Nina

Chapter 1

One of those perfect spring days. We get so few of them down here on the Gulf Coast between our two seasons: cold and wet, or hot and wet. I couldn't resist. I grabbed my e-book and headed for the park. The book stayed in the car while I fast-walked a couple of miles on the walking path. A good brisk walk felt good. I passed up all but one woman who, dressed in spandex and an athletic tank-top, was obviously a regular.

After my half an hour was up, I retrieved the e-book and settled onto a partially shaded park bench to read and relax. I was near the playground equipment and a half-dozen or so kids from toddler to about eight were climbing, swinging, sliding under the watchful eyes of a couple of adults, one an obvious mommy and the other with all the marks of a divorced dad doing his weekend with the kids. I opened my Kindle and punched up the middle of the book I was currently reading.

It was just about idyllic. The kids' voices were far enough away as to not be annoyingly loud, and they were all happy, and closer, I could hear squirrels and songbirds in the trees. I wished to myself that I'd brought the iPod with me, but oh, well ... I read. And every now and then I'd look up, eye distracted by some movement in my peripheral vision, or some sound caused me to look up, or just to change my focus to keep my eyes from tiring.

But the voice startled me. Feminine. With a lilt. "Excuse me. Is that a Kindle?"

I looked up. Young lady. Five-six, maybe five-seven. Not fat. Not skinny, but it was hard to get too specific. Her jeans were loose-fitting and her torso was under an over-sized sweatshirt with the logo of the local university emblazoned across the front. The face was pale, a scattering of freckles across her nose and cheeks. Eyes were an astounding light blue. Eyebrows and hair were dark, her hair almost black, except about an inch of the tips was bleached blonde, stopping just at her chin, and across her forehead at eyebrow level, a set of heavy, straight-cut bangs.

I was thinking "Goth" but the hair was dark brown, and her nose, lips and ears were bereft of the hardware affectations of most Goth chicks. Okay, ears ... A tiny silver round ear stud, conventionally placed in each ear.

All that thought took me about a second and a half before I answered her. "Yes, it is..."

She smiled. I thought to myself how well that fit her face. "I've been thinking about getting one. How's it working out for you?"

"Wonderfully," I said, and then we talked about how it worked and what it cost and what I liked and didn't like.

"Oh, by the way, I'm Nina. Nina Sayers." She offered her hand.

I shook it. "Dan. Daniel Gleason."

"Happy to meet you, Dan. I saw you walking earlier. You come here often?"

"No," I said. "Just in the spring when the days are pretty. This one's beautiful. And you?"

"Pretty often. I'm taking care of that little blonde girl and boy over there. Baby-sitting. If I bring 'em to the park, they'll be tired when I get them home and I can study."

"Study? High school? College?"

"High school senior." I mentally filed that. Seventeen, maybe eighteen. She looked at her charges clambering up the play equipment. "And you?"

I laughed. "Waaay past high school."

"Really ... New SUV. So where do you work?"

I named a local industrial facility.

"I know that place," she said. "I know some people who work there. What do you do?"

"Engineer," I said. "Electrical. I deal with power generation."

"Really?" She didn't sound as if she were feigning interest. "That's what I'm gonna major in when I go to college."

Now I folded my book closed. "Now that's interesting," I said. "No arts major, or mass communications, or teaching?"

"Nuh-uh," she said. "What's wrong? I don't fit the stereotype?"

"Oh, no," I laughed. "It's just that female engineers aren't that common, and I've NEVER met a fledgling."

Giggle. "I've never heard anyone use the term "Fledgling" in conversation before. 'Specially about ME!"

"Get used to vocabulary, Nina. Engineers have some. You're going here to college?"

"Yes," she said. "Where'd you get your degree?"

"Here. Fifteen years ago."

"Really? D'you think they did a good job teaching you?"

"Sure," I said. "But what makes you an engineer is what you do AFTER college."

"That's what I've heard," she said. "That's why I wish I could do something other than babysitting this summer. I mean, the money's okay. Actually the people I do this for pay me very well, but still..."

I reached into my pocket for my wallet and pulled out a business card. Handing it to her, I said, "This is me. That cell number is good around the clock. If you're up for a field trip, let me know. I can give you the tour at the plant."

Her eyes twinkled. "Wow! Thanks!" Her eyes went to an eight-year-old blonde girl approaching. "Oh, that's one of mine," she said. "I guess playtime's over."

The little girl whined, "Mizz Nina, I'm HUNGRY..."

"Okay, Haley," said Nina. "Go get your brother and we'll go..." Nina turned to me. "Dan, it's been really nice talking to you. Really. Maybe I'll see you here again. "She paused for a second, then she patted her jeans pocket. "Oh, no! I'll call you. I want that tour!"

I watched her gather up the two children and walk to a little sub-compact car. They all piled in and she drove off. Pretty young thing, I thought. And I went back to reading. An hour later I was home, alone in my house, except for a big cat that didn't think I was alone as long as HIS needs got met.

Saturday evening, sitting alone playing on the laptop and watching TV at the same time. Sunday morning, get up, fix a light breakfast, then hop in the car and go for a drive through the springtime countryside. Sunday evening, finish up the week's laundry, fix a bowl of soup, do a couple of miles walking in the neighborhood, then shower, and go to sleep after petting the cat, showering, shaving, petting the cat some more...

Monday morning I was at work. Tuesday, same thing. It was a good job. I worked with a compatible bunch of people and we managed our facility well. Office politics was almost non-existent and the pay was acceptable.

About me. I'm divorced. Didn't WANT to be divorced, but wasn't exactly in a textbook "happy marriage" either. But I could've lived with it. Unfortunately, the former wife was one of those "the grass is greener" people and she hauled up and took my daughter with her, three states away, with an old high school flame that she re-discovered on the internet after, just coincidentally, HE divorced HIS wife. And there I was, a house to myself (and the cat) and nothing but child support payments and occasional visits as a vestige of what I thought a "normal" life was supposed to be.

And a religious upbringing left me a mental wreck when I tried the modern dating/mating scene. Trouble was, every woman I'd met was either like the ex, looking for the greener pastures, or was the victim of a husband who'd pulled that stunt on her. And the baggage would've filled a freighter. I got far enough in a few relationships to meet the kids, and I could've gotten a major in abnormal child psychology. A few bouts of that, well, I gave up. I could see myself doing dinner and a movie, or a light social scene, but I wasn't bringing 'em home for the night, nor was I spending the night with any of 'em. My conscience rode tight herd on me.

That's why it was a surprise when, Wednesday evening, my cellphone rang and I didn't recognize the number on the display.

"Uh, hello. This is Dan..."

Female voice. "Hi, Dan! This is Nina. From the park, remember?"

"Oh, hi, Nina." I ran the slideshow entitled "Nina – cute teen girl" from my memory bank. "How are you?"

"I'm fine, thank you." Proper little thing, she was. "Does that offer still stand for the plant tour?"

"Sure. We need to set a date so I can get it all cleared. Next week?"

"Uh, okay ... How about Wednesday?"

"I'll do it. Afternoon?"

Tiny bit of a giggle. "That'll work. I'll make the arrangements on my end."

"We'll do it." I was thinking that this would be an interesting diversion.

"Oh, and Dan?"

"Yes, Nina?"

"I'll be at the park Saturday afternoon with the kids..."

This was a turn I hadn't expected. A ball had been lobbed my way. Interesting. Okay... "Okay, Nina. I was going to be there myself." I wasn't lying, at least not too much. The park was always an option, but I never planned a trip on a specific day.

Brightly, she said, "'Kay! See ya!"

"Okay, bye..." I punched the "end" button on my phone and laid it on the end table. I mulled over a couple of thoughts, none of them of any consequence, and I caught myself before any of them got too far.

Thursday was pretty much routine. Meetings. Walking around my little fiefdom, looking at big spinny things and checking to make sure that a million things were in the right places, doing the right things at the right times. I chatted with co-workers, drank an offered cup of horrible coffee, ate a donut that might have been better when it was bought early in the morning, and then I went back to my office. Last thing on the day's agenda was running down the list of last minute emails.

The normal ones were there, salesmen, other engineers, admin stuff, and ... one I didn't recognize. One from a NinaS8421. Normally my spam filter caught this stuff, but I clicked...

"Dan:

I checked with my guidance counselor about our field trip. He thinks it's a good idea, but he's interested in what sort of things are on the tour. Here's his email. Could you send him something about that? Make it sound impressive.

Thanks, Nina"

And a smiley emoticon.

That was easy enough. I composed a list of interesting features and sent it to him. That was my last shot for the day. I was out the door, out the gate, and on the way home.

In the house, I changed to shorts and walking shoes and did a couple of brisk miles. I was showering when I heard the phone ring. I stepped out and dried enough to pick it up. Nina.

"I hope I'm not bothering you, Dan," she said. "Is it a good time?"

"Well, Mizz Nina, I was in the shower. If you can call me back in twenty minutes..."

"Ooops! Sorry. I'll call back!"

"'Kay! Gimme twenty minutes."

I finished showering and shaving and donned my "knocking around the house in the evening" shorts and t-shirt. I kicked back in my recliner and ministered to the cat. He determined that he needed petting today.

And the cellphone rang again. I looked at the display. Now I recognized the number.

"Hi, Nina," I said.

"Hi, Dan..." she paused. "You don't mind me calling you Dan, do you. I mean, you ARE a lot older..."

I felt the vestigial bubble of my ego deflate. Yes, I was "older". "No, just call me Dan, Nina. That's fine."

Lilt in her voice. "Mmm-Kay! Did you get my email?"

"Yep! Sent one to your counselor. I should've copied you. I'll forward it to you in the morning."

"Thanks! I'm sorry I got you out of the shower."

"That's okay. Thank you for understanding. Some people will keep talking and let me drip dry..."

Giggle. "Yeah! I know. But what I called you about..."

"Okay, what DID you call me about?" I laughed.

"Trig." Her sigh was audible. "Trig finals are coming, and I wanted to see if you'd help me study..."

"Wow. I've been out of school for a while, Nina. Are you sure I'm the guy to help you?"

"Well it's not any of the other students, Dan ... I'm the top of the heap. But I'd like to get the most out of it."

"We could try, I guess. When?"

"Am I being rude if I ask if this evening would be okay? I mean, if you're not doing something..."

"I'm free."

"I'll drive over. Where do you live?"

I gave her a street address.

"I'll be there in fifteen minutes."

"Oooo-kay, Nina. I'll be waiting." And when the phone call ended, I got up and made a frantic pass through the house, making sure that it was a cut above its normal tidiness. I looked at the cat. "Sam," I said. "Best behavior, bud. We got company coming." I was excited enough to talk to the cat. Oh, never mind. He and I had many conversations. Mine were about everything. His were about food and litter box and why I insisted on sitting in his favorite spot, my recliner.

The doorbell rang. I opened it and there she was, a bookbag dangling off her shoulder, those blue eyes twinkling, a big smile on her face.

"Come in," I said. The cat was at the door to evaluate the intrusion.

She saw him. "Who's this?" she asked.

"This is Sam. He runs the place. I am his unworthy and incompetent staff."

"Oooooh, what a beautiful big ol' cat!" She bent over, reaching for him. This is where Sam usually headed for a hidey hole. He wasn't the cuddly kind of cat. But he sat back on his haunches and let her pet his head. And purred.

"Wow!" I said. "You're the first visitor that's ever got to touch him."

"I like cats," she smiled. She closed the door behind her. "Where's the best place to work?"

"My office. Right this way." I brought her up the short hall, past the bathroom. The end of the hall had two doors, both open. One led to the bedroom, my king-sized bed (a vestige of a dead marriage) visible, and yes, made up perfectly, that is, except for Sam's cat-shaped wrinkles in the center. I noticed Nina look in that door.

The other door opened into my home office. I had a desk; a drafting table (got it for free. Everything was done on computers now), a computer table with a HUGE monitor, a file cabinet, a print rack and a couple of chairs. "Here," I said. "Pull up next to the desk."

She sat. I sat facing her as she pulled a trig book and some notes out. "This is nice. You don't work here, do you? I thought you worked at the plant."

"I do some side stuff. Consulting. This is where that happens. I have an office out there, too. You'll see it next week."

"Neat!" she said. She opened up her trig book and shuffled through some papers. "Here's what I want to go over..."

The next thirty or forty minutes we spend going over things. I had to stretch a bit. Yes, I took this stuff in school. And passed, quite handily. There was a "professional engineer" license displayed in my office. But it was still a matter of exercising memories I'd not needed for years. I managed. We managed. Nina actually prodded ME a couple of times, to her glee. And my discomfiture.

"It's two weeks to finals," she said. "I've got a scholarship."

"Really? To the engineering department?"

"Yessss!" she smiled. "But I wanna end high school on the best note."

"You should be proud, babe ... Nina!"

Her eyes cut toward me and at first I thought I'd done something wrong, but the smile stayed there. I'd just called her "babe". A slip of the tongue. But she was a babe. Hiding it in that baggy shirt, but from a range of three feet I saw a delightful face, soft, rounded, open, freckled. And smiling.

We finished up.

"You wanna coke, Nina?" I stood.

"Sure!" Brightly. She finished stuffing her book and papers back into her backpack. "This is nice."

"Nice?"

"Yeah. Your house. You keep it neat. I like how you turned this into an office. What's that other room?"

"Spare bedroom. It turns into a little girl's room for a month in the summer," I said.

"Little girl?"

"Yeah. My daughter's ten. She comes to stay with me for a month."

"So you're divorced."

"Uh-huh ... four years. Sad story. Not the sort of thing I should discuss with a teen-aged girl."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I wasn't being nosy."

"Oh, that's not what I mean. I mean, it's a sad story, and I'm glad you're visiting and I don't want to ruin the moment with sad stories."

She poked her head into the kitchen as I retrieved a couple of cokes and poured them over ice and handed her one. With a straw.

"Thanks," she said.

"Sit." I pointed to the end of the sofa. She sat, and immediately Sam showed up and snuggled up against her thigh. For a brief flash I hated Sam for his ability to do that.

She put her face to him and stroked his head with both hands. "You're just a big ol' fluffy kitty, huh, baby!"

"I can't believe he lets you do that. He won't even let ME do that, and I feed his sorry carcass."

She was sipping her coke and dangling a shoe off her toe.

"So tell me. What's with the hair?"

She tossed her head, bouncing it and flipped her hand under the back of her neck, giggling. "Oh, I just wanted to be striking. Grandma freaked."

"It IS striking," I said. "And I can see where grandma might just take exception to it."

"She's really pretty good about me. Bought me my car. I shouldn't jerk her around like this."

"You live with your grandma?"

"Like your divorce story. Long. And sad. Grandma's the happy ending."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah. Been at grandma's for two years now. Mom's, well, Mom's in prison."

"I'm sorry," I said.

"Oh, don't be sorry for Mom. She wasn't innocent."

"Well..." I stuttered.

"Anyway, I live with Grandma, and life is pretty good. Could be better, but a lot of kids have it worse, too."

"Yeah, I guess so. Life can be messy."

She giggled. "That's a good word for it. Messy."

"So you're an honor student?"

For the last two years. Grandma pushes me. I did "C's" before I moved in with her. Didn't have to study or do homework to do C's. Grandma pushes, and I do A's."

"That's good. A's, especially if you're doing trig."

"Last year was geometry. I did two extra maths and two extra sciences. Chemistry and physics."

"You didn't take the easy road. I'd be proud..."

"Thank you. I am. I mean, I don't flaunt it, but I am." She glanced at her watch. "I guess I gotta go, Dan. Is it too much to ask about tomorrow?"

"No, but come over early and we'll go get something to eat. I'll buy."

Squeal! "Like a date?"

"Like eat and do homework."

She smiled a quirky grin. "Call it what you want. Five?"

"Perfect!"

I had trouble concentrating at work all day Friday. Like a kid going on a date to the movies with his young girlfriend. I slid out of the office right at the whistle and was home and bathed, shaved and ready when I heard the doorbell.

I opened the door to a surprise. The only views I had of Nina were somewhat frumpy, baggy jeans, loose-fitting shirt, hair not exactly disheveled, but not noticeably attended to. The girl standing at my door was dressed in a dark green dress that fitted her well, not tight, but formed, length stopping midpoint between hip and knee, a pair of matching pumps on her feet, and her hair, including the improbable blonde tips, was shining perfection.

It took my breath away. And in retrieving that breath, I caught a subtle hint of perfume.

She had the backpack clasped in her hands.

"Hi, Dan!"

"Good lord, Nina! You clean up very well..."

"UHHH!" she said, feigning irritation, "I didn't think I was doing THAT bad before..."

I laughed, "No you weren't. But it's like you just waxed a Maserati..."

She smiled. "I just thought you might be less scared to take me out in public if I wore something nice. Is this okay?"

"Uh, yeah! You choose wisely, fledgling."

"You called me that before, you know."

"Yes, little one, I DO know." I rattled my keys. "Where would you like to eat?"

"Oh, I don't know."

"Is there something you DON'T like?"

"Nope. I'll eat anything."

"Okay," I said. "Italian? As in NOT pizza?"

"Yeah, but where?"

We had two Italian places in easy distance. One was a national chain. The other was a local place with a good reputation. I named the second.

"Isn't that kinda expensive?"

"I'm buying. And you're dressed for it. Is it okay?"

"Oh, yes. I've eaten there once. I loved it."

Twenty minutes later my SUV pulled into the parking lot and I escorted Nina into the place like the princess she was. We sat at a table in a private corner, not by design, just by good fortune. And we talked.

"What's your grandma say about you coming over?" I asked.

"I told her, Dan. That you were an engineer and you were thirty-something and I met you at the park and you could help me with my school work. Why?"

"Because I don't want an angry grandma after me."

"She won't get mad, Dan. I don't date. I have a few friends at school, and sometimes I go out with a group, but I DON'T date guys."

I guess I raised my eyebrow a little too noticeably.

"Not like THAT! I'm ... I'm, well, DIFFERENT."

"Okay," I said, "do you want to tell me why you're different? I mean, you don't look like your name is really Bradley or something like that..."

She giggled. Did I tell you that her giggle was like tinkling little silver bells? It is. "Thank you for making me laugh. No. I'm a girl. For almost eighteen years. But I get called "dyke" at school because I've never been on a date, not a "date" date, you know, with holding hands and kissing and making out and stuff..."

"Oooohhhh!" Like I was getting it. But I wasn't getting it. Salads arrived. We ate. I noticed that she knew her way around silverware and etiquette.

"It's part of that sad story." She ate a bite of salad. "You might be interested to know that YOU'RE the first guy I've ever gone someplace with, alone."

"Uh, I'm flattered, Nina, but we're at a restaurant."

"I know," she said. "I know." She sighed. Then her nose wrinkled. "I love these peppers!" she chewed a pepperoncini. "What's gonna happen when they retire the space shuttle?"

And we talked about space missions and aviation and space exploration, on through her lasagna and my linguini with clams in white sauce.

She noticed a couple at the table across the room. "In another month I'll be able to have a glass of wine with my meal," she announced. Won't be able to buy it, but if YOU buy me one..."

"If YOUR grandmother says it's okay..."

"Yeah. You need to meet Grandma."

Why did I get the feeling that this was more important than it should have been?

We ended up back at the house, in the office, doing a little bit of studying. She showed me her English paper with an A on it. We looked at her science lessons, such that they were, two weeks before the end of school.

"I can't believe that they're starting reviews already," she said.

"Reviews?"

"Yeah," she snorted. "Two weeks of reviews so kids can pass the finals."

"Oh. Well, Nina," I chided, "everybody's NOT you. Not as smart. Don't catch on, don't retain like you do."

Nina looked at me. "I know ... but sometimes I just want to LEARN!" She was putting her books in the bag.

"Got time for another coke?"

"Yeah. I gotta use your bathroom, though."

I went to the kitchen to fix our drinks and heard the toilet flush. She was leaning over the bar smiling at me a minute later.

"I noticed something," she laughed.

"What? You've got a mischievous look on your face."

"Only ONE toothbrush."

"Meaning exactly what?"

"Just that you don't have somebody else staying here with you. At least not often enough to leave a toothbrush."

"Either that or I date women with poor dental hygiene."

She laughed. "Yeah, that is a distinct possibility."

While I was handing her a glass of coke and ice, I was mulling over a couple of things, first, that she had a quick and inquisitive mind, and second, that she was checking on my single status.

This time we sat at opposite ends of the sofa.

"Lots of books," she said.

"Not as bad since I got the Kindle," I said.

"Uh-huh. And CD's." She got up and scanned the labels, reading some off. "Mendelsohn. Bach. Mozart. Beethoven. Boccherini ... Wow! You've got taste, mister!"

"Try telling that to my ex," I said. "Now I can listen to it any time I want. Alone."

She fixed her eyes on mine. "I love this stuff."

"You got an iPod? I can fill you up!"

"I'll bring it next time," she smiled.

"I thought kids were all into hip-hop and stuff."

She shook her head. "Or here, country and western is big. And I can't do either of them. Noise. Production. Do you ever wonder what went on in Bach's head when he was doing the Brandenburg Concerti?"

"Concerti?" She KNEW the difference.

"Yes. Plural of concerto ... Can you imagine getting into the mind of Mozart or Beethoven? And I'm supposed to get all overheated over four guys who use volume to cover lack of innovation and skill? Puh-leazzzze!"

"My thoughts exactly, babe," I said. I knew she caught "babe" this time. Her eyes...

She sat back down. "It's stuff like that, you know, that makes me NOT fit in. I mean, I can't sit with a bunch of girls my age and get all excited about boy bands and fingernail polish and who's going with who and who's doing what ... It's just not ME. I want to be ME."

"Took me thirty years to figure that out, Nina. Do you know who YOU are?"

"I think so, Dan." Her face was serious. "I have plans for school. I know more about how people are than most people."

"What makes you think that?"

"Living with Mom ... when she wasn't dumping me at Grandma's. I mean, I think sometimes she tried to be a mom, but it wasn't her. And I learned about relationships, because she COULDN'T get it right. Kept experimenting. I learned about women and men and how they are and can be and how things can be so wrong and people just keep doing the same things over and over hoping that something different will happen."

"Wow..."

"Mom's in prison for prostitution and being involved in a meth lab..." Her head hung. She raised it. There was a tear on her cheek.

"I'm sorry, Nina. I wasn't trying to make you sad..."

"Oh, I know, Dan. You've just been nice to me. I don't know why I'm telling you this. I'm just harshing our mellow."

"Nina, you're my friend. Friends talk. Even when it hurts. And sometimes talking makes things feel better."

"Thank you, Dan. For listening."

"And your mom, whatever she did, that's nothing to do with YOU. You're smart and cute and you have your head on straight."

"It's not THAT straight, Dan. Sometimes I'm scared ... I mean, Mom didn't start that way. I don't want to end up like that."

"Your grandma is taking care of you, babe, and you'll do just fine."

She picked up her backpack. Standing there in that green dress, NOT smiling, she was still beautiful.

I stood to escort her to the door. We eased toward it and I opened it for her. She turned to me and looked into my eyes. And kissed me. Light, almost like the touch of a butterfly. On the lips. For a brief second. "You're a good friend, Dan."

"You're a beautiful, bright, delightful girl, Nina." I sighed. Inside I wished I was twenty years younger.

As she walked the short distance to her car, she looked over her shoulder. "Tomorrow. One o'clock. At the park."
Nina 

Chapter 2

I finished my laundry before lunch. At one, I was pulling up into the park near the kiddie playground. I got out. No Nina. I started walking. Fifteen minutes later I had a mile under my belt and had completed a circuit. And Nina's car WAS there. And Nina was walking her charges to the swing set. She released them to go play and then she came to sit beside me. I was sipping on a fountain drink.

"Did I bum you out last night? Dan?"

"No, Nina. You needed to talk. I listened. 'S what friends do."

She eyed my drink. "Can I have a sip?"

"Sure," I said, "if you don't mind drinking after me."

"I'm too thirsty to worry about boy cooties," she giggled, and she sucked on the straw. And before she finished, she looked at me and sucked it one more time, then released it and licked her lips. And handed it back to me. And grinned.

"It's not nice to tease old men, Nina," I said.

"Was that teasing? I didn't think it was teasing." She giggled. "You know," she continued, "I really enjoyed last night. It was a perfect first date. Well, almost perfect. I got all sad there, but it was a good first date." She looked at me a little more intently than I expected. "Can I call it a date?"

"You can. If you want. I had a good time, too, Nina. It's been a long time since I had a day with somebody as pretty as you. You were stunning."

"Uh," she feigned hurt. "I'm not stunning now?"

"Of course you are. You're enough to melt hearts."

She changed the subject. "So where's your Kindle?"

"I left it at home," I said. "Thought that since you were here, I'd have somebody to talk to."

"You do," she smiled. "I like talking to you. So what do you like about being an engineer?"

And off we went on career discussions: what my day was like, what I used from school, how I learned, who I worked with, and all sorts of things about engineering.

"So what made YOU decide to take up engineering?"

"I like learning stuff and doing things. Our guidance counselor gave me one of those aptitude tests, and it said that I had the personality traits to be an engineer. And he said that with my grades, I was smart enough."

"No,"I said. "You're gonna be a lot smarter than a lot of other engineers."

"You think?"

"Yeah, I think..." And looking over her shoulder I saw two little blonde kids approaching. I knew our time was up.

Little Haley whined, "Miss Nina! We're hungry. And thirsty."

"Okay, you two," Nina said. "We'll go home and feed you." She turned to me. "Bye, Dan. Can I call you later?"

"Sure," I said.

And as she walked the kids to her car, I heard little Haley singing, "Nina's got a boyfriend" in a teasing song.

I thought that silly. Flattering. I'd known Nina for a week. Seen her four times, counting today. And there was that twenty years disparity in ages. But what red-blooded guy wouldn't look at her and entertain a thought or two ... I pushed those thoughts away. Since that pretty teen with the striking hair was gone, I headed to my own car and drove home.

Kicking myself. I had a pretty good world going for me up until a few days ago, and now all of a sudden I was feeling alone again. I walked in the house, headed straight to the shower, and performed my evening ablutions. I popped open a can of chili for supper and put some dried beans to soaking for tomorrow.

Dinner behind me, I retired to my recliner and flipped on the TV. I flipped through the channels and found nothing interesting enough to occupy my attention, so I left it on the most interesting of the rejects and put my laptop on my lap and started surfing the net. Remembering that I'd left work abruptly, I remoted into my company email server and checked the email. Nothing new there, but I saw that email from NinaS8421. I copied the address to my personal email program and did a new message.

"Nina- Here's my personal email address. It goes to my cellphone, too. Just in case you need to get hold of me when I'm not at work. – Dan."

And I hit "send". And immediately asked myself "why". I went back to surfing the web, looking at curiousities and funny videos and things. No. No porn.

It was a few minutes after eight when my cell clanged. I looked at the display, hoping that it wasn't work. I have some horrible stories about "Uh, Dan, we need you out here right away. Half the plant's dark..." The display had four letters on it: N-I-N-A.

"Hi, Nina," I said.

"Hi, Dan!" In my mind's eye I could see the smile that accompanied that tone. "I just got in the car. I'm on the way home. Just wanted to call you."

"Be careful while you're driving, Nina..."

"I am, Dan. Uh..."

I beat her to it. "What's your day look like tomorrow?"

"Nothing," she said. "Well, Grandma and I go to church. But we're home at noon. Why don't you come over and meet her?"

"Meet your Grandma? You sure? I mean, HOW are you going to introduce me?"

"My friend. My mentor. She knows about mentoring. Why? Should I tell her something different?"

"Oh, no, Nina. That sounds good."

"And then if you want, we can go for a ride or something..."

"That works," I said. She dutifully gave me her grandma's street address and I wrote it down.

"12:30, okay?"

"Okay, punkin," I said.

"Uh, Dan..."

"Yes, Nina?"

"Is "Punkin" a good thing?"

"Yes it is. EVERYBODY loves punkins..."

"Okay ... I'm pulling up at Grandma's. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

"I wouldn't miss it for the world."

Thirty minutes, maybe forty-five, and the sound popped up on my computer's speakers indicating incoming email. I clicked the email program to the top of the stack and there was, indeed, an email from NinaS8421. With an attachment. A picture.

Nervously I clicked the message open.

"Dan—

Thank you for giving me your personal address. Maybe there are things you shouldn't get at work. Like jokes and links. I know Grandma can't get some of those things.

So now I can send you stuff. Like this picture. Grandma took it. Says it's one of her favorites.

I hope you like it.

Nina"

I clicked on the picture. Nina. Pre-blonde banded hair. Not quite a profile, she was caught turning toward the camera, her eyes and mouth formed into a smile, her hair swinging, the motion caught, trapped, the freckles a whimsical punctuation to a bit of photographic perfection. I opened the picture in my photo editor and printed it on 5x7 photo paper. When the picture came out of the printer, I stuck it in my briefcase.

And the email dinged again.

"Dan—

I thought you might like these too...

Nina"

And three more, one of them a longer shot, giving her whole body, another delightful face picture, a third of her sitting, wearing a dark sweater, her face like the sun...

"Okay," I said to myself. "I can do this." I opened up my picture folder and selected a few for her: Me at work, crawling out of a transformer, a smudge of oily brown on my cheek. Me behind my desk at the office. Me kayaking with my friends last summer. And I sent them.

Ding.

"Dan—

Thanks. The one with you in the kayak, that's going on my desktop...

Nina x"

And I caught the "x". But surely, I thought, that was just reflex to a teenaged girl ... But desktop?

Phone clanged. Nina.

"Hi, punkin," I said. Okay, "punkin" was as innocent a pet name as I could come up with. Like a little sister or something ... I was trying, wasn't I?

"Hi, babe," she said. I was "babe" now. But that was just friendly, right? Right! "I just wanted to talk to you one more time before I go to sleep."

"I like hearing your voice, Nina..." True, I would have probably liked hearing ANYBODY'S voice on some Saturday evenings. Sometimes loneliness was tougher than other times. But this was MORE true.

"I'm listenin' to Beethoven," she said. "But I want more. From you ... uh, your collection. You said you'd let me load some on my iPod."

"Oh, sure! We can do that. Tomorrow, if you want."

"Maybe," she said. "Either that or we do that riding around you talked about."

"Whatever YOU want to do. Tomorrow's your day, okay?"

Sigh. "Okay, Dan. I better go to sleep," she said. "G'nite, babe."

"G'nite, sweetie." I hung up. "Sweetie". Like in little nieces and such, right?

I closed ... started to close the laptop, but I went back to that directory that said "Nina". And I looked at the pictures. I closed my eyes. Okay. Shut the stupid computer down, Dan.

I went to sleep after the nightly round of cat-petting.

I didn't sleep too late. I was up, breakfast out of the way, a cup of coffee, and catching up on current events, that kind of Sunday morning routine. And the clock crawled. Finally, about a quarter to noon, I did a quick shower and then dressed up. Not too dressy. A good pair of jeans. A polo shirt. Sneakers. With socks. I holstered my cellphone and got in the car. At 12:28 I pulled into the drive behind Nina's little Honda. "Okay, "I told myself, "Here goes."

I got out of the car, walked up and knocked on the door. Nina opened it. "Hi!" she grinned. She turned and said loudly, Grandma, he's here!" And she escorted me into the house with her hand on my bicep.

"Dan," Nina said, "This is my grandmother, Helen Sayers. Grandma, this is my friend, Dan Gleason."

"I'm pleased to meet you, Dan," Helen said. "Nina has been going on about you for a week."

"Nina is a bit of work," I said. "I'm pleased to meet you, too, Mizz Helen."

Helen smiled. "Don't do "Mizz Helen" with me. I'm not THAT old..."

"Okay," I said, but my poor ol' momma would beat me if I hadn't started out that way."

Helen laughed. "So Nina tells me you're an engineer?" She motioned toward an overstuffed chair. "Sit!"

"Yes ma'am. I am an engineer."

"There you go again. And you're helping her with her school work?"

"Uh, she doesn't need much help. We're just reviewing. And I'm showing her what she's in for next year."

"That's what she tells me." She fixed her gaze on Nina. "Nina, could I have a couple of minutes with Dan, please, dear?"

I was nervous now. Hadn't done a darned thing but send her grand-daughter a few pictures of me, fully clothed, but I was nervous.

"Don't be mean to Dan, Grandma. He's a nice guy." And Nina left the room.

Helen fixed me in a serious stare. "She thinks you're a nice guy, Dan. She's known a whole lot of guys who weren't nice. Her mom's uh, friends."

"I AM a nice guy, Helen. I have helped Nina with schoolwork, and taken her to dinner once, and we've talked about everything under the sun," I paused, "including the Sun. She's a terribly bright girl who's given me only the tiniest idea of what's gone on in her life. And she says that the past two years, living with you, are the best she's had."

Helen sighed. "Lord knows I've tried, Dan. I'm surprised she made fifteen without being on drugs and pregnant. Did she tell you about her mom?"

"Was she not supposed to?"

"No," Helen said. "I didn't know if she'd open up to anybody about that. What'd she tell you?"

"Prison. Drugs and prostitution."

"That's the truth. And some more truth is that she's lived with me on and off all her life. Her mom would get a home, bring Nina there, some guy would move in, and Nina would end up back here. Last one before her mom went to jail, I had HIM picked up for tryin' to molest Nina. He tried. Spent a week in the hospital with a stab wound in a very uncomfortable place."

"Really? Nina?"

"Slept with a knife under her pillow. He crawled into her bed naked, figuring she was her mother's daughter, and she took a couple of whacks at his, uh, his manhood."

"Wow." And I cringed a little bit, as any man might. "But Helen, she's sweet and bright, and funny. It seems, just from what little I've seen that she's good with kids. And she's very well-mannered, from what I saw at the restaurant Friday evening."

Helen sighed. "I've tried to teach her right from wrong. Church. How to get along with others. "She's a good girl, Dan."

"That's the side I see, Helen. Are there bad sides?"

"Dan," she said, "the only bad side is that she is very hard-headed and she will stand up for herself. That's the only trouble she's had at school. Two years ago when she started at this school, some girl made some comment about how her mom was in jail and Nina was the same thing. Nina put a fist in the girl's face. Fortunately a teacher saw it and knew that the girl had been goading Nina for a week. Nina got 'counseled'. But they don't mess with Nina, either. Boys neither. One of the football players decided that she needed his special attention. He got HERS. Missed two games with bruises to, you know..."

"Remind me not to get Nina mad at me," I said.

"Yeah," Helen said. "I can laugh now ... But Dan, she's ten days shy of her eighteenth birthday, and two weeks from now she's going to graduate from high school, and she wants an education. I've done my best with her so far."

"It appears to me that you've done darned good."

"I like to think so. But here's the deal. You came along."

"Me? What'd I do?"

"If I believe her, you've done absolutely nothing but be a friend. Frankly, I'm more than a little surprised. She hated men. Until YOU came along."

"B-but ... I didn't do anything."

"That's what she said. Said the first day she met you, she was watching you walk and you walked past a bunch of women and didn't turn and stare at them. Then you were sitting there reading and the same thing: women would walk by and you just looked up and then went back to reading."

"Okay. I don't do that leering thing that some guys do."

"Impressed our Nina, it did. So you're her friend now. She said Friday was her first date, ever."

"She told me that, too."

Dan," Helen said, "Do you have a girlfriend, a significant other, a whatever they call them these days? A woman in your life?"

"No, I don't."

"You're not gay, are you?"

"Uh, NO! Just celibate. Single in a big way."

"Nina. She's almost eighteen. I can't stop her from doing what she wants any more. I mean, I'm not going to let her do anything in these four walls. It's MY house. But it's HER life. And since you seem to be her friend, I'm asking you to be careful with my, with OUR Nina."

"Wow ... sounds like Miss Nina's ... I don't know, Helen. I've been single for a bunch of years."

"Well, son," Helen said. "Looks like you just might have collected a girlfriend."

"B-but ... I'm thirty-eight..."

Helen smiled, "Boy, I know guys who'd die to have an eighteen year old girl falling for him. And stranger things have worked." She sighed. "But, Dan, if you're ... be careful. Let her down easy..."

"Helen," I said, "I didn't even pick her up. But I would NEVER hurt her. A week. That's all I've known her. And..."

"Okay, Dan. I believe you. But if you hurt my granddaughter, I will personally hunt you down..." Her gaze was stern, resolute.

"I believe you. And I won't hurt her. But she's eighteen. What if I'm the one that gets hurt?"

"You will learn about my granddaughter. She's not the hurting kind..."

"You just told me three people who would differ with you..."

"Keep that in mind, Dan." She raised her voice. "Nina, you need to come in here."

Nina was back in the room, and this time she perched on the arm of my chair. Her hand sat on my shoulder, like she was marking me as her possession. "Were you hard on 'im, Grandma?"

"No, I wasn't, Nina. I told him a little background stuff. And how much I loved you and wanted good things for you. That's all. I think you said you two were going out driving this afternoon?"

"Yes, ma'am," Nina said. "I guess. Since he didn't run screaming out the door." She stood up and tugged at my bicep. "Come on, babe. Let's go."

I stood up. "Helen, I guess that Nina and I are going to go for a ride. I will have her back home ... what time?"

"Eight. She's got school tomorrow."

