Chapter 10

We walked out of the house onto the porch. Pap was right behind us, so I stepped to the side and whispered to him, "Call Bobby about Irene before you head over to Hap's thanks." He gave me a wink, and I walked towards the barn.

We had not said anything to each other and when we got past the barn I stopped and pulled her to me. I gave her a hug which she returned, and then I spoke, "Tammy, what am I going to do with you?"

I waited for her to tell me. She bit her lip and bounced from one foot to the other and just didn't say anything. It was difficult because I wanted to scream. Everything was happening so fast, and she was just adding to the drama of it. I tried to remember Betty Ann's and Pap's words but when someone is constantly forcing themselves at you, it just gets tiring.

Finally, she said, "You can mate up with me. No, I'll be happy just being your bitch. I'll be anything you want..." She was close to tears.

I pulled her close to me and the waterworks just came on. Betty Ann and no doubt Pap were right. She was shy and could be easily hurt. Something had made her risk everything to say what she said and now her plan was not working out as she thought it might. I held her for ten minutes as she just cried and held on to me for dear life.

Her crying slowed and finally stopped, and she wiped her eyes on my shirt. She stood back and looked at me saying, "I'm acting like a spoiled brat aren't I?"

"No, if you were being a brat I would have you over my knee or have sent you out for a switch by now."

"You're not sending me to get no switch." That got a smile.

"Then what am I going to do?" And I waited for her answer.

It took about fifteen seconds before she said, "Will you ever mate up with me?" A moment of truth for us both, in the back of my mind was Pap's words. Now it was for me to decide and this was nothing I wanted to do on the fly.

So I asked, "What if I don't?"

"Then I will just die," her voice was cracking and the tears were welling up back in her eyes.

"I don't think the others will like me much if I let you die." I smiled.

She was shaking when she said, "Then, then you will?" Never was there a more loaded question from someone I really didn't know that would affect so many people I had come to call clan.

"We haven't even had time for wooing and romancing." I barely got the words out of my mouth before she was hugging and kissing me all over my face. When she slowed down, I put her head in my hand and kissed her like, I meant it. Finally, it was either break apart or go get a room, so we came up for some air.

"It is not happening today. But I agree to your desires. That does not mean that I am just going to do it as soon as you want to. I don't know you and you don't know me. Yes, you have heard a lot about me from Shana and Jana but hearing and knowing are entirely different." I stopped to take a breath.

She moved back into my arms and hugged me and showed me that she knew all about breathless kisses too. So after I tried to catch my breath again she as looking at me with big doe eyes. You know the kind, they speak about you walking on water, riding on a white horse and owning shining armor.

"Tammy, I need to ask you a favor."

"What Steve?"

"I need to have some breathing room. I told you before how I felt when I was going to be mated up. It hasn't changed but you're constantly pushing. That does not make for a good feeling, and I want to have nothing but good feelings about you."

She was back in my arms and kissing the breath out of me before I could say another word. I kissed her back and then we pulled apart.

"Now Tammy, is there any doubt in your mind about what is going to happen?"

"No."

"So then STOP being so insecure, you want to be mated up with me, and I have three other mates. You're not going to get what you want all the time, not likely most of the time. And you're going to have to learn to share me with them."

Her face was not happy, but it was far from tears. Of course I had just committed to another mate but given that not one of the others would walk into this minefield I made the best choice, I felt for the clan. Only the passage of time would let me know if it was or wasn't.

"Here is how it is going to happen; the only way it is going to happen. And I am telling you this when I have not even told the others yet; so you have to keep it to yourself is that understood?"

"Yes." She said meekly.

"Good, today you're Seventeen and I will not be mated up with you until after you are Eighteen. No, that does not mean on your birthday that we are getting mated up. I am mating up with Jana and Shana tomorrow. We're going to be gone for a few days while I take the time for it to be just the four of us. Then I am going to take some time alone with each one of them afterwards, and likely we will go away somewhere. That means there is not going to be much time for us anytime soon."

She was back to biting her lip before she asked, "Will you love on me like you did Shana and Jana now that we're going to be mated up?"

Another point of contention and I had no point of reference, so I asked her, "Tammy, what is the age of consent in Arkansas?"

"I don't know but I won't complain to anyone."

"I know you would not willingly say anything to anyone but there are issues that might be coming up soon. And I cannot have myself looked at in the wrong light because I loved on you."

"What does that mean?" She was biting her lip again.

