Paul put the phone down and continued panting to catch his breath. He had been working out when Mike had called at ten to six and had not stopped until the fourth ring. Wiping his face on a towel, Paul went to Lynnell's room and knocked on the door. "Come in" came the muffled reply from inside. Paul opened the door and sticking his head in, told Lynnell that it was time to get up; it was almost time for her to talk to her mother. Lynnell stretched and said that she would be up in a minute. Paul closed the door and walked to his room for a quick shower before the call. He was drying off when Lynnell opened his door and walked in without knocking. Paul dropped the towel to cover his loins and chewed her out for not knocking. "I'm sorry Paul, I wasn't thinking," she replied and backed out of the room closing the door. There was an immediate knock on the door which then opened. Lynnell stuck her head in and asked, "is that better?" Paul laughed and said that she should at least wait until he asked her to come in. Lynnell looked at the clock beside the bed and said,, "No time for that, It's three minutes until I'm supposed to call my mother." Paul let out a yelp and turning his back to the door, dropped the towel and reaching into his closet, grabbed his robe and put it on. When he had tied the belt, he turned around and headed for the living room and the cell phone. Paul picked up the phone and looking at the clock, dialed Mike's cell phone number. He handed the phone to Lynnell, kissed her on the cheek and said "Good luck. I'll be on the porch when you get done." Lynnell took the phone and putting her arm around Paul's neck, kissed him hard on the mouth and said "Don't worry, she'll sign the papers." Paul was shocked by the intensity of the kiss and it's effect on him. He turned from the living room and walked out the front door, the memory of the kiss burning brightly in his mind and on his lips. When Lynnell came out fifteen minutes later, she handed the phone to Paul, put her arm around his waist and said, "How does it feel to be my legal guardian?" she let out a whoop and screamed "She's signing the papers!" Paul smiled down at her and said. "That's great, but it means that there will have to be some behavioral changes on your part." Lynnell looked at Paul, and asked, "What do you mean?" Paul looked off into the distance and started talking to the trees; he couldn't face her with what he had to say. "For one thing young lady, there will be no more of your provocative actions like this morning. You will start being modest in your dress. You will never, and I mean never appear before me nude or even half nude. The closest that you will come to being nude in front of me is when you are wearing a bikini. Is that understood?" Lynnell's happy expression melted into sadness and hurt. Not understanding the problem, she had to ask, "Paul, what have I done? Why are you being so prudish? I thought you liked me." Paul took a deep breath and decided to tell her the truth. "Lynnell, just because I can't get an erection doesn't mean that I am not sexually stimulated by you actions. If the truth be known, you turn me on like no woman except my late wife. When you walk around nearly nude, I get so turned on I feel that any moment I'll start chewing on the walls. I just can't take the strain any more. The frustration I feel is so intense that it literally becomes painful to be near you. Do you understand?" Lynnell looked at the porch floor and said, "I've been doing what I promised Mr. James what I wouldn't do, haven't I?" Paul silently nodded his head, still unable to face her. "Paul, look at me please," she asked. When Paul had turned to face her she continued, "Paul you are the most exciting man I have ever met. You have saved my life twice, you have helped me get away from my mother, you even treat me as an equal in the ceramics shop. Answer me this if you can. How can I not fall in love with you? That's what's happening you know. It's why I've been doing those things. My heart is telling my to express my love in any way I can, at every opportunity that comes up." Paul didn't know what to say, he was both thrilled that she thought she loved him, and frightened that she might really be in love with him. All his upbringing told him that it was wrong both morally and legally, but his heart, his heart told him that it was the greatest thing in the world; nothing could beat the feeling of truly being loved by someone. In a hoarse whisper Paul could only manage to say, "It's got to stop." Lynnell was crushed and ran crying back inside the house and to her room. She left so fast she didn't see the tears gather in his eyes and slowly edge their way down his trembling cheeks. Paul didn't know what to do. If he went to the girl, she might mistake his concern for love. If he didn't go, she might mistake his absence as indifference to her. It was a tough situation and it called for a delicate touch, something that he had little experience with since the death of his family. Taking the cell phone into his office, Paul closed and locked the door. Going to his computer, he quickly accessed his personal phone directory and dialed the home number of one of the few men who's advice he respected and gave due