Cutting Loose Ch. 02

Cutting Loose

== || < > || ==

~~ All characters in this book are over 18. ~~

== || < > || ==

"So, Roy Lee, exactly what the hell are you doing here, anyway?" his mother asked. Across the table from her, his Aunt Eileen smiled and covered her mouth with her hand.

So far, the long-anticipated reunion with his mother could not have started better, as far as Roy Lee McCoy was concerned. After a four-day drive to Promise, Montana, with his Aunt Eileen (who had somehow become his lover during the trip) they had encountered a minimum of difficulty in reuniting with Roy Lee's mother Jillian, who was also Eileen's sister. But the happy glow had faded from Jillian's eyes, and she was looking him with a much more wary expression. Roy Lee's stomach tightened. Was she nervous that her alcoholic husband, his father, was waiting in the wings? Or maybe it was Aunt Eileen's abusive husband she was afraid of?

Roy Lee hesitated before he answered, then shrugged his shoulders. "Depends on your point of view, I guess. Either I'm running away from Deer Creek, or I'm running towards you.

"I couldn't take it anymore, Momma," he said. Georgia, the waitress at the diner where they were meeting, slid a mug of coffee in front of Jillian. She gave her an absent nod and concentrated on her son, who she had not seen in nearly ten years. "Daddy just got worse and worse after you left. He couldn't hold a job, and after a while he stopped even pretending to look for one. The house was falling to pieces. When I got a job with old Mr. Stebbin at the junkyard to help with the bills after I graduated high school, Daddy started charging me rent."

"He what?" Jillian's voice was outraged.

Roy Lee nodded. "By the end, I was paying half the utilities, too. And for the groceries."

Jillian turned her shocked face to her sister. Eileen spread her hands. "What can I say, Jilly? After you left, Dale just climbed into the bottle. I don't know if he'll ever climb out."

"I was afraid if I waited any longer, I'd be taking care of him for the rest of my life. So I decided to leave. I saved twenty thousand dollars," Roy Lee said with considerable pride. "It took me three years. I could have left earlier, but I wanted a safety net in case I had a hard time finding a job. Last Friday I picked up my last check and packed up when Daddy left for the football game against Moulton."

"Football," muttered Jillian in a disgusted voice. "Thank God you didn't get mixed up with that. Or did you? Please tell me you didn't get your brains turned to mush." She narrowed her eyes, as if she could look through Roy Lee's skull and see concussions, brain damage and encroaching dementia.

Her son looked good, actually. Taller than his father, but with a calm, low-key air which reminded her of her own father, back before he died of a stroke when she was only twenty-two, and Eileen was just seventeen and still in high school. His light brown hair was the same shade as her sister's, and his light blue eyes stood out in his tanned, clean-shaven face. His arms were long and gave him a gangly look, but his shoulders were starting to broaden as he matured. His thin, clever hands toyed idly with his water glass as he withstood her scrutiny.

He shook his head, smiling as he answered her. "Nope. I think that was the last straw as far as Daddy was concerned. When I went out for track rather than football. He was convinced I was gay. Which I'm not," he added hastily.

"It wouldn't make you a bad person if you were," said Eileen with a wicked glint in her eye, which made Roy Lee blush.

"Pssh," Jillian said. "I could tell you weren't gay when you were ten. You had an eye for the girls even then. So you waited till Dale went to the ballgame. And then?" she prompted.

"I loaded everything I wanted to take with me into the back of my car." He nodded at the Dodge sitting in front of the diner. It was, Jillian noted with some amusement, riding more than a little low. "I had no idea where I was going to go. I was thinking about a decent-sized city where I'd be hard to find, in case Daddy took it into his head to come look for me. Charlotte, St. Louis, Memphis, Louisville. Someplace like that. I was pretty sure I could find work at a body shop or a car dealership. But I decided to stop by Aunt Eileen's hair salon to let her know I was leaving, so she could tell Daddy if he ever got around to wondering where I went. And then..." He trailed off.

Eileen took up the thread of the conversation. "I convinced him to take me with him," she said, leaving out the fact part of the 'convincing' had consisted of a blow-job in the salon itself. "Bobby Ray...the way he treated me...it was unbearable, Jilly." She looked down at her hands, her voice thick with self-disgust. "I should never have married him. By the end, I was damn near a prisoner in my own home. When Roy Lee told me he was leaving, it was like a miracle straight from God. I would have done anything to get out of town by then." At her side, Roy Lee started, and gave her a quick look. Thankfully, his mother didn't catch it.

