Part Two

 
Chapter Eighteen

 

Our official marriage started auspiciously with a trip to the steakhouse, and soon, we were at the door of OUR home.  I opened the door.  "Come here, Mrs. Richards," I said.  I scooped her into my arms and carried her through the door and deposited her on the bed.  "There.  Now make me a sammich!"

She laughed.  "Nuh-uh.  It's time for YOU to consummate our marriage."

An hour later I staggered out of bed behind her as she headed to the shower.  She giggled.  "Do YOU feel consummated?  I feel consummated!"

"Oh, gosh, yes!  I do believe that we have consummated each other pretty soundly."

After our showers, she was a beautiful sight, hair clean and brushed, face clean, eyes twinkling, as I finished shaving.  I walked out of the little bathroom into her waiting arms.

"Married, Dan!  We're married!  For real!"  She kissed me.

"Yes, we are.  Serious stuff, you know, babe!  Forever stuff!"

"You held my hand!  And kissed me in broad daylight on the courthouse steps!  And Wednesday we're going to meet your family!"

"Yes we are."

"It's like a fairy tale."

"All the way to the "happily ever after" part!"  We kissed again.

"It's  only nine, she said.  "wanna play couple hands of rummy?"

"Sure," I said.  "It's what old married couples do."  She giggled.  And beat me.  Bad.

Tuesday morning I kissed her when the alarm went off.  "Your first day as a married woman," I said.

"Mmmmmm" she purred as we kissed.  "We shoulda took the day off."

"Well, when I promised your labor this week, I didn't know we'd be married…"

" ‘S okay.  Let's get in gear!"  And we dressed and headed up the road for breakfast.  In the truck, she said, "I'm not going to make a big deal in front of work people yet."

"You are a wise person.  It may be a shock to find that I married my apprentice.  Not to mention all those broken hearts, those old guys lusting after your spectacular young body."

"Hmmph!" she spat.  "I am NOT the "fantastic body" type, in case you haven't' noticed.  Most guys want big tits on fantastic bodies."

"Well excuse me, lady, but you have PERFECT tits.  I can't help it if the world may desire otherwise.  Besides, you have a brilliant mind, a fantastic sense of humor, and the most astounding face imaginable.  And a cute ass that is made for parading around in jeans."

"I really don't care what other guys think, baby.  I want to be YOURS."

"You are.  I got a paper that says so."

We parked at the restaurant and went inside for breakfast.  Forty-five minutes later we were walking in the office trailer.  Sara was just ahead of us.

Cindy finished Sara's filing right after lunch.  I spent the day tying up loose ends, making sure everything was at a good stopping point for the five-day holiday weekend.  Mid-afternoon, when Cindy finished with Sara, we did a tour of the jobsite, and then headed back to the office trailer.  Because I was told, "Get Cindy out of the office at three o'clock."

When we walked back in, several of the engineers and the project manager and Sara were standing around a cake with "Way to go, Cindy!" iced on it.  Cindy was surprised.  So was I.  I knew something was up, but not exactly what.  This was special.  Cindy certainly thought so.  And a couple of the engineers were standing there holding t-shirts, one from Alabama University, the other from Auburn.

The boss was an Auburn graduate.  "But if you go to Alabama, I won't hold it against you, little lady," he said.  He presented her with a certificate of appreciation and then a check.  "I am proud to present you with a paycheck for your first job, Cindy.  I hope I will pay you for your first engineering job, too!" 

Sara gave her a big hug.  "I'm proud of you, darlin'", she said.

My mechanical engineer counterpart bent over and Cindy kissed him on the cheek.  He returned it.  "First time I ever kissed an engineer,"  he said.

One of the other guys said, "First time YOU ever kissed something that didn't inflate!"

"Guys!  This is a young LADY!"

"Oops!  Sorry!" he said.

And Cindy leveled the crowd when she said, "That's okay, Mister Bob!  He told me you don't date within your species.  What'd he mean by that?"  And she smiled demurely as Bob squirted cola out of his nose.

We said good bye and left.  Helen was in her office when we got back to the park.  We walked in, hand in hand.  She saw us.  "You make a pretty couple, now that you can hold hands in public."

"Helen," I said, "thank you.  I can't ever thank you enough!  I just wish we were going to be here for your wedding."

"Oh, bull," she said.  "You guys had plans already.  It's just gonna be me and Charley and a couple of or friends.  Don't give it a second thought!"

"But still…"

Cindy piped in, "Mizz Helen, I wanna thank you too.  You took care of me for all these years.  And you gave me Dan!"

Helen smiled.  "I didn't give you Dan.  You found Dan yourself.  Like two magnets, you two.  And this turned out very well, I think."

"Yes, ma'am," Cindy said, tiptoeing to kiss me.  "I am soooo lucky."

Helen looked at me.  "And he's lucky too.  You two just be good to each other.  You'll last forever."

I took my wife to our trailer.  We inventoried and packed for the next day's trip.  She picked up my cellphone and punched the pizza delivery and ordered one for our dinner.  After pizza, we gave the little trailer a thorough cleaning, emptying trash, cleaning out the fridge, getting ready for our planned absence.  After that exercise, we took our normal turns in the shower.

When I got finished shaving, I exited the tiny bathroom to find Cindy brushing her freshly dried hair.  This was normal.  The faint scent of a tiny drop of her perfume wafted in the air.  That was normal.  What wasn't normal is that she was wearing my pajama bottoms.

"What's this?" I asked.

"I've been thinkin'," she said.  "Tomorrow night we'll be in your house…"
"OUR house.  You're my wife, remember?"

"Okay, so it's the first night for us in OUR house, so I think we should save up to make it extra special."

I kissed the top of her head.  "That's admirable thinking, dear, but YOU make things extra special."

She turned and wrapped me in her arms.  "Dan," she said, looking up at me, "I still can't believe it.  We're married."

"I know.  It's like I hit the lottery or something."  I kissed her pink lips.

"Go put some pants on, babe!"  You make it difficult for me to maintain my resolve, walkin' around half-hard like that!"

"Okay," I said.  "A man is wise to listen to his wife."

"And get the deck of cards.  We have time for a couple of hands of rummy."  I beat her by seventy points.  Winner gets a kiss from the loser.

We crawled into bed with the thermostat set at fifty-five, punched up Boccherini on the stereo, snuggled our uncharacteristically clothed bodies together and drifted off to sleep.

0600!  Alarm came alive to classical music and I rolled over into Cindy's arms.  We kissed and then rolled off opposite sides of the bed.  A couple of quick tugs and the covers were neatly flattened and we dressed.  Twenty minutes later I loaded our bags into the truck and we locked the trailer behind us.  Breakfast was at the normal place, waitress greeting us as regulars.  When I paid the check I told Cindy she'd better make a bathroom stop now because we had a three hour flight ahead of us.  I hit the men's room myself, and then we were on the road to the airpark.

Together we rolled the plane out of the hangar and loaded our bags into the cargo door, then I backed the truck into the hangar.

"Okay, punkin," I said to Cindy, "did we forget anything?"

"Just so you have the keys to the hangar and the truck in your pocket, I think we're good!"  She helped me push the hangar doors closed and we locked the truck inside to await our return.

We pre-flighted the plane and climbed in, and five minutes later the wheels left the runway and we turned west toward Louisiana and home.  We climbed to eight thousand feet and set up an economical cruise that ate up the miles.  I had my arms crossed, letting Cindy fly, and when the plane was trimmed and cruising, it almost flew itself.

"You take the yoke," she said.

"You have a problem?  Something wrong?"  I looked at her.  She was smiling.

"Just something I want to do."  She took off her headset and unbuckled her harness, turning sideways in her seat.  Her hand reached for my zipper.  "Eight thousand feet.  That's way more than a mile.  We're going to do our own Mile-High Club."

"B-but we can't, baby.  One of us has to fly."

"You fly.  I have a goal."  And my zipper came down and fingers dragged my dick out.  Her head bent down between my belly and the control yoke and I felt her lips close over the head of my dick.  She sucked me to hardness, then popped up, smiling as she pushed my stiff dick back into my pants.  "There!" she announced brightly.  "That's all you get.  But you got it!"  And she stretched over and kissed me, then sat back in her seat and buckled back in.

When her headset was back in place, she said, "I thought about that half the night!"

"I like the way you think, angel!"

She grinned.  "I like the way you taste, bub!"

We crossed the Mississippi River at eight thousand feet, less than an hour from our destination.  "That's another ‘first' for me," Cindy said.  "I've never been west of the Mississippi."

"You are now, babe."  Forty-five minutes later the engine was stopped on the apron of a little airfield near my hometown in Louisiana, and I was tying down.  Tootie, by cellphone call was ten minutes away, and we were waiting in the airport office when she showed up.  I left instructions to have the plane's tanks topped off for our departure on Sunday.

Tootie pulled up outside and we walked out the door to meet her, each carrying a bag.  I dropped mine to hug her in greeting.  Cindy stood beside me.  Tootie said, "And you're my brother's new wife!"  She hugged Cindy like a long-lost child.

"Damn! Brother, she's a cutie!" Tootie said.  "Where'd you find her?"

"In the pool at an Alabama RV park!"

Cindy giggled.  "He was there scopin' out the babes!  An' I'm the only one that showed up!"

Tootie laughed.  "Oh, she's a smart ass, too!"  She smiled at Cindy.  "Babe, I like you already!"

We tossed the bags in Tootie's SUV and she drove us to my house.

"I opened it up Monday and let it air out, then gave it a good vacuuming, and put some air freshener.  It wasn't bad at all."  We rounded the corner to my, make that "our", house.

"There it is, baby," I told Cindy.  "That's home base."

"Looks nice, Dan!  Really nice!" We parked in the drive and walked in.  Cindy looked around.  "Nicer than I expected."

I turned to Tootie.  "Cindy ‘n' I have been living in my travel trailer.  It doesn't give me room to display my mad decorating skills.  Hey, before you leave, lemme make sure my car starts."

"Is that a hint?"  Tootie laughed.

"Hint?"

"Oh, don't be coy, Dan!" Cindy giggled.  "She thinks we want to be alone!"

"Oh, no, that's not it at all.  I didn't want to keep you here if you had something' else to do."

Tootie snickered.  "Uh-huh…"

"Seriously!" I said, walking through the kitchen and through the door into the attached garage.  Cindy followed me.  I hit the switch to open the garage door and then opened the door of my SUV.  I stuck a key into the ignition and turned it.  It started on the first try.  "Cool!" I said.

Tootie said, "You've been gone since the middle of summer and your car starts?"

As I popped the hood I said, "Sure!  I'm smart enough to leave a charger on the battery."  Opening the hood I disconnected two clamps and hung them on the wall next to the charger.

"Yep!" Cindy laughed.  "That's my Dan.  Takes care of things!"

Tootie sighed.  "Okay, then I can go now.  Ya'll gonna come over for supper?  We have a gumbo on the stove."

I looked at Cindy and she nodded.  "Yeah, we'll be there."  To Cindy I said, "Tootie does a good gumbo."

Tootie left as Cindy and I backed out of the driveway.  We'd talked about taking a tour of my home area, and that's what we did.  We passed old schools and homes and generally had a pleasant drive.

Five o'clock found us knocking on my sister's door.  Her husband Mike answered. 

"Hi, Mike!  This is Cindy!"  I said.

Hi, Cindy!  You look too cute to be with this old goat!" he laughed.

"Hi, Mister Mike."  Cindy smiled, shaking his hand.

He grinned.  "Do you call him Mister Dan?"

"Nope!" said Cindy.  "I mostly call him Master!"

"Tootie was right!  She is a smart ass!" he said to me.  To Cindy he said, "I'm just Mike, and you'll fit right in here!  Ya'll come in!"

Tootie called from the kitchen, "Hey, Cindy, come back here while I finished the potato salad!"

That left me and Mike in the living room.  He was smiling.  "Where'd you find HER?"

"I was swimming at the pool at the RV park right after I set up there and she walked up.  It's a long story past that."

"Damn!  She's a doll!  Kinda young, though?"

"I know.  That part worried me.  But she's smart, and cute, and I adore her.  And she acts like she adores me.  I figure past that, age is just numbers."

"As long as you're happy, I guess."  He hollered toward the kitchen.  "Woman, where's the food?"

"It's gonna be in your lap if you call me ‘woman' again!"  That was Tootie.  Cindy was giggling behind her.  "You gotta train'em like puppies.  An' even after that, they'll still pee on the carpet if you're not lookin'."  Cindy giggled some more.

"Ya'll come fix your bowls in here.  We can eat at the table."  And in the tradition of informal Cajun homes everywhere, we filled our bowls from steaming pots on the stove and sat down at the table.

The sounds of gumbo, rich, soupy, savory, being consumed filled the dining room.  Cindy said, "This is GOOD!  Dan, can you cook this?"

"Yeah, I said.  I watched the same momma and grandmaws cooking it that she did."

Tootie feigned outrage.  "You married this girl an' you never made her a gumbo?  They must do things different in Alabama!"

Cindy countered, "Yeah, but he did pay the required dowry in possums!"

Mike laughed.  "Man, she's good!"

"She's a little YOU!" Tootie answered.  "No wonder you're married."

"You should see her on the jobsite."

Mike looked at Cindy.  "You've been to his job?"

"Oh, yeah," said Cindy.  "I have my own pocket protector and everything."

"She's starting college in engineering next fall," I said.

"Dan!  You've corrupted this girl!"

"Had to do somethin' with her."  I smiled.  "Because she's so perfect!"

Tootie said, "Awwww!"  Then turned to Mike.  "See!  You used to be like that!"

He pulled her to him and kissed her.  "I still am," he said, "but if I show it you take advantage of me!"

And we had pleasant conversation.  One thing came up.  "I figured jerry and Sheila would be here, too?"

"Nah," Tootie said.  "I asked.  But they'll be here tomorrow."  She looked at Cindy's ring. "Cindy!  That's a pretty ring!"

Cindy beamed.  I chose it myself!"

"I love it!  No engagement ring?" 

"Nah!  We've only known each other since July.  Started dating in August.  Decided to get married and didn't make a big deal out of it.  We're kind of on our own there.  So we just got these and called it good!"

"Practical!  In a woman.  How novel!" Mike laughed.  "Dan, where can I get one of those?"

"Be careful, Mike!  Tootie can cook.  I can't."

"But you're an excellent conversationalist."

That got giggles from Tootie AND Mike.  With the meal finished, Cindy and Tootie cleared the table and Mike and I returned to the living room.  In a few minutes, they joined us.

"Are you gonna need help with the cooking tomorrow?" I asked.

"Nope," Tootie said.  "With just six of us, it won't be that big a deal.  A little turkey.  A little ham.  Dressing.  A couple of vegetables.  And the pies are already done."

