Chapter 1

Sitting on my palm was a small velvet-covered box.

Beth sat up on the bed and tentatively reached out toward the box. Her hand was within an inch of it when she stopped. I looked up and saw her gnawing at her bottom lip.

"T-Tommy, is that what I think it is?"

"I hope it is."

As she picked up the box I could see her hand shaking. She opened the box and I could see the tears form. "Oh, Tommy," she whispered.

"I'm sorry it's not bigger."

Beth launched herself off the bed and into my lap with enough force to roll us across the floor.

"Oh, Tommy, it's perfect!" She reached for the ring then stopped and pushed the box at me. "Tommy, you do it," she whispered as she held out her left hand. As I slipped the ring on her trembling finger the tears started. A year ago that would have scared me, but I'd learned the difference between happy tears and the other sort. Then suddenly I was fighting for my breath. My princess had a death grip on my neck as she soaked the collar of my shirt.

When the tears stopped and I could breathe again I looked at her. "Does this mean you like the idea?"

I guess being engaged wasn't going to give me immunity from the elbow.

"You goof. I love the idea! But why now?"

"Well, I've had the ring for a couple of weeks and I was just waiting for the right time. If we're going to live together I figured this would make you at least a little bit of an honest woman."

"Oh Tommy, I love you! But we've got to talk about this."

Talk? Somebody just hit my panic button. "Uh, sure ... About what?"

Beth looked at her ring then down at the floor. "Tommy, can we make this a long engagement? I DO want to marry you, but I want to finish school first."

"Beth, we can take as long as you want."

As we were leaving the house, Beth stopped to say goodbye to my folks.

"Beth, wait!" my mom hollered as she jumped up and grabbed Beth's wrist. "He did it!" she exclaimed, pointing at Beth's ring then hugging my lady to her. Dad got up and pounded my back, "Good for you! But I'm glad you waited until you graduated."

After getting dragged back into the living room we sat down and talked about plans, dates and all the minutiae that goes with weddings. Or maybe I should say Mom talked, Beth tried to get a word in edgeways, and Dad and I sat there watching the fun for a few minutes and then moved to the family room. I figured this would be a good time to bring up Beth's suggestion.

"Dad, Beth is going to move to a duplex her folks own near the campus and she asked if I wanted to live there too. Greg and Cindy are moving there too."

Dad grinned, "Oh, perfect, Beth and Cindy will have half the house and you and Greg the other, right?"

"Um, well, actually..." How was I going to handle this?

"Relax, Tommy. Mom and I figured you two would be moving together sooner or later." Hey! Breathing isn't that hard to do!

Out of the house at last, Beth collapsed in the car. "I didn't think your mom was ever going to stop! Do you think she understood nothing's set yet?"

"I don't know, but I'm not sure I should go home tonight, I'll have to go through it all over again."

I got that special look. "You could always stay with me tonight..."

Hmm, let's see, spend the night curled around my lady or face the third degree at home? Decisions, decisions.

"Maybe we could run away?" I joked.

"Well ... We could..."

"Hey, I was only kidding!"

"I'm not." I'd seen that look before. What was she up to now?

"Um ... is there something you want to tell me?"

"Yeah. Do you like trains?"

"Trains, yeah. I've only been on one and that was just an excursion train to the Grand Canyon. What are you up to?"

With a grin and a chuckle Beth just sat there. I knew I wasn't going to get any more info until she was ready. I just sighed and continued driving toward her house.

Once in the house Bev used the same radar my mom had to spot the ring and soon the same conversation was on. This time Beth's dad motioned me to follow him. Once in the kitchen he opened the refrigerator and pulled out a couple of beers. Handing one to me he chuckled, "This could take a while." I just nodded.

"Tommy, we've been waiting for this. You've made such a change in Beth's life we knew it was just a matter of time. Our daughter couldn't have nabbed a better guy.

"By the way, did she mention the duplex?" And suddenly my respiration was in trouble again.

"Yeah, she did."

"And?" Chuck obviously wasn't going to make this easy.

"I'd like very much to move. How do you feel about the idea?"

"What would you do if I said Bev and I didn't like the idea?"

"Then I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't be happy about it, but..."

"Tommy, relax. When we offered the house to Beth we just assumed you'd be moving in too."

Isn't there a rule about getting yanked by both sets of parents in the same day? There should be!

Chuck and I finished off our beers just as Beth came around the corner, grabbed me and headed for the stairs. Once in her room she collapsed on her bed.

"Tommy, I can't take any more of this! What's it going to be like when we finally set a date? Think we could elope?"

"Look at it this way, we'll have a few years to brace ourselves if we both want to finish school first. How does the idea of going for a Ph.D. sound?

"Speaking of eloping, why did you ask if I like trains?"

