Love Always Wins Pt. 05 Ch. 19-25

"Yes sir, thank you sir." She gave a little start as what she had said registered at a conscious level. She looked up and gave me a teary smile. "You dirty old, OLD man you!" Then she lowered her face into my chest and proceeded to sob her heart out until she fell asleep in my arms.

God damn! If I ever cross paths with the fucking sonofabitch that did this to her, he WILL die right there, right now! I don't care what she says about fucking forgetting and forgiving!

And now, what the fuck am I going to do? I'm supposed to be waiting for Terri and now I have a beautiful package in my lap labeled "FRAGILE!!! Handle with EXTREME care!!!" And not only that, this package wants to seduce me! Neither a denial nor a one night stand is going to work for her! Either one will shatter her into a million pieces! What the fuck am I going to do?

What I did do was to rock Gwynn gently in my arms until she finally seemed to be at peace. Then I gently reached down and dislodged the one thong that remained on her feet. My next move was to carry her to my bed and contrive to slip her under the covers without disturbing her. I was successful until I began to separate myself from her grip and she began to whimper in her sleep.

I whispered in her ear, "It's all right, beautiful. I WILL be back with you in a moment." She subsided and proceeded to curl up in a fetal position. I used the bathroom and stripped down to my boxers as fast as I could before I turned off the lights and slipped into bed. As soon as she detected the heat from my body she began to uncurl from the fetal position like a flower escaping from its bud. By the time that she was completely unfolded and pressed against my body I felt as if another micron closer would permanently fuse us together!

Heaven only knows how long the greyhound of my mind chased the damned electric rabbit around the racetrack of futility. At some point my mind finally slipped into the oblivion of exhaustion and troubled sleep.

"Hi Stef, it's really good to see you again!"

"Omigod! Terri! It's so good to see you again!" I ran to give Terri a hug—but nothing happened! "What the hell?" I looked around. "No, belay that! Where the hell?"

"Easy Stef! Don't wake up or we'll lose the window!"

"Wake up?" My mind seemed to spin for a few moments. "What? We're dreaming... I mean I'm dreaming?"

"Well, sort of. There is a gateway between you and me at the mining camp. After I died, I managed to punch a hole in the... curtain so I could make the appointment to meet you at the mining camp. Since we met at the camp and we were able to touch each other then, there has been a permanent window between us. If you weren't blocked from meditating, we would be able to talk to each other any time you meditated. As it is, all I can do is use the window when you are asleep and in certain stages of that sleep.

"There is also a gateway between Gwendolyn and me at the place where I died, but I was never able to open a window between us until the two of you came together. Before the two of you came together, there was sort of a broken or warped window between us after the accident, but all that ever did was feed her nightmares."

"Terri, I'm afraid that I have screwed everything up. I have managed to get Gwynn dependent on me. The Universe seems to have given me a sledge hammer that I get to hold over the delicate china of her psyche. Oh, and as you once said about me, I'm not sure if I'm in love with her, but I'm definitely a long ways down that path! How do I unfuck everything without destroying her?"

"Not to worry. I've been exploring the probability threads or sequences and you are solidly in the main sequence that brings us back together. Go ahead and love Gwendolyn. I already know that you, like most human beings, can love more than one person at a time, and that actually serves my purpose! Love as much as you can and never, never, ever give up! That is what will bring us back together again!

"Oh, and Gwendolyn's fragile psyche is due to the trauma caused by her parents' deaths and the aftermath or fallout that it occasioned. There is no serious childhood trauma that she has to deal with. That's good since that kind of trauma is usually hard to track down and often impossible to heal. Gwendolyn can be healed and you can heal her!

"Oh, and now you are starting to wake up. I love you Stef..."

I felt the bed move as Gwynn slowly disconnected from our clinch. "And where do you think you are going Ms. Mendoza?"

There was a gasp of surprise in the dark. "I, I'm... I'm just..." Her voice broke. "Oh fuck! I'm just running away!"

I asked her softly, "From me? Or something else?"

"From, from... Oh God, I don't know!" Her voice was almost a wail.

