Tommy navigated between the whoopee-doop rows of speakers until he found the section of the drive-in Regina recommended to him. The spot was on the row left of the concession stand and projection room, and right up against the high wood fence. A huge live oak next to the fence dappled the ground with dark shadows. Underneath the tree, Tommy's dark blue truck was almost invisible. The spot was out of the way and private, yet it was less than a hundred feet from the concession stand, and had a clear view of the screen.
A big part of Betty Lou was still in shock that she was parked at a drive-in movie with a handsome man. Another part of her was shocked that she was only surprised and not upset at his presumptuousness. As she thought about it, she realized that Tommy had not brought her here as part of some nefarious scheme to take advantage of her. His only purpose had been to find the movie she wanted to see. What puzzled her was Regina's involvement in the process. Regina certainly knew about the reputations of drive-ins, even if Tommy hadn't a clue.
The speaker was on Betty Lou's side of the truck, so they hung it on her window. Trailers for coming attractions and advertisements were playing, so Tommy helped Betty Lou out of his door. Hand in hand, they walked to the concession stand, as dancing hot dogs cavorted on the fifty foot screen. They were back snug in the truck ten minutes later, their hands full of Dr. Pepper and sublimely sinful buttered popcorn. Tommy's movie plan had a couple of holes in it, one of which was the weather. As the evening progressed, it kept getting chillier. Betty Lou didn't mind the temperature a bit, however, as she ended up snuggled up to Tommy under a blanket he pulled from behind his seat.
The movie was excellent and Betty Lou had to admit that watching it tucked up underneath Tommy's arm made the experience much better. As the evening moved forward, Betty Lou started to wonder why Tommy wasn't at least kissing her once in a while.
Tommy had not tried to kiss her, even though he was dying to, because of a miscommunication between him and Rita Fricke. Since this was Tommy's first movie date, he went to Mama Rita for advice on how to comport himself. Because Tommy did not specify the movie was a drive-in, Rita gave him advice applicable to an indoor cinema.
"Be on your best behavior, Honey, and don't embarrass her," Rita told him. "It's okay to put your arm around her if she doesn't object, but don't try to kiss her or get too familiar. You know how shy Betty Lou is."
It was the usual excellent direction he expected from Rita; unfortunately, it didn't apply under the current circumstances. Yes, Betty Lou appreciated that he wasn't all over her, but even her strict moral code didn't rule out a kiss every once in a while. Away from anyone seeing her, she felt daring and adventurous. About half way through the movie, she decided, for the first time in her life, she would make out with a man in a car at a drive-in movie. She turned her head and pressed her lips to his ear.
"This part is boring, Tommy, so why don't you kiss me?" she whispered.
Tommy gave her a big smile and did just that very thing. Betty Lou kissed him right back without the slightest bit of hesitation. As the kiss progressed, Betty Lou moaned deep in her chest as a bolt of pure sexual excitement shot through her. Betty Lou had kissed a few boys in high school, and during her nine year marriage, she shared many kisses with her husband. Yet none of those that went before could hold a candle to the kiss she was sharing with Tommy.
That Betty Lou was so unfamiliar with passion was not that usual for a small town Texas girl raised in the nineteen fifties. She had been a good girl all through high school; pretty and popular though she was, she still graduated a virgin. She met and fell in love with Richard (Rick) Grimes the summer after graduation. She was a trainee teller at the savings and loan; Rick was a divorced deputy sheriff, five years older than her. Rick was a serious young man, devoutly Baptist, with traditional conservative values. They married a year later, four months before Betty Lou's twentieth birthday. Betty Lou was as unsullied as her snow white dress when she walked down the aisle.
Betty Lou and Rick had what she assumed was a normal sex life. Both she and Rick saw intercourse as an act of love between husband and wife that transcended the rutting passion of wild animals. She and Rick shared that love once a week in a dark bedroom in the missionary position, her in a nightgown, him in pajamas. That Bucky was conceived so quickly after they married was all the evidence she needed of the goodness of their love life.
