Samson and Sunset (5 page)

  I woke up alone on my side of the bed.
It was morning. I got up and went for a soak in the tub (this time
no work clothes waiting for me, thank gosh!) I thought about Kelly
in the bath and started crying again. Well, I thought, one good
thing about crying in the bath, there’s no better place for
tears.

  While I was soaking and having a cry I
heard the chopper land outside. A few minutes after its massive
descent, I was startled by a knock on my door.

  “Hey Callie?”

  Thank gosh I locked the door, I
thought.

  “Callie,” Shay’s voice came through.
“The chopper is in and we’re taking it up to look at the damage.
Want to go along?”

  “Are you crazy?” I said from the tub.
“I told you I’d never get in that thing.”

  “When we get back I’m going out to
work, so I’ll see you this evening. Make yourself at home and do
anything you want today, okay?”

  “Okay,” I said from the tub.

  I ended up helping Cookie, ironing
Shay’s shirts and rearranging some cupboards in the kitchen so it
was easier for Cookie to reach.

  In the afternoon I made us a pot of
hot tea and we sat at the small kitchen table, which was quickly
becoming my favorite place in the house.

  “You know, Callie,” she said,"every
time I see Shay and you're not around, he says, 'Cookie, where's
Callie?' Then when you see me, it's, 'Cookie, where's Shay?' Now
then, that's when the two of you don't know the other one is
looking! When you're together in the same room, the two of you act
like the other one isn't even there."

  She shook her head and took a sip of
tea. “Now, old Cookie can see there’s something going on here that
you two kids can’t see. Nothing gets by old Cookie!”

  ***

Shay came in around 7 p.m. and took a shower.
He said he needed to do some bookwork and then he was going to take
the chopper into Lincoln to order more feed to be dropped to the
livestock that was stranded. He asked if I’d like to help him tally
the count.

  “No,” I said, “but I’ll watch
you.”

  “We’re leaving at 7 a.m. and probably
won’t be back ‘til 4 or 5 p.m.,” he said. “We usually go to lunch
with the owner. By the way, Cookie told me you ironed my shirts!”
He grinned. “I’ll bet that really hurt!” (Shay Westover, you’ll
never know!)

  After dinner, while Shay lay on the
sofa and I lay in the recliner, he talked about his childhood. A
side that was really cute.

  Cookie stuck her head in and said,
“Yep, one on the sofa, and one in the recliner equals two stubborn
kids.”

  I learned how Shay and his sisters
used to take a washtub when the basement flooded, like it was now,
and float around in it on the water like a boat. Little things. He
showed me his yearbooks and old scrapbooks his mother had made. I
learned he had played football in high school and been homecoming
king (didn’t surprise me, but seeing the photographs was rather
darling. I noticed his yearbook motto with a smirk: “So many women,
so little time.”) He made popcorn. It was kind of like family
night, without a family, which prompted the waterworks again.

  Shay was lying on the sofa and he
said, “Come here, Callie, just come over here. I’m not going to
hurt you.”

  I walked over and lay down in his arms
and I must say, those strong arms where of some comfort. Then he
said the words I was so dreading:

  “You know, there is one thing I’d like
to do to you Callie…”

  (Well, here we go, I thought, I knew
it was coming. Sex. What else could it be?)

  “What?” I said dryly, “or should I
just make a wild guess?”

  “I’d like to touch my lips gently
against your lips.”

  This caught me off guard. I raised
myself up on my elbow. “Well, all right then, a goodnight kiss.” I
gently put my lips on his. Man they were soft! Five seconds at the
most and I pulled away. “I’m going to bed,” I said, quickly. “Maybe
I’ll see you in the morning.”

  ***

I woke up when Shay got up, but decided to
stay in bed and try to go back to sleep to make the day shorter. I
didn’t like the idea of being in the big old house without Shay
somewhere out there on the ranch. He came out of the shower dressed
for the day in tight blue jeans, a red shirt I’d ironed, a tan
suede blazer and western boots. He really looked sharp—made me sort
of wonder if the owner of the feed supply had a nice looking
daughter!

  “Well, princess,” he said, standing at
the foot of the bed, “have a good day. Don’t get in any trouble
while I’m gone. I’d hate to have to spank you when I get home.” He
winked at me and turned on his heel.

