Untrusting (Troubled) (33 page)

I stop Steve to let him know I have
to stay with the puppies tonight.  He says he’ll get his cot, but I remind
him Penny needs some one close by and Miss Lili sleeps on the main floor. 
He groans, but agrees.  I remind him I have three on Wednesday.  Miss
Lili reminds him our tree is to be finished today and the other trees are to be
delivered tomorrow.  She would like for us all to be there when Penny
comes home.  I say I’ll try.

Maria and I go in to check on the
puppies.  They aren’t awake yet so we discuss how nice the patio furniture
is and how nice the guys are to do this for us while we clean the surgical
instruments and the room.

When we come out, we find a small,
decorated, Christmas tree sitting in the waiting room with some extra
decorations for the room.  Maria and I decorate the room and find there’s
enough for a few in the office and exam rooms.  It’s looking like
Christmas around here.  We even find eggnog in the refrigerator.

We’ve sat down to have a cup of it
when Steve and Bob come in.  They’re limping but they don’t have their
crutches.  They come into the office and they both have walking boots on,
leaning on a cane and beaming from ear to ear.  “You’re back on both
feet.  That’s great.”  Maria says.

“We can drive again, but we have to
wear these boots for a few more weeks.  We’re supposed walk a little more
each day ‘til we get the strength back in our legs.”  The guys have had
the crutches for two months and they’re glad to be rid of them.

Maria and I get up but they motion
us back in the chairs thinking we’re offering the chairs to them.  I tell
them we’re going to check on the puppies.  They come with us and are
surprised at how much they’ve grown.  The guys ask what we want for
supper.  Maria says she has to get Shay and she just wants to stay home
‘til we have to be at Miss Lili’s to see the tree.  I want Chinese so the
guys go to get the food, Bob goes to Maria’s and Steve comes back here.

We sit at the patio table to eat as
it gets darker.  Steve goes to his truck and brings back a candle so we
can finish eating.  We’re checking on the puppies and necking when the
phone rings.  Miss Lili says they’re on their way home.  Can we make
sure the lights are on when they get there?  Sure, and I think, why not?
In a sarcastic way.

I check the puppies and they’re
waking up so I take the I.V. out, we take them out and return them to their
kennel then climb in our trucks to go home.  Maria, Bob and Shay arrive
shortly after we do.  Thirty minutes later Miss Lili, Glen and Penny
arrive.

Penny’s eyes are as big as Shay’s
at the huge glistening Christmas tree.  I ask Penny about her
mother.  When she’s through telling me her mother will be coming home
soon.  I explain to her about my being gone tonight, but Steve will be
here if she needs anything.  I hug her and kiss Steve.  At the office,
the puppies are doing very well, but I stay anyway.  I’ll need to feed
them soon.  Besides, I have some thinking to do.

I don’t know what’s bothering me,
but I have this uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach.  It’s always been
a warning before.  But about what, now?  I call Mom and she offers to
come in so we can talk.

When Mom and Dad arrive, I’m
feeling foolish, but they reassure me that if there’s a problem that needs to
be uncovered, they’ll do the best they can.

They start by asking questions and
I answer them.  Steve?  Bob and Maria?  Miss Lili or Glen? 
The answer is no.  But something’s wrong.  I’m uncomfortable around
Miss Lili, Steve and Bob if they’re together.  Feeling outnumbered? 
Maybe.  Out classed?  No.  But there’s something.  Mom calls
Maria to see if she can get some one to stay with Shay and come over.

When she gets there, we talk for a
while and find out she has the same feelings.  The three of them are so
tight and so in sync with each other that we feel left out, unless we agree
with everything Miss Lili wants.  Last night was uncomfortable, to say the
least.  Mom and Dad haven’t heard about last night.

After I tell them, Mom’s not upset
in the least about Miss Lili trying to push Yolanda and Penny off on her. 
But she understands how I could have come by the ‘pushy’ part.  Everyone
seems to jump when Miss Lili speaks, especially the guys.  They have to do
a good bit of the work.

That seems to be it.  Her
“boys” are our soon to be husbands, but they’ll still be her “boys.”  But she’s
married now and Glen’s helping, too.  We need to see some things happen
before Miss Lili’s “boys” become our husbands.  They need to cut the apron
strings, but they need to stay in town.  That’s okay for Bob, but I don’t
have a place in town.  Then there’s Miss Lili and Glen in that big
house.  I don’t know the answer to this problem.  If I suggest we get
another place to live, Steve will find that foolish because of the family home
and its emptiness.  I wouldn’t consider asking Miss Lili to live someplace
else and as long as the three of them live together their bond will hold
stronger than ours.  And Maria and I will always feel second in our
husband’s priorities.  Now Maria and I understand the problem, we can
either accept it, or try to change it.  And if we fail, we can break the
engagement and jeopardize the partnership.  We’re stuck, hard and fast,
between a rock and a hard spot.

