Chapter 10

The parade pulled in just before six. Dave's Red Escalade was parked over by the garage, giving Jeff, Doctor Boswell, and Laura plenty of room to park near the back door.

"Welcome to Escaladeville," Laura said laughing as she jumped on Jeff as soon as he got out of his vehicle. She locked her legs around his waist like the girls frequently did, and kissed him.

When Diana walked past, Laura turned Jeff loose and grabbed Diana's arm, spinning her around. Before she could react, Laura deep kissed her, then as she broke the kiss, whispered, "Thanks. I know you pushed him a little. And I know I didn't need it, at least not yet, but, wow, it's nice."

Diana just grinned at her. "All I did was remind him."

Helen, a little more restrained now that she wasn't performing for the salesman and Mr. Dunham, pulled Jeff's head down and gently kissed him. "I've got the best job in the world," she said, tears in her eyes. Turning to Ann and Jennie who were watching, albeit with a smirk on their faces, she said, "Let's go change. I need to swim some laps."

When all the rest were inside, Diana put her arm around her husband's waist as they walked to the back door. "It's not laps that she needs, Husband. When are you going to make love to her?"

Jeff stopped like he had slammed into a wall. "Diana... shit. Don't say things like that. I've got all the women I need. And certainly all I can handle. I..."

"Bullshit," Diana interrupted rounding in front of him, then hugging him tight, pressing her breasts against his chest. "You've got us walking around with sore pussies half the time, and none of us have gone lacking." Leaning back to look at him, she continued, "That woman is so in love with you that she can't keep her eyes off you. I don't know if it's the healer, or just being around our Alpha Male, but she looks, and acts younger. She's so full of energy she seems like a teenager in heat."

"In heat?" he asked, laughing.

"Yeah, my dad used to say that when he would see a couple of teenage girls, usually about fourteen or fifteen, walking through the neighborhood. He said they were in heat and 'looking to get bred.' Sometimes I think he was right, if a little crude."

"But Diana, about Doctor Boswell, well, we all took a vow."

"We took a vow to forsake all other men. You didn't take any such vow. I know. I wrote it. You're just dodging. Helen is one of us. She smart, she's good looking, and she loves you. And, calling her smart is almost an insult. We all need her, and not just to teach us, either. She'll make a lifelong friend, and sister-wife. She will, also, make you another wife you can be proud of."

"Diana, you're my wife, I don't..."

Diana slammed the heel of her fist into his chest. "Don't you ever call me your wife with that inflection. You're saying I'm your wife, and they're not. I'm your first wife, and in addition, I'm the boss bitch, and always will be as long as there's a breath in my body. But don't you ever think that any of your wives is less than I am. I'm your legal wife, but that has nothing to do with us, and you know it. By now, all of them have their rings on, and they would wear them when we go out if they could. When the girls are all eighteen, look out. Whether society likes it or not, they'll present themselves as your wives. Don't you ever slip up and let that inflection get into your voice where they might hear. I'm one of your wives, unless we're in public. Then you can introduce me as your wife, like you did to the sheriff. But be careful, even then. You don't want seven females on your case."

"Seven?" Jeff said, trying to lighten the mood.

"Seven! And about you making love to Helen," Diana said, gently pinching his cheek. "I didn't mean for you to fuck her. Save that until she becomes your wife, but do a little more than rub her pussy with your hand. Make love to her. I'll tell her it's going to happen so she doesn't feel guilty."

"Diana. I respect her. I like her, and yes, I guess I love her a little too, but I don't know..."

"She lost her husband and her sister-wife. She's finally found a family. What are we going to do? Send her to play with a vibrator every time we head for the bedroom? She's in love with you. Pick her up, carry her to bed and lick her pussy until her eyes cross. I know she's tired of hearing those girls, not to mention, Laura and I, rave about you. Just do it."

"Now kiss your first wife, then let's go inside and fix you a shake."

