Happy in the Border Lands Read online

  “You’ll go slow, right?” she asked, voicing her concern.

  “Of course, we will,” Jeff said. “We know you’ll need time to get to know us.”

  “What happens next?” Lucille asked.

  “We tell your family and gather your things. We’ll start out for home early in the morning. Don’t want to leave too late in the day and chance getting caught out in the evening,” Ty said.

  “I’m nervous about this,” she admitted.

  “It’s natural, honey,” Jeff said. “I’d be worried if you weren’t. Just try to relax. I promise we will go slow and get to know each other. Once we get home, there’s work to do though. We’ve got our seeds in the ground, so now comes the weeding and watering part. That will keep us all busy all summer, and then comes the harvesting. You know how it goes.”

  “You’re right. I expect we will be busy. I’ll try to keep up. I’ve always had my sisters and Mrs. Johnson with me to help with the work.” Now she was a little nervous about whether she’d be able to handle working a household all by herself.

  “Don’t worry. This is a much bigger place than ours is. You’ll be fine. Holly is doing great. You’ll be just fine. You’ll see,” Ty said.

  “Ready to go tell everyone you’ve agreed to come home with us and be our woman?” Jeff asked.

  “Now?” she asked in a high-pitched squeak.

  Jeff chuckled. “Well, when did you want to tell them?”

  “Um, maybe at dinner tonight.”

  “That’s fine with me if it’s okay with Jeff,” Ty said.

  “Let’s go for a walk then,” Jeff suggested. “Show us around the place.”

  For the next couple of hours, Lucille walked around the farm with the two men, showing them the fruit trees, the flowing stream where they fished, and the meadows where they enjoyed picking flowers when they had time. The guys teased her and snuck kisses here and there while they were checking out the various locations.

  Lucille had to admit that she’d had a great day with them. They were fun to be around. She’d learned that Ty was the more outgoing of the two men, with Jeff being a little more reserved. Jeff was the oldest by a year and seemed to be the more levelheaded. Ty did most of the talking, but he deferred to his older brother whenever there was a decision to be made.

  “I need to get back and help with dinner. This has been fun, but I’ve shirked my chores all day long. That’s not fair to Amanda or Mrs. Johnson,” Lucille said.

  “I’m sure they didn’t mind this one time. Besides, you’ll be going with us tomorrow. They won’t have you after today anymore anyway,” Ty said.

  “Way to screw up, brother,” Jeff said, punching him in the shoulder.

  “What?” Ty asked.

  Lucille sighed. She hadn’t thought about it like that. When Holly had moved out, it had been hard at first getting used to losing her. Not just because Holly was gone and Lucille missed her sister but also because there was one less person to do the work. Soon it smoothed out though, and with one less person to do the work, there was also one less mouth to feed.

  “I hate leaving them shorthanded. I remember how it was when Holly left,” she said.

  “See what I mean, asshole,” Jeff said.

  Ty sighed. “Sorry.”

  “Come on. I need to get back,” Lucille said, picking up her pace.

  Once back at the house, she hurried inside to help with dinner preparations.

  “There you are,” Mrs. Johnson said. “Was worried you’d gotten lost somewhere. Grab the potatoes and peel them for me. Amanda is cutting up the onions.”

  Lucille lost herself in her chores the rest of the evening, and by the time dinner was ready, she was exhausted from wrestling with her decision to go with Ty and Jeff the next morning. She hadn’t changed her mind but was worried about how the Johnsons’ would take it. They’d been so good to her and her sisters over the years. Was this any way to repay them for taking them in like they had?

  Once dinner was over and they were eating dessert of apple pie, Ty looked over at Lucille and cleared his throat.

  “Mr. Johnson, Mrs. Johnson, Lucille has agreed to be our woman and go home with us. I’m hoping to get your blessing. We’d like to leave first thing in the morning,” he said.

  Mr. Johnson slowly set his fork back down and looked over at his wife, who returned his look. She did the same thing.

