My Cousin Janie

Author's Note: Chapter 4 for your reading enjoyment. I really wanted to get this ready in time for Christmas, but I didn't :( Hope everyone has a wonderful, healthy and happy 2018!!

-nosebone

*****

The alarm went off just before 6 the next morning. It was accompanied by considerable groaning from my sexy little bed companion. "Turn it off," she moaned. She crawled completely under the covers after I turned on the bedside lamp.

"I guess I'll just sleep in the other room, tonight." I laughed.

"You will not!" She mumbled from under the blankets.

"You want to stay in bed?" I asked.

"Yes, of course I do, but what am I going to do all day while you're working?" She replied sleepily.

"I don't know. You have everything we need here?" I asked.

"I think so." She poked her head back above the bedcovers.

"I don't know then." I said.

"Is there anything I can do at the office?" She asked hopefully.

"I might be able to find something for you to do." I smiled. "You're sure you want to get involved in this racket?"

"No, but I'm going to be bored the next few days. It's the only way I'm going to get to spend time with you, I think."

"That's not true." I replied.

"Uh, huh. So, you say."

"You think you'll be an asset?" I asked her with false suspicion.

"Oh, I'm sure. I mean look at my qualifications." She smiled. "One year of liberal arts college completed, and my Mom made me watch 'Giant' one time. That should be plenty to be an oil baron."

"Yeah, that pretty much covers it." I laughed.

"I thought so." She said.

"I'm sure I can teach you a few things." I offered.

"You've taught me a few things already." She grinned sexily.

"What sort of compensation will you require?"

"You buy lunch and provide nightly orgasms. That should be sufficient." She smiled devilishly.

"You're a very shrewd negotiator."

"I've learned from the best." She sat up and hugged me.

"You have for sure. Why don't you sleep a little more? We don't have that much going on right now. Maybe you could grab breakfast for all of us from the burrito shop down the street on your way in?"

"So, I'm going to be the go-fer for the real oil barons?"

"Yes. Go-fer, helper, and my sexual plaything." I said.

"Mmmm, I like the idea of being your sexual plaything." She purred.

"So, do I."

"Okay, I'll call you when I get up. It might be a while though. I'm just warning you." She said.

"That's fine." I tucked her back in bed and went to shower. When I returned to dress, she was sound asleep.

-------

I got to the office about 6:45 and saw Steve was already there. I heard the coffee pot going when I opened the door.

"Morning, man. Janie sleeping in?" He asked.

"Yeah, we had a late night." I said. "Decorating." I added, covering my tracks.

He had a slight smile on his face. "I didn't think you were the decorating type. It's probably for the best, she's going to be bored to death hanging around us."

I explained that she was going to come in later and help.

"She doesn't know what she's getting into." He laughed as he handed me a mug of coffee.

"No, she really doesn't." I agreed.

We were sitting there going over the electric logs for the Elizabeth well. I still couldn't get over the amount of pay zone.

"Man, this is just something else!" I finally said. "Has Rick seen this?"

"He's probably looking at it right now. This is a copy I got last from Roxanne last night."

"Oh?" I arched my eyebrows.

"Shit, man. Don't act like you're surprised." He smiled.

"No, I'm not. I kind of put 1 and 1 together and got 2." I laughed.

"I thought you might. She's hard to resist." He admitted.

"She's very alluring." I smiled.

"Damn right, she is. So, just tell me, did you?" He asked.

"Well fuck yeah, of course, I did." I answered.

"Why did you stop? Family worries?" He asked.

"Yeah. That's it." I said. Thankfully he didn't ask for further explanation.

"I understand. She's just amazing though. I finally feel like I can keep up with her!" He laughed.

"I know. There were a couple times, I thought I was going to die."

"I hear you." He laughed.

We were still laughing when the phone rang. I answered it. It was Roxanne, so I put her on speaker phone.

"What are my two handsome young men doing this morning?" She asked.

"Just trying to keep the train on the tracks," Steve replied.

"Uh huh. I'm sure. Did you get a good night's sleep at least, Bradley?" Roxanne asked.

"Not bad. We were up late." I replied.

"Yes, I'm sure. You had decorating to do, I'm betting." I could imagine the expression on her sexy face from 80 miles away.

"Yes. Decorating." I said.

"Decorating can be fun, with the right helper," she replied.

"I was trying to be."

"I'm sure you were just fine." She laughed.

