Chapter 27

05:30 August 31, 1983 Girls, Craig and Warnings

Five thirty on the button. My eyes popped open and the first thing I see is the pretty cheerleader that slept in my arms last night. Without all that black and pale makeup, she looked a lot like the girl I used to crush on. I gave her a quick kiss, and she smiled sleepily at me. “What time is it, anyway?”

“It’s five-thirty, time for me to get up and do the morning chores. The cow won’t milk itself, nor will the chickens gather the eggs or get their own food. Those are two of my chores now that I’m living here. Go on back to sleep. I just didn’t want you to wake later and think I abandoned you in bed. I am not that kind of a guy.”

“No, you aren’t,” she said as she snuggled into my pillow, breathing in my scent. “You’re the type of guy that sends a girl off to sleep with fireworks floating behind her eyes and wonderful feelings she didn’t think she could have in other places.”

Pap-pap just stared at me as I poured myself that first, needed, cup of coffee. “I’m gonna pretend Granny and I don’t know about the young woman in yer bed Harrison. But don’t think we’re gonna let you make a habit of that. I told you where the places were for your hookups or whatever you youngsters are callin’ em these days.”

“Pap-pap, it wasn’t my idea. I came home to her in my bed, waiting for me. I didn’t think it was right to kick her out.”

“I know that boy. Yer Granny heard your girls talking to those two little women. So she knew that one of them was planning on being in yer bed last night. She said that what was going to happen needed to happen, and it needed to happen in a bed, not the Hayloft. That’s the only reason I allowed it this time. But she had her night in yer bed. Anything else she needs from you can and will happen either in your little make-out nest or in the woods, am I clear?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Granny mentioned the police arrested Robert last night. Just like you predicted. That you had gone to yer Mom and made things right between you two. That’s good, Son. I’m proud of you. After the way she treated you, it would have been easy to hold a grudge and not comfort her or help her at all. It took a real man to realize she was reacting more to the shock of what you told her than the substance and overlook it when the rubber met the road.”

“She’s my Mom, Pap-pap. I couldn’t just walk away. What really frosts my cookies is I’m paying for Robert’s shyster lawyer. The guy is about as slimy as the Mayor and Robert, but he’s the man that Joseph said would be the best for Robert’s situation. Apparently, he couldn’t care less if his client was innocent or guilty. As long as he gets paid, he’ll do his best to defend his client.”

“Thankfully, he will take my credit card for the retainer and let me know he expects to be paid in a timely fashion and in cash after this. I got to say, I hate that I’m paying for Robert’s defense when I believe he should be in jail right alongside the Mayor and the gang of five. All of which were arrested last night. The police arrested the three in the hospital last night. I heard nothing about Craig or Deshawn. The twins are coming back out here for the rest of the weekend so I can keep a watch over them. I don’t want those two assholes near my sisters, or any of the girls I’ve promised to protect.”

“We’ll keep them safe this weekend, but Harrison, you can’t be everywhere at once. You might start thinking about teaching your girls how to defend themselves, all of them, not just your sisters and girlfriends. I heard big Marine say you were good enough to be teaching, so maybe you should invite all those pretty little girls who were here yesterday to come out a couple of days a week and start teaching them some self-defense lessons. Something beyond kicking the fella in the balls.”

I nodded. “That’s not a bad idea, Pap-pap. I know several guys that did that in some of the bigger cities I was stationed near. And the Navy offered those types of classes to sailors’ wives and female sailors. There are some simple things they can learn that would at least let them cause some pain, and then get the chance to run for help. We should buy the girls some pepper spray and a loud whistle, too. Then teach them how to use both.”

Pap-pap scooped up the last of his oatmeal and then placed his cup beside the coffeepot and his bowl in the sink. He took off to get ready for another day of baling hay. We had enough for the Churchill Downs order, but that didn’t mean that the work stopped. While that order was finished, we still had to get the rest of the hay in the loft. We might need it ourselves during the winter, or Churchill Downs may come back to us for another delivery later in the race season. Either way, Pap-pap needed to get the hay baled and then stored. He and I would keep working until it was all put up or sold off. Then we’d work together to plow the fallow fields and get them ready for next season’s planting. I had papers to deliver, but thankfully not today. No papers on Saturday.

