Chapter 6

The weekend flew by. There never seemed to be enough time to do anything they set out to do, with the possible exception of making love. In fact, that was why there was not enough time to do the other things on her list. She was forever reaching for the front of his pants, putting her mouth by his ear, and murmuring “I’m horny.”

She came to his room that night, cautioning him that they had to be quiet so her mother didn’t hear and come to investigate, and then made enough noise to wake the neighbors. Madge didn’t show up, with or without her father’s shotgun, and Misty got fertilized two more times before she went back to her room.

She only had half a day with him on Saturday, because of all the things she had to do to get ready for the CMAs. She couldn’t take him with her for that kind of thing, because too many people would see him and want to know things about him.

While Misty was gone, he spent time with Madge, who was making jams and jellies to put up for the winter. Bobby had done plenty of that while growing up and worked alongside her.

“You sweet on her?” asked the woman at one point.

“It’s not like that,” he said. “It’s hard to explain.”

“You’re the one that made a woman of her, ain’t you,” said Madge, looking steadily at the pot of strawberries she was stirring on the stove. “She left here a girl and came back a woman. A mother can tell, you know.”

“We like each other a lot,” he said, trying not to answer the question.

She sighed. “I don’t understand younguns these days,” she said.

“I’m not sure we understand ourselves,” he said softly.

Madge changed the subject then. When the jams and jellies were all put in jars and sealed, she excused herself to go get ready for the award banquet herself.

The awards themselves were grueling for Bobby. Everyone was intensely interested in him, dressed to the nines in a tuxedo. Misty had told no one who the man was escorting her to the awards banquet. There was a lot of interest in the fact that she was on a man’s arm, and her mother was right behind them too, on the red carpet. Misty refused to say anything at all about him ... not even his first name. She’d forgotten that there was a seating chart, but that wouldn’t become important until later.

As one of the nominees, she was high profile from the time they got there, until someone else got the award. After that people seemed less interested in who she was with.

Afterwards, her mother said “You two go on and have fun. I’ll take one of them taxi cabs that we couldn’t afford before you got so well known.”

“You can come with us, Mom,” said Misty.

“I’m tired. I’m goin’ home and to bed. I wish we could get a little good corn likker in this town.”

“Well, you can’t, and you don’t need any anyway,” scolded Misty. “We’ll see you later.”

“I ain’t waitin’ up for you,” warned Madge. “An’ don’t wake me up neither. I’ll see you in the mornin’.”

As they drove away from the Opry House Bobby tried to comfort Misty.

“It’s okay,” she said. “I’d like to have won and all, but things are already crazy enough. I’m in the middle of recording my second album. You’d be surprised how much time that takes. I’m going to use two of Jasper’s songs on it.”

“He’ll be crazy proud,” said Bobby.

“I know. I called him and told him about it. He’s coming down here next month to sign papers and all that.”

“Well everybody in Hutch thinks you should have won,” said Bobby. “Me too.”

“Aren’t you sweet,” she said. “That makes me horny.”

“You’re always horny,” he laughed. “You do need a full time man, you know. Your mamma is right about that.”

“Oh, he’ll come along one of these days,” said Misty. “Until then, I want you to take care of me.”

“I can’t stay here,” he said.

“I know,” she said, her voice easy. “But while you’re here, I’m gonna get my money’s worth.”

She took him to a bluff that overlooked the city. Still dressed in her fine gown, and him in the tux Felicity had chosen for him to wear to this event, she demanded that he give her an orgasm and spurt in her. They made out in the back seat like teenagers, laughing at how hard it was for grown people to have sex in the back seat of a car.

Then, back home, she came to his room naked again. She spent the whole night there with him. They got very little sleep. He worked her over with his fingers and mouth first, and then she rode him, gyrating wildly on top of him and moaning about how much she loved doing this with him.

In between times, she lay with her head on his shoulder.

“I wrote four songs of my own for the new album,” she said.

“I bet they’re good.”

