Doc spent most of the next day in the kitchen, getting ready for our dinner with the Braxtons. I helped him as much as I could, but I was bored. He wouldn't let me do anything even remotely strenuous. I was going up the proverbial wall. Finally, I snuck out to the woodshed and started bringing a few armfuls of firewood to the back porch, trying to be as quiet as I could.

When I got back with the third armload, he met me at the door. “What did I tell you about doing any work?” he asked in a stern tone of voice.

I was not in the mood. “Fuck off, Doc”, I said irritably. “Out of my way.”

“Someone needs an attitude adjustment.”

“Someone better get out of my way.” He stepped aside and I dropped the load by the pile of stacked wood. Then he grabbed me by the wrist and started pulling me toward the inner door. “Let go of me!” I tried to break free of his grasp. He picked me up and slung me over his shoulder, fireman style, and took me to our bedroom, where he set me down before sitting on the bed. “Over my knee, Meredith.”

“I don't think so, Doc.” I headed for the door, but he was on me like flies on you-know-what. He took me back to the bed and sat down again, pulling me down and across his knee. I was wearing sweat pants, so he was able to pull them and my panties down off my ass, but I squirmed and made it as hard for him as I could. “Fuck you, Doc.”

“I'm busy right now, Meredith – but maybe later.” I felt his hand come down on my butt, then again and again. After a few smacks, he paused. “You will not tell me to fuck off again. Understand?”

“Fuck you.”

More smacks, this time harder. “You will not say 'fuck you' to me again. Capiche?” I was silent, not wanting to antagonize him further but also not wanting to give in and agree. The smacks resumed, harder this time.

Somewhere along the line, I began to get horny. I could feel my wetness as some slipped out of me and onto Doc's leg. Shortly after that, the spanking stopped. He probably felt that it was counter productive if it was making me horny.

I slid off and stood up. Bending down, I kissed him passionately, then pushed him back onto the bed. I got up on the bed and straddled him, fumbling at his belt. I wanted him in me and I wanted it now! “Time for a ride”, I said.

“Not now, hon”, he replied, pushing my hands away. “I have to finish in the kitchen.”

“Awww, Doc, you get me all worked up and then say no?”

“Sorry, Meredith, but it will have to wait. Why don't you soak in the tub and I'll join you when I am done.” I reluctantly got off him and left the bedroom, pulling my pants up. “My, your ass is red”, he said as I walked through the doorway. “I'll have to put some cream on it later.”

I got into a tub full of water and lay back. I needed to think of a way to get back at my darling husband. I thought and thought, then remembered that I'd seen some mouse droppings in the woodshed. A plan began to formulate in my mind. I had to wait, though, until after our dinner with the Braxton's Saturday night. I didn't want to ruin that. Doc had put too much work into the meal.

In a while, he came into the bathroom totally naked and got into the tub with me. I leaned back against his chest and he wrapped his arms around me. “How's your behind?” he asked.

“Sore!”

“I'll take a look at it later, hon.” He began to nibble at my neck from behind. He knows that is one surefire way to get me back in the mood. His hands ran up my torso and found my breasts. I reached out with my foot and used my toes to pull the plug. When the water level had gone down enough, I straddled Doc's chest and took him into my mouth. His tongue found my clit.

Before long, he was fully erect. I turned around and sat on him, taking it in slowly. As I moved up and down on him, he caressed my breasts and sat up to take a nipple into his mouth. I moaned loudly – when we are alone, I am not quiet. I got up and turned around, getting into the reverse cowgirl position.

We'd been going at it for a bit when I heard “Uh-oh” and it wasn't Doc saying it. I looked over and Alex had walked into the bathroom. He spun around on one heel and quickly exited. I screamed – from being startled, not from fright. Doc went limp faster than I thought possible.

“What the hell is he doing here?” he asked in a low voice.

“I don't know!”

“And how did he get in here?”

“I don't know, Doc – my crystal ball is broken.” I got out of the tub. Julian followed.

He put a towel around his waist. “I'll go get you some clothes, hon.”

Once we were towelled off and dressed, we went out to the living room. Alex was in the easy chair, drinking a beer. “I hope you don't mind, Meredith”, he said, holding the bottle up. “I know it's not Julian's beer.”

I chuckled. “No, it's fine, Alex. Make yourself at home.”

“Just don't eat the prepared food in the fridge”, Doc chimed in. “It's for tomorrow night.”

“You having company?”

“Yes, a local doctor and his wife.”

“Figures you'd find the local physicians, Julian.”

Doc laughed. “Ralph stitched Meredith's foot up last summer when she stepped on that broken beer bottle. We had lunch with him in the hospital cafeteria earlier in the week and I invited them over for dinner.”

“Then I will get out of your hair tomorrow.”

“No, Alex, you're welcome to stay if you want. I'm sure the Braxtons will love meeting you. But where is Deanna?”

