Getting Lucky

by Carolyn Brown

  "I'm not dressed for a party. I'll just wait in the house," Sally said.

  "Don't be silly. Have you had supper?"

  "I ate hours ago, but you know us Donavans. We're always hungry."

  Julie hugged her again and whispered, "Dance with him. He only stutters when he's truly in love. It's only happened once before and that was twenty years ago. And when you get tired of dancing, have something to eat."

  "Please stay," Alvie said. It came out slow and delib erate but his brown eyes begged.

  "I'd love to," Sally said. "So, Wyoming. I've always had a hankering to see that part of the world. Tell me about it while we dance, Alvie."

  Griffin was at Julie's side the moment Alvie and Sally moved to the dance floor. "Who is that?"

  "My sister. Every time she walks into a room every male's IQ drops fifty points and the stock in Viagra drops at least that much. Her name is Sally and she'll be staying a few days, if that's all right with you?"

  "Sally can stay as long as she likes. Come outside with me for a breath of fresh air. I'm getting claustro phobic with so many people around." Griffin laced his fingers in hers.

  Her first desire was to draw them back and make an excuse that she needed to stay in the barn with her sister, but one look in that direction assured her that Alvie wasn't going to let Sally out of his sight the rest of the evening. Probably not even out of his arms.

  "Why would the stock in Viagra drop?" Griffin asked. Sally was pretty and Graham would have moved in on her like flies to maple syrup, but she wasn't as beautiful as Julie.

  "Because, darlin', no one needs it when Sally is in the room. Everything works fine on the male gender when she smiles. She's two years younger than me. Interested?"

  "Not particularly, but I'm glad she's coming to visit you. It'll be lonely a few days after the party. Kind of like the days after Christmas."

  "Alvie stuttered."

  A grin split Griffin's face and the dimple in his chin deepened. "For real?"

  "He did. I think he was thunderstruck. Funny thing is, I'm not so sure she wasn't thunderstruck, too," Julie said.

  "Well, I'll be damned." Griffin's didn't care if Sally moved right into the ranch house and stayed forever, if she kept Alvie away from Julie.

  "Is it going well?" Julie asked.

  "What? Oh, you mean the party. Very, very well. The ranch made enough money on the sale to tide us over until next year without going to the bank. That's one thing Daddy and Mother preached to me and Graham when they gave us the run of the ranch: don't borrow. I haven't had to yet and the sale this year is the best I've ever had."

  "That's wonderful. You going to miss your family when they leave tomorrow? When do they come back for a visit?"

  "Not so often. They've got their own businesses to run, too. Lizzy and I usually fly down for Thanksgiving. Stay two days. Christmas we go for a couple of days. Melinda brings her boys so we're all together then. At Easter they all come here for the weekend. And then it's just random visits, whenever we can plan it on the spur of the moment. This year we didn't go for Thanksgiving and we're not going for Christmas. The thing with Chuck… well, I'm not supposed to take him that far without permission and besides, I thought he'd be more comfortable in a smaller setting," he said.

  "My parents have this little apartment above their garage. Annie and I lived in it her whole life until we moved here. Mother kept her while I taught. Summers were wonderful because I had her to myself. But my folks were always next door if I needed them. I saw my mother every day," Julie said.

  "Moving wasn't so easy, was it?" he asked.

  "Hardest thing I ever did, but the wisest," she said.

  He cocked his head to one side. "Wisest?"

  "It was time for me and Annie to make our own lives and give my parents back theirs. Even with all the catas trophes, I can still say it was wise. Annie is happy."

  He made lazy circles on the top of her hand with his thumb. "And you?"

  The sensation drove her crazy but she wasn't about to let him know. "The jury is still out. Even if it comes in not guilty of happiness, I'll still have a measure of it every time I look at Annie."

  His fist went to her chin. He tilted it up and looked deeply into her eyes before leaning forward. The kiss warmed up the cold air around them to the boiling point.

  When they broke away, she leaned into his chest wanting more.

  He threw an arm around her shoulder and said, "Take a walk with me."

  She let him lead her wherever he would.

  Griffin paced his steps to hers. Walking across grass wasn't easy in high heels.

  "What was that all about?" she asked.

  "We can share a kiss. We don't have to break it down by degrees and figure out each little thing every time I kiss you, do we? Sure takes the fun out of it," he grumbled.

  "Fun is something I'm almost as careful with as I am sex, marriage, and happiness," she said.

  He led her into the hay barn where the kittens were kept. They came running from all corners when they heard voices, meowing and rubbing around Julie and Griffin's ankles.

  "Looks like we'd better go to the loft. Can you climb in those things?" He looked at her feet.

  "I can do anything you can do," she said.

