Disclaimer: Although Montrose, Colorado and Brownsville, Kentucky are real towns, the people and addresses in this story are fictional and any one or place that may be similar is coincidental. This story contains seems of two women in sexual scenes.
Missing: Part Three
By M. E. Tudor
CHAPTER EIGHT
The past week had been amazing. Kelly had known that she possessed a lot of skills in the cabinet and interior trim trade from working with her father and soon-to-be ex-husband. She had never been given a chance to show what she could really do until this week and she was amazed. The guys and Rick were amazed too. They all bragged on her work and it made her feel great.
Today was Friday and pay day. Kelly was very excited to be getting paid for working for the first time in roughly twenty years. When she got married she stopped working and became a housewife and mother. That was all that she had been allowed to do except when her husband would let her work on one of his jobs but he never paid her for her work. It was an amazing feeling, knowing that you were actually going to get paid for your efforts.
The day seemed to drag on the jobsite and Kelly knew it was because she waiting to see how much she had made. The day finally ended. She and the crew went back to Rick’s office where Rick handed everyone an envelop. Everyone else had been paid with checks but hers was cash. She leafed through it, not wanting to count it in front of the guys. It was over three hundred dollars. Her mouth dropped open. Back home a job like this would have paid maybe eight dollars an hour. Rick had to be paying her over nine dollars and fifty cents an hour for it to come up to more than three hundred dollars.
She looked up and saw Rick smiling at her. She smiled back and stuffed the envelop in her back pocket. She couldn’t wait to get back to her room and count the money to see how much she had really made.
They were all eager to leave but Rick had a few announcements to make first. He got everyone’s attention by whistling. The guys stopped talking and turned around to listen to what Rick had to say. “I want to thank everyone for doing a great job this week. I really appreciate all your hard work. Next week we have two new jobs to start and two jobs to finish so plan on working a few extra hours each day.”
Kelly was surprised that no one really grumbled about having to work over time. She was also surprised by Rick thanking everyone for their work. She had never seen a contractor do that before.
“Also,” Rick went on, “I’ve got a few small side jobs that I need to have someone work on this weekend. Is anyone interested in doing that?”
The grumbling started then and everyone looked at each other. Kelly would have gladly volunteered but she didn’t have a car to get her anywhere. Timmy raised his hand, “I’ll do it Rick.” Timmy turned to Kelly, “Kel, you want to give me a hand.”
“Sure Timmy, I’d be glad to,” Kelly said with a smile.
Timmy nodded at her and looked back at Rick. “What do ya need us to do?”
Rick waved everyone else out of the office. “I’ll see the rest of you at six Monday.” He turned to Timmy and Kelly, who had moved up beside Timmy, “Pat has a couple of houses that she is selling but they need some minor carpentry work done in them. It probably won’t take you three or four hours to do it but I’ll pay you for a full day because you’re going to have to drive all the way out to Last Dollar Road.”
“Where’s that?” Kelly asked.
“It’s out past Ridgway in the mountains. It’s really beautiful out there. You’ll love it.” Timmy smiled at Kelly. She had told him that she wanted to go down to where the mountains were and now she was going to get to go on the companies dollar.
“You’ll love it.” Rick agreed. “Pat will meet you guys there just give her a call when you’re about ten minutes away.”
“Okay boss.” Timmy said and started moving towards the door. “Anything else?”
“Yeah, don’t spend that whole paycheck all in one place.”
Timmy laughed, “You know my old lady is waiting at home to take it away from me so you don’t have to worry about that.”
Rick laughed too, “Tell Becky I said hi, Tim. I’ll see you all sometime tomorrow.”
“Bye,” Kelly said as she followed Timmy out to his truck. She was wondering about the butterflies she had gotten in her stomach at the mention of Pat’s name. She didn’t know why that woman made her so nervous.
They got in Timmy’s truck and he took her to the motel. “I’ll be by at about seven tomorrow. We don’t need to start quite so early on a Saturday.”
