As I Lay - Dying?

"The police stopped by while you were asleep last night. Gave me their cards and asked if you would call them this morning."

We pulled into the drive and Tess carried Kristy into the house; she was already fast asleep. I showed Tess Kristy's room and Tess set her down on the bed; I covered my baby with a light blanket.

We sat at the kitchen table and at last I heard about last night's mayhem.

"Last night Denise's husband went berserk. He knew the two of you dated; but until yesterday he never knew about the sex. Little Mike said something that set him off. He slapped Denise until she admitted you two slept together. Then he went out looking for you. After he finished with you, he went back and hit Denise a couple more times; Mike stepped in; what a brave little boy. Dillon grabbed him and broke the poor kid's arm. After he left the house, Denise called me and I brought her to the emergency room. You should have heard her; she was so worried about you.

Tess got up and poured the coffee she brewed. I sat thinking.

"Wait, if Denise's husband only heard about the sex last night; how did he find me so fast?"

"Don't know; maybe he was already stalking you. We'll know more after the police pick the asshole up. They have an officer stationed in front of Denise's house and there's an all-points bulletin out on him."

"How are Denise and Mike?"

"Denise has a swollen lip and black eye; Mike has his arm in a cast; they're both on pain killers. I called her folks' house and her mom hung up on me. Said something about a dyke before she hung up the phone. I don't think either one of us are going to get through to Denise while she's staying at her folks'."

The police came over later that morning; two detectives took my statement and asked if I would be willing to press charges. Their attitude toward me started out cold; but changed over the course of our conversation. At first, they treated me like some pervert who seduced and screwed a married woman, then got my just deserts. After I explained the abandonment, our lengthy courtship and my intention to marry Denise when the divorce was finalized, they treated me differently.

Things got even goofier after that first morning. After the police caught and processed Dillon, it turned out there was an outstanding warrant for his arrest in Montana. Seems the reason he left Denise is he got a seventeen-year-old waitress in Whitehorse pregnant while he was with his buddies on a fishing trip. When she threatened to have him arrested for statutory rape unless he came back and married her, he went out to Montana, convinced her to have the baby aborted, then spent the remaining months being such an asshole that she finally kicked him out and sent him packing back to his wife.

When the young girl's parents found out the whole story, they called the cops and the warrant for his arrest followed. Unfortunately, it was a low priority and the Whitehorse PD never followed up until Dillon was arrested in Spokane. Dillon eventually spent six years in a Washington State prison for the three assaults before being extradited to Montana to spend a few more years as a guest of their prison system.

Dillon never made it home. Given his propensity for violence, I was tracking just in case he decided to come after me again. I lucked out when Dillon got into an altercation in the Montana prison and ended up getting stabbed to death.

After Dillon's arrest for his assault on Denise, Mike and me, I thought about renewing my relationship with Denise; but it never happened. She quickly reverted back to her old ways while living with her parents. They laid it on thick; convincing Denise she sinned by sleeping with me while she was married, that she was under the spell of me and an ungodly lesbian. Her mother screened my one phone call to the house. When I approached Denise outside her house the next day, Denise refused to talk to me.

Dillon's parents also blamed Denise for Dillon's criminal temper-tantrum; said it was her fault for being an adulteress; totally ignoring Dillon's eleven months with an underage child in Montana. Both sets of parents convinced Denise to stop the annulment; claiming Mike was a bastard in God's eyes if the marriage was annulled. I talked to a Catholic priest about this; he told me that was BS; but Denise chose to believe her parents.

Many years later I saw Denise at a tennis match between Kristy and Mike's respective college teams. Denise smiled at me, but the smile lacked its previous glow. Kristy spent some time after the match with Mike, they talked and reminisced how close they were to becoming step-siblings. Mike told Kristy that Denise never divorced his father; even during his seven years in two prisons. Neither of them visited him during those years; Denise became a widow when Dillon died, then married the man sitting next to her in the stands; an ex-priest of all things.

*******************************

Do We Make Our Own Luck?

