Book Three opens with with Sara talking about wanting a baby, which leads to the introduction of another new character, Wilbur Talbot. Wilbur's an 18 year old east Texas buck that Sara has had the hots for for a while, and now that he's legal, she's going to make him her's...at least, that's the plan...
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Ready Maid Family Book3
Four Months Later
Early September
Sunday
Julie looked out the window of Sara's Hummer as they sped down the road toward town. She had jumped at the chance when Sara had asked her if she wanted to see how things were going with the ranch. It had been almost a month since she'd had a chance to get out of the house, and she was starting to go a little stir crazy.
"I talked to Lucille the other day." Sara said as she pulled to a stop behind the car in front of them at a red light. She grinned as she looked up at the Mama Lucy's billboard off to the right, then frowned when she noticed that one corner was peeling up. She made a mental note to call the sign company later.
"Yeah, what's she up to?" Julie asked.
"She's talkin' about expandin' the shop and putting an addition on the dinin' room cuz business had gone up at least six fold in the last couple months. They already got two ovens, but she says they need more tables for the traffic their gettin'." Sara told her as she turned the corner and headed down the narrow two-lane road paralleling the ranch. "She wanted to know if they should knock out a wall and have one big open room, or just cut a doorway and split it into two."
"What did you tell her?" Julie asked as they turned into the driveway and drove toward the buildings in the distance.
"I told her she should double whatever she was thinkin' about, and put in two new dining rooms, one for families, and one for the sports crowd. I figure they could put half a dozen plasmas around, and keep people sittin' fer hours on game days."
"Not a bad idea." Julie said as they pulled up to the house. "What did she have to say?"
"She said she'd think about it." Sara said as she shut off the engine and got out of the Hummer. "But what she called about, was she wanted to see if you'd shoot some more of those little commercials you did for her. She's adding some new stuff to the menu, and she wants to highlight 'em. She wants the same thing you did last time, fifteen-second spots of just the food, fading into that tag line, 'Are you hungry yet?' Which is flat fuckin' brilliant if ya ask me."
"Then she surprised the shit outta me. She said she's got people callin' and askin' her where she got 'em. They wanted to know the name of the production company that made 'em."
"No! You're fuckin' with me, right?" Julie laughed as she walked around to the front of the car.
"Serious business. And she ain't the first one to ask either." Sara said as she pulled a set of keys from her pocket and opened the front door of the house, waving Julie inside. "A guy from one of the Savannah stations called last week and said they got people askin' the same questions. So I figured it was time to talk to you about what the hell yer gonna do about it."
"What do you mean, what am I going to do about it?" Julie asked. "I shot those with my phone for god's sake, and edited them in movie maker. I don't know how to do a real commercial. Besides, I never even got paid for..."
"Yeah, funny you should mention that." Sara laughed, reaching in her back pocket and pulling out an envelope. She held it out to Julie.
"What is that?" Julie asked, just looking at it.
"Well, there's seven checks in here. One from Dawson-Carson Consulting for production work, and the rest are royalty checks from the TV stations we're runnin' the ads on. That's really a kickback that usually goes to the ad agency, and averages seven to ten percent of revenue every time the ads are run. We're runnin' 'em on the mornin' news, then the talk shows, and again durin' the soaps and the evenin' news at one to three hundred bucks a pop, depending on the timeslot. They're made out to Bedford-Carson Productions, but you can change the name if you don't like it."
"Jesus Sara, there's almost sixty thousand dollars in here." Julie said as she flipped through the checks.
"Yeah, not bad for a couple hours work, huh?" Sara laughed. "I was thinkin' we could get your company setup, on paper at least, then we start tellin' the TV stations where to direct inquiries. I'm pretty sure you'll have more work than you can handle in no time."
"I don't know, Sara. This seems like a big st..."
"I know, but it's a huge opportunity for you too." Sara said, taking her hand. "We can put that on the back burner for now, but at least think about it."
"C'mon, lemme show you around." She laughed as she led her across the room. "The house is almost identical to the place in Weston. I just gave the builder the original blueprints to work off of, but there's a few differences. The master bath is bigger and has a fancy assed shower and a bidet in it. All the bathroom's got 'em, that was Syl's idea. And the kitchen is about ten feet wider with a double oven and a shitload o' other stuff build in. That was Syl's idea too."
"This is beautiful, Sara! Where did you ever find someone to design something like this?" Julie asked.