"Now wait a minute. I don't need one of those things. They put me out as soon as I drink one. I want to talk to Dave about some things."

"Not tonight. Remember, you told him forty hours a week. Well, this has been a twelve hour day for him already. He needs his mind off work for a while. Besides he has a heart condition."

"Not any more he doesn't," Jeff managed to get out, looking pleased that he was able to say it past his conditioning.

"Good. I thought maybe you had used the healer. But let's go have a good time with our new employees. I'll relent on the shake until later. But, I'll bet Dave and Evie are ready to go home, and there is no sense in it, not tonight. If they need clothes, they can wash the ones they have with them. I need to get in and fix dinner for them. They both must be starved. Let's have fun with them, but avoid work talk," she finished as she kissed him and turned to go.

Jeff stood for a minute. Well, Helen's titties did feel nice pressed against me when we kissed at the dealer's, but I don't need another wife. He felt his dick begin to swell, Ah crap.

After a few steps, Diana turned with a questioning look on her face, then looked toward his groin. As a smirk touched her lips, she crooked her finger for Jeff to come there.

When he reached her, she moved a hand for his dick, but he twisted aside, avoiding her. "Stop, Baby. I'm trying to let it go down."

"Been thinking about Helen's titties, haven't you?" she teased, dancing away from him, giggling, as he flicked at her ass with the back of his finger tips.

As they burst through the door into the kitchen, still teasing each other, Dave looked up from a stack of papers he was reading, a cup of coffee sitting beside him.

Diana made straight for the paperwork, took the stack away from a protesting Dave, and put it on the counter. "Work is done until tomorrow."

Evie, who was helping Laura and Arlene cook dinner, turned with a smile on her face.

"But, I was just..."

Diana stood facing Dave across the table. Putting her hands on her hips, and assuming a fake frown, "Eight hours a day, remember. And that's from the boss bitch, " she finished in the gruffest voice she could conjure up. The giggle at the end made her proclamation lose much of its punch, however.

"Way to go. Tell him girl," Evie said.

Jeff sat down at the head of the table. Arlene was there with a cup of coffee almost before he could pull his chair up, and thoroughly kissed him. When she prissed back to the cooking, Jeff looked over at Dave. "Well now, do you fish any?"

Diana laughed, as did Laura, who caught on immediately. "Alright, alright. Dave, Jeff would have to have directions to bait a hook," Diana said, laughing. "He's never fished in his adult life. It doesn't have to be that bad, gentlemen, but let's keep it light. Dave and Evie, we just meant for you to enjoy yourselves," Diana said, sitting at the table across from Dave. "They're three tennis courts and a volleyball court out there," she said, waving toward the back, "and they have lights. We have a game room that's packed. There are hundreds of DVD movies in the theater, plus the swimming pool is always an option, not to mention the weight and exercise room. Or you can ride four-wheelers, or the vacuum, for that matter," she said, fighting a laugh. "If you want to just relax, or watch TV, the living room is just down the hall, of course, or if you want to go back to your suite and just be together, that's fine too. But no serious work stuff," she finished putting a pout on her face.

"Ride the vacuums?" Evie and Dave said, almost in unison.

"You haven't seen the riding vacuums?" Diana and Laura did ask in unison.

Evie glanced at Diana, then back to Laura? "No," Evie answered, looking at her husband.

"We can have a race," Arlene said, joining the conversation.

"A race?" Dave answered, laughing. "You race vacuum cleaners? What do you do, pour dirt on the carpet and see who can vacuum it up the fastest, like that commercial on TV?"

Jeff grinned at Dave. "You're not even close. Think riding floor scrubber that you see at the supercenter. Only these are vacuum cleaners. They are low and sleek, though, not like that cumbersome thing at Wal-Mart. They won't exactly do zero to sixty in six seconds, but they will go. They have propane engines and a decent muffler system, although two of them in the same hallway make quite a bit of noise, especially at full throttle. You know Frank's motto," he said, laughing. "'If it's expensive, buy several of them.' There isn't a brand name on them. I suspect he had his company make them especially for the conference center. There's one on each floor."