"You had pie?"

Yeah.  Pecan.  And lemon meringue, like Mom used to make.  And they're for tomorrow, so forget it!"

"What time, then?"

Mike said, "Eleven.  And next year YOU get to cook."

"We can do that.  Next year."  I stood up and Cindy stood beside me.  "We're gonna go."

"Yeah," Tootie teased.  "Time for some of that conversation."  She paused.  "Awwww, look!   Cindy's blushing!"

Cindy was indeed blushing.  "We may do more than conversation," she said.  "I can beat him at rummy, too!"

"You play rummy?  Dan, we need to do that!"

"Okay," I said.  "Friday night?"

Mike said, "you're on!"

And we left.  And OUR house had a big shower.  Not huge, but very much accommodating to two people who might just want to play around under a spray of warm water.  AS I was shampooing that red hair, Cindy said, "You know, this is our first shower together as an officially married couple."

"You're right.  It is."

She turned around as I rinsed her hair.  Her hands went inexorably to my dick.  It was characteristically hard.  After all, I had a wet, happy, sexy redhead all clean and wet in front of me.  She was smiling.  As she knelt.

"You make my knees weak, little girl!"  All she could go was go "Mmmmm-hmmmm!"  I could feel my sack tighten.  So could she.

"Oh, no you don't, babe!" she giggled, standing.  "What's going on?  You're usually not THAT fast!"

"Uh, little red-headed girl, you started it.  We didn't do anything last night.  You got me all charged up eight thousand feet over Alabama.  And then you were perfect at Tooties' house.  I was so proud.  You're smart, and beautiful.  And funny.  And oh so sexy!"

She insinuated her wet body against me and we embraced, kissing under the warm shower.  "And you treated me like you were proud of me.  And like I was your wife.  And I love you."  She gave my dick a squeeze.  Now, let me get my hair dry and I'll give you a couple if you'll give me a couple.  Hmmm?"

"I love it when you're conversational."

Giggle.  "Tootie caught me off guard."

"Yeah.  You blushed.  I never saw you blush before."

"I was just surprised.  You know, that adults would tease about stuff like that."

"Tootie's a bit forward sometimes.  You have to expect that."

"I guess I should have known.  When we were in the kitchen, she was asking me questions about us.  How we met.  What I thought about the age thing.  Not really prying, mind you, just conversation."

I finished toweling off.  Cindy was seated on a stool with her hair dryer, getting ready to dry her hair.  "I already warned you about Jerry.  He's worse than Tootie is.  And he knows about you, but he hasn't seen you yet.  So be ready!"

She looked at me.  "I think I can handle it.  And if I can't, I'll hide behind you and Tootie."  She stood up, naked, perfect, turned her perky face to me.  "Lemme get a nightshirt on and you can show me the whole house.

I did.  It was MY house, designed, like the travel trailer, and built to my specification.  I was proud of the kitchen, oh, hell, I was proud of the whole house.  As it was, though, I used just one bedroom, the master, with the bath we'd just used.  A queen-sized bed occupied the center of the bedroom with walk-in closet and big windows.  The other bedroom, I'd turned into an office, complete with desk, computer, shelves, a printer.  The living room was spacious, but the total wasn't a BIG house.  It was MY house.  Now, it was OUR house.

And after the tour, MY wife took me by the hand and tugged me back towards the bedroom.

The score was Cindy – 3, Dan – 2.  I thought we were done for the night as we lay side by side.  I felt the bed move and turned to see Cindy's bright eyes inches from mine.

"Dan," she said.  "Your...    uh, OUR back yard's got a privacy fence, huh?"

"Yes it does."

"Then what's the use of privacy fence unless you do something back there that needs privacy?"

I kissed her on the nose.  "Let me get a blanket.  It's about time that we put that fence to good use!"

She started to grab her nightshirt.  "Nuh-uh," I chided.  "Absolutely nude!"

Squeal!  We walked out the back door into the cool night air and I spread the old blanket on the grass.  She knelt on it and tugged on my hand, pulling me to her.  "You're already half hard," she observed.  Her lips changed that to a hundred percent.  She pulled me down and I turned her to a sweet sixty-nine on top of me for a couple of minutes, then she twirled around and impaled her pussy, still wet from a mere half hour ago, on my hardness.  I regarded the halo that moonlight created in her hair as she lowered herself on me.

I didn't know at the time if it was the novelty of the location or the aftermath of our previous coupling only a half hour before, but  only a minute of happy Cindy working her pelvis on my dick and the smile was transformed into her "I'm gonna come" face.

Plus, she told me so.  As in "Baby, I'm gonna come!  Do me hard!"  And the magical thing about pairing up with Cindy is that the motions that made her so happy we just exactly what it took to bring me back to my own peak.  Oh, yes, she came.  And I came.  The semen might have been a mere dribble compared to the first of three this evening, but the sensation was measurable on the Richter scale.

As she collapsed on top of me, I knew this was one of her MAJOR orgasms because she was past the edge of consciousness.  I cradled her immobile form, and half minute later, she drew a deep breath.  "Dan!  You SEND me to the stars…"  And we kissed.  And lay on a blanket, nude in our back yard, dreaming the moon together for half an hour, silent together.

Finally, "Uh, babe?"

"Yes, princess?"

"I'm getting a little chilled."

"Well, then I suppose we should get that cute naked butt back in the house, huh?"

She sat up.  "And you can drop this blanket in the laundry room.  We made a mess."

I chuckled.  "Yes we did.  I need a quick shower."

"You're not doing that by yourself," she giggled.  "You made a mess."

"I made a mess?  YOU were on top."

She giggled.  "You're the one who built the fence around the yard.  Just what exactly DID you have in mind?"

"Apparently I was prescient, preparing for my soulmate to show up."

She kissed me when we stood up.  And giggled again.  "I like this.  Does that mean I'm kinky?"

"Nope!  Just adventurous.  And stay that way."

We went back inside, showered quickly and were in bed sleeping in half an hour.  Morning came perfectly, I was drifting along on that sweet edge between sleep and awake when I felt Cindy stir.  She wiped her eyes, touched my chest with her hands, then her head disappeared under the blanket.  What I felt next caused me to moan.  From under the covers I heard, "good morning, lover!"

And then that red head popped back out to kiss me.  "I just thought I'd start with a taste!  Mmmmm!"

We got up, got dressed, I put a somewhat sticky blanket in the washing machine, we had a light breakfast.

"Tell me," she said.  "We walk into the house where you haven't been for months, and there's fresh milk and eggs and bread.  How?"

"I called Tootie last week and asked her to get the house opened up and aired out for me.  She asked about groceries, and that's what I told her to get."

She smiled.  "You have a handle on this stuff."

"I try.  You'd have done it yourself if you walked into the house and smelled stale air and found nothing in the fridge."

Finally it was time.  I regarded my cutie, clad in jeans and a dark green short-sleeved shirt.  The green set that head of red hair off like a neon sign on a dark night.  I thought she was perfectly charming.

"Let's go!"

 
Chapter Nineteen

It was a fifteen minute drive to Tootie's house and when we drew near, I saw my brother Jerry's truck already parked. We pulled in behind him.  The front door opened before we got to the last step and Jerry stepped out.  I grasped his hand and clapped him on the back.  "Good to see you, Jerry," I said.  "Meet Cindy, your new sister-in-law."

"Hey Cindy!" he said, holding out his hand.  When she took it, he enveloped her in in hug, too.  "I'm glad to meet you."

Cindy feigned surprise.  "Dan!  His knuckles don't even REACH the ground!"

"Oh-ho-ho," Jerry laughed.  "Toot told me she was fast.  Come in.  I can't wait to talk to you.  I have to straighten out the lies he's been tellin' you."

We went inside and Cindy met Jerry's wife, Sheila, and the two of them joined Tootie in the kitchen.

I sat on the sofa at the opposite end from Jerry.  Mike was in his recliner.

Jerry was shaking his head.  "Ya know, I figured you'd remarry, but I'll be damned if she's what I pictured you with…"

"Yeah.  Me neither.  Damnedest thing I can imagine, though."

We were in the middle of catching up on life's happenings when I heard Tootie's voice from the kitchen shouting, "Omigod!"

Mike stood up quickly.  "Baby, is something wrong?"

"No," answered Tootie.  "Dan, can you please come in here?"  The tone was just a little bit more than tense.

I got up, totally confused as to what was going on.  I walked into the kitchen.  There was Tootie and Sheila, looking like they'd just seen a unicorn, and Cindy, with a smile.  A smirk, actually.

Tootie spoke first, in a low voice.  "Dan!  I thought you said she was eighteen."  She sucked in a breath.  She's NOT eighteen."

"What makes you think that?" I asked.

"Oh, I don't know.  Let's see!" she said through clinched teeth.  "Exactly how'd it go?  Oh yeah.  As in "Cindy, how old are you?" and she says "fourteen"!"

Cindy said, "Dan, I didn't want to lie."

Sheila got the next question.  "She didn't look eighteen.  She's fourteen.  You could go to jail."

Cindy fielded this one.  "Yeah.  If we weren't married.  But we are.  Legally.  The same judge that signed the court order allowing underage marriage is the one who performed the ceremony.  Wanna see the papers?"

"Uh…"  Tootie backpedalled, searching for words. "Wow!  Shit!  Wow!"

"Tootie," Cindy said, "Dan didn't do anything dishonorable or wrong.  Never coerced me or forced me or tricked me.  Ever.  And I truly, forever love him."

"And I love her, Toot.  I never planned on this.  It fell into my lap.  Well, maybe that's a bad choice of words."  Cindy giggled.  "But we were in a situation where we just fell together.  I found what I was looking for, even if the package was unconventional. And…"

Cindy interrupted.  "And I found Dan.  I hope you don't hate him because of me.  I love him, and I'd do anything for him."

By this time, Jerry and Mike were at the door, having caught most of the conversation. My eyes flitted from Mike to my brother.  He was the first of the two to speak.  "Damn, Bro!  You amaze me."

"Yeah, me too!" said Mike.

Cindy stepped beside me.  "Okay," I said.  "We're one hundred percent legal, just a little unconventional.  If we're going to make you all uncomfortable, we can leave."  I put my arm around Cindy. 

Her expression was serious.  "We're husband and wife.  He can tell you how I'm NOT your standard fourteen year old girl.  If you want to listen.  He's... We're your family, you know."

Tootie popped in.  "I thought Mike's dressing was going to be the toughest thing to digest today.  Cindy, darlin', you ARE family.  And just another of the events in my brother's life.  I want you here."

Mike said, "Yeah, me too.  But we might talk bad about him.  But not you."

Sheila and Jerry were standing off to the side of the kitchen now.  Sheila said, "You know, I have a niece that's fourteen and pregnant and she doesn't have a clue.  You act like you got a clue."

Jerry said, "Yeah, I guess so.  Okay.  Let's go sit down and talk.  I can't wait to hear some of this."

Tootie followed us into the living room, saying, "Give the stupid turkey another half an hour.  I want to hear this."

In the living room, I said, "Now some of this might be painful to Cindy, so I'll leave it up to her to talk about her situation."

To attentive and sympathetic ears, Cindy recounted a bit of her situation when I met her last summer.  She talked about how Helen helped her and took care of her in the absence of mothering from her natural mom, and how they'd talked when I first showed up.

We talked about our early relationship, how we became friends, how I was the tutor, how we started going places for meals, the time I sent her and Helen to the mall, how the relationship just grew.  We didn't talk about sex.  Nothing.  And we talked about school.

"And that was the part where somebody had ulterior motives," I said.  Cindy smiled demurely.  "after the first week, after I sort of kick-started her in math, she took off.  Straight A's.  She came over every day, it took longer for her to write the answers than figure them out.  And we talked and got to know each other.  It was difficult for her, being the only kid at the RV park, and we just hung out together.  I was glad to have a friend to talk to, and she was too."

Then we talked about Cindy's mom signing over custody.  And the whole school thing.  When I explained, with Cindy's able help, the way things went at school, they were amazed.  Especially when I explained last week's conversation.  "You might look at her and see a fourteen year old girl, She's a much more mature package than any eighteen year old I know of.  And a lot of women in their thirties, too, for that matter. But she's graduating high school this year with a full college scholarship.  "

Mike said, "Dayum!"

"And as of Monday, we are officially married.  So that's the story.  She knows about my first wife and daughter.  She knows about the last girlfriend."

Tootie interrupted.  "Cindy, did he tell you how that messed him up?"

"He told me about her.  Said when she left, it messed him up bad."

Jerry filled in.  "We worried that he was suicidal.  He didn't come out for a week."

"Yeah," Tootie said.  "It was pretty bad."

"Well," Cindy said, "He sort of rescued me.  And I rescued him.  And this is the way it's gonna be for us.  Forever.  I know enough about bad relationships.  I watched Mom go through plenty of them, and every time she did, I made mental notes, you know, like, "You don't do that," and "You should do this," and "Couples should be like," and stuff like that."

Sheila asked, "But Cindy, you're so much younger.  What about the things kids your age are doing?"

Cindy was in control.  "Mizz Sheila… I'm sorry, but what ARE kids my age doing? Like struggling in school?  I'm not struggling.  Experimenting with sex and drugs and relationships? I had a very permanent and very happy relationship with somebody who is my match, mentally, emotionally and" she shot me an obvious and theatrical wink, "physically.  Bouncing around after every fashion and fad? I am learning what I want to learn.  I listen to the music I like. I dress conservatively but well, and appropriately for the situation. Trying to find something that means something to them, or just not caring and going along with somebody else because they're not strong enough to choose on their own?  I go to school and I listen and talk to them.  I'm NOT that way, and bless ‘em, they're who they are, but I'm not trying to be one of those.  I get to choose my own path." She sighed.  "I got to see all the "good boys" and "bad boys" in relationships.  My Mom tried ‘em all.   I saw what sex meant as far as building a relationship, and that love and sex weren't the same thing, and sex without love was a downhill slide. I... I was a virgin when I met Dan. I think love should come before sex, and if there's love, then it's NOT sex. I learned that there was a time to look at myself and see what I want.  I found that out.  And then Dan came along, and all he wanted to do was help me.  He never acted like he wanted anything else besides just to help me get the best for myself.  And you, know, it didn't take much for me to figure out that HE is the best for me."

The room was silent for Cindy to continue her soliloquy.  "He showed me music that I heard and it gave wings to my soul.  And darn it!  He gave me wings, for real, with that ol' plane of ours.  And I went to work and saw what he did and how much he loved it, and how people acted around him, and I want to be like that.  And this college thing?  Can I be an engineer by the time I'm nineteen?  Dan thinks I can.  So if Dan thinks so, I think so.  Because it's not just me and Dan.  It's us." She turned to me.  "Right, babe?"

