Stable Boy

"I have the most amazing news!" Parker gushed.

"What? Are you in love with me or something?" he teased.

"No...silly," she said squeezing his hand harder. She smiled, looked at him, then said, "Well...maybe. A little."

"Just a little?" he said pretending to be hurt.

"I just need...a little time," she said happily before explaining why she'd chosen that particular phrase.

"Parker, that'a incredible!" Austin told her. "I'm so happy for you."

"And it gets better. My handsome stable boy is here with me, too!"

"I'd prefer 'world-class poker star', but I may need...a little time...before anyone can say that truthfully."

They stopped at his carousel and waited.

"You are most definitely a world-class guy in my eyes," she told him as he turned to face her.

"At the risk of sounding melodramatic, I nearly died when you left town so unexpectedly, Parker."

The way he looked at her told her he meant every word and it touched her very soul.

"I'm so sorry, Austin. Things just got crazy, you know. I needed to get away and to be able to think. Can you forgive me?" she asked her voice filled with hope.

"If you'll promise to never leave me like that again, I think I can forgive you," he said quietly as he touched her cheek.

"I...I won't," she told him as he leaned down to kiss her again as they tuned out the rest of the world which no longer mattered to them.

"Wow..." Austin said this time.

"Wow yourself," she said back. "I don't know if I can trust myself with you."

He smiled, kissed her again, the said, "I'm counting on that."

Parker had told herself over and over that she would date a lot of different guys once she was divorced. She even seemed convinced she believed it. And yet that night after dinner she willingly and happily agreed to join Austin in his room 'for a drink.'

They'd talked non-stop since leaving the airport in a world-wind kind of tour of each other's lives. Parker felt like she was talking to someone who'd grown up with her and who liked virtually everything she liked. But what sealed the deal was when Austin got serious about one day having a family and raising children, and protecting them from the kinds of things they'd been exposed to as kids.

"I want my wife to be my best friend, you know," he told her during this discussion. "The first person I think of when I want to share something, good or bad. And I want her to know I'll be there for every single day. I'll be her best friend, too, and her number-one cheer leader for anything she wants to do. I'll support as best I can no matter what or..."

He was going on and so enthusiastically he initially missed the way her eyes got misty. As soon as he noticed it he stopped talking and reached for her hand.

"Hey. What's going on? Am I talking too fast or something?" he wondered.

Parker shook her head and also blinked several times.

"No. Nothing like that," she assured him.

"Then what it is it?" he asked tenderly. "If I've hurt you..."

"No. You haven't hurt me, Austin. You just said the things I've wanted to hear for as long as I can remember. You said exactly how I feel about marriage. That's all."

He slid closer and put his arm around her then said, "Did you never experience any of that with, you know...?"

She shook her head as she dried her eyes.

"No. With Kurt, it was all just so...fast and furious. Did we have fun together? Sure. The first couple of years were a lot of fun. But there was never...never any of...this. None of this kind of sharing and pouring our hearts out to one another."

She needed a moment then said, "And there was never any talk of children. Anytime I ever brought it up, he laughed it off and told me there was plenty of time for kids."

She turned to Austin the said, "I'll be 34 next month and I still don't have children. I'm not going to jump in bed with the first guy who comes along just to get pregnant, but really, really want children. Someday."

"So I should go away until you date someone else then?" he said trying to be funny, but Parker didn't understand. "Well, you said you wouldn't jump into bed with the first guy who came along, and I believe I'm the first guy who's come along so..."

The light came on and Parker smiled happily as she put her lips next to his ear as she ran her hand along the inside of his thigh and whispered, "There are exceptions to every rule, you know?"

"Oh. Oh! I see," he replied. "Are you saying I should ask for the check?"

"Fast learner. I like that," she said as she nibbled his ear just as she brushed up against something rather hard.

"Oh, my. What do we have here?" she said very quietly as she ran her hand slowly and softly up and down its considerable and increasing length.

"Proof of just how beautiful I think you are?" he suggested.

She tried wrapping her tiny hand around it then said very sweetly, "Hmmm. Someone must think I'm very beautiful then."

"He does," he told her with a smile. "He really does and he would love for you to join him for a drink in his room after dinner."

"A drink? Is that what they call it now?" she teased as she continued exploring his now very hard manhood.

"Not if they can't stand up and leave the restaurant," he said as he gently moved her hand away.

"Ahh! You're no fun!" she said.

"True, but I thought you wanted more than just fun?" he said in a way that wouldn't hurt her feelings.

"Oh. Ouch and touché," she told him. "Very nicely played...Stable Boy."

"You know I would never say or do anything to hurt you, right?"

"I do and you were right. I do want something more than fun."

Parker smiled wicked smile his way then said, "But that doesn't mean I'm opposed to having some fun, okay?"

