The Dam Guy and The Diner Woman

"If you are going to move in with me, Dave, I hope you like to get up early, because with Cathy on leave, I have to start the coffee and the warming oven at six."

"That's fine. Farmer's hours agree with me. Your body agrees with me."

"Go to sleep. I'll set the alarm. The two of us are still on probation."

We were up and out at five-thirty, ahead of schedule. I did the big coffee maker at the diner, while Jan scurried around with the stove and oven and getting things out of the cooler.

When she opened, she pointed me to the booth in the back and said she was bringing scrambled eggs with sausage and wheat toast. When she leaned over to deliver my food, she said, "Don't you dare kiss me in front of all these guys."

I paid, trying to act normal, and was at the job site early. The dozers were down to bedrock on one side of the dam and a couple of geologists were coming to see what had been uncovered. They liked the broad swath of whitish granite, but not the evidence of a contact zone at the edge of the pit. The foundation foreman promised to clear the rest of the area by Wednesday, so a complete inspection could be made.

I worked nonstop until four, when I suddenly realized Jan needed a call. I went outside and punched in her number.

"I figured you had dumped me already. Two nights of bliss and it's all over."

"Your beautiful rear is going to be very red if you talk like that anymore. Who is doing dinner?"

"I'm buying and you are cooking. I like your style."

"That sounds better. I will see you at six."

I stopped for wine and margarita ingredients and pulled up a little after six. She came out to the porch, standing in the late afternoon sunlight in a purple dress that flattered her, and smiled at me.

I got to the top step, put my bags down, and took her in my arms like a loving husband coming home to his wife. We didn't say anything, just hugged and kissed for a long moment.

She whispered, "Is it ok to say I'm in love with you?"

"Yes. But it is scary. Are we really all connected after just such a short time?"

I'll remember that week the rest of my life. It seemed like we were courting, and honeymooning and living as husband and wife all at the same time. We took turns waking up in the night to find the other next to us, and saying, "I love you."

Monday evening, I was working at the kitchen table again when she came out in her nightie with a tube of something, put a big glob of it on my finger and said, "Put that where it needs to go."

As I smeared it around inside her, she wiggled and said, "It hurts but you are turning me on. Stop."

I rubbed her clit with my thumb and she orgasmed, just like that. "Oh shit, that is so nice. You are awful."

In bed, she said, "I think you can go back in there by tomorrow." And punched me.

I said, "If you are going to marry me, we need a honeymoon."

She punched me again and said, "Take me to the mountains, somewhere. Doesn't have to be fancy."

"How about Alaska? Lots of big mountains."

Her eyes were wide. "You're serious?"

"Yes. A friend of mine has a remote cabin, where we can have nonstop sex while the bears watch."

"Dave!" she squealed, "Going to Alaska has been my dream since I was a kid." The bed suffered as we wrestled around. After we calmed down, she asked, "I do get to see the sights, not just the inside of a log cabin?"

"We'll make a list. Need to avoid cities. They aren't much in Alaska."

She lay on top and rubbed. "I'm all excited. Maybe I need sex to calm me down." She kissed me and did that throaty noise.

With my hand in her crotch, I said, "You are only getting sex from me when you are ready for a wild ride from your cowboy engineer."

"If you mistreat me, I will stop your privileges."

"Well, I guess I will just have to take what I want without asking."

After another five minutes of beating hands and wrestling, we fell back, gasping for breath.

"Damn, you are a bad one to be around. Do you treat all your girls so viciously?"

She rolled into me with a long, soft kiss. My hands worked her back and held her tight.

We must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I knew, the clock said 5 am and she was twitching against me.

"I need you." Her hands were nudging me, "Get in there."

She was wild and wet and welcoming. Her cunt was tight and making me thrust hard. "Ahhh. Good for nothing rapist. I should have known this would happen." She shook and wailed and came before I was fully in her.

"I had a dream." She was still shaking. I rolled us over. She clenched on me.

"What dream?" I worked on her from the bottom, kneading her cheeks with tough fingers.

"Two guys attacked me in the back of the diner. You showed up and took them out, both of them."

She looked down at me, "I'm just trying to show my appreciation." She squeezed as hard as she could and I exploded, shouting and jerking.

She had her arms around my neck, hanging on under the hot water. "I came again, when you did. Maybe I need more bad guy nightmares."

