Chapter 2

We went home, and I put the wrapped presents in my closet.

Our short time was spent mostly together working on the ranch. Our nights were spent in a loving embrace.

On Christmas Day, I gave presents to Sunny and Maria. They both loved the luggage. I kissed them both and said I loved them. I told them that I wanted them to be able to go with me wherever I went.

Maria was pleased with that statement and invitation, but Sunny was hit hard, she still couldn't believe I wanted her for my woman. She started crying.

I held her for several minutes until she could calm down. "Oh Chico, you make me love you more every minute."

They had gotten me a wallet and a belt. I thanked them.

"Well, I am ready to go on a short holiday for you to try out your luggage."

Maria looked funny at me, but Sunny got the hint and looked inside the suitcase. She started squealing when she saw the jewelry.

Maria quickly looked inside hers also. They hugged each other and hugged me.

They put the earrings on and looked in the mirror. "I love the way they flash when you move. It makes me think you your beautiful smiles."

I added, "I am warning you, though. If you take my rings, you are mine. No looking at other men."

Maria put hers on right then and said, "Chico, when I look at other men I always compare them to you and they always lose."

Sunny looked at me. I took the ring from her and asked if she was willing. She nodded and I slipped it on her finger. I kissed her hand and then her mouth. Then I hugged Maria up to me and told her thank you for wearing my ring and being my woman.

We had a good meal for Christmas. We spent the day talking. I told them that I wanted to read the story of Christmas from the New Testament. I read it aloud and we all enjoyed the story of the season.

The rest of the Christmas vacation was spent fixing up things around the ranch.

I asked if I could go to see Maria off at the airport. Sunny looked at Maria. Maria said, "Chico, they have security cameras with face recognition. I think you need to wait."

I didn't like it, but I did it.

I hugged Maria for many minutes. Sunny clearing her throat made me let Maria go. We both had tears flowing freely. "All A's now," I admonished.

Sunny gave me a quick kiss on the lips and took Maria away.

I felt like my guts were ripped out.

I went out and checked on the stock and looked at the wells. They were all working just right.

I moped around until Sunny got back. Then I moped some more.

I spent the evening holding Sunny, and missing Maria. At least my guts weren't ripped out now.

Sunny and I made love a bunch for the next couple of weeks. "Chico, you are a man," she said one night after we finished.

"What brought that on?" I asked.

"I feel so much like a woman when you are with me. You make me think like a woman and act like a woman. You make me forget who I am.'

"Look here," I said as I held her chin and made her look into my eyes. "You always remember that you are my woman."

Tears rolled down her face as she kissed me and hugged me. "That is what I mean."

We slept, and I awoke having an orgasm. Sunny had waked up early and sucked me until I came in her mouth. "Sunny, you made me have a sweet dream."

"I am glad I could do that for you, my Sweetheart." She kissed my stomach and hugged me around the waist.

Our time was flying by. I missed Maria every day. Sunny and I wrote her a letter every week.

In her third letter she said that she definitely was not pregnant. She grumped that we should have made love more.

After that letter, Sunny and I made love until she couldn't stand it any more. "Chico, you have to rest or I will not be able to walk tomorrow."

"I am sorry, Sunny. I miss Maria, and it makes me want you more."

"I am glad you want me."

That night I had a terrible nightmare, I was shot. I jumped awake screaming.

Sunny held me tight and calmed me down. "I saw his face," I said.

"Whose face?"

"The man who shot me. He was wearing a uniform and cap."

Sunny thought about it for a while and asked, "Was it a camouflage or a solid colored uniform?"

"It was khaki."

"That means it was most likely a police officer. You are probably safe in the towns we have been to, but I think you should continue to limit your travel until we know more," she advised.

"If you and Maria are here, I don't want to go anywhere else," I answered.

She smiled and held me close for a while. We went back to sleep.

The calves started coming. We checked the herds every day to see if we needed to help with any births. We had to pull eight out of three hundred. I didn't think that was too bad.

