The Hard-To-Tame Texan Read online

He was judging her hair. He said, “You’re a good-looking woman.”

  “Thank you.”

  He shrugged. “I didn’t have any part in making you thataway.”

  She was patient. “I was expressing a courtesy for your compliment.”

  “You like being pretty?”

  “I never noticed.”

  Andrew laughed. He laughed with such humor, so filled by it that he looked at her to share it with her.

  She was patiently tolerant.

  He said, “I’m gonna git you.”

  “You’ve already had me. Another time would not be a surprise.”

  In some shock, he inquired, “Didn’t you think I was any good at all?”

  “You did well. I suppose. I’ve not had anyone with whom I could compare you.”

  “You’ve held out all this time? How’d you manage that?”

  And she replied, “I lock my door.”

  “If you were that pristine, how come you did it with me?”

  “I was curious.”

  He smiled. “Curious...about me and how I would be?”

  “How it would be...for me.”

  “Oh.” He looked at her with naked eyes. “Wasn’t I any good?” How else would a discarded man in time inquire such?

  He surprised JoAnn. He hadn’t known how good he was? How he’d waited and manipulated her? He hadn’t—used—her, he’d shared.

  She was honest, “You’re obviously very good. I can’t tell if you’re better than any other man because I haven’t had that experience. You were my first and—”

  “Your...first.” Andrew considered. “You sure took to it with a whole lot of effort! You scared the hell out of me. I figured you knew more than I did.”

  “Not likely.”

  And he questioned, “Why...not...likely? Was I that bad?”

  “You’re not bad,” she explained, “but you’re most certainly wicked. I was so excited and surprised and wanted you so mu—”

  “You wanted me?”

  “Didn’t you notice?”

  “You drove me crazy! You were so quick and so eager that I was excited right out of my head.”

  And she said, “Let’s do that again.”

  Andrew gasped. His eyes looked into space. He said, “I think I’m going into overdrive. I’ve heard guys talk about that. What if I pass out? Can you get out from under me okay?”

  And with her eyes at half-mast, JoAnn smiled—wickedly! And she said to Andrew, “We’ll see.”

  Now what is a man to do under those circumstances? Andrew said, “You terrify me. How can you be this calm and experimenting when I know good and well I was your first.”

  “So I wasn’t your first?”

  “No. One of the cleaning ladies in England showed me the ropes. I was in bed with the flu, and she felt sorry for me—she said.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I was...fascinated. I suppose if my fever hadn’t been so high, I might have, uh, declined, but I wasn’t really in touch. Not aware, that is. She was touching me! And old Freeman didn’t mind at all.”

  “Ahhhhh.”

  “Will you go with me to England?”

  JoAnn squinted and asked, “Why would I do that?”

  “You’re bringing me up to time. This isn’t at all easy for me. My father sent me off to school, and I’ve never been back or invited back. I was always told to travel or to search for my own kind of life. I haven’t gone back home.”

  “How strange.”

  “I watch the Keepers and wonder how it would have been for me if my family had been around me thisaway.”

  JoAnn said, “I believe you’ve done very well. You do need more help in undressing a female body, but you’re determined and don’t give up. That’s a plus. I would suggest that you learn to be more gentle with her clothes. You need to realize there are buttons and zippers.”

  “Her clothes? Who else did you have in mind for me?” Andrew was somewhat appalled.

  “No one. I just thought you needed some guidance.”

  “Have you suspected that I want you?”

  “There’s been a hint or two.”

  “How’d you know?”

  “You kissed me.”

  He was a tad indignant. “Not when I began to strip you?”

  “That was the time element. Your kiss was not a hello kiss, it was a we’re-gonna-do-it kiss.”

  “I hadn’t realized I was that smart.”

  “You were intense.”

  He nodded. “Yeah. I felt pretty focused.”

  She laughed in a helpless manner.

  Andrew watched her. He groaned. He slid alongside of her. He kissed her witless.

  She gasped and rubbed against him. She looked at him rather triggered. His eyes were hot. She said, “Do it.”

  And he said, “I thought I’d just lay back, being this tired from trying to get you out of your clothes and all. And you can do it to me.” He smiled.

  But his eyes were busy and hot, and he had to lick his lips and swallow, but he could do all that without letting go of her.

  She said, “Lie back and be quiet.”

  He lay back rather avidly, his breaths too fast and his pulse pounding rather obviously. Very quietly, he whispered, “Help! Help!”

  She said a raucously naughty, “Hah! Gotcha!”

  And as he whimpered and gasped and carried on outrageously and gave directions, she used his body and rode him down.

  It was just about too quick.

  She collapsed on him, and he could feel her heart thundering along with his own. He was very touched by her wanting him. He kissed her cheek. He lifted her hand to his mouth and pressed his lips to her hand. His other hand smoothed back her hair.

  Her eyes were closed and she was lax on top of his body. Her mouth smiled and she said a whole lot of “Ummmmmmm’s.”