"Well, could you do me a favor and at least stay until the sun comes up? If you ran away now, I would be very worried and would probably hurt myself trying to find you and help you. Please stay with me tonight and tomorrow we'll see if we can slay your dragons together. Is that all right?"

Her reply was a hesitant whisper. "Yess."

"Fine, then make yourself comfortable and let's get a good night's sleep so that we will be able to plan how to kill dragons efficiently."

There was some mumbling in the dark, "Comfortable... That woke me up... Sleep safe..." Then there was movement on the bed and the rustle of fabric. When she finally cuddled up nest to me all she was wearing were her panties! I played with a few differential equations to distract Little Stefan and after Gwynn was breathing softly and regularly, I fell back into dreamland. 


There was some light filtering through my eyelids when I was motivated to stir and stretch. Then I opened my eyes and discovered that this particular morning I was the one being watched; Gwynn was resting on her side and watching me, maybe even staring isn't too strong a word.

"Good morning, beautiful. A penny for your thoughts, or am I overpaying you?"

Gwynn's pensive mien broke into a gentle smile that brightened the room more than the sunlight. However, she then dropped her eyes and replied with a sigh, "After last night, I'm afraid that a penny is overpayment."

"Tut, tut, tut, the first rule of a good salesperson is that you try to raise the price, not push it down." I shifted to a stage whisper and finished the thought, "And I'll be a lousy buyer and let you know that you could charge me a whole lot more than a penny for one of your thoughts and a smile!"

Gwynn couldn't help herself, she broke into a broad grin. "God Stef, you are incorrigible! You're different. You're strange. You're nice. You listen. You care. You even make me feel safe. I even think I'm falling in love with you!" She took a shuddery breath. "And I'm scared to death!"

"Okay, so we have a few or a flock more dragons to slay. They can't win unless you let them. And you can win; you ran one through the heart last night and you fought another to a draw."

"What? I killed a dragon last night? How do you figure that?"

"When you were playing footsie last night and conspiring with the waitress, you were grinding one poor dragon under your bare feet! When the second dragon grabbed your heart in an icy grip, you didn't run away. You fought it to a standstill!"

"Yeah, but you helped. I couldn't have done it without you!"

"Excuse me! You killed that first dragon all by yourself and I could tell that you were enjoying every single minute of it. So what if you needed a little help to get a standoff with the second one. After all, what are friends for?"

"Friends! Jesus Christ, Stef, what do you do for people you love?"

"That can be complicated, so let me tell the truth in a flippant way. I try to be a better friend!

"And now, let me shift the topic. That is the second time you have called me Stef. Where is that coming from?"

Gwynn got a startled look. "I... You're right! Where... Oh yeah, I got to see Terri last night. She said that was your nickname. I, I guess it must have stuck; I didn't even realize that I was using it. Do you mind? I kind of like it!

"Oh, and uh, Stef is real isn't it? I didn't just dream it out of thin air or did I?"

"No. It's real and I don't mind if you use it." I raised my eyebrows and grinned. "As long as it's all right with Terri."

"Oh! I didn't even think to ask! I'm sorry!"

"Gwynn! I know that I have a dry sense of humor, but I can't be that dry! Of course you can use that nickname! I was teasing! And for that matter, I'm sure that Terri has no objection either!"

Gwynn giggled, reached out and pulled us together and gave me a very warm kiss. When we came up for air she grinned and teased right back. "Yes sir. Thank you sir, you old fart, sir!"

I laughed. "That's almost too easy for you. I wonder if I need to change the 'sir' rule?"

"Well, after the way I wound up treating you last night, maybe you should make the penalty flogging instead of spanking."

I sighed. "Gwynn, I realize that you are teasing—or rather, you'd better be teasing! However, I'm afraid that both of those pastimes are outside my field of kinks, both as a giver and as a receiver, so if there is a serious note there, you are out of luck and need to find a different species to dance with.

"Humph! Now that I have beat around an unimportant bush long enough for my dander to settle back down a bit, I do need to get serious about another part of that statement.

"Yes, I was disappointed with how you treated me last night. Yes, Little Stefan was devastated. However, I know that what was really happening was that we were slaying dragons and that takes precedence over pleasure! Little Stefan doesn't have a big enough brain to understand what was going on, so it's just tough rocks for him!

