Fire and Oil

Kayce nodded and wrote a check for the horses. Then while Mrs. Jordan watched over Joel he hooked up the trailer and backed up to the corral. "C'mon Joel, let's load up our horses." The boy was so excited he was jumping up and down.

"I'm gonna be a cowboy Kayce," Joel said the excitement evident in his voice.

"You sure are little buddy," Kayce agreed. "Let's get to work."

After the horses were loaded, Mrs. Jordan gave Kayce the paper work on them. "You've got some fine animals there Mr. Randal. A bit of advice for you, when you get to your place back them out of the trailer real slow. Horses don't like to back up in places they can't see."

They drove slowly to Kayce's ranch and into his paddock. "Can you close the gate?" Kayce asked. He followed Mrs. Jordan's advice, with Joel watching and talking, and he soon had to horses unloaded. "See that little colt Joel?" The boy nodded. "That's your horse, you'll have to name him, take care of him and train him until he's old enough to ride. Is that okay?"

Joel's head bobbed up and down so fast it was just a blur. Kayce gave the boy a piece of apple. "Go say hello to him, just hold out the apple in the flat of your palm."

The young horse slowly walked over to the boy, he was not stranger to treats. The foal stretched out his neck to smell Joel's hand and took the apple. Joel slowly, for him, walked back to Kayce. "Did you see that? He took the apple right from my hand. Oh, Kayce I love my horse so much." He hugged Kayce's legs very hard.

Kayce couldn't get Joel away from the paddock so they spent the morning setting up a feeding station and filling the horse through with water. He finally got Joel to come in and eat lunch. The boy hurriedly ate a sandwich and he was back out at the paddock watching his horse. That was where he was at when Alyssa got there a little after 2 PM.

She missed seeing him at the paddock fence and knocked on Kayce's door. "Where's Joel?" she asked. Kayce pointed down to the paddock and the boy sitting on the middle row of the fence.

"Can't get him away his horse," Kayce said.

"His horse, what did you do?" Alyssa was smiling and shaking her head.

"I told you I was gonna have horses out here, so I bought Joel one his size. They can grow up together."

"You're going to spoil that boy?" She objected.

"Who better to do it? Look Ally I missed a lot of his life, no one's fault really, but I have. I'm new at this so cut me a little slack. I'll calm down in a while but for now I wanta make it up to him a bit." In a much softer and lower voice he added, "Make it up to you too."

"What do you mean, make it up to me?"

"Sorry, didn't mean for you to hear that." Kayce stared out at Joel for several seconds before he answered. Turning to her, he said, "Okay, all in?" Alyssa nodded. "Truth be known seeing you again is bringing back a lot of the old feelings. If I'd known about Joel you couldn't have got rid of me with dynamite. I tried to quit thinking of you cause it hurt too much but now...I was kinda hoping things could be different."

Alyssa was several things, surprised, shocked, a little angry but most of all a little hopeful. "I haven't seen or heard from you in over 5 years and now you're talking about getting back together again?"

"I already admitted not keeping in touch was my way of dealing with no chance of being with you. Sorry but I can't help of thinkin ..what if. We're different people now but maybe we could date a little and see if anything is there. If not we can remain friends and co-parents. What'da think?"

Before Alyssa could answer, Joel came running up to the porch. "Ma, Kayce bought me a horse" He was so excited he couldn't stand still. "Come see." He grabbed her hand and tried to pull her toward the paddock.

"Okay baby, take it easy. I'm coming." She started to follow Joel. Alyssa looked over her shoulder and said to Kayce, "You comin?"

They walked down to the paddock with Joel between them holding to their hands and swing their arms. At the paddock Joel started talking about his horse to his mother. As usual when he talked about something he liked he talked a mile a minute barely taking time to catch his breath.

Kayce looked over Joel's head as he rattled on and on. "Why don't you guys stay for supper? I'll put something on the grill."

