Down on the Farm: The Whole Story

"Can I come in?" I heard Gina say outside the door, so I walked over, still brushing my teeth, and she said, "I'll be done in a sec," as I let her in, and walked out into the living room, still brushing my teeth.

"OK, you can come back in," I heard her say, and there she was, as naked as I was, at the sink, brushing her own teeth. I snuck in an "Mmmph," as we shared a quick, toothpasty kiss, before we both finished.

Holy cow, this was so normal. In a way, it worried me, because here it was, my first morning waking up with Gina, and I realized, I was acting like we were long-time husband-and-wife around her. There hadn't been any real courtship, none at all. I mean, there'd been the first meeting in the river, if 'meeting' is the right word when we were two strangers skinny dipping, but it was hardly a date. The next time, she just showed up, and we wound up tiling the kitchen floor together; that sure wasn't a date. Hard sex, then dinner at a cheap diner, and she's grabbing clothes from her house and putting them in my bedroom. Not the first word was said about her moving in, no sweet-and-tender moments, other than just before we fell asleep last night, and pow! I'm behaving around her just like I did around my wife, at least before everything fell apart.

After we finished brushing our teeth, we both walked into the living room, to grab a bite; the kitchen was still an empty room. I put on a small pot in the coffeemaker, which was on a card table, enough for two cups each, and Gina simply reached down into an open box, like she had been here forever, and got us two cups.

"The night's over," I said. "You gonna be my girlfriend for the day today?"

"Yup," she smiled at me, "I think I am. Coffee on the porch?" We were both still naked, but Gina already knew that I liked being naked outside, and she opened the French doors to the porch on the west side of the house. I already had a couple of chairs and a small table out there, so everything was ready to go. We could have been seen from the road, if someone drove past slowly and tried to look through the trees and bushes, but it really wasn't very likely. I didn't care, and it didn't seem like my girlfriend for the day minded either.

It was pleasant outside, a summer morning where it was just warm enough to be outside undressed, before the real heat of the day hit us. Since the porch faced the west, the sun wasn't in our eyes, but was shining on the fields and the trees by the riverbank.

"You have anything planned for today?" I asked her.

"Nothing in particular I have to do. Why? You have an agenda?"

"Well, I want to wait until tomorrow to grout the kitchen floor, to give the thinset time to cure. Of course, there's always plenty to do around this place, to get it in shape, but I'm in no rush; we can do anything you want, or just laze away the day."

"Let me think about it," she said, and then went back to sipping her coffee.

I was wondering what was on her mind, but sure couldn't read it! Still, she had to know, just as well as I did, that she was, we both were, behaving as though we were living together, instead of it being our first morning. She had started the "girlfriend for an hour" and "girlfriend for the night" bits, which sure sound temporary, but our behavior around each other looked long-term. If anyone could see us, they'd probably think we'd been together for years rather than less-than-a-day.

Finally, she said, "Let's get some breakfast."

"OK. The range isn't connected, and cooking means using the charcoal grill. I have a toaster and a microwave in the garage, and a small pantry in there. Occasionally I'll grill up something, but I've mostly been eating sandwiches and stuff."

"OK, well, let's go rustle up something." Then she got up, and staying in the grass rather than the gravel, she walked over to the garage, still beautifully naked. I was really liking this woman.

I got up to follow her, and then I saw it: as she moved out of the shadow of the house, the full sunlight lit up her back. Obviously, I already knew how her body looked, and felt, but this was different, as I could see the light play on her muscles. She wasn't a gym rat by any means, and if her waist wasn't teenaged small anymore, it looked good and firm. Her butt was fantastic, trim and firm, and she was still able to wear teenaged girls' Daisy Dukes, though she wasn't wearing them now! Her shoulders were slightly broader than I'd expect on a woman, but she still looked completely feminine.

The garage had a man-door, as well as the two overhead doors. We went in that one, and then I walked over and raised the two overhead doors for ventilation. I'd bought breakfast food yesterday, but all we picked was some toast and butter; that was enough. We were able to chow down -- and Gina could put away some food! -- sitting at my small kitchen-table-in-the-garage, just gabbing about nothing.

