Chapter Forty Two - Use Right Lane for Alternate Route
"I'm sure Carissa won't be back here tonight." Sandy repeated.
I stood there speechless, simply staring into her eyes, wondering what I was going to do.
"I didn't realize that." I managed to say. "She picked one hell of a day to play hooky, but I'll wager she still expects us to get together."
"What do you mean? It's the perfect chance." She was frowning and looked like she was ready to cry.
"No, not really it isn't." I sighed. "Just for fun, let's review the day. What time did we get out of bed this morning?"
"You rolled out of bed early, before five, took one look outside, then got us up and we worked all day."
"Right, we rushed through chores, rushed through breakfast and rushed out to the field in order to try to finish picking up the bales. We had a hurried bite to eat for lunch, then rushed right back out in the field again." I sighed. "We worked our asses off all day long, then ran down home and helped out Mom and Dad before we really ate a decent meal. Now we've been rushing around again, taking Carissa to town and getting back home. What time is it anyway?"
"About eleven." She said quietly.
"Holy crap, that means we've been up for around eighteen hours, and working for about fourteen or fifteen of those. It seems that Carissa has decided to leave me alone with you for the night, but I'm not sure why. She chose a night when I'm so pooped, I can't pop, or to put it in other words, I'm exhausted." I leaned down and kissed her lips lightly. "Heck, I don't know if I can even walk to the bedroom and manage to undress before I fall asleep, let alone do a decent job of making love to someone."
"Oh." She whimpered.
"Sandy, you're a gorgeous woman. On top of that, you're a virgin. You deserve a wonderful first time and I know that I'm too damn tired tonight to do that sort of thing justice." I hugged her tightly.
"You're not turning me down then?"
"Nope, I'm not." I sighed, then chuckled. "If you insist, I'll be your first, but I still worry about the future because of possible complications."
"I worry too, but I'm willing to take things one day at a time." She sighed. "Let's go to bed and talk there. I'm really tired myself, but I need a cuddle. I hope you don't mind doing that."
I bent and kissed her, cupping her soft bottom in my hands, but it was a short kiss. We moved to the bedroom and undressed for bed.
"Jeez, look at all the scratches on my arms." Sandy held out both hands, rolling them from side to side.
Both of her wrists and lower arms were quite heavily marked by small scratches and she had a few tiny blisters on each hand.
"What happened, and why didn't you say anything?" I frowned. "You were wearing a long sleeved shirt and gloves; did you take them off for a while or something?"
"No, but nothing I was wearing fit quite right. Both the shirt and the gloves were awfully big on me" She sighed. "Your mom did put some ointment on all my scratches, but she didn't want to bandage them. She said they'd heal faster if they were left open."
"Damn, you should have said something to me before."
"No." She said flatly. "If I'd said something, you'd have stopped to look after my piddly little scratches and we wouldn't have gotten all the hay in the shed. Let's just go to bed."
"Kitchen first, we need to treat those hands, especially the blisters."
"But I don't want to go to bed with you stinking of ointment."
"I don't plan on using a stinky ointment. Didn't you see that big Aloe plant in the kitchen window? It's there to treat scratches, burns and stuff like that. Grampa Bender kept it just to treat small wounds. I don't know why it works, but it does."
It took some argument, but in the long run I won out. We took the time to cut a leaf from the aloe plant and rub the juice on her scratches and blisters. By the time I was done, she was a believer in what the plant could do, because the sap was soon giving her relief from the irritation. Then, as soon as we were done, I herded her to the bedroom and into bed.
We really didn't get a chance to talk much. She fell asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow, but I wasn't able to stay awake long either. When I fell asleep she was cuddled tightly in my arms.
*
I awoke to her eyes staring deeply into mine.
"Hi sexy." She grinned at me. "I'd love to stay here, but we slept in. I need to run to the outhouse and I'll bet the animals aren't happy about us being late."
"Well, I suppose we needed the sleep." I managed a smile, then kissed her nose before I started to pull away.
"Hey, you missed." She squawked, grabbing me and kissing me on the lips for a second.
"And I want a better kiss later." She laughed as she rolled out of the bed on the other side, grabbing a robe and some shoes before running out the bedroom door.
I heard the back door slam as I got out of bed and pulled on my clothes. I was in the kitchen, putting the coffee pot on the stove when Sandy came dashing back inside.
"Hey, I'll make breakfast, while you go look after the animals, but wear a coat, it's raining."
"I know, but it's only a drizzle." I grinned at her. "I had to go as well, so I was already outside for a minute or two."