"I think Aunt Eileen set an all-time Alabama record packing," he said cheerfully, trying to disguise the unpleasant thought which had occurred to him. "We were in and out in twenty minutes. Once we got on the road, she told me where you were living. Wild horses couldn't have kept me away after I found that out."

"I guess not," Jillian said, impressed. "You drove something like two thousand miles in three and a half days. And it didn't take you long to find me, once you were here in town."

"That was all Aunt Eileen," Roy Lee said modestly. "I struck out at the post office, but she had the idea of asking after you here at the diner."

"I come here a lot," Jillian said with a smile. As if in confirmation, Georgia came by and placed a plate of scrambled eggs, hash browns, and sausage in front of her.

"But what about you, Jilly?" Eileen asked. She reached across the table to grip her sister's hand. "All I've had from you for the past nine years are postcards. What happened? What do you do for a living? Have you found yourself another man?"

Eileen hadn't seen her sister for nearly a decade. Fearful of what her husband might do if he found out where she was, terrified of her brother-in-law, Jillian had all but disappeared from her life. Every few months, Eileen would do a search for her on the internet, and come up empty. No Facebook page, no twitter account, no e-mail address. As far as the outside world was concerned, Jillian Coulter McCoy might as well not exist.

But she sat across from her now, and all the old memories came flooding back. Small, yes. But she had always been the small one. Eileen had passed her in height when she was only fourteen. Her ash-blond hair, a gift from their mother, fell in gentle waves past her shoulders. Her face was triangular, with wide-set blue eyes and a narrow, pointed chin which gave her an adorable pixie-like quality. Even dressed in heavy clothes and with her face red from the outside chill, she made Eileen feel like a Clydesdale standing next to a racehorse.

I've got bigger boobs, though, thought Eileen, with some satisfaction. Maybe not better, she continued as she eyed her sister's high, firm bust. But definitely bigger. She shifted in her seat, welcoming the press of Roy Lee's knee and leg against her own. Warmth pooled in her belly, and she wondered how long it would be until they had time alone to make love again.

Good Lord, girl, she reprimanded herself. You just screwed this morning. You don't need to fuck all the time, you know!

But I'm horny. Ever since I took up with Roy Lee, I've been horny for him all the time. And it feels awesome. I'm making up for damn near twenty years of celibacy in a loveless marriage. And I don't care.

Jillian took a bite of hash browns, her eyes screwing up in pleasure. "Nine years," she mused, breaking Eileen's reverie. "It doesn't seem that long. And then I look at my boy here, all grown up, and it seems like it's been a lifetime.

"I'm sorry I left you, Roy Lee," she said carefully, trying to soften the bluntness of her words. "But I'm not sorry I left. I hope you're smart enough to understand the difference."

He nodded. "I think I do."

"Well, then," she continued. "I lived in Des Moines for a while. It was a nice town, but still too big for a country girl from Deer Creek. So one day, I was in my little apartment, so homesick I thought I was going to die, and I decided to leave. I picked up my old road atlas, closed my eyes, flipped through the pages, and stabbed my finger down. Totally at random. And it came down on Promise, Montana.

"And I thought, why not? It was small enough to not be a big town, but big enough for me to blend in. I thought it over for a couple of days, did a little research, and packed up and left when my lease was up.

"It was harder than I hoped, but not as tough as I was afraid it would be. I got here in the spring." She sighed. "I hope you both stay here long enough to see it. Spring is a gorgeous time in Montana. I still can't believe how beautiful it gets here. The mountains and the valleys bursting into color, and the streams full of snow-melt..." She trailed off, her eyes far away.

"Anyway, I picked up some temp work right away. And the people are...how can I describe them?" She frowned as she thought, searching for the right words. Behind her, the front door opened and closed. Leather-faced ranchers and their farmhands began to fill the diner for lunch. Several of them nodded greetings at Jillian, and she responded with friendly smiles, greeting many by name.

