Snareville II: Circles (26 page)

A flurry of kicks hammered the wood. “Might have to shoot him, from the sounds of it,” I said. I heard a small gasp from Kevin. I stepped off the buggy as Catfish hitched the pinto mare up. “Just kidding, Son,” I said as he climbed down behind me.

The mares in the pasture whinnied their greeting. Cat’s mare returned it. We stepped inside the small pasture. There was a small water tank, filled, sitting on the street next to the barn. The mares came over to see who we were, a small buckskin pony in the lead. One black mare missing an eye followed. The two stopped in front of us. The pony dropped her head and sniffed Kevin’s fingers. He scratched her cheek. The one-eyed mare stretched out her nose to my hand.

“Not a bad bunch,” I said. The stud bellowed, kicked his stall. “They broke, you think?”

“I think these two are,” Cat said. “I think those two back there are younger. They look to be the age of the stud. So they may not be sure what humans are.”

Kevin scratched the pony’s neck, talking softly to the little mare.

“Well, I’m sure you’ll be able to make them into useful horses. You’ve done a good job with the ones we have.”

“Thanks, Boss. There’s some buggies and a lot of tack over there at that farm Along with a lot of good hay. Can I requisition a rig to make a couple of runs?”

“Sure. No problem.” I scratched the mare’s neck. She turned to the water trough.

“Like them black mares, huh?” Catfish nudged me, a soft smile on her face.

“Yeah, I do, but I don’t think my mares would appreciate it.”

She laughed. “Maybe I’ll have to talk to your mares.”

“Great. What are you going to do with these horses?”

“I’ll start working them. See what they can do, what they know. I’ll probably do what I have with the rest and train them for riding and harness both.”

“Can I help?” Kevin blurted. He turned away as his face started to burn red.

Catfish looked at me. I shrugged.

“You know about horses, Kevin?” She asked.

“A little.”

“Well, can you help out with this pony?”

His grin about cracked his face as he beamed up to Cat and nodded.

“Okay then. I’ll come and get you in the morning from Dan’s office and you can help me with the horses. Your job will be to work with the pony. That okay?”

He wrapped her in a bear hug. Cat hugged him back.

“I think that’s a yes,” I said. The stud bellowed again. “What about him?”

“That’ll take some doing. We’ll do our work with him slow. Hope by fall we’ll have it to the point we can do something with ’im.”

“I hope.”

We turned and headed back to the buggy. I still had plenty to do.

Chapter 35

So for the next week, that became the routine. Morning run followed by breakfast and head to the office. Felt normal. Felt like life. Kevin went wherever I went. I didn’t mind. It was nice having a son tag along. Mike would be doing that soon enough, but for now, this was fine. Cat would come over on her mid-morning break and pick Kevin up and the two of them would head over to the other side of town.

I’d been getting odd, detailed reports from Henry and the team in the field. They were holed up with a group of Amish just over the Indiana border. They stopped to help out around the settlement and had been there for a week now. Two bridges blown, some military vehicles found and laagered near the group. He sent coordinates to the place and recommended trade open with them. I agreed. He hinted about another trade they were making, but didn’t specify what was going on. I told him to use his judgment in the matter.

I came home one afternoon after I finished all the busy work that drove me nuts and found Cat’s buggy parked in the driveway. Kevin trotted past on the little buckskin pony. He’d named her Chloe. Pretty girly name, but the horse was a mare and pregnant from what we could tell. He waved as he trotted past, the other girls from town riding with him in a group. I was glad he’d found friends his age.

“Lucky guy,” Ella said from where she sat on the steps. “All those girls to run around with.”

I grinned. “Yeah. Looks like he gets along. What’re you doing out here?”

“Oh, grown up girl talk doesn’t interest me much.”

“Like what?”

She smiled. “Moms and Cat are having discussions.”

I heard laughter from inside. Okay, I’m thick, but I sensed I was walking into something I hadn’t struck since Pepper and I got together. Part of me wanted to head back for the office. With a sigh, I opened the door. When I stepped inside, the giggles stopped briefly, then laughter resumed in full.

“Why do I get the impression you girls are talking about me?”

“Who, us?” Pepper asked innocently.