We were grabbing a quick breakfast when I said, "Do you worry about being alone in the diner? Any trouble around here?"

"No. Once in a long while, a drunk will show up. If they are local, I get someone to take them home."

"In your dream, about me being there?"

"Yes?"

"I would do it. I was trained in hand to hand when I was a grunt in the Marines."

She pulled me tight. "You better marry me fast. I'm totally in love."

For a moment, I'm sure both of us were ready to find her bed again.

"You mean fast as in Las Vegas, or fast as in you invite all the people in town that love you?"

She wrapped herself around me from the back and squeezed. "I was thinking Vegas, but now that you mention the other, it seems a good idea. This small place needs a party once in a while."

"What if you are already pregnant?"

She leaned against me and licked the back of my neck. "You better be careful about baby talk with a girlfriend whose clock is ticking."

I turned us around. "Babies are in our future?"

She sniffled and giggled on my shoulder. "I was going to say damn you for being so nice, but you are already a dam guy."

She said, "I have a question for dam guy?"

This wasn't getting us out the door to work. I kissed her nose and raised my eyebrows.

"I'll stop taking my pills if you want to make a baby?"

"Jan, the answer is yes, yes, yes, but I'm late for work! Can we talk about it tonight?

"I'm not sure. I would rather you walk the talk!"

"Oh my god." I ran for my truck.

It was a long hard day at the dam site. State inspectors were there to review progress. They wanted everything. Geology, seismology, fill placement. The whole nine yards, and that wasn't a pun in their minds.

On the way back to Jan's house, feeling dragged out and dimwitted, I stopped at her friend Alice's pastry shop. She greeted me with a friendly hello and I said, "Hi Alice, I need something nice for dessert. What is Jan's favorite?

"You are lucky, Dave, I have one strawberry custard tart left. She loves them."

"You are a lifesaver."

"If you don't mind my asking, are you two paired up?"

"I am the luckiest man alive. I asked her to marry me and she accepted!"

"That's wonderful news. Would you like me to do the wedding cake?"

I embraced Alice and kissed her cheek. "You are an angel. I know she will be thrilled."

I was late for dinner but held the peace offering in my hands. The stern look I received at the door dissolved as she noticed the tart. "Oh Dave, Alice's tarts melt in the mouth." I got a warm kiss and a push in the direction of the couch. Another kiss arrived with the margarita. "You and I have issues from this morning. After you have a drink, you will be ready to give in."

I took a long swallow and relaxed against the back of the sofa. Her hair was freshly done, and she had makeup on. The cashmere sweater looked fantastic, as did the tailored slacks. I asked myself, do I deserve this woman?

I took another sip and asked, "Remind me about issues. I thought I gave in on the way out the door."

"Stretch out and let me lie on you."

Her head was on my shoulder, her lips at my ear. "I realized something today. If we are getting married, and if we want a baby, then no more worries about getting me pregnant! We can screw wherever and whenever we want! Doesn't that sound sinful?"

I rubbed her fine ass and hummed. "Glad someone in the family is thinking ahead."

"Do you realize that the way the system works now, women spend ninety percent of their time worrying about getting pregnant when they don't want to, and only ten percent worrying about getting pregnant when they do."

"Lovely Janice has no more caution, no more worries?" She was rubbing and making me hard.

"Don't be funny, I really feel different."

"I'm not sure we should be playing baby roulette without being married."

"You let me take care of that. It's the bride's family that arranges the wedding." She sat up and smiled. "Lots of brides have a bump when they go to the altar."

I sank back and closed my eyes. "This is the part where the groom is invisible?"

She squeezed my crotch. "Certain parts have to remain available. Come to dinner."

The next morning, I was still in a daze as I arrived at the damsite to a dose of hard reality.

"Boss, that seam of old rock is rotten as they come. All the solutions look expensive. The office has been on the line wanting to know what you recommend."

My brain was wrapped around the great sex from the night before, with Janice acting out her new freedom. My junior engineering assistant and I walked to the overlook while my head cleared.

I asked, "Sam, what are the chances that is a shallow dike and we can just dig it out and backfill with concrete?"

He looked at me, "So, we need a couple of quick bore holes?"

"Yes. Start with the rig we have, but get the deeper drill headed this way. I'll call San Francisco."

