Cindy

Chapter One

RV parks.  I’d seen a few in the last couple of years, chasing construction projects.  I was well known enough in the proper circles that I never had any more space between jobs than I wanted, and six or seven weeks ago I wanted to work.  A couple of phone calls and here I was in Nowhere, Alabama.  At an RV park.

I pulled a big travel trailer behind a pickup truck that caused drool to run down many a chin on a construction site, and my standard ploy was to park the travel trailer at a convenient RV park and live in it, pocketing the sizable “per diem” allowance I got in addition to a very happy number for a regular salary.  And that park would be my home for anywhere from six weeks to a year as I played “engineer” on some construction project.

This particular park was one of the nicer varieties.  Its clientele tended more towards vacationers and tourists (yeah, they have ‘em in Alabama) instead of construction bums.  That’s why I chose it.  Quiet.  Grey-headed snowbirds choosing the South for the winter were a lot quieter and more pleasant that a bunch of construction workers.  And the park had a pool.  And it was late summer, so the influx of Northerners had yet to show up, so it was almost empty.

I’d been here six weeks.  After the first week, every day when I came in I’d stop at the little office to check for any mail that might show up for me, and that put me on a conversational basis with the older lady that did most of the day management.  We talked a little every day just to pass the time.  After the second week I was on her “Let me tell you what’s going on here” list.   That got me caught up on a permanent (more or less) trailer parked in the far corner of the park.

“Daughter of my husband  Herb’s brother,” she explained.  “Her dad is lazy an’ useless, and she’s lazy an’ useless, AN’ a slut to boot.  Herb let her stay here ‘cuz she ain’t got no place else to go.  That’s her daughter you met by the pool.”

Yeah, it WAS an “upscale” RV park.  It had an activities pavilion and a small pool, and on some days I came in from work and went down there more to soak away the day than to swim.

“Oh, yeah,” I said.  “What’s ‘er name?  Cindy?”

“Yeah, Cindy,” Helen said.  “She’s the one we feel sorry for.  Kid don’t have a chance, bein’ raised the way she is.  Can you imagine livin’ in a thirty-three foot trailer with you momma screwing a different guy ever two weeks?”

“That’s not good,” I said.  “But what can you do?”

“Dunno,” said Helen.  “Just wisht somethin’ would come along.  Almost anything would be bettern’ that.”

“I guess,” I said.  “Anyway, I think I’m gonna do a Friday evening at the pool.”

“’Kay, Dan,” Helen said.

I went to my trailer and changed out of my work clothes and into swim trunks and walked down to the pool.  I was chin-deep in water, just floating and soaking away my cares when I heard the gate open and close.

“Hi, Mr. Dan,” Cindy said.  “You beat me here today.”

“Oh, hey, Cindy,” I answered, “yeah, I left a little early.  Sometimes I get to do that.”  I turned over in the water to see Cindy.

She was a YOUNG teen.  She was maybe five-three and a hundred and thirty pounds.  Hair was short,  well into red, sort of aged copper, straight-cut bangs at the eyebrows above a pair of startling green eyes.  Leggy, too.  Her one-piece bathing suit followed some young girl curves as they began morphing into young lady configuration, and her chest was showing the swells of young breasts, mere risings.

She stepped off the deep end of the pool and went straight underwater, then popped up and shook her head.  “Whew…” she said, that always feels sooo good…”

“Tell me about it,” I said.

We spent the next half hour kicking back and forth across the pool.  I got out first and swished the water out of my short hair and then lay down on one of the lounges beside the pool.  Cindy followed and took the lounge next to me.  We were the only ones there, it being the middle of the week.  Weekends would see more activity.

“So what’d YOU do today, Mr. Dan?” she asked.

We’d been chatting for the last two weeks.  That was the routine.  We’d both show up at the pool, swim around for a bit, then lounge side by side talking.  I’d learned in two weeks that Cindy was not stupid.  In fact, I found her pretty darned intelligent, but under-educated.  She watched TV a lot, and actually kept up with current events and loved the science and nature channels.  And we talked.

“Just uninteresting engineer stuff, Cin,” I said.  “It’s not always magic.  Sometimes it’s a lot of tedious paperwork.”

“Oh,” she said.  “You hate that, don’t you?”

“Yeah,” I said.  “But sometimes you have to put up with the bad to get the good.”  I turned to look at her.  The water had turned her auburn hair dark.  “What’d you do?  Anything interesting?”

“Watched TV this morning until Mom woke up.  Me an’ her’s been arguin’, so I got out of there pretty quick when she woke up.”

“And then?”

“Walked over to the back fence an’ watched ‘em harvesting that soybean field.  It’s interesting, ya know, all that big equipment an’ how they do things.”

“Yeah, “ I said, “but be careful, Cindy.”

“Careful?  Why?”  She looked at me quizzically.

“Because you’re a pretty young thing an’ there are some rough characters that follow those harvests around.  I would hate to see something happen to you.”

“Awww, Mr. Dan,” she smiled, “you’re sweet for carin’.  I’m careful.  Those guys are way on the other side of the field.  I just watch.”

“Good!”

“You know,” she said, “I was watchin’ those big machines an’ I was thinkin’, like, Mr. Dan probably knows that stuff too.  You know lots of stuff, bein’ a engineer an’ all.”

“You flatter me, little girl,” I said.  “I’m an electrical engineer.  That’s more of a mechanical engineer’s thing.”

She smiled.  “Yeah, but you know lots of stuff.”

“You do, too, for your age.  You pay attention.”  She did.  I picked up that much from our conversations.  “So,” I asked, when’s school start back up?”

“Next week,” she said.

“Excited?”

“No, not really.”  She sighed.  “I’m the outsider.  Even for here, living in an RV park puts you on the outside.  An’ Mom doesn’t spend a lot on my clothes.  Sometimes people make fun of me.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.  Kids can be cruel.”

“Yeah,” she said.  “An’ if I need help on my homework or stuff, I’m on my own.  Mom’s, like, ZERO help.  I don’t know if she’ doesn’t KNOW, or if she don’t care.”

I considered for exactly zero seconds before saying, “Cindy, if you need help, I can help you.  While I’m here, you know.  That’ll get you halfway through the year, anyway.”

“Oh, thanks!” she smiled.  “I could use some help.”

“Yeah, just make sure that your mom knows that I’m helping you.  I don’t want her looking for her missing daughter and finding you at my place for no reason.”

“Yeah,” she snorted, “like she cares what I’m doin’.”

“Cindy,” I said, “she cares.  Just tell her, okay?”

As the sun set and shadows lengthened, we both headed to our respective homes.

Saturday afternoon found me at the pool again, but this time I shared it with several weekender kids and adults.  I did a little soaking and swimming, and then retired to a lounge with a cold beer and a paperback.  I was there about half an hour when I heard “Hey, Mr. Dan…”

“Oh, hi, Cindy,” I said.  “What’s up?”

“Oh, nothin’ much.  Mom didn’t come home last night,” she said.

I knew from Helen’s discussions that this wasn’t too unusual.  Cindy’s mom was a part-time “Barmaid” and had a tendency to go home with a customer.  According to Helen, “Better for her to go peddle her ass someplace else than in the same trailer with her daughter…”

“Oh,” I said.  “You know if anything ever happens, you just come knock on my door, okay?”  And you know, on this day when I said it, I was being perfectly innocent and protective.

“Thanks, Mr. Dan,” she said simply.  Then she hit the water with about half a dozen other kids.

I made small talk with some of the adults until dusk.  I was stretching and getting ready to leave when Cindy got out of the pool.

“Mom’s not back yet,” she said.  “I thought she’d be back by now.”

“You gonna be okay?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Cindy said.  “I can fix me somethin’ for supper.  It’s not like this is the first time.”

A neuron fired at random in my brain.   “Hey, Cin!  If you want, you can go out with me and get some pizza…”

Squeal!  “Oh, that’d be GREAT!” she squealed.  “I NEVER get to go out to eat!”

“”Well, go leave a note on your mom’s door in case she gets back before we get back.  And change clothes.  I don’t think Pizza Hut’s going to like your bathing suit.”

“You don’t like my bathing suit?” she pouted.

“Oh, no, I like your bathing suit plenty.  It’s just not up to the high standards of Pizza Hut’s dress code.”

She flounced off, looking back over her shoulder to smile at me.

Ten minutes later I was putting on my shoes, having stepped in and out of the tiny shower of my trailer and changed into jeans and a polo shirt.  I heard a knock at the door.  “Come in.  Or not.  I’ll be done in a couple of minutes!”

The door swung open and Cindy stepped inside.  She looked around.  “Heyyyyy!  This is NICE!”

“It’s a travel trailer, but it’s home,” I said.  I stood up.  “You ready?”  I surveyed my dinner “date”.  The hair was dried and brushed and sleek and shiny and the face was scrubbed perfection.  She was wearing shorts and a cotton blouse and looking very cute and proper.

“Yeah, but it’s clean an’ a lot newer than ours,” she said.  “An’ it smells good.”

“Well, thank you!” I said.  “Let’s go!”  We headed out to my pickup truck.  This got another round of compliments.

“Wow!  Nice truck, Mr. Dan!”  She buckled in, her small form the entire way across the big cab.  She looked at me, beaming.  “So where were you this mornin’, Mr. Dan?”

I was a little taken aback by the question, mainly because it meant that Cindy was noticing my comings and goings.  “I had to go run to the airport.”

“Why?  You goin’ somewhere?”

“No,” I said.  “I had to make arrangements to get my plane inspected.”

“You have your own PLANE!?!?!”  Her eyes were wide open with amazement.

“Yeah, but it’s not that big a deal.  I bought it when I was in Alaska.  It’s little, and it’s old, but it makes some trips a lot shorter.”  The plane was an old Cessna 180.  I was a licensed pilot.

“You, you’re like, a PILOT too?”

“Yeah.  It’s not that big a deal.”

“I don’t know anybody else who’s a pilot.”  She looked at me.  “You do so much cool stuff…”

“It’s really not that big a deal.  If you saw that plane, you’d understand.”

“So show me.”

I gave that a second’s thought.  “Sure.  When the mechanic finishes the inspection, I’ll take you flying.  Maybe in a week or two.”

Squeal.  “Thanks, Mr. Dan.”

We drove twenty minutes into the next larger town and I fed the girl pizza.  And I’ve taken more mature females to top-notch restaurants and received less gratitude.  We laughed and enjoyed mediocre pizza and Coke and you’d have thought I presented her with caviar and champagne.  After the meal, I dumped a handful of quarters into her hand and let her play video games for half an hour before we headed back.

Pulling into the RV park, we surveyed the space where her mom’s trailer sat.  No car.  I pulled up on the drive in front of her trailer.  “Are you going to be okay, baby?” I asked.

“Yeah, said Cindy, “I do this all the time.”

“Well, if you need ANYTHING , you come get me, okay?”

“Oh, yeah, Mr. Dan,” she said as she unbuckled.  I was glad she hadn’t yet opened the door because the cab lights would have illuminated her jumping across the seat and planting a kiss on my face.  “Thanks so much, Mr. Dan!”  And then she exited.  I watched to make sure she got into her trailer and then drove and parked at my own.  I went inside, showered again quickly and shaved and went to bed.

Sunday morning.  I got up at seven, an hour later than my norm during the week.  I started to fix myself breakfast.  At the kitchenette sink I looked out the tiny window to the far corner of the park.  Cindy’s trailer.  No car.  That same neuron fired again.  I pulled on some clothes and got in the truck.

Walking up to her trailer I knocked.  Nothing. Knocked again.  From inside I heard “Just a minute!”

The door cracked open and Cindy’s head peeked out.  “Oh, hi, Mr. Dan,” she smiled.  “I was still asleep.”

“So you haven’t had breakfast?”

“Noooo.”

“You still got that note to leave your mom?”

“Yeah,” she giggled.  “Why?”

“I’m going get breakfast.  Wanna come?”

She smiled.  “Uh-huh.  Let me get dressed.”

I sat in the truck for a few minutes and then she bounced out the door.    She climbed into the cab, face aglow with her smile.  Clothes?  Same outfit as last night.  Twenty minutes later we were both seated in front of breakfast plates of pancakes, eggs and bacon.  Soon sated, we drove back.

“So has your mom ever been gone this long?” I asked.

“yeah, one time she left for four nights.  She called Mizz Helen and tol’ her to look out for me.  Tol’ Mizz Helen that she was with her sick momma.”

“Yeah?”

“Except Grandma died when I was eight.  An’ Mizz Helen knew that.”

“Ahhhh…”

“So she’ll either call Mizz Helen or she’ll be home today,  I think.  Since I start school Tuesday, anyway.”  She sighed.   “Just drop me at the trailer.”

We pulled up at her trailer.  As she unbuckled she looked at me.  I looked back.

“I better not kiss you like last night,” she said.  “But I would, you know.  Thanks for breakfast.  An’ everything.”  She popped the door open to slide out and when her feet hit the ground, she turned.  “See you at the pool later?  All the weekenders  will be gone!”

“I’ll be there, princess.”  And I asked myself what I was getting into.

Cindy did show up at the pool.

“I see your mom’s home,” I said.

“Yeah, she got home at one.  With a hickey and a new tattoo.  Nasty!  I hate tattoos.  Her old ones are turnin’ blue…”

“But everything’s cool?”

“Yeah, she didn’t even ask what I did this weekend.  Just showed up.  Says she’s got money an’ she’s gonna go with me to buy school clothes tomorrow.”

“That’s good…”  I was trying to be positive.

“Hmmphhhh!” she snorted.  “No it’s not!  You know what Wal-Mart is going to look like tomorrow?  The day before school?”

“Good point!  Wish I could help…”

She looked at me, those green eyes boring into mine, sad.  “Mr. Dan, I know you would.  But not right now…”  She and I swam our normal routine and then parted.  I watched her walk ahead of me to her trailer, towel slung over her shoulder, wet hair dark against her head.

Monday.  Back to work.  Stopped at the park office as Mizz Helen was shutting things down.  She handed me my mail.

“Cindy said her mom was gone all weekend.”

“Yeah,” I said.  “I felt sorry for her so I took her out for pizza Saturday…”

“And you picked her up Sunday morning for breakfast.”  Mizz Helen coughed.  “Cindy told me.  That was nice of you.”

“Well, I kinda worry, you know, these days.”

Mizz Helen paused and looked at me.  “You worry about what?   Helping a kid with half a parent?”

“No, worry about somebody seein’ a forty year old guy running around with an unsupervised teenaged girl.”

“Hon,” Mizz Helen said, “I don’t think you’re the kinda guy’s gonna  hurt her.  An’ compared with what she’s got right now, just about anything would be an improvement!”

“Still…” I said.

“I’m just happy that none a’ Donna’s “boyfriends” has tried anything with Cindy.”

“Yeah,  you’re right. Cindy’s quite a cutie.”

“Hmmmphhh!” snorted Helen.  “Those guys Donna brings home?  They’d do a snake if you held its head…  After all, they're doin' Donna.”

I looked at Helen.  “That,” I said, “would cause me serious heartache…”

Helen smiled.  “Well, I just ‘preciate you lookin’ out for that youngster.”

Met Cindy at the pool an hour later.  “So how’s the new wardrobe?” I asked.

Cindy wasn’t smiling.  “Yeah.  The very best that Wal-Mart has to offer the day before school starts.”

“Picked over?”

“That’s an understatement.”

I was a little bemused by this thirteen year old girl in an RV park popping up with words like “understatement” in her conversation.  I guess I shouldn’t have been, but I was.  “Tell me something,” I said.

“What?” she asked.

“If somebody was to, like, give you a couple hundred bucks to go buy clothes, how would your mom take it?”

“And who’d do that?”  She fixed me in those green eyes again.

“Don’t worry about that.  Let’s just say that Mizz Helen gave you an envelope with two hundred dollars…”

“If Mom found out I had two hundred dollars, SHE’d have two hundred dollars.”

“Oh.  That’s not good.  Let’s try this again.  If Mizz Helen was to, say, take you to town an’ pay for you some clothes, what would your Mom do?”

“I dunno.”

“Is it worth a try?”  I looked at her.  “I mean, would you catch a lot of crap.  Or would she come unglued on Mizz Helen?”

“I don’t think she would.  Mizz Helen is like my aunt.  But we’re not really talking about Mizz Helen’s money are we?”

“Don’t worry about that.  Let’s swim.”  We swam.  Half an hour later I was hanging on the edge of the pool, getting ready to get out, when I felt arms wrap around me and a face at my ear.

“Thank you, Mr. Dan.”

The next day I caught Helen again.  “Mizz Helen,” I said.

“Dammit, Dan, don’t call me Mizz Helen.  You make me feel a hundert years old.  What!??”

I’m sorry.  Age ain’t got nothin’ to do with it.  It’s the way I was raised.”

“Yer folks done good,” she grinned.  “What’s going on?”

I told her what I was trying to do.  Told her that if Cindy’s mom asked, Helen was just paying Cindy back for helping out around the park all summer.  And I gave Helen one of my credit cards.

 

 
Chapter Two

 

The plan worked.  I got off work early and watched the park office while Helen took Cindy into the nearby big town for some real shopping.  I was sitting in the office reading when they got back.  Cindy ran into the office squealing, carrying shopping bags.  Helen followed her in.

“Dammit, Dan,” she said. “I’m too old to be doin’ this!”

“Yeah, thought about that after you left. Madhouse, huh?”

“Wasn’t quite as bad as Wal-Mart.  But bad.  An’ “Princess”, here…”  She paused.  “Awwww, I can’t say that.  She was good.  She watched the money better than I’d have expected.  Had to MAKE her get stuff.”

Cindy was rifling through the bags.  Every ten seconds was punctuated with “LOOK!” and a squeal.

I smiled.  And then she hauled out a dark green sweater.   “Tell me you didn’t get a dark green sweater,” I said.

“Why?” she asked, her face dropping.  “You don’t like it?”

“No, little red-headed child.  Not in the least.  It’s just that dark green is going to go perfectly with that head of hair of yours.  It will look especially nice.”

“Awwww, hon,” Helen cooed, “he’s right!”

Cindy was ecstatic as she left for her trailer.

I looked at Helen.  “So how’d it go?”

Helen said, “Well, Dan, don’t think you were gonna keep a secret.  Little snoop there read your credit card first time I whipped it out.”

“Oh.”

“But you know,” she continued,” the way it affected that child, I wish I’da thought of it myself.  I could’ve afforded it too, you know.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it, Helen.  I don’t mind it a bit.  It was worth it to see her happy for a while.

I walked to my trailer as Helen locked up the office.

The next couple of days, well, things at the project got rather busy and I worked late both days.  I missed my evening swims.  Things leveled out by Friday and when I got to the pool, Cindy was there.

“Hey, Mr. Dan,” she said.

“Hey, Cin,” I replied.  “I am dying to get in the water.”  I flopped backward off the rim into the deep end.  I was still under the surface when Cindy jumped in.  I surfaced into her arms.

“Oh, Cindy,” I said.  “What are you doing?”

“Giving you a hug.”

“Why?”

“You know why.”

We swam for a while and she climbed out first.  “Come sit,” she said.

I climbed out and lay back on the lounge next to hers.  “Okay.  Here I am.”

“Why’d you do that?”

“Do what?”

“You know.  That was YOUR credit card Mizz Helen used.”

“Can’t fool you, huh?

She looked at me.  “So why?”

“Because you’re a sweet girl who should get a break every now and then.  I just wanted to do something nice for you.”

“We spent four hundred dollars.”

“Baby, I make a thousand dollars a day.  They pay me almost two hundred a day just to live here.  Four hundred bucks ain’t much money.  Really.”

“Mr. Dan,” she asked, “don’t you have kids of your own to buy stuff for?”

“That’s a long story, darlin’,” I said.  “I don’t tell many people.  But I had a daughter who’d be twelve this year.  She and my wife were killed by a drunk driver coming home from a movie one night seven years ago.”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Dan,” she said.

“Oh, it’s not your fault.  But if I want to do something nice for a young lady, it’s kind of like I was doing it for my daughter.”

“Okay.”

“So,” I said, “how’d you mom react?”

“Oh, she didn’t say much.  I’m just glad she ain’t the same size as me or I’d have lost my new clothes.”

We both turned in the direction of a beeping car horn.  A beater Toyota headed out of the park.  The woman inside waved.

“Well,” said Cindy, “there goes Mom…”

I looked at Cindy.  “Why don’t you go home and get dressed and let’s go out for dinner…”
Squeal.   “Pizza?”

“You’re gonna turn into a pizza.  But yeah, if that’s what you want.”

We both headed to our respective trailers.  I got inside mine, showered, shaved and , hmmmm…. A splash of cologne.  Jeans.  Polo shirt.  Was sitting on the sofa tying my shoes when the knock came.

“Come in or wait outside,” I yelled.  I heard the door open then close.  I turned and saw a vision.

Cindy.  Oh, she was always clean and unless her hair was wet, it was short and combed easily into place.  But there she was.  Wearing that damned green sweater.  And a matching skirt. And not a speck of makeup.  Her complexion, her eyes, her hair, her lips, they were what sane women used makeup to vainly try to create.

I’d never seen Cindy wear a skirt before.  It was always shorts, jeans or her one bathing suit.  But a skirt?!?

And before I could stand up she was on the sofa beside me, kneeling, facing me.  Bronze hair. Not a single hair out of place.  Green eyes twinkling.  And she leaned forward and I detected a hint of fragrance on her.  And she put her arms around my neck and kissed me on the lips.  Maybe just a little harder and a little longer than a little girl kiss.  But I could have been wrong.  “Thank you, Mr. Dan,” she said.

“Goodness, Cindy, you look perfect!”

Squeal!  Giggle.  “Oh, do you REALLY think so Mr. Dan?  Really?”

“Yes.  Really.  Absolutely Perfect!  There’s not a prettier girl on the planet right now.”

“I remembered what you said about the green sweater.”  She smiled.  “I wanted to look pretty for you.”

“My dear, you have achieved your goal.”

“So,” she said, “I was thinking…”

“Uh-oh.  That’s trouble…”

“Oh, don’t be mean!  I’m trying to be more mature.”

“Sorry, baby.  You’re exactly as mature as you need to be.”

“But I was thinking, like, maybe NOT pizza tonight.  I mean, if you want to take me someplace else…”

And that’s where the other neuron fired and I was saw a menu roll through my mind of all the places that I’d like to take this doll.  But instead of going crazy, I said, “Are you up for a nice restaurant?  Not too fancy, but a step up from Pizza Hut.”

“Uh-huh.  But you’ll have to help me.  I’ve never been to a fancy restaurant before.”

“We won’t do something too fancy.  But it’s a longer drive.  Is that going to be okay?  Will your mom be home early?”

“Mr. Dan, I’ll be surprised if she’s back before Sunday night.”

“Okay, princess.  Let’s go.”  And I walked her out to the truck and went on her side to open the door for her.  I found out then that big pickup trucks and short girls in skirts are a deadly combination, especially little girls who don’t spend a lot of time in skirts in the first place.  I helped her into the truck and as she sat on the seat her legs were hanging out the door.  Swiveling in, her legs spread, her skirt went ALL the way up, and I saw the spread crotch of a thirteen year old angel and it was clad in powder blue panties.

Her eyes latched with mine as she pulled her skirt down.  “Oops!” she said.  “Didn’t mean to flash you!”

I couldn’t talk until I got safely in on my side of the truck.

“Are you okay, Mr. Dan?”

“Yeah, baby, I’m okay.”

“You stopped talking.”

“Sorry.  I’m okay.”

So off we drove, mercifully letting the conversation wander around about her new school year and the first week and teachers and kids.

“At least they aren’t kidding me about my clothes this year,” she said.

“Good!”  I smiled.  “You’ll have another problem, though.”

“What’s that?” she asked.

“Boys.  You wear stuff like that to school and you’re gonna have a line of ‘em following you around.”

“Oh, yeah…  Well, I’m not much on boys…”

My antennae went up.  “Oh?”

“No, not like THAT, not interested…  It’s just that I’ve pretty much seen too much of boys and men with Mom an’ all…”

“Uh-huh.”

“An’ I’m NOT gonna be like that.”

“You shouldn’t be.”

She looked at me.  I glanced over as I drove.  “Yeah, “ said, “I don’t know how many men Mom’s been with.  Just this year.  I don’t know who my dad is.  I asked Mom.  She doesn’t know.  At least she won’t tell me.  An’ I’m just NOT gonna be that way.  Never.”

“Good,” I said.  “You’ll be better for that.

We had a pleasant dinner at a mid-scale steakhouse.  I took time to talk her through ordering and silverware and etiquette, at least steakhouse level etiquette.  She was attentive and well-mannered.  I never saw or expected otherwise from Cindy.

As the dinner ended, I reached into my pocket and pulled out an object.  I shoved it across the table to Cindy.  “Here,” I said.

“That’s a cellphone,” she said.  “For me?”

“Yes, baby.  I get worried about you staying home by yourself all the time with no way to call anybody for help.  That’s for you.  I programmed my number and Mizz Helen’s number in it already  for you.”

“Wow!  Thanks, Mr. Dan.”

“Now, it’s got limited minutes, so let’s not get into the habit of calling friends and talking on it.  And I don’t think your mom’s gonna be understanding if she sees it.”

“Oh, no she won’t.  I asked her about one and she said we didn’t have that kind of money.  But she has one.  And the day she told me that she got a new tattoo.  But maybe she didn’t pay for that tattoo.”  Her brow wrinkled.  “Or the phone either.  She’s had the same boyfriend for three weeks now.”

“Baby, I understand your disappointment with your mom, but she may not see a lot of choices.”

“Maybe.  But she could go to school and do something besides work in bars.  The state will pay her to go to school.  I read the stuff she brought home one time.”

“Okay baby.  Let’s change the subject.”  I paid the restaurant bill and we went out in the parking lot to ride home.  I decided to help her into the truck again.  This time, though, when she was in the door, sideways in her seat, before I could back away, she put her arms around my neck.  Before I could react, I received a full kiss on the lips.  Much longer than a “thank you for supper, Mr. Dan” kiss.  Then she demurely (no skirt displacement this time) turned and clicked her seatbelt as I closed her door.

I walked around the truck and got in, fastened my own seatbelt, and backed out.  And drove out onto the street.

“Not talking again, Mr. Dan?”

“No, Cindy.  Why’d you kiss me like that?”

“Like what?”  she asked innocently.

“You kissed me pretty hard…”

“Oh, I’m sorry.  I just wanted to give you a ‘thank you’ kiss and I guess we both moved in the same direction.”  She paused and almost sadly said, “I didn’t mean to do anything wrong.”

Driving home, we could see lightning in the distance, late summer storms.  Nature was majestic.  Cindy said “majestic”.

“So, Mr. Dan, like, if I DID kiss you, like, serious, you’d be mad?”

“Baby…”  I was calling Cindy pet names now.  I knew it.  I caught myself several times.  “The thing is, you’re what, thirteen…”

“Fourteen in a week…”

“Okay, fourteen.  I’m forty-one.  There are laws.”

“I know,” she said meekly.  “They talked to us about those laws in health class.  Took the boys in one room an’ the girls in another.  About ‘inappropriate touching’ and stuff.  An’ sex crimes.  But, like, just a kiss…”

“Baby…”

“You call me baby, an’ sweetie, an’ cutie…”

“I know.  And you’re desperately cute.    And sweet.”

“So,” she said, “if I kissed all over a boy who was thirteen or fourteen or fifteen, it would be okay, but if I kissed a real MAN who I wanted to kiss, that’s wrong.”

“That’s the law.”

“An’,” she continued, “if the boy was thirteen or fourteen or fifteen an’ we went all the way an’, like, DID it, that’s legal…”

“Cindy, that would be a bad idea…”

“Oh, I know, Mr. Dan, an’ I’d NEVER do it, but I’m just sayin’, IF I did, that would be legal, but if I just kissed a real MAN, that’s not?

“That’s the law.”

“Hmph!” she said.  “That’s stupid.”

I thought it was stupid, too.  But I said, “Maybe so, but that’s the law.  It’s there to make it wrong for old men to take advantage of young girls.  That probably happens more than it does the way you’re talking about.”

“It’s stupid!”  Cindy was sitting there, arms folded, lips pursed, chin tucked in.  She sighed.  “But then you admit it…”

“Admit what?”

“That it’s stupid.  That I should be able to kiss you.”  And a giggle.

“I don’t know what you’re giggling about, cutie.  I’m not admitting anything.”  I sighed.  “And you’re making it hard for me…”

That got another giggle.

“Stop that.  You’re making it DIFFICULT for me.  I want to be your friend and to help you out, not take advantage of you.”

“B-but Mr. Dan,” she sighed, “Don’tcha see?  You’re NOT taking advantage of me.”

“But, Cindy…” I said, “that’s what it looks like.  I'm nice to you.  I buy you things.  I take you places.  People will say “That old man did all that to take advantage of that little girl.”  And the law believes them.”

“Well I don’t believe it.  And neither does Mizz Helen.”

“Mizz Helen? What did she say about this?”

Cindy took her breath.  “She says that you are a very nice person and that you an’ her talked about me an’ my mom an’ you just wanted to help.  Said I was lucky to find somebody like you.”

“Oh…”

“Look, Mr. Dan, I would have NEVER got nothin’ like this from Mom.  Or any of her boyfriends.  An’ some of them look at me an’ say little things when Mom can’t hear.  You know, THOSE men want to take advantage of me.”

“I was afraid of that.  You have that cellphone…”

“I know.  YOU gave me that.  Not exactly the thing you’d do if you were trying to take advantage of me, huh?”

“I’m not.”

“You’re not what?”

“I’m not trying to take advantage of you.”

“Okay,” she said, “then that’s settled.”

Lightning slashed across the far horizon.  “Ooohhhh,” she said.  “that’s magnificent…”

We talked about thunder and lightning and storms and seasons and she was babbling happily about the year it snowed and I was thinking of lonely nights where the only warm in the bed was the spot I just rolled out of.

We finally pulled into the RV park.  No car at her trailer.  No lights.  “Cindy,” I said, “At least let me go inside with you and make sure nobody’s in there…”

“There’s no cars.”

“Yeah, but baby, since you said that about your mom’s boyfriends, I am going to worry.”

She smiled a little.  “Thank you for caring, Mr. Dan.  Yeah.  Come check it out.”

I did that.  She waited outside while I flipped on lights and looked in the very few places in the trailer.  It was cluttered and that stench of stale cigarette smoke was there.  Finally I opened the door.  Before I could step out, Cindy stepped in.  And kissed me very demurely.  “Thank you, Mr. Dan.”

 

 
Chapter Three

I returned to my own trailer.  I turned on the TV, but it was only background noise as a million thoughts went through my head.  Were my motives as pure as I thought them to be, or did I harbor some hidden desire.  I finally convinced myself that I hadn’t embarked on a premeditated scheme to  entrap this dear little princess.   Finally I undressed and got into bed.  In the dark I listened to the distant thunder, the occasional lightning flash casting patterns on the walls.

I don’t know if it was the thunderclap or the cellphone’s ringing, but I woke up with a start.  The light from the display of my ringing phone caught my eye and I reached for it.  It could have been nothing good at this time of night as I fumbled, thinking family emergency, work, whatever, until I got the display to my eyes and saw the letters: CINDY.

I answered.  “Yes, baby?”

“Mr. Dan.  The wind’s blowing hard an’ this trailer’s not tied down.  It’s rockin’ an’ I’m scared.”

That was a legitimate fright.  Travel trailers are very much susceptible to the winds from storms.  I paid extra to get mine tied down against such troubles, knowing I was going to be here for several months.  I guess Donna never thought of that or spent the money.  Since it was Cindy’s safety at stake now, I’d see that was rectified tomorrow.  But right now, I had a scared Cindy to deal with.

“Okay, baby.  I’ll be down there in the truck in a minute.  Watch for me at the door.  And bring some clothes, okay?”  I had no idea what Cindy slept in.  Or if she’d need to get dressed in the morning.  Or whatever.  I pulled on a pair of jeans and stuck my bare feet into shoes and drove across the park to Cindy's trailer.

I pulled in, getting as close to her door as possible, even though it wasn’t raining.  Yet.  I hadn’t stopped before the trailer door opened and Cindy flew out, slamming it behind her.  She had a shopping bag in her hand as she pulled the truck door open and jumped in.  She slammed the truck door behind her, that sound competing with another thunderclap.  The short drive back across the park was flash-illuminated by lightning.  Cindy’s face, illuminated by the strobing, was seriously frightened.  I pulled alongside my own trailer, exited the truck and ran around to open Cindy’s door.  She almost leaped from the truck to the step of my trailer and I followed her through the open door, fastening it securely behind us.

Inside the trailer, in the single light I left on as I’d hurriedly left only minutes before, I got my first real look at my frightened Cindy.   The hair, slightly tousled, face, definitely frightened.  Dressed in a nightshirt that made it all the way down to just below the cheeks of her ass.  Okay.  Not an insurmountable problem.

But I did have an insurmountable problem.  You remember when I said I was an engineer?  Yeah?  Well, we engineers tend to want design optimization, as in, “this travel trailer is my home and it should fit ME!”.  As in “one bed”.  MY bed.  Gave me a bit more space to make long-term stays in the trailer a bit more pleasant.

Okay.  Not insurmountable.  There WAS the sofa.  I opened a storage cabinet and hauled out a sleeping bag and started unrolling it.

“T-t-thanks, Mr. Bill,”she said.  “I was REALLY scared.  Mom’s trailer was rockin’ in the wind.”

“I know, baby,” I said.  “It’ll be okay now.  Here’s a sleeping bag.  I’ll get you a pillow and you’ll be okay.  You want something to drink?”

“No,” she said.  “Just the bathroom.”

I pointed.  “You know how those work…”  I waited for her to get out, then I went in myself.  And drew a breath.  That perfume I’d smelled earlier in the evening.  It was there.  I finished peeing and flushed.  I zipped up and opened the door.

“Heard you pee,” said Cindy.

“That’s the trouble with these things.  You hear EVERYTHING!” I said.

Cindy said, “You think hearing somebody use the bathroom is bad, try ignoring your mom doin’ it with her boyfriend at the other end of the trailer an’ both of them are drunk an’ all you have is that stupid curtain between you an’ them.”

“Ugh!”

“Yeah.”

“Bed time?”

“Okay.  I guess.”  She slid herself into the sleeping bag.  Yes, it was late summer, but I kept a healthy air conditioner going.  I liked sleeping in the cool air.

She nestled her head into the pillow.  I guess I probably shouldn’t have, but who can resist giving a girl a good night kiss.  I bent over and kissed her on her cheek and whispered, “Good night, Sweetness…”

I crawled into my own bed after shedding the jeans.   Sleeping clothes for me was t-shirt and drawers.  I didn’t OWN a pair of pajamas.  No, I never expected to share the space with a thirteen year old girl.  But I was in bed.  With the blankets pulled up to my chin.  And the strobing of the storm approaching was accompanied but thunderclaps following in rapid succession.  It was getting close.  I snuggled into my pillow and prepared to sleep.

FLASH-CRASH-BOOOOOOM!  The storm was here!  I could hear the winds fighting the flat sides of the trailer but I worried not at all.

Then “Daaannnnnnn!!!!!!” and a bounce and there was a thirteen year old girl plastered against me.  “Hold me!  I’m scared!”

I had no doubt that she was scared.  Shaking.  I held her.  Of course, she was OUTSIDE the covers and I was UNDER them.  So it was chaste.  At least in my mind.

“C-c-can I get under the covers?  I’m cold….”  And it was not time to refuse.  And she was trembling scared, so sliding away from the greatest temptation I’d ever faced, that option was off the table.  And that “sliding under the covers” part?  Cindy slid down.  Her nightshirt didn’t do as well.  Her shoulders were covered.  And that’s the package I wrapped in my arms.  Her head was just under my chin and she turned to put her cheek against my chest.  Tendrils of subtle perfume tickled my nostrils.  Whatever Cindy’s mom might be, she’d chosen perfumes wisely.

“Better?” I asked.

Cindy wiggled into me.  “Mmmm-hmmmm.  I feel so safe, Dan.”

No “Mr. Dan”?

Her leg pushed between mine.  “I’m just tryin’ to get closer.  I’m scared.  And cold.”

Okay.  I was scared too, but it had nothing to do with the propensity of tornadoes to run through trailer parks.  No, mine was more of “we, the jury, find the defendant guilty…”

And there was another wiggle.  And Cindy’s face turned toward mine.  A lightning flash illuminated her for a brief moment showing me those beautiful eyes and lips slightly parted.  I don’t know why I bent my face closer, but I did, licking my lips for moisture.  And her face moved upward.  That kiss that had caused me such angst earlier?  What happened now made that a mere schoolyard peck. Scared little girl’s hands pulled me toward her and she insinuated herself fully against me.  Her lips were moist, soft and hot and they parted beneath mine to let out a tongue.  Here’s another one of those points where I might have had a chance to defuse the situation.  I COULD have kept my lips closed.  But that tongue touched my lips and they parted.  My own tongue had a mind of its own as it met hers.

Our mouths were melded together, tongues exploring.  A tiny moan escaped her.  The kiss finally ended.

Cindy spoke first.  “Dan, I wanted this.  You gotta know that.  I wanted this.  I never kissed a guy before.  I wanted to kiss you.”

“You’ve never kissed anybody before.  And you kiss like that?”

“Dan, I told you I heard stuff going on.  They talk.  I couldn’t help but listen.  I heard about kissing and tongues.  Did I do it right?  It felt good.  Did I do it right?”

I didn’t say anything.  I answered her with a kiss.

“Mmmmmm” escaped around our joined lips.  We broke.  A purr.  “I did it right…”  More kisses.  Her body was pressing against mine in ways that were at once knowing and innocent.

I know she had to feel my dick.  I was as hard as I’ve ever been in my life.  I’m no giant in that regard.  Six inches.  But it was in champion form tonight.  I hadn’t had a woman in, well, I just didn’t remember.  And now, pressed against me, was perhaps the most perfect young girl on the planet.

“Baby,” I said, “you know what you’re causing in me?”

“Uh, kinda…” she whispered.  “I mean, I’ve never done ANY of this.  All I know is what I heard.  Is that your…  uh, your dick?”

“Yes, baby, it is.”  I took a deep breath.  Somebody had to take a deep breath here.  This was already way past redemption, but I did have some shreds of scruples left.  “Cindy, listen to me.”

“Yes, Dan.”

“Cindy, you’re the single most beautiful woman I have ever kissed in my entire life.  But you’re thirteen.  And we need to stop before we go any further.  Really.”

“B-but Dan… s’pose I don’t want to stop…”

I gave up then and there and kissed her.  “Then baby, I am whatever you want me to be for you.”

“Whatever I want you to be, Dan?”  She punctuated her question with a kiss.  I couldn’t restrain my hands from tracing the contours of her body.  She gasped as my fingers measured the curve of her ass.  Her teeth sucked air in as I slowly tracked across the side of her thigh, moving towards her front.

“Dan?  Whatever I want?”

“Yes, Cindy…”

“Dan, I want you to be my first…”

“Oh, Cindy…”

“I do.”  She pushed me over on my back.  Her hand went down my stomach and her fingers slid under the waistband of my drawers, instantly finding the head of my erection.  “I want to learn all about this and I want to learn all about me and I want to learn all about us, Dan.”

“B-b-but the storm, Cindy…”

She kissed me softly.  “When you kissed me, Dan, that was more than ANY storm could ever do.”  She reached and turned on a light.  I want you to see me an’ I wanna see you, Dan.”  She tossed the covers off us and knelt beside me in the bed, then with two hands peeled her nightshirt over her head.  She gazed directly at my appreciative eyes as she then hooked her thumbs into the waistband of those powder-blue cotton panties.  She stood on the bed, bent over to avoid the low ceiling, and dropped her panties to her feet, then stepped out of them.

I gazed at her completely nude body.  Her breasts were young girl’s breasts.  There was room for growth, but wow, what was there just now, swelling to a n“A” cup, quarter-sized areoles, nipples like little pencil erasers, just as pink, just as rigid.  A pubic mount deliciously rounded and decorated with a light sprinkling of fine red hair.  The top of her sexual slit was visible, leading to the crease that disappeared between her legs.  And those green eyes and that face, framed by only slightly disarrayed red hair.

“Dan, get your pants off for me, baby…”

That took about 2.3 seconds.  She looked at my erection.  “Where’s your hair?  You’re s’posed to have hair.”

“I shave it, baby.  Keeps it cleaner and cooler.”

“Looks neat.  Not that I have a lot to compare it to.“  She knelt back down beside me and took me in her hand.  “Oh, Dan, I want you to show me all about this.  How to make you happy.”

“Are you sure, baby?  Really sure?”

“Yes, my love…”  And that was the first time the “L” word had come up in conversation.

From her kneeling position she bent over and closed her mouth over the head of my dick.

“Gahhhhh!  Cindy!  Baby!”

Cindy looked at me.  “That’s another thing I heard.  Now do you think I’m serious?”  She took my hand and placed it on her breast.  My fingertips explored her soft, sweet mounds, then teased at the nipples.  “Mmmmmm, Dannnnn!”

I pulled her down toward me and kissed her, then pushed her upward to bring her nipple to meet my lips and I sucked it into my mouth.

“Oh, goooooooshhhhhhh!  Dannnnn!  Your mouth!”

It was time to find about the center of her sexuality.  I moved my fingers down her soft belly to tease briefly in the hair of her pubic mound.  She sighed and purred, her body shaking noticeably.   My fingers slid further, the tip of my index finger tracing just the surface of her slit.

“ooooooohhhhhh,” she moaned.  “Yesssssss!”

My finger dipped deeper and started back toward the front.  I paused to dip it into her virginal opening.  There was the slightest hindrance of a hymen.  My fingertip entered easily.  “Aaahhhhhh”.  I silenced he moan with my lips.  Our tongues entwined and my fingertip lightly touched her little clit.  “Nnnnnnnnnnn” escaped our kiss.  As our lips broke apart, she said, “Dan, do that some more.”

“I’d rather do this,” I said, rolling her onto her back and then kissing my way down, briefly suckling both nipples, dipping my tongue into her navel and showering kisses on her fuzzy mound.

“Oh, yes, Dan.  That.  I.  Want. That!”  And a hand pushed my head further down.  I could smell the musky pungency of her excitement before the tip of my tongue tasted the juices jeweling the lips of her slit.  I loved it with my tongue, replaying my finger’s previous journey, savoring all the senses, the taste, the smell, the feel of moist, soft, HOT flesh, hearing her mewing and sighing under my attentions.  I heard distant thunder as the storms moved away, and I created storms especially for my Cindy as my tongue met the little pink pearl of her clit head.

