Chapter 28

I kissed Tina good bye in the standard fashion, and she wrapped me in her arms. "You're not gonna slip into thinking that kissing your wife is routine," she giggled. The gratuitous grope was more than adequate emphasis.

"I in no way think that you're routine, cutie pie," I said. "And neither is this!" And I squeezed her butt.

Blue eyes flashed happily as I got in the truck to head off to work. I surmised that the stress level of my day was about the same as the stress level of Tina's. I knew she was taking tests. I was running down lists of instrumentation points and comparing them with completion documents until the numbers became a blur.

Jason walked in with his laptop under his arm. He saw what I was doing. "Man, I wish was the project engineer so I could do that," he laughed.

"Gee, thanks for making me feel better."

"How 'bout a cup of coffee? This is my good shirt, so I won't let you cry on my shoulder."

"You're a prince among men, Jason," I said. "What's up?"

"I wanna get you to look over this stuff. I think those guys at the design engineering cave are screwing up."

"How so?"

"Protection's all wrong. Logic's hosed. If the file labels didn't kind of match, I'd think they sent us stuff from the wrong project." He printed out a few pages and we went over them together.

"You're right. You want to work up a list of issues? We'll send it back to 'em!"

"Okay." He snorted. "We could sent Susan and Tina to a class, ONE class, and they'd do better. Or Cindy. Did Dan tell you about Cindy and the session with programming the station simulator?"

"Nooo," I said. "What happened?"

"She sat down with the instrumentation engineer for an hour, and when Dan and I came back in, she was showing us how to map inputs and outputs and use logic elements. I know that Tina and Susan could do the same thing. Smart girls."

"Uh, Susan. How's that working? Not that I'm nosin' into your business, you understand."

"Yeah, like you couldn't ask Tina and get Susan's version."

"So which version am I going to get?"

"Both, probably." His grin foretold his words. "She's smart and bright and seeing her makes me happy. Cute. Funny. Just wish she was a few years older."

"Tina says Susan's happy. Happier. You've got a reprieve."

"Reprieve my ass, buddy! You wanna know what sort of wild acts of debauchery we engaged in on Saturday?"

"Do you have a G-rated version?"

"My whole relationship with Susan is G-rated, Alan. We wouldn't have it any other way."

"Okay, then. What'd y'all do?"

"Worked in her dad's rental business. Being an electrical technician, he thought I might be able to straighten out some generators he bought at a surplus sale." He smiled. "Bought us dinner."

"Us?"

"Me an' Susan, who, I might want you to know, makes a very able helper."

"She helped you?"

"Yep! Diesel engines. Generators. Right there the whole time, unbolting covers, asking questions about the electrical stuff."

"Her dad says she used to help around the shop. Mom says she was afraid Susan was gonna be a tomboy."

He grinned. "Not a tomboy. But you get waaaay past that cute, giggle blonde thing pretty fast."

"Oh, really?"

He whipped out his cell phone. "Look!"

I saw a picture of a Susan in OVERALLS! Smiling. Blonde hair pulled back from her face into a funny knot with a big clip, holding a wrench, a smudge of brown on her cheek. He flipped to the next picture. "Her dad took this one for us." That one had Susan and Jason framed together, looking over the round shell of a little generator.

"Cute!" I said.

"I didn't come up here expecting anything like this, Alan," he said. "You have no idea what a breath of fresh air Susan is."

"She IS a hoot. I'm glad she's Tina's friend."

"Sister," Jason corrected. "Those three really believe they're sisters, just separated by an unfortunate rift in the universe."

"Yeah," I laughed. "Tina and Cindy pretty much latched onto that idea the first time they met. And Susan just fit right into the crew."

"She says she felt like an extra thumb on y'all's weekend expeditions. But she also said that everybody went out of their way to make her feel happy, too."

"We did. That's a smart, funny girl there. Like I said, a little bubble-headed and naïve, but she makes us happy when she's around."

"Me too," Jason said. "Just so you know. And her family, they're good people. If she had a sibling, she'd be perfectly normal."

"Nope, not normal," I said. "She's on the high side of the IQ curve. You don't notice it because YOU'RE like that yourself."

"I wish I'd had friends like she has. Then I might be sitting in YOUR chair."

"My chair?"