Alyssa nodded. "First we have to get this little man cleaned up, he smells like horses. He can have his nap and then we can eat. It won't be too late for me to drive back."

Kayce helped with Joel's bath and dressed him in one of Kayce's tee shirts for a nap. While he slept, Kayce washed and dried the clothes Joel had been wearing. He also did a quick marinade of some chicken and served that. After an early supper, Alyssa and Joel went back home. Just before she left she said, "Call me, we need to talk."

It was Alyssa who called the next evening. "I need to be clear about some things Kayce."

"Okay, what do you need? I thought I made it pretty obvious what I thought and want."

"Do you really think we can recapture what we had?"

Kayce thought for a bit and answered. "Not so much what we had, but what we could have. Like I said we're not the same people we were 5 or 6 years ago. With the exception of Joel, we may not want the same things. But don't you think it's worth it to find out? We owe it to Joel, hell we owe it to ourselves to see what could come of us."

Alyssa was quiet on the phone for a long time, Kayce just waited. "What about the girl you're dating?"

"I've only seen her once since you guys came back into my life. I think she's history even if we don't get together. Didn't like her response when I told her I was going to be spending time with Joel, .... Among other things."

"Isn't that a little thoughtless and cruel?"

"I don't think so. I'll tell her I won't be dating her again...I'll do it in person; she doesn't deserve that news over the phone. You have to understand, it was just a good time type of thing. I never made a promise or gave an indication of more."

Alyssa didn't speak and after about 30 seconds, Kayce asked, "Ally?"

"Give me a call when you break up with her. We'll see where we go or if we can." She hung up before Kayce could say anything more.

Never one to put things off, Kayce called Sally Ann. "We need to talk Sally Ann. You want to meet at The Corral, your place tomorrow evening or someplace else?" She indicated she would rather meet at the bar because of her roommate.

Kayce walked into The Corral at the agreed upon time of 7 PM. Sally Ann was sitting in a booth watching the entrance and waved at Kayce to attraction his attention. He came over and sat opposite her. A waitress came over and Kayce ordered a large whiskey and another drink for Sally Ann. They talked about nothing important until the drinks arrived.

Kayce didn't really know how to start so he just met it head on. "Sally Ann we've had some good times, but I'm not going to be seeing you anymore." He waited for the explosion; he didn't have to wait long.

"What'da you mean not seeing each other?" After all we've been to each other? It's that bitch of an ex isn't it? You're going to take up with her again, ain't you?"

"Sally Ann," Kayce almost shouted to get her to stop. "You're a beautiful girl and we have had good times, but it's about my son. I want to be a good father And yes, I hope Ally and I can be at least good friends if nothing else. I need to set a better example for Joel and I can't do that spending most nights at a honky tonk."

"You son of a bitch, after what you said to me....."

"I didn't say or promise to you that I wanted more than a good time with a pretty girl. Never made any promises or talked about a future between us. When you get over your mad you'll see that."

Sally Ann stood, picked up her drink and threw it in Kayce's face. "The hell with you Kayce Randal. You'll get what's coming to you." She stomped out of the bar.

The waitress brought a bar towel to Kayce and he wiped off his face and his shirt the best he could. "Well, I guess that about covers it." He left the bar and went home.

The next evening he called Alyssa. "You said to call you when I broke up with Sally Ann. The deed is done and I won't be seeing her anymore."

"How did she take it?" Alyssa asked.

"Let's just say she wasn't too happy. Said some nasty things to and about me." He hesitated and added, "About you too."

"About me? What did I do?"

"Nothing but let me see Joel and not shine me on. Guess there's no pleasing everybody. Enough about her, when can I see you again? Not Joel just me and you."

"As it so happens, Joel has a play date and a sleep over with a neighbor's kids Saturday."

"Sounds great, Pick you up at 6?" Kayce asked. Alyssa agreed but asked what they were going to do. "Dress up a bit; we'll get a steak at Myron's in New Braunfels. Maybe come back home and have a drink at The Dude Ranch bar, maybe dance a time or two. What'cha think?"