Five or six weeks after being ambushed by Dillon outside the bar, I was mostly recovered. Kristy and I were walking through Riverfront Park in downtown Spokane when I spotted a beautiful woman jogging toward us on the trail. She gave us a look of recognition as she passed, smiled; but didn't slow down. It took me a half a minute to figure it out - Wendy, the nurse who removed my IV. That thought was immediately followed by a second thought; damn, too bad she didn't stop to say hello. Kristy and I continued on the path to the children's playground while I wondered if my love life would ever recover.

I was pushing Kristy on the swing, my mind a half a million miles away, when a voice behind me simply said, "Hi".

I turned around to find Wendy standing there. My mind went blank until I got whacked by Kristy's seat on its back swing. Kristy screamed out, "Daddy!" and almost fell out of the seat. I recovered fast enough to catch Kristy. Wendy asked, "Is she all right?" I nodded "yes" before Wendy started laughing.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. I suppose the last thing you need is another concussion. How are you doing?" Wendy held my chin in one hand and turned my head back and forth to examine my nose. "It looks like it's healing."

I took that opportunity to look into her eyes. It's hard to explain and makes little sense; but it's as if the higher powers flipped the switch that day from 'kinda unlucky' to 'very lucky'. For the next three decades things just seemed to go my way; at least until that day in the doctor's office as we reviewed my brain's CT scan.

That's how we became a couple; me holding Kristy in my arms and Wendy holding my chin giving me her medical opinion on how my nose was healing.

I asked, "Would you have dinner with me? Any evening you're available."

Wendy's eyes tracked from my nose to my eyes. "What about that woman that was hovering over you at the hospital? Won't she be upset or jealous?"

"Tess is just a good friend and my doubles tennis partner. We aren't in a relationship."

"I thought maybe she might want to change that status, the way she acted."

I smiled, "That would really upset her girlfriend. Tess is a lesbian."

The girl with the big ears in my arms interrupted. "Daddy, what's a lesbian?"

Wendy gave me an amused look as if to say, "How are you going to answer that one, Daddy?" (Remember - this was the early eighties, things weren't quite as open regarding sexuality as they are today.)

I chickened out. "Baby, can I talk to Wendy for a minute? I'll answer your question later."

I turned to Wendy. "Now that we have established I'm not in a relationship; can you answer my original question before we get side-tracked again? Can I buy you dinner sometime this week?"

We had dinner, followed by more dates. We clicked on many levels. Wendy didn't play tennis; but she was an avid golfer; so more of my free time was spent on the links and less on the courts. Tess bitched a little; although she did it in a way that made it clear she was happy for me. I didn't 'officially' introduce Wendy as my 'girlfriend' to Kristy for a couple months, the poor kid was still reeling from the loss of Denise and Mike. The timing helped; within a week of that first date, Kristy was scheduled to spend two months with her mother and grandparents during summer break.

I had reasons of my own to take time building a relationship with Wendy; more than one nosey 'friend' questioned whether our relationship was a 'rebound'. I heard it enough times and it turned out Wendy's friends and co-workers brought it up to her. We just took everything nice and slow.

I realized something soon after we started dating; it occurred to me how similar Denise and Jane were in appearances. Both were blondes with blue eyes. Both had that wide open, friendly smile that immediately attracted me to them. Both were about five foot nine and large breasted. How had I missed that before? The similarities were made more apparent after comparing those two to Wendy.

Wendy is a five-five brunette with brown eyes. She has a slim waist which gives the illusion of more backside than she really has. (She bitched about her 'big butt' until I told her, "enough!") Wendy's small bust is a perfect fit on her slim body.

I was pleased with the differences and here's why. I have a friend, David, who after he and his first wife Betty divorced, he dates and eventually marries a woman named Becky who looked very much like Betty. People were too polite to say anything; but I'd watch them at social functions when David introduced Becky to someone who knew his first wife. You could see the confusion on people's faces - like, "is this a joke?' before they realized it wasn't. Poor Becky; people constantly called her Betty. David and Becky eventually divorced. Turns out Betty and Becky also had similar personalities; the same issues that destroyed the first marriage destroyed the second.

