Chapter Twenty Four - Single Lane - No passing
We'd gone to bed early and for some reason, both of us had felt the need to be very affectionate, but since we were both tired, we weren't exceptionally energetic. Each time we'd had sex before there had been an urgency between us, almost a driving need. This time we simply took our time, not needing sex alone, but instead needing the comfort of someone who cared. For the first time, we truly made love with each other.
It was wonderful!
I think we were both feeling somewhat in need of assurance and we drew that from our partner. After all, the day had been hard on us both. It was strange, but I suppose really it was the first time we'd both felt not only tired, but also relaxed when we'd been involved.
I slept like a log, but I awoke exceptionally early, even for me, but then we'd gone to bed exceptionally early the night before. Carissa was cuddled against me as we both lay on our side, facing each other. The feel of her arm stretching over me and her breast pressed against my chest tantalized me, but at the same time simply felt very satisfying. I lay there for a moment, looking at her face as she rested her head on my arm, then I sighed softly and carefully slid that arm from under her head.
She looked so relaxed, so beautiful. Even when I could have moved, I still lay there and fought off the screaming demands of my body to move. Instead I smiled as I watched that sweet woman sleep. Somehow my whole world had changed and this delightful person was now central to all of my thoughts. Before yesterday, I had liked her a lot, but now, she was everything I wanted in the world. How that had happened, I didn't understand, but it certainly wasn't something I wanted to fight in any way.
Unfortunately, I had to get up. I really didn't want to, but the habit of years had kicked in. My bladder was screaming about the pressure it was holding and I needed relief. Leaving her lying there, as I slipped away was difficult. I wanted to kiss and cuddle her, but at the same time I wanted to let her sleep as long as she could. Finally, I simply had to go.
I reached for my shorts, then chuckled to myself, who was going to see me if I ran outside nude? Instead I slipped on my one shoe as well as the cut down overshoe that protected the foot in a cast and slipped from the bedroom, hurrying out to 'check the weather' for a few moments.
It was a beautiful morning. The sky was endless blue except for a few fluffy clouds over the mountainous horizon which were shaded a light pink by the still rising sun. As I relaxed and took care of the business at hand, I was struck by the beauty of the surroundings once more. I could hear birds, the sound of the animals in the barnyard and somewhere in the distance, I heard the sound of an engine. That sound alone was unnatural, but even as I concentrated on it, it seemed to fade away.
I walked a few feet back toward the cabin and drew a deep breath. There was the smell of wet grass, a trace of the smell of wood smoke, even a soft infusion of the smell of cattle and pigs, but the blend itself was marvellous. Then I smelled another trace of odour, a stench. Somewhere nearby there was a skunk. I just smiled and hoped it wasn't too near. That was a smell I didn't care to even think about having nearby. Still, as long as he stayed away from the chicken coop, I wasn't going to bother with him, not in any way!
Smiling to myself, I walked back to the cabin and stepped inside. The odour of fresh perked coffee struck me instantly. Carissa must have woken and put it on. Just then she came dancing back in the back door, grinning widely, but not wearing a stitch of clothing.
Damn, she was gorgeous.
"The grass is all wet!" She squeaked in a high voice, grabbing a towel and dancing on one foot as she wiped the other. "My feet are soaked."
"Well what did you expect?" I broke into laughter and lifted a foot to show her my shoe as I balanced on the foot in the cast.
"Don't do that! You shouldn't stand on the wrong foot like that." Her grin was replaced by a frown for an instant, but at the same time she reached out to turn down the heat on the coffee.
"Hey, it doesn't hurt." I laughed, then stepped toward her and wrapped her in my arms.
"Mmm." She murmured and snuggled for a few seconds.
"Sorry I woke you." I bent and kissed her forehead.
"I didn't mind." She grinned and twisted her face up toward mine.
Her lips were simply too enticing and I was soon kissing them. For the next moment or two we simply enveloped each other in our arms and sought to express a love that was growing between us, then finally she pulled her head back. Her eyes were soft and staring deeply into mine, a sweet smile tracing her lips.
"Morning, Lover." She whispered.
"Good morning to you too." I grinned.
"Mmm." She grinned. "Looking at you, along with the feelings I'm having, perhaps I shouldn't have made coffee yet?"
"I've drunk stale coffee before." I grinned back at her.
"No, I really want to talk first." She suddenly looked a lot more serious. "Last night was so good it was scary."
