My Only Talent Ch. 21

His smile had been widening with each word I spoke, but with the word 'but' his face fell. "But what?"

"She has, um, special needs."

"You mean she rode the short bus to school?"

"No, no. She is as bright as an uncirculated copper penny." I suddenly realized the significance of 'uncirculated' in this context. "But she is a very uh, shall we say, passionate young lady."

"Would you have any objections if I wanted to date her?"

He had gotten right to the point, hadn't he? "No, not if you treat her well. You see Jay, I love her!"

He looked at me really funny. I felt like Suzanne, going on to speak before he could react. "But I'm not IN love with her. I want her to be with someone that is in love with her, and will really take good care of her, and that could be you. But if you hurt her, I will come for you in the night and you might never be heard from again!" I was astounded by the emotion behind my own words.

He continued to look at me with a puzzled expression. "Chill, Man! Right now I just want to ask her out. Let's see how that goes and then maybe we can have another conversation, okay?" He walked away shaking his head.

Cactus Jake emerged from the house, ambled up to me, and pushed his hat back to look at me. "So, Roberts, Suzanne and Lara are the TWO girls you are seeing, but you are not with Nora, is that right? "

"Yes Sir. Nora is best friends with Suzanne, and Suzanne is best friends with Lara."

He looked askance at me. "Do the three of you...."

"They are very special young ladies and I am proud to know them."

He smiled. "I think I understand, but unfortunately not from personal experience. But let me ask you about Millie. For some reason, I find her fascinating. Jay seems to be on her like a bird dog on point. What can you tell me about her?"

"Well, she is good friends with Lara and Suzanne, and president of her sorority. I think she likes Jay, too. Jay just told me he is going to ask her out."

Warner smiled, broadly. "She is certainly a huge upgrade from the girls he usually dates. Anything about her I should know?"

"Let's see how their first few dates go, and then we might talk again. I think you may already know some of her family, but we'll talk about that later." He looked intrigued. Jay certainly was.

We were back on the road toward Prosperous a few minutes later, after Millie had peppered Jay with questions about his family, and he responded with questions about hers. They went at it like magpies until we left. Alley was daydreaming about being in the Bigun's arms and I worried about what Suzanne and Lara were 'planning' during their time in the car in front of us, and what I really wanted to have happen after I finished the marathon Sunday morning. Lara's dad and his girlfriend Lillian Gush were at a celebrity pro-Am golf tournament in Palm Springs, schmoozing their US accounts in much the same way as Barry Fermy and I were planning to start doing with the European prospects. Brujo's report was likely to give me a little head start on whom to target and how to figure out what we could sell them. We were going to crash for lunch at Lara's dad's house in Turtle Creek after the race, and then head back to Austin.

Traffic was pretty congested on 35 until we made the exit for the Dallas North Tollway, but it didn't take long after that to make our way up north. We took the farm to market road east and soon passed south of Alley's house and then pulled into our new half mile driveway a few moments later. Bigun's huge and thoroughly tricked out pickup truck was very prominent in our driveway; all of our cars were in the garage. Eldee and the other dogs appeared from around the corner of the garage and flanked the approaching two vehicles in what almost looked like a planned formation.

I was the first out of the car, being faster on my feet and also needing a bathroom break. Eldee was, as always, the leader of the pack and she glanced at me briefly, and then carefully watched everyone else emerge from the car. She showed no strong reaction, and then proceeded to stick her head in both vehicles and sniff around pointedly. A quick search told her that what she really wanted to find was not there, and she then walked back over to me and gave me a wickedly reproachful look. I had only seen that look once before: when I had accidently stepped on one of her puppies and made it squeal. She held my gaze for a beat to make sure I was properly chastised for Nora's absence, and then turned to greet our guests.

Suzanne said "What's she looking for, Robbie, searching the cars for dope?" She laughed.

"Well, she is trained to detect explosives and narcotics, but she would have used a distinctive bark and a special indication posture if she had found any. I suspect she was looking for Nora. She took quite a shine to Nora when she was here over Thanksgiving." I grabbed as many of Lara's suitcases as I could carry and headed upstairs to drop them off and take a much needed leak.

By the time I emerged from the bathroom, everyone was in the kitchen talking. My folks and Grandma seemed to get along with everyone, and when Alley and Bigun had finished hugging and kissing , they headed for her house, promising to be back for dinner. All three girls volunteered for kitchen duty, and all were promptly put to work, as was I for the more prosaic lifting and fetching tasks. Lunch was already prepped and out under covers as a buffet line on the kitchen counter that faced the family room, but Grandma demanded some progress on dinner before letting anyone eat. Eldee sniffed around the new arrivals for a while, then hung back and watched them closely.

When enough dinner stuff was prepped and cooking, Grandma took the wraps off of lunch and I made a huge Dagwood style sandwich for myself, along with a heaping helping of potato salad. The girls were a little more demure in loading their plates, but soon we were all seated around the family room and engaged in the usual family stories and chit chat. Eldee marched in and sat down next to Lara, putting her head on her foot. Grandma took notice.

"She's pretty picky about people, Lara. She has only taken to two people like that in the last ten years, you, and Nora Upman. Lara looked surprised.

Suzanne said "Robbie said he thought she was sniffing the cars looking for Nora, earlier."

Grandma laughed. "Not with her nose, honey. She knew Nora was not there as soon as you opened the car doors. She just made a show of looking to make sure Robbie understood that he should have brought Nora along!"

Lara reached down and scratched the dog's ears, and said "We tried to get Nora to come, Eldee, but she said she had to study!"

Eldee looked up at Lara benignly. Lara laughed. "It's almost as if she actually understood me!" Grandma chuckled. Eldee gave me look, and I kept quiet. I noticed that Eldee did not even look at Suzanne. It was if she was not there at all.

Alley, Bigun, and her parents showed up a little later, and we had a big family style dinner, complete with all my favorite carb dishes, lots of water, and a huge selection of desserts. I went up to my room early, as we had to get up very early in the morning, and I wanted to disappear before the photo albums came out again. I felt pretty good about my prospects for the Marathon race tomorrow. I didn't know how fast I could run it, but I knew I could finish, and Suzanne would be there to help pace me. I wasn't sure how wiped out I would be after the race, and how curious and/or submissive I would be feeling. I sure wish I could have listened in on Lara and Suzanne's 'planning' in the car on the way up. I wondered what I would be missing out on if I didn't let them take me over again. Did I trust myself to make the right decision about what to do? Did I trust Jay to take care of Millie? Why did Eldee ignore Suzanne?

Millie knocked on my door and came in to say goodnight. She asked me what I thought about Jay. I said we would talk about him later. Suzanne came in a moment later, gave me a kiss, and said she would set her alarm and wake me up in the morning, and that she and Grandma had already collaborated on breakfast plans. Lara came in a few minutes later, with Eldee right on her heels, and gave me another kiss. Eldee ignored me. I hoped I could sleep. I had an interesting day coming up tomorrow, in many ways. If I could make it through finals, I should have a very interesting Christmas break.