“Yessss!  Ohhhhh, Dannnnn!”  I lapped happily, ending each lick by sliding the tip of my tongue over the head of her clit.  My Cindy was quivering.  Her hands held my head still, urging me to pay attention to her clit.  She was thrusting hips up to press it into my tongue and I was happily obliging.

“Ohgodohgodohgod….  Dannnn.  Yes.  There.  Hard!”  I did.  And “Ennnnnngghhhhhh!”  and she collapsed with an exhaling sigh.  Unresponsive.  I moved from between the thighs and cradled her lithe body in my arms and kissed her face lightly.  And post-orgasmic Cindy was even more beautiful…  her eyelids fluttered and she returned to consciousness with a smile.

“Oh, Dan…  Now I know how that’s supposed to feel…”  Her hand wrapped behind my head and she pulled me to kiss her.  We traded tongues and breath, our arms fighting to pull one another closer.  Finally she let me go then pushed me onto my back with a purposeful look in her green eyes.

“I want you to be my first, Dan.  Maybe my only ever, but for sure my first…”  And she straddled me.  Her pussy was still dripping with orgasmic juices when it contacted my dick. My dick was hard enough to cut diamond.  Laying flat down on top of me, Cindy kissed me as hips moved her pussy in varying angles in relation to the head of my dick.

“It feels good down there,” she announced, then she rose back up on her knees.  Her little hand reached underneath her and she guided my shaft with two fingers, lining the head up with her virginal opening.  She looked at me smiling.  “I love you, Dan,” she said, pushing her pelvis downward.  I felt the head of my dick pressing into her against some resistance, forcing its way in, expanding that virginal pussy for the first time.

“Go slow, baby,” I said.  “Let it get used to things.”

“Oh, Dan, it feels so good.  So full!”  And she raised up, withdrawing from me, then slid back down, burying more of me within her.  And again.  “Mmmmmmm, Dan….”  And again.  And a last time.   Her hands were on my chest as she tried once more to push me deeper into her and realized that there was no more.   My dick was fully buried in her pussy.  She smiled.  “Dan…  You’re all the way inside me.”

“I know, Cindy.  And it’s the best place in the whole world.”

She stayed still for a few moments and then rose off me, withdrawing, then back down, sinking me inside her.  Smiles crossed her face.   “I really like this,” she said, punctuating her voice with her hips.  She experimented with angles and motions until she found where she needed to be on each stroke to press her excited little clit against my dick.  Once she determined that motion, she went at it with determination.  My little Cindy was in charge of her own orgasm, and somewhere along the way I’d better get one for myself.

It wasn’t going to be a difficult task as I surveyed this happy young beauty making love to me.  I held onto her waist as her hips swiveled and thrust, and I was meeting her thrusts with my own.

“Baby, you’re doing it to me…  I’m gonna come,” I hissed.  The pressure was building.

Cindy was in another dimension.  Her eyes were clenched shut and she was biting her lower lip, the corners of her mouth turned up in a smile as she worked her first orgasm for herself.  Snorts of breath were audible as she breathed through her nose.  “Nnn.”  Thrust.  “nnn”  thrust  “Nnnn”  thrust.  And I was meeting her in mid-thrust, buried into my sweet little Cindy as far as possible.

“Cin,” I gasped.  “I can’t hold any longer.”  Breathe.  “I’m.” Breathe.  “Commmminggggg!” Spurt!

Cindy felt it and she was close enough that the spurting of my semen in her was all she needed to trigger her own orgasm.  “Dannnnn!  I. Oh.  Ahhhhh!  Again….  Nnnnn.  Comminggggg!”   And incoherently, she did.  I caught her in my arms as she fell forward, the last spurt of my orgasm discharging just between the lips of her pussy.  I held my Cindy in post-orgasmic bliss, kissing the top of her head until I heard “Mmmmm, Dan…..”

“Hello, little girl.  I love you, you know.”

She turned her head to face me.  “I hope so.  'Cuz I love you, too.”

Her hand moved down to the sopping wetness between us.  She smiled.  “We got ourselves a mess, huh?”

“Yeah,” I said.  “We do.”

She withdrew her hand and surveyed her soppy fingers.  Her eyes cut towards me mischievously and smiled.  And she stuck her wet fingers into her mouth.  “Mmmmmm,” she said, pushing her hand back between us.  This time, she put her wet fingers in front of my mouth.  This was no time to be finicky.  I sucked her fingers into my mouth, licking them clean.

“It’s gonna take a long time doing it this way,” I said.

She looked at me quizzically.

“Turn around,” I said.  She spun around and I moved her legs apart to accommodate my face.  “I don’t know about you, babe, but I’m licking this.”  And a gasp as my lips and tongue hit her sopping pussy.

She gasped again and said, “Then THIS is okay, huh?” and I felt her mouth close over my dick, sucking, then lips and tongue moving over my pubis, then my balls.  “I hope I’m doin’ this okay” she said.

“Mmmmm, perfect!” I answered.  Minutes later, we finished.

“Cover me up, baby, my butt’s cold,” my little darling delicately announced.  I was laughing as I searched for the covers.

Next question:  “Dan, what time is it?”

“One in the morning, sweetie.  Why?”

“Just wonderin’.”

“Oh.”  I paused.  “Are you okay?”

Cindy replied, “I’m the most okay I’ve ever been in my whole life.”

“But… with everything?”

“Dan.”  She took a breath.  “Yes.  I am.  I know all that stuff about virgins and things like that.  That’s one thing.  And another thing.  I’m not going to be pregnant.  Mom put me on the pill right after I started havin’ periods.  So that’s okay.”

“wow.  You told me…”

“Oh, baby, noooo,” she cried, “I don’t mean it like THAT.  I don’t want YOU to worry.”

“Baby,” I said.  “I wasn’t worried about you getting pregnant.

“No???”

“No, sweetie.  You see, right after my wife had our daughter, she had some complications that would make it very bad if she got pregnant again.  So I got fixed.  I can’t make babies.”

“Really?”  she squealed.  “Really?”

“Yeah,” I said.  “No babies.”  I looked at her.  “So you might want to think about that ‘I love you’ stuff if it means ‘forever’ and husband and wife and family and stuff.

“Hmph!” she snorted.  “What’s that got to do with how you treat me.  Or how I treat you?”

“Just a thought.”

“Doesn’t matter.”  A statement she punctuated with a kiss.  A Long kiss.  With arms wrapped around me.  “Dan.  I love you.”

I regarded the angelic visage before me, sublime smile, perfect nose peppered with freckles (“I hate my freckles”) green eyes and long luxurious lashes, and those wild bangs blanketing her forehead…  There were many worse things I man could see before him every day.  There were NONE better.  “I love you too, Cindy.”

“Forever, Dan?”

“Cindy.  You’re thirteen.  Forever is a long time.”

“Don’t you believe I love you, Dan?” she said tearfully.

“Yes, baby, I believe you.  I’m sorry.” I kissed her.  “I just want you to be sure.  I don’t want to think about NOT having you in my life.”

“Me too, Dan,” she said.  “Me too.”

And we kissed and eased off into sleep, grateful for the thunder in the distance that had bonded us together.

 

Chapter Four

The next morning I woke up to the soft form next to me.  Cindy was still nude, her hair spread in a bronze fan on her pillow.  I kissed her face lightly.  Her eyes fluttered open.  “Hi, Dan,” she said.  “I still love you.”

“I still love you, too, Cindy.”  The next kiss was MUCH more serious.  And ended with a giggle as her hand found my soft dick.

“I remember now,” she smiled.  “We’re together.  REALLY together.”

“Yeah,” I said.  “Wanna go get some breakfast and talk about it?”

“Yep!” she said, releasing my dick and bouncing out of bed naked.  I looked at this cutie.

“Damn!  You’re beautiful!”  That got me a smile.  That turned into a grin.  And a full nudity stand up hug.

And she knelt.  And fingers curled around my dick.  And her face turned up with a smile.  “They’ll still be serving breakfast in an hour.”  We did get to breakfast.

Driving there, she looked at me with fawning eyes.

“Cindy,” I said, “this is a mess, you know…”

“I know,” she said.

“I hope you do.  If ONE single person finds out what we did and goes to the cops, I’m going to jail for YEARS.  It’s that serious.”

“Dan, I love you.  I WANT to tell everybody.  But I won’t tell a soul.  I promise.”

“Yeah, but we need to be very careful with how we are around each other in public.  That means no holding hands and kissing and touching and stuff.  Just like we were until last night.”

“I know.”

“I’m serious, baby!  I could end up in jail.  And I don’t want to lose you.”

“Okay, baby!”  I looked at the smiling darling there beside me.

Breakfast was pleasant.  So was the drive back.  When we got back, Helen was in her office.  I walked in, Cindy right behind me.  Talked about the storm.  Pointed to Cindy’s trailer, not damaged, but visibly moved from the winds.

“I saw that,” Helen said.  “Pretty good storm.  A little more an’ that trailer’d have flipped.  With Cindy in it.”

“Yeah.  She’s lucky she had someplace to go.  I can’t believe they didn’t tie that thing down.”

“Most folks don’t tie down travel trailers,” Helen said.  But most travel trailers don’t stay in one place that long.”

“So,” I said, “Can I pay those guys to come tie Cindy’s trailer down?  It’ll keep me from getting those phone calls.”

“Uh, Mr. Dan, (I was “Mr. Dan” In public) I would have been scared, tied down or not,” she interrupted.

“Yeah, okay, darling (slip of the tongue.  Oops!) but you like to  have lost your house.”

Helen smiled.  “Sweetie,” she said, addressing Cindy, “It’s just a good thing Mr. Dan was here to take care of you last night.”

I noted that Cindy bit her bottom lip.

Helen looked at me.  “Thanks for watching things for her, Dan.  You take better care of her than her momma does.”

Saturday.  Lazy day.  Cindy’s mom wasn’t home, so Cindy pinned the note on the door and we decided to take off on an excursion.  A shorts-clad Cindy was climbing into the truck.  She looked at me.  “Hey, babe, can’t you, like, fold this console up out of the way?”

“Yeah, cutie,” I said, “but where will I put my important stuff?”

Giggle.  “Buddy,” she smiled, “since last night you just got something MORE important than all that stuff.”

“Okay.  I suppose so.”  I moved things around and stowed the console so she could slide over into the center of the bench seat.   And that’s where she belted in.

I slid in beside her.  “You know,” I said, “we can do this because we’re gonna be out of the local area.  Otherwise, back in your old spot.  That red head of yours is too easy to spot.

“Yes, baby,” she said, “but it’s nice to be able to do this.”

“Do what?”

Her hand went between my thighs and squeezed my dick.  Giggle.

“Oh, that!”

Eighty miles up the road.  Down a country path (thank god for four-wheel drive) and into the woods.  And a blanket on a bed of pine needles. And we made love.  No, she wasn’t some sort of “expert”.  This was session number three.  But she loved me.  And she was enthusiastic.  Eager.  Sweetly beautiful.  I had eyes for no other.

Back home again.  Miss Helen noted our going and coming.  Smiled and waved.  I dropped Cindy at her trailer and then went to my own.

Sunday.  I heard a knock on the door.  Opened it to look at those green eyes again.

“Your mom come home?”

Copper hair shook in the negative.

“Breakfast?”

“Yeah.”

We brought Helen back a dozen donuts.  I spent the afternoon repairing a pump on the swimming pool filter.  That got me a free month’s rent.  Helen got a bargain.  Cindy and I got the pool.  Lounging.  Swimming.

The mom came back Sunday evening.  Cindy and I were at the pool.  The Toyota stopped and the mom got out.  A bleach blonde about my own age walked over, shorts, a halter top.  Bluing tattoo around an ankle.  Another visible high on her thigh.  And heels, for god’s sake.  I was nervous inside.  This could be a bad thing.  Or not.

“So you’re the Dan she keeps talking about.”
I smiled.  Couldn’t hurt.  Some women found me charming.  “that’s me,” I said.  And you’re Cindy’s mom.  Donna, right?”

“Yeah,” she said.  “She says you’ve been helping her out?”

“Yeah, she’s a good kid.  Glad to help.”

“Well, thanks, ya know.  Sometimes I don’t know what I’m gonna do with her.  Life’s tough enough without havin’ a kid to take care of.”

“I heard that,” I said.  Fight ignorant WITH ignorant.  “It’s kinda nice to have a buddy, yaknow…”

“Yeah.  Well, you an’ Helen are sure helpin’ me out.  Just thanks, okay?”

“Sure, “ I said.  “Any time.”

Donna turned away to walk back to her car.  I noted a huge tramp stamp peeking out just above the waistband of her shorts.

Monday I was back at work and Cindy was back in school.  Her bus hit the park about an hour before I got home, but we both ended up at the pool.  With nobody else around.

She noticed.  And leered.  “I have something that needs rubbing,” she smiled.

“And I’d love to rub it, sweetie.  But we can’t right now.  So let’s swim.”  We swam.  And then lounged.

“I’m gonna need homework help,” she said brightly.

I smiled.  “For real?  Or…”

“Both!”

“Okay, little girl,” I said.  “Here’s how we do this.”

She turned to look at me.  “How?”

“You’re gonna tell your mom an’ your mom is gonna tell me.  An’ Helen.  So if anybody sees little red-headed Cindy disappear into Dan’s trailer for a couple of hours several times a week, they’ll just KNOW she’s in there doing equations or essays.”

“And she’ll REALLY be doin’ Dan,” she chirped sweetly.  “Okay.  I can try that.”

So the next day I stopped by the park office to check mail.

“Hi, Dan,” said Helen.  “Donna stopped by.  Said thanks to whoever installed tie-downs on her trailer.  And said Cindy was going to use you (almost imperceptible pause) for homework help.”

“Yeah,” I said innocently.  “Cindy asked me about it. I said I’d do it if she got her mom’s okay.  It’s bad enough how much time we spend together outside in the open, much less her coming in my trailer.”

Helen smiled.  “Well, you’re the best thing that’s happened to the little girl.”  We caught up on gossip for a few minutes, discussed the last crop of weekenders, and Donna walked in.

“Hey, uh… Dan?” she said.

“Yeah, hey, Donna, how’s work?” I almost said “How’s tricks?”

“Slow.  Tips are kinda thin lately.  Say, the kid’s sayin’ that her homework is going nuts and you can help her?”

“Yeah, I told her I can help.  I’m just hoping that a college degree fifteen years ago will still work for junior high now.”

“Oh,  You’re one a’ them engineers.  You know all about numbers’n stuff.”

“Maybe so.  Anyway, I’m glad to help.  Any time.”

“Well, thanks, dude, “ she said.  And flounced out to her car.  And left.

Helen sniffed.  “Puts her perfume on with a roller.”

“Tell me what you REALLY think, Helen.”

Helen snorted derisively.  “What I really think?  Hah!  I think that in four more months, when you got go to your next job, you should bundle up that little redhead an’ take her with you.”

“Huh?”

“Yeah.  Dad.  Husband.  Big brother.  Whatever.  Anything short of axe murderer an’ you’re better  for Cindy than that.. that slut.”

I stared.

Chapter Five

“Look, Dan, lemme tell you somethin', Helen said.  “You never met my husband, Mr. Hardison.  He died six years ago.  Eighty-six.”

“But you're not that old, Helen, I said.

“Nope.  Herb Hardison was twenty-nine years older'n me.  I was fifteen.  He was forty-four.  He took care of me all my life.  Took me out of a share-cropper house with him an' we worked hard, but we never went hungry or did without the necessities.  And we did pretty good.  I wouldn't own this business if he wasn't who he was an' made me who I am.”

“And you're telling me...”

She smiled.  “Dan, it's written all over your face how you feel about that little girl.  You think that you're getting into something that is so wrong that society condemns it, but I'm tellin' you that sometimes society makes rules for the worst case, an' they completely bury the best case.”  She took a deep breath.  “I'm serious.  In four weeks you've turned a ragamuffin who was scared of her own shadow into a nice lookin' young lady.  And her manners are better.  An' YOU take care of her.” Helen looked at me, silent for a second.  “An' I think you know what I'm sayin'.  Just take care of her, okay?”

“But, Helen, what am I gonna do in four months?  I can't stay here after the job's over.  Well, I can, for a while.  I have savings.  But I need to move on, you know.”

Helen released an almost cryptic smile.  “Don't you worry, Dan.  Things change.”

I smiled at Helen.  “Maybe so, lady.  Thanks!”  I left and went to my little haven.  My cellphone’s ring assaulted my ear.  I flipped it open and saw “Cindy”.

“Hey, cutie,” I said.

“Hi, Dan,” she chirped.  “I got homework.”

“Real homework, or... “

“Maybe some of both...  I'm halfway there...”

I looked across the park and she was indeed walking toward me, bookbag slung artfully over her shoulder.  And waited for her to join me at my trailer.  Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Helen watching at the office door.  I unlocked my trailer and let Cindy and me inside.  As I landed my computer bag in the miniscule space beside the sofa, I heard the door lock click.

I turned and Cindy smiled, her eyes happy, laughing.  Then she squealed and jumped at me, throwing her arms around my neck, pressing her neatly clad body full against me.  And she kissed me.  We kissed.  Long.  This was the drink I thirsted for.

“Hello, little love,” I said.

“I missed you, Dan,” she sighed.  “Hi.”

She was still in my arms, smiling, her eyes bright.  Her head was tilted back because of almost a foot difference in our heights.  Her lips were naturally red, soft, still wet from the kiss.  I sat back onto the sofa and pulled her toward me.  With me now sitting, she was looking down at me and she put her hands on the sides of my face and kissed me again, then a shower of kisses.

“One more,” I said between kisses, “and then homework...”  I got, oh, two, or three, or half a dozen more.  We spread books and notebooks and papers on the little dinette table and went over the lessons.  English?  Not a problem.  Cindy was a reader on her own, and language was easy for her.  Math?  We worked on math.  I explained what the books and the teachers wanted, and we talked her way through problems, and that was done.  Science?  For a kid who thought “Discovery” was the top-rated channel on TV?  Hah!

I heard a knock at the door.  Cindy answered it.  I looked across the trailer.  Donna.  “Hey, Donna,” I said.

“Hey, Dan,” she answered.  “I'm goin' in to help at the bar tonight.  I was just checkin' on Cindy.”

“She's okay,” I countered.  “She finished all her work.  I was gonna take her out for pizza, if that's okay.”

“Sure,” said Donna.  “Saves her from makin' a mess in our place.”

“Are you gonna be in early?  Or should I watch her?”

“I dunno what time I'm comin' in, but if you watch her, then I won't worry about it.  But she can stay there by herself, you know.”

“Yeah, I know, but after that storm the other night...”

“Yeah, but the trailer's tied down.  Ol' Helen paid somebody to do that after the wind blew it sideways.”

I continued, “And that red pickup truck keeps driving by...”

“Oh,” laughed Donna.  “That's just Larry.  He was gonna move in with us, but he's whacked out, an' we broke up, an' he keeps hopin' for another chance.”

I snorted.  “Yeah.  Creeps me out, especially when I see him drive by there and stop on the road and stare at your trailer and I know YOU'RE at work and Cindy’s there by herself.”

“He ain't gonna do nothin'.  It'll violate his probation!”

“Well,” I said, “Cindy's good on the sofa here if it's okay with you.”

Donna gazed at me.  “Yeah, I s'pose so.  Anyways, I gotta go...”  And she left.

Cindy turned back towards me and smiled impishly and purposefully locked the door.  And turned toward the bed, kicking her shoes off.  I joined her.  Got one trophy-class hug, and she pulled me on top of her.  I couldn't resist that, at least for a little while.  I propped up on my elbows and surveyed that angelic face at close distance.  Her eyes darted back and for the between mine, then she wrapped her arms around my neck and drew me down to kiss her.

“This keeps getting better and better,” she said, “an' that's just the kissin'.”

Yes, it was.  Soft, eager lips.  A tongue that was positively athletic.  A face that angels envy.  That bronze hair, and those green eyes...  And the giggle.  And the smile.  And the supple, now eager, body that carried all that around.

“Uh, yeah, baby,” I said, “about that other stuff...”  I rolled off her onto my side, facing her.  She bounced once and lay on her side facing me.

“Mmm-hmmm,” she smiled, and put a finger on the tip of my nose, then planted a kiss there.  “Dan, we made love.  My very first time makin' love.  It was US!”

“I know, sweetie, and it was wonderful.  You're very desirable and beautiful and it WAS wonderful, but I can't help but think that maybe I took advantage of you.”

“Why, Dan?  Why would you think that?  Did you get me drunk?  Give me drugs?  Tie me up and tape my mouth shut?  Huh?”

“No.”

There's only one person in this whole wide world that comes even close to being as nice to me as you've been.  An' that's Mizz Helen.  An' she told me you were a nice guy an' I should be friends with you.”

“Yeah,” I said, filing that little tidbit for another conversation with Helen later.  “But I was being nice without taking you to bed.”

“Uh, Dan,  I took YOU to bed...”  She paused.  “You've been so good to me.  My friend.  My very best friend.  The one I can talk to.  An' I wanted to give you something.  All I had was ME!”

“Cindy, you are a wonderful gift.”

“So,” she said, looking me in the eye.  “When YOU say “I love you”, is it hard for you to say?  Does it mean anything?”

“Cindy,  I told you about my first wife.  Four years ago I started seeing another lady seriously.  She was pretty nice looking, smart, independent, no kids, and I thought it was going places.  I was going to ask her to marry me.  And one day, out of the blue, she announced she was moving back in with an old boyfriend that she'd only mentioned to me once in four months.  That almost killed me.  Tore me apart.  I sat at home for a week, in a dark room, then I decided that I needed to get out of that crap.  And that's when I started this road work.  I've dated a few women.  I don't do trash.  If a woman is nice, sounds smart, friendly, available, I will do a date or two, but I just don't want that “one night in the sack and let's get married”, and I don't like one-night stands, and I don't want my heart broken again.  So yes, I know what it means when you hear somebody say “I love you” and it turned out to be on a time limit.”

“So what's the time limit for Friday night?”  Serious-looking face on this young lady.

“Heaven help me, Cindy, but I don't put a time limit on it.  That's one of the things that scares me so damned much about this.  I have fallen in love with a thirteen...”

“Fourteen,”she interrupted, “Saturday.”

“Okay, I've fallen in love with a fourteen year old girl.  And fourteen year old girls can have a whole different idea of 'forever' than I do.”  I sighed.

I got a kiss in return.  “Now,” she said, “YOU shut up an' let me talk.”

“Okay.”

“First, I think you're too smart to think that I'm like every other teenaged girl you might have ever talked to.  How many of them have a momma makin' her live in a thirty-foot travel trailer?  And doin' her boyfriends at the other end five nights a week?  An' leavin' her there by herself overnight since she was eight?  Huh?”

“You're the first,” I admitted.

“So don't you think that I just MIGHT be a little different?  I probably know more about men an' women and what they do to each other than most people you know.  I know what Mom goes through when she loses one she wants to keep.  An' I know what the guy does when she decides she don't want HIM any more.  I know about screamin' an' hollerin' an' cryin' an' yellin' an' even hittin'.  Do you think that I think that stuff's normal?  Or good?”

“No.”

“An' I know what drugs an' alcohol do from close up.  I didn't just sit through the class at school.  I watched my own mom do all that.  I know!  Do you think I want any of THAT?”

“I should hope not.”

She scooted into my arms.  “So, Dan, I know you think it's weird.  I mean, I'm fourteen an' you're what forty?”

“Yeah.  Forty-one, actually.”

“An' you're thinking that fourteen year old girls shouldn't be sayin' 'I love you' unless they mean it.  An' I'm tellin' you that I know enough to mean it.  Really, Dan...  I think you know...”  and there was a tear on the cheek of this little angel in my arms.

I kissed the tear away.  And held her.  “I'm sorry, Cindy.  It's just such a big mess.  I can believe you mean it.  But this job's gonna be over in February and there's no more work here for me.  I can stay here for a long time on my savings, but you know that sooner or later I have to go back to work, and that's not going to be here.  So where's my Cindy forever gonna be when Dan's gotta haul his trailer halfway across the country?”

“Your Cindy forever's gonna be with Dan forever.”

“Baby, there's a problem here.  No state in the union is going to accept you leaving your mom to live with me.  What we did Friday night can get me a long prison term in any state in the nation.”

“So let's get married!”

“Same problem.  Some states might let you get married at sixteen IF your parents sign for it.  No state will let you get married until you're eighteen without your parents approval.”

“Stupid laws!  I read some books that they talk about in history class an' I know that women used to get married as soon as they was old enough to have babies.  I'm old enough now!”

“Baby, the laws might be stupid, but they ARE the laws.”

So she wiggled a little bit.  “An' February, what would you be doing if you didn't have a Cindy forever?”

I kissed her face into a smile for a brief moment, but the smile faded when my lips moved away.  “Well, sweetie, the way in normally works is that some of the people I've worked for before will know when I am getting close to finishing this project, and they'll be wanting me to move to the next one.  Sometimes I take a month off and go home and stay at my real live house, but then it's back to an RV park somewhere.”

She sighed.

“But I will stay here  as long as I can...  I have plenty of savings.  I could do a couple of years here, just lounging around, maybe taking off for little projects for a week or two.  And I could keep my Cindy forever.  If she can stand that kind of life.”

Cindy was killing me with those green eyes at this close range.  “What do you mean, “If I can stand it”?

“Well, baby, I might have to be gone for a week or two at a time.  That's a long time for you to be alone.”

She pulled back from me.  “Mr. Dan,” she said, and it was the first time she used the “Mr.” part since Friday night, “do you honestly think I'd forget about you in two weeks?”

“No, baby,” I said, “I don't.  But I'm just wanting you to know the conditions.”

She said, “I'm not going to forget YOU.  I love YOU!!!  And I'd be more worried about some of Mom's boyfriends while you were gone.  Did you see that one that keeps drivin' by?”

“Yeah, I saw 'im,” I said.  I paused and drew a deep breath.  “Look, little green-eyed girl, I want you.  I'm just trying to figure out how to make this work.  I mean, I COULD figure out a way to stay here for the next two years and then get your mom drunk enough to sign papers to let you marry me.”

“She'd be glad to get rid of me before then.”

“Seriously?  What makes you think that.”

She grunted, “Hmph!  Subtle little hints like “I wish there was somebody you could go live with.” and other things I need to hear, like “Billy-Bob would marry me if I didn't have a brat for him to raise.”  But I think that ol' Billy-Bob's beginning to think that I might be part of a package deal now that I'm a little older.”

“Sweetie,” I said, don't make me have to go shoot ol' Billy-Bob for messin' with MY girl.”

Chapter Six

That got me a giggle and a kiss and a longer kiss.  “Can we talk about this some other time.  I wanna be with you.”

“Be with me?”

“Yeah.  Friday night was wonderful.  But stuff just happened so fast.  And Sunday was wonderful.  But I want to play with you.  This is all new stuff to me.”  She sat up in bed and smiled at me in her best “curious little girl” smile.

“So what do you want me to do?”

“Get naked.  Let me play with you.”

“Oh,” I said, “is this one sided?  Or can I get a naked Cindy out of the deal?”

“I suppose I could do that,” she giggled as I began to unbutton her school uniform shirt.  She turned around for me to unhook the two hooks of her bra.  That freed tow young titties that just begged to be played with.  She stood to get out of her slacks and I stood to undress myself.  Finally I was completely naked and so was she.

“You are so incredibly beautiful,” I said.

She smiled.  “And you drive me wild.  This is the first time we've both been naked, you know.”

“Yeah, I do know,” I said.  We crawled into bed.

She pushed me onto my back.  “So,” she said, wrapping fingers around my dick, “let's talk about how this thing works.”

“You've been making it work pretty good so far,” I answered.

“Yeah, but Friday night, I just sucked it once to show you I was serious, an' then I put it in me, and it was all stars an' fireworks an' I don't know what I did to you or what you did to me...  You know, I wasn't payin' attention.  It was all so new an' wonderful.”

“Yes it was,” I said, “but you did some things that surprised me.”

“Like what?”

“Like when you sucked on me, you know, when you said you were serious.”

“Dan, I never did that before.  I never even saw a guy's thing, his dick before, well, maybe a glimpse of one of mom's boyfriends, but I never looked.  But I heard 'em talkin' while they were doin' things an' they always talk about suckin', so I knew it happened.  I just never did it or knew how to do it or what to do, so like, there you were, an' it was standin' up, hard, an' I thought, “well, Cindy, you're supposed to suck this thing” an' I just sucked.  There's more to it than that, huh?”

“Yes, little princess, there is.  But just that you tried was wonderful.  And because it was you, it was wonderful.”

“So, like, let me play with it and do that some more an' you can tell me what I need to do an' how it works.” She smiled.  All this time she was sliding her hands over my dick and balls, exploring.  “An' you can do the same for me.  I KNOW you know some stuff.  You made me feel so good I passed out.  An' Saturday.  In the woods.  We made love.  I just KNOW we made love.  Because you treated me so sweet and gentle and I could see it in your eyes.  I want all that.”

I smiled, then a little gasp as her fingers curved under my scrotum.  “Baby, I couldn't do anything BUT make love with you Saturday.  And I want what you want.”

Her fingertips twiddled underneath my balls.  “Ball, huh?” she smiled at me.  “They feel heavy!”  Her fingers closed over my sack.  “I like the way they feel in my hand.”

“Oh, yeah, baby.  I like the way they feel in your hand too...”

“So what can I do with this,” she asked.

“Just what you're doing is great.  Just roll 'em around like that and tug gently.  They're very sensitive to pressure.  That's why guys are so vulnerable to getting hit or kicked there.”

“Oooooh,” she said.  “An' you like 'em licked and sucked, too.  I learned that already.”  She'd licked and sucked me clean after each round of intercourse we'd enjoyed.  Of course, I'd done the same to her.  “An' this thing,” she grinned, sliding her hand up the shaft of my dick, “I think I know some of the stuff it likes.”

“You sure do, Cindy,” I said.

“I like to suck it,” she said.  “Do you like me suckin' it?  Do I do that too much?”

“Come here,” I said, and I dragged her lithe form on top of me and kissed her.  She was irresistable.  She kissed back, too.  “You're teasing me.”

“I'm certainly NOT teasing you, Dan.  It's not teasing if I intend to finish what we started.”  More kisses.  Then she sat back up.  “But seriously.  What REALLY makes it feel good?”

“YOU make it really feel good, baby.”

“Yeah, but, like, can I bite it?  I really wanted to bite it, but I was afraid it would hurt you.”

I smiled.  “Yes, I like biting.  Just not too hard.”

“How hard?”

“Let me show you.” I raised up and took a nipple into my mouth and sucked, then started nibbling.

“Oooooo,”she said.

“Harder?”

“Just a little...”

I complied.  When I pulled away from her that left nipple was a fiery pink.  “That's how you tell.  Just do it.  And if it's too much, I'll tell you.”

Giggle.  “Lemme try!”  Bounce.  Lips covered the head of my waiting dick.  She didn't deep throat.  She got a couple of wonderful inches into her mouth and I felt her teeth ease into the play.  “Mmmmmm,” she moaned.  And let me go.  “Harder?”

“A little bit.  Just bite down enough to where you can move the skin back and forth on the hard part.  See how that works.”  I knew it was working for me.  Almost too well.  The shiny head of hair bent forward into my crotch, her hand wrapped around my shaft.  Cindy followed instruction well.  Stroking me into and out of her mouth, I got multiple ecstasies of her lips and teeth pulling on my dick, and then her tongue worked me over.

She stopped, not from any sense of guile or conscious application of technique, but because she didn't KNOW what she was doing to me, that I was on a rapid climb to orgasm.  She wanted to know what was going on.

“Is that good, Dan?” she asked simply.

“Cindy, you're incredibly good.  That was fantastic.  Great!”

“Really?”

“Really!”

“'Cause all I know about it is what you showed me an' what I heard when Mom an' her boyfriend are doin' things.  So I know THAT people do it, but I don't know WHAT people do.”  Smiling, she bent her head down and took me in her mouth again.  A sloppy hot, tongue-augmented suck.  Then those ivory white teeth.  The same teeth that dazzled me when she smiled, THOSE teeth were just barely capturing the outer skin of my dick, dragging that skin up and down the shaft.

“That really feels neat, Dan.”  She stopped again, viewing my hardness from close range.  Her hand gripped my shaft at the base and squeezed, milking a huge, gleaming drop of pre-cum from the tip.  “Is that your juice, baby,” she asked.  “I hear 'em talkin' about juice.”

“That's one kind of juice, baby.  It's there for lubrication for when I go inside you.  You do the same thing.  It's what our bodies do when we're excited, gets us ready for intercourse.”

“So I've been tasting this stuff?”

“Yeah,” I said, a little tentatively.  “It's part of the process.  And I'm telling this to the little girl who cleaned the results of TWO orgasms off me Friday night.”

That got me a smile.  “Yeah, I know...  That was cool.  But some of THAT stuff was kinda milky.”

Back to teacher mode.  “That was semen.  When a guy has an orgasm, he squirts out semen.  It's a lot of different things, and in a guy who hasn't been fixed, a tiny bit of that is sperm.  Sperm is what gets a girl pregnant when it reaches her egg.”

“Oooohhhhh,” she said.  She'd milked another drop out of my dick and rewarded herself with it.  Which meant that I was rewarded with a delightfully noisy suck on the head of my dick.  “An' if a girl gives a guy a blow-job, that stuff comes out?”

“Yeah.”

“An' that's like, in her mouth?”

“That's one option,” I said.  “Sometimes a girl likes it and enjoys the guy coming in her mouth, and she sucks it all out an' swallows.  I've heard of girls who let the guy come in their mouth, but then they spit it out.  And there are girls who will suck on a guy but stop before he comes in their mouths.  And, you know, there are some girls who won't even put a guy's dick in their mouths at all.”

Cindy smiled broadly.  “Not me, Dan.  Yours is MADE for me to suck.”  She squeezed out another drop.  Head bobbed down.  “Mmmmm,” she said.  “I love that.  So, if I sucked on you, you'd come in my mouth?”

“No doubt about it.”

“Coming,” she said, “I heard that from Mom an' her guy friends a bunch.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.  An' I learned two years ago that if I rubbed my little button it started feeling really good, but the first time I made myself have an orgasm, Wow!”  And her head bobbed down again.  “Mmmmm” escaped the lips sealed around my dick.  “But you know, Friday night, that was like the difference between watching fireworks on TV an' sitting on the bank of the river an' seein' 'em live.”

She left my dick and slid up my torso, our naked bodies providing sensual friction.  And she held my face between her hands and put her forehead against mine and whispered, “Dan, I love you.  You made me feel so good.  You made me a woman.  An' since YOU made me, you get to keep me.”  And she ended her little soliloquy with a kiss.

I wrapped her up in my arms and held her.  My right hand slid down her back, tracing the gentle curve, then the swell of her butt.  I cupped that cheek in my hand and squeezed gently, pushing her down against the raging erection I had for her.  Her pubic mound cushioned the leaky head of my dick between us.  Our lips met again and sealed together for long minutes, tongues caressing each other.

She raised up a little, finally, and straddled me.  The pussy of hers was hot and wet and eager. Bronze hair framed her face as she knit her brow momentarily in concentration, her hips actively seeking.  Her pussy found.  My dickhead met hot, slippery resistance and she pushed down and back, sliding us together.  I felt our pubic bones meet.  And a sigh.  Then with us mated, she lowered herself back on my chest and we resumed our kiss, her pelvis making tiny oscillations, pulling my dick toward climax.  I stroked her beautiful hair and held her face to mine, then both my hands moved down to grasp her waist.

“Dan, baby,” she whispered.

“Yes, angel?”

“Don't come in me right now.”

“Okay.  Why?”

Her face pulled back from mine, revealing a mischievous grin.  “'Cuz I wanna suck you off.”

“You what?”

“I wanna suck you off.  All the way.  In my mouth.”

“I ain't gonna refuse that, baby doll,” I laughed.  “But are you sure?  Some girls don't like it.”

“Hah!” she said,  “I heard my mom do it some many times I can't count, an' if she can do it to some dude she picked up in a bar, I can do it for the guy I love.”

“I love your logic, little green-eyed girl...”

She rolled off of me, and I have to tell you, I was sad that my unsatiated dick left that tight, wet, hot pussy of hers.  But what an offer.  I backed up onto a stack of pillows so I could see.  Cindy noticed this.

Giggle.  “You wanna watch little Cindy do you?,” she teased. She opened her mouth.  Her pink tongue started on my scrotum and laved its way up the underside of my shaft and swirled around the head.  She had the 'milking' thing down and used her right hand to pull another big drop of pre-cum out.  When it appeared, she flicked it up with that mobile tongue.  Then, like a little girl kissing a puppy's nose, she planted a demure, close-lipped kiss on the end of my dick.  And looked up at me, green eyes, bangs, dimples, and grinning wickedly.

I was holding my breath.  I don't know why.  I was.  And when that delightful head bobbed forward, I finally gasped a breath.  Her lips met her hand on my dick with each stroke.  Yes, she used teeth.  And lips.  And tongue.  And BOTH hands, one on the shaft of my dick, one underneath my balls, where her fingernails teasingly pulled folds of skin.  It wasn't long before I couldn't stop myself from meeting her head bobbing suction with hip thrusts of my own.

“My Dan likes this,” she purred, then her mouth closed again around me.

I touched the back of her head.  That wasn't because I wanted to do ANYTHING to control her, or to change what she was doing.  I just wanted to touch those bronze locks, to tell myself that this wasn't some incredibly erotic dream.  My Cindy was purring.  Her happy “mmmmm” coursed throughout my being.

“Gah.  Cindy.  I'm.  Close.  Baby.”

I felt just as much as heard “Mmm-hmmm” as her mouth and hands worked relentless magic on my dick.  “Ahhh.  Cin.  I'mmm  commminnnggggg!”  And the first spurt escaped like fire from me.  Her “Mmmm” changed to “mmmph” and I felt her tongue swallowing the first splash.  Her head and hand pulled out the second. And third.  And fourth.  And she kept her sucking, as my hip thrusts failed, her suction eased, replaced by a tongue lovingly swirling my head.  Finally she let me go...

She slid back up my chest.  And kissed me.  And I could taste myself still in her mouth.  Finally she said, “Wow, Dan, that was somethin'.  I felt it start pulsin' an' then SQUIRT!  I thought it was going squirt, but I didn't know it would be like THAT!”

“I'm sorry, baby.  You sort of get me built up really bad...”

She shook her head, smiling, that bronze hair just bouncing from side to side.  “Oh, no, baby!  I loved it.  If I made you do THAT, I must have made you feel REAL good!”

“You did, Cindy.  You just gave me the best one in my whole life.”

“Really?” she squealed.  “'Cuz I know you've been with other women.  An' I know they did that to you.”

“Cindy, my love, Never have I been as happy and satisfied with oral sex as what you just did for me.  Never.”

That got me kisses.

“Now,” I said, “I want to taste YOU!”

Squeal!  Giggle!  Bounce!  And it was Cindy's turn to prop up on the pillows.  Leg spread.  Heels drawn up.  Knees in the air.  The very definition of eager anticipation.  And I put my face right in the middle.

No I didn't.  I kissed her face, then as I turned on the bed, I sucked each nipple in turn, biting them to pink perfection, her hands pulling my face into her chest.  It was only when I got to her navel that she gently pushed my head toward her pink, moist, waiting pussy.  But I didn't want to be beside her.  I wanted to be between those slim, girlishly muscular thighs.  I got there.  I planted a kiss on her mound, directly above the beginning of her heated slit.

“Mmmmmm, Dan...” she moaned.  “I dream about this...”

I pondered about how wonderful that idea was as my lips and tongue wandered down the outside of her pussy, its lips spread, engorged, deep pink, glistening with a film of musky moisture.  The feel of her pussy lips against my lips and tongue was indescribable.  I breathed deeply though my nose to inhale the exquisite femininity of that musk.  And then I lapped my tongue deep into her juicy pussy to taste the treasures she'd released for me.

When she felt my tongue between her labia she moaned.  “Mmmmmmm, Dannnnn....”

I licked back up, sucked first on lip, then the other into my mouth, savoring the moisture.  I ran my tongue as deep into her hole as I could.  And then I licked up from her hole, just barely touching her little clitoris, her “button”, with the tip of my tongue.  She shuddered.  “Nnnnn. Yesssss!”

I lightly flicked the little pea-shaped head with my tongue.  It was straining from its hood.  I teased it with my lips, listening to happy moans and whimpers.  Her fingers wrapped the back of my head, pushing my face into what was now the center of her existence.

“Lick it, Dan!  Right there!  Hard!”  I did.  Then I sucked it in between my lips and stroked it with my tongue, flicking, pushing.

“Oh, yesssss!  Babyyyyy!  I....  I'm coming!  I'mmmm commminnnggggg!”  Long legs wrapped around me from behind, heels driving into my back as my baby surged against my tongue.  I wouldn't let up.  She moaned.  She mewed.  “Nnnnnnnnn,oh, oh, oh,  god, Dan..  no...  oh, oh, god...  another one!  Nnnnnnn...  ohhhhhhh.”  She bucked her hips up, slamming her pussy into my face, then fell back to the bed, limp.  I could hear breathing.  That's all.  Breathing.  Her body was limp.

I eased up beside her and scooped her into my arms, cradling her to my chest, kissing her pretty face, her eyes shut.  I kept up the kisses, gentle, savoring the angel I had in my arms.  Her eyelids fluttered.

“Hi, princess,” I said.  “Are you okay?”

She turned in my arms, wrapping her own around my neck.  “Dan, if you ever leave me I will kill myself.  I love you.”

“I love you, too, Miss Cindy.”

We basked for a bit,

“You know,” she said, “I tried talkin' to Mom about sex an' love an' stuff, and she said “don't get 'em mixed up” an' I wondered about that.  But now I'm with you, and I think that they go together...”

“They're supposed to, Cin,” I said.  “When you split 'em apart, there's a price to pay.  In too many ways.”

“I guess so.  Sometimes I feel sorry for Mom.  I think that's part of why she's such a train-wreck.”

“I dunno,” I said.  Cindy's mom wasn't a subject I discussed with her often.  I wasn't going to broach the subject.  “Sometimes people's paths are different.”

“Yeah, but Mom...  I mean.  Bars!  An' not nice bars, either.”  She sighed.  “An' ya know, sometimes I think she has sex for money...”

“You think?”

“Yeah, I think so.  I know there's a buncha times she's had spending money after she stayed out all night, an' it wasn't payday or nothin'.”

“Well, that could be a sign.”

“Yeah.  Dan, I don't wanna be like that.”

“You're not like that.”  I kissed her on top of her head, savoring the smell of her shampoo, now masked with the musk of recent sex.  “You get to make choices.  I'm here, an' I think Mizz Helen's here to make sure you don't get trapped into something you shouldn't have to deal with.”

“Yeah, I like Mizz Helen.  She's good to me.  An' I think you an' her kinda protect me.”