"What is there to be scared about?" I managed to smile although her words put my mind on alert to possible problems.
"Well, I've got to tell you that I'm getting to feel very darn serious about the two of us and it's worrying me." She looked tentative, almost fearful. "I hadn't planned on . . ."
I didn't let her finish, instead I covered her lips with mine as I scooped her up in my arms and tried to carry her toward the bedroom. For just an instant she stiffened in my arms, then she was kissing me as fiercely as I was kissing her. After only a second she fought clear of my kiss as I lost balance slightly and bumped against the doorframe to the bedroom. Now she was laughing as I managed the last couple of steps to the bed, then collapsed onto it with her still in my arms.
An instant later the kiss resumed, then we were fiercely making love.
By the time we made our way back to the kitchen and were checking the coffee pot, it only held a horrid looking thick syrup that I threw out as Carissa laughed gaily.
"I guess we wasted that, huh?" She giggled, snuggling against my side as I rinsed the pot and refilled it.
"No." I laughed as I wrapped an arm around her and put the pot back on the little kerosene stove, turning the heat back up. "We invested it."
"Invested it?"
"Unh huh." I kissed her lightly, then pulled her into a tight hug. "I was reassuring my woman that I love her too much to worry about getting closer than either of us had planned."
"But what about our plans for the future? I still want to train as a nurse and I'm willing to bet you still want more education too. Besides, we're still awful young to be a couple." She had both hands on my shoulders, holding herself so she could watch my face and I could see hers.
"Honey, I am not about to try to predict the future. Right now I want to simply enjoy the present." I smiled and tried to project a feeling of confidence.
"But, I thought we were just going to . . . well, explore the feeling of being a couple. I didn't think this was going to get so serious."
"Do you really mind?" I cupped a soft breast in one hand as I held her gently with my other arm.
"Hey, stop that, or we'll end up wasting another pot of coffee." She pushed my hand away from her breast, but at least she was smiling now. "I really don't mind, but it does complicate everything a lot."
"How does it complicate things?" I grinned and moved my hand so I could grasp hers. "You want to train as a nurse and I support that idea completely. No problems at all. I would like to know more about electronics, but right now this ranch is much more important to me."
I sighed and frowned then because I was changing the subject a bit. "I'll be honest, I don't think Grampa Bender will be coming back to live here. Someone has to look after the place and I've put myself in that position willingly. I volunteered because I've always loved it up here. In fact, if it came down to a choice between having a permanent chance to take over this place or getting more education, I'd make the choice of living here."
"You would?" She stared at me in surprise.
"Yep!" I nodded slowly. "I would."
"But, your grandad has lived here for years and it sure doesn't look to me like he did all that well. I mean, it's nice, but I can't see that he made a killing or anything." She waved a hand to include the whole place.
"Ah, but Grampa Bender has shown about as much ambition as old Duke. As long as his belly was full and the roof didn't leak, he was happy. I think the only thing he ever devoted much time to was making a little whiskey." I smiled as I explained. "I'm a bit different; I like to work. As well as that, I like to plan for the future. In other words, I'm ambitious. Grampa Bender never was really ambitious. He saw a great opportunity here and grabbed it, then just sat on his laurels and watched life go on around him."
"I don't understand? I thought you loved him." She frowned at me.
"Oh, I do." I had to laugh at her frown. "However, he's like a ten-year-old kid. He's always had lots of dreams and hopes, but he's never been disciplined enough to do anything about them. The smartest thing he did was to establish the lease on the whole valley from here to Dad's and Uncle Tom's place. The rent on that has paid for him to live here. All he's ever had to do was raise enough food to live on; everything else came without him having to work hard for it."
"So, do you think you could make enough here to support a family?"
"Yeah, I do, even if I had to pay rent on the property." I smiled. "It wouldn't be easy, but I could do it. However, I do know that Grampa Bender's will treat Tom, Will, Beth and I really well because of the time we've spent with him and helping out, so I think I might be able to rent this part of the place fairly cheaply"
"Oh, I was wondering, he does have a will?"
"Oh yeah and he had plans to change the lease when it was renegotiated a year from next January as well. He really didn't like the idea that Dad and Uncle Tom actually ended up paying the people who lived in the city and didn't put any work into the place themselves. He was going to change that somehow, but I'm not sure just what the changes were to be."
