Chapter 17: Conflagrations

Mike

When I picked up Dana, Monday mid-morning, she gave me a nice, sweet kiss and a smile. “Come,” she said as she buckled into my passenger seat. “Let’s go find our love.”

I blinked. Her hair-style was the same, brushed across her forehead into a clip. Same clothes, including a light short-sleeve sweater buttoned high enough to avoid flashing cleavage to anyone taller. Then it hit me—love instead of lover. A decidedly romantic instead of sexpot kiss. She had to be at least as horny as me, especially after last night’s all-too-brief necking—we’d held off anything more, waiting for a Teri who didn’t arrive till too late. Despite that, she was making sure our friendship took priority—our romance.

I smiled. “Let’s.” As I backed the van out her driveway, I asked, “You sure this is enough time for her to sleep in?”

“Not sure-sure.” Dana hummed a little. “Mostly sure.”

“Uh-huh,” I said. Then to test her, just a little, “Enough time to make Teri want to jump your bones?”

A small smile, but she didn’t look my way. “Well, I wouldn’t mind that either. But I do miss her.”

My throat caught. “So do I.” As well as her body. But just being with her, with both of them together, even more.

Mid-morning on a workday, Teri’s street actually has parking—including, wonder of wonders, right in front of her house. Score. Dana helped get my wheelchair out. We were heading up the walkway to her house when Teri came out the front door—our big, beautiful girlfriend in all her glory. Damn, but I’d missed her. My cock stirred.

With her was another, smaller woman—her writing partner, Zoe Barnes. Teri stopped short at the edge of the porch, surprise written all over her face. “You guys!”

What the heck? —that looked like shock mixed in with her joy. Dana stood beside me at the bottom of the front steps.

After a moment that seemed to last three heartbeats too long, Teri came down the steps—not hurried, though with her weight and strength, she never rushed. But without even a sense of holding herself back—unlike Dana, who felt like she was vibrating in place. What the hell?

When Teri reached the bottom, Dana all but teleported the last half-meter into our girlfriend’s arms. “Welcome back.”

Teri seemed to melt into the embrace. That, at least, felt normal. Then she bent her head, a little awkwardly, to kiss Dana. They kept it sweet and short. Then Teri knelt down and embraced me over my wheel. Again awkward, but that’s situation normal when you live between two wheels. Her lips were warm but the kiss was all too brief.

Behind her, I heard Dana say, “Hello, Zoe—it’s good to meet you at last.”

Teri stood up, and stepped back to stand beside Zoe. Out of reach of holding hands. Despite knowing better, my stomach clenched a little. This—

Zoe shook her head at Dana. “Heavens, you are a big-boobed pixie.”

“Just as the pictures showed,” Dana said with a small smile. How was she sounding so normal? So pleasant?

Zoe laughed. “Knowing is one thing—meeting another. It’s almost as startling as this tank of a girl.” She hip-checked Teri.

Zoe was 10cm or so taller than Dana, and slender in waist and bust—’pixie’ described her well. Her large sunglasses made it hard to judge, but she seemed maybe five years older than us, 21 or so.

“Tell me about it,” I said—and was pleased that it addressed many layers of conversation.

“Hello, Mike,” Zoe said, offering her hand. “It’s good to meet you, too.”

I shook it. I put on my best cowboy drawl. “Always glad to oblige, ma’am.”

“Oo, this one’s got sauce!”

“What are you guys doing here?” Teri asked.

As if it weren’t obvious? Why was she acting like she didn’t want us here? My stomach clenched tighter.

Dana raised her eyebrows a bit. “Coming to see you in the morning, as you insisted.”

“You know,” I added. “Catch up, and all that?”

Teri wince-grimaced. “Yeah, except—well, we’ve got reservations in fifteen at the Y Camp.”

“Trail ride and a meal from the chuck wagon!” Zoe said proudly.

Reservations that clearly didn’t include us. Okay, so, yeah we knew Teri would be spending much of this week with her other kind of partner, but the whole vibe was off. And it wasn’t like I could trail ride myself, and even if I did Y Camp wouldn’t be my first choice—very dude ranch. If you want a piece of The Western Experience, I guess it’d be fine.

