It really was sweet of Starr Ann and Jodie to have breakfast ready for Celia Susan and me when we got up this morning.
But you know how sometimes you really love two people who haven't met yet, and you can't wait for them to know each other? That's how Starr Ann and I had been looking forward to Jodie meeting Celia Susan. Guess we forgot how Celia Susan can be a little bit of a shock at first.
So Celia Susan and I came walking in and I mentioned that the coffee smelled awful good. Celia Susan started right up with Starr Ann over Iraq, Iran, the weasel Democrats, and the fact that she thought we'd never have to look at Donald Rumsfeld's face again, but here he is.
Then Starr Ann remembered her manners. She said, "Celia, honey, you and Jodie haven't even met yet." Starr Ann put her arms around Jodie and made the introductions, in between little kisses on the back of Jodie's neck.
Jodie and Celia Susan shook hands. So far so good.
Just a few minutes later, Celia Susan was standing in the center of the kitchen, waving her arms, making some point about Blackwater, when Jodie dropped a paper towel on the floor and bent over to pick it up. Just out of reflex, because she's Celia Susan, Celia Susan took one look at Jodie's nice round butt and cracked it a good one. It was just impulse.
Jodie straightend up and looked more than perplexed, but went right on with her business.
Because she's Celia Susan, Celia Susan kept her eyes on Jodie's behind, which I don't even think Jodie realized she was still rubbing the sting from, and Celia Susan says, "If you wanted to lose those jeans and put on some chaps, only chaps, Jodie, it might be fun for you and me to spend the whole afternoon exploring how to make a cowgirl behave."
I told you Celia Susan can be a bit much at first. But I swear you learn to love her. Eventually.
Right after breakfast, as Jodie and I were waving goodbye to Starr Ann and Celia Susan (who were going off for the day to glory in Starr Ann's bunkers), Jodie said to me, "What the fuck do you and Starr Ann see in her?"
"Good question," I said.
"And you, sleeping with her, Margo. I just do not get that."
Trying to loosen Jodie up, I said, "Aw, we might doze once in a while, but with Celia Susan, you don't really sleep."
Jodie's sense of humor got left at her house, I guess, because she just went back inside and started cleaning up our kitchen. Lucky for me, Starr Ann and Celia Susan weren't gone but ten minutes before they came barreling through the front door again.
Starr Ann said, "Change of plans, ladies. There's a big piece of fence down over past the orchard. Gotta get it back up today, before we turn any of the horses out in the main pasture."
All four of us mobilized right away. Wow, it was a mess down there. We had at least ten posts down and six or seven leaning so bad, they needed to come out too.
Starr Ann said for Jodie and Celia Susan to stay there pulling the old boards and getting everything out of the way while she and I brought back new lumber from the barn. Starr Ann made sure she didn't look at Jodie or give her a chance to object to being left with Celia Susan.
As we rode away, I said to Starr Ann, "So when did you have time to come down here and knock down that fence?"
"Yesterday morning. It needed replacin' anyway." Starr Ann laughed the way you're real lucky if you ever get to hear her laugh. "By the time we go back, they'll either both be dead, or they'll be halfway in love."
"Yep. No in-betweens with Celia Susan."
Two hours later, those poor things were covered with sweat and dust and could barely move, they were so worn out. The old fence was cleared away nice, though, and everything stacked neatly to one side.
As we rode up, Jodie threw her arm across Celia Susan's shoulders and said, "Took you the fuck long enough." Then she messed up Celia Susan's hair even more than it was. "Tell you what, though, girls. When there's hard work to be done, this is the woman you want by your side."
My Starr Ann done did it again.
