Frederick Goodwin
This book has a smattering of California and Texas history woven into the continuing story of the Parsons family. Like the proceeding book it has a smart dose of humor, intrigue and love - something for everyone.
The author is eminently qualified to write this novel that draws from his experience in the real estate market in Sonoma County, CA and his research on the early history of Texas, the founding of the Texas Rangers and the development of the Colt revolver.
F. Goodwin was born in East Texas in a small community located about a three hour drive from Waco, where the Parsons Family, the main characters of this tale, has their twenty section ranch. Being a Texan by birth, he demonstrates his keen interest in the period of the Americanization of Texas.
The author received his Bachelor’s from the Univ. of Santa Clara and a Master’s the Univ. of San Francisco.
Diane was lucky; her morning sickness which began in her third week only lasted for a month. After Sam and Edith had left for Europe on their honeymoon, she and Austin fell into daily routines; he was busy running the twenty-section ranch while she was busy running the household. While the warm weather held, they saved the late afternoons for swimming and exercising their Arabians. Now that Thanksgiving was only two days away, swimming was out and the riding time was reduced. She saw her gynecologist each month and the doctor told her she could continue riding right up to the ninth month.
At almost four months, her pregnancy had not affected her appeal. Except for the obvious bulge in front, she was the same beautiful woman that Austin had fallen in love with out in Santa Rosa. Her blond hair was shoulder length now because it kept her neck warm in the cooler weather. Her eyes sparkled and she had a glow about her. The adjustment from selling real estate in California to being mistress of a twenty section ranch in Texas was easier than she thought it would be.
The honeymooners were due back the following day so she was concentrating on putting the finishing touches on Sam and Edith’s bedroom. Sam’s first wife had died almost twenty- five years ago and nothing had been changed in the room since then. He had been busy with the ranch and just never got around to updating his bedroom. Diane, who was a talented interior designer and wanted to do something for them as a wedding present, had asked Edith to pick out a color scheme. They both wanted to brighten the room but knew Sam wouldn’t like it too feminine. She had run her ideas by Austin so she was pretty sure his dad would approve of the changes.
Austin was well over six feet tall, had broad shoulders, well-developed muscles, and dark, brown piercing eyes. He had played linebacker at Texas A&M and had been light heavyweight boxing champion three years in a row. He still spent at least one hour every other day lifting weights and hitting the speed bag.
He and his dad had been wed in a joint ceremony back in September and since he had recently returned from California after an absence of a year, he was happy to let his dad and Edith go on their honeymoon before he and Diane took off on theirs. At breakfast one morning, Diane said, “You know, I really enjoy our life here and I’m not ready for an extended trip. Would it be all right if we just went back to see our friends in Santa Rosa for a couple of weeks and maybe go on a honeymoon to celebrate our first anniversary?”
“Di, I think that’s a great idea. Like you, I’ve got a lot of things to catch up on and a short trip sounds good to me. It seems as though I just got back here so if it’s all right with you, we’ll go to California a few weeks after Dad gets back.
“If you feel up to it, we can take the plane tomorrow and fly to Dallas to pick up the honeymooners – kind of surprise them. I’ll have the pilot bring the Cessna up to the ranch and we won’t have to drive to Waco.”
“Darlin,’ I feel great. If I felt any better, I’d have to get someone to help me enjoy it. Sure I want to go with you. I’d like to see their faces when they walk into the airport.”
“Good. There is a good seafood restaurant in the airport where we can have supper before we fly back.”
Diane asked, “Is there some place I could store a few things and the remaining boxes?”
“Sure, Love, the best place would be the attic over the bedrooms. It’s been several years since I was up there but we can go up and check it out.”
She followed him up the spiral staircase and down the end of the hallway where Austin opened what looked like a fuse box. He punched a code and a large ceiling panel opened and a ladder was extended. “Hey, this is first class; I’ve only seen those ladders you pull down with a cord and then have to unfold them and have to be careful about crushing your fingers in the process.” She noticed the attic light came on automatically.
He went up first so he could assist her when she reached the top of the ladder. His eyes were drawn inexorably to her breasts, partially because of her loose fitting blouse but mostly because he thought they were magnificent. She smiled and kissed him as he helped her off the ladder.
The attic was divided into three rooms, each separated by walls covered with sheet rock and the temperature was thermostatically controlled.