"And I have work. Okay. We'll see you then." And we, yes, "WE" walked out. Buckled in the SUV, I backed out of the drive and headed up the residential street. Once on the road, I rested my right arm on the console, as was my habit. I felt a soft, warm, feminine hand take mine.

"D'you mind this, Dan?" she asked in a soft voice.

"No, Nina, I don't. Are you telling me something?"

"I heard what Grandma told you. All of it."

"And what I said, too?"

"All of that, too..."

"This is scary to me, Nina ... I've known you for a week. It's..."

"Special?!?"

"How did you know that's what I was thinking?"

"I just sort of know..." Her hand left mine and touched my cheek. "How about we just be friends ... And we'll see..."

"I'd ... Just friends ... Okay..."

And the afternoon was just that, holding hands, the occasional caress of face or arm the seemed to be transmitting so much more. We ate dinner at a country barbecue joint, laughing at the mess we made, walked a nature trail at a park, and finally headed back into town. I walked her to the front door. Before she opened it, she turned.

"Thank you for a wonderful day, Dan." And she kissed me. Chastely. Lips closed, but soft, so desirable. "I'll call you tomorrow. Homework. Okay?"

"Okay," I said. This time I got a little bold. I touched my hand to her waist and gently pulled her toward me and kissed her back. "I'll see you tomorrow, baby." And I left.

I don't remember Monday. I did remember a photo in my briefcase. I put it in a frame, camouflaged by being in with a bunch of other pictures of me, co-workers, friends. But a thousand times during the day, I looked up at those eyes.

I was out the gate at four. Home by four-thirty. Bathed and shaved and thinking about supper when the cell buzzed. I was hoping ... Nina!

"Hi, sweetness," I said.

"Hi, boyfriend," she answered. "You busy?"

"Not in the least. Waiting."

"Me too. I'm on the way."

"Come on."

Fifteen minutes later she walked in. "I didn't even knock."

"So I noticed." I reached onto the counter. "Here's something, just in case."

"A key?"

"Yeah. In case I'm not here and you need anything."

"But you're ALWAYS here," and then she smiled. "I guess you're not worried about me walking in on you and some other woman."

"There ARE no other women, babe. And there will BE no other women."

"Serious friends, then, huh?"

"Serious," I affirmed. "Uh, got any homework?"

"Nope. Just reviews."

"Do you need any help? I mean, I'm supposed to help you, you know..."

The grin was enormous. "You DO help, babe," she said. She produced her iPod. "Can we do this?"

"Oh, yeah. Here! Let's get it started. I have most of them on a hard drive. I got the transfer started. It's gonna take a while."

She smiled. "Then put this on." She handed me a CD, Beethoven. Pastorale. I put it in the player and then accepted her tug onto the sofa. This time we were NOT at opposite ends.

"Turn the lights down," she said. I turned down the lights. And she nestled back into my arms and that's where we stayed. No groping. No heavy breathing.

"Mmmmm. You smell good, babe," she said. She nestled her face into my chest.

That presented me with her hair, brushed to perfection, smelling clean, soft to the touch of my lips. I kissed the top of her perfect head and she responded by pulling my arms tight around her. On top of a pair of small but wonderfully firm breasts. But she had my hands captured in hers, and there was no way I was going to make a move to touch things that needed touching, caressing, fondling ... No way.

Her breathing was even, regular ... asleep in my arms. Oh, well. If she wanted to sleep, I'd let her sleep. Finally, a cramp in my leg required, insisted, demanded movement. I tried not to disturb her, but was unsuccessful.

"Mmmmm" escaped her lips. "I thought I was dreaming, babe." I adjusted my crampy leg and she rearranged herself in my arms again. "This is better."

"You were asleep, Nina."

"I know. I didn't sleep good last night. Just tossed and turned for hours it seemed. I don't know how I made it through school today. But the music ... You holding me ... It's perfect. Uh ... I'm sorry I'm not much company, babe."

"Oh, it's horrible, it is ... Lounging on the sofa with a pretty girl in my arms. I am perfectly happy, little one."

"I am, too, Dan. Uh, what time is it?"

"'Bout time for you to head home, babe ... as much as I enjoy this..."

"I know," she said.

We untangled and she stood. I stood with her and then went and retrieved her iPod. "Here," I said. "You'll have good music." I escorted her to the door and got another chaste, tender, lips closed kiss. And a hug. And I kissed the top of her head and breathed the sweetness in, and I let her go.

Tuesday was different. Nina was excited. "Don't forget tomorrow's the day you're supposed to give me my tour," she reminded me.

"Like I could forget. How's that gonna work? Am I supposed to pick you up at school?"

"Can you get off to do that? I can ride the bus, and then you can come get me at school and bring me home at the end of the day..."

"I can do that," I said. "Do they know what we're doing?"

She smiled. "Just ask for Mr. Simpson. He's my counselor. I talked with him and I got a permission slip signed by Grandma and everything's cool."

"I'll be there at twelve-thirty," I said. "Wear something comfortable."

"I can do that," Nina smiled. "I'm looking forward to seeing your world."

"Not just my world, babe," I said. "You're wanting to be an engineer too, you know."

"I know."

"I want to help you." I picked up my car keys. "Let's go for a ride..."

"Where?"

"I don't know," I said. "Just ride around..."

"No," she said. "I liked last night. We just sat and listened to music. It was nice, just to not worry about tests and lessons and school for a while. And be held..."

"Okay," I said. "Just didn't want you bored. What do you want to start with?"

She reached in her purse and picked out her iPod and punched at the touchwheel. "Moonlight Sonata. For starters."

I took the suggestion and lined up her first choice and several others of similar vein on the playback queue of the computer I used to manage my sound system and started the music.

"Dim the lights, babe," Nina said. "And come sit in your chair."

"My chair" was a big recliner. Many a night I'd fallen asleep in its comfy confines. But last night Nina and I had snuggled on the sofa. The recliner wasn't wide enough for both of us. But I followed her instruction and sat. And she slid onto my lap.

"Am I too big to sit on your lap?" she purred.

I answered by encircling her in my arms and kicking the recliner back to deposit her on top of me. "Is this okay?"

And she kissed me. Not the safe, chaste kiss from the evening before. No, her lips, while closed, were hot, soft and searching and I responded in kind.

"Mmmmm," she said.

"Oh, Nina," was all I could do. I sucked in a breath, trying to clear my head, thinking, "Dan, what did you expect? You have her in your arms."

Another kiss. Her lips parted, her tongue tentative, almost frightened, touched my lips and I parted my lips and lightly touched my own tongue's tip to hers. Feeling that, her tongue became emboldened and she probed my mouth as I tasted her for the first time. She broke the kiss after long moments, sighing.

"Mmmm, Dannnnnn..."

"My Nina." My words drew another kiss, her body twisting to put us face to face, her arms between us, her hands grasping my shirt.

"Dan..."

"Nina ... baby. Oh, god..." I breathed in, the scent of a hint of her perfume in my nostrils. "another, baby." And she turned her face to me. This one was hotter than the last. My hands stroked her hair, sleek, soft to my touch, my fingers brushing the bare skin of her neck. When she raised her lips away from me, I touched her face, enraptured.

"Dan ... you..."

"Me? Me, what..."

"No, never mind. You'll think I'm a silly young girl."

"I haven't thought you were silly from the first time we talked, little one. What are you thinking..."

"Stuff that I probably shouldn't..."

That intrigued me. There was a single part of my anatomy that was a long way past any intrigue. My dick was hard, almost painful, because it had gone hard while pointed in the wrong direction. But I didn't think with that. I wasn't going to LET myself think with that. I knew in my head and in my heart that I could not be the kind of man who'd take advantage of Nina. "Babe, I'm your friend..."

She put her fingertip to my lips, shutting me up. "That's just it! You ARE my friend. But..."

"But, what..."

"No, I'm being silly..."

"Try me. I can evaluate silly. I'm an engineer." She kissed me again, almost like she was slaking a thirst.

"Okay ... Dan, is it silly to believe in love at first sight?"

"It's not silly to believe in love," I said. "And I guess it can happen fast, and it can happen ... I don't know, why not? With who?"

"You." she said, simply. "Who am I kissing? YOU!" She sighed, "Dan, you're the first guy I ever kissed because I wanted to KISS him. I mean, I was a little girl and I kissed little boys, like little kids do. But since I was old enough to get over the little girl, little boy thing, I have never kissed a guy. Like since I was ten." She brushed her lips across mine like she was testing, then they melted into mine, her tongue brushing my lips as I opened my mouth to her.

A thousand heartbeats later, it seemed, I was gazing at her perfect face in the dim light of the room, the music of the masters adding to the perfection. It was my turn. "Nina, baby, dearest..."

A brief kiss before she answered. "Yes, Dan..."

"How can I ... I've fallen in love with a dream..."

Giggle. Sigh. "You too?"

"Yeah. And your grandma said..."

"I heard what Grandma said. You hear what Nina says." She sat up a little straighter, out of kissing range. "I am a week short of my eighteenth birthday. I have NOT had a good life except for the time I spent with my grandmother. And at school, even though I have been an outsider. Kids at school know about my mother and they know me, and I don't put up with getting the two of us confused. I am NOT my mother in any way, shape or form. And I am different from other eighteen year old girls. I don't have any illusions about knights and shining armor and castles and princesses and pretty ponies. None of that crap. I am logical and mature and intelligent. And at THIS point, Dan Gleason, I think I have found myself to be in love. With you."

"Wow. That's quite a speech," I said. "Now, do you want to hear mine?"

"You've got one?"

"I didn't PLAN one, but since YOU started it, I am thirty-eight years old, I have been badly hurt by several women in my life whom I've, in each case, committed to spend the rest of my life with. One has my daughter, and the way things are going now, I will never get to be a father to her. I do not easily fall in love, and I do not sleep around or do one night stands. I find that my tastes are different than most people's especially most women's and I had decided that unless some bolt of lightning out of the blue dropped a lifemate into my lap, I would just as happily spend the rest of my life with a cat as a companion." I paused. "And YOU'RE in my lap. Thirty-eight year old guys are NOT supposed to be in love with eighteen year old girls. Especially after knowing them for a week and a half. But I am in love. And I like it."

"Shut up," she said, "and kiss me. Lots."

I ignored the discomfort in my crotch. I wasn't about to break this mood. I complied with her order and provided her with kisses. Lots.
Nina

Chapter 3


At eight PM I let Nina go. My hands had wandered over her back and shoulders and arms and her hands had done the same to me. Neither of us had teased or attempted to touch skin that was covered by clothing. Chaste. It was little wonder that after seeing her out the front door, I was in the shower easing the pressures that had built all evening.

I wasn't a constant masturbator. I wasn't asexual, it's just that I didn't do fantasies very well. I didn't have a fantasy in mind on this night. I saw blue eyes and almost ebony brown hair and that outrageous blonde fringe and laughter and I squirted for relief, not lust.

At twenty minutes after noon the next day I was at the local high school, in the office, asking for Miss Nina Sayers. The middle-aged lady at the office counter sent a student assistant away to get the guidance counselor. I met him in a couple of minutes, a balding, fifty-ish man of husky build.

"Hi! I'm Jim Simpson. Guidance counselor. You're getting one of my prize students."

"I'm Dan Gleason. Electrical Engineer. I promised her a plant tour."

"Ah," he grinned. "Electrical engineer. So THAT'S the connection."

"Yessir," I said. "She indicated an interest, and I let her talk me into an afternoon of wandering around a smelly old chemical plant."

He laughed. "She's a joy. A student who wants to get it. Who works to get it. Gosh, I wish I saw more of 'em."

"Hi, Mister Dan," came a chirpy voice.

I looked to the door and saw Nina, jeans and a long-sleeved cotton shirt, sensible leather shoes, her backpack slung over her left shoulder.

"You ready to go?" I asked her.

"Yessir. Sign me out!"

"Mister Jim, here's my card. Maybe we can get together a program for other interested students."

"Thanks," he said. "I'll call you."

"Okay, do that. We'll see you later." I signed the proper forms and walked out with Nina at my side. We got in my SUV.

She poked me. "Just remember, mister, that this "interested student" LOVES you."

"I will not forget that, baby. This old engineer loves you too."

The ride to the plant was twenty minutes, followed by signing her in the security gate, giving her a visitor's hard hat and safety glasses, and then hopping in the golf cart that was my personal in-plant transport. Somehow, the idea that I had a golf-cart to run around in all day was impressive.

"My time's a bit too important to waste walking back and forth," I said. We did the grand circle around the place as I showed her the production units and the shops and my pet, the powerhouse where two big generators converted steam to electricity. "Wanna see my office?"

"Sure," she beamed.

I pulled up and parked.

"You have your own parking spot."

"Yep. And my own office." We walked in the door and I started introducing her to my co-workers.

Old guy, Harvey. "So this is the one you've been telling us about? Nina, is it?"

"Yessir," Nina said.

"And you're wanting to be an electrical engineer?"

"Yessir."

He laughed. "I wish my daughter'd want to be an engineer. I'm paying out the nose so she can go into marketing. Hah! Miss Nina, you're too pretty to be an ELECTRICAL engineer. You ought to do mechanical."

Nina laughed. "Oh, no sir! Mister Dan says they're all knuckle-draggers!"

Harvey guffawed. "That's what I expected him to say."

I showed Nina my office, the piles of books and prints, the big monitor for the computer, and the unit clerk, thirtyish, plump, smiling Jannie.

"Jannie," I said, "This is Nina Sayers. Soon to be an engineering student."

"Hi, Mizz Jannie," said Nina.

"Hi, Nina," said Jannie. "Don't let him fill your head with ideas. I run this place."

"She's right, you know," I laughed. I guided her to my office.

"Hmph! The one at your house is neater," she observed.

I showed her some artifacts of some notorious equipment failures, a few pictures, a few examples of our drawings, and then we went back out into the loud, smelly world I worked in. The tour took us in the noise and heat and humidity of steam powerhouses and clean, cool, high-tech of modern control facilities. We peeked at the maze of wires that did the control, and at the arm-thick cables that moved huge amounts of electrical power, and the odd-looking apparatus of high voltage substations, and she drank it in.

We caught a crew of electricians at work pulling in a new set of cables and she pretty much shut the job down by showing up. Pretty young girls with striking hair showing underneath their hard hats can do that. And I really flustered the crew leader by asking HIM to explain a bit about what they were doing. And she smiled and thanked him.

We toured a couple of production units and I took her to the quality control lab so she could see chemists testing the final products. And I introduced her to the plant's engineering manager and told him that Nina would be lining up for a summer internship a year hence.

Four o'clock saw us pulling my golf cart into its slot so we could walk together to the parking lot. I signed my fledgling out of the plant and then scanned my own badge to end my day, and we got in my car to head home. As soon as we cleared the boundary fence she grabbed my free hand, hauled it to her lips and kissed it.

"'Cuz I can't crawl over the console and kiss YOU!" she cooed. "That's all so wonderful, Dan!"

I shook my head, almost disbelieving. "It's WORK, doll!"

"I know, but EVERYBODY'S got to work at something, and that's INTERESTING!"

"It is," I admitted. "It's what I like to do. Well, maybe not the paperwork, but the technology, the constant mental challenges of making things work better, helping people learn to do things, that's what I like."

"I saw that, baby," she said. "Those guys we talked to, you could see it in their faces, that they thought a lot of you."

"I don't know about all that," I said. "I've pissed 'em all off at one time or another."

"That happens between people," she said. "If you're put together, there's always going to be times when you don't necessarily want the same thing at the same time. But there's always somebody who's right, and somebody who's boss. You have to hope those two belong to the same person at the end of the day, and that everybody is mature enough to get past getting told "no" and go on."

"You're a wise young lady." I took my eyes off traffic long enough to regard her pretty face.

"You don't live with my mom without getting crash courses in human relations, Dan."

"I suppose. And you seem to apply them yourself. The right way."

"I try. But you know, I know other people who try sometimes, and things just go wrong. Like I said, one person's right, and one person's going to win, and you hope those are both the same person. Because if the one who's right, loses, well..."

"But sometimes that's the way life is, babe," I said. "sometimes being right is a matter of life or death. Sometimes being right is choosing the entertainment for the evening. One battle is worth pulling out all the stops. The other is worth a shrug and eating spaghetti because that's what your partner wanted instead of schnitzel."

"Don't sweat the small stuff, huh?" She giggled. "And most of it IS small stuff."

"Yeah, like dinner tonight. I drop you off at your house, you clean up and get a little bit dressed up while I go to MY house and do the same, and then I pick you up for dinner and I'm thinking rib-eyes and you're thinking enchiladas..."

"Actually, I was thinking of calling Grandma and seeing if she wants to go out to eat with us. She's got this friend..."

"Boyfriend?"

Giggle. "If you want to call a sixty-something guy "boy", I guess so. But we could ALL go out and eat."

"That would be nice. Makes us look respectable."

"Hah! Babe, we ARE respectable." She smiled.

"Yeah, once you get past the part where a seventeen year old girl is running the roads with a thirty-eight year old guy."

"Where the guy is an engineer who just took a high school student on a field trip. And helps her with calculus and trig and physics." She sighed, sounding a bit exasperated. "Besides, I'm a week shy of being eighteen, and at eighteen if I want to go out and get MARRIED, I can, with nobody's permission..."

"Except maybe the guy you're marrying..."

She laughed, "Yeah, there is THAT. But what I'm saying is that there's nothing illegal."

These conversations were what I liked about Nina. She let her mind roll around a subject, as much to see what SHE thought as what I thought. "Nina, punkin, " I said. "There's a huge difference between what's legal and what's considered proper."

"Believe me, babe, I know that," she continued. "And sometimes," she continued, "that's good. And sometimes it makes NO sense at all. Like, I'm seventeen. D'you KNOW how many seventeen year old girls I know of who are still VIRGINS?"

"Uh..." I had no idea.

"I'll tell you. One. ME! But I don't know everybody. But the girls I hear, they've ALL done it. Some of 'em do it a LOT. With a lot of different guys. I'm sorry. I had a mom like that. I don't EVEN want to be like Mom."

"But just because a lot of people do something doesn't make it right. Stupidity can flourish in large groups."

Giggle. "I saw that on a sign in your office!" I had a poster that said "Never underestimate the stupidity of people in large groups."

She kept on. "But what irks me, Dan Gleason, is getting lumped into the group. Like my hair. Until I did this blonde tipping thing, I looked pretty conservative. I don't do fashion trends. But do something striking to my hair, and then I was lumped in with a group. Just because of how I look." She sighed. "That was a revelation. Even some of my teachers..."

"You learned a lesson."

"Yeah. I should've gotten it trimmed off for my birthday."

"You do what you want. I have to admit, though, the first day I met you, I saw the hair and the first thought was "Goth chick". Until I looked closer and saw dark brown, not black, and the only piercings were one in each ear. And then you started talking, and that erased any preconceptions I might have entertained."

"See," she said. We turned on the street of her grandma's house. "Anyway, what I'm saying is that in some cases it's okay to go counter to the accepted norms. Sometimes the norms are good. Sometimes they're stereotypes. And eighteen and thirty-eight..."

We pulled into her driveway. This time she did climb halfway over the console and deliver a chaste kiss. "I'll call you after I talk to Grandma ... See ya, babe!"

I smiled. "See you in a bit, angel." I wanted, almost blurted, "I love you..." but how stupid could I be, three weeks into knowing her. But then I remembered already crossing THAT line. I drove home, silently thinking. At the house, I met the cat at the door, gave him a perfunctory scratching behind his ears, then stripped, showered, shaved, and the phone rang. Nina.

"Hello, little girl."

"Hello, old man," she giggled. "Can you come get me in forty-five minutes? Grandma's gonna ride with Ed. That's her guy. And I wanted to ride with you."

"Where are we going?"

"I hope you're up for that Italian place again..."

"Good memories there. Most wonderful first date in my whole life took place there. With a girl you'd think was a Goth until you found out different..."

Her voice was lower, almost a whisper... "Dan, you say sweet things to me..."

"You mean sweet things to me."

Her sigh was audible over the phone. "See you in forty-five minutes, okay..."

"I'll be there, babe!"

Dinner was an enjoyable time. Nina's grandmother, Helen, was an interesting person in her own right, and her "friend" Ed was a business man, semi-retired, and a funny guy, smart, acerbic wit, and Nina, was, well, in conversation, capable beyond her years. Salads came and went. Entrees. Desserts. Coffee.

In the parking lot, we split up into two couples again. I promised to have Nina home by nine, it being a school night. That gave us an hour alone together and Nina's comment: "let's go to your house."

Twenty minutes later we were there. In my recliner. With Nina in my lap, and we were kissing and caressing one another, each keeping hands strictly limited to no private areas. The only feel of her perky, smallish (now that I'd seen her in something other than over-sized shirts) breasts was the feel of them pressed against my chest or arm. The only feel of her softly curved, shapely butt was it pressed against my lap.

Her lips melted me, though. Except for one particular part, and I knew she HAD to feel it pressing against her from inside my trousers, but she never acted as though it was of concern to her.

"I know we don't have a lot of time, tonight, Dan, but I just needed you to kiss me and hold me." We kissed. I lead the way at first, but her own mouth was ranging around my neck and face now, and I said NOTHING about her use of her teeth but she had a habit of attaching herself to my neck and sucking and biting.

I loved it, although I cautioned her about visible marks. We kissed and caressed. "Dan," she said, "I ... Uh ... You make me feel ... Uh..." Her voice fell to a whisper. "I love you. You make me love you."

"I love you too, Nina..."

She turned her head. The clock was clearly visible. And our evening was almost at its end.

"Dan," she said, preparatory to dropping a bomb, "I wish I didn't have to go home..."

I took a deep breath, knowing that the response to this simple statement was of monumental importance to the future of Dan and Nina. "I think that would be wonderful. I love having you near me."

Kiss. She said, "I mean, like "together", Dan ... I've thought about it."

"I have, too, Nina..."

She burrowed into my chest. "You have? Really? Me?"

"Who else? You're my everything ... If you want to be."

"I do, you know. I've thought about it."

"And..."

And then my Nina shifted from hormonal teen to Little Miss Logical. "And I think we might ... It just could be..." She sighed. "Dan, I love you. Very much. You're the first guy I ever loved..."

"I feel quite privileged to have that distinction bestowed on me, sweetness," I said.

Kiss. "Mmmmm..." sigh. "You've been ... Uh ... Is this the way it is?"

"No," I said truthfully. "It isn't."

That answer caused her to raise herself to look into my face. "No?" Her eyes looked concerned.

"No. Never has been. This," I said, "is the way I WANTED it to be."

"Really? Because it's important to me..."

"Babe," I said, "I look at how we are, three weeks together, and I'm amazed. You walk in here, pull a CD from my collection, and it's Boccherini. We talk, and it's about science and news and philosophy. We kiss, and..."

"I know," she said," finishing my sentence for me. "I know ... You've always let me be myself." Another sigh. "I guess I need to go ... home."

We untangled, my body aching for her continued presence, and then entwined ourselves together, standing, kissing, and I felt her hand slide downward past my belt and over my butt. And then pull away. Her eyes surveyed mine but she said nothing.

A short while later we were at her house and I walked her to the door. Ah, the "door kiss". Chastely, she tiptoed and planted and kiss on my lips, short, oh so sweet. "Dan, this has been a wonderful day. We'll have more. And better."

And I went home.

Thursday. Friday. Less than a week to her birthday. A week until her high school graduation. Despite her grades, she wasn't valedictorian. She'd only maintained the high average for the past two years. The kid who got the honors had been pumping out straight A's for four. And wasn't doing four maths and four sciences and was likely headed into liberal arts instead of engineering. Nina's commentary on this fact was wry and laconic. "He played the game for points. I'm after knowledge."

Saturday was her babysitting job. We did meet at the park and sat together while her charges worked themselves to exhaustion, and I retired to spend Saturday night accompanied by my cat. And the cat missed Nina.

Sunday I got Nina after church and we did the classic drive in the country. Monday was the last of her final exams. Grades were Wednesday, and Friday night I was in the stadium watching my love receive her diploma, along with five hundred other kids. I knew that many of them were headed off to parties afterward. Nina'd told me that she'd been invited.

"Babe, go if you want to. This is your only high school graduation."

"Yes it is, Dan," she'd said while holding onto me with her arms around my neck. "Let's see. What should I do? Choices ... I could go to a social event with the same kids who used to give me pure hell, and where there will be drinking and drugs and loud music that I fail to appreciate, or I can come here, have a quiet dinner with a man whom I adore, and listen to the masters ... Oh, such a difficult choice..."

"Did I mention that you have a sarcastic streak?"

"Me?!??!" she squealed in mock indignation.

"Yes, you." I kissed her on her nose. "And I find it delightful."

And that's why, after her graduation ceremony, we ended up at my house.

But her birthday was two days before. And we celebrated with a quiet party for four, me, her, her grandmother, and her grandmother's beau, at a nice restaurant. And I presented her with a ring. No, not an engagement ring. Just a, as I said at the dinner table, "friendship" ring. With a sapphire, because I remembered her telling me that she liked the blue color.

But back to that post-graduation thing. She was eighteen years and three days old now. And our post-graduation dinner was the standard foursome, late in the evening, courtesy of reservations. And after a surreptitious conversation with her grandmother beforehand to make sure I wasn't violating HER wishes, I asked Nina if she'd like to try a glass of wine with the meal.

And Ed proposed a toast: "To Nina, who's like a grand-daughter (he cocked an eye towards Helen and winked) to me. Young lady, may this page in your life turn and find you in a new and wonderful chapter!"

And we clinked glasses and enjoyed our meal.

And in the car after the meal, we headed back to my house, because, she said, "Every place we go will be full of graduating kids. It'll be a madhouse." So we turned towards the house and in twenty minutes I was in the driveway. We walked inside.

After the door closed behind us, I faced a very pretty eighteen year old girl who wanted a kiss. And when she wrapped her arms around my neck to get that kiss, her body formed against me and I felt myself getting hard. I'm sure she did, too, but she made no notice except to merge into my arms. After the first kiss broke, she said, "I told Grandma I'd be home at midnight. She said that was reasonable, considering that it was my graduation."

"That is reasonable, babe." I kissed her again. And when this one broke, she took me by the hand into the living room.

"Sit," she commanded. I sat while she picked music for the evening and loaded the CD player. When she got the music started, she came to sit on my lap. Together we rocked the recliner back and she eased into her snuggle mode, semi-sideways, the soft roundness of her hip pressing into my crotch, her torso twisted to let us kiss and cuddle, and my hands, one cradled her head, the other softly stroked her shoulder and back, never straying lower than her waist, never to the soft, waiting breasts. Her lips, her neck, her ears, those were a playground for my mouth, and she took equal liberties with me, although she did give herself free reign over my chest.

Her hundred and thirty pounds was never the problem. There was a problem. My dick. I learned early in these exercises that I needed to make sure it was pointed in the right direction before we began our marathon cuddling, because the smell, the feel, the taste of her lips, the feel of her skin, I got hard and stayed hard. Was it torture? Yes. And no. I told myself that here was this delightful creature who wanted to be held and caressed and kissed, and I decided that I would do just that until doomsday because of the riches of her smile, her laugh, the joy I got from seeing twinkling eyes and that lop-sided smirk when she dropped a horrible pun into conversations or laughed at our jokes together.

And she said she loved me. In my mind that put me in a different position. Love. Not lust. At least not the lust that put us in bed together. I figured that if she wished that at some time in the future, I would accede to her desires. But that would be at her pace.

We listened to the music for a while then flipped on the TV and watched a bit, talking about what we saw in the middle of some fairly recent chick flick.

"Dan, baby," she said, "is it wrong to want the fairy tale?"

"Fairy tale? Like in "happily ever after?"

"Yes," she sighed.

"I dunno, sweetness. I guess. But I think you have to define your own happiness, and know that pieces of it come up after some tough things. Some people never learn that."

"Do YOU know how to do that, Dan?"

"I was doing pretty good, babe," I said. "You know I love my profession. I enjoy the people I work with. Yeah, I was being pretty happy until about a month ago."

"And then I came along and made you unhappy?" Her face took a sad look.

"No, babe, not a bit unhappy, every day that I have you. I'm just fitting you into my new definition of happy. It's dangerous."

"How's it dangerous?"

"Because I've been hurt before by women I thought I was happy with. And they were happy with me. Until they weren't. Hurts..."

"Oh, baby, I didn't mean to make you sad." Her eyes were moist, on the verge of tears.

"Oh, please, Nina, don't even think that you make me sad. You're the thing in my life that makes me happiest." I kissed her, brushing her bangs aside with my lips so I could reach her forehead. "But you brought the subject up. What's on YOUR mind, babe? Hmmm?"

And a first happened. She rolled her hips to place her body full length on mine. And she propped her face in her hands, looking at me.

"Me. And you."

"Us?"

"D'ya think of it as "us"?"

"Yes, pretty much. Let's see. Since I met you a month ago, the only place I go by myself is to work and to the grocery store. And the park. But when I get there, you're there."

The cat jumped up on the arm of the recliner. Nina stroked him, starting his loudest purrs.

"So, yes," I continued, "it's "us". At least in my mind. But what do you think?"

"Us. But I thought I was being presumptuous."

"Presuming what?"

She had an incredible shyness at times. This was one of those times. "That you could love me. Like, love, not sex."

"You, dearest, are smart, funny, and in my eyes, incredibly pretty. You have a quick wit and you apparently read books without pictures. Your vocabulary includes words like "presumptuous" and others with more than two syllables. If I was a quadriplegic and could never hope to do any more than just see you and listen to you and talk with you, I'd love you."

She smiled.

"But here you are in my arms and I breathe deep when you're around, just to add the happy scent of you to the happiness I get from seeing you and hearing you, and you're in my arms, and I just as well have had my first kiss a month ago when your lips first touched mine, for the way I feel when we kiss. Yeah. Love. Not sex."

"Dan," she said, "Love is ... Is ... forever. I think."

"I thought so, too, babe. But some people don't. I've fallen in love, forever, before. Had it shoved up my nose."

"I'm sorry," she said softly. "I kinda know..."

"How, babe? You've..."

She put her index finger against my lips. "Shhhh! I paid attention. Mom. And had long talks with Grandma about what I saw. I don't want that done to me, like Mom did, guy after guy, getting dumped on because she didn't know the difference between sex and love at first, then later when she just didn't care, and she dished out as good as she got. But you know, somewhere deep inside, I think she was still hoping..."

"It's my turn to say I'm sorry, babe." I kissed her gently. Her lips melded into mine.

"But some people get it, huh, babe?"

"Yeah, sweetie, some do. That old guy who told you to be a mechanical engineer, he's been married forty years. Has pictures of his wife and kids and grandkids. Some do."

Another sigh. "'It's what I want, Dan."

I sighed. We'd had parts of this conversation before ... Gently I said, "Sweetie, we've talked about this. I'm afraid. You're eighteen. Pretty. Getting ready to start college. And every class you go to is going to be filled with kids your age, some of them guys, and you're taking engineering courses, so that screens out a lot of the run of the mill jocks and dumbasses. You'll meet some guy and the two of you will click and then you'll decide to start off your careers together."

This time there WERE tears. "Dan, do you still TRUST people? Me?"

"I want to, baby..."

There was a new insistence in her next kiss. "You'll see." She pushed up from my chest. "Babe, it's time to go. Almost midnight. 'Kay?"

"Okay..." came from my lips. "One of these days ... uh, make that "nights"," was in my head, running around, screaming.

We kissed long and hard, standing. In the car she said, "Babysitting tomorrow, sugar. Meet me at the park?"

"I'll be there. To see my dream in the sunlight, taking care of kids..."

"Brats..." she laughed. "Well, they ARE getting better."

"Yeah," I said. "You said you won't be babysitting all summer?"

"Nope!" she giggled. "This is the last weekend. They're going somewhere for the summer. I won't know WHAT to do with myself on Saturdays after this weekend..."

"I can think of a million things..."

"Me too, love," and she giggled. And I was glad. I loved her when she was giggly. We pulled into the drive at her house and I walked her to her door and kissed her.

By seven AM Saturday morning I was running a fever. I don't know ... some kind of virus, I thought. I took my own temperature and it was 101. I couldn't see straight. Every muscle in my body ached. I tried eating breakfast and it came back up faster than it went down. I staggered back to bed and lay down and passed out.

In the dim spaces of my head, I heard ringing. Insistent ringing. It went away. Came back. Finally, in my fever I deciphered that it was my phone. I picked up.

Nina's voice. "Dan, I'm at the park. Where are you?"

I croaked, "Home. Sick. Fever. Can't move. Throwing up."

"Baby..." she gasped. "I'm coming..."

"No, not with the kids. Don't come here. I don't want to expose you..."

"Grandma will watch the kids. I'm coming over!"

The exertion drained what little energy I had and I flopped back down and in a second I was back out of it.

The next time I awoke, a cool, moist cloth was soothingly wiping my face. "Nina..." I croaked. My throat felt like nails were driven into the back of it.

"Babe, you're SICK! I've been wiping your face for an hour. You've been out of it."

"Uhhh" was all I could get out.

She picked up the electronic thermometer from bedside and stuck it in my mouth for a minute, then read it.

"102," she said. She flipped open her cellphone. "Grandma. He's 102. NO. Semi-conscious. No. I can take him if I can get him to the car." She looked at me. "Babe. Can you walk? We're going to the emergency room."

I tried several times to turn and rise to a sitting position; oblivious to the fact that I was wearing only a t-shirt and tightie-whities. As I was gathering strength, she rummaged through my dresser to find a pair of shorts and knelt in front of my legs as they dangled off the side of the bed. She picked up one foot at a time and put my feet into the pants legs, then pulled them up as high as she could with me sitting. As I tried to stand, she helped steady me and knelt down again, pulling my shorts up, reaching around the back to pull them up to my waist, then tugging up the front. Disastrously, there was a bulge that just didn't fit easily. She looked up at me and saw me dazed and shaking from the effort of standing, and she shrugged and her fingers pushed on the bulge in my drawers and pulled my shorts up. She snapped them then pulled the zipper up, her fingers pushing gently to keep that pesky bulge out of the way. She stuffed my wallet into my back pocket.

She supported me to the front door.

"My car," I said hoarsely, my throat a mass of pain.

"You sure, babe?"

""Sure..."

She picked the keys off the board by the front door and we left the house. She opened the passenger door and pushed me to get me inside and then buckled my seatbelt. "I do this for my kids all the time, she said, trying to make me feel better. She returned to the front door and locked it, then got in my SUV and cranked it up. Fifteen minutes later I was a dazed mess under the awning at the emergency room and Nina was haranguing the staff to get a gurney out to unload me. As the orderlies rolled me inside, Nina recovered my wallet from my pocket and attended to the registration.

Twenty minutes later I was being poked and prodded and stuck and Nina was at my side, fretting, holding my hand in hers. The doctor came in, left, came back.

"Miss Gleason," he said, "He's got bad strep throat. We're going to keep him overnight and put some antibiotics in him."

"It's serious?" Nina asked in a small voice.

"It could've gotten worse and we'd have been in trouble, but he's gonna be okay. This nurse is going to give him a couple of shots. One for the pain, the other is a quick-acting antibiotic. And he's going upstairs."

I was in and out. Swallowing was like having a red-hot poker driven into the back of my throat. The pain-killer was blessed relief, and as I drifted off, Nina patted my arm. "Babe," she said, "I'm gonna go home and get you some things. I'll be back." And she kissed my cheek and left.

Some hours alter I woke up in a hospital room, dimly lit, and there at my bedside was Nina.

"Babe," I said.

"Hi, baby. I'm worried."

I looked at the IV dripping into my arm, big bag of fluid, little piggyback of IV antibiotics which were apparently kicking streptococcus ass in my body. I could almost swallow without wincing.

"I'm gonna be okay. I can swallow now."

"Good." She rubbed my arm gently.

There was a knock at the door and the voice of a staff nurse.

"Come in," said Nina. "He's awake now."

The hefty nurse came in with her instrument cart. "Well hello," Mister Gleason," she said. "Good to see you awake." She stuck an infrared thermometer in my ear. "Fever's coming way down. You were over a hundred and two when you came in. Have you tried drinking."

"No, not yet."

"Can you give it a try for me," she smiled. Nina handed me a waterglass with a straw. I sucked at the straw, wincing first from the movement of my throat as I tried to suck then again as the ice water hit it. But that felt GOOD. I drank a bit.

"Very good!" chirped the nurse. "I've got another round of Demerol on the chart for you."

"Uh..." I said.

The nurse said, "You ought to take it. You're still running on the last dose and you're gonna hurt when it wears off."

"Do it, then," I said.

The nurse injected the painkiller into my IV line and I started drifting off.

"He's going to sleep some more," she told Nina. "If you need to go home and rest..."

"I'm not leaving his side," Nina said, determinedly.
Nina 

Chapter 4


I woke again after midnight when the nurse made her rounds. When the nurse walked in, Nina woke up and stood by me. My fever was drastically down and I was feeling much better.

Morning came, and so did my regular doctor. "Well, Mister Dan, you had one raging case of strep throat. Could've been really bad if you hadn't gotten to the emergency room."

Nina interjected, "I found him almost unconscious ... He missed our date..."