“One of them is about you,” she said, turning her face up to look into his eyes.

“I’m honored.”

“It’s actually about us ... when we met,” she said.

“You getting soft on me?” he asked.

“No,” she said. “I know what I want to do, and I know we’re not right for each other. Not now. If you’re not married in four or five years, though, you better watch out.”

“You think I’ll be married in four or five years?” he asked.

“If there’s a single woman in Granger with any brains in her head, you will be,” said the woman in his arms.

“Well, I’m not married yet,” he said, levering himself up. He crawled between Misty’s legs, which sprang open as if of their own accord. She reached for him.

“Make it last a long time this time,” she whispered.

He did.

She took him to the airport on Sunday. She wanted him one last time in the parking lot, but Bobby convinced her it wasn’t a good idea.

“Will you come with Jasper when he comes?” she asked, her arms around his neck.

“If I can work it,” he said.

“You can work it,” she laughed. “I know you love this.”

“I do,” he said, seriously. “I just don’t want you to love it too much.”

“You are so sweet,” she purred, kissing the corner of his mouth. “You know that makes me want you even more.”

“Say goodbye to your mother,” he said.

She kissed him on the lips. “My mother told me to do that to you for her, just before you left.”

“She told you to kiss me on the lips?” he asked, surprised.

“She said she thought you might object if she did it herself,” said Misty, smiling.

“Your mother?” he asked.

“She likes you,” said Misty. “She would never have let you stay in her house if she didn’t.”

“I just met her!” said Bobby.

“I really did tell her a lot about you,” said Misty. “Now, go on. Get out! If you’re going to leave me all horny and alone, I’m kicking you out.”

He got out and got his bags from the trunk. She had crawled across the seat and was half hanging out of the passenger window when he started toward the terminal.

“Come see me with Jasper,” she said.

He grinned.

“Okay.”

“Goody!“ she yelled.

He walked over and gave her a last peck on the lips.

“You just keep taking those pills,” he whispered.

“Oh I will,” she said. “This is so much more fun when I don’t have to worry.”

Misty was not sad on her way out of the airport. She loved being with Bobby ... both as a friend, and especially as a lover. But she had work to do too, and if he was around, she wouldn’t be interested in doing it.

She hummed to herself as she drove away, thinking only briefly about how, in another month, he would come back. That would do. That would do just fine. Then, later, she could go to visit them. It would all work out. Everything was working out.

What Misty Compton did not think about was the warning that had come with her packet of birth control pills. That warning, in tiny letters, said: “Chemical birth control is not 100% effective. It is recommended that secondary methods of prophylactic protection be used in conjunction with this product.”

Deep inside Misty’s body, the egg that wasn’t supposed to be near the end of its journey down her right fallopian tube proved that warning was correct. The egg was surrounded by tens of thousands of the strongest, healthiest sperm cells she had welcomed into her body over the last forty-eight hours. It didn’t stand a chance. As she hummed and drove, one sperm cell wiggled its way through the cell wall of the egg. For a brief second only its tiny tail waved frantically outside the cell. Then that too was sucked inside as the egg welcomed the sperm and fertilization took place.

Misty Compton had left home a perfectly healthy, non-pregnant young woman, to go to the airport. It was the height of irony that the man who made her pregnant refused to make love to her on that trip, and that, despite that, she was already a mother-to-be when she parked her car in the garage, and went in to see the baby’s grandmother.

Bobby had left his car at the Wichita airport. It had been a good weekend, as far as he was concerned. He’d had a good time with Misty and flown for the first and second times. Now, though, as his body came back to Kansas, his mind came back too. He remembered Erica’s request for him to help pick up her brother. Before going home, he made a stop with that in mind.

Monday evening, when he got to the high school, he was amazed at how far along the sets were. He found Erica working with a group of boys who were villagers and were supposed to look like they were playing bagpipes. Someone had made up something that, from a distance, might appear to be a set of bagpipes and she was coaching them on how to hold the bizarre looking things.