(Author's note: Jump straight to sex scene by Ctrl + F "He got back ten minutes later.")
It was on a Wednesday that Ice found himself walking into a karaoke night after his sister-in-law, Shana, mentioned it.
He saw some local guys and chatted. He wanted to look around for Shana but couldn't have people from town see him looking eager.
Eventually, he heard her signature laugh. Both relief and adrenaline washed over him.
He went to the bar and looked for her in the bar mirror.
He saw her signing up for a song, all smiles as usual. When she got back to her table, a tall, working man waited for her.
Ice sat alone at the bar, stealing glances with pain in his chest.
Minutes later she was singing Styx. Her performance was embarrassing, which Ice suspected she knew and did not care.
"Your sister-in-law's singing better tonight."
"I guess," Ice said followed by a pause. "Who's the guy she's with?"
"Who knows? She's with different guys all the time."
"Hmm."
Shana noticed Ice, but didn't let on. Still, she wanted to say hi so told her date, "Sugar, I'm going to get a drink. What'll you have?"
She walked over to Ice at the bar.
"Two Coors, please."
"Hi Shana."
"Hi, Ice. I thought that was you."
He smiled, then checked himself and looked away.
"Singing tonight?" she asked.
"No, I don't drink enough for that." They smirked.
She sat down, paid the bartender, and took a sip.
"So..." She opened the conversation inviting him to bring up something.
"What?" he replied.
"I don't know. How are the cows?" she asked.
"Fine."
After another pause, she said,
"Well I better get back."
Ice nodded.
"Hey Ice... Hey, it's Shana..." she said when Ice picked up the phone.
"Hey. What's going on?"
"How much do you charge for bird litter?"
"I'd have to take a look at the building," he said slowly.
"Alright, when can you come by?"
"Today," he told his brother's ex-wife.
"I'll be here, Ice," she promised.
Ice didn't like it when she personalized things like saying his name.
He got to her place soon after. His business-as-usual attitude hid how high of a priority he had made her.
"Hey, Ice! Thanks for coming. Want tea?"
To her surprise, he agreed immediately. They went inside and sat down together without a purpose, something Ice had turned down Shana for a hundred times.
"Well, I have to get this done before I can get new birds. God I wish I had never gotten into this. Your brother insisted..."
She trailed off. Her ex-husband--Ice's brother--taught her that many subjects were off-limits.
"Never mind. All I meant was I aim to sell this place."
"And move back to Idaho?"
"Oh no. Well, I guess I don't know. All I meant was sell this place because it has the chicken houses," she explained.
Shana was surprised at how interested he was. Did he want to buy it? Broker a deal and get a cut? Or looking for a new wife and eyeing herself?
No, she thought. "Ice wouldn't do that to his brother."
"Oh," he said.
"Any buyers you could think of?"
"Well, Dee's looking to expand."
"Mmm."
"So is David, the Mennonite," Ice said.
"That'd be interesting. Don't they have some special ceremony at the transfer of property?"
There it was. Her charm. What the brothers find so interesting about her. She's curious and speaks well.
He was thinking about that, and how he was closer than ever to being with her. He was so engaged in the thought that he didn't respond.
"Ice?"
"What?"
"Never mind. Come on, I'll show you the houses," she said after suspecting his patience was running out.
After they finished looking at the job, Shana offered to show him the place, which he hadn't seen since before Ice's brother and Shana got divorced.
To her surprise, he agreed.
Unlike the locals on ATVs, Shana preferred horseback. They saddled up and took a tour of the place.
He uncharacteristically asked questions.
On the loop back, a tree branch fell and startled the horses. Ice's horse went wild and he jumped off.
He looked fine as Shana rode up, laughing if off even though her horse was on the loose.
But Ice wasn't getting up. She dismounted.
"Ice, what's up?"
"My arm. Can't move it."
"Okay. Can I?"
She carefully pulled up his sleeve.
"It's dislocated. I know how to fix it, but it'll hurt."
"Go ahead."
"One, two, three." This was followed by a sudden sound that resembled the tree limb breaking.
Ice didn't flinch even though it hurt like hell.
Ice sat up. Shana had her hand on his back, one of the first times they had ever touched.
"Want to come back inside?"
He nodded.
"Here, lay down. I'll get some things to make you comfortable."
He would not have accepted help from someone else. But he loved her.
"Here's some water, a blanket, and some aspirin. Just rest for a while. I'm going to make some calls."
As Ice sat there, he gave her place a better look than he had before. She had books with titles like A Conflict of Visions. She had framed pictures with foreigners. And her decorations ranged from the bizarre (animal teeth) to the immature (comic action figures). He wasn't any less curious.
The calls Shana was making didn't help either. In one, she was talking to one of her subordinates about disability law. The subordinate had done something wrong, and Shana was respectful and results-oriented.
She also had calls with clients. She was patient and polite but firm.
He admired how she treated everyone with respect.
He then, like many times before, recognized that his feelings wouldn't change and that he had to address them or face insanity.
When she came back to check on him, he said,
"Would you be interested in going to the rodeo together?"
"Yeah, I love rodeos."
He was glad that it was so simple.
When he picked her up, Sandy was there.
"Hey Uncle Ice!"
"Hey Sandy."
"Thanks for suggesting this, Ice. I'm glad we can have family time."
Ice was his usual self--or at least how he usually acted around them--quiet and nonchalant.
At the rodeo, Sandy got bored and left to check out vendor tables.
Ice looked around the stands to make sure no one he knew was within earshot.
"Shana, when I invited you, I only wanted you to come."
"Like a date?"
"Yeah," Ice replied.
"Oh." She paused.
"Well," she started, "I don't think that's such a great idea."
"Oh." He looked ahead, trying to hide his disappointment.
"You're attractive and all. And a good person. But I am your brother's ex-wife. And you... I mean I saw... we don't have similar values at all."
"Alright. I get it."
"I mean, if it makes you feel any better, I've wanted to sleep with you for about, oh, 20 years now."
He smiled, and softly chuckled. Shana almost suspected his eyes teared up.
"Seriously?"
"Oh yes. You?"
"Well, of course I thought about it. I'm a guy."
"Ah. Well it's been more than that for me," she said.
"Well, we don't have to get married or anything."
She didn't understand what he meant. Knowing that dating Ice was hopeless, Shana smiled, looked ahead, and they dropped it for the rest of the night.
About a week later after a considerable internal battle, Shana showed up to Ice's place. He didn't answer the door.
"Ice? Yeah, it's Shana. I'm at your place."
He got back ten minutes later.
When he saw her, he said nothing and only smiled.