Chapter 21
Ann put the last of their things in the BMW. They had spent the last four days doing all of their Christmas shopping before they started for the farm. Brenda was excited to see the horses. She had never been on a Tennessee Walker but she was anxious to try it.
After they were underway, Brenda asked her mother, "Anything going on between you and Bob Long that I ought to know about?"
"No Brenda. Bob Long has always been very professional around me."
"I don't know, Mom. This trip to Paris puzzles me. Why didn't he just stick some cash in an envelope? It sounds to me like he was hoping that something would develop out of that trip."
"Brenda, don't go reading anything into this that isn't there."
"Come on Mom. Two days in Paris and he doesn't even try to kiss you?"
Ann didn't answer. After a minute Brenda looked at her mother. Suddenly Brenda started to smile and poked her mother in the arm.
"So, there was a little more to Paris than you told me. Come on; tell me what happened."
"Nothing happened, Brenda. We went out to a nightclub and danced a few dances. After the dance we went back to our rooms and he kissed me goodnight. That's all... nothing to it. He apologized for kissing me the next day."
"Gosh Mom, are you getting senile? He's your employer. He was probably afraid that you were going to file a sexual harassment suit against him. He showed you that he's interested. Mom, think... please... you have to give him some kind of signal that it's Ok to make a pass at you. This is the twenty-first century Mom."
"Ok Brenda, let's drop it. Nothing happened in Paris."
Brenda moved over and hugged her mother while she was driving, "I have to watch out for you Mom. I don't want you to be alone anymore. One of these days I'll want to have a husband and children and I want to know that you're going to be Ok."
Ann was quiet the rest of the trip. Brenda followed the map that Bob had sent to her. They pulled into the driveway of Bob Long's farm at two in the afternoon.
Bob walked out on the porch as the car came to a stop, "Just leave your bags in the car. I'll have Hans take them up to your rooms. I want to show you around the farm."
Ann and Brenda got out of the car and stretched. Bob walked over to them and hugged Ann and then hugged Brenda.
"Let's go to the stable. I know that Brenda wants to see the horses."
Bob led the way to the stable. As with all of the buildings that she could see, the stable was well-built and new. The roads in front of all of the buildings were made of gravel.
Bob opened the door to the stable and held the door until Ann and Brenda were inside. He waited until they saw the horses and then walked beside them.
"I thought that you only had two horses," Brenda said.
"I do only have two horses," Bob smiled, "The mare is yours."
Brenda looked at him as if he had two heads, "I don't understand."
"Merry Christmas, Brenda. I know that it's not Christmas yet but I thought that maybe you'd get more time to ride it if I gave it to you now."
Brenda had tears in her eyes, "I don't... where can I keep her?"
"What's wrong with keeping her here? Hans can look after her while he looks after mine. You can ride her whenever you get some time off of school. I'll make sure that she's exercised and taken care off. She's a Tennessee Walker and she has a natural running walk gait just like mine. I think that you'll enjoy her. I didn't know if you prefer a western saddle or and English saddle so I thought that I'd let you pick your own out. We can go to the tack shop tomorrow."
Ann finally got her voice back, "Bob, we can't accept that horse. God only knows how much it cost you."
Bob pulled some papers out of his pocket, "It's a little too late to take it back. I have the papers here and Brenda is listed as the owner."
Brenda still seemed to be in a daze, "Does she have a name?"
"Well, the people that I bought her from called her Miss Betty. I guess that you could call her whatever you want."
Brenda shook her head, "Miss Betty is just fine."
Bob took Ann's hand and led her out of the stable, "Are you out of your mind Bob? Why did you spend so much on that horse?"
"What else do I have to spend my money on? After the money that you made us this month I had to do something. If I gave you an additional bonus I'd make everyone else mad. We have our bonus system in place but no one has ever made us millions on just one piece of a contract. I had to find some other way to compensate you for what you did for the company. This is something that I wanted to do. Let her have the horse. I can see from the way she's acting that the horse will be in good hands."
Brenda caught up with them as they walked away from the barn, "She's beautiful. Is she really mine?"
Bob laughed, "Look at the receipt. Whose name is on it?"
Brenda let out a loud scream, "Yes!"
