Stormwatch – A Wedding in The Wood by Duleigh,Duleigh

Unfortunately, incidents occurred which caused the planned September wedding of Josh Gravely and Veronica von Köster to be pushed back a month. Luckily warm weather has prevailed and the woods of the southern tier of Western New York are vibrant and full of color and Veronica’s Autumn wedding has become a Halloween themed wedding to be held in the plot of woods that Josh owns. A quick meeting with the members of the wedding party on the status of the ceremony is a great excuse for a dinner at the Groom’s favorite Italian restaurant.

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Giardini’s Italian Family Restaurant

22 Days before the wedding

Dr. Paul Jarecki and his wife Dr. Adrianna Jarecki were doing something unusual for them, they were driving their Transport van full of passengers, but not a single child was with them. They have twin 6-year-old girls and a ten-month-old boy but they’re under the care of their governess tonight. Tonight, is a night to celebrate and help plan a wedding for friends. Paul is a cardiologist and his wife, who goes by Andi, is a pulmonologist. Paul kind of inherited a run-down network of car dealerships that his dad tried to build up and only saw success for his efforts near the end of his life. Paul took over and aggressively built the dealerships into one of the most successful string of dealerships in the state.

With them in the van is the engaged couple, Ephraim Gravely, known exclusively as Josh to everyone, and Veronica von Köster who is known as Ronnie only to her close friends and Nica only to Josh. Josh is a battle-scared veteran from the deep south who suffers from PTSD. His GI Bill education and a push from a friend landed him a job at Andalon.com in Orchard Park NY where he met and fell in love with Ronnie.

Veronica grew up in Erie PA, she and her sister Magda were raised by a single dad. Veronica and Magda started in youth beauty pageants and Veronica had great success and eventually became Miss Ohio while she was a student at Ohio State University. The scholarship money from the beauty pageants and a modeling career paid for her MBA and she was able to drop modeling and become a much sought-after businesswoman. It didn’t take her long to find out that her success was due to her looks, and she ignored offers from large corporations and took a job as an assistant for the CEO of an adoption agency.

Her boss, Marj Friedman, was unlike other female executives that Veronica met in that she was a woman that wasn’t expecting a lesbian affair and was happily married with seven children. Marj then asked Ronnie if she could take on added responsibility and soon Ronnie was the executive assistant for Marj’s husband, the CEO of Andalon.com. Veronica found a home at Andalon.com, a small internet service provider that was aggressively moving into medical software and secure data storage. Her new boss was polite and fun to be with, he was a family man who kept his hands to himself and eagerly assisted Ronnie with her budding romance when she and Josh discovered each other.

Also in the van was Ronnie’s dad, Mike von Köster, a retired welder with a heart condition. His savings were pilfered by his ex-wife and daughter Magda and they somehow got control of his pension leaving him penniless. Mike was kicked out of his retirement home, so he ended up living with Josh and Veronica. Riding next to Mike is Audrey Mitchell, a close friend of Veronica. Audrey’s father was a VP at Andalon and a co-worker of Veronica but ran afoul of the law. Audrey offered to help out with Mike, and she fell in love with eldercare so much that she began taking classes in nursing at the local community college in her spare time. She also fell in love with Mike and their relationship is an open secret among Josh and Veronica’s close-knit community of friends.

“Ah, the old neighborhood,” sighed Paul, as they pulled off US 33 and entered a wooded neighborhood of split-level houses. “Look familiar Josh?”

“Familiar? I’ve never been here,” said Josh. “All this time we’ve been coming to Giardini’s religiously and you’ve never taken me through this neighborhood.” Before they met the women in their lives, Josh and Paul purchased property near each other as hobby farms near Springville NY and became friends. Josh’s property used to be a CCC camp that was converted to a scout camp for a short while.

“Look at the style of buildings. Some of them have been changed a bit,” said Paul’s wife Andi.

“I know you’ve seen them before,” insisted Paul.

I don’t think so…” they were nice buildings, split level duplexes, they were built a bit odd, the front of the house actually overlooked the back yards, the back of the houses faced the little dead-end streets the houses were situated on. Was it an odd utopian designed community?

“Look again,” urged Paul as they turned a corner.

“Wait…” the buildings they were now facing were different, big ugly, slab-sided two-story apartment buildings, four apartments in each building, something the Air Force called “four-plexes.” Josh now saw something he didn’t believe possible, “military family housing in Cheektowaga NY?”

“Yep, that building right there is where John and I grew up,” said Paul as he pointed to a rundown four-plex. “This all used to be military family housing for Curtis Wright Army Air Corps Station. The Curtis Wright plant used to be where the airport is now, they built all the P-40 Warhawks and C-46 Commandos right here in Cheektowaga, the housing for the pilots and ground crews was a five-minute bus ride away. When the base closed, they sold off the housing to private concerns.”

“Wow,” said Josh as he glanced around. These exact same buildings were on every one of the state side Air Force bases that Josh had been to. Many were upgraded but the original design remains. Paul himself was an Air Force veteran also, he was a flight surgeon. “That must have done a number on your head when you got to your first base and found yourself in home sweet home,” remarked Josh.

“It really did,” chuckled Paul remembering his first assignment as a young Lieutenant. As they pulled out onto Genesee Street Veronica was amazed at all the restaurants of every ethnicity that made up Cheektowaga: Italian, German, Greek, Hispanic, Ethiopian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, and more. Josh, who has been buddies with Paul for years was familiar with all of them but there’s one Italian place that Paul calls home. They pulled into Giardini’s Italian Family Restaurant. “This is where my family lives,” said Paul, as the six of them, Josh, Veronica, Mike, Audrey, Paul, and Andi climbed out of Paul’s luxurious Ford Transport, and they entered the restaurant.

“What do you mean… You’re Italian?” asked Veronica. A young hostess counted heads and gathered menus but the cry of “Is that my Paulie and Andi?” rang across the restaurant. With more fanfare than Veronica was expecting, Mama Giardini stormed out of the kitchen crying “My Paulie!” she cried and smothered Paul and Andi with hugs and kisses. She was the short, round Italian grandmother that everybody should have. She was wearing a long print dress; stained kitchen apron and her salt and pepper hair was covered in a hair net. She was the woman that saved a very young Paul and John Jarecki when she found the starving urchins eating out of their dumpster.

When Paul and Andi pried themselves loose, Paul turned Mama around, “Folks, this is Anna Maria Giardini, but we call her “Mama,” we’ve been friends for…” Paul paused at the warning finger Mama raised to him, “…uhhh for a while. Momma, you know Josh, this is his fiancée Veronica, her dad Mike, and this is his nurse Audrey.

Momma Giardini hugged everyone and when she got to Josh, she pulled in Veronica, and whispered, “Such a nice young girl! You must tell me how you do it, do you know any young men that need some loving, eh?” Momma then turned her attention to Audrey. The young, curvaceous brunette stood in fear of Momma, but Momma smiled and pulled Audrey in close and hugged her tight, “You’re going to be such a beautiful bride!” Audrey panicked, their plans were still secret, only Josh and Veronica knew for sure, then Momma whispered into Audrey’s ear “Momma knows!”

Audrey froze, her skin went pale, and her legs suddenly felt weak. “Please don’t say anything,” whispered Audrey, “I haven’t talked to Mike yet.”

“You and me, come on…” Mama then turned to the gang and said, “You go find your own seats, Miss Audrey and I are going to have a talk,” and she led Audrey away.

Mike started to follow, a worried look on his face, but Josh stopped him. “Dad, she’ll be ok. Momma Giardini is going to become your mother-in-law now,” he whispered.

“What do you mean?” asked a confused Mike as he allowed himself to be led away to their table.

“I think Momma just adopted Audrey,” said Veronica. She just met Moma Giardini but she was sure momma knew something that Veronica was beginning to suspect.

“Exactly,” said Josh, who has been here often enough with Paul and John in the past to understand what Momma Giardini was up to.

The hostess had laid the menus back down when she saw them greeted by her Grandmother Anna Maria, and she led the five back to the small banquet room where a large table was set up. John and Macy were waiting for them, John is Paul’s younger brother, he is a pastor with a doctorate in theology and is much shorter than Paul. Macy, John’s wife, is a tall, slim, black French-Canadian genius with a doctorate in theology and another in psychology. People kid John and Macy that their daughter Katarina will never discover a single syllable word until she runs away from home.

Soon Anthony and Marjorie Friedman joined the group. Anthony is founder and CEO of Andalon, the company that Josh and Veronica work for, Marjorie runs an adoption advocacy group that helps people adopt babies. Shortly Momma led a smiling Audrey to the table accompanied by mama’s son, Paul’s childhood friend and manager of the restaurant Donatello “Donny” Giardini. “Paulie!” called Donny from across the room, “The first time you brought such a group to my restaurant you announced that you were getting married, the next time you did this you announced that you were having a baby, now what? Has my godson been accepted into Harvard?”

The men chuckled as they hugged and patted each other’s back, “Not yet, we’re waiting on the acceptance letter. No, we have another wedding, you remember Josh, right?”

“Hey bubba!” said Donny, trying to emulate a southern accent as he and Josh fist bumped.

“He and that beautiful blond next to him are getting married soon, that’s Veronica. And next to her is her dad, Mike, his nurse is that cute brunette Audrey.”

As Donny turned to congratulate the couple, Marj called out, “We just found out that we have a baby to celebrate!” Audrey froze, her eyes bugged open wide in shock before she could cover up her shock she was noticed by Veronica and Andi. Marj continued, “Andi and Paul have applied to adopt a baby and we just got notified that their application has been approved!”

Andi and Paul threw their arms around each other as their friends cheered and clapped while Audrey sagged back in her chair panting in relief, and that’s when Mike turned to her and said, “What’s wrong honey?” A wave of something washed over Audrey’s heart, she didn’t know what it was, but the tears started flowing. “Baby, what’s wrong?” gasped Mike.

“I’m sorry, it’s not you…”and she darted out of her chair looking to exit but she ran toward the back of the banquet room, she went the wrong way and there was no exit and she found herself in a corner weeping. Everybody looked at Mike who was just as confused as they were, then Mama Giardini came up to Paul speaking in rapid fire Italian,

“Sei un medico, un dottore, aiutala, è incinta!”

“Yes momma, I’m a doctor but what?” He was as confused as anyone else. He used to understand and speak some Italian, but he hasn’t had to speak Italian in decades and aiutala, è incinta is escaping him.

Anna Maria Giardini was too excited to get her English out properly, she tried again emphasizing each word, but it still came out in Italian, “Avrà un bambino!”

Paul missed it, but Josh caught every word. He lived in Italy for over a year when his gunship was flying out of Aviano and he lived in town, his landlady took it upon herself to teach him Italian (or at least she tried). He got up and said “Mike, come on.” Mike was already up, now Veronica got up also, as did Paul and Andi. Both are medical doctors and Mama Giardini requested a doctor. “It’s ok,” Josh told Paul, “We got this.” But Paul and Andi followed just in case.

The five of them gathered around the weeping young woman who stood facing the corner. “Honey,” said Mike, “What’s wrong?” but that just made Audrey cry harder.

“Let me try dad,” Josh stepped up behind Audrey and whispered, “Remember what I said just before you left with your folks?” She turned her back and continued to weep but she nodded. “I said that even though I love Veronica more than anything else that God made, there’s still a lot of love in my heart for you, remember?” She nodded again.

Josh remembered too, it was such a sad moment, Audrey’s parents were in Niagara Falls trying to sexually abuse Veronica, the FBI and Securities and Exchange Commission were waiting to arrest them for their business dealings, and at the same time Josh was sitting with Audrey in a restaurant in Cheektowaga, not far from where they are at right now. It was a wet winter day and the young, confused Audrey confessed her love for Josh. How do you deal with that? He was her first real crush, a girl that had been raised by abusive parents, and now that she’s old enough to have a real relationship, and the guy she was in love with is in love with the woman she admired more than anyone.

“I remember too,” said Josh, “I said I would be there whenever you need me, that I really want to be there for you. And we’ve been there for each other, haven’t we?”

Through the tears that she couldn’t stop Audrey remembered how he was there for her throughout the summer as he dealt with his bouts of PTSD and she with the confusion she felt because of her newfound love of an older man. Without turning she nodded.

“I’m here for you right now, so you can cry on my shoulder all you want, ok?” Nodding again Audrey turned around and buried her face in his chest and tried desperately to stop crying, his deep baritone voice comforting her.

Josh hugged her for a long time and desperately searched his mind for a way to ask her what was foremost on his mind and finally came up with. “Honey… do you have my baby brother-in-law in there with you?” It was such a silly question that she couldn’t help but laugh then she nodded yes. “Aww honey, why didn’t you tell me?”