  He scrambled up the vertical ladder into the loft and she followed him, proving that a woman could indeed do anything a man could and accomplish it wearing high heels and a party gown. When she reached the top she found him sitting on a bale of hay beside the open loft doors, staring out across the land. The moon lit up the scattered trees and cattle. The house was a bulk with yellow lights flowing from windows over to the north. Music drifted from the west on the cold north wind. She drew her shawl tightly around her shoulders and shivered.

  As she started to sit down beside him, her heel caught in a loose board. He reached out and grabbed her just before she tumbled out the window. He pulled back wards and the momentum of her weight carried them both to the floor, her on top of him when they landed.

  He gasped for air and she rolled off his chest to lie beside him. Both sucked in great amounts of air trying to refill their deflated lungs. If he hadn't grabbed her hand, she could have broken her neck. She grabbed her racing heart and was glad she was lying flat on her back or she would have fainted.

  Griffin rolled to his side and brushed a strand of hay from her hair. "Are you all right? Arms? Legs? Nothing broken?"

  "I think so," she whispered. Nothing hurt except her pride. "You?"

  "I'm fine."

  He ran the back of his hand down her jaw line and leaned in for a kiss. She closed her eyes. Like two souls starved for love they hung on until neither of them could breathe. They broke away but his lips went to her ear and then that erotic soft spot under her ear that no one had ever found before. One thumb made circles as light as butterfly wings on the tender skin between her eye and hairline while his fingers caressed her forehead. The other arm went around her, touching the bare skin on her back, firing up her hormones until she melted in spite of the cold weather. It felt like the man had six hands and every one of them was touching her. She didn't want him to stop and yet knew he should. She should tell him that was enough, but she didn't want to. She wanted it all, up to and including mind-numbing sex.

  No one had ever made her feel so tingly in her life. His kisses moved to her neck. She leaned her head over to give him better access. He unfastened the hook and eye at the back of her halter top and let it fall. He took a long searing minute to look upon the porcelain skin and then started stringing kisses down her body, removing clothing as he went. His kisses were alter nately demanding and steamy and then soft and sweet as butterfly wings against her skin, his hands rendering touches as soft as cold silk caressing her. Heat and cold all mixed together to send her senses reeling and her body begging for more.

  The only thought that crossed her mind was that everyone had been wrong about Griffin. He wasn't the good twin; he was the evil one. The wolf in sheep's clo
thing. When he slipped her silk bikini panties down to her ankles and tossed them aside she was biting back moans and the only thought in her head was that she was more than ready for him to get on with the job.

  She pressed her naked body against him, arching her back to get closer and closer. But he didn't hurry. He continued to kiss, caress, and make love to Julie until she was ready to scream. When she shivered, he pulled a blanket from a nail and covered them both.

  "Don't look at me," she said.

  "Why?" he whispered.

  "The stretch marks never went away," she whispered.

  He kissed each of them. "They're not to be ashamed of. You are so beautiful, Julie," he murmured.

  When she begged him to make love to her, he told her that like her, he wasn't going to rush into anything.

  His touch created shivers in the weirdest places. She could have sworn her toenails curled and her hair straightened out when his fingertips played with the palm of her hand. The muscles in her legs quivered when he kissed the bottom of her feet. The nerves under her hair vibrated when he brushed his fingers over her breast.

  At that moment, she realized she'd had sex but she'd never truly had love made to her, and she enjoyed the passion as it took her right to the brink of heaven and back again.

  "Please," she begged.

  "Please what?" he whispered in her ear and strung another line of kisses from her neck to her waist.

  She groaned. She couldn't take anymore and he was teasing now. She'd show him what please meant and he'd be begging by the time she was finished. She rolled him over on his back and sat on his waist, pulling the blanket up over her back to keep from freezing. As if that would happen. The heat between them was so intense, she thought she'd die of a heat stroke before she ever talked him into really hot, plain old animal sex. She pushed him backwards and very, very slowly unfastened each button on his shirt, kissing the naked spots as they appeared. When his shirt was in a heap with her under pants and dress, she unbuckled his belt.

  "Hurry," he groaned.

  "Remember, I don't rush into anything. Sex…" She pulled the belt out of the loops.

  "Fun," she unsnapped his jeans.

  "Love," she unzipped them ever so slowly.

  He reached down to slip out of his jeans and she slapped his hands away. "My turn, Griffin Luckadeau. You have met your match. Sex, marriage, happiness… don't rush. It's not a destination. It's the journey," she whispered in his ear as she stretched out on top of him.

  She strung kisses downward as she slipped the jeans from his hips. It was her turn and it was too late now for either of them to stop. It was going to play out to the finish.

  By the time she finished removing his boots he was moaning. When she tossed the last sock toward the pile of rumpled clothing in the corner he reached out and took her in his arms, rolled her over in the hay, and in one swift stroke was inside her.

  It lasted longer than either of them thought it could when their bodies were screaming for release.

  *********

  "Damn!" she gasped.