“We wouldn’t talk about you behind your back,” Cindy said.

“Yeah, we’d wait until you were around then talk right in front of you. I told you I’d talk to your mares.” Cat grinned. Her big, brown eyes flashed as she sauntered past me. “But I’ve got to go. Is it okay if Kevin crashes at my place tonight?” She scooped Tony Junior from the floor. “He wants to stay the night with the other horse kids.”

We all nodded in agreement he could stay. I was glad to see the boy make friends. Cat gave my girls each a hug, joined in one last giggle as she glanced at me and headed out the door. I watched her go. The kids cheered when she told them Kevin could stay over. I grinned in spite of myself. Pepper slid an arm around my waist. Jennifer yawned from her sling. Cindy gave us both a kiss as she headed to the garden with a mixing bowl. Some of the beans were ready to be picked.

I headed upstairs to clean up and change. I could only stand to be in uniform so long. Pep followed. She put Jenny down for a nap as I stepped into the shower. I had the water adjusted and stepped in, just before she joined me. This was a nice surprise. With all the kids around, I didn’t get to see her often in the daylight without clothes. She wrapped her arms around me, slid up against my chest as the water ran over both of us.

“Me amore,” she whispered. I kissed the top of her head as the water ran through her raven hair. I noticed there were some strands of silver there now. Sometimes I forgot she was ten years older than me.

“I love you too, Baby.”

We lathered and started to wash one another. I took the first turn and chased the suds over her body with the washcloth. Her right arm would only lift level, the pink scars that ran through her dark brown skin reminded me of the first time I’d seen her strip in Walmart. She flinched when I tried to move the arm higher to wash underneath.

“Sorry,” I murmured.

“It’s okay. Not like I got any physical therapy to rehab it. Leary says it’s as good as it’ll get.”

I ran the washcloth along her other arm. This one she lifted and planted on my neck to pull me in for a watery kiss. I wished she wasn’t still healing from being stabbed and Jenny being birthed. I felt my body respond as I stepped closer. She smiled and pulled away.

“Wash,” she said.

“How much longer?” I ran the cloth down her belly, gently over the fresh scar of the C-section, into her thick bush.

“Soon,” she said, “but we have to talk about things.”

I turned her around to wash her back. “Such as?”

“Such as how many kids you’re going to have.”

Yep. One foot in the trap. “What do you mean?”

“Cori wants another baby too.”

“Cori’s got six guys that’d oblige her.”

“She don’t want six other guys. She wants you. She and Jennifer were close, ’specially after Tony was killed. You two have been friends since she got here. Cindy and I like her too and she comes over to let TJ play. She wants to have your baby.”

“I don’t have room in the house for another wife.”

Pepper grinned. “She’s got her own place, you know that. And I don’t know that she’d be a wife, so much as a paramour.”

“You’re awful good with this. What does Cindy think?”

“You better ask Cindy that, but I don’t think she minds. You come home to us. You’re our husband. We know Cat, we know where you are. It’s just practical, Danny.”

“So you don’t mind farming me out to stud?”

She smiled. “Hmmm, didn’t say that.” She planted another kiss on me. “Let’s just leave it at the three of us, okay? I think we’re all you need to be handling. She came to us. That don’t mean you get to go out and nail anything you want.”

“What if I say no?”

“That’s up to you. But I know you like Cat and I know you like dark girls. It’s your choice.”

“I want to talk to Cindy first.”

“That’s fine. You two talk. Keep in mind that I want a baby too when I heal up.” She took the washcloth from me.

“You are making up for lost time.”

“Danny, I’m thirty eight, almost thirty nine. I never had any kids before. You know I wanted them. This’s the last one and then you start using a condom with me. You and Cindy have a long time to make babies if you want. You and Cat too, but I don’t want to be forty and pregnant.”

I pulled her to me. For a moment, there was nothing else. No world outside. The water ran over us and washed everything away. I couldn’t think of a life without her. Without our extended family. It was strange, but this new life was becoming the norm and I couldn’t think of going back to the way it was.

Later that night, Cindy told me how she felt. We lay in bed, sheets stuck to us, entwined after love making. She was five months along and in that horny-as-hell stage women get to when they’re pregnant. She lay pressed against my side as she fiddled with my chest hair. Every now and then she’d give one a yank. This time, I laid a hand on hers before she got too far.