“I was afraid, Mike was so sick,” she gasped out between sobs. Mike had suffered an attack of cardiac asthma, a condition caused by congestive heart failure. It’s called cardiac asthma because a person who develops cardiac asthma can experience asthma-like wheezing and coughing which may cause the doctor to misdiagnose the problem.

“Ok, ok, honey, it’s all ok,” said Josh. “The time to be scared is over, Mike is better and we’re all here for you, it’s time for you and Mike to enjoy this baby.” Then very quietly he began to sing, she’s heard that baritone voice before, he sings to Veronica all the time, and now he’s serenading her, softly, slowly, changing the words just for her…

People smile and tell me

I’m the lucky one

But you’ve just begun

Think you’re gonna have a son

He will be like you and him

As free as a dove

Conceived in love

Sun is gonna shine above

Josh gently turned Audrey to face Mike and she suddenly clung to the man she now loves most in the word. Josh continued to sing, and Mike joined in with him

Even though we ain’t got money

We’re so in love with you, honey

And everything will bring

A chain of love, oh, oh, yeah

In the mornin’, when I rise

You bring a tear of joy to my eyes

And tell me everything is gonna be alright

Josh, Veronica, Andi and Paul began to return to the table leaving Mike and Audrey back in the corner to sort out their feelings. “Are you going to sing like that to me when I’m pregnant?” asked Veronica.

“Of course, I’ll sing,” said Josh. He’s found that singing helps him deal with his PTSD, so he’s been serenading Veronica with some country songs that he still remembered how to play on the guitar, “but that song is keyed ‘way too high for me.” Then he stopped, “Why? Are you hinting or something?”

“Mmmm, you never know,” smiled Veronica with a saucy look on her face and a little more swivel in her hips that was guaranteed to give Josh an erection.

Josh grabbed Veronica’s arm and pulled her close. After a gentle kiss he asked, “Do you think I’ll have an issue with dad?”

“No, why?”

Josh looked nervous, “Well, she turned to me before she turned to him, and she told me before she told him…”

“You wouldn’t understand,” said Veronica.

“Why wouldn’t I understand?”

“Because you’re not a woman,” said Veronica.

“Try me.”

Veronica thought for a long time. How does she present this so that Josh will understand it? “Ok, there’s an emotional bond between you two, and she has an emotional bond with Mike. The bond between her and Mike is stronger, she doesn’t want to hurt him, but she doesn’t care if she pisses you off…”

“Wait, what emotional bond?”

“You were her first crush,” started Veronica but Josh interrupted right away.

“How did you know… did she tell you?”

“How could you NOT know?” Veronica shook her head. Men are so clueless, that girl had been mooning over Josh since the day he started at Andalon. “Look, when you let her down that day, you did it beautifully and now you’re in the Friend Zone. She’s going to be telling you things you probably never want to hear.”

“Please don’t tell me,” groaned Josh as their fingers entwined.

“Girl things, like having to pee all the time and…”

He covered his ears as he walked ahead of Veronica, “I can’t hear you! La la la laaaaaa la… Let’s go eat.”

Overjoyed that her medical skills weren’t needed Andi shook her head and laughed as she leaned on Paul. “You have the weirdest friends.”

By the time they got back to the table, Josh’s co-worker Terri McCarthy arrived with her date Mateo Buran, a programmer at Andalon. All of Terri’s previous boyfriends had been jerks, Veronica and Josh told Terri to stop pushing Mateo away and give him a chance and so far, it had been working out. As they sat down Mateo began to panic, Terri had told him that this was a “dinner with some friends that she goes camping with,” but as people settled down from something that happened before he and Terri arrived Mateo saw a fellow that he’s seen on TV commercials talking about the car dealerships that he owns, Terri’s manager at Andalon, the executive assistant to the CEO of Andalon, the CEO of Andalon, the CEO’s wife who runs her own company, holy smokes! “I thought you said these are camping buddies,” Mateo whispered into Terri’s ear.

Terri is a joyful troublemaker, she’s average height with large breasts, and raven black hair. She has a narrow face that makes her look kind of mousy. She’s a Canadian by birth and upbringing but lives in Buffalo and works for Josh. Just then she was speaking in French to the slim, elegant black woman sitting next to her. She turned to Mateo and said, “They are my camping buddies, you’re the only one here that I haven’t been camping with.

“Who are these people?”

“Ok, that guy there is the big boss,” she said as she pointed to Anthony Friedman, CEO of Andalon.

“I know Mr. Friedman and his wife, and Veronica, and Josh. What’s with everyone else?” Mateo whispered.

“Ok, that guy there is Paul Jarecki, he’s Josh’s pal who is buddies with the owner of this restaurant. He’s a cardiologist and he raises chickens and has a big-ass farm that’s mostly forest.”

“He looks like that guy that has all those Ford dealerships,” said Mateo.

“Oh, yeah. He does that too. He’s richer than snot, but he’s pretty nice. The tiny lady next to him is his wife, Andi. She’s a pulmonologist, they’ve only been married two years, but they have three kids. They have this really cool governess for the kids, and I went camping with her and Andi and Macy and Veronica, it was like a girl’s weekend, we were in like a wood igloo made of branches woven together back in Paul’s woods, it was totally cool.” Terri was speaking so fast that Mateo could barely keep up.

“Who is Macy?”

“Macy is this babe sitting next to me, she used to be a fashion model but she’s a pastor now and a psychologist and she’s Canadian too,” said Terri indicating the beautiful, elegant black woman sitting next to her. “She’s married to that short guy with black hair, that’s John, he’s Paul’s brother, he’s also a pastor.” Then she looked around, “Where’s Audrey?”

“Who?”

“Josh!” called Terri, “Where’s your mother-in-law?”

“I’m right here!” said Audrey as she hugged Terri from behind.

Mateo looked around in shock as he found that Josh’s “mother-in-law” was younger looking than his date. “Where were you hiding?” asked Terri.

“I was at the bar saying good-bye to some friends,” she smiled then continued to hug Terri to see if she was going to ask the obvious question, but she didn’t.

Macy leaned over to Terri and said, “Quite the evening so far, you missed two baby announcements, and you didn’t get to hear Josh sing.”

Terri didn’t care much about babies, but she’s heard that Josh sang like a Country Western star, and she’s never got to hear him sing, not even around the campfire this past summer, but she’s seen videos of him singing to Veronica and once to Andi and Paul’s twin girls on their birthday. “Who was he singing to?”

“Me,” said Audrey.

“Why was he singing to you? He’s never sung to me,” whined Terri. She turned around in her chair to face Audrey.

“That’s cause you’re not having a baby.”

Terri’s shriek of surprise could be heard throughout the building, followed by her high-speed babbling which boiled down to “Ohmygod, Ohmygod, Ohmygod!” She leapt up and fired a million questions at the expecting young woman while her friends chuckled.

“I need to go eat, we’ll talk later,” and somehow Audrey pulled away from Terri and sat down with Mike.

A toast was raised to the celebrating couples, Andi and Paul, Mike and Audrey, Josh and Veronica, and then the food came out. They were served family style, plates and bowls of different Italian delights were placed on the table; there was Bruschetta and Italian wedding soup, Panzanella salad, lasagna, spaghetti, cavatini, chicken parmesan, and for dessert some delicious cannoli. The dishes were set out, and after grace the dishes were passed around for all to load up their own plates.

As they ate, Mateo asked Terri, “Andi and Paul are celebrating because their adoption was approved, and those two,” he indicated Mike and Audrey, “are having a baby, but what’s with Josh, and Veronica?”

“Oh, Audrey and Mike, that’s a surprise, we just found out tonight. Josh and Veronica are getting married.”

Mateo was shocked, even though Andalon was still at the size where the workforce thought of themselves as a family, this was quite shocking. Josh was one of the working guys, he spent more time with a screwdriver than with a keyboard, it wasn’t unusual to see his desk covered with a server that is undergoing “surgery.” Veronica on the other hand lives in the upper realms of management, the VPs report to her, and if they don’t, they’re not VPs much longer. It’s like a case of the pauper marrying the princess.

The woman sitting next to Mateo extended her hand and said, “Hi, I don’t think we’ve met, I’m Andi Jarecki.”

“Hi, I’m Mateo Buran, I’m here with Terri.”

“You looked overwhelmed,” she continued. “Are you coming camping on Halloween?”

“Halloween? Won’t it be cold?” Mateo shivered at the thought, last year it snowed on Halloween.

“That’s what fire was invented for,” smiled Andi.

“Of course, he’s coming,” said Terri when she noticed that Mateo was talking to another woman. Then she whispered in Mateo’s ear “We’ll have a camper.”

“I will definitely be there,” Mateo informed Andi. It was then he realized that there was a small blond girl staring up at him, studying his face, her expression was unreadable, she looked no older than four-years-old. “Hello,” he said to the little girl.

“Hi.”

“Can I help you?” he asked, totally unsure of what a grownup says to a tiny girl.

The little girl thought long and hard, then finally said, “May I please have your breadstick?”

“Um… sure.” Mateo handed the moppet a breadstick and she dashed off; she was almost out of the room when she ran back.

“Thank you,” she said and ran off again disappearing into the main dining room. Then suddenly she was back, her white, blond hair in ringlets, a white dress with strawberry print. She glared at him in anger, swatted his arm then climbed up on Andi’s lap squawking in anger.

“What did I do?” asked Mateo.

“Oh, that first one was Madeline,” said Terri, “that’s her twin sister Sandy. Their governess must have brought them and they’re sitting somewhere else.”

“How can you tell them apart?”

“Madeline asked for your breadstick and said thank you, Sandy would have just taken it.”

Meanwhile Andi was scolding Sandy, “No, I don’t care what Madeline said, he’s not my boyfriend, he’s just sitting next to me, and she asked him nicely for a breadstick.” Just then a tall, slender Asian girl with blond highlights in her hair arrived to collect Sandy. “What’s with the breadsticks?” Andi asked.

“Oh, Daniel and Katarina are teething, and Kenny gave them breadsticks to chew on and they’re loving it and the twins are terrified that we’ll run out of breadsticks,” said Yi, the children’s governess. Daniel and Katarina are the 10-month-old children of Andi and Macy, cousins born a day apart.

“Kenny is watching both of the little ones?” asked Macy, “by himself?” Kenny is Yi-jin’s boyfriend.

“He’s doing great,” said Yi, “but he looks terrified. It’s his fault, he mentioned you were coming here, and he didn’t know this is the twins’ home away from home and they demanded Mama Giardini over fish sticks and mac and cheese”

“He’ll be careful what he says around these kids in the future,” said Andi as she wrapped up a few more breadsticks in a napkin and handed them to Sandy. “Now you be nice and apologize to the nice man or there will be no Pumpkin Day.”

Sandy hopped down off her mother’s lap and sighed. “I sorry,” and she sprinted off.

“Pumpkin Day? Is that Halloween?” Mateo asked, as plates of cannoli’s were set out and coffee was being poured.

“Pumpkin Day is before Halloween; it’s going to be a riot!” said Terri.

“Speaking of Pumpkin Day,” said Veronica, “who is in?” When everybody raised their hands, she smiled but then she reminded her friends, “that’s going to mean two campouts in a row, can you all deal with that?”

“My washing machine may have a problem with that, but we should be good,” said Marj, they have three rowdy boys and four rough and tumble girls who love to play in the ravine upstream from the pond and come back covered in dirt and mud.

Josh saw that Mateo had his hand up and smiled, “You really don’t know what you’re in for, do ya?”

“No, but as they say in my homeland, what the hell.”

“What country is that?” asked Terri.

“Texas,” smiled Mateo

“Ok folks let’s get started,” said Macy Jarecki, a slim, beautiful black French-Canadian woman who was once a fashion model and at one time did a shoot with the bride Veronica von Köster. She is an ordained minister and was teaching theology at École de Théologie Evangélique du Québec where she met John Jarecki and is now going to help plan and officiate Josh and Veronica’s wedding. “First, I don’t care if it is Halloween weekend, this is a solemn oath you are taking so No Costumes! I do not want to see Dracula, Frankenstein, the mummy, none of that!”

“Man!” moaned Josh, “You must have been one tough teacher!”

“I only had to fail one student,” she said and leaned over and kissed her husband, who was that student she mentioned, then she looked at her notes. “You guys are building a GUILLOTINE also?”

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After the plans for the wedding were hammered out and every member of the wedding party had their responsibilities, such as they were laid out, everyone returned home, full and happy. Paul dropped Josh, Veronica, Mike and Audrey off at their house, a block and a half from his own house. As they walked up the big Victorian house, Mike was ecstatic about the baby. Even though the evening was chilly, and the air was crisp, his heart leapt with joy, but Veronica was clearly not happy.

“Do you realize how much work it is to raise a baby?” Veronica asked as they took their jackets off in the house.

Her father, who raised two little girls to womanhood by himself stared at her. She retreated verbally and said, “Dad, we almost lost you last month! What do you think a baby is going to do to your heart?”