  “Lucille? Is this what you want?” she asked.

  “Yes, ma’am. They treat me well, and I’d be close to Holly. They’re friends of her men, and I trust them,” Lucille said.

  “You know if it doesn’t work out you can come back here, right?” Mr. Johnson said.

  Lucille’s eyes watered. She smiled at the older man and nodded. “Yes, sir. Thank you, but I think they’ll take good care of me.”

  “Then you have our blessing,” Mr. Johnson said.

  “That settles it then,” Jeff said. “We plan to leave first thing in the morning so we’ll get back home by lunchtime. Lucille, honey, can you be packed and ready by seven a.m. to leave?”

  “I’ll pack pretty much everything tonight before I go to bed. Then all I’ll have left is a few things in the morning,” she said.

  Lucille fiddled with her silverware as she contemplated her future now that it was all settled. She was going off with two men she barely knew to be their woman in a place she’d never been before. She was taking their word that they had a decent place to live and that they would take good care of her. What had she been thinking?

  It’s too late now. I can’t go back on my decision. I’ve got to go through with it and make the best of it. I can always go to Holly if it doesn’t work out. She’ll get me back to the Johnsons.

  But Lucille wanted it to work out. She wanted a home and two men who cared about her and to be close to her sister once more. The only thing that would make it any better would be if they could find Amanda a home nearby as well.

  * * * *

  Early the next morning, after a restless night of tossing and turning, Lucille watched as the two men strapped down the last of her things to the sled, which they would take turns pulling behind them as they made their way back home. By eight that morning they had said their good-byes and were on their way.

  Jeff had made sure she knew to stop them to rest any time she needed to. He told her that if she waited until she was overly tired it would make it much harder on her to finish the trip and slow them down in the process. She began to get tired about an hour into the trip. She waited until it had been an hour and a half and asked for a break. They quickly located a small clearing and set her up on a log and massaged her feet and calves while giving her sips of water. She’d never expected such sweet treatment. When they started off again, she felt much more rested and was surprised when she was able to make it an entire two hours before she needed to rest again.

  Mostly they walked a pathway through woods where she watched squirrels and birds scramble around hunting for food. The tall trees stretched toward the sky with spindly vines wrapping their way around their trunks.

  For a short time, they walked through a meadow where a path had been beaten down so that the waist-high grasses weren’t an issue. She saw a couple of rabbits hopping around ahead of them, but they quickly disappeared before they caught up with them.

  Once again, when they stopped to rest, they removed her boots and massaged her feet, making sure she had something to eat and drink while she rested. She giggled, making them look at her as they helped her to her feet.

  “What?” Ty asked as Jeff narrowed his brows.

  “If I weren’t so honest, I’d have asked for a rest break every thirty minutes just to get this amazing treatment. I feel pampered,” she said.

  “We want you in the best shape you can be in. Hiking is hard on you when you’re not used to it. Didn’t want you to end up with blisters on your feet or leg cramps,” Ty said.

  “Thanks, guys. I really mean it.” Lucille kissed each man on the cheek
before she could chicken out then scampered back to her place behind the sled, signaling she was ready to go again.

  They reached the guys’ home within the next forty minutes. She couldn’t stop from staring with her mouth open at the beautiful, two-story log cabin. Jeff pulled the sled around the back, so Lucille followed. They stopped at the edge of a huge back deck. There he unhitched the sled and walked up the wide steps to unlock the back door and beckoned her to come inside.

  She walked in behind Jeff with Ty following her. The door led into a laundry room slash mudroom. There was a washing machine and dryer there as well as a sink and folding station. Then he led her into the kitchen, which was cozy but functional. Next to the kitchen was a dining area that had French doors opening out onto the deck. The dining area opened into the den with a massive fireplace that had been enlarged to accommodate cooking pots.

