Chapter 61

LATE TUESDAY NIGHT — SEPTEMBER 17

Bill Madison and Kathy Arnold stood at Bill's door. "I'll see you first thing in the morning. I'll have plenty to dream about tonight," Kathy said, leaning up to touch her lips to his.

"I know you're sore, Baby. We don't have to make love. Why don't you just come and snuggle in my arms for the night?"

Kathy hugged him for a moment. "I'll make love with you any time you want. But I won't spend the whole night with you — not yet." When Bill frowned, she continued, "You still have an awful lot going on in your life, and your divorce isn't final. You don't need me confusing the issues. Oh, I love you; you can be assured of that, but let's wait for the rest."

Bill shook his head. "Baby, I told you that when I picked you up I had made up my mind..."

Kathy interrupted him by pulling his face down for a hard kiss. When their lips parted, she smiled at him, her fingertips caressing his cheek. "I have your attention, now. You won't forget me. We've got to fly early in the morning. Think of me and sleep well," she said, turning toward her suite.

Bill watched until the door closed behind her before turning to his own suite.

EARLY WEDNESDAY MORNING — SEPTEMBER 18

Jeff left at his usual time for his run. As he glanced at the monitor before going out, he saw big wet-looking flakes of snow falling straight down. Apparently there was no wind. Yesterday had been warm, however, and he guessed that the snow wouldn't stick much unless a lot of it came down. Georgia mentality. The outside thermometer showed thirty degrees Fahrenheit, and he knew that his body would warm up in the distance run even with the light clothes he wore.

In the back, the snow was sticking to the dead grass and trees, but was melting as fast as it fell on the pavement of the driveway. The crisp air felt good in his lungs as he warmed up with a jog as he started down the driveway. By the time he was halfway down, his muscles were ready and he increased his pace, but was careful on the steep slopes and curves, not wanting to slip on the wet pavement. A couple of miles down the county road, his body slipped into Free Fatty Acid metabolism, his breathing normalized and he increased to his full running pace.

After several months of practicing the quiet stride, he could barely hear his shoes strike the road. The fall of the snow muffled things even more as his mind drifted, working through the problems of the coming day.

Later, at the end of his distance, he slowed to a jog, made his turnaround and started back up the mountain, quickly increasing to his running pace again. The snow had continued to come down at a steady, but not heavy rate on the way down the mountain, but a little later as he continued to climb, he realized that it had changed. The higher he went, the harder the snow was falling. Soon, the road was covered, but the tread on his shoes cut through the still-light coating.

By the time he reached the driveway, he had learned a valuable lesson. This wasn't a Georgia snow. It meant business. The snow on the steepest part of the driveway, now two or three inches deep, seemed to not be melting at all. The running treads did little good now, and he slipped almost causing him to fall, but he managed to catch himself in time.

When he walked in the back, after stomping the snow off his shoes on the metal mat, he wasn't really cold — the exertion took care of that, but his feet were. The New Balance shoes that he preferred were well designed for running, but they weren't designed for running in the wet snow. His feet were soaked — and cold.

Diana met him in the mudroom. "Strip," she simply said as she held out a large towel for him to dry off with. Shortly, dressed in a warm robe that he knew she must have held over a heat vent, she ushered him into their suite, then into the shower, babying him.

"Look, Hon, I'm not cold, well, other than my feet. It's still thirty degrees or so, and I've run in colder weather with just running shorts and a tee shirt. Many distance runners do. You know that."

She quickly stripped and pulled him into the water beside her. "Your feet are like ice," she said, after touching first one then the other with her foot. You're my Alpha Male, but that was alpha dumb to go out in this mountain weather with no more clothes on than you had."

"Baby, I can't wear a lot of clothes and run fifteen miles; I'll cook from my own body heat."

"Yeah, well, your feet won't. Besides," she said, grinning, "I read where distance runners' groins get cold even on a reasonably warm day. In cold weather, they get really cold."

"Well, they're not wrong about that," Jeff said.

" ... And, I don't want anything to happen to my favorite toy," she finished, grinning, then as she grasped him, she added, "Oh, my. He's really cold."

Jeff laughed, gently squeezing a titty. "He'll warm up just fine."

Diana stepped out of the shower, then swatted him hard on the ass, the sharp crack loud in the shower room. "I'm more than halfway tempted to have you bend me over the sink, but Linda is here, and I don't want to walk into the kitchen looking fresh fucked in front of her — yet."

Chuckling, she dried off, dressed and was gone.

