Justin Thyme Ch. 08

Susie was happy to see Michael when he walked in the door, and told him she missed him. He grinned and said, "You just missed having a manservant to tend to your every whim."

Susie just grinned her saucy smile and said, "That too." I knew then she was going to be OK.

"How are you feeling, there, little one?"

"That's what I missed. No one else thinks I'm a 'little one!' I'm doing OK, I guess, except I have this horrible itch inside this cast, but I can't tell you where." She cocked one eyebrow at him and grinned.

"Sounds to me like they must have given you a happy pill while I was gone."

"Maybe one or two. I'm glad you weren't any later, because I'm starting to get sleepy. They gave me a sleeping pill just a little while ago, and I've been fighting to stay awake until you got here."

Michael stepped up to the bed and grasped her hand gently and kissed it. "It's OK, 'little one.' You can go to sleep now. I'll be here when you need me. Rosemary, Steph, and I said our goodbyes and left, promising to look in on her tomorrow.

Stephanie just sat in the front seat of Rosemary's Bug for a moment when we pulled into her drive. "I really don't want to go in," she sighed. "I really don't like Paul, and I don't trust him. I don't know how he snowed Mom into going out with him, let alone marrying him. He gives me the creeps, but for Mom's sake I have to be nice to him. Since he came around it is like he has pushed away all of our friends, and it is just him. He can't keep me from you guys, but if he could I think he would try." She shook her head and sighed again. "You two have no idea how lucky you have it."

On the contrary, we do, but we really couldn't say so in this situation. "You know you are welcome anytime, Steph. If he gives you too much trouble feel free to come over. I'm not trying to break things up between you and your Mom, but don't let him hurt you."

"Thanks, Rosie. And thanks to both of you for this week. It has been wonderful." She looked back at me, and I'm sure there were tears in her eyes as she got out of the car and slowly made her way to the door.

Rosemary looked over at me as I clambered into the front seat. "We've got to do something to get her out of that house just as soon as school gets out. What would you say about letting her work on the house with us this summer? She knows how to paint, I know, because she did her own room and her bathroom. They look nice."

"Sounds OK to me. We'll have to run it past Mom and Dad first though."

"I'll say something to Mom. She can talk with Dad about it. I don't feel right about talking with him about Paul and what he has been doing, and it is more than she told you about."

"I think you would be the better one to broach the subject anyway. Speaking of the house, want to go up Saturday and Sunday?"

"What about Hulvey's?"

"We got a lot done today, and I'm sure I can finish the installation tomorrow, and leave Friday for tweaking everything. That would leave us free Saturday and Sunday to get started on some of the tear out and cleanup work that has to be done." Fortunately, we were at a red light, because Rosemary reached over and tried to break my neck with a hug. I took it she was in favor!

"Are we taking sleeping bags and spending the night, or were you planning to drive home?"

I cocked an eyebrow and said, "I had thought sleeping bags would be best. That way we can work as late as we can and start early again Sunday morning."

"Hmmm. Just in case we get too dirty, I noticed a couple of those old clawfoot tubs look big enough for two."

"Well, we wouldn't want to go to bed dirty!" We both grinned at each other as Rosemary pulled into our driveway.

Six o'clock Saturday morning found Rosemary and me piling into the Denali and heading up to Scottsdale. We needed more space than my Mini afforded, so I swapped Dad for the day. I think he was actually looking forward to tooling around in the Mini for the weekend. It's kind of like a big boy toy. We hadn't turned the corner yet, leaving our street, when Rosemary started that magic thing girls do taking off their bras. "Wow! Not wasting any time, are you?" She just gave me a coquettish smile and wink before leaning her seat back and closing her eyes.

Eight o'clock, and we pulled in to a McDonalds to grab a couple of breakfasts. Neither of us had felt like eating before leaving, and besides, my travel mug of coffee had run out a long time ago. "You OK with stopping like this without your bra on?"

"It's just the drive through, and besides, this is a college town. They're used to it."

"They're not used to your tits, and besides, I'm a guy, and it wouldn't matter if everyone went braless, I'd still notice."

"Then try not to be jealous, and if I catch you looking at some other girl without her bra on I'll try and do the same."

