porch. They'd been drinking Grampa Bender's hooch for a while and since I'd just fought with Sandy, I was in the mood to get a bit drunk, so I joined them. Corinna and Wil had paired off and Carissa decided that I had to be cheered up after having broken up with Sandy. After a while, she and I called it off. Well, at least we stopped before we got too carried away. The two of us went off our separate ways to get some sleep, but Wil and Corinna stayed up all night."
"Oh wow. So are you and Carissa a couple or what?"
"I don't know." I laughed softly. "But I'm really learning to like her right now."
"Wow. And you're the guy who we all figured was going to live his life as a bachelor."
"Yeah, and how about you and my little sister?" I grinned.
"Unh, you know she asked me out don't you?" George asked quietly.
"Yes George." I chuckled. "I'm not about to kick your butt."
"Even if I tell you that I've wanted to take her out for the past year?"
"Even then, George. I do trust you enough to believe you wouldn't hurt her intentionally and you do know her quite well, so you know what would hurt her."
"You know I'd never do that." George sighed. "When she got upset last night she almost had me crying. I didn't know what to do, not at first anyway."
I didn't know what he meant, so I just waited.
"On the way home, I remembered that I've got an aunt who lives in the town that the other team came from. I told my folks about what happened and how Beth was so upset, then I asked Dad if he knew any of the people from there. Dad called my aunt and she had somebody call him back. I guess they called Beth because when I phoned Beth from Tom's, she said the coach of the other team had called her this morning."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, he asked her if she'd play for their team since she wasn't one of the regulars here." He grinned. "None of the girls on the other team were badly upset, but they do think our team snuck a ringer in on them and that the game shouldn't count."
"I'll bet Beth would like that." I laughed.
"Unh unh. Instead, she suggested that the next game they play here, they come with one player short and she'd play one game for them." He chuckled. "You've gotta admit, she's fair."
"Huh, wait until she plays against you in a game sometime." I snorted.
"Well I . . ."
"Hey, did you guys want to eat, or do we have to throw this stuff to the pigs?" Beth interrupted as she stuck her head outside.
"We want to eat." George laughed as he ran toward her and she ran inside giggling.
By the time I hobbled to the table, George had two of the waffles that the girls had cooked on his plate and was slathering them with butter and maple syrup. Carissa was still cooking though and by the time I'd sat down, she'd dropped two fresh ones on my plate in return for a quick kiss.
Those two girls could cook. Both George and I ate our fill of waffles for once and both Beth and Carissa had as many as they wanted. There were still a few left on a plate in the warming oven when the door opened and Mom walked in.
Wil was right behind her and he looked like he hadn't slept in a week. He was carrying my clothes in his hand and he looked sheepish as he held them out toward me.
"Look, Chris, I wasn't thinking too clearly this morning . . ." His voice trailed off as he saw my face form into a frown.
My mood had changed instantly. I really hadn't thought about what I wanted to say to him, but I waited for a moment to see if he was going to say anything more. I suppose the pause was almost like Dad did when he was really going to rake you over the coals. Instead of speaking loudly, I almost whispered when I finally spoke and I made sure that I looked him right in the eyes.
"I don't mind so much that you took the car, other than that it annoys me that you didn't ask my permission. But, I am pissed off that you took my clothes without asking me first, particularly since my wallet, with my ID in it, was still in the pocket of my shorts. On top of that, I'm absolutely furious that you drove my car, or any car for that matter, after you'd been awake all night and had been drinking too. That was just plain stupid."
Then I shut up. I didn't say another word. He looked like he wanted to apologise, but I wasn't going to help him. Everyone in the room was staring at me and I swear Wil looked like he was about to break into tears.
"But we didn't drink any more after you left." Wil's voice was almost a whimper. "Really, I wasn't drunk."
I decided that if that was his idea of an apology, he needed to think about things a bit more. I managed to get to my feet and onto my crutches, then grabbed my clothes from his hand and hobbled away, close to tears myself. I expected someone to say something, but no one did. Instead the only sound in the house was the clumping of my crutches as I struggled up the stairs then down the hall to my room where I managed to slam the door behind me.