Chapter 18: No Time For Christmas

Dinner was a letdown for them after the adventures they had that afternoon. Marie felt the familiar pressure begin to build up inside her again. "Jesse, when will this all end? I want nothing more than to have our baby and go back to ranching. I love our ranch and I love you and I just want to have some peace and quiet." She sighed and shoved her done to perfection prime rib away from in front of her. She fought the panic attack she felt start to build up inside her.

"Let's get married," Jessie told her.

She was not listening. "We have so many plans and the problems keep"

"There are just so many things going wrong"

"Shut the hell up and tell me you want to marry me!" Jesse shouted across the table at her. He reached across and grabbed her hand. "Oh Marie, we got to get married right now." He did not notice the restaurant suddenly became quiet as all conversation stopped. All faces had turned toward them.

"Wh ... what?" She looked up at Jesse in surprise. "Did you say something?"

"Damn it, Marie, I love you and you are going to have our baby and I want to marry you right now.

"Oh Jesse, what took you so long?" Tears welled up in her eyes as she smiled and nodded yes. Her throat ached. She placed her left hand on Jesse's out stretched right hand. "Oh Jesse," she sighed.

"Is that a yes or a no?" he demanded. "I never proposed before and I am afraid I will screw things up and not be romantic enough." His anxious eyes stared at her.

"Honey," she corrected him, "You are a romantic. I doubt you have it within you to act romantic. However I accept your not very poetic proposal because I know what lies behind those blunt words. I'll be proud to be your wife."

All the people near them, the ones who had listened to Jesse propose began to applaud. Startled, Marie looked around at all the faces staring at her. "Sweetheart, let's go," she whispered and got up. Jesse threw some bills on the table, rose and hurried after her. Applause followed them outside.

"Wait up, what's the matter?" he asked as he caught up with her.

"Oh my god, all those people in there were listening to us. That's so embarrassing." She hurried faster toward their parked car.

"God damn it Marie, why would anybody be interested in our quiet little conversation? People have more interesting things to do than listen to us." Jesse decided for the hundredth time since he met Marie he would never understand women.

"Oh Sweetheart, when you bellowed like a bull moose that I was pregnant and you wanted to marry me, everyone in there heard you. Your voice carries further than a fog horn." She grabbed hold of his arm when he caught up again. "Robert Burns you will never be and I love you either in spite of it or because of it.

"Well, here's a poem for you," he told her as he opened the car door to let her in. He hurried around to the other side and got in behind the wheel.

"Well? Where's the poem?" she asked when he started the engine.

"Okay, here goes. Roses are red and life's a bitch. Tomorrow morning we're going to get hitched." He nodded to himself and backed out of their parking space.

Warmth filled her as she looked up toward the dark skies. "My man is not a poet, but he is all I can ask for in a man. There is one thing I would like for you to do, dear one."

"What's that?" he asked.

"Please promise me you will never try to become a poet. There are some things that are out of the grasp of Jesse Morgan. Poetry is one of them."

"Well, in that case I guess you will have to settle for me to be near perfect. Can you do that?" He reached over and squeezed her inner thigh.

"If you will just make wild passionate love to me when we get back to the hotel and I'll settle for anything." She laughed, "I suddenly realized life is good because we have us. Hurry up to the hotel."

An hour later two elderly people heard screams and yells as they walked toward the elevator. They hurried to notify hotel security. An assistant manager followed them back up to the room the noises were coming from. He listened to one scream, brought out his pass card and entered. When the door swung open Jesse bounded up from the bed, grabbed the startled assistant manager and knocked him to the floor.

"Marie! Call the FBI, we have another one," Jesse called over his shoulder as he slammed the heel of his hand into the man's forehead. He ran to the door to look for more of the enemy. He saw an elderly man and woman staring at his erection that had gotten harder instead of going soft. He forgot he was naked.

"May we leave please?" the old man asked in a fearful voice. He took his wife's arm and hurried away. She gave Jesse a wistful look over her shoulder at Jesse as if remembering a happier time from ago. She sighed and walked away.

Jesse grabbed the dazed man and jerked him to his feet. "Who do you work for?" he demanded.

"Ah ... I am the night manager of this hotel. We got a report of a woman screaming in pain and some animal cries coming from this room. I investigated and you assaulted me." He stared at Jesse's erection. "Would you please not point that thing at me?"

The erection wilted as Jesse all at once realized what must have occurred. "Well hell," he exclaimed.

The night manager asked him in a pleading voice, "Would you please have quieter orgasms? You disturb the other guests." He left and closed the door behind him.

