Chapter 28

Shirley called me on the seventeenth of March. They were leaving South Carolina the next morning, and would be in Ridgeline, sometime on the twenty-first. During that conversation, I made it very clear to her that Emily had big reservations about what would happen when she got back, but that I had already made my choice to stay with Emily.

"When I get back, we can have a nice talk, and then you can decide, Kenny. I have a lot I want to tell you."

"I already did decide. If you come back with the attitude that I haven't decided yet, Emily is going to stay worried. I don't want that."

"It sounds to me like you're worried too, but I don't want to argue with you about it. Not over the phone anyway. My mother and I are so excited to be coming back to Ridgeline again. Daddy isn't so excited, but he knows it's for the best."

"My Dad's excited too. He showed me this new idea he has for making national distribution easier. He wants to use railway hubs, shipping to eight different way points first, and then re-shipping from there, as needed. He thinks it will increase product freshness, and allow our sales people to order for their immediate needs only. He thinks it will be a good selling point, and will make it easier for us to compete with the local competition. He wants your dad to go to work training people to open up the larger regional grocers for us."

"I don't care about any of that, Kenny, it's boring. Tell me more about Emily. Does she take care of you as well as I did?"

"Shirley, one of the things I liked best about you, before, was that you listened to what I told you. Em's my girlfriend now. We're very happy together. All you can accomplish is to make it impossible for you and I to be friends. Is that what you want?"

"No. Will I see you Saturday? We should be home in the afternoon sometime."

"Not Saturday, unless you come to the club for the dance. Em and I might get back in time for that. We'll be in Bolling all day, taking some of the boys to the flea market. I'll probably see you during the week, after you get all settled in. I'm busier now than I was before. With school, my family, Emily, and the group homes, I just don't have that much free time anymore. This is the first time we even talked to each other in four months, so another few days isn't going to really matter."

"Are we even going to be friends? It doesn't sound like it from the way you're talking."

"It would be easier to think about us being friends if I knew you respected the fact that Emily and I are together now. From the way you're talking, its going to be hard for us to be friends."

We talked some more, with Shirley making an effort not to get me any more riled up about what we had discussed earlier. The way I looked at it, she was the one who left, not me. I wasn't going to be made to feel guilty, just because circumstances came up that brought her back to town. She hadn't bothered calling me for four months. If her father hadn't decided to take his old job back, I probably wouldn't have even heard from her again.

Not only did I not want to feel guilty, I didn't want to be forced to deal with the pressure of constantly having to reassure Emily that I wasn't interested in getting back with Shirley.

I called Emily after I finished talking to Shirley. We talked for fifteen minutes before she asked me if I wanted to come over and take her to Uncle Bunny's house. It was six fifteen, and dinner was being served at seven. I told her I hadn't eaten yet, and she asked me if I couldn't skip a meal to be with her. I went into the kitchen and had Gerta make me a cold cut sandwich. We were having roast beef, and I asked her to please save a plate for me. I told her I'd be back home around ten o'clock or so.

Em and I had 'worry sex'. Whenever she worried about me leaving her for someone else, she became more passionate for some reason. It wasn't better for me though, only for her. I had my hands full at those times, trying to prevent her from scratching, biting, or kicking me. After 'worry sex', we always had her being insecure, and me having to reassure her that she was worrying without having any reason for it.

Even with these kinds of worries and fears, Emily and I were getting along better than we ever had before. She was coordinating things with Joyce, and she and Mama were working together on sending out fund raising mailers to all the people on Mama's contact lists. Emily had composed the letter, then she spent some time with both Mama and Joyce, making changes to it.

I had given Emily my old Cadillac, because I had decided to buy myself a new one. I bought an El Dorado coupe, and really loved the quietness of the ride. Convertibles are okay, but they are noisy, and they are cold also, in the winter, even with the heater turned all the way up. My new car had a baby blue paint job, with a white leather interior.

