Chapter 12: Mary

I was sitting in the living room, looking out the window and sort of in a daze. It wasn't too late to get started on something, but I didn't seem to have any push. It was warm, so I hadn't dressed after my shower. I was sitting there in my warm daze when Anne came and made shadows on me. Then, she sat down close to me. I snuggled. I love her bare skin and I needed someone close.

"Mary, what has gotten into you? You're not yourself lately."

"Oh, nothing. I feel fine. Just lazy. Been working hard."

"You look healthy enough, that's not the point. I want to know why you've been wandering around here looking into the next century." She put her arm around me.

"Oh, I'm okay, Anne. Nothing bothering me, if that's what you mean."

"Mary Travis, don't try and bullshit me. For the last few weeks, since maybe Easter, you've hardly said a word voluntarily. In bed, it's like you're almost not there. We're all worried about you. You're behaving like a love-sick teenager. What is going on?"

I almost missed what she said, I was so far away. But when it hit me, it hit hard.

"I'm doing what?"

"You're moping around like a 15-year-old with her first crush."

That made the most sense of anything I had heard or told myself in weeks. And, I knew what to do about it. I kissed Anne hard on the lips and got up.

"Anne, thank you. You're right. I've got to rush."

I ran upstairs, pulled on a shirt and a skirt and ran back down. Anne looked at me as I came down, worried.

"Love," I said, "You made me realize what my problem has been all this time. I'll tell you about it later. Don't wait up."

When I got there, I rang the bell, then started banging on the door. When it finally opened, I almost hit Ken Chance in the face. He stepped back in surprise and I walked into his house.

"Chance, you've been chasing me all spring. Now, I've finally caught you."

I ripped my shirt open and dropped my skirt. I hadn't even put shoes on. I took him by the shirt front and pulled it off. I heard it tear, but I didn't care. He was wearing shorts and I got them down to his ankles before I plastered myself on his front.

"Chance. I've been running away from you for weeks. I finally figured out why."

I kissed his lips, hugged him hard because I might not get another chance. But he kissed me back, hugged me back, felt me all over with his big, warm hands.

"I'm crazy in love with you, Ken Chance. I've been fighting it since I first laid eyes on you."

He picked me up and I put my arms around his neck.

"I know," he said, "it's been a long wait."

He carried me into a bedroom, dropped me on the bed and fell on top of me. He was inside me before he hit and I was ready and hot and laughing like a crazy woman by the time he was all the way in me.

We made love for hours. Literally. He made me come and come again until I was hoarse with laughing. I heard him groan with pleasure time and time again. But he stayed hard and I would not let him leave me as long as I felt that pole inside me. I sat on top of him and we came. I lay beside him and we came. I got him on top of me and we did it again. It went on and on.

"Chance, just lie still a minute. I need to rest."

I must have fallen asleep, but when I woke he was still inside me. No longer erect; he'd slept, too. But he soon grew hard again.

"Mary, I love you, too, in case you don't know."

"You talk too much. I'm going to come again... Don't stop."

Afterwards I got up and peed. When I came back he was still hard and we went right on.

Later, "Don't you ever come?"

"I've had at least a dozen orgasms."

"But you stay hard."

"I haven't... haven't ejaculated, that's all. I want to keep on screwing you forever."

"No. Give it to me. I want your come inside me. Give it to me and then eat me and let me taste us on your lips, in your mouth. Then, let's do it again. All of it."

It was six o'clock in the evening when I made some steaks and potatoes on the barbecue outside the library window. The sun was still warm, but sinking fast. We took the food inside and ate like starvelings. He opened a bottle of wine that was out of this world and I drank it like it was water. I couldn't get drunk that night; I was already intoxicated.

We took wine and beer and water with us when we hurried back to bed. There were still some things we hadn't tried and we spent all night making certain we hadn't forgotten anything and repeating everything we could think of, just in case.

In the morning, we slept until noon and ate a huge breakfast in the sun.

"Chance, I've been avoiding you and I haven't said two words to you in the whole time we've known each other. You don't know anything about me. I'm going to tell you."

I told him everything. About me, about Mom, Aunt Bessie and my life at the ranch, the Still Waters gang, the girls, my horses. Everything I could think of. He listened. I found out later he remembered everything I said. While I talked, we sat in the sun, made love, soaked in the pool to cool off, lay on the big lounge, made love again, went inside.

I made dinner again. Afterward, I said, "Your turn."

He grew up in southern Wyoming. He told me how he had gone through school, grown up on his father's ranch, learned to train and breed the horses his father bought and sold. "There's more money in horses than there is in beef," he said, "and they're a lot more interesting. I decided to come east and find a place to breed and raise horses where there are more people, and see if I could get people interested in working with horses, instead of just having horses work for them. I found this land and bought it. I knew there was a stable next door, and I planned to buy it and build it up."

"You didn't, though."

"I went over to look at things, and I saw you, and I saw what you're doing with your girls, with the horses there. I met Sarah and I liked her. She runs a good operation, considering she hasn't got the money it takes to really do it right. I started riding there, hanging out and watching you. I was there when you had the first meeting of the class, and I've met all your Still Waters lovers. You were so busy, you never saw me. I decided I could wait to buy the stables until I'd figured out what to do about you."

"Why me?"