"Yeah, if I hadn't listened to my buddies, I could've gotten an engineering degree instead of a technology degree. They told me the math would be too hard." He sighed. "It probably was, for them. I could do it."

"I have no doubt," I said. "Sooo?"

"So Tina and Susan said something?"

"And you're thinking about going back to college?"

"It's a thought. I need to keep up with..." He thought about what he was saying, then said, "I can't get beat by the girls."

"That could sort of be interpreted as meaning you'd be around where you'd know what the girls are doing," I said. "Do I take that to mean you're closer to coming on board with Dan and me?"

"Thinking about it. Lots of reasons. I know Alabama isn't Texas, but the people there are a lot like the people at home. So're the people here."

"Sounds like you're convincing yourself of something," I observed.

"Nah," he said. "Just running down the inventory of pros and cons." He sighed. "Mom and Dad back home in Texas, me here."

"Doing what you do, buddy, there's plenty of money for you to make in Texas."

"I know," he said. "I was getting tired of this adventure thing, you know. I'm caught up on the mess my ex made of my finances, and I'm putting money in the bank. I was gonna do that job in Idaho, then go back home and..."

"And now?"

"Dunno," he said. "More choices. If I go back to Texas and start in with one of those companies, I'll have to climb that ladder of proving myself all over again. And I know what the work's like"

"I can't guarantee that work with us is going to be much different," I said. "You're a damned good technician, you know, and I try to make sure that you don't have to do the dog work, and this IS a new plant, but what Dan and I might be getting into..."

"Oh, believe me, I know," Jason said. "I know what those sixty-year old facilities are like. And upgrades and retrofits and all that."

"I'm sure you do."

He continued, "But with you guys, I feel like I'm on the point of the spear. Dan never questioned my judgment after he saw me working. Neither have you."

"Dan said you were good. I take him at his word."

He smiled. "You still watched."

"Not any more," I said. "And we've talked. You ask the right questions, even though you already know the answers most of the time. Your observations are spot on."

"Thank you," he said. "I appreciate being noticed. So how would Jason Ellerbee, engineering student, fit into Alan and Dan Electrical Gurus Incorporated?"

"As long as you sell your body to us every chance you get, I think we'd be crazy NOT to work around you," I said. "You get your degree in engineering, you're already way further up the road than most engineers who got their degrees and then spent their days in the ivory towers and offices. I think you'd be formidable."

"I guess I need to get my college transcripts and talk to Auburn," he said, standing. "I guess that's an email for later. I need to go see how the electricians are coming with those low-voltage feeders."

He was back at lunchtime with the #2 technician. "Come on," I said. "I'll buy today."

Taking the two of them up the road to the restaurant meant that the talk stayed mainly on job-related issues. Almost.

Burt Stanley, my #2 technician, popped up with, "Gee, Alan, If I'd've known you were setting your technicians up with girlfriends..." The word had gotten round about Jason and Susan.

"Are you perchance insinuating that I should have set YOU up? Do you honestly think I want that sweet wife of yours coming after me with an axe?"

Jason laughed. "But you could out-run 'er, being as how she'd be carrying the baby." Burt and Adrienne were the parents of a ten-month-old baby girl.

"And I didn't set them up. That's entirely THEIR fault."

"Alan did his best to keep us from it," Jason said. "Said it was just too big a difference in our ages."

Burt blew tea out of his nose and struggled to stop coughing. When he regained his composure, he looked at me. "Seriously Alan? Don't tell me you actually had the gall to say that? Mister "I married a high school girl" himself."

"Look," I laughed. "I got that same reaction from Susan AND my wife."

"And Susan said they weren't as subtle as YOU are, Burt!" Jason laughed. "You know, we could all get together for dinner one night."

"If we get this next substation on line without blowing the lid off, I'll hit the project up for a little celebration money." There was some of that money in the project, and I was certain that my happy bunch was in a perfect position to draw out a little.

"OH, it's going in with no problems," Jason said. "Burt found those wiring errors and we got them changed and checked out, and it's pretty much nominal now."

"Yeah," Burt said, "I can see it all now. Adrienne is going to be the oldest woman at the table, and she's twenty-two."

Jason chuckled. "I'll make sure Susan calls her 'Granny'!"

"Oh, that'll go over REAL big," Burt laughed.

Our lunch finished off, the trip back was equally jovial, but plans were made.

