Cowboy Double-Decker (22 page)

Candy rushed the few steps needed to engulf Kaela in a quick hug.

“We’re a lot to handle, even without two men being a nuisance.”

“Living here will be like a working vacation.” Kaela hugged Candy with her wrists, keeping her potato-juiced hands away.

“Wait—you’re not pregnant and the doctor’s ordered bed rest or anything bad?”

“What? No!” Candy backed away, eyes wide and hands up, waving away the possibility. “I want more children, but first I need to finish my college degree. April’s when the semester ends.”

“College? That’s great!”

“The Double R can pay you a salary—”

“No!” Kaela shook her head and returned to her potato pile. “Let me pretend this is my home. By the end of April I’ll have enough money to buy a home and set up my business.”

“What, you’re planning on winning the Super Ball?”

Candy, her mood a thousand times lighter, bounced on her toes as she pulled salad makings from the glass-fronted industrial fridge. The clear door saved countless reminders to the men to close the door while they thought over whether anything inside was worth eating.

“No. In April I finally get access to my inheritance,” said Kaela.

“Not to be rude and insensitive, but who died?” said Candy after a few minutes of slicing and dicing.

“My parents, when I was five. They were t-boned at an intersection and died instantly. They were on their way to pick me up at a birthday party. I never saw them or my home again.”

“Oh, Kaela, I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. I barely remember them.” She shrugged. “I just wish I was adopted by a nice couple rather than nasty relatives.” She turned and shook the peeler at Candy as if it was an admonishing finger.

“Make sure you have a great set of guardians picked out for your girls.”

“That’s why we’re determined to have a polyamorous marriage.

With four parents, our children will always have someone to love
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them. None of us had a wonderful childhood, but our kids will. So, you’re getting money in April?”

“Yeah, on my twenty-fifth birthday. It’s not a fortune, but enough for a down payment on a tiny home in a small town. I’ll finally have my own home. Somewhere safe that no one can ever take away. I’ll fix it up the way I want, make friends, and fit in as part of the community.”

“I had parents, but I was more of an afterthought to them,” said Candy quietly. “As soon as I felt settled, we’d move again. Of course, things got lost along the way.”

Kaela stared at the potatoes, her hands still. “I was told I owned nothing, not even myself. That as my guardians they could do to me whatever they wanted as long as nothing could be proven. Never broken bones or visible bruises. But I’d be given something, like a nice dress to wear if they had visitors. I’d come home from school and find it got accidentally ripped in the wash. Or somehow red paint dripped on it. Anything I liked was destroyed.”

She turned to Candy. “I need security. A home of my own with pretty things. Something that no one can take from me. A tiny house on a small lot with a garden and a yard for Scotty to play in. Good neighbors and,” she shrugged. “Just call it the white picket fence dream.”

“Got ya. Been there, done that, and here I am.” Candy opened her arms and looked around the room. “I wanted a husband that loved me as much as I did him. When Adam didn’t show it after a few months, I knew I had to leave the home of my dreams right away. ’Cause if I stayed any longer, the beauty of the Double R and the love I had for Adam and Bryan would make me want to stay. And that would have eventually destroyed my love. Luckily, the idiotic man came to his senses in time, though he had to think I was dead before he’d admit it.”

“Speaking of idiotic men, please, don’t tell anyone—especially Bryan—about my inheritance. It’s not that I want to hide it from him
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but” she rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I want to hide it. Something like that might mess things up. If things work out between us, then I’ll tell him, but for now, no.”

“My lips are sealed.” Candy pursed her lips and drew her thumb and finger over them as if closing a Ziploc bag. She added a twist at the corner of her lips, as if locking them shut.

“Thanks for understanding. I’ll tell Bryan before I leave, of course, so he won’t worry about us. But I don’t want to complicate things when I’m just visiting.”

“When you went to Utah to take the course where you met Bryan, did you just close up your life and drive away?”

“Pretty much.” Another shrug. “I had a one-bedroom basement apartment with ugly fourth-hand furniture. I left it for the next tenant, packed a few things, and drove away.”

“Looking back and balling your eyes out or gritting your teeth and looking forward?”

