Rumors

***Downtown Sebida – such that it has one***

Jack went around the back of the van to open Abby’s door. They were getting started later than he had wanted. Of course, part of that was the distraction of waking up next to the most beautiful girl in the whole USA. Screw that, the world. But he knew that Abby Jean had dawdled in the bath, too. She didn’t enjoy being the center of attention and gossip in this little town. He understood that. But hell, right now, this town had so much to talk about they hardly mattered.

She wore the sunshine yellow rock-a-billy dress with the large white polka dots today. Her long blond hair was held back in a ponytail and tied with another of those silk scarves. Since this was just a quick trip to Willard’s Feed & Seed, then brunch with his great-uncle and cousin’s family, they had foregone the garter belt and stockings, opting for sandals. But the no-panties rule stood. For good reason, he had teased her all the way into town. Her cheeks glowed pink in the late morning light. Was that from embarrassment or arousal? Probably both.

He bent and kissed her. Right in front of the open double doors with hay bales stacked on either side. Let the old codgers watch and talk. “Be good, Jack,” she whispered.

“You weren’t saying that an hour ago, darlin.’” He loved how that pink deepened even more. As much as he had thought and dreamed about settling down for the past couple of years, the reality was better. And the reason was her. Abby Jean was everything he ever wanted, even though he had fought it for almost a decade.

“If it started with that half-kiss for you, Jack, then more than that.”

He laughed as they walked up the few steps to the cement porch and loading dock. “Morning, gentlemen.”

“Looks like it is for some of us, Greywolf,” replied old man Ledbetter.

He felt her tense at his side and drew her closer. “So, you finally came to your senses?” This time it was Maude Willard.

The woman was a good decade older than he was, at least. The Willards’ only child, she had been working here since before he was born. These days she all but ran the place while her dad mostly gossiped. Of course, such things weren’t women’s work, and her parents were just waiting for her to find a good man and settle down before they turned it all over and retired. Hell would probably freeze over first.

“Good morning, Maude. We’re looking for some paint.” Jack knew they wouldn’t escape her sharp tongue so easily, but better if they didn’t have half the men in town as an audience.

The woman looked at Abby and half smiled, “We have some lovely cotton candy pink.”

He gritted his teeth and smiled; Maude had probably sold the damned stuff to that woman twenty years ago when Abby Jean came to live with her grandmother. “We were thinking something a bit more neutral.”

“White? Beige? Gray?”

None of those really appealed to him either. He might not like pink, but he had spent enough years in the Army with boring regulation colorless walls. Abby was a fine jewel, and she deserved something better as a setting. He turned to look at his wife and seek her opinion. And he just knew. “Sunshine yellow?”

Maude’s face broke into a genuine smile as she winked at the old men congregating around her father’s checkers board. “I think we might. But you’ll need a base coat of white too.”

“And some stripper?”

“Now that you’re married, boy, no more that stuff.” Jack wasn’t entirely sure which of the men embarrassed his wife with that comment. Which was probably a good thing since his hand was already fisted at his side when Abby pulled him inside the store.

The rest was relatively quick and straightforward. Paint, brush, rolls, cloths for the furniture and floor. “Anything else ya’ll need?”

He turned to ask Abby, but she had slipped from his side. He panicked for a moment before he saw her standing over by some lumber. “Sweetheart?”

“Oh, sorry, Jack. I’m coming.”

“I just bet you are,” Maude mumbled. Thankfully so low that he didn’t think his wife heard. “Oh my, little Jack can still blush as pretty as his bride,” the woman cackled.

But Jack had learned not to bait the tiger, or if rumor was correct, in this case, the cougar. “Was there anything else you wanted?” He turned his attention to his wife.

Abby shook her head and reached for his hand, but he felt it. She wasn’t entirely honest with him. But now was not the time or the place to interrogate his wife. He could think of a dozen ways to torture the truth from her and leave them both smiling in the end. “That’ll be all for now, Maude.”

“Want me to put it on your account?”

He shook his head and held out his card, “No, this one is personal, not business.”