“Yeah.  But I don't know how she'd be if she thought we were doin' this...”

“You might be surprised,” she said.  “She tol' me about how young she was when she got married.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah,” Cindy continued, “Did ya know her husband was twenty-nine years older'n her?”

“Yeah, she told me that,” I said.

“Uh, Dan, do you know that you're only twenty-eight years older than me?”

“Yes, my dearest, I know.  I think about that a lot.”

“Did she tell you that she loved him from the beginning till the day he died?  An' still does?”

“That's a little mushier than she told me.  Just that they had a good long life together.”

She batted her eyelashes at me.  “Saturday's my birthday, Dan.  Mom's probably gonna be gone.”

“Your mom's not gonna do anything for your birthday?”

“If, an' that's a big 'if', she remembers, she'll have me a present when I get home Friday.  Just like last year.  It was, like, “Cindy, Momma's gotta work this weekend...” an' I'm thinkin, 'okay, but the bar closes at two, an' you don't have to go in on Saturday 'til like, six...” but the last time that I tried cornering her about that she got real mad an' we had a fight.  Didn't talk for a week.”

“So there's a chance that I'll have you for your birthday?”

“If you want me.”

“Little girl,” I said, “we're naked, satisfied, and in bed together.  I want you every day for the rest of my life.”  I paused.  “Now, it's getting late.  Are you hungry?”

Giggle.  “I am.  An' I know where I can get me a weenie...”  Fingers wrapped around my half-hard dick.  It went to full in no time at all.  There was another one of those athletic bounces with arms and legs going in improbable directions and then I found myself impaling a thirteen year old girl on my dick.  “But I'm not hungry for a weenie right now.  Just ate one!”  She smirked.  And then a couple of swirls of that delightfully mobile heinie and the smirk diasppeared.

“D'you have, like, TV dinners in the freezer?”

A swirl of pussy on hard dick.  “Mmmm.”  I found it hard to carry on conversation with that sort of distraction.  “Uh, yeah, why?”

“Then lets not waste time goin' out to eat...”  And my next half-hour was filled with humping teen girl and a couple more orgasms.  As she lay on top of me, my softening dick slid out of the soppy mess of our juices in her pussy.

“Mmmmm, Dan.  My lover...”

“Yeah, my pet...”

“If I turn aroun', an' do you, an' at the same time, you do me, is that “sixty-nine”?”

“Yep.”

“Sixty-nine me....”  Followed immediately by her spinning around in place, presenting me with her pussy, still oozing a mixture of the juices of our second mating of the day.

You can't pass up a chance like that.

Giggles heard from the vicinity of my crotch.  “He-he...  You're fun to suck on when you're soft, you know.”

“Now I do...”  I buried my face in the wetness between her legs, lapping, sucking, drinking, teasing...

“Stop that!  Can't ya see a girl's tryin' concentrate?”

“Oh, excuse me, lady.  I shall lick your pussy in a conservative and restrained manner.”

That got me a nip on the dick.  And giggles.  And more wonderful kisses and sucks.  Finally she turned around.  We snuggled in each other's arms.  I looked down at my Cindy.  She was glowing.

“Baby, it's getting kinda late.”

“I know,” she said.  “Let's see those TV dinners.”

And that was supper, two microwaved TV dinners.  We laughed at TV while we ate.  When we finished, she bounced up and grabbed my empty tray.  “Here!  Let me do the dishes.”  And she tossed the trays in the trashcan.  Forks went into the little kitchenette sink.

“Baby, I guess I need to walk you home.  It's almost dark.”

“Mmmm, Dan, can I stay here?  I mean, like, Mom practically TOLD me that she wasn't comin' home tonight.”

“That's risky, baby.”  And she turned and looked at me.  “But I guess so.”  I was the one risking.  “We need to go get you some clothes for school tomorrow, okay?”

Squeal!  And the love of my life was in my lap, wrapping me up in her arms...

Chapter Seven

What a delightful thing, having Cindy in the house with me.  Two weeks into our relationship we were less awkward around each other.  That's a good thing when the 'house' is an 8x35 foot travel trailer.  But snug was okay.  The bed was queen-sized, HUGE for me by myself, but perfect for me and my Cindy.  We had a sofa we could share, the dinette, a little floor space.  The big drawback was the bathroom.

Even though my customized trailer had, for these things, a HUGE shower, it was big enough for ONE.  No way two people could fit.  So showers this evening were solo.  Of course, that doesn't keep a certain little girl from sticking her head in the curtain and giggling as her hand reached for random appendages.

And with curtains drawn around the trailer, we could do nude for a little while before I got into my shorts and T-shirt and she got her nightshirt and panties.  We sat on the sofa together.  Really together.  As in, if I move, she moves with me.  Like we're stuck together.  And I'm loving it.

Bedtime.  We straighten the sheets and comforter and turn them back.

“Uh, Dan,” she says.

I look at my angel.  Hair still wet.  Note to self.  Buy a hair dryer.  “Yes, love?”

“D'you have to sleep in your underwear?”

“My shoulders get cold..”

“Your pants.”

“No, I guess not.  Why?”

“I'm takin' mine off.  Take yours off.”

“Sure.”  The underwear went on the nightstand beside the bed.  Hers went on the other side.

A CD with soothing classical sounds went into the player and the sound went to background levels.  As I slid under the sheets next to her, I switched out the lights.  She formed herself against me as I lay on my back.  Her hand traced down my chest, across my stomach and soft fingers wrapped up my dick, idly fondling.

“Mmmm,” she said.  “Almost perfect...”

“Just 'almost'?”

“Yeah.  Perfect would be if this was every night for the rest of our lives...”

“Yes it would.  Now go to sleep.  The alarm's set for six.  We'll get up, go to breakfast, and I'll drop you off back here so you can catch the bus, just like normal.”

She stroked my fresh-shaven face with her hand, scooted up and kissed me.  “Even the music is perfection.  What is that one?”

“Moonlight Sonata.  Beethoven.”

The alarm came all too soon and the two of us jumped out of bed, dressing at opposite ends of the trailer to take advantage of the space.  Fifteen minutes.  Then in the truck and two miles up the road to the little diner that was often a breakfast stop for me.  Waitress eyed my companion.  She knew me.  “Ain't that the little Smith girl?  Donna's her mom?”

“Yeah, I said.  This is my buddy.  Promised her a breakfast if she did good in school.”

“Oh...  Well, hon, whatcha want.”

“Pancakes,” said Cindy.

“And I'll do that too,”I said.  “She gets milk an' orange juice.  I get milk an' coffee.”

The place was fast.  A thirty percent tip every day helped that along.  We were out the door and back in the RV park in forty-five minutes.  As we were pulling in, I noted that the pickup truck of Donna's old boyfriend was leaving.  I took the long way around to Cindy's place, making sure that he'd continued down the road.

I dropped Cindy off and drove to work.  And every now and then during the day, I'd think of my little doll and I'd get pleasant feelings from the top of my head to, well, you know...

Things were going well on the project.  They didn't need me there all day, so I left in mid-afternoon.  Took advantage of that event to make a grocery run.  Bought more TV dinners.  And a hair dryer.

Back at the RV park, I stopped in the office.  I was greeted by Helen.

“Hey, Dan, you're early.”

“Yeah,” I said.  “Sometimes I can get away with it.  How's things?”

“Pretty much the same as yesterday.  An' you?”

“Great!”

“An' Cindy?”

“Took her to breakfast this morning.  She was fine then.”

Helen smiled.  “Dan, we got to do something about that young lady.  You seen that red pickup come through here?”

“Yeah.  Her mom's old boyfriend.  That's what Donna said, anyways.”

“Yeah, I remember her seein' him back early in the year.  I worry that he's gonna show up, an' no Donna, but here's this sweet little girl...”

“You really think?”

“I have my suspicious mind, you know.  Watch too many a' them TV shows.”  She continued.  “An' I notice that Donna's not just stayin' out all night on weekends.  Her car wasn't here this mornin'.”

“Yeah,” I fibbed.  “That's why I took Cindy to breakfast.”

Helen cocked an eye at me.  How much of that did she believe?

“Cindy needs somebody to take care of her.  Looks like that ain't her mom, you know.”

“I know.  It's kinda sad.  She's such a charmer.”

Another look from Helen.  “You need a daughter?”

“Like a hole in the head.  Besides, what judge in his right mind would sign an adoption for THAT fourteen year old cutie to some forty year old single guy?”

“You might be surprised.”

“An' do you honestly think that Donna's gonna sign over her own daughter?”

“Dan,” said Helen, “I think that if Donna had just a teeny bit of encouragement, she'd be happy to get shed of that responsibility.  You know, I could see that happening.”

“And,” I said, that's step one.  What about step two?”

“Like I said, my husband was quite a character.  You might think that runnin' an RV park ain't much, but Herb Hardison knew a lot of people.  Folks liked him.  Even a few judges he used to take huntin' an' fishin'.  Old men that still owe favors to the right people.”

“But I don't need a daughter, Helen.  I travel.”

“Remember what I told you about me an' my husband.  About an older man takin' a young girl out of a bad situation?  Maybe NOT a daughter.”

“Helen,” I said, “that's thinkin' that would get me twenty years in prison.”

“Suppose now, just suppose, that I was her legal guardian.  Court order.  Her mom released her.”  Helen watched my face.  “Do you think that I would let you hurt her?”

“Well, no...”

“So if you drove off with her, do you think I'd let that happen if I thought you'd hurt her?”

“No.  but...”

“Dan, I'm not stupid.  I watch you two.  You smile when you're together.  An' it's not a “father-daughter” smile, or a “big brother-little sister” smile.  An' your face changes when you talk about her.  Your eyes.  An' she ain't learnt to be subtle yet, so she just bubbles.”  Helen's eyes twinkled.  “If you two haven't already tied up, you're too damn close to count.  Am I right?.”

I didn't say anything.

“I'm right.”

“Helen,” I said, “I'm not a dirty old man takin' advantage of helpless little girls.  Honest.  It's not like that.”

“Dan, Dan, Dan, you're awful dumb for an engineer, bud.  You're not listening at all.  I watched her.  I watched you.  You an' me talked an' I had you figured for a decent fellow.  Cindy's been here for years.  I know her like one of my own.  One of my own.  If one of my daughter's woulda come home with you doin' the “Momma, we're getting married” thing, I'd have been very happy.”

“Thanks, Helen.  I appreciate that.”

“Dan, that's not the half of it.  Two or three weeks after you moved in, before school started, Cindy'd come in here every day an' ask about you.  We noticed things together.  You go to work.  You come here.  I've had construction guys in this park before, and they was always carousing and goin' out an' bringin' women back here.  An' you didn't do none a' that.  We both noticed.”

I mused, “I didn't know I was being observed.”

“Hah, you know me.  I ain't got nothin' else to do.  But Cindy, she was, like, “Mizz Helen, do you think he's nice?” an' “He's good lookin'” an' guys like that, they make good husbands, huh?” and Dan, I think somebody set her sights on you.”

“Are you serious?”

“I'm serious.  So you got a very precious little thing there, an' I don't want to see her broken.  No way.”

“I would never do that, Helen.  I've been tearing myself apart over this.  I have one thing telling me “no” and another thing telling me “yes”...

“And if I was her guardian, Dan, when she turned sixteen I'd have you an' her in the courthouse getting' married.”

“You think?”  There was hope.

“So what do we do for her birthday?”  Helen laughed.  “An' then ya'll have to make it through the next seven hundert an' thirty days...”

We made it through the week with homework sessions until eight.  Cindy's mom had come back Tuesday and hadn't gone to work for the rest of the week.  Cindy risked nothing.  She dutifully transported books to my place, we did homework, Wednesday we went out for pizza afterward, but none of the roaring sex sessions like Monday night, just on the outside change that Donna still had enough of a sense of smell to detect the odor of a freshly fucked teen.

Friday evening Cindy came over toting a shopping bag.  She stepped into the trailer and extended it.  “My birthday from Mom.”

I looked at a pretty decent little set of clothes.  “At least she got you something,” I said.

“Yeah,” said Cindy.  “I suppose so.”  She clicked the lock behind her.  And smiled demurely at me. And ran into my arms.

“Hello, there, my almost fourteen year old doll,” I said, kissing her.  “So, what's wrong?  You're not smiling...”

“Oh, Dan, you know me an' Mom have been havin' trouble lately.  She was just kinda mean today before she left.  Told me she'd be married if she didn't have all the extra burdens.  She was talkin' about me...”

“I'm sorry, sweetheart.”  I held her.

“I just want to be held right now.”

I guided her to the sofa and pulled her down beside me.  She turned into my arms, then backed up into my lap, sideways, head on my shoulder.  I wrapped her in my arms and gently kissed the top of her auburn head.

I felt the silent sobs.  “Baby, nobody should cry on their birthday.”

“Tomorrow's my birthday.  An' tonight I just wish I could run away.”  Another sob.  “I really try, Dan.  Honest.  I clean up, I even cook.  I do the laundry.  I don't cause trouble.  An' she treats me like an obstacle to her life.  It didn't use to be so bad, but since I turned twelve, every day it gets a little worse.  But I tried...”

“I know, baby...  Sometimes people just aren't right.”

Quiet voice.  “Hold me, Dan.”

And I whispered, “I love you, my Cindy forever.”

“I need you, Dan...”

“What you mean, you need me?”

“You're, like, my life...”

“And you're mine.”

“Dan,” she said, sitting up, looking at me with a serious face, “You need to know that I WANT to be yours.”

And a tornado of thought was going through my head.  Damn it!  She was fourteen.  I was haplessly, hopelessly smitten with her.  And she was fourteen.  And what was I supposed to do?  Give my heart to her?  She had it.  And there was a black corner of despair there, too, as in “Dan, in a year she's gonna be tired of you.  And you're gonna be seriously screwed, in more ways than one.”

“Cin, my love,” I asked, “What does forever mean to you?”

“Forever.  Is forever.”

Cindy, darlin', I'm not just in this for a few weeks or a few months...  I want forever, too.  But I'm way ahead of you in age.  When you turn twenty-one, I'll be almost fifty.  You'll be a beautiful young lady.  What will you do with a fifty-year old husband?”

“Husband?  As in, you'd MARRY me?”

“If we were together when you're twenty-one, we'd have been married five years.”

“You'd marry ME?”

“Haven't I told you that?”

“We talked about marryin' an' laws an' stuff, but you never just said we'd be married...” Squeal.  Her demeanor changed from the sadness of moments before to that twinkly-eyed doll whose smile could melt glaciers.  “Dan,” she smiled, “D'you love me, like, marryin' an' forever?”

“My dear,” I answered, “what do you think I was just asking?  I worry that I give you my heart at fourteen and at fifteen or sixteen or seventeen you decide that you're more attracted to people your own age...  It hurts to give away your heart and have it dropped in the street.  I know.”  It was my turn to get teary.  Flashes back to happy times.  First marriage.  And previous girlfriend, who I thought was carrying me out of the loss of my first wife.  And then the darkness I had to dig myself out of, and the first ray of sunshine, well, in my heart I knew that ray of sunlight was Cindy.

“Oh, Dan,” she said, “Is that a tear?”

“I'm sorry, Cin.  Sometimes things get a little too much for me.  I don’t know if you understand what you mean to me, baby.”

Cindy kissed my tears away.  “Dan,” she said, “I will never leave you.  Forever.  Like stars in the sky forever.”  And the next kiss wasn't on a teardrop.  It was full on my lips, and the tongue that slid through her parted lips, touched my lips, and met my own tongue, It wasn't wanton, it was tender, yes, tender in a way that belied the youth of its owner.  She finally pulled away.

“Dan, you're so wonderful to me.  But you know what really did it?”

“No.  What?”

She smiled as if she were reliving a dream.  “The other night when we went to bed, and you put that beautiful music on an' we held each other.  I went to sleep in your arms with not a care.  The sounds were perfect.  The feelings were perfect.  An' you holdin' me so gentle an' sweet was perfect.”

“You make me feel good.”

“That too!” And a mischievous grin.  And a peck of a perfect little kiss.  And from six inches away, her face was angelic perfection.  “An' are we finished bein' serious?  What's for dinner?”

“Let's get in the truck and figure it out on the road...”

Cindy climbed in on the passenger side and was buckled in.  I climbed in, and off we went.  “Catfish?” I asked.

“Uh-huh...  That's great!”  So we went off to a local fried catfish emporium and had a happy supper.

Back in the truck on the way home.  Cindy was humming.  I thought I recognized the sound.  “What are you humming?”

“That song the other night...  Moonlight something...”

“Moonlight Sonata?”

“Yeah, that's the one.  Ya know, that was absolutely perfect for the mood I was in...”

I smiled.  “I didn't think that teenaged girls did Beethoven.”

“I'm not your normal teenaged girl.  I know what I want in life.  And I have already found the man of my dreams.  And I'm gonna make things happen for both of us.”

I noted the confident sound of her voice as she said this.  The remainder of the trip was talk about school.  Friends, who was smart, who wasn't, which teachers seemed to like what they were doing, boyfriend-girlfriend stuff.

“How do you feel when girls your age are holding hands with boys and have dates an' stuff?” I asked.  The answer could be very scary for me.

“Hah!  They don't have my Dan.  Some of those girls are so petty.  It's all about clothes and stars an' music an' dancin' an' silly stuff.  And the BOYS...  I've had enough of teenaged boys already, except they were older'n that an' acted like teenaged boys.  Mom dated enough of 'em for me to know what's on their minds.  Most of 'em are so stupid.  An' even the ones that are smart in school...  well, there isn't anything...  I don't feel like that, Dan.  I see 'em pairin' up an' breakin' up and churnin' through life, an' that's not what I want.”

“Yeah?  What do you want?”  I glanced at her and returned my eyes to the road.

“You.  An' I wanna finish high school an' go to college, an' I wanna work on my job an' have people want me to come work for 'em like they do for you.”

“Baby,” I said, “I'm not that successful.  I'm just a grubby field engineer that solves problems.  And travels.”

“Yeah,” she said.  “Maybe I could be your assistant.  They have girl engineers too...”

I smiled, flattered.  “Engineering is sort of tough in college.  Lots of math and stuff that just seems totally useless, but you still have to learn it.”

“You don't think I'm smart enough?”

That was far from my assessment based on watching her work through lessons.  “Yeah, right!  You're plenty smart. But you're gonna have to buckle down in school.  Too many teachers let kids slide.  You're not going to slide through school and go to college and be an engineer. Not a good one.”

She caught me glancing at her again.  “You know,” she grinned, “I think I know just who might help me...”

We pulled into the RV park next to my trailer.  I did a quick look around to see if anyone was watching, then we got out and went right inside.  September nights.  It would have been nice to spread a blanket under the stars, except for maybe a million mosquitoes.  I filed away that “blanket under the stars” idea for future.

Inside, I watched Cindy strip down for her shower. Naked, she spun in front of me, knowing how I doted on her sweet body.  Fourteen.  Curves forming quite nicely.  Little breasts, still growing,arrogant in their rampant firmness.  Her nipples were like little strawberries perched perfectly atop creamy mounds.  Her spine swept down her back to a perfectly symmetrical ass, her cheeks softly rounding.  And those legs.  My Cindy was a leggy thing, and her legs were firm and muscular.  I was thinking that the pool every afternoon was as good for her as it was for me.

While she showered, I cleaned up my breakfast mess in the kitchenette.  When she got out, she came out of the tiny bathroom with a towel around her.

“Modest?” I asked, “All of a sudden?”

“No, silly.  Cold.  You keep it cold in here!”

“Oh.  Want me to turn it up?”

“Noooo!  We seem to have a way of buildin' up heat...”

I handed her the hair dryer I bought for her.  She smiled.

“You bought this for ME?”

“Hey, it's just a hair dryer.  Not a new car.”

“Yeah, but that means that you went someplace durin' the day an' thought of me.”

“Darlin,” I said, “it's a bigger trick tryin' to find out when I'm NOT thinking of you.”

She was drying her hair while I showered.  When I came out, she was sitting on her towel on the sofa, completely nude, her hair dried and combed to lustrous perfection.  I dried off and moved to join her.

She patted he lap.  “Put your head here,” she commanded.

I laid back on the sofa and lay my head in her lap, facing up.  She petted me, stroking her long fingers over my face, smiling down at me the whole time.  “I think we need each other, Dan,” she said.

We watched some movie on TV until ten.  When the last program’s credits were rolling, my Cindy suggestively dragged the underside of a beautiful young breast across my ear.  “Dan,” she said, “can we go to bed now?”

“Yes, baby…”  I sat up from my position on the sofa.  Cindy stood and stretched, unconsciously exhibiting the sweetness of her young teen form.  I stood and scooped her into my arms for a kiss.

As we threaded our way to the bedroom end of the trailer, Cindy mentioned in passing, “Oh, I didn’t tell you about school today, did I?”

“Noooo.  What?  Tests?”

“Yeah, sorta.  But these tests were those IQ an’ something they called “placement”.  Why do you think I had to take ‘em?  There were only two of us from my class, me an’ some geeky guy…”

“Maybe they think you’re different.  I think you’re a lot smarter than a lot of kids that I’ve known that were your age.”

“Ya think?”

“Yeah, I think.  This week, when did you REALLY need help with your homework?  No, don’t answer just yet.  I mean REALLY need it, not just an excuse to come over here?”

“But I really like coming over here…”

“That’s not what I’m sayin’, sweetie.  You have this stuff figured out.  Last week you needed a poke or two to get started, but that’s because you didn’t pay attention before, huh?”

“Nope.  Nobody cared if I made C’s…  Mom just wanted me gone every day an’ didn’t want any trouble from school.”

“And that’s changed now?” I questioned.

“Yeah, you’re smart.  An’ I wanted to be smart like you.”  She smiled sweetly as she knelt in the middle of what used to be my lonely bed.  Cindy made it a nest.

“I thought you were smart about the second time we sat at the pool and talked, baby.”

This got me a smile.  “An’ cute, too, huh?”

“Yeah.  Very much cute.  And it bothered me. Forty-something year old guys aren’t supposed to spend a lot of time thinking about cute teenaged girls.”

More smile, then a giggle, and arms around my neck, and a whisper in my ear.  “Maybe thirteen year old girls weren’t supposed to be thinking about forty year old guys, either, you know.”

I parlayed a hug into a long kiss.  That got an “Mmmmm” from Cindy.  “And here we are,” she said, “In bed, naked.”  And she pushed me onto my back, giggling.  “An’ I have YOU!”

“And I have you, and that’s like the best thing that ever happened in my whole life.”

“Really, Dan?” her brow wrinkled.  “I know you were married before, an’ you told me you loved her.”

What a time for a serious discussion, what with a naked, lithe and lively teen female astraddle me.  But if my Cindy wanted to talk, we’d talk.  “I did, Cindy.  I really did.  But that was different.  We were both in school, and just sort of fell in together.  It was pleasant, and convenient, and very much just the way I thought things should be.”

“Uh-huh,” she said.

“And there are a lot worse things than just having somebody who meets the requirements.  Yeah, we were as happy as we should have been.  And probably that’s how it would have been.  Then there was the accident.  And I lost her and our daughter.”  I sighed.  “But you’re different.  Oh so different.”

“Don’t get sad, Dan.  I love you.  Forever.  Okay?”

“Yes, my little angel.  You’ve brought light to my life, you know.”

“And, Dan,” she said, all of a sudden sounding very serious and mature, “you have rescued me.  Just please, Dan, tell me you won’t leave me behind, okay?”

“Leave you behind?  Never…”

“But in February you’re gonna be finished here, Dan.”

“I’m not leaving my Cindy forever behind…”  I kissed her face, cradling it in my hands, looking, drinking in those green eyes that I wanted to see happiness in.

“Dan, I need to be with you.  You know what it means, I sleep here, and I sleep all night, an’ I don’t jerk ever time I hear a noise because I’m by myself, or because one a’Mom’s boyfriends might want a feel.”

“That’s happened to you?”

“Yeah,” she said.  “An’ I screamed bloody murder.”

“What’d your mom do?”

“Hmph,” she snorted, “she actually threw him out.  An’ then chewed me out because she said he was a “good one”.”

“I’m sorry, baby,” I said.

“That’s what I mean, Dan.”  She looked at me thoughtfully.  “I don’t know much about sex, but I’ve heard people doin’ it for years an’ I knew it could be fun, but I knew that it could be bad, too, an’ I heard THAT too, an’ I didn’t wanna do it just to do it.”

“But why me?”

“’Cuz you’re my love.  Really.  An’ it’s s’posed to go with love, huh?”

“Yes it is, baby.  Yes it is.”

“An’ you didn’t ever make a move on me or even ACT like you wanted to do things to me.  You just wanted to be my friend an’ take care of me.  An’ I found out you loved me.”

“Yeah, I found out I loved you, too, but what could I do with a thirteen year old girl?”

“Let her love you back.  An’ this is part of love.”  And “this” was a kiss.  With a female form impressing itself full length down my body.  Her hands swept up onto my chest, cupping my breasts just like I loved cupping hers, but she used the purchase to push herself back up to straddling me.  The smile was enigmatic, a kaleidoscope of love, happiness and lust, belied by her nether regions sliding slightly downward to impress a hot, wet pussy on my hardening dick.

“Mmmmmm,” I moaned, “you are absolutely perfect, dearest.”

“You are, too, Dan.  I love how you fill me.”  She fell fully forward, laying on top of me.  She was too short for us to kiss like this, but she wrapped her arms around me and tugged me over sideways and kept rolling, pulling me over her. “You never did get on top of me before, Dan…”

“I wanted you to be able to control things, baby,” I said.  “I don’t want to hurt you or force you.”

Serene smile.  And a giggle. She said, I just climbed on top of you and put you inside me, so I’m pretty sure you’re not forcing me.  An’ I don’t think you will hurt me. An’ I want you to push that thing in me.  Hard.”

I pushed.  She pushed back.  Hard.  Pubic bones met.  And active little hips swiveled her pussy around on my dick as I withdrew and pushed back in and there was another hard push…

“Like that, baby,” she hissed.  “Hard.  I want it.  I want YOU!”

In this position I could arch my back.  I did, in response to her hands gripping the sides of my face pulling me to her hungry mouth.  Our lips met, tongues met, locked, breathing synched to the thrusts of our hips as we mated lustily.  She broke the kiss.  “Nnnn, Dan!  It’s happenin’!  Push!  Hard!”  And she pulled my face toward hers again.  Our mouths locked together and I felt her breathing pattern change as I kissed my Cindy into and through her orgasm.  She pulled away just as I started squirting my own liquid fire into her hot pussy.

My diminishing strokes as I wound down from my own orgasm coincided with her change back to consciousness.  I rolled over onto my back with my lover in my arms.

“Mmmmmm,” she said, then she punched me on my arm.  “Dammit, Dan, why’ve you been keepin’ THAT from me?”

“Uh, little girls shouldn’t say ‘dammit’, sweetie,” I said.  “Only nice things should come out of that mouth.”

My softening dick popped out of her wet pussy.  With a giggle, she turned, saying, “Somethin’ real GOOD is gonna pop IN this mouth.”  She attacked my dick with lips and tongue and suction.  I was presented with a happy, soppy, juicy pussy, and it didn’t matter in the least to me that half the juice leaking out of it was mine.  My tongue went right into it, leading the way for my mouth to fasten over it and start sucking.  A couple of minutes and my tongue started teasing on the pea-like head of her clit.

That mobilized those hips and got me a moan from lips still wrapped around my dick.  I kept licking.  I thought I knew what my Cindy liked.  Her pelvis slamming her pussy into my face affirmed the thought.  Gamely she kept sucking on me, but I was determined to break her concentration.  And I succeeded.  I lost the feel of her sucking mouth on my dick as she pulled it out of her mouth.

“Nnnn, don’t stop.  I’m afraid to bite you. Nnnnn. Don’t. Stop!”

I licked away.

“Nnnnnnngghhhhh! Ahhhh!  Dan!  Baby!  Ahhhhhhh! I’m commminnngggg!”  And she did.  I knew she was nearing normal when I felt lips cover my dick.  “Mmmmmm, baby, you make me feel so good.” She turned in the bed, smeared against me, propped on one elbow, stroking my face with her free hand.

We cuddled for a while, letting the clock push midnight, kissing, caressing, giggling, winding down together in wonderful concert.

“Baby,” she said, “can I have a t-shirt?  My shoulders get cold at night.”

“Sure, baby,” I said,  “Here.”  I’d forseen this little need and I had put a pair of t-shirts on the shelf by the head of the bed.

We both pulled them over our heads and I surveyed her, shiny auburn hair, angelic face punctuated with those green eyes.  I scooped her to me for another kiss.  She pulled me down onto the bed.  “Get the covers,” she whispered.  “An’ put some music on.”

“Okay, dearest.  Let’s try this.”  I punched up the beginnings of Beethoven’s “Pastorale”, and to the soaring strains of great music we went to sleep together.

Chapter Eight

Helen was at the park at eight AM on Saturdays.  That meant what when Cindy and I left the trailer, she was looking at us from the office window.  And she waved.

“Caught!” I said to myself.

Cindy also saw her friend Mizz Helen and waved happily back.  “Let’s go see Mizz Helen,” she chirped.

“Yeah, Hop in the truck.  We’ll stop an’ see if she wants some donuts when we get back from breakfast.”  I thought I’d understood Helen’s implications in our previous conversations, but one can never be completely sure, and I was a bit nervous about such an obvious situation.

We stopped by the office.  Cindy was out of the truck and headed inside in a hurry.  I was a bit slower.  I watched this cute teen’s jeans-clad butt and t-shirt, that outrageous head of hair bouncing ahead of me as I followed her inside.

“Hey, Helen,” Isaid.  “How’s things goin’?”

And Helen smiled.  Big smile.  She was on one side of the counter directly opposite the love of my life, and they both were smiling.  “Hey, Dan…  Stuff’s fine.  Just fine.  You taking good care of our girl?”  She smiled at Cindy.

“I’m trying,” I said.  “We got the makin’s of a scholar there.  They selected her for special testing…  The good kind.”

“Yes ma’am,” chirped Cindy.  “An’ I’m doin’ all A’s in school.  Mr. Dan’s a big help.”

“I told you he was, didn’t I,” Helen said.

“Mmm-hmm,” said Cindy.  “I jus’ love ‘im!”

Now the way Cindy said that, you could have taken it several ways.  Helen looked at me and winked.  “You’re lucky he came along,” she said.

“Yeah, I am,” answered Cindy.  “I really am.”

“So, Helen, we’re goin’ out for breakfast.  Want us to bring you back some donuts?”

“Oh,  yeah, Dan.  An’ I’ll try not to eat ‘em all myself.”

“They’re for your customers,” I smiled.

Cindy bounced out to the truck and got in.  I joined her and we drove off.

She spoke first.  “D’ya think Mizz Helen thinks we’re, like, sleepin’ together?”

“I don’t know for sure, but as long as we LOOK innocent on the outside, I don’t think Mizz Helen is goin’ to say anything one way or the other.  Mizz Helen thinks the world of you, and she worries about you a whole lot.”

“Yeah,” said Cindy.  “She knows all about Mom.  You know we been livin’ in this park since I was nine?”

“I didn’t know it was that long.”

“Yeah.  Mom lost her job when I was nine an’ she couldn’t find another one, so Paw-paw gave us his travel trailer.  Paw-paw is Mizz Helen’s brother in law, an’ she said we could stay here for free. “

“Oh,” I said.  “An’ now Mom works at the bar sometimes an’ she has money, but Mizz Helen lets us stay here anyway.  I don’t think Mom could afford to get us another place.”

I didn’t want to consider that Donna might be eligible for all manner of government housing and might decide to move my Cindy into some housing project.  I was thankful that they elected to stay here.  I hadn’t known what was missing in my life until I met Cindy.  Now I was obsessing about how I could keep her in it.

“I’m glad your mom lives here, baby,” I said.

“Me too,” she giggled.  “All kinds of nice things here.”  She smiled at me.  “Ya know, Mizz Helen an’ me used ta talk about you, before I started really talkin’ with you at the pool.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah, she tol’ me about her husband an’ how he was older than her when they met.  I thought it was nice a’ her to tell me that.  All I did was tell her I thought you were cute for an older guy.  She tol’ me that she thought you were a good guy.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah.”  Cindy continued.  “There was some other construction guys come an’ go in the park, an’ Mizz Helen tol’ me to stay away from them.  They was, uh, WERE loud an’ they sat outside and drank beer an’ stayed out late an’ came back with women an’ stuff.  Me an’ Mizz Helen, we watched an’ you didn’t do any of that stuff.”

“I don’t.  I may drink a beer once in a while, but I don’t just drink and I don’t do bars and I’ve told you about how I feel about women.”

“An, you know,” she said, “I almost think Mizz Helen WANTS us to be together.  I mean, like TOGETHER together…”

“I think Mizz Helen wants a good life for you, no matter what it takes.  An’ I’m sorry, baby, but I don’t think your mom’s situation is going to do that for you.  If ONE of her boyfriends has tried something, as you get older, that’s gonna get worse.   An’ you’re too bright a star to end up trapped in that welfare uneducated single mom business.”

“I know, Dan.”

I did a quick look at her and saw her eyes coolly observing me.  “I want you to shine…  It’s gonna be work, but we can do it together.  And if you are my Cindy forever, I will stand by you until the day I die.”

“I love you, Dan,” she said.  She twisted.  “Damn seat belts.”

“Little girls shouldn’t say ‘damn”,” I said.

Giggle. “You know what I mean.”

“Yeah, I know exactly what you mean, an’ all we need is to have some helpful citizen report seein’ a …

Hey!  Happy Birthday, Cindy!”

That got me a big grin…

I continued, “seein’ a FOURTEEN year old girl kissin’ some old guy…”

“You’re MY guy, an’ you’re not that old…”

We ate breakfast at the diner. I noticed that her table manners had improved in the last few weeks since we’d began frequenting commercial eateries, and the waitress at this one recognized us on arrival, and treated us well.  Of course, the fact that I was a generous tipper probably helped.  But Cindy was a well-mannered, polite young client in a day where many kids in public were ill-mannered little hellions.

Full, we drove back to the park, chatting happily.  The rest of the morning we spent between my trailer and the park laudromat.  Yeah, I had the little compact RV washer and dryer, but I also had a bag of quarters and it was faster to do a couple of big loads in the park’s machines.

Lunchtime came and we returned to the front office.  And Helen had held up HER end of a bargain she and I’d made earlier in the week.  There was a birthday cake.  And presents. And candles.  Fourteen of them.  Cindy was tearful…

“You guys…  This is the best birthday I’ve ever had in my whole life.”

The sad part was that she was telling the truth.  I gave her an iPod and Helen, knowing her clothing sizes, gave her shoes and new clothes, including, I noted, another dark green outfit.  Had I told Helen how Cindy looked in dark green?

“Save that green outfit for supper tonight,” I grinned.

Helen smiled broadly, first at Cindy, then at me.  “Got us a happy young lady there, don’t we?”

I nodded.

“Now,” she said, “let me see if we can fix it so she stays that way…”

That rather cryptic comment left me wondering.

The afternoon, well, Cindy and I visited a library.  This was s first for Cindy, and even though small-town Alabama libraries might be low on the ladder compared with big cities and universities, Cindy had no reference.  She told me this was her first ever visit to any library outside of school.  I was able to use Helen’s good name as a reference to get a library card and I checked out books for Cindy.  You’d have thought I gave her diamonds.

I wanted to give diamonds.  At least one.

We went back to the park, stopped by her trailer so she could retrieve a bathing suit, then she and I joined a bunch of weekenders at the pool.  Early fall?  Still swimming weather in south Alabama.  Cindy naturally interacted with a few kids her age, including a teenaged boy, about fifteen, I imagined.  I felt jealousy.  I didn’t show it.  I chatted up the adults, the normal, where are you from, what kind of work do you do…

After an hour or so, Cindy stood beside me, dripping.  “Mr. Dan,” she said, “isn’t it time for us to go?”

I looked up into those green eyes.  Dammit!  How could I fall so hard for this doll?  “Yes, Cindy, we do need to change.  We have a dinner date for our birthday girl.

The couple I’d been talking with offered congratulations on her birthday, and we bid our farewell.  And didn’t hold hands walking back to the trailer.

“I saw you,” she said.

“Saw me what?” I asked.

“Saw how you looked at that KID who was talking’ to me.”

“Yeah, I saw ‘im.  An’ yeah, since you’re not stupid, I was feeling a bit jealous.”

“You shouldn’t worry.  He was fifteen. Hated school.  Wanted to know if I was stayin’ here an’ if I wanted to meet him later.  He had some weed.”

“What?!?!?”

“Yeah, Dan, THAT’S what I expect from boys.  My age.  Stupid.  An’ I seen… uh, I’ve seen an’ smelled enough dope to know better.  You think I wanna go do dope with some goofball an’ have to fight him off or let him do me?”

“I wanna think you don’t.”  That statement as I held the door open so she could get into my trailer.  I was wanting to say “our” trailer.  And I closed the door behind myself after I stepped inside.

Cindy pushed around me and clicked the lock.  She dropped the towel she’d brought back from the pool and knelt in front of me.  Her fingers hooked the waistband of my swim trunks and she peeled them straight down.

“Cindy!”

“Hush,” she said.  Her mouth engulfed my soft dick.  It started soft, but when those lips encircled it, it went straight to diamond-cutting rigidity.  She gave me workover, too, and this was the very first time she’d knelt and taken me while I was standing.

“Gaaahh, Baby…”

“Mmmmm,” escaped her mouth from around my dick.  Then she stood to her full five feet and three inches, threw her arms around my neck, and I bent over and kissed her lips.  “Dan, I will make love to you every day for the rest of my life and figure that I am lucky that I have YOU.”  Kiss.  Giggle.  “an’ you’re lucky you got me, too…”

I was taken.  She backed up.  “Now,” she said.  I need to shower an’ dry my hair an’ get dressed.  I have an important date tonight.”  And she peeled her own one-piece swimsuit off, stripping in front of me, and wiggled her naked butt as she stepped into the bathroom.

Five minutes.  She was out.  I was in, rinsing off, and I was shaving while I heard the blasting hair dryer.  I walked out of the shower, still naked.  She handed me a hairbrush.  “Here,” she ordered, “brush me.”

Since I found her hair an object of beauty, I complied, leaving her shiny, sweet-smelling, and angelic.  And naked as a jaybird.

Another order, “You go get dressed at YOUR end of the trailer, an’ I’ll get dressed in the bedroom.  With the curtain closed.”

“Okay,” I said.

I knew my Cindy and my Cindy knew me.  I was just slipping into my shoes when I heard “Ta-daaaa!” and the curtain opened.  Who’d have thought that a simple green cotton blouse and matching skirt would be rendered into all the beauties of the world. They were.  Because my Cindy was in them.  Her hand smoothed the back of her hair.  “Well, love, what do YOU think?”

“Perfect.  Absolutely perfect.”

She came to me, presented me with a perfect little kiss.  Oh yeah, with a little of that pink tongue.  “Mmmm,” she hummed, “You smell good.”

“So do you, lady,” I said.

“Naahh,” she said.  “If I was at home, I woulda stole some of Mom’s perfume.”

“You don’t have to take hers.  I will take you to the mall an’ you can buy whatever YOU want.”

“Oooo,” she cooed, “but last time I wore hers, you said you liked it.”

“You could smear yourself with peanut butter and YOU’D smell good,” I said.

“An’ I’d have soooo much fun lettin’ you lick it off me…” giggle.

We walked out of the trailer.  Mizz Helen was closing up the office, standing on the steps talking with some of her weekenders.  She saw us and waved.  Into the truck, and off we went.  Up the road a bit, Cindy was stowing the flip-down console and sliding herself tight against me.

“I like that,” I said.

Giggle.  “Then you’ll like this even better.”  Her fingers unzipped me and pulled my dick out through the fly.

“Uh-uh,” she said, shaking her head for emphasis, that red hair bouncing.

I heard a metallic click.  “Put your seatbelt back on,” I said.

“Nuh-uh,” she said.  “In a minute.  I wanna do somethin’.”  She paused.  Smiled.  “You.  I wanna do YOU.”  And she slid down in the seat and her head went into my lap.  For the sort of activities that sweet dolls SHOULD do in a man’s lap.  For a minute.  Then she popped back up. “I ain’t gonna make you come.  I’ve seen you come.  You’ll run us off the road.”

“You’re very knowledgeable and wise,” I said.

She was trying to get my dick back in my pants.  “Well,” she said, “it came OUT easy…”  I helped her.  She zipped me up, then patted the bulge.  I heard the click of her seatbelt.  She smiled sweetly.  “There,” she said.  “I’ve BEEN wanting to do that to you…”

“You’re gonna get us killed,” I said, “an’ the funeral will cost extra…”

“Why will it cost extra?”

“’Cuz the undertaker’s gonna have to work overtime to get the smile off my face.”

Did I ever tell you that her laugh was like tinkling music to my ears?  No?  Well, it is…

Back to the steakhouse.  Discussions taking strange twists as she asked questions about my work and how we did things and how things were at school.

Back headed home, I had a thought.  “Baby, one of these nights we need to drive into Mobile for the evening.  Get us a really nice room.  Do a good dinner.  Maybe a movie, or a concert or something.  And then have a night together in a place where we don’t have to bump into each other, maybe shower together…”

“Mmmm,” she said, “I like all a’that, ‘cept I LIKE bumpin’ into you.  ‘specially the parts that were bumpin’ last night.”

It was almost ten when we got back in the trailer.  Yeah, we checked.  Mom’s car wasn’t there.  As far as Donna was concerned, Cindy was on her own for the weekend.  Cindy could have been off doing drugs, getting into trouble, having sex…  Oops… She WAS having sex.  Ten minutes after we got back into the trailer.  For an hour.  Okay, an hour and a half.  Then Mozart on the stereo.

And two people, bodies entwined together.  Sleeping.

Chapter Nine

And it was Sunday morning.  We did breakfast in the trailer.  Sometime s a bowl of cereal is just what you need.  Then we visited a while with Mizz Helen.  And got into the truck and onto the road.  Headed north.  No place to go and all day to get there.  Between a GPS and some topo maps, we ended up in the woods on the bank of a creek, miles away from everybody else.  Just the right sort of place to bring out an old blanket to spread on the ground.

By the time I spread the blanket out, I was facing a Cindy naked from the waist down.  “Is that all I get?” I laughed.

“You can have it all, babe,” she said, and she peeled her t-shirt over her head as I stripped.  We made love under the canopy of old-growth trees, our music provided by birds and the rushing waters of the nearby creek.

We were laying there in the afterglow when she stirred.  “I gotta go pee,” she announced.

“Don’t go too far,” I said.  “Never know what there is in these woods that might want to eat a little girl.”