"Oh, yeah. I forgot for a second that you had more accessible plumbing." She giggled. "Anyway, go do your darn chores, I'll get dressed, then have eggs and bacon ready so we can eat when you come back inside."
I was just grabbing a coat when the phone rang. Since I was nearby, I grabbed it.
"Hello."
"Good morning, lover. How are you this morning?" Carissa asked.
"Just fine. Both Sandy and I flopped into bed and slept like logs, in fact we just woke up. We haven't even done the chores or had breakfast."
"You're kidding me, aren't you?" She squeaked.
"You heard me." I laughed. "I think you forgot that we both worked our butts off yesterday. We were both worn out and Sandy's hands were bothering her."
"Oh Hell. I should have thought of that." She sighed. "I guess it won't matter though. Mom and Dad are off to see if we can find your brother today and I'm going along to try to stop Dad from killing Wil when we find them. I probably won't see you until tomorrow sometime."
"Would you explain that? What's Wil done now?"
"Sorry, I guess you haven't heard. Late yesterday afternoon, he dropped by to visit Corinna and they went out for a walk around the grounds at the hospital. Only they didn't come back last night." Carissa sounded disappointed, not angry. "I don't think either one of them knew about it, but Mom and Dad were going up there tomorrow to accept Corinna's release into their care. That was one of the main reasons for the barbecue that Uncle Frank has planned on Sunday, a welcome back for Corinna. Now we don't know what's going on and Dad is furious. Mom isn't in much better shape. For once I think I'm the calmest one in the house."
"That sounds like a change." I snorted.
"Yeah, Mom says you're a good influence on my temper." I could hear the grin in her voice.
"So, what did they think of you staying there and leaving us come home alone? Or did you tell them that was what you'd done?"
"I think they've decided that I'm a gambler, but they've also decided they won't interfere." She sighed. "I think they've grown used to me being independent. The funny thing was that none of what's happened was a surprise to either one of them. That shocks me because I thought I was so good about hiding my feelings about ... things."
"You mean about women?" I couldn't help chuckling softly.
"Yes, dammit." She snorted. "Anyway, we're leaving soon and I thought I should let you know what was going on."
"Before you hang up, do you need any help?"
"No, we don't want to go bananas over this. After all, we know Wil isn't a nut or anything. Mom phoned your parents a few minutes ago to find out if they'd seen Corinna and Wil, but she turned down their offer to help too." She'd suddenly become very serious. "We'd like you and your folks to have someone stick around the house, just in case they show up there. We'll call you every once in a while to let you know what we've found and to check if they showed up down here. I know it's probably a pain in the butt, because you'd like to get some more work done, but ..."
"Hey, that's no problem." I interrupted her. "It's drizzling rain here, so I can't do too much outside work anyway. There's a phone at the barn too, remember? So even if I do some work out there, it won't be a problem. Are you sure there isn't anything else we can do?"
"No, I don't think so." She sighed. "Before you hang up though, is Sandy up and around?"
"Sure. Would you like to talk to her?"
"Yes, please, you dough head. Why else would I ask?"
"Okay, here she is. I'll talk to you later then."
"Okay, Chris. See ya later."
I handed the phone to Sandy who was back and dressed. "We're going to have to stick around the buildings today. It seems Wil and Corinna may have run off, but I'll let Carissa explain what's going on."
As she took the phone, I grabbed a coat and went to care for the animals. When I went outside, it wasn't really rainy as much as misty, a heavy mist, the sort that soaks through almost any coat. Grampa Bender would have called it a 'Scotch Mist' and he disliked this sort of weather as much as I did and do. He used to say that when you had to work out in a 'Scotch Mist', you might as well be nude, because the humidity was so high that your own sweat built up inside your clothing. That usually made you almost as wet as the mist would have made you without clothes, but added the stench of stale sweat to make you even more uncomfortable.
After doing the chores, I was standing in the doorway of the barn, looking out at the mist, and feeling glad I'd told Carissa I'd stay near the phone, simply because of the weather. That's when I thought about the fact that I was literally setting myself up to spend the day in extremely close contact with Sandy for an indefinite period. I knew where that was going to lead and I also knew that since we'd both slept well, I wasn't going to be able to plead exhaustion again. I'd also made a promise to her that I would have sex.
I sighed at that, wondering if my fear of being sexually involved with another woman was rational or not. My main problem was that this was the first time that I'd ever asked my parents for advice when it hadn't been forthcoming. I felt slightly insecure, probably more insecure than I'd felt about any decision I'd been forced to make in several years and I certainly wasn't enjoying the feeling.
So I took a moment to lean back against the barn door and think about what effect my almost certain dalliance with Sandy would have, not only on me, but on the people I cared about.
