by JQ Jones
“I’m not having any trouble at all with Sebastian, he’s great. He’s such a smart young man and he’s so very nice and well mannered. He fits right in and is progressing wonderfully,” Mrs. Blankenship said.
“He seems to like it here a lot. Was there an issue that we haven’t addressed since the parent-teacher conference last week?” Clint said.
“No, we’ve talked about everything we needed to at that meeting. This is more an administrative issue. We have a copy of his birth certificate, but there’s no last name. There’s only a blank,” the teacher said.
“That’s not a blank on the birth certificate. It’s a symbol,” Nora said.
“Excuse me?”
“The last name is.” Nora took out a piece of paper and drew an em dash on the paper. “It says ‘em dash’ to designate there is not one,” Nora said.
“Really?” Clint said.
“Really?” Mrs. Blankenship said.
“Totally true. My great-grandfather dropped the Davis over a dispute he had with his birth father. His father wouldn’t marry his mother. He would offer his name to their children, but my great-grandfather didn’t want it. We’ve been — since then.”
At Mrs. Blankenship’s confused look, Nora felt the heat rising to her cheeks. “I guess you can spell it out, Dash, if you need to have an actual word. But we are the No Last Names from Davis Hollow.”
“Mrs. Blankenship, just put him down as Sebastian Davis. It’ll save all the confusion and it will straighten some stuff up at home also,” Clint said.
“I’m not a Davis, we haven’t had a last name for over one hundred years,” Nora said.
“I don’t want to start an argument, but just for clarity’s sake I can put him down as Davis until you guys make a final decision. There are quite a few Davises in our class already so he’ll just be part of a group,” Mrs. Blankenship said.
All through the very cute and timely play where Sebastian played a pumpkin, Clint could almost feel the anger rising from Nora’s body as she sat next to him. The short and silent trip home was only brightened up as Sebastian chattered about his play and singing all the songs all over again.
Once in the house, Sebastian went to bed without any help. Nora sat in the family room, flicking through TV channels, seething with unexpressed anger.
Clint came in after about twenty minutes and handed her a glass of wine. He silently placed a plate of cheese and fruit in front of her before sitting on the other side of the couch. For the next twenty to thirty minutes they pretended to watch TV. Finally Clint, after pouring them each another glass of wine, brought up the question of the last name.
“I understand how very unconventional your upbringing was, but you do have to make certain concessions if Sebastian is going to stay in school,” Clint said.
“I’m ready to make concessions, but I’m not willing to give up my last name,” Nora said.
“The whole point is you don’t have a last name,” Clint said. As soon as the words left his mouth he realized he had just thrown gasoline onto a fire.
Nora reach for the bottle of wine and poured some more into her glass. She ignored Clint’s gesture with his near-empty glass. He poured his own.
“I think we might as well get married. I’m not getting any younger. You and Sebastian need somebody to take care of you. I can adopt him so he’ll have a name. Besides, we like each other enough,” Clint said.
Nora sat down slowly on the couch and rubbed her chin in slow deliberate strokes. She took a deep drink from her glass, carefully setting it down on the table as she turned toward Clint.
“So you think that the reason we should think about getting married is because we like each other enough, Sebastian needs a last name, and we have to have a man to take care of us?” Nora said. Before Clint could answer, she had left the room, and came back with another bottle of wine. She poured until it almost ran over the rim. She drank half that glass before pouring more.
“Maybe I didn’t say that exactly right. But you know what I’m saying. We’re getting along. We’re working as a family. This is good. So why not just get married?” Clint said.
“Maybe I want to marry because I’m in love. Maybe I might want someone who wants me for me and not because we get along. Mostly, maybe you should want more than that for yourself,” Nora said. She walked out of the room with quiet deliberation, opened the door to their room and closed it the same way.
“Well, I fucked that up,” Clint said.