"Right, love!"

And she kissed me.

Tootie said, "huh!    Well I'm not going to say a damned thing!  He's yours, and you're part of our family.  Forever."

Cindy rushed over and hugged Tootie.

Sheila, the skeptic, had a tear on her cheek.  She elbowed Jerry in the ribs.  "You old ass," she said, " I love YOU like that, too."

Mike said," Well, people, that gives us something to give thanks about.  Wanna eat?"

The appearance of a turkey and a ham and a very workmanlike table had us all seated in anticipation.  Mike being the head of the house delivered a blessing for Thanksgiving.  The conversation around the table became a lot more relaxed.  Cindy was quick-witted and acerbic in countering Jerry's jibes at me and her.  She was gracious in comments about the food and afterward, helped clear up the mess.

"Hmmph!" said Sheila, "the men should be doing THIS part!"

Tootie said, "Well, they DO have an important football game to watch!"  Three sets of hands made short work of tidying up and the ladies returned to the living room.   In order to accommodate Sheila on the sofa beside Jerry, Cindy plopped her sweet round butt in my lap and wrapped her arms around my neck.

And kissed me.  And said, "This is the best family thanksgiving dinner I've ever had.  And the first one in five years. And nobody's drunk, and there hasn't been a fight.  Thank you all.  Especially Mike and Tootie for letting us in their house."

"Oh, no, babe," chided Mike.  "You're family now.  You're ALWAYS welcome here."

"Yeah, Jerry said.  "You said for better or worse.  This is the ‘better'."

Sheila interjected, "Saturday ya'll need to come over to our house.  We'll make cinnamon rolls."

"Yum!" Cindy said.  She looked at me.  "Babe, we're gonna need to ride bikes across Alabama to work all this off."

"Yeah," I said.  "That's assuming we can get the plane off the ground to fly back."

We hung around watching football and laughing and talking.  Dinner was another slice of pie.  Well, TWO slices.  One pecan, one lemon meringue.

Jerry and Sheila left right after the game was over, both of them hugging Cindy.  Jerry's last comment out the door was, "Damn! Bro!   She's a doll!  Seriously."  Sheila just said, "Sweetie, you take care of Dan.  I can tell he loves you and you love him."

After they left, Tootie said, "So, Cindy, Dan tells me you play rummy.  Ever try partners?"

"No," said Cindy.  "Just me and him.  I think I'm a little ahead."

"I think she cheats." I laughed.

"Mike, wanna play?  Partners?"  Tootie asked.

"Sure," said Mike.

"Now, watch, Cindy. Tootie's been cheating at cards since she could count.  The only chance we have it that Mike's more honest than she is."

"I dunno," said Mike.  "Twenny-two years.  She mighta ruint me."

We lost.  I figured we would, because playing partners requires a bit of a different mindset, and Tootie and Mike had been playing like that for years.  It was our first try.  But by the last round, we were getting the hang of it.

Finally it was time to go.  They saw us to the door.  Tootie said, "It's been quite a day, hasn't it."

"I'm sorry I upset things, Tootie," said Cindy.

"Oh, no, babe," said Tootie.  "We had to find out sooner or later.  This way we worked it all out at once.  And I think Dan's got a wonderful wife.  Heaven forbid, you're just like him when he was young."

Cindy looked at me.

"Yeah, he was different than other kids his age, too.  You two belong together."

Mike said, "Come over tomorrow.  We have left overs."

"And a rematch," Cindy said.  "We'll call. First, but we'll be here for dinner."

We were holding hands as we walked to the SUV.  Cindy looked back over her shoulder and waved.  We got in the SUV and drove off.  "Well," she said, "that was interesting!"

"Yeah.  Interesting is a good word.  I thought they were going to tear me apart.  You just came right out and said, "Yeah, I'm fourteen"?"

Giggle.  "Yep.  Tootie said, "you look younger than eighteen.  How old are you, really?"  and I said, "fourteen."  She smiled.  "I can laugh now, but I thought I really messed things up with your family."

"You're my family now, cutie!" I said.  "And they'd have eventually come around.  But I'm glad the truth is out."  But when I walked in the kitchen, you were smiling."

"Because you should have seen the look on her face!"

"Yeah, I bet… Glad it's over, though."

"Hmm.  Me too, babe," she said.  "Now we can relax around them."

"And that was quite a speech you gave.  You had Sheila crying."

"It was the truth.  All the truth.  You know that.  And you did pretty good yourself.  Except for the part where we've been sleeping together for two months before we even knew we COULD get married."

"Yeah.  I figured that one little detail didn't need to be focused on.  Let ‘em think what they want.  We don't have to advertise."

"Yeah, no sense in rubbing their noses in it."  She laughed.  "You should have seen the looks, though."

"I bet!  I was worried, though, for a while.  But everybody accepted it.  They might go home and think about it, but I think we're over the hurdle."

"Dan, I didn't want you to have to choose."

"I know, baby.  We shouldn't have to choose, but I would have chosen you.  Any day."  She reached across the console and took my hand.  I squeezed.  Five minutes later we were in our house.

She walked into the house, straight back to the bedroom, and started undressing.

"Did anybody say anything about green shirts and red hair.

"Yeah.  Sheila.  Said she'd die for my hair.  And eyes."

"I figured you wouldn't go unnoticed with that look."

"It's not a look, babe.  It's just YOUR Cindy."  She stepped into my arms.  "Get this stupid bra off me."

I reached around her back and unhooked the two hooks, freeing her perfect titties.  Then I lightly scratched her back, something she doted on.  "Mmmmm," she purred as she started unbuttoning my shirt.  She ran her fingers over my chest, through my hair.  "You know, I like this.  I saw those young guys at the pool, and bare chests creep me out."

"I'm glad to hear that.  It's pretty much the way things are."

"That's what I mean, babe.  You say that I click with you.  Well, you click with me, too."  And she put her mouth over my left nipple, sucking, then biting.  Hard.  And her hand reached down to feel the growing bulge in my pants.  "Tee-hee," she giggled, "I know how YOU work, and I love it!"  She unbuckled her belt and slid her pants down her legs.  "Uh, I'm gonna be naked, and you still have clothes on!"

I dropped my own pants.  She flipped the covers back on the bed and knelt in the middle of it, smiling, her back arched slightly, thrusting out her chest.  Her nipples were perky and hard and perfect.  As I crawled into the middle of the bed to meet her, her arms wrapped around me and she fell back, dragging me between her open legs, her pelvis mobile, searching.  I entered her indescribable warmth and we made love, softly, her fingers digging into my back as she came.  I rolled over onto my back, bringing her on top of me, my dick softening inside her.

"You're very erotic dream I've ever had, red-head," I said.

"Mmmm-hmmm," she purred.  "And you're everything I ever imagined love to be."  She kissed me, moving up to put her face nose to nose with mine.  This meant my dick popped out of her, sopping and soft.  "Mmmm, lover, we need to do something about that or there's gonna be a mess."

"I know," I said.  "I can feel it."  I looked at her smile.

"D'ya know how much I like the way we taste together?"

"As much as I do," I said.  And we licked one another clean. Ten minutes later she was recovering from another orgasm and I was happily cradling her in my arms.

The remainder of the extended weekend was happy and uneventful.  Thankfully.  Too much good food.  Not nearly enough time with family.  But on Sunday morning, Cindy and I shut the house up, giving it a once-over.  I hooked up the battery charger to the SUV and Tootie picked us up to deliver us to the airfield.

I let Cindy do most of the flying.  Once off the ground, we set our course for the middle of Alabama.

"You know," she said, "I really had a good time.  I love our family."

I noted the use of "our".  "Uh…  "our" family?  Sometimes I don't want ‘em to be MY family, and you've gone and adopted the whole crazy bunch."

"Sometimes people aren't really neat and packaged like we want.  But you love ‘em, don't you?"

"Yeah, I do.  And I love ‘em even more since they met you and we got all this out in the open and they still accept me."

"And me."  She adjusted engine settings and trimmed up the plane at cruising altitude.

"I never figured they'd reject YOU," I said.  "As far as they know, you're an innocent little fourteen year old girl and I'm the child molester."

She giggled into her mike.  "And we know who molested who, huh!?!"

"Yeah, but I was pretty easy to molest."

"Just what I wanted."  She turned to me and smiled.  "And," giggle.  "so did you!"

I was unbuckling my harness.

"What are you doing?" she gasped.

"My version of the Mile-High Club."  I unbuttoned her shirt and placed my lips on a pliant mound and sucked.

"Aaaah.  Dan!"

"Kinda does things to your concentration, doesn't it."

"And you think that just because we're even, that means it's over?"

I laughed, buckling back in and watching our flight path as she buttoned her blouse back up. I pulled my headset back on.  "I hope we're never over."

She turned to me, a serious look in her eyes.  "Dan, I will NEVER be over you. Babe!"

"Good!  Tootie told you how messed up I was when Leona left.  If you left, I'd never recover."

"I know, Dan.  I can see it in the way you look at me.  And I'm the same way about you."

And we flew onward, talking over the conversations we'd had over the last five days.

"You gotta know that I like the whole bunch.  I never got a chance to spend much time around normal people.  You and Mizz Helen, and the guys you work with, it's just nice to see people acting normal and responsible and decent."

"I'm glad you liked it.  Wanna go back for Christmas?"

"Oh, yeah," she said.  "We can load this thing up with presents."

"Yeah, we'll be a regular Santa's sleigh."

Two hours later we were letting down for landing.  I talked Cindy through the traffic pattern and we set up on final.  She followed me along on the controls for landing.  We taxied up to the fueling station and topped off the tanks, then taxied back to the hangar, opened the doors and swapped the location of the pickup truck with the plane.  We locked up and went home. 

We drove into the park and I noted several spots occupied.  The snowbird season was in progress.

I was hustling our bags and Cindy unlocked the door and held it open for me while she called Tootie and reported, "We cheated death yet again!" laughing.

She stepped into the trailer and said, "You know, we're going to really miss that big shower."

"Uh-huh," I answered.  "I could get used to having my back scrubbed."

She giggled.  "And your front, too, I bet." She paused.  "Wanna take a couple of laps around the park?  We got a lot of food to work off."

"Sure," I said.  We locked the door behind us and began pedaling around the park.  A lap around the park was less than half a mile and we did several of them, Cindy beside me, our pace leisurely enough to carry on a conversation.  The air was pleasantly cool until the shadows lengthened at sunset.  We returned to the trailer and went inside. 

 
Chapter Twenty

And Monday morning came.  I wasn't one to hate or dread Mondays, but I dearly despised going away and leaving Cindy to catch her bus.  I sent through the day almost on autopilot myself.  Fortunately for the project, nothing came up that required a lot of attention.  Nah, I can't say that.  I shift gears pretty fast in the face of real problems.  I was happy none showed up on Monday.  As I drove out the gate I speed-dialed Cindy on my phone.

"Hey, sweetie," she answered.  "You on the way home?"

"You betcha," I said.  "This was the longest day I've had in years."

"I am on the way home, and it has been the longest day of work I can remember."  A five-day holiday with Cindy had altered my thinking drastically.

I stopped by the front office to check the mail.  No Helen.  She was off in Europe with her new husband.  Steve was in the office and he handed me my mail.  I thanked him, commented on the number of visitors in the park, and then headed to my own trailer. 

Cindy heard the truck and met me as I was climbing out.  When I shut the door, I turned to find myself in her arms, her red hair shining in the light of dusk.  We kissed.

She giggled, the tip of her tongue sticking out.  "I really LIKE this!  We can kiss in public, babe!"

"Yes we can, babe," I said.  And I kissed her again.  "Load up!  We're gonna go to Aunt Sally's Kitchen."

She was grinning as she got into the truck.    The center console was in its stowed position and Cindy's beautiful little butt was buckled beside me.  "I kind of thought that's what we'd do today after all the food this weekend," she laughed.

"So how was getting back to school?"  I asked.

She smiled.  "Mr. Hardesty let the cat out of the bag about his plan.  I got some strange looks from some of my teachers.  It was cool!"

"Do any of your classmates know?"

"Oh, not yet, but it'll get around, I'm sure."

I sighed.  "Then it will get interesting, I'm sure."

Her face clouded slightly.  "Uh-huh.  I'm not sure how that's going to look.  There are a few that already treat me different because I make straight A's and help the teachers out in class."

"Anything bad?"

"Oh,no," she said.  "A couple of athletes are still playing because I helped them pass math class.  With those guys as friends, I don't have to worry about bullying at school."

"Any of them put the moves on you?"  This was a larger concern to me.

Smiles.  "Yeah, babe, a few guys have paid attention to me.  But I was telling them that I HAD a boyfriend.  Today I got a few questions about my ring."

"And?"

"I told people the truth.  I'm married.  Period."

"Teachers too?"

"Teachers too."

The phone rang.  I flipped it open.  ID said Jim Hardesty.  "Hey, Jim," I said.

"Hey, Dan.  I heard some news today.  I'm kind of startled."

I took a deep breath.  I liked Jim and his family.  They were good people.  But this might be a bit much.  "About a certain red-headed prodigy (his words) wearing a wedding band."

"Yes.  Exactly.  What about it, Dan?"

It's true, Jim.  Judge Charley Peebles married us last week.  Underage waiver and everything.  It's legal."

"Wow, Dan," he said.  "That's a hard thing to get my mind around."

"Jim," I said, "I value you as a friend.  If you want me to explain it, then you're my friend and you get an explanation.  I think I owe you that."

"Dan," he said.  "I dunno.  She's one of my STUDENTS!"

"I understand, Jim," I said.  "Before this summer I'd have had the same questions.  Heck, right NOW I'd have the same questions.  But YOU know that Cindy's a special case."

"Yeah," he sighed.  "I know she's a special case.  But…  marrying her?"

"All I can say is that we sort of rescued each other."

"But…  Married?"

"Jim.  It's just that way.  I mean, we're MARRIED.  As opposed to sneaking around, or "do ‘em an' drop ‘em" or anything exploitive.  I am an honorable man.  And at fourteen, she is a unique and very honorable young lady.  Who is now my wife."

There was a pregnant silence, then Dan spoke.  "When you look at it that way, Dan…"

"Jim, look, I am very happy to call you my friend.  You and Ann both.  But have you ever seen me without Cindy?"

"Now that I think of it, no."

"It's still that way.  Except we're married.  And I still want to call you and Ann our friends."

My truck was parked in the restaurant parking lot by now.  Cindy was gazing at me, listening to my side of the conversation and what she could catch of Jim's.

"Have you told Ann?" I asked.

"Yes I did.  And she's the one who told me to call you," he said.

"How'd Ann take it?"

"Apparently she took it better'n me.  Said you were a nice guy and Cindy was a sweet and unusual young lady, and that stranger things have happened than this.  And get over it."