When Jeff walked into the kitchen, the women, including Linda and Kathy, were just finishing breakfast preparations. As they seated themselves and bowed their heads for a moment around the big table, Diana gave thanks. After the bustle of getting their food from the breakfast bar, the meal was finally in full swing. Jeff took a bite of his eggs, hiding a smile as he noted the seating arrangements. Linda had managed to sit between her dad and Dave. So Dave was bracketed between his wife and Linda, while Bill sat between Kathy and Linda.

Kathy and Bill were dressed in their flight uniforms, but Kathy was a little too casual. When she met Jeff's eyes for a moment, she blushed and quickly looked away. Linda's and Evie's reactions seemed normal enough, although they frequently said something to each other, leaning forward a little to more easily see each other past Dave.

Dave was apparently trying his best to act normally, but he definitely needed acting lessons.

Jeff caught Dave's eye, grinned, then cast his eyes quickly to each of the women sitting on either side of his friend. The sudden inscrutable look on Dave's face was enough. Jeff casually buttered a biscuit, a big smile on his face, which he knew Dave caught.

When Jeff glanced in Diana's direction, the smile slowly drifted away as she glared at him. Quit fucking with Dave was the obvious meaning. Oops.

Later, just before the meal was over, Jeff cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. "While we're all together, we need to have a family meeting about something that Dave and I talked a little about last night. My wives and I also discussed it, but not in detail."

Madison started to stand, "Well, the three of us will..."

Caitlin slid her chair back. "Joyce and I will be in our suite for a little while."

"Sit, please" Jeff said. "Everyone here will be involved in this one way or another. You need to hear this, too."

After discussing in depth the family's thoughts on the elderly couple, they voted in their usual way with Jeff looking each in the eye and receiving a nod. "Okay, now that we all agree to bring them up here for a few days as they heal, does anyone have any suggestions about how we're going to be able to get them in the house that Dave and Evie's bought, without it looking like charity?"

There were a couple of tentative suggestion, but no one could come up with anything they believed would actually work.

"How do you know that they're too proud to accept charity?" Dave asked.

Jeff snorted, and Diana said, "If you had been there, seen them and talked to them, you would know."

Joyce broke in, "They would have died together in that parking lot. And even when it was all over, they still had control of themselves and their emotions. They didn't even want to accept a free ride home from the hospital in a police car. When I gave them the keys to their car and told them that the police had driven it home for them from the grocery store lot, they wanted to pay the officer that took their car home. I think you're going to have a very hard time getting them to accept anything."

"I agree with Joyce," Caitlin broke in, "And for that matter, how are you going to get them to come up here so we can take care of them while Jeb heals?"

Noting the "we," Diana smiled at her, "Oh, they'll come, all right. If my sister-wives and I can't convince them, we'll have Jeff suggest that they come up here for a few days."

Laura spoke up. "We should probably call them and tell them we're coming by to check on them, uh, since we're going to be in Denver today. They don't need to know that we're going to be in Denver to see them," she laughed. "But Annie would probably want to be sure her house was straightened up before we barge in."

"Good idea," Diana agreed.

"I have their number in our suite. I wrote it down on a slip of paper when they gave it to the officer writing the report at the hospital," Joyce said.

Jeff rattled off the number, and Joyce stared at him.

"Sorry," Jeff said. "I have a thing with numbers. I heard her tell the officer."

Bill pushed back from the table. "Kathy and I need to head for Boulder. I've slacked my job too long, already. I talked with Tingle just before coming to breakfast. We've got a flight as soon as we can get there."

Bill stopped for a second, "What about Linda..."

"She can go with us this morning," Jeff broke in, "and be in school this afternoon," if that's okay with you, Linda."

Linda just smiled and nodded, as did her dad.

Helen stood as Bill and Kathy did. "I need to get some information from you and Linda before you go so that I can get the paperwork started."

Dave looked at Jeff. "If you're sure about this, I need to see if Korey isn't too tied up to meet Evie and me at the house. We need to look through it again with a notepad in hand. Then see if we can pull a crew off something else for a day or two. It shouldn't take more than a couple of days to bring the house back up."

Jeff nodded, "Do it."

Startling at least a couple of people, Dave turned to Linda who was now standing beside him. "See you later today," he said, leaning over and briefly kissing her on the lips.

When Dave moved aside, Madison didn't comment about the kiss, just hugged his daughter and said, "Take care, Kitten. Show them how smart you are."

"I will, Daddy. And ... thanks," she quietly said.

Bill chucked her gently under the chin with his curled finger.

