Mackinaw

They were walking their horses side by side along the long deserted road. Richard stopped and held a branch from a tree higher so she could pass without being slapped in the face. Abby held the reins lightly in her hand and urged the gentle horse forward, confident that he knew where to go better than she did. The trees overhead were a shower of green and gold and orange. Sunlight filtering through gave the trail and almost magical aura. It was warm in the sun and yet a little nippy in the shade. Typically autumn in northern Michigan. Richard caught up to her, glanced over at her and smiled.

"Beautiful, isn't it," he sighed. Abby nodded and smiled. He tipped his head toward a sun dappled hillside nearby.

"Wanna stop for a bit?" Abby nodded and drew her horse to the side of the road. They dismounted and tied the reins of their horses to low branches of nearby trees, taking care to see that the horses would be able to graze. He took her hand in his as they climbed through the fallen brush and fauna to the sun warmed spot and sat down in the grass. Abby took a deep breath and looked around. It was late September. Richard's parents had taken a house on Mackinaw Island for one of the very last weeks of the tourist season and brought their entire family for a vacation together. Rebecca and her husband had come as well Richard's younger brother, Ryan. Abby hadn't wanted to come. After Maggie's departure, all she wanted to do was stay home and enjoy the peace and quiet. Get back into the work and home routine. Richard had talked her into coming. Insisted that she come. And he had been right. It was a good thing. Something they needed to do.

Richard slipped the backpack off his shoulders and set it on the ground in front of him. He glanced at her playfully and unzipped the pack. He pulled out a blanket and she laughed as she helped him spread it out in the sun. She sat back down and swept the sweater she wore over her head and readjusted the tee shirt she wore under it. He sat next to her and pulled out a bottle of wine, a small box of crackers and a container of cheese squares. She held the crackers and watched as he rummaged around in the pack.

"Damn," he muttered. "I forgot those cups." He shrugged and peeled off the wax and used a cork remover to open the bottle.

"Guess we'll just have to share," he said with a grin and lifted the bottle to his lips. He took a long drink and offered it to her. Abby grinned and lifted the bottle to her lips. The pungent, spicy, warm wine washed over her tongue and down her throat. She swallowed and then handed the bottle back to him. Richard took another drink and then settled back onto the blanket in the sun. Abby watched him for a moment and then laughed as he pulled her down next to him.

"God...this is great...," he said. "No pagers, no patients..." He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "I've missed you." Abby was silent as she ran a hand over his sun warmed chest. He pressed a finger lightly to her lips.

"Don't look now but we're being watched." He pointed carefully off into the woods and she lifted her head slowly. Three deer stood in the shadow of the trees watching them, totally unafraid as they nibbled on the grass and plants on the forest floor. Abby smiled and raised her head to look up at Richard. Her chin came to rest on his chest. He was watching her and his smile faded slowly. Her brown eyes studied his dark gray ones and then she drew herself up his side to his face. Richard's hands slipped up under her tee shirt as she kissed him. He pulled her closer and then the tee shirt was slipped over her head as his mouth sought her nipples. Abby groaned softly and clung to his head and they rolled over on the blanket. Her fingers traveled through his hair and gripped tightly as he moved on top of her. His tongue played with one taut nipple and then the other as she reached down his back to pull his sweater and shirt off as well. His hands were at the clasp of her jeans and suddenly they were open and pulled down over her buttocks along with the panties she wore. The blanket was rough on her bare back and bottom but it didn't matter. All that mattered was Richard and what he was doing to her. Her mind was spinning and whirling because she had forgotten. Sheesh. Had it been that long since they'd done this?

Richard's fingers were massaging and molding and exploring. He rubbed and squeezed the skin and muscles along her rib cage and across her back. He lifted his mouth to her's and she held it there with her hands on the sides of his head. Their tongues twisted together and explored one another. She gasped as he pulled away and then his jeans and shorts were gone.

"What if someone comes by?" she asked as she took her boots off and kicked her own jeans from her knees to the grass.

"They won't...tourist season is over," he sighed and then he was at her again. His hands held her knees apart and his fingers did their job there. He was smiling down on her as her body seemed to have a mind of it's own. She squeezed her eyes shut as she could feel the waves beginning to build within her. She was slick with desire and a fine sheen of sweat began to build all over her. He was grinning as her body began to arch against the blanket, her tight little navel reaching toward the setting sun over and over.