"So are you getting over it?"

"But you married… a fourteen year old…"

"I would have married this person had she been fifty, too.  What a startling person she is."

"Startling.  That's an interesting adjective." He sighed.  "Okay, Dan.  I may wake up in a cold sweat later, but I understand."

"Still friends?"

"Friends.  So ya'll need to come over and visit, okay?"

"We'll be happy to.  Soon."

"Okay, Dan.  Forgive me for questioning your intentions, okay?"

"No, Jim," I said.  "Nothing to forgive, there.  You take your job seriously.  I appreciate you caring about Cindy, in and out of school."

"Dan, that's just me an' you.  We take our jobs seriously.  Talk to you later, okay?"

Cindy held her hand out for my phone.

"Uh, Jim, Cindy wants the phone."

"Let ‘er talk to me," he said.

"Hi, Mister Jim," she said.  "I guess you heard the news, huh?"

"Yes, Cindy, I did.  It surprised me."

Cindy sighed, "I'm sorry.  Dan and I wanted to tell you personally (a little white lie) but things just didn't line up for that.  I really like you and Mizz Ann."

"Cindy," he said.  "It was a shock and I guess I took it wrong.  I'm a teacher… well, a guidance counselor, and you're one of my kids.  How my kids are treated is important to me.  I didn't want you hurt."

"I understand, Mister Jim," she said.  "But Dan's a good man, and if it wasn't for him and Mizz Helen, my life would be bad.  And you, Mister Jim."

"I understand, Cindy," he said.  "Everything is okay with us now.  I'm happy for your good news.  You need to get ya'll over for dinner soon, okay?"

"Okay!" she squeaked.  "Thanks, Mister Jim!"  And she closed the phone.  Looking at me, she said, "Baby, you didn't sweat that much when Tootie cornered you."

"I know.  But Jim's not family.  He's a friend.  And that's a different set of rules.  I wanted him to think well of us.  You and me."

We went inside and had a pleasant meal.  And the dear old ladies who owned the place noted the matching rings.  And smiled. 

The taller one said, "We thought you were such a lovely pair…  Congratulations!"

Cindy beamed.  "Oh, thank you so very much!  You honor us!"

That completely melted the two ladies.

We bid them goodbye and left.  In the truck, Cindy belted in and slumped against me.  "Gosh, Dan," she said, "This bein' married is a strain."

I put my arm around her shoulder.  "I'm sorry, babe," I said.  "I knew we'd cause some upset."

"You know," she opined, "You'd think people would be happier for us.  D'you know how many people just shack up these days?"

"I don't think that's it, babe.  I think it's the fact that you're so young.  People who care enough to treat us like individuals and to find out the situation, THEN make judgment, they're going to accept this.  But a lot of people will look at us and see and older man exploiting a tender young girl."

"Oh, yeah…"  She took a breath.  "Like I want you to exploit me when we get home?"

"Oh, no, babe," I laughed.  "I exploited you last time.  This time you have to exploit me!"

Laughing and giggling in relief, we drove back into the park, entered the trailer, and exploited daylights out of each other.

Life got back to a routine slowly.  After a week or so, all the local places we visited, cafes and restaurants, the same places that had gotten used to Dan and his young friend, now were getting used to Dan and his young wife.  Or in some cases, Cindy and her husband.  Cindy was a striking young lady, both in her appearance and in her polite and mature demeanor and women took a liking to her, conveying on her no guilt or ill will.  So I was Cindy's husband and if it was okay with Cindy, it was okay with them.

We finally did get a chance, too, as promised; to go to the gun range and I coached Cindy in firearms basics.  I had thought, foolishly, when considering that I had yet to put something in front of Cindy that she backed down from, that she'd be timid at the prospects of handling lethal hardware, but no…

"It's something I've been thinking about," she said.  "These are tools.  Right now I'm learning to use them."

So I coached her.  First range session wasn't going to turn my girl into Annie Oakley, but I showed her how to use both pistols at ten yards (you'll never use a pistol at a longer range, not for self-defense) and the shotgun at the same distance.  I thought a twelve-gauge shotgun would be a bit of stretch, even for little Miss "I can do it", but I told her about pulling the butt into her shoulder and using the ghost-ring sights and SHE asked for the second five rounds.  A man-sized silhouette lacked a midsection from her efforts.

The AR-15 rifle, she had fun with.  After a few sketchy "this is how you do it" pictures about the sights, the lifespan of a four-inch clay pigeon at a hundred yards was distressingly short.

Following our exercises, I showed her the fine art of weapons maintenance.  She was impressed with the apparent simplicity of good weapons design and function. And after I showed her disassembly and assembly once, I let her try it on her own.  With four different guns.  And her first attempt needed a little coaching and reminding.  Her second and third attempts didn't.

Back at the trailer, I distributed the weapons around the place as they always had been.  "Now," I said, "I feel better.  I know YOU know what's going on, and YOU know how to use one of those if you need to."

She looked at me wearing her "serious" face.  "Yes I do."  She smiled.  "You, know, babe, you just keep giving me the tools to take care of myself."

"What?"  I looked at her.

"You want me to be able to take care myself.  You show me that I can do things."

"Oh, well, baby, I want you to be independent.  Except for one thing."

Her brow knit in her little "worry" look.  "One thing?"

"Yeah," I said, "pulling her against me.  "I want you to depend on me for your love and care."

She nestled against me.  "Oh, you don't have to worry about that.  I will never leave you or forsake you."

"I still worry.  You still go to school and see guys your age and you tell me they try to put the moves on you."

She wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me down to meet her face to face.  "So what," she said.  "You CARE about me for my mind and for my future and YOU know how to do things.  You've given me wings, and I'm not just talking about that old airplane, either."  She looked into my eyes.  "Do you know that when I close my eyes at school I think of getting home to YOU?  Well, I do, you know."  She held her hand up, showing me her ring.  "This means something to me.  Everything.  Besides, it's Saturday.  Why don't we get the heck out of here and go find us a big shower?"

We did.  This time when we walked in with bags in hand, we were holding hands.  After a marathon session naked in the middle of a king-sized bed, we walked back out, dressed for a concert.  She was in an outfit guaranteed to etch itself in any male mind:  Simple "little black dress".  Tastefully subdued black pumps.  Flawless skin.  Green eyes.  And perfectly aligned, every strand in place, red hair.  I was wearing my "let's look civilized" suit.  And we walked out, and heads turned.

Our night on the town included a concert by a very competent chamber orchestra, a meal at a fine restaurant, and a stroll in the park.  And we returned just after ten PM, stripped off our clothes and showered together.  I shaved and Cindy dried her hair and we kept exchanging glances in the mirror we shared.

Naked.  In bed.  I pushed her onto her back and pinned her, our mouths meeting, tongues caressing each other.  Her arms and legs wrapped around me drawing us together, my dick trapped between us.

"You are perfect, Cindy!  I am the luckiest guy in the world."

Her eyes twinkled.  "And I'm the luckiest girl.  Because we're MADE for each other."  Her mouth met mine again and she squirmed under me until my dick popped from between us and slid down her wet, waiting slit.  "Mmmmmm, baby," she purred.  "All my perfect evenings end with us mating."

"Why is it that when I'm thinking of something, getting ready to say it to you, you say it to me first?"

"Cuz," she said as she wiggled her pussy to line up with my dick, "it's like when I told Mizz Sara we were married.  She said it figured, ‘cuz I was a little female version of you."

Her pussy caught the head of my dick and I slid, well, with her deliciously tight pussy, I pushed inside her.  "OH, god, baby.  That feeling will NEVER get old."

"Mmmm!  No it won't."  She giggled.  I felt her butt's musculature tighten as she pushed up forcing me further into her.  As we pushed together her delight was expressed in tinkling glee and I laughed along with her.

"You are a joyous lover, babe!" I said.

Her eyes were bright, but she bit her bottom lip, then said, "We always start out laughing, but then it gets serious…"  She pushed up and I pushed forward and we hit our rhythm.  I could feel her thighs flex, wrapped around me.  My hands found their way to her waist and I gripped her to better gain purchase as I drove my dick into nirvana.

Her own hands were on my shoulders, her fingers digging in and as things got more intense, she moved her head forward, her mouth searching for purchase on my chest.  I felt her teeth bite into my chest, her lips sealing around the point of contact, sucking.

As she reached orgasm, I heard muted cries from her occupied mouth and I joined her in a parallel universe, my balls contracting as I sent spurt after spurt deep inside her pretty pussy.  Her head fell back to her pillow and her eyes opened.

"Oh, Dan, I did it again…  I'm sorry…"

I rolled sideways, holding her in my arms, putting her on top of me.  "I'm not!  It just adds to something that is an indescribable mixture of sensations.  All of them intense.  And if you want to bite me, then I need to be bitten."  And I kissed her.  Well, she kissed me, easing forward for her lips to meet mine.

"Now I want to taste the mix we made, baby!"  She kissed me again and spun around, presenting me with a soppy, freshly fucked pussy, glistening with juices, hers clear, mine pearly.  And I leaned forward to cover it with my mouth as my tongue scooped it into my sucking mouth.  Cleaning off her clit got me a moan from her that reverberated the entire length of my body.

Finally she turned around and I looked into those green eyes.  My hands touched the sides of her head, brushing that red hair back and drinking in the smile.  It was MY smile.  For ME.  I had found the most perfect girl in the world and she loved ME.

And I had a strong suspicion that she felt the same way about me.

I went to sleep with my cheek on her mons, the scent of perfect femininity in my nostrils.

I woke up in the middle of the night to the soft, wet tugging of her lips on my soft dick.  In the dim light of the room, I stroked her sleek head. Her tongue worked me to hardness and she mounted me smiling.  "Hey, babe, I don't think I can wait until morning."  Giggle.  She was grinding her pubic bone into mine.  My Cindy knew herself and me as well and I started adding a vertical component to her sliding horizontal motion.  She was taking care of her clit with her moves.  Mine was massaging my corona deep inside her pussy, and we were both headed to heaven together.  I watched her toss her head back, biting her bottom lip, going "Nnnnnnnngghhhh!  Dan!  Push!  Push me OVER!  Yeaahhhhh!"

I pushed up, lifting my ass off the bed, lifting my mate with me as my dick pouted liquid fire into her depths.  "Aaauuughhhh!  Cindy!  Doll!"

This time she fell forward into my arms.  I scooted up in the bed, finding my pillows and she fell asleep on top of me.

We woke up mid-morning in a luscious tangle of arms and legs.  After giving my baby a kiss on her lips, I moved down toward her mons.  I would have been happy just to feel her downy red pubic hair against my cheek and to smell her femaleness, but a hand pushed my head towards a goal further down.

She giggled.  "Roll over.  I get to be on top."

I feigned a whine.  "But you were on top last night…"

More giggles.  "I'm the girl.  I get first choice."  And she put herself in position for a perfect sixty-nine.  I lapped happily, bringing her to orgasm.  She lifted me to ecstasy once again, and we showered together before loading up and leaving for breakfast. 

Walking out in the cool morning, she was wearing a pair of jeans she filled perfectly, and a pine green sweatshirt that illuminated that head of hair as if it was a spotlight.  We talked our way through breakfast, lingered over a coffee apiece.

"Mizz Helen's supposed to get back today," she said.  "I'm anxious to see her."

"Do you think she'll still manage the park, babe?  After all, she's married to the judge, and he's got money.  She doesn't need to work."

Cindy smiled.  "She didn't need to work before.  She liked to work.  Maybe she'll just do weekends and when there are a lot of people.  She likes that most of all."

"We'll see, then, won't we.  I'd miss not seeing her at the office very day."

"That's you clue, babe.  She didn't take days off, hardly ever."

I ran back through memory.  "You know, you're right?!?!?  I never paid attention."

"Wow!  We need to get home.  I need to mark this day down in my diary."

"Why?"

She giggled.  "It's the first time I can remember that I knew something that you didn't."

"You know," I said, "I doubt that it'll be the last.  Let's go."  I paid the check and we walked out into a fine fall day.  An hour later we were at the park and Helen's car was indeed there.

We walked in to find Helen at the counter and Judge Peebles sitting in a chair.  Cindy ran to give Helen a hug and I shook the judge's hand.  I noted the gold band.

"So how's the married couple," he asked, smiling.

"Great.  Wonderful.  Perfect," I answered.

Helen and Cindy were smiling at us.  I sat down in a chair beside the judge and we chatted.  I asked about where they'd visited and what they'd done, and I watched Cindy's face.

"Dan," she said.  "When your project is over, can we go?"

I turned to Judge Peebles.  "See what you started?"

He grinned.  "If I were you and I took HER to Europe, I'd chain her to my wrist so some modeling agency doesn't kidnap her.  She's even more beautiful that when I married you two."

Cindy bounced over and kissed him on the cheek and turned to me grinning.  And she stood by my side.  I put my arm around her waist.

Charlie said, "So tell us, how's the news of your nuptials being accepted?"

And Cindy recounted the Thanksgiving dinner story.  And I told them about me and Jim's conversation.  And a few others.

Helen said, "You know, Charlie and I talked about that.  We figured it would cause some heartburn, but you don't look like a child molester and she doesn't act molested."

Cindy smiled demurely.

Charlie, Judge Peebles, said, "I don't even have to ask about regrets.  You two are the epitome of a happy couple."

"We are," Cindy interjected.  She recounted her recent school exploits and the flying and last night's concert.

"Speaking of concerts, you and your friends need to do another show here one weekend."

"I thought you didn't like banjo music," I said, laughing.

"You damned engineers.  You don't forget anything!" He laughed.  "I do so much enjoy seeing people having a good time!"

Cindy was walking out to the truck.  Helen said, "Dan, Donna's old boyfriend's been comin' in the park pretty often lately.  I don't know why.  Just thought you oughtta know.  I called the sheriff's office and they know about it now."

"Thanks for the info, Helen," I said.  "We'll be careful."

I told Cindy.  "Oh he's just a weirdo.  Not tellin' what he's thinking."

I also made a phone call to Jim Hardesty.

"Hey, Jim," I said.

His voice sounded a little bit closer to the guy I used to talk with before he found out that I married one his fourteen year old students.  "Hey, Dan!  What's up?"

"Not much.  Cindy and I were wondering about Tuesday evening.  I can foot the bill for pizza so Ann doesn't have to cook."

I heard him yell in the background communicating the option to his wife.  "Ann says no anchovies."

We'll see you guys about six then."

"That works for me.  Everything okay?"

"Yeah, just work stuff.  Mizz Helen's back from her honeymoon."

"Helen had a honeymoon?"

"You didn't know?  She married Charlie Peebles.  Judge Peebles."

"No joke?  Ain't that somethin'!"

"Kinda what I said."