“I had a stint put in, I’m back up and ticking, and I have a nurse watching out for me,” said Mike, his hands massaging Audrey’s shoulders. As Veronica’s mouth opened to protest, Mike said, “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for her, she’s the one who found me on the floor and called my vitals to 911 so the ambulance was ready when they arrived.”

“This is a baby dad, it’s crazy out there now, prices are incredibly higher than they were 30 years ago and you’re making so much less money!” Veronica was just warming up and it looked like her father was too. Audrey started to slink out of the room unnoticed, but Josh stopped her.

“We have to finish this little lady,” he said quietly, “or it’s going to fester like a snake bite.” Audrey nodded at his “Countryfied wisdom” but was starting to look terrified.

“Honey,” Josh said to an exasperated looking Veronica, he spoke softly, trying to soothe the fired up dutchman in her. “We’ve heard your arguments, and they are valid, but this isn’t a credit card debt or a bad car loan, it’s our little brother,” he took her hands in his. “I need you to look your father in the eye and listen to what he says next. Ok?”

“I’ll try,” she mumbled. She couldn’t refuse anything Josh says when he uses that southern gentleman’s tone of voice.

Josh continued to hold Veronica’s hand and said to Mike, “Tell Veronica what you told Audrey, about how you felt when she told you.”

“That’s not for her ears,” said Mike and he looked away.

“Maybe she should hear it, and maybe Magda should also,” said Josh keeping his voice calm and soft.

“I said…” Mike summoned up his courage, “I told her how good it felt to hear the woman I love tell me she loved carrying my baby.”

Josh paused a beat and when there was no indication that Mike was going to continue, he said, “You need to finish it dad.”

Mike sighed, there’s no putting the genie back in the bottle once he’s out. “Your mother,” Mike rarely spoke her name and he choked on the word mother because she abandoned him with two toddlers and cleaned out his savings, then did it again cleaning out his pension, “she reminded me every night how disgusted she was that she was carrying my baby, how I ruined her life… I’m sorry Ronnie, but I loved you two and yet she made me feel so foul both times… I hated myself so much… but now Audrey loves our baby, it makes me think that maybe I’m not such a bad guy after all.”

“Oh daddy,” Veronica dashed to her fathers’ arms doing a bad job of trying not to cry and she sniffed, “I’m sorry too, I didn’t know…”

As Ronnie and her dad hugged, Josh gave a smiling Audrey a side hug and said, “Ok, it’s Tuesday, Ronnie and I have to get up early and adult tomorrow, Snookums do you have any classes tomorrow?”

“Nnnnnno,” said Audrey as she rolled her eyes up and reviewed her class schedule in her mind.

“Ok, when dad falls out of bed at the crack of noon or whenever he’s up, bring him down to Andalon and we’ll see if a tech support phone fits his ear. Maybe we can get him earning a little cash.” Work was Josh’s fix for everything that ails a man, when a man works and earns his pay, it makes him feel right with the world.

============Ѽ============

PUMPKIN DAY

8 days before the wedding

Pumpkin Day! That glorious Western New York holiday! The day that was set aside exclusively for carving Jack O’ Lanterns and preparing costumes for the big day, Halloween. Pumpkin Day occurs on the Saturday a week before Halloween and has been a joy filled time tested holiday tradition since… well, no. It had never been tried before, but Veronica and Audrey were both doing everything they could to turn it into a tradition. There were 30 pumpkins that needed to be turned into Jack O’ Lanterns for the wedding and the best way was a group effort.

Last night was a big gathering at Worzils Bar and Grille for a fish fry dinner and to celebrate with friends. Dave and Angi Johnson burned the mortgage note on their business, Johnson’s Feed Mill, and now it’s all theirs, building, business, house, and car, and the bar was packed with Springville locals to congratulate the hard-working couple. Things got a little out of hand last night, Veronica had a touch too much wine and invited everyone at Worzil’s last night to come out to “the pond” as Josh and Veronica’s vacation plot is now called, to celebrate Pumpkin Day, carve pumpkins and prepare for their upcoming Halloween wedding.

Josh woke up roused by his aching back, he hasn’t needed an alarm clock in over a decade. He just goes to bed six hours before he needs to get up and six hours of sleep always ends with pain that forces him out of bed. He gave the peacefully sleeping Veronica a kiss on the temple and she smiled in her sleep, then he dressed and stepped out of the bedroom and into the main room of the cabin. The fire in the fireplace was burning low, so he added some wood and made sure that the heat exchanger was set then grabbed his legacy USAF field jacket and well-worn University of Georgia hat and as he stepped outside he realized that there was someone on the couch.

He backed up and studied the figure under the blanket. Whomever it was sleeping there was female, if not then he’s got a thin waist and nice rounded hips. The flow of silver hair from under the blanket led him to believe that it was that lady from the bar last night, she was with Kenny and Yi all evening, what was her name… Maxine! Her daughter runs a sexy what-not shop in Lackawanna called Amorous Goods. How the hell did she get here? Josh shrugged it off, he’s got things to do.

Old Glory and the U of G flags were soon raised to greet the dawn, but right now the only light was the buglight on the porch and the fire in the fire pit. A toasty fire was popping and snapping in the brick rectangle called the fire pit and a percolator sat over the flames and was augmenting the scent of the fire with the smell of fresh brewed coffee. Lord, but it’s peaceful out here in the morning!

Soon the eastern horizon began to lighten and as it did a bug light on the other side of the pond came on illuminating the porch and dock over at Cabin #5 where Mike and Audrey live on the weekends. Josh saw a figure exit Cabin #5 and make his way across the dock to the rowboat then slowly row across the small lake. Nothing gets the blood moving in the morning like a turn at the oars with a promise of a cup of joe at the end of the trip. Soon Mike was tied up at Josh’s dock and he pulled up a chair next to Josh. “No fishing this morning dad?” Josh loved calling Mike “dad,” it was so good to have a sober father figure in his life.

“No, I’m going to let the fish sleep in this morning,” said Mike as he sipped his coffee. “You?”

“Same. I figure I’ll let the fish get fat and lazy for next summer. Maybe do a little ice fishing this winter… just to keep them in practice.”

“Good plan,” nodded Mike. Both men agreed on the rule eat what you catch. Doing anything else is just torturing the fish.

As the men watched a dark figure emerge from the woods and was walking toward them, at the same time the sound of boots on a wooden porch behind them was heard and Maxine emerged from the cabin dressed in a long flowing black dress with blue jeans underneath, and black square toed cowboy boots. Her outfit was topped with a denim jacket featuring a large patch from a local motorcycle gang on the back, and a set of USMC stripes on the sleeves, yellow stripes on a red background, and they were big, so they clearly came from the Marine evening dress coat, in the middle of the stripes instead of a pair of crossed M-1 rifles there appeared to be an exploding pineapple.

“Master gunnery sergeant?” asked Josh. That was the highest enlisted rank in the USMC.

“Roger dat,” said Maxine as she poured herself a cup of coffee into a steel canteen cup that she was carrying.

“Cool, where did you get them?” asked Josh.

Maxine snorted then hocked up a loogie and spit it off into the weeds, then as she sat down, she said, “I earned every goddamn one of them.”

That’s exactly how a marine would answer, Josh then said, “When did you get out?”

Maxine didn’t pause for a moment when she said, “May first, nineteen sixty-three.” Josh was stunned, that was over eighty years ago, either she knew how to play the game, or she was a time traveler. Then she paused and started silently counting on her fingers, heh, he’s got her now. She stopped counting and said, “It was a Tuesday.”

Just then the figure that emerged from the woods was close enough to see in the morning gloom. “Morning all,” he said.

“Good morning, Anthony,” Maxine said, which should have shocked Josh, but Anthony knows practically everybody.

“‘Morning Maxie, I didn’t know you were coming,” said Anthony as he poured himself a cup of coffee from a strikingly full pot.

“None of us did,” muttered Josh into his coffee. As Anthony sat down the quiet conversation had a markedly masculine tone, they spoke of the weather, the Buffalo Bills’ chances against the Dolphins tomorrow, and the expected weather at game time. Through the entire conversation Maxine kept up with the fellows. She was definitely a member of The Unofficial Fraternity of The Guys.

The sun finally broke above the horizon and the sunlight painted half the sky a spectacular bloody crimson. It was truly awe inspiring, Josh even pulled his phone out and took a picture. Finally, Mike sipped his coffee and said, “Red sky in the morning,” and all of them nodded at the sage wisdom of the observation. The Unofficial Fraternity of The Guys is long on wisdom, and short on chit-chat. Unless it’s about the Bills’ front line, they’re starting to look a bit weak and it’s halfway through the season! there’s eight more games to play! Now the sage wisdom of The Unofficial Fraternity of The Guys came into its prime, they were beginning to discuss line-up changes when a middle age blond woman stepped out of the cabin and said, “There you are! I’ve been looking all over for you!”

Without turning around Maxine said, “Vikki dear, I told you last night that I would be spending the day here, it’s Pumpkin Day!”

With a frustrated grunt, Vikki said, “Mom, we have an entire inventory to do, you heard what the Adjudicator said!”

“Yes dear, and Kenny is going to help us starting Monday,” said Maxine. “Until then relax! Help us carve a few pumpkins.” Instead, Vikki threw up her hands and stomped off into the cabin. Maxine frowned and shook her head. “Kids! Am I right?”

Mike nodded and said, “You got dat shit right.”

“Amen!” agreed Anthony and the three parents tapped their coffee cups together over the fire. The sage wisdom of The Unofficial Fraternity of The Guys once again has spoken.

Not long after Vikki retired into the cabin, the sky darkened and threatened to rain and Veronica stepped out of the cabin wrapped in a heavy terrycloth robe and wearing flip-flops. “Oh good!” she said as she spotted the coffee pot, “Is there still some coffee?” She handed Josh a coffee cup in the hope that the answer was yes.

Josh poured her a cup and handed it back to her, “Good morning darling,” he said as they kissed, “What happened with the blond that was in there?”

Veronica scoffed, “unless you brought an extra from Worzil’s last night, I’m the only blond in this cabin. I’ll be taking a shower if any more blonds show up,” said Veronica as she went back into the cabin with her coffee. Dumbfounded Mike, Josh, and Anthony looked at each other in shock but Maxine just smiled and drank her coffee.

============Ѽ============

It was a very busy day; they were hoping to do the pumpkin carving at the picnic tables outdoors but there was a gentle rain that fell all day long, so the carving moved indoors. The “new” cabin, cabin #10 was finished in time to be used, it was damaged by vandalism over the years before Josh bought the property. A new roof and new floor was installed, there were several metal cots with wafer thin mattresses stacked in the corner ready to be assembled, but for now there were three picnic tables in the cabin where the carving party took place.

Pumpkins were gutted in cabin #12 by The Guys, and since it wasn’t precision work it went fast, all thirty pumpkins were capped, gutted and carried over to Cabin #10 where they waited for their new faces in a short period of time. Most of the newly carved pumpkins went back over to Cabin #12 but some followed the children. Little Madeline Jarecki wanted her pumpkin to have a smiling face, but she wanted the face to be upside down, so one was carved for her by her governess Yi-jin, a pretty half Korean girl, and it ended up over at her parents’ cabin across the street because she wanted to sleep with it tonight.

Josh came by the carving party quite often to see what was going on and to collect the pieces of pumpkin the carving process produced. Anthony and Marj Friedman had brought all their kids with and they were playing board games in the corner because they were pretty bored carving pumpkins and it was too wet to go outside and play properly. Josh had several empty five-gallon buckets that he exchanged with buckets that the pumpkin carvers had filled with pumpkin bits after carving the pumpkins.

Veronica was finishing up her latest masterpiece as Josh bent to kiss her. As they kissed she reached up to hug him but came back with “Eww, you’re all wet!”

“Have I ever reacted to you like that?” he asked, eyebrows wiggling.

“Stop it, there’s young ears here,” as she held up her newest creation for inspection.

“Nice!” said Josh, “you don’t see eyebrows on pumpkins very often.” He suddenly realized that he had two small children staring at him. “Can I help you two ladies?”

“Where are you putting the punkin’ chunks?” demanded Sandy Jarecki, her twin sister Madeline nodded.

“I’m going to feed them to the deer,” said Josh.

Sandy turned to Madeline, and they began to speak in their own language, the language they’ve been speaking to each other since birth, their mother, Andi, calls it TwinBabble™ and she tries to keep the twins from speaking in TwinBabble, but it’s like telling the rain to go back up. A psychologist at the hospital where she works said to not make a big deal about it and they’ll eventually stop doing it. Andi hoped so because it makes her cute little girls sound a bit like cartoon minions.

“Ok, we’re going too,” announced Sandy as they finished their conversations and they dashed to grab their jackets.