"Come on, let's get out of here," he said just before kissing her again.

"Where you go I shall follow," she told him as she stared into his eyes.

Where he led her was back to a very upscale suite Austin had rented for the week in the nicest hotel in town.

"Wow. Very nice!" Parker said as she looked around. She ran her hand along the sheets and said, "Nice thread count, too."

"I'm not going to pretend I know what that means, but my sense it has something to do with quality," Austin said.

Parker walked over to him and put her hands on his broad shoulders and told him, "I'm not here with you because of what you know, Austin. I'm here with you because of who you are and I am very impressed with who you are..."

She tapped his chest over his heart then added, "In here."

"So not because I made the final table in my first poker tournament?" he said as he put his arms around his waist.

"While I am very proud of you for that, no, that's not why I'm here with you. In case you forgot I started falling for you when you didn't have two nickels to rub together."

"I have several I can rub together now," he told her with a smile.

"That's fine, but you have something else that's much more interesting to me that I'd love you to um...rub me with."

"Oh, really? Any place in particular that needs...rubbing?" he asked her seriously.

"As a matter of fact there is," she told him. "If you could just help me out of all these clothes I'd be happy to show it to you."

"I do believe in being helpful," he replied as he slowly unzipped her dress and let it fall to the floor.

"Thank you," she said. "Now it's my turn."

Moments later there was absolutely nothing between them but air.

"Do you want me to dim the lights?"

"Uh-uh," Parker told him. "I want to see every inch of your beautiful, hard body."

She reached for him and this time there were no pants to get in her way. He was nearly hard and deliciously thick and long.

"And I can't wait to watch you...rub me...with every inch of this gorgeous body part."

"At your service, malady," he told her as he leaned down and kissed her passionately before picking her up and laying on the bed. "High thread count, huh?" he teased.

She stroked his rock-hard cock and smiled. "Yes. Very. Now stop talking and...rub me!"

Parker had had sex many times before, but never like this. Austin was as patient and attentive as a lover as he was as a listener. Parker came the first time very quickly as her body and her mind were starved for love, attention, and intimacy. The fact that her lover was gorgeous enough to almost make her cum just looking at him was a wonderful added feature of their lovemaking.

But it was the way he talked to her and the way he made her feel that mattered most. Parker craved that even more than physical intimacy. She'd been living in an emotional desert for years and she soaked up every kind and loving thing Austin said.

By the time he came, she'd had two more orgasms, each as intense as the first as she let herself get lost in this new and unfamiliar world of receiving more love than she gave. She was very aware of the deficit, and that made her resolve to give back even stronger in the future.

As she lay there in his arms, she alternated between wanting to smile and cry tears of joy.

"Did everything in need of...rubbing...get adequately rubbed?" he teased as he held her.

"And then some," she purred. "I had no idea lovemaking could be like that," she told him almost wistfully.

"I take it that even when things were better they still weren't very good. Is that true?"

"Unfortunately, yes. I guess I thought they were great because I'd never experienced anything better."

She smiled, looked into his eyes, then said, "Until now."

"You were pretty amazing yourself," he told her truthfully.

"Thank you, but I feel like I was focused on my own needs this time. I promise not to be selfish like that again."

"Hey, you've been living with no affection for a very long time. If anyone has a right to get her needs met, it's you."

He smiled at her then said, "Besides, I really enjoy giving."

"Oh, you gave all right. I may be walking very gingerly tomorrow, but getting it was so worth it!" she informed him.

She gently stroked him and watched him come to life again.

"Does this mean you'd like to um...get it...again?" he said before kissing her.

"It does," she replied. "Oh, and feel free to um...give it to me until I say otherwise," she told him before biting his lip.

Austin's week-long stay turned into a month and would have been longer had he not had another tournament to play in. He finished a very respectable 15th and won a little over $30,000 before heading back to Florida.

Parker spent the days her lover was gone back home with her mother and went with her to visit her father for the first time who was now well over half way through rehab. The difference was night and day. He hadn't had a drink since checking in and after a very difficult first week had been eating well and he looked like a new man. Yes, the years of wear and tear on his body showed, but he no no longer looked haggard and on the verge of dying. There was color in his cheeks and he'd put on nearly five pounds.

Parker told him repeatedly how proud she was of him and finally told him about Austin.

"I'd like to meet him, honey," her father said.

She looked at her mother expecting a disapproving look but instead got a smile.

"I'd like to meet him too, Parker," her mother said. "He sounds like a fine young man."

Two days later, Parker invited Austin to meet her mother and the following day they all went to the rehab center together.

Having been exposed to so much drama and trauma in his youth, he saw nothing unusual about the life Parker's father had led. He openly shared his life story with her dad and the two bonded almost instantly.

"I think you've got a keeper this time, honey," her father told her.

