Dirty Old Man, Maybe Not

In spite of Julie's objections I bought her a pair of Tony Lama ropers. We got back in the Mustang and I drove us to Ruby's.

"What's this place?" Julie asked.

"It belongs to an old friend; she won't let anyone interrupt us. We can eat dinner and have our little talk. Besides they serve a mean margarita and the best ribs in the county. C'mon," I said holding the door for her.

Ruby came over to greet us and gave me a hug. Looking at Julie she said, "You must be Julie. Jason's described you and talked about you so much I feel like I know you. I'm Ruby, welcome to my place."

"So Jason's talked about me has he?" Julie asked with a chuckle.

"He comes in where ever he's out to the ranch. A lot of the time he tells me about you," Ruby said smiling at my embarrassment. Julie's smile turned into a big grin.

"C'mon let's eat before my friend here tells you all my secrets," I said looking at Ruby with a frown. She just laughed and returned to the bar.

Two huge margaritas were delivered to our booth and shortly afterwards a plate of ribs with slaw and potato salad was place in front of each of us. As we finished the great food I raised my glass and toasted Julie. I took a big drink, and then I said, "So what do you want to talk about, now that you got me here?"

Julie had just taken a big drink and laughed so hard she spewed margarita across the table. She continued to laugh as she mopped up her mess. "You're the one that kidnapped me and brought me to this den of iniquity."

"I'll fade the heat on the kidnapping charge," I replied chuckling. Then I got more serious. "Did you have a subject for our talk?"

"First I want to apologize for ever thinking you would do something like using your influence to get me a promotion." I nodded and she continued, "I think it's time we talk about where we're going."

"Apology accepted. As far as where we're going, I tell you what I'm thinking." I stopped, took a drink, and looked at Julie. She raised one eyebrow in a question and I said, "This is sort of heavy, more than I meant to get into.........but I want you back in my life."

"Jason I don't.........."

Holding up my hand I said, "Let me finish. If you don't like what I say, I'll drive you back to the city tonight and we'll just go on being friends. I'm not trying to pressure you but you asked."

I couldn't read the look on Julie's face but she nodded for me to continue. "I made a big mistake when we were married. I got so involved in building PSI that I forgot what was important. That's a mistake I'll never make again, with you or without you, I'll never make that mistake again."

Julie returned my look and gave me a small smile.

"That's one of the reasons I've trained Kathleen; she can take over PSI so I can take more time for myself. Look I know I screwed up but I'm pretty smart; I can learn from my mistakes. I didn't cheat on you, I didn't abuse you; I just got my priorities messed up. It wouldn't happen again, I give you my word."

Julie continued to look at me but I couldn't tell what she was thinking. "Are you finished?"

"Not yet. I love you Julie. I'll love you if you come back to me or I'll love you if you decide you just want to be friends and I'll even love you if decide you don't want anything to do with me. No matter what, I'll go on loving you. It would be better if we were together and you loved me back." I stopped, sighed, and took another hard pull on my margarita.

"Okay, I'll take you back to the city now if you want to go."

"There you go again, getting all involved in what you want to say. Don't I get a rebuttal?" I smiled and motioned for her to go ahead.

"First, now that we 'reconnected' I can't see us not being friends; at the very least. I don't doubt that you love me. Maybe I should have raised more hell when you let PSI come between us but that's history; we're talking about the future."

Julie looked to see how I was reacting. I guess she was surprised to see me smiling. I'd just been told that we'd be together at least as friends, I thought to myself.

"I think we should, as the saying goes, make haste slowly. Let's see how we do as friends first and maybe we can build on that." Julie paused and hesitantly asked, "How's that sound?"

Taking a last long drink of the margarita, I paused a little, and sighed. "Sounds like.........We should go say hello to Ralph and Millie."

We both started laughing and went to the car. Julie said, "Don't you think it's kind of late, will Ralph and Millie still be up?"

"Yeah, they'll be on the front porch waiting for us. I called them while you were shopping and let them know we were coming."

Pulling up in front of the ranch house, I pointed and Julie saw Ralph and Mille sitting there waiting for us. "See, told you so."

Ralph came down to meet us, hugging Julie and said, "Bout time you came back to see me girl." Turning to me he just said hello. Millie made a fuss over both of us. We put Julie in one of the master suites upstairs; my room is at the back of the house on the ground floor.