Dave just looked at him. "Races?"

Jeff took a sip of coffee and leaned back. "I caught Arlene and Ann sneaking the one from this floor onto the freight elevator. Before I knew it, I was the one waving the checkered flag."

"It was not checkered, or a flag," Arlene laughed. "It was my green panties, as you well know, since you pulled them off me to have something to wave," she finished, giggling.

When the laughing died down, Jeff said, "Oh, that reminds me, Dave. Sometime in the future, have someone fix the paneling in the north wing on the second floor. Ann got on the inside and crowded Arlene as they turned the corner in the hallway."

Dave laughed. "Yeah, I can do that. Once I get the crew stopped laughing long enough, and by the way. Just how drunk were you while you were waving the 'checkered flag?'"

"'Drunk, '" Diana repeated, rolling her eyes. "Other than that beer he drank with you last night, the only thing he has had since we moved here was a glass of wine each night as he married the six of us. Even then, it was usually only a half-glass."

"No," Jeff laughed, "I didn't have an excuse. I was stone sober. But before you knock it, you're going to have to ride one of those vacuums. The girls even vacuum most of the bigger rooms with them, as well as the hallways. The vacuums will just clear some of the doorways with little room to spare. Of course, you have to move all the furniture to the side of the rooms, but on these big rooms, it still cuts down on the work. Plus it's fun."

"Jeff married all six of you?" Evie sighed, tears in her eyes. "I heard you mention wives before, but I just thought that you... well."

"Sit," Diana said. As Evie did, Laura turned back to the cooking.

Diana put her hand over Evie's. "It started when Ann came for a visit, and wound up asking me if Jeff could be her first."

"And," Jeff interrupted, "since it was Diana orchestrating this, it wound up to be an occasion," he finished, grinning.

Diana winked at her husband. "Men. We bought dresses for each of us. Had the catering service come in, put out some flower arrangements, had dinner for Ann and Jeff, then he picked her up and carried her into the bridal suite for her 'wedding' night. I guess it caught on. And I sure wasn't going to miss my turn. Finally, we had a ceremony with all us wives, and exchanged rings with him in the living room at sunset, standing next to the glass wall. It was beautiful with the evening sun turning everything golden as we said our vows."

"I wish you had invited us. We would have loved to have seen it."

"We didn't know you well enough then. You two and Helen are the only ones who know. But if you really want to see any of it, we had a video camera going during each dinner, and during the ring ceremony, as well."

"I would love to see it," Evie said, "but sometime when we're not rushed and we can all be together."

Evie glanced at Jeff. "I have a feeling that you..."

Jeff sighed. "Just remember. I don't show just anybody a video of me blubbering."

"Oh, you weren't that bad," Diana laughed.

"Yeah, well, I can remember not being able to kiss very long because my nose was stopped up. And I used my share of tissues."

"Getting back to the options you were giving us," Evie said, smiling, "We had originally thought about going for a drive in Dave's new Escalade. Actually just leaving my pickup here, and driving the Cadillac home. I've never driven a Cadillac before, certainly not an Escalade. And we need to get back home pretty early tonight. We would have already gone, but Dave wanted to talk to Jeff for a minute."

Laura and Diana looked at each other. Diana turned back to Evie, "How long does it take you to get home?"

"Oh, about an hour I guess."

"There's just the two of you, right?"

"Uh, yeah," Evie answered. "Our folks live in Denver."

Diana seemed to reconsider for a second. "Well, you're certainly going to eat before you go, but I still think you could wash your clothes, stay the night, and it would be much easier on you tomorrow. You could always go for a short drive, then come back here. But that's up to you."

"Oh, my gosh," Dave said, elaborately sniffing the air.

