Untrusting (Troubled)

by A. J. Wells

  “Sher, you have a long trip ahead of ya tomorrow and it’s almost midnight. You’d better go in.” His voice is soft and sounds hurt.

  “ You’re right. Thanks Steve for tonight, I had fun. I’ll see ya in the mornin’.” I start to open my door and Steve grabs my hand to stop me.

  “Sher, I’m sorry I got so upset with you. Bob’ll be good to Maria and Shay. Can I walk you to your car?” I nod and he gets out on his side and I get out on mine. He walks me to the car and kisses me, gently at first then more demanding. His tongue moves across my lips causing them to open and accept the tangling of tongues that sends crushing blows to my stomach and chest. My legs are weak and threaten to give way under me. I’m pushed against the side of my truck and hear the creaking of the shocks as the truck lifts slightly from the pressure against the side of it. Steve’s merciless with his kiss, if I could I would pour down the side of the truck and into a puddle right here in the middle of the street. But he’s not through, his hands are against my skin in the curve of my back, massaging the muscles there and sapping any strength I have left. He breaks the kiss and whispers my name into the hair at my temple and moves to hold me up when one of his crutches falls into the side of the truck sounding like a rock hitting it. We’re both brought abruptly back to our senses and he steps back on his sprained ankle. He lets out a yelp and stumbles so I have to catch him to keep him from falling.

  After he’s steady I set him down on the bench that’s outside my office and elevate his foot. He’s cringing and clenching his teeth from the pain. I open the office door, grab a blanket to put behind his back and try to get him comfortable while the pain subsides. I wipe his face with my hand and feel the tears the pain brought on and I start crying and apologizing. He puts his arm across my shoulders as I squat beside the bench and leans me into him. I put my head on his chest and cry ‘til I feel his muscles loosen a bit, signaling the pain has subsided some. I ask him if he wants a drink of water and he nods. I get the water and help him take a few sips.

  He’s hoarse when he starts laughing. I’m shocked at first, then I start laughing, too. When he could speak through the laughter he says, “The sound scared the hell outta me…forgot about the ankle. I don’t think I’ll try that again for a while.”

  “I think this week I’m away will do ya some good.”

  “I didn’t mean I won’t try the kiss again, just in a better situation and not on crutches.” He’s still laughing.

  “Must not’ve hurt too bad if you’re laughing.”

  “As much pleasure as kissing you was giving me, and that was a tremendous amount, that’s how much it hurt. There wasn’t a nerve in my body that wasn’t reacting to the pain shooting through it.”

  He drinks the rest of the water and decides he’d best get Bob and get home. His pain pills are there and he doesn’t expect the ankle will feel better ‘til he gets them. I help him into the truck, he kisses me goodnight, says he’ll see me in the morning and drives slowly away.

  Maria and I are at Lili’s at nine thirty, a little late. We didn’t get much sleep last night. I was in bed at two and Maria got in bed at two thirty, last minute packing. Shay had her up at seven and I got to sleep ‘til eight. I guess I’ll be driving to Austin and Maria will be driving to San Antonio. I’ll have to drive in San Antonio, I guess, not something I’m looking forward to.

  Miss Lili has the caddy out of the garage and the trunk up. “Put your suitcases in the trunk and go in to say ‘bye to the boys. They just got up. We need to get started on our first leg of this trip. I’m so looking forward to this week with you girls.”

  We do as we’re told with our suitcases and go in to say ‘bye to the guys. Bob and Maria go into the living room and Steve and I stay in the kitchen. “How’s your ankle? I feel so bad about it.”

  “I’ll have to lounge around today, but it’s not bad. The pain pills help.” He draws me to him and kisses me. “I’ll be glad when you’re back. Grams is looking forward to being accompanied by females this trip. She’s used to Bob and I going with her, so this will be different for her. Take good care of her and drive carefully, I want you all back in one piece. Especially, you.” He kisses me again and this time it’s demanding, like last night, but this time he’s leaning against the counter. Just as we’re getting too into the kiss we hear a crutch fall and start to snicker when we hear Bob swearing.

  We go running in to see Bob stretched out on the couch cringing and clenching his teeth and Maria crying, sitting beside him. Miss Lili comes in holding her chest and almost shouting, “What happened? I could hear ya all the way out to the car.”