Doctor Regan laughed. "He'd HAVE to be unconscious to miss a date with YOU." He turned to me. "Keep 'er, Dan."

"I have to," I said. "She saved my life." Nina sidled up to me and put her hand on my cheek.

"He's MINE," she announced.

The doctor smiled wryly at that pronouncement. "Well, he's gonna go home today. He's gonna be weak for a few days. You see that he's taken care of, okay?"

I looked at Nina. Nina looked at me. She smiled. "Sure will!"

Doctor Regan said, "I'll go sign your charts and get you checking out. You'll have some prescriptions for a week or so. And if you start hurting again, call me and come back in. Don't wait until you're hallucinating this time."

"Okay," I said.

"Is he contagious?" Nina asked.

"Have you shared a drinking glass or something in the last week?" he asked.

"Yes, something like that..." Nina smiled. Me too. I remember having her tongue searching the inside of my mouth two nights ago.

"Then he's not contagious to you."

"Good. Thank you, doctor!" She watched him leave and then came to me and kissed me lightly on the lips. "I'll take care of you," she said.

An hour later I was walking, still shaky, out of the hospital, Nina carrying a bag in one hand, her other arm wrapped around mine like she was supporting me. She sat me in the foyer and went for my car, parked it, and came in to retrieve me. "I'm NOT helpless," I complained.

"Doctor's orders. Said to take care of you." She held the door as I got in the passenger seat, closed the door, then climbed in the driver seat. "Let's go home," she looked at me, smiling. On the way home she drove through the pharmacy drive-thru and dropped off my prescriptions. "I'll come back and get these for you after I get you home, babe," she said.

We got home. I wasn't used to being a passenger in MY car, but Nina did a perfectly good job of driving. And I was still riding down off a Demerol haze, and that helped. She got out first, unlocked the front door, then helped me into the house. "Go get in bed," she ordered.

I went in the bedroom and undressed myself, then crawled under the covers. I was immediately joined by Sam the cat. He formed a cat loaf beside me, waiting to be petted. I obliged. Even old yellow tomcats need love.

I heard Nina on the phone talking. "Yes, Grandma," she was saying, "I brought him home from the hospital. No, he's gonna be okay. The doctor told me to take care of him. Said he's gonna be shaky for a few days. No, ma'am. I'm gonna stay here. My guy's sick. I need to be here. Okay. I love you, Grandma. Thanks for worrying about me. Bye."

It sounded like I had around the clock care. She appeared in the bedroom door. "Are you okay, babe?" she asked.

"Better. Sweetie, I'll be alright by myself. Really. Don't get crosswise with your grandma."

She giggled. "She ASKED me if I wanted to stay here and take care of you. Didn't sound surprised when I said I was." She approached. "D'you mind if I sit on your bed?"

"Uh, no," I answered.

She picked up the pants I'd discarded on the floor and hung them on a hanger, depositing my wallet on the dresser. "We can't be messy now," she grinned. And she sat on the edge of the bed and stroked my face. "Yesterday you were burning up, babe. And turning colors. I was SO worried."

"You handled things very well," I said. "I don't know what would have happened without you."

"You're my guy, babe. It's what I'm supposed to do." She leaned over and kissed my cheek, pulled back, then returned, kissing me lightly on the lips. "Mmmmm," she said. She sat back up. "Can I get you anything? Coke? Juice? Soup?"

"Maybe later, babe. I'm tired." I was. I let my head sink into the pillow. Almost a surprise was Nina kicking off her shoes and laying down in the bed beside me, although she remained on top of the covers, I underneath them.

She kissed my cheek. "Rest, baby. I need to go get your medicine at four. I set my cellphone. I'm tired, too." She snuggled against me and against all odds I was too tired to react. We went to sleep for the first time together.

Two hours later we both awoke to the sound of the alarm of her cellphone. I told her to take my wallet with her to pick up my prescription.

Heading out, I heard her holler, "Root beer float?"

"Yes!" I hollered back. She remembered a treat we'd shared together on a previous Sunday outing.

I sank back down into the pillow and drifted on the edge of sleep for a while longer. I must have drifted a bit deeper because I was gently stirred by a soft hand on my shoulder and a gentle "Babe?" in my ear. I opened my eyes.

"Can you sit up? I brought you a root beer float."

"Uh, lemme get to the table, babe."

"You feel strong enough?"

"Yeah. I'm getting better." I stood up. And realized that I was clad only in my skivvies. "Oops!" I exclaimed, turning my back to her.

"Here's you some shorts, babe. And don't get all embarrassed. I dressed you yesterday. I saw you closer then..."

"How close?"

Giggle. "I couldn't get your shorts up until I pushed things in place."

I turned red.

"Oh, don't be embarrassed. It was all very clinical." She smirked as I pulled on my shorts and buttoned and zipped up.

We headed into the living room. "Sit in your chair and sip this, babe," she smiled. "I'll get your pills."

I sat down and kicked the recliner back and let ice cream and root beer sooth the soreness out of my tortured throat. Nina handed me three multi-colored pills and I chased them down with more for the drink

"So," she said, "since I'm spending the night, where do I sleep?" She had a sweet expression and a look I was trying to decipher.

"Uh, that's a problem, babe," I said. I only have the one bed. One of us gets the sofa. Or this chair. Or..."

"Or I could just quit being silly and we BOTH sleep in our ... uh, YOUR bed."

"Sweetie, You know I love you, but I'm a bit sick, not dead. Both of us in bed..."

She touched my lips with her fingers. "Shush! I think I know what I'm doing..."

"B-but..."

"But nothing! I just spent twenty-four hours with you. I looked at you in a hospital room with IV's in you and worried about you. And I got to thinking. I asked myself some questions. And I answered them. You only have to answer one..."

"Question?"

"Yes. One question."

"What, baby?" I looked at those improbably blue eyes. She could ask me to slit my wrists and I'd do it for her.

"Are we..."

I jumped ahead. "Nina. Will you marry me?"

"That answers my question."

"Answer mine."

"Yes," she said. "I told Grandma last night that if you were okay, I'd ask YOU."

"You planned to ask ME?" I, well she DID tell me she loved me. But marriage?

"Yes. I planned. I mean, it's been a month ... some people wait years. And some people get married after meeting overnight in Vegas. And we're not even drunk."

I took a long sip of my drink. She sucked on her own straw and looked at me, eyes twinkling.

"You've talked to your grandma? About me?"

"Yes. About you. She and I talk about stuff, Dan. Everything. My mom. Her life. Her mistakes. Men. Grandpa died seven, no eight years ago. He was quite bit older than Grandma. She said she never regretted marrying an older man, that they'd had the greatest life together."

"Really?

"Yeah. But she told me like she tried to tell Mom. Not just ANY man. I told Grandma that in all the time we spent together, all you ever did was kiss me and hold me, and she said that meant that you weren't after sex with an eighteen year old girl. That you must love me."

"I do love you."

She smiled sweetly. "Not lust?"

"Babe, it is easy to lust after you. You're pretty. But love first ... If I never laid a hand on you, never kissed you, I'd adore you anyway."

I heard her straw sucking dry. She got up. Took my own empty cup from me and went to the kitchen to dispose of them.

She returned. "Is your lap okay?"

"Yes, my love," I said.

She scooted into my lap and kissed me lightly. Her nose wrinkled.

"What?!?!?" I asked.

"Babe, I forgot. You were doing chills and fever yesterday. You sweated. A lot. My baby's pretty rank. You need a bath. I'm sorry..."

"Oh, I'm sorry, too, babe. I should've known."

"It's okay, babe," she said. "I've smelled you sweaty before. That's okay ... kinda musky ... I dunno, almost, uh, sexy. But this is different."

"Because I was sick, babe."

She looked thoughtful. "Yeah. Makes sense. "D'you think you're up to a shower?"

"I think I can do a shower." She got up out of my lap and I lowered the recliner and stood. I was feeling better. MUCH better.

"I'll go take a shower, baby," I said.

"Call me if you get woozy," she said.

I grabbed a change of clothes and went into the master bathroom and started the shower. I undressed and got in. For minutes I stood there, breathing the steamy air in, letting hot water push some of the achiness out of my body.

And the door slid open. And a naked Nina stepped in. Completely nude. Deliciously, wildly unclothed. Her arms folded across her breasts.

"Nina!" I exclaimed. "You..."

"I thought you might need help."

"Oh, god, Nina!" I wrapped her naked body in my arms.

"This is a big step, Dan, my love ... You gotta know..."

"I know..."

She grabbed a washcloth and soap. "I really AM going to help you." She slathered up the cloth and started. Giggle. "A lot more to you than Jimmy..." Jimmy was her babysitting charge, now maybe five years old. She sat on my shower bench. It was BIG shower. I'd bought the house from an older couple who'd put in amenities for old age, and old people don't do tight showers. And for the first time, I thanked my lucky stars for the goofy seat in the shower.

Water spray slicked Nina's hair against her head. "Leg," she said, slapping my left leg. I lifted it. She soaped and washed my left leg. My dick was about two-thirds hard by now, inches from her face, and she was studiously ignoring it. "Right leg." She repeated the ablutions. She washed my back, my arms, my stinky pits, reached up and shampooed my hair, and I was beginning to wonder exactly what manner of girl I'd gotten.

Then she sat back down and hooked a hand behind my thigh. And lathered... "I'm thinking that I don't want to use a washcloth here." And she gently lathered my balls and my dick. "Turn around." I didn't want to turn around. I wanted her to touch me forever. But I turned around. And she lathered my butt, running fingers inside the crack. "Gotta get you clean," she smiled, turning me around. She took the telephone showerhead and rinsed me.

"Can you wash me?"

Oh, man, could I. But I replicated her careful indifference, no more lingering over those "B" cup titties, I lathered over quarter-sized areoles and noted that the ministrations of the washcloth and soap perked her pink nipples up like little strawberries. I noted, too, the soft dark hair sparsely sprinkled on her mons, and as I lathered washed her pussy, I heard her draw a sharp breath when my fingers first touched those puffy, pink lips. After shampooing her hair, I carefully rinsed her off.

"Time to get out," she said. "I hope I helped okay."

I got out behind her, fully erect. I opened the linen cabinet and pulled out towels, handing her two, one for her hair, one for the rest of her. And another for me. I didn't make a move to get out of the bathroom, and neither did she. As I dried off, I was overrun with mixed feelings. This was truly unique. We were both absolutely nude, seeing each other for the very first time.

"Let me get your back, Dan." I let her.

"Your turn," I said, and I dried hers. She'd done her best on her hair. It was still wet, but she reached into her purse and pulled out a brush.

"I'm gonna need a hair dryer if I do this again," she smiled. She brushed her hair to clear the tangles, but short hair doesn't tangle badly.

"Just a sec," I said. I rummaged in the back of a cabinet. "Here's one. Hasn't been used for hair, though.

She looked at me questioningly.

"Seriously. I dry wet boots with it."

She laughed. "Okay. I don't want a second-hand hair dryer." And she plugged it in, and I said, "Sit!" She perched on the bathroom's stool and I dried and brushed her hair.

"That's good," she said, turning around. And when she turned around, my semi-hard dick was just a bit below her eye level. And her eyes looked down. And she looked up. And stood and draped her long arms lovingly around my neck. "You're feeling better, huh..." and kissed me. And her body formed against mine and the semi-hard dick disappeared, replaced by one that could possibly cut diamond.

"Uh, babe," I said, "I am fast running out of self-restraint."

"Me, too," she purred into my ear. "But I'm a little scared, Dan..."

I didn't let her out of my arms. "Babe, you're beautiful, the most beautiful creature I've ever held in my arms, more beautiful to me than I ever imagined. But if ... We don't have to do anything. Not until our wedding night."

She whispered in my ear, "Dan, this IS our wedding night. I love you."

"I love you, Nina. D'you really mean this?"

One word escaped her lips. "Forever."

"Forever it is, Nina ... Mrs. Gleason." I followed as she walked back into the bedroom.

"Are you feeling okay, Dan? I mean, you were really sick."

"And I feel really okay, Nina."

"I don't want you to die on our wedding night, babe."

"I promise I won't die."

She pulled back the covers and slid to the middle of the bed. "I don't think I could've kept my hands to myself tonight if I slept with you, babe."

"Me neither. And I was afraid that I'd scare you or something." I crawled into the bed beside her. She took my face between her hands and stared into my eyes.

"Babe," she said. "I just said I was going to spend the night in your bed. Don't you just think that I might expect things to happen from that?"

"I see you as so innocent, Nina."

She smiled. "I love that, Dan. And in a lot of ways, I am. But I ... I know about sex. And love. And the difference. And I know that you and me, we're putting them together. There is no "sex" for me. And you. Only love." And her hand touched my hardness. She kissed me and I kissed back, our tongues weaving intricately together. "Mmmmmm, Dan..."

I stroked her shiny, sweet-smelling hair. "My Nina. Really my Nina." My hand slid down her back and over the smooth, succulent curve of her butt. I couldn't help but squeeze.

"Mmmm ... I've wanted you to OWN me, Dan. I want to be YOUR woman." Her hand, her fingers explored the shaft she held.

I groaned. "Oh, god, Nina. I've wanted you. How I've wanted you. This way, too..."

She pushed me gently onto my back. "Dan," she said, "I don't know what I'm doing, babe. I'm serious. You're the very first. When I touched you in the shower, that's the first time I've touched one over four years old. I don't know anything except what I've heard."

"Oh, god, Nina ... You just turned me into a virgin myself. Your hand ... it's perfect. Let's learn each other together." I looked at her face, seeing her glow, and I kissed her. Then her neck. I knew her neck. I felt shivers run down her body from my lips touching, sucking gently. She returned the favor, except she knew that I liked to feel her teeth biting into me.

"It's throbbing," she whispered. "Did it do that before?"

"Every time you kissed my neck, little one."

"Oh, Dan ... I didn't know..."

"Baby ... It's a GOOD thing..."

Her fingers left my dick and explored my balls. Gently. Curving, cupping, tugging lightly. "Like that?"

"Yes, like that. Don't squeeze hard. They're sensitive."

"I've heard that. I'll be careful."

"I know you will." I cupped one delicious breast, letting my thumb gently circle the nipple. She moaned. "Oh, Mmmmm ... Dan..."

My lips moved from her throat, softly down her chest to nuzzle the soft mounds. Her hand went to the back of my head and gently urged me. My lips found a nipple. Waiting. I kissed. "Mmmmmm ... suck..." I sucked. My tongue circled and teased. I felt her shivering. I gently moved a hand down the softness of her belly, my fingertips lingering in the soft hair on her mons. I kept working on her titties, first one, then the other, then my lips moved downwards to feast on her navel. Then a kiss lower...

"Oh, godddddd, Dan ... You'd ... I ... I've ... dreamed about..."

I planted a kiss on her mons, just a fraction of an inch above the beginning of her slit. "This?" I asked. "Or this?" I kissed the beginning of her slit. "or..." and I let my tongue seek out the moisture that was glistening the length of her womanhood.

"Oh, god, yesssss..."

I moved in the bed, lying between her legs as she quivered in expectation, and I savored her wetness. Every sense of mine was tuned to the joys of Nina's body. I looked at her beauty. Felt the quivers of expectation running through her. Heard her whimpers and sighs. Smelled her musk, and then I tasted. Nectar.

She threw her thighs apart, opening herself wide, her fingers clawing at the back of my head, pulling me into her. I licked and sucked, laving her labia with my tongue and lips, and then I gently prodded her little erect clitoris with the tip of my tongue. She bucked up against me.

"Yessss," she hissed through clenched teeth. "There." I stopped for a second. "Oh please, Dan. There. Please do me."

And I did her. Virgin pussy. Delicious. And responsive. And she came. Hard. I let her surges stop, then flicked her button again. And she clapped her hands on the back of my head, "uh-huh! Yes. Again!" And I complied. This time her shudders were accompanied by "Nnnnnggghhhhhh! Ahhhhh!" and a collapse.

I moved up beside her and cuddled her to my chest.

"Mmmmmmm. Oh, Dan..." Her fingers found my dick and she stroked its length. I let her breath for a minute. Longer. "Dan. I want you ... us." She gave my dick a little tug.

"Babe. Nina, my love, if we ... you only get to give this away once..."

"It's yours, Dan." She kissed me. "I'm yours. It's been yours all my life. I'm ... it's time..."

"It could hurt."

"I don't think it will. I want you."

"Then you get on top of me. That way YOU get to go as fast as you want."

She gave it no thought. She pushed me onto my back and straddled me. I looked up at feminine perfection. That outrageous hair. Those bangs above blue eyes, freckles sprinkled whimsically across her nose. I wanted to sink myself into her. Now. But I wanted HER to be in control. This was her time to make us one.

She worked her wet pussy back and forth over the underside of my shaft, smearing delicious juice over me, mixing hers with mine. Her hips took an insistent motion and she was biting her bottom lip.

"Dan! This is GOOD!" She slid back and forth happily, then stopped and raised up. Her hand went between us, guiding my dick towards her waiting hole. And she eased down. I felt the head squeeze into nirvana. Her eyes closed in concentration, still biting her bottom lip, wiggling hose hips, forcing downward. I felt the head inside of her. She rose, withdrawing, then easing back down. Two inches. Up. Back down. She breathed. And further down. And up. And further down. I felt the kiss of her pubic arch against mine.

Her eyes opened. "Gahhhh, Dannnn. You're in me..." She rocked. I realized that there was no definitive sherry-popping moment. I was just in her. All the way. Her face changed to smiles. She sat right there, not moving.

"I love you, babe," I said. "You okay? No hurt?"

"Nuh-uh," she said, then just a little hip movement. And she slid up and down my shaft, then back and forth, looking for HER motion. And found it. And I joined in, seeking MY orgasm inside her. Her motions complemented my own and I felt the building fires.

Her hips pounded me as I plunged upward into her. "Gahhh, Dannnnn ... I ... I ... Nnnngghhhh!" and I spurted. Hard. Deep. She kept her motions and I felt deep muscular contractions in her pussy. My own surges dwindled to a glow in my groin and she fell into my arms, her cheek on my chest. I kissed her head.

"My Nina," I said.

"I am," she sighed. "You own me. I'm yours. You've got every bit of me."

I sighed. "And you have all of me, too, little one."

We basked in our mutual rapture for a while. Finally she slid off to my side and I rolled to face her. Our lips met. Long minutes, our lips locked, out tongues lazily teasing each other. Finally, with a sigh, we pulled apart.

"Nina," I said. "I was serious. Married."

"Dan," she said. "This ... this is what used to seal a marriage. We chose each other, and consummated our bond." She looked at me with love in her eyes. "But yes, let's make it right for the world to see. Soon. Like before the end of June. Okay?"

"Yes, Mizz Gleason."

She giggled and kissed me. "I like that," she said. "Just a second." She got up and went to the bathroom. I heard water running for a minute, then she came back in with a wet washcloth. "We made a mess, babe. Lemme clean you up."

She gently wiped the stickiness of our lovemaking up. "I had a little blood. I guess I didn't try hard enough."

"Try what?" I asked.

"I knew about that hymen thing and how it was supposed to hurt, so I've been trying to stretch it all out. You're bigger than my finger."

"You've been planning this?"

"Dan," she said matter of factly, "I knew we'd eventually make love. I wanted it to be good, not painful. I read some stuff, and I tried to make sure that our first time was good."

"You're a smart one," I said. I kissed her. I felt a hand stroking me back to hardness.

She backed her face away. "Let's love again, babe..." Her mouth fastened to my neck and her teeth bit into me. I shuddered. I knew I was hard again. Her fingers wrapped me, stroking, then she cupped my sack again.

I eased a hand down to her cleft and explored with a fingertip. "You're not sore?"

"Mmmm. A little. But I want..." Her fingers left my sack and tugged my dick. "this..." She tugged me as she rolled onto her back, spreading her legs. The hand that had been fondling me guided my hardness into her. She exhaled a sigh. "Ahhhhhh..."

"Nina, you feel so good..."

"Do I, babe? Are you happy with me?"

"God, yes, little love. And the fact that I'm in the most wonderful place I've ever been has nothing to do with it. But I am perfectly happy with you, Nina."

I felt her wiggle beneath me, her pelvis pushing her pussy up to plunge me further inside her. Our pubic bones met. Long, muscular legs wrapped wound me.

I started slow strokes in time with her hips and looked into her eyes. I found lust and adoration and her face was smiling for me. I melted. Well, at least my heart did. Another part was quite hard. And it was stroking into nirvana. She hauled my face to hers and our lips merged. I caressed her head and face as we kissed. Her hands were on my hips, urging me into her as she bucked against me seeking her release, her clit rubbing against the shaft of my plunging dick. Our lips broke apart.

"Hnnnnnghhhhhh ... ohgodohgodohgod ... Dannn ... Nnnnghhhhhh!"

I kept stroking. I was close. Very close. I felt her fingers dig into me and I went over the edge, squirting hard, deep inside her. After that first surge from my body, all I could manage were a few feeble thrusts as my orgasm turned from squirt to dribble. I wrapped her in my arms and rolled us over, putting her on top of me.

"Baby ... MY baby..." I said.

"I am," she whispered. "I really am."

My hands glided over her smooth curves from her shoulders, down along her waist, over the sweet curves of her butt, to her thighs. She brought her own hands up and cupped then on the sides of my face. She kissed me, grinning, and then nodded, pressing our foreheads together.

"I love you, babe," I said.

"I love you too," she smiled. "Is it always this good?"

"No, babe."

Her pretty brow wrinkled. "No?"

"Babe, it was NEVER this good. It's better than it ever was."

"Dan, you're just saying that. It's okay, baby. I know you've been with other women."

I ran my fingers up her neck and tangled them in that distressingly brown hair. "You didn't listen, babe. It's like YOU are my first. Like I really experienced love-making for the first time."

"It IS my first time." She giggled. "Well, counting an hour ago, my second."

"Little one, it erased every memory I ever had of another woman. My life begins with you."

"Good!" came her reply. "Makes it easier that way." Her lopsided grin was infectious. I was smiling so hard my face hurt. She pushed her hands against my chest and sat back astraddle me. I ran my hands up her thighs, upward across her belly and cupped her titties.

A little cloud crept across that perfect face. "Uh, babe, I'm not very big there." She covered my hands with hers as I played with the firm flesh. "Guys like big ones, don't they?"

"Nope. Not necessarily. I don't. And yours are perfect."

"Your hands feel good on them. And the first time your mouth ... gahhhh, Dan ... You acted like you were enjoying..."

"I wasn't acting, Nina. It's like you're made for me. I hope YOU liked it..."

She didn't answer with her words. She bent forward and pushed a perfect pink nipple into my mouth. Her hand cradled my head as I sucked and nibbled. She purred, "mmmmmmm" I shifted to the other and gathered another purr for me efforts.

Finally she rolled off me and cuddled up to my side. "Tonight we sleep together, Dan."

"I know, princess," I said. I moaned as her hand found my soft dick.

Giggle. "It's mine. I get to play with it, huh?"

"Yes, it is, babe," I said.

"I'll be back," she said, bounding out of the bed and grabbing the washcloth we'd used after our previous coupling. I heard the water running, then she returned to the bed and began to wash my dick and balls clean. "I did me, too," she laughed. "Will it always be messy like this?"

"I'm afraid so, babe. You get juicy when you get excited, and so do I. And when I come ... you make me do a lot."

"Coming. I've heard that term being used before. Mom and her "friends" weren't very quiet. But now I know why ... I don't think I could be very quiet either, love. Not when YOU make me do it."

I looked at her with the obvious question on my lips.

"Yeah, I know ... I do that sometimes. Not much ... until lately..."

"Lately?" I asked.

"Yeah. Remember that first time we really kissed?"

"The day I took you to work?"

Uh-huh. Dan, I went home ... and I ... I felt kinda nasty doing it because I was thinking of kissing you. And..."

"I did the same thing, babe. And felt just as guilty."

"We don't have to feel guilty now, do we?"

"Not any more, babe," I said. "You have exceeded the fantasies..."

"You have too, babe. I mean, I imagined how it would be, and I knew what uh ... coming felt like when I played with myself, but I wasn't prepared for how it just takes over my whole body..." She hooked a leg over mine and hauled herself halfway back on top of me and attacked me with a passionate, hungry kiss. "I didn't miss it because I didn't know it. Now I know."

"I know ... I had fantasies in my head, Nina, and I tried so hard NOT to. But now I realize that I can't dream as good as reality with you..."

Her hand was now back on my dick and it was stirring. She giggled. "It's coming back alive." She shifted lower on my torso, propped up on one elbow, her free hand fondling me. "I can look at it now. I never looked at one before." She looked at me with a little girl twinkle in her eyes. She grinned, showing her even teeth.

Her soft strokes and the proximity of her face to the head of my dick combined to get me hard again. "I love the way the skin is so soft, and it's so hard underneath. And it slides."

"That feels real good, babe."

"Does it?" She examined me further at close range. "This is so neat. The tip is soft..." Her fingertips brushed over the rounded head and traced the coronal ridge, following it to the underside, to the most sensitive spot. I moaned. "Is that a good spot?" she asked, grinning.

"Oh, yeah," I gasped.

"Can I squeeze?"

"Yes," I said. "Squeeze. Start at the bottom and squeeze and slide the skin up to the tip."

Squeal! She did that. And a big drop of clear pre-cum escaped the tip.

"Wow!" she squealed. "I MADE stuff come out. That's not your, uh ... semen?"

"No, babe. That's just lubricant. Makes it slide inside you easier. The semen doesn't come out until orgasm. When I come." Then it occurred to me that I hadn't old her everything... "Babe, there's one thing I haven't told you ... About my ex-wife."

She sat straight up, releasing my dick. Turning her attention to me, losing the wonderful adoring, excited look, and I hated myself because now I was scared. I wanted to spend my life with this kittenish young woman in my bed, and there was one thing that I was going to tell her that could be the deal-breaker.

"What, Dan?" Her eyes looked at me with a combination of love and fear.

"Babe," I said, "When I got married the first time, I thought it was forever. And when she got pregnant and had our daughter, she had bad issues and they said she should never try to have another baby. So I got fixed. Vasectomy."

Squeal! Giggle. "Is THAT all?" She dumped herself on top of me and showered me with kisses. "You scared me, Dan. I didn't know WHAT you were gonna say."

"Babe," I said, "I can't give you a baby."

"Dan Gleason! Get this! I don't WANT a baby! I want YOU!"

I breathed a sigh of relief. "Babe, it's just like you thinking that all guys want girls with big titties. I thought all girls want babies."

Her hair flared out to the sides as she shook her pretty head. "No, Dan. I thought about it. I mean, if YOU would have said you wanted one, I would have gone along with it if you insisted, but I know where babies come from, and how they get out, and I just can't imagine..." She looked down and I followed her eyes to that pink, recently virgin pussy, the lips open as she spread her legs. "I ... That scared the hell out of me."

"I wouldn't want to wreck that either, babe, but..."

A soft kiss landed on my lips. "Shush! I love you. Me and you, okay? And tomorrow I'm telling Grandma..."

Another set of dark thoughts. I liked her grandma, and I could see all sorts of scenes that ended up with me being called names and a crying Nina and... "Babe, how's your grandma going to take this?"

"You don't worry," Nina said. "We talked about the possibility already. You seem to be an acceptable choice, remember?"

"Yeah, but I thought, like after a few months of courtship ... It's been three weeks..."

"Just days on a calendar, love." Her eyes twinkled and her face was confident. "Now, where was I before we averted disaster?" Her grin was lascivious. "Oh, yeah." Her fingers encircled my soft shaft. Giggle. "I like it when it's soft. It's so CUTE!"

It didn't stay soft for long. She remembered the instruction I've given her about a milking motion and there was another big drop of pre-cum glistening on the head. She looked at me. "So, if I was like, sucking on you, this stuff would be in my mouth?"

My mind raced through a whole set of possibilities and the best of them were very pleasant. "Yes, it would."

"Have you ever tasted it?" she asked, grinning.

"Yes, I have to admit that. Salty. Not too awfully different from YOU. After all, our bodies are getting ready for the same thing."

Bigger grin. "I know what I taste like." Her fingertip scooped the droplet off my dick and she stuck it in her mouth. Then her eyes twinkled and she grinned. "Just checking. You know I have to suck this." More grins as she shifted around.

"You don't HAVE to, babe," I said, all the time inside going "please, please PLEASE suck me" in my head.

"D'ya want me to?" Eyes questioned me.

"Uh-huh. I'd love for you to try. If you want to."

I watched that dark brown hair bounce as her head bobbed downward and an indescribable warmth enveloped my dick. I felt a tongue exploring inside her mouth. And she sucked and pulled back, releasing me with an audible pop. And looked at me, smiling, those blue eyes twinkling. "Well?"

"Well, yourself. Yes? No?"

Giggle. "Dan, this thing's MADE to suck on. And I tasted it. Mmmmmm."

I smiled. She crawled up and kissed me.

"We're going to learn everything about each other, huh, babe?"

"You betcha..."
Nina

Chapter 5

Waking to find a soft, naked female form in bed after all these years as a special joy. When I gently explored the form with my fingers and her eyelids fluttered and then opened and her first words were "I love you, babe," the experience got richer. We both had full bladders and made the trip to the bathroom.

Back in the bedroom, she turned into my arms and kissed me. "Dan," she said quietly, "I don't regret last night. I do love you."

"I don't regret it either, Nina. And I was serious. Marry me."

Giggle. "You ask me to marry you and we're both naked?"

"Put your clothes on. I'll ask you again after we go get breakfast."

"Nuh-uh. This comes first." And she pushed me backward onto the bed. She was all over me, sucking me to immediate hardness and then straddling me and demanding that I serve her to orgasm, a task I joyously performed. Her own orgasm left her collapsed in my arms, my emptied dick slowly squeezed out of a perfectly tight pussy.

She rolled off me and twisted, surveying the mess we'd made of each other. Two of her fingers dipped into the white slop oozing out of her happy hole and she held them up and surveyed the results. She looked at me. "I suppose we need to find out, huh?" she smiled. And she stuck her fingers, laden with her juices and mine, into her mouth. And smiled. "Not bad. Now I know how to clean up our mess." She looked at me. "Does it gross you out to think of licking YOUR own juice?"

I shook my head.

"Can we, like, I do you and you do me? At the same time?"

"That's called sixty-nine."

"I heard that before. Now I think it's a pretty good idea."

"You get on top of me, then." I was rewarded by the immediate presence of a sopping, musky, freshly fucked pussy in my face. Yes, that white ooze was mine, along with some of the clear stuff mixed in with it, but a lot of that juice was the woman I loved, and it was US, and I lapped happily, my tongue causing shivers in her body. And I felt her tongue and lips performing the same functions on me.

Finished, we were in each other's arms. Her dark hair was splayed out on my chest as we breathed in unison.

"Babe?"

"Yes, my love?" I responded.

"Breakfast would be nice now."

"Uh, babe, we need to shower. We smell like an orgy."

"Yah think?!?!? Shower? Isn't that how this all got started?"

I laughed. "I don't know. I haven't had a blood supply to my brain since you opened the shower door last night."

She started to get out of bed, pausing to give me two kisses. One of them was on my lips.

The shower this morning was wonderfully sensual. Nina wasn't the least bit bashful now and we soaped and rinsed and soaked and kissed and hugged under the warm spray. Afterward we dried each other and while I shaved she dried her hair. We got in another couple of hot, nude kisses before we got dressed.

In the car, I was definitely well enough to drive, and we headed out towards a breakfast of pancakes at a nearby eatery. Nina flipped open her cellphone.

"Hi, Grandma. Yeah, he's MUCH better. No, we're going out for breakfast. Yes, I got a good night's sleep. So did he. No, when we get finished, we're coming by there. We need to talk with you. Uh-huh. Yeah. That talk. I love you, Grandma. You're the best. Okay. Bye."

She turned to me. I had the questioning look on my face again. "She knows what we're going to talk about."

"What are we going to talk about? Me and you getting married?"

"Yeah," she said. "But, Dan, I wanna know..."

"What, babe?"

"Do you have a problem with me moving in? Before we're married? I mean, some people have ... objections..."

"Babe," I said. "You said it yourself last night. In another day and time, we'd have walked out of the house this morning, gone to meet our friends and family and just said, "We're married" and wrote it down in the family Bible and waited for the travelling preacher or judge to make it official."

"So you think we're married?"

"Do you intend for us to be together forever?"

She said simply, "Yes."

"So do I. We're married. Let's go eat pancakes."

She laughed at the incongruity.

We were seated in a booth in the rear of the restaurant, per my request, and I ordered coffee for starters.

"Me, too," Nina said.

"I didn't know you drank coffee, baby."

"Every now and then." We sipped steaming mugs of the best commercial coffee in town, but I was missing my home-roasted stuff. I told Nina so. "You'll have to show me how to make, it, babe."

"You got it."

"Uh, just in case you're wondering, Mr. Gleason," she said, "I can cook. Grandma showed me how."

"Really?"

"Really," she said. "I'm thinking that when you're at work, I will cook and take care of your house this summer. And start college in the fall."

I looked at her. I shouldn't have been amazed, but every hour I spent with Nina I found more and more depth of thinking. "You sound like you've got it planned."

"I changed my plans. The part about taking care of YOU." She sighed. "And I wish I had a bigger scholarship. I can get through the first two semesters with my scholarship and what I've saved. But I was going to get another job or do student loans."

I smiled. Here was going to be my first chance to share our lives. "You just became eligible for another scholarship."

She looked at me quizzically. "How so?"

"You, Mrs. Gleason, are the first, and only, recipient of the Dan Gleason Scholarship for Fledgling Engineers."

Her smile was sweet. "Dan, I didn't ... it's not about money."

"I believe you, Nina. But you're my wife, and what husband wouldn't do this for his wife? It's settled. Money isn't going to be your problem, Nina."

"Thank you, husband."

The waitress that brought us our food and refills for the coffee overheard that comment. I was one of her regulars. She looked at us both. "Married?"

Nina smiled. "Mmm-hmmm ... this is where he takes girls on a honeymoon..."

The waitress laughed. "Well, Mister Dan, I'd've never figured you to remarry. But she's a doll."

"Thank you," Nina chirped. "Uh, Dan ... extra tip..."

The waitress walked away chuckling. "Good one there, Dan!"

We finished breakfast and paid the bill. With an unusually generous tip.

I wasn't anything less than anxious about seeing Helen, but that was next on the agenda, after Helen got back from church. So we were sitting in her living room when we heard the sound of her car in the drive. I stood up when she walked in.

"Dan, you don't have to get up," she said.

"I wanted to be in position to run," I said, smiling.

"Oh, sit down. You act like this is a surprise to me." She looked at Nina. "You didn't tell him?"

"I told him some of it, Grandma. I don't think he believes me."

"Okay," said Helen. "Dan, Three weeks ago I told you that you'd collected a girlfriend. Change that to wife. I guess ... You ARE serious, aren't you?"

"Confused. But serious. I owe her my life after Saturday. And she acts like she wants me."

"I want him, Grandma."

Helen looked at the two of us as Nina scooted against me on the sofa. "How soon?"

Nina's turn. "We get a marriage license tomorrow. Then it's seventy-two hours."

Helen sighed. "That fast, huh?" She looked at me. Sighed again. "Well, I talked to Reverend Roberts after church this morning. He said he'd do it. In his office if you want. I'll make an appointment for Thursday morning." She smiled at us. "If that's not too soon."

We responded almost in chorus, "Great!"

"Uh, Dan," Helen said, fixing her eyes on me, "since you're not on death's door this morning, am I to assume..."

I hung my head. Nina said, "Grandmaaaaa!"

Helen snorted. "That answers that, I guess."

"Helen," I said, "I know this is a lot, but I want to move Nina in with me. We don't want to be apart anymore."

"I kinda figured that from Miss Nina's conversation this morning. Dan ... Nina ... You two will be good for one another. Such as it is, you have my blessing. Nina, go pack some clothes and stuff. I need to talk to Dan again."

Nina left. Helen fixed me in her sights. "Dan, I hope you're serious about that little girl. I told you before. I will hunt you down. For real."

"Helen," I said, "I wasn't looking for women before, and with Nina as my wife, I damned sure don't have to look any further. She's cute, and smart, and self-confident, and lord only knows why she chose me, but I am truly thankful. But, how's this going to work for you? You're losing your grand-daughter..."

"I'm not losing my grand-daughter, Dan. She's eighteen. I couldn't keep her forever. And big secret ... Ed's been wanting us to go get married, too ... but I wasn't going to do that and move in with him until I was sure Nina's okay."

Nina was walking back in with a suitcase and a couple of shopping bags. "And I'm okay. So Ed's finally gonna be my new grandpa?"

Helen smiled. "Yeah, little girl, you're not the only one who can net a guy..." She looked at Nina's load. "You don't have to move it all today, child."

"'Kay, Grandma," Nina said. "We'll be back. I'll call."

"You've got your key, too, honey," Helen said. "If I'm not here."

"Bye, Helen. And thank you," I said as I took some of Nina's bags out the door. We loaded up into the SUV and drove home. OUR home. Inside I started moving my things around, giving her the dresser, taking a chest of drawers for myself. I moved my clothes to one side of the walk-in closet, and carried my winter cloths into the closet in the spare bedroom that was my office.