"Promise is a special place," she said at last. "I can't say it any better than that. People look out for each other here. And it isn't the always-looking-over-your-shoulder sort of thing we all grew up with back home. No one's watching you to see if you're sinning. You don't have the God-damned Southern Baptist Convention camped out on the front lawn if someone suspects you're gay, or an atheist, or if you're having an affair. They're making sure you're all right and seeing if you need any help.

"I think a lot of it comes from where we are. We live close to the edge here, and it's real easy to die if you ain't careful. Blizzards, floods, wind. Montana can kill you quick. So we all watch out for each other.

"I'm not saying it's perfect. We've had troubles here. In this very building, even. Heck, just last winter a man beat up his daughter, then crashed his truck and killed himself, not six blocks away. But the town rallied together and took care of the girl. She's happy and healthy and looking to get married soon.

"So when I showed up they helped me out. I didn't have any real skills. But I was willing to work. That counts for a lot. Some of these old ranchers are real set in their ways, and wouldn't dream of hiring a woman to help with the stock. But some are more open-minded. They don't care what you got between your legs as long as you got something between your ears. So I got along all right.

"And a...a friend of mine recommended that I get some real training. He lent me the money. And now I'm a certified veterinary assistant. In fact, when Georgia called, I was outside town inoculating a batch of calves..." Her voice trailed off as she became aware of a familiar presence nearby, looking on with mild amusement. A horrified look entered her eyes. "Oh, shit."

A dark-skinned, medium-sized man was standing near the counter. His black hair was sprinkled with gray, and Roy Lee could not help noticing he smelled faintly like a barnyard.

He grinned at Jillian, the expression making the crow's-feet crinkle cheerfully at the edges of his eyes. "Forget something, chica?" He leaned forward and set a mud-covered cell phone on the edge of the table.

"Paco! I'm so sorry!" Blushing, Jillian hung her head, her ash-blond hair falling around her face.

"Indeed, you should be," he said, his smile taking the sting out of his words. "Leaving me with half the calves, running away who knows where? Lucky for you I saw your truck outside. Still, it gave poor little Tamarin a turn when she saw you tearing down the driveway. I had to promise to come find you and see if you were all right." He turned an inquiring eye to Roy Lee and Eileen.

"Paco, I'd like you to meet my son, Roy Lee McCoy, and my sister, Eileen Harris. Roy Lee, Eileen, this is my boss and good friend, Paco Gutierrez. He's the man I was telling you about. He helped me get on my feet when I got here and helped me get my veterinary assistant certification." Jillian moved to the side, making room for Paco to slide in beside her.

Eileen eyed the newcomer. He was dressed like Jilly, in a denim jacket over a heavy flannel shirt over a t-shirt. He wore heavy jeans and boots, both liberally splattered with mud and manure. She would have guessed his age at a well-preserved fifty. With a woman's intuition, she could tell immediately that theirs was no ordinary employer-employee relationship.

"So," she said, her voice lightly teasing. "Just how good a friend is he, Jilly?"

Jilly smiled, her hand covering Paco's. Her small fingers caressed his dirt-stained knuckles. "We were together for a while. Several months, in fact. I was working on one of the ranches south of town. Enough to get by, but not enough to feel comfortable. Paco convinced me if I wanted to stay out here and have some long-term security, I should go for my certificate. He lent me the money, I got certified, and he hired me as his assistant. And then he broke up with me."

Paco winced. "You don't have to make it sound so cold, Jilly," he protested. "We both agreed it was for the best. Can't dip your pen in the company ink," he explained to Eileen, who nodded.

"I understand," she said. "So do you do mostly large-animal work?"

Jillian shook her head. "Just the opposite, really. Most of the ranchers here look after their own stock for ordinary things. We only get called out in an emergency. Most of our work is in town. Dogs and cats and other pets. But Tamarin is a special case. She's the girl who I was telling you about a little bit ago. Her father piled up his truck and got his fool self killed. She's got a boyfriend-"

"More like a manfriend," put in Paco. "Brody's damn near twice her age."

"You hush," Jillian scolded. "But he's still learning the farm life. So we went out to help inoculate the calves today. She has a small dairy herd and is looking to expand if things work out.

"Which means Paco and I have to get back out there and finish up." She drank the last of her coffee and set the mug down firmly. Paco slid out of the booth, and she followed, shoving her phone into a jacket pocket. "Where are you two staying?"

