Amber 26

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Author's note: Sorry for the lull in publishing. I've been working through the next batch of stories for this series. As I finish editing them, I'll release them over the coming days/weeks. Thank you to everyone who reached out to me with words of encouragement; it's been a big help in getting me back in the right mindset after the debacle with the previous episode in this story. I appreciate all of you who read and enjoy my work. I know I've had fun putting this together for you. Enjoy!

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When I awoke the next morning, I rolled over to see Amber just beginning to stir next to me. I reached over and rubbed my hand across her shoulders and said, "Good morning, beautiful wife."

Amber rolled to face me. With a smile, she whispered in her raspy morning voice, "Hey, sexy husband."

We both smiled and Amber gave me a little kiss. Then, without warning, she rolled off her side of the mattress. As she raced around the bed, she laughed out, "Ha! I get the bathroom first today!"

I just lied back and laughed. In our little apartment, the single bathroom had been a point of playful argument between us every morning. I didn't mind though; I just relaxed and thought about the previous day. Amber and I had gotten married in a simple ceremony at the courthouse. Her uncle Mike had flown in for the occasion as well as to finalize the purchase of a piece of land that he had so generously gifted us. Later that night, the three of us went out for a really nice dinner and then Mike was on his way back home. Amber and I returned to the apartment and made love before falling asleep, exhausted from the long, eventful day.

Now as I lied on the bed, we had the whole weekend ahead of us, the first weekend of the rest of our lives together. Soon, Amber emerged from the bathroom and looked at me with a curious smile. As I sat up, trying to discern the look on her face, she simply said, "It's all yours. Go on in."

Getting off the edge of the bed, I looked at her with a little trepidation and asked, "Should I be afraid to go in there?"

Amber just laughed and said, "No, you'll see."

I turned and went into the bathroom. As I used the toilet, I looked over and noticed a box on the vanity next to the sink. After finishing, I went over and recognized the type of box. Opening it, I exclaimed, "Are you fucking kidding me!?"

I could hear Amber laugh from the bedroom and then open the bathroom door. Looking in, she just smiled as I turned around, a look of amazement on my face. "Amber, it's beautiful. Why'd you do this?"

Walking up to me she said, "Try it on."

I looked back at the box holding a handsome silver chronograph. Gently taking it out of the box, I slipped it onto my wrist and affixed the clasps. It fit perfectly and looked incredible. Turning back to Amber I said, "Babe, this is unbelievable. But why?"

She just wrapped her arms around my neck and said, "I wanted you to have something special for our wedding." Before I could even feel embarrassed, she added, "....and please, don't worry. I know we said we wouldn't get each other anything but I needed you to have this. You've given me everything I could have ever wanted and I just had to do something for you. Ok?"

I just kissed her and said, "Thank you so much. It's perfect."

Amber just smiled and starting to walk back out from the bathroom before saying, "Now brush your teeth and get back out here."

Looking back down at my wrist, I was amazed at the gift. I'd always wanted something like this but never wanted to spend the money on myself. Then after brushing my teeth and putting on some deodorant, I made my way back out into the bedroom. Amber was already getting dressed in a pair of shorts and a blouse. I put on a pair of shorts and a polo shirt and we went out into the kitchen to make our morning coffee.

As the coffee was running, I gave Amber another hug, thanking her again for the watch. She just smiled and said, "Don't mention it. You deserve it; and, it makes me happy to give it to you."

I smiled and then poured each of us a mug of coffee. We were still pretty full from dinner the night before so we each grabbed a banana and then sat at the table to eat our simple breakfast. Amber was the one to speak first when she said, "Hey, so I was really hoping we could take another trip out to the ranch this weekend but I checked the weather and it looks like it's supposed to get really stormy this afternoon. We should probably plan to wait on doing that."

I nodded and said, "Yeah, I saw that. That's too bad. Oh well, I'm sure we can find something else to do. Do you have any shopping or anything that you need to do?"

Amber shrugged and said, "Not really. Do you just want to head out and see if we find something going on?"

"Sure, that'd be good," I said, collecting our empty coffee mugs and taking them to the sink. I then poured each of us a travel mug while Amber went and grabbed her things. When she met me back in the kitchen, I got my wallet and keys and we headed out to my car. After getting in, we decided to head over to the park, where the green market should have still been going on.

As we made the drive over to the park, my phone rang. I didn't recognize the number; but on a whim, I answered. Over the car's Bluetooth we heard a gentleman say, "Hey, this is Hank Franklin. Mike gave me your number and I just wanted to call and touch base with y'all."

We both said hi and told him we were looking forward to meeting him. I asked what his schedule looked like for the upcoming week and he said, "Well, I'm free pretty much all week but that's why I was calling you. I know both of you work and I happen to be in the office just taking care of some things and thought if you were free and wanted to stop by, I could help you out so you don't need to take off any time off to come see me."

Amber and I looked at each other and both nodded. I then said, "Yeah, actually, we were just out driving around looking for something to do. Do you mind if we stop by now?"

Hank said that would be fine and, after getting his address, we told him we would see him shortly. After disconnecting the call, I looked over at Amber. Seeing the exacited look on her face, I asked, "You ready for this?"

Her face beaming, she looked back at me and just said, "Hell yeah."