"So, what do we owe this honor? Did you just call to make sure we weren't sleeping off a good drunk?" I asked.

"No, I knew my sweet boys would be hard at work. I'm just bored and lonely. Rick called and said he's going to be in late again this morning. I've beat him to the office two days in a row. He's taking this semi-retirement thing pretty seriously." She grumbled.

I turned to Steve, his face a question. "I guess that's public knowledge now?" I asked.

"Oh, yes. I'm sorry. He was going to call Janie this morning and tell her, too." She replied.

"Okay. I was sworn to secrecy." I admitted.

"I know you were, Bradley." Roxanne replied.

"When you think he'll be in?" I asked.

"He said 8. I suspect Ms. Shelley is working him over still." Roxanne laughed.

"Haha, you might be right. Did he say anything yet about leasing more land from the Wilcox family?" I asked.

"Yeah, he did." She answered hesitantly.

"And?" I asked.

"Bill Sheridan's people have already been over there offering three times as much as we offered."

"Son of a bitch." I said. I looked over at Steve. He was shaking his head.

"Don't get too worked up now, Bradley." Roxanne said soothingly.

"That's a fucking fortune though, Roxanne." I groaned.

"Yes, it is, but Patty Wilcox told me that if we'd match that offer, they wouldn't listen to anyone else. Patty went to college with me, and her dad hated Bill Sheridan's guts." She said.

"I didn't know that, but where the hell are we going to get the money? We don't have time to bring in investors." I replied.

"Hang on. Your uncle just staggered in. He's either been in the scotch or Shelly really ravaged him this morning." She laughed. "I'm gonna put you all on speakerphone, just a sec."

"Morning, fellas," Rick said. "I guess our Roxie told you all about the Wilcox lease." Steve and I said yes.

"Well, I'd feel better if we had some other people's money in on this, but there ain't time. You gotta give ol' Bill credit. He was gonna try to get in one way or another." Rick continued.

"Yes, he was," I added.

"The thing is, we can get all 12,000 acres of the Wilcox place and another 8,000 on the Circle J ranch to the north for $500 an acre, for five years. And that'll close the door on Bill Sheridan for good on this one."

I did the mental math. That was still a big chunk of money.

"What do you all think?" I asked.

"Well, I'm in," Rick said. "Might as well throw my balls on the chopping block one more time, son. We gotta see this one through."

"I'm in for my usual 25%," Roxanne added. "Bradley, your dad and granddad believed in this one. We can't let someone get in and take it away from us."

"Okay. I'm in too." I said. I wished Janie had been there. I felt like I was beginning to make decisions based on the two of us, and I felt like I needed to let her know what I was doing. Unfortunately, this was a decision that needed to be made immediately.

"Stevie, what do you think?" Rick asked. "I know you don't really have a pickle in the picnic yet, but tell us what you think."

"I guess I'm in too. All I can offer is hard work, though."

"We're counting on that, Stevie. Well good, it's settled. I'll take them both a check today and that'll be that," Rick said.

"Did you look at that Elizabeth log yet?" I asked.

"Yeah, just looking at it now. If you boys find a couple more like this baby doll, we oughta have our lease money back by next Christmas!" He laughed. "Okay, we better let ya'll go for now. Call if you need anything. Brad, you and Janie gonna be back in town Thursday?"

"Yes sir, we'd planned on it." I said.

"Good, keep planning on it. Your Aunt Shelley has something special cooked up. So, don't make any plans through the 27th. Stevie, you got any plans over Christmas?"

"No, sir. My folks are going on a cruise for their 30th wedding anniversary. I figured we'd be working." Steve replied.

"Naw, not over Christmas. Well, if you ain't got nothing tying you down, why don't you plan on coming down too, and bring warm clothes."

"Okay," we said.

"Bye." Rick said and hung up the phone.

"Warm clothes, huh?" Steve asked.

"Yeah, I guess we're going to Jackson."

"Wyoming?" He asked.

"Yeah, my Granddad bought a place up there years ago. We usually go skiing in January. Shelley wants to do something different this year for Christmas, I guess."

"Yeah, I can imagine." He nodded.

Just then Janie came in with breakfast.

"The phone was busy. I wasn't sure what you'd want, so I just got a couple of everything." She smiled.

"Thank you," Steve said. "Everything there is great!"

We all sat at our little conference table and began eating. Janie was wearing full length spandex running tights, and I could not resist running my hand along her firm thighs. She gave me a look, but Steve was oblivious, as he ate his burrito and looked over a well log.

