City Boy & Country Girl

Alexis came out of the office rather briskly to talk to Henry. I thing she was a little upset with her father. After Henry ranted and raved for a couple of minutes he saw me in my truck. He apparently didn't like the idea of having to ride with Bill and started to walk toward me. Alexis followed Henry to my truck.

"John be a good fellow and change that tire for me will you". I'll pay you and I know someone like you can always use a little extra cash." This was said with Henry's normal "I'm the master" tone in his voice. Apparently it never crossed his feeble mind to change his own tire.

Alexis looked at Henry in surprise at his tone and his attitude. That's it Hank, show Alexis the real you, you're proving my point I thought. She started to say something to Henry, but turned to me instead said, "John you don't have to do this. Dad will give us a ride to the dance and come and pick me up."

"Don't sweat it Alexis, I'll change the tire. Just keep porky there away from me while I work." I got the keys from Henry and went to the car. I put the spare on the Mustang, loaded the flat back into the trunk and started back to my truck.

"Here you are John," Henry said holding out a fifty dollar bill.

I stared at him for a few seconds and turned to leave.

"Here, I know you can use the money. I hired you and you deserve your pay," Henry said.

"I didn't do it for you or your money, Hank. Put the money away or you might end up having to eat that fifty." I got into and started my truck. Before I could drive away, Alexis came to the window.

"Why did you change the tire if not for the money, John?" She spoke with a very soft wondering tone.

"I did it for your dad. He would wait until 11:00 or 12:00 to pick you up and still get up at daylight to go to work. I work twelve hours a day but he's already working when I get here and is still at it when I leave. Me changing the tire means he can get a few more hours rest."

"That's nice of you John. Why don't you meet us at the dance and I'll buy you a beer?" Alexis smiled at me.

I smiled back at her and shook my head no. "No thanks, you have a good time. Good night Alexis." She stepped back from the truck and I drove to Jim's. When I got back to my room I took a shower. You get really nasty working in a barn but that probably doesn't surprise you. By the time I cleaned up and got something to eat it was almost 8:00. I sat out on the front porch with a cup of coffee and the one cigar a day that I allowed myself.

As I sat down in one of the rocking chairs, Jim's truck pulled up to the house. I thought it strange that Jim had came home this early. He was chasing after this one young lady and I thought she had run just fast enough for him to catch her. The only thing I could think of was a lover's spat between Jim and his new girl. I looked down as I lit my cigar and heard the truck door open and close. When I heard his footsteps on the porch, I looked up and started to rag on Jim for being home so early. I almost choked on the cigar smoke, it wasn't Jim.

Alexis came over and sat down in the chair next to me. "Hi John, got another cup of coffee?"

I guess I was in some kind of shock because all I did was go get the coffee for her. It wasn't until I was back on the porch with her coffee that I recovered enough to talk. "What are you doing here? The dance isn't over yet is it? What are you doing with Jim's truck?" I was babbling a little.

Giggling at me, Alexis began to answer my questions. "No, the dance isn't over yet and I borrowed Jim's truck to come get you. I want you to come back to the dance with me."

Now I was really stunned but recovered more quickly. "I don't think Henry would like this very much. I think I'll pass Alexia."

Alexis was still giggling a little and asked, "Don't you want to go to the dance with me?"

"I would like nothing better, but if I do Henry will cause trouble. If he gets in my face I will be forced to knock him on his ass. I don't want to cause a problem at the dance, so I'll just stay here thanks."

"Henry's not in the equation any longer so do what you want to do."

"What'da you mean he's not involved anymore?"

Then Alexis gave me a little course in current events. Henry had called some of his entourage from Poplar Bluff and had them join him at the dance. It seems that Henry revealed his true colors that evening. When he and Alexis got to the dance, she saw firsthand his "I am the master" personality and attitude. It started when he wanted the people sitting at the table he chose to move and offered to pay them. There was room at the table for Henry, Alexis and the two couples that had come over from Poplar Bluff, but he wanted the table all for himself and his minions. He told Alexis that he didn't want to sit with "those type of people". The people refused to leave the table and basically told him to get lost.