“Yeah,” she laughed.  “That already happened ONCE today!”  She took a few steps down the slope away from our blanket and squatted, facing me.

“You know,” I said, “I’ve never seen you pee before.”

Eyes twinkled.  “Oh, so you, like, wanna LOOK?”

“Uh-huh..”

She reached in between her thighs and spread her pussy lips.  The golden stream spurted.  I was fascinated.  The flow dwindled to drip, then stopped.  “I don’t have anything to wipe with.”

“I got paper towels in the truck.  Or…” and I stuck out my tongue.

Giggle.  “I usually wipe myself before you eat me.”

“I know,” I said.  “you’re very clean.  But pee’s not what makes a woman smell nasty.”

And she was astraddle me, her pussy at my face.  And I licked her clean.  When I finished, she dropped to her knees and kissed me, hard, wet, her lips and tongue bathing my face and mouth.  “Since you did, why shouldn’t I?” she said.

“Yeah, but now I gotta pee.”

“Oh, I’ve seen YOU pee.  It’s neat.  Sometimes I wish I was a guy, just so I could pee standing up.”

“Girls can, if they want.  Takes fingers an’ hips.”

“And you’ve seen this yourself?”

“No, but I heard of it.  Oh, seen pictures.”

“You’re lookin’ at nasty pictures?”

“Not any more…”  I stood and went towards the spot still moist with her urine.   She stood beside me.

“Let me,” she said.  Her fingers wrapped around my shaft.  “Ooo,” she squealed when the stream started.  “That’s so neat!”

The stream diminished to a dribble, then a drop.  “Shake it.”

“Nuh-uh,” she said, kneeling.  “My turn.”  Her lips sealed around my shaft and I felt her tongue working, milking me dry.

I sat back down on the blanket, cross-legged.  Cindy sat in my lap, facing me, wrapping her slender legs around my waist.  “Mmmmm,” she moaned through a kiss, then another.  “Baby, can it be this good forever?”

“I will love you forever, and I will do my very best to always keep us happy together, excited, loving, caring, just like now.  But we’re going to grow together, too.  And things will change, but that just means different, and better.”

Her head buried in my neck.  “I don’t wanna go back.  I’ll just have to go home.  An’ Mom’s gonna be bitchy.  An’ I’m crampin’, like my period’s fixin’ to start…”

“And I want you to stay with me, period an’ all.  Baby, I’m doin’ my best to find a way so we never have to be apart.  But it’s what we have to do right now, okay?”

Bronze hair swung in a nod.  More kisses.  Perfect little titties pressed against my hairy chest.  Our lips could have been welded together, as long and as tight was we kept them, our tongues writing hieroglyphic love poems.

Finally it was time to get dressed and return.  A zip through a fast food line and we ate burgers on the road.  Entering the park, no car at her trailer.  We didn’t expect one.  It was still early for her mom to return.  Cindy brought her stuff back to her own trailer, except for her birthday present clothes.  Now she was leaving clothes at my place.

Five PM.  We were at the pool.  I was on a lounge and Cindy was swimming when that ratty Toyota pulled on the road beside the pool fence.  Donna.  “Hey, Dan,” she yelled.

“Hey Donna,”I returned.  “You lookin’ for Cindy, she’s in the pool.”

Cindy’s head popped up.  “Hey, Mom,” she said.  “I’ll be home in a little bit.”

“Take yer time,” her mom said as she drove toward their trailer in the far corner of the park.

My place, OUR place was empty without her that evening.  Sleep didn’t come easily.  I kept looking for somebody who wasn’t there.  I got up the next morning, had a bowl of cereal and headed to work.  During the day I thought about Cindy, remembered her tests today, hoped, expected her to do well.  Left work early.  Things just didn’t feel right.  Got back to the park before Cindy’s bus showed up.

Walked into the office to see Helen for my mail.

“No mail, Dan,” she said.  But I had a conversation with Donna today.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah.  You know that Cindy gets up and gets off to school without her mom even rollin’ out of bed?  Yeah, she does.  Dear Miss Donna came in about eleven.  Looked like she just got out of bed.”

“Uh-huh.  Kinda figured that was the way it was.”

“An’ she was askin’ me questions about Cindy…”

My antennae went up.  Helen noticed my demeanor.  “No, nothin’ about you an’ Cindy.  Nothin’.  But she asked me if I was serious the other day when I said something about me takin’ Cindy off her hands.”

“You actually SAID that?  To Donna?”

“Yeah.  I get to be a gutsy ol’ broad, you know.  What’s she gonna do?  I let her live here for free.  Anyways, she asked me how you make somethin’ like that legal.  An’ I told her, it was a matter of a court order.”  She smiled.  “An’ one a’my husband’s best huntin’ buddies is the local judge.”

“You’re serious?”

“Yeah, Dan, I’m serious.  She can move in with me.  But I gotta know.  This is your last chance.  Are YOU serious?  About Cindy?”

“Helen, you dear lady!   Yes, I’m serious about Cindy.”

Dan, I’m gonna be her legal guardian.  By the end of the week.  So where’s she gonna live?  With me.  Or with you?”

“uh…” I stuttered.

“Hah!” grunted Helen.  “You two ain’t keepin’ much of a secret, you know.  She GLOWS when she’s with you.  And it ain’t that “I’m with my friend” glow.  Well, some of it is…  An’ YOU!”

“Okay, Helen,  I get the point.  But if I don’t admit anything, then you don’t KNOW anything.”

“Yeah, right.”

“She lives with me.”

“Good.  That’s what I expected.  I’ll have her clothes and stuff here tomorrow.  Oh, an’ her mom’s sellin’ that trailer, like she can get shit for it.  Well, she IS getting shit for it.  I’m payin’ two or three times what it’s worth.  Part of the deal.  Her dong du jour promised her that they could find good work in Vegas.”

“Yeah?”  My knees were week.  Yesterday’s faint dream was almost a reality.

“Donna’s gonna tell Cindy tonight.  I tol’ her that if Cindy wanted, she could stay with ME tonight after she tol’ her.  I suspect you might want to be the one who deals with Cindy.  I don’t know how she’s gonna take it.  Her an’ I talked about somethin’ like this before, a week or so ago, an’ she kept lookin’ at YOUR trailer, like I wasn’t gonna notice.  Like I said, neither one a’you can keep a secret.”

“Wow.”  I said.  “Just wow!”

“Dan, I doubt that I really need to tell you this, but if you ever hurt that child an’ I find out, I will have you hunted down like a dog.  Tomorrow me an’ Donna are goin’ to see the judge to sign the papers.  Then she’s got an airline ticket.  Gone.  An’ I expect hell will freeze over before we see her back in Alabama.”

“Helen, you’re amazing… Wonderful.”  I went around the counter and hugged her.  “There’s no amount of ‘thank you’s” for this…”

“Dan, just be good to her.”  Helen was smiling as I left.  I don’t think my feet were touching the ground.

I was in my trailer when I heard the bus drop off Cindy.  I didn’t go outside.  The normal drill was for her to go home, then come back to do homework.  An hour passed.  I heard a knock on my door.

My heart was pounding as I opened it.  I expected Cindy.  I got Cindy and Helen.

Helen looked around.  “You keep good house for a single guy.”

“Thanks, I guess,” I said.

Cindy looked at me.  It was a look I hadn’t seen before.

“Well, Dan,” said Helen, “I’ll let Cindy tell you the news.”

“What’s up, sweetie?” I asked.

“Mizz Helen says she already told you what’s goin’ on.  Mom’s movin’.  I’m not.”

I stepped toward her and wrapped her in my arms.  “I’m sorry, baby, but at the same time, I’m not.”

“Me neither,” said Cindy, but there was a trace of an uncontrolled sob there, too.

“Mizz Helen’s gonna be my legal guardian.”

“I know.”

“Dan.  I talked with Mizz Helen.  She says I can live with you.” She looked at me.  “If you want me to…”

I bent my head down and kissed Cindy on top of her head.  “Yes, I want you to.”

Helen smiled.  “Good!  Now I’m gonna go home.  With Cindy in my car.  Dan, you can leave behind me.  An’ bring Cindy back with you.  I just don’t want her mom to see me leave without her.”

An hour later, Cindy and I were at the catfish joint.  She was smiling.  “Dan, can you believe it?  We’re together!  Forever!”

“Shhhhhh!” I hissed.  “Don’t let people hear you say that!”

“Ooopssss!” she grinned.  “But there’s nobody around.”  She was right.  Monday was a slow night for fried catfish.

We finished supper and got into my truck.  “Now, my Cindy forever, let’s talk.”

“Yes, my Dan forever.”

“We have to be careful.  You’re fourteen.  I’m forty-two.  That makes you jailbait.  And not only will I go to jail, so will Mizz Helen.  If ANYBODY ever thinks that there’s more than just friendship between us.”

“I know…”

“Now, around the park, well, I don’t think people pay any attention, but we still have to be careful in public.  A little hand-holding while walking, a hug like you’d give you uncle, that’s all.”

“I know…”

“Until your sixteenth birthday.”

“What happens on my sixteenth birthday?”

“Mizz Helen will have the papers ready for the judge to sign so we can get married.”

Squeeeealllll!  “Oh, Dan… it’s real!”

“As real as YOU want it to be, Cindy.”

When I pulled back into the park, I did my normal visual sweep.  Donna’s car was gone.  Nowhere in sight.  Cindy and I went into the trailer and locked the door.  And I had a sweet hundred and thirty pounds of redheaded doll on me, her legs wrapped around my waist, her arms around my neck, her lips showering my face with kisses.

“I never have to leave you again, Dan.”

“I know, Cindy.  And you have no idea how happy that makes me.  No idea at all.”

“Oh, but I do.” She sighed.  “But baby, I have bad news.”

“Bad news?”

“Yeah.  ‘Member yesterday when I said I thought I was crampin’?”

“yeah?”

“I started my period.”

“So?”

“I wanted to make love to you, but I can’t.  Well, I can, but I don’t wanna.  I know Mom did that.  Heard her boyfriend say she was on the rag.”

“It’s okay, baby. We love each other.  And we have forever.” Kisses.  “Homework?”

“No,” she said.  “I had those tests today, remember?”

“Right.  How did you do?”

“I dunno.  Lots of funny stuff like “answer these questions in fifteen minutes”, an’ I really had to work to finish.”

“Baby, they don’t expect you to finish.”

“I finished.  The guy who was watchin’ us, Mr. Hardesty, he looked at me funny.  But he looked at my papers an’ smiled.  They said it would be a couple of weeks before we find out the grades.”

“They’re not grades, baby, they’re scores.  And if you finished, well…”  I smiled.  “You gonna shower first, or me?”

“Me.”  It’s a good thing that I specified blackout curtains in the place when I ordered it.  Because it doesn’t take long for a fourteen year old girl to be delightfully, desirably naked.  And presenting herself for miscellaneous kisses and gropes.

Fifteen minutes later she got out of the shower and I got in.  I finished showering just as the last of the hot water came out.  Well, there was enough warm left for me to shave.  I stepped out into the aisle and toweled off, then helped my Cindy dry and brush her hair.  I noticed she was wearing panties.

“Blue panties?”

“Yeah,” she pouted.  “Damn… uh, darned period!”

“You’re still smart.  You’re still funny.  You’re still beautiful.  And periods don’t last forever.”

She stood and turned to face me, perky breasts pointing their pink nipples at me.  Pinker than normal.  I touched one.  “Oooo!” she squealed.  More sensitive, too, apparently.  Must be the period.

She kissed me, an act that required me to bend over to make up for our difference in heights.  And she whispered, “You know, there’s some things I can do to celebrate tonight…”

“I appreciate that, baby, but that’s not gonna do things for you…”

“Hah!  Don’t be silly.  You should know that I like playin’ with this thing.  Come on!”  And at eight o’clock we were turning out the lights.  Except the one she demanded next to the bed.  “I like to see what I’m doin’,” she’d said early on in our relationship.  “I like to see you doin’ me and I like to see what I’m doin’ to you.”

She pushed me backward onto the bed and crawled her way up me, kissing.  All the way to my lips.  There it was long, and hot.  Then a whisper.  “Now your Cindy forever is gonna suck you.  An’ you’re gonna come.”

“Baby, that’s wonderful that you want to do that, but you make me do so much.  I’ll tell you when it’s close…”

“I know what happens to you when you get close,” she said.

“Yeah, but, so you can pull it out so I don’t come in your mouth…”

Kisses.  “Baby,” she purred, “I already know what your stuff tastes like…”  She was right.  Happiness was having a sweet thing like her clean the juices of your orgasms from your genitals with her mouth.  “D’ya think that I was just goin’ to do this just ONE time the other night?  I LOVED it.  It’s so neat that I can make you come like this.  An’ I’ve come all over your face.  So why wouldn’t I want to be sucking on you when you come?”

“You’re sure?”

She slid down and answered the question with action.  Three or four weeks  of pleasant explorations and playful interludes, and my Cindy knew what make my dick work.  And she worked it.  Suction.  Tongue.  Teeth.  Hands.  The head.  The coronal ring.  The shaft.  Balls.  Nothing was missed.  Everything was eagerly and expertly attended.  I was even more excited by the visuals.  Red head bouncing up and down.  Every now and then those green eyes looking at me.  Her mouth would release me and she’d smile.  And she’d go back down with an “Mmmmm…” and I was in nirvana.  I could feel the feelings building.

“Mmmm, baby!  I’m so close.”

Smack! “Uh-huh.  Your balls are getting tight.  Come on!”  Slurp.  Suck.

“Oh, god…  ohgodohgodogod…  it’s.  it’s. comminnngggg!”  And I spurted.  Caught my Cindy by surprise, I think.

Her “Mmmmm” changed to “Mmmphh” and she swallowed.  And sucked.  And jacked.  And she knew from our lovemaking how my body reacted in orgasm, the timing, the diminishing thrusts, and how I used her pussy, and she used her mouth in exactly the same way.  And she knew that when the orgasm was over, we’d lay together until I softened and fell out of her pussy, and she did that with her mouth, gently sucking and tonguing me past the end of my coming, finally releasing me from her mouth, soft and clean.

And if you could have seen the smirk on that face.  It broke into a grin.  And she made a big deal about wiping up a stray drop of semen from the corner of her mouth with a fingertip, then sucking her finger clean.  And her head bobbed, giggling, and sucked my soft dick completely into her mouth, and she chewed gently with tongue and teeth, then crawled up on top of me.

“So tell me, baby, d’you still kiss a girl after she’s sucked you off?”  I answered with lips and tongue.  Then a giggle.  “You know, you owe me one.”

“Yeah.  And I will pay you back.  That is the most spectacular thing ever done to me with a mouth.  You’re the very best.”

“Mmmmm,” she said, nestling into my chest.  “My pleasure, sir.”

“I love you.”

“I hope so.  I don’t have a momma any more.”

“Yeah, she’ll always be your mom.  An’ you have Mizz Helen, too.”

“An’ you?”

“Forever.”  I kissed the top of her head.  “Now, let’s go to sleep.  You have school tomorrow and I have work.”

No more lonely nights.  The alarm went off at six.  I hit snooze and rolled over and kissed my Cindy.  Was rewarded by a kiss back.  And then we got down to the business of the day.”  She watched me drive off and then waited for her bus.

I floated through the day.  Even the “difficult personalities” that seem to gravitate towards construction work were no hurdle today.  I couldn’t be shaken.  I couldn’t wait for the day to end.  Somebody remarked that my dedication seemed to be fading.  I laughed.

Driving back into the park, I stopped at the office and found Cindy standing there in schoolgirl perfection, talking with Helen.  They were laughing when I walked in, and they both turned toward me.  Cindy bounced up and gave me a hug that teetered just over the edge of chastity.

Helen said, “You two look like honeymooners.”

“Uh….”

“Oh, shit, Dan,” she said, I KNOW!  So at least acknowledge that you don’t think I’m stupid.”

All I could get out was an “aw shucks” grin.

“Anyways,” she said, “I got the paperwork signed.  An’, let’s see, it’s almost five.  Donna’s just about to Vegas.  An’ the judge says that I will get money from the state for foster care.  An’ he’s takin’ care of all that child protective services crap so they don’t bother me.  An’ I got her medical insurance covered.  State does that for foster kids, too.”

“Wow!  You’ve got all the bases covered.”

“More than you think.  Judge, he’s a widower.  Wife died a year ago.  Got ME a date tonight.” She was grinning like a schoolgirl herself.  “I don’t know how to act…”

“Yeah you do,” I said.

Cindy was grinning, too.  “Mizz Helen’s got a boyfriend,” she laughed.

“Ya’ll go on,” Helen said, waving us out.

Cindy jumped in the truck for the short drive to my trailer space, then got out.  I got to the door to unlock it.  “I guess since you live here, I need to give you a key, huh?”

“Either that or I’m gonna have to sit on the steps waitin on ya.”

Chapter Ten

The next day I walked into the park office to find Helen and Cindy chatting.I waved a set of keys at her.  “It’s time,” I said.

“Time for what?” she asked with a puzzled look.

“Time for you and me to go fire up the Starship Enterprise.  Or a 1968 model Cessna airplane.  Something like that.”

Squeal.  Hug.

“What?” asked Helen.

“Mechanic called me today.  He finished the inspection on my airplane and it’s ready to fly again.”

“Oh, yeah.  You told me you had a plane over there.”  “There” being the local airport.

“Yeah, and Miss Cindy is getting ready to make her first, and if she pukes all over the place, her ONLY flight in it.”  I looked at Cindy.  “Go get some jeans on.  This ain’t a “skirt” kind of airplane, baby!”

Half an hour later we pulled the truck up next to an open hangar at the little country airport.  There was another truck there, the mechanic’s.  We shook hands.  “John Randolph,” I said, “meet Cindy Smith.  I tutor her in math, and I promised her a ride if she brought her grades up.”

He smiled.  Most people, and 99.9% of men, smile when they meet Cindy.  “Pleased to meet you, Miss Cindy.  You don’t have to worry.  The wings won’t fall off.  He might fly into a pine tree, but the wings will be there when he does.”

Cindy grinned.  “Thank you, Mister John.  I’m thinkin’ it’s worth a risk.  My first time in an airplane.  Ever.”

John turned to me.  “Dan,” he said, “ everything checks out.  You’re good for a year.”  He handed me the plane’s logbook.  I gave him a check.  “Call me if you need anything.  Okay?”

“You bet, John,” I said.  “Thanks!”

“Want me to help you pull her out?” He asked.

“Yeah, sure.”

We pushed the plane out of the hangar onto the concrete apron.  I watched, Cindy by my side, as John drove off.

“Now what?” asked Cindy.

“We do a ritual.  It’s called a “pre-flight inspection” and you do it EVERY time you get ready to fly.”

I did the walk-around with Cindy at my side asking questions every step of the way.  Finally I had her open the passenger side door and take a step on the tire, another on the step, and finally into the cockpit.

The last step got me a comment.  “Yeah, I think a skirt would have been a little bit revealing.”  She smiled.

I showed her how to buckle her harness, and then I climbed into the pilot’s seat.   “Here,” I said, handing her a huge pair of headphones with an attached microphone.  “Put these on so we can talk to each other without hollering.  This old thing’s loud.”  I showed her exactly how loud when I started the engine.  We completed the ritual and taxied to the runway.

I looked at her.  “Are you ready?” I asked.

She shook her head in the affirmative, grinning broadly.

“Okay.  There’s a barf bag in the glove box if you need it.”

“No way!” she said.  “I’m excited.  Let’s do this!”

“Okay,” I said.  “Here goes!”  I pushed the throttle forward and we took off.  Once we were out of the local pattern, I said, “Okay, now put your feet on those pedals and your hands on the yoke.”

She looked at me almost incredulous.  “Like, I’m gonna FLY this?”

“Yeah.  Watch!”  I took my hands off the control yoke.  “It’ll almost fly itself, so don’t be scared.”

Her eyes were wide.  So was her grin.  We flew around with me coaching her through turns and climbs and glides and toured the area, overflying the RV park and her school.  Finally I said, “Okay.  I don’t know about you, but I’m getting hungry.”

“Oh, no, Dan!  I could do this forever.”

“We’ll see about that.  This old thing is burning fifty bucks worth of gas an hour.  We’ve been up an hour.  And I’m hungry!”

“Okay…” She took her hands off the yoke.

“Oh, no, little girl.  You’re still flying.”  I crossed my arms.

“Eek!” she squealed, grabbing the yoke.  We did a quick little porpoise as her untrained hands wiggled the yoke in and out.

I put my hands back on my yoke and went along as I talked her through navigating back to the airfield and setting up in the traffic pattern, then had her fly along with me as we landed.  We taxied back to the hangar and she and I pushed the old plane back into its shelter.

We got back in the truck.  “Wow!” she said.  “Just HOLY WOW!”

“You liked it, then?”

“Oh, go, yes!”  She jumped across the cab and hugged and kissed me.  “Do you realize you just gave me the SKY?!?!?”

“It is kinda cool, ain’t it?” I said.  “Pizza for supper?” I asked.  “I can make a phone call and we can beat them back to the trailer.” There was a local pizzeria that did delivery.

“Yeah!  That’s great!” A cellphone call got that on the way.

The ride home was all about flying.  She asked the how and the why and I feared I’d created another monster.  Oh, well.  There are worse things for people to want.

We were sitting together on the sofa when the pizza arrived.  After finishing it off, we traded sloppy, garlic-flavored kisses, then did the shower thing.

Afterward, drying her hair, I said, “Baby, I don’t know the first thing about getting a young lady’s hair done.”

“AIn’t much to it, honey,” she said.  “I don’t get my hair done, I get it cut.  That’s all.  I know the lady that does it. An’ I can call her an’ get it done.  I’m about due.”

“Really?”  I observed that it was just beginning to drag her shoulders.

“Yeah, it’s, like, an inch or two too long.”

“You don’t get it colored?”

“Nope.  This is what color you get.  Mom wasn’t gonna pay for extra stuff for me.”  She paused.  “Unless.  Why?  D’you want me to change it?”  She turned and looked at me.

“Oh, no, baby,” I answered.  “I’m a sucker for it just the way it is.  Women pay a lot of money to get hair like you have naturally.”

That got me a smile.  And a twinkle.  And a question that sat me back.  “So tell me how this hand job thing works…”

“What?”

“Hand jobs?”  She looked at me, eyes a-twinkle.  “I heard Mom an’ whoever…  I assume it’s somethin’ that the girl does to the guy, from the sound of it.”

“Yeah.  Girl can do that to the guy, or the guy can do it to himself.”

“I heard that’s how guys masturbate.”

“It is.”

“Really?  You do that?”

“Yeah, I did that.  Thinking about you, since after I moved here.”

Giggles  “Really?  I excited you?”

“Baby, you’re the very definition of exciting.”

That got me a hug.  And kisses.  And a hand wrapped around my dick.  “Lay down an’ tell me how to do this…”  She sat beside me, naked except for her panties.

“Ain’t much to it.  You already do it.  Last night, the only difference was that you sucked on me at the same time.

She smiled as she slid the skin up and down my shaft.  “Like this?”

“Yeah.  Or just slide the whole thing in an’ out of your hand, and every now an’ then, rub the head.  You’ll get it.”

She was having fun.  Right hand was doing the duties on my dick, her left fondling my balls.  “Yahknow,” she said, “I never saw your stuff come out.  I feel it inside me.  I felt it in my mouth yesterday.  But I never saw it come out.”  Little Miss Flexible bent over and sucked on my nipple, causing my dick to jump.  And her to giggle.  Mater of factly she said, “Come for me.”

She kept jacking and I was getting close.  Pre-cum started by drops at first, then a steady flow and my hips were thrusting into her hand.  “You’re getting’ close,” she announced.

“Oh, yeah,” I hissed.  “I’m.  Getting.  Close.  Ohbaby…. Nnngghhh!  Yeah.  Commmingggg!”  I thrust hard and the first jet of my orgasm went straight up about three feet.

“Oh, wow!” she giggled.  She kept stroking.  I kept spurting.  Three or four more good ones, then a steady flow that covered her hand.  As I collapsed backward onto the mattress, she smiled and made a show of licking her hand.  Then sucking me clean.  And she laughed.  “I don’t know where that first one landed.  Wow!  I mean, I felt you inside me, and when I sucked you last night, I could tell it was squirtin’ but I had no idea it went that far.  Wow!”

I pulled her next to me and then rolled on my side to face her.  I’ve often heard of eyes described as “adoring”.  I looked into Cindy’s.  And knew what the term meant.  “Now you’ve done it,” I said.

“What’d I do?”

“You’ve finished me off, an’ I own you two now, an’ it’s too early to go to sleep.”

My Cindy grinned.  “TV?  Cards?  Both?”

“Both.”  Cindy was fun to play cards with.  It was always a battle.  We were 50-50 at rummy. I tossed her a t-shirt.  “Cover up.” I put on a t-shirt and gym shorts, with no underpants.  We went into the other end of the trailer where the TV and sofa were, and I pulled a little table out for us to play cards on.  And we laughed and played and talked and even watched some TV.  At ten, it was bedtime.

We crawled in from opposite sides.  Well, I started to crawl in.

“Uh-uh,” she chided.

“What?”

“Take those shorts off.  They get in my way.”

“Okay,” I smiled.

We slid together under the covers and her hand just naturally grabbed my dick, gently fondling, soothing, juggling my balls in her hand.  Finally she rolled on her side facing away from me, and I turned toward her, spooning up behind her.  She wiggled her ass onto my dick.  I put an arm around her and squeezed on her titties gently, feeling the nipples harden, then I drifted my hand downward, my fingers stroking her pubic mound, firm beneath her panties.  The final sound I heard before I dozed off was her “mmmmm”.

And so went the week.  By Friday a couple of things happened.  First, Cindy’s period was over.  Second, we were settling into a happy routine.  Thursday was another trip to the library.  More books.  We had to figure out how to work a little space into our togetherness.  I bought a wireless card for my laptop, then gave it a little more thought, bought another one, and a laptop for Cindy.  For school, of course.

Two weeks passed.  I rolled into my parking spot beside my trailer.  Its door flew open and Cindy bounced out to meet me.  This was a sore point, because the first thing that came to both our minds at the end of the day was an embrace that went well past the “young girl greeting her friend” scale.

I met her eyes.  “Nuh-uh…” I said.

“Oh, I knowwww,” she countered.  “I just wanted to tell you that the scores came back on my test.  They’re gonna call Mizz Helen about them.”

“Okay,” I said.  I looked back towards the office.  Helen’s SUV was still there.  “Let’s go tell her.”  I flipped open my cellphone and called the office.  “Hey!” I said when Helen answered.  “Can you hang around a minute?  Me an’ Cindy need to talk to you.”

“I was gonna call you,” she said.  “Got a call from school about Cindy.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said.  “We’re on the way…”

One thing that HAD changed in the last two weeks was that Helen was on our tiny inside circle.  How tiny?  I knew.  Cindy knew.  Helen knew.  So when we entered the office and I leaned up against the counter, I had Cindy almost welded to my side.

Helen smiled.  “I like your haircut, sugar,” she told Cindy.

“Thank you, Mizz Helen,” she said.

Helen turned to me.  “So, Dan, the school calls me since I’m her guardian.  They want to see me about some tests she took a couple of weeks ago.”

“Good?  Bad?”  I questioned.

“Oh, don’t get your drawers in a wad.  They said they’re very much pleasantly surprised.”

“Well good, then…”

“Yeah, and they want a parent-teacher conference to talk about it.  I told them that I wanted to bring you ‘cuz I’m a ol’ country girl an’ I don’t know much about that stuff.”

“Okay.  I’m up for that.  When?”

“Next Tuesday.  Nine AM.  Counselor’s office at the middle school.”

“I can do that.  I’ll make sure.”

“This is good, right?” questioned Cindy.

“Yeah, baby, if by ‘good’ you mean you have to stop skatin’ through classes and buckle down an’ use your brain…”

“What’d’ya mean, Dan,” asked Helen.

“Well Helen, it’s like this. Our little Cindy’s mind in regular classes is kinda like having a NASCAR racer in the Wal-Mart parkin’ lot.  She’s never had to use most of the horsepower.”

“Yah think so?”  Helen was perhaps not privy to Cindy’s abilities, having seen her at the pool and bouncing in and out of the office over the summer.

Cindy was smiling.  She should be smiling.  I was complimenting her.  “Yeah.  I KNOW so.  So far, it’s been a good thing because Cindy’s mom wasn’t real big on education, so all by herself, Cindy’s been able to stay at grade level, all without help, and apparently without trying very hard.”  I winked at Cindy.

Helen popped, “It’s a wonder she went to school at all..”

I continued.  “Since this year began, I’ve been watching her.  That “Please, Mr. Dan, help me with my homework” act got thin after the first week.  She’s sort of idling through her classes now.”

“So what do you think they’re gonna tell us Tuesday?”

“What I just told you.  Except they’re gonna tell you in “Professional Educator” language to make it sound mysterious.”

“An’ what’s that mean to me?” asked Cindy.

“Yeah,” said Helen.

“Now that could be interesting.  I don’t know what school s around here offer.  Some places would move her into advanced classes.  Some might try to move her up a grade or two.”

“But she’d be fourteen in high school?”

“Yeah,” I said.  “I don’t know if I like that.”

“Me neither,” Cindy chimed in.  “Middle school boys are yuck enough.  Older?  No way!”  She caught my eye.  “Boys, I mean.”  She swung her hip against my thigh.  “You’re NOT a boy.”

“I guess we need to see what they say, then,” I said.  “and you can tell ‘em I her tutor, Helen.”

Helen smiled at the two of us.  “Ain’t that somethin’,” she laughed.  “Next thing you’ll tell me is that she’s wantin’ to be an engineer…”

And Cindy giggled.

Helen laughed back.  “Figures,” she snorted.  “So that’s next Tuesday.  Ya’ll got plans for the weekend?”

“Yeah,”  Me an’ Cindy’re going to Mobile.  Nice hotel.  Nice restaurants.  Tickets to a symphony.”

“A symphony?” Helen arched an eyebrow, looked at Cindy.  “Since when do you do symphonies?”

“Since Dan showed me that there’s more to music than what Mom listened to.”

“Dan, Dan, Dan…” Helen laughed, “You’re the damnedest thing I ever saw.  Take a girl out of an Alabama trailer park an’ get her to studyin’ engineerin’ an’ listenin’ to classical music in a month an’ a half...”

That got both of Cindy’s arms wrapped around me as she told Helen, “He is somethin’, ain’t he?”

“Ya’ll go get packed.  You got an adventure to go on,” said Helen.  “I’ll probably not see you ‘til Monday.”

Cindy bounced out toward our (yes, it was “ours” now) trailer.  I looked at that cute jeans-clad butt and that red hair swinging.  I turned to Helen.  “Lady,” I said, “I’ll never be able to thank you enough.”

Helen was smiling as I left to follow Cindy.

By six-thirty we were checked into a hotel.

“Look at the size of this shower, baby,” she called from the bathroom.

“Yeah, I specifically asked about it.”

Her red head peeked around the corner, smiling.  “Big enough for two, huh?”

I smiled back at her.  “Absolutely.  But first, what’re you hungry for?  And pizza an’ fried catfish are NOT acceptable choices.”

“Chinese?  You keep tellin’ me about Chinese.”  My Cindy’d never had Chinese.

“I think we can do that.  We’ll do a buffet so you can pick and choose.”

School clothes and work clothes were good enough for Chinese buffets, so out the door we went.  I mused about what others would see when they saw us, the odd couple, forty-two and fourteen, 6’2” and 5’3”…  could have been as innocent as dad and daughter…  could have been just that.  But how many would have seen two people who’d found their lifemates?

Dinner was a huge success.  After cautioning Cindy, “Try a little bit.  If you like it, go back for more…” I led her down the buffet line, giving her a running but not too specific commentary.  The sushi bar was revelatory.  As in “Ewwww!!!  Raw fish?!?!?”

But even raw fish was worth a try.  And a smile.  And a further adventure was chopsticks.  I used them and got bemused stares.  Of course I expected the next, “Let me try” and bits of food flew for a minute, and by the end of the meal, she might not be an expert, but she wasn’t scared of them.  And we were full.  And back in the room just after dark.

Our first showering together.  A soapy, wet Cindy is a delightful creature.  There’s something supremely sensual about two naked bodies in a shower.  I already knew this.  Cindy found out for the first time.  I found out that I’d been missing a level.  She was drying her hair as I was shaving.  Short, jawline length hair.  She was dry and brushed to perfection and I was shaved and she had my hand, tugging me towards the kingsized bed.  We turned back the covers from opposite sides and met in the middle.

The result was a multitude of happy variations to the timeless mechanics of lovemaking.  How wonderful can things be, when two people live to hear and taste and feel and see pleasures in their mates?  We were finding out.

She rode me.  Climbed on top, slid her wet pussy up and down the underside of my hardness a couple of times, smearing me generously with little girl juices, then rose up the exact right distance and angle for the head of my dick to line up with her wet, tight pussy.  And slid herself down over me.  And she rode.  Hard.  I held onto her hips.  Not for guidance.  Not for control.  Just because it was HER.  She held my wrists and tossed her head back as she neared the edge. I watched her eyes squeeze shut, she bit her bottom lip, snorting short, sharp breaths through her nose, mewing sounds escaping her closed mouth as my hips thrust up to meet her moves, and her “Nnnngghhhhhh!” as she came coincided with my first spurts of hot semen inside her.  We shared our spasms together then she collapsed into my open arms.  When she scooted up to kiss me, my soft, soppy dick fell out of her pussy.  We kissed, long, soft, savoring.

Finally she said, “We’re gonna have a mess if we don’t clean up…” and she spun around on me.  “Too late.  You’re gonna sleep in the wet spot!”  But that didn’t stop either of us from licking and sucking the other clean.

Of course, eager lips and tongue had the expected effect on my dick.  “I love feelin’ it grow in my mouth,” she announced.  She slid off me and repositioned herself between my legs and lavished kisses and licks and nips and sucks on my balls.  I was fully hard again.

“Come up here,” I said.  She complied.  I wrapped her in my arms and our mouths locked together.  As we kissed I rolled the two of us over, positioning me above her.  Her legs spread, allowing me to sink between her thighs.  I moved up, the head of my dick probing for heaven.  And found it.  As I eased into her, those legs wrapped around me, drawing me in.

Our pubic bones met.  “Dan,” she said, “Fuck me.  Make me come again.”

We’d discussed the difference between making love and fucking.  We’d made love already.  We fucked.  Humping, snorting, grabbing, pounding, wet, hot… Orgasmic.  I was spent.  Cindy was immobilized.

I climbed out of bed and returned with a moist facecloth and wiped her face.  She purred.

“Dan,” she said, “I don’t think that sex is always this good between two people.  Not listenin’ to Mom.  But I think it’s supposed to be just like this.  You an’ me do it right.”

“Yes, princess.  I always dreamed of having you.”

“You didn’t even know me.  When you were old enough for sex, I wasn’t even born.”

“I know.  But I had an idea of what perfection was.  And then you came along, and you showed me that I didn’t have enough imagination.”

“Not enough imagination?”  she questioned.

“Yes, dearest, you’re even better than I ever dreamed.”

She looked at me through dreamy eyes.  “An’ I’ll never be with another man for all my life.  You’re my everything.”  She pulled my hand to get be beside her.  We snuggled.

“TV?” she asked.

“Sure!”  I gave her the remote.  Fifty channels of “nothing’s on.” She found a movie., a fairly recent chick flick.  “You don’t mind this, do you?”

“No, that’s fine.”

We watched, laughing at the absurd, all the time I was thinking that what was on the screen wasn’t even close to being as improbable as my life was at this very moment.

Sex scene.  Shot so nothing showed, of course.  “Hmph!” Cindy snorted.  “We beat THAT seven nights a week.”  She kissed me.  “Sometimes two or three times a night!”  She saw something that hinted at the girl going down on the guy and said, “Hah!  Watch this!”  And with an audible gulp, she took my whole soft dick into her mouth.  “Mmmmmm…  D’you think mine’s better?”

“Yeah.  Because THAT guy didn’t lose consciousness when SHE did’im.   And YOU are far prettier.  No silicone.  No plastic.  No makeup.  Just pure, perfect Cindy.”

She was back up, cheek resting on my shoulder, my arm around her.  “I’m not perfect, Dan.”

“You are, for me. “

“An’ you are, for me.”

Sometime later the TV sleep timer timed out.  We didn’t know.  Satiated. Together.  And what more could be asked?

Saturday morning I woke before Cindy.  I regarded her sweet form, clad in a white cotton t-shirt, no panties.  I couldn’t keep my hands off that body.  I gently traced the multiples of delightful young curves, leg, hip, waist, stomach upward to the curve of those A-cup breasts.

She stirred.  I showered gentle kisses, pushing her bangs aside with my lips to kiss her forehead.  Her eyelids fluttered, opening, and she pulled my face down to match our lips up.  Completing that connection, mobile hands pulled me further as she rolled onto her back.  She slid sideways under me, shoving her right leg under me, positioning me between her thighs.

I hadn’t intended to do anything but wake her up for breakfast.  My dick, however, noted further possibilities and hardened.  That was a good thing, because mobile young hips meant a pussy was searching.  And found.  And we slid together.  And from the fucking of last night, we went into the gentle sweet love-making now.

I didn’t hurry.  I stroked slowly, deeply, letting her hips move and angle and wiggle, keeping her little clit in motion against the shaft that was penetrating her, and I just rode along, knowing that she was the one who would come this morning.  As she neared the edge, she pulled my lips to hers, sounding her orgasmic moans into my mouth past our tongues.  And as her body shuddered, mine released in response.  I felt her pussy walls kneading my dick inside her, milking my semen from my body into hers.

Finally we rolled apart.

“I can’t believe you haven’t said ‘good morning’, sweetie…”

“Mmmm,” she purred.  “Don’t actions say it better’n words?”

“Yeah…  yeah they do.”  I laughed.  “Better do a quick shower.  One of us smells like sex…”

We showered, then went out for breakfast, then rode around for a while, waiting for the mall to open.  Cindy was excited.  “I hardly EVER got to the mall.  Maybe three or four times.  An’ Mom never spent much on me.”

“Sweetie,” I told her, “malls aren’t exactly my thing, but today’s your day, an’ I have a platinum card an’ I know how to use it.  So let’s go.”  And off we went.  And twice we had to go back out to the truck to drop off bags of new clothes and shoes.  The back of the crew cab was full of colorful plastic.  I took her by the hand to a jeweler.  She left there sporting a delicate gold chain.  “We’ll think about what to put on it…”

Lunch was at the food court.  In the noise and crowds of a mall on a Saturday, I only had eyes for Cindy.  She had her head on a swivel, noting styles and sounds and looks of teens and young adults. I noted her attentions and admit it caused me unease.  Finishing lunch, we made one more visit to a couple more stores.  Perfume counter.  I was quite happy to whip out the platinum card.

The afternoon was beginning to heat up as we walked out to the truck.  I glanced sideways.  Her face was at the same time excited and serene.  I blame it on the green eyes.  And freckles.  Sprinkled across that pert nose.

Getting into the truck, she pushed the console up and took her seat next to me.  We drove out, headed back to the hotel.

“D’ya believe, like, ALL those people?!?”  She said.

“I saw you were lookin’.”

“I was.  An’ listenin’.  Those girls were sittin’ behind me while we were eatin’, they sounded so stupid… like, clothes, an’ he says, an’ she goes, an’ I’m like…”  She looked at me.  I could feel the stare.  “Dan,” she asked, “Honest.  Am I like that?  Do I sound that immature an’ silly?”

“Not by a long shot, Cindy.  You’re refreshingly mature.  Especially for your age.  I noticed that back when I first talked to you at the pool. “

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.  I see this teen girl, and I figure it’s all boy bands and fashions and hip-hop and nail polish.  And do YOU remember the first thing you talked to me about?”

“no.”

“What’s gonna replace the space shuttle.  I remember.”

“Well who cares who Disney’s pushin’ for music?  That stuff all sounds alike.  It sucks.  It ain’t exactly Bach.”

“Bach? Have I played Bach for you?”

“Nope.  You left a CD out.  “Inventions”.  Can you imagine this guy sittin’ thereat one of those huge organs an’, like, just INVENTING music like that?”

It was a good thing we were at a traffic light.  I had to kiss her.  “What a delightful brain you have inside that pretty head,” I laughed.  “So you didn’t see all those young people and wish that was YOU?”

“No way, babe.  Those girls, that whole table of ‘em, they talked for half an hour an’ never used a word with more than two syllables.  An’ the guys were worse.  I mean, if you can’t even figure out which way your cap goes on your head…  Please!”

“That’s the style, baby…”

“An’ what’s “style”?  A synonym for “stupid”? Huh!”

My darling used “synonym” and it wasn’t in a vocabulary exercise.  No wonder I was in love.

She was on a roll.  “So, babe, how ‘bout we go back to the room, I pick out what to wear tonight, an’ I get a chance to make love to a real smart, wonderful, mature guy who’s gonna be my husband in, oh, like a year an’ eleven months…”

“Your wish is my command…”

We hauled a full load of bags back into the room.  She laid out several outfits.  New.  And the dark green sweater and skirt.  She saw my eyes.  Smiled. “You like me in this.”

“Yes.  It brings out the very best of your beauty.”

“Ya know,” she said, “until you came along, I didn’t know I had beauty.  An’ now, I only have it for you…”

We put her outfit for the evening on hangers.  Cleared the bed of clothes and bags.  Turned the covers down.

“One more thing,” she said.

“What?”

“I bought this with my own money.”  I’d given her a hundred bucks in twenties.  “You were lookin’ at socks or something.”  She held up an impossibly small amount of green cloth fastened together by what looked like thick shoelaces.  “My new bathing suit.”  And twinkly eyes and that smirky grin.  “want me to model it?”

“Oh, yeah…”

I thought that her dropping clothes to complete nudity was pretty good.  Helping her into that bikini was even better.  It wasn’t impossibly small and slutty.  Actually, on the scale of swimwear, it was actually rather chaste, if you’re thinking about, say, the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, but this was on my Cindy, and the effect was breathtaking.

“What’d’ya think?”  She twirled.  Funny how sometimes a little bit of cover enhances the sexuality.  Like she needed enhancement.

“I’m just glad you didn’t show up at the pool like that the first time I met you.  They’d have me in jail for baby-raping…  An’ girls in suits like that don’t talk about space shuttles…”

She giggled and came to sit on my lap, straddling me, her arms wrapped around my neck.  And we kissed.  She whispered, “How come you have all these clothes on?”

Five o’clock, we were out the door.  I swear my knees were wobbling.  Cindy was glowing.  And smiling.  We picked a good restaurant together for dinner.  She was becoming more poised, familiar with etiquette and manners, and I worried not a bit about taking her to “nice” restaurants.  Not anymore.

