Dixieland Delight

"What's wrong?" asked Bobby Joe. "You act like you ain't happy to see me."

"It ain't that," said Betty Sue. "I do like you, Bobby Joe. It's just that we can't never be together again like we were Saturday. It just ain't right. I'm married."

"But your husband can't give you any now, and he might not ever can again," Bobby Joe protested.

"That don't matter," Betty Sue replied. "He's still my husband."

Bobby Joe looked disappointed but didn't say anything. He didn't sit with her at lunch like he usually did. Betty Sue saw him sitting at the opposite end of the cafeteria, talking and laughing with another woman who worked with them. Relief flooded through her.

The next time Betty Sue went to visit Rob at the clinic, she found him in a very cheerful mood.

"Look what I can do now!" he said proudly. He took a crutch in each hand and painstakingly pulled himself into a standing position. Ever so slowly, he began to shuffle across the floor, leaning heavily on the crutches. When he got to the other side of the room, he looked back at her triumphantly.

"Good for you!" Bobby Sue exclaimed, clapping enthusiastically. She rushed to hug Rob tightly.

"And that ain't all," Rob told her. "The feelin' is startin' to come back in other places too, if you know what I mean."

"That's wonderful," said Betty Sue. "I can't wait to hold you in my arms again." For the first time since Charles' death, Betty Sue felt genuinely happy.

A month later, Rob was finally discharged from the clinic. He still used crutches, but he was able to walk much better, barely needing them at all. Betty Sue baked a cake for the occasion and dressed herself and the children up. Rob's eyes lit up when he stepped into the house and saw all the preparations she'd made.

"Did you really do all this for me?" he asked.

Tommy, Wade, and Ruthie, overjoyed to see their father again, constantly swarmed around him, craving his attention.

"One at a time, kids," he finally told them.

Betty Sue cooked fried chicken, biscuits, mashed potatoes, and green beans for dinner. Afterwards she served cake and ice cream.

"You're really spoilin' me today, sweetheart," Rob told his wife.

"I'm just ever so happy to finally have you home again," she replied.

That night Betty Sue put on the black negligee that Rob had brought from Paris for her.

"You're beautiful," Rob whispered, beginning to touch her.

She helped him to take off his pants. She saw that he was slightly hard, but not enough so for penetration. She took him into her hand, stimulating him as she normally did, but instead of immediately hardening as he had before his illness, he remained partially limp. She continued to stimulate him for a long time with no further result.

"Aw, it ain't gonna happen," Rob cried, frustrated.

"I've got an idea," Betty Sue said. "Somethin' I ain't never tried before."

Feeling a bit uncertain about it, but desperate to help her husband, Betty Sue gingerly took Rob's organ into her mouth and began to gently lick and suckle it. The sensation was not an unpleasant one; in fact, Betty Sue found herself becoming quite aroused.

"Golly!" Rob cried in surprise and delight. Within seconds he was firm enough for penetration, and Betty Sue lay back so that he could enter her. Afterwards they lay in one another's arms, and Betty Sue felt that a raw, aching wound deep inside her had finally healed.

"Betty Sue, you are really some woman," Rob told her gratefully. "I don't know what in the world I'd do without you. And I swear to you, Betty Sue, I'll never again take another woman to bed, no matter how lonely I get."

"I love you, Rob." Betty Sue had never meant the words more fervently than she did now.