“And we don’t mind staying in the mobile home,” Woody added with a grin at Fiona.
“Have they seen the mobile home?” Allyssa asked her wife. She was slightly alarmed. She hadn’t realized they would be staying on the ranch with them.
“He’s kidding. That is only in the event an emergency arises. They need this place as a centralized location for the animals they currently have spread out at other places. People can come here, they can help the horses, including our horses, and they can train the horses and the people,” Fiona explained.
They discussed things until dinnertime when the couple said they had to be going. They were looking for a house to rent in Sweetwater and knew the couple would have a lot to discuss.
“Why didn’t you tell me they were coming?” Allyssa asked after they left and the two women had begun to put dinner together.
“They finally got hold of me at my last ranch stop, and I agreed to meet them here. I’ve talked to them a couple times, and you and I did talk about allowing therapists to help the horses,” she pointed out.
“Have you talked to others? What is their reputation?”
“They have excellent reputations. They know what they are doing, and they just need a chance.”
“Maybe we should have named this ranch Second Chance?” she teased.
“Maybe,” her wife smiled at the suggestion. All through dinner they discussed the pros and cons of having therapy horses on the ranch, the couple training them, and what these changes would mean to their ranch and life. Allyssa liked her quiet life on the ranch with only occasional incursions, but Fiona worried she was alone too much. She also didn’t want too many horses kept on the ranch indefinitely; the end goal was supposed to be finding them homes. One or two horses had found their forever homes. The agreement was they could never be sold or given away, and if something arose, they’d be returned to the ranch. A couple horses were unmanageable. They had been too badly damaged, but the therapy couple were even willing to try working with those horses. They’d performed miracles before with their horses.
“Does this mean we will be getting more horses?”
Fiona nodded. “And a donkey.”
“A donkey?”
“Yeah, Rhonda adopted a depressed donkey a couple years ago. It had been caring for a younger donkey that died, and it fell into a state of depression. She and the owner decided a change of scenery was a good idea and she rescued it. The ranch where they are keeping some of their animals isn’t set up to handle things the way they want, so I suggested they consolidate and relocate here. That’s why they are looking at a house rental in Sweetwater.”
“A depressed donkey. Who would have thought?”
“Well, you know, I have treated a depressed dog or two in the past.”
“Yeah, I know animals get depressed like humans, but it is a funny concept when you first hear of it.”
As they finished dinner, Allyssa remembered to tell her wife about Conservation Cellular.
“I don’t know if I want one of those eyesores on our land,” Fey admitted honestly.
“He showed me a map of where they want to build the tower. It’s not near the ranch yard, and I don’t think we will be able to see it from here.”
“Still, it’s the idea. I’ve heard that you can get cancer from those wires.”
“Really?”
She nodded. “Still, it might be a good idea to see what Henry has to say about it.”
Henry thought the idea and the income it would generate were a great idea when Allyssa heard back from him. She also heard back from Blake Dalden, who asked if she wanted the contract sent directly to the ranch, mailed to their post office box, or sent to their lawyer. She opted for the ranch since she wanted to read through it before sending it on to Henry. She was glad she did. The contract was two inches thick! Reading through it, she had a few questions for Henry, which she tagged with post-it notes. Showing it to Fiona, she could see her wife was even less enthused.
“All that legal mumbo jumbo,” she griped.
“That’s so they cover all their bases. And that’s why we have Henry…to cover all our bases.”
“What’s that?” she asked, seeing the protruding sticky notes.
“Those are my questions and comments. I want Henry to explain some things to me.”
“Good idea.”
“Do you want to read it?”
“Not really, but I suppose I should.”
They spent several evenings going over the contract. They discussed some of the finer points they didn’t understand. Thank goodness Henry did. Once Fiona dropped the contract at his office, he got back to them within a week and explained the various points they wanted clarified. Only a few things had to be changed to their benefit, and within a month, the entire contract had been signed by both parties. Conservation Cellular sent a crew out a month later to prepare the platform for the cellular tower before it got too cold to lay the concrete. Their first check came in a month later, before the tower was even built, and they were both pleasantly surprised. Allyssa deposited it immediately. It would provide them with a buffer against leaner times.
The chosen location for the tower was far enough from the house that they neither saw nor heard the construction workers. The cellular company’s trucks entered the ranch from the back, and they erected the platform and fenced the area to keep out the cattle. They also erected a small, well-built hut for their electronics. The tower was being assembled using cranes. It would take months to finish, but they hoped to be up and running before winter or in the spring at the latest. There were amazingly few wires for such a high tower, and they could be strung after it was all set and the other towers were up. That might take a bit longer as not everyone was as quick to sign as the Herriots. Allyssa and Fiona didn’t mind…they had their first check.
“One of the workers is complaining about a bull that keeps trying to chase them away,” Blake Dalden called before they were finished building the tower.
“Yes, there are cattle out there,” Allyssa sympathized.
“Is there any way you can herd them away from the building site?”
“No, I’m sorry. They are wild cattle.”