"Is that enough distance for you?" I teased Julie. "See you tomorrow morning at 7; I've got a surprise for you." She tried to wheedle the secret out of me but I just shook my head and went to my room.

The next morning I came into the kitchen for coffee at 6:30; Julie was already there waiting for me. "What's the surprise Jason, huh, what is it?" She was like a little girl at Christmas time.

"Let me get a cup of coffee first," I responded. I put the coffee in a travel mug and motioned for her to follow me. We walked down to the barn and went in. Inside in their stalls were Buck and Gilly; another stall had a blanket hung in front of it.

I pointed at the covered stall, "Your surprise is behind that blanket."

Julie walked over and pulled down the blanket revealing a beautiful black filly. She turned to me with a questioning look.

"She belongs to you so you'll have to name her," I said. "I bought her for you just after your first visit out here. Gilly belongs to Kathleen and even though she said you could ride her, it's sort of like loaning your car to someone. You know they'll take care of it but you're really not comfortable doing it."

Julie broke into a huge grin and stepped over to the filly. Talking softly and moving slowly she started the process of making friends with the horse. I was totally ignored by both females. After ten minutes or so, Julie ran over and hugged me.

"Thank you so much Jason. This is a very thoughtful gift. You know I've always liked riding and horses."

"I remember. We, I mean I, didn't take the time to do things like that before but I will from now on," I replied. I was rubbing and scratching Buck's ears while he tried to eat my shirt collar.

Julie watched me with Buck and said, "You always said you didn't like horses but you seem to like Buck okay," she said.

"Buck's different. He doesn't like horses either; that's one reason we get along so well. I think if he had his way he'd be in the back of a truck when we ride around the ranch." I fed Buck an apple I'd brought from the house. "C'mon let's saddle up, we're burning daylight," I said in a weak John Wayne impression and laughed.

Julie made short work of saddling her horse and then came over and helped me. We rode for easy for about an hour and then cantered over to my picnic spot by the stream. Ralph rode off on his ATV as we approached; he'd left a thermos of coffee and some sweet rolls for us.

I poured the coffee and grabbed an apple fritter. Julie was smiling as she said, "I could use to this life style."

"Yeah, it's nice. Millie spoils me rotten every time I visit the ranch," I said. Looking at Julie as she paced around the area I suddenly ordered, "Julie, stand still. Don't move."

She turned her head and asked, "Why?"

"Just don't move." I slowly walked around her toward the stream. About ten feet in front of Julie was rattlesnake coiled up ready to strike. I distracted it and using a long forked branch picked it up and dropped it over the high bank toward the stream. Shaking I went back and sat at the table.

"Was that a rattlesnake?" She asked with a trembling voice. When I nodded she said, "But I didn't hear its rattle. Aren't they supposed to rattle before they strike?"

"Another two or three steps and you would have heard him; just before he struck. I'm glad I saw him before that could have happened," I replied.

"How did you learn about snakes and stuff?"

Laughing at myself I said, "I'm not much of a country boy anymore but I spent most of my time out here after Mom died, until I left for the Army. Guess I remember more than I thought."

"When you got that big stick I thought you were going to kill it."

"No, I didn't see any reason to..........You can't blame a snake for doing what comes natural," I replied. "C'mon let's get back and get a real breakfast."

We took care of the horses, feeding and watering them. As we finished Julie said, "Duchess." At my questioning look she continued, "That's my horse's name. Remember that book Black Beauty, Duchess was Black Beauty's mother."

I nodded, "Good name. Let's go eat."

Millie had a typical ranch breakfast waiting for us. It consisted of eggs, ham, sausage, homemade biscuits, country fried potatoes, and milk gravy. It would have been hard for ten people to eat the huge country breakfast. After stuffing ourselves I belched, laughed and excused myself.

"If I ate like that every day, I'd weigh 300 pounds," Julie groaned. "I can hardly move."

"Okay nap time........Or we could talk some more," I replied looking at Julie.

Julie sighed and returned my stare. "I guess we should talk, but later. I'm too full to think. There is one thing I'd like to ask."

"Ask away. If I can do it or have it done I'll take care of it."