The first room they entered contained miscellaneous pieces of furniture and boxes – much the same as any other attic. “Di, I think we can easily get your things in here and we’ll have a lot of room left. I’ll bring everything up and place it on either side of the windows. These rooms get a cleaning once a month so not much dust is going to accumulate. Let me show you the other rooms.”
The second room had a solid oak door and was a little smaller than the first. “We call this the Parsons family museum. My grandfather told me there was a story that goes along with every item in here.” One wall was covered with rifles and pistols – some dating as far back as the Revolutionary War. On the other walls there were swords, pistols, rifles, knives, spears, tomahawks and war clubs. There were frames containing Ranger memorabilia and pictures as well as family pictures. In one corner there was a six-pound cannon and a Gatlin Gun.
While Diane was looking at everything, Austin was admiring her. They’d been alone in the house for two months except for Maria, the cook, and her sister, Anita and on the warmer days she had started to wear shorts and peasant blouses. Today it was one of those days. She was wearing sandals with heels which accentuated the shape of her legs. He couldn’t take his eyes off her and his heart started to race and he was sure he was losing his hearing. She turned towards him to ask a question and saw the look on his face; she went to him and their bodies pressed against each other; there was a frenzy of activity as they undressed each other. Austin slowly moved his hands over her body; he stopped at her breasts and noticed they were even firmer; he rubbed her belly which was beginning to swell and then he kissed it. When his hand moved down between her legs, she let out a throaty moan and her body began to move against his hand. When they could not hold back any more, they had incredible sex. “Di, you’re getting more beautiful every day and I just can’t get enough of you.”
“I can see that in your eyes and it makes me warm all over. My eyes get glassy and I begin to quiver when I realize how much I love you.” They embraced and stayed locked together for a while and then got up, kissed and fondled each other and finally got dressed. “We’ll continue this tonight, Love. For now let me show you the last room.”
He opened a steel door and said, “This, my dear, is our records room. All these trunks, filing cabinets and footlockers contain ranch records, diaries, journals, letters – well, just about anything written by our clan. As you can see they all have labels with names and dates. My indoor project this winter, besides you, is to start going through some of these. One of these days it will be my turn to chronicle the events of the ranch – I’ll have a sense of the past to guide me.”
“Well, if you run across anything juicy, be sure to clue me in. “The juiciest writing will definitely be what I write about you.”
Austin let Maria know that they were headed to the airport and that they would be having supper there. That was a relief for her and her sister, Anita, because they would be preparing Thanksgiving dinner for the following day and since everyone on the ranch was always invited, it meant a lot of cooking.
When Sam and Edith walked into the terminal and saw the welcoming committee, they smiled broadly and hurried over to them. There were hugs and kisses and the usual comments of how nice it was to be home again. Austin took their baggage stubs and said he’d meet them in the seafood restaurant and he went off to arrange for the luggage to be taken over to the Cessna.
Sam was sixty-nine and had the same frame as his son. He still had all his hair but now the color was closer to salt and pepper with more emphasis on the salt. He walked with a straight back and had the look of a proud man. Edith was a little younger. Her hair was silver and she wore it in a loose bun on the top of her head. She was tan but not wrinkled – she’d taken good care of herself over the years. They were a handsome couple.
“We thank you two for coming to meet us. Edith and I had a wonderful trip. Actually seeing famous places in person that you’ve only read about or seen pictures of was really exciting – even for an ol’ codger like me. But Son, I still feel bad about taking our honeymoon before you two did; after all, you’d planned the wedding and everything and we just kinda horned in.”
“Dad, sharing our wedding day with you and Edith just made the occasion that much more special. And as far as our honeymoon, we’ve decided to save that for our first anniversary; for now, we’ll just spend a couple of weeks in Santa Rosa with our buddies.”
“Diane, Sam and I were pleased to hear you were feeling well and not suffering from morning sickness anymore. And you should have seen this man here when he heard he would soon have a grandson to dote over. I had to sit on him to calm him down.”
Diane leaned over and whispered in her ear, “When I sit on his son, I get the opposite reaction – and it definitely is not calm.”
“Oh, Diane, you’re bad. I can see we’re going to be great friends. You’ll have to give this ol’ gal some pointers.”
Through supper and the ride home, a period of about three and a half hours, Sam and Edith recounted their trip and then started to talk about going to Australia and New Zealand. His dad had not mentioned the ranch. It was then Austin realized his father was getting ready to start enjoying life which meant turning the ranch over to him. He wasn’t quite sure he was ready for the responsibility.