With our stomachs fortified, as it were, we quickly made our way to our new home. "Justin, I can't believe this is really ours! Tell me I'm not dreaming." She reached over and grabbed my hand and squeezed it. "How many eighteen year old kids are trusted with this much property, and are put in this kind of position? I guess we have to grow up a bit and prove we are worthy. It's really sobering when you look at it that way."

"Yeah, I know. However, just a hundred years ago we wouldn't be thinking of going to college, but we would have already been considered adults and have been expected to act like it. You would have already been married and had a kid or two by now, and a boy fourteen years would be riding herd on a ranch or even on a cattle drive. He would be expected to put in a man's work. We really have it easy, and have been spoiled. I'm glad Mom and Dad and Grandpa and Grandma thought we were mature enough to do this. I know I'm going to do my best to do it right. It doesn't mean we can't have some fun along the way, though!"

I opened up the back of the Denali and grabbed a load of stuff to carry in with me while Rosemary went and unlocked the door. "This is so cool! I'm unlocking the door to my own house for the very first time! I'm excited!" I set my stuff down in a corner of the foyer and we both went back for another load.

When we walked into the kitchen we found a small basket from Donna and a congratulatory note on our purchase. It had some crackers and cheeses with a bottle of sparkling grape juice and two wine flutes. Donna noted our age in the note and told us we would have to make do with the grape juice until we were old enough for Champaign.

Rosemary stepped into my arms for a big hug and then grabbed my hand. "Let's take another look at our house before we start work! I just can't get over it being our house!" Room by room we made our way through the downstairs before returning to the foyer and looking admiringly up the stairs, and at the frieze on the ceiling. "It's all just so beautiful. Kiss me!" I gathered her in my arms and gave her a soft kiss, relishing both the feelings of satisfaction of the house, but mostly Rosemary in my arms.

With an arm around her waist we ascended to the second floor and took a look in each room. "I think we ought to christen each room in the house before the summer is over! Make this house ours!" Rosemary grabbed me in a big hug, pulling my swelling cock firmly against her. With a grin she said, "I think somebody likes the idea! I really think we need to start with your room, up in the turret, though! How about tonight? With the lights off, but no window coverings yet we can see the lights of the city and look out at the view." I liked the way she was thinking!

Pulling her to me, I reached around from the back and grasped her breasts gently and tweaked the nipples. "What makes you think I want to wait until tonight?"

Rosemary swatted at my hand playfully and said, "You silly boy, you. We have work to do!" Indeed, we did. We went on up to the third floor and walked each of those rooms, reveling in the reality of our own property, until we arrived in my room. "You're sure you want to wait until tonight?"

Rosemary swatted my arm. "No, I don't want to wait, but we had better. If we start fooling around now we'll never get anything done." She leaned in for another kiss, and then said, "Where do we start?"

I sat down on one of the window sills in the turret and said, "I thought probably the best place to start is in the bedrooms, pulling the carpet. We're supposed to get a dumpster sometime today, so I thought we would see how much we can get down there before it gets here. Too bad we left our gloves and things downstairs. Let's go grab them and then start on the second floor."

It was a hard, dirty, sweaty job we had before us, but Rosemary skipped down the stairs like a little girl on her way to a party. Fortunately, each floor had a doorway that led to the back stairs that went to my room up in the garret. I hadn't used the stairs when we were there before, and hadn't noticed that access to the other floors either. I had wondered how we were going to be able to get things up and down three floors without destroying the lovely antique Persian rug runner going up the front stairs. The back stairs obviously were for servants use, and hence were not anything fancy, being plain wooden stairs without ornamentation. They were perfectly suitable for our needs.

I grabbed a super-bar and my gloves and made my way to the second floor, where I started pulling carpet loose from the edges of the first room. Rosemary stopped long enough to pull her tee shirt up and tie it off just below her boobs. "No fair! You are going to dress like that and expect me to keep my mind on working? It doesn't work that way!" Rosemary just giggled at me and lifted her boobs in her hands, pinching at the nipples with her thumbs in the process before turning her back to me and dropping to her knees to pull on carpet. Her ass sticking up in the air as it was wasn't much better!