“Okay, Timmy. I’ll see you in the morning.” Kelly said as she hopped out of his truck. Timmy waited until she was inside his room before he left. Kelly smiled as she closed her door. It was nice to have a friend who cared enough about her to make sure she was safe. Even though she had only known Timmy for a week, she felt like they had become friends. She had even met his wife Becky when she had come by the job to see Timmy. She was a jolly woman. She was just about as overweight as Timmy with large hips and protruding belly but she had a beautiful face and a brilliant smile. Timmy and she had been married for more than thirty years and still seemed to be very much in love with each other. Kelly was envious of their special relationship. She doubted she would ever have anything like that in her life.
She pulled the envelop out of her pocket, sat down on the bed and counted her money. Four hundred dollars! That meant Rick was paying her ten dollars an hour. She couldn’t believe it. She had never made that much money in her life. If he was paying her less than what the other guys were making, she could just image what they had to be making.
She took a shower and put on fresh clothes. Marge would be getting ready to fix dinner. She decided she would try to catch her before she started and see if she wanted to go into town and get something to eat.
She found Marge in the office going over some paperwork. “I’m glad you’re here.” Marge said when Kelly walked into the office. “The people in units seven and nine left and I’ve got someone who wants to rent unit nine. Can you clean it for me tonight?”
“Sure Marge,” Kelly stated as she leaned against the counter. “I was going to ask you if you wanted to go into town with me for dinner but if you need that unit done now we could go later.”
Marge set the papers down. “I could use a break.” She said wearily. “It’s been a busy day.”
Kelly shook her head. A lot of women Marge’s age would be in a nursing home and most would definitely not running a business. “Why don’t you retire?”
“Retire?” Marge said as she came around the counter slowly. “What the hell would I do if I retired?”
“Rest.” Kelly stated.
“Nah, retirement will kill you.” Marge stated with a nod. “I know too many people that retired and died within a year. I’m going to keep going until I fall over dead, which with my family’s history that shouldn’t be for another ten to fifteen years.”
“Really?” Kelly asked as they got into Marge’s car, which Marge let her drive even though she didn’t have her Colorado driver’s license yet.
“Oh yeah. My grandmother lived on her own until she was ninety-four years old. She got pneumonia and had to go into the hospital right before her ninety-fifth birthday and died within a week. My dad always said that knowing that she was going to have to stop living on her own is what killed her. The doctors had told her that she would have to go to a nursing home after she got out of the hospital and she just wasn’t going to do.”
Kelly smiled, “Well, it sounds like she is where you got your determination from.”
“You bet.” Marge agreed, “Her and my dad. He just died last year and he was ninety-three. He ran his horse farm until he was ninety then my brother took it over. He’s five years younger than me but one of the toughest men you’ll ever meet.”
“Wow,” was all Kelly could say. All the older people she knew started complaining about being too old to work as soon as they hit sixty. She had only met a few other people like Marge in her life.
“What about your folks?” Marge asked. She was still trying to pry little bits and pieces of Kelly’s life out of her.
“My mother is still living and whining about life. My father passed away when I was eighteen. He died of a heart attack.”
“That’s too bad Sweetie.” Marge patted Kelly’s hand. “I don’t know what I would have done if I’d have lost my father that young.”
“Well, you probably would not have been stupid like me and get pregnant by the first asshole you started dating.”
Marge looked at Kelly, “Is that what happened? You got pregnant and thought you had to marry the guy.”
“There was no thinking about it. Both of our parents insisted.” Kelly said through gritted teeth.
Marge decided to change the subject. “How’d you like working for Rick?”
Kelly was glad for the subject change. “I love it. Where do you want to eat?”
“How about some authentic Mexican food?”
“That sounds great,” Kelly smiled.
“Turn right up here on the next street and we’ll be at the best Mexican restaurant in town.”
CHAPTER NINE
Kelly was very tired that Saturday morning. She drug herself out of bed at six-thirty and was just barely ready to go when Timmy arrived at seven.
“Damn girl,” Timmy said when Kelly got in his little Mazda, “Did you go out partying last night?”
Kelly rolled her bloodshot eyes over to him. “No, I was up until midnight last night cleaning a unit for Marge so some people could into it today.”
Timmy shook his head. “I’m going to stop and get some breakfast then we’ll head out. Why don’t you take you a nap? It’s almost an hour drive to where we’re going.”
