by Madyson Grey
One evening in late March, Rafael had had an especially busy day. There had been a small problem over at the park with getting the identification signs painted for the natural portion of the park. It wasn’t anything huge, but it had kinda set him on edge. Then he’d had trouble getting the quad started when he wanted to leave the park.
By the time supper was over, and he and Victoria had retreated to their master suite for the night, all he could think about was releasing his frustrations in a long-awaited session of lovemaking. He undressed and followed Victoria into the shower. He put some liquid shower gel into the palms of his hands and began to massage Victoria’s back.
“Mm-mmm, that feels so good,” she said with a contented sigh.
His hopes arose, along with his manhood, as he anticipated what could lie ahead. He continued his ministrations, soaping her arms, legs, and reaching around to her belly and breasts. He pressed himself up against her so there could be no doubt what was on his mind.
Victoria turned in his arms, put her arms around his neck, and tilted her head up, inviting him to kiss her. He needed no second invitation. She responded to his kiss far more passionately than she had ever since her rape. He knew he still needed to be careful, go slow, and be very gentle.
Just as he thought he couldn’t wait another second, he made his move to enter her. She froze in his arms, but didn’t pull away. He hesitated, but then continued to slowly slide his manhood into her secret place. She didn’t move. Didn’t respond with her former passion. But he continued on with his entrance until he was fully inside her.
He just stood there for what seemed like an eternity to him, but was in reality about fifteen seconds. He looked Victoria in the eyes. She had a deer-in-the-headlights look in her eyes that broke his heart.
“Please, my love,” he begged in a hoarse whisper. “Please. It’s been so long. I need you.”
She didn’t move. He bent his head to kiss her lips. Her response was minimal. His left hand caressed her soft bottom, and his right stroked her back, trying to relax and calm her. Slowly, ever so slowly, he felt her begin to let go and meld into his embrace. He made a slow, gentle thrust, and then another, and then another.
She didn’t respond, but she didn’t resist him, either. When he reached his peak, she made the first move she had made since he had first entered her. She stroked his back with her hands, even caressing his buttocks.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered into his neck.
“Sorry for what?” he whispered back.
“For being such a basket case. I know I should be able to put it behind me. I want to. I want to enjoy sex again. I miss it in one way, and in another, I’m afraid. But it wasn’t as bad as I had feared. You didn’t hurt me. Nothing was the same. Nothing reminded me of that awful time. I think I will get better from now on.”
She paused and gathered courage to look him in the eyes.
“I’m so sorry I’ve made you unhappy. I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to hold out on you. I just … I just … couldn’t.”
“Sshh,” he whispered. “You haven’t made me unhappy in the least. Frustrated, maybe, but not unhappy. I don’t want to you to be afraid of making love to me. This is us, baby. You and me. Not some creep. I promise to still take it slow and easy, but I think you’ve made a breakthrough tonight.”
“Yeah, I think I have, too,” she agreed.
He kissed her tenderly, hoping that all the love he felt for this vulnerable woman he held in his arms would be felt by her. They finished their showering and got into bed.
Holding her close, Rafael asked, “Can we try it again, my love?”
She was silent for a brief moment, then turned her face to his.
“Yes, we can try again.”
This time, when he entered her, she tried to respond with her body. She still felt no real passion, but she wanted to pleasure him anyway. Her pleasuring would come in time. She hoped.
After his release, they just held each other for several minutes before relaxing into a comfortable sleeping position. It was a new beginning.
Chapter Nine
The first week of April, Rafael and Victoria flew up to Portland, Oregon, to inspect the four buildings they owned in that city. They had taken the earliest flight they could, and so arrived just after nine o’clock. They rented a car at the airport, and with the aid of GPS, they drove straight to the first one.
It was a tall, old building right downtown on Burnside. It housed three retail businesses on the ground floor—a small espresso shop, an insurance office, and a hairdresser. The next four floors up held a variety of professional offices such as dentists, optometrists, lawyers, the Republican Party headquarters, and others. The top five floors were all small one-bedroom apartments.
They spent all morning just making the rounds in that one building. Victoria took copious notes as they spoke with each tenant. Almost without exception, the occupants of each unit were very impressed that the owner of the building cared enough to come and meet them and ask what, if any, problems they were having.
Even though it was an old building, it was in remarkably good condition. David Thornton had cared about his properties, and had invested in them to keep them sound, as free from problems as possible, and as safe as possible. The Riveras fully intended to follow in his footsteps.
They finally talked to the last tenant at twelve-thirty. They were starved by that time, and so, at the recommendation of the insurance agent on the ground floor, they drove a couple of blocks to a little hole-in-the-wall sandwich shop. They were not disappointed.
Strength renewed, they set off to find the second building. It was supposed to be just a few blocks away. After getting frustrated with the one-way streets, and having trouble finding a parking space, they finally made their way inside a twelve-story building that was all office spaces from the ground up to the seventh floor, and then apartments from there on up. One exception was a jewelry store on the ground floor.
