Chapter Fifty Seven - Caution - No Through Road
Boxing Day was much more relaxed than Christmas Day had been. Actually, I spent part of the morning in my new office, trying to set it up the way I wanted it, but Sandy and Lucille wouldn't let me stay there long. Instead they wanted to go out for a ride on the snowmobiles. We couldn't stay out long though, because Lucille was on duty at four in the afternoon. That meant that since she wanted to do some errands before work, she had to leave shortly after lunch. Just after she left, Matt and the twins took the snowmobiles out for a ride.
Once we were alone, Sandy grabbed my hand and led me to the living room, pushing me back into the recliner and sitting on my lap.
When she was comfortable and had made sure that I was okay, she sighed then spoke quietly. "You're going to be alone here with the twins for at least two days."
"What?"
"I said that you're going to be alone here with the twins for at least two days." She snorted. "Matt and I are going to go spend the night with his brothers at our house in town, which is where they'll be staying for a few days."
"I thought the boys were staying with the Coulters."
"They only stayed there on Christmas Eve. Anyway, for the next couple of nights you and the girls are going to be alone in the house. I'm guessing that Jess and Jean want to sleep with you."
"Why don't they go along with you?"
"Because the boys are sleeping in the girls' beds. The twins refuse to kick them out and make them sleep on the floor." She grinned. "Is having my sisters stay with you for a couple of days really such a chore?"
"You know damn well it isn't." I had to laugh at the suggestion, but my laugh ended in a frown. "My problem is that it feels as if I'm being manipulated into being in a situation where I might be accused of having sex with your sisters again."
"Well, in a way, I was expecting that you would have sex with them." She sighed. "Tom is being an ass. Jess and Jean want to get him into bed, but he refuses to be with both of them and won't choose between them."
"And what the hell does this have to do with me?"
"Well, you're the guy that got the twins involved with sex and showed them how good it felt." She snickered and then kissed my cheek. "And, before you say anything, I know that was at least partly my fault. If Lucille and I hadn't gotten so involved and so noisy, the twins tell me nothing would have happened."
I sighed deeply. "Dammit! What the hell am I, the local stud?"
"Yes, at least Jess and Jean seem to think so." She giggled and bent her head to nibble my earlobe.
"Hey, what are you doing, trying to get me wound up?"
"Just getting you going. Then while Matt and I do the chores, the girls can handle the rest. By bedtime tonight they feel they'll have you wound up enough not to be worried about anything."
"This has to be the worst idea that you've had in a long time." I sighed deeply. "As it is, I've got too many women around me. I don't need more. And, on top of that, if Tom ever finds out that I have fooled around with the twins, he'll drop them like hot potatoes. Besides, once they get going, the time you'd take doing the chores wouldn't be enough."
"That's why they want you to sleep with one of them tonight." She giggled. "Since you have sex with your cousin, why would having sex with my sisters be such a chore?"
"You know damn well it wouldn't be a chore, but you also know that Lucille isn't really related to me." I frowned. "My problem is that sex with your sisters feels wrong. On top of all the other complications, I'd feel like I was double crossing both Tom and you, not to mention Lucille, Carissa and Jackie."
"Well, you aren't double crossing me or the others, and Tom left in a huff today, suggesting to them that you'd already slept with several women, two more wouldn't bother you." She sighed deeply. "I don't understand him at all."
"What? When was Tom here?" I frowned at her.
"He was here while we were out on the snowmobiles, but when Jess and Jean suggested that he could spend the next few days here with them, he got angry and left."
"That might be because his family has plans for the next few days that involve him. When they were here last night, they were talking about the whole family going to visit Tom's Uncle Charlie, Aunt Alice's brother. Do you think the twins even asked him what he had planned?"
"Oh, I never thought that he might be committed to something else already. I don't suppose they did either."
"Well, Tom was probably torn between what he wanted to do and what he had to do. Which probably means that they misjudged his reaction when they put pressure on him to do what they wanted and he spoke in annoyance. Since I believe that's the case, I'm not about to act as a sexual safety valve for their frustrations." I frowned and looked her in the eye. "Since it sounds to me like the twins asked you to approach me, I think you'd better warn them that I'm not going to be cooperative. As well as that, I think you should talk to them about discussing things with Tom. He's not too good at accepting other people telling him what to do, and trying to pressure him just makes him annoyed. In fact, he's about twice as independent as I am, so if they want to get along with him, they'd better learn to be cooperative and talk things out before taking any action."
