Samson and Sunset (10 page)

  I started flicking his hair at his
forehead, and he opened those beautiful brown eyes and put his arm
up around my neck, pulling my lips down to his. “Good morning, baby
doll. You know, I’m all yours today,” he said, smiling sleepily.
“I’m not working. I’m spending the whole day playing with you, my
little friend.”

  “Oh, great!” I said excitedly. “What
are we going to do?”

  “Well, first I’m going to make love to
my wife, and after that I think I’m going to show you the ranch.
Then we’ll build a big fire in the fireplace and spend the rest of
the day cuddling. We’ll make some popcorn, dance a little, and I’ll
cook for you. How does that sound?”

  Sounded like music to my ears!

  “I’m going to take good care of you
and my little baby girl you’re carrying,” he said, stroking my
belly.

  “What makes you think it’s a girl?” I
asked, turning onto my side.

  “I want a girl, so it’s a girl,” said
Shay matter-of-factly.

  “But I want a boy, Shay. I want to
give you a son.”

  “Well, that’s not necessary. Girls are
so sweet. I’m so stuck on our Kelly, I’ll take twelve more of
her.”

  “Oh, I don’t think so buster, this is
it. My limit, a girl and a boy.”

  “Sounds perfect to me.”

  And we dropped the subject there.

  Shay took the pickup and drove me all
over the ranch; lots of long, rippling prairie grass and open
stretches of sand. It was beautiful.

  “Shay, where are we going to live when
we get home?”

  “Well,” Shay said, “we’re going to
live in the Big House. Maggie said we could have the large guest
suite. It has a big bedroom, large bath with a tub and shower; den
with a fireplace, and best of all it has an empty attached room you
can decorate for the girls. It will be a great nursery!”

  “I don’t want to live in the Big
House,” I said. “I want to live in Hudson near my parents.”

  “Well, princess, I work on our family
farm and that’s where we have to live.”

  “Stop the truck, just stop the truck,”
I said.

  Shay stopped.

  “Screw you,” I said, getting out. “I’m
walking back.”

  “It’s two miles, Callie, get in the
truck. Now quit being so spoiled and get in the truck before I come
out there and get you!”

  “Oh yeah? What are you going to do?
Hold me down in the truck?”

  Shay jumped out and came around on my
side. He opened the door and said, “Get in.”

  “No.”

  “You spoiled little brat,” he said and
picked me up and put me in the front seat, shutting the door.

  “You know, you’re not my parent, you
can’t treat me like this,” I said.

  “You just watch me, princess. Now you
stay in there and I’ll take you back to the house. I would say
we’ll discuss it later, but we won’t. It’s a done deal. We’re
living in the Big House.”

  I started crying.

  “You didn’t even consult me. I don’t
want to live with other people; I want to live with you alone. I
want to walk around naked when I want to, and cook for you. I want
to do your laundry. I don’t want Cookie doing it. I’m your
wife!”

  Shay slid across the seat and put his
arms around me. “You’re right, princess, that wasn’t fair to you.
I’ll make you a deal: if you live with me in the Big House until
spring, I’ll move us into one of the farmhand houses after that.
One of them has three bedrooms; we’ll remodel it. New kitchen, new
baths. We’ll re-carpet. You can decorate it and we’ll have our own
little love nest.”

  “Well, you know, Shay, that’s a long
time away, at least ten months. I don’t know if I can live in the
same house as Sterling for that long.”

  “Well, honey, will you please try for
me?” he asked, giving me an irresistible look of love with his
brown eyes.

  “Alright, Shay, I’ll try. If you
promise we will get one of the smaller houses.”

  “We will, honey, we will.” Shay kissed
me with a very long generous kiss. “So what do you say, babe, shall
we go back to the house?”

  ***

After our little spat, we had a great day. We
cooked, watched television (we got all of one channel), made
popcorn, made love and it was starting to get dark. I opened the
door and stood in the doorway, looking out at the beautiful mist,
which was all thick and lit up by a lamppost in the yard.

  I said, “Shay have you ever danced
naked in the rain?”

  “Babe, I can truly say no, never, and
I don’t plan to.”