  Their departure from the Keepers was not subtle. They told everyone goodbye with charming courtesy. They told the Keepers where they would be in England. They thanked the crew and gave out envelopes to those who’d helped them with directions or mending or cleaning clothing. They bragged on the kitchen crew and saluted them, leaving an envelope there to be shared. It had been a lovely time. Envelopes had been left in their rooms for the cleanup crew.

  With fond goodbyes, they went out and got into JoAnn’s car. She drove. Andrew didn’t mind at all. He could look at her. His smile never left his face. He said, “I can’t believe I’ve found you.”

  And being truthful, she replied, “Mrs. Keeper asked me to come to their place so that I could find you a wife.”

  He laughed.

  “Now...why...is that amusing?”

  “I got you.”

  “Isn’t it amazing? You were so snotty and aloof. I was there to smooth you out and—”

  “You did that, I’m like a rubber man who has no innards, at all.”

  She looked over at him for an instant before she finished her sentence, “—find you a wife.”

  “I think you’ll do just right.”

  She didn’t take her eyes off the road but she exclaimed, “You’re talking TEXAN!”

  He explained ponderously, “A man has many facets.”

  “Oh? And a woman?”

  “—has a fine body.”

  She sighed with great patience. “But her mind is more astute.”

  “There’s a tree along the road up ahead. Let’s pull off behind it.”

  “No. You’d just get me all sticky and messed up and I’d have to either remember to first take off my lipstick or I’d took like I’d been slurping a raspberry Popsicle.”

  He suggested kindly, “I’d lick it off.”

  “Don’t lure me.”

  Watching her, Andrew asked, “Are you lured?”

  “For one reason or another, you make my blood pump quite shockingly.”

  “Wanna know what you do to Freeman?”

  JoAnn cautioned, “Not when I’m driving.” Then she gave him a quick, seeing glance,
as she turned back to watch the road, she asked, “How come you’re talking entirely different now.”

  “It’s all the places I’ve been. I can talk England or I can talk TEXAS.”

  “Where would you prefer to be?”

  “With you.”

  “That was very courteous of you, but what is the actual reply? Where do you want to be?”

  “I’ve lived a very strange life. I’ll take you to England and I’ll take you to meet my parents. You can help me decide.”

  JoAnn told him, “There is no way, at all, that you could bend to someone else’s directions.”

  “I’m pliant.”

  She drove a ways considering, and then she said, “We’ll see.”

  So they flew to England for the reunion gathering of the summer. The varying classes were mostly in separate areas, so Andrew did find his group. He and JoAnn shared a student’s room. They went to dinner and the entire ritual was so familiar to Andrew.

  He remembered names. That is a plus. He introduced those he knew to JoAnn. And they were all charming, but the remarkable thing was, they remembered him!

  They said, “Old boy...” They said, “TEXAN.” Andrew had forgotten how many times they’d called him a Yank. He’d trained them to say TEXAN. They loved still saying it. They were courteous and kind, and they were especially kind to JoAnn.

  Andrew said, “She’s mine.” He said, “Back off.” He said, “She is not a kissing cousin.”

  The men all protested that anyone who lived together the long time they had, were cousins! Hadn’t he realized that? And cousins always hugged and kissed if they were female.

  Andrew licked his smile and said, “She was not here in class. I brought her along to see this place. You may not kiss her.”

  They protested they could not be so rude! She had come to their land and they felt welcoming.

  Andrew warned casually. “Down, boy.”

  And they howled like dogs.

  Of course, they asked Andrew what all he was doing, and they listened. And they told what they were about, and Andrew listened. And it was only then that he recalled how formally kind they had been with the bitter Andrew of long ago.

  He had been determined to not like any of the time there in England as a reject of his father. Andrew had done that. He had rejected his father entirely because he hadn’t wanted the opportunity of having the experience his father had wanted for him.

  Andrew looked around. He saw the place with open eyes. He remembered many things that were kind and carefully done for him by faculty and particularly by his age group. And he remembered other English boys who’d been homesick and unhappy.

  Andrew was not only ordinary in his manners, he was one of them. How strange to understand, after all those years, that he had been well treated and well taught.

  It had been his own doing that had made him bitter. How different his life would have been had he just adjusted and learned.

  Think of all the young men and older men who went to war and were bored most of the time. Think of those who spent lax time digging their tunnels out of prison areas, and being caught and taken back. It kept them busy. They did something! They didn’t just sit and rot.

  And Andrew considered how he’d participated in all the games and in all the classes at that school. He’d forgotten all that. He’d remembered only the bitter parts. How stupid of him.

  “I liked it here.” He mentioned that one evening to JoAnn.

  She nodded. “It is such a charming place. You can see beyond.” And she looked at the countryside, which was so peaceful and green, so prettily kept. “Who started this place here?”

  “Next to England, the U.S.A. is a budding place.” He replied, “This school was started long, long ago.”

  “The buildings are so formal. It’s nice.”

  Andrew remembered that, even back then, he’d noticed the area. Why had his unhappiness covered it all? In going to school there, it had been—special. It was a beautiful place. The people he’d known there had been kind. Why were his memories so bitter?

  Just because his father had sent him away? How dumb to have allowed that to interfere with his life. It was a waste of time. It was selfish. He remembered returning from Europe and his grandmother in exasperation saying to his complaints, “Oh, go nurse the lepers.”