Betty did not accept a date until two years after Rick's death. Unfortunately, both offers she accepted were from men looking to score with an attractive and lonely widow woman. The two cads were enough to convince Betty Lou that she was better off staying at home. After all, she had her children, her job and her church, what else did she really need?
Betty Lou began to have an inkling of what else she might need there in the front seat of Tommy's pickup truck. The inkling grew stronger as she wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her body tighter against him. Tommy leaned back until he was semi-reclined against the door. He pulled her with him until she was on top of him as their lips and tongues continued to duel. Betty Lou was disappointed when Tommy gently broke the kiss. She raised her head and looked at him questioningly.
"I want to touch you," Tommy said, as he gazed into her eyes.
Betty Lou saw nothing but love in his look and he was so sweet asking instead of just groping her. She gave him a little nod and lifted herself slightly off him.
Betty Lou gasped when Tommy insinuated a hand between their torsos and gently squeezed her breast. Far from being offended, Betty Lou gave a hum of encouragement and reattached her lips to his. His hands on her felt every bit as good as his lips.
Betty Lou had firm, medium sized, half-grapefruit shaped breasts, wide spaced on her chest. They would never be competition for Margie Wilcox or Conchita Delgado. What set her apart was a set of overly large nipples that were a constant embarrassment to her. When they were erect, they were the size of a sewing thimble. Only her heavily stitched Maidenform Sweet Dreams bra kept everyone in the world from knowing that. She shuddered when Tommy unerringly zeroed in on her left nipple, because they were as sensitive as they were large. Betty Lou's breath caught in her throat when he gently but firmly rolled her fat nipple between his thumb and index finger.
Tommy was the one to call things to a halt fifteen intense minutes later. Tommy stopping had nothing to do with Betty Lou protesting or him lacking the ardor. Instead, the mechanics of doing more in the cramped cab of the truck made stopping necessary. There was just no way to find a comfortable position, what with the gear shift lever and steering wheel constantly in the way. By the time they halted, Betty Lou's Maidenform was under her chin and her skirt was around her waist. She'd soared through two teeth clenching climaxes already from Tommy rubbing her mound through her pantyhose. Betty Lou had been as aroused as she'd ever been in her life. The erotic aroma of her ardor hung thick and heady in the confines of the truck cab.
Betty Lou pulled her bra back down and straightened her skirt as Tommy situated himself behind the wheel. She rolled down her window, hung the speaker back on the pole, and slid over next to him as he fired up the engine. He rolled down his window and they sat there quietly as the defroster labored to clear the windshield. Tommy was quiet because he was afraid he'd gone too far and made Betty Lou mad at him. It was worry enough to make him lose the aching hard-on filling his jeans. She was quiet because she was still processing the new sexual feelings Tommy brought out in her. Tommy finally broke the ice.
"I'm sorry if I made you mad, but you are so beautiful and sexy that I couldn't stop once I started," he moaned mournfully.
Betty Lou jerked her head off his shoulder and looked at him in surprise. Of all the things she was feeling, mad wasn't one of them. She gave him a smile and patted his knee.
"I'm not mad at you, Tommy, because you did not do anything I didn't want you to do. But we have more to consider than just what makes me feel good. I mean, look at us, Tommy, we live in the same house and my son is your best friend. What will Bucky think about you and me having that kind of relationship? Then there is Regina. What kind of example will I be setting for her?"
Tommy nodded morosely as she ticked off her points. He had not considered any of that. All he had thought about was how much he cared for her and how much he wanted to share his love with her. What Betty Lou was pointing out was way above his ability to sort out. He'd talk to Mama Rita about it tomorrow and see what she thought. Until then, he was going to be on his best behavior.
Tommy had some help staying on his best behavior around Betty Lou that weekend, because Margie Wilcox kept him occupied on Saturday night, and Ruth Silverman invited him to dinner Sunday after church. It helped that Betty Lou wasn't making a big deal out of staying away from him. She treated him just as she always had.