“Umm, where’s your mom?” asked Josh. He loved the girls, but he wasn’t going to walk off into the woods with someone else’s children. “I’ll go with you,” said Veronica as she placed her pumpkin on the “ready table” for final checkout. Marj is quite an artist when it comes to pumpkin carving, so she is giving each pumpkin a final check over to make sure each opening is carved properly to let the candlelight out and she’s going over the pumpkins on the ready table.

“We’re what?” Josh heard Yi call out that question from across the busy crowded cabin. He saw that the

Twins were trying to drag Yi toward Josh, they already had their pink raincoats and boots on. As Josh and Veronica stepped over to Yi the pretty Asian girl said, “What is this all about? You’re catching deer?”

“No,” said Josh trying not laugh, “I’m just scattering pumpkin in the woods for the deer to eat.”

Yi thought about it for a moment then said, “Ok, let me get my coat.” While the twins were cheering Yi said, “Ok, but we probably are not going to see any deer because you guys are so noisy.”

Both girls put a finger over their mouths and said, “Shhhh! Baby!”

“Yeah, shhh baby,” smiled Yi as she fastened their raincoats. “Ok Uncle Josh, let’s go.”

Josh led them out of the cabin and off into the woods. He was pulling a wagon that was full of garbage bags full of pumpkin bits and a five-gallon bucket that was 3/4 full of pumpkin seeds and guts and they headed out along the road that connects all the cabins and the camp sites, then they followed the road that heads off deeper into the woods. They crossed the bridge where they introduced the Friedman kids (and Veronica) to hundreds of fireflies in the spring. The little bugs gently flew around over the bridge and the creek, their tails flashing softly off and on that mysterious bioluminescent green. Then they followed the path uphill into the woods where the path eventually disappeared, buried under a half foot or more of pine needles.

They got to the section of the forest where all the trees are larch trees, also known as tamarack trees, and found that the needles on the once green trees that looked so much like a pine, were bright, eye piercing yellow. “So coooool!” said Sandy.

“These are conifers, they have needles like a pine tree, but they are deciduous like a leafy tree and their needles come off in the autumn,” explained Josh. “In the spring the needles come back a really bright neon green.”

Not far from where they were standing was a level area and in the middle was a pile of round stones. “Is this?” Veronica had run over to the cairn and investigated it closely. It was covered with larch needles and was damp from the misty rain that was drifting downward from the sullen gray sky.

Josh crouched down next to her, “Yep, it’s our campsite”

“It seems so long ago!” Veronica gasped.

“What did?” asked Yi as she watched the twins throw handfuls if tiny larch needles in the sky.

“Back in August we came up here camping,” said Josh…

============Ѽ============

It was so hot in late August, and they were working hard getting the pavilion ready for the wedding ceremony and the cabin was getting stuffy at night and Veronica had been begging for an air conditioner in the bedroom of the cabin. “Why don’t we sleep outside? Josh asked.

“Yeah, why not?” replied Veronica, the evenings eventually do cool off nicely, but she was thinking of sleeping on the porch yet here she was, deep in a larch forest following Josh who was pulling a wagon load of camping equipment. He stripped off his t-shirt as he walked ahead of her. “Must be nice to be able to do that,” whined Veronica.

“So why don’t you?” Josh simply asked.

“I… well… because… someone might see…”

“You are the world’s worst exhibitionist,” said Josh and he stopped and grabbing the bottom of Veronica’s t-shirt he slowly lifted it up, “come on, let’s let the girls get some fresh air,” he teased. Veronica pretended to fight but in a moment Veronica’s t-shirt and bikini bra were off and she found herself walking topless through the forest. The slight, hot breeze blowing through the fragrant forest now caressed her breasts, and the knowledge that someone, anyone could step out from behind a tree and see these breasts that she’s kept concealed… her nipples were growing hard at the realization that they were free. “If you were a real exhibitionist, you’d have those shorts off too,” said Josh, but she was way ahead of him.

“You mean like this?” she asked. Josh turned around to see Veronica striking a saucy pose, her shorts and panties hanging from one finger and all she wore now was her sneakers and a smile. Josh drank in her beauty surrounded by the natural beauty of the forest around them and wondered how a busted up ol’ redneck from Swampbottom Georgia could land such a perfect woman. Tall, slim, a beauty queen, educated, sexy, funny, and a body to kill for. She gestured with a hand, “come on, let’s let the boys get some sun.”

As Josh struggled to get his shorts over his sneakers, she wondered how a girl that’s been used and abused over and over could end up with a guy like him. A warrior who served his country then after being tossed away like a used condom he picked himself up, trained himself for a new career and made a success of himself. And he loves her, he loves her for her kinks and her foibles, and he indulges her, her lesbian dalliances, her newfound exhibitionism, even a bit of bondage on their first date… and the men in her past are no threat to him, when he says “it’s in the past,” he truly means it. Some days when she’s feeling down, he knows exactly what to do or say to help her through her blues. And he cooks too!

“Better?” he asked as he tossed his shorts onto the wagon.

“Much better,” Veronica smiled as she noticed his cock starting to swell a bit, coming up to “half-mast” as he calls it. Then he started rummaging in the wagon, looking for something. “Wait a minute… what are you doing… you put that thing away! I mean it… get away from me with that thing… I’ll scream!” but her words didn’t slow him down and he advanced on her with malicious intent, in his hands he clutched the Selfie Stick with his phone set on the stick and ready.

“You’re going to love this,” he said, and he took her in his arms and held her close and kissed her. Then he showed her the picture of them kissing, another where their lips were inches apart, their eyes gazing intently into each other’s and the forest surrounding them.

“Aww, but that side shows your scars, let’s do it the other way,” said Veronica and they turned around for a few more shots. The pictures were beautiful, and you couldn’t see any of their “naughty bits” as Audrey would put it, but you could see the fullness of her breast pressed against Josh’s chest, their round asses, they were fully nude, but nothing was exposed. Then there was a shot or two where their naughty bits were fully exposed as they smiled for the camera. “Those come off your phone!” Veronica demanded, “and make sure I get copies.”

“What do you think?” asked Josh as they walked hand in hand through the forest, the land rising as they went.

Veronica was studying the pictures with her free hand and said, “the pavilion is too dark.”

Josh chuckled, that’s Veronica to a tee, doing one thing but answering a different question. The pavilion was an open pavilion that was used for meetings or maybe even plays in the past. Their investigation into the history of Josh’s land showed that it went back further than they thought. It was a CCC camp back in the 1930’s then became a scout camp after the war. Josh got it for a song even though he could barely afford it at the time, but it kept him occupied as he dealt with the depression of being rejected and tossed away by the USAF for what Josh considered minor injuries, ignoring the fact that he’s 100% disabled.

The pavilion is indeed very dark but if they need to put in more lighting, they may have to bring in a generator. He thought in it for a while then said, “I think we’re going to be ok, the wedding is in the fall, there will be fewer leaves on the trees and the sun will be lower in the sky and maybe we’ll get some side light.”

“No, I was thinking colors, maybe if we paint the ceiling a light gray.”

Josh shook his head, most of the time he gets it wrong when he tries to guess what she’s thinking, but he gets points for trying. Soon they got to the area he was leading her to. A small section of forest that was fairly level in an area that was planted with beautiful Larch trees. The tamaracks stood over fifty feet tall with stout trunks and below them lay a very thick, soft, layer of needles because the tamarack sheds its needles in the fall. In the middle of the area a small stone pyramid stood marking where Josh built a fire pit. He brushed the needles away revealing a true fire pit surrounded by a ring of stone.

After setting up the small tent and getting a bucket of water from the nearby stream that eventually fills the pond and setting up the camp stove Josh set about collecting firewood, all the while completely naked. Veronica thought that he would be all over her, but except for the abundance of hugs and kisses he was just Josh, doing what Josh does best, taking care of her. He’s going to be such a great father… where did that thought come from? It’s been popping in her head more and more since they went to the courthouse got their marriage license, then took Audrey and went to Doc Randall, the mayor of Springville and they said the magic words and they were married. Legally. And for some reason that was making her incredibly hot. Her nipples were so hard they were starting to ache, and her moisture was practically running down her leg. Her hands were shaking with the need to provide what she’s missing and she fought to keep them away from her pussy.

For his part, Josh wasn’t ignoring Veronica, but if he paid attention to her the way he wanted to, this camp would never get set up and it would be a very miserable evening. Touches, kisses, and long loving looks at her beautiful body on display but he had work to do to make her comfortable and suddenly she gently wrapped her warm hand around his balls and tugged. She knows the one true nature of men, when you have them by the balls, their hearts and minds will soon follow. “Enough camping,” she said as she pulled him close, “I need you.” The way she said ‘need’ left no doubt in his mind exactly what she needed.

She took his semi-hard cock in her mouth and suckled on it, reveling in the way it began to harden, each throbbing heartbeat pumped more blood into it, such a marvelous display of erotic hydraulics! Then, with a loving kiss to the mushroom head of his cock she turned on her blanket and knelt down on her knees and elbows in a display that could leave no doubt in his mind where he was needed.

Josh eased his cock into Veronica’s depths spreading her, stretching her vagina, she was so warm, so wet, so eager. The thought that he wasn’t going to last long rolled through his mind. Veronica’s eyes rolled back as the wave of pleasure accompanying his penetration washed over her, she groaned as he slid into her, god, it seems like it’s been forever since they did doggy style. She loved this position for its sheer animalistic pleasure. He wasn’t fully in when she reached back and began strumming her clit, she needed to cum and she needed it now.

Josh tried to make it last, to draw out her pleasure but she wanted it hard and fast. She was pushing back with each stroke, grunting each time his groin slapped into her, he fingers stroking her clit would reach for his balls as he plunged into her… “Give it to me!” she cried.

“I’m not… going to… last…”

“I don’t care, fuck me!” she demanded.

That was it, Josh started fucking her as hard and as fast as he could. He was maniacal, he grabbed her hips and pulled her back on his cock, slamming into her, skewering her on his club of flesh. They were both grunting now, covered in a sheen of sweat, her fingertips dancing on her clit as she came in a long non-stop wave of pleasure. Somehow Josh’s thrusts grew more fierce, more demanding and he roared as his orgasm took him, each spurt of his semen into her pussy was accompanied with a vicious, almost angry thrust that felt like he was trying to lift her knees off the ground.

And then it was over, and they were both taken by that exhausted, blissful delight that comes with a good, hard cum. He collapsed on his side and pulled her close and she purred in pleasure. “See? You really can do a quickie if you try.”

Panting he kissed the back of her neck; sex was rare with his ex-wife so he would make it last whenever she deemed him worthy of sex. He pulled Veronica closer and whispered, “I love you Nica,”

“I love you too Effi.”

All the cuddling and loving by the campfire that evening couldn’t hold a candle to the hot, sweaty animal fucking of that afternoon pounding Josh gave her. She was surprised that he never had a partner that liked a quick hot fuck, so being unable to read her mind Josh gave her a secret code word to use whenever she wanted a quickie, the code word was “Fuck me.” Soon there wasn’t a storage closet or empty office at their workplace that wasn’t consecrated with a quick, animalistic fuck.

============Ѽ============

Pulling the wagon up to the little pyramid of stones that marks their camping spot Josh emptied the bucket of pumpkin seeds into the fire pit and said, “Let’s feed the deer!”

“Where? There’s no deer here!” cried Sandy while Madeline nodded in agreement.

“It’s kind of like feeding a cat,” said Josh. “We put the food out, and when they’re hungry they’ll come and eat.” He lifted the bags off the wagon and opened them for the twins. “Scatter them good and wide so the deer don’t bump into each other when they’re eating.” Soon the twins were tossing pumpkin chunks around the forest, scattering the pieces around with enthusiasm.

“Will the deer eat that?” asked Yi as Josh tossed the rest of the pumpkin chunks in random directions.

“They will love it. They’ll go after the Jack O’ Lanterns we put out for Halloween down by the cabins too.”

“Don’t you ‘member?” asked Sandy, “They ate ALL our punkin last year!” She held her hands out wide to illustrate the point and Madeline nodded mutely.

“Down south we would put out what we call deer corn, it was dried corn with chunks of dried apple. The deer love it, any pumpkin that didn’t go into a pie got fed to the deer too.” Josh pointed to the seeds and said, “We’ll have squirrel, chipmunks, porcupine, possum, and racoons, lots of racoons. Hopefully they’ll be here rather than down at the cabins.”

“Racooooons!” shouted Madeline.

“She doesn’t like racoons,” said Sandy, “They try to eat our chickens.”

After scattering the pumpkin pieces, the twins climbed into the wagon, and they headed back to the cabins. Luckily it was all downhill from here so pulling the twins was easy. When they got back to the cabins there was a pickup truck towing a small camper sitting on Travette Road. Josh and Veronica stepped up to the truck and it was Mateo Buran and Terri McCarthy sitting in the cab of the truck. “You missed Pumpkin Day,” Veronica called as they neared the truck.

