I'd like to welcome guest author Donna McIntosh to my blog today. Let's find out more about her and her book "Under Texas Sky."
1-Is there a
story that you’d like to tell but you think the world isn’t
ready to receive it?
Not
really. I think it's all pretty much been done.
2-If they were to make the story of your life into a movie, who should play you?
Betty White!
3-You’re marooned on a small island with one person and one item of your
choice—who is that person and what item do you have?
I could say
Jake Gyllenhaal so that I could just sit and stare at him all day long,
but in reality, I think I'd like it to be Martha Stewart because she'd
be able to fix me a meal out of whatever is available on the island.
A two-way radio so I can call for help.
4-When you start a new story, do you begin with a character, or a plot?
A
plot. The idea of things that are happening always comes first and
then I come up with the characters that I'd like to see working their
way through them.
UNDER TEXAS SKIES
By Donna McIntosh
(Blurb)
Leonard Williams and Carl Freeman were
born in different parts of Texas but met at a football game their
senior year of high school. They spent the summer after graduation
fishing, camping and enjoying each other's company intimately.
Real life crept in and they were
separated for the next twelve years. They meet up accidentally and
start their relationship up again, meeting whenever they could both
get away from their jobs, their wives and families.
By the time they
come to realize they are each other's one true soul mate; it's too
late for them to have a life together. Neither would leave their
marriages because of the children whom they loved dearly. Then one
day fate steps in and offers them the opportunity to be together and
have their children. Could they do it? Could two gay men live
together and have custody of three small children?
(Excerpt)
Carl Freeman bent
his lanky six-foot-three-inch frame down to a squat as he sorted
through the fishing lures on the bottom shelf in the dusty little
bait shack. He shoved his dark blond hair back so he could see
better. He pulled out the few that he wanted, stood and stretched his
back then headed for the front to pay for his selection when another
guy’s shoulder bumped him hard. He turned angrily to see what the
guy’s problem was and stared into a face he hadn't seen in years.
Leonard Williams.
Lenny grinned like
a jack-o-lantern; blue eyes flashing with affection.
“Carl Freeman!
You old son of a bitch! How you been?”
Carl dumped the
lures on the counter and grabbed Leonard up in a bear hug and swung
him around.
“Shit, Lenny!
Where the hell you been? I haven't seen you in… what… ten, twelve
years?” They pounded each other on the shoulders and grinned
happily at one another.
“That's right.
The summer we graduated. Jeeze, that was a lifetime ago. You here for
some fishin'?” Lenny asked as he leaned back against the counter
and sized up his buddy with hungry eyes.
“Yeah. Got me a
weekend off and wanted to get in a little fishin'. You doin' the
same?” he asked as the shopkeeper rang up his bill. Carl reached
into his wallet and pulled the few bills out to pay then waited while
Lenny paid for the bait and ice he had just purchased.
“Sure enough.”
Lenny said as he hefted the ice up on his shoulder as they headed
out front. He dumped the ice and bait into the chest in the back of
his pickup. “You out here alone?”
“Uh huh. You?”
Carl replied. His memory drifted back to that long-ago summer they
had spent together fishing most every weekend after meeting at a high
school football game. It had been one of those once-in-a-lifetime
meetings. They lived about a hundred and seventy-five miles apart,
Leonard from Boerne, TX and Carl from Corpus Christi, and they met at
a football game in San Antonio their senior year when both their high
school teams made the playoffs. Both were fans and enjoyed the games
immensely, and at halftime, they watched as a bunch of kids from both
sides jousted and played. Soon, they were talking and laughing
together like old friends and found they had a lot in common besides
enjoying a good football game. Both were avid fishermen and before
the night was over had made arrangements to meet up and do a little
fishing together.
Carl brought his
camping gear and they camped in a quiet little spot about a hundred
yards back from the river. They spent more time talking than fishing
on that first trip. Both were only children and both held
minimum-wage jobs; Carl working in a garage as a mechanic and Lenny
as an apprentice carpenter. Both drove beat-up old pickups and they
both worked weekends so their days off were usually mid-week, which
was fine for them as there was always less traffic and the campsites
were less crowded.
Rain fell in
sheets during their second trip, but neither of them cared. They
huddled in the small tent and before long they were laughing and
wrestling like a couple of boys. Lenny banged his head against the
lantern and let out a curse.
“Oh, shit! I'm
sorry!” Carl reached to caress the back of Lenny's head to feel for
a bump as they laughed, and seconds later, they were kissing. Neither
of them could have said who kissed who first. It just happened, again
and again and again.
“Oh God, Lenny.
I've been wanting to kiss you so bad!” Carl hissed between kisses.
“Me too!”
Lenny answered breathlessly as he pulled Carl closer against him.
“C'mere,” he said leaning Carl back and rolling on top of him. It
was their first time together and the beginning of a summer-long
affair that ended only when Lenny's uncle in Dallas had a heart
attack and Lenny had to move up there to help his family. Somehow
they had never gotten each other's home addresses or phone numbers
and always just made it a point to meet up the next Tuesday at their
favorite spot. When Lenny didn't show that day, Carl assumed it was
over. Neither of them made any attempt to find the other.