At the end of the day I went home to my wife. Her car was parked at the trailer. I stepped into the trailer. She turned from the stove.

"Baked potatoes in the oven. Those two little ribeyes we bought the other day. A couple of lettuce wedges." She smiled.

"You changed how life is in this thing, baby doll," I said. " I don't know how many evenings I had a cup of instant noodles and a bag of microwave popcorn."

"Well, I'm glad I am appreciated for my culinary skills," she smiled. "After dinner, we'll take an hour to let the food settle, then off to the gym. Okay?"

"Okay," I said. "How was school?"

She made a face. "Disappointing."

"Still reviewing?"

"It's over. We start testing tomorrow." She sighed. "I'll be so glad to get past this mess."

"You know that most of your classmates are on pins and needles over these things, don't you?"

"Oh, yes. I listen to the whining. D'ya know how many kids think it's unfair that they have to pass this test? If I had a dollar for every time I've heard 'But I've been in school for TWELVE years!' I'd beat the whole 'scholarship' thing. How was YOUR day?"

I recounted some of the conversations I'd had. The lunchtime conversation amused her.

"I like the idea of all of us getting together," she said. "And I will NOT call Burt's wife 'Granny'! So what did Jason say? I'm assuming that he still thinks that he and Susan are a couple."

"I won't answer that until you tell me the latest from Susan's side of the fence," I said.

Tina's eyes twinkled. "Susan thinks they're a couple, Alan."

"She does, huh?"

"Yep! Like a whole new Susan. New and improved. More confident, more assured."

"She serious, then?"

That auburn head nodded. "Sounds like it, baby. Now, what's your side?"

"Jason's talking about sticking with me and Dan in the business, but YOU two talked him into looking to see what he needs to get his engineering degree at Auburn."

Giggle. "I thought so," Tina said. "Alan, it might be more serious than that. Susan asked me something today."

"Oh? What?" That put my mind to spinning through a whole list of possibilities, some good, some not.

"She asked me how I decided that YOU were the one."

I looked my young wife. "Remember when I told you that watching those two was like watching two trains headed towards one another on the same track?"

"I remember."

"Jason and I were talking after lunch. He asked me pretty much the same thing."

"But he was married before, Alan," Tina blurted.

"I know, and his side of the story is that the ex was a mercenary little thing that saw a college grad who walked off the stage and right into a good job as her ticket to the stars. He seems, uh, he was kind of naïve, too, and when this apparently pretty good looking girl showed interest in him, he just fell head over heels. I'm thinking that Susan's a whole different ball game for him."

Tina looked at me as we sat on the sofa, then patted her lap, signaling me to lay my head down. I complied, appreciating her tender caressing of my face. "Susan says they talked about his history. About how he's dated, before he got married, and since the divorce, and she's told him her stories, too, and I think he's a whole lot more experienced than Susan."

"I'd imagine so, I said. "That ten years, a marriage."

"She says he's funny and smart."

"Darned smart. He's a hotshot technician. And you know how he handles conversation," I said.

"Yeah, I know that, but he's also a gentleman. Susan's told me stories about her dates with guys in our age group, and how those have worked out."

"I can imagine."

"Susan's a virgin, Alan. And it's not because nobody tried, either. But she says that Jason has never tried anything. She kissed HIM first." She saw my eyes. Giggled. "That's the approved method, apparently."

"Mmm-hmmm. You kissed me first."

She smiled. "Yes I did. And you'd been treating me like a human being for weeks before I did. Susan knows that much about us. And she says that she and Jason have just kissed and hugged and that's as far as they've gone. And he treats her like a human being. ALWAYS!"

"I'm a lot happier about that than finding out that they jumped straight into sex without having more to their relationship than exchanging names." In my mind, the idea of Susan having sex wasn't as repugnant as the idea of Susan being USED. I said so.

"Susan and I talk about that too, sweetie," Tina said. "We both KNOW girls who are just as stupid about sex as boys are. And we both know about girls who suffer the consequences of getting led into something they weren't ready for. Susan knows that I was a virgin. She says she wants her husband to be her only, too. But do you know how RARE that is?"

"You told me before."

"Rare," Tina said with finality. The timer on the oven dinged. "Go fire up the grill and let it heat up. Potatoes will be done soon."