Mom and Dad ask two more
questions.  Do we love our guy?  And do we think they love us? 
We answer “yes” to both questions.  They’re advice is to wait to see what
Miss Lili’s marriage and her New Year’s resolution will bring.  They leave
and Maria and I let the puppies out.  They’re doing so well I decide to go
home and surprise Steve.

He was surprised and I was
pleasantly…received, ‘til early in the morning.  He had to be at work at
four thirty.  He was a little late.

Maria’s smiling when I come
in.  Bob stayed with her last night.  I couldn’t say anything ‘cause
I was smilling too.  I check the puppies over and release them to their
owners.  The appointments are finished by lunch so Maria and I treat
ourselves.  We close the office for an hour and go to lunch with the
guys.  Me and Steve at the station and Bob and Maria at home. 
Maria’s late getting back.

I find a note from Miss Lili. 
She was here at lunch, but we we’re.  She’ll be back before they take
Penny to the hospital.  She has something she wants to discuss with us.

When she comes in Glen and Penny
are with her.  Penny goes out back to play with Betty and Barney while we
talk.  Glen wants to build a smaller house on the back of the property and
put in a pool.  I have to ask, “Will there be a basket and balls.” 
Miss Lili and Maria laugh, but Glen has no idea what it means.  She says
it could be arranged and we snicker.  They would live in the little house
and the big house would be Steve’s and mine.  Except when Glen’s children
are visiting, then we’d switch places, or they’d move back into the master
bedroom.  Maria and I think that if that’s what they want to do, it’s okay
with us.

There’s one more thing.  They
want to hire Yolanda to keep both houses.  She would stay in the maid’s
quarters in the big house with us, but would clean both houses, if she takes
the job.  When she gets outta the hospital tomorrow she’ll come to the
house.  There’re three retired nurses that will be there six hours a day,
two a day and a relief nurse.  The doctor says two weeks to a month is all
they’ll be needed.  Now they need to get to the hospital.

“Don’t forget the tree lighting tonight
at the court house,” Miss Lili says as they walk out the door.  Then she
steps back in, “How about all of us have supper at my place tonight.  Then
we can walk over to the court house.”  We nod.

“Miss Lili, do we need to fix
supper?”  She shakes her head and says it’s already on.

Maria and I clean the whole office
and plan to check out the boarding house, but Steve drops by after work. 
He’s not happy about the little house being built.  He thinks Miss Lili is
feeling in the way.  Maria and I tell him that wasn’t the impression we
got.  I thought they were trying to make more room for Glen’s family when
they come at Christmas.  Steve didn’t get that impression.  I look at
him, “I guess our moving into the little house when his kids are all here
wasn’t a hint to you, huh?”  I’m a little ticked.

Steve looks at me like I’d just
stolen his ice cream cone.  “She said that?”

“I didn’t make it up.”  I’m
getting a bit stern and Maria nods.

He can only say “Oh.  Guess I
didn’t hear it.”

“What did you say to her when she
told ya?  Ya didn’t get pissy with her did ya?”

“No!  Bob and I didn’t think
much of it ‘til she had left.  What would make ya think I had?”

“The way you were acting when ya
came in.  Steve, there’s gonna be a lotta changes coming up.  Miss
Lili’s re-married.  Bob and Maria will be getting married and so will we,
if things work out.  There’s gonna be a lotta new situations to get used
to, so start gettin’ flexible.”  I go over to him and kiss him.

“What’da mean ‘if things work
out’?”  He’s got a tight hold on me.

“None of us are married yet. 
There’s still the possibility it may not happen.”

“It better be a slim chance. 
I’m already conditioned to it happenin’ and so is Bob.”

“I’m not expectin’ anything to
happen, but ya never know.  Not even after you’re married.”  I’m
teasing him, yet I mean it.  He hasn’t loosened his hold yet, so I wiggle
a little to try to get away, but that’s not the way he took it.  His eyes
got a hot sleepy look about them and he pulled me tighter to him.

“I wouldn’t move like that in
public, if I were you,” he whispered and kissed me like we were alone. 
When we come outta the kiss, we are alone.  Maria has disappeared. 
So he kisses me again and put his hands on my butt to pull me closer.  I
get the feeling we need to go home, but the phone rings breaking us up so I can
answer it.  Its Bob looking for Steve, he’s needed at the station.

