Spring Came A Calling

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The House of Four Seasons

By Atonia Walpole

Today is the first day of Spring. I couldn’t write yesterday because Winter left me for awhile, only awhile. He made me promise not to cry, saying he didn’t want to leave a mess for someone else to have to clean up. I kept that promise until I heard the front door close. I’m all right now. I spent the day reading a little and writing a little and listening to the house at work down the hall from my bedroom.  Last night I watched the DVD, leaving it late, I know, but then the house already knew who was coming. John chose him.

I have no idea what to expect, whether we will find common ground, that special starting point, that spark so necessary to begin a relationship. There must be something for love to grow upon. My winter and summer roots are deep and strong, fall knocked me over and I am looking forward to being with him again. But now it’s spring who will or will not capture my heart.

The house finally let me into his room just a little while ago, not leaving me much time to form any kind of opinion, so I am left only with an impression. His room is very traditional, warm maple furniture, masculine plaids and stripes, colors of the earth and sky, blues and browns and greens.  The scent is very green and fresh with a hint of something mysterious. It’s a comfortable room…a very comfortable room I am intrigued.

Part 1:

“On heaven and on thy lady call, and enter the enchanted hall!”

Bud White came up the drive and parked his car next to the garage. It certainly didn’t feel like spring to him, dressed as he was in his sport jacket. Snow still lay in the woods beyond the garage and melting puddles made walking up to the front door a concentrated effort. It was cold, cloudy  with a breeze coming over the cliff behind the house, snaking its cold fingers around his collar as he stepped up on the front porch, but when he rang the bell he felt as though a ray of warm sunshine  had found him.

Toni watched him from the window on the landing, her first glimpse of Spring. At the same time a robin flew down from the thatched overhang and made its way toward the woods beyond. She was smiling when she opened the door.

“Welcome, Bud,” she kissed his cheek  and adding to his embarrassment, he blushed.

“Toni, I hope I’m not late?”

“You’re right on time. Come in out of the cold. I’m so glad you’ve come.”

“Thanks for inviting me.” He entered the house, taking in the entrance and following her into the living room where a welcoming fire blazed on the hearth.

Toni quickly looked him over. He was a big man, no taller than the rest of her loves but something about him seemed to fill the room. His shoulders in the sad-looking jacket were broad, tapering to his waist. When he turned to her, backing up against the fire, it was his eyes that caught her, open, questioning.

“Would you like a drink, cup of coffee?” she asked.

“Oh, coffee would be great. It’s, ah, cold for spring. You’ve still got snow,” he tried.

“Come on into the kitchen, Bud. Yes, the seasons seem to be a little off this year. We may have another snowfall before it’s over, but I did see a robin this morning.”

‘That’s a good sign warmer weather is coming.” He took a seat at the old scrubbed table.

“I just made this. Cream, sugar?”

“Thanks.”

Toni placed a plate of muffins on the table. “Blueberry, if you’d like.”

“Oh, yeah, I love muffins.”

Toni sat opposite him with her cup. “Have you been here often, Bud?”

“Yeah, but not for a long time. I always loved this house and the countryside. Don’t get out in the country very often…well, hardly at all.” He munched his muffin.

“You do know the ownership has changed and so has the house. It’s my home now. I live here full time. I’m looking for a spring to complete my year.”

“I read something about that, yeah.”

“If it works out between us, Bud, this is forever.”

He stopped cup halfway to his lips. “Forever?”

“Yes, I have chosen my other three seasons forever. I only need one more to make it complete. It’s the only way I can conceive of living here.”

He set his cup down. “That’s kinda like being married or something.”

“It’s the closest thing I’ll have to being married.”

“To four guys?”

“That’s the way it has to be, Bud, only one season at a time, but there are four.”

“Hmm,” he wiped his mouth on the napkin and carefully placed it back on the table.

“Does that bother you? Would that be a problem for you ?”

“I don’t know. It’s never come up before.” He pulled at his collar.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have hit you with this. You’ve only just got here, but I wanted you to know how it is with me. When you love someone you can only have this way what else is there to do?”

“I like that you’re honest and straightforward, Toni. It just takes some getting used to, you know?”

“I know. It’s not a normal way to live but then there is nothing normal about this place, is there?”

He laughed a little, “You can say that again.”

“Of course none of this may matter. You may find you don’t like me at all or vice versa. You may be wanting to get back in that classic car of yours and drive out of here tomorrow.” She had a teasing light in her eye and he picked it up, his eyes softening.

