Chapter 6

In the morning, I awoke as I normally do, at about 5:00. The sun was just beginning to rise. Billy was still in the same position as before. He must have sensed my morning stretch because he awoke realized where his hand was and yanked it away.

"Gail, I'm so sorry, I didn't know."

"Don't worry about; I sort of enjoyed waking up that way. Go out and get dressed; I'll be out shortly."

He crawled back to the front seat, got his sneakers and clothes, and jumped out of the cab to dress. I reached over and grabbed my jeans, pulled them on, changed my tee-shirt, and pulled on my boots. I grabbed my jacket, opened the berth door, and climbed down to the ground.

"I'm going to get myself some coffee to go, do you want anything to drink?

"Can you get me a coke?"

"No problem"

Soon I was back; we climbed into the cab, started her up and headed back onto the Interstate. We would stop for breakfast just outside of Clinton, Oklahoma. At 5:30 in the morning, there was almost no traffic, other than the occasional eighteen-wheeler. If I had been by myself, I'd have been on the CB talking with my fellow truckers; but with Billy here, I had tuned to channel 19, listening for any alerts. It was quiet in the cab, each of us buried in thought. I couldn't tell you what he was thinking about, but I was thinking about how nice it was having a young man sharing my bed, and thinking that it was about time that I lost my virginity. Around eight-thirty, we pulled off the highway and into the truck stop. There were quite a few other trucks parked, their drivers apparently having breakfast inside.

As we entered the dinner, I spotted several truckers that I knew from being on this route for so long.

As we were being led to our booth, one of the guys yelled over,

"Hey Gail, how you doing?"

"Fine Gus, everything is good, how about you?"

"Feeling old; maybe I'll retire next year."

"Gus, you've been retiring next year ever since I first met you back when I was riding with my Daddy."

We all laughed, and then Billy and I sat down and looked over the menu. We placed our orders and settled back into some light conversation, when a guy walked up to the table. I had seen him before. He was a little weasel, who thought he was a lady's man.

"Hey Babe, don't ya think this boy's a little small? I say throw him back and come sit with a real man; maybe we can get to know each other a whole lot better."

"That boy as you call him is a whole lot more of a man than you'll ever be," I replied, already sliding my way out of the booth.

"Who, him?" and he pushed Billy's shoulder.

"You lay a hand on him again and I will break off your arm and beat you with it."

At this point I was already on my feet, my fists clenched and ready to fight. He looked up at me; I had at least four inches and thirty pounds on him.

"Whoa, Darlin, I meant no harm."

"Yeah, right. Just get your ass back to your seat and let us enjoy our breakfast."

When he left, Billy whispered, "Thanks, you were awesome. I'm used to getting picked on so it doesn't really bother me that much. Would you really have fought him to protect me?"

"Absolutely."

Just then our waitress brought out our breakfast.

"Your breakfast is on the house; Joe back in the kitchen has been waiting for someone to put that loudmouth in his place for some time now. Maybe he'll show us waitresses a little more respect from now on."

"You tell Joe thank you for us."

When we finished our breakfast, we got up and left, but not before I threw down a ten for our waitress.

On the walk out to the truck, I kept watch, looking for any signs of trouble. Just before we got there, Billy put his hand on my shoulder, pulled me down and kissed me sweetly on the cheek.

"Thank you."

He ran around the other side of the truck and climbed in. It took all my will power to keep from dragging him back into the berth and having my way with him.