  “You and what army?” I called from the
bed.

  Soon I heard the chopper leave. The
day stretched out before me, endless. I tried to go back to sleep,
but I just couldn’t. Eventually I got up and wandered into the
kitchen. I asked Cookie if I could bake an apple pie, as I’d seen
frozen apples in the freezer.

  “Sure, honey, make anything you
want!”

  I decided to spend the day making
dinner for Shay. I’d make Chili and Cheese Frenchies. This took up
most of the day, hunting down all the necessary items.

  About 2:30 p.m. I cleaned myself up
and put some makeup on. Might as well have a civil dinner since
we’re stuck here, I thought.

  About 3:45 p.m. I heard the chopper
circle the house and went outside to the landing pad. I was so glad
Shay was back. I felt safer. I had to admit, he was growing on
me.

  Nothing could have prepared me for the
next few minutes. The chopper landed, shut down, the doors opened
and out stepped Shay with a very small pink bundle in his arms. As
he approached I recognized it as Kelly!

  I could not believe my eyes.

  He’d rented a car, gone down to my
parents’ house and gotten my baby. I can honestly say no one ever
looked bigger in my eyes than Shay did right then, holding my
little girl, all wrapped up so she didn’t get any wind in her face.
He walked toward me as I ran towards them.

  “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” I
sobbed. “Oh my gosh, my little Kelly!” I gathered her in my arms.
This time they were happy tears.

  “She sure is pretty,” Shay said,
peering down into her face. “Are all babies that pretty?”

  “No,” I said. “She’s an
exception.”

  The pilot carried the diaper bag and
the bassinet off the chopper and took them up to the house. Shay
said I was to call my mom immediately. I did and she was so glad
they’d gotten there safe and sound. She said she hadn’t wanted to
let him take Kelly, but he’d convinced her that I needed her.

  ***

That night I saw Shay through different
eyes.

  With Kelly asleep in her bassinet in
the living room, I went to shower and when I came back in my PJs,
Shay had moved the bassinet to the master suite to be near me.
After we settled in, each on our own side, I turned and gently put
my hand on the side of Shay’s face. He left it there a couple of
seconds; then he reached his hand up, took my hand and gently
kissed the top of it.

  “Am I suppose to read anything into
this?” he asked.

  “Yes, I think so.”

  “Well,” he said, “we’re not having
sex. Not while there’s a child here.”

  “She’s three and a half months old!
She doesn’t know.”

  “But I know,” he said, “and I think
you have your hand on my side of the scarf.”

  As he returned my hand gently to my
side of the scarf, he said with his sweet grin, “Don’t let it
happen again. Goodnight, princess.”

  With that he turned his back to me and
went to sleep. Man, I thought, paybacks are a bitch!

  Five Little Magic Words

  That morning we were awakened in the
early hours of the morning by Cookie popping her head in.

  “Geez, Cookie, couldn’t you at least
knock?” said Shay in a sweet tone.

  “I hear we have ourselves a baby!” She
was peering down into the bassinet. “Oh my sweet Lord, we have
ourselves a little angel!” 

(If Dane Dalton did nothing else in his life,
at least he created a baby that people would chase me down the
street, saying, ‘Can I see that baby again?’ Or, ‘That’s the most
unbelievable child I’ve ever seen!’)

  Cookie picked her up with gentle
expertise. “Now you kids go back to sleep, old Cookie’s here. I’ll
take care of the baby.”

  “She’s about ready for a bottle,
Cookie,” I said. “Room temperature, formula’s in the fridge.”

  Shay said he had to get up, but I
could sleep—he’d heard me up feeding Kelly several times through
the night. She was so good, never cried. That morning there were no
tears for me either, no dull day stretching out before me: I had
lots to do with Kelly! At one point I took her for a walk to see
Shay in the machine shop and he got all panicky, saying I shouldn’t
have her out where there could be germs.

  “Please, keep her inside! You can come
out if you want…but don’t bring her!”

  Gosh, he sounds like a father hen, I
thought going back to the house.

  ***

When Shay was done working, we spent the
evening playing with Kelly. He loved getting her to smile. Bed
time: same old routine, except Shay said to set a bottle out to get
room temperature and I could sleep through the first feeding.