* * * *
Clint, Nora, and Sebastian fell into a very easy pattern in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. The days were getting shorter and although it wasn’t cold, it had at least cooled off enough so that Sebastian wore a jacket to school and Nora sometimes turned the heat on in her sheds. At the house, Clint had even turned the air conditioning up. One night he even turned it off. At night, Nora turned on a small heating element in her shed to keep her plants happy and warm.
Neither Clint nor Nora mentioned the proposal on the table. At night, they went to bed as normal, and the only difference Clint could see from before the proposal to after the proposal was that Nora tried to sex him to death.
On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Clint was at CJ’s ranch house, the site of this year’s Thanksgiving dinner, having a cigar and a drink on the patio with CJ and the Menendez brothers, Moises, Marco, Miguel, Mano and Moritz. They sat around a huge, glass-topped patio table, discussing sports, current events, what needed to be done to winterize the ranches, and of course, women. After about the third scotch, Miguel brought everyone’s attention to the fact that Clint looked a little peaked.
“You not eating well, Cuz? You look peaked or something,” Miguel said. “You look like you should be taking iron or vitamins.”
“Now that you mention it, he does look feeble. Nora should feed you some meat every now and then,” Mano said.
“I’m eating fine,” Clint said. He hung his head to hide the beginnings of a blush.
“Then if it’s not food, it has to be sex,” Moises said.
Clint hated his cousins because they knew him better than anybody else in the world. On top of that, it’s kind of embarrassing to have to explain to your friends that your woman makes you come so much and so often that you turn into a boneless mess most nights.
“What’s the problem, Cuz?”
“I’d rather not discuss this. It’s a little personal,” Clint said. He poured a big measure of scotch from the bottle over his melting ice.
“I’m going to say this just once, and then we can talk about something else. This is never, ever to be mentioned again,” Clint said.
All of his cousins leaned in as Clint motioned them forward and began to speak.
“I asked Nora to marry me,” he said. He had to wait until the noise of congratulations went down in volume before he could continue. “She’s been beyond pissed, since then.” He motioned them closer. He dropped his voice even lower. “We have the most mind-blowing sex almost every night. Sometimes even in the middle of the day. She’s wearing me out.”
“How did she react when you asked her?” CJ said.
“No, the question is how did you ask her? What did you say?” Moises said.
“I think I said something about giving Sebastian a last name. I might have mentioned that they needed to be taken care of. And I probably ended up saying that we might as well,” Clint said. His voice trailed off into a whisper as he finished.
There was a collective groan that rose up from the patio. Each one of his cousins reached across the table and smacked him on whatever part of his body they could reach.
“It’s embarrassing that a man in my family is so stupid when it comes to women,” Miguel said.
“I’ve only had a few lovers in my life but I know better than to say something like that, dude,” Mano said.
“You said that you should get married because you might as well. Oh, man,” Moritez said.
They refilled their glasses as they sat around
the large patio table, shaking their heads in amazement at Clint.
“I’ve been asking Iona to marry me for almost eight months. I have asked her under the Eiffel Tower. I’ve asked her with an island breeze blowing. I’ve gotten on my knees at her house in West Virginia. But I have never said we like each other enough,” CJ said, shaking his head in disbelief.
“Did you tell her you love her?” Mano said.
“I love both of them. I can’t imagine not having them in my life. Why else would I ask her to marry me, if I didn’t love her?” Clint said.
“But you didn’t say it, Cuz. Women need the words. Aye,” Marco said.
CJ said, “Now she’s punishing you with sex. It’s just to show you what it’s like just to have friends with benefits. You have to give it to those West Virginia women, they don’t do anything that you expect.”
“It amazes me that you run a multinational corporation and you still have to be told what was wrong with what you told your woman,” Moises said. He was slowly shaking his head in wonder.
“In the meantime, I can’t say no when she approaches me because it’s great sex. But it’s killing me. I’m open to any suggestions,” Clint said.