"Can I take a nap with you? Just a nap and cuddle together; that's one of the things I do miss about you. Even in the middle of everything you were great at cuddling," Julie finished with a chuckle.

"Your place or mine?" I asked with a big grin.

Two hours later I woke up in my bedroom. It'd been too much effort to climb the stairs up to Julie's room. This is the best morning I've had in a long time, I thought. Waking up spooning with a beautiful woman was just about at the top of my list of my favorite things; especially this woman. We were fully clothed having just removing our boots before we fell onto the bed.

I watched Julie sleep for a few minutes, vowing to myself to do whatever necessary to get her back into my life. As I pushed her hair off her face, Julie woke up. She gave me a sleepy little smile and stretched. That's another thing to put on my favorite thing list, I thought. Without her meaning to, Julie looked about as sexy as I'd ever seen her. Yup definitely one of my favorite things.

Julie shook her hair back and forth, sat up and said, "Let's go down to the barn. I want to see Duchess again."

We put our boots back on and walked to the barn. As we walked in I turned to Julie. "No matter what happens between us, you're always welcome to come out here and ride Duchess." I chuckled and said, "Ralph and Millie wouldn't let me keep you away. They sort of adopted you, you know."

During our late afternoon ride, Julie and I stopped at a line shack I'd had built on the back side of the ranch. It wasn't really needed but I thought a ranch should have a line shack just like in the old West. The stream that ran through the valley flowed just behind it. We let the horses graze and continued our talk.

"Since we're being honest with each other, what happened in Santa Clara?" I asked.

She looked at me very seriously for almost a minute before answering. "The marriage was a mistake. John was a nice guy but I shouldn't have married him."

I started to say something funny to break up the tension but for once decided to keep my mouth shut.

She hesitated a little and said with a sad little smile, "Don't let this go to your head but the reason it didn't work is that he wasn't you." Julie's smile got a little bigger, "I guess even after all that time you were just too hard of an act to follow."

After the ride, we cleaned up and went to Ruby's for dinner again. I almost had to fight to get it done, but managed to get Ralph and Millie to go with us. Actually it was good that they were there; Julie and I had a few too many of those great margaritas celebrating our 'friendship'. Ralph had to drive us back to the ranch.

Julie giggled as Millie and I got her to her room. Millie shooed me out saying that she'd help Julie get to bed. I stumbled down the stairs to my bedroom, thinking I should have an elevator put in for nights like this. It was about four hours later, around 3 AM, when I woke up as someone came into my room.

I blinked my eyes trying to get them to work properly and saw Julie in her Winnie the Pooh T-shirt standing at the foot of my bed. Sitting up and turning on the light I said, "Julie?"

"Jason, I've been thinking. I don't want to be your friend." She saw me start to respond and quickly went on. "When I woke up alone, I realized that I wanted to be with you again; as your friend or friend with benefits, or whatever. I just want us to be us again."

"Julie you know that's what I want too; but you're still a little drunk. I don't want you to regret your decision tomorrow. Maybe we should wait until morning to talk about this," I said kicking myself for turning down her offer.

"Okay, we'll talk in the morning but could I cuddle with you tonight?" I pulled back the covers and motioned her into the bed.

The next morning Julie was watching me when I woke up about 10. "I'm not drunk now Jason," she said. Then she proceeded to convince me that she was serious about us getting back to being us. Hell of a way to wake up I thought a little later. It was noon before we made an appearance downstairs.

As we walked into the kitchen Millie looked up at us. Ralph was reading the Sunday paper and didn't even look at us.

"When's the wedding?" He asked.

"Why don't you have it here on the ranch," Millie suggested. She walked over and hugged both of us. "It's about time you two got back together."

Both Julie and I tried to explain that we were just beginning a new relationship. "It's too early to be talking about marriage or anything," I told them. "We're going to take it slow and easy for a while."

Millie started to say something but Ralph beat her to the punch. Ralph was never one to talk too much; he usually let Millie do most of the talking. "You two have done nothing but moon over each other since you met back up." Turning to me he added, "And all you've talked about since you brought Julie out here the first time is how much you want her back."

Ralph turned back to Julie, "Yesterday, out on the porch, you told me that you were happy that you two were getting closer. I think last night you guys got about as close as you can get."

"Behave yourself," Millie scolded Ralph. He just shook his head, laughed, and continued.