"So, I guess Daddy has already talked to you about his decision?" She asked.

"Yeah, he did." I answered.

"You get a pass for not telling me." She said.

"He told me not to tell anyone, Janie."

"Uh huh. So, what other excitement have I missed," she asked.

"Not too much," Steve replied, smiling at me.

"I, Uh, spent $4 million dollars, this morning." I said.

"You did what?" Janie asked incredulously.

"Yeah, about that...". I explained the situation and what we were up against.

"I understand, but it seems pretty fucking risky." She replied. Like me, Janie had been taught to never be frivolous with money. The idea that I'd just "throw away" money like that was foreign to her, as she explained.

"What do you think your dad has done your whole life?" I countered.

"I'm going to run down the street and get some sodas." Steve made an excuse to leave. I nodded at him and smiled. Lucky bastard.

"He says that it's usually other people that put up the money." She replied.

"Usually, that's the way it is. This time, it had to be our money, babe."

"Where the hell did you get $4 million dollars to begin with? Was that everything your mom and dad left you?"

I explained what her Dad had told me this weekend, and also the check he'd given me.

"Babe, I had no idea. They never talked money with me like that." She said.

"Sweetie, I was the same way. I knew we lived in really nice houses and all, but I didn't know either."

"You think you'll get your money back, though?" She asked.

"Yes, I do. And whole lot more." I smiled.

"I hope so. It just worries me. Your parents worked really hard for that." She still wasn't sold on the idea.

"Baby, I know. It's not just a wild ass guess though. This well here, will probably make us a few hundred thousand dollars a day. I mean it's split up with our investors and the landowners, but that's a lot of money." I pointed to the well log Steve left lying on the table. "And there's others. I really don't think we're even in the best part of the play yet."

She eyed me suspiciously and then she looked at the well log. She moved over to sit on my lap, as she picked up the log from the table.

"How do you tell all that? It's just a bunch of squiggly lines!" She said.

"It's easy." I quickly gave her well log reading 101.

"So that's all there is to it? Now you know it's good?" She asked.

"No, I'm just guessing that's what it'll actually make."

"I thought you said that this wasn't just guessing!!" She yelled.

"Ugh." I wrapped my arms around her and squeezed. "You can be impossible, little tiger."

"I'm sorry, I just don't understand throwing away $4 million dollars on a damn guess."

I stood up with her and lifted her by her firm little ass and sat her on the table. I took her face in my hands.

"Baby, I want you to understand. There is risk here, but not as much as you want to think. Granddad, your dad, my dad and Roxanne have been working on this for years. With what we've found already, none of us will ever have to work again if we don't want."

She nodded and I kissed her. I explained what we were trying to do and how that we were honoring their memories to see it through.

"And, I'll go ahead and say, that I felt fucking horrible that I didn't discuss it with you before I made that decision." I added.

"You did?" She asked.

"Yes. I did." I replied.

"Why?"

"Because it's our money." I replied.

"Baby. You don't have to think that." She said sadly.

"Janie, what did you tell me Sunday morning?"

"That I wanted to be with you forever." She said. I could see tears in her eyes.

"Exactly."

"Oh, damn it. I can't even be mad at you, because then you go and say something sweet like that." She said. She was wiping her eyes on the sleeve of her jacket.

"I'm not just trying to be sweet. I feel that way. I'm looking out for our future." I said.

"Baby, if my future is living in mobile home with a bunch of kids and scraggly dogs, I'll be fine as long as you're in it." She said.

"I think we can probably do better than that." I smiled.

She wrapped her arms around me and kissed me sweetly. "I know you will. You'll take good care of me. Like you always have."

"I'll try." I kissed her again. I was rubbing my hands up and down the shiny spandex covering her thighs.

"Okay, so before Steve comes back and catches us making out, what is all this other crap piled up around here?" She asked.

"Crap? This is important stuff." I laughed.

I spent the rest of the morning showing her maps, logs, rock core and lots of other things. She even managed to stay about half interested.

"It's a good thing this makes money, otherwise I'd say you all were crazy to do it." She said just before lunch. Steve and I had a good laugh about that.

"It's probably not for everybody." I agreed.

"Me in particular!!" She laughed.

---------

We had just got back from lunch when Roxanne called again.

"Hey, Bradley. I'm going to file the permits for the next three wells. What do you want to call them, baby?"

"Rick doesn't want to do it?" I asked.