Monday evening Tommy spent at the library, huddled up with Becky Dierdorf. Tommy and his tutor were researching farm equipment stores in trade magazines geared toward farmers and ranchers. The American Cattleman magazine had some especially nice two page color ads for some of the bigger stores that catered to ranchers. Tommy was particularly impressed with the looks of the Tractor Supply Company, a chain of ranch and farm supply stores based out of Minot, North Dakota. Tractor Supply had a presence in Texas, but it was mostly up in the panhandle, there wasn't one within a hundred miles of Brantley.
Becky Dierdorf smiled as Tommy excitedly told her of Harold Fricke's plans to expand the feed and seed into something similar to the store in the magazine. She smiled often when Tommy, or the thought of him, was involved. Becky was crazy about Tommy, but went to great pains to avoid showing it. After all, what would a handsome man like him want with someone like her?
Yet Tommy wasn't like other boys or men she'd met. He didn't tease her about her frizzy mop of carrot red hair, her billion freckles, or the thick glasses that made her appear owlish. He'd never said a word about her big bottom or her tiny fried egg breasts. Instead, he treated her almost reverently, because he thought she was so smart. Other men had treated her nicely, but only as a ruse to get into her pants, a ploy she'd fallen for all too often. By contrast, Tommy treated her with respect and admiration, without any hidden agenda. Because of the way Tommy treated her since she became his cicerone, Becky had stopped putting out for any man who paid her the slightest attention.
It only took half an hour to find everything Tommy needed to know about farm supply stores. He was more convinced than ever that Harold's idea for expanding his business was a great plan. Tommy carried the magazines they'd been perusing back to the periodical rack and plopped down next to Becky at the research room table. He was more than a little sad that tonight was Becky's last night as his tutor. She was leaving in a couple of days to start her registered nurse training at a big Dallas teaching hospital. Suddenly, an idea popped into his brain. He jumped to his feet and grabbed a startled Becky's hand.
"Come on Becky, lets go celebrate you starting school," he said.
Becky blinked a couple of times and her heart did a few flip-flops as he pulled her to her feet. Before she could marshal a good argument against going out on a work night, they were in Tommy's truck, headed up Austin Street. All she could think about was how glad she was that she had worn her most flattering skirt and blouse when Tommy pulled into the parking lot of Dukes Place. She was blown away that Tommy was taking her out in public right here in Brantley where everyone could see them. Usually her dates either took her parking or to a room at the Cardinal Motor Court out on the south bypass.
Once inside the juke-joint, Tommy tugged her to the back of the room and sat her at a table. He threw a quarter on the pool table and challenged the two cowboys already there to a game of partners. Next, he flagged down the waitress and held up two fingers. Finally he plopped down in the chair next to her and put his arm around her slender shoulders.
"I'm really proud that a smart woman like you would go out with a dummy like me," he said.
Becky gave him an exasperated look. She had the temper that went with her flaming red hair.
"We've had this discussion before, Tommy. You can't equate intelligence with experience," she snipped.
"Why not?" he replied. "It all comes out the same. I don't know much, and everyone knows it."
Before Becky could reply, the waitress brought their beers. Becky's anger evaporated when Tommy stuck a long neck Lonestar in one of her hands and a pool cue in the other.
"Anyway, that doesn't matter tonight. Let's show these cowboys some geometry," Tommy said with a disarming grin.
Becky thought shooting pool with Tommy as her partner was about the most fun she'd ever had. But she was forced to relegate the experience to second place when Tommy dragged her out onto the dance floor in front of the jukebox. She didn't offer a peep of protest when he put both hands on her waist. Instead, she threw her arms around his neck and snuggled up against him. She did not feel the least bit awkward as he shuffled them around the dance floor. Half way through the dance, Tommy moved his head slightly and whispered in her ear.
"Do you have those freckles all over?" he asked.
She stiffened slightly, but nodded her head yes.
"That is so cool, I'll bet it's a lot of fun playing connect the dots with them."
Becky shivered and squeezed his neck.
"You can do that anytime you want, Tommy, all you have to do is ask."
