Thunder In Her Body (20 page)

Back to Austin

I
t was their usual morning wake up time.  Either Lynette would roll over and touch Blaze in that familiar way, or he would stroke her body, letting her know what he wanted.  She could not imagine a time when she would ever say no to him.  He was too good to her, in every possible way.  Sometime their lovemaking was vigorous; at other times it was incredibly gentle.  But at all times, it was decidedly passionate.  So, on this morning when she had to return to Austin, he caressed her and plied her, and she submitted to his urgent need.  His every move begged her not to leave him.  It was as though he was storing up for a long separation.  Putting his life into her and draining hers onto him.  Everything was more sensitive that morning.  The sheets felt smoother, the pillows fatter, the blankets felt weightless, the air smelled fresher, the sounds or lack thereof made the morning perfect.  All of their sensations were at their heights.  And neither of them wanted to leave the other.

              Lynette took her leave and assured Aaron that she’d be back in a few days.  He sat out on the back deck with a cup of coffee, turning the cup idly in his hands.  Just as she was about to exit the front door of the home, Aaron came rushing back into the house.

“What time is your plane?” he asked.

“It leaves at 3:50 this afternoon,” she replied.

“Stay right there.  Don’t move,” he insisted.

Lynette and Blaze looked at each other in confusion.  They petted Rusty and Suzie Q as always and used these minutes to kiss each other, tenderly, lovingly.  Every second together was precious. About five minutes later, Aaron came dashing back into the living room, slightly out of breath, with a small valise in one hand, his brief case in the other, and a tweed jacket thrown over his shoulder.

“I’m going to
Austin with you,” he blurted out.  “I need to see Clare,” he said emphasizing her name.

“Well…well…I hope you can get a seat,” she replied.

“If your flight is full, something else is flying that way.  Hell it’s the capital of Texas,” he half shouted, “they’ve got something with wings and a jet engine that can get me there.”

Blaze looked mildly amused.

“Got it, have you?” he laughed, “the bug I mean.”

“Don’t be the pot calling the kettle,” he blasted back at Blaze.  “You’d ride bareback on a mule to get to this girl here, if you had to,” he said, pointing to Lynette.

“Damn sure would,” Blaze replied, kissing her on her forehead.

In the truck on the way to
Albuquerque, Aaron used his cell phone and managed to secure a seat on the same Southwest flight as Lynette.  Clare was picking her up at the airport in Austin anyway. Won’t she be surprised, Lynette chuckled to herself.

Blaze stood at the bottom of the elevator and watched helplessly as Lynette and Aaron ascended up to the security gate area.  He watched until they were completely out of sight, then he turned and walked back out to the parking lot, head down, and heart heavy.  He didn’t like to feel this way.  It was the same feeling he had when a relative died, or he lost a good friend in the navy.  He didn’t like this emptiness in the pit of his stomach.  She’ll be back here in less than 48 hours he told himself, but that was 47 hours too long.  He loved this woman.  So many people had left him, one way or another.  He’d found someone whom he believed would never leave him, at least permanently.  Even a temporary separation was painful.  This just didn’t feel good.

On the long, lonely drive back to the ranch he listened to whatever station he could keep on his radio.  He heard Kenny Rodgers sing,
Yo-o-u-u decorated my life, by painting your love all over my heart…
and tears welled up in his eyes.  The droplets got so big that they blurred his vision and he had to pull over to the side of the road.  “
You’ve passed every tribal test to manhood, been wounded in battle, shot at, stabbed, lost at sea and you survived it all.  You can survive 48 hours without this woman’,”
he said out loud
.

“Then goddammit, why am I sitting here on the side of a damned dusty desert road about to cry?”
he asked himself
.
  “cuz I love her,” he said out loud again, “and I want her…I need her.”

The phone at the ranch rang about 7:30 New Mexico time.  Blaze snatched the handle up abruptly.

“Hey Sweetie.  I made it home safely.  Aaron is at Clare’s house.  Man did she just about pass out when he stepped up behind me at the baggage carousel.  I thought she was going to faint.  They’re a good pair,” Lynette chirped.  “Whatcha doin’?” she asked cheerfully.

“I’m sitting here in this damned big house with my dogs, counting the hours till you come back, Lynn.  You’ve put me through the entire range of emotions in one short week, lady.  Do you realize that it was just one week ago about this time that I met you?  Do you know how much we’ve lived in this one short week?” he asked rhetorically. “Hurry back, he said with sadness in his voice, “just hurry back.”

“Oh Blaze…I’m so sorry.  I have these seminars.  I have to work.  It’ll be only two days honey, and I’ll be back with you,” she said, trying to console him.

“Maybe…maybe you don’t need to…,” and his voice trailed off.

“I’ll call you tonight when I climb into bed.  We can lie down together this way, Ok?”

“Ok,” he said.

“I love you Mr. Snowdown,” she said softly.

“I love you, too, Lynn,” he replied.

She did call him, around midnight Austin time.  They talked in hushed, intimate tones.  Sometimes they just breathed together.  She ached for him.  He needed her.  Thirty-nine more hours was all he had to wait.

HER SEMINAR WAS A ONE-DAY event, but each one required hours of preparation.  She called the training coordinator for the City/County complex to ensure that the facility would be open no later than 7:30 on Monday so she could get in there and get set up.  It would.  Then she went into high gear.  There would be 27 participants for this class.  She needed more copies of her training materials.  Off to Kinkos she dashed.  Bound and ready, she packed the additional training manuals into her training materials box.  She counted highlighters, pens, pencils, other supplies and reviewed her digital slides.  Yes, she had enough other handouts and yes, she would need a pre-printed DHL shipping form.  That was Saturday night.