We had no more than rolled up the carpet and we realized there was no way the two of us were going to be able to wrestle it to the stairs, and then down them. I had Rosemary unroll it again while I went back downstairs and got a utility knife. There was a seam in the carpet at near the mid-room point, so I used it as a basic guide and cut the carpet into two pieces, which we rolled, duct taped to keep it from unrolling, and dragged it with much effort to the stairs, and then pulled it thumping and bumping down them to the bottom. Keeping from being run over was the hardest part of the job. Once at the bottom we walked it out the back door and tumbled it off the back stoop to await the dumpster.

We trudged back up the stairs and rerolled the other half and repeated the process. When we had it at the bottom of the steps Rosemary sat down on a step and said, "Now I know why Dad is so dead-set on us going to college! There is nothing wrong with doing this kind of work, and I'm glad for the guys who do, but I don't want to do this all of my life!" I could only nod in agreement as I looked at the sweat soaked shirt sticking to her boobs. After a breather we dragged it the rest of the way out of the house and went to the kitchen for a drink of water. We hadn't thought to bring a cooler with us, and of course there was no refrigerator, but the water from the faucet was invigorating in our parched state.

Rosemary noted my eyes straying to her breasts and looked down. She had an amused look in her eyes as she looked back up at me. "Giving you quite a show, aren't I?" She tipped he cup and drizzled water down her chest. "I might as well cool off then since I'm showing everything anyhow." She gave me a wink and stood to go back up the stairs. I left Rosemary to roll and carry down the padding since it is so light, while I started cutting and rolling the carpet in the next room.

As he had been for the last several days, Michael was ensconced in the recliner in the corner of Susie's room, working on something on his laptop while Susie dozed. His focus was so great he didn't hear the knock on the door or notice Stephanie walk in the room, nor did he hear her call his name softly, so as not to wake Susie. It wasn't until she touched his shoulder and startled him that he knew anyone was about. "You sure are concentrating. What's up?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't even notice you come in."

"Yeah, I noticed!" Steph said dryly. She sat down in a hard plastic chair set aside for visitors. "I notice you never miss it though if Susie stirs."

Michael colored a little bit before he said, "Yeah, well, I feel a certain responsibility there. That's why I'm here."

"I'll bet the nurses would like to put you on the payroll! You are doing all of their work for them."

"I wouldn't go quite that far. It really isn't a problem, and I don't mind it at all. I'm getting a lot of work done while she is sleeping, and I enjoy talking with her when she is awake. How are things going with you, anyway? Has the insurance company done anything for you about replacing the car yet?"

Steph shook her head. "They say they can't do anything about it until we settle everything, and we can't do that yet, and we didn't have a rental policy on our insurance, so we are doing without it for the moment. It's not real convenient, but we are getting by."

"That's not going to do at all! Let me call my agent and see what I can do." He quickly dialed a number on his phone and got his agent on the line.

"Hey there, Michael. What can I do for you? You just barely caught me. I normally get out of here before now on Saturday."

"I'm sorry. I forgot it's Saturday. Quick question for you and I'll let you go. I'm talking to Stephanie, the girl whose car I hit, and she is telling me you guys won't do anything about replacing her car until you settle everything?"

"Yes. That's the way it works, and I can't do anything about it. I don't like the policy, but that's the way it works."

"That's unacceptable. She tells me she doesn't have rental coverage on her policy, so they are without wheels until you guys get your act together and settle up with her. That's not right!"

"You're preaching to the choir, Michael. I'm sorry, but I can't change it. I would if I could, but that is standard practice with all companies."

"OK, then I guess I'll have to go out and buy her a car myself, and you can settle it up with me later."

"I'm sorry, but we can't do it that way either. If you want to buy her a car you might get her to pay you back out of the settlement, but we can't do anything of the sort with you for it."

"I'm really sorry to hear you say that. Everything in this whole deal has been very smooth up to this point, and she and I are on an amicable level, but you are going to make this whole thing adversarial, I can see that already. I will be speaking with her attorney on Monday, and will relate our conversation. I will be telling him to do what is necessary, and that I will cooperate with him fully. You can also expect me to cancel my policy as soon as I find a replacement. Good day, Sir," and he hung up the phone before his agent could respond.