I had like a million questions, but no flaming idea how to bring up any of them. She'd already told me that she'd been through some loser boyfriends -- a whole string of them, I'd guessed -- and that she'd been responsible about birth control, so I assumed that she didn't have any kids. I had looked, and didn't see any pregnancy stretch marks on her belly. But what I really wanted to know was where this was going. We barely knew each other, and if it seemed promising, we were already acting like . . . .

Oh, my God, it finally hit me. We had been acting like a long-time couple around each other, which I had thought was both interesting and strange, when I realized it: I was happy, happy in a way I hadn't been for years and years. I had been acting this way because that was the way I wanted life to be, this was the way life was meant to be. Of course, I'd been married for so long that I really didn't know how to treat a woman other than as a wife. Men are incomplete without women, and women are incomplete without men, and for the first time in years, not just since the divorce, but for years before the divorce, I was feeling whole again, complete again.

It seemed just so ridiculously soon, but it all seemed so right. I had to figure this out! I mean, we could keep on going just like we had been, and maybe it would all come together, like it had been so far. But that was the easy way, and it ran the danger of being the easy way out. Gina had said that she'd had some loser boyfriends, guys who had seemed interesting but who all wound up fucked up on drugs. If I took the easy way, yeah, I wouldn't have to ask hard questions or raise a subject she might not be ready for, but that might also leave her wondering whether I might not be just another loser, interested in her just for pussy and not really serious.

I had been paying attention, close attention. She had the kind of job where she probably got drug tested, but drug tests can be beat, at least if you have some advance warning about them, and it might be that she got that warning. But she'd never said the first word or given me the slightest hint about getting high or even drinking last night, and in the few minutes we were at her mother's house, I didn't notice any beer or liquor bottles or ashtrays around the house.

More, even though her mother's house was kind of worn, and needed some maintenance, it was as clean as a house like that can be. Junkies don't have clean houses!

Of course, the big question is: am I really in love with Gina? I almost said so, last night, but I bit my tongue and kept my stupid mouth shut. This feels like love, but we've been together for just one day, and only an idiot would think he could fall in love in a day. I'm not an idiot, and I'm not a 17-year-old. I'm a grown man, and I need to get control of myself.

This was the test, then. I already knew what I wanted, and I knew what I needed to talk about, to ask about, and I was just plain scared shitless to say anything. It was time to just plain man up and talk about this. If I didn't have the courage to talk to this wonderful woman about this, then I wasn't worthy of her.

"Richard?"

Huh? Oh, crap!

"Something wrong, sweetie? You're just staring off into space or something?"

"No, no, nothing's wrong. In fact, right now, everything's right. I was just thinking about things."

"OK, well I was just thinking that, as much as I'd love to just stay here naked with you all day, I've got a couple more things at my house I need and forgot to grab. Want to head over with me?"

That broke the serious train of thought I was having, making it easier to just keep on letting things happen. Still, I needed to man up and start discussing things with Gina, sooner rather than later, really. "OK, sure. In fact, there are a couple of things I need to pick up from the building supply store, so we could make it all in one trip. Can you help me get some stuff out of my truck, and then we can leave?"

"I guess we ought to get dressed to do that," she teased me. Of course, we did have to get dressed, because some of the stuff in the truck would rub raw bare skin if it was carried wrong. So, much to my regret, we head back to the house and grabbed our clothes. It was a fairly brief tank top for Gina again, but today she put on jeans rather than shorts, to protect her legs. We unloaded the truck, and then headed out, taking Route 52 over to her house.

Once again, her mom wasn't home, and Gina just grabbed her laptop and Kindle reader; we weren't there two minutes, before heading back toward my place on 52. The building supply house was the opposite way, so we'd pass the farm on the way there.

Route 52 is a winding country road, few guard rails and some if-you-go-over-you're-dead falls off to one side or the other. We got to a slightly safer area, in some low land near the river, area that is used some for farming, but can be wet and marshy. Suddenly, Gina said, "Pull over, quick."

"Huh? What's up?"

"Did you see that poor dog?" Gina was talking back over her shoulder to me, already out of the truck and heading into this half-marshy field.