She looked at me quietly for a moment, then sighed. Slipping off my lap, she walked over near the tree before turning to face me.
"So, you want me to tell them about Tom?"
"Well, they did come to you first, not me, and you were the one who decided that you were leaving them here with me, while you went off to town and spent some time there." I sighed softly. "I wish you'd spoken to me about that before making up your mind. At least I'd have had a chance to discuss my view of the situation. I told you before that I want to be the one who makes decisions about my personal life from now on. That's especially true of deciding who I am going to invite to sleep in my bed with me."
"Ouch. I'm sorry." She said quietly. "I'll talk to the girls and to Matt."
With that, she walked away and left me. I went back to the office and fiddled for the rest of the morning. However, she must have talked to Jess and Jean, because after lunch, I stood on the porch and waved as Sandy, Matt and both of the twins left for town. I don't think the twins were extremely happy, but I felt I'd made the right decision.
I was back in the office about an hour later, when I got a phone call from Lucille.
"Hi. What's up?"
"I just wanted to tell you, thank you." She said quietly.
"Now what did I do?" I laughed.
"I think you know. You might call Tom and let him know what's going on. I'll see you on New Years Eve." She said, then she hung up the phone.
"Damn, she would suggest that!" I sighed to myself, then dialled the phone.
Aunt Alice answered and when I asked for Tom, she laughed and told me that he was on his way up to the ranch to talk to me, so I thanked her and went back to work in the office. It wasn't long before I saw Tom's car cross the bridge and I met him at the front door.
"Hi Tom. What's up?"
"I came for some advice." He smiled as he got out of the car. "Jess and Jean are driving me nuts."
"Oh, is that all. Come on in, let's have a coffee."
I did not give him any advice. Instead I talked about my summer and about all the different girls that I'd been involved with, but I didn't mention that I'd slept with the twins. I found it really strange because, only six months before, I knew that he'd been far more experienced with girls than I was. Now he seemed to feel that I was talking about things as if I was an expert, so I disclaimed that completely. I even admitted that I'd made many mistakes and that if I had things to do over, I'd try to do many things differently.
"So, what do you think I should do?" He asked quietly.
"I can't tell you that. It's your life and I'm not about to advise you on how to live it." I said quietly. "Is it a matter of choosing between them or are you worried about people seeing that you're involved with both of them?"
"Hell! Most of the time, I can't even tell the two of them apart." He snorted.
"Ah, I can help you there." I laughed. "Not long after meeting them I noticed that they are mirror images of one another. Jess has a dimple on one cheek, and Jean has the same sort of dimple, but on the other cheek. The same goes for their eyebrows and if you do see them nude, they each have one breast slightly larger than the other."
"Are you telling me that you've seen them nude?" He asked.
"Around this nut house? Of course I have. They aren't skin-shy. In fact they like to show off, especially since their bodies have filled out in the last while." I snorted. "Actually, they delight in teasing me."
"Me too." He snorted, then laughed uneasily. "I still don't know what to do though."
"Well, I'm not going to advise you on that." I snorted. "I will tell you that things have calmed down for me since I told everyone else to butt out of making decisions that affect my life."
"Yeah, but you live up here and you've been declared an adult."
"Well, what do your parents say?"
"Mom just shakes her head and grins at me. Dad seems to think that I should have fun and play around. Mostly, it seems to me that he thinks I'm the one who has to make any decision, just like you. It's almost as if they've given me free rein and I don't know what to do."
"Well, you could always ask them if you could have the twins spend a few nights with you. Make sure you specify that you mean having the twins spend time in your bedroom, and watch their reactions." I grinned. "That would tell you a lot."
"Mom already suggested that, but I'm not sure if she was joking or not. Besides, I've only got a small bed, so I'd have to choose and I don't know which one to ask first."
"Well, I don't think your mom would joke about that. So, either have the girls flip a coin to decide or, if you're brave, invite them both and let the chips fall where they may." I laughed aloud.
"Oh, you're a great fucking help!" He snorted.
"Well, as far as I'm concerned, you have to do something. Otherwise I have to fight them off and I have too many females around here now. Your girlfriends should not be my problem. If you want to get to know them better, but don't want to do it at home, you can always go along with their idea and come up here for a few days."