I don't know if some part of my brain tried to recreate my first marriage when I decided Denise was the one. They certainly had different values when it came to sex; but was I only fooling myself regarding the physical attraction? I guess I'll never know.

I talked to Kristy almost every other day during the two months she spent with her mother and grandparents. Jane was dating a high school volleyball coach and Kristy was getting great lessons from him. I silently hoped this wouldn't turn her off to tennis. I needn't have worried, Kristy eventually ended up getting high school varsity letters in tennis and volleyball and chose a college which offered a nice tennis scholarship.

Another reason for our slow courtship was due to Wendy's work schedule. She lacked seniority at the hospital and worked nights. Nights can do a number on a relationship.

Besides the physical differences, there was another big difference between Wendy and the two previous loves of my life. Both Jane and Denise were happy to go along with my decisions when it came to how we spent our time together. I love going to a movie or a rock 'n roll concert, maybe a good steak restaurant for dinner, and that's usually how my dates went with Jane and Denise.

It was different with Wendy; she'd go to a movie or rock concert with me, but on our next date she would pick the activity. I couldn't complain because she would pay when it was her turn to pick. And I found myself enjoying live theater, country western dancing and, lord help me, Sushi.

The biggest surprise was how much I learned to love hiking in the mountains. Being a Midwest city boy, the nearest I came to nature was swatting mosquitos on some Wisconsin lake when we'd cruise up to Lake Geneva for the Fourth of July.

Wendy took me to REI and got me a pair of hiking boots and three pair of wool socks. The very next weekend I'm hiking into some Idaho hot springs. We'd only been dating two months and we still hadn't consummated the relationship; so I was stunned when we entered the clearing where the hot springs were. There were probably eight or nine other people there, mostly in their twenties or thirties and half were women - and not one of them had a stitch of clothes on. Wendy dropped her back pack and just stripped right out of her clothes. It was the first time I saw her naked.

She jumped into one of the pools and called to me, "C'mon J.R., this feels great."

I dropped my pack and shed my clothes, all except my undershorts and sat down in the pool next to Wendy. The girl sitting across from me chose that moment to stand up and sit cross logged on the edge. Really?

I looked at Wendy, she had a stupid grin on her face, I whispered, "You could have warned me."

"What? And miss the look on your face?"

"Very funny."

"Now that you're in the water, get out of those wet pants and let them dry out."

I slipped my pants off and, half standing, tried to toss the shorts next to my gear without exposing my hard-on. I was only partially successful.

"Nice. I kind of had a feeling it was good sized during our slow dances; you've got nothing to be ashamed of."

"I wasn't worried about the size; no lady has ever complained. I'm just the only guy here sporting a woody. How do those guys do it?"

"I've been coming here for years, since my college boyfriend took me here. Newcomers usually take a while to get past it. You'll see, in a half hour you'll be used to it."

"I don't know about that. For one thing; this is the first time I've seen you naked, and you've got an incredible body. For another, please forgive me for saying this, but I can't help but notice the woman sitting across from me shooting me the beave."

"The what?"

"The beaver. Of course, I don't know if it applies in her case since she doesn't have any hair down there. I've never seen a shaved pussy before."

"Do you like it?"

I stopped to ask myself before answering Wendy's question, "Is this a trick question? Like, "Do these pants make me look fat?"" Oh well, I thought, "might as well stick to the truth". So, I answered her question.

"On the one hand, it's kind of erotic; on the other, it looks a little pre-puberty, which might be perverted; on the third hand, it eliminates that awkward moment when a pubic hair ends up in your throat - just at the wrong moment."

Wendy laughed. "I like how you think, J.R. This could be the start of a long relationship. Maybe I'll shave down there when we get back to civilization."

"Now you're just teasing me and you've gone way too far. Up until twenty minutes ago I hadn't seen you naked. Now you're promising to let me kiss you in the most intimate spot on that beautiful body. I'm never going to be able to get out of this pool if you keep that up."

I eventually was able to get out without embarrassing myself. Wendy and I hiked another half mile and found a nice spot to set up the tent near the edge of a short cliff with an excellent view of the valley below. This being my first night sleeping in the woods, I followed Wendy's instructions.