“Forward. I refuse to look back.”

“Atta girl!”

Kaela met Candy’s high five. The timer dinged. Candy took the cakes out of the oven and the aroma of butterscotch filled the kitchen.

“I didn’t even ask what you’re taking at college,” said Kaela.

“You must be so excited.”

“I want to finish my art degree.” Candy talked as she turned the cakes out of their pans and sat them on racks to cool. “I quit college to put my ex through school. He dumped me once he got what he wanted.” She shrugged when Kaela rolled her eyes and muttered,

“Same-old.”

“The University of Montana has a Fine Arts program in Bozeman.

They’ll accommodate me as a mature student, but this semester I have to be there for three days a week, every other week.” She shook her head. “No way could I do that with children. If I was in town I could hire someone to babysit during the day, make the men’s dinner and all, but not out here. I was ready to tell them ‘thanks, but I can’t’

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when you blew into town. I kept quiet, hoping you might stay.”

“This is great.” Kaela tossed the last potato in the pot and began gathering up peelings for the compost bucket. “I get a temporary home and you get a temporary cook, housekeeper, chauffeur, and babysitter.”

“Adam’s going to go crazy when he finds out you’re staying. He was really hurting, thinking I’d be disappointed and would take it out on him.” Candy opened her eyes wide and blinked like a child faking innocence while being caught in the act. “
Moi
? Taking out my frustration on my dear hubby?”

They shared a laugh at arrogant men needing to be taken down a few notches.

“Your paintings are really good.”

“Thanks. I need a lot more practice before classes start in January.

That takes a lot of time.” She grimaced. “Uninterrupted time.

Something a mom of twins and wife of two grown cattlemen just doesn’t have.”

“You do now,” declared Kaela.

“Yeah, thanks to you sharing the chores, I’ll have more time.”

“Nope,” said Kaela. “As of right now, I’m taking over.
You
will concentrate on school.”

“You can’t do all the work!”

“Why not? You’ve been doing it for how long?”

“You’re not used to two men and three children.”

“I’ll learn, and you’ll help when you can, even if it’s just to move around after sitting at your easel or whatever it is artists use to paint.”

“You’re serious.”

“Yep.”

“Oh, man. I can’t believe my dream is really going to come true.”

Candy sat down with a thump.

“This calls for chocolate,” said Kaela. She lifted the folding stool from behind the door. Candy watched as she set it against the fridge and reaching as high as she could, pulled down a dark tin from behind
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a box of organic granola bars. She lifted the lid and held it out to Candy.

“Chocolate? You’ve been holding out on me!”

“Bryan bought this the same time as the licorice strings he used to tie me with.” Kaela pointed to the dark and milk single-serving packages of chocolates and truffles. While Candy drooled over selecting just one, Kaela set two mugs on the table.

Candy sighed and finally selected a pack of dark chocolate truffles. She slid one onto her tongue and closed her eyes, savoring the flavor as she rolled her tongue around the morsel. She moaned, her eyes open half way as if she’d just had a minor orgasm.

“If Adam saw you right now he’d be jealous of whatever put that look on your face,” said Kaela.

“Men don’t realize that sometimes chocolate, a good book, and gossip are better than sex.”

Each woman placed a chocolate in their mouth. Candy waited for the first rush of delight to fade before continuing.

“Did you know that I met the guys at a swinger’s club?” Candy winked at Kaela’s gasp. “I believed my ex when he said my lack of interest in sex was because I was deficient. After my divorce I came to Montana to visit my old friend, Sue. She said sex with someone who cared to put some effort into pleasing me was a whole ’nother thing. To prove it, she had me enter a basket of food at a swinger’s club fund-raiser in Missoula.”

Kaela choked on her coffee.

“Yeah, I know. It took a bit of convincing before I agreed. The club has an annual Mardi Gras party where screened singles can attend. The women are free, but the men pay big bucks. Everyone wears a costume.” She rolled her eyes. “You would
not
believe the costumes! Some were barely more than body paint and a couple of feathers.”

“Adam and Bryan were there?” Kaela ignored her chocolate, concentrating on Candy’s story.

