Grounded: Michaela

by Leanne Karella

  Lina's bottom lip stuck out a bit. "Come on, Ty," she said softly. "Everything's okay. You wouldn't want to deprive Michaela of her first Unegi get-together, would you?"

  "Hello, Ty."

  Michaela turned at the woman's voice. Oh my goodness. The woman's mammary glands were humongous! Michaela wondered if they were difficult to hold up. The woman's hair, so blonde it was almost white, was piled up on her head, and Michaela wondered how she could possibly have put those clothes on. For that matter, they were so tight, she wondered how she was able to move in them.

  "Carrie," Ty said, with a small nod of his head.

  "Long time no see. Where you been hidin' yourself?"

  Ty released Michaela's hand and slipped his arm around her shoulders. "Carrie, this is Michaela. Michaela, Carrie."

  The Carrie woman stuck two fingers into her front pants pocket. "Nice ta meet'cha. You're the woman who's living with Ty now?" Her laugh was strange, deep, like she was forcing it. Michaela didn't really care for this woman. Didn't like the way she kept looking at Ty. Like he was food and she was starving.

  "Michaela is working for me and living on the ranch, yes."

  Carrie raised her eyebrow. Reached out and touched the top button of Ty's shirt. "Shoulda offered me the job."

  A new emotion burned through Michaela. She couldn't identify it, didn't like it, but she had the urge to slap the silly-haired woman. How dare she touch her Ty.

  "Excuse us, Carrie," Ty said as he started walking away, Michaela still tucked under his arm.

  Michaela's hands shook and she tucked them in her jeans pockets. "Who was that woman? Why did she look at you that way? She's not very nice."

  Ty looked down at her, one dark brown eyebrow raised above the rim of his glasses. "Are you jealous?"

  "Jealous?"

  He laughed and pulled her even closer against his side. "I'm not sure that I've ever had a woman jealous over me before."

  "What is this jealous thing?" she asked.

  Still chuckling, he brushed a kiss over her cheekbone. "Look it up in your book when we get home."

  "Hmph."

  "So," he glanced around at the people, "where's your sister?"

  "My sister?"

  His head tilted toward her again. "Electra?"

  "Oh, yes, well…" They were supposed to be sisters, Michaela reminded herself. "I don't see her," she said as she looked around.

  Trent Godfrey approached them, a big smile on his face. "Glad you came, Ty." He handed Ty a brown bottle. "Would you care for something to drink?" he asked Michaela.

  Michaela shook her head. She needed to see Electra and get Ty out of there. Maybe he was afraid of the Carrie woman. She seemed rather scary. "Do you know where Electra is?"

  Trent glanced around. "Haven't seen her or Stephen for a while, but the way those two can't keep their hands off each other, that's not surprising." He chuckled. "Looks like you two might have the same problem." He winked.

  Ty dropped his arm from around her, even took a small step away. Michaela looked at him, but he was staring off to the side.

  Trent cleared his throat. "Well, come on, the ribs are done."

  "Michaela's a vegetarian."

  "Hey there, Ty." An older man with gray hair came up and clapped Ty on the shoulder, shook his hand. "Listen, I got this gelding I just can't do nothin' with. I was wonderin', since I saw your ad up on the wall at the Placer Feed and Seed that you're doin' some breakin' if you'd come out to my place and take a look at him, let me know if he's anything more than dog food."

  "Well, I…"

  "I been meanin' to call you, but things at the ranch been real busy. Glad I caught you here. So anyway, he's a three year old…"

  Trent touched Michaela's arm, pulling her away from the conversation between Ty and the man. "How have things been out there?"

  Michaela shrugged. "Sometimes good, sometimes not."

  "You talked him into coming here, didn't you?" Trent led her toward a table laden with big bowls of colorful food. Everything smelled wonderful. Even the ribs, which she assumed was a form of meat from Ty's comment.

  "Yes, I asked him to bring me. I need to talk to Electra. Ty was…afraid."

  Trent handed her a plate. "He hasn't set foot in Unegi for over three years."

  She nodded. "He said he hurt you."

  Trent shook his head. "Load up, there's lots of food." He ran his hand through his hair. "I hurt myself. He didn't do it. I thought we'd gotten past all that garbage."