Jesse heard the laughter in her voice as she told him, "Come back to bed, my little bellowing moose. You have been disturbing the other guests."

He frowned, then remembered what else the hotel manager said. "He said you were screaming as if you were being tortured. What do we do about you?"

"I'll tell you what, if I start to scream you kiss me and if you start to roar like an animal I'll kiss you." She smiled in the dark at him.

"That means we will be kissing the whole time we are making love," he argued.

"I like that idea, Jesse Morgan. Get on this bed with me and let's try it." Their single kiss lasted an hour.

The next morning as they checked out a friendly looking man approached them. "Mister Morgan? I am Warren Appleby, the manager of this hotel. I read the report about last evening's incident and wish to extend our apologies." He extended his hand.

Jesse shook it and admitted, a sheepish look on his face, "I have already been told I sound like a bull moose." He nodded and carried their bags to the car. Marie followed behind, not saying a word. Her face burned with embarrassment.

"I have never been so embarrassed in my life, she told him as he drove away from the hotel.

Jesse laughed, "Well, I won't ever be able to claim you're frigid."

Suddenly he turned serious, "Hon, let's wait a month to get married. I want us to do it up right with a preacher and friends and all the trimmings. Is that okay with you?"

"Sweetheart, I take it all back. You are a poem, a real living poem, not of words but of life. You are my poem." Her eyes filled with tears as she looked up at him in wonder. "I love you more than life itself.

"You just said what I feel," he told her in a husky voice. "I would not want to live if I didn't have you in my life. I guess we are two lucky people that we have each other." Jesse stopped in front of a Jewelry store.

He led her inside. A half hour later they left with a matched pair of wedding bands. Jesse already had placed the simple engagement ring on her finger.

They drove to a mall and shopped for more Christmas presents for the few people Jesse called friends. In a moment of sad reflection Marie realized she had no friends except those she begun to make since she ran over Jesse's house.

"Sweetheart, we have had enough big city adventures to last us a while. I want to go home." Marie squeezed his hand.

"Sounds like a plan to me." He squeezed her butt and she jumped. They headed toward where they had parked,

Marie heard an old woman ask, "Herbert, why don't you ever squeeze mine like that any more?"

"You get one like hers and I'll bend down and kiss it all day long, if you want me to."

"I'm going to start working out," she told him.

Jesse laughed. "Did you hear those old farts?"

"When we get to be that age, I do not expect you to stop squeezing me there. Butts were meant to be babied."

He squeezed hers again and slipped his middle finger between her legs. "Let's hurry and get home, I'm horny," she moaned.

"Well, let's get going," he told her. He opened the door for her and helped her up inside the big vehicle.

Jesse got in and they drove away. Marie turned the radio on and listened to soft music. She leaned back in her seat and hummed along with the music. The day was perfect. She felt better inside until...

They were five minutes down the freeway when she yelled, "Stop!"

Jesse whipped over to the side of the outside lane and stopped. "What? What's wrong?" He looked around for a threat.

Marie did not answer. She opened the car door, stepped outside and threw up. "Oh lord," she moaned and let fly again.

"Oh shit!" Jesse exclaimed and hurried to get out of the car. He barely made it around to the front when he let fly. "Oh god," he moaned. "Every time you puke I have to do it too."

There was no water in the SUV to rinse their mouths out. They both got back in the vehicle and Jesse started them toward the next off ramp. At the bottom of the ramp was a service station. They both went in and bought bottled water. Jesse rinsed his mouth out and watched Marie rinse hers out. "Let's go, Hon," he told her. Four hours later they were home and into the middle of another kind of trouble.

"Jesse, I got a man left this envelope with me to hand you. He is from the IRS. He said you were supposed to call him immediately."

"Let's see that." Marie took the brown envelope out of Billy's hands. "Come in the house, Jesse." He followed her into the house.

She sat at the kitchen table and opened the envelope. "Jesse, this is bad. I told you that you should report all money." She held up the single sheet of paper she removed from the manila envelope. "This is a notification of an audit."

"So? I got seven years of receipts and bank deposits and every statement since I started."

"What about your found money? You listed all your expenses, but not all your income. We have to do some tall explaining if we want to hang onto this ranch."

Her voice raised a notch as she said, "Jesse you may have caused us to lose our home with your stupidity." Marie got up from the table and went outside. She stood on the front porch with head bowed. She had grown to love this ranch and this country in a very short time. This was now her home. The panic built up inside her, She started to relive the time Barry took over her life and ... she fainted.