"Isn't he the judge that married you and Cindy?"

"Same one!"

"Hah!" he laughed.  "Okay.  We'll expect ya'll Tueday.  Like around six?"

"Yeah.  I'll call the pizza place when we get on the road."

We were in the door of the trailer in another minute.  Cindy dropped her bookbag at the end of the sofa and turned to me smiling.  We embraced and kissed.  "God, I missed you," she said.

"I missed you too, little green-eyed girl."  I viewed her face, that faint spattering of freckled that she wanted to hate and that I adored, telling her they were like glistening drops of dew on a perfect rose.  I kissed each cheek softly.  She quivered and sighed.

"Salad for dinner?" I said.  "And then…"

She smiled at me.  "And then homework, shower, and…"  She giggled lasciviously, "Whoopee!"

"You sure are practical, babe!  You still getting homework?"

She sighed.  "Yeah, the math teacher and English teacher both think that the exercises will be good for me.  I'm talking to the math teacher, though.  Asked her if I could take her final exam before Christmas break, and if I pass it she drops the homework thing."

"And English?"

"She gives me credit for writing," she said as we locked the door behind us.  "And I love to write, you know."

"Yeah, as a matter of fact, I DO know.  Do YOU know that some of your stuff has been forwarded to a couple of college professors?"

"He-he!  Yeah!  Isn't it cool?"  Cindy's English teacher was angling for a college position herself and had been putting forth my Cindy's work to build her case.  I don't know how much good it was doing the teacher's chances, but the name of one Cindy Smith-Richards was making its rounds at a couple of institutions of higher learning.

"What about science?" I asked.

"I took some of your pictures and gave a presentation on your project.  I showed one of your substations and showed what the equipment looked like in real life and what it looked like on the drawings."

"How was that received?"  I asked.

"The teacher loved it.  And a couple of geeky kids.  And there was some "Wow, cool!"  But you know, there's a bunch of kids that just don't know, don't want to know, and don't care."

I shook my head.  "Sadly, babe, that's too much of the population.  If they can have a few toys and whatever, they're happy enough.  Willingly oblivious."

"That's a perfect phrase.  Anyway **I** had fun with it and so did a few others.  And I got an "A" and the science teacher pretty much leaves me alone.  Sometimes I show up, sometimes I help out in math class."  She paused.  "D'you know that some of the OTHER math teachers are asking for me to help out in their classes?"

"I didn't know that.  I'm proud!"

To the strains of Chopin ("I don't know if I LIKE Chopin.  Sometimes it seems like he's trying too hard to sound sophisticated," according to Cindy) we navigated to the restaurant.  Seated at our Monday table, we were joined by one of the owners.  She recommended our choices of fare and at our request joined us for conversation as we enjoyed a leisurely dinner.

As we drove back into the RV park, I noticed a familiar red truck heading to the exit from within the park.

I showered while Cindy finished her homework, then I was watching TV when she got out, waved to get my attention, then playfully struck a pose, showing off the naked body that I worshipped.  And she dried her hair.  As she finished, I stood behind her with a hairbrush, polishing those bronze tresses to perfection, knowing that in half an hour they would be in tousled disarray.

We watched an hour's worth of TV together, I in gym shorts and a t-shirt, she in panties and a t-shirt, each of us possessing an end of the sofa, our legs in a tangle in the middle.  She snaked her toes up the open leg of my shorts and twiddled my balls, leering at me.

"Enough TV, babe?"  Her eyebrows raised in suggestion.

"More than enough."

She withdrew her foot and got up to walk ahead of me to the bed at the other end of the trailer and crawled straight onto it from the foot, resting on her belly.  I crawled right in behind her and bit her ass through her panties.

"Eeeek!" she giggled.  "You still hungry?"

"A wise man always leaves room for dessert!" I laughed.

She twisted under me, flailing legs, to lie on her back.  Her thumbs hooked the waistband of her panties.  Her eyebrows arched above a happy smile.  "How about a peach for dessert, then.  I know how you love a nice, juicy peach!"

I skinned her panties off in one move.  My mouth found one of several favorite places on the nubile beauty before me and I received a juicy reward until she pulled me up face to face with her.  "My turn, she purred into my ear.  And she pushed me onto my back.  As she repositioned herself, she peeled off her t-shirt.

In profile I viewed her perfect titties, nipples pointed in arousal.  And she bent her flexible young body to take my hard dick into her mouth.  Her teeth bit gently behind its coronal ridge and she moaned, "Mmmmmm" through lips encircling my shaft.  I felt the vibrations throughout my being.  She sat up and eyed me lustfully.  "You know, " she said, " I just bet that if you ate me and I sucked you, we could both come about the same time."

That was a bet I had to accept.

Repose came to us, a satiated couple, in the form of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos

 
Chapter Twenty-one

Work in the morning.  Cindy off to school.  During pauses in my day, I imagined what HER day was like.

I didn't have that many pauses. The project was getting to the part where we were actually closing switched and introducing electricity into my equipment for the first time.  I labored over reports and procedures and meetings.  The reports?  I'd stayed on top of them, so that was no problem.  The procedures?  This wasn't the first time I ever did a project like this, so I dipped into my archives well ahead of time and had them prepped.  But I couldn't avoid meetings.  Interminable meetings where people who knew little asked questions and received answers they knew nothing about.  But that's the way it is.

I was out the gate a half hour late and calling on the phone as soon as my tires hit the highway.  I drove into the park to find, as expected, Cindy at the front office yakking with Helen, and the now-familiar form of Charlie Peebles on a chair in the corner.

"Hello, ladies.  Hello, Charlie." I shook his hand.

"I just told Helen she needs to get me a better chair," he laughed.  "Cindy says ya'll are eating with the Hardesty's this evening?"

"Yessir," I said.  "You know, I think that he was the one person who had the most difficult time accepting us being married."

Helen said, "Well him working at school and seeing a whole building full of girls her age, I can understand some of that."

"Yeah," repeated Charlie.  "He's thinking of jailbait."

"I know about jailbait," I said.  "You know how many dreams I had that ended in "we the jury find the defendant guilty"?"

Charlie chuckled.  "Dan, that's one of the reasons I took an interest when Helen explained.  I guess if she thought you were honorable, her words, then I needed to make you legal."

"I was "Jailbait"?" chirped Cindy.

"Oh, no, dear," said Charlie.  "You were as honorable as Dan was.  With jailbait, somebody's without honor.  In it for the kicks.  Or for no reason at all."

I smiled.  "Babe," I said to Cindy.  "If I thought you were jailbait, then you wouldn't have gotten within fifteen yards of my door.  And I still had bad dreams."

She smiled at us all.  "HAD!  As in past tense."

Helen laughed this time.  "You don't know how much I worried for the last few years about this girl.  Now I can sleep at night, too."  She smiled at Charlie.  "Of course it's easier to sleep when you have someplace to stick your cold feet."

She started closing down her office as Cindy and I left.

We had just enough time to deposit my computer case and Cindy's bookbag in the trailer, kiss passionately and head back out the door.  Before I left, though, I got on line and placed a pizza order, then we headed out.

I liked being married to her.  I liked having her sitting beside me in the truck.  I liked her red head resting on my shoulder as we drove.  I liked her choosing music to listen to, and I liked when she turned it down to let us talk, and I even liked when she said, "hold that thought.  I LOVE this part!" and turned it back up.

The music was turned down.  "You thought I was jailbait, Dan?"

"Cindy, remember the first time I saw you?  Where were we?"

"At the pool.  You were wearing your dark green trunks.  Swimming laps.  And I was wearing the only suit I owned."

"Yeah.  And I thought, "Cute.  But too young.  Don't even think about it."  And I didn't."

"There were other people there that day.  It was Sunday.  You moved in the day before."  I was amused at how much she remembered.  "I didn't talk to you that day.

"No," I said.  "That was the next day.  Monday.  Late.  And we were the only people there.  And I was nervous about you."

"What made you stop being nervous?"

"Baby, I stayed nervous about you until the day we said "I do".  But when we just sat there and talked, and the conversation was about everything under the sun, and I found out that you could actually carry on a real conversation, I relaxed.  That's when I knew you weren't jailbait.  You were my friend.  Too darned young, too darned cute.  But a real friend."

"Yeah.  After about the second week I started talking to Mizz Helen about you, you know."

"I didn't know then."

"You treated me like I was a real person, not a dumb kid."

"About the first time we talked I figured you weren't a dumb kid."

She smiled, holding onto my arm as we pulled into the Hardesty's driveway.

"Let's go see the Hardesty's," she said.

And Jim met us at the door with Ann right beside him.  I shook his hand, pulled him to me and clapped him on the back and got a man-hug in return.  "Jim," I said.  "I'm so glad I can still call you friend."

"Me, too, Dan.  Me too."

Cindy and Ann were hugging too and Ann was making congratulatory sounds.  Then we changed places.  More hugs, then we went inside and sat in the living room.

Ann was first.  "Ya'll make a cute couple.  And we're happy for you.  But you should've seen the colors Jim turned when he first found out."

Heyyyy," Jim said.  "Water under the bridge."

"Yeah," I said.  "And the river flows."  Cindy slid a little closer to me.  "I got to marry my best buddy."

Cindy smiled at me.

Jim said, "I had to wrap my mind around that one.  But you know, I'm guidance counselor at a MIDDLE school.  And this year we've had sixteen pregnant girls.  In a MIDDLE school.  And those are just the ones I know about because they're still students.  I probably don't find out about some who transfer or just stay home or whatever."  He looked at his wife.  "Ann pointed that out, Dan.  Said that I needed to see that Cindy wasn't one of THOSE poor kids.  Fourteen and pregnant.  Or thirteen.  And how many kids are having sex and in and out of unhealthy relationships and situations, and here you and Cindy are, and you're trying to do the honorable thing, and I think that's about the time that I got hit on the side of the head.  Attitude adjustment.  You know."

"I know, Jim. "

The doorbell rang.  Pizza.  I heard kids coming down the stairs.  We all dove into pizza and then retired back to the living room.  Jim grabbed his banjo and pointed me to the bass.  And showed up with her violin.  "Fiddle, thank you!  This IS Alabama!"

We practiced, that is, if you can call a roomful of people singing and laughing to the sounds of musical instruments "practice."

"You know they want us to do another Saturday show at the RV Park?" I said.

Ann laughed.  "That just means they've had a hundred percent turnover since our last one."

Cindy looked at Teresa, Jim's thirteen year old daughter.  "Teresa," she said.  "We could do a duet.  Or you could do a solo."

Teresa twisted bashfully…  "I dunno.  Maybe a duet?"

Jim looked at Ann, beaming.

I looked at eleven year old son Bill.  "Oh, no," he said.  "Not me.  No way."

"You're missing the fun, Bill.  Musicians, like, they have groupies."

Ann kicked Jim playfully.  "Hon, you got all the groupie you need right here."

"Yeah, Dan," he laughed.  "Last time I had a groupie I ended up marryin' ‘er."

"Actually," Ann teased, "He was the much more rare orchestra groupie, and I collected HIM!"  She kissed him, eliciting a "Mommmmm!" from her daughter.

"Come on," Cindy said.  She held up a sheet of paper with the words to a song, a simple little bluegrass hymn.  "Let's try this one!"

And we played along happily as Teresa and Cindy, honey blonde and redhead, young beauties both, sang.  We ran through that number three times, pronounced it good, then worked on another.

On the way home Cindy turned down the stereo.  "Dan, babe, THAT'S the way life is supposed to be, right?"

"Supposed to be?"

"Yeah.  Friends who love and accept you, families that love each other.  Fun that isn't destructive.  Like that stuff we just did."

"That was pretty good, wasn't it?"

She purred on my shoulder.  "We have good friends.  The Hardesty family.  Mizz Helen and Judge Charlie.  And family.  Your brother and sister.  Now they're OUR family."  She sighed.  "Don't you see, Dan, this is the way it's supposed to be?"

"Yes it is."  I pulled my eyes off the road to kiss the top of her head.  "I never had this either, babe, not like this.  You've made us a life beyond riches."  I kissed her again.  "I love you."

"Mmmmm," she purred, nestling against me.  "I love you, too, babe!"

Wednesday was work and school.

Thursday started out as a normal day.  It went downhill for me when I got to the job and we started down the list to energize one of my electrical substations.  We were rolling along pretty good, as I expected, when the unexpected happened and something operated that wasn't supposed to operate, causing an industrial grade "Oops!"  We started troubleshooting.  I was pretty sure, almost certain, of the cause, and we were working to reduce it, and I could see that I was going to be working late.  At three thirty I called Cindy.

"Babe," I said.  "We have a problem."  I explained what went on.  I didn't have to soft pedal too much.  Cindy was forever asking questions and while I wasn't giving her "engineer" answers, she readily absorbed the technical stuff.

"How late?" she asked.

"Eightish," I said.

"Okay babe," she said.  "I'll do TV dinner for me and you can have one when you get home, ‘kay?"

"Great, babe!" I said.  "Love ya!"

"Love ya, too!"

And I went back to work.  Things checked out pretty much the way I'd suspected.  We found a problem.  A technician who should have known better had made a rookie mistake and this is where it showed up.  No equipment was damaged, but reputations took a beating.  At seven-thirty we closed the switch and things were normal.  At the job.

My cellphone rang.  I answered.  Cindy.  "Dan!" Tears.  Sobs.  "Come home quick!  I shot somebody."

I looked at my lead technician and the project manager.  "Emergency at home.  I'm outta here!" And I almost ran out of the building.  My golfcart scorched the road to my truck and I was pedal to the metal all the way out the gate.

Halfway to the park the phone rang again.  I didn't recognize the number.  "This is Dan Richards."

"Mr. Richards, I'm Deputy Stevens with the sheriff department.  Are you on your way here?"

"Yes I am, sir.  Is my wife okay?"

"She's fine,  Mr. Richards.  There's been an attempted break-in.  She's fine."

I breathed a half a sigh of relief.  "But she said she shot somebody."

"Uh, yessir," he said.  "There's been a fatality"

I breathed deeply, trying to control emotions.  "Accident?"  I couldn't see Cindy PLAYING with our guns.  But…

"Nossir.  This no accident.  I'd say it was pretty much on purpose.  We got a 9-1-1 call.  I was the first one on the scene."

I rounded the last corner before the park, the truck's diesel howling.  "I'm almost there.  I'll talk to you in a second."  The park was full of flashing lights.  Sheriff's department.  Fire and rescue.  Ambulance.  I had to park down the road from my own trailer.  When I stopped Cindy was running to me, tears streaming.  Into my arms.

"Dan!  Oh, Dan.  I shot ‘im.  He tried to break in, and I shot ‘im!"  She sobbed uncontrollably.