“Aw gee, what a shame,” called Terri as she leaned over Mateo’s shoulder. “I truly miss the feeling of cold pumpkin snot all over my hands.”

“We feed the deers!” called Madeline from the wagon. Terri and Madeline met at dinner at Giardini’s and Madeline took a liking to Terri.

“See that red reflector down there?” said Josh pointing to a reflector on a stick marking the entrance to the ancient softball diamond, “That’s the driveway, swing wide and pull in there, I’ll open the gate for you.”

“Yes sir, Mr. Gravely,” said Mateo.

Josh gave Terri a withering look and she said, “I’m working on it.” As the truck slowly pulled ahead, they could hear Terri berating Mateo, “His name is Josh, Mr. Gravely is his dad’s name!”

They met Mateo and Terri at the gate to the old softball diamond and said, “Take the driveway to the right and follow the road around the loop, when you’re almost back here I’ll meet you and guide you back into your spot.”

“Yes, sir Mister… Josh.”

Terri guided Mateo around the loop which looked much different than it looked during the summer, the bushes and other plants that make up the underbrush have lost their leaves and the leaves overhead are a different color, greens, reds, and varying shades of Amber. The cabins were more visible now, earlier this summer they were hidden in the leaves, but now the ugly green paint on the cabins stood out. Unfortunately, the day was still wet and dreary and not what Terri considered camping weather. “There’s where Ant and Marj and their army of kids stay, and over there by the pond is where Mike and Audrey stay.”

“Where does Mister… I mean Josh stay?”

“On the other side of the pond, here we are!” Josh was standing in the road ahead and he helped Mateo back the camper into the spot. It took a while because Mateo never pulled a camper before, but Josh was patient and worked with him, like he worked with so many young airmen in the past. Backing a trailer full of bombs into a tight storage igloo was a matter of pride for a weapons troop like Josh and handing that knowledge down to your subordinates means less work for you.

For her part, Terri hopped out of the truck and watched as her boyfriend backed her parent’s camper into the spot. This is her camping spot, when Veronica decided on an autumn wedding in the woods and camping would be allowed, Terri picked a spot where a cabin once stood, all she asked for was electricity and water. Having picked the spot, she came up and worked every weekend, she cleared the underbrush, raked an entire load of gravel level, built a fire pit and worked with Josh to build the picnic table. She even cut and split the stack of firewood that waited for her to arrive. Once the camper was spotted, Josh showed them how to level the camper and to put the stabilizer jacks in place, then connect it up to water and electricity and get the appliances working.

It was growing dark by the time Terri had the kitchen set up the way she likes it. “What do you think boss?”

“For its age it’s in great shape,” said Josh as he and Veronica started to head over to Audrey and Mike’s cabin for dinner with Macy and John Jarecki.

“No, not that,” said Terri then with a nod of her head in Mateo’s direction she indicated that she was talking about him.

Josh winked and whispered, “he’ll do.” It was no secret that Josh liked Mateo, he was a programmer who wouldn’t take chances with his code and he tested it meticulously. Once it was in use, he worked with the support people to verify that his code was working as expected. Josh thought Mateo was a good match for Terri, he was truly a nice guy with a good sense of humor who wouldn’t treat Terri as horribly as pervious boyfriends had treated her.

Mateo stood in the pool of light just outside of Terri’s open camper door and said, “well, if you’re good, I’ll be going…”

Josh and Veronica saw Terri’s arm shoot out of the door, grab Mateo’s collar and drag him into the camper. Terri leaned out to pull the door closed and blew Josh and Veronica a kiss.

“Think he’ll be getting lucky?” asked Josh.

“You should be worrying about you getting lucky,” grinned Veronica. “Tonight, is our last time until we get married. I want you on fire for our wedding night.”

“But we are married,” whined Josh.

“Only legally,” said Veronica as she walked ahead of Josh, her hips swinging. She heard him start to run and she took off at a sprint and ran all the way to Cabin #5.

============Ѽ============

After dinner Mateo helped clean up and again started to leave and Terri blocked his way to the door, “What’s the matter,” Terri asked, “Don’t you like me?”

“Yeah, I like you, it’s just that I don’t…” and his voice faded.

“You don’t what? You don’t want to be here?” Terri wasn’t going to give this guy any mercy. She stood in front of the door blocking his exit.

“I don’t know what to do here,” mumbled Mateo.

“There’s no requirement to do anything.” Terri tried to understand what was going on in this guy’s head. He’s a really nice guy, but there’s some reason why Josh told her to give this kid a try. “Do you like guys?”

Mateo chuckled, “No. Hell, I don’t like me most of the time, I’m not gay, and I’m not undecided either. I like chicks.”

“Then what?” asked Terri. Could this guy be a virgin? She asked herself. Just to test the waters she moved closer. He retreated, but just a little bit. She leaned forward and gave him a kiss, and he responded with a little whimper. “Let’s play a game, for the next ten minutes I ask a question, then you answer it and be totally honest, then you ask me a question and we go back and forth, ok?”

Mateo nodded nervously but didn’t say anything. “I’ll go first,” said Terri. “Where are you from?”

“L… Loredo Texas,” he said, then at her urging he asked, “Where are you from?”

“Mississauga Ontario, see? It’s easy.” She gave him a cute smile as he started to loosen up. “What’s your highest level of education?”

Mateo was a little shocked at the question, it was starting to sound like a job interview. “A bachelor’s in computer science from Texas Tech. What’s your highest level of education?”

Terri gave him a big grin, “I graduated three hundred and twenty second in a class of three hundred and twenty-four from Mississauga Central High School and am currently working on an associate’s at ECC.” ECC is the Erie County Community College that Josh has been urging Terri to attend because her grammar and spelling are so horrible when she fills out reports. She’s actually incredibly smart when it comes to troubleshooting computer and network problems, “My turn, do I scare you?” she asked as she let her breasts brush against his chest.

“Y-yes,” he said as her lips brushed against his neck.

“Your turn,” she reminded him, “ask me any question that you dare…”

“I… uh…”

He was starting to tremble, and she thought it was cute. “Come on, any question… first question that pops into your head, ready? Go!”

“What is your bra size?” He immediately thought he was going to die of embarrassment, but she did say to ask any question.

Terri smiled and took a step back, “see? That wasn’t so hard.” She slipped off her t-shirt then reached behind her back and unfastened her bra and slipped it off revealing her firm round breasts with large, light pink areola and small hard nipples. She inspected her bra and said “I thought these things have a tag… oh well, it’s 32D and if you can find one that size, I like the front closure… Then she realized that he was staring at her tits in shock. “What?”

“They’re… you’re beautiful.”

“And they’re real too, see?” She took his hand and put it on her breast, and he squeezed gently. “Now, my question, why are you so scared?”

Mateo took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “Because every time I get to this point with a girl I fail.”

“Like what, you run out screaming?”

“My dick,” he groaned.

“What’s wrong, is it bent?” going through Terri’s mind right now were those damn Bent Carrot commercials on TV.

“No, it’s that I… mutter mumble mumble”

“What, you cum what?” Terri didn’t hear because he muttered it so quietly. “What’s wrong with your dick?”

“I cum too quick.” He was completely embarrassed.

“And then what? Your next time you’re too quick too?”

“No,” he sighed in anguish, “there is no next time, she leaves or throws me out and it’s over.”

“Sometimes that’s just excitement, let Doctor Terri take care of your problem.” Her practiced hand had his belt unbuckled and his jeans pooled up around his ankles in a matter of moments. She pulled down his boxer/briefs and his dick sprang free. “Oh, geezuz Mateo, this isn’t a dick, this is a COCK!” she cried in delight. She wrapped her hand around his organ and her fingertips were never this far away from her thumb when wrapped around any other male appendage before. Long, thick, circumcised and all hers. She felt like she just won the lottery and began to stroke his cock happily, she said, “I think you scared them off with this beast! Ok, I want you to cum as fast and as much as you like, cum all over my tits.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, they’re washable, cum on me!” her hand was now flashing up and down his cock.

He leaned back against the counter and moaned, it wasn’t very long at all when he growled, “I’m cumming!” and volley after volley of semen shot from his cock. The first squirt hit Terri in the chin then squirt after squirt hit her chest, it felt so hot! So dirty! She loved every moment of it!

Finally, the cascade ended, the sensation was suddenly too much, he placed his hand on hers and said, “oh god, that was amazing…” This is when she throws me out in disgust, he thought.

Instead, Terri gave her cute, mousy grin. “You hosed me down, you rinse me off.” When he looked a bit confused, she said, “Use your imagination!” Ten minutes later they were in the camper’s tiny shower testing it out. It worked pretty nice for a couple that enjoyed a lot of physical contact, there was a lot of elbow banging on the sides of the tiny shower stall because it was so small. Terri was sitting on the toilet teasing his cock back to erection with her tongue when the hot water ran out.

============Ѽ============

“I love the size of these cabins!” exclaimed Macy as she and Veronica sat on a blanket by the fireplace keeping little Katarina busy as the 10-month-old began to explore the cabin. Macy and John’s cabin was tiny compared to this cabin. The main room had a couch, recliner, easy chair, kitchen area on one side with a toilet and shower and a kitchen table big enough for six to eat comfortably

“You have to remember that they were built for a dozen or more CCC workers, which makes them pretty spacious for three couples and a baby,” said Veronica. Veronica and Josh, Macy and John joined Audrey and Mike for dinner, it was a pre-wedding meeting with the preacher, and they were only 8 days away from the big event! Next Saturday is the Beggars Night campout and party for the kids, Sunday is the wedding, Halloween day.

Audrey watched from her seat on the couch, terrified to say something or the wide-ranging emotional rollercoaster she’s been riding may start up again. The three women were enjoying a respite, after a full day of wedding preparations, their men were making dinner for them so they could relax. It’s not like stew cooked over the fire in the fireplace takes a lot of work once everything is chopped and put in the pot, but the women were glad for the break. Macy turned those beautiful black eyes on Audrey and said, “When are you due?”

Audrey didn’t say anything, but her jaw was moving, and denial was in her eyes. “No, don’t even think of saying that out loud,” said Macy. “You’re not hiding anything from me, I’ve been talking to people one on one for decades, and I married the only person that was able to get me to change my mind. When are you due?”

Defeated, Macy mumbled, “end of May, early June.”

Macy looked at the terrified girl and said, “Come on down here, come on…” Macy coaxed Audrey down off the couch and onto the floor and Katarina crawled over to her and climbed up on her lap. The little girl with long black curly locks pulled herself up to a standing position and started smacking her lips and bouncing as she stood on Audrey’s thighs.

“Awww, she wants a kiss,” laughed Veronica.

Katarina broke into a huge open mouth grin as Macy, Veronica and John started laughing at the happy little girl, but for her part Audrey was hesitant to respond to the munchkin’s joyful expression of love. Little Katarina was a beautiful combination of her black French-Canadian mother, a former fashion model turned pastor turned psychologist who describes herself as a Quebecois Labrador Retriever, only darker, and her father who describes himself as just one shade lighter than a Great Pyrenees. Luckily Katarina’s emotional makeup echoes her grandparents, hardworking fishermen who love to celebrate on her mother’s side, and on her father’s side equally joyful eastern Europeans for whom laughter is an essential part of life.

“Go ahead, mon ami, let her kiss you,” whispered Macy.

So much confusion ran through Audrey’s head, she loves her baby’s father with all her heart, but what is going to happen to them? She doesn’t really work, she’s taking nursing classes in order to help Mike, he just started taking support calls at Andalon, his pension is barely a pittance, and she can’t depend on Josh and Veronica no matter how many reassurances they give her, thanks to her parents she learned not to trust anyone. She looked to her parents for guidance, and they looked to her as a live-in sex partner, not a daughter.

But Katarina didn’t care, that innocent smile the big toothless grin… no wait… what’s that line of white on her gum? “A tooth… I see you have a tooth!” said Audrey, for some reason a thrill of excitement coursed through her, how silly was it that seeing the dawning of baby’s first tooth could lift her from the morose doldrums of hormone inspired worry? The next thing she knew was that she was being covered with some of the juiciest kisses she had ever experienced, and when she began laughing Katarina laughed along with her.

Audrey and Katarina were inseparable for the rest of the evening, Katarina sat on Audrey’s lap throughout dinner and ate potatoes that Audrey mashed up for her and grabbed Audrey’s lip when Audrey tried to take a bite for herself, and Audrey got the chance to change her very first diaper ever. “I don’t believe that you have never done that,” said Macy as Audrey finished her first diaper of her life. “Didn’t you ever babysit or anything like that?”

Audrey shook her head, “no, Katarina is the first baby I ever held.” She paused for a long time then said, “My parents were weird, they raised me differently than anyone else that I knew. When all my girlfriends had gotten “The Big Talk” I already knew that stuff, by the time I was ready to lose my virginity, my parents were the ones that took it.” She looked at Macy and didn’t see any judgement there, she’s used to seeing shock, or horror, or anger, or strange interest.