  She took a little bit of everything on the table. She didn't know what most of it was, but it all looked so good. "He said he did lots of bad things and was afraid that the people of Unegi wouldn't forgive him for it. He said he thought he'd be lynched."

  Trent chuckled. "Look." He nodded his head toward a group of men. Right in the middle of them was Ty, talking and laughing. "I think he's going to be all right."

  "Thank goodness," Michaela said, a sigh of relief washing through her.

  "So, what have you been doing out there? I was sure you'd be coming into town sooner than this."

  Now that she had a plate mounded with food, she looked for a place to sit. Trent pointed to a bench where a few other women were seated. "Go on, join the ladies, I'll talk to you later." Trent winked again, then ambled off toward the huge barbeque grill.

  Lina moved over and patted a seat next to her. Michaela sat down and sent Lina a smile. "This is my mother-in-law, Abby," Lina said, pointing to an older woman. Then she went around the table, introducing her to the wives of the men who still stood to one side of the grassy yard talking with Ty. "I'm not sure where Jess ran off to. I think she went to check on Crystal."

  "Jess is your daughter?" Michaela asked. She took a bite of something from her plate. "Mmm. This is good."

  "That's Abby's potato salad. Both Jess and Crystal are our daughters. Jess is sixteen today, Crystal is just a little over two."

  Michaela nodded, tried something else on her plate, a flat crispy thing. There was a lot of salt on it, she recognized salt, but oh my, these were good. Talking went on around her. The women were obviously good friends, but Michaela concentrated on her food. Something with strange colored and shaped noodles, another thing that had cucumbers, but in a white, spicy sauce.

  "Hi, Michaela."

  She looked up from her plate to see Electra and the doctor standing behind her. She smiled, relieved. "I need to talk to you," she said as she stood up. The other women at the table didn't seem to notice. "Doctor, nice to see you again."

  "You're looking well, Michaela. How have you been feeling?"

  Michaela smiled. He was a nice man. A handsome man. A little taller than Ty, but not as muscled. His hair was light colored, like Lina's.

  "What did you do to your hair? It's purple!" She grabbed Electra's arm and pulled her off to the side, away from all the people. "What happened to you? Are you ill? Did something bad happen? How did it turn purple?"

  Electra laughed. "You like it? I thought it was pretty cool."

  "Cool? What does temperature have to do with your hair?"

  "Cool is an expression." Electra shook her head. "Haven't you learned anything since we got here? I love it." Her gaze wandered back to Stephen Webb. "Isn't he wonderful?"

  "I've learned that I can't clean a house without breaking something, and that bleach isn't used while washing clothes that aren't supposed to be white, and you can't clean a dog bed with a vacuum without wrecking it."

  "Cleaning? That's what you do at Ty's house? I thought for sure you'd be doing something with the animals, the way you always went on about them. All I do is sit at a desk and answer the phone. And hand out papers for people to fill out."

  "Phone?"

  "Jeez, girl, where have you been living? On the moon?"

  Michaela bit her lip. Electra was talking like these mortals. She couldn't worry about that right now though. Maybe Electra had learned enough to answer her questions. "I have a problem."

  "Yeah, I can s
ee that. If you don't like living on a ranch, why don't you move into town with me? I miss you. I have my very own apartment, with a TV and everything. And have you seen how yummy Stephen is?" She grinned. "Really yummy."

  "Yummy." Michaela shook her head. "I need to know about kissing. Um…stuff that men and women do." Michaela tried to remember the word he'd used earlier in the truck. "Sex."

  "Isn't it wonderful? Stephen is the best." Electra sent Stephen Webb a big smile. "The kissing and making love… I can't imagine anything better. He makes me feel so much. I had no idea that mortals experienced so many wonderful sensations and…"—she laid her hand over her chest—"I can't imagine not being with Stephen."

  Michaela stared at Electra as Electra gazed off toward Stephen. She positively…glowed. Her cheeks were pink, her smile huge and happy. Other than the strange clothes that were exceptionally tight, kind of like that Carrie woman's, she looked wonderful. Michaela's stomach twisted. Electra had found her place. Michaela could tell from her soft expression that Electra would spend the rest of her mortal life here, in Unegi, with Stephen Webb. And, Michaela thought as she turned to see Stephen, the gentle smile on his face as he gazed back at Electra, he felt the same way.