"It simply means maybe. If it is legal with state law for you at 17 to make that decision then we will. If it isn't then until we get past the storm that might be coming due to Clem and Bob's deaths, then we won't."

"That's not fair."

"Welcome to life Tammy." I pulled her to me and hugged her.

"So if it is legal..." I stopped her.

"I want to make sure the trips are good to go with this also."

"Good to go with what; us being mated up or loving on each other before we are?"

"From what I understand no one in the house is going to question a matter of our hearts. But it will make me feel better if they aren't in open warfare with you about it."

We came back up for air in about a minute or so. She had a whole new look about her. "Tammy, I have made the decision. It will be on a timetable when everything is ready for it. I will not keep you waiting for no reason, but I also want to get to know you, woo and romance you."

"Okay. I'll wait, I'm not happy about it, but I'll wait; just don't forget about me while I'm waiting."

"Have you let me forget about you yet?" She giggled.

"I have been a brat."

"You, a brat?" I cocked an eyebrow.

"Yeah, do you know how hard this has been for me?"

"And you think I have had it easy?"

"Well, I guess not."

"You guess not." I replied with a some sarcasm.

"Okay, so before you were just some computer geek married to Lana, and now you're head of the clan, will be having four mates and owning three farms."

"No real secrets here are there?"

"Not a one," then she kissed me again.

So we walked back hand in hand to the house. It seemed every eye was on me as I walked in the door with Tammy. It was Lana that came over to me.

"I love you baby, what did you decide?" She said.

I said loud enough for everyone close enough to hear, "Well, she is moving out tomorrow, can't live here without being mated up to me."

There were gasp's all around and then Tammy laughed. "I am not, he agreed, just not yet."

"If you ask again I'm sending you for a switch."

"That was not part of no deal. I am not going for no switch."

"Don't make me pull the head of the clan rules out on you Tammy."

Lana hugged me and said, "You are just so bad, scared all the rest of us near to death."

"Can't have my Angel being scared near to death now can I." I kissed her and picked her up to spin her around a bit. It was a good to do but just at the wrong time. Once I set her down she was gone to the bathroom.

So now I am sitting in the bathroom holding her, a glass of water and some saltines. She pounded a little on me at first, but I think I will be forgiven. We went back to the kitchen, so I could use the phone to work on my details as Pap called them when Betty Ann came over.

"Look like you're going to be buying another ring then?"

"Yes, oh god the rings, where did I put them?"

She was holding out her hand and there was the little black bag with the rings. "Somehow these ended up in the laundry. Better that I found them." She was grinning.

"I thought I'd put them away somewhere, but I didn't remember. But thanks for keeping them. And yes, I will be at the jewelry store again."

She leaned in and gave me a hug. "I was worried what you would do. Thank you for having her stay here, I don't think she would have if you had rejected her." There were tears welled up in her eyes, and then she kissed me.

"Was there ever a choice once she laid it all out to me?" I grinned.

"Always a choice, just good we have the right head of the clan."

"Why thank you," and I whispered to her, "please keep those for me until I am ready to leave tomorrow."

"Okay," she said.

I finally got around to call the auto insurance company and getting the claim started. Then I got the satellite people set up to come and install the dish. I gave that information to Mam, so she could relay it to whomever was going to be here day after tomorrow. I called to my health insurance company and asked about the billing from the hospital. And then I was at a loss about finding a hotel.

I had been so wrapped up in my little details that it snuck up on me. I didn't realize it until the thunder rolled over the land. When I got up to look out the window it seemed that someone had a large leaf blower going. Dusk, dirt and anything not firmly latched down was blowing past the house. Then the rain came, waves of it. This was a gully washer from my days in the west.

It reminded me of the time I had been in Phoenix one hot August day. Wind, thunder, lighting and then endless torrents of rain had pounded everything. I watched as the lighting flashed across the sky and listened as the thunder echoed across the land. Pap drove up in the Ford during the middle of it and just stayed dry 'n' cozy inside it. He sat out there for over twenty minutes waiting for a break in rain that just didn't come.

Finally, he just resigned himself to the fact that he wouldn't melt and dashed out from his dry seat and beat feet into the rain and onto the porch. Of course after he sat down at the lunch table the rain slowed. Lunch was its wonderful delight and none of us were in any hurry to move afterwards. Lana came over to me and said, "We have an appointment at 4:00 with the doctor. There is time for you to have a nap, if you take it now." I got a wonderful kiss after that.