  “Well, I’m going to,” I said, taking
off my babydoll pajamas and dashing out under the yard light. I
started dancing and jumping around in the rainy mist.

  By now Shay was standing on the porch,
wrapped up in an Indian print blanket, barefoot, in nothing but
jeans.

  “Callie,” he said, “get back in
here.”

  “No!” I said, dancing around in the
glowing mist.

  “Callie, you’re going to catch a cold,
and you know the bunkhouse is just down the road. Some of the hands
could be out walking and see you.”

  “No, no, no,” I chanted, dancing. “I’m
not coming in, you come and get me.”

  “Don’t make me do that or you’ll be
sorry.”

  “Make me sorry! Make me sorry, big
boy.”

  Shay later told me, as he stood on the
porch, even though he knew I shouldn’t be out there with no clothes
on in the spotlight with the bunkhouse but a few miles away, at the
same time he was so turned on watching me dance naked in the rain,
the light reflecting little rain drops off my perky breasts, my
hair wet. He said my body looked so shiny.

  “Callie, seriously,” he said. “Get
back in here.”

  “No, come and get me.”

  I saw him start down the steps. I
waited a few seconds then took off running. I don’t know why,
because I knew how fast he was. It took but seconds before he
tackled me to the ground (gently, making sure to hold my body all
the way, so I wouldn’t hurt myself or the baby.) I landed in a big
patch of sopping wet prairie grass.

  Shay spread the blanket beside me and
rolled me over on the blanket.

  Nothing could top making love in the
mist that night. An hour and a half later, as he rolled me up in
the blanket and threw his jeans on top of me, Shay said:

  “Well, Callie, I sure hope we were the
only ones out here. And if we don’t get inside and get a hot shower
soon we’re going to get sick.”

  He carried me up the steps, through
the house, and into the bathroom; where he gave me a long, soapy,
hot, steamy shower. We must have been in there over an hour, then
we got out and he dried me off, toweling my hair dry and brushing
it back with my hair brush.

  “Raise your arms,” he said and rolled
on my underarm deodorant.

  Then he rubbed lotion on me and dusted
me with a big powder puff of perfumed powder his mother had on the
vanity.

  “Stay there, woman,” he said and
brought in my silk pajamas and dressed me like I was a baby. Then
he picked me up and deposited me on the sofa, covered me with a
warm dry blanket, went in the kitchen for a few minutes and came
back with hot chocolate.

  “Here, princess. Drink some of this so
you don’t get sick,” he said, holding the mug up to my mouth.

  Talk about being pampered! He called
me spoiled. Well, I think he may have been the spoiler. After
holding the cup up to my lips until I was done, he sat in the other
corner of the sofa, holding the cup in his usual way, handle to the
back, hand wrapped around it. He sat there just looking at me.

  “Okay,” I said, “what are you
thinking? I know you’re thinking about something.”

  “You’re naughty, Callie. I can’t
believe how wild and naughty you are. Better yet, I can’t believe I
love you being that way. You fascinate me beyond words. Then I
remember you’re mine. You belong to me.”

  “Now, Shay, nobody belongs to anyone,
but you know, I know what you mean, and I like belonging to you.
Why don’t you put your money where your mouth is?”

  With that he put the cup down, picked
me up and carried me through the bedroom doorway.

  ***

We had to get up early the next morning to go
to the cattle auction. We had our usual morning routine—breakfast
and then out the door.

  “Where are we going to have lunch?” I
asked.

  “They have a cafe on the grounds,
we’ll eat there.”

  “Oh, great. We’re going to eat a
cow.”

  “Oh, aren’t you the funny one,
Callie.”

  When we arrived at the auction, I was
amazed to see so many cars. I didn’t think that many people lived
in the Sand Hills. Let me tell you, the sun was out! The weather
was beautiful. I guess our rain was over. I just left my jean
jacket in the car; it was too nice for a jacket. We walked all
around the corrals, Shay looking to see which ones he might buy. I
told him one cow looked just like another to me.

  “You know, Callie, some of these cows,
as you call them, are steers. Do you know the difference?”

  “No and I don’t care to. Someday when
I’m having trouble sleeping you can tell me all about it.”

  “All right, smart mouth.”