The main office wanted to conference in the accounting people, but I protested. "Those guys only know how to say no. We are going to bore test holes into the rotten rock and see what depth we have to deal with. Can you keep a damper on things for a few days until we know what the story is?"

The EVP broke in and said, "Dave, you are doing the right thing. Call me as soon as you know something."

The first bore hole was ten feet to bed rock, the second was thirteen, and the third was eight. Sam and I looked at each other and smiled. I asked, "Do we have enough powder to blow those?"

"Yes, but we need a county permit before any blasting."

"I'm headed over there now. Keep everyone busy. We'll clear the area tomorrow and set it off first thing the day after. Have Nancy in the office print up some flyers and we can take them around tomorrow to the locals."

I was lucky. The Chair of the Board of Supervisors was in the office of the Building Department Chief when I showed up.

"Hello, Ross and Jim, got a moment for some business?"

"My god, Dave, you are bringing county government to a halt. What can we do for you?"

"Well, those pesky people from the reservation want to set off all my dynamite day after tomorrow at dawn. Something about a ceremony."

Their eyes were wide. "You are s..."

I waited ten seconds before responding. Their tension was real.

"Yes. But the real problem is we have to blast some rotten rock out of the hole for the dam foundation. Just identified it the other day, or we would have asked sooner. I'll handle the flyers and notifications. If you want an independent blasting expert to review things, I'm happy to pay for that."

They looked a bit unnerved by my quick story. I said, "I know this is short notice, but I'm going to have to shut the site down until we get rid of that rock and I'd just as soon have the employees from the local area not miss a paycheck."

Ross gave me a hard look and said, "You bring Jim a paid up insurance certificate tomorrow, and the name of the expert who is going to call him with an ok before any blasting, and I'll tell my wife not to count on her bread rising that morning." We shook hands and I went out the door whistling a tune.

I drove up fast to the diner and stopped in a cloud of dust. Might as well start getting the word out. Everyone looked up as I entered. Jan was at the cash register.

"May I have your attention. We have been asked to provide some local excitement to liven up the community. Day after tomorrow, we are setting off a large dynamite charge for your pleasure."

Disbelieving eyes looked at each other. Jan was at my side. "Dave, what is this?"

I said, louder, "Ok, just kidding. The real purpose of the dynamite is to make sure everyone knows Janice has consented to marry me." I picked her up and kissed her, right in front of her customers. After a shocked silence, clapping and cheers started. I put her down. She was very pink.

"Sorry, that wasn't the real reason either. We have some rock in the bottom of the dam pit that has to be blasted out. We are getting a permit from the county, and no one's home has any possibility of being hit. Just mostly a loud bang that your pets won't like."

I was lucky to have Jan at my side. She fended off the old ladies, and I talked to the guys who wanted details.

When things calmed down, she said, "I suppose you would like some lunch after all that." She pushed me into a booth and sat down. "You might have talked to me before announcing our engagement."

"I was terrified you might turn me down." I looked at her smiling eyes as she slapped the side of my face, not very hard. "You are an evil male animal, looking at me like that and teasing. Wait until tonight."

Back at the damsite, I discovered Sam had already begun preparing the blasting plan and placed calls to the insurance carrier. A foreman experienced with dynamite had been located and would arrive within a couple of hours. San Francisco had engaged a licensed expert who would arrive in the morning. Foundation work would continue until noon tomorrow, after which everyone other than the dynamite crew would have the afternoon and the next morning off.

Richard Coleman, the dynamite guy, was a cool customer. Two fingers of his left hand were missing, which he laughingly referred to as a learning experience when he was young and stupid. He and Sam went right to work walking the site and marking the locations to be drilled for dynamite.

He said to me, as it was getting dark, "Dave, the only thing we have to worry about is getting carried away and fracturing the granite. We want to get the crud out of there without damaging the bedrock."

When I got to Jan's house, past dinner time, I was a wreck. She said, "You need a soak and a drink. We can have dinner anytime. I made a nice beef stew."

Later, we lay in bed and she nuzzled my neck. "You are just a bundle of nerves, Dave."

"Compared to a hundred years ago, honey, that stuff is amazingly safe. But accidents still happen, and I don't need any on my watch on this project."

"I'll bet you are going to have a bad night. Want me to sleep in the other bed?"

"Not on your life. Keep hugging me to your front like that and everything will be ok."