consideration; the pastor of the church his wife and daughter had attended. Reverend Victor Norman. When Rev. Norman picked up the phone, Paul opened the conversation with small talk about the weather and baseball. Rev. Norman knew that something was on Paul's mind because it was always Paul's prelude to the real reason for calling. Vic Norman was very busy that morning and quickly brought Paul to the reason for the call. It took Paul more than fifteen minutes to explain the whole story to Rev. Norman and when he finished, the Reverend was silent. "What should I do?" Paul asked hoping for a quick and easy answer. Rev. Norman cleared his throat and asked one question, "Are you falling in love with this young lady, Paul?" Paul was rocked to the core by the question. He had never considered the possibility that he might fall in love with Lynnell. "I,I just don't know. I know that I care for her very much. She reminds me so much of my own daughter that I definitely feel something for her. I'm just not sure what I feel about her." The reverend was silent again for a moment then asked if he and Lynnell would like to come to Sunday service. Paul said that he was unsure of the girl's religious beliefs but would ask her if she would like to attend. "I think that both of you would find it beneficial. Paul, we have known each other for many years and this is only the second time that I have asked you to come to services. Please, come to church this Sunday, bring your young lady and see what happens." Paul agreed to ask Lynnell if she would join him and promised that even if she didn't come, he would be there. They exchanged good byes and both hung up. Paul gathered his courage and went to Lynnell's room and knocked on her door. "Go away." Paul knocked again, and called out to her, "Lynnell, come out here, please." once again the reply was "Go away." Paul had a short fuse for stubbornness and this time when he knocked he said, "Lynnell, I'm not asking you to come out as your guardian, I'm telling you to come out as your boss. Remember, you work for me and I have something for you to do." Lynnell's voice came through the door from much closer; Paul knew she was just on the other side of the door, "What do you want me to do?" Paul replied, "Come to the shop and find out." With that said, he walked away and headed for the shop hoping she would follow. Paul immediately started to roll out a slab of clay into a sheet about half and inch thick. Taking a wooden clay knife, he began to cut out small two inch high crosses. When he had cut as many as he could fit on the slab, he lifted the excess clay away from them like a baker lifting excess dough from cut out cookies. Rolling the clay back into a ball, he again made a slab and started to cut out more crosses. Lynnell slipped in the door before he had finished and watched he as he finished cutting out that group. "What do you want me to do?" she asked. Paul looked up and said, "Well, it's about time you showed up for work. Come here and I'll show you." When she was next to him, he began to work and talk at the same time. Taking a ten penny nail, he carefully pushed it through the upright of the first cross and then pulled it out. "The pastor of the church down the hill wants to give each member of his congregation a small cross. He has asked me to make them and bring them to church this Sunday. I have been so busy with you that it slipped my mind until he called. If we work fast, we can have them dried and in the kiln by Friday night, fired and cooled by early Sunday morning and strung on cords and delivered in time for Services. What I want you to do is put the holes in like this, trim the edges like so, and lay them out on this board. When we get all of them done, we'll take them outside into the sun to dry." Lynnell was soon busy with the crosses. Paul watched as she did the first two then left her to do it by herself. "I'll be back in a minute," he said as he left the shop. Once Paul was beyond hearing he broke into a run for the house. Dashing inside, he grabbed the phone and called the Rev. Norman again. When he answered, Paul quickly told him what he had done and asked the minister to play along with the story of the crosses when he and Lynnell delivered them on Sunday morning. The reverend was impressed by Paul's gesture of generosity and his quick thinking on how to get the girl to church. Thanking Paul profusely, he agreed to play along in hopes of influencing the artist into becoming a regular attendee at services. Paul hung up the phone and went to his office to search for a special glaze formula for the crosses. Digging through the stacks of magazines and articles, he vowed again to organize it into some semblance of order. it dawned on him that it would be a good task for Lynnell to keep her busy and give her less idle time to think about him. When he found the formula, Paul copied it and headed to the shop with it. When Paul approached the door to the shop, he heard the motor of the electric potter's wheel running. He rarely used the electric model and had never seen Lynnell use it, either. Quietly looking in, he saw that Lynnell had finished the crosses and was throwing a wide bowl on the wheel. As he watched, she brought the edge