Their lives took
off in different directions. Eventually, Carl met Angie Fetterman and
married her and Lenny met and married Dana Grant up in Dallas, both
thinking marriage was the direction their lives were supposed to
take. As the years passed, they each realized that the only time
they’d ever been completely happy in their lives was that summer
they’d spent together. Each thought about looking the other up but
they were married now, settled down with kids, but both kept that
long-ago summer memory tucked away in the back of their hearts.
Now, twelve years
later, they stood face to face outside Black’s Bait Shop and words
failed them.
“Can I buy you a
beer?” Carl blurted out finally.
“I got some over
at my campsite. C'mon.” Lenny smiled and climbed into his pickup.
“Follow me.”
Carl jumped in his
pickup and followed him over to where Lenny had his thirty-foot
Winnebago parked. Once inside with the door locked, Carl shoved him
up against the wall and kissed him. Lenny grabbed him and returned
the kiss just as fiercely.
“Son of a bitch,
son of a bitch!” said Lenny, clinging to Carl.
“Jesus Christ,
Lenny!” Carl said as he held him tightly. “I never figured to see
you again. Where the hell you been?”
“Later,” Lenny
replied with a nuzzle against Carl’s forehead. “Get in here.”
Carl walked back to the bedroom, peeling his shirt off as he went.
Carl followed, and in less than a minute, they were naked and
jousting on the bed just like old times; as if twelve years hadn't
passed since their last time together. Their bodies were older, a
little more filled out, but they still fit together like two links on
a chain with the same fiercely deep passion as before. Afterward,
they clung to each other as they waited for the world to stop
spinning.
“God, I missed
you!” Lenny said as he pulled Carl closer. “I can't tell you how
many times I thought about you and wondered where you were.”
“What happened?
Why didn't you show up that Tuesday?” Carl asked.
“Oh, shit, Carl.
It all happened so fast, and dumb-ass that I am, I didn't have your
phone number to call or an address to write. And before you know it,
I was neck deep and figured you was probably mad at me.”
“What happened?”
Carl repeated the question as he sat up and turned to face Lenny.
Lenny levered
himself up to a sitting position and started out with a big sigh as
he ran a hand through his tousled dark hair. “My uncle in Dallas
had a heart attack and I had to take off. My aunt was still on
crutches from an automobile accident a few months before and they had
five kids and a business to run, a little carpentry shop. Next thing
I knew, I was runnin’ the place. I wasn't in my uncle's league yet,
but I was able to handle most of the stuff and farmed out what I
couldn't handle. And evenings I had to help with the kids and my aunt
and uncle. It was a hell of a mess. I hardly had time to take a piss
let alone take off to spend time with you nearly three-hundred miles
away then. And like I said, I figured you was mad at me for not
showin’ up.”
“I just figured
you got tired a me.” Carl said, looking down and fingering a crease
in the bedspread.
“Tired a you?
Never!” Lenny pulled him close and kissed him hard. After a bit he
sat back and asked. “So what have you been up to these last twelve
years?”
“Ah shit,”
Carl repled. “About the same. Workin my ass off at the garage.”
“I see you're
married.” Lenny said, pointing to Carl's wedding ring. “Me too.”
“Yeah.” Carl
said after a quick glance at Lenny’s gold band. “That's one
mistake I wished I'd never made. How about you?”
“Well I got
married ‘cause I got her pregnant. Figured it was the least I could
do.”
“You got kids?”
Carl asked with a little grin. “Me too. I got Lila. She's four.”
“I got me two
boys; aged one and two. They kinda make up for everythin’ else, I
guess.”
“I know what you
mean. Angie ain't no kinda wife, nor mother neither for that matter,
but my Lila is worth all the shit I got a put up with. She's the
sweetest little thing you ever did see.” Carl smiled with pride.
“My wife, Dana,
she ain't bad,” said Lenny. “I mean, she's a looker all right,
that's for sure, and she loves the boys to death. She's got a lot
goin’ on though. She's got a good-payin’ job at some big
advertisin’ agency there in Dallas. She comes from rich folks and
that father a hers is always in our business tryin’ to tell us how
to run our lives. I'm nothin’ but dog shit to him and he's been
tryin’ to get rid a me since day one.”
“Do you love
her?” The question was out of Carl's mouth before he took the time
to think about it. He was a little embarrassed after he asked and had
to look away.
Lenny thought
about it a few minutes before answering, then said, “I like her. I
like her a lot. But we ain't got no big romance goin’, if that's
what you're askin’.”
“It ain't none a
my business. I don't even know why I asked.” Carl half-way
apologized.
“It ain't never
been with her like it is with us.” Lenny smiled and caressed Carl's
arm. “She don't set me on fire with just a look like you do.”
Carl blushed but
couldn't help the giddy feeling the words gave him. “Same with
Angie. I mean, I liked doin’ it with her and all but it wasn't
nothin’ like I thought it would be. I like it best when I turn her
over and do her from the back so I can pretend I'm doin’ you but
she don't like it that way. We fight about it some.”
“I tried that a
couple a times with Dana, but she wouldn't have none of it. I told
her she wouldn't have to worry about gettin’ pregnant again if we
did it that way, but she got herself on them birth control pills so I
can't use that excuse no more.”
“So where do we
go from here? What do you want to do?” Carl asked.
Lenny grinned,
“Hell, you know what I want to do!” He bent pressed his cheek
against Carl's hardening cock. “Can't tell you how much I missed
you,” he whispered between licks.
Carl's head
thudded back against the headboard as he sank into bliss.
****
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