And Nina went into the bathroom and unloaded a dozen mysterious bottles and vials of the substances women need and men can't identify. And when I stuck my head in the door to check on her, she laughed and pointed. "Look! TWO toothbrushes!"

I remembered her glee at discovering ONE toothbrush, and I laughed.

She faked a frown. "So you think that's funny?"

"Yes, I do. A month ago, I was having a good but boring life, and then one day at the park and an angel showed up..."

She moved up to me and tiptoed to kiss me on my lips. "Dan," she said, "I know it's ... this is not just supposed to be about sex ... I mean, we LOVE each other..."

"Buuut..." I laughed.

"But," she laughed back, "D'ya think we could get naked and..."

I was already unbuttoning my shirt.

"I take that as a "yes"," she said. She looked over her shoulder heading into the bedroom. As she bent over to shove her pants down her long legs, I grabbed her hips and pulled her against my hard dick, netting me a peal of squeals and giggles. She struggled loose and turned to me, delightfully naked from the waist down. Her arms looped around my neck and tugged my face to hers and she purred "Mmmmmm" as we kissed.

I turned us around and I sat on the bed and helped her unbutton her blouse. She pirouetted to present me her bra's strap for me to unhook. I unhooked her strap and twirled her back around as she shed her bra. That gave me access to a perfect pair of firm, rounded breasts. I feasted, her hands pulling my face into her chest.

After I nursed on her for a couple of minutes, she knelt and gently pushed my knees apart. I shuddered in in anticipation of her next move as she bent forward. I wasn't disappointed. I was transported to another dimension as Nina sucked and licked and stroked me. "Gahhhh, baby, I ... I'm ... uhhhhhhh..." Breathe "I'm gonna come."

She halted her assault on my dick to look up at me and grin. "Then you just need to go ahead and do that," she giggled. "I wanna see how it is to do that to the man I love." And her head went back down. My hands were on the back of her head, not to force her or to even guide her. Her enthusiasm was working wonders, and all I wanted was to touch her as she purred and moaned and sucked and stroked.

I felt teeth gently tugging the skin of my dick up and down. "Am I biting too hard? I wanna bite it a little bit, babe."

"It's wonderful, doll," I said. "I'm so close."

"I can tell," she said, then her mouth took me again. I felt my scrotum draw up in her hand and the first surge shot out. "Mmmmmm," escaped her throat. Her hand milked me in time with the second, third, fourth ... Each time she sucked, I squirted. It dwindled to a flow and she kept sucking until I was emptied, and then she pushed me backward on the bed and kissed me. I tasted traces of my orgasm in her mouth. She straddled me then lay down on top of me.

"Mmmmm, babe," she smiled. "D'ya know how great it is that I can do that to you?"

"Oh, baby," I answered. "You're the greatest." We kissed, our hands roaming freely over each other. She moved from my lips to my neck and worked me over, and I responded by pushing her over on her back and then kissing my way down her body to her pubes. She spread her legs and pulled her knees up, opening herself to my mouth. I feasted my way through three orgasms before her hands stopped pulling me into her and gently denied me further access.

We lay in each other's arms.

"Mid-afternoon," she sighed. "Can we just stay in bed?"

"Or we could go to the jewelry store and get something. I never asked you what kind of rings you wanted."

Squeal. And a sexy teen pressed herself into me. "Rings?"

"Yes, my dear ... It is customary for a girl to get an engagement ring and a wedding ring. And her husband gets a wedding band."

"That's all I want, Dan. A simple wedding band. No diamond. No engagement ring. Just a plain little simple band that says that I have given myself to somebody. You."

"Are you sure, babe? I mean, anything you want..."

"A band, Dan. A gold band."

"Okay, dearest," I conceded, "Besides, a diamond would only be a pale beauty next to you." That got me another kiss. "So, d'you wanna go?"

She grinned wickedly. "Nope. I wanna come!"

"Then get up here and turn around." She squealed with delight as we fit ourselves together in a sweet sixty-nine. Gamely she tried to keep sucking on me as I tongued her juicy slit and started ministering to her clitty, hidden as it was, just inside her sweet fold. She pulled me out of her mouth and held my dick against her cheek as she gasped through first one orgasm, then another.

After she came back to this planet, she swung around between my legs, her face hovering over my crotch. Asking questions about things before her.

She gently bounced my balls in her hand. "Don't squeeze hard?" she queried.

"Very gentle. But you're making them feel really good, tugging and rolling them around like that."

"Can I suck 'em?"

"Gently. More like just get one in your mouth and play with it using your tongue."

She tried. "Good?"

"Wonderful. And you can grab the skin of the sack with your teeth and gently bite and tug. Bite about as hard as when you were sucking me while ago."

Giggles. And delightful experimentation. "So I take it that you liked the biting part?"

"Oh, god, yes. Just perfect."

"Then you won't be too mad about the teeth marks and bruises on your neck, huh?"

"It's worth it to me, babe. You make me feel so good."

She kept exploring, experimenting, turned my dick sideways and chewed and sucked her way up and down the underside like it was an ear of corn. Worked her way around the corona with little nibbles. Every time a droplet of pre-cum appeared, she sucked it off, I was solidly, completely erect and she decided it was time for a ride.

"No, babe, let's try it this way. Get on your hands and knees."

"Uh, babe, I don't want it in my butt. I mean, I've heard of that..."

"Ain't exactly my thing, babe. Just wait." I knelt behind her and rubbed the head of my dick up and down her wet slit, causing her to purr.

"Now THAT feels good," she said, then she gasped as I eased into her from behind. "Ahhhhh, Dan! That's GOOD!" She was rocking on her knees, pushing into my groin then pulling away as I guided her hips with my hands. I worked my own thrusts into the party. "I can feel your balls bouncing against me, baby ... Is it good?"

"Oh, god, yes, angel." I felt the juices rising after her little play session.

"Come in me. Dan. Please! I'm close again!

I pounded her, matching her motions with my own, until I plunged forward and felt the fire exiting me to find its place deep inside my darling Nina.

"Auuughhhhh! I feelitDan! Nnnnnghhhh!" Her pelvis surged backward and up, pushing her clitty against the base of my rapidly emptying dick, and she came. I froze for a minute, then fell backward onto the bed. And Nina just slithered backward to put her juicy pussy in my face. I felt her lips close on my dick as she sucked and licked our overflow and for the second time today I emptied her full pussy with my mouth.

Finishing that exercise, Nina turned back around into my arms. Cuddling close, she turned her eyes toward me. "Dan, that butt thing? Did you ever?"

"No," I said. "I never had the desire. And you ... why would I? It's either a dominance thing for a guy, or a submission thing for a woman, or maybe a woman is just too loose from having babies. But it's not made for that. And you've got pleasant places that are..."

She made a show of licking her lips. "Mmmmm, yes..." She paused. "And we'll probably need to think about that this week. I'm due for a period mid-week."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah. Probably Wednesday. I'm regular, you know. And the Pill."

"You're on the Pill?"

"Yeah. Didn't need the birth control, but it regulates my periods. I was kind of erratic. They make book-keeping easier. And keep me from scaring Grandma to death."

"Ohhhh," I said.

"Uh-huh. When I first moved in with her, I went two weeks late. Grandma thought for sure I was pregnant, even though I told her that I was a virgin. Now she believes me, but back then, even SHE thought some of Mom had rubbed off on me."

I kissed her and held her. "Babe," I said, "Life is just gonna get better and better for us. And a period ... Nothing. Just life."

She kissed me on the nose. "Let's go to the jewelry store, babe."

"Got it, angel." And we got up and dashed through the shower yet again. In the hot water she said, "Man, you make me feel sooooo good."

And hour later we were sitting in the food court of the local mall, in possession of a couple of little black velvet-covered boxes, smiling, drinking fountain drinks and observing the wildlife, her term for the mall denizens

Since it was the only mall in a fifty-mile radius, and Nina was eighteen and a recent high school graduate AND many of the "wildlife" were her classmates, several of them waved and a few stopped by to chat. Two of those were dressed in carefully planned dishevelment, hair colored in variegated bands of blonde and brunette, and a little more makeup than teen complexions need.

"Hi, Pammy, Hi, Cenda," chirped my Nina.

The taller of the two answered first. "Hey, Nina! Ain't it cool? We're out of school!"

The short one added "Pammy's getting' a job at The Gap. Starts next week. I'm still looking. What about you?"

Nina grinned. "I dunno. I'm starting college in the fall."

Pammy looked at me in a measuring manner. "And you're???"

"Dan Gleason," I said. "You're Pammy," and I nodded to Cenda, "and you're Cenda?"

"Nina, he catches on fast!"

"He should," Nina laughed. "He's an engineer."

Cenda giggled. "Your big brother? Cousin? Uncle?"

Nina pulled one of those little velvet boxes out and popped the lid back. "Nuh-uh. Husband. Thursday."

"Uhhhhh..." Cenda was rendered speechless.

Pammy stepped in. "Wow! An' we wondered why you weren't dating guys in school."

Nina smiled sublimely. "I find that Dan is a much better deal. Smart. Mature. Real job."

The pair pulled up chairs. Pammy asked, "So how'd you meet?"

Nina giggled. "I logged on to www.findanengineer.com."

"No, really," Cenda recovered her speech.

Nina gave the condensed version, carefully omitting dates so as to not make it look quite as crazy.

"That's just craaazy!" Pammy sighed. "Can you imagine?" She looked at me.

"Oh, don't ask me. My imagination stopped working when I started helping her with homework."

"So are ya'll having a big wedding?" asked Cenda.

"Nope," Nina answered. "Just going to Grandma's church and letting the preacher marry us. The wedding's not the big deal, the two people are."

"Oh, I want a BIG wedding," Pammy said. "The works! Dad's dying. He's hoping I'll turn out lezz or elope or something..."

"Brad doesn't think you're a lezz, Pammy," said Cenda.

"Hah!" Pammy snorted. "Brad doesn't want to get married."

Cenda relieved the conversation with all the concentration of an ADD kid. "Oh, look! There's Jarvis 'n' Brandi!" The two visitors got up and scampered off.

"You know, I think my IQ dropped ten points, Nina."

"Yeah," Laughed Nina. "And those were two of the smart girls." She sighed. "And in twenty minutes news will be all over town that Nina's getting married" She snickered. "And the next question asked will be "is she pregnant?" And the third will be "Who's she marrying?" Just so you know."

"Just people doing what people do. They like to talk, and other people make a good conversational topic." I smiled. "You thought enough of us to tell 'em that we were getting married."

She giggled. "I kinda wish that we'd have put the rings on, babe! That would've dropped their jaws."

"Uh, I suppose it would."

"Well, anyway," she opined, "the news is out."

Like I said. The only mall. And Nina's contemporaries weren't the only ones in a mall on a Sunday afternoon. It was my turn. In the form of my unit admin clerk, Jannie and her husband and a couple of pre-teens.

"Hi, Dan," she said. "You remember my husband, Robert, don't you?"

I stood and took Robert's offered hand and shook it. "Yeah I do. Hi, Robert. How're you guys doing?"

"I'm in the mall on Sunday afternoon instead of fishing," he chuckled. "I'm not doing too good, am I?"

The ten-year-old boy standing with them piped in, "Yeah, Dad! We could be fishing."

Robert patted him on the head. "We have all summer, son."

Jannie turned her attention to Nina. "Aren't you the one he brought in a week or so ago? Uh ... Nina, wasn't it?"

"Mizz Jannie, you remembered!" Nina smiled.

"Hard NOT to remember a pretty young girl after seeing dumpy old engineers all day, Nina."

This is where Nina let the cat out of the bag with as much subtlety as a hand grenade in a flour barrel. She stood up and encircled my waist with her arm. "I picked the one that wasn't dumpy, Mizz Jannie."

Jannie's eyebrow arched. "Picked?"

"Yes, ma'am, We're getting married on Thursday. I'm keeping 'im."

"Wow, Dan. You do have a way of surprising people."

"Nobody's more surprised than me," I said.

Robert was pumping my hand again. "Well, congratulations, Dan. Nina. I ... we wish you the best!"

Jannie frowned for a second and then slowly let her smile come back. "After all those times I tried to set you up. I was wondering about ... oh, never mind. She's a doll. Congratulations, Nina. And don't worry about him. I'll watch him for you every day."

Responding to the tugs of the eight year old daughter at her side, Jannie said, "Well, we' have to go get vacation stuff. I'll see you tomorrow, Dan."

We waved as they left and Nina said, "She tried to set you up with women, Dan?"

I knew that I needed to explain. As we walked toward the exit, I said, "Babe, you have to understand that every married woman in the world has a bunch of unmarried friends, and her goal in life is to match them up."

"Uh-huh," Nina responded. "So? Go on..."

"Jannie's my age. So are most of her female friends, and every one of 'em is a divorcee or a single mom who never bothered to get married in the first place. And underneath each of those somewhat acceptable exteriors is enough baggage to fill a semi-trailer, and claws just looking for two things."

She cut her eyes to me, half-smiling. "Uh, what two things?"

I snorted. "A dong and a paycheck."

"Dan! Nice talk!"

"It's true. I don't do one-night stands. I won't go to bed for sex. And I won't get married for it."

She curled her arm around mine. "So you're not marrying me for the great sex?"

I laughed. "Uh ... After a night with you, I think I could change my standard. But no, I'm marrying YOU because you're WONDERFUL."

She said, "Why, yes! I am!" with a wry smirk. She paused. "So! I took care of informing the whole school..."

"And we told Jannie, which takes care of everybody at work. All we need is a few spots on the radio and the TV station, and everybody will know."

In the parking lot, she spun me around and kissed me. "And that's just fine with me!"

I smiled. "Me too, babe. Me too!"
Nina

Chapter 6

Thursday came. I took a half-day off, spent it with Nina fussing over a simple white dress she'd bought to get married in.

The "simple" wedding kind of mushroomed once word got out, and at five PM on a Thursday in late spring, Nina and me, her grandmother, Jannie, her husband, most of the office crew, and a good dozen of Nina's contemporaries were seated in a meeting room at the First Baptist Church to watch us exchange vows.

It wasn't your classic wedding. Let's see ... my buddies from work tended towards safety-toe shoes, khakis or jeans, and long-sleeved shirts. Among Nina's party I saw a selection of carefully shredded jeans, logo'ed shirts, including one or two that had the Baptist minister shaking his head, a few pair of high-end sneakers, and one dress besides Nina's grandmother, Helen.

I wore my "Dan Gleason, respectable engineer" suit. Nina, as I said, was wearing a perfect white dress, simple lines, ending just above her knee, a string of pearls that set like a pedestal to highlight that soft rounded face, and hair that was shiny perfection. As I stood beside her in front of the minister, you could've paraded the entire female population of the planet in front of me naked and I would not have taken my eyes off this one (in my mind) perfect female.

In keeping with the rush and the informality, our reception was one door down in the church recreation building, and my credit card took a hit for a caterer to throw together finger foods, pizza and soft drinks. Soft drinks? Yep. Baptist church in the South. To the guys from work, I promised a barbecue with appropriate beverages at some indeterminate future date.

And we took off on our honeymoon. Airline flight. Cruise up the Inside Passage to Alaska. Yes, there were some marathons in the cabin. But I married a fledgling engineer, and there was more than one tour of the cruise ship's engineering spaces, too.

And a week later we were home. OUR home.

But there's another thing. Remember that "small town" thing about news traveling fast? Well, the same network that spread the news throughout the town also had a tendril that reached the ex-wife. Nina and I were in a hotel room, waiting for our cruise to depart the next day.

I wasn't exactly on friendly terms with the ex. She'd left me for an old high school boyfriend, and the departure was NOT on the best of terms. However, we did have a daughter in common, one little Miss Sandra, commonly referred to as "Sandy", now ten, so we did stay in contact, and that's why her name was attached to phone number on my cellphone.

Which is why I made a face when my phone rang and I saw who it was. My face must have given me away. Nina looked at me.

"Ex," I said.

Nina wasn't threatened. No, Nina was smug. "Tell 'er I said "hi"."

I smiled at Nina and took a deep breath. "Hello, Jennifer," I said.

The voice at the other end was familiar. Unfortunately, so was the very perceptible edge of nastiness. "Hello, Dan. I just heard some interesting news."

Nina's ear was against mine so we could both hear the conversation. Her hand touched my thigh. I looked. She smiled.

"And what news would that be, Jen?"

"It seems as though you've acquired a wife, Dan." I pictured her face twisted in a sneer I was all too familiar with from the divorce. Her face was actually quite pleasant without the sneer, but for some reason now, the sneer was the default picture in my head.

"Oh, good," I said. "I was afraid it was another one of those gossipy rumors you've been repeating back to me. So what did you hear, and I will tell you if it's true or not." I felt Nina's thigh against mine. That's all I needed for support.

Jennifer started in. I could picture the nasty smirk. "My sources say that YOU married some TEENY-BOPPER who's young enough to be your DAUGHTER, and that she just graduated from high school last month."

"Right. WRONG. Right."

"What'd'ya mean, Dan?" There was an edge of venom.

"Well, Jennifer," I said calmly, "We, that's Nina and I, did indeed get married a week or so ago. She is indeed eighteen, but she's far from a teeny-bopper. She had a 4.0 average, National Honor Society, and third in her graduating class." I breathed then continued before Jen could crank back up. "And I already HAVE a daughter. I married a kindred soul. By the way, how's YOUR hubby doing?"

That was a little sprinkling of salt into a wound. Jen's new husband was a notorious grand talker, perpetually just one step behind that One Big Deal of a Lifetime. I don't think they were doing particularly well financially, and I suspected that the monthly child support checks I sent were a significant portion of their income at times.

"Jerry's doing just fine, thank you very much. He's got a big used car lot now, and he's angling towards getting a GM dealership."

"That's gooood," I said. I could do sarcasm, too, you know. Nina slapped me on the thigh.

"Be nice," Nina mouthed silently.

I continued, "So how's Sandy doing? She hasn't called. School's out."

Jen sighed. "Sandy's doing fine. Straight A's. Just like you. Right now she's upstairs listening to music. YOUR music. Bugging me about PIANO lessons. Wanna talk to her?"

"You know I do. In a second. So what else do you want to talk about? Wanna talk to my new wife?" I looked at Nina. I was smiling, because Nina was smirking. "Because she's gonna be Sandy's step-mom. Well, more like a big sister."

I knew pretty much who Jennifer's "source" for news was. The source was a long-time friend of Jen's (and mine, actually) who was a high-school teacher. I surmised that the source knew exactly what was what with Nina. Further, I actually trusted that person to tell Jennifer the truth even if it didn't particularly please Jen to hear it. And the truth was that my Nina was bright and intelligent and moral and I was sure those findings had been given to Jennifer.

Jen snorted. "Yeah. Let me talk to your sweetie." Sarcasm dripped.

"Be nice. Really. I KNOW you can do it," I said.

"I AM nice," Jen said. "Lemme talk to her."

I handed the phone to Nina, who jumped in with both feet. "Hi, Mizz Jennifer," Nina chirped, her voice dripping with youthful exuberance. I was listening, ear to Nina's.

"You don't have to call me "Mizz," Jen said. "You married my ex."

"Yes ma'am," Nina grinned, "But my grandma taught me to be respectful to my elders."

I almost choked trying to stifle my laugh. My eyes watered.

"Babe," Jennifer battled back, "You married my ex. You don't call him "Mister" do you?"

"I did, until, you know..." Nina countered with a decidedly girlish giggle.

There was a palpable pause. "Good one," Jennifer said. "Good one. Okay." She paused. I heard the sigh. "Let's retract our claws, dear. Is Sandy staying with you guys for a few weeks this summer going to be a problem?"

Nina looked at me. I mouthed "okay". We'd already had this talk between ourselves.

"Oh, certainly not. Dan's told me about her, and I want to meet her anyway."

"But you and Dan being newlyweds..."

Nina's mouth straightened. Her "serious" look. "Uh, Mizz ... Sorry. Jennifer, I am a person with a sense of propriety and decorum and morals. Dan knows this. Everybody around me knows this. With Sandy here, I will be her big sister or her step-mom, even, but she is Dan's child, and I would never do anything to hurt a child, especially Dan's." She paused. "And yours." Another pause. "And now, mine..."

"Did HE tell you to say that?" Jen asked.

"Nope. He pretty much knows how I am, and if I wasn't like this, I don't think he would have married me." Nina smiled at me as I stroked her shiny hair.

Jennifer admitted, "I actually heard nothing but good about you, you know, except that you married Dan..."

"Hold on there, cowgirl," Nina jumped in. "I MARRIED Dan. Like in "forever" and all that. He's not a weekend or a summer or whatever. I will be with him until the day I die. Or he does."

I knew that the "forever" comment had driven a stake through the heart of my ex, and honestly, I don't think that Nina did it on purpose.

"I'm sorry. You're right, uh ... Nina?" Jennifer was reeling, losing the battle badly. "He was single. It's his choice. And yours. And honestly, I heard nothing but good about you. Can we be, you know, sort of friends?"

Nina took that hit. "Uh ... yeah," and then threw her own. "Yeah, we have something in common." Pause "A little girl named Sandy. 'Friends' would be best for Sandy, I think."

"Yeah," Jennifer said. "And be good to her dad, okay?"

"Absolutely," Nina answered.

"Can I talk to him for a second?" Jennifer asked.

Nina looked at me and then said, "Dan, Jennifer wants to talk to you," acting like I hadn't heard every word that had been spoken between them.

"Okay, Jen," I said. "I heard you get a little idea of how Nina is."

"Yeah I did. Dan, she's something. At least that's what I heard."

"She had to be something, Jen," I said. "She cracked quite a shell to get to me." I paused. "So when are we getting Sandy?"

Jen said, "How about a couple or three weekends from now? We can meet you halfway."

"Last weekend in June sounds fine. How long can we have her?"

"Three or four weeks?" Jen stated.

"Four, I'm thinking. We'll see how Sandy and Nina hit it off. I'm thinking it'll be fine."

"Okay, Dan," she said. "Anything else?"

"Nope," I said. "Can I talk to Sandy now?"

"Sure," Jen said.

I heard her call Sandy's name, then footsteps, then "Hi, Daddy!"

"Hi, baby," I said. "I heard you did all A's in school."

"Yessir," she said. "It's not that hard." She paused. "Mom said you got married."

"Yes, baby," I said. "I did."

"Mom said she was young. Like high school."

"She is, baby. Her name is Nina. And she graduated this year. Do you want to say hi to her?"

"Sure." That was my little girl. Sometimes I saw things that were purely her mother's and sometimes I saw myself at that age. Her matter of fact tone? That was me.

I handed the phone to Nina.

"Hi, Sandy," Nina said.

"Hi," Sandy said. "Uh, what am I s'posed to call you? Like "Mom" or "Miss Nina" or what?"

"Call me just plain "Nina", Sandy. You have a mom already."

"Okay then, Nina. Do you work?"

"I don't have a job right now, Sandy. I start college in the fall. Why?"

Sandy was thinking. I could tell. "'Cuz dad'll have like a week of vacation and we can ALL do stuff, and then when he goes back to work, I can hang out with you. Can I?" Sandy paused. "That's if you don't have, like HORNS on your head or something..."

Nina's laughter tinkled. "I don't have horns, sweetie. And I'd love to hang out with you."

"'Kay," Sandy said. "It's nice meeting you. Can I talk to my dad now?"

"Sure, babe! We're gonna have a good time." Nina handed me the phone.

"She doesn't have horns, Sandy. Her species has the scales and forked tail."

"Da-aad! You were LISTENING!" She sounded exasperated as only a precocious ten-year old ("ALMOST eleven!") could sound.

"I was listening to the two women I love most in life. And yes, we will have at least a week of vacation time for all of us together, okay. Maybe two. And I've rented a beach house."

The squeal almost burst my eardrum. "The BEACH!?!?!? I LOVE the BEACH!"

"I know that, princess. That's why I rented it."

"Okay, Dad! I love you!" she squealed. "Did you get us a sailboat, too?"

"I love you too, baby," I said. "Yes, I got us a sailboat."

"Oh, good! I love sailboats. I can't WAIT!"

"Us neither, Sandy."

"Okay, Dad. Tell Nina bye," she said, then "Wait! Mom wants to say something."

Jennifer's voice. "Sounds like she's taking this better than..."

"Better than what?" I asked.

"Nothing," Jennifer said. "Nothing. I hope you and Nina are happy, and I'm happy that it sounds like Sandy is okay with it."

"Thank you," I said. "Nina?"

Nina smirked.

"Nina says, "Nice to meet you," and all that," I said. "Bye..."

"Bye, Dan." Click.

As I sat the phone down, Nina slid into my lap and put her arms around my neck. And smiled. "Well!" she said, "That went better than expected."

I said, "I'm a little surprised myself. She had her claws out when she called." I kissed Nina's nose. "But YOU..." I laughed. "When you said "respectful to my elders"? I thought I was going to die..."

Nina giggled. "Don't nobody mess with MY man, Dan. Nobody. Just because she's your ex doesn't mean I will put up with any crap." She paused. "Well, when it comes to Sandy..."

"Sandy's not going to be a problem?"

"I don't think so, Dan. Not from what you've told me, and how she sounds on the phone."

"Good, babe. She IS my daughter."

"I know, honey," Nina said. "And I know you want to do your best with her. And so do I. So we will." Then Nina wiggled. Her lip came out in a pout. "What kind of luck is it that I start my honeymoon while I'm having a period?"

"No luck at all..."

She laughed. "I know ... established principles and parameters at work..."

I kissed her long and hard, her form melting into my arms. She was completely nude except for panties. I didn't let them deter my hands for feeling her butt. Her teeth nibbled at my ear.

"I wish you were inside me, Dan," she whispered.

"Babe, I can be..."

"No," she said. "I know you told me that some women do that, but not me. Not on my period. Her eyes locked into my own. "A couple more days. We'll be in the cabin, and, mmmmmm, okay?"

"Okay," I said.

She raised up and resettled astraddle my lap. I lived and died in the beauty of her face, eyes twinkling, that smile, her arms encircling my neck, her small, firm breasts pressing against my hairy chest. Another wiggle and I was hard. Very hard. Obviously hard to a young girl wiggling her butt in my lap.

This was considered to be a very good thing and her hands were planted against my chest, pushing me backward. She was grinning, her pink tongue's tip protruding between her teeth as she slid down. "You don't think I'm gonna, like, let you build up all that pressure, do you?"

"I could, you know..." I was being truthful. I could. I wouldn't want to, but I could. And I'd have to paddle that cute butt for parading around almost naked in front of me every time we got in a private venue.

"Well, maybe I'll let you charge up the night before this stupid period is over," she said. She stripped my briefs off and her head bobbed down and I was in heaven as her mouth took me in.

"Oh, godddd, babe," I moaned. "I feel like I'm taking advantage of you..."

"Nuh-uh..." she was looking up into my eyes, smiling. "You're not forcing me. I LIKE doing this." Her grin made that quite believable, as did the enthusiasm with which teeth and tongue and lips worked on me, showing me with feelings from my dick and my balls and the insides of my thighs. I don't know if it was just intuitive to her, or she was paying careful attention to the involuntary spasms of pleasure, or what, but she had me racing to orgasm in a matter of minutes. As her fingers expertly squeezed and tugged at my balls, my dick spewed jet after jet of semen into her sucking mouth.

She was smiling when she crawled back up and kissed me. "I love you, Dan," she said. "You know, I was almost worried about the first time I was going to talk to your ex. But I know that you're mine, and together we're up to anything."

"I knew we had to do that sooner or later, babe. She can be quite the bitch at times. I'm just glad she wasn't today. I hate to think of anyone making you unhappy."

"We're gonna win, babe." She kissed me. "We have each other. You know, I'm actually looking forward to having Sandy over this summer."

"She's a good kid, babe. Smart. Like you. I'm thinking that the two of you will hit it off well. But me and you, we need to exercise some restraint and decorum, you know."

"Oh, I know that, babe. No running around naked, no groping."

"Yeah, kissing and hugging is okay, though."

"Like this?" she giggled, wrapping me in long, slender legs, her hands grabbing my softened dick and balls.

"Maybe not quite THAT enthusiastic."

Giggle. "I'll be good, babe. That's what doors are for."

Honeymoon? In a word, beautiful. Nina's idea as much as mine for the destination, and we had a blast. Interacting with other passengers, we were "that funny couple, older guy, young girl, that you can't pry apart". We went ashore and marveled at the touristy things, devoured the spectacular scenery, shot endless amounts of video of orcas, and as previously mentioned, we wasted no time in locating the ship's engineer for a "show us how this thing works" tour. And after he found out that I was an engineer myself, we REALLY got the tour.

Seeing Nina every day, the sky was a deeper blue, the scents of the breeze were more fragrant, food tasted better ... Can you tell I was in love?

And a day into the trip, the period was over and after dinner and a little time on deck marveling at the scenery, a soft hand grasped mine and tugged. When I turned to look at that face, the eyes were twinkling and the smile was sublime and the reason was obvious.

I don't think that the cabin door was locked before her clothing was fluttering to the floor and she was helping me to undress and I was victimized by a wanton teen girl. Oh, the horror ... two hours later I was drained, having come twice. Nina? Poor babe had to settle for...

"How many times did you come this evening, babe," I asked.

A sigh, an arm tossed across my chest, a purr... "Gee, honey, five, six..." giggle. "Does your tongue still work?"

That night we didn't go to sleep. Instead, we slipped into a shared sexually dissipated coma. Loving Nina was an exercise in a dimension of sexuality that my imagination never generated in even my most fevered, hormone-addled mind. "Insatiable" is not the word for how things were between us. To me, it sounds crude and uncontrollable. We were mutually aroused and mutually satisfied with each other. At the end of the evening all we had left of each other was soothing caresses as we fell into sleep.

I woke first the following morning, propped up on one elbow, drinking in the disheveled beauty next to me, her dark brown hair splayed on her pillow, the roundness of her shoulder blending into her smooth, firm back, the sheets up to her waist. My small movement, even though it didn't wake up my young beauty, did wake up my bladder. I got out of bed as quietly as I could and went to the bathroom to relieve myself. Concentrating on my task, I didn't hear Nina arise, so her presence at the door was a bit of a shock, but she smiled, kissed me quickly and pushed past me to unload her own pressure.

Awake, we showered. For some reason our bodies smelled of sex. Once cleaned up enough to be presentable, we dressed and went to breakfast and the day's activities, strolling around the deck hand in hand, greeting and chatting with people we recognized.

All too soon, the cruise was over and we worked our way back home. Tired out, we spent a two-hour layover nestled together in adjacent airport chairs, her head on my chest, my arm around her shoulder. In between snoozes we had a running discussion of the "wildlife".

The last flight was short and half-empty. The flight attendant, seeing us sitting side by side informed us that we could spread out and sit in less crowded comfort.

"Oh, no, thank you," Nina said. "Last day of our honeymoon. We kinda belong like this." And I smiled.

The attendant bent over and whispered, "The last two rows are empty." And she smiled. Nina looked at me and grinned.

"Thank you," Nina said. We got up and moved to the last row and were ignored for the forty minute flight. I guess a more adventurous couple might have tried the "Mile-High Club" but neither Nina nor I was THAT adventurous. The idea, however, was subject of much giggling and laughing and ultimately a bunch of tickling and power hugging. And a squeeze or two...

And home. Of course, having been gone a week, the cat was guarding the door when we walked in. Nina stopped to begin the slow process of catching him up on a week's missed skritches and I unloaded the bags and started stowing what needed stowing. I was stopped in mid-stow by a pair of hands covering my eyes from behind.

Inseparable? I mean to tell you. I bought a second kayak. We went kayaking. Her old bicycle went to a charity and I bought her a new one and weekends found us on the roads through the woods together.

"Guess who," she said, giggling.

"Katerina, Tsarina of All the Russias," I said, "and I am only Igor, your unworthy servant..."

Giggle. "Igor, I tire from my travels. I require a bahth." In a horrible fake Russian accent.

Grunt. "Oh, Mistress, Igor says bath not good for Mistress. Shower much better." I turned around. "Mistress" was completely naked and giggling.

"That's quite possibly the most horrible Russian accent I've ever heard. Come on, babe. Let's go shower and then..." Her eyes twinkled and her smile deepened to "dimple" range. The laundry could wait.

"And by the way, lady, your Russian accent is horrible, too."

She hauled my face to hers. "How about my French?" Giggle.

After a long, hot kiss, I opined "Your French is perfect..." We washed each other lovingly and retired to the bedroom. Clothes? Nope.

Nina tossed the covers off the bed in a grand move and fell backward onto it, her arms and legs spread. "Do you KNOW how much I need you, babe?"

I took her invitation and crawled into her arms. Youthful, perfect, willing. No, forget "willing". Make that "excited". Our mouths met and welded. Then our bodies followed. Mated. Frantically. Half an hour later we were lying back, her head on my chest, my lips brushing the shining beauty of her hair. A planted kiss caused me to turn her face to mine. There was that smile, full of life and promise, those eyes, blue wells that in mere weeks had pulled in my soul.

"I love you, Nina," I said.

"You'd better, Dan. Because these are the only man's arms I will ever be in..."

"I can promise you, little one," I said. "From the first time I saw you, your face has been in my head."

"You silver-tongued devil," she purred. She rolled over on top of me and kissed me, her hair hanging to frame her face and tickle my cheeks.

I stroked her head and brushed the hair away from her face and kissed her back.

"You're kinda the same way with me, babe," she said. "Just so you know."

"I know, babe. We're pretty much an "US" now, aren't we?"

"Yep," she grinned. "And "us" Is hungry, aren't we?" She smiled demurely. "Let's order a pizza!"

"Works for me," I said. I watched her shapely ass bounce out the door and into the office to fire up the desktop computer. I molested her while the computer booted.

"Stop that," she giggled. "You're gonna make me stain the chair." She was right. Her bare ass was on my computer chair and my Nina was very juicy when aroused. I got up and came back with a towel. She raised up and I covered the chair. "Now you can molest me with impunity," she giggled. I was nibbling on her neck, a move that disintegrated any self-control she might have had, when the computer finished booting.

"Order pizza!" I said.

"Uh ... you beast! Here I was thinking you were totally absorbed in my beauty, and you were watching the darned computer?"

"Got to have priorities, babe," I chuckled.

"Beast," repeated, giggling, turning to the screen. A few clicks and keystrokes and she stood up. "You can lick me senseless now, babe. The food's on the way.

I put my hands on her waist and she hopped up, wrapping those long legs around me. She was correct. Fifteen minutes later she was bucking against my tongue.

"Good boy" she said, kissing my juice-covered face. I donned a terrycloth robe to wait for the pizza's arrival.

She slipped on an identical one, followed me into the living room and knelt between my legs when I sat on the sofa. She was grinning as her tongue and lips teased and played. "You know," she said, "that the pizza's gonna come before YOU do..." She moved up to straddle my now-hard dick and in one move sheathed it deep inside wonderful hot wetness. A smile enlarged on her face. "You know how much I love you inside me."

"Ohgodyes," I said.

She didn't move a muscle and neither did I, except our mouths. That's where we were when we heard a car pull into the drive.

She didn't have a hard-on to care for, so she made sure her robe was closed and answered the door. Opening it, she saw the delivery boy. "Oh, uh ... Hi, Brandon!" 'Brandon' was wearing the uniform shirt of the pizza company. I could only imagine Brandon to be one of Nina's classmates.

"Uh, hi, Nina. I heard you got married. Is this where you live now?" he asked.

"Yes, it is." She half-turned. "Babe, come meet Brandon. We went to school together."

I got up and walked to the door. "Hi, Brandon. I'm Dan Gleason." He balanced the pizza bag on one arm and shook my hand.

"Pleased to meetcha," he said.

Nina took the pizza from him and I signed the ticket, adding a healthy tip.

"Thanks, Mister Dan," he said. And he turned and left.

I locked the door and went to the kitchen where Nina was putting hot cheesy slices on plates for us. I fixed a couple of cokes over ice. We sat at the table to eat.

"One of the guys from school," she said. "Just a plain ol' middle of the class guy. Now he's delivering pizza."

"Give 'im credit for doing SOMETHING," I said. "Even though running my own car up and down the road for tips might not be the smartest choice."

"What about me, Dan? Should I try and get a job?" She looked at me as she sucked on her straw.

"Let's think about that, sweetie. First, you told Sandy that you weren't working and you'd be able to spend time with her when she came. That's gonna be your month of July."

"You're right. I remember that."

"And as far as spending money ... You have your own car and you've got a credit card and I trust you to spend our money wisely. So it's not the money."

"Uh-huh," she said.

"And what kind of job are you going to go after? Second assistant fry cook at Mickey D's? Other than people skills, what's that going to do for you?"

"You're right. I'm a fledgling engineer." Her brow wrinkled for a second. That was her "I'm thinking" face. "Uh ... library."

"Library?"

"Yeah, I can go help out with the summer reading program at the library. I did that last summer." She smiled. "Grandma put me up to it."

"That'll get you out of the house a little. Volunteer as much as you want. And when Sandy's here, maybe she can go with you."

She smiled. "That's what I'll do. I can call tomorrow."

"Next summer, though, we can see about getting you an internship somewhere if you want."

She smiled. "Maybe your assistant?"