I decided that since Carissa was literally forcing me into the situation, she'd be happy for now, but I couldn't predict what her future feelings would be. I knew without a doubt that having another person involved in our relationship was going to change our attitudes toward each other in some way and at some point of time. However, I couldn't predict exactly how our relationship was going to change. I really didn't want to lose the closeness we had built up with each other though. Probably my greatest fear was that having Sandy involved in our relationship would cause a split between us. I really didn't want that to happen, at least not now.
From the way she was acting, Sandy was completely happy with the situation and wanted to be involved in a three-way love affair. I had absolutely no frame of reference to use in order to understand her feelings about multiple spouses and polygamous marriages. Her idea of being a 'second' wife had astounded me when she mentioned it, and it still did. I could not fathom why a gorgeous woman would take second place to any other woman, not when she could easily find a man of her own. She'd made it plain that she didn't know if a three-way love affair would last, but that she still wanted to try. For some reason, I was less worried about Sandy, and it wasn't just because of the relative closeness of either of them. Somehow Sandy just seemed more resilient than Carissa did.
I suppose in order of importance, I placed my family next on my list of worries. Mom and Dad had literally let me know that the decision of what to do was mine, so I knew they'd back me, no matter what I did. Surprisingly, that didn't lessen my worries one iota. I also knew that Wil and Beth wouldn't turn away from me, but I felt that each of them would simply decide that I was being crazier than normal. The only other family member I worried about was Tom. I knew he really liked Sandy, but since he was now involved with her younger sisters, I felt that was a non-issue.
From what Carissa had said before, then confirmed on the phone this morning, her parents might not have been in favour of the situation, but they hadn't really been surprised. It seemed almost as if they were standing back and shaking their heads over the issue, but right now they were more concerned over Corinna and Wil. I decided that both issues were something that concerned Carissa more than me. Wil was family, but both his age and the fact that he was really only my half-brother set us apart, and somehow I had managed to isolate my feelings from any hurt caused by Corinna's actions. I knew it wasn't 'nice' on my part, but her mental instability made me feel uncomfortable, and since I didn't know how to expect her to act, I held back from being involved with her in any way. Considering all the factors, the only person in Carissa's family who concerned me was her uncle, Frank Dolens, since he was my sponsor and friend. After a moment's thought, I wasn't really worried about him either, because I felt he was a 'live and let live' sort of person.
Sandy's parents simply didn't bother me at all. I felt that Sam McAdam was a manipulative misogynist and bully. I really didn't care what he thought. At the same time I felt her mother was a manipulator as well, but on top of that, she was a social climber, so I wasn't impressed with her either. Actually, I felt that Mom and Beth had done more to improve Sandy's life than her own family had, and at the same time, had done the same thing for Sandy's younger sisters.
After all that thought, I was still left with the same conundrum. To be honest, I couldn't see any way not to become involved with Sandy, not without hurting her feelings and annoying Carissa at the same time. That was especially true, since Carissa had engineered the present situation.
Shaking my head and laughing somewhat uncomfortably at my own reluctance, I faced the inevitable and set out to walk across the yard to the cabin. Talk about mixed feelings, wow, did I ever have them! On one hand I was fearful of the end results, but on the other hand I was actually looking forward the idea of being involved with Sandy. At the same time I was anxious, perhaps even a bit worried, about dealing with her virginity; the idea of causing anyone any sort of pain really bothered me.
All of that dropped out of my mind when I opened the door and stepped into the cabin. Sandy was standing at the stove, frying eggs and bacon. All she was wearing was an apron with a high bib to protect herself from grease spatters, leaving her back and butt completely bare. She had the radio on loud and was swaying in time to the music; I think it was the Monkees, singing 'Daydream Believer,' but that doesn't matter. Because she was concentrating on the music and the breakfast, she wasn't paying attention to the sounds I made as I was coming inside.
For a moment I just stood there and stared at her, mostly watching that soft round butt as it wriggled so enticingly, then I think I may have groaned. Whatever happened, she realized I was there and she turned her head to look over her shoulder.
"Easy over, right?" She looked at me and grinned. "And I mean your eggs, not me."
"Unh yeah." I managed a weak grin.
"Just so you know, I'm a sunny side up woman, at least for now." She giggled, then she waggled her head toward the sink. "Wash up first, then before you get too wound up, we need to talk, but we can do that while we're eating."
"I think talking is a good idea." I finally found my tongue. "I'm still not convinced that we should all live together when we go to Calgary."
"Hold that for the table, would you? I want this breakfast to be perfect and I'm not that great a cook."
"You look good to me." I laughed as I washed up.
