Chapter 165

Sitting in Dinah's having dinner alone again, I watched the news on TV. From six to seven Dinah had the TV on, just for the news. Most of what they considered news I considered a waste of time and lip gloss, but the weather report interested me.

A big storm was headed our way and would leave about six inches of rain or snow. The man on TV said we could expect the storm to arrive in the mountains by about nine and last three days. Temps would get down into the thirties at night and maybe as high as forty during the day.

My cabin is half an hour out of town so I saw no reason to hurry. I had two hours or so before the storm. I decided to go to the market and get a few things to make waiting out the storm easier. A couple steaks, some fresh veggies, a six pack, and maybe even a DVD.

I paid Dinah for my dinner and she called me by the same nickname she'd called me for the last ten years, "Cowboy." My favorite clothes were jeans, Wrangler shirt and boots. She knew my name. She knew where I lived and had spent quite a few nights there over the last ten years. The first time she called me Cowboy I thought it was a slight. Within an hour she proved to me it wasn't. It was a term of endearment.

As I turned to leave the door opened and a young woman entered. She was tall, and in the heels she was wearing we were almost eye to eye. Dark auburn hair cut short and curly, in a very dark blue sheath dress that shimmered in the light, hose that looked like they might have glitter imbedded in them. A single diamond pendant necklace drew my eyes into the cleavage where the diamond rode.

I smiled and tipped my hat and she looked offended. I held the door while she passed. "Evening, Ma'am." I said.

She kept walking and did not respond. I walked out. Her car was parked outside. She wasn't from around our town. No one here owned a convertible. The top was down and the car looked new. Fancy wheels, leather seats and very shiny.

I wondered briefly how it would look after it was rained on. Inside the market I loaded up on storm supplies. Not the real emergency supplies, those were in my cabin all the time. As I got into my four-wheel drive truck I saw the sky was getting darker. The weather guy was pretty good this time.

It was eight when I got home and the rain was just starting to come down. I parked my truck with the front wheels up on a little rise in front of my cabin. I had built that little rise so rain would run out the back of the bed and not just sit there. I don't know how well it worked, it just made me feel better prepared.

By eight-thirty the rain had become hard and noisy. Thunder shook the cabin and lightning lit up the night sky fairly often. I went out on my front porch and sat in my rocking chair to watch the storm.

From the highway my cabin was half a mile. The first quarter mile was paved, the rest was gravel. There were two turns in the road. My cabin wasn't visible from the highway and the trees and scrub dampened the road noise enough that I never heard trucks or cars as they went by. In the storm there could have been a wreak and I wouldn't have heard a thing.

In a flash of lightning I saw three deer moving up slope. In the next flash they were gone. Thinking I would appreciate a fire in a little while I went inside and built one in my big metal wood stove. When I was sure it would keep burning I went back outside.

There is a porch light on my cabin. I've had in on a few times in ten years. The deer and raccoons don't need it or like it and I don't get many visitors so the bulb will probably last another ten years. I only turn lights on in the rooms where I am. So, since I was sitting out on the porch there were no lights on at all.

I saw the light from car headlights and wondered if Dinah had decided to come get a dose of Cowboy. I knew she loved the sound of rain on my metal roof while snuggled in my bed. The thought brought a smile.

The car turned towards the cabin and stopped. The intensity of the lights dimmed a little. The engine had died. I waited. The lights flickered a few times and the motor didn't start. My jacket, flashlight and umbrella were just inside the door so I got them and headed for Dinah. I kept the umbrella just for women visitors. No man I knew would carry one or use one.

When the lightning flashed I realized it wasn't Dinah. The car was the convertible from town. I lit the flashlight and tapped on her window. She looked up at me with a terrified face. She had been crying and I had surprised her.

"Want to get in out of the rain?" I asked, through the closed window and door.

"Yes!" She opened the door and got out. She was soaked before she got out. I realized that in the time it took her to get the top up she had gotten drenched. This lady was not having a good day. I held the umbrella over her as a gesture, not because it actually did any good.

We took three steps away from the car and lightning flashed. She screamed in fear and slipped. She fell on her ass in a puddle and I saw a wave of water flow up into her open skirt. Anything she had kept dry was now wet and muddy.

"Son of a bitch!" She said.

I stuck my hand down to her and lifted her back up. She didn't say thanks. She held on for the rest of the trip. On the porch she stopped and let go. I turned on the porch light and asked, "Would you like to come inside and get dry, Ma'am?"

"No! I'd like to stand here all night dripping wet, muddy and freezing my ass off."

"Suit yourself." I went to my chair and sat back down. Smart ass doesn't work well for me.

In about half a minute she changed her tone and speech. "I'm sorry if I sounded rude. It hasn't been my best day and now it's turning into a nightmare. I would like to go inside and get dry."

"Ok." I got up and opened the door. The lights came on and she stepped inside. She and I were dripping in the rug by the entry door. She started towards the fire and I stopped her.

"You'll drip mud all over a clean floor. Then we'll need to spend hours cleaning the floor. Stay on the rug." I pulled my boots off and my jacket. My shirt followed and then my jeans. She turned away so she wasn't watching. When I was down to dry I walked to the bathroom and got a big towel. I walked back to her and said, "Wrap yourself in this after you get out of your wet clothes. The bathroom is through there. Shower and get clean. I'll see to your clothes."

"You expect me to strip down right here?"

"That or stay wet, muddy and cold. Your choice."

I sat on the couch facing the fire. After a short pause I heard her moving and heard a zipper being pulled. A few more seconds and I heard her bare feet moving quickly to the bathroom. When the door closed I went to the small pile of clothes on the rug. The dress, thigh-high nylons and shoes were all she left. Either she hadn't been wearing panties and a bra or she still had them with her.

I dressed in jeans and t-shirt. I rinsed the dress in water to get the mud off and hung it on a hanger over the kitchen sink. It would dry there before morning. The nylons I hung on another hanger after I rinsed them.

She took a long shower. I needed to drain my radiator so I stepped out on the porch and did so. As I closed the door when I came back in, she came out of the bathroom. She was in my robe. It looked good on her.

"My name is Pete."