"I think most of my managers would see through that ploy, angel. And how would I keep my professional distance all day?"

"Just a thought," she said. "And you're right. It would be bad for workplace morale if they found you doin' an intern in a closet." Giggle. "Even worse if they found the intern doing YOU."

We finished our pizza and cleaned up our mess, then settled in for some quiet music and a game of cards. Easing towards nine o'clock, we put the cards up and I followed a bouncy little ass into the bedroom. We shed the bathrobes and she pushed me backward onto the bed. "Uh, I think I owe you an orgasm, baby doll," she grinned. "How do you want it?"

I was erect. I took her hand and guided her astraddle me.

"You know how I love this way," she smiled. Kneeling over me she teased the head of my dick with the wet lips of her pussy, smearing her juices on me, mixing them with my own as I leaked in anticipation. "It'll be..." she slid down over me until our pubic bones met. "I'll come..." her hands supported her as her back arched.

I bent upward to lick a nipple and her right hand left my chest to pull my face against her.

"OH god, Dan. You drive me wild."

I had my hands on her hips, riding her pounding pussy as she worked us together towards ecstasy. With her nipple in my mouth, all I could communicate was "Mmmmm". I pushed upward in response to her active hips, matching her thrusts with my own. I felt the head of my dick deep inside her colliding with her cervix as we mated.

My mouth left her tit and I saw her biting her bottom lip, her nostrils flaring. I knew my Nina was close. I could feel the tingling in the head of my dick that presaged my own orgasm. "Come on, baby doll, let's do it," I hissed.

"Mmmm, yeah ... ogodohgodohgad ... Dannnnnn!" and he pussy slammed hard onto me. I felt the ripple of her muscles and the first squirt jetted into her. "Eeeee, I feel it, Dan! Do it!"

I did it, thrusting short strokes into her as she glowed. She collapsed into my arms. I held onto her.

"Dan, I love you," she sighed.

"And I love you, Nina. You're my perfect dream, you know."

She curled up into my chest. "I didn't know WHAT to dream until we got together, Dan."

And that's the way to go to sleep.
Nina

Chapter 7

Monday. Double Monday, because it was the first day back from vacation. NO, Make that a rare TRIPLE Monday, because it was also the first day of work after a honeymoon, and a guy just doesn't get that many honeymoons.

The alarm went off unsympathetically. I got up and headed to the bathroom to wash my face, and I jumped a little in surprise when I felt Nina's arms wrap around me from behind.

"Babe," I said, "You could've slept in, you know..."

"No, baby," she smiled. "You're up, and I wanna be up with you. That bed's no fun without you in it."

I was glad. We kissed, and then as I was getting dressed, I heard her in the kitchen.

"Cereal okay this morning, babe?" I heard her call.

"Sure," I said. "That's fine." As I was pulling on my shoes, I flipped on the TV to catch the news. I saw her set a bowl on the table for me and I sat down as she followed with one for herself.

"Coffee's on, too. By the time you finish your cereal." We ate, talking, smiling, then she collected the bowls and silverware and returned with two mugs of coffee.

"Babe, you don't have to wait on me."

"I know," she said, "but you're going to go to work all day and I'm going to stay here until one and then go to the library and read books to kids. I'd feel guilty."

"Don't," I said. "but I appreciate this. I really do. And I love you for it."

She giggled. "I would hope you love me for more than a nasty ol' cup of coffee!"

"I don't have time for the whole list, little brown-haired girl," I said. I finished the coffee and stood to leave. She stood with me. We walked to the door. She kissed me before closing the door behind me.

I walked into the office to the good-natured jibes of my co-workers, right down to a smiling Jannie. I found my in-box hidden under project files and paperwork and spent most of the morning alternating between catching up on email and sorting through the stack. An hour before lunch I couldn't look at paper any more. I had to escape.

Walking past Jannie, she remarked, "I tried to keep as much off you as I could, but I can't do all that stuff, Dan."

"I know, Jannie," I said. "I appreciate it. I have to get out of the office for a while. I'll be back." I slipped out the door and took my golfcart out into the plant to see a couple of jobs I knew were in progress.

I found out that not only had word of my new marriage gotten out, but so had details like Nina's age. And a few other things.

"My daughter went to school with that little girl you married, Dan," one older electrician told me.

"Your daughter graduated this year, too, Steve-o," I said. "I got an invitation from her." I smiled. "Since there's only one school in town, I suppose that's sort of unavoidable that they knew each other."

He shook his head, "Yeah, you're right. But I had to ask Britney anyway, you know. Curiosity and all that." He wiped his hands with a shop rag as we talked. "She said your Nina was always sort of different in school. Kids thought she was maybe, you know..."

I laughed. "Yeah, I know. Nina told me what the rumors were, so you saying it doesn't surprise me."

"Oh, don't get me wrong, Dan! I'm happy for you. Just, you know, kind of a surprise." He rubbed the stubble on his chin. "'Course, when I think of some of the boys that Brit's brought home ... I think I'd trade age for intelligence and a future..."

"Dammit, Steve," I said, "how do you think your father in law felt when YOU first waltzed in the front door with HIS daughter?"

"Good point, Dan," he said. "But still ... Eighteen. You know you're sort of a legend around the lunchroom now..."

"People need something to talk about," I shrugged.

"Yeah, but a forty year old engineer with an eighteen year old wife, that's GOOD!"

As I drove back to the office building I mulled over that thought. Smiling.

Back at the office, a couple of my co-workers mentioned a run outside the plant for lunch.

"Any vendors around that we can squeeze for a free meal?" I asked. We were a large, lucrative client for a whole lot of services and supplies and the salesmen from those companies frequently bought lunch while we "talked business".

"No," Harvey said. "We're on our own."

"Well," I said, "let's go, then." I had Harvey riding with me in the front seat and another guy in the back seat. We headed to a nearby eatery that was set up for the lunch crowd from the local industries.

My phone rang. I held it up. Nina.

Harvey smirked. "Hmmphh! Newlyweds!"

"Hey, Nina baby," I said.

"Hi, love," she answered. "You said I could call around eleven-thirty. How's your day?"

"Too long," I said. "Me and Harvey and Dave are headed to Binky's for lunch. Are you on the road somewhere near there?"

"'Bout a mile away. Your buddies don't mind if I join you?"

"Nina wants to know if it's okay if she joins us for lunch," I questioned. I heard no complaints. Saw a couple of grins. "Come on, baby doll," I told her.

"See you in a few minutes, baby," she chirped.

"Okay, little girl! I love you!"

"Love ya too, babe!" she said, and hung up.

"Gaggggg!" Dave said.

"Jealousy is a terrible emotion, bud," I told him, laughing.

"Dammit, Dan, I AM jealous. She sure was pretty when ya'll got married."

"Your wife's a doll, too, Dave. We all need to get together for a barbecue soon, you know..."

"I can make that happen," Harvey said.

"Nah, needs to be at my place. Nina's rollout as a proper engineer's wife an' all that!" I laughed. "B'sides, Harv, I've had your barbecue." That got a few laughs. We were constantly competing over barbecue.

We pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant, went inside and got the second to last table. Nina walked in just as we sat down and I motioned her over.

"Hi, Mister ... uh ... Harvey? And you're..." She looked at Dave. "Mister Dave. You guys were at our wedding." She smiled. "So what's for lunch?"

Harvey patted his rounded gut. "Plate lunch special. Monday is Salisbury steak and gravy. You get a vegetable and a piece of cake and a roll with it.

The waitress came up to take our orders. Her eyes darted between me and Nina. "Ya'll just got married, didn't ya?"

Nina fielded that one. "Yes ma'am!" And patted my arm, grinning.

"That's good, hon," the waitress countered. She took our orders and left.

"Nina, you broke a bunch of hearts, you know," Dave said.

"How's that, Mister Dave?" she asked.

"You took a very eligible man, a single, successful engineer, off the market. And you can drop that "mister" thing, Nina. You're Dan's wife now."

"He told me he didn't like being on the market." She looked at me, then back at Dave.

"Yeah, he didn't play that game. If I was single..."

Harvey said, "It was something to see. Some of them women would flirt, and ol' Dan would just smile and sip his drink and be polite, but he never took the bait."

Nina smiled. "He's different. That's why I chose him."

I changed the subject as gracefully as I could. We talked about work stuff. About Nina's library job. And planned for a barbecue. And we ate our lunch.

I'm the only one who got a kiss before going back to work, a detail mentioned mirthfully by Dave.

Funny. Somehow that kiss helped me make it through the rest of Monday.

I didn't want to be too obvious about wanting to get home at the end of the day, but I wanted ... Still, I and the rest of the team sat in the lunchroom for ten minutes after the whistle signaled the end of the day, giving the hourly crew time to clear the roads a bit. I'd just made it through the gate when my cellphone rang. Nina.

"Nina, I can't believe this day was so long..." I said.

"Me too, sweetie," she said. "Hurry home!"

I hurried. Well, I hurried as much as I could through a little town with some zealous local law enforcement. As I pulled into the driveway, the front door swung open and Nina came springing out. The old man across the street waved as she threw her arms around my neck and kissed me in OUR front yard. She took my hand and tugged me into the house, shutting the door.

"Would it be considered improper of me to want you to make love with me before we go to dinner?"

"Hmmm," I said, "I guess considering that we've been married for just over a week, that would be quite acceptable, my dear," I said.

Her nimble fingers were running down the front of her blouse, undoing buttons. I was following her, engaged in my own version of the same plan. We both sat on the edge of the bed, removing shoes and socks, and then she stood, pulling off her panties. I stood to drop my own briefs and stepped out of them as she was tossing back the covers to OUR bed.

"Come on, baby," she said. "I've been thinking of this all afternoon."

"Wow, this is strange. Reading to pre-schoolers makes my baby horny." I grinned as I gathered her into my arms.

"Not exactly, babe," she laughed. "It was the blue sky, the sun shining, happy people, and I just thought that the happiest thing I could do today is make love with YOU!"

Further comments disappeared into silence as our lips met. My hands traced down the perfect curve from her waist to her thighs, a bit of real estate incorporating what appeared to me to be the most perfect ass in the universe. She was MINE. What do you think I'd think?

Her lips pulled away from mine with a sigh and I moved my face to the juncture between her neck and shoulder and kissed. She got all giggly at that move, then tugged my head down towards a perky breast.

Like I needed encouragement.

Her fingers sought a grip in my short hair as I nipped and tugged at a pink, erect nipple, then she sighed in the second it took me to move to its mirror image on the other side. I kneaded her firm breast with my hand, then kissed downward towards the soft dark hair on her pubic mound. I relished the tactile bliss as my lips pushed through the soft hair towards the wet, musky slit.

My movement to that goal performed pleasing geometry in that it brought her face near my own sex. As I kissed the beginning of her sweet slit, I felt her fingers wrap my dick, sliding the skin over the shaft, tugging me to a hot mouth.

Her lips closing over the head of my dick brought a moan from my lips, and that moan was in direct contact with her pussy's moist lips. She threw her legs apart, pushed me onto my back and presented me with a luscious hot, wet, tasty pussy. Her head bounced down, pushing her mouth onto my hardness as my tongue found her hard, pink clitty.

One of her hands guided my dick into and out of her mouth as the other hand squeezed my ass. I pulled her into my face and licked and slurped hungrily.

We didn't communicate with words, just purrs and moans as we drove each other to orgasm. She pulled me out of her mouth as she came once, then twice, then sucked me back in, her teeth catching the skin of my dick on the wonderful edge of pain, her tongue dancing. And I came.

She sucked on me until I was drained and soft, then turned around and kissed me. I gazed into her eyes.

"God, you transport me to another world, little girl. I love you."

"I love you too, honey. I truly do."

We stayed in an embrace for a few minutes, then got up to shower before dinner. The day's cares and stresses were gone, chased away by the cutie in my arms, soapy, giggly, trading caresses as hot water ran over us.

We were doing our post-shower rituals. She was perched on a stool, drying that sassy hair and I was shaving. "Dan," she said, "we have to be careful, you know..."

"Careful of what, baby doll?" I questioned.

"That we don't forget to work off lunches like we had today."

"Oh, that," I answered. "If you remember, I was out for a walk the day I met you."

Giggle. "Yeah, I know. But we need to keep doin' something. I don't want to be one of those plump little wives."

"I don't mind the plump thing, but we need to stay healthy. And you're young. If I slow down, I'm gonna put on weight like crazy, and it'd be a lot harder to get off."

"That's right, sweetie," she said, standing, naked.

I was wiping the shaving cream off my face. She handed me the aftershave. "Use this."

"You like that stuff?"

Another giggle. "You don't know how crazy that made me when we first met. That night you took me out to eat, our first date. I remembered that scent all night when I got home." She smiled.

"I am glad I made you crazy for me, Nina." She spun me around and pressed her naked form against me. "You're a dream that I hope I never wake up from."

"Me too, baby," she said.

"Come on, love," I said. "Let's go see if anything's good on TV."

"Okay," she said, pulling on her nightshirt. We went to the living room. I stretched out on the sofa and Nina took her place at the opposite end of the sofa, our legs delightfully tangled. She punched through the channels twice and neither of us expressed an interest in anything.

"Nothing?" I asked.

"Unless you just want a background noise. D'you remember what's in the CD changer?"

"Nope," I said.

"It'll be something good." She got up and pushed back against me, wrapping my arms around her. "I know you've got "Pastorale" in there somewhere." She punched buttons studiously until she found it. The sounds were what I and my baby needed. I nuzzled her and caressed her and she purred and made happy noises and we talked about our day, then picked up a deck of cards and laughed and played before bed.

And we settled into a blissful routine.
Nina

Chapter 8


Two weeks of routine, anyway. I'd go to work, just like I had for years, except there was this lithe female form catching me at the door for a kiss before I left, and she'd hand me a little paper bag with a couple of apples or a banana or grapes or something, and unless the gang at the office shoved me out the gate for lunch, I had Nina's snack.

Nina was at the library three days a week, reading stories and helping corral a bunch of rambunctious pre-schoolers.

And when I'd get home, if she'd had a library day, we ate out. If she hadn't done the library, I'd walk in to the smells of food cooking on the stove, and a smiling, jeans-clad wife. After dinner we walked or used a new membership at the gym. I was serious about not wanting to gain weight and that required a bit of effort.

Happily I had Nina. And TWO bicycles. And TWO kayaks.

Yeah, the kayak thing. I wasn't a nut-case "take a kayak over Niagara Falls" kayaker, but I was plenty competent for the slow-moving rivers and lakes around the area, and I brought Nina along with me. The first time. After that, it was "Let's go take the kayaks to the lake." And two kayakers can find some really secluded places to play.

And we were approaching the last weekend of June. Time for Sandy to show up for her month with Daddy. And Nina.

Nina, I'm happy to say, started prepping for the vacation at the beach two weeks in advance, making lists, showing them to me, refining, organizing. We went shopping and bumped up both our summer wardrobes. Included in hers, in addition to her normal, very conservative one-piece bathing suit, I watched her choose a couple of bikinis. Not tiny bikinis, but bikinis nonetheless.

I threatened to buy a speedo. It was an empty threat. I bought baggy trunks.

At work I tried to get as many loose ends tied up as I could. Jannie noticed. "I never saw you that excited about your vacation, Dan. She's really got you, huh?"

I smiled at Jannie. You don't work in the same office with somebody for years and not form a friendship. "Yes, I guess she does, Jan," I said.

Jannie turned away from her computer. "You know, all those times I tried fixin' you up, Dan? And you didn't..."

I laughed. "And you DID try, Jan. And so did some of them."

"Oh, I know," she laughed. "Women talk. I know all about it. But then Nina comes along..."

"Yes, she did," I said. "I wasn't looking, Jan. Really. I was more surprised than anything else."

"Well, I ain't the only one who says you look happier since you're married." She smiled. "So, you know, good for you. And Nina. She's a doll."

"Thank you, lady. So are you and Robert comin' over Saturday?" Yes, the barbecue I'd promised was scheduled for Saturday.

"Uh-huh. We farmed out the kids to grandparents for the weekend. Robert figures that if we survive your barbecue we can have Sunday to recuperate. Want me to bring something?" she smiled.

"Your 'tater salad?" Jannie's cooking was a frequent feature of our impromptu office 'feeds'.

"Done. How many people?" she asked.

"Uh ... four couples from the office here, Nina's grandma and her husband to be, my brother and his wife, me and Nina. Fourteen?" I said.

"Okay. Big batch," she said.

"Good! I've got the meat covered. Big brisket starts in the smoker, ribs, sausage..."

"No chicken?" Jannie questioned.

"Nope. Texas style barbecue. Texans say barbecue has FOUR legs..."

Jannie laughed. "Yeah, you and that bunch of knuckleheads you work with, and their barbecue..." An annual barbecue contest was a staple of our company's social season. I was a participant with the other guys from our division.

"The barbecue will be memorable, lady," I laughed. "And if you want, I'll toss a dead chicken on it for you..."

"Yeah, that's nice," she laughed. "And there'll be beer. You know how that works..."

We both laughed. I walked down the hall to my office, sat at my desk and fired up the computer. While it was booting, I looked at the smiling picture, now framed on my desk. I closed my eyes and replayed the kiss I'd gotten before walking out the door this morning, then went about my day's work, a mess of email, a couple of reports to review, the obligatory staff meeting, almost on autopilot.

That wasn't indicative of my lack of care, though. Things were going pretty good right now. My big projects were in the hands of an engineering company, and we were doing a good job on maintenance, staying ahead of problems by a careful regiment of inspection and testing. I didn't feel bad about my mind wandering for a change.

Home! And Nina! "Come on, sweetie," I said. "We need to go to the meat store." The 'meat store' was pretty close to an old-fashioned meat market, with a couple of real butchers who took pride in their craft. I knew that if I needed something special, they'd be the ones to set me up. The barbecue was coming in a couple of days and I needed something special. A phone call at the beginning of the week made sure that they had it waiting for me, and Nina and I walked out of the place with a couple of properly trimmed beef briskets.

Nina was giggling. "I can't believe you're making this much of a production out of this, Dan."

"You need to understand, sweetie," I stated, "We've been goin' at one another over barbecue since I hired on. You've seen my smoker." The smoker, safely stowed in a corner of the garage, was hand-fabricated, microprocessor-controlled, electrically heated, and I could stick meat in there and guarantee that the temperature in the box would track within two degrees of the temperature I chose. It was the subject of much mirth, but I could turn out perfectly cooked, perfectly smoked meat.

"Yeah, I know what you say, but still..." She laughed.

"Laugh if you want, but wait'll Saturday. See if it ain't the best barbecue you've ever had..." I told her how we'd have to start the brisket the evening before, low heat, smokey, all night.

"You're gonna wake up every two hours to check on that?" she asked.

"Oh,, no," I said. "It's fully instrumented. It's got a wireless transmitter that'll hit a receiver by the bed if it needs tending."

"Oh, come on ... You're nuts." She smiled. "And I just LOVE nuts..." I got a kiss out of that.

"Just remember, cutie, if it's worth doin', it's worth overdoin'...

Girlish giggle. "Just remember that after we get out of the shower, baby!"

"Oh, I'll remember, doll!" We pulled into the driveway. "All we need to do is put this meat in the fridge. Where do you want to go for dinner?"

"Italian?" she asked.

"Excellent choice." I ran inside with the meat and returned to the car. "Let's go!" Back on the road, as soon as my right hand was freed from driving tasks, it was being held by her left hand.

"And one week until summer with Sandy," I said.

"You know, Dan, I know you're nervous about that, but don't be. We'll do just fine. I mean, Sandy and I are talking twice a week now. She calls you and talks to you, and then she talks to me. Honestly, I think I'm looking forward to that whole 'big sister' thing. You know I like kids that age."

"Uh-huh," I admitted. "You get what, a dozen, dozen and a half every day at the library?"

Giggle. "And some of them are, uh... 'unrestrained' is a kind choice of words.'

"Yes, sweetness, but you've got Sandy's daddy. That's..."

She interrupted. "That's something that she and I have talked about at length. And she understands that adults have mates. Her mom..."

"Yeah, her mom walked right out of my house into her new hubby's," I said. Nina knew the story. She'd asked me and pried out some manner of detail.

"Oh, don't think about that. You're with somebody who loves you more than anything else in the world, and we've got each other."

"Okay, princess," I said. I glanced away from the road to that pretty face, framed by dark hair, blue eyes smiling. For me. I felt much better. This was helped along by a great presentation of pasta alla putanesca for me and a veal scallopini for Nina, and we split the customary tiramisu for dessert.

Walking out into the humid gulf Coast summer evening, she stopped in front of me and I wrapped her in my arms from behind. She tossed her head back against my shoulder and I nuzzled her ear, eliciting a giggle. "What?!?!?" I asked.

"Well, hon, if we're going to have the First Annual Dan 'n' Nina Barbecue Blast Saturday, and we had Italian tonight, we better do a salad something tomorrow. And Sunday we'll take the kayaks to the river."

"You're wise beyond your age, my dear," I said as I pushed her to the car. She had her door open as I opened mine, and we both entered at the same time from opposite sides. And met in the middle for a kiss.

"Let's get home, love," she said. "If it's worth doin', it's worth overdoin'"

We hurried home, straight in the door, and as soon as it locked behind us, clothing started fluttering to the floor. And we hit the shower in a tangle of naked arms and legs and our arms tugging us together under wonderfully hot water, enjoying the tactile symphonies of soapy skin and excited partners. Our ardor toned down a little as we shifted back to the pre-bed routine, me shaving, her drying and brushing her hair to sassy brown exuberance.

THEN to bed. I was pushed backward onto the mattress, my arms spreading to receive an eager, laughing vision. Her hands clasped the sides of my face, her blue eyes inches from mine.

"Darn you and your blue eyes, Dan," she sighed.

"Darn me? I thought I was being all adorable and things..."

"Yeah, that too. Sometimes I just NEED you..." Her lips brushed mine, finding the angle she wanted and then she pressed mine with ardor. Our tongues met, dancing. I slid my hands down from her shoulders, caressing her waist, then feeling her hips, finally resting at the juncture between her legs and her butt, tugging her against me.

Giggle. "I feel that," she said. "You make me lust, Dan. For YOU."

"I love you, Nina. You're still a dream to me." I kissed her, then kissed her neck, causing her to wiggle delightfully. She moved sideways off me and her hand slid down my stomach to grasp my erection, giving it a squeeze, then her fingers curled under my balls in a perfect motion. She slid her torso away from me as her head moved downward. I let her suck me for a moment then gently tugged, indicating that I wanted to taste her delights.

"Oh, yeah," she said. "I love this..." she lost the capability for coherent speech when my tongue slid between the moist lips of her youthful pussy, savoring musky, juices. We worked each other joyously for some minutes until her hip motions took a rhythmic motion that I knew signaled an approaching orgasm. She gave my erection one more langorous suck then pulled it out of her mouth and held it against her cheek as her breath came in gasps and little mewing sounds, and then "Ohgogohgodogod ... Dannnn ... Nnnnnggghhhh! Ahhhhh!" and then a collapse.

I slowed my play, my tongue gently lapping her pinkened lips, gathering juices for my own pleasure.

Then she raised a leg to roll off me. I reluctantly let her go. She turned in the bed, her face near mine again, then kisses. And she was back atop me, this time her hot, wet pussy searching for the head of my dick. It wasn't a long search at all, ending in me sliding into nirvana. I raised up to a sitting position, holding her in my lap, those long legs of hers wrapping around me, us coupling with playful kisses.

The smile on her face was angelic. "I love you, Dan," she said, then her hips moved.

My turn to moan. "Mmmmmmmmbaby..."

She silenced me with her lips covering mine, her body moving against mine, driving me towards orgasm. When she pulled her lips from mine, her eyes had changed from giggling to serious, and she was biting her bottom lip, the corners of her mouth turning up ever so slightly, her 'I'm getting ready to come' face.

I could only add slight movements to hers as we mated, her hips pushing down on my hardness insistently as I spurted deep inside her. I held her as her own orgasm surged and ebbed, her eyes squinched shut. When her eyelids fluttered, I kissed her on the nose.

"You are so absolutely perfect, little one," I said.

She took her arms from around me and gently pushed me back onto the bed, then slid down between my legs, her mouth receiving my soppy, soft dick.

"Oh, no, little girl. I get to do you..."

"Okay, lover," she said, turning around so we could enjoy a post-coital sixty-nine. Finishing for me was matter of her cleaning me. Finishing, for her, was recovering from a third orgasm. And we were in each other's arms, as it should be.

She sighed. "And all that and it's not even eight-thirty," she giggled. "Living room?"

"Sure!" I replied. We got up and walked into the living room after donning our sleeping clothes.

"Your recliner," she said. "And some music."

I sat in my recliner, knowing that this was going to gain me an armful of Nina. "What's your pleasure tonight, little angel?" I asked.

"How about that album with the trumpets. What's that one we both like? Haydn?" She shook her bangs sideways off her forehead. "I need a trim, sweetie," she said.

"I don't mind them the way they are. Your bangs drive me nutty." I picked up the remote and started shuffling through the music selection. Found Haydn. We listened together, her head resting on my shoulder as I held her against me.

I'd like to say that the rest of the evening was more cuddling and loving, but part of it was unwrapping a couple of beef briskets and coating them with my secret dry rub recipe, preparatory to the barbecue. Then I sealed them in vacuum bags and put them back in the fridge. Now, when you use your hands to apply something containing lots of pepper, you want to be careful. I knew I couldn't wash it off my hands completely, so I wore rubber gloves.

The cat watched me carefully through this whole procedure. I rewarded him with a bit of lean beef, sans red pepper, for his help. That took care of the cat. Nina was amused by the whole thing. I peeled off the gloves, carefully washed my hands anyway, and kissed her nose.

"Now it's bedtime, baby..." she smiled. I followed her into the bedroom and we crawled into the bed together falling asleep to soft music and gentle fondling.

And Friday morning. We sat at the table for breakfast and coffee together and I left for work. Leaving her instructions to put the beef on the counter before she left, and "Oh, by the way, close the kitchen door so Sam doesn't help himself to tomorrow's menu." And out the door I went.

Part of the day was verifying the expected participation from my co-workers. The rest of day was nothing earthshattering. I was kicked back in my office, drinking a soda and eating a sandwich with one of the other engineers when the phone rang.

"Hey, baby," I said.

"Hi, guy," Nina chirped. "You having lunch?"

"Yep! Just me an' Harvey," I answered.

"Tell Harvey I said 'hi'," she said. The head librarian and I are having salads at The Treehouse."

I knew 'The Treehouse', one of those almost too cute little bistro restaurant things that actually had good food, but if you went there at lunch, you'd look out of place wearing steel-toe shoes and khaki pants. Place was downtown, crawling with lawyers and government workers, most days.

"Harvey, Nina says 'hi'. They're eating at The Treehouse," I said.

Harvey laughed. "Tell'er to avoid the tofu..."

"I heard that," Nina giggled. "Just wanted to see how your day's going. Love you, babe!"

"Love you too, doll, bye!"

Harvey grinned. "Ain't that sweeeeet!"

"I think so, bud," I said. "And I like it! She's a whole lot better company than Sam the yellow cat."

"I won't touch the obvious comment, Dan," he said.

I grinned. "That's admirable self-restraint," I said.

Friday afternoons are noted for avoiding any activity that might run over into the weekend, and this one was no different. The four o'clock whistle blew and I and my co-workers gathered in the lunchroom for our daily post-whistle chat.

"Okay, I'm doing two trimmed briskets," I said. "Harv, you're bringing ribs, and uh ... Dave, you're bringing sausage. And Steve is bringing baked beans and garlic bread and Jannie's got tater salad covered."

"Beer," Harv said.

I got a heavy stock of Shiner and Sam Adams. If one of you pervs wants that 'lie' crap, bring your own..." that comment got general chuckles.

Dave patted his ample gut. "what about my diet?" he laughed.

"I don't wanna hear it, Bub," I retorted. "All diets are suspended on arrival." We dissolved into small talk and filed out the door.

The short ride home was occupied by mentally running down the list of things to do. I pulled into the driveway alongside Nina's little car and walked inside. She was on the sofa, her Kindle in her hand.

"Hey, baby," she said, standing. She laid the Kindle down and met me with open arms to greet me with kisses.

"How were your kiddies today?" I asked.

"Oh, pretty much the same. There are a couple that really need some intervention. I mean, there's this one little girl, if you look up 'brat' in the dictionary, her picture's there."

I laughed.

"Don't laugh," she said. "Working with some of those kids makes a good case for celibacy."

"You know, you don't HAVE to do it," I said.

"Yeah, but I volunteered, and the librarians really appreciate me, and there's this one little blonde girl that's sooooo cute and sweet and she smiles for me."

"Then you've found your reward, cutie. So, you had salad today for lunch. I thought we were supposed to do salad for dinner."

She giggled. "Yeah, I thought about that when Dana mentioned The Treehouse for lunch. But they're GOOD salads, and I kinda think we ought to go there for dinner. I can recommend something for you..."

"If you're up to it. Lemme change shoes." I was wearing my safety shoes, and while they didn't LOOK like safety shoes, I thought my feet needed a break. I changed shoes.

"One more thing, dearest," I said. "I need to put the smoker on the patio and plug it in so it can come up to temperature."

"Okay," she said.

That task took five minutes and then we were headed to an early dinner consisting in a couple of delightful interpretations of salad, mine topped with spicy lump crab meat, hers with grilled shrimp, and then we headed home, stopping on the way to pick up some necessities at the grocery store.

Back at the house we busied ourselves prepping for the Saturday event. Nina put finishing touches on a house we kept inordinately neat, supervised by Sam the cat from his perch on the back of the sofa. I unloaded another couple of six-packs of bottled beer into the recreational cooler on the patio, arranged my estimated requirement of hickory wood (chips in a bucket) for the smoker, pulled out my supply of folding chairs ("Bring your own chairs, guys," I'd told everybody.) and arranged them.

I looked at the readout for the smoker, the digits showing exactly the temperature I had set. I opened the door and left it open, listening for the digital control to sense the temperature drop and to turn on the electric heating element. I heard the click, punched a couple of buttons and was rewarded with a readout of the amount of electric current being consumed. That was the box temperature. A couple more keystrokes and I watched the reading for the smoke pot temperature climb to my optimum range. Guys laughed at my smoker, but I turned out some good 'cue.

I walked back into the house just in time to hear the vacuum cleaner shut down.

Nina brushed a strand of hair away from her cheek. "There!" she announced. "Ready for our guests." She smiled. "So you put the meat in that ... that THING at eight, right?"

"Uh-huh. And the first load of wood. Then I need to check on it in an hour to make sure it's tracking right, and that's it until tomorrow morning. If something goes wonky, it'll give me an alarm on this little thingie."

"That's neat," she allowed, "now, you wanna shower now, or after you put the meat on?"

"Let's wait'll we get the meat in there," I said. "We can watch TV, play cards, whatever..."

"Okay," Nina said. The card playing went okay. We didn't find anything worth the time on TV, so we hit the stereo instead, watching the clock as she beat me a successive hands of rummy, giggling and laughing as we played and talked.

Mercifully eight o'clock saved me from a complete rout. I retrieved the two briskets from their vacuum packages and put them on a tray, carried them out to the smoker and slid them inside, depositing a couple of cups of hickory chips into the smoke unit, then closed the door and checked the indications.

Back inside, Nina took me by the hand. "Shower now?"

"Shower, I guess. With a friend. Saves water. Ecologically responsible and all that." Her eyes twinkled.

"And you're telling this to a guy who just started a couple chunks of dead cow over a smoky fire? But 'shower with a friend'? I guess that's a good place to start..."

Long, playful shower. Wet, nubile female form, tittering with glee as we washed each other, kissing, fondling, enjoying the hot spray on our bodies. Once out, she was drying her hair while I shaved. I finished shaving in time to brush her to dark brown, shining perfection.

"Go check the smoker, hon," she said. "and then we can play around..."

The smoker was doing fine.

I took off the pants that I'd donned for the quick trip outside, and in doing so, my nakedness was then equal to hers. The fact that she was on her hands and knees in the middle of the bed, grinning led me to think that my ardor was equal to hers, too.

We playfully attacked each other. She knew what made me happy and I knew her as well, and that's what our couplings were about: mutual happiness. After a couple of minutes of playful biting and nipping, she had me on my back, pressed up beside me, her leg thrown over mine. Those sky-blue eyes, dimples punctuating that grin, I couldn't resist placing hands on the sides of her face and tugging her down to kiss me.

"You're some kind of beautiful, Nina love," I said. "I get lost in those eyes."

"You're not the only one, baby," she cooed as our lips parted. "I think your eyes were the first thing I noticed about you..."

I stroked her hair and kissed her again. I felt the wiggle of her pubic mound against my thigh. Her fingers wrapped around my hardness.

"Beauty," I said, "You drive me crazy."

"Why? Because I discovered that YOU make ME complete. Like this?" and she pulled herself astraddle me. Smiling down at me. "I keep finding my happiness and YOU'RE the key."

I looked over twin, rounded mounds of her breasts, nipples erect, goals for my hands. "You're just perfect, little one," I said.

"Nuh-uh. Almost perfect." She rose up slightly, my dick popped up and was captured in a tight opening, then enveloped in hot wet ecstasy. "Now it's perfect!"

It was. I curled up to sitting with her in my arms. She arranged herself, wrapping her legs around me, mating us completely together when our mouths met and fastened. One of her arms clasped me against her, aiding my own wrapping around her. Her free hand stroked my head and face.

"I love you, Dan. Completely!"

"I love you, Nina ... you make me whole." I was totally taken. Who could've told me that in a mere matter of weeks I would be so head over heels in love, and that it would be returned so wonderfully.

I struggled to hold back my orgasm despite the surges I kept feeling, letting Nina work herself against me until she sucked her bottom lip into her mouth.

"Oh, Dan ... push me. Hard!"

I knew that she was close. That was a good thing, because I knew that one or two hard pushes would be all I could manage before I exploded.

"Push!" she demanded. I did. Once. Twice. "Gaahhhh! Yessssss!"

I couldn't talk. Too much of my brain was employed in handling the sensations brought upon me by mating with Nina. Her face buried into my neck. She took a deep breath.

"Lay back, baby," she said.

I kept her in my arms as I fell back onto the bed. We uncoupled with a soft plop.

"Don't move, sweetie," she said. "Just hold me..."
Nina

Chapter 9

We awoke on the morning of the First Annual Dan 'n' Nina Barbecue Blast. I dressed immediately and went out to check on the smoker. Temperature was exactly as I'd set. The same technology that monitors huge furnaces was monitoring my little box smoker, cooking meat. I opened the door, couldn't resist an exploratory poke with a finger, and grabbed the chip tray. I dumped the expended wood chips and replaced them with new ones and returned it to its position. I noted the controller sensing the low temperature of the chip tray and kicking in the heat to generator smoke.

I walked back into the house and Nina was setting a bowl of cereal on the table for each of us. "Coffee's on, dearest!" she said. "How's the meat doing?"

I gave her an exaggerated leer.

She retorted with feigned outrage. "Uh! Don't be coarse!"

"You started it! But since I think I know what you really mean, those briskets are doing just fine! They're right on schedule. And I just put Jannie's chicken on."

Nina giggled. "Special treatment?"

"You bet," I said. "Jannie can make life miserable at work!"

We ate our breakfast, sat out on the patio together, drinking coffee, then I made another pass with a broom over the patio and did a police call of the yard, watched carefully by Sam through the glass door.

Nina and I set up folding tables to augment the patio table, and spread plastic table covers and that was pretty much the sum of what we needed to do, except wait.

Wait?!?!? With Nina? Eighteen and eager? Oh, well, another shower before noon wasn't going to kill us...

Noon! Set out the bowls of crunchy snacks. Haul out a couple of trash cans to catch debris. Invite the curious neighbor and his wife. Make excuses and plan something for the kids when Sandy gets here.

Somebody had to be the first to arrive. That was Harvey and his wife. Harvey was pushing sixty, and had almost forty years with his wife and they fit together, he being grey, balding and overweight, and his wife being grey and plump and smiling Harvey introduced Nina to his wife Becky. I already knew her from previous socials, so I just shook her hand.

"Well, Dan, you've done very well. Married up, I see!" She smiled at Nina. "Harvey, go get your ribs. Nina, I hope you're carnivorous. These guys DO like their barbecues."

I accompanied Harvey to retrieve a big foil-covered tray. Ribs! I'd never admit it in a group, but Harvey was the preparer of some fine ribs. He was a beneficiary of my temperature controller design on his own smoker.

The ribs went on a table, covered to keep their heat. A few minutes later, Dave and his wife Sherry, and then a steady stream, until the complement was on board. We started uncovering food and the feed was on. And good.

Conversation flowed well, lubricated just a teensy bit by the beer that went missing at a wedding reception in a Baptist church's social hall. The summer heat wasn't too cloying and with this bunch, well, I knew everybody, but that didn't matter. There were no strangers. Engineers being shy and introspective? Do a barbecue and add beer. Those from outside the work crew, my neighbors and Nina's grandmother and her (announced, now) fiancée, they were dragged into the mix and enjoyed themselves

The neighbors were the first to leave, amply supplied with plates to feed their kids. The rest of the gang hung around, nibbling, sipping and talking and Dave dragged his guitar out and we played and sang a few songs, talent enhanced and sensitivies dulled, no doubt, by ethanol. Late in the evening we shook hands with the last of the work bunch, leaving us with Nina's grandma and her guy Ed. It was nice having help securing the place.

