Chapter 14

It didn't take me long to get her to stop crying, mostly because I caved completely and assured her I wasn't going anywhere, and would stay there all night and all the next day if only she'd stop crying. Then, when she was lying in my arms and did subside almost magically quickly, and I realized I'd been played yet AGAIN, my finely tuned analytical adult mind finally began using the few brain cells I had left.

"You knew I was going to cum and you LET me cum in you," I accused her.

She lifted her head and, with dry eyes that no longer surprised me, looked at me like I was a candidate for an old time dunce hat in a one-room school house.

"You GOT me to cum in you!" I said heatedly. "Oh purpose!"

Her sigh this time was real, and full of resignation.

"I hope our children get their intelligence from me," she said.

"You WANT to get pregnant?" I looked at her in disbelief.

"I've wanted to have your baby since I was fourteen," she said, stroking my chest.

"Fourteen?" I was gasping again.

"Yeah. Silly, huh."

"Damn, Jill!" I moaned. "Why didn't you TELL me?"

"Because I knew what would happen if I did. Especially back then. And I knew what would happen if I told you or Mom now that I wanted to get pregnant. You'd both go into speeches about college and my future and all that stuff, when all I really want is to raise apples and your babies. She closed her eyes for a couple of seconds and opened them again. "Our babies," she corrected herself.

I just stared at her, unable to say much. I think that's because I was very conflicted about all this. Part of me was about to yell "Hell YES you need to go to college and secure your future, young lady!" At the same time another part of me was writhing around, slathering like a hungry dragon, hissing "She wants you to knock her up! Yesssssssssss, so fuck a baby in her sweet, flat belly. Fuck two or THREE babies in her willing womb!"

She seemed to know what I was thinking. "Look," she said patiently. "My mother has done a wonderful job of developing the orchard, and SHE never went to college. It's mostly hard work that is required, and the things I need to learn I can probably get in online classes. I don't need to go off somewhere for four years to learn those things." She ran a finger down the middle of my chest. "And I don't want to leave here for any extended period of time, if it means I can't be in bed with you naked, like this.

"Well thought out," I finally said. "There's only one teensy tiny problem."

"What's that?" she asked.

"Your mother thinks all you have is a crush on me, and that by letting you play with me you'll get that worked out of your system. She's not planning on any babies here."

"Another reason why I didn't tell her I wanted you to get me pregnant," she said.

"But that's not going to work," I said. "Here you are, eighteen, and all excited about being an adult and working in the orchard and starting a family, but you're hiding things, like a child. You can't base an adult life on sneaking around behind people's backs."

"You know, you're no fun at all," she said, quite seriously. "So what you're saying is that you don't want to be a father."

"I didn't say that at all," I said sternly. "Don't go off on a tangent, or pout. If you want to be an adult, you have to face things in an adult fashion."

"DO you want me to have your baby?" she asked.

"That's not fair," I said. "ANY man would want to get you pregnant."

"That's not true," she said. "Langston doesn't want to get me pregnant. I made him look at me naked and he didn't even get a boner."

"You did?" My voice squeaked on the last word.

"Yes, and I looked at him naked too. It was interesting ... but looking at his penis and chest and all that didn't make me feel all wiggly like looking at you does."

"When did all this happen?" I asked. The image of two teenagers, playing doctor for all intents and purposes, was kind of erotic. I decided I was a dirty old man.

"Never mind. You didn't answer my question. Do you, or do you not want to get me pregnant?"

"This is just fucking weird!" I blurted. "Most women are more interested in asking if a man wants to be committed to them or get married or whatever, before they start talking about having children."

"I don't want to marry you," said Jill firmly. "My mother might, and you can only marry one of us, so I'll leave that part to her. I just want to live with you here on this farm and have your babies and raise them."

"That's just crazy!" I sighed.

"Will you answer the question or not?" she asked.

I tried to hedge one last time.

"Whether I want to get you pregnant or not has nothing to do with anything," I said. "The FACT is that your mother is part of this crazy, insane equation, and what SHE thinks about things is important too."

"So you do," she said, sounding satisfied.

"I didn't say that!" I insisted.

"But you do," she insisted back.

"OK, maybe I kind of get excited about the idea, but I don't want to hurt you or start an argument with your mother, and I KNOW this will do that!"

"You let me worry about my mother," she said softly.