We sat and discussed the future and what each of us really expected to do for a while, but it wasn't long before we decided it was time to do something else that was more productive.
After breakfast and doing the morning chores, we decided to work on the fencing again. I decided to work our way around the opposite way that we had gone when we surveyed the work that had to be done however. That would put us at the swimming hole by lunch time if I had estimated the work we had to do correctly. While Carissa made a light lunch to take along, I snuck a couple of towels and a blanket into a box and put it in the back of the jeep
In actual fact, we both worked a little harder than I'd expected and we were there early. By eleven o'clock we were both stripping off our clothes and wading into the lukewarm water. Carissa argued about my going in while I was wearing the cast, but I ignored her arguments, telling her that even if I couldn't swim, I could wade. It was worth it to me just to see her swimming and enjoying herself as we both really washed ourselves thoroughly for the first time in days. However as I got out of the pool afterward, I was astounded at the amount of water that poured out of my cast.
"I'll bet you'll be sorry you went in the water like that." She pointed at my cast and frowned.
"I doubt it." I grinned at her as I leaned one arm against a tree for balance and swung the leg in the cast back and forth vigorously.
"What in heck are you doing?" She snickered. "You can't shake that cast off you know."
"I'm not trying to shake it off, all I'm doing is using centrifugal force to drive as much water out as I can." I grinned back at her. "Then I'm going to lie on the bank and let the sun bake it dry, after all, it's just fibreglass."
"Eww, you'll get all grubby from laying on the ground."
"No, I won't." I laughed, walking over to the jeep and pulling out the blanket and towels.
"You smart ass, you had this planned." She squealed, grabbing the biggest towel away from me.
"Unh huh." I laughed again, spreading the blanket on the grass in the full sunlight. "Now, lunch first or do I get to make love to you first."
"Now? Out here in the open?" Her eyes got huge as she paused wiping with the towel and stared at me.
"Why not?" I tried to look offended, but my grin killed that attempt, so did my developing erection.
I'm not sure what I expected her to say, but I certainly didn't expect to get tackled and knocked back onto the blanket by a wild woman. Seconds later I was on my back and she was straddling my body. If I'd thought she was enthusiastic about making love before, I soon learned better. That afternoon she managed to wear me out thoroughly.
By that evening she had to help me to put away the more easily damaged fencing tools and then help me to do the evening chores. After that she insisted I simply sit while she made something for us to eat. I didn't even have the energy to argue. After we'd eaten, she astounded me by pulling a can of dog food out of the bottom cupboard.
"Want to come down to the creek along with me?" She asked quietly. "I want to see if that female dog needs anything to eat."
"Where did you get that?" I pointed at the can, knowing that Grampa Bender only kept dry dog food around for Duke.
"I bought it." She grinned. "I called on the vet while you were at the doctor's office and he suggested I try it. If I can get her used to the idea of being fed, I can dose her food with antibiotics, if nothing else. He thinks I might even be able to tame her and the pup."
"But what will you do if you do tame her?"
"Well . . ." She grinned widely. ". . . I've always wanted a dog."
"But . . ."
"Shh." She set the can down, then came over and slipped into my lap. "You might as well give up, Buster. This is one argument you aren't about to win."
So, after a short session of necking with her, we called Duke inside and fed him, then closed the door to keep him inside. After that I followed along with Carissa as we walked down to the creek again. She didn't hide this time, even if she did approach the den quietly. Neither the pup nor the Collie bitch were outside the den, but she put down a brand-new dog dish and emptied the can of dog food into it and sprinkled a bit of antibiotic powder over it, then we slipped away, going back to the cabin.
We stayed there for an hour or more, quietly talking and keeping Duke inside, then we wandered back down and slipped to our hands and knees to peek down the bank. Carissa gave a tiny squeak as she first looked down and saw that the food dish was now empty. After checking to be sure that both the pup and the bitch weren't anywhere she could see them, she slipped down and picked up the food dish, carrying it back to the cabin with us.
We'd hardly gotten inside when Mom was calling on the CB to see how we were doing. It took a while to tell her about everything that had happened in the last few days. She'd already known about our taking Corinna to town. It seemed Corinna had called there the night before. She'd also heard about our little run in with Sid and Ray. The main reason she'd called though was to invite us to come down on Sunday for lunch. Then she suggested we spend the afternoon and invited us to stay for a fried chicken dinner early in the evening, that way we'd still be able to get back in time to do our chores before too late. We agreed, then said good night.
