Chapter 17

Paula would call Bobby, to try to hire him to relieve four more young women of their virginity, but not for a while. In the meantime, another call was being made that would have a great impact on Bobby Dalton. Betty happened to be the one who answered the phone.

“Hello?”

“Is this the Dalton Bed and Breakfast?” asked a deep male voice.

“Yes it is, can I help you?”

“I might be interested in booking some rooms,” said the man. “But I need more information first.”

“Just a minute,” said Betty. “I’ll get the owner.”

She went and told her mother the phone was for her and what it was about. Mirriam went to the phone. They needed some business. Thus far the bed and breakfast was a losing proposition, based on the costs of renovation.

“This is Mirriam Dalton,” she said into the phone.

“Good evening, Mrs. Dalton. My name is Jeffrey Hamilton. I’m a professor of horticulture at Kansas State University.”

Mirriam listened as the man went on and her mouth dropped open.

“Five rooms?” she asked. “All summer long?”

“That’s correct,” said the man. “I’ll have four grad students with me and we need to be close to the research site. I’ve got a grant to work with. What I’m trying to do is find the best possible accommodations that will be the most comfortable and convenient. If we stay at motels, we’ll be all spread out. And then there are meals. If you can accommodate us with two meals per day ... and the budget will take it ... that would be ideal.”

“Five rooms,” she repeated.

“Is that a problem?” came the voice. “My contact at the county extension office down there led me to believe this was a renovated two story farmhouse with at least five bedrooms.”

“We have them,” said Mirriam, a little weakly. She didn’t want to say that her children lived in some of them. “Some of them are currently occupied.”

“I wouldn’t mind if there were other guests staying there,” said the professor. But we’d need five rooms for our entire stay, of course.”

“Of course,” said Mirriam. “I’ll have to check the schedule. Can I call you back?”

“Certainly,” he said and gave her a phone number.

“All summer long?” asked Bobby. He was as astonished as his mother had been.

“They’re doing some kind of research project about the tall grass prairie,” said Mirriam.

“That would put us in the black for sure,” said Bobby.

“Yes!” yipped Mirriam. “But we only have three rooms right now!”

“Not if I finish the barn,” said Bobby.

“Can you do that by May?”

“We might have to get a loan,” said Bobby. “I’m getting paid every week, but I don’t know how much longer they’ll need me.” He thought for a moment. “Can we get a deposit? We ought to be able to get a deposit, to cover us in case they cancel or something.”

“But if we get the money, you can finish the barn by May?” She sounded anxious.

“I’ll have to,” he said.

“I’m very sorry,” said Professor Hamilton. “We won’t actually get the funds until sometime in May.” It was quiet for a few seconds. “How about this? I’ll come down there for a site visit. If it looks like everything will work, I’ll sign a contract. That will at least guarantee you the deposit you asked for. The grant is approved. It just takes time for all the wheels to turn. You’ll get the deposit either way. It just won’t be until sometime in May.”

It was shaky, but it was also too good a chance to pass up.

“That would be fine,” said Mirriam.

Melanie faced her two roommates.

“Don’t you get it?” she asked, clearly agitated. “This is perfect. The guy comes here, we all get laid and have a little fun, and he goes away, never to be seen again. We can go out on dates after that and not be worried or nervous. We’ll know what it’s like.”

“I told you I was for it,” whined Tiffany. “It’s still scary, though.”

“Why do you need me?” asked the third girl. “I don’t care what you guys do. Bring him here. Fuck his brains out for all I care. I just don’t think this is right for me.”

“Don’t you like men?” asked an exasperated Melanie.

“I’m curious. And yes, I’ve thought about it. I’m just not excited about getting in bed with a stranger, that’s all.”

“But Paula knows him!” moaned Melanie. “She says he’s wonderful, amazing, even. She said he was gentle and took things at the speed she wanted to go at. We need you, Suzie, because we have to come up with money to get him here.”

Suzie Dalton frowned. She’d been saving as much of her pay from the research center as possible. They had said she’d be able to get a stipend at med school, because they didn’t really want the med students to have to work. The Chumleys had paid her tuition thus far, but she didn’t feel it was right to ask them to extend that gift into eight years of medical school. That would mean getting student loans and those would have to be paid off sooner or later.

Suzie’s initial urge was to just tell Melanie to forget it. But the fact was that Suzie was more intimately acquainted with women who’d had sex than these girls were. Most, if not all, of her sisters had had sex and she’d been in a position to see how it affected them. That they’d had sex with Bobby didn’t matter that much, the way she thought of it. It was weird, but it was still sex. And the fact of the matter was that all her sisters that she knew had been fucked by Bobby were deliriously happy about it.

