Love Slave for Two: Reunions [Love Slave for Two 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (16 page)

“It’s all right, love.” He knelt in front of her. “I know you’re under a lot of stress. We’ll be able to relax tomorrow before we start exploring the other parts of the park. Or if you decide you want to stay at the RV, I’ll take everyone with me and leave you alone.”

“With Harley.” She smiled.

He grinned. “He is going to give us fits when he’s older, isn’t he?”

“The puppy or Adam?”

“Adam. And the puppy as well, I should suspect.” He patted her on the leg before standing. “I’ll get your toast ready.”

* * * *

It didn’t take Nevvie as long as she thought it might to get her stomach and headache under control. They left the AC running and Harley secured in his crate and went to explore the town. By the time they returned an hour later to check on the puppy and drop off their bagsful of souvenirs, including a lot of books about the park for both Adam and Tyler and a new Yellowstone Association membership that got them a discount on most everything they’d bought at the gift shop, Nevvie would admit to feeling something akin to normal.

Well, she wasn’t feeling sick anymore, she wasn’t feeling homicidal toward Tyler—anymore—and she wasn’t feeling utterly morose about Pete’s condition once she’d talked to Tom herself and confirmed that, yes, Pete did appear to be on the mend.

She could relax.

She let Tyler drive them over to the terraces, where they spent over an hour wandering around the boardwalks, exploring the thermal features, and keeping a close eye on Adam. Tyler carried Mikey in the backpack. Adam was very careful with his digital camera and painstakingly made sure to take pictures of everyone else together. “I want to e-mail them to Poppa,” he said with a serious expression on his face.

She hugged him. “Despite the puppy incident, you’re a good kid.”

He smiled. “You’re not mad anymore, Momma?”

She laughed. “No, I’m not mad, baby. But you cannot ever do anything like that again. Understand?”

“Yes, Momma.”

They returned to the RV. Tyler helped Nevvie prep it to move, and by noon, they were on their way east along Grand Loop Road. They stopped at Canyon for lunch and to tour the Canyon Visitor Education Center, which featured a three-dimensional model of Yellowstone’s topography, including multimedia exhibits about the supervolcano under the park.

Nevvie wasn’t sure if Tyler or Adam was more fascinated by the exhibit.

After hitting the gift shop, they returned to the RV. Nevvie was pleased to find they had a dump station for RVs at the filling station in Canyon.

“Tyler, go ahead and top off the Honda’s gas tank. I’m going to empty the dump tank.” The RV’s diesel tank still had plenty of fuel, and they would have an electrical hookup in the campground anyway.

“All right, love.”

She pulled into a line to get to the dump station. There were three RVs ahead of her. By the time it was her turn, Tyler had returned from filling up the Honda’s gas tank.

“Would you like help, love?”

She sighed. “Sure. Guide me up there.” He stood in place and waved her up onto the dump tank, raising his hand when she was in position. Andrew watched the kids while she went back outside and opened the hatch covering the dump tank valve.

Tyler walked around to join her. “What can I do, love?”

She pulled a pair of blue nitrile gloves out of the box she and Tom kept stowed in the hatch for this and handed them to Tyler. “I’ll let you know when to open the valve. When I say okay, hit it. Okay?”

He pulled on the gloves while she pulled on her own pair. “Aces, love.” He turned to the control panel and put his hand on the valve handle.

She grabbed the dump hose and hooked one end of it up to the outlet valve on the RV. Then she pulled the other end of the hose over toward the dump hatch and paused to read the instruction sign there. “Okay, Ty. Get read—”

“Right!”

Before she could register what he’d said, the hose jerked out of her hand as a noxious flood of sewage and gray water exploded out the end of it, drenching her from the knees down.

“Tyler!” she screamed. “Close the valve! Close the fucking valve!”

“What—oh no!”

The flood trickled to a stop as he shut off the valve. She stood there in shock, praying this was just a wine-induced nightmare, that she would awaken in the RV in Mammoth Hot Springs with a hangover.