I was proud to see NOTHING left of my two briskets. Okay, to be honest, there wasn't any meat left. We had a trashcan full of empty beer bottles. No fights. No injuries. I count that as a success. Next party, though, we're gonna work on the music. Dancing with Nina to the dulcet tones of Dave's guitar left a bit to be desired. Not Nina. Dave. Like his barbecue, Dave's music was a whole lot of enthusiasm to make up for what small shortage of skill that existed. Still, there wasn't any of Dave's sausage left, either.

After the cursory clean-up, we retired to the living room and spent a while doing the small talk thing. One of the first topics was Helen's. "Dan, ya'll are getting your daughter this weekend, right?"

Nina took that one. "Yes, ma'am. I'm looking forward to it. You know we talk a couple of times a week now."

"I know," Helen said. "Just step lightly, honey. Little girls and their daddies, you know, and divorces. You never know how that is going to play out."

Nina patted my knee. "Me an' Dan will be just fine, Grandma. Really. And Sandy will fit right in with us. It'll be interesting. And fun!"

Ed smiled. "Well, then that means the THREE of you will be at our wedding. We're getting married in a month."

Squeal! Nina was kissing her grandmother and I was shaking Ed's hand. We checked the date against our calendar on Nina's cellphone and made sure that we'd be set up for attending. I wasn't going to miss that wedding.

"Nina," I said. "We need to make sure that Sandy has a dress for the wedding! We need to tell her mom."

Nina smiled. "Or me an' Grandma can take 'er to the mall and buy one!"

I grinned. "That might just be a better idea!"

Ed chuckled. "Like you need to give women a reason to shop!"

We laughed at that, but truthfully, Nina and I seldom went shopping. It usually happened when she or I determined a need. For purely recreational purposes, we had a wide spectrum of activities we choose from.

One of them was apparently advanced cat petting as Sam ambled into the living room and hopped up between me and Nina. Her strokes started him purring.

That changed the conversation to pets and cats versus dogs, and then ten o'clock was here and Helen and Ed left. We stood outside the door until their tail-lights disappeared around the corner.

Once back inside, Nina locked the door behind her and backed against it. I trapped her there for a kiss, a kiss that was returned with a sigh.

"Okay, babe," she said. "The First Annual Dan 'n' Nina Barbecue Blast. Success?"

I kissed her perfect nose. "Success. Maybe next year, more music though."

Giggle. "You surprised me when you pulled me out there to dance, honey!" She smiled.

"No quite as surprised as I was that you danced so well," I countered.

She pushed her face against my chest and bit me lightly. "Thank Grandma for that. She said that a young lady would be well served, her words, if she could waltz."

"Remind me to thank your grandma again, my sweetness," I said.

"Honey," she retorted, "I love you to pieces, but YOU smell like smoked meat and sweat. I need to put your butt in the shower." And she smiled sweetly. "And just on the outside chance that you may need help, I will join you." And she tiptoed to kiss me on MY nose. Bedtime was particularly satisfying afterward.

Sunday morning after breakfast we finished up the post-party cleanup then loaded up the kayaks and drove to a favorite stream for a bit of recreational exercise. One of the exercises involved pulling two kayaks up on the bank while the occupants disappeared into the woods. And came back out smiling and adjusting their swimsuits.

The exercise did us good, and a light dinner went a little way toward balancing caloric intake from the big pig-out the day before.

And then it was Monday. Amid good-natured ribbing (about barbecue! Hah!) we talked about the party.

Dave said, "You know, I must be getting' old. I got home before sunrise Sunday and I remember everything I did."

"Yeah," I said. "We're all responsible and everything."

"Says the guy who married an eighteen year old..." he laughed.

I leaned back in my chair, laced my fingers behind my head, and smiled. "Yep! VERY respectable."

Harvey laughed. "Dan, Dan, Dan ... You gotta quit smiling like that..."

We floated through the week, facing Saturday plans to drive two hundred miles to meet the ex-wife halfway and retrieve Sandy for her summer stay with me. I came in from work on Wednesday to find Nina in Sandy's room, cleaning, dusting, setting things right. A bowl of potpourri was on the dresser. I noted it, and she giggled.

"Just makin' an effort, sweetie," she smiled. "I really want this to work for us. But Sandy's almost eleven. Some of this stuff is just a little too, uh, LITTLE girly, I think."

I stroked my chin. "Maybe so. I'm mostly clueless about what little girls want. Last summer was almost a disaster. I took two weeks' vacation and basically did everything she could think of."

"We'll do better this time, guy," she said. "I think I can make things easier for all of us."

"I hope so, sweetie," I said.

Friday we made sure that we did the grocery shopping, adding a few snacks and items that I remembered as Sandy's preferences.

Saturday morning we were on the road early, having arranged a rendezvous for one o'clock at a MacDonalds just off the interstate, a little on her side of halfway. I knew the drill. I'd done it before several times in the past four years. I hated the procedure, especially the return trip. Equally hurting too was the fact that I could look at Sandy and see so much of the ex in her. It took everything sometimes to convince myself that Sandy was just the happy outcome of an unsuccessful phase of my life.

Nina and I'd had the discussion at length. Nina is my love, my soul, and I wanted her to know everything in my life. That included the triumphs and tragedies, including my failed marriage, having that discussion with a head of dark brown hair laying on my shoulder, arms wrapped around me. Catharsis comes in many forms and I had to find it with Nina. It wasn't easy, but with Nina, I couldn't imagine it being any easier.

So on this summer Saturday morning, we were tooling down the road listening to Haydn concertos and talking. Two hundred miles passed easily as time always seems to do with me and Nina on the road. Ever the pessimist, I made sure we had plenty of room for traffic problems, so we were at the location with plenty of time to spare. We ate up the excess by taking a little loop through the countryside.

We were in the parking lot ten minutes before the appointed time. Jennifer and her husband showed up in a Cadillac. That was always the case. He was, at his best, a used car dealer, and every time they showed up, he was in what he thought was the part of his inventory most likely to impress. The dealer plates gave it away. Sandy was waving happily as they passed us in the parking lot.

Nina and I got out of our car.

"Daddydaddydaddy!" A squeal and a leap and I gathered two arms full of ten year old energy in a t-shirt and shorts.

"I MISS you!" Sandy said, kissing me on the cheek.

"I miss you too, punkin'," I said. "I think you're growing too fast!"

"Not too fast, Daddy!" Her eyes shifted. "Are you Nina?"

Nina smiled. "Hi, Sandy!" I think that Nina was uncharacteristically nervous.

Sandy fixed that. Another squeal and a bounce and she was wrapped around Nina like a long-lost friend. "You're pretty!"

I looked past that scene, one that was producing happiness, to see my ex-wife Jennifer and her husband Harry. Harry had two suitcases and Jennifer had a cardboard box, headed our way.

"Hi, Jenn, Harry," I said. I opened the hatch on my SUV to accept Sandy's baggage. When Harry freed his hands, I extended mine to shake. I always thought he was a smarmy bastard, as evidenced by his handshake, like he'd gone to "shake hands like a REAL man" class, and needed remedial training.

"Hey, bud," Harry said, putting on his "Have I got a deal for you" smile.

"Anything else she needs to bring?" I asked. I didn't like the bastard when he was in high school with me and Jennifer, and I wasn't going to start now. Civil. That's all, the best I could work up.

Jenn said, "No, that's about it, Dan. She's been excited for a week now. I hope you and Nina live up to her expectations."

By this time Nina was at my side, Sandy next to her. Nina was half a head taller than Jennifer, and in the last year or two, Jennifer had taken on a decided bell shape. This trip her hair was mostly blonde, teased, and nailed into place solidly. I'm glad I didn't have to deal with that. I rebelled against hairspray while we were married, and I guess ol' Harry was impervious to it. When she turned her head, her hair didn't move.

I introduced Nina formally. "Jennifer, this is my wife, Nina. Nina, this is Jennifer, Sandy's mom."

"Hello, Mizz Jennifer," Nina said. "Sandy's dressed really cute!" If you can't say something nice, don't say anything. Jennifer wasn't smiling.

"Hello, Nina," Jennifer said. "My friends' description didn't do you justice. Dan, she's quite striking."

"Thank you, Mizz Jennifer," Nina said.

"Oh, Nina, please drop the 'Mizz" thing." Her face finally broke the beginnings of the smile that I once found so charming. "Sandy's been going on about you. She likes talking to you."

Nina looked down at Sandy, who was grinning. "Thank you, Sandy. I enjoy talking to you, too. I never had a little sister, you know..."

"Come on, gang," I said. "We have four hours of driving to do." I turned back to Jenn and Harry. "We're going to be at the beach starting Monday, for a week." I noticed Sandy tugging Nina closer to me. She succeeded. We made one of those modern 'blended' family units. "Sandy'll call you often. Or you can call her."

Harry spoke up. "You folks have a good time."

Sandy made a quick bolt to give her mom a kiss. "'Bye, Mom! Love ya!" She gave Harry a cursory hug, and bounce-skipped back to between me and Nina. And waved.

We mounted up. Nina was starting to get in the back seat and Sandy stopped her. "Nuh-uh, Nina! You're Daddy's wife. You're s'posed ta sit by 'im."

Nina smiled. "You sure, sweetie? I can ride in the back seat so you can sit by your dad."

"Nope. That's okay!" A whole five feet of ten-year old blonde girlchild got in the back seat and buckled herself in. We pulled out of the parking lot and onto the road home. Once on the highway, I allowed Sandy to unbuckle her seatbelt so she could hover between Nina and me. Sandy's blue eyes were mine, as was the blondish hair. And listening to her talk, I wanted to take credit for the intelligence, too. She and Nina chatted along.

"Does Dad still listen to the GOOD music, Nina?"

"You mean like this?" Nina punched the power button on the stereo and restarted the Haydn concerto CD.

"Uh-huh! Mom calls that 'your dad's music' but I like it. I've been trying to get Mom to let me take piano lessons, but she wants me to do softball instead."

"I wish I'd taken a musical instrument," Nina answered. "It just never got off the ground when I was living with my Mom. And when I moved in with Grandma, I was almost sixteen, and I thought I was too old to start."

"That's why I want to start now. I got this friend at school an' she's been doin' it since she was eight." Sandy was smiling. She leaned over a bit further and kissed me on the shoulder. "I've been waitin' for this for so long, Dad. An' since you married Nina..." her hand stroked Nina's short, dark pageboy. "I like your hair, Nina. Dad, can I get mine cut like Nina's?"

'Oh, here we go, ' I thought. I wasn't going to make move like that without her mom's approval. "Baby," I said to Sandy, "You'll have to ask your mom."

"'Kay," Sandy said matter of factly. "Can I use your phone?"

"Okay," I answered, passing her my cellphone. "But if she says no, don't start fussing."

"I won't," Sandy smiled. She sat back in the seat and dialed. I looked at Nina, who was smiling. She winked at me.

"Hi, Mom!" Sandy said. "I wanna get my hair cut for the summer!" Pause. "Like Nina's." Pause. "Nooooo, Mommmm. It's MY idea! Nobody said nothin'!" Pause. "Just a second..." My trepidation was validated when she passed me the phone.

"Hi, Jenn," I said.

"So it starts already, huh, Dan!" Jenn was that way about Sandy because she could get away with jerking my chain. It was one of her small 'control' pleasures.

I sighed audibly. "Jenn, nothing's starting. Sandy said she liked Nina's short haircut and wanted to get hers cut like that. I told her that she needed your permission. You know how I feel about that." She knew exactly how I felt. Jenn was one of those moms who wanted their daughters to be little extensions of their doll-play years. I wanted my little girl to be able to play and live without the tedium of caring for masses of long hair messed up by swinging upside down from a swing set or a tree branch.

"Her hair's just getting long enough so I can do things with it, Dan."

"And I'm going to take a ten year old girl to the beach, in salt water and sailing and kayaking and she's not going to have time to work on long hair. It makes sense to me to cut it. And SHE asked. I think we oughtta do it."

Jenn's breath was a hiss. I could picture the face. "Okay, Dan. She's with you, and I'm not going to fight with you about it."

"So that's a yes, then?" I asked.

"Yes. Let me talk to her."

"Okay, Jenn. Thanks." I passed the phone back to my daughter.

"Thanks, Mom!" Sandy squealed. "Yeah, I know ... but Nina's hair is so NEAT! It's soft an' pretty!"

I was adding "and doesn't look like Satan's Brillo pad" but I kept my thoughts to myself. I glanced at Nina. She was smiling through a little bit of 'smug'.

"Okay, Mom! Love ya! Bye!" and Sandy handed me back my phone.

My daughter was grinning. "So can we get me cut today? Before we go to the beach?"

"We can see if they can take you at where I go at the mall, Sandy! I'm sure we can!"

Squeal! "The mall? That's great!"

I resigned myself to the mall. Solved one problem, though. Dinner at the Food Court.

"Then we'll hit the mall when we get back to town," I said. "Sandy, your mom wasn't jumping for joy, though..."

"I know," Sandy said. "She's always wanting me to do stuff to my hair, and I want it to be pretty and all that, but she makes such a production. And I hate hairspray."

She touched Nina's hair again. Nina smiled. "Your dad says he likes my hair just like it is, Sandy."

So there was step one on a journey that I didn't even recognize as a journey yet.

The rest of the trip home was all about kayaking and sailing and bicycling and music and I remember what it was like talking with a precocious ten year old with a quick mind, but I had recent practice with an intelligent eighteen year old, and it was some amount of preparation. Besides, Sandy was just as happy talking to Nina as she was to me. This was shaping up nicely.

We pulled into the mall parking lot at dusk on a summer Saturday. I expected to find the place packed, and I wasn't disappointed. We were pleasantly surprised that the hair salon was able to work Sandy in as a walk-in as soon as we arrived. Half an hour later we were seated at a table in the food court, each with our own idea of a meal, and Sandy was a blonde, abbreviated image of Nina, bangs and all.

"Dad, what'd'ya think?" Sandy shook her head.

"Perfect, little girl," I said. "Nina?"

Nina shook her own head and smiled. "See, Sandy? It just goes back where it's supposed to go!"

"I like it," Sandy said. She and Nina stuffed down a pair of hamburgers and I did a dose of mediocre Chinese: meat of indeterminate origin in brown sauce. We went to the car and went home.

Nina and Sandy unloaded the suitcases and between the two of them they did an inventory while I took care of some laundry. I was just coming up the hall when they popped out of Sandy's room.

"Dad, Nina and I think we need a few things for our trip." Sandy's grin was reinforced when she turned to Nina and Nina was nodding.

Nina said, "She needs another bathing suit. This one is okay, but it's getting small. And another couple of shorts and shirt outfits. And another pair of shoes. And some flip-flops for the beach. We can go get all that tomorrow."

The junior set of blue eyes asked, "Dad! Cook us something tomorrow. I miss your cooking. Really."

"What do you have in mind, sweetie?" I asked.

"Oh, some of that stuff like YOUR mom used to cook. You know."

"Gotcha, punkin," I said. "Nina, you think you and Sandy can do the mall tomorrow while I cook?"

"Not a problem," Nina said.

Shower time. I wasn't going to shower with Nina tonight. I mean, we were going to do that. After all, we were married, but this was Sandy's first night in the house in months, and I just thought that either Nina or I ought to be there with her. Sandy was the first in the shower, then Nina, and Nina took care of drying Sandy's hair along with her own. Then it was my turn.

When I came out of the bathroom, the two of them were sitting cross-legged in the middle of the living room floor playing cards.

"Three-handed rummy, now, sweetie," Nina said. And we did. Had fun. I think they conspired against me, because I came in last. And they were giggling and exchanging glances the whole time. We finished the game of rummy and it was a little late to start another, so we all sat on the sofa to see what was on TV. I had my feet propped up and had my young, happy wife on one side and my happy daughter on the other, and life was good.

An hour of TV and we'd watched whales migrate and talked about why we never saw whales in the Gulf of Mexico, but I promised we'd see a lot of dolphins while we were out on the water in the upcoming week.

Bedtime. Nina and I tucked Sandy into her bed and each kissed her on the cheek and then we retired to our own bed.

Nina giggled and whispered, "This is the most clothes you've worn to bed since you and I ... you know, the first time..."

"I know," I said, "and you ... sexy in your panties and nightshirt..." Our lips met. "Mmmmmm," I moaned. My hands slid underneath that silly cotton nightshirt.

"Mmmmmm, yourself, guy!" She rolled me onto my back and lay on top of me. She crossed her arms and rested her chin on them. "So, did we do okay today, babe?"

"Perfect, I think. You and Sandy, you seem to connect pretty good." I kissed her forehead.

"She's a neat kid, Dan. And she's more than half YOU."

"More than half?" I asked.

"Yeah. I see YOU in her smile, the eyes, her attitude, her mannerisms." Nina smiled at me.

"Uh-huh. And you ... That whole, 'I want my hair like Nina's' thing. I thought Jenn was going to go ballistic, but she backed off. And Sandy just seems to attach herself to you."

"Yeah," Nina said. "That was sweet. Maybe she just wants a big sister sort of thing..." I got another kiss as she slid up on me to put our faces together. "And we've talked. About me and you being married."

"Uh-huh, you told me about some of that." I said.

"I told her that you and I became an 'us', and that you and her were already an 'us', so now there's three of 'us'. She said that made her happy, thinking about her dad being happy."

"Her dad is very happy, Nina. Very." My hands explored and savored the feel of her butt through her panties.

"Pull 'em off," she whispered. "I want you."

"I want you, too," I said, sliding her panties down, feeling her kick them off. Her hands started sliding my shorts down. I was erect.

"We can be quiet, baby," she said, her lips landing on my face.

"Why would we want to be quiet, sweetness?"

Giggle. "Don't want to wake your daughter. Uh ... OUR daughter." She slid down, her head disappearing under the covers. What happened next was happily familiar yet never ceased to take my breath away. She purred. I felt it like it registered on the Richter scale.

That brown head popped back up, smiling and I kissed her like we were exchanging souls. Her back arched and I found myself entering her to the sounds of her purrs punctuated by little giggles.

"Just a little bit, baby," she whispered. "I would like to be eaten, if you don't mind." Giggle.

"I would love to, sweetness," I groaned as her pelvis writhed, moving me in and out of her. She pulled away from me and twirled around to put us in a sweet sixty-nine. In a few delicious minutes I had her softly whimpering through an orgasm. When she recovered her composure, she treated me to one, her sassy head bobbing in my lap, giggling as my muscles lost control.

After I was drained, she cuddled into my side and we drifted into sleep together.

Her gentle kisses woke me the next morning. My eyes focused to see her face. "Babe," she said, "We need to feed Sandy."

We got up and got dressed and Nina gently pushed open Sandy's door. My little blonde child was laying half on her stomach, her butt pushed up at an improbable angle.

"Sandy," Nina said, just above a whisper. "Let's go get breakfast."

Sandy twisted and sat up, rubbing her eyes. She saw Nina and me and smiled. "Oh, yeah. I'm here! Good morning!"

I let Nina deal with Sandy's wardrobe selection and was rewarded with seeing the two females I loved most in the world presenting themselves in shorts and cotton blouses and athletic shoes. No, the colors weren't identical, but they definitely belonged together. We loaded up in my SUV and headed off to a little restaurant that I knew would do a good job on our breakfast.

"Whose car is that?" Sandy asked, looking at Nina's little Honda.

"That's mine," Nina said. "My grandma bought it for me when I lived with her. Before I met your dad."

"Oh, that's neat! It's really yours? No dealer plates?" Sandy said. "Can we use it to go to the mall today?"

"Sure," Nina said.

We arrived at the little restaurant and I watched Sandy demolish a stack of pancakes as I and Nina ate omelets and drank coffee.

Returning to the house, I started packing for the upcoming week. Nina worked on her own preparation and we both pitched in to help Sandy. I spent a bit of time in the kitchen, too, but we did sandwiches for lunch.

Nina sidled up to me in the kitchen. "You don't mind us going shopping without you, do you?"

"Nope! I think Sandy wants this to be just you two." I smiled. "I think that's wonderful! Get what she needs."

Nina smiled.

"And if you see something you like for yourself, get that too." I smiled. A month into marriage, Nina hadn't shown herself to be extravagant. She had our credit cards now, but we worked on the household finances together, too, and talked about how things worked when it was just me, and how it ought to be with the new 'us'.

Sandy walked into the kitchen, looking to see what I was doing.

"Working on a special dinner for my special girl," I said.

She tossed an arm around my waist and squeezed me. "I like being special to you, Dad! Me an' Nina are going shopping." Her cool blue eyes met mine. She smiled. "We're bonding."

"What do you know about bonding, little girl?" I asked, laughing.

"'S when you strengthen a relationship," she said. "Right?"

"Right," I admitted.

"See!" she said. "You don't want me bein' dumb. And me an' Nina are bonding." She swung her hip to bump Nina who was standing there amused by the exchange. "Right, Nina?"

"You betcha, Sandy. Let's go to the mall!"

Squeal! And off they went.

By the time they got back, I'd already put two kayaks on top of our SUV, one single and one two-holer, and I'd loaded up my own bags. I was sitting on the sofa watching TV in between visits to the kitchen to tend the pots when the door opened and the pair bounced in carrying a rainbow of plastic bags.

"Wait'll you see what we got, Dad!" Sandy chirped.

Nina stopped long enough to bend over and kiss me. "We didn't go overboard, but wait'll you see HER idea! We'll be back."

"We're modeling, Dad," I heard from up the hall.

Nina disappeared and in five minutes they both returned, looking like bookends, matching shorts and t-shirts and shoes.

"Oh, that's nice," I said.

"My idea, Daddy," Sandy said. "But Nina thought it was neat."

"I did, baby. And look!" she held up another matching T-shirt. "We got one for you, too."

Sandy bounced up on my lap, hugging me. So everybody can see we're a family."

"Yes we are, darlin'," I said. Nina smiled, adding to the hug. "Yes we are."

The pair showed off a few more outfits, including a couple of bathing suits each, one conservative one-piece, one bikini. I'd seen Nina in a bikini on our kayaking forays. It was a pleasant sight. Seeing my ten year old (Almost ELEVEN, Dad!) daughter in one...

Apparently God designed dads with parts made to be torn off, because I was torn. Five feet tall, sassy blonde, blue-eyed, she was a cutie. I knew that I'd have to kill a few young men in the coming years. No, no breasts yet, and curves were strictly straight pre-teen variety, but the foundation was there.

I swallowed. Nina caught the expression on my face. "We'll be careful where we wear these, Dan."

"Uh-huh," I said. "Wear 'em near where I have a gun."

"Da-aadddd!" Sandy whined. "Everybody wears these."

"Yeah," Nina giggled. "Everybody!"

I sighed. Such is the lot of the man who has daughters.

Nina said, "We saw Mizz Jannie at the mall, too, babe! We talked a little bit. She said Sandy has grown."

"You have, punkin," I said.

The fashion show completed, they packed their bags for the vacation.

Dinner was a success, at least according to Sandy. "Mom never cooks like this any more," she said.

I remembered Jennifer as being an adequate, if somewhat unadventurous cook, but she was always ready to let me take over the kitchen. Sandy told us about fast food and boxed meals and quick prep foods that seemed to be staples of life with her mom. A day into my daughter's visit, I was beginning to see a pattern developing.

After dinner, Nina told Sandy, "Since your dad cooked, it's our job to clean up."

"'Kay," Sandy said, and the pair made short work of turning the kitchen pristine while I got my shower out of the way. Sandy was waiting at the door when I walked out.

"Mmmm, you smell good, Dad!" she smiled. The door closed and I heard the water running.

"So everything's still going okay, babe?" I asked Nina.

Nina's eyes laughed. "She's a hoot, Dan. I mean it. I'm glad she's a sweetie, because with that mind, she could be a holy terror."

"Like somebody else I know," I laughed.

Nina poked me in the ribs. "Uh-huh," she giggled. "I know a guy like that!" She straddled me on the sofa and we lavished kisses on one another.

"Plus," Nina stated, "I'm finding out stuff."

"What kind of stuff?" I questioned.

"Like, her mom and step-dad fight quite a bit. She asked if you and I ever fight. I told her that we haven't yet, that we talk about things instead of fighting."

"Oh, yeah?" I said. "Her mom was famous for getting crossways over something and storing it for an opportune moment."

Nina continued. "And her mom has to go to the doctor a lot, too. Sandy doesn't know what she's going for."

"Oh," I said. "Jenn hasn't said anything to me. I don't know how to ask, either, without jeopardizing Sandy's confiding in you."

We heard the shower stop. Nina said, "My turn."
Nina

Chapter 10


I was sitting in my recliner when my daughter came bouncing back into the living room. She zeroed in on my lap.

"I've been soooo looking forward to this, Dad," she said.

"Me too, Sandy. Nina, too."

"I like 'er, Dad," she admitted. "She talks to ME. Like, she calls me to talk to me, just like that." She sighed. "An' it's kinda like she's a grownup, but she's kinda not. She's fun to talk to."

"That's why I married her, baby," I admitted. "She's very smart and good."

"Pretty, too," Sandy said. "I like her smile."

"Like your smile, little one. You use your whole face."

She batted her lush eyelashes, a guaranteed 'melt your daddy's heart' move. "I'm glad you married 'er, Dad. I wanted you to be happy."

"I am, Sandy. And even happier with you here." I smiled. "I love you, little girl."

"I love you too, Dad," she said, arms around my neck. She released me and sat back. "So I guess since you're married, I won't be able to crawl in your bed in the middle of the night if I get scared, huh?"

"Do you still get scared, baby?" Nightmares used to wake her up crying.

"No, but that doesn't mean that I wanna sleep by myself all night." She sighed. "But you're married, and a husband's s'posed to sleep with his wife..."

"A husband and wife are supposed to have private time together," I said.

"I kinda know about that, Dad," she said matter of factly. "But..."

"But why don't we talk with Nina about this, okay? She's my wife. She gets to help decide, right?" I smiled at her.

"Yessir," she agreed.

I heard the shower stop, a brief period of bumping around, then the hair dryer started. Normally I'd be in the bathroom starting my own shower now, if indeed we hadn't showered together, a more likely occurrence, but I decided to wait so Nina would be there with Sandy. Not that I didn't trust Sandy. I just thought she'd be happier if one of us was with her.

"So what's this about you wanting to take piano lessons, sweetie?" I asked.

"Dad, I want to make music, don'tcha think?" She gazed into my eyes. "I like our music. I wanna be able to play some of it."

"Baby, it takes years of lessons and practicing a lot, not just a lesson a week, you know."

Exasperated. "I KNOW that, Dad. I have a friend who takes lessons. For TWO years. And she's starting to be able to play stuff I can recognize." She got her serious look on. "But Dad, I think I can do better than her. I tried on her piano. And I just think I could do better."

"So what's your mom say, sweetie?" I asked.

"Mom an' Harry BOTH said we don't have enough money to do that right now." She sighed.

I filed that bit of information for further consideration as I heard the hair dryer shut off in the bathroom. Nina swept in, her nightshirt ending just at mid-thigh. I could see the traces of panties underneath it. But then I looked, okay? Close.

"You got it now, Dan," Nina chirped.

Sandy got off my lap. I stood and Nina kissed me, a quick little peck.

"You don't get away that easy," I laughed, catching her waist with my hand and stealing a longer kiss.

"Go get your shower!" she said. "We wanna get a game of cards in before we go to bed. We need to get up early in the morning!"

"Yeah, Dad," Sandy added.

I was done in twenty minutes. I joined them in the living room. They were sitting cross-legged on the floor and Nina was shuffling cards, smiling.

I joined them on the floor as Nina started dealing cards. "Sandy wanted to know how I felt if she crawled in bed with us, Dan."

I looked at first one, then the other, one dark brown, one blonde, one a half a head taller, two sets of blue eyes. "Yeah, she talked to me about it. I told her that you got to sleep with me."

"Dad," Sandy said, "I told you that I understand about people bein' married an' stuff, but I used to ... When you were still with Mom..." She glanced at Nina. "I'm sorry ... I didn't..."

Nina smiled at Sandy. "Sweetie, I know your dad was married. I know how you got here, you know..."

Sandy said, "Uh-huh, but like, you know, when it's time to go to sleep ... Last night I wanted to. But we didn't talk about it, so I didn't."

"Sandy, do you still sleep with your mom?"

"No, Daddy..." she said. I knew when she shifted from 'Dad' to 'Daddy' I was being manipulated. "But I don't get to see YOU very often..." Big blue eyes. "An' I miss you..."

Nina said, "Dan, I don't think it'd hurt, once in a while, honey."

"I guess not." I was beat. And not just the conversation. I lost the card game, too.

Sandy skipped off to the bathroom.

"Babe," Nina smiled, "we'll have our time. I don't want you to be deprived, you know..."

"Do I still get to see you smile? Then I'm NOT deprived."

Nina continued, "But she misses her daddy, and it's okay, babe! Really! We just have to wear clothes, okay? Just go with it."

I reached over and pulled her to kiss. I heard footsteps. Sandy. Caught us kissing. And she was smiling.

"Baby," I said to her, "If you want to sleep with us, it's okay. But not every night, all right?"

Squeal! Group hug. "Dad! I know you an' my Nina get time together, 'kay! But I miss you!"

"Okay, little princess. I guess I get the middle, then. Tonight." We retired to the bedroom, me, Nina, Sandy and Sam the cat. I got in the middle. Since we started sleeping together, Nina was always on my left, so that sort of set things up. I got the middle and Sandy crawled in on the right side. And Sam crawled in between my feet. I'd tolerate him there until I needed to roll over, and then he'd begrudge me a move before re-anchoring himself.

Nina reached to the bedside table and set the radio for an hour of late-night classical music. I got a chaste good night kiss from her, then another little hug and kiss and "I love you, Dad," from Sandy. And we went to sleep.

By this stage of the game, Nina and I had found a way to sleep together, adapting to each other's movements without waking up too much. We seemed to exchange touches and caresses as we moved while we slept together.

Adding Sandy to the bed, though ... When I rolled in the direction of Nina, I felt her butt push back against me and I wrapped her in my arms and she reacted by purring. I was cuddling my lover.

When I rolled in the opposite direction though, it was a smaller form, and I was a father again, protecting my offspring. I think Sandy was doing calisthenics all night, though, and the elbows and knees of a ten year old girl are BONEY.

In spite of that obstacle, we slept. The alarm went off at six, we filled Sam's food and water dispensers, hauled out the trash, loaded the rest of the bags into the car, and off we went.

First stop was the McDonalds drive-through, and then it was onto the open road, looking at four hours of driving, good music on the car stereo, two passengers who had the astonishing habit of READING, and I had to start a conversation or two on the way. An hour out from our destination, I called the manager of our week's domicile and arranged to meet her upon our arrival.

Wasn't a 'beach house'. Was a condo. With a boat dock on the canal behind the building. And moored at the dock was a twenty-six foot sailboat. And the beach was a short walk across the beach road from the building. And my two passengers were excited. Nina and I'd talked about what to expect, but she still acted almost as giddy as Sandy.

The manager showed up, a lady a few years senior to me, hair somewhere between blonde and platinum, unquestionably enhanced, and just little too tan, but she was a businessperson and she smiled and took us through the sign-offs and took my money while Sandy and Nina unloaded the car.

"Are you familiar with the boat?" she asked.

"Boats in general. I have a certification for bare-hull in the Caribbean," I said. "Is there something fancy?"

"Oh, no," she said. "Little diesel inboard. After that, it's just a little sailboat. The forty-four footer tied up in front of 'er is mine and my husband's."

"Nice," I said, peering out the balcony doors overlooking the canal.

"You're welcome to come visit this evening. We'll be there for drinks. You can bring the girls along."

"Okay," I said. "The tall one is my wife. The short one is my daughter. From first wife."

"Oooo-oohhh!" she said. "Kinda young, huh? Not meanin' to be nosey..."

I ran my hand over my short hair. "Yeah, I'm amazed sometimes myself. She's some kind of dream, though."

"Oh, I suppose. Seriously, come visit us ... Our granddaughter will be there. The youngster? Ten? Eleven?"

"Almost eleven. Just ask 'er," I laughed. "We'll come visit," I said as I was joined by Nina and Sandy.

"Hi," Nina chirped. "I'm Nina! Dan's wife! And this," she said, putting her arm around Sandy, "is Sandy. Dan's daughter. My stepdaughter and new best friend."

Sandy's grin was trophy grade.

"I'm Brenda Haslett. My husband and I own this building. And those boats. I just invited ya'll to come visit our boat this evening."

Nina didn't miss a beat. "Why, thank you so much! We'd LOVE to..."

Brenda left.

"She seems nice, Dan. Uh, lunch?"

"Yeah, lunch, Dad!"

Part of the load included the starter package of snacks and groceries and we fixed sandwiches for lunch.

Naturally, the next thing on the agenda was to change into beach attire, slather on sunscreen, and head out the door to the beach. We walked onto the hot sand with me in the middle, holding hands with a five-foot blonde Sandy and a five-seven dark brunette Nina, and headed straight for the cool sand at the edge of the water. We 'frolicked' in the surf, because that's what you do with warm surf: frolic.

Naturally, the appearance of two bikini-clad females attracted a stream of feral males who had to get close enough to check out the scenery. Okay, when you got close, it was obvious that Sandy was a little girl. Blonde, laughing. Promising, but still, "Dude! She's TEN!"

Nina, on the other hand ... healthily tanned from our kayaking and biking, activities which coincidentally toned her curves nicely. She wasn't one of those top-busting D-cup bikini babes, and her bikini was conservative, but every time I saw her I thought she was a doll. However, the presence of a gold band on her finger, coupled with her hand in mine and a sweet kiss in the Gulf sunlight announced to the predators that the prey was off limits.

Inwardly I was glad I'd maintained my own healthy lifestyle. I wasn't one of those 'chiseled muscle' types, but I had avoided the 'engineer spread' and love handles successfully. The three of us made a nice-looking set.

By late afternoon we'd had enough and headed back to the condo, taking turns in the shower, rinsing the salt off our bodies. That left us pushing five PM and dinner, and naturally, beach town, that meant seafood, and then we were back at the condo, walking down the dock alongside a brightly lit boat.

My ten year old daughter joined a couple of similarly aged kids, a boy and a girl, playing in the lush green grass on the banks of the canal, and Nina and I approached the boat.

"Hi, ya'll, come on aboard," Brenda said.

I held Nina's hand to assist her over the rail, and then followed her.

Brenda said, "Ya'll introduce yourselves. This is my husband, Jake!"

"Hi, Jake, ' I said, "I'm Dan Gleason and this is my wife, Nina!"

Jake stood and shook our hands. "Brenda says ya'll are renting the condo?"

"Yessir," I said. "Vacation, for a week. Here from Louisiana."

"Ah," he laughed, "then the heat's not a surprise, is it?"

"Oh, no sir," Nina said. "but this breeze is so nice."

"Yeah," he said. "it gets pleasant when the sun goes down."

Brenda asked, "Would you like a glass of wine?"

I looked at Nina. "You?"

"Why not?" she smiled. "I'm eighteen. And married."

"Eighteen?" Brenda said, eyebrow raised. "I thought you looked young..."

"We've been married a month. It's a short, happy story." Her smile was dazzling.

"I'm sure it is, darlin'," Brenda said. "So, you're goin' to college?"

"In the fall," Nina said. "Scholarship. Electrical engineering."

"Wow," Jake said. "That's a step!"

"Yeah," I said. "She was number three in a graduating class of over three hundred."

Jake cut his eyes toward his wife. "Your niece..."

Brenda said, "Jake's upset about our niece, my sister's kid. Sixteen. Bright. Pretty..."

"Stupid!" Jake spat. "Sophomore in high school. And pregnant. Hid it from her mom and dad for four months ... She was an honors student. Was."

"Jake, sometimes people recover from stuff like that."

"Sorry," he said. "Found out about it yesterday. It disturbs me." His shoulders heaved a sigh. "Last year we took a dozen of 'em, her and her friends, out for a sail. I know what you're sayin, Dan. It's not necessarily the end of things, but that's not the way to bet."

Nina said softly, "Mister Jake, I'm sorry to hear that, but it's tough on kids these days. They get fed so much stuff that messes with their ideas of right and wrong and smart and stupid. It's hard and some of them make mistakes ... I saw a lot of 'em."

"I'm sorry, ya'll. Didn't mean to get all serious." He took a deep breath. Brenda patted his shoulder. "So, are you plannin' on takin' the little boat out?"

"Yeah, I was thinking of a little trip out and back, one day, you know..."

Thankfully the conversation relaxed into discussion of sailing and the local waterfront and things that might interest the family. Next thing I knew, Sandy and a similarly sized brunette were hanging over the rail.

"Gran'daddy, can we get a coke?" asked the little girl.

"Our granddaughter, Shellie. Actually, Michelle, but nobody calls her that," Jake said. "I suppose her little blonde friend is..."

"My daughter, Sandy," I said.

Brenda said, "Why don't you bring Sandy and show her the boat, baby?"