Macy sighed and said, “We simply take what was given to us and learn, and if we need help, we need to know where to turn. Michael did so wonderfully with his girls, I’m sure he will be your strength.”

“What about Veronica’s sister Magda?” Audrey asked as Katarina gnawed on her tiny fist.

“It won’t be telling tales out of school to say that Magda was doing fine until her mother reappeared,” said Macy sadly. “Veronica avoided her and continued on with her studies at University, Magda, on the other hand, fell under her influence, and we saw what happened.”

Audrey nodded sadly, Magda seduced Veronica’s fiancé away and ruined her wedding, then later she pillaged her father’s union pension leaving Mike penniless. From what Mike said about his ex-wife it sounds like Magda became a copy of her. Audrey started slowly. Mike had congestive heart failure which pushed back Veronica and Josh’s wedding plans, but Audrey refuses to say heart failure, it’s too terrifying for her. “When Mike got sick in August, I thought we lost him, he looked so pale and weak, I couldn’t leave his side. When we got him home, I was so happy that he was still with me…” She blushed and looked embarrassed, something she never thought was possible due to her upbringing. She gently patted her tummy and said, “I guess I was a little bit too happy… first time lucky, eh?”

She remembered fondly giving Mike a sponge bath after his long stay in the hospital, it was good practice for nursing class she told herself. And Mike got an erection, which her teacher said often happens, but the teacher said to not make an issue about it, yet Audrey fell in love with that erection, it was a sign of life! A sign that his heart was working again! She quietly undressed and straddled Mike and she lowered a trembling breast to his mouth, and he began to suckle just as Katarina was now suckling her bottle.

It was inevitable, there was no way for her to stop. She slowly eased down on his erection, treasuring the feeling of having the man she loved inside of her body. She was gentle and quiet, rising and lowering slowly and softly on his hard cock, so different than the rough and sometimes angry sex her parents taught her. She surprised herself by cumming, a sweet little orgasm that snuck up on her unexpectedly, she never came during sex with her parents, she remembered squeaking and shuddering then sighing in pleasure as Mike came too. That wasn’t the only time they made love, but it was the first, and it was the sweetest.

Macy and Audrey spoke long into the night and in the end Audrey, who finally admitted that she was terrified of having a child, was reluctant to return Katarina to Macy and now couldn’t wait for the love of her own baby.

After dropping John and Macy off at their cabin across the street at “Jarecki Acres” Josh and Veronica rode back to their cabin in their golf cart, the night was chilly, and the air was crisp. The stars were especially bright. “That was a good idea,” said Veronica, “what made you think a dinner with John and Macy would open Audrey up.”

“That wasn’t my original intent,” said Josh, “the idea was for her to spend some time with Katarina or Andi and Paul’s little boy Daniel. I’ve seen her looking at them and I figured maybe playing with the baby would help.”

“And a little free advice from a psychologist wouldn’t help, right?” grinned Ronnie.

“Nica, the thought never crossed my mind.”

“I’m sure it didn’t, Effi.” Now almost two years later their little pet names for each other make their hearts leap whenever they use or hear them. “Sing to me,” she crooned as she leaned on his shoulder, “Sing me what you’re going to sing at the wedding next week.”

“It’s a sweet country love song that goes ‘way back. I don’t want to ruin the surprise.”

“Sing it.”

Suddenly he started tapping a raunchy rock rhythm on the back of the seat and started singing

Girl you gone and done it to me

Hotter than a hoochie-coochie

Got me like that first time

I heard Alan Jackson – Chattahoochee

I was never the same again

I’m a lifelong fan, yes I am

Baby, I love you like I love country music

“No! Not this one again!” cried Veronica as she slapped his chest. The Jarecki twins and two thirds of the Friedman kids LOVE this rocking country rap song and ask Josh to sing it over and over. Veronica covered her ears and threatened to jump out of the golf cart, “I can’t hear you! La la la la!”

Undeterred, Josh continued to sing almost howling at the moon

You get me high as Willie girl, you get me gone as Jones

You turn me on as much as I turn on my radio

Let’s take our time, walk the line

Kinda like Johnny and June did,

yeah let’s do this

Baby, I love you like I love country music*

============Ѽ============

“So this is really your first time?” asked Terri as she stroked Mateo’s hard, throbbing cock. Once he got that first, super quick orgasm out of the way, she’s spent the rest of the evening teasing him. After their shower together she insisted he light the furnace on her camper and they spent the evening together naked, drinking margaritas from a mix, eating tortilla chips and guacamole that he taught her to make fresh from avocados, jalapenos and onion, and they ate her mother’s stash of snack cakes (it is her parent’s camper after all), and touching each other’s bodies as much and as often as possible. They ended up on the big twin bed in the bedroom in the back half of the camper.

“You wouldn’t be shittin’ me about bein’ a virgin an’ shit just to get some would ya? ‘Cause I don’t play that way,” said Terri as she leaned over and sucked on his nipple. A shockwave of sexual desire shot through his body. Mateo gasped and arched his back unsure if his body was trying to get away or get more.

When she finally stopped and his breathing returned to normal Mateo gasped, “if I was lying do you think I would tell you? Especially right now?”

Terri thought about it as she stroked his cock and caressed his swollen balls. “You know, for a programmer you’re pretty smart an’ shit. Ok, what do you like to look at more, my tits or my ass?”

“Wha?” Mateo thought he was used to her blunt manner of speaking but apparently not.

“What do you like to see better, my tits or my ass?” Terri repeated her question like she was speaking to a moron. “Guys get turned on by seein’ shit, so what do you want to see?”

“Ok, I’ll play your game,” said Mateo whose balls were aching now. “I like your ass, but I love looking at your tits.” Normally he wouldn’t say tits to a woman, but he’s half drunk and she did ask using that exact word.

“Why?” Terri asked. She wanted to hear what he had to say about her breasts, she’s not vain but she’s proud of her tits.

“Because… they’re beautiful! I’ve seen a few tits, but that’s all I’ve seen, I cum and they’re gone, but your breasts are so large, and round, and firm, and they’re perfectly symmetrical! Most girls have one breast larger than the other but yours are perfectly even. Gaawd, I could just sit here and watch them bounce all day.”

“Good answer!” grinned Terri as she straddled his legs and started speaking like she was a schoolteacher. “Ok, your next lesson is Cowgirl. This is important, since it’s your first time if you feel like you’re going to cum that’s ok, but after tonight you will be expected to make sure that I cum first, got it?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Mateo was loving this, every girl he had been with made having sex sound like some deep romantic/philosophical post graduate examination. With Terri it was completely fun, starting with the handjob, then the shower, to licking the guacamole dip on her nipples and the head of his cock, to lessons on the female anatomy with Doctor Terri.

“All right, let’s begin. First, we lube up your cock, never present a dry cock to an eager pussy,” then she leaned over and allowed a long drop of saliva to fall from her mouth and it hit his cock perfectly.

“There’s other ways of doing that,” said Mateo.

“Yeah, but I get to practice my aim this way,” said Terri with that mousy smile that Mateo is beginning to love. Then she shuffled forward and lined up his cock with her pussy and after a moment of alignment she began to sink down. Mateo’s cock slowly entered her vagina, stretching her out. “Sss… biiiggg,” she gasped, her eyes rolling back in her head as his cock caused her nothing but pleasure.

“You ok?” he asked, a tinge of real concern in his voice. Good God she was beautiful! He couldn’t believe such a sexy goddess was impaled on his cock. Her breasts were indeed beautiful, but the sight of her neatly trimmed pubic hair pointing toward her pussy which was now straining to swallow his cock was almost enough to make him cum.

Terri looked down at his big brown eyes and said, “I’m more ok than I have been in a long time.” She started moving slightly up and down, each downward movement took a little bit more of Mateo’s sizeable cock, then she leaned forward and began moving her hips, forward and back, forward and back. “See? This is perfect, just like this,” she moaned. Her large breasts were dangling down, swinging back and forth in time with her hips, her nipples rubbing against his hairless chest causing additional thrills with each stroke.

Mateo began gently caressing her round bubble butt adding more thrills to her ride and she began pushing her crotch down causing her clit to rub against his wiry pubic hair igniting fires of passion. Her motions grew jerky as sexual tension grew with each stroke and she came closer and closer to a climax. Without warning she began to lose control of her body, her torso began to shudder, her hips were jerking out of control and she began whimpering helplessly. “Are you ok?” Mateo gasped.

“Uuunnnggghhh!” she gasped as a wave of release crashed over her, followed by another and another. Suddenly she went limp and lay motionless on Mateo’s supine body.

“What’s wrong?” Mateo gasped and he tried to lift Terri off of him but it seemed like she was fighting back.

“Nadda,” smiled Terri blearily, “Nadda damn thing.” She moved into position to kiss him, still skewered on his fleshy cudgel. She felt blissfully drained of energy. “Ok, your turn, let’s roll over.” They awkwardly rolled over and Terri found herself still impaled on that spike of flesh with Mateo looking at her nervously.

“Now what?” he asked.

“You’re driving,” she threw her arms out wide and offered her body to him. “Fuck me like you own me.”

Mateo grinned and his hips began moving, his cock began to gently piston in and out of Terri’s stretched open pussy. Slowly he picked up speed as if looking to see if she would be judging his performance. “Go ahead, do what you want,” she said. With a grin Mateo bit down on her tit, not enough to cause any real pain but it did get her attention.

Mateo began to make love to Terri gently. His cock slid in and out of her pussy and the sensation was delightful. Her warm, wet pussy gripped his cock as he slid in and out of her, the sensation making him moan gently in delight. “I can’t believe how good you feel,” he groaned.

Terri was a little surprised, usually when guys fucked her, they called her “bitch” and if they say anything nice it will be something on the order of “nice cunt!” or “nice fuck!” She looked up in Mateo’s eyes and saw them sparkling in the candlelight and she was shocked, was romance entering Terri McCarthy’s life? She would normally reply, “You’re a good fuck,” or “that’s some good dick.” This time she just curled her fingers in his hair and pulled his head down to hers and they kissed, their tongues entwined, and they both gently moaned in time with his thrusts that were continuing to increase in tempo.

“More!” gasped Terri, which surprised herself. She was a “one and done” kind of girl, her orgasm a few minutes ago was enough to last her for week, but now she wanted more. Her legs curled around his and her fingers grabbed his (very sexy) ass and she began to urge him on harder, faster. “Yes! More!” she started to gasp, her fingers now clawing at his back. The sound of their bodies clapping together filled the trailer and joined the melody of their gasps, sighs and grunts.

Mateo pushed himself up onto his hands and looked down on Terri, her large boobs bobbed and wobbled in time with his thrusts, her nipples spun in circles as he thrust into her over and over. He felt another orgasm coming on and Terri began to cum again. Her cries filled his ears as she practically sang “Cummmiiinnnggg!”

Now his orgasm hit, and he growled “Unngghh, unngghh, unngghh…” in time with his cock pulsating and squirting into her womb again and again. This orgasm was as powerful maybe more than the previous one. His body shook with waves of intense pleasure and all he could see was Terri’s cute smile every time his eyes could focus. Finally, exhaustion overcame him and he collapsed and rolled on his back next to her. Terri curled up and rested her head on his chest and listened to his heart hammering away in his chest. She began to fall in love with that sound and she wondered if Audrey would do this with Mike. Finally, she said, “You’re no longer a virgin, how do you feel?”

“Oh man!” he gasped. “I’ve heard that after mating the female preying mantis will bite the head off of her mate and I always wondered how he could let that happen.” He gasped for air and said, “now I know!” He panted, a huge smile on his face, “I couldn’t stop you if I tried.”

Terri chuckled, he’s such a nerd! She pulled a blanket over them then lay on her side and smiled. “I wore you out, eh?”

He rolled and looked into her eyes. Normally they were mischievous but now they looked soft and tender. “I don’t know if wore out is the right word. Maybe “overwhelmed” is a better word.”

Thinking back to something that Veronica told her, Terri asked, “Did your grandmother have a special name for you?”

He smiled and thought back to his grandmother, she passed away not long after he graduated from college, but he remembered the nickname she always had for him, “cariño,” he said.

“Can I call you that?” she asked, and she tried the word out herself, “cariño.”

He smiled. It sounded good, it’s been a long time since he heard it. “Of course, it sounds wonderful coming from you.” Then he asked, “did your grandmother have a name for you?”

“She called me chéri, or ma chéri. You can call me that if you want.”

And both were happy, it would be a while before they discover that they’re both calling each other “sweetheart” in different languages.