So I had her side of the story, although I didn't know who "him" was.  I scooped her up in my arms and carried her to the crowd, meeting a deputy walking in our direction.

"I'm Dan Richards," I said.  "I'd shake your hand, but…"  Cindy was clinging to my neck.

"I'm Greg Simpson with the sheriff's office.  We just talked."

We walked back together.  Another vehicle added to the crowd, this one with Judge Charlie and Helen.  Helen held her arms open, beckoning Cindy.  Cindy reluctantly left my side and joined Helen.  Judge Peebles came to stand at my side.  Sotto voce he said, "Son's on the way."

"The DA?"  I paused.  "Does he usually come to these things?"

"He does if I call ‘im."  He looked at me.  He was a whole lot more alert than you might expect for a man in his eighties.  "You folks're family." He led the way as we pushed through a crowd of onlookers.  A shooting wasn't something you saw every day in an RV park, and I think the whole crowd was there.

Judge Peebles got us to the inner circle.  There was indeed a body lying on the ground, covered with a sheet.  An inordinately large pool of blood surrounded it.  Cameras flashed. Several were taking pictures of the door of my trailer.  And the scarring where somebody'd obviously pried at it.  The frame was scarred.  And so was the door.

The deputy turned to me and the judge.  "Looks like he forced the door and when he stepped in, she shot ‘im.  From about three feet.  With a twelve-gauge.  And when he tried to get up, she shot ‘im again.  Twice. Or three times. That's one messed up dude, there."

"Who is it?"

"Belongs to that red pickup," the deputy said.  "Tags are registered to one Larry Strucker.  Not the nicest of guys.  I had to scroll through his record on my computer.  You know ‘im?"

I sighed and looked at the judge.

"Go ahead and tell ‘im.  Son'll be here in a second anyway."  He eyed the deputy.  "I'm Judge Peebles.  My son's the DA."

The deputy nodded.  "Yessir.  I know him.  And you, sir."  He looked at me.  "How do you know," he gestured toward the body being loaded onto a gurney, "this guy?"

"I don't, really.  He used to date my wife's mom.  They broke up last summer and he's been driving in here since then.  Didn't know what he was looking for."

The deputy shook his head.  "Well he sure ain't gonna be lookin' any more.  That's one dead dude."

Another man joined our little cluster.  Judge Peebles introduced him.  "Dan.  Deputy Simpson.  This is my son Jerry.  The District Attorney."

We shook hands.  I stood silent as the deputy recounted the findings thus far.

"Where's Miss Cindy?" he asked. He looked at me.  "Your wife.  She was the shooter."

"She was a young lady at home by herself when somebody tried to break in."

He looked at me, then his dad, then back to me.  "Dan.  Don't take me wrong.  I might not be CSI, but I can see enough evidence to tell you that I wouldn't file a case against her if my life depended on it."

"Sorry.  My string's stretched pretty tight."

"I can imagine," he smiled.  They were loading the corpse on a gurney into the back of the ambulance.  "Let's go talk to Miss Cindy."

We walked over to Helen and Cindy.  A few questions were asked by the deputy. Three others were busy getting names and statements from the occupants of nearby RV's. 

Cindy recounted her story to him as she'd given it to me, except she'd now regained a bit of composure.  "I was at home doing schoolwork," she said.  "I heard a knock on the door.  Not a nice knock, either." She breathed in.  "I didn't open the door.  I asked who it was.  He said, "It's you're your old friend Larry.  Where's your mom?"  I told ‘im she moved.  And then he said he just wanted to come in and talk to me about her.  And I told him I wasn't going to let him in.  And he beat on the door.  That's when I called 9-1-1."

"1932, according to the log," Deputy Simpson said to the DA.

Cindy continued, "Then he started breaking the door.  I was scared.  I got the shotgun."

"Did he come in the trailer?" asked the deputy.

Cindy nodded.  "Yessir.  The door popped open and he stepped inside.  And I aimed and pulled the trigger."  She was shaking, reliving the trauma.  "And he fell backwards.  And when he tried to get up, I shot him a couple more times.  He stopped moving."

Charlie edged up at me and whispered in my ear, "Three rounds of twelve-gauge double-aught buck at two yards.  I guess he DID!"

I held Cindy again as her shoulders heaved in sobs.  "I was scared."

Jerry, the DA, spoke next.  "Miss Cindy, you didn't do anything wrong.  You did right.  There's no tellin' what he'd have done if he got in."

Deputy Simpson said, "Yeah, Miss Cindy.  You did exactly what you should have done.  I'm glad you called 9-1-1, but he was already dead when I got here.  That could've been you instead."

There were more pictures and reports and a couple of news crews to deal with, and Judge Peebles, the DA and the deputy fended those off.

The judge told me, "They can't publish her picture or her name because she's a minor, but there will be a story about this on the news and in the paper."

I tried the door on the trailer.  It would close.  Wouldn't lock.  Deputy Simpson said "Mr. Richards, that's probably the safest damn trailer in the state right now.  With Miss Cindy and her shotgun."  He went to his car and turned off the strobing blue lights and brought back my shotgun.  "Here."  He handed it to me.  "Heaven knows, she's better with it than I am."

Jerry Peebles herded us all to the diner after the authorities (they WERE the authorities) released everybody.  Cindy was clamped to me on the drive over.  It was our first chance at a private conversation.  She was still shaking, the adrenaline finally working its way out of her system.

"Dan, I killed ‘im."

"Yes, baby, you did.  In self-defense."

"B-but, he didn't touch me.  I just shot ‘im."

Three times, doll.  Just like we talked about.  He was not going to pat you on the cheek.  You did right.  Really."

She took a deep breath.  "I feel… different."

"You are different, little one.  You always were different."

"But I'm probably the only one in the whole eighth grade who's killed somebody."

"You're quite possibly the ONLY girl in the eighth grade who single-handedly defended yourself from an intrusion by a convicted criminal who broke into your house while you were alone."

She took a deep breath.  "Dan, have you ever killed anybody?"

She'd asked about my military service and I told her that I was an engineer lieutenant in Iraq, the first war.  But I didn't do details.  This time I told her.  "Yes, babe, I did.  Same thing.  Those guys weren't gonna pat me on the cheek either.  One of my bunch was hit, not bad.  I got two.  The rest of the bunch got four more."

"Oh, Dan."

We pulled up into the parking lot of the diner.  The diner was experiencing a surge of customers for the late hour on a weeknight.  We sat at the two tables they'd pulled together for me and Cindy, Charlie and Helen, and Jerry.  Helen pushed a cup of coffee at each of us.

"I know it's late for coffee," she said, "But just drinkin' it will settle your nerves."

Jerry said, "Dan, drive her over to the emergency room after this.  I made a phone call.  They'll give you and her couple of pills to help you sleep tonight.  Okay?"

"That's nice," I said.  "We'll take you up on that."

We were chatting among ourselves when the waitress came by the table.  "Did ya'll hear about the shooting at that RV park?"

Helen popped.  "Yep.  My park."

Then Cindy did the unexpected.  She raised her hand. "I did it.  Protected myself from an attacker that broke in on me while I was alone."

The waitress stammered, "B-but, you're the little cutie that I see at breakfast sometimes!"

"Yes, ma'am.  And my husband taught me to take care of myself."

The waitress smiled.  "Good for you, sweetie!  And you too, hon." She smiled at me.

Jerry leaned back in his chair.  "You're liable to be famous, Miss Cindy."

Cindy nodded.  "Like I need to be MORE famous."

Helen explained some of Cindy's recent life.

"Wow!" he laughed.  "Dan, you've got quite a catch there."

"Yes, I do," I said.  "Yes I do.  Excuse me for a minute, " I said, rising.  "I need to make a phone call."  Walking outside, I called the project manager, Bill Carmody.

He answered, groggy.  "Dan!  Are you okay?  You sure left in a hurry.  Your wife okay"

"I'm okay.  Cindy's okay.  We had a situation come up.  I'm probably going to be really late tomorrow.  Sorry!"

"Uh, okay…  Is there anything I can do for you?  To help?"

"No," I said.  "Just cover for me until around noon.  I'll be in for a while then."

"Okay, buddy," He said.

I went back inside.  "Had to tell the job that I was going to be late."

We broke up and headed our separate ways.  Cindy got another hug from the others in our party and we headed out to the local hospital's emergency room.  I picked up a little bottle of pills and a handshake from the ER doctor.

Cindy glued herself to me again as we drove home. 

"You okay, babe?" I asked.

"Yeah.  No.  Yeah, I guess so."  She looked at me.  "When you did it, did you think about it afterwards?"

"Yeah, babe.  But war is different.  Those were soldiers trying to do their jobs like I was.  I didn't hate them.  But I darned sure wasn't gonna let ‘em get me or my guys.  Yours was way different.  That guy had no good reason to even TRY to get in the trailer.  I killed soldiers.  You shot a cockroach."

"I suppose.  Okay."  She punched up a piano concerto on the stereo.

When we pulled into the park, there was one of the other residents, an old guy, sitting in his lawn chair where he could watch our door.  "Just wanted to make sure nobody went in until you got back," he said.

"Thanks," I said.

He looked at Cindy.  "You're quite a young lady.  I'm glad you're okay."

We skirted the spot where the body had landed.  Emergency services had cleaned up the blood.  There was bare gravel.  We opened our damaged door and went inside.  Cindy got into the shower and I squeezed enough of myself in the bathroom to wash her as she stood there.  She got out and dried her hair and I did my routine.  We each took a pill and went to bed together.  And held each other.

"I could've lost you tonight, babe," I said.

"I know, Dan," she said.  "I was scared.   But we're still together."  She kissed me.  A peck, then a longer, hotter kiss, then buried her face in my chest as we held onto each other.

And we slept.  Hard, dreamless sleep.  At least mine was.  Cellphone rang at nine in the morning.  I had to blink a couple of times to get my eyes to focus.  Helen.

"Good morning, Helen."

"Good morning.  Ya'll okay?"

I ran my fingers over my head, scratching.  "Yeah.  Cindy's still asleep."  I saw a stir then felt a hand pulling her against me.  "Wait.  Maybe not."

"If you want, ya'll come over to the office.  I got coffee and donuts."

"We'll be there in a bit."

Cindy's tousled head rose from her pillow.  "M-mornin, babe.  Mizz Helen?"

"Yeah.  Coffee and donuts at the office."

She pulled up to a kneeling position beside me and kissed me.  I kissed her back.

"Wow!  Rough night, wasn't it."

"Yeah, something like that.  You okay?"

"I'm okay.  I have you, don't I?" She punctuated her remark with a hug.  "And friends.  And family."

"Yes we do, babe."

We got dressed and she chose to walk to the office in the cool fall air.  We walked in to a fresh pot of coffee and settled into chairs with a mug and a donut apiece.

"Mornin', Helen," I said.  "Rough night."

"Yes it was."  She looked a Cindy.  "You okay, baby?"

"Yes, ma'am," Cindy said.  "It was like a bad dream.  Except I didn't wake up in time."

"I suppose so, baby," Helen said.  "Dan, I called a guy that fixes RV's.  He'll do a good job on your trailer."

"Great!" I said.  "I was going to ask you if you knew somebody."

Park guests started filtering in and out as we sat, and Cindy was the object of attention.  She collected lots of handshakes from the men, mostly older men, and hugs and coos from the ladies.  "Any news?" I asked Helen.

"Cindy's the news.  The shooting made the TV, but they didn't mention her by name."  Helen looked at Cindy.  "You sure you're okay?"

Cindy sighed.  "I appreciate you worrying about me, Mizz Helen.  I'm okay.  Really."

Helen said, "I'm sorry, baby, but you're like my own daughter to me."

"Thank you, Mizz Helen."  And Cindy got up and hugged her.

That was when my phone rang.  The job.  Sara.  "Hi, Sara," I said.

"Dan!"  I could imagine her jaw tight, Sara's "I'm stressed" look.  And the timbre of her voice.   "I heard you had an emergency last night."

"Yes, we did."

"At the park?"she asked.

"Yes, here at the park."  I answered.  I knew where she was heading.  I decided to let Sara drag it out of me.

"Somebody got shot tryin' to break into a trailer?  The shooter was FOURTEEN?!?!?  Tell me that wasn't Cindy!"

"It was."

"Omigod!  Is she okay?"

I looked at Cindy.  "It's Sara.  She's just heard."

Cindy's face was neutral.

"Sara, Cindy's fine.  Do you want to talk to her?"

Sara said, "If she wants to talk to me, Dan.  Poor darlin'!"

I looked at Cindy.  "Wanna talk to Sara?"

Cindy took the phone.  "Hey, Mizz Sara.  I guess you heard…"

"Omigod, baby!"  I could hear Sara without a speaker.

Cindy held the phone away from her ear.  "I'm fine, Mizz Sara.  Really!"

"You're a brave girl," Sara said.  "I'm glad you're okay.  I am soooo glad! Lemme talk to that husband of yours."

I took the phone back.  "Okay, Sara, what's up?"

"Bill found out this morning at breakfast.  He says take the weekend off.  They'll call if they have an emergency.  And I don't know if you want to repeat it, but he said to tell the Engineer's Apprentice, in his words,  "Way to go, girl!""

"Tell him we said thanks," I said.  I looked at Cindy.  And repeated Bill's message.  And got a wry smile.

Cindy said, "Tell Mister Bill that I said thanks, too!  For givin' Dan the weekend and for his comment."

I handed the phone back to Cindy.  She asked, "Is Mister Bill in the office?"

Sara said, "Yeah.  He's here."

"Call ‘im and put us on speaker, ‘kay?"

I put my head next to Cindy's to hear better.  I heard Sara's phone click onto speaker and Then Bill's footsteps.  Sara said, "Cindy's on the phone.  She asked for you."

"Hello, little engineer," Bill said.

"Hi, Mister Bill.  Thank you so MUCH!  You're the first one that hasn't treated me like I'm fragile today!"

"Well, Cindy, I worried, ya know, but if you can put up with Dan, you can put up with anything." He paused.  "I'm just glad you're okay, ya hear?"

"Yessir," Cindy said.  "and thank you an' Mizz Sara for asking.  Tell everybody else I'm okay, too, huh?"

"We'll do that, babe," Sara said.  "Is Dan there?"

"Yes ma'am," said Cindy.  "Here he is."

I took the phone.  "Yes ma'am!"

"Ya'll do something special this weekend, okay?"

"Okay," I said.  "Thanks!"  I heard the phone hang up.

"We're supposed to do something special this weekend, Sara says," I announced.

Cindy looked at me, then Helen.  "Mizz Helen, you put that notice on the bulletin board already?  Announcing our concert?"

"Yes, baby, I did.  But if you want to cancel, that's okay."

"Nuh-uh," Cindy said.  "I want to be with my friends!"

