Chapter 52

Two women's heads were on my chest as my eyes opened. It took a few seconds for the total replay of the previous night to come.

All I could think was 'oh shit'; I've screwed the pooch now. How in the hell did I let that happen? Millie knows how much I love her and only want her.

I looked at the other sweet face and almost cried. Rosita is so sweet, and yes, I love her too, but we shouldn't have been making love. Harold said there was justification, but it wasn't something I had thought should be. Would there be a difference of how Millie feels about me, now that it's done? Rosita even said she didn't know whether she could love me and share me with Millie forever.

How do you put this into perspective? How is a guy supposed to know whether he has done the right thing, or committed a terrible mistake?

I kissed the tops of both heads and began wiggling out from between them. Both reached up for a kiss the way they always did, and I gave each a soft kiss. Both even whispered a soft, "I love you."

Damn, thinking about all of this is going to make for a tough day.

Not knowing what the day would bring since it was the day before Thanksgiving, I dressed and went to the barn to feed the steer that was getting ready for the table. The only thing moving out there was the deer. He happily romped around trying to get me to play with him. Stupid deer; he needs to go visit the deer herd in the stock pasture.

I went back inside to have some coffee after making sure that the stokers for the smoke houses were full and the meat was moist. Millie and Rosita were both up and dressed, with the coffee ready. They both came to sit on a knee when I sat in a chair at the little table.

With a smile, Millie said, "Thank you for taking Rosita to be with us, Mike. I love her and want her to be my sister, and a wife to you."

Jesus, how do you reply to that?

Rosita told me, "You have taken me for my first time, and I enjoyed it. That is supposed to be what only a true husband can do. You made me so happy last night, and I want you to make both Millie and me happy every night for as long you can. I pray that our union gave me our first baby."

Whew, that was another thought: a baby.

The two rested their heads on my shoulders, preventing me from reaching for my coffee.

Mom walked into the kitchen area and observed the two women hugging me. She looked at me and cocked an eyebrow, but didn't say anything as she poured herself a mug of coffee.

Millie and Rosita both sat up straight on my lap, facing Mom. Millie said, "Mike has taken Rosita to be his wife with me. Isn't that wonderful?"

I thought Mom was going to spit coffee across the room, but she was able to get her hand in front of her mouth in time. She looked at me with an arched eyebrow again.

"So, um, Mike. Does this mean you have agreed to what Millie wanted?"

I took a deep breath and almost whispered, "I guess it does. They sort of snuck up on me, but I do realize that I love and want Rosita with Millie. Millie is my first wife, and always will be. She's the mother of my son and the twins. Rosita wants to be my wife and Millie's sister, so I suppose she is now. I promise to try to be a good man to both."

Mom came to me and hugged me to her full breast. "You're going to be a great husband to both of them, Mike. I'm proud of you for recognizing the love both of these women have for you. This is a big step for you, Mike, but you're man enough for it."

How could my mom think that having another wife is a good thing? I'm not ashamed that I took Rosita, but I wonder how the rest of the world will look at it.

Frank and Bill got up early, and left for work in time to be in Lexington by seven-thirty. They wanted to make sure all of their people knew they were serious about getting an early start every day.

I wanted to check with Esteban to be sure he gets the two cows to our barn. That shouldn't have been a worry, as a truck pulled up about eight. The local trucker got out of the cab and shook my hand when I went to meet him. "I have a couple of cows from Esteban. He told me to tell you that the one that's fresh was milked this morning."

I put the two cows in the pasture next to the barn and watched the simpleton deer bounce around the two of them until they had made friends. There was a surprise though, as a young doe was hiding nearby as the buck showed his stuff around the cows. I would have to watch this new deer development.

The trucker laughed at the deer with me, and as he was ready to leave, "I want to thank you again for giving me that new truck. That happened at the exact right time. Thanks again, Mike."

Mom was excited since Karen was coming home today. You would have thought that Karen was one of her own by the way she was so anxious. I'm sure Karen felt that too, and couldn't wait to get home to Mom's warm arms and the rest of us.

I drove over to Esteban's place to see the new cows. Boy, howdy, were there a lot of new cows! Esteban was milking nearly forty head prior to buying the new herd. With a smile, he told me, "We're milking almost ninety head now. All of them are giving great weight at each milking. What has me excited is how many cows are close to coming fresh. Hopefully, we'll get mostly heifers."

"Tell me, Esteban, how many will you be milking when you're at what you would consider the max?"

The man excitedly told me, I think we might get up to about a hundred twenty."

Holy smokes! One hundred twenty cows per milking? That's a hell of a lot of cows.

Esteban told me, "Don't worry, Mike. We won't have a problem now that we have the new milking area and barn. It will take some time to pasteurize that much milk, but we will be money ahead on everything. I've even found a whole barn full of good hay. John and I are going after it later today."

John had been a part of the visit, and had been standing with Esteban throughout my discussion. He knew my concerns, but he also wanted Esteban to know that he was with him, and would help find the answer to anything.