After finding another table, Henry said some unkind things about the people working the bar, something to the extent that they weren't smart enough to get any other type of work. Of course his followers fawned on him and agreed. The "God" act by Henry didn't impress or set well with Alexis and she told Henry she didn't like it. He told her that he may have been wrong about her and maybe she couldn't overthrow her lower class mentality. Big mistake Henry old boy.

Alexis did what I had wanted to do to Henry since the first day I met him. She slapped him so hard that she knocked him on his ass. Then she started on a tirade that lasted for five minutes concerning his parentage, his lack of manners, and his lack of intelligence. There were other things, too numerous to count, that she talked about. In the end Alexis suggested that Henry and his entourage go to a very hot place usually reserved for sinners.

Some of what happened I got from Alexis that evening sitting on the porch. She sort of down played the entire thing, telling me only that she had told Henry to leave and the sooner the better. The truth about what happened and the rest of the story I got from Jim, some of it at the dance and the rest the next day. Yeah, I caved in and followed Alexis back to the dance in my truck. We had to return Jim's truck didn't we and then she would need a ride home.

Around 9:30, Alexis and I took a ride out to Lake Wappapello. We needed a quiet place to talk over the last few weeks and I had never seen the lake at night under the moon. At least that was our excuse. But let me say here, we did nothing that we couldn't have done in front of her father. Maybe later, I thought. "Why the change of heart Alexis?" I mean for the last couple of weeks the best I could hope for was that you wouldn't even notice me."

She explained that she had been angry that I presumed to tell her who she should be friends with and that led to her bad behavior toward me. "I'm sorry about how I've been treating you John, please forgive me. You were right about Henry and you have a big "I told you so" coming. Go ahead, I deserve it."

I smiled at her and shook my head. "No need. In spite of what Henry said I think you have class enough to learn from your mistakes. Maybe listen to me from now on, before you go off half cocked."

We got back to the ranch about midnight. When I stopped the truck, Alexis leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. "Thank you John, see you Monday." She bounced out of the truck and into her house.

I had already told my parents that I would spend the weekend with them at the "farm" so I had to leave the next morning. It was good to see my folks and we had a good time. However I couldn't wait to get back to Wappapello and see Alexis.

Monday at the ranch, I was in the barn working, again. Bill strolled in and watched me as I mucked out the stalls. He was trying to hide a grin, not very successfully I might add. "Do you know how Ally got home after the dance? I haven't asked her because she would think I was prying. I do know she didn't get home until midnight or so."

"Bill I changed that tire so you could get some extra rest. What were you doing up at midnight?" I adroitly dodged his question.

"John when you're a parent you never go into a deep sleep until your children are all safe at home. I was catnapping until Alexis got home, then I went to sleep. But I still want to know who brought her home. It wasn't that Mustang that dropped her off, it was a truck."

"Okay, I brought her home. She and Henry had a falling out and she needed a ride. Alexis apologized to me for her actions lately and we took a ride out to the lake to talk." When I told him about the trip to the lake, Bill stood a little taller and seemed to puff up.

"You took her out to the lake at night "to talk" did you?"

"Bill you warned me to treat her like a lady and I did. All we did is talk. When I brought her home, she did kiss me on the cheek and thanked me. That's all Bill."

The tension passed and I told him the story that I had gotten from Alexis and Jim. He laughed when I told him about Alexis knocking Henry on his ass. I also told him that I hoped to date Alexis now that we were speaking to each other. His grin finally broke through.

"Good luck boy. You're going to need it if you're going to squire Ally around. She will be a hand full." As he left he was chuckling at me.

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

The next few weeks were very interesting for Alexis and me. We started out as friends but it quickly developed into more. We spent almost every available minute together and our feelings for each other became deeper every day. I took Alexis to meet my parents and they immediately bonded as well. My dad said I had done good. Maybe I was done drifting and had found what I wanted to do.