============Ѽ============

BEGGARS NIGHT

One day before the wedding

It is a tradition in Western New York to allow the younger kids to go trick-or-treating on a night before Halloween to address security concerns over young children getting harmed by unsupervised Trick or Treat mayhem committed by older children. Younger children were encouraged to Trick or Treat on the night before Halloween. In the Buffalo area this is called Beggars Night, a kind of sugar fueled Halloween Eve. Veronica wanted to have a beggar’s night for the kids of the guests in the wedding, so she, Andi, Macy, and Audrey planned Beggars Night here in the woods.

The “resident” kids, all seven of Anthony and Marj Friedman’s children and Andi and Paul Jarecki’s twin girls were excited. The Friedman kids mostly wore random costumes, but the twins wore a theme costume. Madeline was Little Bo Peep, she wore a frilly dress, her blond tresses were styled in ringlets, and she carried a shepherd’s crook while Sandy was dressed like a sheep. The two youngest Friedman boys, David and Morgan wore costumes based on Josh’s nickname for them, Jake and Elwood. They dressed exactly like the Blues Brothers, black slacks, blazer, narrow black tie, and a hat along with a white shirt and a pair of black sunglasses. Their oldest sisters Billie and Linda who both had a crush on Josh wore Georgia themed costumes, Billie dressed as a Georgia Bulldog football player, and Linda dressed as an Atlanta Brave baseball player. Josh noticed but he didn’t know how to handle a teenage crush, so he pretended not to notice the significance of their costumes, he treated them as fellow fans.

Carloads of youngsters arrived from Springville, this became part of “The Boys'” fund raiser for Children’s Hospital, earlier Mike, Josh, Paul, John, and Kenny built a guillotine to be part of a haunted house to raise money, but it was so well done that people were paying to “ride” the guillotine and paying money to have their friends sentenced to the guillotine.

As Trick-or-Treating in the Haunted Woods was developed it was obvious that more places for the kids to trick-or-treat needed to be added so Josh and Anthony invited anyone at Andalon.com to come and camp for the weekend as long as they put on a costume and handed out candy to the little kids. The idea raised the interests of several folks. Jared Connely the new VP of Marketing at Andalon (he replaced Audrey’s dad) and his wife Jennifer were spending the weekend in Cabin #12, close friends of Paul and Andi, Gus Didomissio and Lucy Kocis were in Cabin #10. The abandoned vandalized damaged cabins remaining were marked off as “Crime Scenes” and had campers in front which were marked as “Ghost Busters GSI” units (Ghost Seen Investigation) were “manned” by workers from Andalon or friends from Springville. For the chance to trick or treat in the woods a small donation to Children’s Hospital was appreciated but not required.

Trick-or-Treating started at 3:00 PM and went to 7:30 PM and it was a big hit. The little kids in their costumes were driven the short distance from the village and were met at the softball field by Veronica and Audrey and given a map of the layout of the route through the Haunted Forest which went around the old loop road from the days that this was a scout camp past the cabins and campsites ending at the pavilion for cider, powdered donuts, and games of Ghosthole (cornhole with little ghost bean bags instead of rectangular beanbags), Ghost Shoes (plastic horse shoes painted orange and purple) and bobbing for apples.

They received a lot of families from John Jarecki’s church along with several other churches in the area. Volunteer cosplayers from the local Rennfaire gladly escorted families around through the leaf strewn woods, bright red, orange, amber, and gold leaves from the mix of various tree species fluttered down from the thinning canopy of leaves above.

The smell of the leaves and that smell that comes from a Jack O’ Lantern with a candle inside filled the air and Veronica was taken back to a simpler time when trick-or-treating and “What are you going as?” was the most important part of a child’s year. Magda always wore Storebought costumes, but the costumes that Veronica loved the best were the costumes that her daddy made for her.

The Friedman kids were all in for the event. Having spent the last two summers here in these woods they knew every foot of land and Billy and Linda acted as escorts, as did ten-year-old Greg in his astronaut costume, and his sisters Shelia (hobo) 8, and June (clown) 7, made dozens of circuits of the woods.

Even Terri and Mateo got in on the act, they got some makeup and made themselves up as zombies and sat in chairs by a small campfire and didn’t move until the very last moment before handing out candy. They would get up jerkily and stumble toward the children groaning like zombies which caused fear in some of the kids. When Andi stopped by to check on them Terri was practically gushing, “No one told me how much fun it is to scare little kids!”

There was a lock box on a post for donations and every half hour Josh was supposed to swing by and get the money and take it back to their cabin to account for the donations. He always came by to get a kiss from Veronica, but she hadn’t seen Josh in a while. Since it has been a while since someone new has come in and the volunteer guides were returning to the parking lot, Veronica turned to Audrey and said, “Hey sweetie, I need to run the cash box up to the cabin, I’ll be right back.”

“Ok!”

As Veronica walked past Terri’s camper, Mateo came up to her and asked, “Is Josh back yet?”

“He’s supposed to be here,” said Veronica, “I haven’t seen him for his regular pick-up.”

Terri gave up on her dead act and said, “Some redhead came by and wanted to talk to him, I saw them heading off to the cabin.”

“That’s odd,” said Veronica and she started to walk back to the cabin a bit more quickly than she walked earlier. Because it’s set a bit further away from the forest their cabin wasn’t on the Halloween tour, so it was a good place to store the donations to the children’s hospital. Just as Veronica stepped out of the woods her phone chimed and she looked at it quickly, it was a text message from her sister Magda that said, “Wish you were here.” Veronica opened the message, and it was a picture of Magda naked in bed, in her cabin, with her husband Josh.

She dashed to the cabin as fast as possible and as she neared it a car sped off, tires squealing on Travette road, heading off into Zoar valley. She dashed into the cabin and the only sign of recent habitation was a cup of apple cider from the pavilion and Josh’s clothes scattered about. Another text from Magda arrived, it said “What’s with all the scars on your man? You’re too rough on him!”

Veronica roared with anger, she was going to kill somebody! She stepped into the bedroom and there was Josh sitting on the edge of the bed naked, holding his head in his hands. “YOU BASTARD!” she screamed, “ON THE DAY BEFORE OUR WEDDING?”

“What?” he said softly. His head was pounding, what the fuck was in that cider?”

“THIS!!!” she shrieked. As Josh tried to focus on the phone she threw at him she started shouting, “I want you out of my house! I want your clothes out of my closet, I want…”

As she ranted, Josh focused blearily on the picture, it was him and the lawyer in bed… How could that happen? She was in bed on her side with Josh behind her, his eyes didn’t seem to be open, in fact she had him pinned against the wall and his head was resting against hers. “Nica…”

“DON’T NICA ME!” She glared at him, her eyes were spinning with rage, “WITH MY OWN SISTER!!! YOU BASTARD!!!”

That’s Magda? How the hell did this happen? Josh couldn’t take another shriek like that, his head hurt so bad that her scream nearly made his stomach release its contents. Head throbbing, nearly bursting he held up Veronica’s phone in a shaking hand, “Please, Miss von Köster, study this picture. Could Sergeant Gravely pose like this with you?” He was nearly in tears, but he had to hold it together, their future depended on it.

“Pose like this? This is a pose? Is that what you’re saying?”

“Please, Miss von Köster, look at the picture.”

Veronica glared at Josh, how could he do this to her? Where is the key to the gun cabinet? She looked at the picture and said, “Yeah you would, so what?”

“I didn’t say would, I said could. Could I? Could I really?”

Veronica looked at the picture again and nearly threw her phone across the room… but something clicked. She looked again and suddenly all the anger drained out of her soul and was replaced by utter sorrow. No, he couldn’t. “Oh Effi, I’m so sorry,” she melted into his lap and broke down in tears. “I’m so sorry, so sorry,” she wept over and over.

“It’s ok, we have each other,” he held her close as she shuddered and wept. “How could I have known? I thought she was in Hawaii with a dozen kids.”

Veronica tried to smile, she shrugged and said, “I don’t know what her deal is.”

“I don’t know, she told me she’s a lawyer and gave me a card,” said Josh.

“Card? Lawyer?” Veronica suddenly perked up, “I need to see the card.” They got up and Josh put his clothing back on. He searched his jacket pocket and came up with the card that advertised M. Stapleton, Attorney at Law. “It’s illegal to present yourself as a lawyer,” she gasped. The edges of the card were burred except for one side edge, that edge was sharp and clean, proof that the card was from a perforated sheet of business card size cards that she printed up.

“What about the cider?” Josh asked. Veronica looked at him questioningly and he said “She came up to me and said she represented Children’s Hospital and wanted to see the books on the money we’re collecting, she wanted to make sure that everything was properly documented so the IRS wouldn’t get suspicious, so I brought her up to the cabin to show her the 501(c)3 paperwork. I opened the gun safe and pulled the books out and as soon as I opened the gun safe door, she handed me her cider and said “I think the cider has gone bad.” so, like a dummy I tasted it.”

“And then?” Veronica asked.

“The next thing I remember is a pounding headache and you screaming.”

“I’m sorry,” she pouted and stroked his temples.

“All I can think is that they were here for the money,” frowned Josh. The gun safe was still open and every box that was inside the safe was opened and dumped out.

“How much did they get?” groaned Veronica as she picked up the ledger book.

“Hang on, let me check.” Josh walked over to the cold fireplace, crouched down and reached up into the chimney and pulled the lever to open the flu damper and a heavy strongbox dropped down into his ready hands. “NEVER store money or other valuables in a gun safe.” He took it to the table and opened it and he quickly counted it. “Looks like it’s all here.”

“I’m so sick of this, gasped Veronica. “This has to stop now, she groaned and she took out her phone.

“There’s one question you never asked,” said Josh as she started typing on her phone.

“What’s that dear?”

“Who took the photos?”

Veronica stopped typing. “I never did think about that… I hope it’s that jerk she married, because otherwise, it’s my mom.”

“What are you doing?” Josh asked.

“Inviting her to our wedding.”

**********

Magda –

Please come to my wedding, come early, at 10:00 AM so we can talk, otherwise your act to portray yourself as an attorney and a sample of the cider you spiked and gave to my fiancé will be turned over to the police.

Casual attire is acceptable, RSVP quickly.

**********

A megadose of Tylenol later and a casual walk around the cabins helped Josh to feel better. Neighbors Tommy and Jeff Schaffer were setting up a large grill to roast a calf that Josh purchased from the nearby dairy farmer Gerry and Irma Hirsh, getting ready for tomorrow’s feast. The path around the campsite was illuminated by the lights of the different campsites, Jack O’ Lanterns flickering happily in front of each cabin or camper made the walk in the dead leaves enjoyable. Veronica clung to Josh’s arm letting the anger drain out of her, she should have seen that ‘attack’ from Magda coming, but

The night was chilly but not cold, so a light jacket was all that was needed. “How did we do ma?” called Terri as they walked past her camper.

“Why don’t you join us by the campfire? We’ll have a little meeting while Josh entertains the kids.”

“K, come on loverboy,” said Terri as she nudged Mateo who was still pretending to be dead.

“Wha? No more!” He looked at Josh and said, “She’s an animal! Completely debased and unsatisfiable!”

“Are you complaining or bragging,” asked Veronica.

“Bragging,” grinned Mateo as Terri pulled him out of the chair.

“You can’t get the genie back in the bottle kid, get your ass up and take it like a man,” kidded Josh, “and bring your folding chairs.”

As they walked around the campground that hasn’t seen this many campers in decades Josh said, “This is incredible, maybe I should ditch this computer nonsense and open this up as a campground.”

“What a fun idea!” said Veronica, “even if it doesn’t work, we can survive nicely on my salary.”

“Oh crap, did I say that out loud?”

“We can make it happen,” said Veronica. “John and Macy had mentioned that they would like to have campouts for their church, and I know a group of people that would like a discrete campsite, they tend to swing the other way… if you know what I mean.”

The idea started to take in his head, Josh has spent his life taking orders from another man, Uncle Sam, Ant Friedman, he loved them both, but it would be nice to be the one giving the orders… maybe on a part time basis.

As they completed their lap around the campgtound they gathered quite a following of folks with their folding chairs and they ended up on their lawn by the pond where the twins and the Friedman kids waited along with a couple new children from two families who were here from Andalon, the new VP of Marketing Jared Connely and his wife Jennifer, and their seven year old son, also Josh’s co-worker Eli Goldman along with his wife Olivia and their two girls ages six and five.

Anthony had started the bonfire and when they got there the fire was burning merrily and the whole gang had gathered including the Jareckis from across the street. The scent of fallen leaves and scorched pumpkins filled the air and the Olean NY radio station WPIG promised an even nicer day tomorrow. “I want to thank you all for coming out and joining us for Josh and Ronnie’s celebration of love tomorrow,” said Paul Jarecki as everyone had settled down. “And thank you so much for helping out on Beggars Night, we were completely astounded by the free will donations, our little campout has raised for Children’s Hospital, not counting the donation from Andalon.com five hundred thirty-five dollars!”