“You don’t mind?”
“Not at all. Do you want me to get you some breakfast for later?” Timmy asked as he backed up and turned around in the parking lot.
“That would be great. Especially some coffee.” Kelly said, starting to dig into her pocket for money.
“Don’t worry about that.” Timmy said stopping her from getting her money.
“But you’ve bought breakfast for me all week.” Kelly protested.
“Well, I’ll let you buy me dinner tonight before we leave Ridgway, how about that?”
“That works,” Kelly agreed. She locked her door and leaned her head against the window. She was quickly fast asleep. The next thing she knew Timmy was nudging her.
“We’re here.”
Kelly groggily rolled her head up with her eyes still closed. She slowly opened her eyes and was stunned to see that they were looking out over a beautiful valley filled with wild flowers and green grass with patches of snow still on the ground. Beyond that were the huge white and purplish-gray mountains. Timmy had warned her yesterday when he dropped her off to be prepared for cooler temperatures up here. She had remembered to bring a sweatshirt and a light jacket. She stepped out of the warm truck to be met by very chilly air.
Timmy had already taken a load of tools into the house that was off to the left of the truck. “Well sleepyhead, what do you think about that view?”
“Oh my God.” Kelly said in awe as she quickly went to the back of the truck to help him take out the heavy generator. She looked around again, “There are no utility pools.”
“Nope, people out here rely on solar power and propane.” Timmy stated.
“No kidding?” Kelly asked looking around in awe of the unobstructed scenery.
“Yep.”
“Why is it so cold up here?”
Timmy was slightly winded as they set the generator down on the porch of the house. He stood and took a breath, it blowing white in the cold air. “Because we are up at about eight thousand feet. That’s a couple thousand feet higher than Montrose so it’s colder up here and there’s less oxygen. So don’t be surprised if you feel winded for the first few hours until you get used to being up here.”
Kelly turned and looked out over the scene before her. “This is amazing.”
Timmy was heading back to the truck for more tools but stopped and looked too. “Yeah, I wish I could afford to live out here.”
“Is the land high out here?” Kelly asked as she came back to the truck and started unloading tools.
“Yeah, the cost of land out this way is really high then you add in the cost of the solar panels, storage batteries and hooking it up to your house. You’re talking about a lot of dough.”
“Wow, I hadn’t thought of that.” Kelly said putting on her tool belt.
“It takes a lot of money to put up a place like this,” Timmy pointed to the house. “And you have to like snow because they get a lot of it up here.”
“I’ve never really seen a bad snow storm like ya all get out here.” Kelly said as they took the tools into the house. Kelly stopped again and looked around at the wood interior of the house. “Oh my God! This is beautiful.”
The outside of the house looked simple with it naturally colored wood siding. Inside the house, the walls were also made up of wood, beautiful red cedar. The living room and kitchen were joined in an open space. There was a loft over the kitchen where the only bedroom was. It was also open to look down at the living room. The stairs spiraled up from the point where the living room and kitchen met, all of it open to the rest of the house. The only room in the entire place that was enclosed was the single bathroom downstairs in between the kitchen and living room. Even the cabinets and pantry in the kitchen were open with no doors to shut.
“Wow,” Kelly breathed as she stood in the living room looking around. “What on Earth is it that needs to be fixed. Everything looks perfect.”
Timmy moved towards the bathroom and set down the tools he was carrying. “The water pipes busted this winter because there was no one here to keep the place heated or to wrap up the pipes so there’s some water damage to the cabinets in the kitchen and bathroom.”
“What happened to the people who built this. I can image wanting to give it up.”
“Divorce,” Timmy said as he put on his tool belt. “Divorce will make you give up and loose a lot of things.”
Kelly nodded. That was very true. She was about to give up everything that she had ever owned but she had no regrets. Her life was so much better now. She couldn’t think of anything from her past that she really wanted, maybe pictures of her kids when they were little and still somewhat sweet.
Kelly put on her tool belt and she and Timmy jumped into the work. They had been at it for about twenty minutes and Kelly was on her knees under the bathroom sink running caulk when Pat can into the bathroom behind her and scared her by saying “Hi.” Kelly jumped and smacked her head on the pipes above her head.