Our tickets to the concert were centered on the stage, a dozen rows back, perfect, and we shared the soaring strains of great music together, feeding our spirits.  As we walked through the lobby afterward, I couldn’t help but notice that more than one head turned as we passed.  I like to think it was because of the striking image of this young beauty, perfect young face, red hair sleek, shiny, set off against the dark pine green of her sweater.

Nearing midnight, we were in bed in each other’s arms.  I still detected the wisps of her perfume (yes, THAT perfume) intertwined with the musk of a sexually sated young girl. I breathed deeply.  Her face was near my ear as week eased into sleep.  I heard a whisper.  “Dan, I love you.  We need more music like that…”

Chapter Eleven

Sunday morning.  I woke up to a motion in the bed, it slowly dawning on me where I was.  And the wet tugging at my groin reminded me who I was with.  I extended a hand and stroked the sleek, sassy red hair.

“Mmmmm” and then a pop as her lips came off my dick.  “good mornin’ baby…”

“Oh, gosh, Cindy,” I said.  “any morning that starts off with YOU is a great morning.”

Suck.  “Do I make a good alarm clock?”

“You are so BAD!”

“An’ this thing is MADE for me to suck…”  She breathed.  “among other things.”  Giggle.  “It’s hard.”  She moved up and straddled me, sliding over me with familiarity.  “Sit up,” she ordered.

I sat up, taking care to keep her impaled on my hard member.  We were now sitting in the middle of a mess of covers, twined together, mated.  She reached her hands down and tugged the hem of her nightshirt, stripping it over her head and tossing it aside.

“You do it too,” she commanded.  “I need to feel your skin.”

I complied.  She re-established herself pressed against my chest.  I could feel her nipples like pencil erasers pressing into my own breasts.  Her hips were moving, circles, little bounces.

“It’s, like, right there.”

What’s right where?” I asked.

“My clitty.  It’s right where your dick sticks out of you.” She wiggled, biting her bottom lip. “Yeah.  Right there.” More wiggles.  “I like this.  A lot.” Her eyes were happy and bright.  We were coupled, mated, and she was unashamed, uninhibited with our sharing.  More wiggles. “I’m gonna come like this.”

“Me too.”  We wrapped together, rocking, me thrusting in a limited motion, her hips screwing downward, driving me into her.  Minutes passed. Her eyes closed tightly and her breathing changed to sharp snorts.  I slid my hands down the curve of her back, resting just above her mobile ass.

“I’m coming, baby.  I can’t hold it any longer.”  I thrust up hard, trying to get my dick as deep into her as I could before releasing.  My first spurt triggered her. We melded, simultaneously consumed in orgasms.  And stayed that way, snug together, almost a single unit.  I could feel the combined wetness of our orgasms slowly flow from her down over my pubic mound and balls.  And we sat there.

She finally sighed.  “Dan, don’t ya know?   This is, like, perfect.  I mean, US.  We’re perfect together.”

“I believe so, Cindy.  I know it.”

“Yeah,” she said dreamily.  “Perfect.  And hungry.”

“So… breakfast, then come back and load up, or load up now and go to breakfast?”

She pulled back a few inches.  I gazed, enraptured by those eyes.  “Let’s load up!  Then Denny’s!”

“My sweetie is HUNGRY!”

She hugged into me again and her teeth fastened on my ear, sending chills over my entire body, and the little minx KNEW it.  Giggled at my shudder.  “Yeah,” she giggled.  “For pancakes THIS time!”  I popped her on her ass with my palm, eliciting a squeal.  We broke apart.  Her nostrils flared.  “Oh, babe, I think we need one of those post-sex showers before we go downstairs…”

“Yeah.  A good one.  ‘Cuz tonight we’re back to those one at a time showers in the trailer.”

“You’re right,” she said.

“But we can do this hotel thing again.  Heaven knows I’m makin’ enough money to afford it.”

Fifteen minutes later the two of us possessed the cleanest genitalia in the state.  I took advantage of her drying her hair to do an uncharacteristic morning shave.  Then we started dressing, she choosing loose-fitting cotton shorts and a simple light blue cotton blouse,  I in khaki cargo shorts and a short-sleeved rugby shirt.  I was pulling my trousers up when she said, “Nuh-uh.  Come here.”

I stepped over towards her and she grabbed the loose waistband of my shorts and pulled me towards her.  She was sitting on the edge of the bed.  She released her grip on my shorts and looked up at me grinning lasciviously as she fished my dick free of my underwear.  “One more for the road,” she giggled.  And lavished a wet, lingering suck on me.  Then giggled.  “I need more practice puttin’ this thing away when it’s hard…”

“Thank you,” I grinned as I jiggled to pull up my cargo shorts and snapped them and fastened my belt.

We packed up our overnight bags, checked the room carefully for anything missed earlier, then each with an overnight bag slung over a shoulder and two hands full of shopping bags, we exited.  Walking out of the room, down the elevator, and past the cheery clerk at the front desk, I wondered, hoped, that nobody would tie this forty-year old guy and young teen girl with the sticky spots left in the middle of that bed.

Twenty minutes later we were seated in a booth at Denny’s, I on one side, she, chastely and smiling sweetly, on the other, waiting on pancakes.  And a glass of milk.  And coffee, as in, “Dan, I’ve drank it before.  You drink it.  Why can’t I?”  Post-breakfast, that put us back into the park at ten.  Of course, we stopped at the front office to show Helen the Saturday acquisitions.

“You DO look good in good clothes, honey,” Helen told her.

“Thank you, Mizz Helen,” replied Cindy.

I looked at Helen.  “And did you and the judge have another date last night?  Hmmm?”

“Yes, we did,” Helen smiled.  “And Friday night, too.”

“Hey, if this is getting serious, I might need to meet him. You know, make sure he’s suitable…”

“Oh, get away…” she laughed.

Then a thought crossed my mind.  A dark thought.  “Uh, Helen…” I said, “This is the judge that signed the court order makin’ you Cindy’s guardian, right?”

“Yeah…”

“Has he, like, asked about her?  Like why she’s not around?”

“You know, Dan, if I thought that was a problem, I’d’ve not gone out with him.  Judge’s one a’us.  I tol’ him what was goin’ on.  An’ he’s the one who said I should be the guardian so when little darlin’ there (and Cindy smiled sweetly) turns sixteen, I can get him to sign off on you marryin’ her. “

“So the judge knows…”

“Yeah.  But you don’t know the judge.  Like you don’t know that him an’ my  Herb were classmates in school?”

“How could I know that?”

“You couldn’t, just like you couldn’t know that me an’ the judge’s wife were the same age, either.”

“Whaaat?”  I was mildly stunned.

“Yep.  Judge knows about older guys and younger girls.  An’ he grilled me pretty hard about you.  And cutie there. “  Another one of those smiles from the cutie in question.  “An’ the judge, he’s eighty-something, but he’s hardy stuff, an’ ain’t goin’ nowhere, and you know, just maybe he an’ I …”

I smiled.  “Good for you, Helen.”

“Yeah, it’s good for me,” she said.  “I like the old goat.  But YOU don’t worry.  Okay?”

“Okay.”  I turned to Cindy.  “Come on, babe,” I said.  “Let’s go put your stuff up.”

“Oh, by the way,” said Helen.  “You might want to go through her old trailer, make sure you don’t want nothing out of it.  I got a buyer, as is, where is, an’ it’s gone by Friday.”

“We can go look,” Cindy said.  “But there’s nothing in there that I need.  Dan gives me everything.”  She smiled.

“Yeah,” laughed Helen, “I guess he does.”  And there were TWO wicked smiles.

Back at the trailer, I rearranged stuff in the storage closets so that Cindy had more room.  Girls take up room.  Lots of room.  But you know?  They’re worth it.

As I was shuffling the closets and she was hauling in the loot, she said, “Wanna microwave somethin’ for lunch?”

“Either that or we run up to the catfish joint.”

“You know,” I said, “fried catfish sounds good right now.  Microwave something for dinner?”

“I can do that.”

Hour and half, we’re back.  “Pool?” she said, looking at me.

“Yeah, but wear your old suit.”

“Why?”

“Because if you wear that bikini, every male in the place is gonna follow you with his eyes everywhere you go, including back in this trailer with me.  Save the bikini for tomorrow when we don’t have weekenders.”

“Okay,” she said, a little dejectedly.

We walked from the trailer to the pool, her with a beach bag with our towels, joining several of the weekenders.  There were two couples, a pre-teen girl and slightly younger boy, and a couple of teens, a boy and a girl.  Cindy sat the bag down on one of the lounges and slid into the deep end of the pool.  The teen boy was already headed her way, all but leaving a trail of drool behind him.

I nodded greetings to the adults and slid into the deep end myself.  I didn’t mix with the kids.  I did a lazy crawl back and forth for a few laps, then climbed out of the pool , passed a towel over my head to get the water out of my eyes, then lay back on a lounge.  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw our young teen stud chatting up my future bride.  He was trying, anyway.  Cindy was talking to the girl, apparently his sister, more, and laughing and calling to the two younger children in the pool.

I chatted with the parents of both sets of kids, how they liked coming down here for a weekend while it was still warm enough, how it was a two hour drive, how one of them had a car dealership in a small town and the other was a manager at a paper mill.  When that one found out I was an engineer, conversation wandered around to jobs and where I’d worked and we found we had some commonality of acquaintances.

Cindy finally climbed out of the pool.  She was absently toweling off her hair when car dealer guy said, “Man, I think my boy is interested in HER.”

“Yeah,” I said.  “Unfortunately any straight male with a pulse is interested in her.  I have to chaperone.”

“Doesn’t she live in that trailer ‘way over there in the corner?” he asked.

“Used to.  She’s the manager’s foster daughter now.”

“Oh,” he said.

“MISTER Dan,” Cindy piped in, “Stop talking’ about me like I’m not here!”

“Oh, sorry, Cindy…”

She smiled sweetly.  “Thank you, Mr. Dan,” she cooed.  Then to car dealer guy, “Mr. Dan thinks I have to be watched all the time.  He’s so protective.  But he does serve a function.  Engineers make good math tutors.”

Car dealer guy said “Yeah, me, I just have to plug numbers into a form these days.  Ain’t like it used to be.”

Cindy’s tinkling laughter.  “Oh, here we go.  “I walked to school in the snow.  Up hill both ways.”

Car dealer guy’s wife weighed in, “Don’t let ‘em get to you, hon.  Back when they took math there weren’t as many numbers.”  That got general laughter.  And drooling teen boy was now standing, dripping, trying to get any sort of notice from Cindy.

Cindy noticed, alright. “Steve, you’re dripping on me…” she said icily.

“Uh… sorry.”

She turned to me.  “Dan, I need you to go over those problems I have to turn in tomorrow.  My books are in the office, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah…” I stood, picking up my towel.   “Go change.  I don’t want buttprints all over my furniture.”  I nodded to the group.  “Duty calls.”

We walked out of earshot together.  “Well, what’s the deal with young Studly there?”

Giggle.  “If he was an adult he’d have his shirt unbuttoned and wear a rolex an’ a big gold chain around his neck.  And a bad comb-over.”

“That bad?”

“Yeah.  At least he didn’t offer me weed.”

Arriving at the trailer, we had the office between us and the pool, so they couldn’t see that Cindy waltzed right in with me.  She clicked the lock behind us.  And slapped me on the ass.  “Buttprints all over?!??  I’ll put a buttprint on your FACE!”

“Oh, please, lady… what do I have to do to get that?”

“Cindy’s Dan is an ass,” she laughed.

We did actually open the books, just to review, but it was like Einstein doing his multiplication tables.  A trip to the pool meant the showers were short.  All I had to do was rinse and shave, and Cindy washed her hair and dried it as I brushed it out for her.  As promised, we did TV dinners.   And TV and two computers.

I pointed her to a couple of sites that talked about advanced placement courses.  She looked. “Dan, this stuff’s interesting.”

“Baby, it’s like you’ve been walking on the lawn and you decide to take off through the woods.  It’s gonna be more work.  But if you’re into engineering or any of the other science fields, you’re going to get to this stuff eventually.”

“You’ll be around to push an’ pull, though.”

I leaned over and kissed her.  “Yes I will.  But don’t worry about this stuff tonight.  We’ll find all that stuff out Tuesday.”

I listened to the sounds of two RV’s leaving the park.  Two of them.  We were alone again.  “Babe, do you need to see if there’s anything you want out of your old trailer?  Books? Pictures?  Keepsakes?”

“No, babe,” she said. “When I left, there wasn’t anything there.  Didn’t have much room. You seem to think that Mom was one a’them moms’ that kept baby books an’ stuff.  Never happened. Old toys?  No room in the trailer.  Pictures?  Not of me.”

Note to self.  Pictures of Cindy.  Just Cindy.  And Cindy and me.  The two of us.  I told her so.  That got a squeal and a hug.  And kisses.  “I’ll see about an appointment,” I said.

We watched the news.   She wanted to discuss a couple of stories.  We did.  I encouraged her to look on the internet for other slants on the same story.  “Remember, baby,” I said, “they present a lot of stories like they’re all just black and white, but that’s not usually the case.  Often there’s gray areas.”

“You mean, like laws that are supposed to protect young girls from old men?”

“Exactly.  Both sides of the argument trot out the most extreme case to show their point.”

“Uh-huh,” she nodded.  “We’re, like, the BEST case.”

“Pretty much.  But the law is built around the very worst case.  And here we are.”

“Yeah.  Sucks.”

“Uh, yeah.”

“Dan,” she said, serious face on, “What you an’ me are doin’?  Do you think it’s wrong?”

“Not in my heart.  I fully intend to be your husband for the rest of my life.  And your partner.  And whatever it takes for you to reach whatever goals you set.”

“But laws…”

“I know, sweetie, but here’s the deal.  The law is about sex.  And sex with you is the most wonderful I’ve ever experienced.  Until you, I couldn’t even imagine it that good, but even without the sex, I still love you and care for you and want you to have the best chance to see your potential.”  I looked at her.  “Seriously, though, you’re in total control here.  You could make one phone call and they’d haul me off in handcuffs and I wouldn’t see the light of day for twenty years.  So if you’re having second thoughts…”

“Are you kiddin’ me, Dan? If I stayed with Mom, who knows?  I could be in Vegas, bein’ some guy’s pet, an’ I bet he wouldn’t be carin’ about me an’ him takin’ pictures that I want to hang on MY wall.  Or what?  Little Studly at the pool?  Or one a’those guys to go with those bimbos at the mall? Hah!  You treat me like I’m more than a body.  You make me WANT to be smart.  Smarter.  Like smart is important, not what color my hair is or how big my tits are.  You know, you put all that bein’ smart stuff ahead of everything.  You act like you don’t care if we ever have sex, or make love, or whatever…” she sighed.  “An’ THAT makes me want to be with you all the more.”

I let her slide into my lap.

“You know, in the last few weeks, I went to the library for the first time.  I flew in an airplane.  Heck, I FLEW the airplane.  And a real live concert that didn’t have beer on tap.  Yeah, I am sooooo molested.  Nope, Dan, I’ll never leave you. “

“Okay, Cindy princess.  Just tell me every now and then.”

“When you see me smile, babe, I’m tellin’ you.  When I slide into bed beside you, I’m tellin’ you.  An; when I come home every day, I’m tellin’ you.  And I’ll say it.  You know, I’d …  wait!  You got me this chain…” She fingered the delicate gold chain around her neck.  She looked at me.  “Dan,” she said, “I’ve never asked you for anything, have I?”

I thought back.  You know, she hadn’t.  The closest thing to asking for something is to pick what’s for supper.  “No, baby, you never have.”

“Then Dan, this is the first time I ever asked you for something.”

“What’d’ya want, baby?”

“I want a ring.  An engagement ring.  I can tell people it’s a friendship ring.  It shouldn’t have a diamond.  Maybe engraved.  But gold.  And you’ll know and I’ll know what it is.”  She showed me a picture she’d printed off the internet.  “Like this!”

“You got it, cutie,” I said.  “Saturday we’re going shopping for a ring.”  I kissed her.  “And please,” I said, “stop scaring me like this.”

“I’m sorry, baby,” she said, “this has been a bad week.  Mom left.  Period.  All that.  And topped it all off by getting hit on by Studly.”

“Yeah, Studly’s dad thought you were hot, too.  I thought I was gonna have to get my gun.”

“You have a real gun?  In this trailer?”

“Four of ‘em actually.”

“Uh, you didn’t tell me that.”

“You didn’t ask.  You also didn’t ask if I had a pair of pliers, a kitchen knife, a hacksaw or a screwdriver.  Guns are tools.”

“But a GUN?  Why?”

“I have things to protect.  Me.  My property.  And now, my Cindy.”

“Where?”

“Where what?”

“Where are they at?”

I reached into the space beside the sofa and pulled out a pistol.  “One,” I said.  Rear of top shelf of Cindy’s closet.  Shotgun.  “Two.”  Inside my closet.  AR-15 rifle.  “Three”.  Nightstand by our bed.  Another pistol.  “Four”.

“Wow.  Are they loaded?”

“Of course they’re loaded.  An unloaded gun is an expensive, high-tech stick.”

“You know how to shoot?”

“I guess.  I was an engineer lieutenant in the army for four years.”

“Oh, yeah, I remember you tellin’ me that.”

“Do guns scare you?”

“I don’t know anything about them.  I guess not.”

“I will be glad to teach you.  If you want.”

“Don’t you think I better learn?  I mean, if they’re like, HERE?”

“No, I think you better learn if you think you might use one to protect yourself or others.  Those guns have never jumped out of the drawer and gone out looking for trouble.  They haven’t attacked you as many times as you’ve been here.”

“I think you should teach me.  Guns too.”  She smirked.

“Then I need to find out about a range around here.  I’ll ask around tomorrow.  Mizz Helen might even know.”

“You’d protect me.  You WANT to protect me.”

“Of course.  That’s being civilized.”

“But what about that whole violence thing?  Guns an’ violence?”

“My guns aren’t violent.  I’m civilized. I am responsible for my safety and the safety of my family.  That’d be you.  And vice versa.”

“Wow.  Guns.  Uh, Dan, any other surprises?”

Waaaaiiiiitttt!  This is freakin’ ALABAMA!  Guns shouldn’t be a surprise.”

“Not at Mom’s.  Not that I knew of.  Maybe we better go look tomorrow, though.”

“Okay.  Enough of that.  Next subject?  Are you nervous about Tuesday?”

“Nah…  I think that even if I don’t get that good of scores, I am still makin’ straight A’s anyway.”

“Good point!  But if I had to bet…”

“Bet what?”

“Bet that you didn’t do that well…  I think that if you did your best and paid attention, you’re on your way…”

She smiled.  “You know, there’s been a lot of adventure in my life since we met.”

“Just remember that when the adventure wears off, the hard work is still there, babe.  At least in school.  And work.  But me an’ you?  Every day I live with you is a happy adventure.”

“You’re sweet, Dan.  You didn’t have to say that.  But you did.”

“Just because it’s true, is all…”

It’s just now good ‘n’ dark.  Are you up for another little adventure?”

“Dark?  Adventure?  You got me now.”

She smiled.  “Remember that place we went to by that lake?  We drove right up to the edge?”

“Yeah,” I said.  I remembered the place.  Took a country road and a short logging trail, but it was pretty.

“You wanna drive over there an’ look at the stars?”

“Sure!”  Twenty minutes up the road.  “Get some clothes on.  Birthday suits don’t count.”

I pulled on some jeans and a t-shirt and slipped on some comfy loafers in the time it took her to do shorts and a blouse.  We were out the door in the dark.  Twenty minutes later I turned off the engine.  We got out of the truck, I with a blanket under my arm.

“Just look at the sky, Dan…”  She turned her face heavenward, its features illuminated by moonlight, and becoming more visible to me as my own eyes adjusted to the darkness.  She turned to me.  “Spread that blanket in the bed of the ruck so we can lay down an’ look up.”

I dropped the tailgate of the truck and spread the blanket as directed and we crawled into the bed of the truck.  The blanket did little to soften the steel underneath us, but it was comfortable enough to lay on.  Any more strenuous activity, though, was out of the question.  The autumn air was comfortably cool, moist, like velvet.  Cindy was lying beside me, and her hand found mine and she intertwined our fingers.

“It’s magnificent,” she said.  “we can’t see this many stars at the park.  Too much light.  But here…”

“It is majestic, yes, baby…”

“D’ya think Beethoven was thinkin’ stars when he wrote some of that music?”

“I dunno.  I see a sky like this and I wish I could put the emotions to music, don’t you?”

“Yeah, that’s what I mean. “ She sighed.  “See, Dan, you’ve given me the stars.”

“I know, sweetness.  I’ve seen them in your eyes…”

That statement of fact got  Cindy up on one elbow to kiss me.  “Ouch!” she muttered.  “Truck bed’s too hard!”

I dragged her on top of me.  Kissed her.  “Roll over on your back,” I said.  “and scoot down a little.”  She complied.  I held her in my arms, my chin on the top of her star-lit head.

“I feel you breathe,” she said.

“And every breath brings me your sweetness, baby.  Mmmmm….”

She wiggled a bit and settled in my arms.  Sometimes communication is communion and words are wasted.  Like now.  The spell finally broke.  It took a meteor streaking across the night sky.

“I made a wish,” she said.

“Me too.”  I gave her a squeeze. “Hah!  Looks like I got mine…”

“If you’re still holdin’ me like this in twenty years, I’ll have twenty years of mine…” she rolled over and kissed me.  “Let’s go home.”

“Okay, baby.”

We got up, I folded the blanket, put it back in the back section of the crew cab, and twenty minutes later we were walking in our door.  The clothes came off and Cindy was kneeling in the middle of our bed.  Naked.  Smiling.  And how could I refuse that?

Chapter Twelve

Monday.  I’m not a Monday-phobe, but when the alarm went off I was immediately plastered with a t-shirt-clad Cindy.  Kisses.  And she started to slide down in the bed.  Nothing but the most sterling amount of dedication kept me from just calling in sick.  “No, baby.”

“Awww, just little bit?  An’ you can do me?”

“Okay.  Just a little bit.”

We had our little bit.  Got going five minutes late, purposefully moving around the trailer, two cereal bowls, the coffee going, clothes, faces washed, her hair beautifully brushed.  TV on to catch the morning news and weather.  At seven I was out the door headed to work and Cindy was ten minutes from getting on the bus to school.

I hummed through the day, invoices, change orders, field sketches, pointing out things to the construction crew I dealt with.  It wasn’t even hard.  It’s what I had been doing for years and I was good at it.  That’s why I was here.  But four o’clock couldn’t come fast enough for me.  I didn’t need to lose myself in work anymore.  I had a life.  A five foot three inch, redheaded, green-eyed, freckled life.  I didn’t hang around after four.

I guess Cindy and Helen were watching for me when I turned my truck into the park, because Cindy waved me to the office.

I walked in.  Cindy was leaning halfway across the counter, her arms folded under her, a position that accentuated a pair of small, but very much delectable breasts.  “I was just tellin’ Mizz Helen about our weekend.”

Helen smiled.  “Sounds like you’re giving her the world.”

“Nah,” I answered, “I’m just showin’ her parts of it.  She decides what she wants to get and how to work for it.”

“She said you’re buying her a ring?”

I looked Helen, then at Cindy.  Cindy smiled.  “I want to.  She wants one.  We decided that it won’t LOOK like an engagement ring.”

“But it is,” said Cindy.

“Sweet girl,”said Helen.  “Take care of her, Dan…”

“It’s my life’s goal now.  Not to change the subject, but we’re still doing nine o’clock at the school?”

“Uh-huh,” answered Helen. “I may even put on a dress.”

“What?  And ruin my image of you?”

“Hah!  You ought to see me dressed up to go out with the judge.  Maybe we can double date some time.”

“Nuh-uh,” I said.  “I ain’t rubbin’ his nose in this.”

“Ain’t like that, Dan.  He’s interested.  Wants to make sure things are good between you and Cindy…”

“They’re good!” chirped Cindy. “Real good.”  And the little thing looked at me with a wink that would have been an exaggeration in a Vaudeville act.

“Okay, you,” I said.  “D’ya have homework?”

“Of course.  About twenty minutes worth.  Let’s do some laps at the pool.”

“Okay, Helen, I guess I’ll see you at school in the morning, then.  Let me go drown this girl.”

And we went to the trailer, swapped street clothes for bathing suits.  I had the same old trunks I’ve worn for two years.  Cindy looked like something off a magazine cover in her new bikini.  I swallowed.  I extended a towel to her.  “Wrap this around you while we walk to the pool,” I said.

“But, Dan, you’ve seen more than this.”

“Yeah, I have.  But nobody else has. Humor me.  For a little while, at least.”

“Okay,” she said.  We walked to the pool.  She shed the towel as soon as we were inside the fenced enclosure.  And she was in the water.

I went in with her.  We did a few laps.  I’d coached her into a pretty decent crawl stroke, and she cut the water alongside me for fifteen minutes of swimming, then we were both hung in the water on the deep end of the pool, cooling.  I felt her sidle against me, her hip bumping mine.

She took a deep, cleansing breath.  “That’s a good exercise, huh?”

“Yeah.  We need something to get rid of all the fried catfish.”

Giggles.  “Well, we do other exercises, too, you know.  We get quite aerobic, don’tcha know…”

“You’re an evil, lusty little girl.  I may just have to keep you so you won’t get in trouble.”

Her laughter tinkled in my ears.  “I’m already in trouble.  I let myself fall in love with some ol’ guy an’ sometimes I love him so much I can’t see straight.”

It’s a good thing we had the park to ourselves, because I couldn’t stop myself from kissing her.  And the kiss got me a squeeze on the bulge in my trunks.

“Come on!  Let’s get out.  We have to figure out supper.”

We were toweling off beside the pool.  “Let’s make Monday a salad day.”

“Salad?”

“Yeah, you know…  green stuff.  Like they serve before your fried catfish platter?”

“oh, yeah… salad.  That’s a twenty mile drive.”

“What else are you gonna do?”

“Take you to supper, get your homework done, watch TV, and then go make love to the most remarkable woman I’ve ever met.”

Smirk.  “She sounds great!  When am I gonna meet her?”

“Where’d you learn to be such a butt?” I laughed.

Walking past the office, we caught Helen locking up.  I waved.  Cindy unwrapped her towel to show Helen her new bathing suit.  My cellphone was ringing when I walked in the trailer.  Helen.

“Yes ma’am,” I answered.

“Lord, Dan, don’t let her wear that thing on weekends.  You’re gonna have to pack a gun.”

“Tell me about it.  The one-piece was bad enough.  I may just have to make her wear a gunny sack.”

“You just make sure you watch her.  I don’t think SHE’d do anything.  But half the population is male…”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Okay, seeya tomorrow.  Nine.”

“Yes’m.  Bye.”

“What was THAT about?  Me?”

“Yeah.  You an’ your bikini.  Mizz Helen said the same thing I did.  I need to watch you.”

She wrapped me up in a hug.  “You can watch me naked.  I’m takin’ a shower.”

Just under half an hour later I was feeling civilized, freshly shaved, and Cindy was charming simplicity,face glowing, hair perfectly combed and shining, Jeans and a simple cotton blouse.  We left to chase the elusive south Alabama salad.

On a tip from one of the secretaries at the project, I headed to a medium-sized town fifteen miles away where there was a little restaurant run by two elderly ladies who struggled to make a living providing a genteel setting and food that didn’t involve vats of boiling oil.  They cooed over the image that my Cindy presented.  There were two other couples in the place, and we got royal treatment.  And the place actually had some good-looking vegetable dishes.  We had our salads.  With a nice vinaigrette, thank you.  And steamed asparagus with fresh hollandaise.  And Portobello mushrooms stuffed with rice pilaf.

We left with promises to return.

Back to the trailer.  Homework.  Took longer to write the answers than find them again.  And we talked about where you could go with the math and science she was studying.  I didn’t need to talk to her about English.  She was blossoming in language skills in our daily conversations.  After homework, the stereo came on, not the TV.  And books came out.  We passed an hour at opposite ends of the sofa, our legs tangled in the middle, reading.

Until bedtime.  Pre-Cindy, I was usually in bed at ten and asleep by ten-thirty.  With Cindy, WE were in bed by nine-thirty, and worn out by ten-thirty.  I used to take a sleeping aid.  Cindy’s enthusiastic body WAS a sleeping aid.  Just like tonight, when we sixty-nined each other to orgasm, then cuddled into blissful slumber to the soaring strains of the masters.

Tuesday mornings weren’t much different from Mondays.  The routine was the same.  Right down to the kiss before I left.

I just puttered around the project when I got there, knowing better then to get too involved in anything that I couldn’t interrupt.  At eight-thirty I was out the gate headed for Cindy’s middle school.  At least it was Alabama and a big pickup truck wasn’t too out of place in the parking spaces.  I walked into the unfamiliar surrounds of the middle school in my standard work outfit:  safety shoes, canvas cargo pants, a denim shirt, and a pocket protector full of pens and pencils.  Hey, what do you expect.  I’m an engineer!

I announced my intentions and signed in, and in a few minutes I was summoned by a member of the school’s administrative staff.  I followed her to the counsellor’s office.  Entering, I smiled at Helen and Cindy and introduced myself to the counselor, a guy, about my age, stocky, a little shorter than me.  Haircut was just a little bit on the civilian side of whitewall.  I looked on his wall for the expected evidence.  Yep!  There it is.  Honorable discharge for a Marine first lieutenant.  And a framed picture of a younger version of him with a flight suit, standing next to a Harrier. I shook his hand.  He pointed me into a chair next to Cindy.

“I was just telling Mizz Helen (why was she Mizz Helen to everybody?) that we got Cindy’s test scores back.”  He started his spiel. “First, we want to say that Cindy is a whole lot different  student than she was the last two years.  Last year she was a, let’s see…” He flipped up a page on the stack on his desk, “oh, a C student.  So far this year, it’s all A’s.  We’re very happy.  And as you know, all our students took a screening test on the second day of class (I didn’t know that) and based on THAT score, we selected her to take these tests.  Mizz Helen…  Dan…  Cindy’s in the wrong classes.”  He looked at me.  “You’re smiling.”

“Yessir,” I said, “you see, Mizz Helen asked me if I’d tutor Cindy at the beginning of school.  Sort of help her with her homework.  She doesn’t need help with homework.”

“How so?” he asked.

“Math.  She brought home a lesson on squares and square roots.  I’m an electrical engineer, so I thought I’d give her something to chew on.  I asked her to do me a square root of a negative number.  She gets it.  I know degreed engineers who don’t get that.  Do you know trig?  Polar to Cartesian conversions?  I use ‘em at work.  I showed her ONCE.”

He smiled.  “Yeah, that’s what I thought after talking to her teachers.”

Helen interrupted.  “So you’re sayin’ that Cindy’s smart?”

We both spoke at the same time, “Yes.”

“So what’s the bottom line,” I asked.  “What kind of programs do you have for her here?”

“Folks,” he said, “we’re just a rural Alabama school system.  We don’t have much.  I suppose we could talk about moving her up a couple of grades, but I personally don’t care for that.  I can offer it, though, for ya’ll to talk about.”  He directed his eyes to Cindy.  “Little lady,” he said, “d’you have any idea what you want to be?”

Cindy smiled and looked at me and then at him.  “An engineer.  An ELECTRICAL engineer.”

He looked at Helen.  Helen said, “Well, Dan’s probably the first guy she ever knew that had a job that didn’t involve a chainsaw or a tractor.”

He looked back at Cindy.  “Little lady, that’s a big bite to chew on.  But I just think you can do it.”  He paused.  “Dan…  Mizz Helen…  Ya’ll think about that movin’ up thing.  Trouble is, she’d be stickin’ out like a sore thumb in high school, and you know that high school is more than just what happens in the classrooms.  Besides, if she’s in the top percent here, she’s going to be in the top percent there, too.  And outrunning THOSE teachers.  So I’m gonna look at some programs you might be able to do at home, and get you some  information.  Ya’ll got internet, I’m guessing?”

“Yessir,” chirped Cindy.

“Some of these programs are web-based.  I wish I could say I knew all about them, but I don’t get a chance to deal with kids like Cindy very often.  Any of you got any questions?”

Mizz Helen is the one who surprised me.  “Mr. Hardesty,” she asked, “since she’s keepin’ up so well in class, can we, like, be a little more flexible with her schedule.  Say, if I wanted to take her out for a few days or a week?”

“Mizz Helen, she’s NOT keeping up.  She’s so far ahead that she’s lookin’ back.  I got a math teacher that trembles when Cindy walks into the room.” He nodded toward me.  “Dan, you shouldn’t have told her about great circles and rhumb lines.  Middle school math teachers don’t generally understand those things.”

I laughed.  “I’m surpised that jarhead pilots know those things either.”

Hardesty smiled wryly.  “Ex-military?”

“Yeah,” I said.  “Army.  Combat engineers.”

“Figures,” He snorted.  “Here’s my card. Call me sometime an’ we’ll get together an tell lies to each other.”

I took his card.  “You know, I’ll just do that!”

Helen snorted, “Well if you two get finished with your secret handshakes an’ stuff…”

“Awww, Mizz Helen, you know how I am…”

“Yeah,”  she said.  “Tell your momma I said ‘hi’, y’hear?”

“I sure will.” He opened the door to let us out.

As Cindy, Helen and I walked up the hall to the front office, I told Cindy, “Now don’t let your head swell.  You’re still polite and decent to the others.  An’ teachers. Okay?”

“Yes Mr. Dan.”  Public.  I was “Mr. Dan.”  We left her at the office so she could return to class.

I walked Helen back to her mini-van.  She looked at me.  “none a’that surprised you at all, did it?”

“Nope.  Pretty much what I expected.  Except I think we’ll get more help from Hardesty than from some college girl who’s never been in the real world.  You know him?”

“Yeah,” Helen said.  “Me an’ his momma  were a couple a’years apart in school.  She married my cousin.

“Figures,” I laughed.

“So what’re you gonna do about Cindy?  About school, I mean?”

“I’m going to try and walk a delicate line, push her here and there, let her run with some stuff, guide her a little, and let’s see what happens.  I’m interested in what Hardesty comes up with, though.”

I drove back to work and finished my day out.  Stopped by the office trailer and stuck my head in the door.  Told the secretary  how much we enjoyed the restaurant.  And then I went home.

Cindy was in the office again.  I walked in.  She was sitting in a chair, her feet propped up, smiling, a cola can in her hand.  “So whatcha think?”

“I’m not a bit surprised, if that’s what you mean,” I said.  “And what DID you ask your math teacher?”

Sweet smile.  It covered up an impish mind.  “told her I was confused about the difference between a great circle route an’ a rhumb line route on a long trip, an’ could she explain it to me.”

“Uh…baby…”

“Welllll, she SAID she wanted us to be interested in math an’ ask ‘er stuff.”

“But you already KNEW the answer, right?  We talked about that.”

“Yeah, I know…  I won’t do that again.  Not to her.”

“Look, babe, you’re starting on a long journey, and you’re going to need help from a lot of different people for a lot of different things, and if you start jerking them around and embarrassing them, well, they’ll just pull their heads in and let you go try on your own.”  The glum expression.  Not one I saw often on her.  Especially not lately. “You’re a sweet girl.  We all know that.  But you’re also a very intelligent girl.  And your teachers should just about applaud when you show up because you’re a joy to deal with, not start duckin’ an’ runnin’ because you’re gonna beat’em up with that brain of yours.  So let’s not do that.”

“I’m sorry.”  She looked at me with those green eyes.   “I am.”  She batted those long eyelashes.

I melted.  Helen laughed.  “Heck of a speech there, Dan,” she said.  “By the way,” she said, “You wanna meet the judge for dinner Friday evening?”

I looked at Cindy.  “You up for the big time, babe?”

“Certainly.  You’re gonna be there to protect me, right?”

I turned to Helen.  “Put us down for a ‘yes’, then.  A judge, huh?  I’ll try not to drag my knuckles in the dirt.”

“Smartass, “ shot Helen.  “You two go home an’ let me close up.  Ain’t nobody here that I need to be concerned with.”  She was right.  The park was empty.

As I was driving my truck the short distance to the trailer, Cindy said,  “Dan, I think I wanna go through Mom’s old trailer.  Just one more time.  Okay?”

“Sure, cutie.  Let’s get your key.”

We retrieved her key from inside our trailer and drove across the park.  At least Helen had left the air conditioning on so the place didn’t smell too stale.  Still, it reeked of old cigarettes.  Cindy didn’t even look in her tiny area at one end of the trailer.  “I got all my stuff when I left,” she said.

We went through the cabinets.  Helen had taken all the food out.  The canned goods when to the nearby church to help the needy.  So did every useful bit of bed linens and other items.  There was a large cardboard box filled with junk.  The corner of a scrapbook showed on one side.  I pulled it loose.  Baby pictures.  “I thought you didn’t have any pictures, babe,” I said.

“I didn’t,” she retorted.

“Look.”  We did.  Together.  An infant.  A toddler.  Then the annual school pictures, up until two years ago.  “Can we keep this?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Just one more thing.  Help me lift these mattresses.”  We lifted the mattress on her mom’s bed.  Dust.  Nothing else.

“Okay,” I told her.  “Let’s go.  We’re finished here.”  We locked the door behind us and got in the truck.  “You okay, baby?”

Her face was tinged with sadness.  “You know, Dan, I tried to make her happy.  To make us a family.  I know some kids at school who just have a mom an’ they didn’t have to go through what she did or didn’t do with me.  An’ she was gettin’ worse every week.  An’ she left so fast.  A hug an’ a kiss an’ she said ‘You’ll be better off.”  Not ‘I love you’, ‘you’ll be better off.”

Once inside our home, I held her in my arms, and let her cry.  When she finished, I kissed her gently on both cheeks.  Both eyes.  Said nothing.  Waited for her.

“Dan, I love you.  That’s over.  I love you.  Forever.”

“That’s more than I ever dreamed of, baby.  I love you too.  Forever.”  Then we kissed as if we were mating, melding with our mouths and tongues.

Finally a sigh escaped her lips.  “Don’t sit down,” she said.  “It’s buy one, get the second at half price at the catfish joint.”

“Huhhh,  after THAT kiss?  I’m, what, like an appetizer?”

She surveyed me with cool green eyes.  “Oh, no, guy.  The catfish is the appetizer.  I intend for you to be the main course.”

“Then we’d better go see about our appetizers, huh?”

In less than five minutes we were buckled in the truck, headed up the road.

“Dan, what’s all this ‘advanced class stuff gonna look like?”

“I dunno.  I never took one…”

“But you’re smart.  Didn’t they do this stuff to you when you were in school?”

“Nuh-uh, babe, when I was your age, schools weren’t so much into putting kids in groups for special treatment.  An’ Dad, bless his heart, he didn’t push, so C’s were just peachy with him.  I got into college, got an ROTC scholarship.  The Army paid for me an’ I paid them back with four years of my life.”

“So you don’t know what I’m gonna be doin’?”

“I have my suspicions.  We’ll wait an’ see what Mr. Hardesty comes up with.  I’m thinkin’ we can get you college credits for some stuff you take while you’re still in high school.”

“But I’m in MIDDLE school!”

“Not in the courses I’m thinking you’ll get.  Don’t worry.  First, you’re smart enough to do it, and second, I’m here to help you.”  I chuckled.  “You’re already a long way past most of the people in college anyway.  They’re just going through the motions, and YOU understand WHY things are right other than ‘that’s what the professor said”.  You’ll do fine.”

“Thank you.  You make me feel smart.  Instead a’ weird.”

“Get used to it, Cindy.  “Smart” is weird to a lot of people.”  We ordered.  Sipped our drinks.  Talked.

“This sure isn’t Beethoven, huh?”

“What kind of music do YOU expect at a catfish joint in Alabama?”

“I know.  This is what Mom listened to.  Some of it’s not bad, but most of it is.  Bad.  Real bad.  Like it’s made out of some weird plastic, to sound like music.”  Those green eyes fixed on me.

“It’s not exactly my favorite either, but it’s hard to get away from it, you know…  I generally ignore it.”

Our dinners arrived and we laughed and chatted and ate.  “You know,” Cindy said, “I really liked that place we ate yesterday…”

“Yeah, me too.  I was surprised.  Just goes to show that you never know what’s around the corner.”

“Uh-huh,” she grinned, “Or right there in the RV park…”

“That goes both ways, little girl.”

We continued our meal with me listening to her explain the reactions of her classmates when she returned from the counselor’s office today.  And the reaction of her math teacher when Cindy apologized for putting her on the spot.  “You know,” Cindy said, “I’ve tried helpin’ some of the other kids an’ it doesn’t work…”

“Why?”

“Uh, two things.  Miss My Daddy’s a Lawyer isn’t really happy about takin’ advice from the poor kid from the RV park.  An’ I just lose patience when they don’t get somethin’ that’s so freakin’ obvious”

“I understand the first part.  All she has to go on is her daddy’s coat tails.  Not her own talents.  But the second part, well, I had the same problem until I figured out that most people don’t catch onto stuff nearly as fast as I…  uh, WE do.  But you shouldn’t stop trying.  And you should stop sayin’ “freakin’” because everybody KNOWS the word you really mean.  And you’ve got too good a mind to use words like that.  You have an actual vocabulary.”

“I’m sorry…”

“Don’t be sorry to me.  I’ve heard every word there is, and said ‘em myself.  But YOU, my dear are a young LADY.  With a brain AND looks, and there’s no sense in you having a nasty mouth.  It’s like hearing “Moonlight Sonata” with a drum solo.”

“Okay.  I get it.”

I winked at her when she said that, and she giggled.  We pushed our plates aside.  I paid the check and we were in the truck headed back.  She started punching buttons on the sound system.  “Where’s that one we started the other day. Name begins with an “M”.  An’ not Mozart.”

“Mendelsohn?”

“Yeah.  Oh, you’re looking for “Fingal’s Cave.”

“Yeah, that’s the one.  I’m starting at the beginning.”  That’s what was now pouring out of the speakers.  I glanced away from the road.  Cindy was leaning back, her head against the headrest of the seat, eyes closed.  Smiling.

Chapter Thirteen

Wednesday I pulled Hardesty’s business card out and punched the phone number into my cellphone.  Ring.  Ring.  “South End Middle School.  Hardesty speaking.”

“Jim Hardesty?  This is Dan Richards, Cindy’s, uh, tutor, I guess…”

“Oh, hello, Dan,” he said.  “I’m sorry I haven’t put that information together for ya’ll yet..”

“Thanks, Jim, but that wasn’t why I was calling.  Can you do me a favor?”

“Sure.  I’ll try.  Whatcha got?”

“Tuesday we said that Cindy’s schedule might be flexible.  Can you see if I can pull her out of school Friday?  I’m wanting to bring her out to the job and let her see a real project in progress.”