After a round of applause Paul continued, “A donation from Andalon raised the total to two thousand dollars.” As they applauded Anthony’s largess Josh spotted Kenny Johnson and Yi-jin Carlson sitting quietly behind John and Macy Jarecki. “And Kenny! Your idea! Holy Jumpin’ Catfish! Kenny had an idea for a guillotine for the haunted house in Springville and that thing is still raking in the money!” Kenny’s idea was a guillotine with flashing lights. The crowd just sees flashing lights, but to the person in the guillotine it looks like the blade is actually coming down on you.

“The total by Friday was over six thousand,” called out Paul.

Gus Didomissio pointed to his girlfriend Lucy Kosis who was laughing and blushing, “I got my head cut off four times!” At the haunted house you could bribe the cosplayers to execute almost anyone. It was said that yesterday’s execution of Buffalo Bill’s former quarterback Jim Kelly raised a thousand dollars.

“If we could get the kids together,” called Veronica, “Josh has agreed to tell some ghost stories,” and soon Josh had a dozen eager listeners and he told three ghost stories that kept the kids enthralled. To a few of the adults they seemed a bit familiar, but they couldn’t place where they had heard the story before.

Josh’s final story involved two settlers who and snuck into an Indian tribe’s war council. The medicine man said that he couldn’t predict the outcome of the attack but he knew that everyone in the longhouse would be back tomorrow after the battle. The settlers raced back to their village and warned them of the attack which came at sunrise, and it was a fierce battle that the Indians won, but dozens on each side were killed. The two settlers were angry and went back to the tribe’s battle council after the attack, they crawled into the longhouse and started throwing pinecones at the tribe elders to get them to fight but the elders looked around in terror and ran out leaving the medicine man behind. Josh finished up by saying in his spookiest voice, “The medicine man looked around and even right at the two men and said, “I can’t see you, but I know you are here!” and left. That’s when the two angry settlers knew that they were ghosts and that they had died in the battle!”

When the sufficiently terrified children returned to their parents the sticks, marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers came out and s’mores soon eased their damaged psyches. John and Macy Jarecki brought their guitars and started playing duets and led a sing-along while Josh and Veronica sat next to each other bathing in the warmth of the fire, their love, and the friendship of the gathered friends. Gus leaned over and said, “Those were some great stories, but I know I heard them before… at least two of them. Where did you get them?”

Josh smiled, “they were all episodes of the Twilight Zone.”

Lucy leaned over and asked, “How did you know that the kids wouldn’t have seen them?”

“These are all children of the twenty first century, I doubt that a single one of them has watched a black and white TV show.”

============Ѽ============

HALLOWEEN

Wedding Day

It was a beautiful autumn morning, the sun was warming the land, bathing Western New York in a warmth and brilliance that the area will not see again for another five months. The WPIG weather forecast for tonight was for two to four inches of snow in the city, more in the “south towns” which included the land that they were standing on right now.

Josh and Veronica sat by their small campfire sipping coffee, their breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast made over the fire was complete, they were now waiting for the storm before the wedding. “I’ve never had toast like that!” exclaimed Audrey.

“I know!” gushed Veronica. “Who would have thought that toasting bread over a wood fire would inject such flavor!”

“You’ve never had bread toasted over the campfire?” asked Mike. “Your education has been sincerely lacking in refinement.”

“You never took us camping dad,” said Veronica.

“And whose fault was that? You and your sister are the ones who insisted on going to beauty pageants.”

“That was an all-local breakfast,” said Josh, “The eggs came from Paul and Andi’s chickens across the road, the bacon came from Brad and Dianna Clemmons’ hog farm,” he pointed east, “and the milk and butter and tonight’s calf came from Gerry and Irma Hirsh’s dairy farm,” he pointed west, “and Audrey made the bread yesterday here in our cabin.”

As Audrey began toasting the last two slices of the loaf of bread that she made, not counting the end slices that she saved to make into a sandwich for Mike for later, Veronica turned to Mike and spoke in a serious voice. “Dad, Magda and Jameson are in the area.”

Mike’s expression suddenly turned glum, “Are you sure?”

“She stopped by yesterday and we talked a little bit,” said Josh. He wasn’t about to say any more about it, not today.

Mike frowned, that damn daughter caused more harm to him than his ex-wife ever could have dreamed of causing. “I don’t want to see her.”

“And you don’t have to,” said Veronica. “Josh and I are going to speak to her at ten o’clock while people are starting to arrive. After we talk, she is either going to leave, or be the politest person you ever met, I personally promise you.”

“I’ll believe it when it happens,” grumbled Mike. “If she does anything to disturb Audrey…”

At ten fifteen a ten-year-old Buick pulled into the driveway behind Josh and Veronica’s cabin and two people nervously got out. The passenger was a tall, shapely redhead who looked a lot like Veronica with dark red tinted hair, the driver was a short, slim, blond man who looked about nervously then an ill-concealed look of panic spread over his face as he saw Veronica and Josh appear from behind the cabin. Jameson had left Veronica standing at the altar years ago when he ran off with her sister Magda who was carrying his baby.

Veronica and Josh walked up to Jameson and Magda and stood uncomfortably close and Josh started the conversation with a smile. In his “aww-shuckin” good ol’ boy voice he said, “Was it you that took them pichers of me an’ Magda?”

Jameson nodded and with an embarrassed smile said, “Yeah, I guess it was.”

Quick as a flash of lightning Josh punched Jameson in the gut and the skinny blond crumpled to the ground with an agonized groan. Josh stood over him ready to hit again, “I didn’t hit you because you took the pictures, I hit you because you’re a weak, gutless, coward. You allowed your wife to convince you to commit a felony? What the fuck is wrong with you?” he roared.

Jameson could barely gurgle an answer. Veronica saw fire in Josh’s eyes as he continued, “If you ever cause my wife a fraction of the pain you caused her yesterday I assure you, you will be on the ground again, and you will not be getting up.”

Just then Magda turned to grab Josh, but Josh glared at her and said, “Touch me and I’m going to kick this spineless worm right where his balls should have grown. No man allows a woman he cares for to treat other people like that. A man doesn’t allow her to talk him into doing wrong.” After a moment he stepped away from the groaning Jameson and turned his wrath on Magda. “And you! Do you think your sister is stupid? Once she studied the pictures it took less than a second to realize that you damn near killed me with whatever you put in that cider.” He pulled a glass tube out of his pocket filled with a sample and showed it to her.

“It’s true,” said Veronica. “Josh has PTSD from being trapped in an airplane that was shot up, he doesn’t let anybody, or anything come between him and the exit. If he were conscious, he would have tossed you across the room to have a clear path to the door.”

“What do you want?” said a visibly scared Magda.

“Simple,” said Veronica. “It’s your choice, you can go right now and never speak to us or dad again, or you can stay and celebrate our wedding and not say one disparaging word to anyone, and maybe even take the opportunity to apologize to your father.”

“And if we don’t?” asked Magda.

“Let’s just put it this way,” said Josh as he helped a groaning Jameson to his feet. “If you chose to leave quietly, we’ll consider that a head start. If you stay and be nice, we may not give that cider, the cup with your fingerprints, the card with your fingerprints, and the pictures to the Town of Concord detective’s department. It all depends on how nice you are.”

============Ѽ============

The wedding ceremony started precisely at 1:00. The time was set to allow time for the celebration and to allow the guests and celebrants time to get home time to see the kickoff, Buffalo Bills vs the Las Vegas Traitors Raiders. “There’s been a lot of bad blood between the Bills and the Raiders since the AFL and…”

“There is a wedding today, right?” interrupted Mike.

“Yeah, it’s just, you got to understand how important the Bills are to the people of Western New York, they are the only NFL team in New York State!” gushed Audrey, a lifelong Buffalo Bills fanatic.

“What about the Jets and the Giants?” taunted Mike.

“The both of them play in New Jersey, the Jets only play in their home state once a year, here in Buffalo.”

“Ok, ok, ok, calm down little one,” chuckled Mike as he gave his curvy lover a hug and a kiss on the forehead. “You go get with the girls and I’ll see you in a few minutes.” And with a kiss, Audrey hurried off to join the brides’ maids.

The pavilion was full, the crowd spilling out into the open area where benches were originally set up also, but today folding chairs were in order. The thirty pumpkins were lining the stage in the front and there was a pumpkin at the end of each bench. The stage was set with bales of hay and bundles of corn stalks and illuminated with tiki torches.

“These gourds are not signs of otherworldly influence,” started Macy as she stepped in front. “They are the manifestations of the imaginations of our children, each pumpkin is crowned with a happy smile designed by our babies, even this one.” she held up a pumpkin with an upside-down smiling face.

“That’s mine!” cried Madeline from Yi’s lap. “Momma said I was borned upside down!” her cry of excitement brought chuckles from the crowd.

“That solves the mystery of the upside-down pumpkin,” whispered her father Paul, Josh’s groomsman, as he stood with Josh and the best man, Anthony Friedman. The three men soon stepped out to the front. Each man wore blue jeans, a plaid flannel shirt and a denim jacket. Josh wore a large silver buckle on his dark brown belt which had “Josh” stamped on the back, dark brown cowboy boots and he wore a black necktie but other than that each man wore the neck unbuttoned. Back in the rear row of the pavilion, Jameson and Magda watched in silence, Magda shook her head, her sister Veronica never would have thought that blue jeans were acceptable at a wedding! What did this man do to her?

Now the bridesmaids began to enter, they were wearing full length Chambray skirts, a cloth that looks like denim but is much lighter, and flannel shirts like the men. They looked like they were ready to go cut down trees as far as Magda was concerned. First Terri came up the aisle, followed by Audrey, then the matron of honor, Marj Friedman. Then John began to play the banjo, it was the bridal march but the way he plucked that five-string banjo made the age-old piece sound as dignified and as beautiful as if he was playing it on an organ.

Now Veronica came up the aisle escorted by her father. He was dressed like the two groomsmen, and Veronica was dressed like she too was ready to go camping, or maybe dance a two-step at Worzils. Her skirt was full length Chambray with blue jean style pockets, a loose-fitting white blouse with tie front, lace pattern at the neckline, elastic banded sleeve cuffs. Like Josh she wore a wide dark brown belt with “Ronnie” stamped on the back and a large silver buckle. The buckles were custom made and they showed two happy pumpkins side by side and the buckle said Nica & Josh, October 31.

To complete her dress Veronica wore baby blue ornately embroidered cowboy boots with western style woman’s heel. Her bouquet was almost identical to her matron of honor, Marge Friedman, and her brides’ maids Audrey and Terri, red and yellow roses with a spray of autumn leaves.

Magda almost screamed in shock! Her little sister is dressed like some country hick? Years ago, she would have only wanted a wedding worthy of royalty, now she’s cavorting with farmers. What did he do to her?

After Mike announced that he was giving his daughters hand in marriage with a joyful heart, he joined Anthony and Paul as a groomsman and Veronica stepped up to face Josh and the ceremony began.

“I first met the bride in the days when we were both fashion models,” started Macy. “We met in Toronto at a shoot for Black Velvet Canadian Whiskey, remember Ronnie?” Veronica laughed and blushed and Macy continued, “We looked très bien, really good in those dresses made out of black velvet, didn’t we Ronnie?” Again, Veronica nodded in agreement with a blush. “Oui chéri, you keep that dress in mind. When things get a little chilly in our household, I just show my amoureux a picture of moi in that dress and he will keep me warm toute la nuit, (all night long), I’m sure Josh will appreciate the dress.” Said with Macy’s silky French accent, it was the sexiest thing Josh had ever heard in his life.

“We come today to witness the joining of Ephraim and Veronica, Josh and Ronnie, Effi and Nica in holy matrimony…” The rest of the ceremony was lost on both Josh and Ronnie. They wanted to say special vows to each other, but Macy was right when she talked them out of that idea, even in this relaxed venue, in their own backyard, the emotions of this occasion washed over them preventing such a thing. Josh was lucky to remember his own name

The year of longing for each other, too terrified to speak, gazing at each other across a crowded conference table, only rarely the chance to whisper their little names for each other. Then came the day when they were trapped together in a blizzard and they dared to allow their love to bloom… as their love grew, they felt the courage to reveal their darkest secrets to each other, Veronica’s lesbian dalliances and her past as a sexual plaything, Josh and his nightmares, his PTSD… then the day he proposed to her in front of all of their friends and co-workers, it all came rushing back. They barely remember saying “I do,” but they do remember sliding their rings on. Finally the wedding ring to accompany that 2.5 karat diamond that Veronica has been wearing since December, and now Josh is wearing a ring on his finger, the first time in five years. They were swimming in each other’s shimmering eyes when Macy said, “By the power vested in me by the state of New York…” Macy chuckled and trying to imitate Josh said, “y’all husban’ and wife, go on and kiss!”