On Sunday, she was up by 6:30.  She threw a load of clothes in the washer, dried the load that had sat in the dryer over night, cleaned up all the scraps and mess from her training materials, sorted through her mail, paid the bills that had come while she was gone and went to the drive-through postal station to mail her bills.  Then she started packing.  She laid out a suit and blouse to wear on Monday, called her daughters to update her on the trip back to New Mexico, and cleared out her emails (there were 236!).  She chatted with her sister, then briefly with her mother.  Around 7 pm she flopped onto the couch to watch ABC’s Extreme Home Makeover.  After that, she had a long conversation with Blaze.  Before she went to bed, she washed and conditioned her hair (it was getting close to time for she and Ms. Clairol to have a visit), and took a soothing bath with some essential oils that she’d bought at a New Age store.  She turned out the lights, said her prayers, thanked God for all of her blessings, particularly the blessing of love with Blaze, and mercifully, dropped off to sleep.

Lynette was a meticulous, compelling presenter, and she liked to have plenty of time to get prepared for her trainees.  Depending on the length, technical difficulty and number of participants, the fee for her expertise ran between $900 and $1500 a day.  Her work ethic demanded that they get the best she had to offer, and clearly, she was acknowledged in the Austin training field, as one of the best.  She worked hard for her trainees, and she made them work hard for themselves.  This was a job readiness workshop, and when the participants walked out of that room, she wanted assurance that they knew what was required of them.  Some were welfare recipients going to work for the first time; some were persons who had difficulty keeping a steady job; others were men and women who found themselves in need of returning to the work force.  She had to meet the needs of them all.  This was usually a two-day seminar, but because of the limitation on county money, she had to give the trainees two days worth of knowledge, practice and skills in one full, information-packed day.  She’d pared down her course materials to the absolute necessities.  There were things nice to know, things good to know, and there were things absolutely a must to know for the trainees’ own benefit.  The nice and the good were exempted – the musts were all included.  She was ready by 8:00 to deliver a dynamic, fast-paced, hard-hitting, well-developed, interactive seminar.  She loved her work and she was damned good at it.

When she left home that morning, her huge, 30-inch, red suitcase was packed to the bursting point. She’d filled every corner and crevasse with clothes and other necessities she’d need for the two weeks back with Blaze.  And there were a few items she planned to leave there so she wouldn’t have to buy any clothes in Crystal Bend.  Plus she managed to squeeze in a couple of her prettiest and sexiest night gowns.  For the most part, she’d been sleeping with Blaze sans any clothes.  She wanted to change up things a bit, with slippery satins and sheer tricot.  A little mystery was good.  If she didn’t keep them on for very long, that was Ok.  They’d always be by the bedside in case of fire!

Activating her security alarm, she jumped into the waiting cab for the trip to the training site.  If all went well, she’d be up in the mountains with Blaze for awhile so she didn’t want to leave her car at the airport.  She knew she had about an hour after class to get to the airport and board her 5:30 flight – a flight she could not afford to miss.  The newly opened expressway would facilitate a speedy trip to the airport.  Near the end of the training day, she packed up her training materials and arranged for them to be delivered by DHL to Clare’s house so she wouldn’t have to drag them with her, and she called for a dependable cab to arrive precisely at 4:30.  Rarely did she let a class out early, but minutes counted on this day, so she finished up at 4:15.  That gave her fifteen minutes to clean up her room, throw away all the excess materials, and get herself through the facility hallways and into the lobby for her cab.  During the lunch hour, she found a computer and logged in for her electronic boarding pass.  This would ensure a seat on the plane.  Following mid-afternoon break, knowing that several students usually wanted to stay and talk after class, she announced that anyone who needed to converse with her after class should put their name, phone number and best time to call, on the sheet of paper she passed around.  She would call them during the week to answer any questions they might have.  This would give each student who needed it, some personal time with her.  She apologized for any inconvenience, explaining that she had a flight to catch, and she couldn’t afford to miss it. And, of course everyone understood the horrors of trying to get around in 5:00
Austin traffic. Though she had no need to explain why she had to get on that flight, she was deadly serious that she couldn’t miss it.  Blaze would be waiting at the airport for her, and she told him she would be back.  She gave him her word.  She had to be there.

C
HAPTER 13

             
¤

Back From Austin

At the bottom of the escalator leading to the baggage claim stood, what Lynette thought, was the handsomest man she’d ever seen.  He wore a grey Stetson, long pony tail down his back, a red print western shirt, and starched blue jeans that fit those firm thighs to a T.  His black cowboy boots were glossy and he stood there with hands half in and half out of his front pockets, just waiting – waiting for his life to return.

At the top of the escalator walked a short, handsomely attired woman, who no one could tell, was in her mid-40’s.  Her hair was tossed atop her head in a beautiful mess.  Her makeup, though a little worn, enhanced the loveliness of her oval face and almond eyes.  Wearing a plain black woolen suit contoured to her figure with a shiny, cream satin blouse, her pearl earrings matched the lovely gold and pearl pin she wore on the right breast front of her jacket.  The skirt fit her perfectly – not too loose, not hugging her full buttocks – and it stopped just about half-way across her knees.  She wore flesh colored stockings, and a black patent-leather pair of shoes with medium high heels.  Her black textured patent leather bag was slung haphazardly over her shoulder.  She was a vision of smart, sophisticated, professionalism; a woman who would command anyone’s attention.  And she was smiling from ear to ear looking down at her gorgeous Indian.

Blaze grabbed her up, lifting her feet almost two feet off the ground as he kissed her in delight.  A couple of soldiers applauded as they passed by, obviously on their way back from the Afganistan war.  Lynette looked over her shoulder and yelled, “Welcome back soldiers.”