He sighed and thanked her for her time before hanging up. Allyssa laughed when she told Fiona about the call. They should probably plan a round-up of the various cattle they now owned. They’d informed people of the various brands they had seen, but few, if any, had come out to retrieve their cattle. A couple had even sent them letters giving them rights to the few head of cattle in the mixed herd. Effectively, they had sold the cattle to them. That had been a surprise.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Fiona came home after a long, cold day and was surprised when her door opened and her wife climbed in the cab as she pulled up to the gas pumps.
“What’s this? Something wrong?” she asked, as Allyssa pushed her back in the seat and straddled her.
“Nothing wrong, babe. I missed you,” she confessed as she took her wife’s face in her cold hands and began to kiss her passionately.
Having been deprived of her wife’s amorous attentions for months while she fought morning sickness, this was a nice surprise. She couldn’t help but respond, despite the chill of the open cab door.
Allyssa kissed her wife passionately, her tongue fencing with the doctor’s as she rubbed her slightly rounding body against her wife sensuously. She was rewarded with a gasp as she reached in her wife’s jeans, seeking skin and more with her questing fingers.
“What have you been thinking about?” she whispered as she found how wet Fey was.
“You,” she admitted, squirming, so Allyssa could access her more easily.
Allyssa lifted the plaid shirt instead of unbuttoning it, and then raised the long underwear, finding Fiona’s heated skin for her hand to caress. She could feel her stomach rising and falling as the doctor gasped in air. Fiona hissed through her teeth as Allyssa found her breast and plunged into the bra cupping them.
“Oh, baby,” she whispered, enjoying the assault on her body. She was helpless against the unexpectedness of it all and relished being taken by her young wife. She could tell Allyssa was a tigress as she ground her crotch against her jeans and plunged her hand between Fey’s legs.
Just as Allyssa was coming on top of her and Fey’s mouth wrapped around a nipple, still tonguing it fiercely, they realized they had an audience in the form of two cats and a dog. Rex kept turning his head sideways at the noises emanating from his humans. He had heard the noises before, but he hadn’t really seen them behaving in such a manner.
“What the hell was that?” Fey gasped as they finished.
“I didn’t hear you objecting. In fact, I heard a few yeses in there somewhere,” she informed her, amused.
“Oh, I was not objecting…not in the least,” she grinned.
* * * * *
Turnabout was fair play, and in the next month, as Allyssa’s sexual appetite increased, Fey took advantage: once, in the barn, to their mutual enjoyment, and once, in their kitchen when she snuck up behind the tall blonde and bent her over the counter. She pulled at her wife’s jeans to expose her tight, little ass and plunged her fingers inside, pleased when her wife cried out in enjoyment. She thrust in her until she was nearly dry, encouraged by the mewing sounds of her excitement, her own crotch soused from the enjoyable incident. She eased her own pent-up frustrations by turning Allyssa, kissing her passionately, and dropping her own jeans, grinding against her wife, who immediately plunged her fingers inside the naughty doctor.
“Are you crazy?” Allyssa asked afterward, incredulous at her audacity. “Anyone could have seen us.” She pulled up her jeans and buttoned the front, zipping them.
“Yes, I’m crazy,” she admitted. “Crazy for you,” she nuzzled the last of that comment into her wife’s hair and neck as she tried to pull up her own jeans.
As Allyssa came down from the insanity that had just ensued, her chest heaving, she looked out the kitchen window in time to see that coyote she’d been watching for. He was watching them through the window from a little rise in the hill behind the house.
“What the hell?” she exclaimed, reaching for her gun.
For a second, Fiona thought her wife had gone crazy as she brushed her away, grabbed her gun, and reached for the back door. She pulled the gun from its holster and slipped off the safety as she aimed and fired, pulling the trigger as she pointed the gun.
“What is it?” she asked, alarmed.
“It’s that damn coyote that’s been after the chickens,” she replied as she hurried out without a jacket.
Fiona grabbed both their jackets as she rushed out after her wife, zipping up her jeans.
They both struggled into their jackets as they hurried to see if Allyssa had hit the coyote. They found it on its side panting in the cold fall rain. Allyssa, tears falling from her eyes, put it out of its misery.
“I’ll go get a shovel, so we can bury it,” Fiona said, squeezing her wife’s shoulder out of compassion. She knew she hadn’t wanted to kill the animal, but it was either the coyote or their chickens, and the chickens were just starting to lay eggs. She fastened the button on her jeans and smiled as she thought over the last twenty minutes or so. She didn’t mind the walk to the barn for the shovel.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
It took four trips for their therapy couple, as Allyssa was calling Woody and Rhonda, to get their animals installed at the ranch. They had quite a menagerie: ten horses, one donkey, and a Great Dane named Rocky. Rex was pleasantly surprised when Rocky repeatedly returned with his owners and wasn’t just in and out for treatment. It was unusual for Rex to meet a dog larger than himself, but he soon learned to enjoy romping with Rocky. At first, Rex didn’t understand that this new dog was allowed around his family of animals. Repeated admonishments from Allyssa, who kept him firmly in check, were the only reason he allowed the new people and dog around the animals. Allyssa earned Rhonda’s respect when she learned Allyssa hadn’t grown up around animals and all her knowledge and skills with the animals and running the clinic had been learned on the job. They both watched as Rex learned from Rocky about the new animals now under their care.
