"	Gene's Story or How I Gained a Cousin A novel by Karen Lockhart Copyright 2016

The rest of the week flew by as we were engrossed with the things required to set up an office from scratch. I remembered the first time I had to do this on my own. I was overwhelmed; I flew around like a nut, never finishing one thing before I moved to the next.

Believe it or not, Ginny was a big help, showing an aptitude for the minutiae in setting up the file system required for the construction of a four story mixed use building; three stories of condos, and a ground floor of offices.

The electric company gave us a meter, and this allowed the return of the generator. The phone company got our wifi installed and working. Thanks be, The internet was mine again!

I got our color laser printer hooked up to the wifi address. This would allow both Ginny and I to print from our desks. No cables running every where! I still prefer a regular keyboard to typing on a laptop. Desktops are cheaper too. Oh, well.

Friday afternoon arrived. We headed out the door and into my car, heading along the ocean on the ride home. There was an offshore storm producing spectacular surf jumping over the seawall, onto the road. Worth the cost of admission!

On the ride home, Ginny did nothing but talk of a car for her, all thoughts of Morales relegated to the back of her head. We agreed to set Sunday aside for looking. She liked my Explorer so much it was decided to shop for a small SUV with four wheel drive. I was surprised she wanted a compact, in as much as she drove a beast of a truck when she was Gene.

We made a stop to pick-up a nice haddock filet for supper.

At home we changed into jeans and a sweatshirt for me and a tight tee shirt for her, There she went, out-glamming me again!

As she cooked, we talked about a suitable vehicle for her. I suggested a Honda CRV a few years old, to save money. Ginny said she had in mind a Toyota RAV-4, both good cars, and good in the snow. The previous year we had over 9 feet of snow even along the coast, it's unusual, but typical of a New England winter; expect the unexpected!

Ginny made a delicious baked haddock dinner with baked potatoes and fresh green beans. After cleaning up I made coffee for both of us.

Over the coffee I outlined my plan for handling Morales the following day at the barn in Newbury.

“Here's what we'll do,” I said. “We stay late to watch Kevin work his horse. He promised to give you a ride in the cart with him, after all, so it won't be out of character.”

“While I'm watching you, I'll confront Morales about how he slammed into my office a couple of weeks ago, and asked about the driver of that truck that he and the Boston Police were looking for.”

“How will this help me? You're going to draw attention to me that way,” she said with a shudder. “Why ask about Gene?”

“Look, the subject has to come up, also he just saw me ride in a lesson with his daughter Tina. It would look funny if I said nothing, don't you see?”

“Tina will be standing beside me during this exchange after all, so her father won't do anything out of place,” I took a deep breath. “Hopefully, I'll be on the show circuit with them.”

“How will this help me?” Ginny asked. “Will I be with you at the shows too?”

“Sure you will Ginny, you're just a temp secretary, you can't run a job by yourself. Steve will stand in for me, and I don't trust him alone in the office with you anyway.”

Well, with that she tossed a cushion from the sofa at me, only missing due to my outstanding reflexes, I was laughing so hard I slipped off the chair onto the floor. The cushion missed me by a foot.

“It does sound like a plan that should work. I mean he won't grab me down there to check if I have the right equipment or not, would he?”

We settled down to watch one of my favorite tv shows, “Blue Bloods”. That Tom Selleck is still really hot even at his age. Donnie Walberg is pretty hot too! He was great in the series “Band of Brothers”. Don't forget the assistant DA was Tom Brady's girl friend, they had a son together, named Jack. He must be about 8 or 10 by now.

Saturday dawned cold and drizzly, really raw with the mercury hovering about 40°F. I put on a sweater, and grabbed my down jacket, then walked to Ginny's room.

“Full facial make-up,” I yelled with a chuckle, “Look like you're going clubbing. It'll hook Kevin for sure, but we want Morales to be able to look at you, and think unclean thoughts. Don't forget to wear slacks, you'll be in and out of the jog cart with Kevin.”

We bundled up, got into the Explorer and headed for the barn in Newbury. At least one of us had a frog in their throat, maybe two of us.

As we pulled in I spotted a gleaming black Cadillac parked near the door. Here goes nothing, I thought as I parked right beside it, this would guarantee conversation later.

Ginny grabbed my saddle, I got my grooming box, and we headed for the door. To my surprise the stable door swung open. Guess who held it for me? Right. Got it in one try. Morales! Ginny stumbled in after me, looking like she was going to faint, put my saddle down and sat down on one of the chairs.

Morales looked at me and said, “I would like to apologize for my behavior a while ago, I stormed into your office demanding information on a truck driver. I had no right to do that, and I'm really sorry I acted that way, I hope you will forgive me.”

Wow, this guy was smooth. You'd never guess what he did for a living.

“Well, when put that way, I guess I have to,“ I said while extending my hand. “I'm Ellen Hanson, and I know who you are, your name is Morales, isn't it?”

“It's Vincent, but people call me Vinny, or just plain Vin, and who is the lovely young lady who carried in your saddle?”

Oh, shoot, here it comes! “This is my cousin Virginia Hanson, she's staying with me for a while.” Why did I say that?