out to more than a eighteen inches. It was very impressive to watch knowing that she had little experience with working large pieces. When she was satisfied with the bowl, she turned off the wheel and taking a yard stick, measured the mouth of the bowl. Having nothing to write with or on, she dipped her finger into the gooey slip and noted the diameter of the bowl on the side of the wheel as if she were fingerpainting with the water/clay mixture. Removing the plaster batt containing the bowl from the wheel, she set it on the drying shelf in the back of the shop. When she turned around, Paul was standing inside the door. "That was a wonderful demonstration of your talent, may I ask what it's for?" asked Paul as he walked towards her. Lynnell being unsure of just what it would be used for said, "oh I don't know, a fruit bowl or something like that." She walked over to the crosses and began to line them up on a piece of plywood to be carried outside to dry. Paul walked over to her and put both hands on her shoulders and turned her around to face him. "Lynnell, you said earlier that you were falling in love with me, is that true?" Lynnell looked up at Paul and as tears began to well up turning her eyes shiny, whispered, "yes Paul, I really believe that I'm falling in love with you." She began trembling, fighting the urges to both cry and clutch him to her. As the tears finally won and started to slip from the corners of her eyes, Paul leaned down, gently kissed her and said, "It would be so easy to fall in love with you but I can't let myself. It would not be you I was falling in love with but the memories of my wife and daughter. You are so much like them that it is as if the two of them had been bonded into one person and made young. I see in you everything that I loved most in them." Lynnell could no longer hold herself back and threw her arms around Paul and hugged him as hard as she could. Paul groaned with mixed emotions as he savored the feel of her youthful body pressed against his. Finally, he gently pushed her back and said, "I know how you feel about me, and you know how I feel about you. The only things stopping us from becoming lovers are the laws of man and the morality of society. Lynnell, we have got to obey those laws and morals or we lose our place in the society of mankind and fall into the realm of animals who, having no knowledge of self, obey only the laws of nature, understand?" Lynnell wiped her eyes on Paul's shirt and looked up at him saying, "Paul, tell me that some day we will be lovers, please Paul, give me some hope. I couldn't stand being near you without knowing that some day you will love me like I love you." Paul, aching with emotion, said nothing but moving one hand from her shoulder, cupped her chin and leaned down and kissed her tenderly. As his emotions began to overcome his self control, he opened his mouth and slipped his tongue into hers. Tenderness quickly gave way to a flood of passion that carried them away from the world around them to a place inside themselves where only they existed for each other. Paul's lips slid from her mouth to her cheek and on to her ears and down her neck. His hands dropped to her buttocks and closed to knead her cheeks. Lynnell was quickly aroused and desperately wanted to arouse Paul. She dropped her hands to his buttocks and began to squeeze and knead them as Paul was hers. Thrusting her body against his, she moaned his name softly. Paul knew he was dangerously close to losing control of the situation but could not stop himself from lifting her up and when her breasts came even with his mouth, closing his lips on her right nipple through the thickness of her flannel shirt. Lynnell gasped with pleasure as her nipple hardened under the attention of Paul's lips and teeth. over and over she groaned and gasped as waves of pleasure flowed through her. Holding her up with one hand, Paul reached up and began to unbutton her shirt, freeing her breasts before his face. As he closed his lips on her other nipple, they were both startled to hear a horn blowing in the drive; neither of them had heard a car pull in. Paul, giving a silent thanks to God for intervening, lowered Lynnell to the floor and stepped away from her, gasping for air as he fought to bring himself under control. Lynnell quickly began buttoning her shirt but found it nearly impossible because she was shaking so hard. Paul reached down and buttoned it for her and looking deeply into her eyes whispered,, "Some day." then speaking in a more normal tone of voice said, "It would seem we have a visitor, shall we go see who it is?" and guided her towards the door. As Paul and Lynnell rounded the corner, they saw a forest ranger pick up truck in the drive. Ranger Doug Wilson was standing beside the door and was about to lean back inside to blow the horn again when he saw Paul and a young girl approach for the workshop he knew was in the rear of the bath house. "Hello Doug, what brings you up here?" Paul asked as they neared the truck. "Howdy Paul. We caught the cat and I thought you might like to take a look at him before we take him into the high country." Doug Wilson and Paul had been friends for many years going back to Paul's initial attempts to purchase the