We talked. She agreed with Pepper about Cori. Also about the fact that she was the only other one they would approve me looking at. We talked babies. She wanted a year’s break between, but wasn’t going to be too careful about it. She didn’t say how many she wanted, but she did want to help Dr. Leary out when she was able. She had been pre-med before Johnson got hold of her. We didn’t want that knowledge dying out.

As we washed up, Pepper came upstairs, Jenny sound asleep with a full belly. Pep slipped her into the bassinet, came and washed off as well and helped change sheets on the bed before we crawled into it. Goodnight kisses all around and I fell asleep sandwiched between them.

Next afternoon, I walked over to pick up Kevin. I figured I ought to claim him back before he became a total pest. It had been about a week. We weren’t sure who was going to take him full time, or where he was going to stay. For now, he was with us. When Ella married and moved to her own house with Billy, that would open a room, but I wasn’t in a hurry to chase her out.

“Afternoon, Boss,” Cori called from her back yard as I walked in. Chickens filled several large wire pens on the block. She took over raising them after Tony was killed. Their flocks grew and now a lot of people in the Alliance had birds from these coops.

“Afternoon, Cat.” I walked over to her. TJ toddled across the yard and grabbed me by the leg. “Boss!” he said.

“Dan,” I said as I lifted him and placed him on my hip. “You call me Dan.”

“Dan,” He mimicked. His big, brown eyes twinkled as he smiled at me. Then he saw something else that caught his attention and he wriggled to be put down. Soon as his feet hit the ground, he was off after a grasshopper.

“That boy is always chasin’ something around,” Cat said. “Never know what he’s going to drag home next.”

“It’s a boy thing,” I said as I watched him chase the hopper across the yard. “And his daddy was a deputy.”

“Great. Maybe I’ll get lucky and the next one’ll be a girl.” Cat grinned.

“Maybe, but I’ve already got three daughters.”

She took a step toward me and took my hand. “You talked to your wives?”

“I talked to my wives, yes.” We walked across the yard as we followed TJ.

“You okay with this?”

“What? Making a baby with a beautiful woman?”

“Thank you.” She turned away a bit. “But a lot of things. Making a baby with a black woman. Having your wives get mad at you if you come over here too much, or me over there. If people are going to say something when they find out we’re together…”

I turned her to me, looked into her eyes. “You’re a beautiful woman, Cat, I don’t care what color your skin is. Pepper and Cindy have told me they’re okay with it, as long as there’s no more than you. And people, well, even now people are going to talk. Let them. We’ve still got nearly five women to every guy around here, so what does it matter?”

She smiled a little, gave me a kiss. “I love you, Danny. I’ve loved you a long time. I’m not in love with you. Yet. But I reckon we can do the things we need.”

I kissed her back. “Only a woman would separate out those love thoughts. I care about you too Cori, I don’t know if it’s love, but I want to enjoy making a baby with you.”

She grinned as we slid our arms around each other’s waists. I kissed the top of her head as she sighed. “I imagine you came over here for your new kid, too, huh?”

“Yeah, I figured he might be getting on your nerves by now.”

“Naw. Kevin’s a good kid. He’s around here somewhere.”

We found him in the converted garage mucking out the stall. Chloe stood beside him and pushed him with her nose every so often as he forked dirty bedding into a wheelbarrow. The kid looked up at me and smiled.

“Be right with you, Dan,” he said. “I just wanted to make sure her stall was clean before I came home.”

“That’s fine, finish up. I’ll be outside with Cori.” We stepped into the yard and stood under an ancient apple tree. We’d had enough rain this year, the tree had been white with blossoms. It now had little green marbles on it that promised to make for a good crop of apples. “Hope he works like this at the house.”

Cori leaned into me as I leaned back against the tree. She felt good in my arms. She looked up into my eyes and I reached down to her. The kiss was warm, soft. A welcome any man would be lucky to get.

“You’re a good man, Danny. I’m glad I’m your woman. One of them anyway.”

“I’m glad you are too, Cori.”

“It’s strange making things up as we go along like this.” She nuzzled down against my chest.