“Pleased to meet you, my name is Vinny, do you ride also?” he asked. “Your cousin has a riding lesson with my daughter Tina.”

“Please call me Ginny, and no I don't ride, to be honest, I'm a little afraid of horses.”

“That's funny,” he said. “I'm Vinny and you're Ginny.”

About this time Cathy walked into the tack room.

“Oh good, you introduced yourselves, If Ellen keeps riding the way she has, you'll be spending a lot of time together at shows this summer. Time to tack up ladies, lesson starts in ten minutes.”

I headed for my horse's stall to get him brushed and saddled up. Ginny headed towards the viewing room with Vinny Morales on her tail. As she stepped in she heard Kevin's voice coming from the Coke machine.

“Hey, nice to see you again, Ginny, are you going to take advantage of my offer for a ride?”

“Is it still good?” She asked, “I wore slacks just in case you meant it.”

“Oh, I meant it all right, I'll get the two seater out and dusted off. As soon as Doc and I finish our training lesson, you hop in, and away we go. Too bad the weather's so nasty or we could go around the track instead of just in the arena.”

The whole time Kevin was talking to Ginny, Morales was looking daggers at Kevin's back.
It looked like another conquest for Ginny, except this one is Morales, for Pete's sake!

Kevin stood up and returned the look in spades and said “Looks like one of your flunkies just got busted by the Staties. Too bad, huh?”

Morales smiled and said “Not my flunky, kid, but I did own 40% of that business. I'll be lucky to get back a dime for a dollar once those trucks hit the auction. Most of them are junkers.”

Kevin headed for Doc's stall, harnessed him and put a halter over his driving bridle. Then he walked him out of the stall and hooked him to cross-ties in the aisle.

All this time Morales was trying to draw Ginny out with no success. This only made him increase his efforts.

Kevin stuck his head in the door. “Ginny come with me, you can watch from the arena, it'll give you a feel for how the horse trots before you get in the cart with me.”

Ginny got up and went into the cold, happy to be away from Morales, and his pick-up lines.

Our worries were just about over, I thought. Boy does he think she's female, he had a pants tent just from talking to her.

Round one to Kevin, but it was early yet.

I finished my lesson to accolades from Cathy, that's just what I wanted to hear! “Great job! You ride like that all the time, and you will win blue ribbons at any show!”

As we were cooling out our horses, Cathy and Kevin were hitching Doc to the two seat work cart. In no time they were hooked, Kevin was seated, and off he went, counter clockwise around the ring.

That's about all I saw, I brought Freddy back to his stall, gave him a good brushing and tossed a cooler blanket over him until he dried off. Once he was pretty dry I'd put his own blanket on and turn him loose to roll and then search for bits of hay he missed earlier.

I got back to the arena in time to see the end of the driving lesson. Kevin stopped in the middle of the ring and posed Doc by having him stretch his two front feet and lean forward. How they teach a horse to do that, is beyond me.

Instead of unhooking the horse from the cart, Kevin slid over to the right to make room for Ginny. She stepped her right foot into the cart, sat down and then brought in her left foot.

Kevin gave the horse a click, and off they went at a good trot around the ring. At first, Ginny was really nervous, but after a little bit, she started to relax and enjoy the ride. After a couple of figure eights in the ring, Kevin slowed Doc to a walk, and OMG handed the reins to Ginny!

After walking half the ring, Doc started to trot, with Ginny still holding the reins. You could tell she was having the time of her life. Soon Kevin had Ginny stop in the middle of the ring, Ride's over. He stepped out, went to Doc's head, and held the bridle.

“Okay Ginny you can get out now, use the same side as when you got in.” he said, “Wasn't that fun? You did a great job steering too!”

I walked in and held Doc's head so Kevin could finish un-hitching him. Ginny then took the cart and rolled it backward, while I walked Doc forward. Kevin relieved me of my burden saying he had him and thanks for the help.

After standing the cart up against the wall, Ginny hurried up to catch Kevin and watch how a harness was removed.

Oh oh, on two fronts, I think Ginny liked driving, and I think Ginny really liked Kevin.
Before this went too far, I thought we needed to sit down with him and have a long talk, but not here and not now.

We made our 'good-byes' and headed for the Explorer, only to meet Morales, who was waiting for us, leaning on his car.

“Again I want to apologize for my behaviour that day, I was more interested in finding that crook than in my actions in front of two lovely ladies.” he smiled and continued, “I would like to have you both as my guests for a quick lunch and drinks.”

We smiled and thanked him, but said we had an appointment and maybe another time. We got in our respective vehicles and left, both heading south, until he turned right onto Route 133 West, while I continued South on Route 1.

“I think that went as well as could be expected, except I think Vinny Morales wants to get into your pants, my dear,” I chortled, “Kevin too.”

At this she turned scarlet. “Morales can have them, but I don't think they'd fit.”

“How about Kevin then, would they fit him?”

“I wish!” was her answer.

“Ginny, when we get home, we need to talk about Kevin, you can't string him along.”

To be continued.

Thanks to Bronwen for fixing the typos and grammar.