After he leaves, Maria comes
in.  “That was something.  I thought you’d be rollin’ around on the
floor before that kiss ended.”  We laugh.

But I have to admit “It came
close.”  I tell her Bob called and Steve had to leave.  We go out to
check the boarding house for the guests that will start arriving
tomorrow.  We hosed the dust from the kennels and we’ll put fresh litter
in as the cats come in.

We get a few more reservations
before we close.  The last call of the day is a rancher with a sick
horse.  I have to make a house call.  Steve stops by as I’m leaving
so he goes with me.

Two hours later, we’re pulling into
the drive way at Miss Lili’s.  They’re just about to eat when we come
in.  I have to shower before I can be in anyone’s company.  The horse
had eaten thistle and I was ankle deep in the results while I checked the horse
out.  The rancher had to come into the clinic to get the medicine.  And
I had to hose down some before I could get into my truck to drive back. 
Steve insisted the windows had to be down all the way in.  I’m sure he was
grateful when he could get in his truck for the drive home from the clinic.

I shower and change for supper. 
I come down to laughter and hear Steve telling about my experience in the stall
with the horse and the need for a gas mask and a rain slicker.  Maria,
Shay and Penny are snickering, but I notice the rest are roaring and cringing
at the same time.  When I come through the door way, they try to contain
themselves ‘til I say “Don’t stop on my account.”

A few comments later, Miss Lili
says “That kinda talk isn’t for the supper table.  Save it for
later.”  There’s another round of laughter, but we settle down to eat.

The tree lighting ceremony was
nice.  We took a five gallon Thermos of hot chocolate, several bags of
marshmallows and Styrofoam cups.  We all had hot chocolate and cookies at
the court house for free.  Some of the senior citizens had brought chocolate
chip and oatmeal raisin cookies.  Penny and Shay loved it.

On the way back, Penny talks about
her mama coming home tomorrow.  I look at Miss Lili and she nods.  I
take it to mean they would be moving into the maid’s quarters.  When we
got home, Maria, Bob and Shay leave and I get Penny showered and put to
bed.  Then I go downstairs to find out what had happened at the hospital.

Yolanda had agreed to be the
housekeeper and live here.  Steve and I need to go to the house to get
their stuff that’s there, just the personal stuff.  Maybe Penny should go
with us, she’d know what to get.  They have some shopping to do tomorrow
morning before they pick Yolanda up.  She’ll need some things that are
clean.  We decide we’ll go over to the shack after work with Penny. 
Yolanda needs more bed rest.

Next week, Glen’s family is
coming.  This house is gonna be splitting at the seams for a few
days.  Oh, my gosh.  I have gifts to wrap and a few more to
buy.  I ask about buying gifts for Glen’s family and Miss Lili says not to
worry about it.  They’ve already taken care of it.  Glen knew what to
get and how much since they’ll be driving.  They, also, had shopped for
them for us since none of us know each other, yet.  I agree that’s
probably for the best.  I have to talk to Bob about Steve’s gift and Steve
about Bob’s and both of them about Miss Lili’s gift and Miss Lili about
Glen’s.  If I can get Yolanda’s size I can get her a dress for
church.  Penny needs toys and a dress for church, too, but I’ll have to coordinate
that with the others.

When we go to bed I talk to Steve
about Penny’s gifts.  He’s already gotten her a bike and a doll.  He
doesn’t know what else to get her.  Bob got her a doll and Maria and Shay
have a dress and a cowboy hat.  Shay insisted on the hat.  I guess
I’ll get her a dress, a couple pairs of jeans and tops and some play
jewelry.  Miss Lili has some clothes and some toys for her.  Steve
says I should get Miss Lili a sweater, a shawl, or a pretty scarf.  He and
Bob always give her her favorite perfumes.  They already have Glen’s
favorite after shave and cologne.  “Wait a minute.  When did you two
have time to do all this?”

“We ordered most of it.  The
rest only took one afternoon.  The same afternoon we got the patio stuff
for you and Maria.  We aren’t together all the time, in case you haven’t
noticed.  A situation I hope to remedy as much as possible.  Now,
kiss me.  I’m tired of talking.”  I did and we didn’t need words to
understand each other after that.

Maria and I finished the
appointments by lunch when Miss Lili comes in with Glen and lunch.  We
talk about the lack of happenings for the calendar next month.  It’s
mostly club meetings.  I ask her to stick around ‘til the surgeries on the
three puppies are over to check in the guests.  She said she would because
Penny and her mother were safely ensconced in the maid’s quarters.