He thanked her as she set the cold Pepsi in front of him with a sandwich and Cool Ranch Doritos.
“Thank you, but you don’t have to go to any trouble. I’ll eat whatever you have.”
She smiled and sat to eat her own sandwich and chips.
He noticed the papers in front of them and asked, “Is that the list?”
“Yep. There’s not a lot of back-breaking labor, in case you were afraid of that. A lot of painting, cleaning, moving junk, and the fields need to be cut. David had this wild dream of becoming a farmer, and well, we never farmed the land. He ignored it for years and the land became like a prairie. We have a riding lawnmower, so that makes it easier to cut, but it takes a couple of days to do the whole property.”
“Why buy a farm if you aren’t going to plant crops,” he asked confused.
She frowned, “He was too lazy to do any amount of hard work. When I agreed to pack up and move, I was a fool. I should’ve put my foot down and said no. He was so set on it though.”
She looked at the table, “I was so stupid. Just like I was to miss his affairs.”
Eric said, “I’m sorry, Mrs. Hewitt. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
She wiped a tear and said, “Please call me Julia.” She forced a smile, “Now finish up so I can show you the property.”
*****
He found Julia sitting on an ATV in front of one of the outbuildings. He saw that she changed into a tank top and shorts, the latter of which bared plenty of thigh for him to drool over.
She watched him leer over her legs and smiled. She was glad that she still had her looks. It was that thought that kept her from understanding what made her ex-husband cheat.
“Grab that one over there. Have you ever ridden on one?” she asked.
“No, but I’m sure I’ll be able to figure it out.”
She smirked and said, “No doubt. This building houses all of the larger vehicles. We have these two ATV’s, the riding lawnmower, and a couple of farming vehicles that we’ve never used. I’m not even sure where the keys for them are. There’s a bunch of old wood and scrap metal in there that we have to move out. I have a dumpster coming on Friday. I figure we can spend the weekend cleaning out the junk. Most of it is from the old owners. We got a big break on the sales price by accepting it without them cleaning it all out. Unfortunately, my Realtor tells me that won’t happen in this market.”
Eric nodded his understanding, and he couldn’t help but hate her ex for being so lazy. They drove the fence line of the property and she showed him all of the sections of the fence that needed to be fixed. Most of it was repairing broken barbed wire, but some of the fence posts were either gone or rotted.
He tried to find some beauty in the land, but there was nothing but open farmland as far as he could see. There were no hills, no forestland, no bodies of water that he could see. He couldn’t even call what he was seeing ‘amber waves of grain.’
The sun was beating down on them and his shirt was soaked through with sweat. At one point, he took it off and tucked it into his back pocket. He didn’t think of his lack of sunscreen.
“Oh, Eric! You look like a lobster,” she shrieked when they got back to the main house. She hadn’t noticed he took off his shirt as they drove the last hour of their tour around the fence line. He was behind her the whole way.
He looked down at his chest the same time she was leering at him. “I’ll be okay,” he shrugged. “I didn’t have my shirt off the whole time.”
“You can burn in just a few minutes out there with your fair skin. You won’t see the worst of the effects for a while yet either. Come on inside and get cooled off.”
She motioned for him to go ahead of her and felt guilty for watching the muscles of his back ripple as he walked. She smiled to herself and hoped he let her rub the aloe on. ‘Stop it, you old fool!’ she thought trying to shake her lust filled thoughts away.
“Here you go, Eric,” she smiled and handed the bottle of aloe to him.
“Julia, really, I’m fine. Don’t worry about it.”
She shook her head. “Stubborn kids. It’s going to take some time to feel the full effects. Why don’t you settle in and watch some television? I want you to stay out of the sun for the rest of the day.”
He shrugged his shoulders and handed her the bottle as he walked into the living room.
“He’ll learn,” she said barely audible and gave a quiet chuckle.
*****
A few hours later, Eric regretted not putting sunscreen on. He fidgeted on the couch, unable to get comfortable, and Julia walked into the room.
“What’s up, Sebastian?” she asked with a smirk. She was enjoying his predicament and Eric noticed.
“Sebastian?” he asked.
“The red crab from The Little Mermaid,” she laughed. She held up the bottle of aloe, waving it back and forth.
“Alright, you win.” He held out his hand and took the bottle. He was still shirtless, and she couldn’t take her eyes off his young, fit body. He noticed and smirked. After that, he decided to go shirtless more often and see what happened.
He wondered if she was just checking him out, he was used to that. However, there was a slight hope that she was interested in him. ‘Could she want me?’ he thought. He wondered how long it had been since she last had sex. She was still a young man’s wet dream, so she had to be attractive to men her age as well.
As he put the soothing gel on his skin, he had an idea and smiled.
“Hey, Julia? Could you come in here, please? I need your help.”
Julia walked into the bedroom and said, “What’s up?”
“Could you put some on my back, please? I can’t reach very well.”
“Uh, sure,” she stuttered. He turned and smirked as her hands rubbed the gel on his skin.
She tried to control herself, but she felt the pangs of her hunger. She was as turned on as she’d been in years. The young man’s muscular back under her fingers was almost too much to bear. She felt the dampness between her legs as she smelled his masculine sweat along with the sweetness of the aloe’s aroma.
She rubbed her hands down his spine then along his waist until her hands were on his sides. Every inch of him was firm. When her fingers swiped around his front and touched his abs, he flexed and heard her sigh as she returned her hands to his back.
Abruptly, he spun, and her hands ended up on his chest. As she looked into his deep blue eyes, he breathed, “Thank you, Julia.”
She gazed for only a moment longer, but it felt like minutes. “Anytime.”
Eric smiled and she melted. She had to back away and get away from him, but her hands lingered on his chest as she slowly stepped back. She had turned to hurry away, embarrassed at her stupidity, when Eric called out to her.
“Hey, wait!”
She stopped but didn’t turn, afraid to look him in the eyes. Eric knew then he had her. That lingering touch on his chest was the final confirmation.
“What’s for dinner?” He asked.
She let out the breathe she didn’t know she held. “I was going to put some steaks on the grill, if that’s okay?”
“Sounds perfect.”
She scampered out of the room and tried to hide in the kitchen as she ran the frozen strip steaks under the water to defrost them.
Her mind raced with thoughts of what happened in the bedroom. She wondered how she could have been so stupid as to acting like an eighteen-year-old girl with a crush instead of the forty-plus-year-old woman she was. She had to get her head on straight, but she had no idea her biggest problem was Eric’s desire for her being stronger than hers for him.