Alexis and I spent some of the weekends exploring Lake Wappapello; I guess you could say she was my guide. I learned that there is a lot more to the lake than just being wet. One day were out in a boat fishing, although I was paying more attention to Alexis in her bikini than I was to my fishing pole and she looked at me with a question on her face and in her eyes.

"Yes, what is it Alexis?" I could tell she had something on her mind and hoped it wasn't that she thought we should just be friends.

"It's just that, all my friends call me Ally, even my dad calls me Ally but you always call me Alexis. Why?"

I heaved a sigh of relief and replied, "Just something I do I guess. I never thought about it much." I wasn't telling the whole story but my reason would embarrass me to say out loud. Alexis was more perceptive than I thought.

"What's the real reason John? Don't you feel close enough or comfortable enough with me to use my nickname?"

Now I had no choice but to tell her how I felt. "When I saw you the first time at the dance, you were so beautiful that you almost took my breath away. And when Jim introduced us, I thought Yeah, a fitting name for you. Your name is regal and beautiful and unique just like you. I can't call you anything else without feeling like I'm demeaning my feelings for you. So you will always be Alexis to me." I know, melodramatic but that's how I've felt about her since the first time I met her.

"You know you could call me sweetheart or honey or sweetie sometimes. I think that would be okay, don't you?" Alexis was smiling that little pixie smile of hers.

Summer was coming to the end and Alexis and I were growing closer every day. Were my feelings for Alexis a summer romance type of thing or did I really care for her. I had an important decision to make and as the days passed I began to think of my future, something I hadn't had to do yet.

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

So now you rejoin me on the bluff high above Lake Wappapello as I'm trying to make the most important decision of my life. I don't know enough about being in love to say that I was in love Alexis. But I know when I'm with her I'm alive and happy and when I'm not with her I feel like part of me is missing.

The feelings I have for Alexis will have to do for now because I can't think of my life without her in it. Maybe that's what love is after all. As usual my thinking place on that high bluff had cleared my head and helped me make a decision. I headed back to the ranch.

When I got back to the ranch, Bill was sitting in front of his office with his feet propped on the porch rail drinking a beer. As I joined him he tossed me a beer and I sat down. Neither of us said anything for three or four minutes. Bill was the one to break the silence.

"Don't you get enough of this place during the week? What are you doing here John?"

"Wanted to talk to you Bill and then Alexis. I promised you that I would always treat Alexis like a lady and I've kept my word. Now I would like to treat her as a wife. I'm asking you for your permission to marry your daughter."

Bill finished his beer, crushed the can, and pulled out two more, tossing one to me. He hesitated for a minute or so and said, "I wondered when you would get your act together and marry that girl. I've seen it coming ever since you kissed her in the barn and told her she can't fire you. Hell yes you have my permission. Maybe you can tame that wildcat, but I doubt it."

After saying that he stood up, pulled me out of my chair and hugged me. "Welcome to the family John. But maybe you better go ask the lady, we might be premature here." Bill laughed at the look on my face. "Go on, Ally's in the barn."

Alexis was brushing her horse when I entered the barn. I walked over to her gave her a quick kiss, picked her up and sat on a hay bale with her on my lap. She started laughing as I carried her to our seat on the hay bale. "What's gotten into you, Mister?"

"I have something to tell you and I didn't want you jumping on a horse and running away again after I tell you," I said in as serious a voice as I could.

"You sound ominous John. What is it?" The laughing stopped and a concerned look replaced the smile on her face.

"I care about you very much Alexis. It wasn't until I was out at the lake this morning that I realized how much. I was sitting on that bluff above the lake and thought I wish Alexis was here. That's when I realized that I love you. I want us to be together for the foreseeable future, say the next sixty or seventy years. Will you marry me Alexis?"

It was the most difficult question to ask that I had ever ask anyone, almost as tough as the one I asked Bill a few minutes earlier. The hours, or so it seemed, until Alexis answered me, it was actually about twenty seconds, was the most stressful time in my life.

"I love you too and yes I will marry you. But I would like you to ask my father's permission. It really doesn't make any difference but it would be a nice gesture on your part. Will you do that for me?"

"Already done. You dad said good riddance or something like that," I joked.

