The days had fallen into a routine schedule. Tripp worked often, but when I did see him, we usually met in the barn, where we would nurse the young filly, or go out riding...or make love, which was our favorite way to spend the time. Each night he would take me, slowly, quickly, passionately, tenderly, ruthlessly. We did it multiple times, in multiple places, and in multiple ways...and every time we would worship each other's bodies as if we were the last two people on the face of the earth. The day after that horrid storm we ended up falling asleep together on the fresh straw in one of the storage barns, exhausted from the previous night when our passion had been as restless as the raging rain.
My family wasn't stupid. After that rainy night when I hadn't come back to our cabin, they figured out what was going on, especially after they confronted Lucy who had received a text message from me telling her that I was all right, and that they shouldn't worry about me. I had never really been in this situation before, and surprisingly, my parents didn't try to stop me from seeing him...though I had listened to my mother and father heatedly talking one evening in their room.
"Well what are we supposed to do?" My mom had said, talking quietly to my father with clear frustration in her voice. "She's nineteen, she can do what she wants."
"I don't care, this is a family vacation, and I'm the one paying for it, which means I make the rules about running off in the middle of the night with strange men!" My dad rarely got angry, but he was mad about my behavior.
"He's not strange, he's like a son to the Waterman's. I met him our first night here, he seemed very nice."
"He's too old for her, and didn't you see him in the Lodge the other day? Nearly smashed that man's face in two!"
"Well what do we do? We can't lock her in the cabin, and you think if we tell her she can't see him that she'll listen?"
"We could go home early."
"We are paid for two weeks, we are not going home early," my mother whispered tightly. "Besides, it wouldn't be fair to Lucy or Luke. I think Kira's an adult now, and she's got to make her own decisions and learn from her own mistakes."
"What if she gets pregnant? Is that a mistake you want her learning from?"
I hadn't wanted to listen to anymore after that bit, so I crept back to my room, my stomach churning. But I was surprised when the next time I was with my parents, they hadn't mentioned anything about what was going on. I would be lying though if I said my family, including Lucy, who at this point realized just how deep my relationship with Tripp was, acted completely normal around me. The disapproving looks were never-ending, and I felt as if I was constantly being watched. In truth, they were scared for the same reasons I was, and they pondered the same question that I worked to force from my thoughts – what was going to happen when we left?
Now though, we all sat at the breakfast table where we were joined by the Marshalls, another routine that had been going on the last few days. I blinked sleepily with a glass of orange juice at my lips, trying to drown out the sound of Willy next to me, bragging to us about his relationship with some senator. Instead, I tried to remember all the wonderful reasons why I was so sleepy that morning. Neither Tripp nor I had really slept much last night. Every time we tried, we somehow wound up making love again. If I was tired now, I felt awful for Tripp who was working out on the range.
"Kira, you really do need to take me up on my riding offer. What are you doing today?" Willy had been asking me to go riding with him for days now. So far, I had been able to effectively deflect his persistent proposals to, as he had put it, show me his fine horsemanship skills. I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing out loud at that one.
"Willy, I've already said, I'm really not much of a horseback rider." I tried to sound polite in order to appease my parents.
"That's alright, I'll help you. I'm quite good, I even won an equestrian contest at my parent's country club a few years ago." At that point I choked on my sip of orange juice, trying to hold back the giggles. All I could picture was Willy trying to show me how to ride after all the times I'd gone out with Tripp behind me in the saddle.
"Erm, sorry, just swallowed wrong...um..."
"Kira, I think you'd have fun going out riding with Willy." My father knew that I wanted nothing to do with Willy, but anything that took my focus away from Tripp was good in his eyes. "Besides, we're here on vacation at a dude ranch and you've hardly ridden any horses yet."
That wasn't true. I'd gone out with Tripp several times now. He loved to show off how capable he was at riding by demonstrating the various things he could do to my body while still keeping control of the horse. I shuddered at the memories, heat washing over me.
Willy was smiling as I glanced over at him, racking my brains for some excuse to get me out of this. The whole table was looking at me and I could tell I was defeated.
"Well, I guess I could go today..." It was true, I could go, as I wasn't planning on meeting Tripp until tonight, since he had to spend most of the day out with the cattle. The idea was completely unappealing to me though.
"Fantastic," Willy said with one of his fake smiles that suggested motives ulterior to those he presented. "We can go take the South Trail down toward the main road."
"Lucy," I turned to my sister, begging her with my eyes. "Would you like to come with us?" If I had to endure this, I sure as hell didn't want to do it alone.
Before Willy could protest, my brother piped in. "Actually, Lucy was going to come with me this afternoon up to see some of the caves on the mountain. We've been meaning to go up there all week." I groaned inwardly. Luke of course was siding with my father on this whole thing. Lucy gave me an apologetic look before I turned back to give Willy a forced smile that came out to be more of a grimace.
"I...I guess it's just us then," the hesitation in my voice couldn't be missed, but Willy took nothing of it. The man was too arrogant to even consider that I wasn't interested in him.
* * * * *
A couple hours later, Willy and I walked into the barn. Correction - Willy walked in, I was more dragging my feet behind him in reluctance. We had talked to one of the ranch hands outside about taking two of the horses out. After Willy reassured him that we knew how to ride, he had told us they had someone in the stables who would help prep the horses. It was a pity that the ranch didn't require a guide to go along with guests who wanted to ride down some of the shorter trails. I wished Willy had wanted to go riding through the mountains, where we would have needed someone to accompany us. However, I think the aspect of being alone together was the whole point of this outing for the stubborn man. I firmly reminded myself that since we weren't going to be around anyone else, like our families, I didn't need to take any bullshit today.
