by Sable Hunter
Ethan made the formal introductions. “Alex, Bobby, this is ‘Lise Evans, uh, Ramsey. ‘ Lise, these are my brothers.” Both men came over and solemnly shook the hand that she had to pry from Ethan’s grip. “It’s wonderful to meet you both,” Annalise spoke sincerely.
As the evening progressed, it became clear to Bobby that Annalise was one special woman. They shared stories about Austin and their college days at the University of Texas and she was very interested in Longhorn football. Annalise had something in common with them – she was the owner of a miniature dachshund that looked almost like Mojo.
"He's so much company for me. I know he's not a person, but I swear that I can understand most of what he says. When he wants something to eat, he goes and stands near to where I keep whatever he wants. I know he wants a treat when he stands by the cabinet, and if he wants some of what I had for dinner, he goes and stands by the stove. And when he stands by the ‘fridge – I know he wants a butter sandwich."
Alex roared with laughter. "A butter sandwich? Annalise, no wonder he's a butterball. You're overfeeding that dog."
Annalise looked a bit guilty. "I know, but I can't seem to say no to him. It was just a bit cool the other night and he stood by the fireplace until I lit a fire for him."
"Mojo is spoiled, too." Ethan was counting on that soft heart of hers to carry over to him. He was planning on asking her to allow him in her bed, and he was hoping that she wouldn't be able to say no to his request, either.
Bobby was so taken with Annae and the change that had come over his normally sad, older brother that he spoke up without thinking. “This is great! We haven’t laughed this much since before Ethan married Francine.” All grew quite.
"You married Francine?" Annalise sounded so shocked and stricken that if Bobby could have pulled the words back, he would have. Francine had treated Annalise poorly in school. She had been the one that had cast the rod and reel carelessly toward and Ethan and Annalise had stepped in the way to keep it from hooking him in the eye. When Ethan had carried Lise to his cabin and tenderly removed the vicious fishhook from the upper swell of her breasts – Francine’s petty act had backfired on her – because that had been the moment when Ethan and Annalise had fallen in love. Francine hadn’t given up – obviously. She was the one that managed to become Mrs. Ethan Stewart.
Ethan looked miserable. "Not the smartest thing that I've ever done, I'll admit that."
“You can say that again,” Bobby chimed in. Alex punched his brother, who grunted from the blow.
Annalise attempted to place everyone at ease. “Francine is a beautiful woman.”
“She’s not as pretty as you are,” Bobby was having trouble keeping his mouth closed.
“There are many kinds of pretty, Bobby.” Annalise explained. “There is sophisticated, elegant beauty, and then there is pleasant attractiveness.”
“More correctly, there is the cool beauty of a marble statue and then there is the warm, giving, sexy, beauty of a real woman.” Ethan’s soft words seemed to affect Annalise, for she shivered in the comfortable room.
Bobby knew exactly what Ethan meant. That was the way he felt about Ceelee. All of the other women that he knew, or that had come on to him since that night seemed plastic and shallow. He wanted a woman – like Annalise – like Ceelee.
Alex got up, “Bobby, let’s take the dog for a walk, and run a check on the cabins.”
“We already did that,” Bobby protested.
“Let’s do it again.” Alex pulled his brother to his feet and Ethan and Annalise were left alone.
"I thought we were going to walk the dog." Bobby walked by Alex as they made a round by each cabin.
"They needed to be alone." Alex said simply.
"Do you miss being married?"
Alex looked over at him, as if judging his motivation for asking the question. "Bonnie and I weren't meant to be. The passion just wasn't there."
"Would you ever consider remarrying?"
Alex snorted, "The chances of that happening are less than me getting struck by a bolt of lightning, bud."
"I'll remember you said that." Bobby laughed.
*****
TWO DAYS LATER
“I‘ve been your gynecologist for years, Cecile,” Dr. Lambert looked at her oddly. “Why is today the first that I’ve ever heard of sex being painful for you?”