Dana tried to hide her disappointment. Again, not a good actor. Of course, I went completely deadpan to control my face, so I wasn’t much better.

Dana opened her mouth to say something, but instead glanced at me. If that look was trying to communicate something, I had no idea what.

And in any case, Teri spoke instead. “Listen, I really want to get together, and soon, but Zoe’s only here through Friday and we’ll probably be pretty busy till then. I’ll catch up with you later, ‘k?”

She hesitated half a moment, then bent to hug-and-kiss Dana again. Dana tried to draw it out sweetly, but Teri pulled away, then turned to me for another. I tried to put all my longing and desire into it, but her tongue barely touched mine, and again she pulled away. What the fuck?

I felt like I’d been sucker-punched in the stomach.

Then Teri pushed past us, followed by Zoe, who at least gave us a twiddle of her fingers as she left.

“Love you!” Dana called after her.

Teri waved without looking back at us, as she walked up the street.

Bile tickled the back of my throat, and I swallowed to keep from throwing up. What. The. Fuck?

Dana shook her head slowly, then said as if answering me, “I don’t know.” The hurt in her voice echoed in my heart.

The screen door behind us banged—Ricky came out on the porch, carrying an area rug. “Oh, hi,” he said, barely hiding his annoyance. “You just missed her.”

“We know,” I said, not hiding mine.

He unfurled the rug over a side railing and looked disgustedly at the cloud of dust that raised.

“How’s your father?” Dana asked Ricky. I peered up at her—okay, even if this was a time for making small talk, why ask about him instead of Consuela?

Ricky grimaced. “Going stir-crazy, and it’s driving me crazy. Today’s chore is cleaning out the den.” He gave the rug a half-hearted shake. Dust billowed.

“Tell him we said hi,” Dana said.

Ricky took a deep breath, nodded, then turned his face away as he started shaking more vigorously. He disappeared in a dust-cloud that would bring envy to a thunderstorm roaring across the range.

Dana turned towards my van. I wheeled around to follow. Despite her obvious pain, she looked thoughtful, in a way that suggested she had something in mind more constructive than rolling frantically away down the street, or breaking my hand by punching the van’s side door. She slid open the latter for me then paused, still lost in thought.

I swallowed bile again. “Now what?”

She returned to this world. “Now we go visit Consuela.”

My first thought was, Why now? Then I realized: “Has Teri even done that yet?”

Dana nodded slowly, as if I had asked the right question. “Let’s find out.”

We got in, and I started the van—but didn’t put it in gear yet. I looked at Dana—still subdued, but showing nothing like the worry I was. Or maybe I mean panic. I touched the earrings in my left ear, reminding myself of our commitment, which helped. Some.

It took Dana several seconds to notice we weren’t moving and focus on me.

I said, “You looked like you were going to ask about going with them.” With Teri and Zoe.

Dana nodded.

“Why didn’t you?”

Dana licked her lips. “Two reasons. First, you can’t ride a horse.”

I snorted despite myself. “Just because the doctor still hasn’t cleared me for that doesn’t mean you can’t go yourself. Second?”

“What we talked about, about me pushing you guys too much. Something happened in Kansas City. She needs us to be friends right now. We need to woo her, remind her that she can trust us.”

‘Woo’? Seriously? Leaving aside the old-fashioned word itself, I wasn’t sure. Especially if Teri was still torquing about the move.

Dana aimed all of her attention on me. “Besides, she has Zoe.”

Who was both a friend and an excuse. “You want to wait out the week?”

“Want? No.” Dana took a breath, let it out quickly. This gave her tits the usual wonderful jiggles. Breasts—I mean her breasts. (Okay, yes, I was still horny, despite my panic.) “Let’s go see Consuela. After that, we’ll have time for lunch before you have to be at work.”

I subtly adjusted my erection—or I tried to be subtle, anyway—and put the van in gear.