“I don’t think so.” But sharing her forever, now that would take some thinking. “Got any more of this coffee?”

Toni took his cup and refilled it. He looked her over as she stood at the counter, liking what he saw, nothing fancy, nothing artificial; she wasn’t some painted up dame. He noticed she was in her socks underneath her jeans. Nice shape. He blushed when she turned and caught him looking.

How long had it been, she wondered, when she had seen a man blush so often. John blushed sometimes but never Max or Terry. She smiled, handing him the cup.

“It’s been a while, like I said, but it seems to me this house has a different look about it or something.”

“Oh, I think a few changes have happened but it’s the feel of the place for me that’s changed since I first came here.”

Bud looked around the kitchen. It felt like a warm, loving home to him, a place he’d like to spend some time in. Warm…loving…home. He looked down in his cup and stirred it again. What did he know about such places?

“I thought we might have lasagna later and maybe a salad. Does that sound good to you?” Toni thought he seemed to wander off somewhere in his mind.

He looked up. “Yeah, sounds great. I love lasagna. I’m not hard to please as far as food goes,” he smiled.

“How hard are you to please for other things?”

He met her eyes for a moment, “Not…not at all. I’m easy.”

Toni stared at him, at his open troubled eyes and watched them change to a question. She could see herself in his lap, her head against that broad chest, wrapped in his strong arms, a safe and loving place where nothing could touch her, much like the house wrapped its warmth around her. He needed it, too, she thought, arms around him. She might have to shake his traditional roots a bit but it might just work.

“Shame it’s so messy outside. We could go for a walk or something but maybe an afternoon in front of the fire might be better. We could get to know one another a little. What do you think?”

“Yeah, I’d like that.”

Millie, realizing somebody new was in the house, came in to investigate. Having a sniff, she decided he wasn’t really a cat person so she went about changing his mind, winding around his ankles and looking up at him, blinking her blue eyes.

“I think you have a friend. That’s Millie.” Toni watched him look down at the cat, finally surrendering and giving her a rub down her back.

“Heh, nice cat.”

“She’ll eventually get to you,” Toni smiled. Millie had them all except for Max, and she had an understanding with him.

They moved back into the cozy living room while Bud went to the window, looking up at the sky. “It's going to rain or sleet or something.”

“It’s that time of year where the sky thinks something has to fall daily.” Toni rearranged the soft down sofa pillows, giving them a little room to sit. She saw something down between the cushions and reached her fingers in, bringing up a single piece of popcorn. She closed her fingers over it and stuck it in the pocket of her jeans…Terry. She sent a mental message to the house about its housekeeping.

Bud turned and seeing she’d made a place on the sofa, came over and sat down. He felt a little awkward, not knowing where this was going. It was a whole different ball of wax now. Forever was a big word. He was still trying to get his mind around it.

It was mid afternoon but the soft light from the table lamps lit the room. “What are you thinking about?” Toni asked quietly.

“Oh, uh, I was thinking about forever.” He turned and met her eyes.

“Does that scare you?”

“No, not scared, just wasn’t expecting it. I mean how does that work?”

“You’d come back every spring.”

“And you’d be here?”

“Yes, I would be waiting for you.” She watched his eyes where so much seemed to take place.

“I’d come every year for three months…forever?”

“Yes, if you want to, Bud.” It occurred to her that he was the youngest of the seasons. Maybe he wasn’t ready for something like that. “What is it, the commitment? Are you not ready for something like that?”

He shook his head slightly. “I’m not afraid of commitment. It’s probably the closest thing to marriage I’ll ever have, too.”

“Is it the sharing?”

He shifted his eyes slightly. “That takes some thinking.”

“It doesn’t make me a bad person, Bud. It's either that or be alone for nine months out of a year. I don’t want that. I love each and every one. They are all very different and they, in turn, also love each other. I saw that in December when John and I got stuck outside the gates of this place and had to be rescued. I don’t go to bed with one and think about the other. When it’s your season, I’m yours totally.”

“I didn’t mean to say you were a bad person, Toni. I don’t think anything like that.” He met her eyes, leaving her wanting to touch that handsome face but she didn’t. She would let him come in a little closer all by himself.

“Oh, well, here we are talking about marriage and commitments and we’ve just met. Kinda jumping the gun, don’t you think?” She smiled at him, getting one back, his blue eyes softening.