I knew that today Amaryllis and maybe Jules would be out. May and Mary Jane would be out to keep away from Craig, when Mary Jane was supposed to go out on a date with him. Mom might come out with them, so she wasn’t sitting at home alone. I had a hot cheerleader in my bed who thought I walked on water and wanted me to give her wonderful memories to replace her bad ones. Two girlfriends who would want to play the panty pop game again. Plus, I needed to complete my morning chores and my daily workout routine before Granny rang the breakfast bell.

Milking finished, eggs collected, cow, chickens and pigs fed, and I was working on three miles for my daily run now. I was up to thirty burpees, fifty crunches, and ten pull-ups, with the last one still being a hanging drop. Today I planned to introduce swimming into my workout using the old watering pond from back when Pap-paps own Pap-pap ran a small herd of cattle on the farm. While the steers were long gone, that pond still existed, and it was deep and wide and I could easily spend forty-five minutes swimming laps either back and forth or even around the outer edges. Maybe I’d alternate back and forth one day, circular the next. They also stocked it with bass and trout and was the place Granny suggested I gather my supply of fish instead of buying cod and salmon at the store. I’d still buy some salmon because I liked it, but I agreed just the thought of catching my fish was enticing. Not only that, but the casting and fighting of the fish to shore was another type of upper body and core workout. One that brought with it the reward of a healthy meal, too.

When I got back to the house after my swim in the pond, both my girlfriends and sisters greeted me. They told me Mom had gone to the jail to visit Robert and let him know that she’d talked to the developer’s mortgage company. They refused to let her refinance the house or use it as collateral. That had been her first phone call this morning. The girls giggled and said the reason they gave was that there was a serious offer from another developer to buy the mortgage from them. We all knew that had to be the offer Joseph had made for Tie-Dyed Developments. I figured Robert would not be a happy camper when he got that news. I just hoped Mom turned to us if he blasted her for something beyond her control.

On the flip side, tonight was the night that the people of Kentucky would find out who the lucky winner of the Lottery was. Granny’s interview should be the headliner for the news tonight. Well, unless the Mayor’s arrest beat her out. I needed to remember to ask Joseph how the search for a Financial Planner was going. Also, I wanted to find a good real estate agent. One who wouldn’t look down on mine and the twins’ young age, but be willing to help us invest some of the money I’d earmarked for real estate, in ready to rent or flip properties in town.

We had breakfast and the girls, all of them, dressed. This time, they were more than willing to borrow jumpsuits from me. I guess one day of getting dirt and hay dust on them was enough to convince them it was better to be a little warm than it was to be a lot dirty and itchy.

I had to slow things down because Patty wanted to learn to drive the tractor, just like the rest of the girls. Again, who was I to deny her? Especially after last night. My libido was in overdrive. You would think seeing the four girls unrelated to me in my navy submarine jumpsuits would put a damper on my lust. Well, you’d be wrong. I don’t know. Maybe it was that they were tighter on them in all the ‘right’ places that did it, or maybe it was knowing they were wearing my clothes over those luscious bodies was the culprit. All I knew was that I couldn’t look at any of the girls not related to me and not show my appreciation to anyone willing to look. Still, I didn’t let that stop me from working. If anything, I took my frustrations out on the bales of hay. Working to load the trailers faster than I had any other day that week. Soon enough, it was dinnertime and Mom appeared in Pap-pap’s truck with a picnic for all of us. We spread the old comforter on the ground and grabbed a seat. Everyone dug in while mom sat and watched.

I could see she was upset and once the girls were finished and back to working, I walked up and hugged her. “What’s wrong Mom? I mean, besides the obvious, that Roberts isn’t home.”

“He told me not to come back, Harrison. If I couldn’t post his bail, he said not to come see him. He insinuated I wanted him locked up. That I was siding with you and the D.A. He even warned me to keep my fat mouth shut about anything I thought I might know.”

I gave her a reassuring squeeze. “My apologies, Mom. I don’t understand him. He should be thankful that you are being supportive. I mean, a lot of women, when they heard what he was doing, would have left him to rot. You are at least trying to help him. Does he know I paid for the retainer for his fancy lawyer?”