And then there was the next call.  Jim.  Same story.  Poor Cindy.  Etc.

"Jim, I appreciate it, but Cindy's less upset about it than I am."  I handed the phone to Cindy and she told him herself.

Then she smiled at me.  "We're on!  But we're supposed to have dinner at the Hardesty's again tonight.  Mizz Ann's doing potroast."

"I sure can go for that.  I get tired of restaurants."

"Me too," Cindy said.  "Come on, babe," she ordered me.  "Let's ride around the park."

I laughed.  "You ride a bicycle around the park and people are gonna line up and throw confetti!"

And that was almost the case.  We got stopped a dozen times.  Cindy got seconds on the coos and hugs and handshakes from earlier.  And comments of expectations for the Saturday evening concert.  Finally we gave up the bikes and left the park in our truck and went looking for a certain spot in the woods.

It might have been months ago since we first made love, and I know we've made love a hundred times since that night at  the end of August, but each time was fresh and exciting and wonderful and I loved Cindy so much that thinking about her could cloud my vision with tears.  The cares of the world slipped away as we melded together under the canopy of pines.

 
Chapter Twenty-two

Dinner at the Hardesty house was relaxing once Cindy and Ann got over the hugs.  Ann went through her "I'm so sorry, baby" phase and Cindy responded with "Thank you, Mizz Ann, but I'm FINE! Really!"

After a very good potroast meal, we retired to the living room and picked up instruments and laughed our way through a practice session.  Jim's daughter Teresa worked with Cindy on a duet on a couple of songs and to our amazement, the two actually worked out a little harmony.  Sounded pretty good.  We figured we were ready for Saturday night.

Saturday morning we were up early, answering the knock of the guy who was going to repair our trailer door.  He looked at Cindy.  Cindy was in her "I'm knockin' around on Saturday" uniform, jeans, a sweatshirt that was a concession to the cool December morning, A shade of blue just a bit darker than her jeans, and her hair glowed in contrast to it.

He said, "You're the little girl?"

She tilted her head.  "Little girl?"

"Yah," he said.  "I heard…"

"Oh, yes," she said.  "That was me."

"Damn!" he said.  "Uh, sorry…  I'm mighty glad that you're okay.  I knew that guy.  He was not a nice person.  Went kinda goofy.  Was on medication for a while, but he quit, an' got kinda crazy."

I stood behind MY Cindy.  "He made a bad mistake."

The old guy brushed his bald head.  "I guess he did.  Twelve gauge?  Three times?"

Cindy nodded.

"You're kinda small to do a twelve gauge, huh?"

She took my hand and pulled my arm around her.  "My husband showed me how to shoot."

"I guess he did, huh? "  He looked at me.  "Mister Dan," he said, "I can get this to where it'll close an' lock today.  An' I can fix it right next week when I can get the materials."  He looked at the bare gravel six feet from the steps.  "Not like anyone's gonna try to come in, now, though…"

Cindy didn't say anything.  I did.  "Not if Cindy's here."  I paused.  "And I appreciate you doing this for me.  You need some up front money?"

"Nah," he said.  "Helen said you're like her son-in-law.  If Mizz Helen likes you, that's good enough for me."

"Thanks," I said.  I handed him a key.  "Just drop this at the office when you finish.  Cindy and I are going for a ride."

"I'll leave the key with Helen.  Ya'll be careful!"

"Thanks!" Cindy smiled, and we left.  And hour and a half up the road it was lunchtime and we stopped in on a promising-looking country barbecue joint.  It was plenty good enough.  We turned around and drove back, chatting, interspersed with "Hey!  I like this part!" on the stereo.  We stopped at the office to retrieve my key.  Helen was there, and Judge Charlie, in a new chair.

I laughed when I saw that.  "I see you got your chair," I said.

He smiled and accepted Cindy's hug.  "Yessir, I like my comforts, you know."

"Helen, You're still gonna run this place from here?  I mean, married and all?"

"Yeah, Dan.  Gives us something to do until our next trip.  We're arguing about where to go."  She started to hand me my key.

"Nah, keep that.  When the guy comes to fix the trailer next week, he'll need it.  He just got us to where we could lock the door today.  Needs stuff to finish."

"Oh, okay," she said.  "He'll do you a good job.  I use ‘im all the time here."

"Seems like a nice guy."

Cindy reinforced my comment.  "Yes ma'am!  He does.  Are ya'll gonna be at our concert tonight?"

Charlie smiled.  "We wouldn't miss it for the world!"

Cindy said, "We'll see you there!" as she grabbed my hand and pulled me out the door.  I waved over my shoulder, smiling. 

We had a couple of hours to kill and in ten minutes we were in the trailer, door locked, curtains drawn, and Cindy and I were stark naked.   I ate her up.  She ate me up.  We mated yet again.  And tangled in each other's arms we dozed off for a late afternoon nap.  We woke up at five and went to help the Hardesty's move the gear for our concert.  We were set up at six-thirty and sitting on the stage sipping cold drinks as the park crowd started filing in.  Some of them were first –timers with us, and others had seen us before.  And we had fun.

We played.  Jim and I sang.  Not too bad.  But get two sweet, pretty teen-aged girls on stage singing, and you've got something.  Cindy did a couple of solo numbers and she and Teresa joined her for a couple of duets.  People clapped and hollered and whistled and Cindy and Teresa displayed poise and talent and a good time was had by all, us on the stage as well as our audience.

The crowd called for encores and we gave ‘em encores.  But it WAS a park and we were a family, well, TWO families, band, and at a little after ten we started packing up.  Cindy and I followed the Hardesty's home and we unloaded the amps and the instruments and bid our friends good night.

In the truck, Cindy was sitting next to me in our favorite position, her holding onto my right arm, her head on my shoulder.  "Babe," she said, "THAT'S what I call a great evening!"

I smiled at my young mate.  "Yes, sweetie, it was.  You were great!  I liked the way you carried yourself.  You and Teresa made ‘em happy!"

"We did, didn't we?  That's just cool!  Making music and making people happy!"  She grinned broadly.  "But let's have some Boccherini!  I need a break."

We soon pulled into the park and were in our home.  Two showers.  Two naked bodies.  And a bed.

"Love me," she said.

I wrapped her in my arms and she rolled me on my back, our mouths engaged, tongues teasing each other.  I ran my hands down her sides, over the sweet curves of her butt, and gripped her at the juncture of her thighs and that sweet ass.  Her knees moved up as she straddled me.  Cindy liked being on top, and I happily accommodated her.  When she was there, she was in charge and she was as attentive to my desires as I was to hers.

She looked down at me, smiling angelically.  "Babe," she said, "this is my favorite place."  She grinned.  Loving Cindy, loving WITH Cindy was fun, joyous, happy, and she liked to giggle.  "It's my favorite place.  Except for all the OTHER favorite places, like you on top of me, or behind me, or us eating each other…" and her mobile bottom lined her juicy expectant pussy up with the head of my dick and we merged into one.

I curled up to fasten my lips over one of her small but perfect titties and teased her nipple with tongue and teeth, biting gently, just the way she liked it.  I knew she liked it, because she did the same to me, and when I did hers, she tossed her head back, that red hair fanning in the air, and bit her bottom lip and purred, "Mmmmnnnnnn, oh, Dan!" and put both hands on the back of my head and pulled my face into her chest.  That's HOW I knew.

That, and her sliding forward and back over my dick as I plunged it up and back down inside her, and her hands got more desperate, grabbing me, pulling, squeezing, as our bodies tuned to one another and came, my semen squirting hot inside her, her pussy rippling, her cervix pushing against the head of my dick deep up inside her.  She collapsed onto me, into my waiting arms and we kissed, at first hot and mobile, then just leaving our lips molded together, breathing each other.

When the kiss broke, she raised her head and smiled. 

"I adore you, baby," I said.

She smiled.  "I was thinking the same exact thing."  And she switched ends and we cleaned up the juices of our copulation, a process which, if things were even close to right, resulted in her whimpering through yet another orgasm.  And then she crawled up and fitted herself against me and we lay together.  And we slept.

Sunday morning was a gray, drippy late autumn day, promising the passage of a cold front.  Rather than venture out, we stayed in the trailer, had cereal for breakfast, and made a pot of soup, Cindy following me through the effort.

"I'm sorry, babe," she said.  "I never learned to cook.  I didn't exactly grow up with supermom, you know?"

"I know, sweetie.  That's okay.  But I'm not a TV chef myself.  I know a few simple things that work well, and there's enough of ‘em to where I don't get bored."

Mid-morning the phone rang.  Tootie.  Our weekly phone call. 

"I didn't interrupt anything, did I?" she laughed.

"Nope.  Just me an' Cindy making bean soup."

"Yum!" said Tootie.  "How're things going?"

I took a deep breath.  "You won't believe our week, sis!"

"Bad?" she questioned.

"You don't know the half of it."  And I told her the short version of Cindy's ordeal.  And Cindy got on the phone and filled in details.  That pretty much sat Tootie back on her heels. 

"But we're okay, Tootie.  Really!" Cindy chirped.  "And we're coming home for Christmas."

"That's what I was calling about, at least part of it."  Cindy put the phone on the table and hit the "speaker" button.

"Yeah, we'll probably fly in on Saturday morning.  If you want to get the house opened up again."

"I'll do that," Tootie said.  "And Cindy, I'll put some potpourri in it this time so it smells nice."

"Good!" Cindy said.  "And you guys need to come over so we can do one of those gumbos.  And play cards."

"We'll have plenty of time for all that.  How long are ya'll gonna be down?"

"We start back up on the project the Monday after New Year's.  So, like, two weeks."

"Oh, that's nice," Tootie commented.

"Yeah," Cindy said.  "It will be. "

"Okay, babe.  Brother.  I'll talk to ya'll later," Tootie said, and the phone clicked off.

Cindy sat back in her chair.  "Family.  We have family."  She smiled.  "I got you.  And I have a family.  And friends.  And, you know, I always wondered how life could be, if it was like normal.  And this is it, and it's good."

"I love you, babe.  It's good because we have each other."

The rain let up a bit and we visited Helen and Charlie at the office.  Cindy told them that we were heading out on Saturday to go home for the holidays.

"That's nice, ya'll," said Charlie.  "We are going to Germany for Christmas.  They make a big deal about it in Nuremburg.  We'll enjoy ourselves.  And Steve can take care of the place for us."

"Yeah he can.  Sounds like we all have our plans."

Then Wednesday I brought Cindy to work with me.  By this time the story of her exploits with a shotgun had gotten around.  It made a noticeable difference in the way people talked with her.  That, and the other bit of knowledge that had gotten around, a situation having to do with identical gold bands on our two ring fingers.

She was still like a mascot on the site, though.  I worked in the office trying to get caught up on records and drawings and one of my fellow engineers after another came in, saw Cindy, and took her out to see what was going on.  Lunch came and Cindy, I, the boss and two other engineers went to out to eat.  Four o'clock came and we were out the gate.

"The people you work with treat me nice," she announced.

No doubt," I laughed, "Especially when the story got around about you and the shotgun."  After a couple of weeks, Cindy was over the shock and realized that although she'd ended the life of another person, that person, as they say in the south, "needed killin'".

"Oh, Dan," she said, faking exasperation, "It's not THAT at all.  One of ‘em said that I asked better questions than the people who are supposed to be working there.  D'ya know I got INSIDE a boiler today?"

"Uh-huh," I said.  "They mentioned that.  And showed me the pictures you took.  Saved somebody else a trip.  And babe," I said.

"Yeah, babe?" she looked at me.

"Boilers are a lot more fun when they're new.  Just so you know."

"I figured that out myself.  Even if we ARE burning natural gas."

Which left me considering the enigma sitting next to me, a fourteen year old girl who even gave a thought to combustion characteristics in boilers.  I laughed and freed a hand from the wheel to give her a hug.  "Dammit!  Babe," I said, "If you were eighteen they'd have you out here as an intern."

"I know," she said.  "Wouldn't that be cool?"

"That would be the coolest thing imaginable."  I was serious.  I knew couples who needed to be apart from one another.  I'd been with Cindy every night since her mom left almost three months ago.  And Cindy was just perfect.  The right amount of funny.  The right amount of serious.  Inquisitive.  Insightful.  A joy to be around.  Work with her all day and go home with her at night?  You bet.  More of the stuff dreams are made of.

We made our customary stop at the park office to visit a little with Helen and Charley.  I finally, at this stage, stopped calling him "Judge" but he was still Mister Charley most of the time.  And Helen was still Mizz Helen.  Yeah, they both objected a bit, but I told ‘em that training is hard to break.

Cindy recounted her day at the project, gaining Charley's rapt attention.

"You know, Dan," he said, "She REALLY gets excited about this stuff."

"She's almost the mascot out there.  They call her "The Engineer's Apprentice".  I tell ‘em what day she's gonna be there and they always manage to figure out what's the most exciting thing going on for her."

"That's quite a thing," Charley said.  "She's quite an impressive young lady."

I smiled at her when she realized we were talking about her and turned around.  "Yessir, she truly is.  She's got a mind even more dazzling than those eyes."

That got me a Cindy skipping over to give me a chaste kiss in front of our friends.  "Mister Charley, you oughtta see Dan in HIS element.  THAT'S my inspiration!"

I shook my head.  "Darlin', you'll pass me up.  I'm just another guy engineer.  You're gonna show up one day and completely disarm the whole place when they look at you, and THEN you'll take ‘em apart and put ‘em together right."

Helen commented to Charley, "See!  They're like set, bookends, salt and pepper shakers, whatever!"

Charley said, "Helen, my dear, I never doubted you.  It's just that seein' ‘em together makes me happy."

That's a good note to leave on.  Cindy and I took off for dinner.

The next night was a pizza party at the Hardesty house.  As in "Dan, you DON'T have to buy your way in here with food."

And Friday night we did fried catfish.  And Saturday morning we were at the airfield early, loaded up, Cindy perched on top of a ladder checking the fuel levels, the plane rolled out onto the apron, the truck backed into the hangar and I touched the controls lightly as Cindy taxied us out onto the runway.  I was only slightly more active when she did the run-up and take-off.

Yeah.  It was like that.  Show her once, and let her go.  Well, to be honest, five feet three inches has problems getting on the toe brakes on the rudder pedals, and the nose of a Cessna 180 gets in the way of vision when taxing even if you're over six feet tall, and a certain amount of flying is muscle memory that comes with practice, but her moves were in all the right directions even if they weren't polished.  And she flew from the right seat, having to look across the cockpit at the instruments in front of me, but she did just fine.

Four hours later she had us on short final for the home runway and I handled the toe-dance that was required to land the old tail-dragger.  Tootie's SUV pulled up next to us as we tied the plane down on the apron.  Cindy got the first hug as I was unloading luggage.