Bob took Ann and Brenda on a short tour of the farm. He pointed out the garage but didn't open the door. The garage would hold five cars. The building that housed the helicopter was farther way from the house. He took them into the building to see the helicopter and Brenda walked around it and touching everything on the craft.
"Wow, Mr. Long, you certainly have all of the toys."
"My name is Bob. Drop the Mr. Long."
"Yes, sir," she said as she gave him a mock salute.
They headed for the house and Bob took them into the pool house that was attached to the back of the main house. The pool house had laminated arches the span the pool and the pool was heated by natural gas. Brenda dipped her hand in the water and looked up at her mother and grinned. At one end of the pool was a large free standing hot tub that had cover on it.
"Now this is living," Brenda smiled.
Bob went to a switch on the wall and pushed a button. Large panels came out of the wall at each end of the pool and closed in the pool.
"I close the pool at night so that I conserve the heat that builds up during the day."
"It's great for skinny dipping too," Brenda quipped.
"Brenda!" Ann yelped.
"I hope you two remembered to bring your bathing suits."
Brenda nodded, "I made Mom buy a suit that is more suitable for the twenty-first century. The old suit she had was like those ones you see in those old pictures. At least I got her to wear a two piece suit; it was a struggle but I finally convinced her."
A man about sixty years old came into the pool house and started talking to Bob in German. Bob introduced Hans to Ann and Brenda. Brenda started talking to Hans in German and his face lit up and he and Brenda talked for about five minutes before he excused himself.
Brenda looked at her mother, "Hans said that he put our bags in our room."
"I think that you just made a life-long friend. You won't have to worry about how he treats your horse," Bob smiled.
Bob took them into the house and showed them around. Ann made several comments about how much she loved the house.
"I've always been a big fan of Frank Lloyd Wright so I had the house modeled after his Prairie period."
After he showed them their bedrooms he told them to relax for a while and to get ready to go out and eat. He told them that he had made reservations for seven o'clock at an excellent restaurant that was about five miles from the house.
Ann and Brenda went to their rooms. The rooms were adjacent to each other. Ann held up the bathing suit that Brenda had insisted that she buy. It was skimpier than any bathing suit she had ever bought for herself.
Brenda walked into her mother's room, "Can you believe this place Mom? If you don't give this hunk a signal that you're available I'm going to divorce you as a Mom."
Ann shooed her daughter out of the room.
Ann heard a knock on the door a few minutes later. When she opened the door an older woman was standing at the door with a plate of cookies in her hand.
"I made these cookies this morning. I thought that a couple of cookies would help you to wait for the dinner tonight," the woman spoke in accented English.
Ann took the dish from the woman, "Thank you. My name is Ann. What's yours?"
The woman beamed, "My name is Kate, short for Katherine."
Ann and Kate talked for several minutes and the woman excused herself and went back downstairs. Ann took the plate of cookies to Brenda.
By six o'clock both women were ready and they walked downstairs. Brenda had fussed over Ann's makeup and hair for over an hour. She had insisted that Ann were high heels because "men like them." Brenda had make comments about the dress that she had bought in Paris and Brenda had squealed when Ann told her how much it cost. Brenda told Ann that she had to let her wear it some day. Ann knew that it would fit Brenda. They had worn the same size clothes for years. Ann was one of those women that kept the same figure that they had in college.
As they past the kitchen Kate motioned to the room where Bob was. Ann and Brenda stood in the doorway while he talked on the phone in some language that she didn't understand and couldn't place. He saw them standing at the door and he said something to the person on the phone and hung up.
"My word. You two are beautiful. It must be against the law for women to be that beautiful."
They both thanked him while blushing a very deep shade of red. Brenda pushed her mother into the room and Ann shot her a glance; telling her to stop it.
"How many languages can you speak?" Ann asked.
"I can speak six languages fluently, I can make myself understood in a couple of more and I can understand what someone is trying to tell me in a couple of more. Well, let's go. I think that you are going to like this restaurant we just opened it."
"We?" Ann and Brenda asked at the same time.
"A couple of friends of mine and I just opened a golf course and a restaurant a few months ago. I haven't had a chance to try out the restaurant yet."
Brenda shook her head in awe. What wasn't this man into?