Chapter 9

John’s turn:

I really didn’t expect anything adverse to come from our visit to her parents. She disappeared with her stepmom leaving me and her dad ample time to talk, and talk, we did. We covered the gamut, spending surprisingly little time hammering out the idea that I was going to marry his only daughter who was ten years younger than me.

“Could’ve made a case for spoiling her,” her dad said. “Losing her mom, bringing in a stepmom, but I kept her in the loop when I started dating Gayle. And Gayle understood the situation from the beginning.”

“So instead of spoiling her, you ended up with self-confidence coupled with intelligence and morals.”

“Self-confident is another term for hard-headed sometimes,” he laughed. “You’ve seen it, have you?”

“Oh yeah ... Everybody’s seen her. She exudes competence. People notice.”

“Yeah,” her dad said. “They notice. But she’s not in it for the attention, you know...”

“If you coulda seen her on that Bobcat...”

“I’ve seen ‘er on a Bobcat. I sort of taught her.”

“Yeah, I imagined as much. I see one over there in the equipment shed. Still, there we were cleaning up storm debris and she tagged the guy who was driving it. And outdid ‘im.”

“She’s liable to outshine you, you know,” he said. “Her mom did that to me. Just smarter, brighter, faster on the uptake. You have to learn to handle that.”

“She just takes charge.”

“Can you stand it?”

“I think so. And she does back down if she wants to.”

“Who actually proposed to whom here, John?”

“I dreamed it. It was all kind of confusing. I didn’t set out to court your daughter, Charles. But she’s the one who voiced the idea first.”

“Figures,” he said, shaking his head. “One thing, though, she’ll run the idea to the very end.”

“I know, that whole old guy leading a gullible young girl on ... but that’s not me. First, I don’t think ‘gullible’ applies to this young girl. Second, that ain’t me. I’ve looked. Just never found one that came close to Laura.”

“Well, I’m sure that she and her mom are hashing out that ‘wedding’ thing between them. We’re wise to stay out of the way.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice. I can do project management all day long, but the idea of planning a wedding scares the crap out of me.”

“I doubt they’re thinking of THAT kind of wedding, son.”

I laughed. “I’m ‘son’ now? Thanks, Dad!”

“Yeah ... fine. I guess we need to get used to it. Now, Laura says you have some acreage?”

“I do. Not much...”

“Let’s talk.”

Now it appears that in addition to acquiring a wife, I am also to be running a boarding house for pregnant cattle.

Further discussion on the way home. “You gotta hate the idea of that land and nothing being done on it.”

“I did harbor the thought.”

“It’ll be interesting.”

“I’ve never been around cattle, especially not expensive pregnant cattle.”

“I know how to handle most things, and we’re close to a good vet or two if things get off track.”

“I don’t want to think about it.”

She made a couple of phone calls as we drove home, checking on ‘her’ crews. “I’m ... we’re just about out of business,” she said. “We’ve done as much as volunteers can do.”

“Three weeks. The area’s still a wreck.”

“I know. I might look at volunteering with other groups.”

“Carl and Pete want to talk with you.”

“I wonder what that’s about?”

“I have no idea,” I restated. “They didn’t say anything to me.”

We went over a quick grocery inventory, decided we could use some things, so the ride home included a jaunt to a store that was open, although with reduced hours. The place was a bit frantic, the shelves somewhat ragged. I know the story. A lot of the staff for many places was still out, some out of the area, still evacuated due to home damages. I’d like to say that the clientele was wholly supportive of the concessions to the efforts of the over-worked staff, but in every case there are always a few assholes bitching about long checkout lines and other horrors.

I can at least unlock the back door left-handed. And carry groceries in. Not useless.

“Y’know what?”

“What?” I asked.

“I think I wanna take a few days off. Rest. We’ve been working every day. We can kick back...”

“That meeting?”

“I’ll call ‘em tomorrow. Get that out of the way. Then we take care of OUR place.”

She stuffed the last of the trash away and turned to me. “We ought to get our showers out of the way so we can kick back for the evening, don’t you think?”

“Sounds good.” Yeah, a shower always feels good. It’s even better when you require and obtain willing help from a pretty female. I guess my face telegraphed my thoughts.

“No, don’t get all worked up. This is JUST a shower. I wanna be clean and get it over with.”