Squeal! And the thud of two pairs of ten year old feet on the deck. We heard Sandy's voice, "Wow! That's neat!" as Shellie gave her the tour of the unusual surroundings of a sailboat cabin.

"Don't open those drinks down there!" Brenda admonished.

"Yes, ma'am," came the reply, followed by two young girls exiting the companionway. Shellie said to Sandy, "This is my Gran'ma Brenda and my Gran'pa Jake." To them she said, "This is Sandy."

Sandy waved shyly.

"Come on, Sandy! Let's go up front!" Bounce!

"Forward!" Jake said. "You're on a boat, Shellie! It's 'forward'!"

"Lost cause, Jake," Brenda laughed.

"I know, baby," he whined, "but she calls everything 'ropes' an' stuff..."

Nina rubbed salt in the wound. She lifted the loose end of a loop of line coiled neatly over a cleat. "Like this rope?" She smiled.

"Baby, what Jake is saying is that properly speaking, that's a line. There are no 'ropes' on a boat unless they're still coiled on a spool."

"Oops! Sorry! I need to learn this stuff, then, I guess..."

"Oh, I get nutty about it, Nina," Jake said. "I sail, we sail a lot, and it makes a lot of sense to say 'halyard' or 'mainsheet' or 'topping lift' to another sailor, because he'll know exactly what you're talking about. But for a weekend..."

I laughed, "Yeah, for a weekend, you can say, 'NO! Not THAT rope! The OTHER rope! The one with the green stripe!' when your crewperson is standing within an arms' reach of six different things that look like 'rope' but do six different things. And one of those functions is important at the time."

Brenda patted Nina's knee. "And if you REALLY wanna get 'im going, refer to something as a 'thingie' ... He'll positively turn COLORS!"

And then "Dad! Dad! Can Shellie come sailin' with us tomorrow?"

I looked to Brenda and Jake. "I don't mind," I said, "If you don't..."

"We make her wear a life vest at all times when she's with us and she's outside the cockpit."

"Good rule," I said. "We'll all do that," I said. "Nina and Sandy have never been on a sailboat, and I don't mind wearing one myself, especially if I'm out of the cockpit underway."

"Tell you what," Brenda said, "You take Shellie with ya'll tomorrow and we'll return the favor if Sandy wants to go with us one day. Give you an' Nina a little day together..."

Nina smiled demurely.

"Uh-huh..." Jake grinned.

We stayed out in the gulf breeze until well after dark, talking, listening to the kids play, joined by a couple or three more kids of similar age. Sometime around ten I saw Sandy appear, looking a little bit tired.

I stood. Nina said, "We have had a lovely evening with ya'll. I think Sandy's just about done in, though."

Brenda asked, "What time are you folks leaving in the morning?"

I said, "Oh, it's vacation. I figure we'll be on the dock at eight."

Jake said, "Shellie'll be there. She's staying with us for the week."

Sandy nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah! I got a friend!"

I took Nina's hand. "We're gonna go in. We enjoyed it! It's wonderful meeting you both!" I saw Sandy and Shellie. "And Shellie, too!"

I herded my little family into the apartment, recommending quick showers to rid ourselves of the perspiration that coated us despite the relatively cool breezes of the evening. I took advantage of that shower time to shave. Nina made three cups of herbal tea for us before bedtime. We sat in the little living room sipping tea and talking about the day's adventures and the next day's plans.

Sandy slept in her own bed this night. Nina and I engaged in a very pleasant stress reduction exercise that had us very relaxed when we went to sleep.

The alarm went off at six-thirty. Breakfast. Prepare an ice chest with a day's worth of drinks and a bag full of easy to eat snack and we were out back at the dock, loading onto the sailboat. I opened up the companionway and started the little diesel engine to let it warm up, and just as I expected, Miss Shellie showed up ten minutes early.

We all boarded and I singled us up to a single looping breastline to the dock, put the transmission in forward and we motored off. Ten minutes later I had Nina on the tiller as I raised sails. We secured the engine and headed out on a close reach, just a little bit further off the wind than absolutely necessary, because I knew we wanted an easy sail out. More importantly, though, I wanted us on the best possible leg when we turned around to come back in.

We weren't a half mile offshore when the dolphins showed up by the dozens, surrounding us, cavorting in the sparkling waves. I'd seen it before, and I still marveled. I gathered that Shellie'd seen it before also. Nina and Sandy, however, were enchanted by the spectacle of dozens of dolphins breaking the surface in twos and threes, some almost within touching distance of the sleek little sailboat's fiberglass hull.

I had Nina back in the cockpit with me, asking questions, wanting to learn what I was doing with the sails and why I was doing it. Shellie and Sandy were forward seated at the base of the mast safely inside the lifelines.

For half the day we beat to windward, then when I figured it was time, we turned around onto a broad reach back. The boat's motion settled down, we took a decent heel, and the stern squatted as we picked up speed. Closer in-shore, the dolphins rejoined us bringing happy squeals and laughter from my crew. The sun was getting low in the sky when we moored our boat back at the dock.

Brenda and Jake were on their boat. Jake called, "Come on over and get a drink!"

That was an invitation that I wasn't going to pass up. Sandy and Shellie bounced off with the unlimited energy possessed by kids and joined another group up the bank of the canal. Nina and I joined Brenda and Jake.

Conversation started off about the day's sail. I recounted Nina and Sandy's glee over the visiting dolphins. We talked about work and life and the area's attractions that didn't make the tourist brochures, giving Nina and I more fodder and making us wish we'd rented for more than a week. I said so.

"We don't have it booked next week," Brenda said. "If ya'll want it..."

Nina looked at me. I winked.

"We want it," she said.

So two weeks of beaches and sailboats and kayaks and sun and water.

Two days later, Shellie invited Sandy on a day's outing with her grandparents, leaving Nina and me a day all to ourselves. Sandy bounced out the door, beachbag in hand, with Shellie.

Now, you have to understand that we had not been avoiding physical contact in Sandy's presence. Of course, we kept it "G-rated", but we always hugged and kissed and cuddled. Sometimes the cuddling was the 'group hug' variety, with Sandy a happy inclusion, and other times they were me and my happy wife, and Sandy saw two people who she loved, engaged in a physical expression of that love. But all that was G-rated.

We'd managed to make love, too, taking advantage of Sandy being in her room. But you have to know that having Sandy around did somewhat limit our exuberance. I hadn't had my 'naked Nina on the sofa' time. And here we were, with the condo to ourselves.

Nina turned to me. "You have clothes on, sir..." Her eyes were twinkling.

A condition easily rectified, given the proper incentive. Five feet seven inches of happy eighteen year old falls soundly into the category of 'incentive', especially when she's stripping out of her panties. I do believe I was raped on the sofa. Accosted in the hallway. Molested in the kitchen. And in bed, I gave in ... Hands and mouths merged into mechanisms of sharing love and pleasure and when our mouths clamped together, our nether regions were merged in delightful moisture.

After I allowed myself release, we lay in each other's arms.

"I love you, baby," she said.

"I love you too, brown-haired girl. You bring new dimension to my life." I kissed her sleek, although somewhat tousled head.

She sighed. "I love us having Sandy, but I've been wanting to just cut loose with YOU for days..."

"Me, too, baby..." I looked at her pretty form and started kissing my way over her body, headed downward.

"Oh, yessss," she said through clenched teeth. She liked this. So did I. I loved her scent, her taste, the way she reacted, that final little quiver at the end of her orgasm, the flush over her face and breasts.

I was holding her freshly pinkened form in my arms afterward.

"Goshhhhh!" she sighed.

I rocked with her in my arms.

Finally she said, "Why don't we, uh ... go out for a swim, then eat one of those horrible hotdogs they sell on the beach, then come back here and spend the afternoon right here..."

"I think you have wonderful ideas, dearest," I said. "Come on!"

Clad in our bathing attire, we walked across the street, onto the beach, and into the warm gulf waters. Surf. Frolicking. This time with longer, more adventurous gropings. After a time, we strolled out of the water and per our plan, each had a horrible, over-priced hot dog and a cold drink and then walked back into the condo. Showered together. And back in bed.

In the early evening, we slipped out for dinner.

"You know, Dan, it's really working out well with Sandy around," Nina said.

"I know," I said honestly. "Not a bit of friction. I worried that there'd be some little girl jealousy or something..."

"But none of that happened, baby," she said. "Sometimes she seems so mature about things, then she takes off like a ten year old kid ... and then she comes back and sounds like YOU..."

"I'm just glad you two hit it off." I was. Even with Sandy being a part-time daughter, I dearly loved her and wished I could be more of a daddy to her. Nina knew this, and she told me that she'd had phone talks with Sandy about it. "But," I said, "I'm starting to hear some bits of Nina creeping in..."

Giggle. "You say that like it's a BAD thing..." she grinned.

"Nope, I am very happy about that. Ever since the haircut thing. Her mom might not be, though."

"She'll be okay, Dan. She's smart and she's got a strong personality."

We ate our dinner, chatting, watching the beachgoers walking by our location on the sidewalk. After dinner, we went back to the condo. Well, after one or two little dances to the live music at the beachside bistro.

Sandy came back a bit after dark. She showered, we played cards and then went to bed. All three of us. Me in the middle. Sweet Nina on one side. Little Miss Knees and Elbows on the other.

Friday of the second week we woke up with most everything packed. The three of us were tanned several shades darker than we were when we arrived. Nina's hair had definite sun streaking. But it was time to go back home. Reluctantly.

We made our good-byes with Brenda and Jake. Sandy exchanged phone numbers and addresses with Shellie and a couple of other kids with whom she'd formed summer friendships.
Nina

Chapter 11

The trip home was good, the post-vacation mixture of satisfaction, sadness and fatigue. Nina and I talked. Sandy started off talking, but got quieter and quieter and then I saw her curled up in the corner of the back seat, belted in, sound asleep in one of those positions we all can do when we're young but we lose that ability with age.

"I thought it was good trip, darlin'," I told Nina.

"Oh, me too! I liked linking up with Brenda and Jake, and Sandy had plenty of friends her age."

"Yeah, last time, I felt like I had to entertain 'er. It was tough."

"I can see where it might be. She's constant. Active. And smart. Got her daddy's brain, I think." Nina smiled. "You know, sometimes I wonder..."

"Wonder what, dearest?"

"Me and you ... what ours would be..."

Bang! The sound of my blood pressure spiking. She knew about the vasectomy. I turned to glance at her.

"Just idle thought or two, baby," she said. "You know how much I love you. And we've had that talk about kids before we got married. But seeing Sandy. You know she's more than half of YOU."

"I watched you and her playing, Nina. Can't say that I didn't get thoughts myself. But our own? Full-time is a lot different than baby-sitting or even summer weeks. And Sandy's fun right now, but when she was born. Little darlin' didn't sleep a full night until she was three."

"Just idle thoughts, baby," she said.

But I could see the eyes. "So, Miss Idle Thought, when was this injected into the 'Dan & Nina's Plan For Life'? And don't tell me you haven't thought THAT far into it. I know my Nina."

She cast her eyes down momentarily and came up smiling. "College out of the way, maybe, and my first job. You'll be forty-five. Is that asking too much?"

"Nothing you could ever ask would ever be too much, dearest."

"Don't rush off yet, baby," she said. "We need to think about how this all works."

A million tracks were playing out in my head. My Nina ... Sandy ... and a possible fourth, to be determined later.

The countryside passed almost without visual impact, as is often the case when traveling down the interstate. Nina's hand grasped my bicep. She twisted in her seat and put her chin on my shoulder.

"You and me. I want US to have everything life can give us. We love each other."

"Yes we do, little one," I said.

"Are you up for adventure, Dan? 'Cuz I AM! Since I met you, it's been an adventure. Not the 'fighting off crocodiles' kind of adventure, just the kind where every day you seem to open the door on something happy and exciting. I like OUR life." She jerked her head in the direction of the little blonde in the back seat. "She's part of it. I was worried that I married her daddy and she'd hate me. Now I feel like some weird combination of big sister and friend, with only the tiniest bit of step-mom thrown in."

"I can see that. I probably wasn't as worried about the 'hate me' part. Mine was 'you abandoned me for this girl'. Didn't see that, either. But it IS a lot easier being dad with you as a pleasant distraction."

"Distraction in WHAT way, sir?" she giggled.

"Bunches of 'em," I said. All good. "You must've been one HELL of a baby-sitter."

"Uh, those were brats compared to Sandy, Dan. Mommy spoils them to make up for pursuing her career."

"On Saturday afternoons? What kind of career is that?" I asked.

"Upper tier hairdresser."

"I thought daddy was a lawyer?"

"Is," she said. "Mommy's one of those people with stunning hair that go about trapping men with odd tastes." Giggle. "You know how some men are."

"I've seen some striking hair in my day."

"Some people, babe," she said, "LIKE what they do, even if it means leaving their kids on Saturday afternoon."

"Still odd," I said.

"But Sandy doesn't act spoiled. I mean, she DOES try to push the limits, but you push back, and she stops." Pause. "Or I push back, and she stops. And smiles like she knows what she's doing and I know what she's doing."

The conversation continued twisting its way from one branch to another and the miles passed. Sandy woke up, rubbing her eyes. "Yall finished talkin' about me?"

"You? Why would we talk about you? You're a horrible child..." Nina giggled.

"I woke up, you know, just a little bit."

"And that's why we didn't talk about your truly horrible characteristics, Sandy," I said.

"Uh," feigning outrage, Sandy popped, "I have NO horrible characteristics. At least that is what Nina thinks. Right, Nina?"

"She doesn't know you like I do," I picked.

"So what's for dinner?" Sandy said.

"See! That's one, right there. You're devious."

Nina said, "Where do you wanna eat, baby?"

"Pizza," Sandy said.

I was thinking, 'god, not another pizza', but then Nina fixed that.

"We'll order pizza when we get home, and then it'll get here while we put our stuff away."

Squeal! Sandy said, "See, Dad! She's smart."

"Why? Because she agrees with YOU?"

Blonde hair. Blue eyes. Big smile. And smart mouth. "Yeah! That would be one of the signs."

Nina didn't help by giggling. We had The Plan. I came to find out that in the presence of Sandy and Nina, The Plan was liable to pop up at random times, solutions for various questions in life.

The Plan was carried out. Pizza arrived, just as the first load of clothes went into the washer.

Sam the cat was on the dryer supervising when the doorbell rang. Apparently large yellow cats mimic the curiosity of ten year old girls because both of them followed me to the front door. Pizza went on the dining room table, informal, but somehow perfect. We sat around the table eating. I ignored Sandy sneaking tidbits to Sam. Little girls and cats. Neither needs a reason.

We stayed up late watching a couple of movies and catching showers and Sandy was asleep on the sofa until I carefully scooped her up and as Nina turned down the covers, deposited the little form in her bed. Sam formed a kitty loaf beside her and stood watch.

Nina gently pushed our door closed behind her as I turned down our covers. Apparently there was a Plan for Dan and Nina to gently make love, urging each other to orgasm before falling asleep.

I eased out the bed in the morning, taking care not to wake the pleasant form beside me. Fifteen minutes later two night-shirt clad girls were in my kitchen.

"Pancakes," I said.

Nina smiled. "I love pancakes. Yours are better than the ones at the restaurant, too."

Sandy agreed.

We ate stacks of pancakes, chased with cold milk, and the two of them cleared the table while I brewed coffee. Three mugs. Nina's and mine were lightly tinged with cream. Sandy's was lightly tinged with coffee.

"So what's the plan today?" I asked.

"You didn't take the kayaks off the car yet, did you, Dan?" Nina asked.

"Nope. Why?"

She said, "I'm tired of salt water. We could go to the river..."

Sandy was nodding enthusiastically.

Forty-five minutes after we were on the road. "Six!" I said. "We're on the road back at six. I have to go to work tomorrow."

We spent the day on the water (again). "Next year I want my own kayak, Dad. Don't'cha think I'm old enough?" Sandy said.

"Yeah, if you think you're old enough to keep up. Half the time you let ME do the paddling." Sandy and I had the tandem kayak and Nina had the single-holer.

"If we both paddle, we go faster than Nina. She has to work to keep up. I'm just thinking of Nina, Dad!"

"Your argument is invalid. Neither of us has to paddle as hard, that's all."

"Whatever. Can I have my own kayak?"

I looked. Nina was giggling.

"Oh, YOU'RE a lot of help," I said.

"Well, she wants a KAYAK, for pete's sake. Would you rather buy her that or what?"

"I hate it when you're logical..." I laughed.

Sandy's smile was rife with smugness.

"I guess if we're gonna do this again next weekend, we should have one. But THREE? Now we can't do a roof rack. I'll have to get a trailer."

We were back home before seven, dinner being a run through a fast food drive-thru.

Back home, I unloaded kayaks and stowed them under the rafters of the garage. When I got inside, Sandy was in the shower and Nina was moving laundry around.

She turned around and tiptoed to kiss me lightly. "Another good day, babe!"

"Yes, it was. Reminds me of a Heinlein quote: "What a wonderful world it is that has girls in!" And YOU come to bed with me at the end of it."

Giggle. "Only because I can badly abuse you!" she smiled. "Maybe not tonight though. If Sandy wants to sleep with us..."

"I suppose."

She grinned. "You know I'll make it up to you. 'Sides, it's period time again."

"I thought we were close," I said.

"Yeah ... But give me five minutes with your pants down." Evil grin.

I hardened at the thought.

"Sandy has sense about that, don't'ch think? She's let us have our time alone..."

"Yes, she has," I admitted. Nina and I agreed about the need for decorum, but Sandy seemed to understand about the need for us to have some alone time, too.

A little bump from the waterpipes told us that the shower was off. That meant Sandy was finished. Nina went into the bathroom and helped Sandy dry her hair, because in her own words, "I want my hair all pretty like yours."

A few minutes later Sandy was there beside me, smelling clean, and oh, yeah, a hint of Nina's perfume.

"Whatcha doin', Dad?"

"Folding laundry. Somebody's gotta do it."

"I know," she said. "Sometimes I fold mine at home. Uh ... at Mom's. Otherwise they just get washed and stuffed in the drawer."

That was an interesting revelation. Jennifer, when we were married, was never an immaculate housekeeper, but she did manage to fold clothes. Well, sometimes I did it, helping out where I could, when Sandy was little.

"Mom doesn't feel good sometimes. I know she'd do better if she felt good," she admitted.

I handed Sandy her stack of clothes. "Here! Go put this in your room!"

Smile. "Yes, Daddy!"

I started the last load of clothes in the dryer and went into the living room, easing back in my recliner. I heard the shower stop, and the air dryer start. I waited a few more minutes until Nina appeared, and then I took my turn bathing.

I came out to see the two of them leaned in against my cellphone, listening, faces somber.

Nina spoke softly. "Sandy's mom is in the hospital. Sandy's talking to Harry."

"Harry. Daddy's here." She passed me the phone.

"Harry! What's up?" I said. Now I wasn't talking to the slimy bastard who ran off with my wife, I was talking to a guy whose wife was in the hospital.

"Jennifer's in the hospital. Had to go to the emergency room a little while ago. They admitted her."

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Dan, she didn't want to tell you anything, and Sandy doesn't know much, but Jenn's got cancer. Pancreas or something. She's been on chemo. It ain't working."

"Oh, hang on..." I walked to the bedroom and shut the door. "How bad?"

"I ... we were hoping the chemo ... there's still a chance. They can adjust things, but she's out of her head right now. All her stuff is out of whack."

"Oh, shit! I'm sorry, Harry. Really."

"I know you are, Dan. But Sandy, she's okay?"

"Yeah, but ... what do we tell her?"

"Nothing yet. The doctor's in there with her right now, and maybe tomorrow she'll be able to think good enough to talk. And the specialists are coming in. Maybe we'll know something tomorrow or the next day. To tell Sandy. I guess, right now just tell her that her mom's sick."

"Okay, Harry. Look, if I need to bring Sandy..."

"Thanks, Dan. But right now, no. Her mom's pretty much out of it. We'll call you, okay?"

"Okay, Harry. Keep us posted."

"I will."

I closed my phone and went back into the living room. Sandy was in Nina's arms.

"She's getting sicker, huh, Dad. Really sick this time." Sandy's eyes were wet. Nina's were, too.

"She's pretty sick tonight, baby. They'll know more tomorrow or the next day. Things might very well get better."

"This happened before. She went to the hospital, Dad. She said not to talk to you about it. But she got better that time."

Nina was mute. She held Sandy and rocked back and forth, stroking her blonde hair, hold her cheek against Sandy's head.

"How about some hot chocolate, ' I said, desperately trying to lighten the situation up. "And then a game of cards."

Nina looked up, followed by Sandy. "Okay, sweetie," she said. "That'd be good."

We were in bed before ten, watching a nature show on the TV. I set the timer, and we went to sleep in an unwieldy knot.

The alarm went off in the morning. I got up to get dressed and Nina and Sandy got up and went in the kitchen. I heard the noise, then smelled bacon. And coffee. Sandy brought a mug of coffee to the table. "Two sugars, one cream, Nina says," she smiled.

I sipped at the steaming mug and a plate appeared before me. I ate, kissed the two of them, one a little bit more ardently than the other, and then left for work. I left Sandy and Nina to their own devices.

Mid-morning things got horribly worse. My cellphone, on 'buzz' so as to not disturb our staff meeting, shook angrily in my pocket. Since everyone I worried about at work was in the same meeting as I was, it had to be an outside call. I looked at the display. Jennifer.

I stood and said, "emergency" and left the meeting, answering the phone as I cleared the room.

Harry. Voice cracking. "Dan..." sob. "She's ... she's GONE!"

"What?!?!" I blurted. "Last night you said her chemo was off track. What happened?"

"I dunno. A nurse said that sometimes when things get all wonky, the body'll toss an embolism, whatever THAT is. She stroked out. Dan ... MY WIFE! She's gone!"

"Hang on for a second, Harry..." I stuck my head back through the door. All eyes turned to me. "Sorry, folks! Family emergency. I'm outta here! Harvey, I'll call you and let you know what's going on."

"DO what ya gotta do, Dan! Let us know if you need any help."

"Thanks," I said. Walking away, I said, "Harry? You still there?"

"Uh-huh ... Dan, Sandy ... you gonna tell 'er?"

I shrugged inwardly. "Yeah. Not a pleasant thing, but a dad's gotta..."

"I'm sorry," Harry said. "She was talking, asked if Sandy knew, then, like, blink!, and her eyes rolled back in her head, and that's the last thing. About an hour ago."

"I'm on the way to the house. I'll tell Sandy."

"I'll call Jenn's folks. I think she'd want to be there in the family plot."

"Yeah," I said. "I think so."

"I'll call you about arrangements for the funeral."

"God, I'm sorry, Harry..."

"Thanks, Dan." And the phone clicked. I punched Nina's number.

"Hey, babe," she said brightly.

"Are you with Sandy?" I asked.

"No! She's dragging a string around for the cat. Why? You sound funny."

"Not funny. Shocked. Don't go anywhere. I'm on the way home."

"Jennifer?" she whispered.

"Yes. About an hour ago."

"Omigod!"

"Don't say anything until I get there."

"Okay."

After weeks of dashing hope in happy expectation, I dreaded the sight of my front door.

I walked in. Sandy met me. "Something's wrong," she said. "Nina was all happy and excited, and she changed."

"Come here, baby," I said. I gathered her in my arms, Nina joining us.

"I have something very sad to tell you," I said, tears welling up in my own eyes, first because I was getting ready to tear my little girl's heart out, and second, honestly, there, deep down inside, there was still some feeling for Jennifer, divorced or not. I was holding the good part of that era of my life.

Sandy was no fool. "Mo-ommmmm..." She started crying.

"Baby, I'm sorry. But your mom is..."

"Momma's DEADDDDDD!!!!" Her teared welled up. I was crying. Nina was crying.

"I'm so sorry, baby," I said. "Mister Harry called me. Said the last thing she talked about was you, baby! I'm so sorry!"

Sandy cried, "I want my..." sob! "Mommyyyyyy!"

All I could do was hold on. Nina stroked Sandy's head. The three of us held onto each other for Sandy's sake.

Finally she stopped sobbing. "Daddy ... You love me?"

"Of course I do, baby. Why?"

"Where am I going to live?"

Nina fielded that one. "Here, of course. You're still your dad's daughter and you're my daughter, too, you know..."

Sandy's wet eyes, bluer than ever augmented by tears, looked at first me, then Nina. "We're a family, too, huh?"

"You're my little girl. Family is forever, baby. Me, you and Nina."

"I love you too, Nina. I hope me bein' here doesn't mess things up for you an' Dad."

"Of course not," Nina said. She sounded convinced.

Me, I was running a whole new set of factors through my head now. Sandy slid off my lap. I stood.

"I need to call my boss," I said. I dialed up Harvey's office.

"XYZCorp. Harvey Weldon. Can I help you?"

"Harv, this is Dan."

"Dan! You okay?"

"Not exactly. Jennifer passed away."

"Your ex?"

"Yeah. Sandy's here with us for the summer. Her mom's been battling cancer, and she never told me. When I saw here the other day, I just thought she looked worn out. She's been doing chemo and went to the hospital yesterday..."

"My god! I'm sorry, Dan..." He paused. "Look, do what you need to do. You know the three day funeral leave thing, but forget that. We'll take care of you. You take care of your little girl. At least you have Nina to help you..."

I'd told the bunch this morning before the staff meeting about how well things had worked out on my vacation, about how Nina and Sandy hit it off.

"Yeah, thank god for that," I said. "Thanks, Harv. I'll update you when I find out something. Funeral's probably gonna be here." They knew Jennifer from when I was a happily married man four or so years before. Maybe some of them would show up. Maybe not.

I returned to my sad little girl.

Logistics. Nina took her shopping for a suitable dress and shoes. I considered the idea of moving Sandy's belongings from her mom's house. I determined that if needed, a rental trailer would suffice.

We sort of stumbled through the next three days. Sandy, Nina and I stood at the funeral and got cried over by a myriad of Jenn's relatives. Honestly, they cried over Sandy. I got pats on the arm from people who'd been very happy when Jenn and I got married, and who'd been very happy when Sandy popped out, and were as bewildered as I was when Jenn left me.

Harry got perfunctory nods and hugs.

Sandy did a better job than I thought she would, maintaining composure until the casket went into the grave, then sobbing in Nina's arms as I held them both.

In the aftermath, I met Harry. I WAS sorry he lost a wife.

I promised him we'd be there on the weekend to collect Sandy's stuff.

The drive home was a somber as one might expect. I went to work on Thursday afternoon and Friday.

Home Friday. I asked Nina, "How's she doing?"

"Okay. She cried once today. I held her."

"What else can we do?"

"I know," she said. "Tomorrow's gonna be a bad day, I think."

"Probably. When she sees her mom's house, and no mom..."

Sandy came around the corner, lacking her normal exuberance. I hugged her.

"Hello, Dad," she said. "We goin' tomorrow?"

"Yes," I said. "we have to do this."

"I know. Is it okay if we bring my kitty home with us?"

"Mister Mittens? Of course. I'm sure he and Sam will work things out." Mentally I added the cat carrier to the load. I knew she had a cat, but I didn't know that she was bringing him home. I should've known better.

We went out to eat at a seafood joint. I could see that she was returning to normal, but she was still subdued.

The house routine was pretty solid, now, and went into play when we got back.

She was cuddled in my lap after Nina went to shower.

"Dad," she said, "I loved Mom 'n' all that, but I was gonna ask 'er if I could come live here anyway. Not 'cuz I didn't love 'er. Just that Mister Harry wasn't, I dunno, I think I made 'im uncomfortable ... an' since I met Nina, I know she's not my mom, but I think she's nice, an' she's smart, an' I think I wanted to come here. I was gonna talk to ya'll about it."

"Really?"

"Uh-huh. Me an' Nina talked about it. I told 'er not to tell you."

Nina hadn't said a word to me. "Nina's your friend, baby. She kept your secret."

"Dad?"

"Yes, little one?"

"That doesn't mean I didn't love Mom."

"I know, baby. Divorces make things awfully complex for kids. I'm sorry."

"I know it wasn't your fault, Dad. I love you."

Nina came walking out to the hall wearing her nightshirt. "You!" she said to me, "Shower! I'll make us hot chocolate!"
Nina

Chapter 12

You know, back to the funeral ... Jennifer's mom and dad. I saw them there. They were cordial, as always was the case, and they hugged on Sandy and stood with her between themselves and me during the service.

After the graveside service, Jennifer's mom, Glenda Garrett, bent over to speak to Sandy as we were leaving. "Sandy," she said. "We love you, child. We want ... Well, keep in touch." Glenda stood and looked at me, unsmiling, her expression something I couldn't parse. "Dan, we'd like to see a lot of Sandy."

"I think that's a good idea, Mizz Glenda. My parents are gone. Grandparents are good for kids." I was being honest. Yes, Glenda was one of those 'difficult' personalities. I can't help but believe that it was her influence, her strange idea of status and entitlement that screwed up Jennifer in the first place. But that wasn't enough to keep a little girl from visiting her grandma.

Andrew Garrett, Sandy's grandfather, he was probably the most hen-pecked guy in the state. However, I do know how he survived. He and Glenda used to do a mixed drink every evening when he came in from work, or after dinner, now that he was retired. She thought it somehow genteel and sophisticated. He saw it as an excuse for the smell of alcohol on his breath. He kept a half-gallon of bourbon in his workshop, replenished frequently.

Jennifer had a sister, too, but she was out of the picture. Actually, the sister was out of her freakin' mind, living with some sort of spiritual guru or guide or whatever on a farm or ashram or whatever scam he was running. She didn't even come in for her sister's funeral, and I'd seen her exactly twice in the years I was married to Jennifer.

So that's where we were. Me. Nina. Sandy. There are crazier 'blended families' in the world today. This one is ours.

Friday after work I visited the local rental emporium that gets a significant portion of business from the facility where I work, a fact that I mentioned (TWICE. Pointed out my name on a couple of purchase orders) and rented an enclosed trailer. As in, "Ten bucks to cover the paperwork and we'll call it good, Mister Gleason!"

We went to dinner Friday night in Nina's little car, rather than tug that trailer through parking lots.

Saturday morning we were up early, on the road at six, through the McDonalds for a bag of breakfast, then we were back on the road with a piano work on the stereo, a fact not unnoticed by the ten year old in the back seat.

"Dad, can I take piano lessons? I wanna play stuff like that."

"Are you gonna be serious about it? I don't like that 'flavor of the week' thing, little girl."

"I know, Dad." She huffed. "I'm serious about it."

"You have to be. There's a pretty long road from where you are today to playing Mozart."

"Yes, Dad, I know..." she sounded slightly exasperated.

Nina walked up to the little bonfire we had going between me and Sandy and dumped gasoline on it. "Dan, I'd like to take lessons with her. We're BOTH beginners."

Apparently there was another Plan being implemented. I thought I'd test to see if I was right. "So where did you two decide to put the piano?"

Sandy said, "That short wall between the door to the kitchen and the hall. You'll have to move a bookcase."

I'd been had, and what's worse, I was actually happy about it. "Nina, do you think you two can look into who might be a suitable teacher?"

Squeal! "Thank you, Daddy!"

Nina just looked at me and smiled.

The actual trip, one way, was almost four hundred miles. Somewhere along the ride we changed the CD to something else.

Nina laughed. "Oak Ridge Boys? Are you KIDDING!"

Sandy giggle. "Daddy sings the bass part! Show 'er, Daddy!"

Okay ... Call it a weakness. Apparently it's contagious, because I soon had the three of us singing along in harmony as the miles rolled by.

Lunch was a chain restaurant just off the interstate, and mid-afternoon, we pulled up on the residential street in front of Harry and Jennifer's house. There was a car I didn't recognize in the driveway, and since it didn't have dealer plates, I surmised it wasn't Harry's. We walked to the door.

Sandy barged right in. "Harry! It's meeee..."

"Well, hello, Sandy," Glenda said.

That explained the unidentified car.

She looked up at me and Nina standing in the door. The smile that was there for Sandy waned quickly. "Do come in," she said. "Harry's not here. He had to be at work. I've been helping him with Jennifer's things. It's hard for him, you know."

"I can't see where it would be any easier for you, Glenda," I said. I was honest. The lady'd lost her daughter. That had to be tough.

"One does what one must, Dan," she said. "You're here to get Sandy's things?"

"Yes," I said. "We brought a trailer."

"Dan, can I talk to you a minute?" she said.

"Sure!' I said.

"In private?"

"Oooo-kay," I said. We walked outside. Sandy was sitting with Nina, holding a picture of her and her mom, crying. Nina looked at me and nodded acknowledgment, and went back to stroking Sandy's hair, consoling a sobbing little girl.

I followed Glenda outside.

She turned. "Dan, I know you're newly married ... to that girl..."

The little twist of her tone changed my mode from friendly and sympathetic to wary. Very wary.

"We want Sandy to live with us, Dan." Her grey eyes were hard.

"Glenda," I said, "Sandy was going to ask Jenn about moving in with us, Nina and me, this summer. She fits well with Nina and me. We'll make sure she visits you any time she wants. Whenever it's okay with you and Andy. But she's MY daughter. I want her with me."

"Dan, I don't think she should be exposed to you and your teen bride."

"Glenda," I said, struggling to maintain decorum, "We are decent people, Nina and I. We ARE married. I don't remember you objecting to what Sandy was exposed to when Jennifer hauled her out of our house to move in with her boyfriend six months before the divorce was final."

"That's immaterial. History lesson. Dan, I'm serious. You'd have your freedom, you and uh ... Nina, is it? You two could do whatever you wanted, when you wanted. Sandy's just gonna be in YOUR way..."

I tried to defuse the situation. "Glenda, I know it's tough for you right now, losing Jennifer. Let's just let things go as they are. You'll be able to think clearly in a few days..."

"Don't you DARE patronize me, Dan Gleason!" she spat. "I know what I'm doing!"

"No, Glenda, I don't think you do. Do you honestly mean that you were a bigger part of Sandy's life since Jennifer left me than I was? Seriously? I can't believe you think like that." I was struggling now to keep civil.

"Okay, Dan," she said through tight lips. "We'll leave things as they are. I will help you locate Sandy's things. I've found some photos and things of Jennifer's that Sandy should have."

"Okay, Glenda," I said.

Nina looked at me curiously when we walked back into the house. We loaded boxes and bags and a raft of clothes on hangers and lastly, a cat carrier with a grey male tabby cat who was not happy with the disrespect being shown him.

Nina and I were rearranging the boxes in the trailer. Sandy was inside with her grandmother, being shown photo albums.

"What went on out here, baby?" she asked. "I couldn't make out words, but your voice..."

"Don't say anything to Sandy, sweetheart, but Glenda wants Sandy to live with them. I told her 'no way'."

"You're serious? What's she thinking?"

"Sweetie," I said, "She said that it would allow us to have our lives to ourselves, without having to worry about Sandy."

"How just too wonderfully admirable of her, Dan! Yeah, I didn't expect to end up with Sandy a month and a half ago when we got married, but you know what?!?!? I LIKE her!" She paused and looked into my eyes, that ebony hair in delightful disarray. "You aren't considering it, are you?"

"No. Not really. Sandy's lost her mom. She doesn't need her dad dumping her off on grandma."

I got a kiss on the cheek. "Good! That's my Dan! And OUR Sandy."

We went inside and retrieved Sandy. Harry drove up, parking on his own lawn. Sandy ran up and hugged him. "I'm sorry, Harry..." she said. He bent over and she kissed him on the cheek. I walked up to him as Sandy went to talk to her cat.

"Harry, I'm sorry. Again. And Sandy ... I know she's not yours, but she likes you. Send her a card or talk to her every now and then. This is hard on her. Her whole life turned upside down."

"I appreciate that, Dan. She's a good kid, but Jenn used to get exasperated at her. Said, in her words, she was so much YOU. But yeah, she's a good kid. Smart. Real smart. I'll keep in touch, for her sake."

Nina came up behind me. "We're ready to roll, Dan."

"I'll see you around, Harry," I said. I got in the car without looking for Glenda, and we drove off with a pet-friendly hotel as a destination for the night. We parked the SUV and trailer and the four of us, me, Nina, Sandy and one fuzzy Mister Mittens who was glaring at the world from his barred vantage in the pet carrier.

Bathing suits came out and we did an hour at the pool, then retreated to the room and enjoyed delivery pizza for dinner. The three of us sat cross-legged on one of the two queen beds and played cards for a while, then the two of them located a nature show on TV and we went to sleep.

At six the next morning, we did the reverse of the previous day's trip. Arriving at home, I backed the trailer into the drive and we started unloading. After the first three boxes were inside, I did the unloading while Nina and Sandy started putting things away. Mister Mittens was still in the pet carrier, having a stare-down through the bars at Sam, who was considering this NEW intrusion into his carefully managed household.

Once I got the trailer emptied, I walked into Sandy's room, interrupting a discussion about the order one uses to hang one's clothing. "I'm gonna go turn in the trailer," I said. "If you two come with me, we can go out to eat. If you stay, I expect to see a meal in progress when I get back.

Sandy looked at Nina. "Honestly, Nina, how DO you put up with 'im?" Giggle.

"It's the price I pay to associate with his bright children," Nina quipped right back.

