Chapter 10

Carl’s turn:

There’s a goddess in the bed beside me in the dim light of the hotel room.

The black hair splayed around her head is a stark contrast to the white bedlinens, eyes closed, serene expression on pink lips.

Totally nude.

Sorry. Gotta touch. Might be a dream. Warm, soft skin I barely touch with my fingers. Shoulder, down across the pad of a small but perfect breast, I run into the edge of the sheet. My eyes are acclimated to the darkness now. There’s a slightest dip at her pelvis. I edge the sheet up. She’s rolled two-thirds onto her back, the right leg almost straight, the left one pulled up, and where they meet, a neat little mound with only a wisp of black pubic hair, straight, fine, not enough to make an artist’s brush.

Can’t resist that. Fingertips gently touch, explore where it ends at the beginning of a beautiful slit, now tightly closed.

“If you wake me up, Carl, I’m gonna rape you.”

“I accept that risk. You’re beautiful in this light.”

“It’s dark.”

“I can see. Beautiful.”

Her hand hooked behind my neck, pulling me down to her. Our lips met.

“Carl, that’s the most erotic thing ever done to me.”

“Sunny, I woke up with an angel in my bed. Thought I was dreaming...”

“Oh, Carl ... Don’t make me love you so hard...”

“Easy to love you, too, Sunny.”

Another kiss and she was pushing herself underneath me, spreading her legs.

It seems she wants me.

I can oblige. Two in the morning. It was wonderful. She was purring when we finished, tucking herself inside my arms to go back to sleep.

We woke up again just before seven.

“Bathroom,” I said.

“Me first.”

“Okay,” I said. “But don’t dawdle.”

“You can pee in the tub...”

“I was gonna shower.”

“By yourself?”

“Didn’t want to assume...”

She stood up. “Okay, prude-boy. Toilet’s yours. I’ll get the shower going.”

I released a lot of pressure, finally shaking the last few drops. I turned around.

“Shower, you.”

I got in, she got in with me.

She’s fun when she’s soapy and wet. Afterward, we toweled each other off, then I shaved as she dried that luscious hair.

“You know, Carl, we won’t have this much room in a travel trailer.”

“One trailer?”

“Yours or mine. Unless this is just this one night, and we’re supposed to go back to...”

I took her by the shoulders. “I don’t want that, Sunny.”

Her hands grasped my waist, her eyes met mine. “What do you want?”

“Like we kinda said last night – you and me, together. Not separated. Forever. Like, married. We said...”

“I was serious, Carl. Last night. This morning. Just the sex was the best ever, but I think that’s because you connect with me in more than the physical...”

“We mesh, Sunny. I said that I love you. I don’t toss that phrase around.”

“Carl, I kinda got crazy ... But I meant it, too.”

“Then what’s this about?”

“I don’t want you to feel cornered.”

“You’re holding onto ME and we’re both naked. I don’t feel cornered. I feel like I won life’s lottery.” And I kissed her.

That’s what it took. She melted against me, the most perfect woman in the world.

“So we’re a thing?” she asked.

“We’re a thing.”

“Let’s go find breakfast. I hate the free ones in these hotels.”

“It’s a stupid Cracker Barrel but they do a good breakfast for a chain restaurant,” I said. “What time’d Chuck say he’d call?”

“Eight or nine. We can leave the bags here, go have breakfast, come back...” Those dark eyes get me, especially now that she’s communicating with me on a whole new level.

“Yeah, good place to wait.”

“And pass the time,” she said.

We walked out into the autumn air together, holding hands. She was smiling. I was smiling. Life is good.

Breakfast was remarkable only because I was sitting across the table from HER.

We’d just gotten back in the room when her phone rang.

“Good morning, Chuck. Have you got good news?” Pause. “Oh, okay. We’re still at the hotel, waiting. Call me when you get close, we’ll be there in the lobby waiting on you.”

She sat the phone down. “We got an hour and a half...”

“So...”

“So I’m hanging the ‘do not disturb’ sign on the door.”

“Okay.”

“Carl, it’s not about the sex, you know, but you’ve given me YOU and the sex is wonderful.”

“Words fail me, Sunny.”

“Really, Carl?” she said, shifting to a decidedly ‘little bashful girl’ mode.

“Sunny, yes, really. Come here. Let me hold you.”

“Just like that?”

“Yeah,” I said, sitting in one of the room’s chairs.

She cuddled into my lap.

“Not too heavy?”

“Are you kidding? You’re a feather. Perfect here.”

“I like this. Silly, huh?”