  Steve looks at her and says, “The same thing that happened to me last night.” Bob looks up at him and they start laughing and so do I. Miss Lili and Maria are a little slower but they join in, in time.

  “You did this last night? No wonder ya honked for me when ya got there. Man, I can’t believe how much that hurt and in the middle of….”

  Maria stops him, but Steve looks at Bob saying “Yeah, me too.” Bob started laughing again. This time Maria and Miss Lili are at a loss. I start laughing, hanging onto Steve. Maria looks at me and I nod at her and she starts laughing.

  Miss Lili’s starting to get ticked at being left out. “Are you four going mad or are ya gonna let me in on the joke?”

  Bob says, “It’s nothing, we were just kissing and I dropped my crutch and stepped down on my cast and it hurt.”

  “And that was funny? You young people are strange.” Then she puts the conversation together with what she knows of love, her eyes take on a shine and she says “Oh,” and starts laughing, too. When we catch our breath, she asks “Steve, ya said this very thing happened to you last night?” Steve nods his head. “Well, maybe you boys will behave yourselves the week we’re gone and heal a bit. Come on, girls, it’s time to hit the road. If you’re gonna kiss the boys ‘bye again, I suggest they sit down for it.” She walks out of the room and we hear the back screen door slam shut.

  We kiss our guys again and get caught up in it, ‘til we hear the honking outside. We laugh and the guys walk us out to the car for one more, quick, kiss and wave as we back outta the driveway, fifteen minutes late.

  Chapter 11

  Miss Lili asks for the radio to be turned on and Maria finds a country station that suits her. Within an hour Maria’s sleeping and Miss Lili, is curled up in the back seat asleep. I’m on my own and I’m almost as tired as they are. Two hours later, just before Austin, I pull over at a rest stop. The other two wake up and we go to the bathroom and take a break from the car. Maria takes over driving and I get to take a nap. We stop at New Braunsfels for a rest and lunch as Miss Lili instructed.

  She tells us about a nice restaurant and after the rest stop we lunch at the place she suggested. Everyone seems to know her and asks about Steve and Bob. Maria and I shrug and look at the menu. “Order anything you like, the food is great here, and I get a discount.” She wasn’t kidding, the food was great and her discount was amazing, she didn’t pay for anything. But she did go back into the kitchen and speak to the chef and the owner for about thirty minutes. Then she’s ready to go.

  I drive the two hours to San Antonio and to a spot on the outskirts, according to Miss Lili’s instructions. We’re met there by a limo and two drivers. One drives the caddy to a garage and we’re driven to a hotel on the river. We check into a three bedroom suite and Miss Lili gives instructions to the limo driver. We have three hours before dinner. We take showers and rest for a while. Then Miss Lili thinks we need to take a ride on the river.

  The hotel has a pontoon boat for tours of the River Walk. It’s very nice and it’s cool. The café’s smells along the river has our stomach’s growling when we get back. Miss Lili says we need to dress for dinner, because right after dinner we’re going to a concert. Maria and I are stunned, “Miss Lili, what do you mean dress for dinner? We don’t have those kinda clothes. We’ll eat in the room and you can go to the concert. We can’t afford clot
hes like that.”

  “It’s all taken care of. We just need to go back to the room.” Miss Lili doesn’t seem to understand. We go up to the room and find the sitting room full of racks of clothes and women. “Now, we need to choose three or four dresses and the ladies here will do your makeup and hair. And we don’t want to take all evening, I’m starving and so are y’all. So don’t argue. Hurry up, we have places to be.” She went to a rack and chose four dresses to try on. When we hesitate, she comes over and starts walking us down racks choosing dresses for us, handing them to two sales ladies and pointing to the bedrooms. When we stand there stunned she comes over and walks us to our rooms and shuts the door behind us saying, “Hurry up. We don’t have all night.”

  The sales ladies start showing us what Miss Lili has chosen for us. I like a couple of them so I try them on and put them to one side. The other two are switched for three others that I like very much. The sales ladies take them over to the closet and hung them up in a garment bag. Since we’d showered earlier we only have to dress.

