Part 3


“If you don’t hold still, I can’t do this.”

“I dunt want you to.”

“It has to be done.”

“No!”

“Yes!”

JC peeked into the kitchen, wondering what Justin and Lucy were arguing about. Lucy was seated on the kitchen table, her doll still clutched in her hands, a stubborn expression on her face. Justin stood next to her, a comb in one hand, a pair of scissors in the other. He entered the kitchen and walked to the pair. “What’s going in here?” he asked, reaching out to tickle Lucy.

The girl giggled, then turned pleading eyes toward JC. “Unca Jaysee, he’s gonna cut off my hair,” Lucy told him, pushing Justin’s hand away. “Dunt wanna cut my hair!”

Justin sighed. “It’s tangled into huge knots, JC. She won’t sit still for me to comb it out, and we can’t leave it like this.”

JC looked at Lucy’s hair. It was, indeed, a mass of tangles and knots. It seems no one had paid much attention to Lucy’s grooming since her parents death.

“She also needs a bath,” Justin continued, pointing to the dirt encrusted behind Lucy’s ears and under her fingernails.

“Dunt wanna bath neither.”

JC watched as Justin’s eyes narrowed at Lucy’s defiance, and interrupted whatever the younger man was going to say. “Now, Lucy, I don’t think taking a bath is all that bad a thing. Even Fagin gets bathed now and then.”

“Really?” Lucy smiled and looked at the dog sitting close to the table. Fagin had adopted Lucy as one of his own, and had rarely left the girl’s side in the three days she’d been at the ranch.

JC nodded. "And maybe, if you let him, Uncle Justin can comb out your hair so it won’t have to be cut.”

“But it hurts.” Her blue eyes were huge as she looked between the two men.

“I’ll try and be gentle, Lucy,” Justin told her.

“Okay.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “But no bath.”

“Lucy…” Neither saw JC escape out the back door. “You have to be clean, baby,” his hands moving to the tangled hair.

“Mama always used rose soap.”

Justin paused for a moment. “I bet it smelled really pretty, too,” he said, comb moving gently.

Lucy nodded. “Do you think there’s roses in Heaven, Unca Jussin?”

Justin’s hands stilled. This was the first time Lucy had spoken of her parent’s death. “I’m sure there are, baby,” he told her softly. “If your mama wanted a Heaven full of roses, then that’s what God would give her.”

“I miss my mama, Unca Jussin.” Her eyes were filled with tears.

Justin pulled her close. “I know you do, baby,” he said, whispering softly. “I know you do.”

***

“So how did you get her hair untangled?” JC asked Justin, stripping off his shirt. JC had been surprised to see Lucy at dinner with shiny not cut detangled hair, the chocolate curls bouncing. She’d obviously had a bath, too, as her skin was pink and clean.

Lying in their bed, Justin leaned up on a elbow to watch JC undress. The room was bathed in moonlight, allowing Justin to just make out JC’s lean frame emerging from his clothes. “Butter,” he answered.

JC’s fingers paused on the fly of his pants. “Butter?” he questioned, dropping his pants and slipping under the sheet.

Justin immediately moved next to JC, pressing his body into the older man’s, propping his chin on JC’s chest. “Butter,” he repeated. “I kept trying to think of something slick enough to make the tangles loose, but also easy to wash out afterwards. Wheel grease was out, and I was leaning toward lard, then it hit me. Butter.” He smiled broadly. “Worked really well, too.”

JC’s hands moved over Justin’s back, his legs trapping the boy to lie on top of him. “And how did you get her to bathe?”

Again, Justin’s bright smiled shined in the dim room. “That was my cleverest idea. I put rose petals in the water.”

JC blinked. “Rose petals?”

Justin nodded. “Seems her mama always used a rose scented soap. By putting the petals in the bath, I convinced her she’d smell just like her mama use to.”

“Well, thank God for our rose bushes,” JC said, pulling Justin’s head up to kiss him.

They kissed languidly, as ever enjoying the feel of each other’s mouths; as ever, delighting in the arousal it caused. JC tumbled Justin over to his back, his hands traveling a fiery path to the boy’s hardness, his heart beating faster as he elicited groan after groan from his young lover. “And thank God for you,” JC vowed as their bodies merged.

***

“So, who’s up for a trip to town this morning?” JC asked the next morning as they sat at the kitchen table.

“Me! Me!” Lucy said, banging her spoon on the table.

JC laughed at her antics. “Then you shall come with me, Little Lucy,” he told the girl. He looked at Justin sitting across from him. “How about you, Justin?”

Justin rose from the table and gathered the dirty dishes. “I have too much to do here, JC. You two go.” Justin placed the dishes in the sink and returned to the table for more.

JC grabbed Justin’s arm, holding him at the table. “I’d really like you to come, Justin.”

“And I really don’t want to, JC.”

JC caught Lucy watching the two men, her brow scrunched in a curious expression. “Lucy, go on outside and wait for us, okay?”

“Okay,” she said, scooting her chair back from the table. “Come on, Fagin!” she called to the dog.

JC pulled Justin back down into a chair. “Justin, we’ve been here over a year. I’ve been patient so far, but I think it’s time you stopped hiding.”

Justin shook his head. “I’m not…it’s…I just can’t, JC.” He looked at the older man, fear in his eyes. “Please, don’t make me.”

“I don’t understand, Justin.” He held Justin’s hand, rubbing his thumb over the pounding pulse in Justin’s wrist. “I would never let anything hurt you. You know that, don’t you?” Justin nodded. “Then why don’t you trust me to take care of you?”

Justin didn’t respond, merely continued to shake his head. JC sighed and rose from the table. “We’ll be home in few hours,” JC told him.

***

“How come Unca Jussin didn’t want to come with us?” Lucy asked as they headed for town.

JC shrugged his shoulders. “Justin’s not comfortable with being in town, Lucy,” he explained, hoping the girl would understand.

Her eyes widened. “Is town scary?”

“No, no,” he told her, slipping the reins in one hand and wrapping his other around the girl’s shoulder. “It’s just that Uncle Justin is, well, shy, and being around people he doesn’t know is kinda scary for him.”

Lucy was silent for a while. “Is it because he’s really a girl?”

“What?” JC pulled Zeus to a stop. “Lucy, why would you say that?”

“Unca Jussin cooks like a girl, and washes, and takes care of the house, just like Mama did. And he’s soft and nice with me, just like Mama, and made me smell like roses. And I saw him kiss you, just like Mama did with Papa, and I saw you sleeping with Unca Jussin, just like Mama and Papa did, so I figured Unca Jussin must be a girl.” She looked at him with wide eyes. “Isn’t he?”

JC rubbed a hand over his face. How to explain this, he thought to himself. “Lucy, no. Uncle Justin isn’t a girl. He’s a boy, just like me. Just like your Papa was.”

“Then why’d you kiss him?”

“Lucy, Justin and I love each other very much. And people who love each other, kiss each other.”

“Are you married?” She smiled at him. “I went to a wedding once with Mama and Papa and the girl was in a really pretty dress and they kissed and I got ice cream!”

“No, well, yes. We are married, in a way.” He picked up the reins. “Let’s talk about this when we get home, after town, okay?”

“Okay.” She hugged his arm. “Does town have ice cream, Unca Jaysee?”

JC laughed. “I think they do, Lucy,” he told the girl, clucking to Zeus as the wagon moved once more.



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