"Are you busy this afternoon, Stephanie? If not I will take you car shopping and we will get you a car today. I have to wait until after Susie wakes up though so she will know where I've gone."

"Oh, that isn't necessary. We can get by until the insurance company settles it. I wanted to see Susie, too, which is why I'm here."

"No, that isn't acceptable. If I had not hit your car you would not be doing without. We'll get you something whenever you have the time to do it."

"I can't ask you to do that! My car wasn't worth all that much, but still, I can't ask you to spend that much money, especially since you aren't working."

Michael gave her a crooked grin and said, "I don't have to work. I was working when you came in the room, but I don't have a job that requires me to be anyplace at a certain time. I'm not Bill Gates, but I've written some software and apps that have left me in pretty good shape. Please don't advertise it, because I get more people trying to 'help' me with my money than I can chase away. I can afford it. I would rather the insurance I pay a premium for would do it, but that doesn't really matter. We are going to get you a car. I wrecked yours, I am responsible to replace it, so if not today, when would be best for you?"

"Well, I guess I could go today, then, but I still hate to put you out to do it!"

"No problem at all. It looks like Susie is stirring."

Stephanie didn't notice anything, but sure enough, in just a couple of minutes Susie opened her eyes and looked first of all for Michael. "Hi, Mikey. Still hanging in there with me?"

"You've got it, Little One. What can I get for you? Water?" Susie nodded, and Michael got up from his chair and went to her table and poured some ice water in a cup for her. "Anything else I can do for you?" She shook her head as she sipped from the straw in the cup he held for her. "You've got a visitor."

"Oh, Hi, Steph. I didn't even notice you were there. I'm sorry."

"Oh, that's OK. If I had a cute nurse hanging around me like Michael I wouldn't notice anyone else either." Susie giggled, and Michael blushed as he sat down. Stephanie stepped up to the side of the bed to where she could grasp Susie's free hand and squeezed it. "How are you doing, there, girl? Are you hurting?"

"No, they keep me pretty well doped up, so I don't hurt much. The worst thing is I itch inside this cast, and I can't do anything about it! Michael has been taking good care of me, and I sleep a lot."

"I'm glad you aren't hurting. I was worried about that."

"No, that's OK. See my rose?"

Now that it was mentioned, Stephanie noticed a single rose in a vase on the bedside table. "Michael brought me another big bouquet of roses. He said the others weren't fresh enough, but I told him it was too much. He ought to share them, so do you know what that silly man did? He got the nurse to get him some tall cups, and he split up that two dozen roses and went from room to room, passing them out." She glanced over at Michael and smiled when she caught his eye. "I think he's pretty special. Do you know he will hardly leave the room, except when the Dr. or nurse is doing something with me, and I don't even have to use the call button? He takes care of everything for me."

"Yes, he is pretty special. We've been finding that out. He's going to take me out and buy me a car this afternoon, because the insurance company won't do anything until they settle the whole thing. He doesn't have to do that." Michael shook his head emphatically otherwise.

"Little One, I'm going to have to leave you for a couple of hours, but I'll be back just as soon as we find her something suitable, OK?" Susie just nodded.

"I'll be fine. I'll probably be asleep anyway. Those drugs just keep me sleeping it seems."

Steph squeezed her hand tenderly. "That helps you heal faster. Your body heals while it is sleeping. I don't want to tire you out, but I wanted to come by and see you for a few minutes. Rosemary and Justin said to say 'Hi'. They went up to work on the house today and tomorrow, but they promised they will be by on Monday." Susie nodded, and Steph noted her eyelids were drooping already. She glanced over at Michael, who nodded, and then leaned in to rest her head against Susie's in as much of a hug as she could give and said, "I'll let you sleep now, and I'll see you again, tomorrow. OK?" Susie nodded and closed her eyes.

"I'll be back in a little while, Little One. You sleep well, now." Susie opened her eyes and looked at Michael with a little smile, then she closed them again and in moments was asleep again.

Stephanie assumed Michael was thinking about a used car, since hers wasn't anywhere near new, so she was surprised when they pulled into a Chevrolet dealership. Even then she expected him to pull around to the 'Pre-owned' section, but instead he pulled into one of the customer parking spaces right by the door and stopped. "Chevy OK with you? That's what you were driving, isn't it?"