Samson and Sunset Read online

  “Well, honey, I don’t think any of this family does, but I do, and I see it in you. You’re a kindred spirit. If that weren’t true, then why is old Cookie sitting at the table eating while you wait on me?” She chuckled. “That just doesn’t happen around here. But my Shay, I helped raise that boy, and he’s good people.”

  She put her arms around me, rocking me like a child.

  “You know what he asked me this morning, honey? He said, ‘Cookie, I’m making my friend Callie go out and sandbag today. I don’t think she’s done a hard day’s work in her life and I don’t want to do that to her, but Cookie, she’s so homesick and so sad to be stranded…I thought a good hard day’s work would keep her mind off her child and make her good and tired so she’d sleep well tonight…Do you think I’m doing the wrong thing?’

  “Well, I told him, no sweetie, you’re doing it because you’re thinking of her. Did you tell her that? ‘Oh, no,’ he says, ‘she’s a stubborn one, high spirited. I have a hard enough time keeping her in tow!’ Well, I just started laughing! I told him I’d looked in on him and you about 4:30 a.m. just before he got up. ‘Shay, honey,’ I said, ‘I saw the scarf. Now who do you think has who, in tow?’”

  I smiled and sat up, wiping my eyes. “Where is he working today?”

  “Shay and some of the hands—my Joe included—went on horseback to try to rescue any cattle caught up in deep water or ice jams.”

  “Sounds sort of dangerous!”

  “Oh, it is, honey, but that Shay never lets anyone do anything he wouldn’t do himself. He wants you to go to the largest barn outside and Lucas will tell you where to sandbag.”

  Off I went, but not before Cookie forced a waffle on me.

  ***

  What a day! Back-breaking bending over, holding bags open. At one point I saw Shay ride over on his horse and sit there a little way off, watching me work. I thought to myself: You must really enjoy watching me suffer. Well, enjoy it, because this is my last day doing this.

  If I’d known about it at the time, I would have flipped him the bird. I went in about 5 p.m. and Cookie asked me what I wanted for dinner.

  “I’m too tired to eat,” I said. “I’m just going to shower, put on those pink PJs, lay down on the sofa and watch the news about the roads.”

  Shay came in about 8:30 p.m. and went directly to the bathroom to shower. When he came out he asked if I’d eaten yet.

  I said, “No, I’m not eating tonight. That way I can store up the food I earned today and I won’t have to work tomorrow!”

  “You know, princess, you may have a cute little ass, but it doesn’t work that way.”

  He brought us some cheese, deer sausage and crackers, slicing off the thick white cheddar for me and laying it on each individual cracker. Well, that was kind of sweet. I took a few.

  We watched television for about an hour and then the tears started again. “I need to go home and see Kelly,” I kept saying. “I can feel her wondering where I am. She needs me!”

  “Well, the chopper’s been in Plymouth for service,” said Shay. “But when it gets back tomorrow I’ll have you choppered out.”

  “Oh no, no, no. Out of the question. Thanks but no thanks. I can’t get in one of those things, I think I’d die.” My stomach turned a flip just thinking about it.

  “Well, then, you had better get to bed because you’ve got a lot of work to do tomorrow,” said Shay.

  “I’m not the help!” I protested, sitting up. “My back hurts so bad! My whole body hurts, even the bottoms of my feet!”

  Shay got up and went to the hall closet. He came back with a blanket that he spread out on the den room floor.

  “Lay down on your stomach,” he directed.

  “What? Oh no. I’m not doing that.”

  “Shut.” (He never said ‘shut up,’ always ‘shut.’) He snapped his fingers and pointed to the blanket.

  Too tired to argue, I thought, Let’s just get the damn thing over with.

  I lay flat down on the blanket and he straddled my back, sort of sitting on my bottom, putting his weight on his knees on the floor. He put both of his hands in the center of my back, both covering my spine; left hand above, right hand below. His hands felt large and warm.

  “When I push down with my hands, you slowly lift your head and neck upward,” he said. “Then slowly bring your shoulders up.”

  I did as he said and heard a big pop. Then he got off my back, sat on the floor and pushed the pressure points on the bottoms of my feet. That felt so good I just drifted off to sleep right there.

  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 be
cause 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.”