I cut off the engine, pulled out the keys, and headed into the field after her; Gina was already 25 yards ahead of me, and just getting to this super-skinny, reddish/brownish/almost maroon dog, about Labrador sized, but of some undefinable mutt descent. "Oh, look at this poor baby!" she wailed.

And the dog did look pretty awful. He was dirty, and skinny, and had been pawing at the ground like he had been trying to bring up some edible critter. If he belonged to anybody, that anybody sure wasn't taking care of his pooch, and he didn't have a collar. "Richard, he's starving! Look at this poor thing! He can't have a family, not the way he is. He needs us, and we've got to take him home."

What? Us? We've got to take him home? "Home? As in our home? As in have you moved in with me?"

"Yes! Now help me get him into the truck!"

Well, that answer pretty much stunned me, but I went right ahead and helped Gina get the dog over to the truck and put in. We didn't have any food in the truck, but headed straight home and I gave him a bit of people food to tide him over, while Gina made a quick grocery run to get him something proper to eat. She also picked up some dog shampoo, because he was filthy and stank, and a collar to put on him in case he got lost.

I think Gina must've broken every traffic law around, because she was back way before I expected her. We decided to give the dog just a little food at first, not wanting him to puke up too much from gorging. I'd never had a dog before, but it was obvious that she had, because Gina just seemed to know what to do.

I think that the dog must've had an owner at some point, because he recognized affection from people, and returned it in spades. Can dogs feel gratitude? I don't know, but he seemed like he did, laying down on an old bedsheet on the ground between us after he had eaten.

"So, babe," Gina asked me, "what are we going to name him?"

"Hell, I don't know. I was calling him Fido in my mind, but . . . ."

"Fido's lame! Think of something else."

I thought for a second, and then said, "Kayak. His name's Kayak, after the way we met on the river."

Gina looked at me like she thought that was kind of lame, too, but just said, "If that's the way you're thinking, I guess I should just be glad you don't want to name him Thinset." I had to laugh at that one.

After Kayak had about an hour break, we refilled his brand-new bowl, to give him some more. Like I said, we'd scrimped on his first feeding, but he really did need fattening up. After his second meal, and some more rest, we brought him over to the hose, to shampoo him and get him cleaned up. Kayak was very patient through all of this, letting us take care of him. He was still too skinny, of course, but he still looked like a much healthier dog once he was cleaned up. The shampoo was a flea shampoo as well, and that really helped him, but I figured that we'd need to get him to the vet next week for a checkup.

Around six, we started thinking about our own food, so I fired up the charcoal grill: it was just going to be burgers for us, but that was fine. We didn't need a fancy meal, and the last thing I wanted to do was leave Kayak alone while we ran off to a restaurant, not the first day with us, anyway.

And it was finally time to talk. I mean, Gina just plain stunned me when she said that she'd already moved in, even though that's what it looked like anyway, because we certainly hadn't talked about it. "Well, Gina, just what are we doing here? I guess that you knew I was already thinking about it, but it kind of surprised me" -- I managed not to say shocked me or stunned me -- "when you said that you'd moved in."

"Oh, Hell, Richard, I don't know. Everything just seemed natural, you know, and I wasn't intentionally moving in or anything, but we clicked, and when you asked me if I had already moved in, I said 'yes' because I knew the right answer was yes. It was the right answer, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, actually, it was. I have no flaming idea why it's the right answer, and I was actually trying to work up the nerve to talk about it this morning while we were having breakfast, but yeah, it was the right answer."

"This morning, were you going to ask me to move in?"

"I think so, but I was still trying to get everything sorted out in my mind. You're amazing, but you sure aren't like any other woman I've ever known."

"That's because you were up with all of those northern girls. You moved down here among Southern women, and Southern women take what they want. I'm just lucky I snatched you up before some other hussy got her claws into you!"

"Hussy?" I had to laugh at that term; I hadn't heard it used in, well, maybe forever. "So, what made you want to 'snatch me up'?"

Gina hesitated at that one, obviously considering her answer before giving it. "Well, I liked the way you looked that first day, very decent body for a man in his forties, and, I'll be honest here, I checked your arms for needle tracks, and didn't see any. After all of the losers I've dated, that's a big issue with me."