  Compared to her home with the Johnsons it was a palace. They didn’t have solar panels, so no electricity at all, which meant no washing machine, no heated water, and no stove. Everything was hand done and all the food was cooked over the fireplace, which meant hot work during the summer. This was like living in luxury.

  She smiled and turned around to where the men still stood in the dining area. She could see they were a little nervous about what she thought of the place.

  “It’s beautiful. I love it. We better unpack my stuff before a bear comes ‘along and unpacks it for us,” she said.

  The guys grinned and immediately hurried outside and began unfastening the straps. The next two hours were spent putting away her things in the master suite upstairs. She noticed that her clothes were the only ones in the room but didn’t say anything. More than likely they lived in rooms down the hall and hadn’t moved their things yet.

  Did this mean she would be sleeping alone for a while, or would they sleep in the same bed right from the beginning? Lucille wasn’t sure how she felt about it. She’d never slept with a man before. She and her sisters had slept together in order to stay warm in the winter, but they had been her sisters. Two virtual strangers, who also happened to be men? That was an entirely different animal.

  Chapter Three

  Jeff put the sled away, leaving Ty to take the last of Lucille’s things up to her. They’d put her in the master suite. They hadn’t moved in there yet, as they hadn’t been sure if she was going to come home with them or not. Now they needed to move their things in there. They had been living in two of the bedrooms that shared a Jack and Jill bath down the hall. It would be nice to have the one room and a nice master bathroom to keep up with.

  He especially loved the shower. It was large enough for the three of them to get in if they wanted to. He could also see Lucille enjoying a nice long bath in the soaking tub. She’d love that. Something inside of him melted a little at the thought of a woman of their own. He’d honestly never thought that they’d find one since they lived so far off the beaten path. They couldn’t leave long enough to search for a woman because of chores and hadn’t liked to ask their neighbors to watch out for their place while they did.

  Then their neighbor had asked them to watch their place while they searched, and Jeff had thought maybe they could do the same thing after all, only they hadn’t had to. Their neighbors had found a woman for them.

  Lucille was perfect. She was sweet and pretty and had just enough of a temper to be fun. He liked seeing her get riled up. A woman with spirit could be exciting in bed. He adjusted his cock. He shouldn’t have thought about that. It might be a long time before they were able to consummate their relationship. She was untried. A virgin in every sense of the word. She had no idea what went on between a man and woman except for what she’d read about in a book.

  Books, crap. Those romance books were going to make their job of seducing her that much harder as well. She was going to have high expectations, and they weren’t those kinds of men. They were rough, not polished, and didn’t have a clue what might be in those blasted books.

  I mean really. Get on bended knee and propose? I would never have done that even if I’d known about it.

  Well, maybe not.

  He found Ty in the kitchen going over where everything was with Lucille and how everything worked with the solar panels.

  “We only use the electricity to cook and for laundry day. We use it at night just to get around and have showers, and then we turn it off to save it,” he was saying.

  “Okay. So, what about the refrigerator?” she asked.

  “It’s running all summer and spring, but in the winter, we don’t use it. We use cold boxes outside. We have locks on them to keep the animals out. If you need something out of them, you tell us and let us get it for you. Don’t want you coming up against a wolf or some other animal,” Ty said.

  “Okay. How many cows do you have?” she asked.

  “We’ve got three milk cows, three bulls, some free-range cattle, and ten chickens. We’ve also got two horses.” Jeff lifted a finger to trace her cheek.

  “Two bulls. Don’t forget that we gave one to Jessup and Evers,” Ty said.

  “Forgot about that,” he said.

  “Why don’t people have more horses? Mr. Johnson said they were harder to catch, and you have to be able to take care of them,” she said.

  “There’s that, and there aren’t as many as there used to be. They were nearly all taken out with the disasters, as the humans were, since they were mostly in barns and stables. Those that were in pastures had a better chance of survival,” Jeff said.