Tyler slowly walked over, a horrified look on his face. She was vaguely aware of laughter from some of the other RV operators in line, but it was Tyler’s horrified expression she focused on.

“Tyler,” she whispered. “Go stand by the valve.” Well, she was already covered with a mixture of piss, shit, dishwater, and shower runoff, might as well get this over with.

Although she was upset her favorite sneakers were now full of nasty water. The jeans would wash.

“Um, right, love.” He scurried back to the valve panel.

In her soaked sneakers, she squished back over to the dump tank outlet. She finished reading the instructions, which included an admonition not to open the RV’s dump tank valve until the outlet hose was firmly inserted into the dump tank outlet. She then inserted the hose into the dump tank outlet and walked back to the RV.

“Now, Tyler. Okay.”

“Um, right, love.” He opened the valve and emptied the dump tank. Meanwhile, she stripped off her nasty gloves and, ignoring how she was now chilly in the cool mountain air as well as stank worse than a septic tank, she put on a fresh pair of nitrile gloves and pulled out the external fresh water hose from its access panel. Doing the best she could, she kicked off her sneakers, hosed them out, then hosed herself off. She rinsed the dump tank pad, guiding the nasty water into the dump hose outlet. Then she returned the hose to its storage place before checking on the dump tank hose.

“Is it empty, Tyler?” she quietly asked.

“Um, yes, love. I believe it is. Are you—”

“Shut. The fuck. Up.”

“Yes, dear.”

She made sure the valve was firmly closed, retrieved the sewage hose and stowed it, then closed the access panel.

“Tyler, do you think you can drive the RV off the tank and down there without wrecking it?” she whispered.

“Um, yes, of course, but don’t you—”

“
Tyler
!” she shrieked. “I’m covered in shit! I’m
not
getting into the RV like this!”

He looked horrified. “Um, right. Sorry, love. I’m so—”

“Shut the fuck up and get in the fucking RV and move it!”

She faintly heard male laughter behind her. She turned and glared at the man driving the RV behind her. He was standing outside his vehicle. When she wheeled around, he shut up and got into his RV.

She grabbed her sodden sneakers and, in her wet socks and smelly, soaked jeans, stormed off the dump tank pad. She heard Tyler start their RV and didn’t bother looking back to see if he moved it without wrecking it or not. She waited until he got it moved to the far edge of the parking area to walk over to it. He met her at the door.

“Um, well, love. What can I do?”

She had two choices, scream or whisper. There was no longer any middle of the road. She chose whisper so it wouldn’t scare her kids or the bison in the park. “Go get a garbage bag,” she whispered. “And a beach towel. And a bottle of antibacterial hand soap.” She walked back to the fresh water hose access panel, opened it, and pulled the hose out. By the time Tyler rushed out of the RV with the requested items, she’d already started hosing herself down again.

“Hold the towel up so I don’t flash everyone,” she whispered.

He did, and she quickly stripped off her jeans, socks, and underwear. Fortunately, the nasty water hadn’t reached higher than her knees. She rinsed herself off, used half the bottle of hand soap to clean up, then rinsed off again. She wrapped the towel around her waist.

“Put my dirty clothes and my sneakers in the bag. We need to do laundry. Find out where the nearest Laundromat is, if it’s here or at Fishing Bridge. That is where we’re going. To get the fucking laundry done.” She delivered all of this in a whisper.

“Yes, dear.”

She climbed into the RV. Andrew sat at the table with Mikey. “Are you all right, Nev?”

“No.” She went into their bedroom, grabbed clean clothes, then took a shower. By the time she emerged from the shower, Tyler was back inside the RV.

“There’s a laundry facility here, love,” Tyler said.

“Good,” she whispered. “Go get all our laundry, including my sneakers and stuff, and go wash them. All. Now.”

“Right.” He scurried off to gather everything.

He left five minutes later.