"You know, when you told me that you worked for the school system, I considered that you probably had to take drug tests, so yeah, that thought was in my head, too."

"Maybe not as many as you'd think, but yeah, a few. Anyway, when you told me that you were a writer, I wanted to know more, so I checked around, to find out your last name -- you hadn't told me -- and then I checked amazon.com to see if you had any books published. I found 'em, and ordered one. How the heck does a guy like you write romance novels, anyway? But when I read it, I was hooked, I knew I had to catch up with you again, and see what you were really like. I got here, and found you working, and that told me two things: you weren't lazy, and you had some real skills. Around these parts, you're a real catch!

"Anyway, I liked everything I saw, and I was getting pretty turned on as well. I was already on the horny side, and you were proving to be a real man, so I just went for it. You turned out to be pretty good in bed, which was the icing on the cake. But the last thing, the thing that made everything worth it, we spent most of the day working, and then went out, and then hit the sack, and not once did you grab a beer or want to smoke dope or anything like that."

"You know what you didn't say, Gina? You didn't say the first thing about love." I had noticed that, and with her straight-talking nature, I had to mention it.

"That's 'cause I don't know about that yet. I like you, a lot, and I admire you, and I'm happy being with you, but Hell, I've told guys I loved them before, and it all turned to shit. I thought that maybe love was something that had to be worked on, and it sure seems like it's moving that direction, and when I know, I'll tell you. Is that good enough for you? Is that good enough for us to start with?"

I just sat there, kind of stunned. Kayak was laying down beside my lawn chair, and I was absentmindedly petting him, just thinking about what Gina had said. I had really wanted her to say that she loved me, but, damn it all, the woman was being just plain sensible. I had bitten my tongue before I said it to her, just last night, because I was being sensible, and I needed to appreciate that she was a smart woman herself. "Yeah, it's good enough for us to start with. I'm pretty happy with things the way they are, and I think that they'll develop the way they should. But, damn, this sure isn't anything like the way I write romance books."

"That scary for you?"

"In a way, yeah, because most of what I've written is a slower build-up, and I try to put myself into my characters' heads, and you're just not what I've imagined."

"Well, was your ex?"

Holy crap, that was a direct question! "I thought so, for a long time, but that all went to shit anyway, so either I got it wrong, or what I write and sell isn't what works for me. Does it bother you that I've got an ex-wife out there?"

"Does it bother you that I have ex-boyfriends right here in this county? At least your ex is up in Pennsylvania, and not around here. You've got to live with that, while I'll never run into your ex."

"I can handle that. But I guess that this means I've got an extension on you being my girlfriend for the day." That got me the first smile in this very serious conversation. It also got Gina out of her chair, coming over to me, sitting on my lap and kissing me. "Yeah," she smiled, "you've got an extension."

Of course, the kissing didn't last very long, because Kayak stood up, put his front paws on the armrest of the lawn chair, and started licking my face!

"So, what are we going to do with Kayak overnight?" Gina asked me.

"I guess that we ought to keep him in the garage. That flea shampoo took care of most of them, but if there are any left, we don't want them in the carpets. Still, I don't really like locking up a dog, so we'll have to put more money into the fencing." The farm had a board fence around the perimeter, except at the riverbank, but a dog could get through that easily. The only thing we could do is install lattice inside of the existing fencing, and section off part of the yard.

"Can you afford that? I mean, yeah, I pushed us into getting the dog, but I can't really presume stuff with your money."

"You might have to help with that," I responded. "Can you?"

"Some. I'm going to have to give part of my check to my mom. Now that I won't be living there, she won't be able to keep the house if I don't. Is that going to be OK with you? I mean, I guess we never talked about money, but I've got to be fair with you or this'll never work."

I've got to admit: I loved Gina's response! She was willing to help, but went straight into telling me what her obligations were as well. It might not be sexy, but it's smart, and honest. "Well," I began, "we can do it the less expensive way, tacking some chicken wire in at first, before spending money on lattice. It won't look as good, but you couldn't see the wire from any distance." She nodded her head at that idea, clearly approving it, and clearly acting concerned about putting too much pressure on me financially.