Chapter 291

A little after three in the afternoon, the back door swung open and the women, again dressed in their regular outfits, flooded in, all in a good mood, laughing, talking and teasing each other as they hung up their coats.

Adriana was talking to Lillian, (Both are Van's wives) but several others were listening. "Did you see the look on Sarge's face when Paulette (Van's daughter/Jeremy's wife) nailed the three hundred yard target dead center of the bull three times in a row? I'm sure he thought the first time was luck, then she did it a second time – then a third. I told him she was shooting a BB gun when she was six, and a .22 when she was ten and a 30.06 when she was twelve. And you shot an even tighter group," she said, nodding to Jessica.

"I think he was a little bit shocked at all of us," Jessica responded with a smile. "No telling how many cases of .22 ammo we've all gone through on the range downstairs, and I, like Paulette, have been shooting on the farm practically all my life. I think all of us women surprised the Sergeant today."

"Yeah," the Clan Queen laughed, "the class on field stripping the weapon lasted about five minutes. He just told us to practice to become faster. The field stripping classes here and the intense physical training beforehand made a difference. We all did ourselves proud. Our men won't have to be ashamed of us," she added as she joined in the high fives with several of the women. "Bet we kept up with the runs a lot better than the Sergeant expected, uh ... except when I busted my butt," she finished with a laugh.

"Well," Helen said, loudly enough for all of them to hear, "I think you actually gained some time on that slope. I know you passed at least two of us on the way down."

Diana stuck her tongue out at her sister-wife.

"I gave you a ten for style points," Susan said with a giggle, "and I think you looked particularly sexy with your feet waving in the air like that."

"Oh, my goodness. Surely, my feet weren't..." Diana began.

"Yep, they were," Susan assured her.

"I guess that's the reason my butt is so sore. It's gonna be the Jacuzzi for me, right after supper."

"It's not nearly time for supper," Melissa inserted.

"But I'm starved, " Diana continued, with several of the other women agreeing.

Just before they got to the kitchen, Jeff met them in the hall, raising his hand a little for quiet. "We have a surprise in the works for Mrs. Kimbrel."

There were several comments of, "Great! She's a nice lady. What is it?" and others.

"The troopers who escorted Kayla and Selina noticed that her old Cherokee was leaking a lot of oil, so..."

"We bought her a car," Jennie guessed with a giggle. "What kind?"

"Well, I really didn't know what she would like, but since she had a Cherokee, I told the troopers to get her a Grand Cherokee with everything on it. Hopefully, she'll like it."

Diana grabbed her husband and kissed him. "I like her, and from the look on Steve's face when he's around her, I think he really likes her. You did good, Husband."

"Where is she?" Evie asked.

Kayla has been keeping her busy. "They're in the pool now. Meg kept talking about how much energy she had now that Little One had enhanced her, and I had already told Kayla that the troopers had called and said they were on the way back with her vehicle, so Kayla talked her into a dip in the pool to keep her busy while we got her surprise set up."

"It's gotta have a big bow and ribbon," Diana enthused, "and we have plenty of wide ribbon."

In short order, the Prime stood alone in the hallway, a big grin on his face, as the women hurried to the Matthews' suite to make a giant bow.

A few minutes later, Jeff, Handley and Jacobs stood in the back by the new Grand Cherokee while the women swarmed around it, taping a big bow on the top with streamers to the front back and sides.

"Sir, I sure hope she likes red. That's the only one they had in stock with everything on it."

"I'm sure she'll love it," Jeff assured him as he knelt to check out the snow tires.

"By the way," Jacobs commented as Jeff stood back up. "The salesman claimed they couldn't have it ready until tomorrow afternoon, and he wouldn't budge on it. But your accountant had a meeting with the Sales Manager, and suddenly we had people falling all over us to make us happy. They even brought us coffee and doughnuts, and he knocked another two hundred off the price, too. The accountant wouldn't tell us what happened, but he was pissed when he went looking for the Sales Manager. I don't know what you pay that guy," he said with a laugh, "but he had some very nice things to say about you, and he damn sure took it personally when they wouldn't go ahead and prep the Cherokee."

"He's been loyal to me. When we first moved out here and needed an accounting firm, he was working for the company I chose to take care of my business. I had not signed a contract with them, so when he later began his own firm, I went with him. I've never regretted it."

The Spermans pulled up and quickly got out of their vehicle. After being briefed on what was going on, all Steve could say was, "Oh, my. Oh, my."

"It's beautiful," Marcie gushed, "and that giant bow looks so nice. She's going to be so excited when she sees everything." Then turning to Jeff, "Oh, thank you so much for doing this for her. She's such a nice person. We've been friends for years. We haven't seen much of her lately, but she never said anything about having vehicle problems, and we had no idea how bad her arthritis had become. Then again, she never complains about anything."

The back door opened and Kayla, Alice, Terri and Selina came out ushering Meg before them. Mrs. Kimbrel's eyes were already locked on the bright red Grand Cherokee sporting an enormous white bow. At a nudge from Jeff, trooper Jacobs stepped over and held out the keys. "The Colonel just bought you a new vehicle. Come take it for a spin."

Colonel? Meg vaguely wondered, but her main focus was on what else the young man had said. This beautiful car is mine? It's wrapped like a giant birthday package. But it can't be mine. It just can't be. But before her thoughts could go any further, Jeff spoke up.

"We all bought it for you," the Prime corrected.

"Oh, I can't believe..." Meg gasped out, staring at the Grand Cherokee. "But it's far too expensive. Surely you haven't spent all that money on me."