We put the bulls in with the cows for the breeding season, after the calves came.

We put the cows that missed a calf into a separate herd to be sold.

Our time flew by. I was having nightmares on occasion, and I began to remember a few things. When I would remember something, Sunny and I would talk about it. That sometimes helped me remember additional things about it. I remembered my mother and many of the things we did when I was younger. She had died ten years before.

It seemed that when I remembered my mother, that it triggered my memories and they began flooding back. I knew that my dad called me Rooster, because I was always in a fight trying to protect other kids who were being bullied or picked on. I knew that I called my dad "Boss Man" because that is what the cowboys called him. I remembered a million other little things, but I couldn't remember anything about who tried to kill me except the policeman's face.

I wrote my dad a letter to be sent to Maria and mailed from Tallahassee. I invited him to my wedding to be held on the 22^nd of June at the Mendoza Ranch. That was the Saturday three weeks after Maria came back from FSU. I had talked to Sunny and written to Maria about it. They both agreed that the 22nd would be fine.

Sunny arranged for a priest to marry us that morning in the church in town and we would have a party that afternoon at the ranch.

Easter finally arrived. It was later than usual this year anyway. Sunny went to pick up Maria from the airport and took at least a month to go and come back from the airport. I was waiting outside the house when they pulled up. I pulled the door open and hugged Maria to me and carried her into the house kissing and hugging her.

After the greetings were finished, we carried Maria's things into the bedroom. "I feel like my heart just came back into my chest," I said.

Maria smiled and said, "I have missed you so much, that I almost came home and left school."

Sunny said, "Maria, you know how important your education is to you and us."

"Yes, Mother!" Maria teased. "Seriously, that is why I stayed and toughed it out. I know that our family needs my education to help us be successful."

"First things first," she continued. "I want to feel you inside me right now."

"Maria, I'm dirty. I have been working today," I told her.

"Then we will bathe. Now," Maria said.

We started walking toward the bathroom. "Come on Sunny," Maria said.

Sunny smiled and ran to us. We bathed, then we made love until I couldn't go anymore. "I am glad you are home now, Maria. Chico has been wearing me out every night for the last month from missing you."

"I believe it. He has worn me out this afternoon, and you were helping. He is a man," Maria said.

I was really getting good with my Spanish. I understood their rapid-fire exchange, and didn't have to think about it.

Our Easter week went by very quickly. We planned for Sunny to go to Maria's graduation in Tallahassee the first week of June.

Too soon, I was kissing and hugging Maria goodbye again. I also gave Sunny a hot kiss and hug. "What was that for?" She asked.

"I want you to remember me while you are out looking at other men."

They both started laughing and got into the truck and left.

I was lonesome for two days.

Sunny got home and said, "I checked and there weren't any other men out there."

I held her close for several minutes and then carried her things into the house.

We had a small sale in May. It consisted of the barren cows and three older bulls.

The price was adequate, and just before Sunny left, a semi came to pick up the cattle. We helped load them up. The driver was getting Sunny's signature on the paperwork. Then he smiled and recognition popped into his eyes. "Seniorita, I remember you from the movies. You are still very beautiful."

"Thank you, sir. I haven't been in movies for many years. I am just a rancher now," she told him.

"A very beautiful rancher all the same," he reiterated.

He got into the truck and drove away.

Sunny looked at me and asked, "Are you angry?"

"No, Sunny, I told you the past is the past. Besides, he was just wishing he was me."

She hugged me hard and said, "I knew it. You are like no other man. We are so lucky."

I gave her a gentle kiss and said, "Take care of yourself and Maria. If you find me dead when you get back, you will know I missed you too much to live."

She smiled and kissed me again, got into the truck and left.

I had a miserable week.

They finally got back. I teased them after we had greeted at the door. "That was the longest six months I have ever spent. I almost killed myself last night."

"I am glad you didn't, or your baby would not get to see his father next January," Maria told me with a smile.