  Why that made Michaela sad, she didn't understand. She should be happy for Electra. And she supposed she was, but she kind of hurt inside too.

  "You kiss him?" Michaela asked.

  "Oh yeah, I do." Electra slowly brought focused back on Michaela. "And it's amazing. Do you kiss Ty?"

  Michaela nodded. "But what about…" Michaela bit her lip. "Sex," she whispered.

  "You haven't made love with him?"

  "Made love. I don't understand. How do you make love?"

  "Sex."

  Michaela shook her head. "I don't think so. I mean, I know I haven't. He said he didn't want a virgin, but I just don't understand because why would he want a married woman… It's all so confusing."

  "A virgin isn't an unmarried woman, it's a woman who's never made love before. Stephen was very surprised that I was one, too. Mortal men seem to have a problem with that, but I don't understand it. I would think that a man would want a woman that hadn't made love before. Besides, I can't imagine doing it with another man. I only want to be with Stephen."

  "Could you tell me about it? How did you get him to do it? Ty kisses me but he says he won't have sex with me no matter how much he wants me. I don't understand this."

  Electra threw her head back and laughed, her purple hair glittered in the sunshine. Glittered. That couldn't be normal. Could a mortal disease turn your hair purple? "I've got a better idea. Come on." Electra held out her hand and led her back around the house to the front. She stopped walking next to a funny two-wheeled automobile. She reached into a bag on the back and pulled out two books. "Here. Read these. They'll explain everything."

  Michaela read the covers. "Lost Lady. Eternal Conquest. What are these about?"

  "This, dear girl, is what mortal women read to learn how to turn their men on." She grinned. "And man oh man, do they ever work. Mortal men are very confusing. I wouldn't have guessed it, but they are. I always thought mortals were rather simple, you know, because they weren't like us, but I was so wrong."

  "Turn them on? I don't understand. I didn't know he was off."

  Electra rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Just read the books. You'll understand. These explain how the men think, and why they act all weird sometimes. And it also talks a lot about making love and kissing and touching." She hugged her arms around herself. "The touching is sooo good. And afterwards, we lay together, he holds me in his arms, and talk for a long time. He tells me about everything."

  "I do like it when Ty holds me in his arms. It feels very good, like I never want to leave."

  "Yeah."

  Ready to change the subject, Michaela looked at the weird automobile. "What is this?"

  "It's called a motorcycle. Pretty cool, huh?"

  "Cool again. I don't know."

  Electra straddled the thing and pressed a button, it roared like a regular automobile. "It's so fun," Electra said. "I'll take you for a ride."

  Michaela wasn't sure about that. She didn't mind the truck, because it was all enclosed. She didn't think she'd want to ride on top of an automobile. "Maybe some other time. I have to get back to Ty."

  "I haven't seen you in days. Come on, tell me what it's like living out there on a ranch. Do you get to eat all the hamburgers you want? I just love mortal food, don't you?"

  "Hamburger." Michaela's stomach dipped. "I don't eat the cows. How can you eat the cows? They're so…pretty."

  Electra scowled. "I don't care what they look like, they taste wonderful."

  Michaela shook her head. "I have to go." She turned away. "I have to make sure Ty is all right."

  Electra followed her toward the back of the house. "Are you falling in love?" Electra asked.

  "Love," Michaela thought aloud. She wasn't sure what love was supposed to feel like, so she couldn't say for sure if that's what she felt for him. Maybe these books would tell her. She glanced down at the shiny covers. She smiled. Love. What a pleasant idea.

  Falling in love, making love. It was so confusing, though. Would she ever understand it all?

  "Would it be horrible if I did fall in love? I feel something strong for him. He says he doesn't dislike me. Besides, what am I supposed to do when I'm done with him? Gabriel never told me that. Where am I supposed to go when my job is finished?"

  Electra shrugged, but her brow puckered. "You could come live with me, like I said. And I wouldn't make you clean anything, either."