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“Uh huh. The baskets are auctioned off for charity. Adam and Bryan paid ten thousand dollars for mine.”

“Ten thousand dollars? For a picnic basket?”

“And a promise I’d eat it with them in their hotel room. I didn’t know they always donate that much to their favorite charity.” Candy sighed and toasted Kaela with her mug. “They convinced me to let them prove orgasms do exist.”

“They’re good at that.”

“Oooh, yeah.” Candy popped in another truffle and leaned back in the chair, ankles crossed in front of her.

“Tell me everything about it!” Kaela demanded eagerly. “I’ve fantasized about a sexy club where people are all dressed up, but I’d never have the nerve to go.”

“I wore a white cowgirl outfit with go-go boots, complete with tassels. I saw these two huge cowboys—did I tell you I have a thing about cowboys? Anyway, I danced just for them, pretending the pole was their, well, you know.”

“You can pole dance?”

Candy nodded. “I took a lot of night school dance lessons to escape being home with my ex.”

“I love dancing but never get a chance.”

“How’d you like to do something
special
for Bryan and have a lot of fun doing it?”

“Will Bryan like it?”

“Yeah,” said Candy, slowly nodding with an evil smile. “But he’ll pretend he won’t. Adam will be even worse.”

“Sounds good so far.” Kaela put down her mug, set both arms on the table, and leaned forward. “Spill.”

“I’ve got this fantasy of being a stripper. A high class one, of course.”

“O-kaay.”

“I want to perform at a ‘gentlemen’s club’ on amateur night.

Where we can have fun dancing and be appreciated rather than
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hassled.”

A smile tugged at a corner of Kaela’s mouth. “I’m in so far.”

“If we had a second anniversary weekend in Missoula for Mardi Gras and if I could arrange for us to dance at a club and if Adam and Bryan were in the audience without knowing we were there?”

“You are evil,” said Kaela. She sat back, laughing. “I love it!”

“Afterwards we’ll go over to the swinger’s club for some fun.”

“Just what type of ‘fun’ goes on there?”

“It’s a private club with wide couches and sturdy coffee tables.

The corners are dark and what happens there, stays there.” Candy wriggled her eyebrows. “Sue says they have a couple of those sex swings now. I’m dying to try one.”

Kaela crossed her legs and squeezed. “I took belly dancing when I was pregnant to help strengthen my pelvic muscles. But I don’t know how to pole dance or to strip so that someone would want to watch.”

Candy picked up her last truffle. She sniffed it. “Mint.” She leaned forward. “Trust me, we have lots of time. It’s just turning December and we have until mid-February to practice.” She pointed a finger at Kaela. “Every afternoon when the kids have their nap, whether I’m here or at school, we practice. You in?”

“Do cowboys get hard-ons?”

Kaela held up both palms for a double high-five. For the chance to live on the Double R until her money came in, she’d do almost anything to help Candy. But this would be excitement like she’d never had. Candy slapped her palms against Kaela’s.

“What and how do we tell them?”

“Leave that to me,” said Candy. “They already know I want to celebrate at Mardi Gras. I’ll say that we want to give them an evening to remember. We can ship our costumes to my friend Sue and get dressed at her place. She’s the one who told me about the secret gentlemen’s club and she’s been asking me to visit her. We’ve got lots of time to find someone to stay with the kids.”

“What costumes would we wear?”

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“Cowgirl costumes, of course! White hat, vest, bra, skirt, thong, high-heeled boots, and thigh-highs.”

“Why white?”

“Because strip joints use black lights, which make white clothing glow. Plus, black light hides wrinkles and stretch marks.”

This was something Kaela would never, ever do by herself. Her one chance to go crazy wild and help Candy do the same. She shut the chocolate tin and hid it again. The organic granola bars were so healthy the men would never look behind them.

“One question. Where do we put our tips?”

* * * *

Bryan forced the last bite of butterscotch cake into his mouth and crunched down on toffee bits. It took forever to get them out of his teeth, but it was worth it. He had to take the last piece or Adam would scarf it. Adam’s glares as Bryan savored each bite were worth the overfull stomach.