The little love bites on my shoulder sent me to sleep real fast.

The five o'clock alarm didn't bother either of us. Jan said we should go to the diner and our breakfast would help open the place. I had my oldest work clothes on. Jan put a plate of eggs and sausage in front of me and leaned for a kiss. "I think I like being engaged to a roughneck."

Sam was with us and smiled. "Boss, that is some woman you are hooked up with."

I laughed at him, "Sam, you are not supposed to use that term in polite company. But since she just called us roughnecks, I guess it is ok."

Jan, bless her heart, had grabbed a fistful of flyers and offered a free breakfast to anyone who would agree to distribute them. When Sam and I left for the site, several early arrivals were accepting handfuls of flyers and giving their breakfast orders.

Three rock drills were making a big racket as we drove up. Richard, the dynamite guy, walked over, holding out ear plugs. It was still early, but about half of the necessary holes had been finished and the dust blown out. The rest of the crew was working on deepening the trench for the concrete key we hoped to pour in a couple of weeks.

I spent some time walking the bedrock granite, searching for seams that might fulfill Richard's worry about fracturing the rock we were counting on. Couldn't find anything, which didn't mean there weren't hidden weak spots.

By late morning, the consultant had arrived and was holding Sam's plan while examining the preliminary work. "Dave, I can see why you need to get this metamorphic crud out of the way. Leave me be for an hour and I'll work up a report."

Almost exactly at noon, Sam handed me a copy of the blasting plan with a big red ink "Approved for blasting" on it and a bold signature with P.E. after it. Underneath was an invoice for $1,500. for professional services rendered.

Sam whispered, "Not bad pay for three hour's work."

I thanked the consultant profusely. As he walked away, I said to Sam, "Yeah, but he doesn't have work every day, and we don't have his liability insurance premiums to pay." One of the junior engineers was sent to the county with our paperwork, and we got down to serious business, finishing the dynamite holes and blowing them clean. I decided we didn't need dynamite in the bore holes getting damp overnight, so we would start stuffing holes at 5 in the morning and plan to set it off at eight if no hitches developed.

I was late for dinner again and apologetically asked Jan if maybe she wanted to rethink the sudden engagement.

"You are such a goofball, Dave. I am as excited as you are about blowing up our little town! Where are you going to let us folks watch from?"

I took the drink she handed me and sat down on the sofa. "Hmm. Hadn't thought of that. Normally, we don't let anyone within a thousand yards. You never know how far a piece of rock will fly, even though we use tarps to cover the blast site."

"I will call Lyman Jones and see if people can walk to the top of his apple orchard. There is a good view from there, especially if they take binoculars."

"Come here."

Her eyes widened as she came slowly across the room and sat on my knees. "Are you angry?"

"Close your eyes." My voice was harsh.

I clasped her shoulders gently and painted her lips with my tongue. "Still love me?"

She groaned and collapsed to my chest. "You are such a bad guy..."

I whispered, "You are beautiful and smart and determined..."

Her sharp teeth nibbled on my ear, "Mush! How can a tough engineer talk like that?"

She stood and pulled me up, "Bring your drink and come to dinner. No more talk like that until you blow the rotten rock without killing yourself and the rest of us."

***

I was awake at three and on my way to the site at four, clutching a roll and coffee prepared by Jan, who would not stay in bed as I told her to. She pinched my butt and said, "You are the engineer, I am the cook. Sit down there and eat my eggs. You will need them."

We agreed I would call her as soon as I could confirm the time for the blast, so a phone tree could spread the word. It was still dark when I arrived, but Sam and the dynamite techs were assembled and we all got to work stuffing holes and running wires. By the time sunlight was on us at six, we were loaded and making the last connections to the detonator. I called Jan and said, "It's a go for eight o'clock if no new problems show up. Be tough telling people no closer than the top of farmer Jones' orchard."

Of course, nothing is ever simple. At seven forty-five, there was a call from San Francisco. The EVP said an environmental organization had got wind of the blasting plan and had called to request a delay while the possible impact on wildlife was evaluated. Taking a deep breath, I said, "Jim, this is small potatoes to get less than fifty yards of rotten rock out of solid bedrock. This is open country that is all dried out this time of year and the indigenous wildlife is uphill enjoying the tree cover. I'd like to go ahead, but if the political heat in the City is going to be too much, I'll be happy to delay."