“Ow,” Kelly moaned and crawled backwards out from under the sink. She sat on the floor and rubbed her head.
Pat had put her hand to her mouth when she heard Kelly’s head thump against the pipes. “I am so sorry,” she said behind her fingers.
Kelly continued to rub the growing knot on her head. “It’s okay. I didn’t hear you come in at all.”
“I was being sneaky,” Pat admitted and moved to kneel by Kelly’s side. “Let me take a look and make sure you aren’t bleeding.”
Kelly could smell the subtle musk that Pat was wearing. She could feel her heart pick up it’s pace. Why does this woman make me so nervous, Kelly wondered to herself. She sat very still as Pat’s fingers gently separated the hair around the knot on Kelly’s head.
Pat winced when she saw the knot that was the size of a ping pong ball. “I am so sorry.” She said again and gently looked around the knot. “There’s no blood. How do you feel? Are you dizzy? Do you have blurred vision?”
Kelly laughed, “No. I’m fine. Believe me it would take a harder knock than that to hurt this hard head.”
Pat looked down at Kelly’s up turned face. She tried not to stare but she couldn’t stop herself. The woman was just beautiful. She preferred her hair the reddish brown it had been when she first seen her but the dark blond was cute too and seemed to accentuate her aqua colored eyes. Pat cleared her throat then moved away. “So you won’t be suing me for this will you?”
Kelly laughed again. Pat smiled too. She liked Kelly’s deep hearty laugh.
“No,” Kelly smiled and got up. “You didn’t do it on purpose so I won’t be suing you this time but don’t let it happen again. She said, pointing her finger at Pat’s chest.
Pat held up her hands, “I promise I will make sure you know when I’m coming into a house that you are working on. Let’s go see if we can find some ice for that knot.”
“I think Timmy has some in his cooler.” Kelly said pointing towards the kitchen.
Pat went out of the bathroom in front of Kelly. Kelly found herself studying Pat’s backside. She had firm nicely shaped buttocks and legs. Kelly made herself bring her eyes up to Pat’s back. She had never really taken notice of women’s bodies before. Most of the women she had known back home were had always been slightly overweight. She had a few friends in high school who had firm bodies. Most of them had been athletes. She was surprised to find herself really enjoying the view of Pat’s body from behind. She looked as though she was athletic herself. Kelly would have to ask her about it sometime.
Pat could feel Kelly’s eyes on her. She wondered if Kelly was checking her out of if it was just her imagination because she wanted Kelly to be checking her out. It had been a long time since Pat had met a woman that she really wanted to like her. She had been in so many bad relationships in the past that she had given up hope of finding some one she could have a good relationship with so she had just simply stopped looking.
Timmy was finishing up replacing the bottoms of the lower cabinets in the kitchen. Fortunately the cabinets had not needed to be completely replaced. There were just a few places that were real bad so Timmy had cut out the bad wood and replaced it with the new wood he had brought with them. He heard the women coming up behind him and pushed himself out from under the sink and sat down on the floor. “What’s up Pat?” He asked with a smile. He had always like Pat. She was a real good person just like Rick.
“I’m afraid I’ve injured your helper.” Pat said with a sigh.
Timmy looked at Kelly who was rubbing her head. “What ya do? Whack her in the head with a hammer?”
Pat laughed, “Nothing that violent. I just scared her when I came into the bathroom and she smacked her head on the pipes in the cabinet she was working inside. She has a pretty good knot on her head.”
Timmy got up and went to Kelly, “Let me see.” Kelly leaned forward so Timmy could see the knot on her head. “Oh yeah, you got yourself a good goose egg going on. Let me get some ice.” He turned to Pat as he was headed out to his truck, “Now I don’t want to hear any complaints about us not getting this house done fast enough since you’ve come out here and wounded my helper.”
Pat laughed again. “I promise I won’t complain and if you don’t get done today I’ll tell Rick it was all my fault.”
Kelly shook her head. She liked Pat’s laugh, “I’m not in that bad of shape. I’m pretty sure I can keep working.”