“Yeah, guess we’re starting at the wrong end.” Somehow his hand had come in contact with hers on the sofa cushion and he took it in his.

Part 2:

The house thought this was starting out nicely, no emotional outbursts, no tears, no anger. Yes, this might work. All it needed was Toni’s guiding love to bring him into the fold. Meanwhile there was that lasagna to prepare and she’d forgotten to mention dessert.

Toni looked down at the hand that held hers and then up at him, smiling. “You have such big, strong hands,” she said.

He smiled slightly. “Yeah, I’m a big guy.”

“A big man with a big heart.” She raised his hand to her lips and kissed it softly.

He blinked several times, looked at the fireplace, the window, the cat that had curled up on the hearthrug and then back at her, released her hand and pulled her to him, kissing her softly, tasting, getting the feel of her.

His lips were so soft, moving gently, his tongue touching hers. When he released her, he didn’t pull away. Touching her nose with his, he kissed her again.

“We’re going to be fine,” Toni said against his lips. Her arms were around his neck and she was on his lap.

Bud’s breath was becoming ragged. He didn’t know what he had expected when he rang the bell to this house, but it wasn’t this, any of it. A kinda proposal to a kinda marriage and this woman. It was moving too fast…too fast. He felt as though he were running to keep up. But, gee whiz, she felt good on his lap, all soft in all the right places and she was kissing him now…him.

Toni lay her head on his shoulder, breathing him in. Spring and she would have him. She knew she had pushed him but she had to know, she had to. It was right, it felt right, it would be okay. Now the discovery lay ahead. He was going to kiss her again.

A silent mutual consent took them up the stairs to her bedroom  the house had made ready for them. He undressed her, let her undress him, and they lay down in the bed, touching, feeling, discovering each other. He was a tender lover their first time together, so afraid he would hurt her. She was so small but she took him and loved him.

He lay beside her. “I can’t believe this is happening to me.”

Toni caressed his cheek, softly kissing his mouth. “Believe it. It’s real, Bud.”

“A couple of hours ago I didn’t know you it don’t seem possible”

“You came looking for love, didn’t you?”

“I don’t know what I came for…I came because you invited me.”

“You’re not sorry?”

“No…no…you don’t fall in love this fast.”

“If it was meant to be. Who are we to question time?”

“You think it was meant to be?”

She smiled, “What do you think? Yes, I do.” She ran her hand over his chest, catching the hair between her fingers. “It feels right to me. You’re going to be easy to love, Bud.”

He put his hand behind her head and pulled her down for a kiss. Toni moved on top of him.

Outside, the wind blew the storm out to sea and down in the kitchen the lasagna began to send its aroma through the hall and up the stairs, reminding the two lovers it was time to eat.

Bud fell hard and fast. He couldn’t get over her and by the time they showered and dressed and came down for dinner he was hers. He pushed the thought of sharing her with his brothers to the back of his mind. Right now she was his.

It was though winter hung around long enough for Bud to arrive and settle in and then it quietly moved north and the weather changed. The snow was a memory, the trees sticky with new leaves, and green found its way through the forest floor. Toni and Bud took long walks over the property. Being a city boy, he reveled in the wide open spaces and especially liked the cliff walks they took. The ground was still wet and he always held onto Toni to make sure she didn’t slip and fall.

“You know nothing is going to happen to me here, Bud.”

“I can’t help it. I have this thing inside me that wants to protect you.”

They began making short trips out, exploring Cape Anne, but they were never gone more than a few hours at a time. Toni thought if worse came to worse at least they could get a ride back to the house from the local area.

They went to Rockport one day and had lunch at  a restaurant on Bradley Warf. She had someone take their picture next to the fishing shack, the most photographed building in New England. She was beginning to fill up her green photo album.

It was the beginning of May when Bud began thinking about his season coming to an end. He loved Toni with everything he had and the thought of leaving her was weighing heavily on him.  He would be going in four weeks and the thought of her being in the arms of another man bothered him. It bothered him a lot.

Toni found him sitting out on the patio one day, staring off toward the ocean.

“Hi, sweetie, what’s on your mind today, something bothering you?”

“No…well, yeah, I guess something is.”

“Are we going to talk about it?” She sat down beside him on the edge of the stone planter.

“I was thinking about when I first came here and we said it was kinda like a marriage, it would be forever.”

“Yes, it will be as long as we want it.”