"That's not a problem." He sighed. "It's not like I have to go to Uncle Charlie's with the folks. Dad did suggest that if I stayed home, the twins could visit for several days instead of one or two and Dad could help Uncle Charlie for a few days. They wouldn't have to be back until the end of Christmas break. That would make life easier for your Dad and Wil too, because they wouldn't have to do our chores."
"And are you going to cook for yourself for a week? Do you want to die of food poisoning?" I kidded. "Of course you could always invite the twins to cook for you and what you did at night would be your business."
"You're as bad as Dad, absolutely no help at all." He sighed.
"Well, I think that both of your Dad and I agree that you have to make up your own mind and make your own choice. We can't do it for you."
We talked a while longer, but when he left I noticed that he looked resolute, almost as if he'd made up his mind what to do.
I didn't hear anything further about his situation for three days, not until late on the Sunday night. That's when Lucille wakened me by slipping into my bed and trying to warm her cold feet on my legs. Of course I almost leapt out of bed, while she broke into giggles. Then, once I came fully awake and realized what had happened, I decided to retaliate by tickling her. That led to predictable results.
Later as we relaxed, she told me that the twins had only spent one night in town. After that they'd left with Tom, in order to cook and clean for him while his parents were away on their visit to relatives. She also let me know that Tom had talked to her and Grampa Bender before contacting the girls, so she knew that Tom had talked to me. When I wouldn't say anything about what I'd told Tom, she just laughed.
It was the next morning when I awoke to the fact that it was New Years Eve and that I was expecting guests that night. Of course, Lucille was in a bit of a tizzy about food, since she wasn't used to cooking for large groups, but by the time I'd done the morning chores, Sandy had called. She'd told Lucille what she needed to have taken out of the freezer and that she and Jackie were on the way to do the cooking. All Sandy wanted Lucille to do was help so Lucille had calmed appreciably.
By noon, Sandy, Jackie and Carissa were there and the kitchen soon seemed like a war zone to me as the cousins argued about methods and recipes. Lucille, Carissa and I escaped the battle by becoming busy with clean up, vacuuming, dusting and doing what little laundry there was. Then an hour or two after lunch, Matt and his brothers arrived on the scene, driving an extended cab pickup truck.
"Well, that looks like quite a rig." I commented as they trooped inside.
"It's just about perfect for us." Mark grinned at me. "There's room in the cab for five if we squeeze in tight and that still leaves the box empty for all our tools. Since we'll be back to building log cabins and corrals next year, we decided to get it from your friend, Frank Dolens. Another couple of weeks work for him and it'll be paid for too."
"You've been working for Frank?"
"Unh huh, we rebuilt his spray booth." Luke grinned. "Next week we're gonna start on some changes in the mechanical shop. He wants an office for his head mechanic in order to keep all the bills and paperwork from getting covered in grease and oil."
"Because of what's happened this last week, we kinda wanted to talk to you about a few things." Matt smiled at me then. "We were wondering just how much of the property up on the plateau was yours. You know that cabin John Coulter was mentioning? Would there be room to build a big cabin and a decent size storage building up there on the flat land?"
"Well, once you turn off the municipal road, the road you drive in on is all on my family's property and it's a mile wide strip, so there's probably enough room. Then there are both power and telephone lines to tap into. The problem might be getting water though. You'd probably have to get a well drilled and I don't know what you'd find or how deep it would be. Other than that, I don't see a problem with building a cabin up there." I frowned as I thought about the idea. "I can't make that decision on my own though. We'd have to talk to the whole family, but I can't see why we couldn't lease you part of it, then you could do what you want. After all, Grampa Bender just bought that land in order to run in an access road to the ranch. Why do you want to live up there?"
"Well, in the first place, it's closer to town and you were mentioning the idea of having a place up on the flat to store a vehicle in the winter. But mostly, it's because there's so darn much small construction work around here." Matt smiled and waved a hand toward town. "We figure that in the winter we can look after your chores, but still make a bundle doing small renovation jobs for folks. Since we're all taking correspondence courses, it doesn't even interfere with our schooling. That way Mark and Luke can still finish their carpentry apprenticeship with Clarence in the summer months, while both John and I can be around here all the time."