“She's in Vancouver taking care of her sister, who had an emergency cholecystectomy on Monday. They couldn't get the gallbladder out laparoscopically, so they had to do an open procedure. She's having a bit of a difficult recovery. Deanna will be gone at least a week, maybe two. I thought I'd come up and see how you two were doing and maybe stay the weekend if it was okay and I wasn't intruding on your privacy.”

“Of course it's okay! And no, you aren't intruding”, I said. Doc cleared his throat.

“Seems I did intrude on something.”

“Aw, don't worry about that. We can finish what we started another time.”

“Meredith, your ass is awful red. Are you all right?”

I'm sure I blushed a thousand shades of pink. “It was probably the hot water I had been soaking in.”

“You aren't red anywhere else.”

“Alex, how did you get in?” Doc asked, changing the subject.

“The door was unlocked. I knocked and there was no answer but I knew that you're here as Meredith's SUV is in the laneway. You were so wrapped up in what you were doing, you didn't hear me.”

“You were last in, Meredith”, Doc reminded me.

“Yes, it was my doing. So spank me.”

“I think you've been spanked already”, Alex remarked. This time, both Doc and I blushed.

“I'm not sure how I feel about you having just seen pretty much every inch of me, Alex.”

“Same here”, Doc said.

“I didn't see much of you, Julian. You were hidden in Meredith.” I tried unsuccessfully to suppress a laugh. “And, Meredith – I've seen you before anyway.”

“When?”

“In the ER when you were kicking up a fuss about getting a sedative – after you'd spent two days in your barn, remember? You were thrashing around so much, your gown didn't stay in place.”

“Oh, yeah.” I really didn't need to be reminded of that.

Doc interrupted. “Ready for supper?”

“I'm starved, Doc”, I replied, grateful for the diversion.

“Alex, why don't you get your bag from the car while Meredith and I get dinner on the table? The guest bedroom is the second door down.”

Later, in our bedroom, my husband kept his promise and put cream on my still sore butt, then we finished what we'd started in the bathtub. We had deliberately put our bed and the bed in the guest bedroom on opposite walls, though we still had to suppress the noise a little.

The next morning, Doc went into town to get some last minute things for his cooking. He asked Alex and I to vacuum and dust. Of course, he asked Alex to do the vacuuming – he forbade me to. “Alex, don't let her do it if she tries.”

“I can't stop her, Julian. The last time I tried to stop her from sweeping her barn, she walked out on me, saying 'fuck you, Alex' under her breath." So he did hear that!

“Don't feel bad, Alex”, she said the same thing to me yesterday when I told her to stop bringing wood in.”

“Ah, so that's why her ass is red.” My face was turning pink from embarrassment.

“SHE is in the room, you know!” I said irritably.

“Come here, hon”, Doc said as he wrapped his arms around me. “You know we both care about you and don't want you doing things that will cause you more pain.”

“I know, Doc. I'm just bored with you spending so much time in the kitchen. It's not like I can go outside and do something and you know I'm not much of a reader.”

“I wish you would read more. You have your laptop, why not play on Facebook? You keep saying you never have enough time for it.”

“I've been doing that while you've been cooking.”

Alex jumped in. “Meredith, vacuuming won't take long – Julian already has the place spotless. You can dust while I do it, then we can have a chat if you like.”

“And when I get back, you can help me cut up veggies, okay?”

“All right.”

Alex and I did our assigned chores, then sat down in the living room with a cup of coffee. Dr Hampton had relaxed on the caffeine edict of only one cup a day and was allowing me up to 3 cups. I snuck an extra one or two when nobody was looking. Scruffy sat on my shoulder, happy that she wasn't shut in a room. She was not going to be happy when I put her in the bedroom before our guests arrived.

“I'm so embarrassed that you saw Julian and I yesterday”, I said to him.

“Meredith, don't be. You weren't doing anything wrong.”

“But we were naked!”

“Trust me, Meredith, you don't have anything I haven't seen before. I'm an MD, remember? I've seen many a naked body. Other than that, how are you doing?”

“I'm great. I'm really enjoying our honeymoon and having Julian to myself. Though I am glad you are here”, I quickly added, not wanting to make him feel like he was unwanted.

“Are you? I'm not intruding?”

“No, Alex. We are both happy to have you here for a weekend. While I'm loving the time here, I miss the farm and you, Deanna and all my critters.”

“You aren't thinking of going home early, are you?”

“Oh, no! We will be home soon enough. I just hope Robbie doesn't forget me.”

“He won't. You are the one who took him from where he was abused. He won't forget that. You will be so pleased with his progress. He's doing fantastic.”

I sighed. “I'm not sure I can keep going with the rescue stuff.”

“Why not, Meredith?”

“I'm getting too attached to them. I've kept Lilly and her foal – well, Doc adopted them but they are my responsibility. And now I'm getting attached to Robbie and I want to keep him.”

“Meredith, remember how you used to tell me that you gave them up to new homes so that you'd have room to rescue more and get them out of their abusive situations?”