This building took all afternoon to get around to everyone. They found that a lot of the apartment renters weren’t at home during the afternoon. So they slipped a form letter that they had composed at home under the doors of each apartment where there was no one home.
With this building completed, they set out to find a hotel. Thanks to the knowledge of the girl inside their GPS, they found a nice place within about fifteen minutes. Fortunately, it had a restaurant inside, as they were hungry again.
The next morning, they were up and at it again, and found the third building in record time. This one was only a five-story building over in northeast Portland. It primarily housed doctors of one persuasion or another. This building didn’t take as long, not only because it was smaller, but because the doctors were busy and didn’t want to spend much time talking with them.
The fourth building was over across the Willamette River and Interstate 5 on Barbur Boulevard. It was a strip building with a mixture of twelve retail and professional offices. It didn’t take long either, and they had plenty of time to drive back to the airport, turn in their rental car, and wait for their evening flight home.
On the flight home, they went over their notes and flagged the units that had fixable issues. Things like outdated restrooms, or flooring that needed to be replaced. That sort of thing. They would compose letters to each of the building managers authorizing them to do the needed repairs, and giving them a generous budget so that quality work could be done.
They had talked with each building manager in person about the importance of hiring professional workmen and using quality materials so that each one understood what his duty was in that regard. The work would be done, and the bills sent to Thornton-Rivera Enterprises to be paid. It was too easy for temptation to set in, and inferior work to be done while extra funds ended up in the wrong pockets.
For the next week and a half, they concentrated on Thornton Park and how it was coming along. The barn was built and painted a traditional barn red. The depot was completed and the
gift shop partially stocked. The train track was laid and the miniature train was sitting at the station, just waiting an engineer to guide it along the tracks.
The formal gardens were in, and the flowers were beginning to bloom. The informational signs were scattered throughout the woods and the natural areas of the park. The main thing left was to hire employees, and to secure the animals. But they couldn’t bring in animals until there was someone there to care for them.
As part of the original blueprints for the property, there were three double-wide manufactured homes cleverly hidden on the property behind a wall of trees and bushes. These homes would soon house two animal wranglers, and a park general manager. The wranglers would double as assistant managers.
This was going to be the most difficult part—hiring the type of people that they wanted to be a part of their park family, as they were calling it. First and foremost, the right person had to be honest and dependable. Second, they had to be people persons and be able to interact with the visitors in a professional, yet down-home friendly manner. Third, they had to have business savvy, and animal husbandry know-how.
The duties of the general manager would be to oversee the operations of the park and make certain that everyone was doing his or her job properly, and that everything and every animal was in tip-top shape, or know the reason why not.
They would hire only couples to fill the positions of the three live-in employees. In both couples, the men would take charge of the farm and farm animals while the women tended the farmhouse, giving the guided tours, and scheduling the various pioneer activity demonstrations. The two couples would share duties and give each other days off.
The wife of the general manager would run the gift shop. The remainder of the necessary staff would be hired to come in daily, but not live on the premises. Victoria would be the buyer for the gift shop, and of course, Rafael would be the top dog overseeing the entire operation.
They had asked Lena if she was interested in working at some position in the park, even as a part-time relief person. She could work the gift shop or the ticket booth, or whatever she liked, if she wanted to at all. She had jumped at the chance to work in the gift shop two days a week. So that was settled.
Lena’s dad had improved to a point after breaking his hip back in January, but then hit a plateau where no more progress was to be made. It had taken the Ericksens until April to decide that maybe it was in their best interest to take Rafael and Victoria up on their kind offer to come and live in the house on their property.
So it was that in mid-April, a moving van pulled up to the Ericksens home of 4o-some years, three men hopped out and loaded up the furniture and the boxes that Signe Ericksen had so carefully packed. Within the hour, the moving van pulled up to their new home and the men began unloading what they had just loaded.
Lena helped her mom direct the men as to where the furniture should go and what room each box should be placed in. Within a couple of hours it was all done, except for the chore of unpacking. Lena and her mom got the bed made and the clothes hung up in the closets. That was the most urgent things to do.
Next, they unpacked the bathroom things and got them put away. The kitchen was next, beginning with the food and the basic dishes. Erik Ericksen was unable to help, which frustrated him to no end. He did manage to unpack his collection of sailing ship models and place them in the shelving unit that he had made especially to hold them.
By suppertime, the women were tired and hungry, and so was Erik. Lena insisted that she drive them down to a nearby café and buy them some supper. They were too tired and hungry to protest.
It took the better part of a week to get the Ericksens settled into their new home, everything unpacked and put away, and for them to begin getting used to a new place. They had to admit that it was nice to be just a five-minute walk away from Lena. Rafael and Victoria made it clear to them that they were welcome to come up and visit Lena anytime they wanted to. They were welcome to use the swimming pool, too. Lena and Victoria both thought that the water might do Erik some good.