Helen, now standing in the kitchen doorway, said, "Let's stop by the classroom. I have everything we need there."

In a moment, the pilots, Dave, Evie and Linda had left the kitchen.

Caitlin, who had gotten up to get the coffee carafe, turned to Jeff and motioned with the pot. "Sure," Jeff said, sliding his cup closer.

"Are you certain you want us to be part of this? I mean..."

"Do you need a refresher?" Jeff teased as he touched her hand.

Diana smiled at the two women. "Everyone in this room, with the possible exception of you two, know that you're part of us now. If you have a problem with that," she teased, winking at them, "we'll step out of the room for a while so that Jeff can talk to you," Diana finished with a chuckle.

"No one needs to leave," Jeff said, standing and reaching for Caitlin, who had the deer in the headlights look again.

After thoroughly kissing her, he leaned over and kissed Joyce just as fiercely. There was a collective sigh from the women as the kiss ended.

"Uh, Husband," Laura said, a smile in her voice, "I'm getting images of me with my rump in the air again," she teased.

Diana caught Jeff's eye and nodded toward his younger wives who were all staring at him like hungry lionesses contemplating an antelope dinner. "You're getting stronger," she said. "We all felt you when you kissed them, ramped up that much."

"Never think that it doesn't go both ways," Jeff said, his own face flushed a little.

"What about the snow, Jeff?" Diana asked, looking at the monitor.

"I think it's quit for the most part, but it was really coming down there for a while, at least up here. I doubt if it is going to be much of a problem for the vehicles after the first couple of thousand feet of elevation, though. I'll pop the plow on and make a run down and back. I need to get off my ass and get the snow tires on, before we really get a snow. But even with the regular tires, and without the plow, I doubt if we would have any trouble other than the driveway. There's only a couple of inches, maybe three, but I'm going to use the opportunity to get a little practice with the plow before the real thing comes."

"You be careful, Husband," Laura said.

Jeff sniggered. "The only thing I've got to worry about is people seeing me running the plow in that little bit of snow. They'll laugh their asses off."

Jeff made a pass down and back learning the equipment. He knew that things would be drastically different when a real snowfall came, but this would give him a chance to learn a little.

After he finished, he dropped the plow and parked the pickup back in the garage. Inside their suite, he "helped" Helen with her bra after getting a good sip of nipple.

"How was the driveway?" she asked laughing as he tried to nuzzle under the bottom of her bra.

"Well, it worked I guess. It got most of it off the driveway, and I went a little way down the mountain. Heck, most everything on the equipment is automatic. Even this Georgia boy can run it in this little bit of snow."

"We saw you on the security system," Jennie said. "We had it lock on your truck, and watched you all the way to the country road. It looked like fun. We want to go with you next time you do it."

"Can I drive?" Arlene said, just to hear everyone say, "No."

Laughing, the young wives chased each other down the hallway to get Linda.

The little caravan stopped in front of a well-kept, small brick home. The grass on the small lot was still mostly green and neatly cut, although the middle of September. There were two beds of late-blooming flowers that the women oohed and aahed over. Two large trees were obviously donating their leaves to the roof and grounds, but there wasn't a buildup of leaves in the roof valleys, and what Jeff could see of the gutters was clear and well maintained. The shutters and gutters were a dark green that went well with the brick.

As they stood by their vehicles, Jeff inclined his head toward the end of the block where several young males stood around the street corner near an unkept-looking convenience store. At the house next to the convenience store, a rusted car sat on blocks. Turning in the other direction, he indicated a "used" car lot two blocks away. Jeff shrugged. "The only difference in that place and a true salvage lot, is that they haven't compressed the cars, yet," he half-joked.

"I can see at least five vacant houses from where we stand. I'm not really comfortable even standing here," Helen said, holding her arms tight under her breasts.

Jeff looked back at the house. "Their place looks like it has been transported here from some nice little town. I guess they just stayed a little too long before giving up on the area." Clearing his throat, he said, "Let's see if we can do something about it. Remember, we're not taking no for an answer, even if I have to bodily pick them up and put them in the Escalade."

On, the porch, Arlene rang the bell. A moment later, the curtain moved. Shortly, they heard two deadbolts being opened, then the chain.

The little ball of energy that was Annie Reich had them inside her living room in record time. "Oh, I'm so sorry, I don't have enough furniture for all of you to sit. Wait just a minute and I'll bring in kitchen chairs."

By the time she barely had it out of her mouth, Jeff's younger wives had all found places on the carpet, folded their legs and sat. Linda was only a second behind.