"I'm not sure Austin's quite ready to keep me, but he is pretty amazing," she said while looking at her handsome young beau.

"Oh, really?" Austin quipped. "And what makes you say that?"

"I don't know. I guess I'm afraid of getting my hopes up too high too soon," she told him.

He put his arm around her and said, "I don't believe that's possible."

Three months later, Parker's divorce was finalized, her father was back home and still sober, and her mother had even cooked dinner for him a few times. Austin had played in two more tournaments finishing outside what was called 'the money bubble' in one and winning a modest $12,000 in the the other.

When he returned to Florida again, he asked Parker to dinner at a very nice restaurant and told her that he could no longer afford to stay in a fancy hotel.

"Oh, so...will you be going back to Seattle?" she asked her heart breaking at the thought of him finally leaving her.

"Yes. I really do need to get back," he said very seriously.

"I know it's insanely expensive so...so I...I understand," she told him trying to be brave.

"I do have enough to put a down payment on a decent home, though," he told her.

"Oh. That's...wonderful," she said forcing a smile. "I'm...I'm very happy for you."

"But there's one problem," he told he

"Problem?" she repeated.

"Um...yes. You see, I need to go, but I don't want to go."

Parker felt a small ray of hope as she asked, "What's keeping you from going?"

He smiled at her, took her hand, then told her, "Nothing's keeping from going. I just don't want to go—alone."

Her spirits soared as she as waited for him to continue.

"You see, I've been in love with this insanely beautiful woman since the first time I kissed her. Then she moved away, and I couldn't even pursue her because she was still married. Oh, and I didn't have two nickels to rub together."

Parker's heart was thumping inside her chest as he kept talking.

"I didn't do so great at my last tournament, but I did make enough to buy this for you."

As he reached into his pocket, Parker's hands began trembling. When she saw the tiny little box she could barely breathe. When he got down on one knee, she started to cry. She didn't hear any of the sweet things he said leading to the four words she was waiting for, and when he said them she shrieked with joy and flung her hand out.

"YES!! Yes, I will marry you!" she said oblivious to those who were watching and smiling and then clapping.

She couldn't decide whether to go home and tell her mom and then her dad or ask Austin to take her back to the motel and...rub her special places. In the end, her body won out and they waited until morning to tell her parents.

Her mom's door was locked when they arrived so she used her key to go inside. She found a note that said she was at her father's, so the happy couple headed across town to share their good news with both of her parents.

The door was unlocked so Parker let herself in as Austin followed.

"Mom? Dad?" she called out.

There were noises and what sounded like laughter before it got very quiet. Her mother appeared a few seconds later and was cinching up her robe as though it was perfectly normal.

"Mom? What's going on here?" she asked almost afraid to hear the response.

Her father then came out in his robe and sat next to Sandra who was smiling in a way Parker hadn't seen in...decades.

"Okay...what in the world is going on, you two?"

Her father put his arm around her mother who saw Parker's jaw drop.

"What? Your father and I are still husband and wife in the eyes of Almighty God, dear."

"Oh...my...GOD!" she said before adding, "Sorry, Mom."

Parker looked at Austin who just smiled.

"So...you two are...back together?" Parker asked her voice heavy with incredulity.

"One step at a time, sweetheart," her father said with a smile.

"One day at a time," her mother added as she smiled at her husband.

"Did you have something else to say, dear?" she asked Parker as though she'd just told her daughter what they were having for dinner.

"Um...yeah!'" she said holding out her left hand and dangling it.

"Let me see!" her mom said as she stood up at the same time as Parker.

There were hugs all around followed by congratulations and no few tears from the women.

Three days later there was a long, tearful goodbye as the new couple said goodbye to the older one. Or were they the newer, new couple now?

Either way, Parker was thrilled to see her parents making a go of it after so many years apart.

"You inspired me, sweetheart," her mother told her. "I never stopped loving your father, I just never knew how to show it."

Two months later, they remarried, sold Edward's house, and he moved back into the place he'd moved out so many years ago.

Two months after that, Austin and Parker flew her parents to Seattle for their own wedding and spent a few days with them before jetting off to France for their honeymoon and a poker tournament in Paris. Austin just missed the final table, but took home $73,00 Euros—and the love of his life.

Parker and Austin were beyond thrilled when they found out she'd gotten pregnant on their honeymoon, and couldn't have been happier when their first child, a beautiful little girl with baby blue eyes was born nine months later. Standing right beside her was her best friend and lover, a man she knew would be the most amazing dad ever.

Oh! As a wedding present, Austin bought back Parker's two beloved horses, and two years later, after winning his first tournament, he bought the stables from Pete where'd he'd met his beautiful wife, Parker Collins-White, while working there as a lowly stable boy. A stable boy-turned-world-famous-poker-star.