  “I’ll do the first round, you catch
the second,” he said.

  I accepted with quiet
astonishment.

  A few hours after we fell asleep I
heard her fuss, and Shay was out of the bed in a flash. (I had
shown him how to burp her so she didn’t get a bubble.) About an
hour later, when they weren’t back in the master bedroom, I got up
and went into the adjoining room and there they were in the
recliner: Kelly lying on Shay’s chest. He had one hand on her back
and one hand spread open, cradling the base of her neck. Well, if
my heart was a stick of butter, that sight was a warm pan.

  ***

The next evening Shay came in about 7:30 p.m.
and told me they had opened the main road.

  “You can go home tomorrow!”

  I made myself smile and say, “Wow!
That’s great!” Because, after all, this was what I’d been waiting
to hear. And yet, I didn’t feel as happy as I’d have thought I
would.

  Shay said he wouldn’t have time to
take me, so I could take the Impala home to Hudson. I was
flattered! Nobody drove that car. It was his prized
possession—candy-apple-red with chrome rims, a chrome tube grill,
red leather pleated seats and a new red carpet.

  “You do know how to drive a stick
shift, right?”

  This was one thing I could do. Daddy
had taught me.

  The next morning before I was about to
leave, Shay brought the car up to the circle drive and put Kelly’s
things in the trunk, except for one bottle, which he put along with
a blanket on the backseat and made her a little bed. (We didn’t
have car seats yet.) He put a pillow on each side of the floor in
the back and then the lecture began.

  “Now listen to me, you can’t panic
about anything. Just drive at an even speed and remember you have
Kelly in the car. Callie, you have to keep a cool head, can you do
that?”

  “Yes, of course.” I turned to get
in.

  “Walk with me a minute.” He took my
arm. “I want to talk to you.” We made our way down the curve of the
driveway. “I want you to come back out tonight and bring the car
home, and I want you to spend the night,” he said. “No scarf.”

  My heart began to beat a little
faster. He turned to face me and he took my hands, his big, brown
eyes fastened on mine. “I want you to come knowing full well we’re
going to make love, and I want you to come because you want to. I
would never hurt you. I know you’ve had sex before…”

  “Well,” I said, “would you like to
know how many times?”

  “Not really,” he said. “But then
again, yes.”

  “Twice. Same guy. Kelly’s father,” I
said. “Once in the cemetery and once in a motel in Kansas.”

  “And how did you feel about it?”

  “I felt nothing. He did what he had to
do and it was over, both times.”

  “That’s your experience with sex?
Well, don’t put me in the same category as that guy, Callie.” He
had circled me back towards the car now.

  “If you come out here tonight, I’ll
know it’s because you want to. If you don’t, you can bring the car
back tomorrow sometime and I’ll take you back home. I’ll
understand. I’m putting this ball in your court. I don’t want you
feeling pressured, but I do want
you
.”

  We were back at the car.

  “Now once again, can I please touch my
lips gently to yours? I already kissed Kelly goodbye,” he
smiled.

  I said, “My lips are yours.”

  He gently kissed me goodbye and Kelly
and I drove out of the yard for Hudson.

  Decisions, decisions, decisions!

  ***

Pre-meditated sex (hell of a date.) Well, all
day I asked myself: How can I do this? Would going back make me
what Dane had called me from his motorcycle? Oh the hell with Dane,
he didn’t know anything. And this guy was completely different.
Then again, I didn’t want to lose what friendship I’d found with
Shay. He was fun, exciting, someone everyone looked up to, and now
I understood why. Especially after he’d brought me Kelly.

  I kept going back and forth. I landed
on: What’s the worst that can happen? He crawls on top of your
body, he’s there about two or three minutes, and he gets off of
you. You can close your eyes, grit your teeth, and hope it doesn’t
hurt like Dane. Then you’ll probably go riding or something fun,
and it will make up for the miserable few minutes.

  Well then, okay, I had decided. I was
going.

  Mom and Dad took care of Kelly. I told
them I was going out to help Shay with some things (I couldn’t say,
‘I’m going out to get laid!’) I left early enough so I could get
there around 7 p.m. I brought my own PJs and extra clothes. I
wanted to get there before he came to the Big House for the
night.