"Gage drew up the original layout, then him and Margo spent a year arguin' over the little details, which I was glad about, cuz there's a shit load of closet space here, and in Weston. When they got it where they both liked it, they took it to an architect, and had the blueprints done."
"He said you loved the house in Weston." Julie told her as they moved from room to room. "And now I can see why. I'm glad you could bring it with you, not many people get to do that."
"Yeah well, including what I put out for the land, I'm a little over a million into this little project." Sara said as she opened the back door and led her outside. "Just the land is worth five times that, and by the time I get done with the buildings, Syl is gonna have a nice little retirement package waitin' for her."
"You're giving all this to Sylvia? Does she know about this?" Julie asked as they got close to the barn. "She may not go for that. She likes to earn her keep, you know, pull her own weight."
"Oh, she's gonna do that, I promise." Sara laughed. "She's gonna be runnin' this place in a year or so. The way she took to Junior, and the way she takes care of him tells me that she can handle runnin' an operation like this. We get her a couple good hands to do the heavy shit, and she'll do just fine."
"There's somethin' else I wanna talk to you about." She said as they walked through the barn. "There's a kid in Weston. His names Wilbur, an' I...fuck, there ain't no other way to say it...I'm in love with him. I have been for a while. We never done nothin' sexual, he just turned eighteen the other day, but we been playin this little game fer a couple years...without talking about it...an' I wanna go see if he...I wanna see if he wants to do it fer real. I already talked to Syl about it, an' she's all hot on the idea..."
"Of course she's hot on the idea." Julie laughed, turning Sara to face her. "But are you sure that turning her loose on an eighteen year old boy is such a good idea? He may not survive it, you know how she gets..."
"Yeah, but she's not the part I'm worried about." Sara said, looking at the floor. "I am. I didn't tell Syl this part, but I gotta run it by somebody I trust, and I can't talk to Gage..."
"Are you going to ask him to come back here with you?" Julie asked.
"Yeah, but I already told Syl that, and she's okay with it." Sara said, then was silent for a long time.
Julie waited, knowing that she would say what she needed to when she was ready.
Sara finally looked at her and started to speak.
"I stopped taking the pill a couple of weeks ago, that's why I ain't been comin' around to get any lovin' from Gage lately." She said, trying not to smile. "And if we leave tomorrow, I'm gonna be ovulatin' by the time we get there. So I'm talkin' about lettin' a randy eighteen year old buck shoot live ammo at my nest fulla fertile eggs...an' what I wanna ask you is, am I fuckin' crazy, or what?"
"No, I don't think you're crazy." Julie laughed. "I think you sound like a thirty-six year old woman that hears the alarm on her biological clock going off like Big Ben, and is looking for a way to shut it off. But I have a few questions before I give you my final answer."
"First." She said, leading her over and pulling her down beside her as she sat on a bale of hay. "Are you going to tell him that you're planning on making him a daddy, if so, when?"
"Second, when are you going to tell Syl, cuz I'm pretty sure she's gonna notice when your belly starts to swell up. Cuz on your skinny ass, you ain't gonna be able to hide it."
"And third, what are you gonna do if he's not interested? You sound like you have a major hard-on for this kid. Are you going to be able to handle that kind of let down?"
"I didn't think about that last one, at least I didn't admit it to myself." Sara said, grinning at her. "But that might be why I want Syl to go with me. There's other shit I'm gonna need her to help me with, but that may be the real reason...just in case he says no."
"I been thinkin' about how to ask him about how he'd feel bein' a daddy. I mean, I can't just go get knocked up and drive away. He'd have to marry me, an' make me an honest woman, so our baby would have his daddy's name. I was plannin' on just fuckin' him till he was stupid in love with me, then hit him with it."
"Subtle, but effective." Julie laughed.
"I'm still tryin' to figure out how to tell Syl." She said, looking over at her. "It seems like no matter what I do, I don't see it turnin' out good, leastwise, not for me..."
"Well, if she's okay with you wanting to bring this kid up here, and I'm assuming you're going to be sharing him with her, it's not that big a stretch to think that she'd be okay with you having a baby with him." Julie said, leaning back into the bales behind her. "She was okay with me getting pregnant with Gage, she just didn't want to do it with me. And if you want the truth, I was disappointed when she said no. I was looking forward to us having our babies together...you know, like sisters or something..."