"Oh, it's yours all right," Jeff replied with a grin.

Clutching the keys, she walked around the Cherokee and Handley opened the driver's door for her.

Four of the women grabbed the ends of the streamers and the bow was soon off.

Meg, almost in a daze, couldn't seem to say anything. Marcie opened the front passenger door and ushered her husband in, then sat in the back. "Let's go for a ride, Meg," she called out to her friend.

"Oh, my goodness. This is really mine?" she asked no one in particular. Then turning to Jeff, "But you were just going to get the motor repaired in my Jeep."

"I lied," Jeff responded with a grin.

Mrs. Kimbrel grabbed him and hugged him. "I know I should refuse it, but... thank you," she whispered past her tears.

"Try it out, Meg," the Prime urged.

She turned back to look at the Cherokee. "It's so beautiful. I'm scared I'll wreck it."

Paying no attention, he ushered her into the driver's seat.

As she gingerly sat behind the wheel, "I haven't driven a new vehicle in so long..."

Jacobs reached in to show her where the seat controls were. As she was adjusting the seat, "It's fully insured," Jeff assured her. "You bang it up; they fix it," he finished with a grin.

As Jeff stood back up, Meg rushed out of the vehicle and grabbed him in a hug again, the tears now pouring. A couple of seconds later, she turned to Diana, hugging her just as hard.

"You're thanking the wrong people," Jeff said with a chuckle, then motioning, "The two troopers here are the ones that started the whole thing. When they went into your garage looking for a snow shovel, they saw all the oil and decided your old Cherokee was on its last legs, and they're the ones who went to Denver and got your new vehicle."

That got both troopers hugged.

"But the Colonel..." Jacobs started just as Jeff stepped on the trooper's foot.

"Go," the Prime said as he ushered Meg back into the driver's seat.

Jacobs moved a little away from Jeff to speak to Mrs. Kimbrel. Jeff's heel had hurt. "Colonel Matthews' accountant put a prepaid Visa card in the glove compartment for whenever you need gas," he finished, then quickly stepped behind Diana.

"Go," Diana said, laughing at the trooper, but speaking to the others, "the three of you. Go try out your new car." Smiling, she closed Meg's door.

Jeff tapped on the window and Meg turned the switch on and let the window down. "There's a note on the dash. We made reservations for you three at Martha's. Don't hurry back. Why not take in a show in Denver while you're out? Make a night of it."

"We'll do just that," Steve said, "and thank you both, Jeff and Diana."

Meg put on her seat belt, started the Grand Cherokee, then backed up cautiously. Wiping tears and waving, she slowly drove out of the parking lot toward the driveway.

Diana turned and hugged the startled troopers. "Well done, Gentlemen," she said with a big smile.

Jeff shook their hands and sent them on their way with yet another story about their Colonel to share with their fellow troopers.

Jeff turned to his Clan Queen. "Sarge called and told me he was going to let all of you off early since you had already learned to field strip and reassemble the rifle before class. I thought you would be hungry after the training runs, so I've set up the grills on the Jacuzzi deck. Kayla and the girls have prepared potato salad and a couple other side dishes, plus we also have chips to go with the hamburgers. I've called all the men, and everyone should be here in the next few minutes."

The grills were already hot when they walked onto the deck. Jeff busied himself with the first three patties. As soon as the meat was done, he put it on three plates, and Selina, Terri and Alice quickly built their burgers, while Kayla prepared the side dishes to go on a serving cart. As a puzzled Diana looked on, Terri, giggling, remarked, "We're gonna have a picnic in Selina's suite."

Shortly, the three girls were out the door with the cart, and Jeff began the burgers for the whole group. "What's going on, Husband?" Diana queried.

"We're just having a party, Dear," he innocently replied, making Diana positive something was, indeed, going on.

"So why are the children leaving?" When he didn't answer right away, "Jeff?" she started, but he interrupted her.

"Help me turn these before they burn."

By the time the patties were done, the men were all there, and Jeff was putting on more meat for the second and third burgers the men would want. The women were beginning to relax from their hard day as evidenced by the laughter and joking going on. Jeff waited until the women had finished their burgers – all of them ate two, instead of just one – then he stood. "Okay, ladies. We all know that you went through a rough day. We've all been there and done that, right guys?"

There was laughter and agreement from the men. As soon as the noise had diminished, the Prime went on. "None of us are cooks, but even I can burn a burger. We all thought that you gals deserved to not have to fix a meal after all that expenditure of energy today. And ... the guys all remembered how sore they were after following the Sergeant around the mountain, so I turned the Jacuzzi on an hour ago."

"Guess we need to run and get our Bikinis," Jennie said, standing.

"But we didn't bring our suits," Adriana worried.

"Neither did we," complained Carla.

There was a general murmur from the women. Jeff held up a hand for quiet. "No problem, ladies. The children are having their own picnic and Selina will make sure Alice and Terri stay away, the architect and her husband are gone for the day, and ... we're all adults here. The men aren't going to join in, so there's nothing wrong with you gals enjoying the Jacuzzi nude. Most of us have seen each other anyway, and for the ones who haven't seen all of us, just remember this, no Alpha would ever touch another Alpha's woman inappropriately. You could literally not be in a safer environment. I won't say we won't look, for we certainly will, but aren't all of you proud of your bodies now that Little One has enhanced all of us? We men are graced with the most beautiful women on the planet. Up to you, though. We have an assortment of guest suits on the pool deck if you don't want to do this nude, but again, it's up to you. I personally vote for nude," he finished with a chuckle.