Tommy smiled and spun her around. Then Tommy did something that forever cemented her feelings towards him. He pressed his lips to hers and kissed her, right there in front of God and everyone in the bar. For Becky, the girl that guys shunned in public, it was ultimate proof that Tommy wasn't ashamed to be seen with her, and that this evening wasn't some act of charity.
They danced and shot pool until nine-thirty, then Tommy drove her back to the library to pick up her car. He opened her car door and she slid onto the cold vinyl seat. Before he could close the door, she hopped back out and threw herself into his arms.
"I'll be back on the twentieth for the holidays, Tommy. Can we spend some time together then?" she asked shyly.
"Will you show me your freckles?" he asked teasingly.
Becky smiled and kissed him.
"Every single one of them," she promised.
Tommy laughed, then his expression turned serious.
"Yes, we can spend some time together when you come home. And you don't have to show me anything for that to happen. You are my friend, Becky, and I enjoy your company."
Conchita Delgado took Tommy to lunch at the Bluebonnet Tuesday, when she came into town to check her post office box. She was in a very good mood, because there were a couple of nice sized residual checks in her mail box. Beau's movies were under going a revival of sorts with the hippie crowd, and Conchita was reaping the benefits.
Making her mood even more ebullient, was a telephone call she'd received from her agent the preceding night. Her agent related to her an offer from Hammer Film Productions, a British film company known for their Hammer Horror line of movies. Hammer was about to begin production on yet another Dracula sequel (this one titled Taste the Blood of Dracula), and had offered her a substantial role in the film.
Conchita happily related the news about the film offer to Tommy as he munched on his country fried steak. Tommy cracked her up when he did a perfect Christopher Lee imitation. Tommy flapped his arms and in a crisp British accent, misquoted a line from the Hammer Horror 1958 version of Dracula.
"I've got to go now, your blood is rushing to my head." He said sonorously.
After lunch, the two sat in Conchita's El Camino in front of the feed store and chatted for a few minutes. While they were sitting there, Tommy asked her for a date.
"Connie, will you go out with me Saturday night? We can go wherever you want."
Conchita leaned across the seat and kissed him firmly on the lips.
"I'd love to go out with you, Tommy. Can we go over to Brownwood instead of staying around here?"
Conchita asked Tommy that because she did not want to cause Tommy problems with his friends, or the congregation of the First Baptist Church of Brantley. It seemed as if everyone in the county looked after Tommy and might not be that happy with him keeping company with the county's most notorious scarlet woman.
Before Conchita went home, they made plans for another lunch date on Thursday, and Tommy told her what time he would pick her up Saturday night. Tommy had a plan for their date already, and luckily, it was to a place just north of Brownwood.
Tuesday afternoon, Tommy was in the back yard with Rex, teaching the mustard colored marvel a new trick, when Regina tracked him down. It was the first chance they'd had to speak in private since she returned from her grandparents' farm. Tommy saw her and smiled.
"Hey Reggie, watch this," he said.
Then Tommy pointed his finger at Rex and went 'BANG'. Reggie almost fell on her butt laughing when Rex yelped and collapsed onto his back with his feet sticking straight up in the air. Tommy called Rex out of his dying cockroach pose and patted his head. Regina gave Rex a scratch also, then told Tommy what was on her mind.
"What happened at the drive-in the other night? I know something must have, because Betty Lou asked Bucky and me what we thought about her dating you. She was all worried that we would hate you both if you went out together."
Tommy avoided the question about the drive-in and focused in on the conversation with Betty Lou and her children.
"So what did you all tell her? You know neither of us is going to do anything that causes you or Bucky any hard feelings."
Regina smiled and stepped up closer to him.
"Bucky thinks it's a terrific idea. He told her you were the best person she could pick to date. I agreed with him. What I didn't tell her though, was that I'm fine with it as long as you don't forget about Mel and me."
Later that evening at about half past nine, Tommy was sitting on the sofa in the small sitting room area of his basement apartment. He heard the door at the head of the stairs open and the shushing noise of slippered feet on the stairs. He glanced up and smiled when he saw it was Betty Lou. She was wearing a pink full length fleece robe and fuzzy pink slippers. Her hair was still damp from the bathtub.