“You’re going to have to do something over Thanksgiving dinner. If you do something big in front of witnesses, she might forgive you, but that’s up in the air, Cuz. It’s going to be an interesting time,” CJ said.
“I’ve got to fix this before I am fucked to death,” Clint said.
“But you have to admit, it’s a great way to go, after all,” Miguel said.
* * * *
Thanksgiving was a clear, dry, sunny day, not overly hot for Oklahoma’s standards and not too cool. Clint had relaxed into a lounge chair in the media room where the men gathered to watch football. The matriarch of the Menendez family, their beloved Abuela, sat in a comfortable lounge chair in a strategic corner of the kitchen. Nora instantly fell in love with the tiny tyrant. She spoke excellent English but once she found out that Nora was fluent in Spanish had insisted that that be the language of the day. It was her goal to make Sebastian bilingual before the end of her visit.
There was controlled bustling around in the kitchen as Nora worked with Adriana, Iona, and Jodi Davis. Jodi had agreed to help out at the ranch while Manuela took a long sabbatical. They had collectively worked on a traditional turkey and dressing meal with Nora supplying the vegetables, Adriana doing the meats, Jodi doing most of the side dishes, and Iona making the desserts.
The kitchen was large enough so they didn’t bump into one another. Most of the work was centered on the huge ovens where they were able to place a full turkey, a large ham, a few pies and some dressing. Abuela spent most of her time gently and consistently chiding Adriana on just about anything she could think of. Willie Mae was scheduled to arrive later in the afternoon with Jeff and Linc.
“Are you still working on Clint’s nerves?” Iona said. They were patiently waiting for the meal to finish, enjoying the special brandy sangria Abuela had made for the occasion.
“I’m not doing anything wrong. I’m just giving him, to quote the song, something he can feel,” Nora said.
“What was he thinking?” Adriana said. She shook her head in exasperation. “Everybody knows that he’s crazy in love with you. What could have made him make such an offer of marriage?”
“He’s a little bit afraid of the commitment, but I think he’s suffered enough. I should put him out of his misery tonight,” Nora said.
“I’d take the half-assed proposal. Hell, it’s better than a sharp stick in the eye,” Jodi said. She was normally so quiet that sometimes you forgot she was there. Tonight, with the help of Abuela’s sangria, she seemed more than able to hold her own in the conversation.
“No you wouldn’t. I grew up with you. You’re worse than either me or Nora when it comes to pure unadulterated stubbornness,” Iona said.
“That’s true. But I take a half-assed proposal so I could turn it down,” Jodi said. They chuckled some more as they nibbled on appetizers.
During dinner, served early to accommodate the football games, there was controlled chaos as the family crowded around the table. It went to pandemonium after Willie Mae arrived and immediately announced that she pregnant. Abuela was over the moon, especially when she found out that Jeff’s grandmother didn’t know yet. That ended the dinner as the old woman shooed everybody away so that she could call New York to rub it in on her nemesis.
Adriana and Ernesto were equally happy. Adriana cried a little before she turned on her sons with major mother attitude because of their lack of spouses, partners, or any relationships that would lead to more grandchildren.
Sebastian had spent most of the afternoon either with Clint, enjoying being a part of the “men” group, or with Abuela, letting her treat him like the only young child of the entire family that he was. By the time Clint and Nora were ready to go, he had already been put to bed in Abuela’s mother-in-law suite.
Nora and Clint caught a ride back to their ranch with Mano, their designated driver for the evening. Once inside the house, Nora blasted some music through the internal sound system, dancing with simple joy and pleasure.
From the smile on her face, Clint could tell that she was happy and relaxed. And he thought it was a good time to try to clear up his proposal debacle. His first attempt was easily swatted away as she danced around from the formal living room into the family room and into the kitchen, collecting wineglasses, cheese and crackers, and just in case they weren’t full enough, cookies and a big tub of ice cream.