  She meant that there are others who need help and he did not.

  She’d been right. He was the nerd. Why had he taken so long to understand that? And Andrew looked over at JoAnn. How strange to understand how smart she was to drag him out of his cocoon.

  —or had he finally grown up on his own when he lay those almost three whole days under a dead horse and gradually realized he had no place to go?

  He could do whatever he wanted to do. He was free of his bitterness toward his father. He understood he’d had a remarkable adventure in England and in traveling.

  And he finally realized, it was his choice to go home and see his father. He had not been rejected, it was he who was punishing them. How stupid. Really stupid.

  He looked at JoAnn. “When we get back to the States, would you go with me to meet my family?” And even in saying that, he knew if she could not go then, he could go by himself. He needed no crutch.

  He was released from his own, self-made prison! He looked around, outside of himself. He was no longer bound by self-deception. He was free.

  He said to JoAnn, “I care about you.”

  “It’s too soon.”

  “Too soon?”

  She shrugged. “We don’t know each other well enough as yet. We’ll see.”

  He smiled at her. He realized she was right. He was out of his shell and he ought to look around and be sure. They had only known each other less than a month.

  Andrew watched JoAnn. How had he managed to really see her? He’d been a real snot. It was she who’d led him into listening and realizing that it was good to be with another person and share what was going on. It was her patience that had finally managed to get him to open up and pay attention.

  Andrew hadn’t gotten out of his shell, by himself. It was she who had forced it open. Only then did he begin to understand the Keepers.

  With the reunion over, the two visitors went to London. They went to the squares. They went to the museum and saw the black stone, which held the language of long ago. It was what the curious ones had found to understand the languages, for each was the same communication and, knowing only one, they could then decipher the other language. A miracle stone.

  Who had been the brilliant ones who’d thought that far ahead to another time...to communicate with other peoples? It didn’t matter who they were but what they’d thought to do.

  The two visitors saw Trafalgar Square and the pigeons there. They strolled in Queen’s Gate in Hyde Park. They stayed on the path. There were the theaters, the monuments, the wonderful city, the changing of the guards and they were charmed by it all. They listened to the people and saw how similar we are. No wonder.

  They left their hotel with their luggage and took a train to cross to the west coast of the bottom of England. There they went by ferry to Ireland and took a tourist bus along the way and watched and saw.

  So from Ireland, the two adventurers flew back to the States. And they took another flight down to Houston. As they left the plane, he questioned JoAnn, “Come along and meet my people?”

  “Have you called them, as yet?”

  He had not. He was still partially in his I’m-in-control lock. He smiled and slowly nodded his head a tad in recognition as he said to her, “I’ll call.”

  It was his mother who answered the phone.

  He said, “This is your son, Andrew. I’ve—”

  “Are you all right?”

  “Of course. JoAnn and I—”

  “JoAnn? Are you married?”

  “Not yet. We are just back from England, and we wondered if you’re free so that we can come—”

  “Yes!”

  “We’re looking for
ward to seeing you. What time would be conve—”

  “Now!””

  So they took a cab and rode out to his old house. It was lovely to see. His mother was out the door and running to them with her arms out.

  Andrew gave the money to JoAnn to pay the cabdriver and caught his mother just in time.

  His mother exclaimed and hugged him and tears leaked from her eyes as she laughed.

  By then, the cab was gone.

  Mrs. Parsons’s tears were glad ones and she finally released Andrew and hugged JoAnn. And exclaiming, she walked between them and took their hands. She was exuberant that they were there.

  Andrew really didn’t have to say much.

  They went into the house, and his father was standing back enough for them to clear the door. The two men shook hands but Mr. Parsons gently hugged his son.

  That felt so odd to Andrew. He stepped back and introduced his father to JoAnn.

  Mr. Parsons put one hand on her shoulder as he shook her other hand. “I’m so glad to see you.”

  He said that to JoAnn but he looked at Andrew. He said, “You’ve grown up.”

  And Andrew replied soberly, “Just recently.”

  It was a tear-damp time. The four sat and talked. His mother and father and Andrew did the talking. JoAnn listened. Her eyes were watery.

  Andrew’s father said, “Mrs. Keeper kept us informed about your time in the hospital. And we heard from Lu quite faithfully. She was so kind to go there and stay. Where is she now?”

  “She’s still out there on the Keepers’ Place.”

  “How come she didn’t come on home when you got better?”

  “She’s involved.”

  “Oh?”

  “She’s met a flyer and she cottons to him. We’ll see how it goes.”

  “Is she staying with you?”

  And he adjusted that as he said, “At the Keepers’.”

  His mother said, “Stay with us.”

  Andrew looked at JoAnn and he raised his eyebrows. This visit was not on her list.

  She shrugged and allowed him to decide. So he asked JoAnn, “Tonight?”

  His mother asked, “This week?”

  JoAnn said, “Two days.”

  So the two did stay with the senior Parsons. It was interesting. The visiting lovers had separate rooms. The two smiled at each other and were mature enough that they could handle being separated at night.