“Rocky thinks of himself as a therapy dog,” Rhonda informed her. They watched as he greeted each of the horses and mutual grooming ensued. “I suspect Rocky thinks he is a horse, not a dog.” Anyone who met Rocky was intimidated by his size at first but was soon petting the large beast.
As all the new animals were getting settled in their new home, Fiona and Allyssa received an offer for the cria. Talking it over, they decided to sell the cute, little guy. They would miss him but would be pleased to finally get paid for the services Fiona had performed last year. His llama mama was not thrilled with all the activity going on around her, and she was even less thrilled at the loss of her baby. She cried for him repeatedly, so Fiona loaded her up in her trailer and took her to be bred. They’d already missed one cycle and there was no point in missing another. They would take advantage of the timing; a distraction was in order.
“So, you are going to be llama breeders, eh?” Woody teased the doctor when he saw her.
“No,” she shrugged. “It just makes sense right now. It’s either that or sell her, which might be a good option at some point in the future.” Still, they were sad to see the little cria go. He’d been so cute and entertaining since he was born. They’d gotten a good price for him because of his pedigree, and the price of breeding the mama to the same stud meant they’d get a lot more money back on their investment. Since the stud was local, it was easier to bring her to him instead of buying sperm.
Allyssa didn’t mind having the unmarried therapy couple around. When asked about their domestic situation, they preferred the phrase ‘living in sin.’ They found that hilarious and pointed out they didn’t have the legal entanglements other married couples did. “No offence,” she said when telling Allyssa.
“None taken,” she answered, although she loved Fiona and relished being her wife. She wouldn’t trade that security for anything this couple had. She watched them work with their horses and some of the thoroughbreds from Sweetwater Rescue too. They were calm and compassionate while teaching the various horses.
“You aren’t getting rid of my horse, are you?” one of the 4-Hers worried when he saw his favorite horse being worked on by the therapists.
“Lenny, these horses are for everyone, and we have to make sure they are safe to ride,” Allyssa admitted. She wasn’t going to tell him they would sell it if they got a decent offer. The 4-H moms and dads realized it though. While they were all working towards the Christmas caroling, they knew the ranch was not a charity. The horses could be used while they were there, but eventually, they would be sold to good homes.
Two weeks before Halloween, they were working with two of the sturdier horses, preparing them to pull the wagon that would carry the 4-Hers in Sweetwater to promote the club and give the kids a novel way to go trick-or-treating. Allyssa had arranged for one of the parents to pull the wagon into town, and she would load up the two horses in their horse trailer. As she was inspecting the wagon, she got a deep scratch on her leg from a piece of metal that was sticking out. Going into the barn, she brought back tin shears and snipped off the metal, hammering it back in safely, so no one else would get hurt. She quickly patched herself up and forgot about it.
The following week, her wound became hotter and hotter to the touch despite her washing it and applying antiseptic. Allyssa began to feel feverish but put it down to the stress of getting ready for Halloween. She’d gotten so many calls for Fiona, her wife hadn’t been home in three days, and it looked like that weekend was going to be just as busy. The therapy couple wasn’t planning on working that weekend and for once, no 4-Hers were coming out to the ranch. Allyssa was looking forward to the alone time with Rex and hoping her wife would be able to come home and join her.
As Allyssa fed the chickens and the horses in
the barn and out in the corral, she couldn’t help noticing how badly her leg her hurt. She was limping. And when she sat down in the barn, exhausted, she realized how red and tender her leg had gotten. Gingerly pulling up her jeans, she eased off her boot and was shocked at how bright the discoloration around the wound had become. She knew that meant infection. She wiped her brow, the heat of her fever causing her to sweat despite the cool, fall air. Then, as she tried to put her boot back on, she fell over from her exertions. “Shit,” she swore, hoping she hadn’t hurt anything and grateful she’d fallen on her side and not her slightly protruding belly. Still, a jar like that could cause harm. She laid there a moment trying to get her breath back when suddenly, she became aware of a buzzing sound. When she came to, it was a lot darker and later in the day. Alarmed, she found Rex lying next to her. As awareness returned, she heard his tail thumping, and he licked her. Weakly pushing at his avid tongue didn’t help. He was concerned and wanted her to know he was there for her.
Disoriented, Allyssa slowly sat up, aware of the heat rising from her body and wondering why her boot wasn’t on. Then, she remembered trying to pull the boot back on. She glanced around, wondering how the boot had gotten across the walkway of the barn. She went to stand up but was weak and unable to pull herself up. Crawling, she managed to get to the boot but once there, she couldn’t remember why it was so important. Glancing around, she saw the phone down the passageway and thought she should make her way there. When she finally managed to crawl that far, she was so fatigued she had to sit with her back against the wood of the stall, and she was panting from her exertions.
Rex thumped his tail, trying to encourage her and walking with her as she crawled. She glanced at the regal dog. He stood tall and looked so serious and dignified. He was calm and quiet, waiting patiently for his human to move.
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