Timmy went out and got some ice out of his cooler. He had an extra T-shirt in the truck so he wrapped the ice up in that. He came back in and handed the makeshift ice pack to Kelly, “Put that on your noggin and take a break for a few minutes.”
“That sounds good. I was ready for some more coffee anyway.” Kelly said as she got what was left of her coffee and sat down on the floor in the kitchen.
“That does sound good,” said Pat and she went out side to get her coffee out of her Jeep.
When she came back in she sat down next to Kelly who was sitting with her back against the kitchen wall. Timmy was sitting across from them. Timmy was telling Kelly that they should be done here in another hour and they would be able to head back to Ridgway to work on the bathroom floor of a house that Pat was selling in town.
Kelly looked over at Pat. “So how much would a small house like this go for?”
“I just sold this house last week for five hundred and fifty thousand dollars.”
Kelly choked on the coffee she was drinking and went into a coughing fit. Pat immediately started hitting on her back trying to help her get her breath.
“Are you okay?” Pat asked, concerned about the deep shade of red Kelly had turned.
Kelly got her coughing under control and took a deep breath. “Man I hate it when you have something go down the wrong pipe like that.” She took another deep breath. “Wow. I was just shocked by the price. Where I come from this place might go for a hundred and fifty grand but not more than that.”
Pat nodded, “Yeah, the cost of living is very high here but people’s salaries generally are too.”
“Wow,” Kelly said again looking around. “Well, I doubt I’ll be buying a house anytime soon.”
Pat and Timmy shook their heads. “There are cheaper places.” Timmy told her.
“Yeah, this is so expensive because we are so close to Telluride which is a rich man’s playground. Not so much so as Aspen and Breckenridge are but still it’s a place where a lot of rich and some famous people have houses.” Pat supplied.
“No kidding, like who?”
“Tom Cruise, Oprah Winfrey to name a few, have had houses here. Christie Brinkley got married up here.”
Kelly shook her head. Her little town in Kentucky had famous people who had come from that area but they were long gone now. “So do you know where these people live?”
“Some of them. Some of the houses you can’t see because they are so far off the road and some you can almost drive up in their driveway. One of the reasons a lot of them come here is because Telluride is a smaller town and not as well known as Aspen so they can have houses here and no one really knows that they have houses here except the people who have dealt with them, like contractors and real estate agents.” Pat said and sipped her coffee. “If you want I’ll take you on a sight seeing tour of town sometime and we’ll see if we can’t catch a few stars out and about.”
Kelly smiled nervously and thought about being in the close confines of a car with Pat. “A sight seeing tour would be fun but I’m not all that interest in seeing stars. I’m more interested in the natural wonders around here.”
“How about next weekend?” Pat turned to Timmy, “Do you think you guys will have to work next weekend?”
“No because we worked this weekend. Rick will make someone else work if there is stuff that needs to be done.”
“So what do you think?” Pat asked looking at Kelly.
Kelly met her eyes, “Sounds good.”
“Okay, it’s a date then.” Pat said and got up to leave. “I’ve got to get back to the office but I’ll get with you later in the week to set up a time to get together next weekend.”
“Sounds good,” Kelly said with a smile. She was slightly nervous like she had been in high school when something like this really would have been a date if Pat had been a guy.
After Pat left, Timmy sat there looking at Kelly, “You realize that she really meant that it would be a date?”
“What?” Kelly asked surprised.
“I like Pat a lot so don’t take this the wrong way.” Timmy said with a slight frown. “Pat is a lesbian and you are a good looking woman so don’t be surprised if she hits on you.”
“Oh come on.” Kelly blushed. She didn’t consider herself good looking at all. “I don’t care if Pat’s gay and I seriously doubt that she would be interested in me. Even so, I’m straight and still married for the moment. If she does hit on me I’ll just have to set her straight.”
Timmy reached over and patted Kelly’s knee, “I’ve grown fond of you like a little sister and I wouldn’t want you to get hurt.”
Kelly smiled and leaned over and hugged Timmy. “I’m fond of you like a brother too and I’ll be careful.”
Timmy smiled, “Alright, that’s enough of all that mushy stuff. Let’s get this job done.”