After talking to Mom, we went out on the front porch and had our evening coffee. I was surprised that Carissa wanted to go to bed so early again, but once more after we'd finished our coffees, we were off to the bedroom. That night I was too tired to do much more than cuddle my lover and even Carissa seemed sated. Once more we fell asleep early.
The following two days were very similar. Each time we woke early, talked for a while, then went to work on the fence. Each day Carissa had a swim and I cleaned up before we had lunch. I didn't wade in the water again, instead I stayed on the shore and washed as much as I could while keeping my cast dry. I'd found that it was really hard to get the cast dry and I wasn't about to make it any worse.
However, both that day and the next, I worked out our time so that we spent most of the afternoon relaxing and making love in the bright sunshine. Actually Saturday was a very short workday. We only worked for an hour or so in the morning because we were done with the fence repairs. Then we took a while discussing what we wanted to do about the other fence, the one separating the upper ranch from the drop off. I actually drove the jeep out across the open area, pointing out the portion of the flat area that was extremely wet for most of the year. After that we spent most of our day lazing in the sun, but Carissa had decided not to go swimming, so I'd driven us up onto the top of the hill on the west side of the ranch again.
We were back to the cabin early and we'd even eaten earlier than normal. On top of that, there was a change in the Collie's actions. By Saturday evening the bitch trusted Carissa enough that she'd hardly started up the bank after setting the food down when the Collie came out to eat. Carissa was actually able to stand and watch as she wolfed down the dog food, then licked the bowl clean. All the time she was eating Carissa was talking softly to her and it didn't seem to bother her a bit. We hadn't seen the pup again until that evening and even then all we saw was its nose at the edge of the den, but that was enough to let us know it was alive and must have still been doing okay.
That evening we sat on the porch far later than the two previous evenings and to our surprise, Duke didn't leave us. He still didn't want to stay inside the cabin that night, but we weren't really trying to encourage him to come inside either. We were much more interested in each other.
Sunday morning we slept in slightly, but since we'd been rather energetic the evening before that wasn't a surprise. After doing the morning chores, we saddled both horses, then went for a short ride, just to keep them from getting too restive. I knew that if a horse wasn't ridden fairly often it would get frisky and with a busted leg, I wasn't up to sitting on a bucking bronc. Actually, my gelding crow hopped a couple of times when Carissa swung into the saddle, but to my surprise it never fazed her a bit.
"Dammit, woman, we're gonna make a rancher out of you yet." I teased and praised her at the same time.
She just stuck her tongue out at me and grinned.
After that short ride, we cleaned up, changed our clothes and drove down home.
It felt rather strange to drive into the yard at home again. Dad and Wil were out on the front porch with Tom and George, but we'd hardly gotten out of the car when Mom, Beth and the two McAdam twins came outside as well. I'd wondered if Sandy would still be there, but it seemed she'd had to go to work after only staying for a day or two.
When we were almost finished eating lunch, Carissa began to talk about the Collie and the pup. So I thought I'd mention the fact that I'd been telling Grampa Bender about the Collie and how he'd instantly changed the subject to talk about Mrs MacArthur.
"Oh, but she raises pure bred Collies." Beth said instantly.
"She does?" I questioned.
"Unh huh." Mom agreed. "Uncle Toby has been acting quite friendly toward her for the last couple of years. Perhaps it might be one of her dogs?"
"Does she have a telephone?" Carissa asked instantly.
"Oh, she must have one." Mom smiled. "Her first name is Leila, I believe."
"Come on, I'll help you look." Beth suggested to Carissa and they were off with the McAdam twins right behind them.
"Talking about telephones, Jason Dumfries is finally having telephone and Hydro run into his ranch." Dad said quietly. "The line will run just along the top edge of Grampa Bender's homestead."
"Oh?" I looked at him in surprise, immediately jumping to the conclusion that it would be possible to run in power to the cabin.
"Tom and I talked it over and we're willing to argue with the other leaseholders that running a hydro and telephone line down to the cabin should come out of this year's lease. Since it doesn't look like Grampa Bender will be able to come home without someone there to look after him, we'll have to have power there. With that new line running past the edge of the property, it's now affordable, and the basic cost to get the supply to the cabin will come out of the general improvements budget. We're sure that we'll be able to talk everyone into covering the cost of materials to wire the house and the barn as well, but we think we'd have to get someone else to do the wiring. What do you think?"