She danced all the way into the bedroom, sitting down the tray on the foot of the bed, and carefully climbed in after she had discarded all her clothes. She popped the top off the ice cream and used the cookies as a spoon. Her smile turned into a laugh as she dribbled the melting ice cream down her chin and onto her chest.
Clint used the opportunity to lick her from her cheek to cheek, and ended it in an openmouthed kiss that tasted of cherries jubilee, ice cream, and sugar cookies.
Once he had tasted her, he couldn’t stop himself from stretching her out on the bed just to hold her. He tasted her, nibbling down to her breast, and further down until he pulled her legs apart and dove between her thighs. He sat back for long minutes, just staring at her dark outer lips before he parted them to lick her pinkish inner lips. Clint used his finger to spread her moisture around her clit before he bent to lick it out. Laying fully stretched out, he lay for several more minutes again just looking at the center of her and marveling at how much he loved this woman.
“I love you,” he said. It was slightly garbled because of the position of his head. Nora sat up on her elbows and looked down her body to where his head was. Her stillness made him look up to see if she was paying attention to what he’d said.
“Are you saying I love you to my pussy or to me inclusively?” Nora said.
“Since it’s all of a piece, I think I’m talking to every part of you. I love you from the bottom of your feet to the top of your head. There isn’t anything I don’t love about you. I love that you’re stubborn. I love that you’re smart. You’re the only person I’ve ever met in my life that can make me talk when I don’t want to. I love Sebastian, and I will love, love, love our own children. I love that you are so fiercely loyal to me and that you love me with no hesitation,” he said. He sank bank on his heels so that he could see her face. He wanted to be sure that she understood what he was saying.
Nora’s face broke into a wide grin that covered her face and extended to her eyes. “Now, was that so hard? Let’s talk about getting married sometime after Willie Mae has her baby. Right now I think I need for you to finish what you started.”
* * * *
“I don’t think he’s dead this time, Nora. But he’s sleeping like he was last time. Do you think he got hurt by one of Nick’s mantraps?” Clint lay on a sheet of ice that covered the path to the cabin where Nora and Sebastian lived. He had fallen and banged his head in a b
urst of stars and birds a few minutes ago. Now, he listened as Nora and Sebastian discussed him as if he were an interesting bit of roadkill.
“It’s not a Nick trap, he’s on his meds right now. I think he tripped and fell. Look at his boots. Dumb cowboy doesn’t know the difference between snow boots and cowboy boots. Might as well have on skates,” Nora said.
“Let’s load him up on the sled. I’ll go really slow on the snowmobile so we won’t hurt him too much.”
“His eyes are moving a little so he’s not dead,” Sebastian said. “Want me to drive while you hold him?”
“Not hardly, I’m not falling for that. You still can’t control this much horsepower.”
Clint calmly held on as Nora slowly worked her way up the mountain. Once they arrived she drove into the now-empty shed and detached the sled.
“You can open your eyes now, Clint. I can leave you out here if you like but it gets really cold out here. I don’t use the heater because I don’t have any plants.”
“You’d leave your fiancé to freeze out in the snow, just like that?”
“Just like that.”
“You’re a cruel woman, my love. Just came to get you and the kid to take you home. It’s Christmas in a few days, remember.”
“We’re supposed to spend Christmas here. Do you remember? We talked about it before you went to the Maldives. You even said ‘uh-huh,’” Nora said. She shooed Sebastian and Clint ahead of her while she closed and locked the shed.
There was little talking as they picked their way up the path that Clint remembered, but was now covered in at least a foot-and-a-half of snow. Everything had a heavy white coat of snow, as more fell from the lowered gray sky. It was beautiful and, as Clint slipped for the fourth or fifth time, deadly.
The small house was much the same as it had been in late summer, a little cooler even with a woodstove pumping heat to help the solar heating that was on. Sebastian bombarded Clint with questions about Max and the people at the ranch. Nora put out their dinner of what Clint thought was beef stew but was really rabbit, cornbread and salad. She’d put together a simple cobbler using canned peaches.