  “Holly remembers that time better than I do, but even she doesn’t remember it very well. Mostly she has nightmares about it. I just remember bad storms and crazy people everywhere. We were always moving. We never stayed anywhere for very long. Then Mom and Dad got sick and died. I don’t like to think of that,” she said.

  “Don’t then. Just think of the future. We’ve got a long one ahead of us,” Ty said, pulling her into his arms and kissing the top of her head.

  Jeff loved how she fit beneath their chins. She had to be about five feet five or six inches. Her light blue eyes were bright with unshed tears but quickly dried as she allowed the other man to hug her. She was a shapely woman with curves in all the right places. Generous hips and breasts with a narrow waist and long legs. He couldn’t wait to have those long legs and thick thighs wrap around him as he buried his throbbing cock into her hot little cunt.

  He nearly cursed as his dick twitched against the constricting denim of his jeans. He’d never get anything done thinking about sex when he knew it would be a while before he got any. She needed time to adjust to them before they got to take her. He just prayed it wasn’t too long. He was afraid if it were too much longer, he’d die of blue balls. Already they were tight and aching.

  “What are you thinking about over there?” Lucille asked, pulling out of Ty’s arms.

  “You,” he said.

  She leaned into his chest and went up on tiptoes to kiss his cheek. The simple gesture sent blood surging to his cock once more. He nearly groaned at the reaction it elicited down there.

  “I’ll fix something to eat while you guys check on everything. Shouldn’t take me long. Won’t be much, but it will be enough for now,” she said.

  Jeff sighed. She walked over to the fridge and opened the door, bending over to stick her head inside to see what they had available. He nearly came just watching her ass stretch the jeans as she did. Ty gave him a knowing grin.

  “Hot as hell, isn’t she?” he said in a near whisper.

  “My dick is going to break off if I don’t get some relief soon,” Jeff said.

  “Looking forward to a shower later,” Ty said.

  “Fuck you.”

  “Did you say something?” Lucille asked, standing up with her hands full.

  “No, angel. Just going over what we need to check on. We’ll see you in a few minutes,” Ty said.

  Jeff followed his brother outside, and then, once they were out on the deck, he punched him in the
back of the shoulder. The other man burst out laughing.

  “You can’t tell me you aren’t as affected by her as I am,” Jeff said.

  “I am, but I’m resigned to taking care of myself for a while. I know she’s going to take time. I’m not above using my hand if it means she comes to us on her terms a little later. I don’t want to push her into something she isn’t ready for,” Ty said.

  “And you think I want that?” Jeff asked, appalled that his brother would think that of him.

  “No, but you are a little more hard-nosed.”

  “I’m not so rigid that I’d risk our future relationship just to get in her pants a little sooner, Ty.”

  “Good. Just checking.”

  “I can’t believe you even think you have to check.”

  “Look, neither one of us have been with a woman in years. I’m just as anxious as you are. All I’m saying is that we both need to take this slow,” Ty said.

  “Agreed.”

  Jeff followed Ty over to the barn, where they checked to be sure Jessup and Evers had been able to take care of their cows and horses and found that they all had hay and feed. The cows had been milked and seemed fine. They went out to the pasture and found that the bulls were close to the fence, as were the other cattle. There was a fresh bale of hay near the barn. They checked the fields and found that they were moist, which said that they’d been watered at some point. He couldn’t believe that they’d gone to so much trouble for them. All they’d asked was for them to take care of the barn animals and the chickens.

  By the time they returned to the house, Lucille had lunch on the table waiting for them. They quickly ate and discussed what they’d be doing for the rest of the afternoon. Lucille told them she’d clean the kitchen and get dinner started. She didn’t seem the least bit uneasy about the coming night, but then she might not be thinking about it. That was good. Jeff didn’t want her dwelling on it.

  After dinner, Ty went upstairs to move their things into the master bedroom and take a shower. Jeff remained downstairs to talk to Lucille and keep her occupied. He asked her about what her days had been like while she’d lived with the Johnsons and explained that he figured her days would be about the same there but on a much smaller basis.