The Marine & The Beauty Queen Ch. 05

To tell you the truth . . . I liked the Canyon better. We went naked for most of that week, walking throughout the Canyon, and when we wanted to make love . . . well we did on the grass, on the bed, on the table, even in the creek.

After the honeymoon was over, I went to work for John's paving company, and Susan started working full-time as a nurse at the nearest hospital, in Thornton, Texas. I say nearest, but it was still an hour's drive from the ranch.

John's actual physical location for the construction company was also in Thornton, so it made sense for Susan and me to rent an apartment half-way between our two jobs.

I resumed taking courses online, and within a year received my bachelor's degree in business administration.

I quickly started putting in more hours on the job than any employee John had, but since Susan was also normally working 10 to 12 hour shifts it didn't pose any problem. Whichever one of us got home first would cook, and after we ate we would talk about our day for a while, then go to bed and make love.

But every morning, before either of us left, and every night, when we first saw each other again, we would join our two hands together and intertwine our fingers in our expression of love for each other.

And almost every single Friday afternoon, evening or night, whenever we finally got together we would head for the ranch, saddle some horses and ride to the Canyon. It rarely mattered if it was raining, snowing or how bad the wind might be blowing, we would ride to the Canyon for the weekend.

About the only thing that could stop us was hail storms, or tornadoes.

During that first year of marriage, I think we spent 45 weekends at the Canyon. During the next year, I had a recurrence of the malaria, so it was only 42 weekends. During our third year, it was 46 weekends.

During that first year, I spent most of my time learning the business from the ground up. I pushed myself until I could operate any piece of equipment, and operate it better than any employee John had.

I was also determined to prove to myself that I was still as good as I had ever been. I actually struggled with the words, "disabled veteran," and "handicapped." My parents had always stressed that I could do anything I wanted to in life. That excuses were just . . . well, an admission that you really didn't want something badly enough.

Now, I could no longer run, which to a Marine is absolute second nature. Marines usually run mile after mile, but that was no longer an option for me. No matter how badly I wanted to run. And trying to pick things up off the ground was also very difficult since I could not bend the knee as much as I used to.

During the second year, I spent half my time running the equipment, and half my time in the office learning first-hand from John had to estimate jobs, and which jobs we wanted and which ones we wanted to avoid.

During the third year, I was pretty much running the company, with only occasional forays into the field.

Then John, indestructible John, the biggest, strongest man I have ever known died of a massive heart attack.

John, Susan and I had discussed that someday he would retire to his ranch. He also said one of his big mistakes was not making his wife the owner of the company. As he explained it, there was a lot of federal and state monies that were earmarked for minority-owned companies, and if his late wife had been officially listed as owner, he could have qualified for a lot of additional projects.

So it wasn't any surprise that, in his will, John named Susan as president, and me as chief operating officer. What was a surprise was the fact that he left Susan 75 percent of the company, with my receiving 25 percent? I had always assumed Susan would be listed as the sole owner.

Of course, none of that mattered since Susan and I were as deeply in love as we ever were.

Nothing could ever change that.

Until I left some papers at home and had to drive back one morning and saw Susan and the Reverend William "Billy" Thornton together.

And my life fell completely apart.