“No, not silly. More time I get to have you in my arms. And if it IS silly and we both enjoy it, it’s our business.”

“How silly would it be if I stood up and started undressing?”

I swallowed. “Don’t tease me, Sunny. You have no idea what goes through my head over you.”

“Does some of it involve the two of us naked?”

“That too.”

“Then...” she stood up. “You need to get with the program.”

Okay, one more time won’t hurt. “Won’t hurt”? Who am I kidding. On a purely sexual level this trip’s been the pinnacle of my existence.

Breathless afterward.

“My Sunny...” as I cuddled her to me, reveling in the exotic delight in my arms.

“My Carl. My very own white boy.”

“We’re the devil, you know ... Us white males. Root of all evil and all that.”

Giggle. “I can totally understand the ‘root’ part. Evil?” she kissed me. “No, definitely NOT evil.”

Okay, one more time in this hotel room. Afterward, we got dressed. I remarked about the way that jeans framed her butt in such a delectable manner.

“You’re just crazy, Carl.”

“I am. Lots of crazy people around. At least I got to act on mine.”

Her phone again. “Hi, Chuck.” Pause. “Great! We’ll be waiting in the lobby. We’ll watch for you.” She turned to me. “C’mon. Let’s go downstairs and get a bad cup of coffee. He’s fifteen minutes out.”

An hour later we were loaded into her truck, back on the road, explaining the crisis to Jason in Auburn and Bill in Louisiana and Jumbo at the jobsite as we rumbled up the road.

Windshield time. I’ve got a lot of miles, driving by myself. It’s easier when you have somebody to talk with. It’s even better when it’s with your partner, even if she’s only been ‘partner’ in that sense for less than a day.

And there are the inevitable silences.

“What’re you thinking, Sunny?”

“Imagining actually LIKING living with a man...”

“Me?”

“Yeah, you. Because these last few weeks, I’ve really enjoyed just having you to hang out with.”

I smiled. “Yeah, that’s been good. Most enjoyable work buddy I’ve ever had. I had real trouble, though, Sunny.”

“What kind?”

“I kept seeing you, we’d go out to eat together, sit in my trailer and watch movies ... sooner or later I was going to ... I wanted it to be more than just two buddies thrown together by the needs of the job.”

“At first I was all about that ‘two buddies’ thing, but after the first week, I was ... You know I had other offers, don’t you?”

“We have a crew of guys out there, Sunny. I’d be surprised if you didn’t.”

“I turned down a couple. I’m kind of picky.”

“Oh, yeah?” I said.

“Yeah. One of ‘em had a dip in his mouth. Had to spit twice while he was talking to me about it.”

“Davis,” I said. “Good worker, though.”

“Oh, he is. Helpful, too. But seriously – who wants to kiss THAT?”

“I never understood that habit. Popular, though...”

“Geeyuck!”

“Myself,” I told her.

We pulled off for lunch, sat in a crowded restaurant, had a meal, then got back on the road, arriving at the airport where I’d left my truck. It was still there. I thanked the manager for taking care of it for me.

“Was worth it just to see that redhead flying that shiny new plane of hers,” he said.

As we drove off in two separate trucks I mused about this being the longest time we’d been apart other than sleeptime in our respective trailers since we started this job.

I don’t like it – not one bit.

Not the only one, apparently. Phone rang. Punched the button to answer on the truck’s audio system. “Hi, baby...”

Giggle. “Don’t be calling me ‘baby’ at work, not just yet, anyway. Uh, let’s go drop my truck off at the trailers.”

I retorted, “I may call you ‘baby’ from time to time, but decorum might keep me from biting you on the ass.”

“That means that despite being in a caring adult relationship, my ass shall have to endure eight hours of bitelessness?”

“Life is short and full of horrors.”

“I love you, Carl. Let me drive.” Her truck’s a bit older than mine – the sound system doesn’t integrate her cellphone.

Showing up at the jobsite, we were greeted with hoots about technicians and extended vacations and lax hours, then the inevitable “What make of truck?” which immediately led to the ‘Ford versus General Motors versus Dodge’ argument, but then work resumed. Fortunately we’re right on MY schedule for testing and commissioning, which is to say, ahead of schedule.

We looked at filling out the data for the next day’s work, ran some checks on the new battery bank, powered up the protection and control panels one at a time. That brought us to the end of the day.

Me and my sweetie, leaving work in my truck. Back to the RV park. Two trailers.

“Yours or mine?”

“When Dad used to raise rabbits, you always brought the doe to the buck.”

“Doe? Buck?”

“Male rabbits are bucks. Females are does.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“Most people don’t.”