I sat in the back seat and let Tootie and Cindy talk.  I don't know why.  They laughed, giggled, and caught up on things.  We walked into our house.

"Wow, Tootie!  You made it smell soooo good!"  Cindy squealed.

"Yeah!  I'm gonna hate to see my potpourri bill."

"Oh, get over it, Dan!  Cindy doesn't need a house that smells like an armpit!"

I laughed as Cindy glided in beside me and took my arm.

"Put the luggage in the bedroom, babe.  We need to go to Tootie's for gumbo.  And be nice to your sister or she's gonna spit in your bowl."

I hauled the bags into the room and dropped them, then opened the garage door and checked to make sure our own SUV started.  It did.

"We'll follow you home, Toot!"  I said.

The gang was there when we walked in.  Mike, Jerry and Sheila all lined up for hugs and the we trooped into Tootie's kitchen and filled up bowls of steaming gumbo, then sat around the dining table and started talking amongst the clink of spoons and bowls.

It was asshole brother who finally had to ask, "So Cindy, can you talk about your incident?"

Cindy's expression was a polite little smile.  "What'd'ya wanna know?"

Jerry pressed.  "So what exactly happened?"

"Well," she took a deep breath.  "Dan had to work late so I was in the trailer by myself, doin' homework (ha!) and watching TV and reading, and somebody knocks on the door.  I was thinkin' of who that might be, and I couldn't come up with anybody, so I said, "Who is it?"  She breathed.  "An' he said "I'm your Mom's old boyfrien' an' I wanna talk to you."  And I said, "What do you want to talk to ME about?  She moved to Vegas.  An' he said he just wanted to come an' spend some time with me.  And I said NO! and for him to leave.  And he went away for a minute and came back and started pryin' on the door.  I got the shotgun and dialed 9-1-1 and told him to go away, that I'd called the law.  And then the door flew open and he stepped a foot into the trailer and I pulled the trigger.  He fell down and when he tried to get up, I shot him twice more."

"It's a pump.  She cycled the action three times.  The deputy sheriff had to remove the round in the chamber," I elaborated.

Mike said, "Damn!"

Jerry asked, "So you just lit his ass up?"

"Yeah," said Cindy.  "It was him or me.  And Dan showed me how to shoot.  So I wasn't gonna let him hurt me.  And he was in MY house!"

Sheila's question brought the house down.  "But, Cindy!  I mean, what did you FEEL when you SHOT the guy?"

Cindy smiled demurely and said, "Recoil."

My brother blew gumbo out of his nose.

"And THAT is why I married her," I said.  "That, and the fact that she was taking photos inside a boiler on Wednesday.  Of course, she fits through the manway a lot easier than my lard-assed associate."

At around ten in the evening we bid goodbye to family and drove back home.  With doors locked behind us, I was somewhat surprised at the next question, although I guess I shouldn't have been.

"Uh, babe, do you have guns here too?"

"Yes, my love, we do."  And I showed her.

The next move was a shared shower and then my shaving and her hair-drying and then a happy young redhead kneeling in the middle of the bed naked.  Forty-five minutes later we were in each other's arms, breathless, the musky smell of recent sex hanging in the air.

"Babe," she said, "are you up for a serious talk?"

"Sure, sweetness."  I had no idea of what serious subject she'd breech.

"I really like us having a house.  Like this."

"I do too, sweetie," I said.  "It's been my refuge and my home base.  Now it's ours."

"Can we afford two?"

"Two?  Why two?"

"Because next year I'm going to college.  And there's no college close by here."

I had only given her point a tiny amount of thought before, but now she wanted it analyzed.  "So what are we thinking about then?"

"Mister Hardesty says that if I graduate this year according to his plan, that I've got full scholarships.  In Alabama."

"We don't have a house in Alabama, either," I noted.

"I know, baby," she sighed.  "And please know that if all we ever had together was our trailer, I'd want us to stay in our trailer.  Forever.  But you gotta admit, the house thing is nice!"

My mind wandered to a giggly wet form in a shower an hour earlier.  This was an easy answer.  "Yes, my dear one, it is nice!"

She continued, "So your project finishes in February.  You said you could stay where we are in the park until I finish school.  Then what?  Where?"

I considered a bit.  "I guess then we need to have a place convenient to your university of choice, huh?"

"Can you do that?"

We'd talked a bit on the subject before.  I had a few connections that might parlay into a full-time staff position with a regular office and staying at one location.  "Let me see what I can do, babe.  I've been thinking about it.  In January I can start making some calls.  But you need to make a decision on which university you'll grace with your presence."

"Yeah," she said.  "I need to talk to Mister Hardesty.  He said something about visiting them.  Maybe you and he and I can do that."

"I think that's a good idea, babe.  We can talk to Jim when we get back, okay?"

"Okay!" Grin.  "Back yard?"

I looked at her.  "What about the back yard?"

"It's a cool fall night and nobody can see in our back yard, and the sky is clear…"

"Uh… oooohhhh!"  I laughed.  "Let's get a blanket, then…"

It was a little on the cool side, but there are many things about Cindy that are very warming.  We used all of them.  And Cindy naked out in the moonlight, wow!  Forty year old guys aren't supposed to chug out two orgasms in two hours, but then most of them don't have redheaded, giggly Cindy, either.  It was after midnight when we got back in the house, still glowing, but chilled.  The blankets on the bed provided us a wonderful nest.

The next couple of days were just hanging out, visiting, riding around.  And I had an issue to resolve.

A phone call to the airfield had me set up for my biennial flight review, a necessity to keep my license current. So in the early afternoon Cindy and I showed up to meet with the airpark manager.  He was also a flight instructor and he could do my check ride.  He reviewed my logbook and asked a few questions to make sure I was staying current on regulations and such.

Then it was time for the actual flying.  Cindy rode along in the back seat of the plane for the second time.  Forty-five minutes later we were back on the ground.

"Greg," I asked, "What's the rules say about putting an unlicensed person in the left seat?"  The left seat was the pilot's seat, even though the plane had dual controls.

"It doesn't matter, just so a licensed pilot can fly the plane from the right seat.  Why?"  he asked.

I nodded towards Cindy who was standing a bit off away from us.  "Tell you what.  I'll pay you for an hour's instruction.  Let Cindy go through the motions.  She's a little short, so she might need some help taxiing, and you want to follow real close on takeoffs and landings, but see what you think."

"Her?  How old is she?"

Cindy could see we were talking about her.  She smiled.

"Fourteen.  I know, too young to get a student license, but humor me, okay?"

"Sure," he said.  "Miss Cindy.  Take me flying."

Cindy bounced over and went through the steps we'd walked and talked through many times.  At each step she explained her actions on the pre-flight inspection.  I watched from a safe distance.  Greg looked over at me and raised an eyebrow.

"It's your plane, little lady," he said.

"Then mount up!" she said.

I walked back into the office and waited.  An hour later I heard the ticking of the engine and looked out to see Greg with his hands raised, Cindy just visible over the instrument panel.  The plane swung into place at the tie-downs.  I walked back outside.

"So how'd she do?"

Cindy was smiling, and that was a pretty good indication to me, but Greg verbalized it.  "Take her up and let ‘er shoot touch and goes and landings to a full stop.  Show her the prescribed maneuvers for a flight test.  Get her ground schooled.  But she can fly pretty darned good right now.  When she's sixteen she can get a student license and accumulate hours, and she can get her private license and fly this thing when she's seventeen."

"That's what we read," Cindy said.  "But I still like to fly."

"And you can fly all you want as long as you're with a licensed pilot," Greg said to her.  To me he said, "Seriously, no problem at all.  I'd probably sign off her solo in four hours, just like she is."

We tied our plane down and went inside so Greg could sign off the entry in my logbook and I was good for another two years.

On the drive home Cindy was giggly.  "Mister Greg was nervous.  He kept watching REAL close when I was taxiing and I made extra sure to stay slow and careful.  And I lined up exactly right for take-off…" She recounted the rest of her day's adventures.  "You know what an Extra is?  Airplane?"

"Uh, yeah… unlimited aerobatics.  Why?"

She grinned.  "Mr. Greg has one.  Said if it was okay with you, he'd take me up in it."

"And you're gonna leave me for a guy with a faster airplane."

She giggled.  "Yeah, after we meet him and his wife for supper.  Besides, he says it's tandem, not side by side seating."

"Babe," I said, "I've done aerobatics with Greg before he got the Extra.  I don't get airsick, but some people might.  Like you."

"I won't know unless I try, huh?"  She smiled.  "You know, most kids my age are happy to ride a four-wheeler around the woods.  YOU get me rides in aerobatic airplanes."

I snorted.  "Just so you look at that as a "plus" when it's over, babe."

She wrapped my right arm with her hands.  "I love you, babe.  I hope you don't mind me sayin' we'd have supper with ‘em."

"Oh, not in the least, cutie.  Let's do it right.  We'll bring Greg's wife flowers.  That ought to get him goin'."

"Flowers?" she asked.

"Yeah, Fred married a German girl.  We were on the same post in Germany, and good German etiquette says that when you visit, you bring flowers or a bottle of wine.  Heck, we may just do both."

"Ohhhhhh," she said. 

Dinner was fun.  Greg's wife, Hanna, was much matured from the days when she met a young American pilot in Germany, and she laughed after I ran through my entire, very rusty, German vocabulary, but she thought Nina was adorable, so that made a roomful of us.  Greg and I talked about old times and current events and flying and Nina helped Hanna out in the kitchen and played gracious server and joined the conversation, very interested when she found that Hanna was also a licensed pilot and had participated in aerobatic competition.

Three hours alter we were bidding good night with Greg's invitation modified to where Hanna would be doing the flight with my Cindy.  As Hanna put it in English tinged with her German roots, "I vill fly mit her…  Men vish to show offfff  too much."

I had an excited Cindy at my side on the way home, and she was excited for a different reason than normal. 

After showers and giggly lovemaking, we lay together in bed talking.

"That's so cool, Dan!  Hanna's the first female pilot I ever met."

"They're out there, sweetie.  And in a couple of years you'll count yourself as one.  If it wasn't for that whole "She's fourteen" thing, you'd be getting a license in a couple of months."

"I like flying ALMOST as much as I like YOUR engineering stuff. Can I do both?"

"I dunno, babe.  Depends on how you want to do it.  I do it as a hobby and a nice way to travel."  Greg does it because it's what he does for a living.  Hanna does it because it's a joy to her.  All of those are valid reasons.  We can't justify it on economic grounds, but who applied economics to a hobby?  Especially when it gives us such flexibility in travel.  But to own a quarter of a million dollars' worth of airplane that's burning a couple hundred dollars of gas an hour just to cut interesting holes in the sky?  It's gotta be what you LOVE!"

"When you put it like that…" she sighed.  "Sometimes reality sucks."

"Don't I know… "I sighed in concert with my cutie.  "But we do the best we can.  Anyway, fly with Hanna tomorrow.  Maybe we'll get lucky and you'll hurl all over the cockpit."

Giggle.  "Not a chance."

"Well," I said, "If you're thinking you've got it under control, ask her for a lomcevak.  If you can keep your stomach after THAT maneuver…"  A lomcevak was a radical, tumbling, move in three axes.  I've done ‘em.  And had to fly along straight and level for ten minutes afterward to retain MY decorum.  At the house, I showed her videos.

"Maybe I can try just one," Cindy said.  "Just to say I did."

"You'll be one up on me, babe."  I smiled.  When I'd flown with Greg, the airplane he owned was much less capable.

The next couple of days were spent just living, enjoying days where neither of us had anything pressing other than happy life.  We visited the old folks who were still around, old friends, drove endless miles though the countryside, flew a few hundred more, skimming at scenic altitude over the marshes and coastal beaches.

Cindy got her aerobatic flight in, too.  She and Hanna taxied the Extra out as Greg and I looked on.

"Be very afraid, Dan.  I thought I was going to give Hanna a thrill and she'd never bother me again.  Now she's got a quarter of million dollars out there."

"You get it too, though, don't you?"

"Oh, I do, Dan, but the sad thing is, she's BETTER with it than I am."  He smiled sheepishly.

We watched the red monoplane disappear heading south from the airfield, then went back inside and sipped coffee and talked about airplanes and work and money and politics, waiting for our wives to return.  The office's Unicom radio crackled with Cindy's voice giving the aircraft identifier and notifying us that they were five miles out.

"She doesn't SOUND sick, Dan.  You're screwed."  Greg laughed.  "Best I can offer you is her and Hanna can fly together whenever you're down here."

"Yeah…  I can't imagine doing a cross-country in that thing," I said, following him out the door.  I could spot the little red airplane in the distance.

"It's not as bad as you might think, Dan.  But it's not that ol' flying pickup truck of yours, either."

We we standing side by side when the Extra taxied back in, canopy open,  Hanna grinning like a Cheshire cat, Cindy obviously concentrating.  When the propeller stopped, I was there to help Cindy out.

Squeal!  "I landed it, Dan.  It's just like ours except I can see better!"  Cindy was ebullient.  "I just LOVED it!"

Hanna was smiling.

"Lomcevak?" I asked.

Hanna held up three fingers.  "Und snap rolls, und spins.  Zhe is a happy girl, Dan."

"You're screwed, Dan." Greg jibed.  Together we pushed the little plane back into the hangar, Hanna and Cindy walking behind us, chattering excitedly.

Cindy and I bid our hosts goodbye and left.  In the car on the way home, I asked, "so, it was that good?"

"Oh, yes, babe," she giggled.  "And that PLANE!  It's like all you have to do is IMAGINE something and you're THERE!"

 "I've heard that," I said.  "It's a whole different design idea."

"Yeah, I know," she said.  "Our plane, you know how we can take our hands off the yoke and let it fly by itself?  You can't do that with this one," she said.  "But it's some kind of fun!"

"What about the maneuvers?  You didn't get sick?"

"Nuh-uh," she said.  "Hanna warned me, and we started off with the easy stuff.  And then…  wow! Snap rolls.  And that lomcevak thing."

"Uh-huh.  And where's this put Cindy?"

She smiled, green eyes twinkling.  "Just another thing you've given me that I'd have never gotten without you.  It's exciting.  And might be fun to play with, you know… but not too practical.  Wasn't enough room for Christmas presents in that Extra."

"Oh," I said, "You're not ready to go out and buy an Extra?"

"Nah," she answered.  "But Hanna said I could fly with her whenever I'm down here."  She giggled.  "Why?  You thought I was gonna go off the deep end over that?"

"I gave it an eight percent chance that you'd enjoy it, babe.  But when I saw you when you stopped out there on the apron, I figured you were hooked."

"Almost.  Let me get thought college.  And  a job.  And two incomes.  And we'll think about it, okay?  One thing at a time."

Practical, was my Cindy.
