Good Day, Everyone: Well the big guy has put his reindeer out to pasture, sent the elves on vacation, and he and Mrs. Claus are settling back into their Barcaloungers for a long winter's nap. How about you? Was your Christmas everything you hoped it would be? Ours was terrific, lots of good food, family conversations, laughter til I almost (I say almost) wet my pants and with the new classier dinnerware, cleanup was a breeze.
Today, instead of a new story, I'm going to hawk my latest book. So far, sales have been sluggish. It could be the season or that it's competing with all the Christmas stories, but since Monday is the day by blog reaches its widest audience of the week, I thought I'd give everyone a snippet to try and drum up some word of mouth interest.
Loving his China Doll If you click on the link, you can read most of the first chapter to get the gist of the story. The following is part of the second chapter. For those of my regular readers who always want to know more - there is more. And you don't even have to wait - it's already there. All you have to do is click the link above, and if you have any questions, the answers are all there.
Hope you enjoy.
Jeff Kincaid stopped by that same afternoon. She was working in the garden, and she heard Benji make that throaty growl that always alerted her someone new was around. She’d get used to the sound of his truck soon enough, and Benji would get used to him too.
She heard him start for the house. “I’m over here,” she yelled. He followed the voice and found her bending over and pulling weeds.
“That’s a mighty fine garden you have there, Chyna.”
“That’s high praise coming from a farmer. What can I do for you?”
“I wanted to come by and thank you for leasing me your land. You won’t be sorry.”
“I know I won’t be; I only hope you won’t be.”
They chatted while he told her that he planned to plant the first crop as soon he could get everything lined up.
“You should go take a look in the barn. There’s probably some stuff in there that could be useful. It hasn’t been used in a while so I don’t know how good it might be, but it’s worth a shot.”
“Thanks, Chyna. Do you mind if I take a look now?”
“Go right ahead. Come in the house when you’re through and have a glass of lemonade before you head out. By the way, where are you living?”
“Well, for the moment, I have a room over at the Motel 6 in Bryson, but I’m going to look for something closer now.”
“I don’t know if you are interested, but there’s a small apartment attached to the back of the barn. It’s not much, but it has a bath and kitchenette. Years ago, my granddaddy fixed it up for my uncle Bobby when we came back from Viet Nam. I have no idea what kind of shape it’s in, haven’t been back there in years.”
He took off for the barn as Chyna gathered the vegetables she picked and headed to the house. She was washing and preparing the vegetables for supper when Jeff appeared at the door. He gently knocked, and Chyna noticed that Benji didn’t growl this time, merely came to her side. ‘Good,” she thought to herself. ‘He’s getting used to him being around already.’
“Come in and grab a seat.” She went to the refrigerator and removed the pitcher of lemonade. She walked to the counter, and he watched her place the fingers of one hand over the top of the glass as she poured the lemonade. She brought both drinks to the table and then reached for a plate of cookies she had left on the counter. As he watched her, he noticed a couple of other odd things she did. He sensed she had difficulty seeing and rather than come out and ask, tried an experiment. When she sat down across from him, he waved at her – no response. He knew he had been right.
“So Chyna, I notice there is no vehicle around, is it in the shop?”
“No, I don’t drive.”
“Isn’t that unusual, being out here all alone and not being able to drive.”
Chyna knew he had guessed her plight, and she let him play out this little game.
“It may be, but my friends are always willing to take me wherever I need to go. That’s one of the advantages of living in a place your whole life.”
“Yes, it is. I know it’s that way back home. People even keep your secrets, at least from outsiders. Is it that way here too?”
She smiled at him and nodded her agreement.
“So are you ever going to tell me, or are you waiting for me to say something?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about?”
“Liar, liar, pants on fire.”
“I never understood that phrase.”
“To me, it meant if I got caught in a lie, mom or dad would light a fire on the seat of my pants, usually with a switch or a wooden spoon.” He watched her face redden as she squirmed in the chair.
“I can see by your expression you know exactly what I’m talking about, don’t you? Better watch out or you might be reliving the experience.”
“More lemonade?” she asked.
“You keep dancing around. I’ll get to the bottom of this yet.”
“Bottom, huh.”
He laughed. “Is this going to be a battle of semantics?
“It already is, isn’t it?”
“I’m going to enjoy exploring this relationship. If I’m picking up your clues correctly, I think it has a lot of different directions it could take.”
“You believe that this is a relationship. To what clues are you referring?”
“Okay, semantics again How about friendship and we can go from there? I’ll let you figure out the clues.”
“You have a deal, Mr. Kincaid.”
“But you still haven’t answered my question.”
“What question was that?”
“Oh, no. We’re not going 'round and 'round again. I’m changing the topic. Actually, there’s quite a bit of good equipment in the barn. It needs some TLC, but I’ll start cleaning it up and make the necessary repairs before I start purchasing more. As for the apartment, it will surely be handy, but it too needs a lot of TLC. I think some mice have used it as a home for quite some time. I’ll take care of that and freshen it up a bit. How much more is that going to cost me?”
“You take care of the utilities, and we’ll call it even. Is that okay with you?”
“More than okay. Thank you, Chyna. I hope this is the beginning of a lucrative deal for us both.”
“You’re welcome Jeff. I hope it all works out the way you planned.”
“God willing and the creek doesn't rise. I’ll keep my fingers crossed too, JIC. Thanks for the lemonade and cookies, too. See ya later. I’ll be back in the morning. You’re going to get tired of seeing me, or should I say me being here.” He grinned knowing she couldn’t see.
“I doubt I’ll get tired of seeing you,” she replied. Benji gave a small woof.
“See you later too Benji, take care of Chyna.”
Jeff chuckled as he left the kitchen and walked back to the barn. He found himself humming and thinking about Chyna. She was such a beautiful girl with her blue eyes and corn-silk blonde hair, and curves in all the right places. And her mouth, he loved the shape of her mouth and the words that came out. He found himself staring at her mouth thinking about how it would feel if he could only slip in his tongue and explore the softness that awaited. Had someone else explored that territory, or would he be the first? The thought gave his manhood a twitch. Then there was her sweet little backside – when he saw her bending over in her garden, he sucked in his breath. He could imagine his hands cupping and kneading that delicious bottom. Actually, he could imagine more than that, but he was getting ahead of himself. He doubted she knew how alluring she was to him – maybe he was fooling himself. Could it be something might come of them? It would sure be fun! He wouldn’t push, there would be plenty of opportunities for him being so close.
While Jeff was busy thinking about Chyna, she was thinking about him too. Her unique gift allowed her to know Jeff Kincaid would change her life; she didn’t know how. Sometimes her unusual gift didn’t allow her to see the outcome – this happened to be one of those times, but she felt no trepidation. She couldn’t wait for this adventure to unfold – it would open new doors for them both.
See you later for more Aimless Ramblings.
