Montana (Modern Mail Order Bride Book 2) (12 page)

“Mrs. Johnson,” she said timidly.

“Please, call me Pecola,” she told Molly.

“That is an unusual name,” she said to break the ice.

“It is a literary character,” she said trying to gauge Molly. It was an odd predicament to be in, but this new life was also odd. It was also odd that Chad Johnson had shown up to lend a hand at the barn raising as well. However, that peculiar kettle of fish was something Billy Joe was keeping his eye on; Pecola had hers on Molly.

“You mean like from a book or something?”  Molly wanted to know.

“Yes, a pretty famous one by Toni Morrison,” Pecola answered and waited.

She waited some more.

She watched the strawberry blond stare at her, trying to rationalize something in her head. Finally, what she wanted to say came out of her mouth. It did not surprise Pecola in the least, but it surprised Molly.

“Is that a black writer and a black book?”  Molly said, throwing her hand over her mouth.  “Oh, dear God.  I sound like some backwoods hick showing my ignorance.”

“It is a logical question, and actually, you are correct,” she said with a smile.  Billy Joe had wandered into the tent, looking about for her.  “Excuse me, Molly, I need to get that man of mine something to whet that whistle of his,” she said as she sidestepped the woman.

Molly touched her arm.  “What do you call him in public?” She asked.

Pecola’s brows were furrowed. “In public?”

“Yeah, if you call him William for your sexy time, what do you call him in public?” She truly wanted to know.

“I call him the same thing you and everyone else does, I call him Billy Joe,” she told her as she turned to walk away.

Avery was quickly at her side. “You know three people have called him William already?”

“Oh yeah?” 

“He is not happy,” she told her.

“I will take care of that,” she said with a smile.  Lemonade in hand, she marched up to him, handing her hunky hubby first the cup, then a kiss.

“Why are people calling me William?” was the first thing out of his mouth after kissing his new bride.

“Because Joanna is still in lust with you and I can’t wait until she tries to use that name on you so you can squash her like a bug,” she said with no expression on her face.

“Ruthless, aren’t you?” he said to her.

“When it comes to other bees flying around my man, you damn straight,” she told him.

“Your man?” He asked with an amused smirk on his handsome face.

“My man!” she said with a nod of her head.  Billy Joe showed off more of those beautiful teeth.

A triangle bell rang in the background, putting out the call for lunch. Families wandered off to their tents to sit out the heat of the afternoon, gathering back at 4 pm to do the last of the work before dinner and the dance.  It was strange to Pecola that they didn’t leave and come back since it was only a 45-minute drive.

“The whole point is to connect with the neighbors,” Billy Joe told her.  “Avery and her folks live on the East side of the Rocking J.  Elwood and Martha, that’s my aunt and uncle who live the Northern part of the ranch, you and I are on the south end, and the west side is the lake.”

“So you guys are covered on every front,” she said.

“It helps especially when you are looking at covering nearly 15 square miles of land from poachers, interlopers, and wolf packs taking over,” he said.  “Avery is a pretty awesome rider.  I was thinking about asking her to give you some riding lessons,” he said to her.

“And if I only want you to teach me to ride?”  she asked in a hushed voice.

“Honey, I am willing to teach you anything you want to know, but I have one request,” he said in a hushed voice.

“My curiosity is piqued,” she responded.

“You teach me what turns you on. I need you to teach me how to love you,” he said with those same tender eyes that bore into her heart.  That thick black hair, now plastered to his head from sweating under his hat, hung limp.

“Fair enough, but tell me, what turns you on?” she asked.

“You,” he said and walked into the tent.

Earlier, she had witnessed a few women going over to the well to draw water.  She grabbed the pitcher and followed suit.  Unfortunately, she wasted more of it than she was able to get back to the tent.  It was the water that he needed to wash away some of the morning sweat. Pecola poured it in the wash bowl.  Using the thick cotton cloth, she soaked it in the cool water, soaped it, and began to wash the dirt and grime from his neck and back.

“William, I can’t tell you or show you,” she told him. “It is something you will have to learn.”  The cool cloth moved languidly across his hot skin, cooling and heating him up at the same time. His body, relaxed in the chair, moved easily as she washed the dirt from his skin so he could enjoy the light lunch she’d packed.

His hands came behind him to grasp the back of her legs, pulling her body against his back.  “I want to learn everything about you,” he said to her.

“Oh really?”

“Yeah,” he said. He released her. The air in the tent was becoming dense. “Tell me something bad that you have done in your lifetime.”

She walked over to the bowl, to rinse the cloth and soaped it again to wash his chest.  Why Pecola was washing him was an uncertainty, but it felt natural.  Billy Joe hadn’t complained, so she continued.

“When I was in college, I worked at the campus library.  I had this boyfriend, who was a bit of a player and an ass – Charlie T. Taimpton.  I was so mad at him, I checked out like 50 books in his name and then put them all back on the shelf,” she told him.

“That’s it?”

“I also changed his first name in the system to Chocolate,” she said.  Billy Joe didn’t get it. “After about six months, he had a library bill of $125.  He came in the library all upset and the librarian had to ask him, ‘Is your name Chocolate T. Taimpton?”

Billy Joe began to laugh but not for the reason she thought.  He pulled her into his lap, holding her close. “If that is the worst thing you have in your closet, I shall get happier and happier each day as your man.”

“Yeah, but I will fight a chick if I have to. I am putting Joanna on notice,” she said with a giggle.

“That woman has nothing on you,” he told her.  “Not a damned thing,” as he lowered his head to kiss her as his heart filled with what seemed like pure rays of sunshine.  Pecola had that effect on him.