"Wellll ... If you can take two weeks away from all this fun I can offer you a trip to Seattle."

"Seattle? And why a train?"

"Because my parents and grandparents gave me a pair of passes, that's why. They're a graduation present!"

"Joan and Hank? That's right, they live in Seattle, don't they!"

"Yeah, and I'm sure they'd love to see you again. They wanted to be here for graduation but Grandpa Hank's off on some project."

"I thought he was retired?"

"He is, but he keeps getting volunteered for stuff and I guess he just doesn't know how to say 'no.'" I knew the feeling.

"Anyway the train trip is about two days each way." My lady suddenly dropped her voice to a very conspiratorial volume. "And we'd have a room all to ourselves for the trip."

Suddenly traveling by train was definitely the way to go!

The next morning I got call from Gracie.

"Tommy, can I get that picture we talked about?"

"Sure. You want it for Joey, right? A regular portrait with a 'special' picture on the back?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Gracie, you don't sound really thrilled. Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Yeah, I just have to keep convincing myself."

We agreed to meet the following afternoon so I had the rest of the day to start cleaning up the basement. I felt a little guilty having taken over most of our downstairs area. What with a large area set up for product photography and another big chunk full of aluminum and other parts for my gadgetry, there wasn't much room left.

Beth and I already had all my gear loaded when Gracie pulled into the driveway so we were ready to go as soon as she grabbed her extra clothes. After we got to the farm I started posing her, using some of the same spots I'd used for Cindy's pictures.

After the regular poses, including a couple of changes of outfits, I looked at Gracie. "Are you ready for your special pictures?" I could tell she was still unsure of the whole idea.

Beth walked over. "If you don't want to do any full nudes, maybe something just a little risqué would be better?" With that my princess walked back to the Jeep and pulled out the picture that usually hung over her bed. "Maybe something like this?"

Gracie stared at the sedate nude I'd done of Beth. "God, you're beautiful. I could never look like that," she whispered.

"Gracie, let's take a walk. I want to tell you about another girl and a little black bikini..." Beth said as she led the nervous girl down the hill.

When they came back Gracie looked more sure of herself. "Okay, Tommy. I think I'm ready to do this."

I looked at Beth. "I think I forgot one of my filters in the car. I'll be back in a minute," I said as I gave her a slow wink. She just nodded with a little grin. She knew I was leaving the two of them alone to get Gracie ready. It's funny, but I noticed when I was doing Cindy's pictures that taking her clothes off was more embarrassing than the actual posing. This would hopefully get Gracie past that and give Beth a chance to get her in a not-too-revealing pose.

When I came back Gracie was leaning against a tree, her breasts were far enough behind the tree that her nipples were hidden and her front leg was far enough forward to show just a bit of one cheek. Gracie had shed a lot of weight in the last year but was still a bit Rubensesque compared to the size-zero supermodels most girls seemed to think was the ideal look. Personally, I thought she looked great. Now to convince her.

I picked up the Nikon as Beth moved the monster diffuser into position. I slipped a light soft-focus filter on the camera and took a couple of test shots.

One of the things I'd added to my gadget bag was a small portable DVD player that I could plug the camera into so I could use the larger screen for previews. This was much easier than having clients squinting at the small display on the camera itself.

"Do you want to see how good you look to the camera?" As if on cue, Beth handed her a big towel. After she wrapped herself up, Gracie came back to where I was holding the player with her first picture displayed.

"That's me?" the stunned girl exclaimed. "But I don't look like that!"

I glanced at Beth and saw her special smile.

I brought the next picture up and saw a tear on Gracie's cheek. "Oh, Tommy! I can't believe that's me," she whispered.

We spent another half-hour with other poses. Although Gracie seemed to loosen up as we worked, she wanted all the pictures to be like the first 'masked' ones. I also made it a point to turn around as she moved from pose to pose, letting Beth get her into position.

After we finished I excused myself and headed for the Jeep with the first armload of equipment. When I got back to our clearing Gracie was dressed and looking relieved that her ordeal was over.

When we got back to the house I told her I'd have a CD ready in a couple of days with the proofs in two separate directories, the special one password protected.

As we walked out to her car, Gracie looked at me. "Thank you, Tommy, for the pictures ... and for not looking." I glanced at her and saw the flush work its way up her neck and across her face.

A day later it was Sherry's turn. The standard outdoor portraits went fine, but I could tell she was even more nervous than Gracie about the specials.

Beth and I had talked about how shy Sherry seemed and came up with what I hoped would be a face-saving out.

"Sherry, since Steve's going to be living in a dorm, we should probably keep his special picture a little on the tame side. Just in case somebody else sees it." The flash of gratitude I saw confirmed my suspicion and our head cheerleader was more than happy to agree.