"You are old enough and attractive enough that I would have no issue with going into courting mode if I thought I had a chance with you. However, there be dragons lying about the castle that shelters your soul. While we are slaying your dragons, I will not try to breach your walls. I will not lay siege to any of the works of your castle without your express permission or encouragement!

I paused and reflected on my words. "Wow! It's a good thing that Terri isn't here or she would be complaining about mixed metaphors!" I laughed and continued, "How about we shift gears to food and what we would like to do to the day?"

Gwynn grinned back. "Coffee sounds good, but I think that I'm still digesting the grocery store that we devoured last night."

"Coffee, ay? SOLD to the beautiful lady gracing my bed this morning!

"My God, woman, that's a beautiful blush you have decided to brighten the morning with all of a sudden!" I had to give Gwynn a laugh, a hug, and a kiss before I got up.

Chapter XXII

Over coffee our conversation peregrinated across almost all points of the compass. Finally Gwynn focused on a topic that wound up developing into an activity for the day.

"You know, yesterday you told me some interesting stories about hunting. Unlike a couple of my uncles, Mom and Dad were only into boating and fishing and never did much hunting—well maybe I should qualify that a bit; at least while I was around, they never had anything to do with hunting. Maybe that's why I seem to have always been curious about it.

"Unless you have stories that you didn't mention yesterday, I'm under the impression that all of your hunting has been with a gun, right?"

From there our conversation segued from more hunting stories to the philosophy of hunting and finally to the importance of marksmanship in putting quality meat on the table. When Gwynn managed to ferret out the fact that I had taught marksmanship and hunter safety in my younger days, she quickly contrived to get me into teacher mode with her as the entire student body.

By the afternoon we were on the local public rifle range with my .22 rifle punching holes in paper targets. In the Army, Gwynn had only gotten a quickie firearms familiarization course, so she had no bad habits that we had to work to correct. Both of us were quite pleased that by the end of the day she could keep nine out of ten shots in the black ring of the bullseye!

"Oho, nice job Gwynn! Remind me to never get you mad at me whenever I'm in range. You've done a real nice job getting the hang of this."

"I'm a bit surprised. After that robotically controlled time on the familiarization course, I expected that this was going to be pretty complicated, but this was pretty easy to get into the flow of the whole thing."

"Well, you did have a bit of an advantage over the familiarization course since this was a one-on-one tutorial. However, the most important factor was that you are able to focus and concentrate. When I was on the rifle team in high school, one of my instructors used to joke that in order to have an world-class rifle team all he had to do was find ten football players who could play grandmaster chess!"

"Football? Chess? How does that relate to marksmanship?"

"According to Sergeant Muny, it's easy to teach a good chess player to shoot because they know how to focus and concentrate. According to him, anyone who can concentrate on the whole marksmanship gestalt (the target, the rifle, and the shooter's body) can learn to be a good shot. Anyone who can hold that focus for an extended time can become a competitive shooter. Granted, you also need decent eyesight, but consistent accuracy is not possible without expending a whole lot of mental energy."

"Okay, but what's with the football players?"

"Target rifles are much heavier than what you have been plinking with today. A shooting match is ten rounds per target, one target per position fired—usually four positions—and all done against the clock. Add in the stress of world-class competition and you have to be an athlete to stand up to that kind of pressure! Oh, and I should add that the targets used in competition are not like what we have been using today. A competition bullseye is a little bigger than a period at the end of a sentence.

"I guess I'd better qualify that a bit. What I've been talking about is indoor smallbore competition which is what I am most familiar with. You would be amazed at how many different types of rifle, pistol, and shotgun competitions there are. The one constant across all of them is that you will not do well at them unless you can achieve and hold a concentrated focus. The closer to zen-like focus you can maintain, the better you will do in the long term."

"So how many shooting matches have you won, Stefan?"

I laughed. "A big fat zero!"

Gwynn looked really puzzled. "But you teach people how to shoot! How does that work?"

"When I was in high school, I was the smallest male in the whole school. I was the original 98-pound weakling. I was always a second-string shooter. I would usually get off to a good start, but by the time I was on the last target, the rifle was wobbling all over the map.