A
lite lunch of pasta salad and ham sandwiches turned out to be just enough to sate the appetite in the middle of the heat of the daytime.  Billy Joe thought the day was scorching, but by New York standards for the summer, it was not as warm to Pecola.  A portable air conditioning unit was running at a low speed inside the tent as he lay upon the cot, one leg in, the other out while his hand rested on his new favorite spot, his wife’s round bottom.

Four o’ clock came too soon and Pecola reluctantly allowed him to go dress and head toward the barn to finish the flooring work. “Here ya go,” she said, tossing him an apple.

“Thanks, Honey,” he said with a tilt of his hat, moving at a clip with his tool box. As badly as he wanted to stay in that cot all day with her, he wanted to be a tad bit more intimate.  However, this was working. They were becoming closer without him pushing, or rather pulling, at her all day and forcing the issue.  The way she felt in his arms brought calm into the noise in his head.  Stories that swirled inside abated as he held her close, silencing the fray of images, voices, and characters who longed to be put to paper
.  Maybe I will talk to her about it tomorrow
.

Outside of the tent, with a bottle of water, she sat watching the men work. Chad was present alongside Billy Joe. A barn raising was a fond memory that was one of the few things he still enjoyed about Montana life.  When Jeb asked him to lend a hand, he readily agreed. It also helped to get the work completed in a timely manner with all the extra hands available.  The walls of the barn were up and the flooring was going in.  No door was on the structure, but the potential was there. 

“Hey there, Pecola,” Avery said as she walked up carrying an extra chair.  “I thought I would join you for a spell.”

Pecola reached in the small cooler and grabbed another bottle of water. “Come on over,” she said with a warm smile.  “I never thought I would be so entertained watching men put together a building.  I mean seriously, don’t they have barns in pre-fab now?”

Avery nodded, “They do, but it’s not the same quality of wood.  The wood that they’re using came from trees grown on this land.  The trees have withstood the winds of time as will his barn.”

Movement in the wood line caught Pecola’s eye. Something was crouched low and moving towards the field.
What in the world
?

Her eyes scanned the plains where two small children were running and playing. Whatever was in the wood line was looking to get an easy meal.  Pecola was on her feet. Her head darted left and right looking for something.  Anything.  Noise.  She needed noise.

My hammer.

She grabbed her hammer and one of the horseshoes Billy Joe had left in front of the tent.  Without giving it a second thought, she took off at a sprint.  She was yelling at the children while trying to coordinate hitting the horseshoe with the hammer.

“Hey Billy Joe, I think your wife is trying to get away,” Jeb said as he watched her take off running.

On the other side of his brother, Chad had spotted her running as well.  At first, he didn’t understand until he too spotted the movement in the wood line.  His Colt in hand, he grabbed the first horse he saw and put it through its paces, trying desperately to get there before the animal attacked either his new sister in law or carried off someone’s child.

Pecola was screaming, banging, and scaring the children.  It did not do much for the mountain lion who wanted the easy meal.  Billy Joe had made it to his truck and floored it, coming from the opposite direction as Chad rode hard coming from the east, Pecola came running at top speed down the center coming between the wood line and the animal’s intended dinner.

Chad began to shoot his Colt as Billy Joe laid into the horn.  The animal turned and bolted into the woods.  Pecola, out of breath, reached the children, almost falling at their feet, reaching for the little ones to gather them in her arms. Tears of joy overcame her when she had them safely in her grasp. The idea of what could have happened was too much to even think about. She stood up holding the children, but her legs gave way.  She began to fall backward, but Billy Joe was out of the truck, moving like lightning, his hand out, diving into the dirt, catching her head before it hit the ground.

“I gotcha, Honey,” he said as he caught her and the two little kids that had wandered too far away from their parents.

A crowd had gathered to find out what happened as whispers went through the crowd. 

She saved El Finnings boy.

Ain’t that Molly and Jeb’s little girl?

I think it was a mountain lion.

She could have been killed.

The lady risked her life to save those children
.

Pap said nothing as he stood back watching Billy Joe caress his wife’s face.  He knew she had not eaten enough, but he was starting to think the poor lass had a heart condition.  Every time she got excited, she was passing out.

Shit Hell. Is she going to be healthy enough to bear Bill Joe any children?

Although Pap was thinking it, so was Billy Joe.

O
nce the commotion died down, Billy Joe was able to get Pecola back to the privacy of their tent.  Chad and Avery hung around outside with Pap as Billy Joe applied a cool cloth to her forehead. 

“Come on, Honey, wake up,” he spoke softly to her.

Her eyelids fluttered signaling she was coming out of it.  She woke with a start, jumping as his large hand pressed into her chest, pushing her back down in the cot.  “Lie still until you get your bearings,” he said to her.  A quick look about the tent and he saw the wrapped half eaten sandwich and the unfinished pasta.  During lunch, he’d spent so much time watching her that he never noticed she wasn’t eating.

“Why aren’t you eating, Honey?”

“It’s hard to enjoy a meal when the man across the table is looking at you like he wants to make you one,” she mumbled.

“You’re not eating because I am watching you?”

“You stare at me all the time.  It kinda of freaks me out,” she said.

He didn’t know what to make of it. “Sorry.  I’m having a hard time believing you’re my wife, that’s all,” he confessed.

“I’m having trouble believing it all as well,” she said sitting up.

No mayo had been added to the sandwiches and the pasta salad was oiled based, which he hoped made it safe to eat.  He rose to collect the uneaten meal.  “Here, you finish this up and I’m going to get back to barn to get done over there before the dance.”

“Okay,” she said, unwrapping the sandwich.

“Be back soon as I can,” he said to her. Pecola’s face was in her lap, staring at the uneaten food.

The moment Billy Joe stepped out of the tent, Avery stepped inside. “Lord, you gave me a scare.  You have some really good eyes, too.  I never saw anything until you jumped up running.  Those kids are lucky!”