“Yeah.”

“You need to start telling yourself that again. Those animals need you – the ones that need rescuing. If you don't do it, the ones that other rescuers can't take will continue to be neglected or abused.”

“You are right, Alex.”

“By the way, you aren't the only one getting attached to Robbie.”

“Who else is? You?”

“Yep. And Deanna and I have been talking about buying a new house instead of rebuilding once we get the insurance claim settled. IF we get it settled.”

“I'm sure you will, Alex.”

“I don't know, they won't tell me why they haven't paid it yet. They just say they have to make sure it's a legitimate claim.”

“Why the hell wouldn't it be?”

“That's all they would say. Anyway, like I said, we are thinking of buying and maybe getting a small hobby farm outside the city. If we do, I may adopt Robbie. We'd like to have a couple horses, maybe some chickens and a goat.”

“Oh, you would love it, Alex. You are so good with animals. I've told Doc that you should have been a vet.”

“I did think of it – it was a tossup between veterinarian and psychiatrist. I figured there's already a vet in the family and we could use a shrink to deal with the craziness of being a Carmichael.”

I laughed. “Oh, Alex, I needed that.”

“What? A shrink in your family?”

“Well, maybe but I meant the laugh.”

We heard a car coming down the laneway. “Looks like Julian is home”, Alex said. “Let me give you a hug, I think you need one.” He got out of the chair and sat beside me on the sofa. I gladly accepted the hug. “You know what we should do?” he asked. “Fake an intimate embrace, then jump away from each other when he comes in the door.” Alex was a terrible prankster.

“Oh God, Alex, he'd have a heart attack. You know how Doc takes everything so seriously. I don't want to end up in divorce court. But wait until you find out the prank I'm going to play on him after tonight.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Let's just say it involves mouse turds.”

“You have mice?”

“Not in the cabin. In the woodshed.” I heard the doorknob turning and Doc entered with bags in his hands. “Geez, Doc, is there anything left at the store?” I asked as I greeted him with a kiss. “Here, let me take some.”

“I can handle it, hon. Have you been behaving?”

“Don't I always?”

“You really want an answer to that? Come into the kitchen, you can help me unpack these bags. Alex, could you set the table for lunch please?”

Ralph and his wife, Ellen, arrived around 6:00pm. “I hope I am not intruding on your dinner”, Alex said after they were introduced.

“Not at all”, Ralph replied. “Any friend of the Richards is a friend of mine.”

We sat down in the living room with drinks. “You have a nice place here, Ralph said as he looked around the room.

“Thank you”, Julian replied. “We almost didn't buy it, after what happened to Meredith last summer while we were trying it out. I thought it was a bad omen, but then I realized what a butthead I was being – as Meredith would say.”

“Ralph and I watched the video you gave him of your wedding”, Ellen said. “It was a lovely service, and you were a beautiful bride.”

“Thank you”, I blushed.

“How is the honeymoon going?” Ralph asked.

“It's wonderful”, Doc replied. “We are really enjoying it.”

“I hope you are taking it easy on your bride.” Doc blushed.

I came to his rescue. “Julian says it's the other way around – that I need to take it easy on him.” Everyone laughed.

“We read up on that Patton trial you told Ralph to look up. I seem to remember it being on the news at the time, but I only saw a bit of the coverage. Those were some pretty awful times you two went through. How are you doing now?” Ellen asked.

“We are both fine, thank you”, Doc responded.

“Meredith, I also followed a link to a Chad Watters trial. Was that you, as well?” Ralph asked me. I nodded. “Goodness, you've been through the wringer.”

“That was nothing, compared to what Jane put us through, Ralph.”

“It sounds like you fought for your life.”

“I did, but I won.”

“Thank God for that”, Ellen said.

Doc got us off that subject. “Dinner should be ready. Let's eat.” As usual, he served a wonderful meal. Of course, he had to apologize for the ambience not being that of a five star restaurant.

“Julian, don't be silly. This is a cabin. We were expecting casual and would have been happy with hot dogs. It's the company that makes the evening”, Ralph told him.

After we ate, we went back to the living room with another drink. I heard chattering and scratching at the inside of the bedroom door. Scruffy. I tried to ignore it, but our guests heard it, too. “What is that noise?” Ellen asked.

“Just my squirrel. She wants out of prison.”

“You have a squirrel?”

“I do.”

“Let her out”, Ralph suggested. “She probably wants to see what's going on.”

“I can let her out, but first – full disclosure. She's from the wild. She's clean and has her vaccinations. She's become a lot more used to people and more trusting, but I can't predict her behaviour. Just sit still and let her come to you if she chooses. She may sniff around a bit, but she most likely won't hurt you as long as you let her lead. She knows Julian, Alex and I so she should be at ease.”

“As long as she doesn't pee on us”, Ralph quipped.

“Oh, no, she won't. She uses a litter box.” I headed for the bedroom to get Scruffy, hoping that this went smoothly.