Wheels of Steel, Book 1

by Pepper Pace

  ~Hey, Top. You have one minute to tell me what this song is,” And then she began typing the lyrics of a song that she really liked.

  ~That’s Drops of Jupiter, Sweetheart. You will have to try harder than that to stump me! Also, I COULD cheat by just cutting and pasting the lyrics into a google search. Not that I would…Send me a link to a song that I’ve never heard.~

  Robin chuckled and then carried the laptop to her bed where she folded herself cross legged and settled down to wrack her brain for that elusive song that would surely impress Jason.

  Chapter 21

  Jason was being nosey and listening to Sweetheart in HC’s playlist when she sent him a message. He was trying to find out more about her personality type. He’d already figured that she was more than likely African American. But her age was a tougher nut to crack since she had seventies soul jams as well as Paramore, Bruno Mars and Taylor Swift on her playlist. He was intrigued by her and wanted to know more about her. He planned to invite her to the gig Friday.

  What would she look like? Should he ask for a picture? That seemed like bad manners. Tonight maybe he’d at least ask her for her name. Yeah. He definitely counted her into the friend’s category. She should at least give him her name.

  He actually dreamed of it that night in bed. He saw a pretty black girl watching him as he played at Omicron House and he knew that it would be her. In his dream he left the stage and Sweetheart in HC met him on the floor and then led him to the bathroom. Thoughts about his last visit to Omicron house instantly stiffened his dick. But then suddenly it was Robin there and he saw that he was standing in front of the toilet. As is the way with dreams, he couldn’t remember if he was wearing his braces or not.

  She reached around him and wordlessly unbuckled his pants. He gave her a surprised look and she didn’t seem to realize it as she unzipped him. Then her hand reached into his shorts and she gripped his penis—not the way she had earlier that day; professionally. No, this time she gripped him gently in her entire fist. He looked down suddenly and saw her carefully withdraw him from his shorts.

  He gasped. He was rock hard! He gave her a fearful look, but she didn’t seem to know that anything was out of order. She aimed him toward the toilet bowl but he couldn’t pee. The dream Robin gave him a confused look and he was in a panic; one because her hand on his dick felt so good, and two, what if she thought he was a perv?!

  Suddenly, dream Robin gave his penis a quick squeeze. OH MY GOD! It felt so amazing. He looked down at his rock hard dick gripped in her brown hand and knew what was about to happen. He exhaled a strangled cry and then his buttocks clenched, his testes drew up, and then he came. His breath caught in his chest when her brown hand began to stroke him…

  Jason’s eyes popped open as he cried out. His back arched and he gripped the sheet in surprise as he ejaculated into his shorts. His hips pumped briefly before he relaxed back to the bed. Jason breathed heavily before cursing and sweeping away the covers. He pushed himself up in bed and stared down at the mess he had made.

  He slid out of bed and into his chair and wheeled into the bathroom. He grabbed a wash cloth and slipped off his underwear and then cleaned himself. Pausing he pictured Robin’s hand gripping him and shivered. Damn, he could not let her pee him again. The results would definitely be embarrassing. He blushed as he imagined growing hard in her hand. She would freak out. Then he smiled softly as he thought about her.

  Robin’s phone rang while she was in church. Thankfully it was on vibrate, though Mama could hear the vibration within her purse and gave her a curious look. Her response was just a shrug. No one called her. Robin did at least wait until services ended before heading outside to see who had called her. There was a message from Pinnacle. She quickly played it and could hear Ben’s voice telling her about a job that they had lined up.

  Ben described a job in Amberly Village which wasn’t far from where she lived in Silverton. Her client would be a sixty-seven year old male that needed an evening aid to administer medicine, help him with his evening meal, and then help him prepare for bed. It would only be three to four hours a night and as soon as he was in bed she could leave because he could spend the night alone. A daytime aid would arrive in the morning to assist him.

  Robin could not see any hidden angles. Three to four hours a night from seven to eleven which is exactly what she had asked for. Once she brought Jason home between 4:15 and 4:30, then she could go home, eat, maybe even nap. Then the next client was less than 10 minutes away! Pinnacle couldn’t trick her into added hours because she wouldn’t have to wait for anyone to relieve her. Perfect! She called Ben back and told him that she could accept the job and he told her to report Monday.

  ***

  Jason had been thinking about this all weekend and as he and Robin drove to school Monday morning he brought up the subject of Love’s End.

  “Robin I want to post Love’s End on YouTube. But I want to give you credit.”

  “You don’t have to do that.”

  “But I want to.” She gave him a curious side-ways glance, but didn’t reply. He plunged onward. “Also, I was hoping that you’d do it again. I have so many ideas in which your voice would work so well.” He held his breath and waited.