She’d thought a lot about that during the three years she’d been away from home. She’d worked hard, both in regular semesters and in summer school. Her grades were impeccable and she’d learned even more in the research lab. She knew it was because of her boss that she’d been accepted at the KU Med Center. She didn’t know if he’d finagled something or if the people there just respected his judgment, but that didn’t matter. She was going to medical school and her dream would be realized then.

There hadn’t been much time for men. She’d been tempted by a few and a couple of the guys she worked with made her think about it a lot. But they had girlfriends and she’d seen nasty breakups that put a strain on the way things worked in the lab. She had thought it might be a better idea to wait until she got to med school to explore men. The men in her class wouldn’t be there unless they were as smart and dedicated as she was.

But she had also been exposed for two years to Melanie’s idiot idea that a woman needed to have experience before she found the man she wanted to sleep with all the time. The problem was that over time, it didn’t seem as idiotic as it had in the past. If she got to med school and met a man, it wasn’t hard to imagine that it would go much better if she knew what to do, instead of fumbling around and being scared and nervous.

She was quite sure she could go home and that Bobby would be happy to take care of it. That wasn’t as bad an idea as she used to think it was either, for that matter. She knew he loved her. He’d been giving her money since she left, so she could splurge, now and then. He’d never asked for a thing in return, except that she do a good job. Scholarships from the Chumleys and the university, along with her job and what Bobby sent her, were going to get her out of undergrad school debt free, and she knew how important that was.

But Bobby was home and she was here. She had her job and she’d get a bonus if she worked through spring break.

“Tell you what,” said Suzie. “I’ll take a look at the guy. I’m not making any promises, okay? But I’ll take a look.” She thought about the money again. “How much is it going to cost?”

“We don’t know yet,” said Melanie, clearly relieved. “Paula is supposed to call him and find out.”

Suzie thought of Bobby again. She was pretty sure that some of the money he got came from women. She thought she knew who some of those women were. They were nothing like these girls. She’d never thought of Bobby as a gigolo before, but tried to now. It didn’t work. Whoever the guy was that Paula French was so gaga about, he wouldn’t be anything like Bobby.

She was sure of that.

Bobby had been holding Owen for half an hour while Erica did some laundry. She came to get him when she heard him fussing.

“He eats like a horse,” she said.

“That’s good,” said Bobby. “I can stay the night, tonight.”

“Oh?” Erica took Owen from him.

“Will said he was staying at Christy’s tonight, when I saw him earlier,” Bobby explained.

“What does that have to do with anything?” she asked. She stroked Owen’s head while he woke up enough to eat.

“That means you’ll be alone in bed tonight,” he said.

“I can’t have sex for another month,” Erica said.

“I don’t come here just for sex,” said Bobby.

“I’m not so sure I believe that,” she said, but there was no scorn in her voice.

“Okay,” he said, his attitude amicable. “Let me help you.”

She stood while he unbuttoned her blouse and took it off. Then he unclipped her bra and took that off too.

“See,” she said, smiling. “All you want is my breasts.”

“If you say so,” he said. “Feed our son. There’s something I want to do.”

Erica lay in his arms. She could hear the slow measured cadence of his breathing that meant he was asleep. Yards away, she could hear other breathing that told her Owen was sleeping too.

Bobby had waited until the baby was fed and put down to sleep. Then he had stripped her and himself and taken her to bed, to show her there were other ways to find ecstasy than just intercourse.

She loved the way he emptied her breasts. He got them completely empty, sucking and slurping until there was nothing left and giving her a string of orgasms in the process.

“See?” she had moaned. “All you want is sex.”

He took the time to take his lips from her nipples. “Yes dear,” he said.

Now, though, she knew he was there for much more than her breasts. He hadn’t even masturbated. He was hard. She’d felt that. But instead of looking to his own orgasm, or asking her to, he’d just cuddled with her as she relaxed from her last climax. He was going to be there all night ... holding her ... just being with her.

She moved and his arms tightened fractionally and then went slack again. She wiggled to put her front against his and closed her eyes to sleep.

As he got paychecks, Bobby bought more lumber and sheet rock to finish the rooms in the barn. Because he’d helped them out in a bind, and did good work, Alvin gave him the employee discount on what he bought. Prudence and Constance, both experienced now, came often to work on the barn project while Bobby drove the truck. The problem now was the heating, cooling and plumbing, particularly running a sewer line from the barn to join that of the house. Those things needed to be done by professionals and that was expensive. The sewer line alone was going to cost two hundred and fifty dollars.