Emily was doing any necessary driving that either Mama or Joyce needed done. She was also taking Gary and her to and from school, which made her get home a few minutes earlier than before, when she and Gary both walked. Mrs. Carstairs hadn't said anything about me giving the car to Emily.

Emily had asked me if I could let her borrow another ten thousand dollars. She said her mother didn't want to worry her father about cutting short his research, but, between his expenses overseas, and the rest of the family's at home, the twenty five thousand I'd loaned her father wasn't going to be enough. I went to Frank and got a check made out to Mrs. Carstairs and gave it to Emily for her mother.

I wasn't troubled in the slightest way about giving her the money. If they needed it, I wanted them to have it. I had far more than I needed, and, I would have willingly given her a lot more, if she had asked me for it.

Mama spoke to me about it after I had given Emily that second check. Once I told her what was happening, as far as Emily's family finances went, she simply nodded to me, and said nothing more about it.

Mama already had all seven sessions of the upcoming golf academy season fully subscribed. She was turning new applicants away daily. She had issued twenty one fully paid scholarships, in Uncle Bunny's name, to young female golfers who had applied, but were unable to afford the high tuition and living expense.

My Dad was traveling all over the country, meeting with new clients for our company's products. In a lot of cases, the top man just wanted to meet the top man from the new supplier. Dad called it two dogs sniffing each other's butts.

The building for the four homes over by Holton was already begun. We had cleared most licensing hurdles, and no one saw any problems with having our use permits approved, since there were no neighbors within a mile of where we were locating our homes. I found out, by accident, that Hans, Gerta, and Mama had formed a small partnership to locate and purchase land in the areas where we were putting up our group homes. They never gave me the reason why they were doing this, but I knew they had some plan.

Saturday morning, Emily and I drove over to Bolling at five in the morning. The flea market opened at six, and we had promised the four boys we were taking, that we'd be there when it first opened. For most of the boys, having their own, spendable, money was a new experience. Emily had come up with the idea of taking four of them shopping at a time. I don't think she was thinking about garage sales, flea markets, or outdoor auctions. We provided transportation and supervision, and the boys walked around, looking everything over carefully, before parting with any of their precious money.

Emily and I bought a few things too. We bought two tee shirts. One had DUMMY printed on the front, and the other one had, I'M WITH DUMMY printed on it. Emily thought this was pretty funny, until later, when she discovered that I had gone back and gotten the sales clerk to make the DUMMY one be a size small, and the I'M WITH DUMMY be the large one.

Driving home, I asked her about going to the club for the dance, but she said she'd prefer that we went over to Uncle Bunny's house instead. I knew she was putting off our seeing Shirley for as long as she could, but, I understood why she wanted to do that. I had been worried about seeing her too.

It wasn't because I was worried about how I'd react to seeing her again, because Emily was prettier than Shirley was. I was afraid that Shirley or Emily might provoke some type of confrontation, and I wanted to avoid doing that if we could.

Making love to Emily that night was both sweet and tender. It was a gentle giving that Emily insisted on doing for me. It involved a lot of kissing and cuddling when I was inside her. The object wasn't to have the strongest cum, but to prolong our connection. It was enjoyable and different, and I understood this was Emily preparing, in case her worst fears were realized. This was almost like her saying goodbye to me. I stayed in bed with her, holding her tightly, kissing her and letting her know that being there, alone with her, was exactly where I wanted to be.

At eleven, I got Emily to call her mother, to tell her she was going to spend the night with me. I wanted her focused on a different problem than the one Shirley obviously presented her with.

At first, her mother absolutely forbade Emily to spend the night with me. Emily persisted though, arguing logically that there wasn't any reason for her mother to refuse to allow it. Her mother finally asked Emily to put me on the phone.

"Ken, you know this is going to cause me all kinds of problems with Jerry. Why do it now? This just isn't worth what you'd be getting by having your way."

"Emily is worried, and I know she'll be less worried, and sleep better, if she's sleeping next to me. You know why she's worried, and this will help her with that."