The way Abby studied the cement floor told him that something was up, but it could wait. He finished paying, and George’s son helped him carry it all to Baby. Jack hadn’t even known the boy was home from college. Hell, he was having trouble remembering the kid’s name. Though kid was not accurate. He would be twenty? Twenty-one now? “Thanks, Jason,” that was it.

“No problem, man. Are the rumors true?”

“Rumors? This is Sebida. Which fucking rumor?” Jack laughed as he opened the door for Abby.

Jason kicked at the gravel that covered the parking lot. “Are you closing down the casino?”

Why should it surprise him that word had gotten out? There were close to a dozen primarily men in that meeting. And, of course, the ones who disagreed with his decision would want to spread fear and distrust among his people. “I’ve called an employee meeting Monday. Until then, I’d appreciate it if people didn’t speculate.”

The young man nodded slowly, “You know a lot of families depend on that place. Your grandfather….”

“I know all that my grandfather did for our people. I’ll see your parents on Monday.” He cut the conversation off by closing Abby’s door and walking around to the other side.

The moment he was behind the wheel, she reached for him. Her hand covered his and squeezed gently. “It’ll be okay, Jack.”

He shook his head; people didn’t get it. He knew that they practically worshipped the great Injun Joe Greywolf. But his grandfather was a visionary of a different time. Besides, the truth was these last few years, his grandfather had bled the casino dry to pay the ‘good’ sheriff his ‘service charges.’ Combined with the economic downturn, this virus was just the final straw. He knew people’s livelihoods were at stake, but he could not in good conscious risk lives. He had to believe they would get through. Somehow.

“And we will, Jack. We will.”

He brought her hand to his lip and kissed the ring that glistened there. “You remember that too, Mrs. Greywolf. I felt your worry back there.”

She shook her head, and that blond ponytail bounced from side to side hitting her cheeks like a flogger would the other ones. He needed to clear out his storage unit soon. And that old trailer behind the casino. Oh, well, after Monday, he would have time. Plenty of it.

“Maybe we shouldn’t do so much work on the farm….”

So that was what was worrying his wife. “I told you, Abby. I will go to the bank on Monday, maybe Tuesday. We’ll get this settled. Now, let’s go have breakfast with the old man and my cousin.”

The diner was just on the other side of the road and a couple of houses down the main road. Usually, they would just walk it. But the Feed & Seed was packed this morning. So, he drove the short distance and parked by the dinner.

Jack felt the anxiety pounded at him. “Abby Jean?”

“What if they don’t like me, Jack?”

He almost laughed, but the sad look on her face stopped him. Instead, he placed his hand at the back of her neck and drew her forward until their foreheads touched, “Raymond Greywolf knows things.” That was an understatement, but his wife would come to realize that quickly enough.

“He has studied not just the folklore of his tribe and other Native Americans but indigenous and lost civilizations around the globe. It’s his life’s work. There is absolutely no way in hell that man doesn’t recognize what is between us. Shit, he probably knows and understands more about it than we do. So, will you please relax, sweetheart?”

“It’s just that they are your family, and I want them to like me,” the way she bit her lower lip intrigued him. Jack leaned in just that fraction and soothed the spot with a soft lick of his tongue.

“They are going to love you, Abby Jean, because I do. So stop worrying and get those sweet cheeks in there. I want to go home so I can spank them and fuck this sweet cunt,” he slipped his hand under her dress, up her thighs, and found the wet folds of paradise itself.

He dipped his finger into her depths as his lips covered hers. Within seconds, his fingers found her G-spot as his thumb circling her clit sent her soaring. She screamed her pleasure into his throat, and he swallowed it deep into his soul. He pushed her over the edge, then held her there, prolonged her pleasure and his discomfort. Until he felt her mind clear of all else. All except him. Them. This magic they shared.

He reluctantly withdrew his finger, swatted her mound hard enough to break the spell and get his wife’s attention. He brought his fingers to her lips, “Open.” He pushed two into her mouth, forcing her to taste her desire.

Then he brought the others to his mouth and feasted on them as his gaze held hers. “There’s nothing on Lizzie’s menu that tastes half as good as that. So get that sexy ass in there so we can get this shit show over with and I can take you home and deposit another load into my wife’s warm, wet, welcoming cunt.”