F T Hemmingway
A family saga Volume Two
CHAPTER ONE
Many things were now extremely clear to Gabriel Scott. He settled back in his favorite chair nursing his gin tonic, promising himself that, tonight, he wouldn't get sloppy drunk. Hell! He had waited too damned long! After having read the note his wife, Dottie, had written to her daughter, Charity, revealing the truth of her paternity, Gabe's memory went back to years ago when he and Dottie were married.
How had it happened? He hadn't understood it then. He hadn't understood why or how it was that Dottie had ignored him… then, suddenly, before he knew what was happening, he was married to her. He had had Dottie out on a couple of dates, but he hadn't been able to get a third one with her; meanwhile, he knew, she had been dating some of the Redfern College men. Christ! He hadn't had time to ask himself what was happening. She was just there… and available. He had taken her to a drive-in movie and was pleasantly surprised when she allowed some heavy petting.
… But, on their next date, that same week, she had pleaded not feeling well and didn't want to go skating.
'… Maybe, we could just go for a ride, in your car… Gabe…' she suggested. 'If you don't mind…?'
'Okay.'
He had been driving his old Mercury station wagon, the car on which he had, painstakingly, restored the wooden body to its original condition. He was proud of the car and liked to show it off. Naturally, he wanted to show Dottie off, too. He cruised the streets of Redfern, stopping at a drive-in hamburger stand that was a favored hangout for the high school crowd. They ate burgers, fries and drank Cokes. Gabe felt just a little proud to be seen with the girl who was, undoubtedly, the most beautiful in their senior class. She was by far the most popular, too, and he didn't question why she chose to go out with him. The fact that she was there with him was enough… and there seemed to be a promise of more intimacy to come. Damn! She's beautiful! I wonder if I've got any chance at all… of getting next to her…? Christ! I'll bet she's a damned good lay!
It hadn't taken very long to find out. As they drove away from the hamburger stand, Dottie had slid over close to him. 'Let's drive up into the mountains, Gabe… where it's nice and quiet… okay?' she asked.
'… And private…?' he added.
'Real private!' Dottie affirmed.
With a worried look at the fuel gauge, he made a quick estimate of the distance and a mental calculation of the money he possessed. He couldn't do it, he decided, but he could find that privacy. It was not very far away. He laid it on the line to her, honestly, 'I don't have enough gas… or money, Dottie… but I know a place where we can park… and have all the privacy we want…'
She snuggled her face into his shoulder and murmured, 'Go wherever you want to… we don't have to go to the mountains.'
Damn! Her talk of privacy had his mind whirling, already. Was she thinking about what she was saying? Some real privacy could lead to real lovemaking, not just the heavy petting she had allowed him the last time. Christ! I'm getting hot, already… just thinking about the possibility of getting it into her!
Gabe had driven out the avenue past the turnoff to his own home. The whole area was planted in citrus, the groves bordering the avenue thickly with only an occasional house standing tall and Victorian amidst the trees. He turned onto a dirt road to the left, stopped at a locked gate, got out of the car, produced a key to the padlock, opened it and drove the car through. As he got back into the car, Dottie asked him, 'How come you've got a key…?'
'We're on the back side of my old man's property,' he told her, 'and our house is just down this road a ways…'
'Oh…'
He became expansive, then. 'It's all going to be mine… someday!'
'Do you want to raise oranges…?'
'Yeah… I guess so,' he said, 'My granddad planted the trees, my dad inherited the place… and it looks like I'm expected to carry it on. Soon as I graduate I'm supposed to go to work for Dad, full time!'
She was impressed. 'Not very many boys know exactly what they're going to do!' she observed.
'I guess not…' He was nonchalant. He had parked the Mercury in a little cleared area where agricultural implements were stored. There were barrels of oil, lubricants, fuel and pesticides stacked about. When he turned off the car's lights it was almost pitch black and very few sounds penetrated through the thick foliage of the orange trees.
'Is this private enough?' he asked, reaching out for her.
Dottie had come easily into his arms, her face lifted to him for his kiss. He kissed her tenderly, at first, and as her lips parted he thrust his tongue, hungrily, into her mouth to probe, taste and savor her. Her avid response surprised him.
With a little moan, she had pressed against him, the mounding hemispheres of her breasts crushing up warmly between them. He felt the slight tremor in her body that seemed to signal desire. In the darkness, he pulled back from her, slightly; he could barely see the outlines of her face. Her eyes were closed; her mouth still parted. Christ! She's got hot pants!
His hand reached out to her, found and encompassed a breast, his fingers kneading and massaging as his lips found hers, again. He found himself mumbling, 'God… you're beautiful, Dottie!'
For answer, another little moan escaped her lips, and she tentatively snaked her tongue into his mouth, searchingly. He sucked it, gently, for a few moments, then, voraciously, as she became bolder, her tongue, searching and teasing the inside of his mouth.
Below, the hot blood surged, quickeningly, and his tumescent, erect penis throbbed and jerked against the confining fabric of his pants. He shifted, uncomfortably, in the seat of the car, his hand going to his crotch to move his aching cock to a more comfortable position; then that same hand drifted to her warm, smooth thigh, moving up under her skirt to the wisp of nylon panties that encased her loins.
'No… p-please, Gabe… I'm not…' she mumbled up into his mouth, pulling back only slightly, her objection not entirely convincing, as his hand continued to wander, searchingly, over the warm smoothness of thigh and hip.
'I've got to… have you… Dottie! God! I'm so hot…! I've got to… to fuck you! I love you… so very much!'
She pulled away from him and smoothed down her skirt. 'I–I like you, too… Gabe… b-but love… a-and sex… are for marriage… and…' She turned her head away from him.
'Couldn't you learn to love me…?'
Facing him, again, she said, 'Y-Yes… maybe… but we can't… well, you know… we couldn't do it… before we…'
'Before we get married…?' He finished her unspoken sentence.
'Yes…'
'… But… if we were sure…?'
'How could we ever be sure?' she asked.
'God, Dottie! I've loved you for months… already… ever since you came to school the first day after you moved here!'
His confession of love for her came from a youthful heart, a heart brimming over with sentimentality, but in truth, it was the virile member, aching for carnal knowledge of her that throbbed out its message there below. His was a common confusion, the misunderstanding of the meaning of love, which is the substitution of sex for love.
Gathering her into his arms, again, he kissed her with brutal force, then more tenderly as she melted against him, her breath beginning to come in short panting gasps; while his hands moved on her, she responded to him more and more until, finally, his searching hand, below, slipped between her thighs… and her legs parted, slightly,