As she lay there spread open like a filleted fish, Cecile smiled weakly at the man who was way too good-looking to be gazing at her questionably functioning lady-parts. “I was embarrassed.”
“Our relationship is supposed to be above that sort of thing,” he lectured her in a sincere voice. “Now tell me the kind of pain that you’re experiencing.” He turned on that odd little coal-miner looking light that he wore on his forehead, took his cold tools and started peering up her pussy like he was looking in a kaleidoscope tube.
“When Carl would try and penetrate me, it would hurt.” She winced in anticipation that what the doctor was going to do would hurt, also.
“Maybe you were dry because you were not aroused,” she could feel his breath on her groin and she trembled in embarrassment.
“I wasn’t aroused at all, but this was more than discomfort from dryness, it was a sharp jabbing pain and it wasn’t constant – it was like when he was at his deepest he would touch something that was very sore.” She didn’t know if what she was saying was making any sense at all.
Cecile heard him making little studious noises, like he was finding something extremely interesting. Finally, he set up and gave her a funny look. “Cecile, I’m a man, and for a man this is a humiliating question. But since your husband isn’t here, I’m going to ask it, anyway. Was your husband well endowed?”
How far off could he be? But Carl wasn’t friends with Dr. Lambert as far as she knew, and right now she didn’t owe Carl a loof loyalty, anyway. “I was a virgin when I married, Dr. Lambert. But even I know that Carl is much smaller than average.”
“How long would you say he is – when fully erect?”
Let’s see. Could she remember back that far? It had been years since she had seen him fully erect. “Maybe, four inches – I never really measured.” Cecile wasn’t handling this conversation well – and it wasn’t even her penis!
“That is below average.” Dr. Lambert laughed an odd halfway sheepish laugh. “I know you’ve had sex, Cecile. Maybe not the best sex – but sex, nevertheless. So, what I’m about to tell you is going to sound very odd.”
“Okay.” He didn’t sound ominous. She had actually considered that she might have a tumor or even cancer.
“Cecile, Carl’s penis was short and your hymen is located a little further back in the canal than normal.”
“My hymen?” Cecile didn’t understand what the doctor was trying to tell her.
“That jabbing pain you felt was when Carl’s penis would hit your hymen. He just wasn’t long enough to pierce it.”
“What are you saying?” Cecile wanted him to spell it out.
“As unusual as this may sound, my dear. You are still a virgin.”
Cecile went home in a daze. Every once in a while she would laugh out loud. If she wasn’t a fool she didn’t know what one was. A virgin. She was a thirty-one year old virgin, who had been married for seven years! What a joke. She thought of all the cruel jibes and criticisms that Carl had taken great pleasure in flinging her way. She seriously considered calling him and telling him that his dick was so small he couldn’t even take her virginity! But she wasn’t by nature a cruel person – so she did nothing but wallow in her confusion and her self-pity. Now she knew she couldn’t ever face Bobby – or anyone like him. She was a freak.
A Few Days Later
Her cell phone rang and Cecile started to ignore it, but it just wasn’t in her nature. “Hello?”
“I love you, I love you, I love you!” Annalise was obviously beside herself with joy.
“I love you, too.” Cecile knew exactly where the source of her
happiness lay. “So; you found Ethan, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I did. You are one sneaky matchmaker, aren’t you? I couldn’t believe it when I saw him, Cecile – I love him so much!” Her voice lowered as if she were conveying secret, sacred information. “He asked me to marry him.”
“Well, of course he did.” Cecile had never doubted it. “When’s the wedding?”
“In a month, but I need you here in three weeks. You’re going to be my bridesmaid.” Cecile got a notebook and began writing down all the information that she would need to help Annalise plan her dream wedding. They had a lot of work to do.
“So everything’s okay?” This was Cecile’s way of asking about her greatest fear – that Ethan would see her scars and not want her.