"Well I suppose one must make sacrifices..." My precocious daughter.

We dropped the trailer off and went to the Italian restaurant for dinner.

'"Sandy, this is where your dad and I went on our first date."

"Really?" Sandy said.

"Really," I answered. "And I didn't even know it was a date. I thought I was bringing a bright young high school girl out to eat after working with her on her trigonometry."

Dinner was a happy affair. Maybe happier for them than me, because I had this nagging feeling that Glenda was going to be a problem. I pushed it out of my mind and enjoyed dinner, and we went home.

Sandy walked in and went to the cat carrier. "Dad, can I let Mister Mittens out now?"

"Sure, baby," I said. "But they might not get along very well. They're two cats used to having their own houses. Now they have to share."

She opened the carrier and Mister Mittens walked warily out into his new home. Sam observed from the arm of the sofa. Okay. That looked pretty good. The next forty-five minutes was occupied by various showers and post-shower rituals.

We played a round of rummy, the stereo on in the background, and then what would become another ritual for us, three mugs of herbal tea, relaxing for bed.

Sandy kissed me and Nina good night. "I'll sleep in my room tonight," she announced. Maybe Mister Mittens will sleep in there with me. Sam does."

I tucked her in. "I love you, Sandy."

"I love you too, Dad," she said.

Nina and I retired to our bedroom, closing the door. She turned to me, throwing arms around my neck. "Long day, honey," she said. "Now, is there anything that Glenda can really do about getting Sandy away from us?"

"Not that I know of, baby," I said. "But all the same, I'm calling my lawyer in the morning." I ran my hands down her sides, savoring her form through the cloth of her nightshirt.

"You could do better if this thing was off," she whispered. I peeled her nightshirt off over her head, watching her sassy hair splay out, and she slid her panties down, kicking her feet free. "Now yours," she whispered.

I complied. We loved on each other with hands and mouths and she tugged me into her and she had a shuddering little orgasm and I filled her with my own.

"We need to put our nightshirts back on, baby" she said afterward. We did. She rolled on her side and I spooned up behind her. I put my arm around her and she put my hand over her breast and whispered, "I love you, Dan."

"I love you, too, Nina." And we went to sleep.

Monday morning. Nina got up with me, despite my suggestion that she sleep in. Apparently we made enough noise to wake Sandy because she walked into the kitchen, rubbing her eyes.

"Hi, sleepy head," I said.

"Mornin', Dad. Mornin', Nina."

"How'd you sleep?" Nina asked.

"Two cats. One on each side. Ever time I move I have to move one."

"That means they'll do okay. As long as there's a little girl between 'em." Of course, I was immediately made to be a liar when two cats sauntered into the kitchen in close tandem. I was out the door before seven and in my office before seven thirty.

After the staff meeting, I retired to my office and closed the door. My computer gave me the phone number. I dialed.

A pleasant female voice answered, "Grantham Law Offices. Can I help you?"

I explained who I was, cited some work that Dodd Grantham had done for me and vice versa, added a remark about us being in high school together, and asked if he could call me back. I figured, 'yeah, right ... that'll happen... ' but was pleasantly surprised shortly afterward when the phone rang and I answered.

"Dan Gleason, XYZCorp, can I help you?"

"Hey, Dan. This is Dodd Grantham. Maybe I can help you?"

"Dodd," I said, "If I need to come to your office, just say so, but I got a question."

"Shoot," he said. "I don't start chargin' until you make me do research."

I explained the situation. "Can she take Sandy? Court order or something?"

"Look, Dan ... Under the conditions of the custodial parent's death, the surviving parent retains custody. That's you. The only exception is if you're an unfit parent. You're not. And there's no judge in THIS town that would rule you as unfit."

"What about an eighteen year old wife?" I asked.

"Oh, that might raise an eyebrow, but you could be the pole dancer in a transvestite bar and they wouldn't say anything these days. You're not in prison. You're employed. You're not on drugs. You're fit, as far as the courts are concerned."

"Good," I said. "So what do you think the ex-mother in law is thinking?"

"Wellll," Dodd said, "If she came to me, I'd tell her that her only chance would be to get you to sign over custody voluntarily. If it was me, and she'd already asked you herself, I think my final step would be to call you myself and make a few carefully crafted but idle threats to see if you'd fold your hand."

"My, you lawyers are a devious bunch, aren't you?" I laughed.

"Law ain't like that electrical stuff you play with. Rules in MY game are what we choose to make them."

I laughed again. "Well, they may pull your license for it, but you've actually helped me today."

Dodd chuckled. "Glad to do it. But hey, new wife, kid, you need to get your will straightened out. Come see me. I'll fix you up, and won't screw you too bad."

"You know, I need to do that. Thanks for reminding me."

"Yeah. And if you get hauled into court over this, let me know. We'll win. And if they take you to court and they lose, they'll pay me, not you."

"Okay, Dodd. I appreciate the advice."

"No problem," he said. "You helped me on that suit last year." I'd given him a professional report on an issue that showed up in an almost frivolous lawsuit.

I opened my door, considerably relaxed, and left the office in my golf-cart to survey my kingdom.

Lunch today was a sandwich, packed with love, so I was told, by Nina.

After lunch I had a roll of drawings spread out on the table in my office when my phone rang. Nina. "Hey, baby," I said.

"Hey, guy," she answered. She didn't sound too happy. "You're getting ready to get a phone call from a lawyer. He called here looking for your work number. I told him I couldn't give it out. He said he'd get it anyway."

I recounted my earlier conversation with Dodd. "Still, though, it seems like she's going to give it a try."

"We'll do okay. In the meantime, I won't let her call Sandy. But if Sandy wants to call her..."

"Discourage it," I said. "I don't know how, but I don't want her playing games with Sandy."

"Okay, sweetie. I'll have dinner on the stove when you get home, okay?"

"Okay, love ya, sweetie! Bye." I hung up.

Sure enough, twenty minutes later, the phone rang. "Dan Gleason, XYZCorp, can I help you?"

"Mister Gleason, I am Howard Smythe, attorney for Mr. & Mrs. Andrew Garrett, parents of your deceased ex-wife. They are formally requesting custody of their grand-daughter. It would be easiest for all involved if you'd sign a voluntary consent to this."

"Sir, I know who you are." I did. He was the go-to guy if you wanted to hit up Wal-Mart for tripping in the parking lot or wanted to claim you found a dismembered body in your new refrigerator or a mouse in your Pepsi or whatever. Ambulance-chasers had to push HIM out of the way. He was a joke, fighting against his payment of child support for his own kids who were living with their mom whom he'd divorced to marry his new legal assistant. I continued. "I see no reason to comply with that request. My daughter has been with me for the last three weeks. She's faced the trauma of losing her mom, and I'll be damned if I subject her to the feelings that her dad doesn't want her around."

"Mr. Gleason, I advise you that we may likely file suit for custody. It could be unpleasant for you and your new wife." Oily. That's how he sounded. Oily.

"Howard," I said, not giving him the honor of using his last name, "In the immortal words of General McAuliffe of Bastogne, 'Nuts!'. Do what you have to do. Good day, sir!" Clunk. I hung up.

My next move was to alert Dodd Grantham. "Head's up," I told him.

I went home seething over the audacity of Glenda. I pulled Nina aside and explained what had transpired.

"I think we should explain it to her, Dan. She's smart. She can grasp what's going on."

"Okay, baby. Let's go have a family talk." When we walked into the living room, she looked up.

"Uh-oh, looks serious," she said.

We sat down. Nina was at my side. "Come sit here," I said.

She perched on my knee. "Dad? You look serious."

"It is serious, baby. Your grandmother wants you to go live with them."

Her eyes flicked back and forth between mine and Nina's. "but I like it here. Ya'll do want me, right?" Her face was darkened with concern now.

"Of course we do, little one. We're both very happy to have you with us. We make a neat family."

"That's what I thought. Nina and I had fun today. Tomorrow we're s'posed to talk with piano teachers. Nina's gonna learn with me."

I closed my eyes. Why did anyone want to hurt my daughter now?

"I don't want to go live with gran'ma, Dad. I dunno, she's ... strange. I mean, she's my gran'ma, and I love 'er, but I don't want to live there."

"Sweetie, the only way you'd go there is if YOU told me and Nina that moving there was what you wanted. Not what your grandma wanted. But there may be a fight. With lawyers. I ... we wanted you to be prepared."

She looked sad. Now I questioned my wisdom in telling her. I'd just added uncertainty to her life when she was already shaken.

"You're my precious little girl, baby. Nina and I will do everything we can to keep you here. Don't worry. I talked with a lawyer today and he tells me we can't lose."

"Okay, Dad. 'cuz I doubt that Gran'ma would buy me a piano."

Nina said, "Come on, let's eat dinner. I talked to my Baptist grandmother, and I have made us a casserole."

"What religion do I have to find to get pie in this house?" I joked.

We started settling into something like a routine. Sandy went with Nina to the library and helped out with the kid programs, and of course, hauled back a bunch of books. We added another laptop to the house stable. I heard nothing from anybody for a couple of days.

On Thursday evening, we were just getting the table set for dinner when there was a knock on my door. I got served. Family Court. In the case of Daniel Gleason vs. Glenda Garrett, re: custody of minor child, Sandra Gleason.

Nina and Sandy sat beside me on the sofa as I read the legalese. "Judgment of fitness." "Best interests of the child."

In my engineer's mind I recalled the part of Dodd's advice that said, " And there's no judge in THIS town that would rule you as unfit", and countered that with " Rules in MY game are what we choose to make them." I preferred laws from people named Ohm and Boyle and Thevenin.

I did my best to reassure my family. It's a difficult thing to do when you need reassurance yourself.

I called Dodd Grantham as soon as I thought I could get through. He was incredulous. "Can you fax it to me?"

"How about scan and email?"

"Even better." He gave me an address. "I'll look over it and call you back. We'll know how this is gonna shake out."

Thirty minutes later the phone rang in my office. "Dan Gleason, XYZCorp, can I help you?"

"Dan, this is Dodd. Things move fast with these cases. You've got a hearing next Thursday in family court. These things don't look like courtroom stuff on TV. If we're lucky, we can end the whole thing then. If not, well, we'll just move to the next step."

"What are we talking about? A hearing?"

"Yeah, family court judge sits. They appoint a social worker on the child's behalf. That's the sticky part, I guess. The social worker is going to interview you, your child, your new wife, trying to determine the suitability of the home the child is living in. They'll also interview the grandmother and grandfather and see what kind of home they have." He paused. "Now let me ask you something, and please understand, I'm your lawyer and nothing you tell me goes any further. I just need to know what they might find to use on their side."

"I can't think of anything, Dodd," I said. "I'm employed, financially solvent, substantial savings, own my house, haven't even had a traffic ticket in years. I don't drink, other than socially. No drugs."

"What about your wife?"

"Nina? Graduated two months ago with honors. She was eighteen before we really started dating. We're legally married. Same thing. No drugs, no alcohol?"

"D'you understand 'moral turpitude'?" he asked.

"Yes I do." I told him about Nina's mom, and her grandmother, and Nina's two incidents, one at school. "But she was a minor. There shouldn't be any record. She wasn't charged."

"Well, Dan," he said, "I know that, but this isn't a criminal proceeding, and if somebody has knowledge of either incident, they may bring it up." He paused. "Honestly, Dan, I still don't see us as having a problem. I think our friend is just posturing, hoping that the weight of his name is going to scare you into giving up."

"Ah, for heaven's sake, Dodd! It's freakin' Howard Smythe. In a just society he'd be dead from a duel years ago. He's the caricature of the 99% of lawyers that give the rest a bad name."

"I know, Dan," he chuckled. "I don't think a sane lawyer would've taken this case. But we still need to treat it as serious. Can you and your wife and daughter come by the office Monday or Tuesday? I need to talk with all of you, just to make sure we're all on the same sheet of music."

"Dodd, these two are the love of my life," I said.

"I understand completely, Dan. I just want to give 'em a little guidance about what to expect, and to make sure we don't have any traps waiting. Monday then? Four o'clock?"

"That works," I said.

That evening we had a family discussion about what I'd learned. All of it. Nina explained the high school incident to Sandy. She glossed over the attempted molestation with 'a bad man tried to do bad things to me and I fought him off as best I could."

Saturday we shopped for pianos. A teacher had been selected, an older woman who played Sundays at her church and who'd actually had a little career in music. She recommended a music store to visit. Nina told me, "Mizz Lester says these people will do us right. Just mention her name."

"Ah, Mizz Lester," the salesman said. "She's been teaching for years. Here's what will work. It's used. Older. But it'll work until you come back to buy a Steinway. Who's taking lessons."

"Me an' Nina," Sandy said.

"Oh, really?" he smiled. "And you want the books Mizz Lester uses, too?"

"I guess," I said. "I'm not packing this thing home by myself. When can you deliver?"

"Monday afternoon? Tuesday?"

"Tuesday will work. That gives me time to move things around."

"We have to move a bookcase," Nina smiled.

The next stop was sixty miles up the road to an outdoor store. We left there with a pink kayak on a trailer. Yes, I was operating on the assumption that we were a family now, and a family we would be.

Sunday we made an event of driving to a park and spending the day bicycling and picnicking.

Monday I scooted off the job a little early and brought my bunch to Dodd's office. I was in my 'engineer at work' cloths. Nina and Sandy were dressed almost identically in jeans and blouses and athletic shoes, two pair of blue eyes, identical haircuts, one blonde, and one dark brunette.

We were ushered into Dodd's office. I introduced my girls to Dodd. I think he was impressed. Neither of them looked particularly abused. Dodd said so.

"So let me tell you what's going on with this hearing, folks," he said, smiling his best smile. "We have an advantage, I think. Dan, Nina, they may question you a bit hard, but Sandy, they'll be very careful about how they talk to you. All they want to know is how you really feel about things."

You don't give Sandy an opening like that. "Mister Dodd, I feel like they're crazy. I was gonna ask to come live with Dad this summer when I got home. Before Mom..." her eyes wetted and she suppressed a sob.

"Even with him marrying Miss Nina?" Dodd asked.

"Especially since he married Miss Nina. Don't'cha think it would've been hard, I mean, with Dad workin', for me to stay by myself? "But with Miss Nina..."

"Nina? Your thoughts?" He asked.

Nina sucked in a breath. I knew that as a sign she was going into her 'soliloquy mode'. "Mister Dodd, I knew that Dan had a daughter before we got married, and that she'd be part of our life together. Yes, I was worried. I've heard some bad stories about step-mom relationships, but I love Dan and I started talking to Sandy on the phone way before she joined us for the summer. We hit it off. Before we came back off vacation she brought up the idea of her wanting to move in with us, and I know her, and I know Dan, and I know me, and I know it would work. I don't know how to characterize our relationship. Maybe sisters, sort of, but we worked it all out so far."

"You just tell 'em that on Thursday, young lady," Dodd said. "Now, folks, I expect that in a day or two you'll get an unannounced visit from social services to determine the suitability of your home."

Nina giggled. "Then Dan needs to move a bookcase for the piano we're getting tomorrow."

That put us back at the house. Nina was in the kitchen.

"Something with noodles, Dan," she said, and she started cooking while Sandy and I moved stacks of books to get that bookcase to a movable state, helped tremendously by two cats who thought that every box needed to be tried on for size.

I and my diminuitive helper had the books out of the case and stacked in my office/spare bedroom. Nina gave me a hand scooting the case into the space I'd made for it, and then she looked at the spot on the carpet that had previously been covered by the bookcase.

"Oh, now I KNOW we need a piano," she said. "Or new carpet!"

"Next spring," I said. "I was planning on it. Now you and I and Sandy have to decide together on it."

The kitchen timer dinged and Nina pulled the casserole out of the oven, and it was dinnertime.
Nina

Chapter 13


Tuesday I got a phone call late in the afternoon. My home number showed on the display. I picked up the receiver. "Hey, baby," I said, a greeting that should work for either Nina or Sandy.

Nina's voice. "Hey babe! How's your day?"

"It's been a normal day. So far."

"We had two visits. One was a big truck with a piano on the back, and the second was a nice black lady from social services."

"How'd that go?" I asked.

Giggle. "I gave her the grand tour. She had to ease around the guys bringing in the piano. I told her it was a medieval torture device and we were going to chain Sandy to it."

"Oh, baby, some of those people don't have a sense of humor."

"She did. Actually, after the piano guys left, she sat down and played on it. She's GOOD! Plays at her church. Knows our piano teacher." She paused. "I don't think we're going to have a problem with her report."

"Good!" I said. "That's a load off my mind."

"You coming home at the regular time?"

"Yeah, sweetie," I said. "You started cooking?"

"Not yet," she said.

"Good! Let's go out and get something."

"'Kay," she said. "Me an' Sandy'll talk about it."

"Do I get a say?"

Giggle. "You get a vote. But we'll outvote you, ya know..."

"'Kay, baby doll. I'll see you in a bit. Love you!"

"Love you too!" click.

I leaned back in my chair and breathed a sigh of relief.

Harvey walked past my door and saw me with my eyes squinched shut.

"Somethin' wrong, Dan?"

"No ... well, yeah, if you've got a minute." He sat. I related the story.

"Is the woman crazy?" he asked, incredulously.

"Deluded, I think," I said. "Like Sandy needs more turmoil."

"And the hearing is Thursday? Look, just take the day off. You've racked up enough comp time to more than cover it."

"Thanks, Harv. I appreciate it."

"You need all the help you can get, buddy. You got a new wife and a full-time kid now."

"Yeah, it's been interesting since the middle of May," I admitted, sighing. "And you know, it's been pretty good, until Jennifer ... I mean, I was over her, but I didn't wish her dead, and now this..."

"You'll do okay, Dan," Harv said. "Nobody in his right mind..."

"We're talking' about the courts, Harv... 'Right mind' has nothin' to do with it."

"Oh, I know, but this is waaay past crazy ... anyway, do what you need to do. We got you covered."

"Thanks, buddy!" Yeah, okay, 'boss' but we were engineers and he was first among equals. "I appreciate you lettin' me cry on your shoulder."

Four o'clock came and at four fifteen I was walking through the gate to my car, chatting with my co-workers.

"Having your daughter around kinda cuts into your nookie time, don't it?" one said.

"Nina and I get our time, buddy. Sandy knows people need time alone. It's not like she's gonna walk in on us."

Another piped up, "Yeah, goofy! He's an engineer. He knows all about door locks and all that high tech stuff!"

Laughter. I got in my car and drove home. I pulled up in the driveway and got out as our front door opened and Nina and Sandy came out to meet me. My neighbor was in his front yard and he waved at us. We waved back and went inside. New piano.

Sandy said, "You should've seen that lady, Mizz Sheffield, play, Dad. It was something."

Nina agreed. "She gave it a workout! Said it's a good piano but we need to get it tuned."

"Yeah," I said, "The guy at the music store said we needed to do that since it's been moved. We need to make an appointment to have the guy come do it."

Sandy slid onto the bench and uncovered the keys and tried to do something. Didn't work. She turned to me. "Mizz London's coming Thursday, and we'll get started."

"Okay," I said. "But you have to remember, it's going to be long time of doing things that might not be exactly enjoyable before you get to where you want to be."

"We know, Dan," Nina said. "and we're going to encourage each other."

I eased into my recliner and kicked the foot rest up, sighing.

Sandy stood by me. "Too tired for your daughter to sit in your lap?"

"I get 'im next, Sandy," Nina said.

"Come on!"

Squeal! "Dad, that lady was nice. The one that visited. We showed her the house and the yard an' your office an' my room an' everything."

"She was interested in our bookshelves and your video and CD library," Nina said. "I would've been, too. She said you had too much good stuff to be faking."

"Well, I hope she's on our side," I admitted.

"I think she's s'posed to be on MY side," Sandy said.

"Smart kid," I answered, kissing the top of her head.

She wiggled and bounced up, turning to Nina. "Your turn!"

"Just a little while, and then we'll make him take us out for barbecue," Nina said, sliding into my lap with smooth familiarity. Her kiss was rejuvenating.

Wednesday morning I called the lawyer. "Dodd," I told him, "A social worker came by yesterday to check out the place."

"D'you know who it was?" he asked.

"A Mizz Sheffield," I said.

"Oh, good! She's completely fair, Dan. Who'd she talk to?"

Sandy and Nina. She got there while our new piano was being delivered. Nina says she seemed satisfied."

"That's a big plus for us," Dodd said. "Now, look, the family court business is strange. You need to be there at eight, you and Sandy, and Nina, and prepare to wait. They have you on the list, but there's no telling where you're at, and they won't give you a time to show up. You just have to be there when they call."

"My tax dollars at work, no doubt." I snorted.

"Uh, yeah. But that's between you an' me. Don't say that out loud," he laughed.

"I'll be good," I said.

"When they call you, I'll be there, and so will our sleazy friend. I'm assuming that Mizz Garrett will be there also. She'll be waiting like you folks. Do NOT confront her, Dan. That wouldn't be good."

"I will be the epitome of self-restraint and grace."

He continued. "Now these family court things are kind of informal. The judge will review the stuff on the case and might ask questions." He paused. "And then the judge'll pronounce his decision. I think we'll be happy. I will petition for our Mizz Garrett to pay attorney fees and court costs, and from that sum I will take you and your delightful family out for dinner."

"Isn't that..."

"Crooked? Dan ... Dan ... Dan... ," he laughed. "I'm an esteemed officer of the court. Would I do anything crooked?"

I laughed.

"No, actually, I want to pick your brain about another lawsuit I'm involved with."

"Then that makes it fair," I said.

"Good!" Dodd said. "I'll see you and your bunch tomorrow!"

I snuck out at lunch and met Nina and Sandy. I repeated much of Dodd's conversation.

"So it looks good," Nina said.

Sandy's eyes watched me closely. "Yes," I said. "It sounds good for us. Remember, if your grandma is there, we're NICE."

"I know," Sandy said. "But I wonder why she's doing this..."

Nina handled that one. "Baby, people are complex things. Very often they don't do things that make sense from where we're sitting, but that's because they have things on the inside that we can't account for. We don't know what your grandma is thinking, baby."

"I know, Nina," she said.

We finished our meal. "Ya'll're doing the library today?" I asked.

"Uh-huh," Nina said. "I talked to them and they said they'd be glad to have Sandy with us, any time they have the program."

Sandy smiled. "I read to little kids. One of the library ladies stays with me, but she says I read good enough to help." Her eyes rolled. "Dad, they're little kid books. Easy."

"Well, show 'em how much fun it is to read, baby."

I paid the check and kissed each of them and went back to work. Very much routine, the afternoon was.

Thursday morning we rolled into a restaurant for breakfast and then showed up at the courthouse. Cursing, I returned to the car with our cellphones. Not allowed. I locked them in the car and returned to the waiting room. I found Sandy sitting between Nina and her grandmother.

I did greet her politely. And her husband, who looked a little off kilter this morning.

She returned my greeting perfunctorily, her lips tight. She stroked Sandy's hair, that is, until Sandy slumped sideways against Nina. She looked at Nina with thinly veiled anger.

Nina just smiled. I knew my Nina, and she was pretty good at reading people, and I imagined that she didn't miss the look. She patted Sandy's shoulder. "Like my little sister," she smiled.

A bailiff called for us. I entered the courtroom last. Nina, Sandy and I stood with Dodd. Glenda stood next to the sleazeball who was her attorney. The bailiff read the case off and then swore the whole bunch of us to oath.

"Mister Smythe," the judge said, "I have serious question as to why you see fit to bring this question before the court. What do you say..."

The smarmy bastard played his best card. "Your Honor," he said, "my client has limited knowledge of the suitability of the father to provide a proper home for the child, having had little contact with him since he and her daughter divorced. She is petitioning to insure the best of homes for the welfare of the child."

I cut my eyes to Dodd, who was just barely smiling.

"Do you have evidence that her father is NOT a suitable parent, or that his life circumstances preclude him from giving her a proper home environment?"

I sensed that we had a judge who'd perhaps seen a little too much of the sleazoid lawyer. I kept my thoughts to myself.

"He has recently married an extremely young girl, Your Honor..."

The judge raised his hand. "Smythe, don't go there. Last week you were in my court claiming that a kid needed to stay with her single, seventeen year old mom, no daddy known. And Mister uhhh ... Gleason here's her natural father, fully employed, and legally married." He paused. "I have a visitation report from social services. Very favorable. I have a background check on both Mister Gleason and his wife, Nina Sayers Gleason, and I'd have 'em babysitting my great-grandkids." He directed his comment to Mrs. Garrett and her husband. "Folks, I question your judgment in undertaking this quest. You would be advised to reconcile with your grand-daughter's father if you wish to remain in her life. I find no reason for awarding custody to you."

I felt Sandy tug my hand, barely suppressing a squeal of glee. Nina touched my other hand.

"Mister Gleason, Miss Sandy, Miss Nina, "I'm sorry that you had to even show up her today. Mister Gleason, did you incur any charges for retaining the services of Mister Grantham?"

"Yes, Your Honor," I said. "I haven't got an amount, though."

"Mister Grantham, I see where you've counter-sued for fees and costs. Mister Smythe, you are advised that if I have to pass judgment on that issue, I will find for the Gleasons, and I will attach substantial costs to it. I recommend that you settle with them in an expeditious manner. Custody remains with Dan Gleason. This case is closed."

"Thank you, Your Honor," Sandy said.

"You're welcome, Miss Sandy," he answered.

We got out of the building as soon as we could. On the courthouse steps, Dodd laughed. "Boy, that's as close to a public butt-chewing as I ever saw from THAT judge. Smythe would've been better off just dropping the issue before we walked in there." He bent over to Sandy. "Miss Sandy, you don't have to worry about anything now, baby!"

"But I do have to worry. If I don't learn to play piano, he's gonna chain me to it." She smiled sweetly, eyes sparkling.

"Good kid there, Dan," He laughed.

We walked towards the parking lot, the three of us, hand in hand. I heard a voice call my name. I turned and saw Andy Garret hustling toward us.

"Dan," he said. "Look, I'm sorry about all this. I mean, we lost our only daughter, and that's hard enough, but Glenda kinda went off the deep end. I'm tryin' to get her to go see a doctor or somethin' but she can be hard-headed. All I'm askin' is that you still let us visit Sandy, okay?" All in one breath.

"We'll visit, Paw-paw," Sandy said. "I won't forget you." And she held her arms out for him to hug her. Glenda was nowhere in sight.

"We'll work something out, Andy," I said. "Kids need grandpas and grandmas, too. But she lives with us, okay..."

"I never wanted this," he admitted.

"I figured that, Andy. We'll see you later. And Sandy'll call, okay?"

"Okay, son," he said.

He turned and walked away.

"Wow," Nina said.

We got in our car and headed home. It was lunchtime now, so we stopped and fought the crowd for a bite to eat, I dropped them off at the house and then went in for a short day at work.

Harv saw me walk in. "You get things taken care of?" he asked.

"Yep. I am the proud possessor of a ten year old girl. Just like we wanted."

"Great!" he said. "Good for you! We need to get together at my house soon. Bring the bunch. Pool party!"

"We'll do that." Good people. I worked with some. A crew of them was swapping out a transformer the size of a pickup truck in the plant, and I took my golfcart over there to check on progress.

One of the electricians saw me coming. "Uh-oh," he said. "Look busy. Here he comes!" When I got closer, he laughed at his own joke. "Hi! You're smiling!"

"Yeah, I'm smiling," I laughed. "Because that's the first time I've seen you in a month that you weren't sitting down with a coffee mug in your hand."

"He's got YOUR number there, Brody," one of the other electricians said.

"We didn't expect to see you here, Dan," Brody said. "Ol' Harv said you had to go to court."

"Yeah, kid stuff," I said. "Got it taken care of."

"So you an' that young girl are keepin' your kid?" Everybody knew of my ex-wife's passing and my marriage to eighteen year old Nina.

"Yep!"

"Ain't that a kink? I mean, If I had an eighteen year old wife..."

The guy standing behind him said, "Brody, if you had an eighteen year old wife you'd have to spoon-feed 'er because she'd hafta be brain-dead to marry you..."

"And she'd STILL be your intellectual superior!" somebody else tossed in.

"Wow! That conversation went downhill fast..." I laughed. Good crew. Insensitive and ribald humor was part of the schtick. "Since everybody's smiling, I assume that this swap is going good?"

"Yeah," Steve-o said, straightening up. "All we have left to do is open the manhole an' stuff Brody inside."

"Don't do that," I chuckled. "We'd have to change the oil, an' that's ecologically irresponsible."

I hopped back in my cart and rolled the perimeter of the switchyard, then returned to my office. Jannie stopped me. "Harv says ya'll came out okay over Sandy?"

"Yeah. Judge ruled in our favor. She lives with us."

"You're her dad, Dan. I don't know why Glenda did that." Jannie knew my ex's family. Cousins or something. Who knows these things?

"I don't know either," I said. "No reason for it. Y'know, without that maneuver, Sandy'd be spending nights and weekends with 'em. But now, I'm kind of scared to let her go over there unsupervised."

"Oh, I don't think she'd, like, kidnap 'er or something like that. That's why she got a lawyer. 'Sides, Andy WILL get fed up after a while and put his foot down. I've seen it." She sighed. "SO how's this sittin' with Nina?"

"Nina acts like she's got a little sister now. They're starting piano lessons together. First one's this evening. She's good with it."

"She seems like such an angel, Dan. Everybody who knows her..."

"She is, Jan," I smiled. "I must've rescued puppies in a previous life to get this kind of Karma."

She laughed. "And now you got Sandy. I hope ya'll are happy."

"Thanks, Jan. I'm sure we will be." I returned to my office and ran through some email and a couple of voicemails, and it was time to go home. I called.

"Hi, sweetie," Nina answered. "We're celebratin'. Grandma told me how to make chicken pot pie."

"Yum!" I said. "I'll be there in a minute. This has been a day."

"Oh, I know. I was straining myself. But it's over. Here's Sandy!"

"Hey, daddy!" she said. "ILOVEYOUSOMEBODY'SATTHEDOOR. Bye!"

I pulled into the drive and walked in to meet Mizz Lester, the piano teacher. She showed them some fundamentals and some exercises and then smiled, pushing her glasses up on her nose.

"You have to see to it that they both practice, now. Otherwise you're wasting your money and their time. But they both seem eager. I think we'll do well, and have fun." She turned to the girls. "Practice. Practice. Practice, until your fingers learn. Don't be afraid to close your eyes and let your fingers do what they know how to do. And I will see you Tuesday."

"Yes ma'am, thank you," Nina answered.

"Thank you, Mizz Lester," Sandy added.

Mizz Lester left. I flopped into my chair and wiggled my feet. Nina started taking my shoes off and Sandy slid onto my lap.

"Dad, we're a family now!" she said.

"You and your dad were ALWAYS a family. And then I married 'im and now WE'RE a family. Even before..."

Sandy turned to Nina. "I love you, Nina. You make my dad happy. And that makes me happy. But the judge says we're OFFICIALLY a family!"

"Yeah, cutie pie," I said. "Just remember how happy you are right now when you get mad because I tell you to pick up your clothes and clean your room or help out in the yard."

Sandy turned to Nina for support. "Nina, don't I help out?"

"You do, sweetie," Nina said. "That's how this works. We all do a piece of it."

"That's fair," I said. "And a lot of life isn't. Now let's see what Nina can do for chicken pot pie!"

Nina did pretty good, actually. I said so.

She smiled. "We can't eat out or order pizza EVERY night," she said. "And with you working and me an' Sandy staying home, we can cook. Now I wish I'd paid more attention to Grandma. And she invited us over for dinner tomorrow evening."

"Great," I said. "How're they doing?"

"Happy as can be," she said. "I told 'er about Sandy and the mess an' everything. She wants to meet my daughter."

Sandy giggled. "I get to adopt grandparents," she chirped.

"How can they NOT adore her, Dan?"

Sandy's eyes twinkled. "Yeah, Dad! I am adorable, you know..."

"I know," I said. "And almost too old to tickle!" I scooped her up and tickled her ribs, holding her as she dissolved into a giggly mess. Two cats came running to view the commotion. Nina sat and patted her lap and Sam, the big mooch, jumped up to be petted.

Sandy caught her breath. "Dad, Sam never got in YOUR lap. Look!"

"I know," I said. "That's 'cuz Nina's part cat herself."

Nina smiled at me, blue eyes and freckled perfection. I reached down to stroke MY cat, and all I got for the effort was his "leave me the hell alone" look. I plopped down on the sofa beside her and the stupid cat left, an event noted with a giggle from Sandy. Mister Mittens sauntered over. He was everybody's cat, a big ol' fluffball, and he gave me my kitty fix.

"So did we practice today?" I asked.

"Uh-huh," Nina said. "both of us. I can feel muscles in my arms that I didn't feel before."

Sandy flipped the cover up on the keyboard. "This is what we're s'posed to do, Dad!" She tried, tentative notes punctuated with "Oops!" and "Not like THAT!" She turned to me sheepishly. "It's not as easy as it looks," she admitted.

"It doesn't look that easy, baby," I said. "But it's first steps."

"Make me stay at it, Dad," Sandy said. "I WANT to learn. But if I ... just don't let me give up."

"We won't, Sandy," Nina said.

Saturday was Helen and Ed's wedding, a little more formal than mine and Nina's, but still at the Baptist church. They made a lovely couple, too, very nicely dressed and obviously very happy and we were happy for them.

Helen had Nina and Sandy ("My new grand-daughter!") stand in as informal matron of honor and bridesmaid. I stood on the front row as Ed's oldest son stood in as best man, and Ed's grand-daughter stood with Sandy as bridesmaid, too. They made a cute pair, and I took as many pictures as I could of the proceedings.

The reception was also slightly better than ours, but still in the church's recreation hall, so we sipped lime punch and ate finger foods and smiled and then watched two sixty-something year old people depart for a honeymoon.

Sunday was Sandy's day to try out her new kayak, and the three of us did just fine. Sandy's kayak floated on the water like a cork with her ninety pounds. She paddled along like a trooper, though, as we navigated the sheltered waters of the slow-moving river. A quarter mile from the landing, on our return, I heard, "Dad, I'm getting tired..."

"We don't have far to go. Just around this bend..."

"I'm really tired." Right on the edge of whining.

"We'll make it, baby," Nina said.

"But I'm tired. Really. Dad, can you pull me?"

"Sandy, I could, but you can make it the little distance we have left, and you will have done the whole trip by yourself. In the new kayak YOU wanted..."

"But I'm still TIRED."

And we kept paddling as we talked, rounding the bend, bringing the landing in sight.

"Okay, Dad. I'll let you be mean to me..." and a heart-rending sigh. She turned her blonde head and looked at me with big blue eyes and I guess I was supposed to melt. I almost did. Then I saw a paddle blade flash downward. "Race ya!"

She had a head start, and I didn't pull too hard, and Nina paced her, and we all hit the little beach simultaneously. As we loaded the kayaks onto the trailer, I told Sandy her arms were going to be really sore.

"I can feel 'em already," she said. She looked at Nina. "You're used to this, huh?"

"Yes," Nina answered, "But the first time we did this, I thought my arms were going to fall off the next day. But it's good now! Maybe we'll go after your dad gets off work during the week. There's a spot closer to home that we could do before dark during the week."

"But I'll be sore," Sandy said.

"And that'll be the best thing for it. Trust me," Nina said.

We got home and grilled burgers for dinner. Two weeks into her new life with us, and Sandy had a handful of friends up and down the street, kids her age, and they came over. A smart dad cooks extra.

I noticed that Sandy's two girl friends were running a bit toward plumpness, one a little more than the other, and made a mental note to make sure that we emphasized physical activities.

After dinner, the five of us, me, Nina, Sandy, and her two friends tossed a Frisbee around for a little while until it was almost dark. They went home and we went inside.

After showers, the three of us, clad in nightclothes, were in the living room playing cards. I brought the subject up.

"They're not FAT, Dad," Sandy said. "Well, just a little, you know ... I think they're cute, though."

Nina cut her eyes to me, raising an eyebrow. I plunged on. "I know they're cute, baby, but they're ten, uh?"

"Uh-huh," Sandy admitted.

"And if they don't do something now, it's much harder to do later. That's one reason why we swim and kayak and stuff. I'm older, and putting on weight at my age is worse than it is for your age. So we do a lot of outside stuff."

"I know. But I still like playin' my X-Box, too..."

"And your piano?" Nina asked.

"That, too!" Sandy grinned.

After the card game, we retired to the sofa, me in the middle, Sandy next to Nina, Nina next to me. Sandy slumped sideways, laying her head on Nina's lap. Nina idly stroked the blonde hair.

"We're a family, right, Dad?" Sandy asked.

"Yes, we are, little one," I said.

"Me an' you an' Nina."

"Three of us, baby," Nina said.

"I miss Mom," Sandy said. It'd been a couple of weeks now, a month since she last saw her Mom, two since losing her. Nina was the one that seemed to end up with Sandy in her arms when the memory came flooding back, along with the tears, but I hadn't noted a breakdown in a couple of days now.

"I know you do, baby," I said. "I know you do."

Nina bent over and kissed Sandy lightly on the top of her head.

"But Dad," Sandy said, "I love you an' Nina, and this is the family we have now. And it's gonna be good."