"Oh, come on, Dad. Don't be silly. I'm all for it."
"Good." George grinned at me. "Dad and I will be up to do the wiring sometime next week. The only thing we can't do is hook up the lines from the house and barn to the supply; that will cost you about a hundred bucks when hydro does it."
"I'll sure cover that." I offered.
"Oh no, since you're only looking after the place the farm is still in Toby's name and that's part of the cost of supplying power." Dad shook his head and grinned. "In fact, if we can get Toby to sign for it, we need to set it up at the bank so even the cost of the power used every month comes out of his account. If we can't get him to sign for it, Tom and I do have a limited power of attorney and I think in this case we'd need to use it. No matter what happens, at the very worst, all you might have to pay for now is whatever George and his Dad charge for their work."
"Well, I can't say about Dad, but I'm working for nothing." George declared. "I imagine you'll be helping Dad and me won't you?"
"Well, what do I have to do, other than that?" I asked as I nodded toward George.
"Well, if you want to, you can lay out a straight line from somewhere in the middle of the yard to the road along the northern boundary of Toby's homestead. Then you could clear all the trees and brush for twenty-five feet on each side of the line. That would cut down on the charge from Hydro." Dad grinned again.
"That's easy enough." I grinned. "The only place I'll really have any trees or brush to cut is on each side of the creek, then up the grade on the far side. The road is only a hundred yards or so from the top of the hill."
"Well, don't forget, Hydro wants all the trees and brush cleared off of the right of way. You'll have to pile it and either burn it or drag it away somewhere else, but it can't stay underfoot when they come in to put in the poles and string the lines."
"How about crossing the creek, Dad?"
"Chris, I don't know. I'll tell you what, Tom and I are going into town tomorrow to talk to them, do you want to go along with us?"
"You're on." I grinned. "What time will I need to be there and where should I meet you?"
"We planned on being at their office at eleven. Will that suit you?"
"Like I said, you're on. We need some groceries anyway, so I'll get Carissa to drop me off there before she goes shopping."
After that talk fell into a discussion of exactly how the logistics of Hydro's work could be tied in with the work around the farm for a while. That was because Tom, Wil and George all wanted to help in any way they could. Dad just looked at me and grinned, then a few minutes later he broke into the conversation.
"Okay everyone, the power thing will work out I'm sure. I thought by now you'd have mentioned that other thing you young bucks have been working on."
"Oh." Tom grinned at him. "That's right. Chris, we've had a weird development with the stock car and we thought you'd like to see what's happened."
I just frowned and looked at their faces, wondering what the heck was going on. All of them were grinning, even Dad, so I knew it couldn't be trouble of any sort.
"Okay. What's going on?"
All of the younger guys just grinned and looked at Dad.
"Well, it looks like they want me to tell you." He sighed as if it was a problem. "You know I've wanted to build a new equipment shed for years don't you?"
"Yeah, so what does that have to do with the stock car?"
"Well, we got financing for the shed from the bank for the new equipment shed and your little shed was right where I'm going to want to build it. We moved it this week."
"Oh? Where is it now?"
"We really didn't have anyplace to put it, but Tom and his father had a suggestion." Dad sighed and waved at Tom. "Tom?"
"Oh? Umm, you know that alkali spot in the bush down near the corner of our place?"
"The one that floods so much?"
"Not any more it won't." George laughed. "We kinda drained that."
"What's this got to do with the stock car?"
"Well, I think the best thing to do is to show him." Wil chuckled.
Just then Carissa came rushing into the room. "Chris, that dog belongs to Grampa Bender, but it shouldn't have a pup, it was supposed to be fixed. Mrs. MacArthur is mad at her vet about that."
Of course that spun the conversation off into another direction for a while. But, we were only held up for a few minutes before the whole group climbed into cars and trucks to drive over to Tom's dad's place to see just what they had done. I tried to see the slough they had talked about from the road, but I couldn't see it at all. In fact we had to drive into the farmyard and then down a dusty trail into the bush to see anything. When we drove out of the willows and other bush and into the flats, I didn't even notice that old shed at first.
Instead, all I could see was the fact that there was now a dirt track where the old slough had been. My friends and family had built a practice track, hidden in the bush.