“Okay.” A little sad, but I can hide that.

She has no nervousness now about being around me when I’m nude. After last night, well, nudity had been superseded by touching. She seemed happy enough during the shower and afterward. She did a very good job of shaving my face, something I just couldn’t do well for myself left-handed.

Still... “Laura baby, is something wrong? I thought things went great today.”

‘They did, sweetheart,’ she answered with a kiss. “I’m in a bit of a quandary, though...”

“Quandary?”

“Yes. See, you and me, last night, things kinda got further than...” She stopped, looked into my eyes. “My fault. Strictly my fault, John.”

“Baby,” I soothed, “It’s okay. We’re not two kids trying to get ourselves off. We love each other. We’re committed. We’re adults.”

“I’m not a slut.”

“No way I could see you that way, princess. Not after we made it through that first night in a hotel together. You were very chaste. That’s when I started sliding...”

“Sliding?”

“To the point where I was praying there was a way you could love me enough...”

“Love you enough? I’m gonna spend my whole life with you.”

“That’s what I mean. We made that commitment to each other. You’re gonna have to do a lot more than get carried away playing with each other to upset me.”

“I was being a good girl, John.”

“You still are. Baby, people do that. Explore. But this isn’t even that.”

“Well, it kinda was. John, you’re the first guy ... I mean other than babysitting little kids, you know, cleaning up, bathing, like that. Nothing ever with anybody like my age...”

“It’s okay. Really.” I didn’t totally understand what was going on in her head, but I think that letting her lead here was my best move. And I hugged her. Both naked, though. Boy, that makes for a great hug.

We didn’t stay that way, both donning pajamas for the evening. Mine are loose cotton, making it easy for my dick to get out when I needed it.

We watched a movie on TV, then it was time for bed. Made me remove my pajama bottoms before I got into bed. “I don’t wanna struggle with you while I’m half-asleep in the middle of the night,” she said.

I assumed she meant in an effort to help me go pee.

Laura’s turn:

Mom and Dad approve. I really didn’t see things going in any other direction. On so many levels, John’s quite the catch. I know plenty of my contemporaries who did MUCH worse.

There’s even a thought about ‘throwaway marriage’ where it’s just about having some legitimacy to a relationship that both parties (or sometimes, just ONE party) know is not going to last. And this, in today’s society, where open promiscuity, the ‘hookup culture’, is a thing.

Driving home, though, a thought appears in my head. I’m not just a college girl who has a convenient place to stay. I’m in a relationship. Make that the grand poobah of relationships. I’m living with a guy whom I will marry. I’m confused.

We showered. Two of us in the shower, both naked. I can see that this is a real place for a couple to have fun, but this is the wrong side of the wedding date for things I keep thinking about. I do love it when he tries to wash my back with his one hand and I derive a lot of pleasure when I’m washing him and I want to explore, to let myself loose on him. But I didn’t.

I put both of us into pajamas. His have a big, loose set of bottoms with a generous fly opening so if he HAD to, he could go pee by himself. That’s what we wore while we lounged, watching a movie on TV.

At bedtime I had him drop the PJ bottoms. Told him I didn’t want him to wet himself while I was trying to get his dick out of his pajamas in the middle of the night.

Okay, it IS rather titillating to think about him being half naked in bed with me.

We spooned up, me behind him, and off to slumber we went. Sometime later I was awakened when John rolled over. He can lie on his left side to sleep, but he gets in trouble on his right side, so he’s halfway on his back and I’m awake and he’s obviously still asleep, breath even and soft.

There’s enough light in the room to see where he’s half uncovered.

And half naked.

I’ve done quite well with temptation up to this point in my life. Well, okay ... last night ... And I guess that’s the stepping stone to tonight because I’m propped on an elbow, and I’m looking, and I’m thinking.

It IS kinda cute. I liked feeling it last night. Here it is again...

A thought goes back to conversations among high school girls about – let’s be clinical – ‘non-penetrative sex’. Mainly, to use the common term, blowjobs. I do remember vividly seeing one in progress. I don’t remember Alyssa being coerced, nor did she seem to lack enthusiasm that might arise from performing something she found personally disgusting, although other friends maintained that they did indeed think poorly of the idea. But most of them didn’t discount it. “You can’t get pregnant. Guys REALLY like it. Don’t have to get undressed.”