  He rolled away, yet kept her snuggled into his arms. "Amen. Want to analyze that?"

  "No, I want to do it again," she said.

  "Right now? We've been gone from the party a long time."

  She put her fingers over his lips to shush him. "Shut up and be still. You've got two minutes to get ready to go again or I'll get you ready."

  He drew one of her fingers into his mouth and she gasped.

  They made it back to the barn as the band announced the last song. Griffin led her out onto the dance floor and she swayed in tune with his body. The singer finished up the night with a request from Laura which was "The Dance," an older song by Garth Brooks.

  "Fitting," she said.

  "All of it? Including the hayloft?" he asked.

  "Every bit of it," she said.

  "Are you going to say good-bye?"

  "I don't rush into good-byes, either. Like the man says, our lives are better left to chance. Who knows what tomorrow might bring? I'm tired of trying to figure it out."

  "Hey sis," Sally and Alvie danced by them.

  "Here." Sally put something in the hand Julie had around Griffin's neck.

  "What?" Julie asked.

  "Just one little piece of hay in your hair. We'll talk how it got there and about that shit eatin' grin on your face later. I'll bring the beers. You keep the light burning."

  Chapter 15

  SALLY'S HAIR WAS WRAPPED IN A TOWEL AND SHE WORE A T-shirt and cotton underpants. She eased into the room to find her sister sitting up in bed, her knees drawn up like she always did when she was trying to think her way through a problem.

  Sally propped two pillows against the headboard and settled in for a visit. "I found the bathroom because the door was open and had a shower. Then I found your room because the light was showing under the door."

  "Why did you quit your job?" Julie asked.

  "Do you believe in fate?" Sally asked.

  "What's that got to do with quitting your job?"

  "Everything. I don't believe in fate. Never did. Thought it was the biggest bunch of hogwash in the world. Then Momma called and told me about this thing you are going through with the Luckadeaus. Still didn't believe in it. Coincidence explained it all. I got to admit it was a hell of a lot of coincidence, but still—fate? No way, sister." Sally poked Julie in the ribs.

  "So now you do or now you don't?" Julie poked back.

  "Do you?" Sally asked.

  "Didn't, but I might be changing my mind," Julie said.

  "Okay, hear me out. When you moved here I thought you were crazy like Aunt Flossie. Figured she saw the trait in you and that's why she left you all that money. I couldn't understand why you'd leave Jefferson. Apartment where the rent was never going up; Momma to take care of Annie; Daddy to fix your car or your garbage disposal. Now I think fate brought you here."

  "Okay," Julie said.

  "There's more. If you hadn't already been here I wonder if Eli would have taken that job in Bowie?"

  "Eli is moving to Bowie?" Julie had no idea he was even considering a move from east Texas.

  "In a month. He preached at the church there a few weeks ago. The Sunday after Momma and Daddy came for your festival. So you came to Saint Jo and Eli got the courage to leave Linden. He met a woman from here, too. I'm not supposed to tell you because she's your friend and Momma says it might be meddling. Her name is Mamie and they've been out to dinner three times and he's laughing again."

  Julie threw up her hands. "Hold on. Eli and Mamie?" So that's why she hadn't seen much of Mamie the past—how long? She had seen her at the festival and when Dian tried to kidnap Annie. But it had been days since they'd talked, what with the sale and the party and the obnoxious Luckadeaus taking so much of her time.

  Sally gave a minute to digest that and went on, "Yep, Eli and Mamie. It's looking serious from Momma's standpoint. It's the first woman he's even been interested in since Teresa died."

  Julie still had trouble believing it. "Mamie?"

  "That's what Momma called her. I thought she said Amy at first, but she corrected me and said the lady's name is Mamie. Think I could meet her while I'm here?"

  "How long are you staying?"

  "How long are you going to let me without telling Momma?"

  Julie giggled. "Forever. Come with me. I've got something to show you."

  "Other than that handsome hunk that has to be Annie's father? How'd you find him? Is that the reason you moved here?"

  Julie grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the door. They tiptoed to the next room and Julie opened the door quietly and led her to the bed. Two little girls with white streaks were side-by-side, holding hands even in their sleep.

  "Which one is Annie?"

  "In the blue," Julie said.

  "He had a wife while he was having sex with you?"

  "No, Annie is not Griffin's child. She's his twin brother's. That one is Lizzy. She belongs to
Griffin. Annie belongs to Graham."

  "This gets weirder and weirder. I think I hear spooky music playing in my head," Sally said.

  By the time they got back into Julie's room, Sally had unwrapped her head and wet strands of damp, deep-red hair flowed down her back. She settled in again and started, "I only got a glimpse of Annie's real father as you two were leaving the bar that night, but I like the twin with the hair better. I can see where the white streak came from for sure. And I met the grandmother briefly. Alvie introduced me."