I was in a state of shock over how many cows Esteban had now. You're talking about a major production to milk that many head. I did get him off to the side and told him, "Esteban, you have to find at least one helper. Two might be better, but you and your kids can't do it all. Get a couple of men and we'll work out how to handle them. The most important thing for you to do, though, is to keep the herd healthy."

It was a pleasure to see all of the salt trucks washed and parked back in a row as I drove into the road yard. The one thing that had become obvious was the need to clean the salt trucks between uses. You'd soon have giant holes in the beds if you left them sit without washing them. Even though we'd cleaned, patched, primered, and "Rhino-Hided" the beds, they would rust through without continuing preventive maintenance, and a thorough cleaning out of all the salt was just the beginning of that.

I was home in time Wednesday evening to help make sure the cow was milked. Mom and Sissy argued over milking the cow, but they agreed to bring the cow that was dry in to have something to eat while the other cow was milked. Both animals loved humans and were relaxed around us. Mom was impressed with how much milk the cow gave. We had to go back to filtering the milk into a small five gallon can. I had to show them how to use the small pasteurization equipment that Esteban had set up and sent it through that process into another small clean can. From there the can went into the spring house.

Wednesday evening Mom was busy making pies and some other Thanksgiving specialties. I wondered about the turkeys as Mom was already baking two in the kitchen oven and in the summer kitchen wood stove. Mom told me that she had already cooked two turkeys and they were in one of the smoking rooms staying warm the same place the two that were in the oven would go. In addition, we were smoking some wild geese that someone had traded us at the market, and would see what we thought of those by and by.

Frank and Bill were home early and told me that everyone at the stations was ready for a change and welcomed the new leadership. Frank felt that the atmosphere and employee attitude was much better now than when we had made our agreement.

Bert and Pete came home that evening. They came early enough to eat with us and told stories of their experiences in Florida and down in the Caribbean. Their most pleasurable place had been in Nassau as they said they felt free to do just about anything that was fun.

Bert got me off to the side, "Your man, Esteban, is doing you a right good job, Mike. He's up to over a hundred fresh, and that ain't no easy chore. He's a good'un, so hang onto him, hear?"

Nodding, I said, "I sure do hear, Bert. Esteban is a good man and wanted to have that big herd. We'll see how he handles it."

Going to bed was almost scary. Mom had not mentioned anything to Sissy or Shirley, so I was a little apprehensive when I slid between Millie and Rosita.

Millie kissed me as she nearly crawled on top of me. Rosita's lips demanded mine at the same time and as much as Millie's, who was now on top of me. Their kisses and wiggling had the desired effect on my lower part, and both women soon noticed.

Rosita kissed me and said, "Make love to your wife, Mike. Millie is the mother of your children and will always be first."

Millie nearly launched herself over me to hold and kiss Rosita. I marveled at the loving embrace and kiss the two shared.

I made love to Millie as if it was during our early mating days. When she was sprawled out smiling, I made love to Rosita the same way. My two lovelies were soon sleeping next to each other as I snuggled up to Millie. I was very content and felt both women were equally satisfied.

As I lay there, I thought of all of the reasons I had resisted, then of the justifications that Harold had given for poly relationships and marriages. I didn't feel as if I had abandoned Millie as much as I felt that I might be shortchanging Rosita. She had willingly given me her virtue. Millie thought it was very special, and I had to agree. The fact that the two were loving toward each other was comforting.

I couldn't sleep and got up to go into the kitchen to have some wine. I had put a robe on and was sitting in front of the fire with my glass of wine.

Sissy came in and sat with me, clutching a goblet of wine. She said, "I heard you tonight. You made love to both of them. Rosita was moaning and squealing in her excitement, so you gave in. Are you okay with it now?"

I looked at my sister who was staring at the fire. "I'm okay with it because it was something that Millie wanted. They did it last night, and I didn't know it was happening until it was too late. Millie is very happy and Rosita says it was what she deeply wanted. I hope it all works out. Those two are close and they will have to remain close for this to work."

Sissy got up and sat on my lap. "You know, Mike. You could make love to me too, if only you would. I've always wanted you, and I wanted it even when we were kids. We didn't, but I wanted to. I know that I'm married now and shouldn't think this way, but I would screw your brains out if I had half the chance. I just know we would make some great loving."

I hugged my sister, recognizing that she did love me more than just casual sisterly love. "I know the feeling, Sissy. I used to have wet dreams of you almost every night. That's why I always got up first in the morning. I didn't want you to find out that I had come in my shorts."

"Oh God, Mike. It's a good thing I didn't find that out then or I would have been licking your shorts."

"Jesus, Sissy, you are so gross. I only told you to let you know that I felt the same back then."

"I know, Mike, and I would have been crazy about your wet dreams. I would have fucked you senseless every morning of our lives. I would no doubt have been pregnant the first month. I guess it was good we never revealed how we felt."