"Steak sounds great. You can only eat so much Mac and cheese with hot dogs," Alyssa laughed. "What about stopping at The Corral."

"Er ah er," Kayce responded.

"Just kidding Kayce. I know you don't want to run into Sally Ann. The Dude Ranch will be fine."

The evening of their date Kayce dressed up, for him. He wore a new pair of dress jeans, a nice button down shirt with a sports jacket and bought a new pair of boots. Kayce had even washed and waxed his truck. Alyssa answered her door in a pretty yellow sun dress.

"You look beautiful," Kayce said as he walked her out to his truck.

"You clean up pretty good too, for a broken down oil worker," Alyssa said and laughed.

During dinner they talked about all kinds of things but they seemed to always drift back to Joel. Their hopes and dreams for their son. "Ally, you know I'm okay financially. With the settlement from the oil company because of the accident on the oil platform, I don't have to work much. I want Joel to have any and every thing he needs, but I want him to know how to work and earn stuff. I don't want to hand him everything. I've heard stories about kids that got everything and didn't turn out well. Joel deserves more than ending up a do nothing young punk. Sorry, got a little serious there."

"I agree Kayce. Between us I think we can do a good job with and for Joel. I like the way you think."

"Too heavy for a first date," Kayce said with a grin. "We had a great meal, let's go dance it off."

They came out of the steak house and drove to The Dude Ranch. Neither saw the pair of eyes watching or the person following them.

After very few drinks and a lot of dancing, they left the bar, arm and arm. Kayce's truck was parked at the far end of the parking lot and before they got to it, it just exploded. A huge fire ball erupted right where Kayce's truck sat. They stumbled back and watched the truck burn as they heard sirens coming closer.

"Oh my God," Alyssa said. "Your truck Kayce. What happened?"

"Sally Ann is what happened. I saw her sneak around the building. Didn't think much of it at the time but then my truck became a car-b-que."

"You sure? Kayce nodded. "What are you going to do?"

"Not worth the trouble to go after her really. She doesn't have money to replace the truck and putting her in jail won't help her attitude. Sides she's young and it could ruin her life."

"But you have to do something." Alyssa objected. "We could have been in the truck."

"I think she planned it better than that, it's why she hung around to set off whatever she did to the truck. She wanted me to see her revenge. The Sheriff is a friend of mine. I'll tell him what happened and he'll have a serious word with her, maybe threaten her with jail. Should put an end to it. Guess that's the end of the affair, huh."

Kayce and Alyssa along with Joel spent more and more time together. After 3 months, Alyssa and Joel moved out to the ranch. It was about 30 minutes to Alyssa's job and Kayce took over the duties of taking Joel to school and then picking him up.

Alyssa and Kayce were able to recapture their feelings from years previous and got married on Joel's birthday. Joel did double duty both as the ring bearer and Kayce's best man. He marched down the aisle like a little solider and stood proud and as tall as he could next to Kayce. So over the years they had two reasons for celebrating that the day. The young couple took a short three day honeymoon, while Mrs. Jordan watched Joel.

A few days after their return Joel and Kayce were sitting on the front porch swing waiting for Alyssa to come home from work. Joel squirmed around for a minute and asked, "Can I call you Daddy now?"

Damn this dust, Kayce thought as his eyes started to fill with tears. "I'd like that very much Joel. Fact is we'll start the legal stuff tomorrow to change your name to Randal." Joel climbed onto Kayce's lap and hugged him as hard as a 5 year could.

Alyssa made it home and after Joel had been put to bed, protesting the whole time, Alyssa pulled Kayce back out onto the front porch. She sat him down in the swing and climbed onto his lap. She put her arms around his neck and said "It might be time to start looking for another colt or filly."

"Why would we want another young horse?" Kayce was puzzled.

"We're going to have a baby in about 7 ½ months. You don't want the little one to be upset and jealous of Joel, do you?

The End.