Chapter Twenty Seven

When they were ready to leave again, Billie whistled Deke out from his hiding place under the porch, taking him around to the kitchen door - to avoid the stairs - and shooing him into the house. With the kitchen door open, she flipped the catch on the doggy door, securing it, then she shut him inside as Jon waited out on the porch.

“Just shutting him in, in case there’s any more coyotes about.” Billie explained as she returned. “He may have won the last fight, but he’s in no state for another.”

“D’you want me to move that dead coyote?” Jon asked, realising as he said it that he didn’t really want to touch it. Dead, no doubt flea-infested coyote was bad enough, but now that Deke had peed on it…..

“S’okay. If it’s still here when we come back we can worry about it.”

Jon looked at her in confusion. “Uh, Billie - it’s dead. I don’t think it’s going anywhere!”

“City boy.” She muttered, shaking her head. “There’s other coyotes about, Jon. They might come take it. And before you say it, no, not because they want to bury it, or because it’s family or anything. Because it’s meat.”

“City boy? You mean I haven’t earned back my cowboy credentials?” He pouted sadly.

“Nope.”

“Damn.”

Laughing, comfortable together, they got into the pickup and Billie drove them to the feed store. As she parked, Jon saw a payphone outside of the store and looked at it thoughtfully, Billie seeing the direction of his gaze.

“Why don’t you call her?” She suggested.

“What? Who?” Jon looked at her, then got it. “You mean Dot? Dorothea?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Oh, that’s not what I was thinking. It’s just - well, even though I’m a big growed up boy, my mom worries, and Dot made me promise to call her every few days. Before I took off alone, Dot was reminding me, but I haven’t called home since the night before I met you.”

“Okay. So call your mom.” Billie smiled. “Let her know you’re safe and well.”

“Safe?” Jon snorted. “With you around?”

“Oh, smartass, huh?” She faked an angry scowl as she slid out of the truck. “You’ll enjoy the walk back from here, right?”

“Aw, shit. I’m sorry! Honest!” Jon smirked at her, though, scooting around the front of the pickup, pushing her against the door and pinning her there with his hips. “How can I make it up to you?”

“I’ll think of something.” Billie murmured, knowing they were fairly concealed where they stood and so letting Jon kiss her deeply.

When he lifted his mouth from hers, Jon groaned.

“That may have been a bad idea.”

“Why? Felt like a good one to me.”

“Yeah. But now I gotta try on jeans with a fuckin’ hard on.”

Sliding her hand up his thigh, Billie caressed his crotch, Jon groaning again as she squeezed lightly.

“Well, sadly I can’t do anything much about that here, babe.”

“Shit.” He brightened. “They have changing rooms, though, right?”

Billie giggled, her hand still absently rubbing at his crotch.

“Yeah, they do. With saloon-style half height doors. So if you had ideas of me getting on my knees……not happening!”

“Shit.” Jon repeated, leaning forward and resting his forehead on the side window of the truck. “Maybe we should come back later.”

“They close in an hour.” Billie murmured into his ear, relenting and lifting her hand off his dick. “Come with me.”

“That’s what I wanna fuckin’ do.” Jon grumbled as she pushed him off her, but after taking a second to make his state as unobtrusive as possible, he followed her toward the store.

“Phone?” Billie asked, spinning around to ask him, smirking as her eyes flicked over his groin.

“I’ll do that after.” Jon said, then realised what she was thinking and grinned. “No. I’ll do it now, and I’ll join you inside once I’m - uh - finished.”

“Okay.” She winked. “I’ll be there somewhere. Just you find whatever you’re looking for - jeans and stuff - and I’ll find you.”

“Cool.” Relieved that he could take a few minutes to hopefully cool off - hell, if anything was going to rid him of a hard on fast it was talking to his mother - Jon changed direction, going across to the payphone.

Picking up the handset, Jon dialled the necessary number to get through to an operator who’d take his credit card details. Once he’d done that, he punched the long series of numbers to get through to his mom’s house, drumming his fingertips on the side of the phone as it rang.

“Hello?” It was a young male voice, and Jon couldn’t help grinning.

“Hey dickhead. Is mom there?”

“Aw, fuck you Johnny!” Came the reply from his youngest brother, Matt, closely followed by a sharp reprimand from the redoubtable Carol Bongiovi, chiding the fifteen year old for his language.

“Bad boy, Matthew.” Jon teased, then dropped the smartass big brother routine. “How you doin’, anyway? How’s school?”

“I’m okay.” His voice was cagey as he continued. “School’s…..fine. I’ve started takin’ one of the art classes.”