"Where are you?" she moaned and opened her eyes. Richard was grinning as he rose above her, his knees spreading her legs apart. She frowned as he entered her slowly...very slowly. Too slowly. He reached for the wine bottle and lifted it to his lips as he studied the frustrated look on her face and felt her body trying desperately to enclose him. He stopped her legs from encircling him. He pulled back a little and Abby screeched at him.

"Stop it..." she cried. "Damn you. You're teasing me." He nodded a little and then carefully poured a dribble of wine at the base of her neck and between her small heaving breasts. Abby shivered and glared up at him with flushed cheeks. He bent his head to taste the wine mixed with the sweat of her skin and Abby groaned again. She clutched at his back...his firm buttocks...and dug her short finger nails into his skin as she pulled him closer to her. Richard laughed and began to stroke...slowly and carefully...never quite going the full limit and she was becoming angrier and angrier. This was his game. She'd forgotten. He was in control. She hated that about him. She needed him and she hated him.

It was nearly sun down when they went back into town again. He left her at the house and took the horses back to the stable. She was braiding her long hair into a single plait as she walked through the house. Everyone was gone. Apparently Becca, Nick and Ryan were out to dinner. She found her mother in law relaxing in one of the white wooden lounge chairs on the deck. She was resting and looking out over the dark choppy waters of the straights. Abby could make out the lights of the Mackinaw Bridge in the distance.

"Oh, hi sweetheart," Jacqueline Lockhart smiled as Abby kissed her forehead. "Did you and Richard have a good ride?" Abby almost choked but nodded, suppressing a smile as she moved to the rail of the deck and looked over the water. She glanced down into the yard and saw her father in law, with a glass of liquor in his hand, chatting over the fence with a neighbor. A female neighbor. An awfully friendly female neighbor.

"It's a bit chilly out here, wouldn't you say?" Jacqueline said as she pulled a blue and white sweater that was covering her knees to slip it over her shoulders. Abby sat carefully in to the chair next to her and stretched her legs out on the lounge.

"We missed you at the company picnic on Labor Day. I would have enjoyed spending some time with your mother." Abby took a deep breath and chuckled lightly.

"Oh...I'm not so sure about that. She was in a depression cycle at that time," she said. Jacqueline frowned slightly and looked at Abby.

"My mother has bi-polar disorder," Abby said quickly. "She has manic and depression swings when she isn't taking her medication." There. She'd said it.

"Is that the sort of thing that runs in families?" Jacqueline asked curiously. Abby's heart thudded and she turned to look at her mother in law. Why would she be asking that? Was she worried about Abby or about grandchildren? Jacqueline's blue eyes were wide, her thick white hair cut into a short flattering bob and held back from her face with a thin black headband.

"My grandmother was prone to depression," she explained. "My mother was as well. I always wondered if it was a...family thing...or something else." Abby nodded in understanding and shrugged her shoulders.

"Oh, I did so want out of that house when I was young," Jacqueline went on. "I took the very first opportunity that was handed to me." Abby watched as her mother in law smiled down at the wedding band on her finger. The smile faded and she looked back out at the water thoughtfully. A Great Lakes freighter was passing by. It's horn sounded mournfully across the water in the dusk. She sighed heavily and her eyes swept down to the yard where the sounds of flirty laughter drifted up to them. Abby studied Jacqueline's grim face and then her mother in law smiled a little as she looked over at her.

"Oh don't get me wrong," she said. "I have had a good life but there are just some things that are hard to bear at times. He is actually very affectionate with me...after...well." She picked Abby's hand up in her's and squeezed it warmly.

"Don't let anyone push you into something you aren't ready for, Abby," she said. "You make sure...very sure...that you are the person you want to be before..." Her voice trailed off and her blue eyes welled with tears.

"I am just so very afraid that the apple hasn't fallen far from the tree, my dear," she said. "I'm sorry about that. For you, most of all." She squeezed Abby's hand again as Richard came out from the house.

"Hey, girls..." he said brightly as he kissed his mother's cheek and took Abby's hand in his. "What do you say we barbecue steaks again tonight? I'm hungry as a horse!" Jacqueline and Abby exchanged wary smiles. Abby began to chuckle as Richard nuzzled her neck and tickled her while his mother looked on and laughed.