The rest of our conversation is private and of no interest to anyone but Alexis and I. Let me just say that a hayloft in a barn has more uses than just storing food for the animals.

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

Our wedding day was three months after Alexis agreed to marry me. Jim was my best man and his girlfriend soon to be his fiancée was Alexis' maid of honor. Bill of course walked Alexis down the aisle.

There are people who say that all brides are beautiful and they may be right. But Alexis was so far past beautiful that it hurt my eyes to look at her. Her auburn hair set off the ivory color of her dress and her green eyes shining behind her veil were like lasers into my heart. I couldn't believe that this woman was going to be my wife.

The first thing my bride said to me after the ceremony as we were walking back up the aisle was, "I guess you're done drifting now, aren't you?"

My dad and mom came from Van Buren for the wedding and the reception. They hadn't planned on staying overnight but it was a good party. My dad sure can put away the bourbon; of course he couldn't drive so they stayed at Bill's place until the next morning. Actually I heard later that it was closer to late afternoon before Dad could navigate his way back to his farm.

Bill had followed tradition and paid for most of his daughter's wedding even though it put a little strain on the pocket book, but he did let my parents help with some of the expenses. There had been some capital expenditures made on the ranch and things were a little tight right now. No problem, it would just take a while for his income to rebuild the accounts. The vet clinic for Alexis was on hold for another year or so. I knew about the financial situation because Bill had explained what and why he was doing the improvements to the ranch.

Alexis was planning for us to live at the ranch house and I didn't have a problem with that, at least for a little while. Our honeymoon wasn't a long one or at an exotic locale, rather we spent four days on a houseboat on Lake Wappapello. We anchored the boat back in a cove at the upper end of the lake and never saw another person for the whole trip. It was the most enjoyable time I had ever spent on the lake and not just because of the scenery.

The afternoon that Alexis and I returned to the ranch, I ask Bill and her to come into the office. I told them I had something to talk to both of them about. After we were seated, I sprang my surprise.

"Honey, Bill, I know that you have plans for a vet clinic here on the ranch. And I know that because of the cost of the necessary repairs that the clinic has been put on hold. I also appreciate you sharing you home with us Bill." I took the drawing for the clinic building from their place on the shelf. "I have had these plans reworked to include a large home attached to it."

I had both Bill and Alexis confused now. If there wasn't any money to build the clinic how could a house and clinic be built? I could see the confusion on their faces.

"Bill why don't you unroll the drawings and take a look at the changes?"

Still looking a little confused Bill unrolled the drawings and as he did a cashier's check fell out. "That check is for $200,000 dollars guys. Bill if you donate the land, it's enough to build the house and clinic and it's my wedding present to you Alexis. There is still a little in my trust fund that will allow me to help with expenses until my job starts."

"What job?" Alexis had no idea what I was getting at.

"Before I came to talk to you Bill and propose to you Honey, I stopped and put in an application with the school board here in Wappapello. I start with the spring semester and with school getting out at 3:00 I can still help around the ranch."

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

Five years have passed since my investment in our future. Things are good. The house and clinic were built the first year. We have almost more business than we can handle at the vet clinic. We hired a Jim's cousin, Jason, to work part time for us, both at the clinic and on the ranch.

He is going to Veterinary School in Poplar Bluff which is only seventeen miles away so he commutes daily. When he graduates, he will work full time at our clinic. By that time we will probably hire another hand to work the ranch.

With my schedule teaching, I'm still able to put some work in at the ranch. It's always good to know something about animals when your wife is a veterinarian. I can actually ride a horse now rather than just sit on one. But I will never be as good as Alexis.

I also run a fishing guide business on Lake Wappapello when the school is on summer break. That job is more of an excuse to go fishing, but it still brings in a few bucks.

The house we build is pretty large and it has four bedrooms plus three baths all on one floor. I'm glad I decided on a big house because we may fill it up with kids. Alexis and I have two boys with one four and the other two. The oldest boy is already riding horses. We plan for one more child before we quit. Well anyway that's the plan right now, subject to change.