Annalise’s voice shook with emotion. “He wanted to make love to me from the moment we were reunited. I wanted it, too. But as you know, I was positive that he would be repulsed by my scarring.” Letting loose a little nervous giggle, she poured her heart out to Cecile. “He was almost impossible to resist, Cecile. He let me know, without a doubt, that he wanted to pick up right where we left off. He even made me confess that I was still hopelessly attracted to him.”
“How did he wear you down?” she was sitting on the edge of her seat. Annalise’s joy had become her own.
“God, he was so sexy. He followed me to my cabin and kissed me – he kissed my breasts – he was incredible.” The sex talk between them wasn’t unusual – the difference was that this time – it wasn’t the plot of a novel they were discussing – it was ‘Lise’s life. “Then – something happened.”
“What?” Cecile couldn’t stand the suspense.
“He told me how Francine, his wife, had belittled him and told him he wasn’t a good lover.” Annalise lowered her voice. “Which was the most ridiculous thing anyone has ever said,” she reiterated emphatically. “Anyway, somehow she had discovered my books and it made her furious to find out that I had made Ethan the focus of my books. She decided to get her revenge by tearing down his sexual confidence. She told him that a dildo and one of my books brought her more pleasure than he could. Of course, Ethan didn’t realize that I was Ann Pace.”
“Good grief!” Cecile was completely caught up in Annalise’s tale. “What happened next?”
“I was recognized by one of the other guests and Ethan was upset to learn that I was the y author whose books Francine had rubbed in his face.”
“But… Ethan was the hero of the books?”
“He didn’t know that at the time. He walked off and left me – I thought he was never going to speak to me again.”
“What happened? How did you get it straightened out?”
“Alex, Ethan’s brother, had figured it out. He talked to Ethan, gave him my books and told him to read them. Then, he came to me and explained what Ethan had been going through.”
“Wow.” This was an amazing story – as good as one of their books.
“Oh, this is where the story takes a wild turn,” she laughed at herself. Annalise was so happy that she just couldn’t hold it in. “Alex asked me to prove to Ethan that he was still the man he once was – Alex asked me to seduce Ethan.”
“What?” Cecile screamed into Annalise’s ear.
“Hey!” Lise fussed. “I am on the other of that contraption. Don’t yell in my ear.”
“Sorry,” Cecile couldn’t help it – she was shocked. “Did you do it?”
“First, I explained to Alex why I couldn’t do it. I told him about the attack and the scars. But after he told me how Ethan had suffered and the doubts that he had about himself – I couldn’t stand it. I arranged with Alex to leave the door of the B&B unlocked and I went in under cover of darkness. I convinced myself that I could make love to Ethan if there was no chance that he could see my scars.”
“How was it?” Cecile asked before she thought.
Annalise groaned at the memory. “It was heavenly. We made love all night. He is the best lover in the whole world.”
“That’s right, make poor love-starved Cecile jealous.”
“That one night didn’t solve all of our problems, but it sure did open the lines of communication.” She giggled at her own joke. “Every time we made love, Ethan proved to me that we were perfect for one another. Finally, I told him about the rape and he convinced me that the only important thing was that we had found one another again.”
“I’m so happy for you, Lise.” And she meant it.
“I had a couple of close calls, too.” Annalise’s voice grew serious. “My ex-husband, Jeff, decided that he could extort money from me. He threatened me and even attacked me, twice. Ethan and his brothers made short work of him.”
“My God! Are you okay?” She had wanted to play cupid, but had never intended that she be put in any danger.
“I’m fine, and before you start questioning your role in this, remember – if I had been alone, not here at Lost Maples – I would have been helpless. Jeff might have killed me.” Letting out a relieved, happy sigh, she made Cecile feel much better. “Everything worked out perfectly, thanks to you. You are my guardian angel.”
Cecile didn’t feel like an angel. Even though she was thrilled to death for Cecile, she couldn’t help but be a tiny bit jealous. Would her dreams ever come true? Before she went to bed, Cecile knelt by her bed and prayed to find someone to love.
*****
A Couple of Weeks Later
“Who’s the cutie?” Bobby asked Ethan. He had just returned from football practice and arrived to find a mild form of chaos in his home.