“When I leave here Max Skinner shows up and takes my place…”

“No, he takes his place.”

“With my wife.”

“Bud, you understand how this place works. I can’t change the seasons.  I’m yours for three months and when you come back I’m yours again.”

“Toni…I’m not sure I can handle this.”

It shocked her. Everything had been going so well between them. They’d found that something and she loved him. “Bud, it has to be this way. Nobody particularly likes it but they accept it. If you want something badly enough, sometimes you do what you have to do to make it happen. Maybe you don’t want it badly enough?”

He turned to her. “Aw, kitten, I want it. It’s all I want. I’ve been putting off thinking about this, about the other three. I don’t want to share you.”

“You don’t have a choice. I’m happy, Bud. You’ve made me very happy this spring. I want you to come back. I can’t imagine anybody else…I can’t.”

“I don’t have a choice.” The thought of her in someone else’s arms made his blood hot. It frustrated him and there was nothing he could do about it.

“If you are going to be a part of this, you have to accept it. I’m going to ask you something else, too, while we’re discussing this. If you came back next year and found I was pregnant, how would you feel?”

“Like somebody’d kicked me in the balls.” He got up and walked off toward the path to the lake.

Toni rested her head in her hands. This had never come up before with her other seasons. They knew how it was and accepted it. John was happy for her. It wasn’t a problem for Terry, and Max just simply ignored it. She felt raindrops on her shoulders and looked up. It was going to rain again today…why today?

Bud walked to the pond and found the path that led to the other side. He needed to get away from her to think. He sat on the same bench Terry had occupied in the fall and thought about how much he loved her. There would never be anyone else for him and he reckoned she didn’t feel the same about him.

He watched the raindrops hitting the pond, feeling it well up inside of him and decided the best thing would be for him to leave.

Toni kept going to the windows, looking for him. It was raining quite hard now and he hadn’t returned from the pond. She was beginning to worry about him.  She thought she might go look for him and went downstairs to the hall closet for a raincoat and an umbrella. As she was closing the closet door, she heard a car start up and ran to the front door.

“No…no!”

As Bud backed his car out and pulled up the drive to turn around, he saw her on the front porch. She was crying and waving her arms. He sat behind the wheel, looking at her ‘if you want something bad enough’…

“I was going to leave…”

“No…please, Bud…please.”

“Do what you have to do…”

“I love you, I love you, Bud!”

“...to make it happen.” He held her in the rain.

“I’m so sorry, so sorry it has to be this way.”

He kissed her, each tasting salty tears. “You’re getting all wet.”

“So are you. We should go in.”

“Yeah.”

They had been sleeping in his bedroom but she led him to hers, helping him out of his wet clothes. 

“Did you think I’d let you leave me?” she asked as he lay her down on the bed.

“I wasn’t gonna ask. I couldn’t do it, Toni. You mean too much to me.”

“Then let me love you, Bud.” She took his face in her hands and kissed his soft lips.

He wrapped his strong arms around her and held her to him, feeling her warmth along the length of his body. His hand finding a motion in the small of her back and moving down caressing her bottom, he moaned and kissed her neck, her chin, her nose, her mouth.

Toni moaned, too, breathing in his warm masculine scent, the feel of his skin beneath her hands as she ran them up and down his back and over his hips. He buried his face in her breasts .

“I will love you, Bud, forever.”

“Forever,” he whispered and kissed her lips. Probing deep with his tongue, he pulled her beneath him.

“You will come back?”

“Yes,” he smiled softly, his eyes telling her all she needed to know.

The house had rocked a bit but was now back on track. Whatever was he thinking and here it had already decided his bedroom was to be permanent, no more shifting furniture and painting walls. It took his car back to the garage, opened the door and pushed it in, locking it behind. That should take care of that. Now they will have to be fed…what to do about dinner?

He left on May 30 after an emotional morning but he was okay with it. He had accepted how things had to be and he told Toni before he left if she was pregnant when he came next year he would take care of her and be a proud uncle.

ON TO WHITE ROSES IN SUMMER

BACK TO WINTER MAGIC RETURNS

BACK TO FALL OF MY HEART, PART 1

BACK TO A SECOND SPRING, PART 1

BACK TO FALL, PART 1

BACK TO SUMMER, PART 1

BACK TO SPRING, PART 1

BACK TO WINTER

BACK TO BEGINNINGS

BACK TO LIBRISCROWE