Rocket Girl Ch. 05

He smelled coffee, and found the pot with two tin cups, one of them still with some drops in it. The coffee tasted thin to him, no doubt because she was using it sparingly to make what little she had last. He looked out toward the stream, and saw Lola doing something there, but he couldn't see what it was for the vegetation. He looked again at the coffee in his cup. He decided something, or rather, he finished deciding something then.

This was no way to drink coffee, and he'd fix that.

He looked for his clothes, but didn't see them. That was when he knew that Lola was doing the washing at the stream. He shrugged and walked out into the late morning sunshine wearing what he'd been born in.

He parted the tall grasses which grew at the edge of the stream, and watched Lola for a time. She wore only a long flowing skirt, hitched up to her knees as she stood in the stream washing their clothes. She wore nothing from the waist up. He thought about her and what she had done for him. Then he thought about what she'd told him - that he was the one for her.

He had no doubt of it now.

She felt his gaze on her and stopped, turning to him with the soft angel's smile that had played such a part in bringing him back twice now. He smiled back at her. He was surprised that he could, and realized that he was totally smitten. Whatever the ways of her people were that stood them apart from his in the beginning, they had enabled her to know him before he'd come, and commit to him totally before he'd even opened his eyes or decided anything for himself.

"Are you still my angel this morning, Lola? Do you try to tempt me now?"

She laughed at him, "I am still your angel, Ramon, as much as I can be for you. And I am dressed now as I usually am to do the washing on a hot morning such as this. If it tempts you to want to help with the work, then it must be working well for me. When this is finished, we can play if you would like, I will not refuse you. You are for me, as I said, but also I am for you. Come on then and help me finish this chore."

They buried most of his money under a corner of the house later. With what was left, Ramon took Lola for her first of countless rides on his motorcycle into the little town. He took her to a small diner, and watched in delight as she ate as much as she wanted, since she'd told him that she couldn't remember when she'd last had the option. They walked hand in hand around the little farmer's market in the square, and they bought food and a new blouse for Lola.

Most important for Ramon, they bought coffee.

They were in the dappled shade of a tree in the afternoon two days later. Ramon ran his fingers down her back to watch her shiver and sigh, "What is it that you would want, Lola, for your life's wish?"

She kissed his throat before taking some of the flesh of his pectoral muscle in her teeth to nip him gently. She sighed, "For my life, Ramon, I think I already have what I would ever want if I never lose you."

He chuckled, "I wonder now which one you are, an angel or a witch, for I feel myself bewitched by you, and I am thankful for that - and you should not fear, you will never lose me."

Lola laughed, softly, "Bewitched?"

She raised her head to look at him, "I bewitched you, Ramon? I must tell you that you have your enchantment on me as well. I am now only content if you are touching me. The spell may last if you are not, but still I feel the little ache if I cannot feel you against me."

She smiled warmly, "But the sun shines for me if you are close enough to reach out and only touch me and even better still if I have you in my arms and inside of me as soon as possible after that, my love."

"I think that I am the one who is bewitched, and you know that it is said that if you make a change by sending out your desire for something to happen for good or bad, then that is what comes back to you, but grown by a measure of three. To bewitch someone's heart is a serious thing, Ramon, for it creates a need to feel complete."

She smiled as she laid her head down and licked his nipple softly for a moment, "I am only complete when your arms are around me."

He touched her long dark hair and decided that his angel Lola was surely the most beautiful woman on the whole of the earth and while he wasn't absolutely certain, he was certain enough to know that if he felt any more for her, that his poor heart would surely burst."You did not answer me, Lola. What would you want?"

"Nothing more than what we have, Ramon," she kissed him, "but if you must know the dream of the girl that I was, I would tell you that I had a small horse before we left Spain, and I loved him so. My father sold everything we had to come here. I still miss riding, but I can ride with you on your motorcycle."

It made her chuckle to feel him stir beneath her again. Lola brought her knees forward and raised herself, guiding his hardness into her as Ramon groaned. "I love this riding now, Ramon, the best of all. We never go anywhere, but I like the saddle very much."

Ramon left for his job early in the evening on the Sunday. He worked all week, and brought his pay home to Lola every Friday evening. She would fuss all day to make him a king's dinner for when he came home, and he would refuse to touch a bite unless she ate it with him from the same plate in the same spot on her floor, in the same nest of blankets and naked together as they'd been then. The rest of the time, they joked that they were more civilized, but for the first night, they always enjoyed this and each one would tell the other of how the week had gone and how they'd missed this between them.

When the snow began to fly, he bought a used pickup truck, and they continued their life and love together. After another year of it, Ramon quit his job and became a farmer as he had once been, one of the few in the area who always seemed to know what crop and how much to plant every year. As soon as they could manage it, Lola had a horse again.

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"Sometime in the sixth year, my mother was born," Leona said, "the third daughter. And when she'd met and married my father, they took over the farm, where they still live with my grandparents. Paco and I always think of their love whenever things are hard for us, and it always makes everything all right then."

She leaned over to Will and Aurora and softly kissed each face, "You want to know how I knew you were for each other? Women either choose or settle for their men. But it is not too unusual for women of our background to actively decide the men for ourselves. Aurora just knew it somehow, right?"

Aurora nodded, smiling, "When I met you, we were chasing each other down a road, but I'd already been hunting for you - I just didn't know it, trying to learn from you, I thought. I didn't even know what you looked like under your helmet. When we had lunch, I already felt it in my new friend. But really, you're right Leona. I just knew. What I didn't know was what to do about it, and I was engaged with a wedding over the hill and coming to me quickly. I tried and tried to ignore the obvious just as you did."

She looked at Will and kissed him, "I was going to yell and scream at Cesar once again for being an idiot as always. But I heard what you said that while the ring was there ..."

"I didn't even think about it, I think the ring came off by itself," she laughed, "then I just hoped that you would hear my heart. I hoped that you might see me as more than a friend. I didn't even really know how you felt about me because you're hard to read sometimes. But I knew that you'd help me if you could with my problems, if nothing else. "

"I knew I had to change my life right away, and I knew you had to be the one - if you had the same kind of feelings for me. I think it all came to me at once, really. Leona and I spoke of it in roundabout terms, but I already knew that I'd fallen for you. I just ached that you'd come to me last night, because I knew that if you did, then anything was possible for us. I'm very happy now and I know that you are too, so I think that we ought to never forget how it was before this. I don't ever want to go back to that place again. I like the sunny side of the street right here."

"As for me," Leona laughed, "I am the third daughter of a third daughter. For me, it was as sure for you both as the sun coming up. I glared at him over this table after Paco came to tell us that the call had ended. If Will hadn't gotten the message in about another minute, Aurora, I would have walked him down the stairs and into the bedroom by the ear and presented him to you."

"Wow," Will chuckled, "you were that sure?"

They laughed together, but Leona was loudest. She was so happy for them, "Call it what you want, but for you two? I knew I wasn't wrong."

She smiled, "Lola taught me well."

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The End