“That’s Scarlet, Annalise’s sister,” explained Ethan. “Watch your brother.” Bobby turned his attention to Alex who looked like he had lost his best friend and somebody had kicked his puppy at the same time.
“What’s wrong with him? He looks sick.” Bobby, on the other hand, was feeling hope for the first time in months. He had received a call from Roscoe that he might have found Ceelee. Bobby was waiting on pins and needles, ready to leave at a moment’s notice. All he needed was an address or a telephone number and Miss Ceelee wouldn’t know what had hit her. Meanwhile, Alex looked in dire need of cheering up.
“He has a terminal case of foot-in-mouth disease. It seems that he was having a pissy day and inadvertently took it out on little Scarlet. She walked up behind him as he was explaining to me that he resented the fact that she was coming so early. He said that he was afraid she would expect to be entertained, and that she would develop a crush on you and on him. In the same breath he also managed to refer to her as a plain spinster and a homely church mouse.” Bobby’s eyes widened at the uncharacteristic behavior of his normally courteous and gentle brother.
“Good God!” Bobby whistled. “She’s gorgeous. Why would he do that?”
“He has employee problems. Apparently Rick LeBeau knows Scarlet and was filling Alex’s head with complete nonsense about her. Oh, and to top it off – the bakery that is supposed to be baking the wedding cakes burned, and the caterer is being uncooperative. All of it together had your brother in a tail-spin. Hell, I don’t know.” Ethan chuckled. “I do know that he took one look at Scarlet and fell for her like a ton of bricks. Look at his face. I’ve never seen him like this. He’s worrying himself to death, trying to make it up to her. ” Ethan and Bobby crossed their arms over their chest and leaned against the wall, watching Alex try to get Scarlet to talk to him. “You know what you ought to do?”
“What?” Bobby was game for anything that could pick at his brother – he had years of paybacks to implement.
“Go over there and greet Scarlet with a hug and a kiss. And say something to Alex that will make him think you’re attracted to her – and watch him. This will be hilarious.”
Bobby laughed at Ethan’s plan, “Remember, I would like to live to see tomorrow. I’ve had a hint of good news from Bo Roscoe on Ceelee.”
“He won’t hurt you – much.” Ethan egged Bobby on. “When do you expect to hear back from Roscoe?�
�
“He said he’d call me tomorrow or for sure the next day.”
“Good – now go flirt with my future sister-in-law and watch your brother swell up like a toad-frog.”
Taking his own life in his hands, Bobby eased over to Scarlet. Annalise saw him and did the honors. “Hey, Bobby! Scarlet this is Bobby, the younger Stewart. Scarlet, this is our sweet Bobby.”
Bobby didn’t even hesitate. He waltzed up to Scarlet and swung her up in his arms, giving her a big-ole Texas welcome. “Hey, sweetheart. It’s wonderful to meet you. We’re so glad to have you with us.” Was that growling he heard behind him? Giving Scarlet one more hug – yes, that was definitely growling. Now for the clincher. He set Scarlet down, kissed her cheek and turned to Alex and winked. “I’m in love,” he whispered.
Ethan busted out laughing as Alex’s countenance darkened like a thundercloud. “Back off, little brother.” Alex ground out under his breath.
Scarlet was passing out gifts that she had made everyone. “Bobby, congratulations on your winning career with the Longhorns. Annalise sent me a photograph of you to use as a pattern. I hope you like it.” In awe, Bobby took a tapestry from Scarlet that showed him catching a football.
“Wow! This has everything on it – I see Bevo, the band, and the cannon. There’s even Big Mack – thank you so much, Scarlet.” He hugged her again. She had made something for everybody, and Bobby was amazed to see how Alex reacted when she gave him a tapestry with an endangered whooping crane on it – one of Alex’s pet environmental projects. Alex was touched – and head over heels for the sweet Scarlet. Sadly, he felt exactly the same – for Ceelee.
*****
The Next Day