We jawed about the idea for an hour or more and the longer they talked, the more sense the idea made to me. Then Tom showed up with Jasmine and the McAdam twins, followed by Wil and Corinna, who brought along George and Beth. So, we drew Tom, Jasmine, Wil and Beth into the discussion. That led to phone calls to both Mom and Dad, then to Uncle Tom and Aunt Alice. By the time supper was ready, we'd come to a verbal agreement with the McAdam brothers to lease them ten acres of land on the upper plateau. All we had left to do was make it legal by having our lawyer draw up a contract.
From the way Matt and his brothers acted, you would have thought we have given them the keys to Fort Knox. They were celebrating long before midnight and their mood was contagious. It affected most of us, but I noticed that for some reason Carissa and Jackie were more sober than everyone else. When I got the chance, I asked them if I could talk to them upstairs and away from the party.
When we got up there, I pulled a chair near the bed and waved a hand at the bed, inviting them to sit down.
"What's making you two so sober tonight?" I asked quietly. "Is there something I can do to help?"
"Oh, you bugger." Carissa sighed deeply, and slipped over to hug me tightly for a few seconds, before sitting back on the bed and pulling Jackie close to her side. "We have a problem alright."
"And what's your problem?"
"Well, we love each other." Jackie said flatly.
"So, is that supposed to be news?" I grinned. "You haven't exactly made a secret of it."
"You don't mind?" Jackie looked astonished.
"Why should I mind?" I laughed aloud. "It's not as if it was a surprise to me and I'm sure Sandy and Lucille will be happy with the idea that they don't have to share this bed with you."
"She didn't say that, or at least not completely." Carissa snapped. "Both of us would still like to have an option to come visit you once in a while. Our real problem is living in the same house with my Mom."
"Your Mom?" I looked at her in astonishment.
"Unh huh. She's been acting more homophobic every day." Carissa sighed. "She keeps doing little things like setting the table for dinner, but 'forgetting' to put any silverware at the seat where Jackie will be sitting and other stuff like that. She hasn't said anything, but after talking to Lucille and Dr. McGraths, I think it's a psychological thing. It's almost as if she wants to ask Jackie to leave, but can't force herself say it aloud."
"So, why not offer to move out? I'll bet your dad or your Uncle Frank would help you to find a place. They'd probably help you to pay the rent until you can find something to do."
"Chris, there just aren't that many places around town to move to and whether we like it or not, both of us are still recovering from the accident." Jackie sighed very deeply. "On top of that, I'm about to start school next week, so we can't even ask you if we could come out here to stay for a couple of months."
"Hmm. Wait here." I told them, then hurried back downstairs to find Sandy and Lucille.
Coming back with Sandy and Lucille, I had Carissa and Jackie explain their problem, then suggested that perhaps, while I was off to Olds, Carissa and Jackie could stay at the ranch and help Matt look after the place.
Sandy frowned for a moment, then shrugged her shoulders. "What happens on the weekends when you come back home?"
"Then I could pick you and Lucille up in town, that is, if she's not working. Otherwise, she can join us later in the day." I shrugged. "That way you can feel safe that Carissa and Jackie won't attack me without your permission."
In the discussion that followed, my idea got trashed. I was literally chased out and sent downstairs to spend time with the guys while the gals talked over the problem. Actually, I'd gotten what I wanted, but I wasn't about to admit it aloud. Now Sandy and Lucille were involved in the problem and my ideas had been dismissed. That meant I had an excuse to walk away from the discussion. A few minutes later, I noticed Jasmine head upstairs, then come back down to get Jess, Jean and Beth. That split the party in half, but at the time, all of the guys were discussing sports, so they really didn't notice.
To keep them going, I offered a rather contentious opinion about that year's upcoming NHL playoffs. I suggested that the Montreal Canadiens would face the St. Louis Blues in the Stanley Cup again that year, but that St. Louis would win this time. I knew that would get a discussion going. Let's face it, I've never seen any group of more than three guys in Canada that didn't have at least one rabid Montreal fan and at least one other guy who was just as vehemently opposed to the Habs. An argument was virtually guaranteed.
Perhaps you could say that I loaded the dice in a way that let the girls discuss ideas for a solution with Carissa and Jackie while the guys' attention was centred on a sports discussion. Actually, that's almost exactly what happened. Inside of half an hour, all the gals came trooping down the stairs. Jackie and Carissa took the four McAdam brothers out to the kitchen for a private discussion, while Lucille and Sandy steered me into my office to talk to me.