  I hear Maria fussing with the sales ladies and go next door in the dressing gown one of Miss Lili’s sales ladies gave me. She doesn’t want to take any of the dresses. “Maria, I didn’t have time to tell you, but Steve hinted this might happen. So try on the dresses and let’s get goin’. I’ll help if you want me to. I’ve already picked out five. Now let’s see you in this one.”

  She looks at me like I have two heads, but with a little coaxing she tries on the two dresses she likes and the others are switched for three others, just like mine were. Maria likes them too and they fit. They, too, were taken to the closet and hung in a garment bag.

  There are bags left on our beds with panty hose and undergarments for the dresses. We’re asked if we need help dressing and we accept help getting the dresses on. Then we walk out to find matching shoes and evening bags for each dress, waiting, along with hairdressers, makeup ladies, and manicure equipment. We sit down in the portable beauty salon and get the works. When we’re through we don’t recognize ourselves, nor are we allowed the time to get acquainted with our looks. Miss Lili’s looking like a million dollars and is shooing us down to eat. We have a table reserved and there’s food sitting on it.

  “I called before we came down so the appetizers would be waiting. We only have forty five minutes ‘til we have to leave for the theatre. I hope ya like what I ordered. Now chow down, the rest of the dinner’s waiting and will get cold.” We eat like we aren’t going to eat for a week then leave because we’re informed our car is waiting.

  We sit through the concert ‘til intermission and Miss Lili insists we go to the lobby for some air and to get the kinks out. Miss Lili is well known here, too, because we were mobbed in the lobby. We go back to the box and sit through the rest of the concert. Then Miss Lili informs us we’ve been invited to an “after” party. So we go to some mansion looking house and meet a lotta people. I can’t tell you their names because there are too many to remember, but Miss Lili knows them all. At two a.m. Maria and I are so tired we can hardly stand and our feet are killing us. We’re not used to wearing heels, except to church where we’re sitting most of the time. Miss Lili notices we’re sitting a lot, just every chance we get, and decides it’s time to go. Thank goodness!

  On the way to the hotel Miss Lili asks if we’d had a good time. “Miss Lili, we aren’t those kinda people, but it was nice.”

  “That’s okay, you girls made a good impression on them. They thought ya fit right in. They aren’t ‘those kinda people’ either, except occasionally, like tonight. Do you know who ya met? Only the most influential people in the region. But tomorrow they’ll be back in their work clothes and some of those’ll be jeans and a straw hat. So, ya are those kinda ‘people.’”

  Back at the hotel we say good night in the sitting room and go straight to bed, without even taking the hairpins out. We have about four to six hours to travel tomorrow.

  Room service wakes us up at ten with breakfast. They let themselves in and knock on our doors to get us up. I have to pick hairpins outta my skin, where they embedded themselves when I slept on them. Miss Lili comes out looking fresh as a daisy while Maria and I are gulping coffee to come to life with our hair half up and half skragglin’ down, but all mess. We have breakfast, a shower and get things packed and ready to go. When room service comes up for the trays, bell boys come with them and take everything down. We start to protest the garment bags, but Miss Lili says those go, too. We try to tell her there’s an extra garment bag for each of us, but she says she knows she ordered them and we have one more stop to make before we leave.

  There’s a boutique in the lobby with bathing suits and Miss Lili says we’re going to need two more bathing suits each. She doesn’t approve of the one piece bathing suits, insisting we get a two piece, but not a bikini. She doesn’t approve of that much flesh showing, but we don’t, either, so we do as she says. Then we’re out the door and into the limo to drive us back to the caddy on the south side of San Antonio so we don’t have to drive in the bumper to bumper traffic on the expressways. I think I love Miss Lili. I’m not good at playing chicken in a car when merging with bumper to bumper traffic going fifty miles an hour.

  We talk on the way down to Corpus, stopping at Three Rivers for lunch. Miss Lili paid for lunch and we got back on the interstate to finish the trip. At Corpus Christi we go to another garage where the caddy will be stored ‘til the trip back. There’s a limo waiting for us that takes us to a marina where Miss Lili changes into jeans, a sweatshirt and jacket. We get on a golf cart to be taken to a big motor boat. Miss Lili gets on and motions us onto the boat. “Miss Lili, where are we going?” I ask.