  They rounded the corner into the backyard. Ty sat on a bench eating a rib. At least she was getting used to the sight of him consuming meat. Her stomach didn't get all bad feeling anymore.

  Trent sat down next to Ty. He elbowed Ty and Ty smiled. It was good to see him smile. He'd even taken off the sunglasses. He looked up and caught sight of her, sent her a big grin that made his eyes crinkle in that way that made her feel all tingly inside.

  "You are in love with him," Electra declared.

  "Maybe," Michaela agreed.

  Chapter Seven

  Ty watched Michaela interact with the other women. She didn't seem very nervous, and he seriously wondered if she'd put on some kind of act to get him to the party. He should be furious with her for the deception, but he wasn't. Coming here had been a good thing. A great thing. His heart was so light right now he wondered why he wasn't floating. He was accepted. He never thought that would happen.

  Even Abby, Trent's mother, had come up to him and given him a hug. Abby had always cared for him as a child, even though he'd been a bit of a troublemaker, talking Trent and Stephen, his two best friends, into joining him in mischief. As an adult, she thought he'd betrayed Trent. Everyone thought he'd betrayed Trent because he let them believe it. And then he'd been arrested and put in jail for cattle rustling, a mortal sin in a place like Unegi where ranching was a way of life for over half the population.

  Michaela turned from her conversation with Lina and sent him a bright smile. He sent her a wink. Her face flushed a bit before she turned away. What was he to do with her? A thirty-one year old virgin. A woman who knew nothing about anything, it seemed.

  He couldn't imagine what she'd spent her life eating. Food in general was new to her. When she'd had a slice of Jess's chocolate birthday cake—he chuckled—he had no idea that food could be orgasmic to a person, but he'd swear Michaela had just about climaxed at her first bite.

  "So,"—Trent handed him a beer and sat down next to him—"how's she working out?"

  Ty set the beer aside without taking a sip. The last thing he wanted was to get muddle-brained before he had to take Michaela home. "Okay, I guess." A slow grin spread over his lips. "I'll have to buy a new vacuum, new work clothes, and soon, a new set of dishes. She's a klutz of the first degree."

  Trent chuckled. "Stephen said something similar about Electra."

  "Did you f
ind anything about them when you ran the police check?" Ty shifted on the lawn chair, pulling his gaze away from Michaela's shapely backside to focus on Trent.

  "Not a thing. In fact, it's strange. I can't find anything about them. Did you know their addresses are your place and Stephen's clinic? I don't know where they were born or where they lived before they came here. I've questioned Electra about it, but she's evasive. All I can get out of her is that she's from some island off the coast of Iceland, but I… Well, hell." Trent ran his hand through his hair. "She's lying, but I don't feel she's dangerous. Either of them." He shook his head, his gaze moving off toward Electra who stood in the circle of Stephen's arms, and then toward Michaela who sat at the picnic table with Lina and Jess. "As long as you don't talk about their pasts, they're very open people."

  Ty chewed on the comments, agreeing with Trent's assessment. Michaela wasn't dangerous, except perhaps to his sanity. "You know that book she looks everything up in?" Trent nodded. "It's not in English. It's not in any normal language. It's made up of signs and symbols, and looks something like the cave drawings up at Devil's Peak." Trent looked as perplexed as he'd been. "She looks at everything through a child's eyes. Like she doesn't know anything. And you're right, whenever I question her about where she's from, she's very evasive."

  "Any ideas?" Trent asked.

  Ty shrugged. "I don't know. I just don't know."

  Stephen laughed aloud at something Electra said.

  Trent leaned back and took a swig of his beer. "I've never seen Stephen quite so animated. Ever since he moved back to Unegi after he got his degrees, he's stayed to himself. I doubt he's dated anyone. Electra seems to make him very happy."

  Ty could only nod. He had to admit, he'd never really noticed. He'd been so caught up in his life for so many years, he'd turned his back on everyone and everything that'd once mattered to him. He'd been the local star, the cowboy with the bad boy reputation. The Don Juan of Unegi.

  "Trent," he started hesitantly, his stomach twisting in a nauseous knot, "I uh, just wanted you to know…"—he cleared his throat—"all that crap I did before…"