Victoria had gone down and helped a little bit, but she felt like she was more in the way than she was help, so she did her part by fixing food several times and taking it down to them.
After they were all settled, Lena and Victoria drove them over to the park to take a look at what all was going on there. They were on the verge of being ready to open. They just had to do a little more hiring. They still needed a third person to work the ticket booth and a third train engineer.
The third week of April Rafael and Victoria flew to Dallas to do their building inspections there. They rented a car to run around in. The buildings there were of a moderate size. One was four stories and the other was six stories high. These two buildings were all business units; no apartments.
They got them both done the day they arrived, then took a commuter flight to Houston, where they again got a rental car to go inspect the one building they had in that city. The building in Houston was ten stories, and a mix of business and apartments. It took them the better part of the day to do it.
On the spur of the moment, they decided to drive from Houston to New Orleans. They had been working hard and decided that they could use a day’s vacation. They spent the night in Lake Charles, Louisiana. It was only a couple of hours east of Houston and put them over a third of the way to New Orleans. The next morning they covered the remaining 200-plus miles on in to New Orleans, where they did their one building inspection. Then they were ready to fly home and back to working on Thornton Park.
The three couples who would run the farm had been hired and were in the process of moving in. They had been able to find the perfect people, or so it appeared at the outset. Only time would tell, but they came with excellent credentials.
Jim and Jan Williams had both been raised on farms, and had farmed after they were married. They had raised their family and were now looking for a new phase to their lives. This seemed like the perfect move for them. The five acres that would be their joint responsibility with the two other couples was nothing compared to the 500-acre place they had farmed in Nebraska.
Ted and Darlene Carsten had a similar background, only they had had a cattle and horse ranch in Texas for thirty years. Ted had been thrown from an unbroken horse one too many times, and was too stove up to run a big ranch anymore. But he could sure putter around a little one like Thornton Park, and talk to kids about animals.
Darlene and Jan both knew all about farm gardening, canning, and making do. The two couples hit it off right from the start and knew that they would have fun working together.
Mickey and Sarah Dixon were the general manager couple, and the last of the three to arrive, lock, stock, and barrel. Mickey had a couple of degrees in business management, plus twenty-five years of real-life experience in management. Plus, he had grown up on a Kansas wheat farm, so he knew something about farming, too.
Sarah had been a museum curator, so she was perfect for being in charge of the farmhouse, with Jan and Darlene under her. Sarah would also be in charge of the gift shop, with a couple of other cashiers working under her. The first time that Rafael and Victoria met with the three couples, they were impressed that they had made good choices.
The three couples secretly joked about this young city couple trying to mastermind a pioneer farm, but they took it all in stride and agreed that it was a great idea. Rafael also had made it clear to them that it was because they were city folk that they needed the experienced workers to do the actual work.
The first week of May, Rafael and Victoria took an early flight to Memphis, Tennessee, arriving there just before noon. The three-hour time difference took a bite out of their day. They owned two buildings in Memphis to inspect, which took all the rest of that day, and part of the following morning. They drove the two hundred miles to Nashville, arriving there by noon. The three buildings they owned in Nashville took them that afternoon plus all the next day to inspect.
They flew o
ut of Nashville on Thursday morning and arrived back in LA just a little over an hour after they left Nashville. Well, it was actually nearly a four-hour flight, but due to crossing several time zones, when they landed in LA it was 10:15 in the morning Pacific Daylight Time. They had left Nashville at 9:05 Eastern Daylight Time.
All that was left now at Thornton Park was to gather up some animals. Rafael left that to the two farmers to choose the best animals they could find. They preferred baby animals, at least to begin with, so the visitors could pet and touch and interact with the animals. Jim and Ted understood perfectly what the needs were and set about finding the animals.
They barely had time to squeeze in a flying trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Denver, Colorado, to do their inspections before the grand opening of Thornton Memorial Pioneer Farm and Botanical Gardens. But squeeze it in, they did. As there was only one building in each of those cities, they were only gone two days. They flew to Albuquerque first, got that building done, hopped a commuter up to Denver, and spent the night. The next morning they took care of the Denver property, and flew home that afternoon.
It was too close to opening the park to spend time sightseeing in those two cities. However, they agreed that they would find the time later on to go back. Right now, however, the park demanded their full and undivided attention.
On opening day, there would be two beautiful little Jersey calves and a mama Jersey cow, a couple of lambs, a miniature goat, a very docile donkey, a dozen assorted hens, one friendly rooster, a pair of white ducks, a pair of rabbits, and a team of black Percherons that were broke to the plow.
Opening day was slated for the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. Rafael had done due diligence in advertising on TV, radio, and Internet. As with any new enterprise, one always hopes for the best, but fears the worst. What if only a few showed up? What if no one came? What if all this money was wasted and no one wanted to visit a pioneer farm on the edge of Los Angeles?