Art? Jon thought. That just wasn’t Matt’s style. So far, the only member of the family who showed even a hint of an artistic nature was Jon - neither of his brothers could carry a tune, let alone sing worth a damn. Then he chuckled.

“Blonde or brunette?”

“Huh? Whaddya mean?”

Even from Kansas, Jon could tell Matt was blushing.

“I said: blonde or brunette? You suck at art, Matty, so there’s gotta be a girl involved.” He chuckled, needling his brother to get the answer. “At least, I hope it’s a girl!”

“Fuck you.” Matt muttered, his voice pitched low so their mom wouldn’t hear him cursing again. “Of course it’s a girl!”

“God, you’re easy.” Jon laughed. “So, back to my original question. Blonde or brunette?”

“I assume that’s your brother?”

Jon heard his mom’s voice, then Matt’s immediate reply.

“Yes, mom. Sorry. I’ll talk to you later, Jon.”

“Yeah, bye Matt.”

There was the soft sound of the phone being handed over, then Matt’s voice came back unexpectedly.

“Oh, and what you asked? Neither. Redhead. Here’s mom.”

“Hello, Johnny.” His mother’s voice, and a second after he’d done it Jon realised he’d suddenly straightened from his comfortably slouched position as soon as she spoke.

“Hi mom. How you doin’?”

“I’m doing….” There was a definite emphasis of the ‘g’ at the end of the word. “…fine, thank you. How are you? More to the point, where are you?”

“I’m great, mom. I’m in…….actually, I’m not sure of the name of the town, but I’m in Kansas.”

“Kansas?”

“Yeah. I kinda lucked out, actually. Got talking to a rancher one afternoon and I’ve been staying at the ranch house, helping out with a few chores and things to pay my way.”

“You’re hardly broke, John.” It was weird, but when his mother said it, Jon could hear the ‘h’ in his name. She’d never really taken to the new spelling he’d been using the last few years. “I’m quite sure you could pay your way properly. Or, better still, stay in a hotel and not some……some ranch house!”

And that pretty much summed up his mother’s opinion of anything non-city. Strange, really, considering she’d been a Marine and had doubtless stayed in far worse places than Jon had even seen - though there was that one hotel they’d stayed in when they played Monster Rock in England which didn’t have roaches simply because even the roaches had higher standards. Jon felt his anger starting to bristle at the implied insult to Billie, even though he’d carefully not mentioned that the ‘rancher’ was female. Female and young. And hot.

“It’s a very nice ranch house.” He said evenly. “You’d be surprised, mom. Hot and cold running water and everything. Anyway, I offered to help out - I was never asked for a thing. The invitation to stay was just a friendly gesture, as there aren’t any hotels around here, and it’s been nice, so I’ve stayed a few nights.”

“And when do you think you’ll be ‘staying a few nights’ in your own home?”

Jesus, Jon thought. She never quit. Never just happy to hear he was still alive and kicking, just always ‘when will you be home?’. He loved his mom, of course he did, but sometimes he could cheerfully throttle her for the overbearing way she was, and the way she treated him like he was still a kid. Flashing back to Dot saying that it’d never change, he silently prayed it would, because sooner or later he’d end up losing his temper with her and, since they shared a fiery temperament, it could get ugly.

“I dunno, mom.” Was all he said, though. “I’ll let you know when I’m moving on. I just wanted to call, let you know I’m okay.”

“Have you talked with Dorothea?”

“Nope. I just called you, mom.” He knew she’d like that. She wasn’t always keen on Dot - probably the thought of her son loving a woman who wasn’t her irked her - and knowing that he’d called her first would please her. “Have you?”

“I bumped into her the other day. She’s fine.”

“That’s good. Tell her I called, will you? Let her know I’m doing good.”

“Of course. If I see her, I’ll let her know.”

“Oh, mom!” He couldn’t help it. “I know you two don’t always see eye to eye, but……” Jon sighed. “Would you please call her, let her know I called and I’m fine?”

“Okay, Johnny.” Carol was slightly mollified by the knowledge that he wouldn’t be calling Dot, so she’d take vindictive pleasure in letting the younger woman know that he’d called her, his mother, but didn’t take the time to make a second call.

“Thanks, mom.” Duty done, Jon was now itching to get back to Billie. “I’ll call you in a few days, okay? Give my love to dad and Tony.”

“I will. You be careful, John. And…..” She hesitated, but said it anyway. “….don’t stay away too long. We all miss you.”

“I miss you guys, too, mom. Bye.”

“Bye, Johnny.”

Hanging up the phone, Jon sighed, resting his head against the wall for a moment then chuckling softly to himself. Well, at least he didn’t have to worry about that hard on any more. Still chuckling, he headed into the store.