“Oh.  For little Miss I Wanna Be An Engineer?  Shouldn’t be a problem.  I’ll call you back.”

“Thanks, Jim,” I said.

“Not a problem, Dan.  Hey!  I was serious.  It’s barbecue an’ beer season.  You can come over for supper.  Give me a call.”

“I haven’t forgotten.  I’ll do that.  Talk to you later.

Forty-five minutes later I was standing in front of a transformer, pointing at a detail for the electrical foreman and my cellphone went off.  I flipped it open.  “Hey Jim.  Whatcha got?”

Hardesty said, “I checked with Cindy’s teachers.  They sounded relieved that she’ll be out on Friday.”

“Hey, thanks,” I said.  “I’ll give you a call next week about dinner.”

“’Kay, bud,” He said.  My phone clicked.  I returned to my conversation about the job.  The foreman understood what we were needing, and I headed back across the plant to the trailer that housed my office.

“Hey, Dan,” said Sara.  She was our secretary/administrator/receptionist/gal Friday.

“Hey Sara.  I’m bringin’ company with me Friday.”

“Oh, yeah?  Who?”

“Fourteen year old genius named Cindy. Lives at the RV park where I stay.  Wants to be an engineer.”

Laughter.  “Yeah.  Show her what you do out here.  She’ll change that to ballet!”

I’d already taken care of details like clearing the visit with the superintendent and the safety guy, so I was on good ground for Cindy’s visit.  I spent the rest of my day at my desk with a red pencil, marking up changes and additions to installation drawings.  Four o’clock, and I was out the door.

Entering the park, I stopped at the front office.  As usual, Helen was being entertained by Cindy.

“Hello, Helen, hello, little green-eyed girl,” I said to them.  “Cindy, you’re gonna hate me.”

“Why?”

“’Cuz I called your school today and got you out of class Friday so you can go to work with me.”

Squeal.  Bounce.  Hug.  And a kiss of the variety one might expect between friends when one does the other a favor.  “Really?”

“Yep,” I said.  “I already cleared it with safety an’ with the boss.  Let’s go get you some work shoes.  We can eat while we’re out.”

Helen said, “Dan, you’re spoiling her.”

“Nah,” I said.  “It’s nice to have a buddy.  I just have to figure out how I can explain her off when I go to visit the Hardesty’s next week.”

“My counselor?”

“Yeah.  Ex-marine.”

Helen laughed.  “You need to go, Cindy.  You’ll get to see ‘em gruntin’ an’ crawlin’ in the dirt an’ stuff.”

“Oh, come on, Helen.  I was an engineer an’ he was a pilot.  Neither of us grunt much.”

She was chuckling as Cindy and I loaded up in the truck.  An hour later we were in possession of a sturdy pair of girl-sized work shoes, for which I had to tip my hat to equality in the workplace.  And we were at dinner at one of those country diners that always seem to provide decent food for cheap.  The ride home was conversation while she shuffled through my CD selections, then, “Nah…  We can talk some more.”

“I’m just about talked out.  You talk.”

“Yah remember me talkin’ about Miss My Daddy’s a Lawyer?”

“Yeah.  You didn’t punch her or somethin’?”

“Oh, no.  We’re zero tolerance.  They’d call Mizz Helen.”  She continued, “But let me tell you…  I was finished with the math.  Took me five minutes to do those problems the teacher gave me.  So I was reading.  And the teacher was going around helping kids that were having trouble.  And she told ME to go help the first row.  An’ that’s Miss My Daddy’s a Lawyer.”

“And you’re telling me that you helped her?”

Yeah.  And she thanked me.”

“Good.  You usually have a choice with how to deal with people.  Sometimes they choose to make it unpleasant, and that puts a whole new set of problems in front of you, but if THEY don’t make that choice, then YOU choose to make it as pleasant as possible.”

“Yeah.  I see you doin’ that all the time.  Now that I know what to look for.  And another thing.  Nobody’s making fun of my clothes any more.  You an’ Mizz Helen fixed that for me.  Andddd…” She emphasized the “d”, “I am trying to speak more properly.”

I can tell.  But remember, language is important to people, and if you sound like you’re putting on a show or trying to show people up, well, that can bring difficulties.  I’m not saying you have to talk like you just fell off a pulpwood truck, but care about the people you’re speaking with.”

“Okay.  But thanks for noticing.”

“No, thank YOU for trying.”  And it was these little steps that made me think that my Cindy was going to grow into a spectacular human being.

We walked into the trailer and went about the evening routine of bathing and hair care and shaving and she pulled a nightshirt over her head, then turned to me and said, you know, we could go to bed early…  and we did.

Afterward, we lay in each other’s arms, listening to soft music.

“You know,” she said, “I’ve been reading some extra books for history.”

“No, I didn’t know that.  That’s good, though.”

“About customs andddd stuff with the pioneers when the country was young.”

“Yeah?”

“Well, you know, it’s funny, but back then if a girl was having periods, they thought she was old enough to get married, because she was old enough to have babies.”

“You need to think about something, though,” I said.

“What’s that?”

“Girls didn’t go through puberty as young as they do now.”

“Oh.  But still, that was one thing.  Another thing was that people didn’t have to go in front of a preacher or a judge because sometimes there wasn’t one around, so they’d just announce they were married in front of their friends and neighbors and that was it.”

“Uh-huh,” I said.  “And they’d write the date in the family Bible.”

“So why can’t we do that?”

“Because as soon as I announced I was married to a fourteen year old girl, I’d be ol’ Bubba’s boy toy in an Alabama State Prison, and now, Mizz Helen would be in trouble too.”

“I mean, we can say it to each other.  There’ll be a real wedding when the time comes, right?”

“Yes, so I guess I can say I, Daniel Richards, take you, Cynthia Susan Smith, to be my wife, the keeper of my love and my soul, until the end of days.”

The green eyes got VERY serious.  “And I, Cynthia Susan Smith, take you, Daniel Richards, to be my husband, my happiness, my help, my friend, my love, until the stars wink out in the skies.”

That is serious stuff.  And that glorious night, to the strains of Boccherini, as my eyes closed to the even sounds of her sleeping breath, I knew somehow that it would be forever.

Thursday was a pretty standard day.  The alarm went off, waking us both.  We cuddled, caressed, fondled, then got out of bed, stretched the covers over it, and went about our morning routines, ending up at the dinette, dressed, a bowl of cereal and a mug of coffee in front of each of us.  I kissed her before I headed out the door, leaving her to wait for her bus.

It was just another day on the job for me.  Nothing came up that we didn’t already have a handle on, and I spent the last hour of the day walking out the key parts, seeing what I could bring Cindy to see.  After work, back to the RV park.  When I got there, Helen's van was absent.  So were Helen and Cindy.  The park's utility guy was in the office.  I knew him, too.

“Hey, Steve,” I said.  “Where's Helen?”

“Hi, Dan.  She took her girl Cindy to a beauty shop.  Said they'd be back about five.”

“Oh, okay,” I answered.  “Any mail there for me?  Helen usually stacks it on her desk.”

“I didn't see any,” replied Steve.  “It's almost five now.  They should be showin' back up any time.”

“Yeah, you're right.  See you later, Steve.  Be careful!” and I left for my trailer.  Jim was right.  No sooner than I'd exited the truck, I saw Helen's minivan driving in the front entrance.  So now I was wondering what Helen and the “beauty shop” might have done to the perfection that was my Cindy.

Helen drove right past the office and pulled in behind my truck.  Cindy bounced out one side of the van and Helen the other.

“You like my hair, Dan?”

“It's shorter.  That's all I can see.  Am I missing something?”

Helen said, “Those women at the beauty shop wanted to do ALL kinds of stuff to her, but she put her foot down and said to just trim the bangs and cut an inch off the bottom.”  She laughed.  “Told 'em that's the way her boyfriend liked it.”

Cindy grinned at me, eyes twinkling.

“She's right,” I said.  “You got any homework?”

“No,” Cindy chirped.  “All my teachers know I’m doin’ a field trip with you tomorrow and I’m pretty much caught up with anything they have.”

“You’re past ‘caught up’, you know.”

“Yeah, but my history and language teachers don’t want to give up yet.  Science and math, they gave up.”  She laughed.

Helen laughed, too.  “Just remember, you two, we have dinner with the judge tomorrow evening.”

“Yes, ma’am, I remember,” I said.  “We’ll have plenty of time to be ready after work tomorrow.”

Cindy and I walked out.  “Is it too late for a swim?” she asked.

“No, we can do that.”

“Good.  Let’s go!”

Zip to the trailer, change into swimsuits, an act that involved getting naked and subsequent groping and giggling, and we were back out the door carrying towels and headed to the pool.  This little walk as a pleasant part of the day, and a few laps in the pool were an excellent way to drop stress.  Of course, seeing Cindy matching me in my swimming pace, (thank God she didn’t wear that bikini!) induced a whole different set of tensions.  She knew it, and giggled about it, although in broad daylight, even though we had the pool to ourselves, her responses were limited to quick furtive touches and knowing grins.

“You know,” she said, “this is the last weekend that the pool is open, huh?”

“Yeah, I think I saw a notice on the office bulletin board.”

“Yeah,” said Cindy, “Mizz Helen closes it the first weekend in October.  So Sunday’s our last chance to swim here.”

“Yeah.  We’ll have to find another way to exercise.”

Cool eyes.  Wet bangs plastered to her forehead.  And a decidedly lustful grin.  “I can think of a few.”

“Me too.  But besides that.  You don’t have a bicycle?”

“Me?  No.”

“You’ve ridden a bicycle, huh?”

“Of course.”

“I have a bike.  You need one?  We could ride together.”

“Where do you have a bike?  I’ve never seen it.”

“In the storage locker.  Up the road.”

“You have a storage locker?”

“Yeah, baby.  I can’t keep EVERYTHING in that trailer.  It’s stuff I didn’t leave back home because I knew I’d need it.  I have a bike.  Some camping gear.  Cold weather clothes.  That kind of stuff.”

“Camping gear?”

“Yeah.  Why?”

“Like in ‘spendin’ the night in the woods’ campin’?”

“Or on the beach.  Or in the desert.”

She giggled.  “Uh, this is Alabama.  We got woods.  We even got beaches.  We don’t have deserts.”

“Oh, dear girl, there IS life outside Alabama.  If you think you saw stars the other night when we looked at the sky, let’s do that again in a high desert.”

“If I’m with you, I can add my own stars.”  She smiled.

“Well, there are a couple of tents in there.”

“A couple?  Why a couple?” she asked.

I have one tent for wintertime, when I need a little more weather protection, and then I have my other tent, for the summer, and it has just screen, to keep bugs out so I can see the stars.”

“And what do you sleep on?  The ground?”

“Nope.  Big air mattress.”

She looked thoughtful for a few seconds.  “How big’s your sleeping bag?”

It was my turn to smile.  “I guess I need one a little bigger than the two I have, huh?”

“Yeah, that’d be nice, don’t you think?” and she smiled sweetly.

We stepped into our trailer and did quick showers.  More fondling.  Irresistible.   As she finished drying her hair, she spoke up.  “That place we went Monday?  Can we go there?”

“Sure,” I said.  “They have an interesting menu.”  And a half hour alter we were seated across from each other at a neat little table being attended to by a genteel lady who was one of the owners.  We settled on choices based on her recommendations and were not a bit disappointed.

We returned home.  All that was left to do was to be happy with each other, and that was as relentless as gravity.  Cindy’s pre-bed routine was charming and more erotic than even the hormone-surge fantasies I had as a teen, when sex was the be-all and end-all to existence.

She stripped her jeans and blouse, neatly hanging the clothing for the next day.  The panties came off.  The bra, yes, she wore a bra over those A-cups, otherwise the nipples would have men leering everywhere she went, she’d turn to me to unhook that bra, pressing forward against me so I had to reach my arms around her back, and that always ended up in a hug.

Tonight was one of the nights where she put nimble fingers to work unbuttoning my shirt, then unbuckling my belt and unbuttoning my trousers.  Then the sound of a zipper…  And she sat on the end of the bed, totally, lusciously naked and started peeling off my unfastened clothes.  As I kicked out of my trousers at my feet, she tugged me onto the bed beside her.  The clothes could wait.  Cindy and I didn’t.  Love-making, it was.  Tender, yes, but hot, too, as we explored each other, lavishing love with mouth, fingers, and yes, it ended in a penetration that could only be characterized as a mating.

Sated, I turned out the lights and turned on music, Mozart… and with Cindy in my arms we drifted off into dreamland.

Six AM.  The alarm came on, and we both stirred simultaneously, rolling face to face for the kiss that started our days.  Neither of us wore underpants and she wiggled her pubic mound, its wispy down rubbing against morning wood.  Her leg went over mine and she pushed me over on my back and straddled me.

“Don’t think we’re going all the way with this,” she giggled.  “I’m just stretchin’…”  And her hips lifted and she slid me inside her.  I loved the way she could treat intimacy as such joyous mirth.  She rode me for a few strokes and then hopped off.  “Come on.  Get dressed.  We have a job to go to.”

I stood up beside the bed, laughing, my dick stuck out hard in front of me.  “It’s a horrible person who would get her partner this aroused and not finish the job.”

“Oh, I plan on finishin’ babe,” she laughed, but just not right now.  I just wanted you to have THAT in your head all day today.  And for dinner tonight.  And THEN we’ll finish.”  She was buttoning a denim workshirt as she received a kiss from me.

Ten minutes later we were out the door headed for the breakfast joint, me in my standard canvas work pants and denim shirt, Cindy a shorter, definitely female version.  We walked into the diner for breakfast and I recognized some of my co-workers and said hi.  Cindy and I sat in a booth and had breakfast.  We were nearing the end of good country breakfast fare when I looked up at one of the guys, another engineer.  “Hi, Fred,” I said.  “Meet Cindy.”

Cindy looked up.  “Hi, Mr. Fred!” she said brightly.

“Hi, Cindy.  Are you the one Dan’s bringing to work today?”

“Yessir.  It’s my reward for good math grades.”

“Yeah,” I said, looking at Fred.  “That’s a ripoff.  Eight-grade math to this child is like swattin’ flies with a sledgehammer.”

“Ewwwww!  That’s a horrible picture!” exclaimed Cindy.

“Oh yeah,” laughed Fred.  “Ol’ Dan’s got a way with words.”  He tapped the table.  “See ya’ll out there in a bit.  Nice meetin’ yah, Cindy!”

“Bye,” she said.  He was turning to head out the door.  We finished our breakfast and coffee and then headed towards the job.

First stop was the security guard.  He saw my truck, started to wave me through, then saw Cindy.  I stopped and he took her name, carefully writing it on his clipboard.

I told Cindy, “that’s so if the place burns up, they’ll know how many piles of ashes to make…”

“Really?”

“Kinda-sorta…  except for the blowing up and ashes part.  At the end of the day, the number of people coming in has to equal the number of people going out.”

“Oooohhhh!”  She stared out the window at what was an alien environment to her.  To me it was home away from home.  I pulled my truck into a parking space with my name on a sign.  This impressed her.  “You get your own parkin’ spot?”

“Yeah.  That’s so they’ll know which tires to slash…”

“You’re jokin’, right?”

“yeah…”

We walked into the trailer that was the job’s central office.  That’s where Cindy met Sara, the office administrator.  Sara was her normal self, acerbic, not bad looking for mid-thirties mother of two, a little on the plump side, blue-eyed, blonde (this week), jeans and a blouse, sitting behind her desk, queen of the project.  “Mornin, Dan,” she said.  “Is this your visitor today?”

I introduced her and Cindy to each other, then Cindy and I visited the project’s safety guy for a hard hat and safety glasses so she could go out into the work areas.  As we were leaving the trailer, Sara called out, “Dan, be nice to her out there… you know how you are!”

Cindy was impressed again.  As one of the key engineers, I had a golfcart at my disposal to save time getting around.  I couldn’t help but notice heads turning.  Cindy in a hardhat.  Maybe there was some kind of construction site fetish that had to do with short red hair curling out from under the edges of a hardhat.  And the jeans, well, Cindy did jeans very well.  Her hips were young but swelling into delights and seeing them framed in blue denim, well, there IS poetry in that motion.  Her workshirt was just a little loose, so every motion of her torso was a peek-a-boo for one or both of those breasts to press against the cloth, revealing their presence.  Maybe it was me, but this was pure and inadvertent tease here.

As we drove through the site, Cindy’s head swiveled from side to side as I gave a running guided tour.  We stopped at various parts of the job, walked inside buildings, I pointed out equipment and talked about it in simple terms, I showed her some of the guys working.  Watched her completely melt down one of my millwrights with a couple of smiles as he showed her what he was doing.  We rode the elevator to the top of the huge boiler structure and I showed her the site from our vantage point ten stories above ground.

She was enthralled.  “This is like the most hugest playground in the world,” she said.

“Yeah.  But every bit of it is from the minds of engineers somewhere.  Nothing ‘just happens’.  It’s a puzzle with a million pieces.  And you’ve got to know what pieces are yours and how to make sure they fit with all the others.  That’s what I have to do:  make sure my pieces fit and work when the time comes to start this puppy up.”

“Wow…”

Nearing lunchtime we went back to the trailer.  Walking in, Sara caught us.  “So Cindy, you ready to take up ballet now?”

Cindy smiled.  “Nuh-uh!  I want to make MY part of this thing work.”

Sara fixed me in her eye.  “Well, Dan, you’ve ruint her.”

“I know,” I said.  “It’s my personal grace an’ charm that does it.”  I paused.  “We’re goin’ out for lunch.  Wanna come along?”  This got me a little off-kilter glance from Cindy.

“Nah, thanks anyway,” Sara answered.  “I got diet stuff in the fridge.  But thanks for askin’, anyway.  Take Cindy someplace nice, not that greasy spoon ya’ll usually go to…”

Cindy and I walked to my truck.  I got stopped twice to answer questions about work.  I think one of those stops was just so the guy could get another look at Cindy.  I don’t if Cindy noticed that, but I did.

We got into the truck and waved at the gate guard on the way out.  “So tell me,” said Cindy.  “You an’ Sara?”

“No way, babe,” I said.

Cindy pushed the question.  “’Cuz she’s a little bit plump?”

“Oh, no, she’s cute enough in her own way, and she’s smart enough, but there are three things right up front.”

“Three things?  Like what?”

“Like two kids and a husband that would cave my head in with a big wrench if I messed with Sara.”

“You’ve met him?”

“Oh yeah. He’s runnin’ a couple of our crews out there.  Nice guy.”

“So you thought about it?”  I could feel her eyes even though I couldn’t see them, focusing on the road while I was driving.

“Nope.  Just a nice lady who does a very good job under difficult circumstances and who keeps us all happy.  Well, as happy as you can get on one of these projects.”  I continued, “I didn’t come out here to pick up women.”

“I know,” Cindy said.  “Me and Mizz Helen sort of watched you come and go for a while.  You didn’t run around and you didn’t bring women to the park.”  She smiled.  “But you picked ME up!”

“Uh, nay, little darlin’, YOU snuck in under my radar.  If a year ago somebody’d have told me that I’d fall in love with a thirteen year old girl, I’d have told ‘em they  were crazy.  I wasn’t looking, and YOU showed up anyway.”

One of the nice things about being a senior engineer was being able to beat the crowds out the gate to lunch, so when we pulled into the diner it was still relatively early and the place was easy to get into.  We got a booth and ordered two plate lunches.  Cindy regarded her plate of “a meat, two vegetables, mashed potatoes and gravy”.

“Purina construction chow,” I said.  She giggled.  “Seriously.  I’ve been eating lunch like this for what, two and a half months now?”

As we ate, we watched the place fill up.  A couple of our co-workers took advantage of the empty seats in our booth to slide in with us.  Cindy slid way over into the corner leaving  a noticeable gap between her and the technician sitting next to her.

“What?  I’m not gonna bite,” he said, laughing.

“I don’t think she’s worried about you biting, Phil,” I said.  “She doesn’t want the smell to rub off.”

“Heeyyyyy!” he laughed, “I took a mid-week bath this week!”

We finished and they scooted out of the way so we could leave.  Back at the job, I showed Cindy my workstation computer.  She was impressed by the huge monitor.  “I need that,” I said.  See these?”  I picked up a sheaf of 11x17 inch papers.  “These are the drawings we have to use to build this place.  I need to work on them on the computer and it gets very difficult if I can’t do that on a full-sized image.”

She was looking around.  “This place is filled with paper,” came the comment.

“Yeah, sometimes I think the weight of the paper is equal to the weight of all the iron in the project.”  It was my turn to sigh.  “The drawings aren’t bad.”  I showed her equipment lists and wiring schedules and other esoterica.  “Stare at one of these for a day an’ you’ll want to run off screamin’ into the woods.”

From the open door, Sara interjected, “Yeah, sometimes he turns off his light an’ closes the door an’ cries softly.”

Cindy answered, “You could bring ‘im a coke and pat ‘im on the head.”

Sara laughed, “Nuh-uh, baby.  I don’t even make these guys coffee.  They can get their own stinkin’ cokes.”

“Y’see,” I laughed.  “No wonder I go home at night an’ cry…  I work with impossible people!”

Sara wheeled her chair away from her desk so she could look into my office.  “I try to not make ‘im cry unless he needs to.  Sometimes he needs to.”  She laughed.  “Paperwork IS the job to some people.  Like me.  I don’t care what goes on out there, but if I don’t have receipts to match the bills, SOMEBODY’S in trouble.”

I looked at Cindy.  “Okay, so I lose a receipt every now and then…”

The rest of the day was more touring.  She shadowed me round like a puppy, and like a cute puppy, every place we went, work stopped so guys could just get close enough to see her.

Finally our day was close enough to quitting time that I could justify leaving.  I stopped into the office trailer.  “Sara,” I said.  “I’m gonna take Cindy home now.”

Sara smiled.  “Sweetie,” she said to Cindy, “you really oughtta think about that ballerina thing.”

“Nah,” said Cindy.  “My legs are all wrong for it.”

Sara laughed.  “Okay, Cindy.  It was fun having you in here.  Get Mister Dan to being you back, okay?”

I got a couple more stops before we made it to the truck.  One the guys said, “Dan, she’s an impediment to productivity.  Everywhere she goes, work comes to a standsill.”

“I know.  We noticed.”

We drove out.  “So what’d you think?  Engineer?  Or ballerina?”

“I could be like Mizz Sara an’ just make your life miserable.”

“I’ll be sure to tell her that she made an impression on your young mind.”  We both laughed.

“Uh, engineer, Dan.  Definitely engineer.”  She let out a sigh.  “Like you.  I wanna be like you.  And WITH you.”

“I love you, Cindy,” I said.  What else could I have said?

“I love you too, Dan.  Forever.”

She was humming on the ride home, lost in thought.

“Baby,” I said.  “How about a quick swim, then we get dressed for dinner?”

“Mmmmm.  Sounds perfect!” she said.

We stopped by the RV park office and chatted briefly with Helen.  I got directions to the judge’s house.

“And how’d your visit go, baby?” Helen asked Cindy.

“It was wonderful,” Cindy answered.  “I saw so much stuff.  It’s interesting.  So much to learn.”

Helen smiled.

Chapter Fourteen

We did a quick turnaround in the trailer and emerged clad in swimsuits and carrying towels and walked to the pool.  Helen was locking up as we walked by.  “You know,” she said, we shut that thing down for winter on Monday?”

“Yeah,” I said.  “I’m gonna miss it.”

“We’re gonna start riding bicycles, though,” Cindy chimed in.

“Bikes?  That’ll be good.  I’m gonna go get ready for dinner.  See ya’ll there!”  And Helen left.

Cindy and I did our pool laps and walked back to the trailer dripping, all the while chatting about the day’s experiences.  I had to answer a slew of questions, and was trying to not be too technical, but Cindy was drinking it all up.

Back in the trailer, we did our shower thing and she dried her hair while I shaved.  This left us both naked.  Clean and naked.  And she not only looked good, she smelled good.  I passed my hand form the sleek richness of her hair down her back to the curve of her ass and squeezed a cheek.

“Now, Dan,” she giggled, “as much has I’d LOVE to take you straight to the bedroom, we have to go out in public, and we can’t do that with your sweetie smelling all freshly fucked, can we?”

“The language!” I said.

“Yeah.  You know exactly what I’m talking about, babe.  I’ve smelled ME on YOU afterward, and I love the smell.  I can eat it up.  But it is a smell.  And we’re trying, as you say, to maintain a certain air of decorum.  We have, what?  An hour before we go?”

“Yeah.”

“Then lay down on the sofa” she commanded as she sat down.  “Put your head in my lap.”

I followed orders, laying on my back, my head resting on the smooth softness of her thigh. Okay, not TOO soft.  Swimming every day, you know.  She slowly stroked my face.  “Dan,” she said, “I wish I could tell you how much I love you.”

“Thank you, sweetie.  I love you too, you know.”

“But today.  You took me around to those people and showed me off.”

“I didn’t show you off.  I really did want you to see what was going on.”

“I know.  But that was purely something you did for ME.  For no reason.”

“I had reasons.  I love you.  You’re smart enough to get something out of the visit.”

“That first part,” she said, “that’s what I mean.  The way I figure it,” she continued, “if I was just a somebody you wanted to have around for the sex, then you wouldn’t’ve done today.  So that kinda makes me think I’m not just your toy.  I’m feeling pretty important to you.”

“A man’s toys ARE important,” I said.  That got me a slap on my bicep.

“Beast!”

“I’m YOUR beast, little princess.  Your very own dragon.”

“Mmm-hmmm.”

“And occasionally dragons have been known to eat princesses.”

“You can eat me later…  Right now I just want you to know that every time I turn around I see you doing things that tell me you love me.  What can I do in return, Dan.  I don’t have anything to offer like you do.”

“Cindy, my dear, you are beautiful, intelligent, funny, and, if I may say so, of fine temperament.  All I want from you is to be loved in return.  And you show me that every day,too.  You know Mizz Helen said she could see it before you moved in here.  Said you didn’t hide things very well.”

“I know.  She told me that, too.  I tried.  But when I see you, I get happy.  If I’m already happy, I get happier.  It’s like we were made for each other.”

“I think so, too, baby.”

As she caressed my face and chest with one hand, the other picked up a remote and clicked us up some good music to relax by.  Forty-five minutes passed.  And it was time to get dressed.

I regarded the young lady I would escort to dinner.  She was wearing a dress.  A simple dress, simple, lines, hemmed just above the knee, plain neckline stopping well short of being revealing.  She fished through the drawers that held her belongings and retrieved a black elastic headband and placed it in her hair, pulling the sides back from her face, leaving her bangs hovering as if pointing to those startling green eyes.  And a tiny dab of perfume behind each ear and at her throat and on each wrist.  Her shoes were simple, too, flats, unembellished.

“Do I look okay?” she asked?

“You are the single most beautiful creature in the universe, baby!”

“No, seriously!”

“I AM serious.  If somebody could crawl inside my brain and find every imprint of what I think is beautiful in a woman, it would all add up to YOU!”

“So I look okay?”

“You’ look perfect.  Almost like I need to put you in a padded box so you won’t break before I can get us to dinner.”

“Nah,” she smiled.  The front seat of your truck will do fine.”

“And, Dan, you look nice, too.  I’ve never seen you wear a tie before.”  I was wearing a tie.  And a jacket.  I might be a grubby field engineer, but I can clean up pretty good.

We got in the truck, but first I moved the console out of the way so she could sit next to me.  Soft, idle chit-chat occupied our short trip and we pulled up the drive to what I would have called a mansion.  Two stories. Landscaped.  Circular drive.  I parked immediately behind Helen’s minivan.

We rang the doorbell, standing together.  Helen and the one I assumed to be the judge met us.

“Come in, come in,” he said.  Helen was smiling beside him.  Helen cleaned up pretty nicely, too.  Her grey hair was shoulder length, brushed pewter, and darned if she wasn’t wearing makeup and it worked well for her.  And she was wearing a DRESS.  Helen.  Who I never saw in anything but jeans and a man’s shirt.

He reached out his hand.  I shook it.  “Charles Peebles.  You must be Dan.  And this… this angel… must be Miss Cynthia.”  He offered a hand to Cindy and she shook it.  “Nice handshake, Cindy,” He said.  “You like being called Cindy, am I right?”  He smiled broadly.  Looked pretty darned solid for eighty-something.

“Yessir,” said Cindy.

“Come, let’s sit while the table is set for us.”

“”The table is set for us”?  Like, I’m not expected to help out in the kitchen?

Judge Peebles must have caught my puzzlement.  “Oh, Dan, it’s not that bad.  I have a housekeeper, is all.  And on the odd occasion that I have something special going on, she takes care of it for me.  Her and her daughter do a fine job for me.”  We followed him to a formal sitting room, wainscoted walls and bookshelves, dripping with gentility.  We sat, I with Cindy beside me, a chaste distance separating us, Helen and the judge in a love seat.

Cindy broke the conversational ice.  “This is a perfectly lovely room, sir.  You have a lot of books.”

Judge Peebles chuckled.  “Yes, young lady, I do.  Been reading since I was a little one.  But all this is law and it’s not the kind of reading that you want to do on a fine cool evening.”

The conversation rolled on, the judge’s prodigious history in the local scene, a young attorney, county prosecutor and finally for the last twenty-five years, a state judge.  He’d seen a lot, loved to talk, and told stories well.

A middle aged black woman appeared at the door.  “Judge,” she said, “dinner is ready.”

The judge rose with Helen and I and Cindy followed them into a formal dining room.  It wasn’t set for a formal dinner, but it was several orders of magnitude above a slab of ribs on a paper plate.  The judge held the chair for Helen and I did the same for Cindy.  The judge motioned for me to be seated and seated himself.  The same middle-aged black woman and another, younger version of the same appeared and placed salads in front of each of us.  I noted the Cindy had correctly placed her napkin in her lap.

The judge bowed his head and the rest of us followed as he recited an old and familiar blessing before the meal.  He raised a forkful of salad and the rest of us followed.  After his first bite, he looked at me.  “Dan, it’s not that bad.  The young lady who served you is the daughter of the older lady.  She’s the third generation that has worked for me here. I pay her mother well, and the young lady is starting pre-law at the university in the winter semester.  She gets paid for tonight, also.”

“Uh, oh, I didn’t…, you know…” I stuttered.

“Yah,” said the judge, “You have been watching too many of those movies.  Just because I’m an old white judge in Alabama doesn’t mean I still keep slaves, Dan.  I don’t even like own a rebel flag.”

“Judge…”

“You can call me Charley, Dan.  Helen does.  But I appreciate the thought.”

“Charley, I guess I’m a bit overwhelmed.  This is a nice place.”

“I worked hard for it.  Made some good investments, too, but even lawyers have to work.”

“I know.  I get the “you don’t work with your HANDS” bit all the time.”

He laughed.  “Yes, yes.  Helen tells me you’re an engineer?  Electrical engineer?”

“Yessir.”

“Mighty fine,” he said.

Dinner proceeded at a modest pace, everything prepared to perfection, soup, poached fish and vegetables for a main course, a delicious pie for dessert.  We then returned to the sitting room.

“Helen,” Charley said.  “You’re absolutely right.  She is really a beautiful lady.”

Cindy blushed.  “Thank you, sir.”

“Dan,” he said to me, “Helen explained the whole case to me.  She says she explained how and more to the point, why I felt the way I did about the way we chose to remedy the situation.”

“Yessir, she did,” I said.  “I thank you for your understanding.”

“I’m just an old country lawyer, Dan, and I’ll be quite honest with you, sometimes the law is an ass.  Take our particular interest here.  Let’s just say there WASN’T a law like that.  You and your young lady there would be accepted.  Maybe not totally the norm, but still within the realm of acceptability.  But supposed the OTHER end of the spectrum happened, and some old guy FORCED a young girl into a situation?  Don’t you think I would jerk a knot in his butt?”

“Yessir,” I said, “I see what you mean.”

“Yep,” the judge said, leaning back in his chair. “Dumbasses today are afraid to let people do what is right.  They have to write more and more laws, and every law has its unintended consequences.  You and Cindy there are one of them.  But you don’t worry here,” he continued.  “The district attorney, is, ah, my son.  And he knows about his mom and me.  And Helen and his Uncle Herb.”

We continued conversation, listening to a few more stories, a couple that, well, they made me blush, and I saw Cindy blush, too.  Finally, after finishing a good after dinner coffee, it was time to go.  The judge and Helen escorted us to the front door.  Cindy and I shook hands and thanked the couple for a good evening.

In the truck, Cindy tucked in tight against me.  “How’d I do?” she asked.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, did I do anything horrible, like bad manners or something?”

“No, princess, you were perfect.  You listened attentively, joined the conversation appropriately and acted mature beyond you years.  And this dinner was pretty much ‘prime time’ for a social event.”

“Good!” she exclaimed.  “I don’t want to be uncouth in public.”

“Well, you’re not uncouth in private, either…”

Giggle.  “We’ll see…”

“Yeah,” I countered.  “The rules change in private.”

“What about semi-public, like this, then?”

“Like what?”

“Like ridin’ around in a truck in the dark.”

“Okay, that’s somewhat public.”

“Then would THIS be uncouth?”  She lifted her hips off the seat and slid her panties down her smooth legs.  Checking that we were on a straight section of road, she passed her panties under my nose.

“Now that’s not couth.  Welcome, but not couth,” I said as my nostrils flared.  I loved the smell of this girl.  And the little doll had dabbed just a hint of her perfume on her pubic mound.  I could smell the fragrance mixed with her distinctive musk.

She laughed.  “Dan, uh, hurry home.”

“Uh, I was thinkin’ of pullin’ off on the side of the road…”

“Nuh-uh baby…” she said.  “If I was wearing something else, I’d love to, but I really like this dress and we’d wreck it.”  She grasped the lump in my pants.  “Oooooohhhh… baby…  Can you wait?”

“Yeah, little red-headed girl, but right now I’d do you in the middle of the town square at high noon.”

“All because I took my panties off?”

“That’s one thing.  Second is what we did this morning before we left.  And this afternoon.  And how beautifully you shined this evening, and, yes, I desperately want you in my arms.”

“Then hang on, buddy,” she giggled.  “I have the same desires.”  She punched the buttons on the truck’s sound system.  “Here, this’ll help us relax…”

In the door of the trailer, I don’t know whose clothes came off first.  I do believe that they hadn’t fluttered to the floor before two naked bodies entwined on the bed.  Our mouths just as well have been welded together.  My hands explored the silken skin.  I opened my eyes in the middle of a kiss, looking past a freckled face to red hair curled around the back of her ear.

She opened her eyes too.  “Uh, you’re s’posed to kiss with your eyes closed…” Giggle.

“Then why were you looking?” I laughed.

“To see if YOU were looking.”

“I was looking because I am still amazed at how beautiful you are.  Even up close.”

“That’s an acceptable excuse,” she chided.  “Kiss me again.”  And again and again.  My hand slid between our bodies, cupping over her plump pubic mound and a finger dipped into her cleft.

“Mmmmmm,” she moaned.

“So sweet,” I whispered.

“Needs kisses,” she returned. “Hmmm?”

“Oh, god, yes…”  She swiveled around in the bed and pressed her wet pussy gently against my waiting lips.  My tongue led the way into her, savoring the sweet, salty, tangy musk of her juices.  I felt her hands grasp my dick as she moved down to take the head in her mouth.  Her tongue and lips danced over it, then she grabbed behind the head with her teeth, exerting just precisely the right pressure to bring passion, not pain.  My own tongue moved in her cleft to meet the pea-like head of her clitty.  I flicked it lightly.

“Oh, god, Dan…  Make me come.  Fast.”

I know my Cindy and I knew that sucking the head of her clit between my lips was step one.  The second step was lavishing licks on it with my tongue.  Her moans rewarded me richly because she was holding my dick in her mouth as she went “Mmmmm.”

I was getting close, but she went over the edge first.  Hard.  Her body stiffened, her back arched, her thighs gripping my face.  “Gahhhh, babyyyyyy!  Ohgodohgodohgod!  Nnnnnnnnghhhhh!”  I held her for some time, letting her ease down from her orgasm.  I could tell when she was finished because the suction on the head of my dick returned.  In earnest.  Without distraction.  I started to lick her again.

“Nuh-uh,” I heard from the vicinity of my crotch.  “Just let me…”  And she kept at it.  In a mere minute my hips were reaching uncontrollable stage, but her two-handed grip on the shaft of my dick kept me from shoving it into her mouth more than she was comfortable with.  But my hip thrusts into her hands and lips, well, that was pushing me fast to the breaking point.

“Babe,” I gasped, “it’s getting close.”

“I know that.  I know MY baby!”  And she kept on.

“Nnnnnnghhhh!  Cindy!  That’s. IT!!!!”  The first surge erupted into her mouth and she received it.  I could feel her swallow.  And the second, and third.  And fourth.  And then a gentle, draining suction as she drained me.  The arms I had wrapped around her, holding her on top of me, they fell to my sides, limp.  This was Cindy’s cue to turn back around and mold herself against my side, pulling my arm around her.

“Mmmmmm. Mr. Dan, you sure do taste good!”

“Well, thank you, Cindy Sue!  So do you!”  I called her Cindy Sue whenever I wanted to get a slap and giggle.  I got both.  She twisted over me to plant a kiss on my mouth.  She might have started it out as a peck, but it didn’t stay that way as our tongues twined together.

She freed a hand to fondle my soft dick. “mmmmm, Dan, it’s soft.”

“No, really?” I said.  “after you just turned me inside out with your mouth?  How could it be soft?”

“You see,” she said, “it’s THAT way because it will ALL fit inside my mouth, and then when it’s hard again, I have someplace else to put it.”  With that little declaration, she moved her lithe form down and true to her word, engulfed my soft dick in her mouth, sucking, prodding the soft flesh with her tongue, lightly chewing.

“Ohhhhhh, baby….” I moaned.  “You are so wonderful.”

“You’re pretty wonderful yourself,” she said, then popped me back into her mouth.  A giggle escaped lips wrapped around my dick.  “mmmmm.  You know how I LOVE it growing in my mouth?”  More sucks.  She pulled away, pressing the hardening staff back against my belly and she worked over the bottom with teeth, lips and tongue, and then directed her attention to my balls.

That was all it took.  I was hard again.  Cindy had met her goal, and her next step was to swing a leg over me and to impale herself on my dick.  Seated herself, she did.  Put her hands on her thighs, sitting up straight, looking down at me, smiling enigmatically.  I slid my hands lovingly over her thighs, around the curve of that girlish ass, up her sides.  She gave a little wiggle.  And a giggle.  “Just makin’ sure it’s in the right place,” she teased.

“There’s never ever going to be a place that is more right than where it is now…”

“Oh, I don’t know,” she giggled.  “I liked where it was a few minutes ago, too.”

“But where it is now, we can do THIS!” and I tugged down to lay on top of me.  I curled downward slightly to kiss her and she wrapped her arms round me.  There, two bodies completely naked, completely molded together, mated.

“Yeah,” she sighed, “There is THIS…” and kissed me again.  For some moments we savored our coupling in stillness, and then those mobile hips of hers couldn’t resist any longer.  We thrust together; I slid in and out of her, my dick’s slick upper surface sliding along her clit.  After a minute of this she raised herself, placing her hands on my chest and her hips began in earnest again, and I met her back and forth slides with my own upward thrusts.  We’d plunge at each other for a minute, then rest, then back at it for another minute, then another languorous kiss.  After half a dozen of these cycles, I saw her eyes close and she started biting her bottom lip.  The world ceased to exist for Cindy.  The corners of her mouth turned up, hinting of pleasure through the passion.

That was the joy of our double-headers.  She was putting me far into the fields of ecstasy.  Twenty minutes before, I could not have held back an orgasm well before we reached this point, not with the joyous assault on my senses that was Cindy.  Actually, I couldn’t REALLY control it now; it’s just that my second arousal in an hour and things just proceeded at a slower pace.

Little mewing sounds came from her closed lips, the pace of her thrusts took on a different cadence as she bottomed out, rubbing her clit against the base of my dick.  I knew she was close.  So was I.  And I was trying with all my might to subdue my own orgasm until her first spasm.  It came.  So did I.  Both of us.  Cindy collapsed into my arms.  I held her, feeling the gentle squeezing and tugging her vaginal walls were putting on my dick as is dribbled the last of the semen deep inside her.  We lay together without words for several minutes, my face against the top of her auburn head, tiny tendrils of her perfume mixing in my nostrils along with the heady musk of our copulation.

Finally I felt her head move away from its repose on my chest.  She pulled back to regard my face, and I saw a tear tracing a path down her cheek.

“What’s wrong, my baby?” I asked.

“Absolutely nothing, my lover,” she said.  “I can’t be more perfectly happy.”

“Me, too, baby.  Me too.”

“You don’t understand yet, Dan.”

“What don’t I understand?”

“What it’s like for me.  It’s been such a rush, but in the last month and a half you’ve made me alive.  Tonight, I mean.  Do you know what it meant that YOU brought me with you to meet people?  Just like today.”

“Cindy,” I said, taking her face gently between my hands.  I kissed her gently on the forehead.  “Don’t you know I LOVE you?  You’re going with me everywhere.  It’s that forever thing, baby.”

“I know,” she said quietly.  “But Dan, sometimes I just can’t believe it’s true. And just so you know, I’d bring you everywhere, too.”

“I believe you would, little one.”

“Yeah,” she said.  “I would.  It’s funny, sometimes, ‘cuz I listen to other girls talkin’ in class about boyfriends an’ stuff, and I close my eyes for a minute and I think of YOU.  And YOU are what they WISH their boyfriends were like.”  She smiled.  “And YOU!  You don’t want me just to be your girlfriend because we have sex.  You make me part of your life.”

“You’re wrong, baby.”

“How am I wrong?”

“When we became an “us”, it means you and me share our lives.  You ARE my life.”

“Good!” shad whispered.  Kissed me.  “Very much good.”  She moved a little and I could feel cool air hit the parts of us still wet and sticky from our coupling.  So could she.

“Should I get a towel?  We have a mess.”

“AH!” she squealed in mock distress.  “We make love.  I share my deepest.  VERY deepest emotions with you.  My body.  And YOU want to wipe it all up with a scratchy old TOWEL?”  Her eyes twinkled and her mouth formed a smirk that morphed into a smile.  “I, sir, can clean up MY end of the mess!  Can you?”

As she was spinning around I said, yes, but that’s how this all got started.”  Then the power of speech left me as her lips and tongue started lapping up our combined juices from my pubic mound, my dick and my balls.  I was presented with a pink pussy still partially open from recent penetration, glistening with her juices, and white fluid escaping from its depths.  “Oh, well,” I thought, “I put it there, I can get it out.”  And I covered her pussy with my mouth, sucking gently, moving juices from her sweet folds to my mouth.  And when I finished the housework, I let my tongue play with her clit, teasing her into her third orgasm of the evening.

