Chapter 3

In his own room, he opened the window and slipped beneath only the sheet. Summer was coming, and the nights were getting warmer. He loved the four seasons that they had but his favorite time of year was when he could have the windows open at night. The fresh air, occasional breeze and sounds of the night to lull himself to sleep by. After some tossing and turning, he did finally fall asleep to strange dreams about his dad. Nothing bad but just enough to leave him un-rested. His dad was standing on a hill and he was ringing a bell. How strange, he just stood there ringing this bell. But then Jamie woke up he really could hear the bell. The bell? Oh my God it was Victoria, she was ringing the bell. He jumped from his bed and made his way to her room. Lightly he knocked on her door.

“Victoria are you alright?” He called.

“No, not really, come on in.” She answered.

“What do you need?” He asked moving toward her bed.

In total frustration, she said she needed to go to a nursing home.

“What? Why in the world would you say that?”

She just looked away. Until then her face had been just a dark shadow but when she turned the moonlight lit up her eyes. She looked scared and was biting in her lower lip. Her right shoulder had a bandage on it to cover a burn, but her left shoulder was bare. That was when he had noticed the nightgown she was wearing. It had thin straps and a plunging neckline that she filled out very nicely. Trying to look away he asked again.

“Victoria, what do you need, just tell me.”

“It is so embarrassing; I was hoping your mother would be the one to hear the bell.”

She could see that he was hurt by her words. That was something she would never intentionally do but it really was embarrassing. She reached out and took his hand. His hand was so warm, and she almost dropped it as quickly as she touched it, but he tightened the hold, so she did not let go.

“Victoria.”

The sound of her own name made her shiver.

“Jamie, I...”

“Yes?” He said leaning closer and gently brushing her hair away.

“Jamie, I need to go to the bathroom. I can’t get up and need Elizabeth.” And with that she started to cry.

“It’s ok, don’t cry. I completely understand. Shh shh, calm down and I’ll go get her.”

But that wasn’t necessary, Elizabeth thought she had heard the bell and waited to see if it rang again but when she heard crying, she knew. She was standing in the doorway when he had said not to cry. She knew it was a private moment and she didn’t want to interrupt.

“Mom,” Jamie said stepping away from Victoria. “I am so glad you are here. Victoria needs help and it really isn’t something I can do if you know what I mean.”

Victoria looked at Elizabeth and just pointed to the bathroom. The bathroom was just a few steps away and she was capable of making it that far with help but then someone needed to help her up. Jamie did help her out of bed and over to the door, but Elizabeth was the one to go in with her. When they came back out Jamie was waiting. He had noticed as she had gotten out of bed the whole nightgown and he wanted another look. Oh, yea he knew that made him a pervert but so be it. He slipped his arm around her waist and helped her wobble back to bed. She had a cute wobble and he was glad to get another look at it too. The nightgown was a dark printed satin that hung below her knees. But it clung to her in all the right places and so did he. Letting go when she got in bed was the hardest thing he had ever done.

“I’m so sorry to wake you both I just had to go.”

“It isn’t your fault, now stop being silly, you couldn’t go by yourself and we did offer to take care of you so relax and try to get some sleep now. You just ring that bell when you want to get up for breakfast, ok?” Elizabeth instructed.

“Thank you both.”

The alarm clock on Jamie’s nightstand said it was 4:30 am so it was morning, no reason to get back in bed and he had the feeling that he wouldn’t sleep if he did. That nightgown was certain to invade his dreams if he did, so chores won out. He would find something he could do at this hour.

When Paula rang the breakfast bell, Jamie felt like he had his day in already. He had gone to the barn and fixed one of the tractors, Elizabeth had the flower boxes out to be painted so he did. He had just finished regrading the whole lane back to the house when Hank came out of the bunkhouse.

“Morning boss.” Hank said.

“Morning Hank, hold up a minute and I’ll help you bring breakfast to the bunkhouse.” Jamie parked the grader and headed for the house with Hank.

“Rough night?” Hank finally asked.

“Yea, does it show?” Jamie asked running his hand through his hair.

“A little.”

“Damn, what am I going to do? I want to get her out of the house before she ruins my life, but I’m afraid that if I do, that will ruin my life. It’s catch 22.”

“Why don’t you talk to her about it?” Hank asked.

“And say what? No, think I’ll just have to suffer through this. I would however appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone about my problem.” Jamie said looking hopeful.

“Who would I tell?” Hank asked laughing.

“Hank.”

“Not a word, I swear.”

As they entered the kitchen Paula pointed to the dishes to go. “I tossed a loaf of raisin bread in that basket, but you guys need to toast it yourselves.” She called.

“As hard as we work all day long and you are going to tell me now, we have to make our own toast?” Hank said acting shocked.

“Want to make your own breakfast tomorrow?” She responded.

“I understand making toast is easy, I’m sure we can figure it out.” Hank said, and he grabbed the food and made a move for the door. They could hear her laughter clear out in the yard.

The yard, that was another thing Jamie wanted to do this morning, mow. But at that hour he decided it was probably not the best job to start with, so he would get to that later.

When Jamie went back to the kitchen for his own breakfast, his mother was there. She was still in her little pink pajamas and he had to remember hard, to think back to the last time she was not up and dressed before him.

“Morning mom.” He said planting a kiss on her cheek. After getting a mug of coffee, he sat with her. “Are you ok?”

“Sure, I am, why?”

“Cause you’re still in your jammies.”

“I had a rough night. Lots of dreams and not much sleep. It must be the weather because I understand you were up pretty early yourself.” She said with a smug smile.

“I just had a lot to do today and after we got up with Victoria, I decided to start my day early.”

“Uh huh.” Was all she said.

Paula slipped two plates in front of them and offered to keep something warm for Victoria.

“Speaking of last night mom, I have to ask you something.” Jamie said with a smug smile himself this time.

“What?”

“Was that the gown you gave to Victoria?”

“Uh huh.” She said between bites.

“So where did you get it?”

“I told you it was a gift. Tacky for a woman my age but perfect for Victoria. Don’t you agree?”

“Well yes, but who gave it to you?” He was starting to wonder if his mother was perhaps leading a secret life.

“I love that you could never discuss sex with me. When it came time to have that talk, I tried. God knows I tried, many times. If you had not had older brothers to give it to you, I don’t know what I would have done. Believe me I know how sexy that gown is. But I got it for my birthday from the girls at card club. They thought it was just about the sexiest thing they had seen in a long time and got it for me.”

“Why?”

“I think it was more or less a joke. They thought maybe I would wear it you know if I ever had a date stay over.”

“Mom, I don’t want to hear this. But what makes them think that you would let a man stay over?”

“Oh, honey they don’t, that’s the joke. They have been trying to match make me for years and I was just never interested. They used to joke about me being a nun.”

“Mom that’s terrible, I thought these women were your friends.”

“They are honey. They don’t really mean anything by it; they just think I should find a man.”

Jamie had played with that thought once or twice himself but was deep down inside glad that she never had.

As Elizabeth went to the sink to scrape off her plate and slip it in the dishwasher, she couldn’t help but ask.

“So, you really liked that gown?”

Without thinking he responded. “Oh yea!”

Too late, the damage was done. He had the feeling this whole conversation was a set up anyway.