We ate freeze dried food, surprisingly good, probably because I was so hungry by then. Wendy pulled our sleeping bags out of the tent and laid them on the ground as it started to get dark.

"Aren't we going to sleep inside the tent?"

"Yes, but that's later." Wendy answered as she stripped off her clothes. "Get naked."

As I said, I was the camping-outdoor novice, so followed her instructions. Wendy sat me down, then sat on my lap facing me. "I've wanted to make love to you for weeks now; but I know you needed time and I wanted our first time to be special, something you've never experienced before. Something we'll carry in our hearts forever. I love you, J.R." Wendy was caressing my cock as she said it. My cock was as hard as it's ever been. "Make love to me, J.R."

She rose high enough to line my swollen cock head with the entrance to her sex. The lips were wet, but she stroked the head back and forth, using my pre-cum to remove any friction. Wendy released the grip on my cock and sank down in one motion.

We kissed, our tongues darting in and out. Wendy broke the kiss, "Damn, I needed you and this so bad."

I was amazed; how did she know? Of all the wonderful positions to make love to a woman, this was my absolute favorite. Holding the woman you love while your cock is fully nestled in that velvet glove. Feeling the tip of your cock tickling her cervix, without hurting her, just enough pressure to let her know you're big enough to fill her up. Having the ability to fondle her ass or her breasts; to kiss and lightly bite her nipples. Being able to look in her eyes as you start to feel the beginnings of her orgasm. All these things made that first coupling with Wendy a most special lovemaking experience.

I felt Wendy shiver through her first orgasm; my hands gripping those two perfect butt cheeks and drawing her closer to me. After she settled down, we started back up again; my hips bucking up to meet her down trusts. Wendy's tongue found mine and danced, the velvet glove around my cock squeezed me tight and I felt the wetness of her second orgasm; that was it, my cock grew another inch and I came.

We settled down, our breathing returning to normal, Wendy still on my lap with my cock still embedded, not soft enough to drop out, yet.

"I didn't ask. I hope it was all right I didn't pull out."

"I went on the pill after our second date. I knew this would happen and I wasn't about to spoil it with condoms or having you pull out."

Wendy slid off my lap and laid back on the sleeping bag. It was a moonless night, the sky darkened as it got late and more stars appeared. I never saw so many stars in my life; Wendy pointed out the Milky Way, the first time I'd seen it. Wendy nestled her head on my shoulder while pointing out the satellites as they passed over and we saw two shooting stars. After an hour, I heard her softly breathing; she had fallen asleep with my arm around her.

I held out as long as I could; but after a while I needed to move my arm or risk losing it. I woke Wendy with a kiss, we grabbed the bags and went inside the tent to sleep.

The next morning we rose with the sun, Wendy made coffee, some freeze dried eggs (not as good as the freeze dried stew). Another first for me right after breakfast - bathing in a stream. Wendy was kind, she didn't laugh as I climbed out of the ice-cold stream; my cock was doing its best to shrink into my body. I looked at her and shouted, "Shrinkage, shrinkage."

We broke camp and hiked back to the trailhead. On the way we discussed our relationship and made a commitment to each other to be exclusive; no dating, sex, etc. with others. I think we both felt good about the agreement.

Which is why it was such a surprise three months, three wonderful months, later when I received a packet in the mail. There was a typed note and computer disk inside. The note read, "See what your girlfriend has been up to."

I placed the disk into my computer's slot and watched in horror. There was the woman I was weeks away from asking to marry me having sex with another man. I couldn't determine who the man was because of the way the video was edited; but there was no doubt it was Wendy. The filming was done from a stationary camera and there were at least five different scenes. I didn't watch all five, nor did I watch any of the scenes in their entirety. I watched just enough to know Wendy wasn't coerced and that she was getting off on the sex. I shut the computer down, made myself a stiff drink and sat down trying to work out a plan.

During the three months since our hike, Wendy had given me every reason to assume she was abiding by our agreement. A woman couldn't show more affection or happiness than how she behaved whenever we were together. That made her treachery on the video difficult to comprehend. Could the woman I loved be that devious? Unfortunately, given my history, the answer could be yes.