The idea that they'd come up with was building two cabins or one large house on the lease that the guys had arranged earlier. That way Jackie and Carissa could live there and cook for the guys, answer the phone and even do the books for the guys. The only difference was that Carissa wanted to have a few horses, so they'd need a barn, corrals and fences.
"Hey, you'll have to ask Matt and the guys. If you can talk them into it, I don't see what business it is of ours." I shrugged. "Once that lease is signed, as long as they aren't doing anything illegal, I don't care what they do or who they have living with them on that acreage."
"Just like that?" Sandy asked.
"Well, unless they bring out 'Rotten Ray' or someone like him to live there. I'd stick my nose into their business then." I grinned. "I'm sure as heck not going to argue if they want their sister to live there, and if Carissa wants to live with her, that's their business, not mine."
Sandy cocked her head off toward one shoulder and grinned a twisted grin at me. "Lucille, somehow, I get the idea that we've been snowed."
"Pardon me? What do you mean?" Lucille frowned at her.
"This just comes out too damn pat. Matt and the guys get a place to live and enough room to keep tools and construction material, Carissa and Jackie get a place to live and Chris is going to get a place to store a vehicle in the winter. Not only that, but he's suddenly got new neighbours and a ready work force, close at hand." Sandy shook her head. "I don't know how he did it, but I think Chris had this all planned out."
"Now how would I do that?" I said quietly. "But, I think as hosts at this party, we should be out there with our guests."
With that I left them still wondering and went back into the livingroom. From the look on Matt's face, I knew he'd been deputised to talk to me about the changed plan, so I gave him a quiet thumbs-up sign and nodded my head toward Carissa. A quick look of surprise crossed his face and then he grinned shyly. I could tell he hadn't wanted the job of asking me and was glad to pass the buck. On top of that, I'd let a smile show for an instant, giving him a hint of what my answer would be.
Actually that's when the party really got started.
Sandy had started the music, brought in the punch and the twins brought some snacks from the kitchen. So when Carissa approached me and I told her that I didn't care one way or another if the McAdams built another cabin on their lease, she grabbed me in a hug and didn't seem to want to let go. I decided that I'd try to get her dancing, so I began to move to the beat of the music.
At first, because they'd been raised as Mormons, none of the 'Calgary' McAdams knew how to dance, so they stood around talking, drinking punch and eating snacks. Because of the McAdams' beliefs and everyone's ages, Sandy and I had agreed that the punch would be non-alcoholic. However what Sandy and I didn't know was that Wil had slipped down to the cellar of the old cabin and brought up a quart of Grampa Bender's 'squeezins' to spike the punch. Thankfully he hadn't used a lot, but we still ended up with five very 'happy' celebrants on our hands.
In fact, the only relatively sober people in the cabin were Lucille, Tom and I. Wil, George, Beth, Jasmine, Sandy, Carissa, Corinna, Jess and Jean were all 'very happy' and feeling no pain. Jackie and her brothers were sozzled.
As soon as Lucille and I realized what had happened, we dumped the punch and started serving coffee. That annoyed Wil and he threatened to leave with Corinna, but Tom had snuck out and collected the keys out of all the vehicles. Just in case Wil or Matt had a spare set of keys in their pockets, he made sure their vehicles were blocked in by his car and my old jeep. It took a while to get Wil calmed down, but I let Tom handle that. Actually I was too annoyed with him to do it myself.
In order to calm everyone down, Lucille decided to get each person to tell everyone else about what had happened to them during the last year. So from about eleven o'clock on, each person was asked to tell about the highlights of their past year. It wasn't long before I was feeling darned embarrassed. It seemed that the highlights of everyone's year had centred around something I had said or done. They all seemed to forget about the times I'd screwed up or had lost my temper, and each one glossed over the sad or unhappy things that had happened to them as well. Instead, they mentioned the times I'd been there to help or influence what was had happened.
Jackie topped everyone though and what she said wasn't about me.
"I sink I'm du luckies'one o'all." She slurred loudly. "I gots a new lover whose gonna like the nex' year, cause ever'time anybody mentions du date, she's gonna think 'bout sex. Tha's her fave'rit way ta doet."
Everyone in the cabin was laughing as the old mantle clock struck twelve and the new year began.