Chapter 35

Extreme joy ... the unbounded ecstasy of realizing what you really want in life, and then finding out it is within your reach ... can do strange things to a person.

The object of Bobby’s joy was there, in front of him, and to say she was offering herself to him would be understandable, under the circumstances. But Connie was no longer the quailing young girl, with the lack of confidence that had made her so timid when she first met Bobby. There was a streak of something in her that still wanted to punish Bobby for all the heartache she’d suffered because of him.

She expected him to reach for her naked body. In fact, she planned on letting him touch her, and kiss her, and stroke her. She had been waiting for him to do those things for years. But she also planned on stopping him. “You can do that part after we’re married,” she planned on saying. If he went home with blue balls maybe that would help him behave himself.

She was therefore astonished when, after he jumped up, he whirled and left the room at a run, whooping at the top of his lungs.

What Connie couldn’t have known was that sex, while most definitely interesting to Bobby Dalton, wasn’t the most important thing in his life. What was the most important thing in his life, at this point, was that Constance Harris had given him a full pardon on his death sentence. That she had consented to become his wife made him almost incomprehensibly happy. He’d be interested in the sex later. There was no doubt about that at all.

Right now, though, what he wanted to do most was let everybody in the whole world know how happy she had made him. He didn’t exactly turn up his nose at her physical offering. What she offered emotionally just took precedence over it.

Prudence was the first to confront the whirlwind that Bobby had become. His war cries scared her, at first, because she thought something had gone wrong again. One look at his face as he burst into the kitchen disabused her of that notion. She had barely begun to smile when she was pulled into his arms and thoroughly kissed.

That part of Bobby’s brain that had stared at Connie’s lush, naked body, decided that it would react, just then, and his prick sprang to life as he kissed one of the women he’d loved ... still loved. That he ground his firming penis into her loins was just habit, really. That he noticed her breasts pressed to his chest was simply the acknowledgement that he’d done so before, and thoroughly enjoyed it ... as had she. His tongue probed her mouth, and she automatically kissed him back.

He suddenly thrust her away from him, holding her shoulders.

“Shit!” he said. “Bad!” He looked down. He was looking at the front of his pants, at his traitorous penis, though Prudence didn’t know that. She looked to see what he was talking about, confused and off balance.

“Connie said she’s marry me!“ he yipped.

Then she was crushed to him again, and it happened all over again. This time, when he pushed her back, his face was bright red.

“Sorry!” he yipped. “I have to control that!”

Then he was whirling and heading away from her.

He left the front door open in his haste to leave.

Clancy was drowsing, to be honest, when the radar console on his dashboard came to life and beeped. He jerked, and his eyes opened, going instantly to the readout, which flashed 72.

His hand jumped to the button that would lock in the speed and then, by habit established from repetition in the past, went immediately to the key, and then to the shifter. The tires of the cruiser spun as he took off in pursuit.

It took him almost a mile to catch up to the vehicle that had set off his radar, and then he recognized the car. He reached for the overheads and bumped his siren twice. The car pulled to the side, the right tires throwing dust and gravel as the car almost went into the ditch, trying to stop.

Clancy got out, straightening his belt. He left his cap in the car, as the door of the vehicle he had pursued sprang open and the driver, who was, in fact, Bobby Dalton, jumped out and capered in a circle. Clancy wondered if the boy was drunk, and began to approach him carefully.

“She said yes!“ yelled the dancing man. He stopped, suddenly, and was calm. “Shit!” he said. “I’m sorry, Clancy.”

“What in the world has you all worked up?” asked the lawman.

“Connie Harris just said she’d marry me!” gasped Bobby.

“You been drinking?” asked Clancy.

Bobby blinked. “No Sir!” he said. “I was just kind of excited.”

“Seventy-two in a forty-five zone is a mite too excited,” said Clancy.

“Yeah.” Bobby seemed to deflate. “Write me up, Clancy. You’re right.” He suddenly grinned. “But it’s worth it, Clancy! She said “Yes!“ His right arm shot up into the air, his hand in a fist.

Clancy grinned. “So you’re actually going to settle down?”

“Oh yes!” panted Bobby. “Damn, Clancy, she almost said no, but she cut me a break.”

“And you’re running around days are all over?” Clancy folded his arms.

“Yes sir!“ shouted Bobby.

“Can you keep it down to forty-five the rest of the way home?”

“Of course I can,” said Bobby. “I know the speed limit on this road.”

Clancy laughed. “Well, if she can cut you a break, I guess I could too. Call it a wedding present.”

“Wow!” said Bobby. He was grinning inanely. “You mean it? You have to come to the wedding, Clancy.”

“I don’t know about that,” said the Chief of Police. “You’ve already got people running against me in the next election.”

“Oh.” Bobby deflated again. “Sorry about that.”

“Just don’t make me go tell that poor girl that you’ve gone off and killed yourself driving like a maniac,” said Clancy. “You want me to take you home?”

“No,” said Bobby, straightening his shoulders. The thought of Connie getting news like that again sobered him instantly. “You’re right. I’ll take it easy.”

“Good enough,” said Clancy. “You have a good day, now, hear?”

“It couldn’t get any better, Clancy,” sighed Bobby. “Thanks.”

“When is this wedding?” asked Clancy. “I might need to call in the National Guard or something.”

Bobby’s eyes went round. “I don’t know!“ He looked around, as if there might be someone else there who could tell him. “She just said yes five minutes ago.” He looked around again. “I have to go back!“ he gasped.

“No!” ordered Clancy. “You just mosey on home, until you calm down. Mosey ... you hear me?”