  Robin licked her lips. “I’ll think about it.” She mumbled.

  Well she hadn’t said no. He wanted to push but didn’t make that mistake again.

  At lunch Robin was the first to speak to both Link and Patty. She noticed that they seemed to be squaring off with each other silently but both greeted her with enthusiasm.

  “Did you have a good weekend?” Robin asked. Link acted as if that was a trick question as the smile on his face froze. But Patty smirked in response.

  “It was…eventful. What about yours, Robin?”

  “I didn’t do much.”

  Amberly sat down across from them and pulled a sheet of paper from her notebook. “I got one of the flyers for the gig Friday.” Link snatched it and gave it cursory look before passing it to Top with a smile.

  “Omicron end of Summer bash featuring Link and Top of Wheels of Steel.” Jason read aloud. Then he grinned and turned to Robin. “So are you going Friday?”

  She shook her head apologetically and the smile slipped from Jason’s face. “I can’t. I just took on a second client. Today is going to be my first day working with him. After I leave you, of course.” She added quickly, noting the look of disappointment on his face.

  “Did you get the hours you wanted?” He asked.

  “Yeah. Seven and I’ll be out of there by eleven.”

  Jason grinned again and passed her the flyer. The doors don’t open until eleven! So you can come.” She studied the flyer. Wow…she would be ready to crawl into bed by then.

  “Well…” she passed it back to him. “I might be tired…” Her stomach was already flip flopping at the prospect of going to a party with people she barely knew. What was she expected to do while Jason was on stage? She wasn’t a part of their group. They didn’t have to include her.

  “You might be, but you might not be. We’ll see.” He passed the sheet back to Amberly who was watching the two of them with a steady gaze.

  On the drive home Robin rooted around in her cd case for music that would impress Jason. It seemed that is all she did, especially when she was Sweetheart. After hours she had actually found an old one that he didn’t know by Lee Oskar of the group WAR. He had been very impressed and had actually liked it enough to save some of the beats to his studio. She had felt very good!

  “I wish we could listen to Love’s End in the car. I can’t get enough of that song.” She had Jason play it several times each morning when she helped him prepare for school.

  He chuckled. “Robin it’s half your song. I’ll email it to you. When we get to the house write down your email address for me.” She froze. Uh oh! Her email account was Sweetheart in HC. She would have to make him forget about the email thing until she could get home and create a new one real quick
. “In the mean time…” He continued while picking up her CD case and searching through her collection of music. “Let’s listen to some Robin music.”

  She smirked playfully. “You already told me that ‘Robin music’ was going to be nothing but Trey Songz, and Maxwell…okay and there is a Drake cd in there, I lied.” She laughed but Jason became very quiet. “Did you find anything?”

  “No.” He said, practically slamming the cd case back into the console. “Let’s just turn on the radio.” His voice was flat and low.

  She gave him a curious look. His smile had disappeared and he was staring out the window. He suddenly looked at her. His expression was impossible to read. But she suddenly didn’t feel like smiling, either. He turned back to the window and stared out at the scenery and the rest of the ride home was quiet.

  When she helped him out of his car he didn’t bring up the email address, which was a relief to her.

  “Well…” She passed him his leg braces. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Yep. Bye.” He said curtly. She was surprised by the short response. She watched him as he wheeled into his apartment and then shut the door firmly. It was almost like day one again.

  What was that about? She had not thought that she would see the cold side of Jason again. But he had returned. Could he be angry because she hadn’t given him a firm yes about the party Friday? No, that couldn’t be it because he was good up until the car ride home. She wracked her brain trying to figure out what she could have said to upset him. What in the hell was up with him?! It hurt her feelings; as if making her feel bad was just a game for him. She drove away saddened.

  ***

  Jason’s lips were pursed in anger. He opened a can of soda and chugged it back, not caring when a good amount of it spilled down the front of his shirt, and then of course, he began to choke because he’d swilled it too fast.

  “Damnit!” He cursed. He scowled and threw away the remainder of the soda. Then he wheeled into the living room and pulled up YouTube. He bypassed his own pages and went straight to Sweetheart in HC’s page. He scanned her favorite music until he got to The Starland Vocal Band’s Afternoon Delight.

  “Fuck!” He yelled. Why did Sweetheart in HC and Robin Mathena both have Starland Vocal Band in their collection?