She collapsed on the sofa. Adam walked over to her. “Are you okay, Mommy?”

“Mommy’s very aggravated and frustrated right now, honey.”

“At Daddy?”

“At the world.” She looked at him and forced a smile. She pulled him to her and hugged him. “Want to go back to the supervolcano exhibit and hit the gift shops again?”

“Okay!”

“Go put your shoes on and we need to walk Harley.”

“Yes, Momma.”

Andrew smirked. “Retail therapy?”

“Fuckin’ A, Dad. Fuckin’ A.”

* * * *

Tyler didn’t feel any better when Tom wouldn’t quit laughing after he related the story to him while sitting there waiting for their laundry to finish.

“Ty, are you shitting me… Wait…” Tom’s voice dissolved into laughter again. “Hey, Eddie, this’ll cheer you up.”

Tyler patiently waited for Tom to relate the story to Eddie. When he heard Eddie burst into laughter in the background, he finally spoke up. “Yes, right. Fine. Very good. Laugh at the imbecile. I’m already in enough trouble as it is with Nevvie. I certainly don’t need you slitting my throat as well. Should I hold out my wrists so you can open veins in them to bleed me dry?”

“I’m sorry, Ty,” he said, laughing and not sounding a bit sorry at all. “But seriously? Come on. Even you have to admit this is hysterical. Did she neuter you yet?”

“No. I wouldn’t be surprised if she and Adam are trying to max out our American Express card at the gift shop even as we speak.”

“Yeah, well, it’s just money.” He finally stopped laughing. “Hey, think of it this way, you can work it into a book somewhere.”

He’d already thought about that, even as he was watching Nevvie hose the shit out of her shoes on top of the dump tank. In fact, he felt more than a little guilty over the fact that he had at least three really good scenes already worked out in his mind for a totally new book before the laundry even hit the spin cycle.

At Nevvie’s expense, but still…

“If I disappear somewhere between here and Seattle, you’ll understand why,” Tyler said.

“Yeah, and I’ll alibi her, too, Evil Genius.”

“I don’t blame you.”

“Well, try to stay on her good side. You have to admit, after leaving her at Mitchell, springing a puppy on her, and giving her a shit bath, she’s taking it all pretty damn well.”

He heard Eddie burst into another round of laughter in the background. “Maybe I should sleep on the roof of the RV tonight,” Tyler said.

“It might be safer.”

“Yes, quite.”

“Love you. Tell her I love her, too.”

“I will. Love you, too. Best to Eddie.” He sat back in his chair and looked at the spiral notebook he’d brought with him. He’d already filled several pages with handwritten notes.

He smiled.
It wouldn’t be a half-bad book at that.

And, to help the situation and soothe whatever wrath Nevvie would undoubtedly—and completely justifiably—deliver upon him when he returned, he’d suddenly hit upon the solution to the plot issues in the book he was currently working on.

He let out a deep sigh. It would be worth taking anything she’d dish out, and more.

He’d earned it.

* * * *

There were several new bags on the table, full of items from the Canyon gift shops, when Tyler returned to the RV with the clean laundry, including her sneakers. Which were still wet, because he didn’t run them through a dryer, but at least they were clean and no longer a biohazard.

“Love, I’ll call Thomas and tell him your size and the style and have him ship us some overnight to the campground at Fishing Bridge.”

Stretched out on the sofa, she waved the suggestion off. “Don’t worry about it.” She held up her feet, which now sported new hiking shoes. “We went to the outfitter shop. I’ll get new sneakers somewhere. When those dry off, they’ll be wearable.”

He set the basket down on the table. “Are you still cross with me?”

She crooked her finger at him to call him over. He leaned in and she kissed him. “Yes,” she said, “but I’m not going to take it out on you. I took it out on the credit cards.” She smiled.

He shook his head. “I love you, angel. You have no idea how much.”

“Yeah, I love you, too, Evil Genius. You’re lucky I do. I would have killed anyone else.”