"That is southern fried chicken that you smell," Laura said, putting a pitcher of tea mixed with crushed ice on the table.

"I guess that settles it," Evie laughed at the look on her husband's face, "we're staying for supper. Isn't that what you call it in the south?"

Diana grinned back at her. "If we're just eating a regular evening meal at home, we generally call it supper. If we go out, we tend to call it dinner."

"Iced, sweet tea with lemon. And the ice is crushed, not just cubes. Isn't that's the way it's supposed to be served," Dave laughed.

"Definitely crushed. And we have creamed potatoes and gravy, and slaw."

"We're out of turnip greens," Diana said, laughing, "or we could really go southern."

"Turnip greens are just spinach on steroids," Jeff said, joining in. "But don't forget the hot pepper sauce to go with them."

Almost before they were through teasing each other about southern cooking, Arlene put a bowl of creamed potatoes on the table in front of Dave — a large bowl, with a big gravy boat, heaping full of gravy to accompany it.

Evie got up to help, and soon came back with a large platter of fried chicken, while the others set the table and brought over the rest of the food.

"Don't worry you two. What you don't eat, Jeff will take care of," Diana quipped as she put a plate down for him as well.

"Oh, so I'm a garbage disposal now, huh?"

From Laura, "No you just have..."

"... six wives," seven women said in unison, as Helen and the rest of them came through the kitchen door.

Jeff groaned, but couldn't stop the blush, then tried to bluster his way with, "I run a lot," but it fell flat, since everyone was already laughing.

"But aren't the rest of you going to eat," Evie asked when she realized that the table wasn't set for more people.

"Oh, we all had an early dinner at a nice restaurant after we left Denver."

Everyone looked pointedly at Jeff, who was heaping creamed potatoes onto his plate. That started the teasing again.

Dave and Evie didn't gain a lot of extra sleep by not driving home, but Evie smoked him coming down the last straightaway on the second floor. Dave kept complaining it wasn't fair since he outweighed Evie so much.

"Your vacuum runs faster than mine."

"Oh, pooh. I beat you on the corners, and you know it," she lied. They went toward their suite arm and arm at eleven, laughing, still having to wash their clothes before they went to bed. But it was obvious what they were going to do while they were waiting for the machine to finish.

At four, Jeff wormed his way out of bed without waking his wives. After using the bathroom, he dressed, put his gun on, picked up his LED flashlight, and walked out the back. He grinned as he started his warm-up jog, thinking about the vacuum cleaner races last night. Even with the propane engines, the second floor had begun to smell. He had put the air conditioning system on outside exchange before they started the vacuums, as they always did when they used them, but he had been a little worried that the carbon monoxide level might still go up too much with two motors running wide open. He and Dave had brought up a couple of fans from the basement and opened several windows. The alarm hadn't gone off, and no one had gotten a headache or gotten sleepy. Judging by the laughter and the teasing, everyone had an absolutely splendid time, he thought.

Later, Jeff checked the sky again as he made his turn at the seven-mile point. Heavy overcast, maybe even thicker than when I started. Evie might not get to finish the range today, after all. Oh, well. That decision is hers. I'm not going to worry about it. If it rains, we'll do a little dry firing in the classroom, then call it quits for the day. That will give Doctor Boswell extra classroom time.

The barely audible slap, slap, slap, of his shoes quietly hitting the pavement was the only sound, other than an occasional gust of wind. Jeff's new style of quieter running was a habit now, not requiring any conscious effort. He had read an article by one of the world-class ultra runners a few weeks ago, who claimed to have cut down on his running related injuries by consciously trying to lessen the force of his feet striking the pavement. Jeff had tried the runner's method for a few days, then realized that after a while, it required very little thought to make each step a lot softer and quieter. He hadn't noticed it helping his time any, and since he had started using the healer a couple of years ago, he hadn't had any pulled muscles, nor the plantar fasciitis that had plagued him for years, especially if he ran a course that had a few hills in it. Now he ran a course that made those hills seem flat in comparison, yet there was no pain in his foot.