Spent, together in each other’s arms, I reached over and punched the button on the stereo to fill the room with the strains of a symphony as we moved off into slumber together.

The morning came, the sun banging against the blinds-covered windows being our wake-up call.  I woke up first, years of “get up and go to work” having been embedded in my psyche.  I regarded the gentle, soft form in bed beside me.  That red hair that was flawless perfection the previous evening was arranged in fragrant and beautiful disarray on the pillow, a few strands whisping forward over her cheek.  Her eyes were closed, still in slumber and her mouth, those pink lips, also still closed, a barest hint of smile on her lips.  I brushed back the stray strands.  She stirred.

I slid my hand under the sheets and touched her side gently, then let it wander around over her ribcage to cup over a perfect breast.  A fingertip gently took measure of her nipple.  I lingered there for a few moments then my hand wild downward over the flat softness of her belly to the light fuzz covering her pubic mound, her ‘muffin’ as we called it when playing together.  The tip of my finger found the beginning of her slit.  I ran my fingertip down the entire length of her slit without entering between those sweet lips.

She rolled over on her back, her eyes opening, smiling.  “Do you know,” she said, “that the last words out of my mouth last night were “I love you”?”

“Yes, I do know that.  And I want to start your morning by telling you that I love you, too.”  And we kissed.

“Mmmmm,” she purred.  “That always tastes so good in the morning.”

“Yes you do,” I answered.

“Reminds me of breakfast.  As in where are we going?”  Saturday breakfast was our norm.

“No place, dressed like that.”  She was uncharacteristically completely naked.  We usually slept in nightshirts.

“Then get up and get dressed, lover,” she commanded as she stood beside our bed.  I complied.

We took turns in the tiny bathroom, brushing teeth, washing face, etc.  When I got out, she was dressed in jeans and a loose athletic shirt, sneakers.  She was sitting there brushing the night out of her hair when I finished dressing myself in something only slightly less casual.  I think the difference was that my shirt didn’t have a team logo.  When she finished brushing, she stood up.

I took advantage of the moment to step toward her, but she already had the same idea and we wrapped up in each other’s arms.  After all, we still had to work around that whole “he’s forty-something, she’s ONLY fourteen” thing.  I suppose that somebody could’ve staked out the RV park and noted that Cindy was a permanent fixture in my trailer, but they didn’t.  She did have her own official room at Helen’s house, but that bed had never been slept in.

Anyway, out the door we went, headed to the local diner.  By then the waitresses knew us.  As far as they were concerned, I was that engineer fellow who was staying at the RV park and Cindy was Mizz Helen’s (Everybody knew Mizz Helen) foster kid and my “little buddy”.  Whether anyone took our constant relationship past that point, I don’t know.  Nobody ever said anything.  They knew Mizz Helen had the park to run on weekends and they knew that Cindy and I were always talking about her school stuff and my work stuff, and that was pretty much it.

So when we walked in on this Saturday morning, nothing was different.  Waitress saw us walk in and told us to pick a booth.  When she showed up at the table she was holding two coffee mugs and a carafe of pretty good coffee.  We ordered breakfast.

“What are we doin’ today, Dan,” Cindy asked.

“Having breakfast and then going back to the park to pack up for the night.”

“For the night?”

Chapter Fifteen

By ten AM we were on the road.  I figured a hundred miles or so ought to get us away from prying eyes.  I really liked our previous hotel stay, but I didn’t want to show up there too often, so we did a whole different city in the next state over.

The motel was a national chain, and on the upper end of the scale as temporary lodging goes. We brought our bags into a clean, bright room with two queen beds.  I was paranoid enough today to think that we just didn’t look like we should be sleeping in the same bed, and so I chose our room accordingly.

“TWO beds?” questioned Cindy?

“Yeah.”

“And WHO is supposed to sleep in the OTHER one?”

“One to sleep in, one to play in,” I laughed.

She responded by pushing me over backward and then straddling my chest, her jean-clad crotch in front of my face.  I ran my hands up her thighs, over her ribs and then cupped her perky breasts through the shirt.  No bra.

“You didn’t even notice,” she said, faking a pout. “I’ve been like this since we went to breakfast.  An’ YOU didn’t notice!”

“Oh, I noticed, alright.   I’ve been wanting to touch you for four hours now…”

“Mmmmm,” she said.  “One of these days…”

“One of these days WHAT?”

“One of these days we’re going to be able to hold each other in public.  I mean besides a little hand-holding.  Like in, arm around you.  Or sit on the same side of the booth.  Or a kiss by a fountain in the middle of a public park.”

“I know, sweetness.  Believe me, I want to shout your name from a mountaintop.”

“I believe you,” she said, then she grinned.  “But what I want is, if we get caught makin’ love behind the bushes, all they could do is get us for indecent exposure, an’ not put you in jail for molesting young girls.”

“But I LIKE molesting young girls.”

She dug fingers into my ribs.  “You better mean just ONE young girl!”  Giggles.  The young girl was straddling my chest as this conversation continued.  “Babe, start your laptop up and let’s see what there is to do in this town…”

“Besides YOU?”

“Oh, you’ll do me before the night’s over, lover.”

Okay, yeah, as a matter of fact I do carry a laptop on weekends, even with a pretty, eager, redheaded companion.  The laptop provided us with the venue of a local chamber orchestral performance.  I was certain that the little redhead would provide everything else.

We made love all afternoon. Sweet, uninhibited love.  Nearing dinnertime, we dressed, went to dinner, then joined a small crowd for seats in an auditorium and listened to a chamber orchestra bring us Bach.

We left the hall with the crowd.  I punched rapidly at the GPS.  Cindy noted that.  “What’re you looking for, baby?”

“”A park with a fountain.  At ten at night, I think I can kiss you there…”

“Awwwww!”   I heard the click as she fastened her seat belt beside me.  “You listened to what I said.”

“I always do, princess.”  Several blocks.  Found a parking space in an empty lot.  There were a few other couples out in the dim lighting.  I slid out the driver’s side of the truck and caught Cindy as she slid out behind me.  With the truck locked behind us, I took her hand in mine as we walked around savoring the relatively cool October air.  The fountain was easy to find, the burbling rush of water leading us up the path.  I lead her by the hand, having her stand on a step.  She turned around to face me, the step she was standing on added the height she needed to stare directly into my eyes.  She glanced around and saw nobody paying attention to us, and then her arms wrapped me up and we kissed.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“No, thank you, dearest,” I answered.

Her face was close to my ear.  “Dan,” she said, “Take me back to the hotel.  I want you.  In bed.  Okay?”

“Just like that?”

“Yes, love of my life.  Like THAT!”  She smiled, her green eyes twinkling in the dim light.  I promise, I broke the speed limits only slightly.

She was undressed and in bed before I was, laying there completely nude in the lamplight, her body glowing, exuding sexuality from her small feet, up her slim legs to the soft red patch of hair on her pubic mound to the flatness of her belly, those two breasts, mounding softly, punctuated by perfectly pink, quarter-sized areoles and nipples like pencil erasers, hard… and that face.  I don’t know how you’re supposed to mix a young girl’s innocence with lust and love, but she was doing it.  As I crawled into bed she broke into a smile.

Her hand reached up to pull my face toward hers and we kissed, ending with her giggle.  “You know, babe, you’re more than I ever dreamed of, too.

My hand cupped a perfect breast and my fingertips toyed with her nipple.  I felt a quiver run through her body.  Her hand sliding down my side and wrapping around my dick provided her with an answering shiver from me.  Our lips locked . Her adventurous tongue met mine as I moved my hand from her sweet breast down to find the cleft of her pussy.  I brushed it with the tips of my fingers, then dipped one fingertip just between those lips and traced the length of her lips.  On the return my finger dipped deeper, sliding easily in the wetness.

She was squeezing and milking me, pre-cum smearing over the head of my dick as my fingertip teased the head of her clitty.  I tasted as well as felt her moan in my mouth as we remained in our kiss.  She pushed me onto my back and one of those long legs swung across me as she took charge of our lovemaking.  Kneeling astride me, both hands on my chest, she let her hot, wet pussy search for the head of my dick.  Her eyes twinkled and she was biting her bottom lip, her “I’m concentrating” face.  Her face changed with a sigh breaking into a giggle as the head of my dick met the opening of her wet passage and she slid down on me, impaling herself and bringing indescribable pleasure to us both.

She sat back.  “There!” she announced.  “I want EVERY bit of you.  I want to LOVE you every way we can!”

“We do, don’t we, babe?” I answered.  “You’re my best friend, the love of my life, and my wife.”

“Yes, I AM your wife, Dan.  Forever!”  She fell forward, wrapping her arms around us.  “Now kill me.  Do me until I pass out!”  And we did.  Orgasms.  I think she had two or three before mine, only one, happened.  But my one came with her LAST one and she did indeed pass out, laying in my arms for almost a minute before light kisses caused her eyelids to flutter.  I was rewarded with a sublime smile from the one person I loved most in the world.

We fell asleep after she slowly rolled us over on our sides, her breath a measured, soft cadence I felt on my chest. The last conscious thought I had before I slid into slumber myself was the clean smell of her hair against a background odor of the musk of our sexual exertions.

Without an alarm to start our day, it was usually a random selection as to which of us woke up first, or maybe I should say who made the first movements.  Sunday morning was my turn.  I lay there for some time, inventorying the feelings of my own body awakening, then noting the soft rounded warmth of her perfect ass against my hip.  I turned gently so as not to startle her awake.  I spooned up behind her and couldn’t resist tiny kisses to the nape of her neck where it was uncovered by the fall of her auburn hair.  She stirred.  I carefully wrapped my left arm over her. Gently holding her.  Her hand touched mine and pulled it to cover her breast.

“Mmmmmmorning, love,” she whispered.

“Mornin’ sweetie,” I said.

“Can I ask you something? And you’ll be honest with me?”

“You can ask me anything.  And when have I ever NOT been honest with you?”

‘This is different.”  And she wanted to have the “titty talk”.

You see, Cindy was fourteen and a month or so old now.  And she was an “A” cup, maybe getting into “B” territory.  I thought these were the most perfect breasts I’d ever seen, and I’d seen a few.

“Do you like my breasts?  I mean, really?”

“God, yes, baby.  You have the most perfect breasts imaginable.  Perfect.”

She rolled over to face me.  The anatomy in question was pressing gently into my chest.  “They’re not big.”

“So what!”

“That lady in the shiny green dress last night, I mean, she had, well, I thought she had nice looking ones, and they were bigger.”

I remembered the lady in question.  She was good-looking, mid to late thirties, carefully coifed, heels, in all a carefully and well turned out product.

“Baby,” I said, “that was a production.  Makeup, bra, dress, heels, all carefully put together.  You, little darling, you get up in the morning looking better than she does after two hours’ work.”

“But I don’t have big titties.  Most guys LIKE big titties.”

“Am I “most guys”?”

“No.” the answer was a little meek.

“Haven’t I told you that all my life I was looking for YOU and settling for little bits and pieces?”

“Yes.  But…”

“No but.  You’re perfect.  Personality.  Brains.  Body.  Sometimes I think about how perfect you are and it scares me.  I can’t imagine ever living without you.”

“But, I mean, like, when I’m on top of you and I bend over, my titties don’t dangle.”

“And that’s a BAD thing?  Baby, you don’t know how many women wish they were as firm as you.”

“How big was your wife?”

“That’s another world, baby, long gone.”

“But how big?”

“Okay.” I sat up. “Let’s talk.”

She looked at me, her green eyes questioning.

“Here’s the deal.  She was a C-cup.  Last girlfriend, the one that dumped me, she was maybe a C, maybe a D.  I don’t know.  I didn’t pay attention.  So I’ve got some experience with bigger titties.  Baby, what I’m saying is that it doesn’t matter.  Your smile, your laughter, your conversation, you could weigh 300 hundred pounds and have titties the size of milk jugs, and it wouldn’t matter.  Or you could be completely flat-chested.  It doesn’t matter.  There’s this YOU that I’m in love with, and you’re perfect.”

“But…”

“Stop with the ‘but’s’, baby.  You have no idea how many men see you and start drooling and lusting.  I’m one of them.  But I’m the lucky one.  You’re mine.  And I love you.  Okay?”

“Okay.  Just tell me.”

I slid my other arm underneath her and rolled, bringing her on top of me.  “Tell you what?  That I think you’re the cutest, sexiest thing I’ve ever imagined?  That I love you until the sun is a dark spot in the sky?  That you make me wish I could write symphonies to your beauty?  What do you want me to tell you?”

Then the giggles started.  “Tell me where we’re having breakfast…”

“Grrrr,” I growled, and then clamped my lips over her left breast.  My tongue worked over the nipple in swirls, then I bit it lightly.  “I think I’ll just have these for breakfast.”

She pulled away with a squeal.  “I guess that means that I’m having sausage!”  And she spun around and her mouth sucked my hardening dick in, treating it to a tongue lashing.

“Yeah,” I gasped, “You have sausage, an’ I get this nice, moist muffin.”  We moved into a wonderful sixty-nine, her mouth clamped over the head of my dick, my mouth covering her pussy to receive the juices stirred up by my tongue.  I cupped her butt cheeks with my hands, savoring the juices filling my mouth, relishing the actions of her combined hands and tongue and lips on my dick.  Eight hours’ rest was plenty enough for a recharge for me, and my Cindy was always up for coming, and my tongue was herding her there fast.

I heard “Eennnnnnnghhh” simultaneously with her hips thrusting, pushing her pussy into my face, her clit against my flicking tongue.  “Gahhhhh!  Ohgodohgodohgod!  Dan!  I’m.  THERE!”  She came, holding my hard dick against her cheek, afraid to put it in her mouth while she came.

I kept licking, softer now, letting her ride her orgasm to its conclusion.   With a sigh, she sucked me back into her mouth, her tongue and teeth working me back to full hardness, then teasing me to orgasm that was almost brutal, and sucking me dry.  My softening dick was her signal to turn around and kiss me full on the mouth.  I could taste a little of myself in her warm mouth.

“I guess we just love each other, babe, “ she said.

“I guess we do.”  I kissed her again.  We lay in each other’s arms. “Cindy, baby, don’t ever think that I want to change anything about you.  You’re fourteen.  You’re going to grow.  And change.  So am I.  And I will love you through it all.”

“I thought about that, too, Dan,” she said.  “I mean, how it would be as we changed, and you’ know, I talked to Mizz Helen about her an’ her husband, and she told me that love finds its own beauty.”

“Yes it does, cutie.  Yes it does.”

She rolled out of the bed and went to the bathroom.  Returning, she said, “Come on, baby, let’s go get breakfast.”

“Pack first?”

“Yeah.  Then we can leave here and go straight home.”

“Let’s do a quick shower.  Somebody’s liable to notice that we smell like a small orgy.”

“Uh-huh… yeah, mister.  I feel positively molested this morning already.”  She looked suggestively over her shoulder as she headed back to the bathroom.  I followed.  Our shower was sensual, her body seductive, wet, her hands active over my body.  We rinsed the soap away, almost finished, and she knelt in front of me, the shower water slicking her hair against her head.  She looked up at me, mouth open, smiling, then her hand pointed the head of my dick toward her waiting lips.  Her mouth closed around it with an “Mmmmmm” that reverberated throughout my being.  And then she pulled her head back, my dick leaving her lips with an audible pop.  She stood up.  “You know, I have a plan.”

“What plan?”

“I’m not telling you.  A girl’s got to have some mystery, huh?”

“Okay…”

We got dressed, packed our bags, and checked out, walking out, me and this indescribable little red-headed beauty.  We found a breakfast place, fitting in with the Sunday morning crowd, laughing, talking about the music, the people, and the clear fall day.

We’d just gotten back in the truck when my cellphone rang.  I saw the caller ID.  It was Jim Hardesty.  I told Cindy, then punched the button on the phone. “This is Dan,” I answered.

“Dan, this is Jim Hardesty.  From school.”

“Yeah, Jim.  That’s what my caller ID said.  What’s up?”

“Did I catch you at a bad time?”

“No, I’m good.”

“I was wondering if you wanted to come over this evening for supper.  I’m doin’ ribs on the barbecue.”

“That’d be great.  But there’s one thing…”

“What’s that?”

“I have Cindy with me today.  Promised her that I’d bring her to the mall.  We’ll be finished in plenty of time, but can she come along?”

“Hey, sure!  That’s great!  See ya’ll about four-thirty? “

“Yep.  We’ll be there!”

Cindy was watching my one-sided conversation.  “What’d you just get us into?” she asked.

“Barbecue at your guidance counselor’s house for supper.”

“Really?  He’s nice.  Likes us kids.  I’ve seen him really work with some of them.”

“Yeah.  I know.  You’re one of them.  Are you gonna be okay?  I mean, we can’t be husband and wife or boyfriend and girlfriend.  Just gotta be me and my shadow.”

She grinned.  “I can do that.  On good days, I can actually be quite charming, you know.”

“And on better days, you can be delicious,” I laughed.

We drove back to the RV park, did the small amount of housework we needed to do to keep the trailer in good order, then  we changed into swimsuits, grabbed a couple of towels and headed to the pool for our daily swim.  Three weekender families were there, one of them I recognized from previously, the paper mill manager with wife and kids, a couple of other nuclear families, each with a teenaged daughter, one teenaged boy, a couple of pre-teen kids, all splashing in the pool.  I greeted the adults politely, shook hands with the guy I recognized first, then the others.

I did a few laps in the pool, as did Cindy, her lithe body easily cutting the water beside me.  I was thinking that I’d hate to race her.  I finished my laps and climbed out to towel off and occupy an empty lounge.  The afternoon was filled with the sounds of (mostly) happy children, and we adults talked about the kids, the work, the news, hunting, fishing, etc.  I couldn’t help but notice that the appearance of Cindy, even in her one-piece bathing suit, was more than enough to eclipse the older two teen girls.  The boy, brother to one of the girls, had apparently been devoting a lot of attention to the other, but when Cindy showed up, well, Cindy was the top of that little heap.  I noted him putting his best moves on her, and I also noted her easily fending him off, choosing instead to talk to the girls.

I heard one little comment, though.  “Go play somewhere else!  I told you I already HAVE a boyfriend!”  A little later she got out of the pool, came to me and took her towel and then stretched out on the lounge beside me.  And I do mean “stretched”, as in arms over her head, back arched, stretched.  And when she finished, she looked me and smiled.  “Beautiful day, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it is,” I said.  She listened to us “adults” chit-chat for a while then I bid my leave.  “We have to go get ready for you to go home,” I said.

“Yessir,” she said, playing her role.  We walked back to the trailer, carefully NOT side by side.

Inside the trailer, I laughed, “What are you trying to do, give those guys heart attacks?”

“What did I do?” she asked innocently.

“Oh, you KNOW what you did.  That stretch!”

“Hah!  Those other two girls were pretty, an’ both of them had bigger tits.  They could’ve stretched.  An’ THEY were wearing bikinis!  You won’t let me wear a bikini,” she pouted.  “Besides, I wanted to do THIS!”  With that statement she went to her knees, pulled my trunks down and took my dick in her mouth.

“Oh, god!  Baby!”

She stood up, smiling, wrapped her arms around my waist and we kissed.  “I love you, Dan!”

“I love you too, Cindy.”  I breathed her fresh scent, gazed into those startling green eyes and saw them answer me with love.  That’s all I need.

We each did a quick rinse in the shower and she was sitting on the stool drying her hair when I stepped out.  “What should I wear?” she asked.

“Oh, you’re just coming back from a trip to the mall.  I’m thinking something informal.”

“Jeans and a blouse, then?”

“Perfect!”

“and I’ll try not to sit on your lap while we’re there…”  Giggles.

“Save that for later.”

“I have plans, remember?”

“Yeah.  I remember.  What are your plans?”

“Huh-uh.  Ain’t telling you.  But I think you’ll like them.”  Sweet smile.  With a leer lurking somewhere in the deep background.  Her eyes can’t lie.

And dammit!  Jeans.  Blue denim with pockets and seams that perfectly framed a fine female butt.  And a dark green blouse.  And matching elastic headband tastefully pulling her red hair away from the sides of her face, leaving bangs hovering just above those green eyes.  And a pair of athletic shoes.  Fourteen.  Okay, in that strange way of young girls, she could have been any age from thirteen to seventeen, but she was pure sexuality in a sweet, innocent wrapper.  That reached out and grabbed my dick before we left to get on the road.  Hah!

I punched an address written on the back of one of my business cards into the truck’s GPS and we followed its directions, listening to the classical music on the public broadcasting station as we drove.  She was sitting in the regular passenger seat, the console folded down between us.  Finally we pulled up in the driveway of a nice brick house, not suburban, but not all the way out in the country, either.

As we were getting out of the truck I heard Jim’s voice over the board privacy fence.  “We’re back here waitin’ on yah!”  I could smell the smoky goodness of barbecue.

We pushed our way into the back yard, finding ourselves on a shaded patio.  Jim Hardesty was tending slabs of pork ribs over a smoky wood fire.

“No charcoal?” I asked.

“Just a little under there to get things started, then it’s all hickory all the way.  Hi, Miss Cindy!”

“Hi, Mister Hardesty,” Cindy answered.

A short, busty blonde woman walked through the sliding glass door from inside the house.  “Hi!” she said, “you must be Dan!  I’m Ann!”  She shook my hand.

“Well, hello, Ann!  This is Cindy.”

“Hello, Mizz Ann,” Cindy said, shaking hands.

“Sweetie, you can come with me.  These guys are gonna be hip-deep in war stories in about five minutes.  I’m buildin’ a tater salad and some baked beans and Teresa’s in the den.”  Teresa was Jim and Ann’s daughter, thirteen, and a nodding acquaintance to Cindy.  Cindy followed dutifully.  “Yes ma’am,” she said.

“Have a seat.”  Jim motioned me to a patio chair.  “I hope you weren’t expecting lite beer.  I like this Texas stuff.  Shiner.  Hell, I even visited the factory.”

“That’ll be great.  I don’t drink that lite stuff either.”  Over beer we went through the whole meeting thing.  He was a former Marine pilot.  Harriers, no less.  I was a former army combat engineer.  We’d both ended up in the same arena for a war almost twenty years before, and Marines, even pilots, know about living in the dirt.  We told war stories.  I told him about my plane.

“You have a plane?”

“Yeah,” I said.  “Old Cessna 180.  I bought it when I was in Alaska.  Flew it back to the states.  Had it overhauled.  It’s in pretty decent shape now, for forty years old.”

“Man, that’s somethin’,” he said.  “I get the itch…”

“Then see if you’re free Tuesday when I get off work.  Give me a call.  Two hundred and thirty horsepower and a hundred and forty knots ain’t exactly a Harrier, but you’re free to come fly.”

“Hey, thanks!  I just might do that!” he grinned.  He told me how he ended up as a guidance counselor at an Alabama middle school.  I told him how I ended up as the go-to guy for electrical power projects.   We talked about great barbecue and good food in general.   The chit-chat was jovial and enjoyable.

Finally Ann stuck her head out the door.  “How much longer?  You guys are up to your eyeballs in testosterone.”

“Never marry a college grad,” laughed Jim.  “They know too many big words.  Makes ‘em all uppity!”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.  You marry a Marine, you spend two decades trainin’ ‘im to walk without draggin’ ‘is knuckles on the ground!”

“’Cue’s ready when ya’ll get the table set.”

The remainder of the Hardesty clan appeared, bringing out paper plates, drinks, casseroles, baked beans, and the table was set.  WE had a good, no, a great meal.  Their children were well-behaved, and of course, my Cindy knew her way around etiquette, even with food you eat with your fingers.  After the meal, Ann and the kids cleared the table and Jim and I took care of the grill.

“Ya know,” he started, “one of the things I studied when I was getting my master’s was prodigies, Dan.”

“Prodigies?” I questioned.

“Yeah.  You know.  People who are just head and shoulders above the crowd.”

“Uh-huh,” I said, letting him go.

“I think that describes Miss Cindy.”

“Seriously?  Cindy?  I mean, she’s smart.  She hauls her homework over and all I do is check over it.  She’s got it wrapped.”

“Yeah.  I’ve talked with her teachers.  Not formally, you understand, just feeling things out since we had the meeting, you know.”

“She’s not being a problem, is she?  I talked to her about that rhumb line thing and about showing other people up, especially teachers.”

“Oh no,” Jim said.  “Her teachers are using her like an aide now.  She’s helping the slower ones.”

I said, “She told me she was helping out in math class.”

“And language.  And science.  And social studies.”

“Wow!  She hadn’t mentioned that.”

“Well,” said Jim, “that’s what is going on.  You know, Dan, the biggest part of my job is handling problem kids, ones that get to the eighth grade that can’t read or do basic math, or who have personality disorders or really, just need a good bit of parenting.  Kids like Cindy just zip through the system and nobody ever pays attention to them because they’re not the problem.  Most times, the teachers just breathe a sigh of relief and send ‘em on.”

“Yeah, I know.  Plenty of programs for special education.  I wish there was something we could do for Cindy.  Smart kids are special too.”

Jim turned to me like a light bulb just went off in his head. “Hey!  You just gave me an idea.”

“Huh?”

“Smart kids are special, too.  You said that.  Lemme play with that a bit.”

“How?  What?”

Jim smiled.  “When a kid is classified as ‘special’, the school has to come up with an IEP, an individualized education program, to fit that student.”

“Ooooo-kay…” I said.

“Since ‘special’ usually means the kid is way behind other students or can’t do the work, and we have tutors and remedial classes and stuff.  But you  know,” he said, “I never saw anything that said we couldn’t run that in the OPPOSITE direction.  I mean, Cindy’s test scores, well, she’s in the top one percent.  Maybe I can work the special ed angle for her.”

“Well don’t get yourself in trouble, Jim,” I said.  “I’m looking at some on-line stuff for her.”

“Good!  Good!” he laughed.  “You do that.  Let me know if you come up with something.  And gimme a week.”  He closed the top of the barbecue pit.  “Let’s go inside.”

I followed him into the house.  Cindy, Ann and Teresa were sitting in the den.  We joined them.

“Where’s the boy?” asked Jim.

Ann answered, “Up in his room, playin’ video games.”

“Bill,” Jim hollered, “come down here and be social!”

“In a minute, Dad,” came the answer.

“He’ll be down here,” said Jim.  “We don’t let him miss out on family stuff.”

Ann chimed in.  “Jim, did you know that Cindy’s into classical music?”

‘No?  Really?” asked Jim.  “What do you like?”

Cindy smiled.  “Ummm, right now I’m listening to baroque stuff.  Handel.  Telemann.”

“Handel?  Wow?  “Water Music”?”  Jim asked.

“Oh, gosh, yes!  Mr. Dan gave me a CD.  The first time I listened I had tears in my eyes.  It’s just so moving!  It’s HUGE!”

“Yes, that’s some grand music.  Say, didn’t Ann tell you that she is a violinist?”

“No.  Really?”  Cindy looked at Ann.

“Yes,” Ann said.  “I was in the orchestra in college.  I did a few recitals.  But it’s really difficult to get past that certain point. “ She sighed.  “And then you marry a Marine…”

Jim laughed.  “Yeah, you marry a Marine who plays banjo.”

I looked at Jim.  “You play banjo?”

Jim laughed again.  “Hey!  This is Alabama.  Of course I play banjo.”  He grinned. “But I started out playing guitar.  Gets girls, yah know!”

“Hey!” chirped Ann.  “You need to take care of the girl you got!”

“So,” I said, “violin and banjo.  Sounds like bluegrass to me.”

Ann’s turn.  “As a matter of fact, if you call it a fiddle, yes, we do.  A little.”

I saw the bass guitar in the corner.  “I can do THAT thing. I might be rusty, but I can do that.  Straight guitar, too.  Rusty at that, too.”

“Wow, Mr. Dan,” she said.  “I didn’t know you play guitar.”

“It’s been a while.  I used to get together with some buddies and play.  Even did a few clubs.  But road work killed that.  Besides, I don’t get excited about the music I was playing.”

“What’d you play?” questioned Ann.

“Oh, the contemporary country and western stuff.  Never could find a bluegrass bunch.”

Jim said, “Well, let’s try some simple stuff.  You remember the key of G?”

“Oh yeah,” I said.

Dan pulled an amp out to plug the bass guitar into, and Ann showed up with a violin, and Jim reached behind the sofa and retrieved a banjo, and in fits and starts, music was made.  At first, Cindy was shocked, then her expression changed to amusement, then enjoyment as we ran through a few old bluegrass tunes.

Jim looked at her.  “What’d ya think, Miss Cindy?”

“Wow!”

Ann jumped in.  “I love classical music too, but baby, this is people’s music.  We’re people.  This is the music we can make.”

Cindy said, “you know, I never heard of music like this before.  It’s great!”

Ann said, “isn’t it, now!  Jim, let’s do one more before we get the kids headed to bed.”

““Ashokan Farewell”?  That’s a sad one.”  And we did.  And it was sad, haunting, Ann wrung the tears out with her bow and Jim’s banjo relived dashed hopes and dreams, and I saw a tear slide down Cindy’s cheek.

Finally we left, thanking our hosts profusely and vowing to return.

On the drive home, Cindy said, “There you go again.  I didn’t know you played the guitar.”

“Sorry, baby.  It never came up.  I don’t bring one with me, usually, so you never asked.”

“Yeah, well, remember what I said about making music?  You guys made music.  That’s wonderful.  And powerful.”

“And fun.  Don’t forget fun!”

“Speaking of fun…” she said as we pulled into the RV park, “I asked Mizz Helen for a key to the pool since she’s closing it tomorrow.  Let’s go for a swim.”

“But it’s dark.”

The little thing grinned.  “Yeah.  Dark.  And nobody else is around.”

We emerged from the trailer again in bathing suits.  This time she was wearing her bikini, wrapped in towel.  She unlocked the gate and we slid into the water.  It felt wonderful.  Cindy pushed up against me and kissed me.  This was not our normal pool activity.  But then the pool was off limits after dark.

I kissed her back.  She backed away from me and reached behind her back.  The bikini top was off.

“Cindy!”

“Plans, Dan!”  She ducked under water and then laid her bikini bottom on the edge of the pool.  “One of us needs to get with the program.”

“Uh-huh!”  I stripped my trunks off.  They joined her bikini poolside.  She cuddled up against me in the water.

“I could beat you swimming now, for sure,” she giggled.  “You seem to have developed a drag-inducing protrusion, sir.”

“I wonder why.  It’s not right that beautiful young girls should seduce older men in the pool at night.”

Giggles.  “Yes, but sometimes it’s the only way young girls can get old men to do ‘em in the pool.”

And we played.  Toyed with each other.  And finally ended up with me backed against the edge of the pool, her legs wrapped around me, our mouths merged, mating, climaxing together in the water.  She held onto me for luscious minutes afterward.

Finally, we regained full faculties.  “Babe,” I said, “I hate to end this, but it's time to get back to the house.”

“Yeah, I know, but this is the first time I ever skinny-dipped since I was, like, five.  And it's the first time I ever made love in the water.”

“But it won't be the last.  For any of that.”  I reached for my trunks and slipped them on.

Cindy said, “Get my bikini!”  I grabbed it.  Both pieces together weren't a full handful.  I held it out to her.  “Nuh-uh!  I'm goin' nude!”  She giggled and jumped out of the water, her body wet and glistening in the light of a half-moon.

“You're gonna get us thrown in jail, baby,” I pled.

“Oh, I'm gonna wrap this towel around me.  But YOU will know that I'm nude!”  she smiled and slipped on her pool slippers.  And wrapped the towel around her.  It barely covered from the gentle curve atop her breasts to just below the cleft of her pussy.  And I could see her eyes laughing as I got out of the pool.  We walked hand in hand back to the trailer.  She stood on the step, turned around to me, smiled, and dropped the towel, then backed through the door.

I got inside, closing the door behind me, locking it.  “You are one sexy little thing!”

“I'm YOUR sexy little thing!”  She giggled delightedly and tugged me toward the bed, hauling in between her spread thighs.  I was hard, and she was eager and I penetrated her in one swift motion.  “Mmmm!” she sighed, “My life is so much better with you, Dan...”

“I don't think I was even living before I met, you, Cindy!”  Her legs wrapping around my hips was sign that she was serious about another time, and despite the fact that we were only a half-hour from the previous coupling, Cindy's enthusiasm found its way to my dick.  I plunged into her eagerly, finding her hips meeting me on every stroke.  Soon we were both in the throes of rising orgasms.

I heard her “Nnnnnnnn” as she climbed her mountain.  We kissed.  Our kiss broke as our pubic mounds mashed together time after time, and then I felt her kiss my chest.  Then the kiss took on suction.  And then her teeth started closing on a bit of me.  And this was harder than the usual nips we used when toying with each other.  I was on the edge of pain as I heard her go “Nnnnnnnghhhhh!” through clenched teeth.  I felt her hips push upward, meeting my thrust, driving me deep inside her, then I felt the clenching, spasming walls of her pussy as she climaxed.  And all that, well, that was more than enough for me.  I squirted my load, spurt after spurt, deep inside her.  My Cindy knew what was going on, and little wiggles of her hips augmented the clenches of her pussy.  Her teeth released me and she pulled my face to hers and we kissed.

The kiss finally broke, letting me see a bright-eyed, smiling, breathless Cindy.  “Wow!” she said.  “Does getting THAT excited mean I'm one of those exhibition people?”

“Either that, or you like teasing me.”

She giggled again.  “I know that teasing you gets me going.”  She looked at my chest.  “Ohmigod!  Look at what I did to your chest!”  I looked.  There was a bruise forming.  Around teeth marks.  “I am so sorry, baby!  I didn't mean to hurt you!”

“You didn't hurt me, sweetie.   If I was hurt, I couldn't have done what we just finished.”

“So it, like, felt GOOD?”

“Yeah!  I guess it did.  I guess I saw it as a sign of your intensity.”

She smiled.  “That WAS pretty intense.”

“Mmm-hmmm,” I said.  “But I need a shower now...”

“Me too.  I wish this place had a shower big enough for both of us...”

“I do too, baby, but when I spec'ed it out, I didn't figure that I'd ever find anyone like you to live in it...”

“ I understand.  But we can have our weekends, right?”

Hotels.  With big showers.  “Yes, ma'am!”  I laughed.  “Now go make sure that you don't show up in class smelling like last night's orgy...”  I watched her stroll naked to the shower, softly curved ass moving seductively.  She cast a last look over her shoulder before entering the little bathroom.  I laid out my clothes for the next day and she was out.  I went in, rinsed down, and shaved.  She was drying her hair went I got out.  I helped her brush those copper locks out, and then we went to bed.  To sleep this time.  With me spooned up behind her, her butt nestled against my happy, satiated dick, the top of her head smelling clean and fresh, my arm around her.  She took my hand in hers and moved it to cover one perfect breast.

Chapter Sixteen

And the alarm went off on Monday morning.  We shared a very sensual cuddle and got up and started the rest of the routine.  By seven I was out the door headed to work and she was waiting for the school bus.

Arrived at the project, just like always.  Walked in, fired up the computer, started a pot of coffee and was tapping out the replay to an email when Sara walked in.

Her first words were, “That was some cute young lady you brought in Friday.”

“Yeah, she's a cutie, all right.  She's also scary smart.  I started helping her with her homework and she was interested in what engineers do, so I told her that if she had good grades, I'd bring her out for the tour.”

“That was sweet of you.  What'd she think?” Sara asked.

I smiled.  “She says she wants to be like you and make people's lives miserable.”

“Uh, she didn't say THAT!”

“No, really, she did, but she was laughing.  I told her what you really do.”

Sara laughed, “What? Sit around all day eatin' bon-bons and polishin' my nails?”

“That too,” I laughed.

The rest of my day was normal, except for hearing at least a dozen comments about Cindy's visit. Most of them were suitable for polite company, but it WAS a construction site, and a couple of the comments were somewhat suggestive.  “Jailbait” was in one of them.  “They didn't have THOSE when I was young” was a comment from an older co-worker.

Finally Monday came to an end and I drove to the RV park.  Cindy was at the office with Helen when I checked in.

“Cindy says ya'll have had a busy weekend,” Helen said.

“Yeah, you and the judge Friday, a concert Saturday, supper at Jim Hardesty's house yesterday.  I had to go to work to get some rest.”

Cindy smiled.  “Anybody say anything about me there Friday?”

“EVERYBODY asked about you,” I said.  “You are a memorable thing on a construction site.”

“Do you have homework?” I asked.

“The normal stuff.  Mr. Hardesty waved at me in the hall today, too.  That's pretty cool,  you playing music with him and Mizz Ann.”

“Ya'll played music?” Helen questioned.

“Yeah, his wife plays fiddle, he plays banjo, and I can do a little on a bass guitar and we did some bluegrass stuff.”

“Awww!  I wish I could've heard that,” she said.

“I dunno,” I said, “I'm kind of rusty.  But it was fun.”

Cindy said, “They were GOOD!  I never heard live music before, and they were having fun!”

We laughed and chatted for a while longer before Cindy and I headed to our trailer.  “I looked at her.  “We need to go find you a bicycle.”

“What kind of bicycle?”

I said, “Nothing too fancy.  Just something we can ride around parks and stuff.  We'll go tomorrow.  No, wait.  I promised Jim Hardesty I’d meet him at the airport.  He’s got the flying itch again.”

“Can I come?” Cindy asked.

“Of course.  You’re my little shadow, as far as Jim’s concerned.”

She smiled.  “That sounds good.  What are we doing this evening?  I mean, the pool's closed.”

“I know,” I said.  “Wanna go for a ride before dinner?”

“Yeah.  And we can end up at that salad place for dinner.  It'll be good for us.”

“You got it, sweetie,” I said.  We drove off.  I had a goal in mind, acting on advice from some co-workers, I had a lead on a secluded campsite not too far away from  the park.  That's where we headed.  It was one of those “and then turn off the paved road” places, and just wouldn't have been accessible to a vehicle less capable than my big pickup truck, but after a bit of trying, with Cindy squealing a couple of times as we rode through some rather muddy spots, we emerged on the bank of a creek deep in the woods.

“So this is the place?” she asked.  “We're gonna come camp here?  And sleep in a tent?  And it's supposed to be fun?”

“Yep!” I said.  “We try it at least one time.  If you don't like it, we don't do it anymore.  If you do like it, well, then we can do it again.”  We got out and walked around.  There was a space between the treeline and the creek, about twenty yards of short grass, and then a sandy bank.  There was evidence of some previous camping activity, but here between hunting season and summer, it was deserted and I was told that very little activity ever occurred.  And that there were no questions about people camping there.  I saw the creek, clear, swift water, suitable for  swimming and bathing, and there was enough fallen deadwood for a fire, and I was pretty sure that we'd have to visit the place soon.

Cindy looked around, walked down to the water's edge.  “We can swim here?”

“Yeah.  Don’t know how deep it is, though.  And it’s probably cold.  Looks cold.”

As I was saying this, Cindy was slipping her shoes and socks off.  I watched step into the creek.  “Yes, it is cold.  Not too bad, but a lot colder than the pool.”

“That’ll make your nipples perkier than usual.”

“Ummm,” she giggled.  “You’re a dirty old man, thinkin’ about a young girl’s nipples.”

“Actually I’m thinking of a moonlit skinny dip..”

She laughed. “Exactly what I had in mind, love,” she said.  “I wish it was dark right now…”

“Me too,” I said.  “Maybe next weekend, huh?”  This comment was just as a canoe with a couple of paddlers rounded the bend from upstream.  I gestured in that direction.  “That’s why we’re not naked right now…”

“Uh-huh.”  She smiled.  And we waved at the people in the canoe, watched as they passed, paddles glistening in the sunlight.  Then we returned to the truck and rumbled back through the woods and up the road to the little restaurant.

The ladies who owned the place recognized us immediately.  I knew it wasn’t me they remembered.  It was that red hair and green eyes of my young partner.  We were seated immediately and along with menus we were informed of some specials that they couple whip together, delicious-sounding combinations of vegetables and pork or chicken.  We dined well, and afterward as the table was cleared, we talked with first one, then both the owners about the business and the area.  It was a pleasant evening.

It was even more pleasant getting Cindy home before eight and lounging around on the sofa, deliciously entangled together after our showers, then to bed for a gentle and satisfying sharing of love.

Tuesday came and we stepped through the routine.  It was a pleasant thing to leave the trailer with Cindy’s kiss on my lips and the scent of her in my head.  Work was work.  No big fires to put out.  No hurdles to jump.  That was one reason that I was hired, to keep excitement at a low level.  Four o’clock and I was running out the gate.

When I got to the park, I found my jeans-clad baby talking with Helen at the front office.  “Hi, Helen,” I said.

“Hey, Dan,” she replied.  “Charley was impressed Friday night.”

“Must’ve been Cindy.”  This got a smile from Cindy.

“Actually, it was both of you.  He told me that after meeting you two, he was quite a bit more certain that he’d made the right decision.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Helen continued.  “Said he was surprised you showed up wearing a suit and Cindy looked very proper and pretty and he could see how you two belonged together.”

Cindy said, “He’s a nice man.  He knows how to tell stories.”

Helen laughed.  “Yes, he does.  I just wanted ya’ll to know what he thought.”

“I was wondering,” I said.  “He’s everything I’d imagined he’d be.  You two an item yet?”

It was Helen’s turn to blush.  “You know…  I just might be makin’ that decision.  It’s gotten to the point that we had supper with his son and his family.”

“And the son approved?”

“Yeah.  The son used to go to the huntin’ camp with his dad and my husband, and I used to run the camp every fall.  He knows me.  I used to feed ‘im pie and run ‘im out of my kitchen.”

“Oh, great!  You pissed off the DA.”

Helen laughed.  “Yeah.  Cindy says you’re goin’ to go flyin’ with her guidance counselor?”

“Yeah.  You know he’s a Marine pilot?”

“That’s what Cindy said.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said.  “And if you’ll excuse me, I need to go change shoes.  It’s hard to fly wearin’ steel-toe boots.”

“Ya’ll go have fun,” Helen laughed.

Cindy and I left and scooted over to the trailer.  Once inside, my original task of changing shoes was extended just a little bit while we kissed.  Then we were out the door and on the road.

“You’re in the back seat today, sweetie.”

“I figured that part out.  I’ll be okay.”  She smiled.  “But we haven’t flown since the first time.  I really want to go again.”

“We will, babe.  And we’re going to fly home in it for Thanksgiving, too.”

Squeal.  “We’re going to your real home?”

“Nope,” I said.  “We’re going to my OLD home.  Thanksgiving with my sister and brother.”

Her brow wrinkled.  “Your OLD home?”

“Yes.  My new home is wherever WE are.”

“Awwww….  You’re so sweet.”  She paused a second, thinking.  “But what are you going to tell your sister and brother?”