  Chapter 22

  Robin arrived at her client’s house early but had just sat in her car for fifteen minutes, listening to music and trying to mentally get into the right mood. The day had not been a good one. Jason had essentially flaked out on her for absolutely no reason and now she had a raging headache and her stomach hurt. Instead of resting she’d been on and off the toilet with achy bowels. She just hoped she wouldn’t have another onset irritable bowel while at this strange man’s house.

  She finally got out of the car and rang the bell to a small but neat house. She heard coughing that seemed to grow closer as someone evidently moved to answer. The door opened and a tall but stooped man was there. His watery grey eyes moved across her body before resting on her face. He smiled…but not to her, to himself. She almost felt like closing her sweater over her breast. She thought people called that look a leer.

  “H-hello.” She finally said. “I’m from Pinnacle.”

  “Yes. I was expecting you. Come in.” He was wheeling an oxygen tank and a hose ran up to his nose. She remembered those hoses from when her Daddy had been in the hospital. She stepped inside closing the door after her.

  The man held out a shaky, thin hand. She shook it noting that he had a strong grip.

  “I’m Fred. Fred Baker.”

  “I’m Robin Mathena.”

  He was staring at her. “Such pretty eyes.”

  “Thank you.” He was still staring at her so she looked around his small living room. It was neat and everything seemed to have been recently cleaned.

  “Let me show you to the kitchen.” He walked very slow and got out of breath easily. Once in the kitchen, he sat down in a chair that had several worn cushions on it.

  “I have a cart for when I have to go out.” He caught his breath. “And I have a mask for when I get out of breath. Emphysema.” He explained.

  “Do you need me to get your mask?”

  “No. I’ll be okay. Just give me a minute.”

  “Okay.” The kitchen was old but clean. The cabinets were metal and painted white. The appliances were sunburst gold. The counters were orange, but there was nothing out of place. After Fred caught his breath he coughed and spit phlegm into a used tissue which he stuffed back into his pants pocket.

  “Will you make dinner?”

  “Of course. What should I make?”

  “Just soup. There’s a can of vegetable beef in the cabinet.” He took a deep breath. “Then you can make me a cheese sandwich to go along with it.”

  “That’s all you want?”

  He took a deep breath. “Yes I don’t eat much.”

  Robin made the soup while he sat and watched her. It was really uncomfortable. She poured the hot soup into a bowl and went about preparing to make his sandwich. She searched the fridge for the cheese but it wasn’t where he said it was.

  He told her to check one more time behind the Tupperware dishes of left-overs and when she finally straightened and turned to him, she saw that he had been staring at her butt. She hid a suspicious look. Was that his game? Just to pretend to search in his fridge so that he could watch her butt?! What a freaking perv!

  But now she was on guard. She had to feed him the soup because his hands shook too much. His skin was liverspotted and had strange moles on them so she tried not to look at him closely; especially when she saw coarse black hair curling out of his nostrils.

  After she fed him soup and made small talk, Robin did the dishes knowing that he watched her butt. She didn’t even need to turn and catch him in the act. After the dishes were washed she led him to the living room so that he could watch t.v. for an hour before bed. She thought about Miss Lucille and her Evangelist shows and missed the elderly lady. She should be comfortably in her new home at the facility. She would make a stop over there sometime this week so that the woman wouldn’t feel alone.

  Fred coughed and scratched and made small talk. He seemed nice enough but she already knew that she wouldn’t like him. His eyes were always on her breasts, or her butt. She gave him an insulin shot and his other medicine that had to be taken after his last meal of the night.

  At ten o’clock she asked him if he was ready for bed.

  “You have to give me my bath first.”

  Robin sat there with a blank look on her face. Bath? Nobody had said anything about bathing him. She distinctly remembered the message stating, feed him, administer medicine, and help him to bed…bathing him had not been included!

  “Mr…I mean Fred, um you want me to help you bathe?”

  “Well you can just sponge bath me. That’s what most people do.” That leer was back in his eyes and Robin felt the sweat begin to form on her brow.

  She jumped up out of her chair. “Um…can you hold a sec? I just have to make a phone call. I’ll be right back.” She darted out of the house with her cell phone in hand. She had Pinnacle’s number on speed dial, which was an indication all itself that Pinnacle wasn’t a place she could trust. Mary Louise answered.

  “Mary Louise! This is Robin. I’m at the patient’s house-”

  “Is everything ok, Robin?”

  “No, he’s okay, but everything is not okay! He wants me to give him a bath.”

  “And? What’s the problem?”

  What’s the problem?! “I…know nothing about bathing a patient.”

  “Oh, don’t worry about it. Just sponge bath him. It only needs to be done every other day. He’ll tell you how to do it. Now if you run into any trouble just call us back. You’ll be okay, Robin. You have a good night, hun.” The phone went dead.