land where he now lived. Ranger Wilson led them to the back of the truck where a large box was tied in. When he opened the tailgate, they could see the cat through the barred lower portion of the end of the box. The cat appeared to be content to lie quietly and chew on an unidentifiable bone. The cat looked up at the people and seeing Lynnell, roared and leapt towards her, attempting to claw her with an outstretched paw between the bars. Lynnell screamed and jumped backwards away from the truck. Then screamed again as the cat made a second lunge for her. Ranger Wilson quickly closed the tailgate and turning towards Paul, but looking at Lynnell said, "Now isn't that the darndest thing you ever saw? Seems that there cat just doesn't like the young lady one bit. I wonder why?" and looked to Paul with one eyebrow raised in silent question. "Doug, let me introduce you to Lynnell Franklin, my ward and protogee. She will be living here with me and working in the shop until she finishes school. Lynnell, this is Ranger Douglas Wilson, he and I have been friends for many years." Lynnell put out her hand and said, "Pleased to meet you, Ranger Wilson." Paul continued after they had shook hands, "That cat has a good reason for not liking this young lady, Doug. It's probably the first time a missed meal looked at him a second time and lived." Seeing Doug's lack of understanding, told him about the incident at the pool then asked Lynnell to turn around. When she had complied, Paul gently raised the back of her flannel shirt to reveal the four parallel scratches that were mostly healed. Doug let out a low whistle and said, "You are one lucky young lady. I don't quite understand why the cat didn't hurt you worse, but thank God he didn't." Bending close to the girl's back he asked Paul, "Did you take her to a doctor?" Paul looked Doug in the eye and said, "No, the girl was a runaway at the time and I didn't want to take a chance on the police being called in on it. I only found out this morning that her mother has signed the papers granting me guardianship of her daughter; they still have to be signed by a judge and that should be happening this afternoon. I'm trusting you to keep this quiet until it becomes official and is registered in a Colorado court, Doug." Ranger Wilson nodded his head and said, "Paul, you know me, I won't say anything about it until you say I can." Paul smiled and said, "I knew I could count on you." They shook hands all around and as Ranger Wilson got into the truck and started the motor, Paul and Lynnell turned and headed back towards the shop. As they turned the corner out of view of the ranger, Lynnell put her arm around Paul's waist as they walked. Paul's arm dropped around her shoulder in a natural response to her show of affection. When the had returned to the shop, Paul stopped and taking his arm from Lynnell's shoulder, bent down and gently kissed the top of her head and said, "That's as far as we can go you know. I admit I enjoyed every second of it but, we cannot let it go any further. It may seem cruel, but it was the only way I could think of to show you how I felt. The restrictions of law and morality still must dictate our behavior. I just can't believe that I really feel like I do. We have only known each other several days and yet, I feel I've known you a lifetime. Honey, I'm so mixed up inside I don't know which way the sun rises. I do know that I cannot allow myself to touch you like that again; I wouldn't be able to stop. Heck, the only thing that stopped me this time was the ranger's arrival." Lynnell cocked her head and looking at Paul, sighed deeply and said, "I know Paul. But you did more than give me hope for the future for us, you gave me a memory to savor and enjoy until 'some day' comes. Just knowing how you feel about me is enough for now. I can wait for the future, my whole life is before me and you will be a large part of it. Paul, if I promise not to display my affection for you in public, will you promise to display your affection for me in private?" Paul looked at her thoughtfully for several seconds then said, "Affection yes, but passion, no. Like I said, I doubt that I would be able to stop if I let it happen again." Lynnell looked at Paul and said, "I want to see a doctor, Paul. A womans doctor. I want to start taking the pill, just in case we go farther than we just did." Paul looked down at her and felt conflicting emotions about her request. on one hand, it was a sensible precaution, but on the other hand, it also removed a psychological barrier that unconsciously helped to keep his passions in check. After several seconds of reflection, Paul finally spoke, "I think that's an idea that has merit, but I think we should go further than that and get you to a regular doctor too. It wouldn't hurt to get a complete physical, after all, didn't you say you weren't a virgin? Did you use a condom or did you have unprotected sex? You could be HIV positive and not know it." Lynnell agreed that the physical was a good idea and asked when she could get it done. "When it's official that I am your legal guardian, I can set up an appointment for you, okay?" Lynnell replied, "Yes Paul," and they went into the shop to continue working on the crosses.