  “We’re going to the house. Where’d ya think we were going?”

  “We have no idea, it’s all a surprise to us.” Maria’s not real sure she likes the idea of a boat ride to the house.

  I look at her, “Afraid of boats?”

  “How would I know? I’ve never been on one in a big body of water.”

  “Miss Lili, is there a bridge out to wherever we’re going?”

  “No, the only other transportation across is a helicopter.” Miss Lili is concerned about Maria’s reluctance. “Here put this life jacket on and come on.” We put on life jackets and get on the boat. Miss Lili puts her life jacket on, too, “It’s a law now, we have to wear life jackets or the Captain won’t even start the boat.” The engine roars and the boat moves slowly out of the slip and the marina. Once we’re outta the marina Maria and I hang on for dear life. The Captain’s acting like we’re going to a fire and we’re late, rationalizing the need for speed, as we’re skimming over the water like its glass. We notice we’re slowing down about twenty minutes into the ride and the boat is turning toward an island and a pier. Maria and I don’t care where we are, anymore, just that we’ll soon be off this boat. Miss Lili has sat next to us like it’s the most normal thing in the world, ‘til we dock. Then the Captain comes over to help her up and off the boat. There’re three men on the dock to help us. It takes two to get Miss Lili onto the dock and one each for Maria and me.

  I ask one of the men if Miss Lili’s okay. “Yes, ma’am. She’s just scared of the trip over. She’ll be fine as soon as she’s off the dock.” Maria and I look at each other and Maria asks why she doesn’t go by helicopter. “Miss Lili is more afraid to fly than come by boat.” Maria and I grin at each other and give our life jackets to the Captain and walk, rather rubber legged, down the dock to terra firma. Once we’re off the dock, some of the men go get our luggage.

  Miss Lili is sitting on a bench waiting for us. She walks between us, arm in arm, to the house. She confides in us her fear of the boat and the trip, and her bigger fear of the helicopter. She doesn’t mind flying in a large airplane, but the helicopter scares the breath out of her. She, literally, can’t breath, she says. We’re at the door to the house and she opens it and walks in. “I love this house. Buckley, my late husband, built it for us for our tenth an
niversary. Its simple elegance and I love it.” We’re met by Mandy, the housekeeper, and shown to our rooms, across the hall from Bob and Steve’s rooms. We’re shown our bathroom, a Jill and Jill, in this case, which Maria and I share. We’re glad to have a way into each other’s room without running down the hall. We’re told we have time for a shower and to change then dinner will be served. It’s not a dinner we need to “dress” for. I asked.

  We have a simple supper of a salad, small steak, mashed potatoes and corn on the cob. It’s nice to relax. The furnishings are expensive and the house is luxurious, but it’s comfortable. We go out to the patio to find a swimming pool at the end of it. Miss Lili says there’s a beach down the path to the right. It’s shared with the three other houses on the island, but we’re probably the only ones on the island at this time of year. There’s a gazebo across the yard and there’s all kinds of flowers and trees. Miss Lili says we’ll explore the island tomorrow, but first we’re gonna sleep in. This place is so quiet it’ll be hard not to sleep in. We can get up whenever we want to.

  After tomorrow there’ll be things that have to be seen to, but that’ll be here, at the house. She does most of her business here, because of the methods of travel, but she sees no reason to stay in a hotel when she has the house. We’ll be having guests almost everyday ‘til Friday, that’s what the second garment bag is for. We’ll have to dress for two dinners and then a big party Saturday evening.

  Now we have our itinerary for the week and know what’s expected of us. We sit on the veranda for about an hour and talk about the guys and their quirks and ours. Then Miss Lili asks about the guys and what happened to get them to laughing about their pain. I tell my story and Maria tells hers and Miss Lili starts laughing. We tell her we still don’t understand the laughter. When she gets through explaining it, we understand and laugh at it, again. Mandy comes out with an offer of dessert and since its Miss Lili’s favorite, Lemon Meringue pie, we have some with hot tea, it’s a little cooler this close to the water at this time of day. Miss Lili shows us where the kitchen is, in case we get hungry, later, says goodnight and goes off to bed. We sit up a while longer then we’re off to bed.