"No, he said it's up to you." She replied.

"All right. Let's call the one in section 30 on the Circle J ranch, the Shelley."

"Okay, what about the one in section 31?" She said.

"The Roxanne." I replied.

"Honey, I've got enough oil wells named after me." She said.

"I've got a feeling this one is going to be special, though."

"If you say so, baby! Okay, what about the one on the Wilcox place?"

"The Janie." I answered.

"Ha, I could've figured." She said. "Okay, I'll let you go. I'll talk to you tomorrow morning, baby."

"Okay, Roxanne. Talk to you then."

"So, you named one of them after me?" Janie asked. She had walked into my office about halfway through the conversation.

"Of course, but you're like Roxanne. There's a lot of wells named 'Janie' out there."

"You think this one will be special?"

"I'm counting on it!" I smiled.

"You're all just crazy, you know that, right?"

"No, it's just what we do." I smiled.

She rolled her eyes. "If you don't need me to do anything, can I go do some Christmas shopping?"

"Of course. If you have time, could you run by Louis Jewelers? It's just around the block."

"Sure, what's there?"

"A ring I picked out for your mom and a bracelet I thought we could get Roxanne."

"Oh, you've been shopping a bit, have you?" She smiled.

"Yeah, a little bit. You might let me know if that's the right size ring for your Mom."

"What size were you thinking?"

"I didn't really know. They said they could resize it."

"Oh, okay. She wears a 6, like I do."

"Oh, I see." I nodded, but inside I was thinking how clever I was.

"What are you thinking about getting Daddy?" She asked.

"Steve and I were going to get him a good bottle of scotch." I said.

"He'll appreciate that, I think. You don't mind me taking your truck?"

"No, of course not." I replied. "We'll need to get your car up here after Christmas though."

"Yes, we will. Okay, I'll go the jewelry store first. I'll call you and let you know what I think."

"Good." I said. She walked behind my desk and gave me a quick hug.

"See ya in a little while." She smiled.

"Okay." I kissed her on the forehead. "Be careful?"

"I will. Promise."

She turned and walked out. She looked great in her fleece jacket, spandex tights and Doc Marten's. I couldn't help but notice there was a little extra swing of her hips. When she got to my office door, she turned and smiled. I pointed to my eyes, and then at her indicating I was watching her.

"You better be," she said.

----------

After she called to let me know that she was leaving the jewelry store, I told Steve I had an errand to run and I walked to the store myself.

Mrs. Louis greeted me when I walked in. "Now I see why you picked out such a beautiful ring. She's such a pretty girl. You were also very clever getting her to come try the other one on."

"Thanks. I really want to surprise her." I said.

"I think she will be." She smiled.

"So, will it need to re-sized?"

"No, we were lucky. It's already perfect for her." Mrs. Louis said.

"Good, because I really want to give it to her for Christmas."

"It wouldn't have been a problem either way, I would've had it ready for you. Would you like to see it again?"

"Yes, please."

She walked to the back and returned with it. When she set in front of me, I realized again, that it was perfect for her. Everything about it just said 'Janie'. I'd been thinking about her Christmas present since we told one another our feelings in September. Mrs. Louis and her husband had gotten used to me coming in and looking around that semester. I had found this ring just two weeks before.

A large emerald was the centerpiece. It was her birthstone, and the brilliant green reminded me of her beautiful eyes. The emerald was wrapped with diamonds that added to the sparkle. I knew she would freak out if she knew what it cost, but I was hoping the sight of it would prevent a lot of those questions. I just wanted her to have something beautiful that showed her what she meant to me.

"So, what do you think?" Mrs. Louis asked.

"I think it's perfect. Can you wrap this and the other two?"

"I regret to tell you, your young lady already paid for the other two items. I hope that isn't a problem." She admitted.

"She wasn't supposed to do that." I grumbled. "It'll be okay, though." I pulled my checkbook out of my pocket.

"Good, I'm glad to hear that. So, I don't mean to be nosy, but you have a very good taste for a young man, your age. My husband and I have been curious, what do you do for a living?"

"That's a little complicated, Mrs. Louis. I'm a student, but I'm also a partner in the family oil company."

"My goodness. How on earth?"

I gave her the shortened version of things.

"That's quite a story. We knew there was a lot of drilling activity on the Maddox ranch. We'd thought that era was gone for this part of the state. My husband will love to hear that story. So, have you known your young lady a long time?"