Just as the sky began to lighten a little in the East, the wind gusted again, and Jeff heard a sound behind him. Thinking the wind had blown a small limb out of a tree and pushed it down the pavement to produce the scratching sound he heard, he glanced behind him. Stunned, he maxed out his speed, then turned the LED on and tried to shine it behind him as he ran. As he looked desperately over his shoulder, he could see glowing eyes and an enormous body barreling toward him.

Ah, shit! So much for not bothering you if you don't bother them. Shit, I'm not even in the race with this fucking grizzly. He's gaining on me like I'm standing still.

Almost waiting too long, Jeff came to a hard stop. Trying to turn, reach under his shirt and unsnap his holster at the same time, almost cost him his life. At the last instant, Jeff stepped aside, the grizzly's left hip actually grazing him as the bear charged past, then stopped in an appallingly short distance. Jeff realized that the distance would have been even shorter if its claws could have gotten purchase on the pavement.

Before Jeff could even bring the .45 around to the front, the bear was on him. Jeff sidestepped again, but the bear wasn't running this time, and easily turned with him, one clawed foot slamming into Jeff's left shoulder. There was blinding pain, then the shoulder went numb, the arm hanging, useless.

Just as the big animal reared up to finish off his puny prey, Jeff brought his weapon up, the barrel almost touching the grizzly's face.

A head shot might stun him enough for me to get out of here. I wish this was a .44 magnum instead of a .45, Jeff thought in the instant that he put the muzzle of the .45 almost against the bear's left eye and pulled the trigger.

Jeff staggered as the bear sat down, slowly rolled over, and slid down the embankment beside the road.

He stood with the gun thrust out in front of him, half-expecting the bear to come roaring back onto the road at any moment. After ten or fifteen seconds, he scrabbled around until he managed to pick up the LED with the same hand that was holding the pistol. Sticking the back of the flashlight in his mouth, he eased to the side of the road and looked down. The bear was lying on its belly, about twenty feet down the embankment. He didn't know whether the animal was dead or not, and wasn't going to stay around to find out. Turning, not even noticing he had again dropped the flashlight, he stumbled up the road, gun still in hand while trying to press the same hand against his mangled shoulder.

I'm weak — too weak, too soon.

He tried to put the .45 back into his holster, but with the shirt and the inside holster, it would take both hands. After a couple of failed attempts, he double checked the safety and stuck the pistol in his belt in the front of his jogging shorts.

Feeling warm blood gushing onto his hand, he tried to squeeze the shoulder to slow the flow. I can't see where the blood is coming from. It must be the outside of my arm just below the shoulder.

He squeezed as hard as he could and began staggering up the road, his strength draining away like water out of a bottomless bucket.

A hundred steps later, he slumped to his knees. Shock. I know it's shock. But knowing it and making it go away are two different things. Crap I'm weak. Stand up boy. You'll die if you lie down.

Forcing himself upright until his vision grayed, he put a foot down and tried to stand, the torn brachial artery in his upper arm continuing to spurt blood that ran down his arm and puddled on the pavement.

Diana and Arlene sat up in bed and screamed at the same time. "Get your gun," Diana yelled as she crawled over complaining females, heedless of where her knees were landing, hit the floor, and yanked her drawer open where she kept her gun. Arlene crashed through the closet door and grabbed her gunbelt off the rack. As she frantically fastened it around her waist, her mother had already shoved her own gun into its holster and took off out of the bedroom, still carrying the gunbelt in her hand.

Into the chaos in the bedroom Arlene yelled as she started in pursuit of Diana, "Dad's been hurt."

Arlene caught up with her mother, only because Diana had to stop in the kitchen for the keys. Diana hit the remote as they went out the back at a dead run. She had on a tee-shirt and panties; Arlene was wearing only a tee-shirt and a gunbelt.