"That's just hormones talking." She giggled, then shivered slightly.
"Are you cold?"
"No, excited." She giggled again. "Now shut up and sit down at the table. I don't want to bust the yolks of these eggs when I'm putting them on the plate."
So, I towelled off and sat down. In only a moment she was setting the plates of bacon and eggs on the table along with lightly browned toast, and fresh coffee. She waited until I'd taken a couple of bites and had given her a thumbs up sign while chowing down on the food. Then she sat down opposite me, but only after taking off the apron. The sight of her body, and the food in front of me, practically guaranteed I wasn't going to say much for a moment. I'm not sure what the difference was, because I'd seen her nude before, but that morning, she wasn't just nude, she was somehow both naked and available.
"Carissa and I had a nice chat on the phone while you were doing the chores." She grinned at me. "She suggested how I should dress and thought you'd like it."
"Umm hmm!" I nodded my head and took a deep breath to calm myself. "Is it alright if I talk now?"
"Oh yes, that's the idea of sitting here and having breakfast together."
"Good, because I've been thinking about the three of us for several days and probably seemed to you to be waffling and indecisive, but I didn't want to make a huge mistake."
"We noticed that you weren't acting like you normally would." She nodded.
"That's not completely true, I do become preoccupied at times, particularly if I have a personal problem to solve. This is a huge one, so I've just been thinking a lot. I've even let Carissa pressure me much more than normal, but that's not surprising. After all, my mind has been occupied, so I let her get away wityh it." I sighed. "To put it plainly, I believe the three of us will be causing problems for ourselves if we all live together. Society accepts couples and rejects anything else. Even bachelors get given a rough time, but that's nothing to what polygamists can expect to have happen."
"We realize that, and we think we're prepared, but we have each other for support. Think of it this way; any couple can support each other, but by adding one more person, the support doubles."
"That only works if the three people agree on everything. Even Carissa and I don't agree on everything, so why would the three of us all agree?" I shook my head slowly. "My biggest worry is the possibility that all of us will get into a huge fight and that will cause problems for everyone. In other words, we could all end up getting hurt out of this."
"Actually, that's one of the first things that Carissa and I discussed. Both of us think it's worth the risk." She sighed softly. "She also said that I was to make sure that you understood that neither one of us is trying to get you to marry us, at least not right now. We need to get to know each other much better first. Don't you agree?"
"I suppose so." I finally managed to say, after thinking for a few seconds. "But, my biggest worry is still that one or more of us will get badly hurt."
"Hey, I was talking to your Grampa in the hospital one day and even he told me told me that 'Life doesn't come with a guarantee.' I liked that idea, but I've added to that saying."
"Oh?"
"Unh huh. I changed it a bit too. I think the saying should be: 'The only way that you can guarantee any happiness in your life is if you're willing to take the risk of being unhappy.' That covers a lot more area and makes more sense to me, especially in our situation."
"So you're saying that you're willing to risk being unhappy later for a good time now?"
"Absolutely." She grinned. "It's raining enough today to make work a pain, so I think it's an ideal time for us to get to know each other ... in bed."
"Well, what about the phone? I did promise Carissa I'd answer it when she called."
"Oh, after you ran off to look after the animals, she said to tell you that she probably wouldn't call until after they'd driven up to Ponoka, then talked to the people at the hospital. She thought that would be about noon, so we have almost two hours before we need to worry about her calling and disturbing us. Now, is there anything else that you want to talk about?"
"Well, I think we should develop a smoke screen of sorts, to keep the snoops and rumour mongers out of our hair." I shrugged my shoulders. "Other than that, I think we're going to have to play it by ear."
"Oh, well the other day, when we went into town, Carissa and I sort of set up an excuse for me to stay here. Mom was upset with me, because she felt nothing had happened by then. I don't know, I guess she thought I'd manage to magically seduce you the instant the three of us were alone or something. That led into a fight about a family matter that she and I have argued about for years. So when I walked out of the house to meet Carissa, she and I were still screaming at each other. Carissa got us apart and told me that I could stay with you two for a while. One of the neighbourhood gossips saw the whole fight, at least the part while we were outside."
"Well, that probably won't stop the rumours, but it might slow them down somewhat, or at least misdirect them."
"That's what we thought; in fact we sort of set up a plan like that on the drive back from town." She grinned. "The idea was that when we're in the public eye, you and I would appear to barely tolerate each other, but both of us would still be friendly toward Carissa. Maybe you didn't notice, but we tried to set that idea up with your folks last night too, at least a little bit."
"You did?"