"Probably more important, I have difficulty holding focus for extended periods of time. I have experienced a state of flow only a few times in my entire life and I have never been able to learn to meditate. Fortunately, I have the physical and mental capacity to focus on a shooting gestalt for the span of time needed to make a clean, humane one-shot kill when I am hunting.

"As to my teaching, maybe you've noticed, in almost all sports the coaches of professional or world-class athletes seem not to be gold medal holders in the sport they are coaching. Some people seem to be born gold-medalists and some people must be born to be coaches. Very few are born with the golden spoon in their mouth that enables them to be both gold-medalists and gold medal coaches."

"Okay coach, dinner is on me tonight! My brain has burned through a whole bunch of calories this afternoon and my stomach is telling me that I need to restock the storehouse."

On the way back to the RV Park, Gwynn had me stop in at a grocery store where she bought the makings for dinner. I grilled the steaks, mushrooms, and onions that she bought and she prepared the rest. By the time we sat down to the meal, there was enough food on the table that I was beginning to wonder if we should have invited all the neighbors to share it with us!

"Stainless steel wineglasses! Where in the world did you ever find these, Stef?"

"Where else but the Internet?" I replied with a grin. "I drink so seldom that they don't get a whole lot of use. Plus they are a wee bit awkward to store in a RV kitchen cabinet. However, today I'm glad that I didn't put them into storage like I've been thinking about doing for some time now."

I lifted my wineglass and proposed a toast, "To smart and talented women! A beautiful example of which is sitting across from me!"

Gwynn blushed and raised her own glass. "Thank you! But I think that I shall drink to flirty old men! May their gray hairs and wisdom grace our lives for many years to come!"

Our glasses came together with a most satisfying ring!

"I think you won that round of toasts, Gwynn, but it was worth it! I really do enjoy seeing you blush!"

"Humph! Not only flirty, but a dirty old man to boot!" she said with a grin.

"Oh, thank you for the compliment!" I said before attacking the steak.

I was feeling pretty plump when Gwynn shifted from the over dinner banter to the next thing on the agenda. "Ready for dessert?"

"Oh, wow! I'm glad I talked you out of the ice cream at the store. I think I can just squeeze this one into a corner that hasn't been filled up yet."

"I can sympathize with that; I'm feeling rounder than I expected too. I just hope that this replacement you suggested works as well as you say; I've never even thought about having blueberries and cream before."

"If you want to tap into that bottle of Port that you liberated from La Casita, it would go well with this too."

Gwynn paused for a few pensive seconds. "That sounds like a great culinary idea, but I've decided that that bottle has a more important destiny!"

"Oh. What?" I managed to mumble around a mouthful of blueberries.

"We will open that bottle the day that we have slain the last of my dragons and you have breached the walls of my castle!"

This news was enough of a surprise that I inhaled some of what I was swallowing and went into a pretty strong coughing jag! The next thing I knew Gwynn was busy pounding on my back as I coughed. "Dadburn it Stef, you are not allowed to check out until well after we have had a successful dragon hunt!"

When my respiratory system was again working smoothly, I replied, "Okay, you can let up. Thanks for the help here!

"Hmm, so Andromeda has determined to spit in the face of her dragon and become Diana the dragon huntress, ay? How do I fit into this quest? If I am to be Perseus where do I find Pegasus? If you are packing the heat of Artemis and Diana, do I just get out of your way and try not to get hit by a random blast of dragon fire?

"Now, so much for fun. Let me slip out of my cloak of mythology and ask Gwynn the huntress what the first move in her campaign is to be?"

"Jeez, Stef, are you always this full of crap?" I gave Gwynn a pained look. "No, don't answer that! It was a rhetorical question and I don't need a Shakespearian line about cutting you to the quick or the like! Just so you don't feel too trodden down, I will grant that it is usually fun or interesting crap that you grace my ears with—it's just that it is usually so off-the-wall that it makes my head spin.

"Finally, in answer to your one pertinent question, I do have a plan and you do figure in it. I am a bit concerned that you may think I am being rather cruel and unusual though."

"I'm not volunteering for duty as dragon bait!"