FATHERHOOD... Learning to cope (Part 51d)

The fancy panties (Gotham Gold Stripe... see avatar for the blog) that I’d bought way back in the Winter and had hidden away were still there. I’d wanted Elle to get back to the weight (and shape) that she was in the previous Summer before giving them to her. I decided that a good time would be on the anniversary of the baby’s first month. Elle’s daily routine was to wait to get showered and dressed until after the baby had been fed and bathed. I tried to time a visit back to the trailer to catch her before she did. When I walked in she had just stepped out of the shower. When she saw me she thought something was wrong. I assured her that it was OK. I had retrieved the panties from their hiding place and had a pair balled up in my hand as I walked towards her naked body. It was hard for me to believe how big she’d been just a month earlier. Talking about “big”, I sure was and as soon as I put my arms around her she knew it. She immediately pushed me back but it was something I expected. I then unballed the panties and held them up to show her. I won’t try to embellish the moment and say she jumped for joy but she was surprised. She certainly knew of my love of nice panties and over the past six or seven months had been forced to wear very unglamorous maternity panties along with padding and plastic panties. She’d started wearing just a couple of pairs of heavy cotton panties around the trailer and seeing the fancy panties it was like some sort of liberation from them. I bent down so she could step into them and then I stepped back and loved what I saw. They were prettier on than just by themselves. I took her by the hand and showed her the other four pair I’d bought. It wasn’t much of a gift but she took it in a positive way.

As far as work was going I was bit disappointed. Over the month I’d only driven in one more race with only a slight improvement. I wasn't in position to “push” for more action so I just went about my day with a positive attitude. AJ had taken on a few more horses so we had both sides of the barn full. A couple of the owners had decided that they wanted to get licenses to drive in races which did not really please either AJ or me. For AJ it meant less money as he was entitled to a percentage of whatever the horses he drove earned. It annoyed me in that the owners, armed with their license, strutted about like banty roosters. They knew nothing about how to train a horse or what went into it and it showed in their poor performance on the track. Not that mine had been much better but at least I looked like I knew what I was doing. I actually caught a couple of other drivers laughing at them as they went by on the track.

My parents decided to deliver my new car over the fourth of July weekend. They planned to visit friends both on the way up as well as on the way home. The plan was for them to drive my old car home and to sell it privately rather than trade it in. My father felt he could get more money for it that way. I was really excited about getting the car although, at that time, I would’ve much rather had the money that it cost. We didn’t have to worry about putting my parents up while they were there. One of the friends they were planning on visiting were the “B’s”, the people who had the clothing store in my college town and who I would visit on many nights after I’d gotten done warming horses up for the races. Knowing that we didn’t have to entertain them made it a LOT easier. The big question was how would my mother treat Elle based on how she was treated the last time she saw her.

One thing became apparent almost as soon as my MIL left and that was that the lady next door was really friendly. Her name was Gert and she called on Elle and brought over a homemade chicken pot pie. She told Elle that she’d wanted to do it earlier but didn’t want to “interfere”. Elle was impressed with how easy to talk to she was and how “warm” she seemed to be. I guess I’d taken her husbands standoffishness and applied it to her without meeting her. She took it upon herself to introduce Elle to some other women whose husbands were also horsemen and who had children. I could see Elle starting to relax a bit and it was a good sign.

Our neighbor on the other side, Jackson, had not been the problem that I’d expected. No loud parties or other distractions. I’m not sure when Elle noticed a woman going into his trailer on a fairly regular basis. Knowing Jackson, it wasn’t unexpected but when I finally saw who it was it surprised me. Her name was Janelle and she was the manager of the clubhouse dining room. I’d never formally met her but had seen her in the clubhouse for the last two years. I didn’t think she was particularly pretty but I had noticed that she had a fairly nice looking body. Once I knew who she was I started paying more attention to Jackson’s trailer.

I was supposed to drive in a race while my parents were there but the horse turned up lame and was scratched. That disappointment along with the apprehension of how my mother would treat Elle dimmed the anticipation of the new car. In summary, when they arrived my mother treated Elle a bit on the “cool” side but her disdain for our living in “one of those things” was worse. The night they arrived they had arranged to have dinner in the clubhouse with their friends, the “B’s“ and I was to come over when I was finished with my work and to join them. I was upset enough that I didn’t join them. I had the keys to the car and my father had my old car so I wasn’t at risk for ignoring them. Elle thought I was wrong but I didn’t care.

To be continued...