We slowly rocked in front of the fire. We were almost dozing when Mom came in and kissed both of us on the forehead. "Okay, both of you. Go back to your beds. Enough of this snuggling in front of the fire. You two might decide to do what I was always afraid that you were going to do when you were younger."

I had to laugh a little. Mom knew how much our hormones were raging back then, but didn't do anything but let us make the right decisions. Sissy kissed me and went to her room. Mom hugged me and said, "You were making a lot of noise with your women tonight. That probably got Sissy all worked up. Go to bed."

I was up before five o'clock Thanksgiving morning, dressed, and out in the milk house, getting the equipment ready. I scooped some feed up and put it in the two stanchions for the cows before going out to let them in. I had to fight off the deer to keep him out of the milking parlor.

Sissy walked in just as I finished washing the cow's udder. She directed, "Get off that stool, Bro. That's women's work. Go feed the steer to make sure he's getting fat."

Instead of feeding the steer, I made sure there was enough room in the milk can for the morning's milk, and that the filter, funnel, and pasteurization equipment were clean. I went to the back of the barn and fed the steer after that. I fed the deer too, and was surprised to see the young doe hesitantly move up to where the grain was. I stood still as the buck rubbed against me and made sure I rubbed behind the horns on his head. The doe kept watching me to make sure I wasn't going to make a sudden move.

As I moved away, I thought the buck was almost winking at me, proud of his new doe.

When I let the cows out and had scooped the cow poop up, Sissy finished putting the milk through the pasteurization equipment, so I put the milk can into the spring house while Sissy washed the funnel and filter. She said that we would need to wash another can for the evening milking.

Millie and Rosita had coffee ready inside and were working on breakfast. I had to go out and light the wood stove, but that was an almost everyday ritual.

Mom came out and told me, "We need to get all of our extra tables and chairs out. Everyone we know will be here to share dinner with us. All of the families below will be here with us today too, and they will be a joy to have."

I was directed on how to set the tables up. It was crowded, but we were going to have between fifty to sixty people, and we needed to have the table settings.

The ladies from below showed up about eleven to help with the meal. The road guys and their wives arrived next. Bert and Pete came and helped keep the coffee flowing. Sheryl and Bernie, Maude and Gene, Harold and Martha, Benson and family, Esteban and family, and even Shirley's brother, Stan, came. The house was jammed by two in the afternoon.

Mom was smooth with the way she began manipulating people to sit. As we ran out of spaces, I opened more folding chairs and had to get another table out. Not a problem though, as there was just enough room. Raul even joked that Mom needed another addition.

Men at each of the tables had the honor of carving the turkeys. There was a lot of turkey, but there were a lot a people. The meal was something special and had to go down as one of the better Thanksgiving meals ever. I think I liked the turkeys that had been cooked, then smoked, the best. They were delicious.

Desserts were pumpkin, apple, and pecan pies. There was a promise of ice cream later, but we were all stuffed and no one could have held any more.

Mom supervised the road guys and all the rest of us men while we worked to clean up. Frank and I were given the job of cleaning all of the meat off the turkeys so that we could have sandwiches, turkey soup, and turkey salad. We would have at least one more big turkey dinner out of the leftovers.

A lot of people left as the day progressed; there were just too many people for comfort. Harold wanted me to show him our wine storage areas as we were getting down to a workable number of people.

As we walked to the original wine storage cave, Harold asked, "I could see a difference in Rosita and Millie today. Did they finally win?"

I looked at Harold, "Is it that obvious?"

"Pretty much, Millie is very happy, and Rosita keeps hugging her. How are you about this?"

"They sort of sneaked up on me, Harold. The deed was done by the time I was aware of what was up. I've thought about it a lot, and I do love Rosita, but Millie is still my first love."

"You've said that well, Mike. Are the two women happy together when others are not around?"

"Harold, the one thing that happened that made me feel good was after lunch yesterday. They had gone into the bedroom to lay the twins down when I came in and found them. They were snuggled together, hugging each other, sound asleep. They looked very loving to me."

"That's good, Mike. I've told you that the Bible talks about poly relationships, but that you and only you, are the ruler of how you feel and it is your home. If you need to talk about this, don't hesitate to come see me or call me over. You've made the first step, now you have to control your future. I wish you luck and pray for your family."

We looked at the wine storage and I even siphoned a small cup of wine out from one of special barrels. The wine was ready, but it was so good that I really didn't want to sell it.

Sissy and Shirley announced that they were going to go home to work on the houses and get them ready to sell. Bill and Frank said they would go with them, but would have to be back Monday morning since Bernie was going to meet them to work out programming at the new station.

Mom talked to the two families, and convinced them to let the kids stay so the adults would be free to work without worrying about the kids.

That's when Raul came up to me. He had been watching and listening. "Mike, how about giving your brother and sister the two new models we're almost done with, and we'll build two more? We have two models near the entrance that are great for what we want to display, and it would work out perfect if we put two models on the other side of the two that are almost complete. What do you think?"

Benson was still with us, so I asked him. He shrugged his shoulders and said, "You know, those two families are actually more important than the development. Let's get them moved."