"When you were married, Julie you let your pride take over because Jason was spending too much time on business."

"But........." Julie began. Ralph interrupted her.

He turned back to me, "And you, you horse's butt, you let something get between you and the most important thing in your life. And now that y'all have found each other you want to take it slow and easy? Neither one of you got the sense God gave a goose."

Julie and I and I think Millie too were really surprised at Ralph's tirade. "Now I'm done. That's more talking than I've done at one time in the last year." He looked at both of us and walked out onto the porch leaving us staring at each other.

Millie was chuckling and said, "He don't talk much but when he does he makes good sense. You kids ought to think about what he said. I'll see you later; I'm going out to spend some time with my speech maker."

*****************

Sometimes you just have to listen to some one older with more experience; that's what Julie and I did. Ralph's come to Jesus talk was three months ago; we decided he was right. We put the plan for slow and easy aside and now we're getting married. Following Millie's suggestion we're having the ceremony at the ranch.

I had the barn cleaned from top to bottom and the wedding is being held there. As I stand waiting for my bride to join me I notice that the two fillies, Gilly and Duchess, have their heads hanging over the doors to their stalls. They're very interested in what's going on and seem to like having all the people around. Buck on the other hand seems to care less. He's just leaning against the side of his stall not paying any attention to the party; the only time he perks up is when someone gives him an apple or a carrot.

Ralph, George, and I placed a few chairs in the large area between the two rows of horse stalls, leaving an aisle between them. We didn't need too many as there was only a few guests. George is my best man, Millie is Julie's matron of honor and Kathleen acted as both our flower girl and ring bearer. Ralph wasn't left out; he walked Julie down the aisle.

Gillian didn't have to sit alone while George stood up for me; she sat with Kathleen's new beau, Barry Ryan. That boy better be good to her or I'll nail his hide to the barn door, I thought. In addition Ruby and her husband were there, as was Mrs. Johnson and her better half.

I watched Julie and Ralph coming down the short aisle toward me and silently said a prayer of thanks that this beautiful woman allowed me back into her life.

My bachelor party, actually more of a bachelor dinner, was held the two nights before the wedding. Ralph, George, Barry, and I had a private table at Ruby's; she kept the drinks and food coming. George and I tried to relive some of our party days back in the Army. We were a little the worse for wear, to tell the truth we were drunk as lords when we left Ruby's.

Ruby's usually closes at 10 PM but continued to take care of us until 1 AM when she kicked us out. "If I don't send y'all home now you won't be over your hangovers in time for the wedding," Ruby said laughing at us.

Even my old friend and mentor Ralph, was flying low to the ground. He said that he was gonna give Millie a seeing to when he got back to the ranch; by the way he fell asleep on the way home and Barry had to carry him into his house.

After taking one look at Ralph, Millie said to Barry, "Drop him on the couch; serves him right, the old fool." She laughed as she said it.

George and I completed the difficult task of getting to our own rooms, with Barry's assistance. He hadn't helped us in trying to drink all the bourbon in Ruby's so he was the only sober one among us. I realized the next day that Barry had a couple of beers with dinner and drank coke the rest of the evening. I teased him about being too good to drink with us.

"I was under strict orders from Kathleen and Gillian to stay sober and take care of you and George," he replied. "Kathleen warned me what would happen, or not happen, if I didn't follow orders," he said with an embarrassing look. Then in a soft voice he muttered, "She also offered a reward if I did a good job." He looked up and saw me staring at him and grinned.

By the afternoon of the wedding, the three soldiers had recovered nicely, thank you very much. The minister performing the ceremony was from the church in Black that Ralph and Millie attended. I didn't care much who did the job, I just wanted it done. I keep motioning him to hurry along while Julie giggled at my impatience.

After the wedding and a very spirited reception, catered by Ruby, Julie and I took the ranch pickup and drove to the line shack for a two day honeymoon.

***************

We've been married, again, for a year now. I suggested that I turn everything over to Kathleen and we could travel but Julie knew it'd bother me not to be involved in PSI at all. Julie said she wasn't ready to retire anyway and is still working at Doan as the HR director; Mrs. Johnson retired and recommended Julie as her successor. I still go into work 4 days a week but I have a steady lunch companion now. Julie and I live at my apartment during the week; on Fridays we head to the ranch.