“Just a teeny tiny little lie.  I’m going to tell them you’re eighteen.  And we’re married.”

Another squeal.  “You think they’ll believe you?”

“What are they gonna do, ask to see your driver’s license?”

Green eyes narrowed.  “I don’t know…”

I continued, “They’re my brother and sister.  I don’t think we have a problem.”

We were unlocking the T-hangar when Jim Hardesty drove up.  “Hi, Dan!  Hi, Miss Cindy!” he said.

“Hi, Mr. Hardesty,” Cindy chirped.

Hey, Jim.  Push a door.”  He and I pushed the doors open on the hangar, revealing the other woman in my life.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” he said.  “She looks nice, Dan!”

I laughed.  “Cindy? Or the plane.”

Jim chuckled.  “Both.  But Cindy’s not forty.  You spent some bucks keepin’ this old girl in THIS shape.”

“I spent a dime or two.  Engine’s been overhauled to new.  And the prop.  And I gave a mechanic a blank check on the airframe.  She’s not show quality, but she sure is ‘go’ quality.  Let’s drag ‘er out.”  We pushed the plane out onto the apron and the three of us did the pre-flight.  Cindy climbed the ladder to check fuel levels with a dipstick.

While she was up on the ladder, Jim asked, “She knows what she’s doing?”

“Showed her once.  That’s all it takes with Cindy.”

“Yeah.  That’s what her teachers say.”

“Uh, guys, it’s NOT polite to talk about somebody when she’s right there,” Cindy said.  “Mr. Dan, you have about three-quarters of a tank.  Twice.”  She climbed down and before I could do it, she folded the ladder and carried it back to the hangar.

Cindy was the first into the plane, buckling herself into the back seat.  Jim took the passenger seat, “because it’s YOUR plane and I haven’t flown in a decade.” And I got in the pilot’s seat.  In five more minutes we were in the air and Jim was at the controls, his round face grinning.

I spoke into my headset.  “It’s yours.  Just remember, plus four G’s, minus three, and Cindy’s on her SECOND flight of her life and there’s only two barf bags.”

“Oh, man,” Jim said.  “This is great.  I know.  I already tried to find the gun switch.”

We flew around.  Jim ran us through the operating envelope:  slow, hanging on the prop, and steep turns, and a few stalls.  I looked over my shoulder hoping that Cindy was turning green.  Cindy was grinning widely.  “Mister Dan, you didn’t show me all THIS stuff the first time!”

Dan popped in, “Oh, I’m sorry Cindy!  Am it getting’ too radical?”

“Oh, no sir!  This is GREAT!”

I smiled.  Two happy people.  Make that three.  Me too.  We made a great circuit of the local area, then the shadows on the ground started to lengthen and it was time to go home.

“Plane’s yours, Dan,” said Jim.  “I’ve never landed a taildragger.”

“Then follow along with me.  Just requires some footwork and make sure you’re pointed in the direction you’re traveling when the wheels touch down.”  We shot a couple of touch and goes and then landed for real, taxing to the hangar.

I grabbed Cindy by the waist and helped her down as the three of us exited.  We pushed the plane back into the hangar and closed and locked the door.

“Wow!”  Jim laughed.  “That was great!  Makes me want to get current again.”  And my own…

“It’s expensive, man.”

“Yeah, I know,” said Jim.  “But I’m thinking of long vacations and stuff, an’ this one’ll do the whole family.”

“Yeah, it will.  You should’ve seen what they were haulin’ with it in Alaska.”

“This was a bush plane?”

“Yep.  I flew it back to the Lower 48 after I finished a job up there.”

“Man!  I might have to dip into the savings for one of these.”

“Wanna go to dinner with me an’ Cindy?  That’s our next stop.”  I smiled.

“Yeah, Mister Jim.  Come have dinner!” Cindy injected.

“Noah, thanks, but I need to get home tonight.  But, golly, thanks!”  Jim shook hands with both of us.  Cindy waved as he drove off.

“You sure made HIM happy!” she smiled.  “And me too!  All those maneuvers…  He knows what he’s doing?”

“Baby, he’s a Marine aviator.  He’s so far above me in pilot cred that it’s scary.  He knows everything we did today.  It’s just that with this little plane, the numbers are all different.  Like a baby carriage compared with an Indy car.”

“Oh…  But it’s your plane.  You can do all that stuff in YOUR plane.”

“Yes, I can.  And since I am now convinced that you won’t barf all over, I will show you what we did and why.”  I paused.  “Come on.  We have a stop to make before supper.”

We got in the truck and drove off.  The stop was the local jewelry store.  To pick up a pair of rings. I got out, went inside, and came back out, handing Cindy the little velvet-covered box.

She started to open it.

“Nope!  Not yet.  When we get home after supper.”

Her eyes glittered.  “Then we’re having TV dinners for supper.  Drive straight home.  Fast.”

“Now ain’t this just great!  I present the love of my life with a ring, and she marks the occasion with TV dinners?!?!?”

Cindy giggled.  That giggle.  It melted my heart.   On the fifteen minute drive home she cradled the little box in both hands, clasped to her chest.  When we pulled up to the trailer, she dashed to the door, her key in one hand, the box in the other.

“Slow down,” I said.  I thought she’d be on the sofa.  As I locked the door behind me, I saw her at the opposite end of the trailer, kneeling in the bed.  Her face was turned toward me, waiting.

“Let’s do this right,” I said.  I sat on the edge of our bed.  “Open the box.”

Her eyes were wide as she opened it, revealing two gold rings, filigreed, just as she’d shown me.

“Oh, Dan…” she sighed.

I took the smaller ring and holding her left hand, I slid it onto the ring finger.  And kissed her.  “My Cindy.  Forever!”

“Oh, Dan…”  She took the other ring and I held my  hand up.  She slid it onto my finger.  And slid herself into my arms.  And I hugged her to me, hearing her whisper breathlessly, “My Dan forever!  I love you!”

“D’you like them?”

“Oh, god, YES!  That’s the one I showed you!  And you got YOU one, too!”

“Because I want to be as much YOURS as you are mine!”  This got me kisses.  Bunches.  Some longer than the others.  “But sweetie,” I explained, “I can’t wear mine all the time like you can.”

“I know…” she sighed.  “On YOU it’s a wedding ring.”

“That’s how people will see it.  At work, that’s hard to explain.”

“I know…”

“But every chance I get, I’ll have this ring on my finger.”

She took my hand to her lips and kissed the ring.  “I know you love me, Dan.  And you got us rings.  Like we’re married.”

“As far as I’m concerned, baby, we ARE married.  When I tell my brother and sister, I won’t be lying.  The only thing is that we haven’t done it in public records, because we just CAN’T.”

“I know, baby.”  She hugged me.  Hard.  Pulled me down onto the bed and climbed on top of me and showered me with kisses.

“Married means forever.  What’s mine is yours and what’s yours is mine.”

She interrupted.  “But I don’t have anything.”

“You sweet, sweet thing.  You ARE everything.  The riches of the universe.  And everything I have, I give to you.”

More kisses.  She was tugging at my shirt, pulling it, unbuttoning.  She stood up and began undressing herself.  “You do you.  I’ll do me.  And then it’ll be US.  Naked.”

And that is a good thing.  Thirty minutes later, the orgasm score was Cindy 2, Me 1.  And it was shower time.  And finally the TV dinners went in the microwave.

And life was good.  Very good.  Friday night we camped out, just like we’d talked about.  Skinny-dipped in the creek in the moonlight.  Made love, then lay together under the stars, safe from insects in my screened tent, but still able to marvel at the heavens.  It was still warm enough at night to only need a light cover, so we lay on one unzipped sleeping bag and covered with the other.  I didn’t push the “cook breakfast over an open fire” bit.  When the sun came up, we splashed into the creek to wake up and then broke camp and headed back to civilization for breakfast, then back to the storage unit to unload the gear, and then to the airfield.

This time the flying was more of a lesson than the oohing and ahhhing of previous events.  Cindy wanted to know HOW.  I showed her.  We chatted back and forth over the intercom as I showed and told her what to do and why.  Two hours and she was understanding much, but I knew that she needed a practice to turn thought into subtle movements and pressures to fly smoothly.  But I knew that would come.

We returned to the airfield at lunch and at her insistence we ended up at a burger joint.  I had a burger stuffed in my mouth when she said, “Let’s fly someplace next weekend.  You know, for overnight.”

“You know, that’s a good idea, babe,” I said.  “I can get us a rental car when we get there, and a reservation at a hotel, and we’ll have a new city to play in.”

“Why didn’t we do this before?”  Her eyebrow was arched at me.

“I dunno.  I was just so happy running you around here.  Flying will get us a three hundred mile range for the weekend.”  I was thinking we had four adjacent states to play with.

She was thinking about more flying, among other things.  “Let’s go back to the field and get the charts.  You can show me flight planning again.”

“Okay, babe!”  I watched that sassy body bounce out of the eatery ahead of me to the truck.  Fourteen!  And so much potential.  And so perfect it made my eyes water.  We complied with her wish.  While we were there, we chatted up another recreational pilot.  He let Cindy sit in his sixty year old airplane.  She was tickled by it.

Back in the truck, I said, “Okay, now what?”  It’s mid-afternoon.”

“You said I needed a bike.”

“Right!  Let’s go to town.”  “Town” was the big city an hour’s drive away.  I knew there had to be a bike shop somewhere.  We found it.  The salesman found a mountain bike with a frame that would work for Cindy,  I got a bike rack that would fit in the bed of my pickup truck, and we headed back home, stopping by the storage place again so I could pick up my bike.

She already knew what it looked like, and said so.  “Like mine, except the frame’s bigger, huh?”

“Yep.  My leg’s longer.  Want to go ride around the park?”

She smiled.  That’s a good place to start.  It’s been a few years since I rode a bike.  There’s no traffic in the park.”

Which put me riding a bicycle behind a Cindy clad in shorts and a t-shirt.  Watching that perfect butt as she pedaled ahead of me – yes, there is truly poetry in motion.  I spent some time observing it, then, “Dannn!  Ride beside me!”

“Okay,” I answered, “ we can do that here, but on the street we have to ride single file.”

“I know.  But we’re in a park.”

So that’s the way we rode.  Nope, not spandex-clad bicycle nuts, just two people enjoying the beginnings of fall air on a Saturday afternoon, and yes, it was exercise.  The Saturday park population was maybe ten RV’s.  Two families had kids.  A couple of them were on bicycles also.  And with the change in seasons, Helen’s snowbirds were coming in, people from the northern states migrating south ahead of the cold.  These were older folks, and they were clustered on groups, socializing.  Some of them waved as we rode by.  We put an hour in, lazily pedaling around, then locked the bikes up at the trailer.

Entering our little nest, Cindy said, “Dan, I really need a shower.”

“Me too, babe!  We’ve done a lot today.”

“Wouldn’t it be nice if we could shower together?”

“Yes it would.  Are you thining…”

She finished the thought. “that we should go find us a motel with a big shower?”

“A kiss would make me do that.”  I got my kiss.  And I flipped open my cellphone and punched a number.  A couple of minutes later, I hung up and looked toward the bedroom.  Cindy was zipping up her overnight bag.  Mine was on the bed beside her.

Giggle.  “We’re packed!”

“Let’s go, then!”  We kissed before heading out the door. She crawled in the pickup, pushing the console up out of the way, then buckling in the passenger seat, leaving a huge space between us, but she was grinning as we left the park and got onto the open road.

Five miles later she was sitting beside me.  Her eyes were sparkling as she played with the gold band on her finger.  “I can’t believe you got me this, baby,” she said.  “and you have yours on, too!”

I waved my ring at her.   “You bet, baby!”

The month of October passed, and then half of November.  The first cold fronts made their way down south, and we saw our first frost of the winter a couple of weeks early, according to Helen.  “It’s that global warming,” she laughed.

On a practical note, living in a travel trailer made us very cognizant of the seasons.  Winter meant keeping an eye on the propane bottles that heated the place.  It also meant that I spent colder nights with the warming influence of a fourteen year old form cuddled up next to me.

The first one of those mornings, as good luck would have it, was a Saturday morning, and with no alarm clock driving the day, we eased awake in each other’s arms.  The previous evening was rainy, presaging the coming cold front.  And because I was bouncing in bed with a sexy fourteen year old redhead, I forgot to set the thermostat, so forties on the outside translated to fifties on the inside, and green eyes just barely peeking over the blanket.

“’S cold, Dan!”

“I know, babe.  I should’ve turned the thermostat on to heat.”  I got out of bed.  The temperature made the floor cold and bare feet stepped spritely as I reached the thermostat and flipped it on, then raced back to dive under the covers.  I knew EXACTLY what to do next.  Cold feet.  Warm girl.  BINGO!

Screech!!!  “Your feet are ICE!”

“But sweetie, you’re sooooo warm!”  I laughed, cuddling her giggly form in my arms. Kissing Cindy in the morning was finding the universe in harmony.

“Mmmmmm, baby.  We sleep sooooo good together.  But it’s even BETTER when it’s cold and WE’RE warm!”  And then “What’s it like to make love UNDER a blanket?”  And a hand found my dick, already hard.  She pushed me over onto my back, climbing on top of me, then kissing me a quick peck, and then saying, “Nope!  You gotta be on top!”

We rolled together, her legs spreading to accept me.  A wiggle had me sliding into a tight but oh so accepting pussy.  I reached full penetration to her sigh.  She drew a breath and as our eyes met, she giggled.  “We’re so perfect together, Dan.  We feel sooo darned perfect!”

I kissed her perfect nose, drew back enough to see the scattering of freckles across it, and answered, “Yes indeed we do, cutie!”  And was part of the wonder of making love with Cindy.  She was giggling, laughing, savoring, eyes laughing at the pure joy of coupling, right up to the point where she’d bite her bottom lip, a sure sign of impending orgasm.  And our bodies on this cool morning merged with each other and in some minutes of kissing and grasping and pushing and sliding and the bottom lip was pressed by perfect white teeth, the eyelashes fluttered over improbable green, and I struggled to hold my own until I felt her first spasm, then I released with her.

“I’m hot NOW!” she announced, throwing the bedclothes off us.  “and we’re gonna have a mess!”

The “mess”, of course, was what we’d have from leaking juices from a happy and vigorous coupling.  “I’m gonna clean MY end!” she announced, and spun around, presenting me with a view that, although I’d seen it many times in the last three months, was always  new and exciting, and I happily lapped her juicy pussy clean, again listening to happy giggles, then an “Nnnnnnnnngghhhhh!” through clenched teeth as she came once again.  When she recovered and turned back around to put her head on my chest, she dragged the bedspread up with her, covering us up again.

“This is gonna be the BEST winter EVER!” she told me.

“Yes it is, angel.  And I’ve already had forty-two of ‘em.”  I cradled her in my arms, stroking her red head, selling the remnants of the dab of perfume she always seems to dab on before going to bed with me.  It was just a dab, and sometimes it was her throat, sometimes the nape of her neck, sometimes behind an ear, occasionally between her perky breasts, or right on her pubic mound, her muffin, and I always took time to search for it.  Last night it was on the back of her neck, under her hair, and I kissed the spot.  “Mmmmmm!”

Of course the cooler air meant that the bicycle rides were now going to be in jeans, but she defined the effect of jeans on the female form, bent over the handlebars, her legs pedaling, the musculature smoothly flowing under blue denim.

Another thing, too.  A couple more visits to the Hardesty’s and he and his wife Ann and I decided we were ready for the public.  And Cindy had a voice.  And one Saturday evening we played our first public show at the RV park pavilion, our audience twenty or thirty weekend residents.  We weren’t good enough to do requests, and our repertoire was limited to a few bluegrass favorites, but the ticket price, i.e., free, and the acessibility, we showed up, and sometimes enthusiasm covers up the occasional (all too occasional) wrong note or missed chord change, and a fourteen year old redhead with a microphone and a sweet, although untrained, voice, we got ovations.

Deeper into November, another milestone loomed.  Thanksgiving.  I had a mandatory invitation to my sister’s house for Thanksgiving.  She lived in the same town that we grew up in, the town where I owned a home, and it was pre-planned that I would be there.

Thanksgiving week at the project, we were fighting the schedule.  My stuff was on track,even a bit ahead, but other parts were lagging, fighting, and it was ordained that we would work the Monday and Tuesday of Thanksgiving week.

And that week was coming.

Chapter Seventeen

Wednesday, the week before Thanksgiving, I walked into the office trailer at the project.  Sara was moving another stack of paperwork onto a growing pile.

“Be careful, lady,” I said. “Safety’s gonna put barricade tape around that stack!”

“Don’t I know,” she laughed.  “I’m so far behind.  I need to hire a temp to do some filing.”

“why’n’t ya get one?”

“Too much hassle.  Just for a couple of days’ work.”

“Cindy’s out of school that week.  She’s gonna hang around the park anyway.  I can ask her…”

“You mean, Cindy, the Engineer’s Apprentice?”  Cindy’d made three more trips to the site, second with a few more of her classmates, with me as tour guide, the third and fourth, just by herself.  And that fourth trip, a couple of the other engineers whom she’d questioned presented her with a pocket protector filled with pens and pencils.  And a hard hat with her name on it.  She was almost a mascot.

“Yeah.  I think she’d do it.  She LIKES you.  Don’t ask me why.”

Sara laughed.  “Because I am an island of femininity, charm and sanity in this pool of testosterone.”

“Uh, yeah, that’s got to be it.  Say, ‘dyou think we can, like, PAY her?”

Sara’s eyes twinkled.  “Let me run it by the boss, but he’s seen Cindy.  I think we can cover a couple days at six or seven buck an hour.  Ask her.”

“I will.  I sure will.”

During a lull in the day, I called my sister.  She picked up.  “Hey, Tootie!” I said.  “Looks like we got all the arrangements made.  We’re comin’ home for Thanksgiving.”

“We?”  Sister’s actual name was Adele.  Nobody called her that.  She was Tootie to everybody she knew.  “What’s with “we”?  Last time we talked, you had a girlfriend.”

“Not anymore.  Married her.”

“No shit!”  Tootie sometimes lacked decorum.  “When?”

“A week after the last time we talked.  You ought to call more often.”

“Phone works both ways, brother,” she laughed.  “Oh, well.  You’re a big boy.  What’s she like?”

“Like eighteen.”

“Whaaaaaat?  Are you crazy?  You’re joking, right?”

“Nope.  Dead serious.  And get this.  She’s a certified genius.  After she graduates, she’s going to college for engineering.”

Incredulous noises.  “She hasn’t even graduated?  You married a high school girl?  Wait!  She not pregnant, is she?”

I coughed.  “I’m hurt.  You know I got fixed after Catherine was born.”

Yeah, but they can reverse those things.”

“No, she’s not pregnant.  Anyway, I need you to get my house opened up and aired out.  You can do it yourself if you want.  Or hire somebody.  I’ll pay.  I just want it ready when we get there next Wednesday.”

“I’ll do it,” she said.  “You can pay me.”  She snorted.

“Who all’s gonna be there?”

“For Thanksgiving dinner?  Me and Mike, you and whoever…”

Cindy.  Here name’s Cindy.”

“Okay.  You and Cindy.  And Jerry and Sheila.”

“What about the kids?”

“Not gonna be here for Thanksgiving. One of mine is stationed in Europe with his wife.”

“Yeah, I know.”  Her son was twenty two and in the army.

“And Debbie’s in California with her husband.”

“Okay.  And Jerry’s sons?”

“Neither of them are gonna be here.  One’s working four states over and the other just joined the air force.”

“Oooo-kay!  I was just wondering.”  I heard my desk phone ring.  “Hey, Toot!  I goota get another call.  I’ll talk to you later.”

 

Okay, brother!  I gotta go spread the news…  Bye!”

That afternoon when I got to the park, it was darkening.  The lights were on in the office and I saw Helen and Cindy through the window, along with an elderly couple who belonged to a big motor home parked a couple of spots down.  I walked in.  “Hi, Helen.  Hi Cindy.  Hello, folks!”

Helen handed me a couple of envelopes, my mail.  “Here ya go, Dan.”  She nodded to the old couple.  “These people are wondering if you and the Hardesty’s are gonna do a show this weekend.”

The old guy said, “Heck with THEM!  Just let this little cutie stand on the stage an’ sing!”

“Oh, George!” his wife chided.  And to me and Cindy, “You people were very entertaining.  This old goat and I loved it!”

“I’ll see what I can do, folks,” I said.  “We may be up for another round of public embarrassment, huh Cindy?”

She smiled, “Yessir.  It was a strange an’ wonderful experience.  Ya’ll were strange an’ I was wonderful.”

The old couple laughed out loud.

Helen said, “and besides singing, she’s a comedienne, too.  Dan, try to get the Hardesty’s.  I’ll bring the judge.  Even if he don’t like banjo music.”

Cindy chirped brightly, “The judge is Mizz Helen’s boyfriend.”

“Ooohhhh,” said the lady.  “That’s nice!  Anyway, I’m going to drag my old goat home.  I hope you play this weekend!”

“G’nite!” Cindy said as they exited.

After they left, I said, “Cindy, Mizz Sara wants to know if you want to work for her Monday and Tuesday of next week.”

Squeal!  “She does?  What’s he want me to do?”

“Help her with her filing.  I know you know the alphabet.”

“I can do that,” she said.

Helen looked at me.  “Really?”

“Yes ma’am!  Cindy’s got her first job.  They’ll even pay her.  Cash!”

Helen smiled.  “Ain’t that somethin’.  What about Saturday night?”

I looked at Cindy.  “You up to it, princess?”

“Yep!  I’m a star!”

“Yes you are!  The brightest star in Beanpole, Alabama!”  I flipped open my cellphone and punched up a number.

“Jim,” I said.

“Heeeyyyy, Dan!  What’s up?”

“I got us another gig for Saturday night if you an’ the missus are up for it.”

“Oh, just a second.”  Off the phone I heard him put the question to the wife.  He got back on the phone.  “Yep!  We’re up for it.  Same astronomical pay?”

“Yeah, and the undying admiration of a couple dozen aging Yankees.”

“Six thirty?”

That’ll work.”
“’Kay.  Cindy’s gonna sing?”

“Yep!”

“Great!  The crowd won’t boo a pretty girl.”  He laughed.

“Then between Cindy and Ann we’re safe, huh?”

“You got that right, buddy.  She hollering for supper now.  I’ll talk to you later.”

“Okay, buddy!  Talk to you later!”  I turned to Helen and Cindy.  “Helen, tell the judge to put on his overalls for Saturday night.  We’re on!”

“ThAT’S great!” Helen exclaimed.  “We’ll be there.”

“As long as you don’t expect too much…” I laughed.

Cindy added, “WE have fun.  Looks like some people enjoy that.”

Helen smiled as we bid her good night, climbing into the truck.  Once inside, Cindy asked, “D’you think we’re riding enough to be able to do catfish tonight?”

“Yeah,” I said.  “I think so.”

“Then catfish for supper.”  And we headed out the park gate.

Thursday mid-morning, my cell phone rang.  I looked at the screen.  Helen.  “Hey, Helen.  What’s up?”

“Jim Hardesty just called.  Wants to know if he can see us tomorrow at 9 AM.”

“Trouble?”

“No,” she said.  “He said he wanted to talk about something called an IEP.”

“Oh…  He mentioned that a while back.  Trying to see what he can do for Cindy.”

“Can you make it?  I know it’s short notice, but I’d rather not go without you there to interpret.”

“I can be there.”

When I met her and Cindy at the office after work, Cindy asked the first question.  “What do you think this is about?”

“Nothing bad, baby.  Dan’s trying to get you where you can do yourself some good.  You’re marking time in middle school classes.”

“Tell me about it.  I’m the assistant math teacher now.  I even do remedial students.”

“Good,” Helen said.  “It’s good that you help other folks.”

Cindy grinned.  “It’s fun when they want help and want to try.  I don’t work with ‘em if they don’t want help.  The real teachers get those.”

“I can see where that’s a good idea,” I said.

The three of us chatted for a few more minutes before we exited to go chase the elusive Alabama salad.  Having made the little restaurant a twice a week destination, we were greeted like old friends, and we didn’t leave immediately after the meal, either, because we usually talked with one or both of the owners after the meal.

We returned to the trailer feeling the coolness of a fall air.  After showers, Cindy said, “Turn the heater down.  Makes snuggling so much better.”

I can find nothing wrong with that sentiment.  We stayed up playing cards until ten and then I turned the thermostat down to fifty-five and crawled into bed, aiming for a spot beside Cindy.  Except Cindy was a moving target and I ended up between her legs, her arms around my neck, and her face home to big smile.  We kissed.

“D’you know that I love you?”  Another kiss.

“Yes, I do, little girl,” I said.  “And I love you too.”  I felt her moving her crotch underneath me, her moist slit engulfing my hardening dick.

She giggled.  Another wiggle and I slid inside her and she sighed.  “Mmmmmm…  You feel sooo good, babe!”

“We really do, don’t we?”

“Uh-hmmmm…”  Her mobile form was surging against me, meeting my thrusts with her own enhancements.  Then she giggled.  “Let me suck you, babe.  Sixty-nine?”

“Oh, yeah!”  I said. She spun around, tossing the covers off us and presented me with moist pink perfection.  Her little clit was excitedly peeking out of its home.  I licked the length of her slit, my tongue ending up against its firm little head and I flicked it a couple of times, eliciting moans from the lips encircling my dick.

“Mmmmm!” she said, holding my dick in her hand.  “When you do THAT, I’m afraid I’m gonna lose control and bite you too hard.”

“Babe,” I said, “You just bite me as hard as you want.  I love eating you.”  And I went back to the happy meal in front of me.  She hooked her teeth right behind my dick’s coronal ridge and as promised, her teeth bit.  Not hard.  Just right.  And she sucked.  And I licked.  Her hips became more insistent, pushing her pussy against my mouth, encouraging me.  A subtle change in her flavor told me she was just about there.  I sucked her clitty in between my lips and flicked with my tongue.  And she went over the edge.  My dick came out of her mouth and she held it against her cheek as she came.  Finally she turned her head sideways and chewed on my like an ear of corn, then said, “Your turn!”  And she sucked me into her mouth.  The combination of hand, suction and tongue, plus the heady scent of her pussy, and I went right over the edge myself.  After the second spurt, she giggled, sucking the subsequent surges from me.

“I love making love with you, babe,” she said.

“You’re the very best, Cindy.  Best ever.”

She cuddled into my side, her hand reaching down and idly fondling my soft dick.  “Really?  I mean, you’re the only man I’ve ever been with, but I know you’ve been with other women.”

“And baby, nobody ever comes close to being a better lover than YOU are.”

“Really?”

“Really.  With others, sometimes I would think afterward, if only THIS was different or she did THAT or felt like THAT, or stuff.  I had my fantasies about how it was supposed to be.  But then YOU came along, and it never crosses my mind that it could be better.  And fantasies?  I didn’t have enough imagination to dream of how it is making love with you.  Really!”

“I love you, Dan.  I will never love another man.”

“And I will never love another woman.  I have this ring on my finger, but I have YOU in my heart and in my head.”

“Thank you, baby.”  She kissed me and we drifted off to sleep in each other’s arms, the sounds of great music on the stereo.  Sweetness in the night was rolling over half-awake and feeling her body seek mine, molding against me as we shared warmth together.

Friday morning and the alarm was on, and we were up and bustling around.  Our ways parted per the morning routine, and I went to work, arranging my events to let me get loose to attend the meeting at school.

Nine AM found me walking into Jim Hardesty’s office behind Cindy and Helen and Jim.

“You folks can sit down,” he said.

We sat.  Cindy’s eyes cut to mine, then Helen’s and then to Jim.

“Here’s a deal I want you to think about.”

“Okay,” I said.  “Lay it on us.”

Jim fingered a stack of papers on his desk.  “I talked with the curriculum people and the standards people and we all reviewed Cindy’s grades and test scores, and they talked with her teachers and the principal.  And me.”

Cindy fidgeted, uncharacteristically nervous.

“What I came up with, and THEY approved, is a plan that has one Miss Cynthia Susan Smith, age fourteen, graduating from HIGH SCHOOL with the current high school graduating class IF she completes a couple of hurdles.

Cindy giggled.  I was just a small bit short of flabbergasted.  Helen’s mouth was ajar.

“She graduates?  THIS year?”  I asked.  “What are the conditions?”

Jim smiled.  “It all hinges on two tests.  Her teachers told us that she’s TEACHING math and science and history and language.  This kind of put us in the position of having to prove her depth of education, so they say if she takes college placement tests, specifically the ACT, and scores in the top quintile, and if she takes the state’s high school exit exam and achieves scores of competent or better, they’ll give her a diploma.  And letters of explanation and reference that she can use in any university in the state.”

Helen  looked at me.  I looked at Cindy.  Cindy was smiling.  “What?!?!?” I asked her.

“Piece of CAKE!”

It was Jim’s turn to look perplexed.  “Piece of cake?”

“Yessir,” Cindy said, hiding a self-confident smirk, and doing a poor job of it.  “You see, you have these test prep books in the library, and they have sample tests for the ACT.  And I took ‘em.  ALL of them.  And the lowest score I ever got was a twenty-eight.”

“My gosh,” said Jim.  “I had a twenty-three.  Twenty-eight is inside the top ten percent.”

“I managed a twenty-five, and I was an eighteen year old geek.  I told you she was scary smart.”

Helen finally spoke.  “SO let me get this straight.  By next summer, Cindy’ll be a high school graduate and then…”

Cindy said one word:  “College!”  She looked at me, then Jim.  “Engineering school.”

Jim snickered.  “I guess then, that you folks are agreeable with the plan?”

Cindy’s eyes twinkled.  “They agree.”

Helen said, “Hmmmph!  I guess I need to see about a college fund.”

Jim said, “Oh, I wouldn’t worry too much about that.  I called a few people.  If she wants to go to state, she’s got a “gifted” scholarship.  Full tuition.  Or Auburn”

“Man!” I said.  “That’s a hundred grand right there.”

“Well, ya’ll can talk about that later.  We’re good to go with the plan.  I talked with the principal about attendance, too, and they’d like to see that she makes most of the days to the end of the year.”

“I can DO that!” Cindy said. “So if I graduate, do I, like, get to do that cap and gown thing?”

This got Jim laughing.  “Oh, yeah.  I used to play softball with the principal of the high school and I asked him about it.  I want to BE there when you walk on stage to get your diploma.”

That was the end of the conversation.  We did a few minutes of small talk, then I had to go back to work.  Jim and I and Helen walked out into the hall after Cindy and she was skipping, really skipping, down the hall, giggling.

“God knows, sometimes I just LOVE this job,” Jim told us.  “Just love it!”

I drove back to the plant and walked into the office trailer.  Sara caught my expression.

“DAN!  You look like the canary that ate the cat!  What’s up?”

I told her.  “Your soon to be file clerk?”

“Cindy?”

“Yeah, little red-headed green-eyed Engineer’s Apprentice.  She graduates from high school this spring.”

“B-but…  she’s FOURTEEN!”  She shook her head.  “I could tell she was something special.”

“Yes she is,” I said, smiling.  “And full scholarship to Alabama State or Auburn.”

“Dammmmnnnnnn!”  and Sara NEVER cussed.

I told her some of the tidbits of the conversation.  She shook her head.

But there was another conversation when Cindy and I met up at the office after school.  “Dan, how can I go to college and you still work? I mean, you travel.”

“Yeah, Dan,” Helen said.

“Cool it, guys.  First, I don’t have to travel any time soon.  The project runs until at least the end of February.  And I can see what’s around here for me.  Maybe something nearer to the college of your choice.  I have options.”  And for the first time in front of Helen, Cindy threw her arms around my neck and kissed me.

In the trailer, she said, “Dan…  It’s like I’m in a fairy tale almost.”

“I know, princess.  I had NO idea Jim could swing something like this.  But your free and easy days are over, baby.  I don’t know of ANYBODY who went from middle school to college.  But if anybody can, it’s you.”

“With you beside me, Dan.  You put me on top of the world.”

The weekend was pleasant, cool fall days, Saturday night’s “concert” was a success.  We played encores.  That was a good thing, because our little group only knew about five numbers.  Well, The GROUP knew five numbers.  Ann, shifted gears and wrung some classical beauty out when she swapped over from bluegrass fiddler to college-educated concert violinist.  And Jim swapped his banjo for a guitar and between his guitar and my bass, we skipped through some classic rock.  And Cindy knew the words.  To Janis Joplin’s “Piece of My Heart.”

A seventy-year old Yankee snowbird gave me a DVD of the act.  “For that angel,” he said.

The judge and Helen came up to us afterward as we mingled with the crowd.  He looked at Cindy.  “Little girl child,” he smiled, “Helen tells me the news.”

Cindy smiled brightly.  “Yessir!  Isn’t it great?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said.  “Now let me tell you something.  In the next few months people are going to tell you a lot of things, knowin’ you need to choose a school.  But I just want you to know,  I am an Auburn graduate.”  He grinned and mussed her hair. “Don’t you let ‘em talk you into state!”

Cindy and I followed Helen and the judge to a late night eatery for a round of pancakes and coffee.  I knew that coffee that late at night made me restless, but I knew it made Cindy restless, too, and being in bed with a restless Cindy was a goal, not a detriment, especially since we’d wake up on Sunday morning with nothing on the agenda but hanging out and running up the road.

The four of us sat at a table together sipping coffee and chatting.  Helen spoke.  Dan, Charley’s wanting to ask you something.  Cindy and I need to go powder our noses.”

Cindy looked at me, questioning.  I nodded, and she got up and left with Helen.

“Yes,judge?” I asked.

“Dammit, boy, call me Charley.”

“Okay, Charley, but you need to know that inside my head you will always be ‘judge’.”

He laughed.  “okay, son, I’ll buy that.  I want to ask you a serious question.  I think I know the answer, but I’m going to ask one more time.”

I was a little leery.  “Go ahead, sir.”

“I want to know, on YOUR word of honor, that you’re serious about marrying Miss Cindy.”

“On my word of honor, sir.  I would sooner shoot myself than hurt her or leave her.  But you already knew that.”

“Yes, I did, son, but I was talking with some of my colleagues and brought up the facts of your situation.  I guess I’m finally slowin’ down, son, because I am a judge in the Great State of Alabama and that’s almost godlike, forgive me Lord, power.”

I stared at him.

“The facts are this, as given to me by other old men whom I hold in high regard.  State law requires that for a young lady to be married at sixteen, she has to have her parent or guardian’s permission.  Some of my cohorts have, in a few cases, circumvented that law and issued court orders to allow marriage for participants of younger ages.”

“Seriously?  Really?”  I could feel my heart thumping inside my chest.  I thought the judge could see it.

“Yes, son, I should have thought about it on my own.  I guess I’m slowin’ down.  It was more common a few decades ago, when some young lady would turn up in a family way and a family’s honor required that she be married before giving birth.”

“Ain’t like that any more,” I said.

“Tell me about it,” the judge said.  “People don’t care these days.  Honor?  Nobody knows ‘honor’ any more, I guess.  Well a few of us do.  An’ you’re one.”

“Sir,” I said, “Cindy’s NOT pregnant.”

“Didn’t think she was, son, besides, that has nothing to do with it.  Here’s the deal.  When she comes back, I ask her, and if she’s of the same mind,  I execute a binding legal document, signed by her legal guardian, allowing the marriage of an under age girl.”

“You’re serious?!?!?”

“I am. If YOU are.  And SHE is.”  He looked over my shoulder.  “You need to go visit the men’s room, son.  I need to talk to a young lady.”

The squeal was audible through the wall of the restroom.

I came back out.  Cindy was blushing, red.  “Dan!  Dan!  Did you hear?!?!?!”

“Through the walls, babe!”

She was grinning from ear to ear.  The waitress arrived with plates of pancakes.

“Oh!” Cindy exclaimed.  “I don’t know if I can eat.”

“Mister Charley, I fear you have given my bride a fever.  I’ve never seen her turn down a pancake before.”

Judge Peebles chuckled.  “Okay, folks.  Let’s enjoy our pancakes.  And Monday afternoon, you come to my office in town at the courthouse and we’ll do this.  We’ll make you two an honest, law-abiding couple.”

“And keep me from lying to my family,” I said.  I explained to him our plans for Thanksgiving.

“Mighty fine,” He said.  “You go present your bride to your family.”  He looked at Helen.  “If Helen hasn’t told you herself, I’ll tell you.  Saturday we’re getting married too.  One of my buddies is gonna do the service for us.  He’s pastor emeritus at the church in town.”

“Congratulations to the both of you!” I said.

Yes, ma’am, Mizz Helen!” Cindy ginned.  “Congratulations!”

Helen smiled.  “I’m kind of giddy myself,” she said.  But don’t worry.  I’m gonna still run the park.  Just  gonna leave for a honeymoon for a couple of weeks.  Charley’s takin’ me to Europe.”

“Wow!  Nice!” I said.  Charley smiled.

We finished our pancakes and walked out as a group.  “I get to kiss the bride,” I said.  I hugged Helen and kissed her on the cheek.  “Helen, you’re a wonderful friend!  I am very happy for you.”

The judge looked at Cindy.  “Here!” she said, tiptoeing to kiss him on the cheek.  “Thank you Mister Charley!”

Charley called out as we got in the truck, “Monday!”

Cindy slid into the seat beside me. “Can you believe, Dan?  Can you believe?!?!”

“No.  I think this is a dream.”

“Nuh-uh, babe.  It’s been a dream since you came into my life.”  Her head was on my shoulder and her hands were wrapped around my bicep.  “We belong together.”

And yes, we did wake up in the middle of the night.

Late morning we finally left the park, waving at Helen on the way out, headed for late breakfast, our bicycles in the rack in the bed of the truck.  We went to a state park and rode around for a couple of hours, talking, laughing, feeling the sun and the cooling air of autumn.

Monday morning, we got out of bed at the alarm.  As we were dressing, I told Cindy, “Well, baby, this is your last day as a single girl.”

“I know, Dan.  Isn’t it cool?”

“No second thoughts?”

“Nope!  Not since the first time you kissed me back.”

We did breakfast at the little restaurant, bumping into some of my co-workers.  As in “Look!  It’s Dan and the Engineer Apprentice!”  And I found out that if you don’t hold a gun to Sara’s head and swear her to silence, any good news is published.

One old grizzled engineer came up and shook her hand.  “I just wanted to congratulate you, dearie,” he said.  “I’m impressed.  And I want to be there when you graduate from college, too!”

Cindy beamed.  When we walked into the office trailer, I saw Sara.  “There she is,” I said, laughing.  “She does a better job of getting news out than CNN!”

“Hon,” she laughed, “You didn’t say it was a secret and you sure looked proud. So I cut loose.”  She turned to Cindy.  “You’re not too proud to help me with my filing, are you sweetie?”

Cindy smiled.  “No, ma’am!  Just show me what to do.”

“She’s all yours, Sara,” I said.  “Cindy, I have to go to work.”

“’Kay!  I’ll be here!”

“I’ll get you for lunch, okay?  And YOU too, Sara.  You can eat a salad.”

“Hah!” Sara said.  “If YOU’RE buying, I want a filet mignon.”

“Yeah, like that place does filet mignon…”   and I went to my office, checked email, and then went out into the plant with a sheaf of drawings under my arm.  Knowing what was at the end of the day, though, I must admit that my mind wandered more than a little.

I was back in the office at eleven.  Cindy was sitting in a folding chair, smiling, sipping a cup of coffee and talking with Sara.  “How’s it going?” I asked.

Sara replied, “She’s a whiz, Dan.  I had to make her stop and take a break.  Anybody sees her, they’ll fire me and give ‘er my job!”

“Nuh-uh,” Cindy said.  “I watched.  She’s doin’ about a dozen things all at once.  She knows EVERYBODY who walks in the door.  All I have to do is look at the name on top of a piece of paper and put it in a file folder.”

“You have no idea how much help she is,” Sara said.  “She recognizes the difference between invoices and correspondence and stuff and all I did was tell her a little stuff.  She took off running with it.”

“Good!” I said.  “Let’s go get lunch!”  and in my truck, that put Cindy in the middle between Sara and me.  We ran ten minutes up the road and had our “One meat, two vegetables, mashed potatoes and a roll.  We saw a handful of our co-workers coming in as we were finishing up, and after almost an hour lunch we were back at work.

Four o’clock, I collected Cindy.  She bid good bye to Sara and the project manager who came out of his office to see her leave.

“We have an appointment, I believe,” she said.

“Yes, indeed, we do.”

Twenty minutes later, a couple, older male, young female, both in work clothes and safety shoes, wearing identical pocket protectors, walked into the office of the judge.

Presenting ourselves to the receptionist, I said, “We have an appointment to see Judge Peebles.”

The fifty-ish receptionist cooed, “Oh, yes, he told me that ya’ll would be in.  Come in with me!”

The judge rose from his seat when we entered.  I shook his hand, then Cindy did.

“Mizz Baker,” he said, addressing the lady from the desk, “could you bring me those papers.  And the seal.  And get Mary from up the hall.  We need two witnesses.” He smiled.  “We can sign this stuff when Helen gets here, then I will have the pleasure of performing this ceremony.”

We heard footsteps, then Helen’s face peered in the door.

“Come, in, come in, dear,” Charley said.  We need to sign these.”  We signed the papers.  Multiple copies.  Mizz Baker dutifully applied the official seal to each of the several copies.  “You might want to keep a stamped copy close at hand, just in case somebody get s suspicious,” he warned.

He motioned to the rich woolen carpet in front of his desk.  “Mary,” he said, to the new face in the door, “get your camera.  We want to take a few pictures.  And bring that tray of glasses and there’s a bottle of champagne in the fridge.”

“Oh, mercy,” Mary said. “This is an EVENT!!!”

Mary brought a camera with a tripod and set it up in the corner of the judge’s office.  She set the timer and took a picture of the entire party.  Then the judge had Cindy and I stand before him in front of Helen and two witnesses.  And he started.

“You know,” he said, I’ve been judge here for forty-odd years.  I’ve married a bunch of people.  Some of ‘em wanted it.  There were even a few who probably didn’t, except for daddy’s shotgun.  But this is one happy couple that I feel real good about!”  He smiled and opened a little leather-bound book.  And read the words.  And we said the vows.  And he said,” I now pronounce you man and wife.  Dan, you may kiss your beautiful bride.”

Between Cindy and I, there were four streams of tears.  Add three more sets, Mizz Baker, Mary and Helen.  And I don’t know… maybe Judge Charley Peebles had a couple himself.  Kisses and hugs and handshakes were passed around, along with congratulatory words.

Cindy and I walked out of the building into the late afternoon sun, holding hands.  At the bottom step of the courthouse, I made her stand on the step as I stood on the ground, and I turned to her and in front of everybody, in front of the whole world, I kissed her.