A couple of months before, Beth and I had gone to one of the local fabric stores. Now, a fabric shop was one of the last places I had ever expected to be, but I wanted something I could drape over whatever I was using for posing, whether it was a stool, a rock, a tree stump or anything else. While we were there Beth grabbed some thin fabric she said was used as lining for curtains. I was about to find out why she wanted it.

I was fiddling with the camera and Sherry was just fiddling, looking like she was trying to talk herself into, or out of, something.

"Beth can you give me a hand over here for a sec?" I said.

"I may be nuts, but I wonder if Steve's ever seen Sherry undressed," I said quietly as I pointed unnecessarily to the camera.

My lady looked at me like I was nuts. "Tommy, they've been going together for a year! What are the chances?"

"I don't know. I've just got a feeling she's more nervous about Steve seeing her picture than she is of us taking it. Could you find out?" I wasn't being chicken about asking—alright, not completely chicken—I just figured Sherry'd find it easier to confide in another girl.

Beth walked back to Sherry. "Let's take a little walk. Posing always gets people knotted up and a walk might help get the kinks out." As they wandered off I tried to figure a way to give Sherry the picture she wanted without scaring her off the idea completely.

When the girls walked back I caught a quick head shake. Oh, boy, another complication. Beth walked over to me, "Tommy, did you bring that thin material?" When I nodded she grinned. "I think I know how to do this."

What we ended up with reminded me of the dance of the seven veils. I walked back to the Jeep while Sherry stripped down to her bra and panties which, luckily enough, were almost an exact match for her skin tone. Beth draped the fabric around her and readjusted it for each pose. I had to hand it to my devious lady—with her image veiled by the material, it was almost impossible to tell Sherry wasn't nude.

As with Gracie, I excused myself and started taking stuff up to the Jeep as a very relieved Sherry got back into her clothes. When I set up the DVD player and showed her the pictures I saw her turning more and more red as we cycled through the images. I had to admit, even knowing she wasn't bare under the veil, some of the shots caused my jeans to shrink a bit.

When we got back to the house Sherry thanked me for putting up with her shyness.

"Sherry, there's nothing to apologize for. It's always easier to get good pictures if the subject is comfortable." I didn't mention some subjects make it easier than others.

"Tommy, I'm sure you think I'm nuts, but it's just the way I was raised. I hope Steve will like the picture."

"I'm sure he will. I'll make a CD of the proofs in a couple of days. Take your time deciding which ones you want, Beth and I are going to see her grandparents for a couple of weeks."

The next Saturday night we were standing on the platform ready to board the train.

The attendant took us to an upper level room.

"Let me know when you'd like the berths made up. Do you want both or just one?"

"I think we can get along with one," Beth answered.

"That's kind of what I thought," he answered with a grin that matched hers.

My lady plopped down on the seat and looked at me. "You ready for a ride?" After a second she colored. "I meant a ride on the train!"

"I think a ride on the train sounds good. But I think you forgot something."

"I did? What?"

"We're going to Granma's house. Shouldn't you have a red riding hood?"

I was expecting her reaction so her elbow missed.

After we were underway we decided to explore. As we left Beth stuck a note on our door that it was okay to make up our berth.

After roaming through what was going to be our home for the next day and a half we got back to our room to find it ready for us.

Beth looked at the berth. "So are we sleeping left to right or what?"

I saw what she meant, the berth was just a couple inches over three feet wide. Close ... but not too close if we snuggled, and there was no way I was going to sleep by myself!

"Why don't we get ready and then see what works out."

"Okay. I get the little room first!" Beth said. She opened the door to our bathroom and started laughing, "I guess I'm not kidding!" I looked over her shoulder and saw what she meant— a toilet, sink and shower in the space of a very small closet!

After we both got ready I looked at the berth. "You want the outside or the wall?"

"I guess I'll get in first ... as long as you promise to behave yourself!"

"That would depend on what you mean by behaving myself," I grinned.

There's something almost magical to making love in time to the clickety-clack of a train. It's too bad the railroads are all moving to welded rails. A click every quarter of a mile just isn't the same.

We woke up to find ourselves traveling across North Dakota, just in time to pass the geographic center of the Northern Hemisphere, or so the dining steward told us as we sat down for breakfast. After we ate we went back to our room to read. Well, read and other things. The Dakota landscape gets boring after a while.

As we were finishing dinner we reached the east end of Glacier Park and the beginning of the Rocky Mountains. I asked the steward about the number of people we saw getting off the train at the East Glacier stop. He told us it wasn't unusual for people to get off the train there, rent a car and drive through the park for a few days, then drop the car at West Glacier and get back on the train for the rest of their trip west. Hmmm ... Next trip, maybe?

That night we went to sleep in Montana, slept through Idaho and woke up in Washington. A quick breakfast and we were in Seattle.