Tommy stood up when she reached the bottom landing and stayed standing until she was seated at the other end of the couch. Betty Lou did not appear to be nervous or agitated, but Tommy could clearly see that something was on her mind. He sat there quietly as she marshaled her thoughts. Finally, she turned towards him and gave him a tentative, Mona Lisa-like smile.
"If you still want me, take me to bed before I lose my nerve," she said softly.
Tommy returned her smile and gestured for her to move closer.
"Come here, Betty Lou, and kiss me, and we'll worry about bed later," he said.
Betty Lou staggered back up the stairs an hour and a half later on legs as wobbly as a newly-born foal. During those ninety minutes, she had climaxed about as many times as she had in the ten preceding years. Amazingly, they had never left the couch, so caught up were they in their passion. Until that night, Betty Lou had not even dreamed that love could be made in so many different ways with so many different organs. Betty Lou idly wonder how long the aftershock tingles that rippled through her body would last.
Leaving Tommy and returning to her own lonely bed was one of the hardest things she'd ever had to do. Thank goodness Tommy didn't put up an argument about it, or she'd still be snuggled next to him. Betty Lou knew she was going to have to strictly ration the nights she spent with him, because she could easily see herself becoming addicted to what they'd done.
Tommy lay on his back and stared at the ceiling when Betty Lou left. He was pleasantly drained and totally relaxed. Making love to Betty Lou had been even more fulfilling than he'd thought it would be. The love he had for her made him almost obsessive toward making the experience good for her. If her moans and cries were any indication, he had succeeded. Tommy still could not believe how nice Betty Lou's body was, or how responsive it was to his touch.
Wednesday and Thursday flew by for Tommy, as he was busy both days receiving two semi-trailer loads of product from the big Purina mill over in Lubbock. It was the first time that Harold had ever ordered two trailer loads in one week. The Purina folks were very happy with Harold and had discounted him another six percent on the second truck load. The product was flying out the door almost as fast as it was coming in. Harold's new policy of free delivery of orders over five hundred pounds had the phones in the office constantly ringing. If Juan Luna was out with the big truck when a rush order came in, Harold would use the store's pickup truck to personally make the delivery. Harold gave a four percent discount for folks who picked up their own product, so Tommy was staying busy too.
Mister Mills at the bank called the feed store for Tommy about eleven-thirty on Friday morning. Mills had received the interbank transfer of Tommy's money from Florida by Special Delivery Air Mail only a few minutes earlier. Tommy begged out of lunch with the Frickes, citing pressing business, and hustled across the street and down the block to the bank.
The check from Florida was for a little over one hundred and eleven thousand dollars. Tommy had Mills prepare him two cashier's checks, one for thirty thousand dollars and one for fifty thousand. The balance he put in his savings account. The fifty thousand dollar check was made out to Harold and Rita Fricke, but the payee was blank on the second check.
Tommy left the bank and drove over to Austin Street. He stopped in front of a building whose sign proclaimed it to be the home of Dixon's Insurance and Real Estate. Madeline Dixon greeted Tommy warmly and when Tommy stated his business, she called Leo, her husband and partner, out of his office.
"Tommy says the Frickes want to make an offer on the old lumber yard property next to the feed store," Maddie informed her husband.
Buying the three acre parcel that once housed Brantley Lumber was important for Harold's plans, because it would allow him to expand his store and still have a large area for parking and storage and future growth. From listening to Harold talk, the owner of the parcel would be happy to part with it for the check Tommy held in his hands. Tommy made the offer and Leo tentatively accepted for the out of town property owner. Maddie took the check from Tommy and gave him a receipt with Harold and Rita's name on it. The check would go into the Dixons' escrow account until the property closed.
Tommy made it back to the feed store before Harold and Rita returned from lunch. He left the envelope with the cashier's check and the receipt for the purchase of the lot on Harold's desk, then hustled back to the warehouse.