Roy Lee looked at Eileen. "We just got into town a couple of hours ago," he said. "We haven't gotten a hotel room. We haven't really made any plans, to be honest. We just wanted to find you."

She smiled. "I thought so." She pulled out a key ring. "Here," she said, handing them a set of house keys. "You all can stay at my place until you get yourselves settled. No reason to pay for a hotel. We have a couple of decent ones out by the interstate, but they sell you the same room day after day, and that'll eat up your cash right quick. I've got a spare bedroom where you can sleep, Eileen, and I suppose Roy Lee can sleep on the couch.

"Make yourselves at home. I should be back sometime around five-thirty, unless we have an emergency call." She gave them directions to her house, Eileen writing them down on a napkin. Then she stuck some bills under her plate to pay for her meal and left the diner, Paco following. She waved cheerfully at them as she climbed into her truck, and they returned the gesture.

"Ready to go?" Eileen asked. She pulled one of Roy Lee's hands off the table and placed it on her inner thigh, enjoying the heat as it soaked through her slacks. She squeezed her legs together, trapping his hand, and shuddered at the sheer pleasure of his touch.

"In more ways than one," he grinned at her.

*****

His mother's house was a one-story ranch, not too far from the small business district. The front yard, though already brown with frost this far north, was neatly trimmed. Two small maple trees, a few red leaves still bravely clinging to their branches, flanked the driveway. As they climbed out of the car, an elderly woman, dressed in purple slacks and a black sweater, walked out of the house next door and stood looking at them from her porch.

"Can I help you folks out with anything?" she asked, as Roy Lee popped the trunk and began pulling their luggage out. Although her tone was politely inquisitive, there was a thread of suspicion in her words.

"Hi!" Eileen said brightly, walking over to greet the stranger. "I'm Eileen Harris. That there is Roy Lee McCoy," she continued, nodding at him. "He's Jillian's son, come up from Alabama to see his momma. We're going to be staying with her for a few days, maybe longer, while we get on our feet. He hasn't seen her since she ran away from his daddy, nearly ten years gone by. We just met her down at the diner, and she gave us the keys so we could unpack while she is out doing her veterinary work." She held the key-ring out as evidence.

The woman's face softened, and she smiled at Eileen. Her seamed face was a cheerful net of wrinkles. "Well, he's got the look of her, all right," she said, giving Roy Lee a keen glance as he wandered up to the porch. "Good for her. She's often told me about her boy. I'm Geraldine Templeton, and we've been neighbors for nearly four years now.

"I was just making sure you was all-right folks. Not many people would be crazy enough to try to rob a house in broad daylight, but it's happened before." She shivered in the chilly breeze. "I'm just going to go back inside now. But if you need anything, come on by."

"Old busybody," Roy Lee grumbled as they unlocked the front door and hauled the first few suitcases into the house.

"She was looking out for a neighbor and a friend, Roy Lee," Eileen countered. "What was she supposed to think? Two strangers in a car with Alabama plates show up and make themselves at home. Ain't that just a little suspicious? Your momma has probably shared a bit of her history with Geraldine over there, and asked her to keep an eye on the place, in case your Daddy or Bobby Ray ever show up here."

Despite himself, Roy Lee shivered at the thought of Eileen's brutal, sadistic husband. His own father was a harmless drunk, but Bobby Ray Harris was a deputy sheriff, and had far too much power for someone with his temperament. The slowly fading bruises on Eileen's arms and shoulders were a testament to his hair-trigger volatility.

"Well, this is a nice little place," Eileen said approvingly. She set one of his suitcases, picked up at a thrift store a few days ago, down in the living room, and surveyed her surroundings.

Roy Lee had to agree. The house was low-set and rambling, but had a simple charm. The front room held an entertainment center, piled with DVDs, and an interesting set of mismatched furniture which nonetheless managed to please the eye. Brightly covered afghans were draped over the backs of the couch and the recliner. Photographs of the surrounding mountains were hung on the walls, giving the room an outdoors feel.

Following his aunt, he walked into a sparsely-furnished dining room, which held little more than a table and chairs and a bookcase stuffed with novels. To the right was the kitchen, and through it he could see a hallway.

"So where are the bedrooms?" Eileen said, one of her duffel bags slung over her shoulder. Roy Lee followed through the dim hallway. Two doors opened on their left, and one, further down, on the right.