  As we walked around, all the guys
seemed to know Shay. Everywhere we went it was, “Hi there, Shay,”
“How’s it goin’ Shay?” “Heard you got married, is this the little
wife?”

  Shay must have introduced me to
twenty-five different people. One thing I learned that day was that
auctions, like pool halls and fishing holes, were places guys went
to shoot the bull with one another. I couldn’t believe how bored I
was going to be. I should have stayed home, I thought to myself.
Just then I heard the whinny of a horse.

  “Hey Shay,” I said, “I’m going up
there a ways.” I pointed straight ahead. “There are some horses up
there I want to take a look at.”

  “Okay, but don’t you get out of my
sight.”

  I only had to go a short way and there
they were: two of the most beautiful white horses I had ever seen,
prancing around their corrals with streaming snowy manes and tails.
I called to Shay, gesturing for him to come see. He walked away
from the circle of guys he was talking to and came to see what I
wanted. “Look!” I said. “Aren’t they the most breathtaking horses
you’ve ever seen?”

  “Boy, they are beautiful, princess,”
he said, watching them.

  “Why are they here?”

  “Don’t know. Must be someone’s selling
them.”

  Several of the guys who were talking
to Shay came over and one guy said they belonged to a rancher from
Thedford who’d been crippled in a car accident and was selling off
his stock. There was a lot of small talk about it. Shay and the
guys kept walking over to watch them lead the cattle to the auction
arena. Not me, I climbed up on the old wooden fence that was
housing the horses. I loved watching them. They ran with such
grace, their heads held so high, their beautiful tails blowing in
the wind.

  “Callie,” I heard Shay yell. “Get off
that fence, it’s old. Get down!”

  “Oh, phooey!” I was loving the
view.

  “Callie,” Shay yelled several times.
“Get off the fence, now!” Then I heard: “if you don’t get off that
fence right now, I’m going to come over there and spank you.”

  Well, how could he yell that in front
of all those guys? How embarrassing! I climbed off the fence and
shot him the meanest look I could muster. Then I yelled back to
him, “You’re not quite big enough to do that little boy.”

  I’m sure there was some noticeable
chill in the air after that.

“I’m going in!” Shay called to me after a few
minutes. “I want to see this lot.”

  “You go ahead, I’ll be there in five
minutes.”

  When Shay and a couple of the guys
were out of sight, I climbed back up on the fence to see these
beautiful animals. I was standing about three rails up, still
embarrassed at being threatened by a spanking, when I heard a loud
crack, the rail broke, and I fell backward onto the ground.
Luckily, except for a long scratch on my arm, the only thing hurt
was my pride. A couple guys came running over and helped me up,
while one went to get a hammer to fix the rail.

  “Are you alright?” asked the guy
helping me up.

  “I’m fine,” I said hurriedly dusting
myself off.

  “See why your husband didn’t want you
up there?”

  “Please don’t tell him,” I said.
“He’ll never let me hear the end of it.”

  “How’re you going to explain that big
scratch?”

  “I’ll figure it out,” I said.

  I went to the car and got my jacket,
put it on and walked inside as if nothing had happened. That
scratch sure burned, but I ignored it and looked for Shay. When I’d
found him, I climbed the bleachers and sat down by his side. I put
my arm through his and snuggled up close.

  We were at the sale about three hours
and Shay bought several lots of cattle. I think they sold in lots
of five or ten. When it was almost over, Shay went to the office to
settle up and I went up to one of the auction guys and asked about
the two white horses. To my great disappointment, they had been
sold. Why was I surprised? They were so beautiful, I thought, of
course they’d sell quickly.

  ***

We had a fairly silent drive home. I was
still pissed off at Shay for embarrassing me in front of all those
guys. When we got home I fixed us steak, corn, mashed potatoes,
gravy and rolls. After that we had a store-bought peach pie.

  It was around 7:30 p.m. by the time I
got the kitchen cleaned and went out and sat on the porch steps,
thinking to myself, “He’s not getting sex tonight.”

  But then I reconsidered; I’d be
punishing myself and that wasn’t going to work for me. Going to
sleep without being touched by Shay would be unbearable.

  The door opened and Shay came out and
sat down on the top step. I was one step down and he wrapped his
knees and arms around me.