"Yes, didn't you notice the tone I used when I was talking to you or how Carissa was always close to you, while I backed away a bit? I didn't sit next to you when we drove away, in fact I didn't even snuggle against you in the car, not until we were leaving town and no one could really see me."
"Sorry, but no, I didn't notice, but then I'd probably shot your idea down by that time, considering what I'd told Dad." I rolled my hands out flat and palms up, to show that I was nonplussed. "Of course at the time, I was concentrating on the problems we could run into. Even more than that though, I was worried about what Mom and Dad would think, so I suppose I wasn't paying as much attention to you and Carissa as I should have."
"Oh no, it worked out perfectly. It was your Mom that we were concentrating on, trying to give the impression that everything wasn't as peaceful as it should be between us." She shrugged her shoulders and smiled slightly. "I'm not sure, but I think she saw what we wanted her to see. In fact, I think she might even be under the impression that Carissa is leading you by the nose."
"That'll be the day." I snorted. "She has a habit of deferring to me, or haven't you noticed."
"Yeah, I have, she does it even more than I do." Sandy laughed. "Actually, it's funny as hell. You two look like you're consulting with each other, but you almost always get your way. The only things I've seen her really get her back up about, are things concerning me. It's so strange, because she was always the boss of anything she was involved in at school, but here she's totally different."
"Well, she claims that I'm dominant and that she's only here because of that, but she told me something different before, when we first got together."
"That's not a surprise." Sandy shrugged her shoulders. "She was probably worried about exposing her weakness to you until she felt she could trust you more. I think she got forced into admitting the truth when I showed up. But to get back to you and me, do you have anything else that's bothering you right now?"
"No, I think you've pretty well covered the worries I had." I grinned.
"Then to hell with washing the breakfast dishes right now." She giggled. "Come on, I want to get into that bed and see what I've been missing."
With that she leapt to her feet and reached out her hand to me. In a second she was dragging me toward the bedroom.
I'm not going to say too much about the next two hours, but I must say that Sandy was a surprise in bed. What little experience she had was multiplied a hundred times by her sheer enthusiasm and pure energy. In a way, I was relieved when the telephone rang shortly after noon. Sandy had been almost insatiable. I suppose I was panting for breath when I answered the phone.
"Hello."
"Chris? Is that you? Is something wrong?" It was Mom.
"Unh uh, just had to run to get the phone. I thought it was Carissa calling." I was fighting to catch my breath.
"Oh, she might be calling you soon, but everything is okay. Wil and Corinna went for a long drive yesterday and had problems with the truck. They were up in the foothills, on a back road and miles from anywhere, when his truck broke something in the steering. He said he broke a tie rod or something? Anyway, he lost his steering, so they ended up in the ditch and had to walk. They managed to find an old trapper, but he didn't have a phone or headlights on his truck and it was getting dark by then, so they spent the night in his cabin. Then early this morning they went back with the trapper's truck and managed to pull Wil's pickup back out of the ditch. After they had it on the road, Wil wired the broken part together well enough to drive if they took it easy. They managed to creep along at about ten miles an hour until they got to a service station that had the parts he needed to fix the steering."
"Oh man, that could only happen to Wil." I snorted with laughter. "He's lucky they didn't have a worse accident and he's just as lucky that someone had the parts he needed."
"Oh, he knows that, but the parts he got are used. He salvaged them off a wreck that was in the service station's back yard. He said when he gets back here, he's going to replace the steering, then sell the truck." Mom laughed. "We told him when he bought it that it was a bad deal and that we'd help him get a better one, but you know Wil. He's even more stubborn than you are. Now, to change the subject, how are you and Sandy getting along?"
"Well, we're not fighting." I sighed, trying to make it sound like we weren't getting along quite as well as we had been.
"That doesn't sound too much like you two are going to make Ann McAdam too happy."
"I don't think that worries Sandy and it sure doesn't worry me." I said quietly but emphatically, making Mom break into a chuckle.
"Just don't kill each other." She snickered. "Now I'd better get off the phone in case Carissa is trying to call you. I'll talk to you tomorrow at the picnic."
"Okay Mom. Bye for now."
"So what's going on?" Sandy demanded, still in the bedroom and on the bed.
So I told her what had happened, explaining that if Wil had broken a tie rod, any chance he had of steering the pickup was gone instantly.
"But they're okay, aren't they?" She asked.
"Yeah."
"Then why don't you come back to bed?"
"You want more?"
"Well, yeah! I'm making up for lost time."
"If we do much more, you aren't going to be able to walk very well tomorrow." I warned.
"That's tomorrow. I'll worry about it when it gets here. C'mere, Stud." She giggled, then grabbed my hand and yanked me back into the bed with her.