About ten minutes later, we were pulling into the parking lot of Hank's business. He had a two story-office building. The outside was covered in mirrored glass and surrounded by well-maintained landscaping. After parking, we walked up to the front door. I called Hank to let him know that we had arrived and he came out to let us in. He shook both of our hands and on the way back to his office, said, "Oh, and Mike told me about your big day yesterday. Congratulations."

As he took a seat behind his desk, Amber and I pulled up two chairs and he said, "I love that lot you guys have. You have a lot of options. Have you given any thought to what you'd like to build?"

Amber and I spent the next five minutes going over our vision for the house. As we talked, Hank jotted down some notes on a yellow legal pad. When we had finished, he looked up and said, "I think I might already have something along the lines of what you're thinking. Picking up a booklet with his different floorplans, he came to a page and turned the book around so we could see.

Amber and I smiled at each other as we looked at it. We both just kind of laughed as we saw our vision laid out in front of us in the form of these floor plans. I looked at Amber and she looked back at me with an excited, surprised look on her face. She turned the book back around and said, "I mean, if we had drawn out our idea, it would look almost exactly like what you have."

Hank smiled and said, "Well, wait right there. Let me go ahead and get the full set of plans then. We can go through them and see what, if anything, you want changed."

As he got up and went into an office next door, Amber squeezed my hand and whispered, "It's exactly what I had in my mind."

I squeezed her hand back and whispered, "Me too."

Hank returned a few seconds later and unrolled the plans. We spent the next half hour going throught the floorplan, which met our every need. We then looked at the different elevations and the electrical plan. The only thing missing was the porch and pool details. When we told him about our ideas for a large porch and pool with outdoor kitchen, Hank took down some more notes. He then told us about the subcontractor who he uses for all of the outdoor work like that but added that what we were describing was pretty standard and we should have no problem working out those details. He said he would get in touch with the sub on Monday and have them send over some drawings.

Seeing that Amber was fully onboard, I said, "Well, Hank, this looks like the one. What do we need to do now?"

We briefly discussed site prep and Hank told us that our lot wouldn't require much clearing. Amber and I both said that we wanted to leave as many of the trees as was practical and Hank said that also wouldn't be a problem.

Finally, Hank pulled out a generic pricing sheet and, after making some alterations to it according to the deal that he made with Mike, showed us the basic estimated cost. We were pleasantly surprised that it was pretty much in line with what both of us were expecting. Hank then told us that we would need to stop back in during the week to meet with the interior designer to pick out things like flooring and furnishings, which would alter the cost a little, but said that after that, there wasn't much else we needed to do from our end aside from securing the financing once we had a final price.

We told him that we were already in the process of selling Amber's house, which would free up plenty of capital and that getting a loan for the remainder wouldn't be a problem. Hank took down a couple of final notes and then said, "Perfect. Well, congratulations." Pulling up his scheduling software, he looked and said, "If you get everything in line, I can see us starting by the first half of next month."

Looking at the calendar, I realized that April was only a little over two weeks away. I said, "I'll call the bank the first thing on Monday."

Hank smiled and we stood to shake hands. We thanked him for getting us in so soon and as he walked us back out of the building, he again congratulated us and said he was looking forward to working with us. We said goodbye and headed back to our car. When Amber and I were seated back inside, we looked at each other and laughed, neither of us able to believe how simple that ended up being and how fast it was all happening.

As I started to pull out of the parking lot, Amber suggested, "Hey, instead of the green market, do you want to go just browse through some furniture stores? We're going to need a lot to furnish a new house and we might as well get an idea of what we want and start to come up with a budget."

Liking the idea, I turned out of the parking lot and we headed off towards the first store. When we arrived and walked in, we were greeted by an overly-enthusiastic salesman. After shaking hands, I said, "I appreciate the help but I promise you, my wife and I are just browsing. We're definitely not ready to buy anything; but if that changes, I'll come find you."

Amber and I then headed off into the store, leaving the now-dejected salesman behind. Once out of earshot I mumbled, "God I hate furniture salesmen."

Amber laughed and said, "You just dislike people in general."

I shrugged my shoulders, knowing she wasn't completely wrong. We then spent the next half-hour going from display room to display room. Looking at the different couches, Amber nudged me and said, "Remember, we need leather."

I laughed and said, "Yeah, do you think that's why old people have plastic covers on all their furniture?"

Amber made a disgusted sound and said, "Please, I don't want to think about that."

I laughed as we continued to make our way around the store, taking notes of things that we liked and how much they cost. Then as we got to the front of the store, we were met again by the salesman who handed us his card. We thanked him for his time and told him that we would be in touch. After walking out of the store, I balled up the card and put it in my pocket. When Amber looked at me, I said, "What? He didn't do shit for us. If we end up buying something from there, the next overly-exuberant salesman can get our commission."

Amber just laughed as we made our way back to the car. We then drove across town to a second store and repeated the earlier process of blowing off the saleswoman. But this time, as we walked away, I teased Amber and said, "I mean, at least this one had nice tits."

Amber again laughed and, looking back over her shoulder, leaned closer to me and whispered, "...a nice ass too."

It was my turn to laugh and then we made our way through the store, again looking at the various displays, making notes of different bedroom sets we liked and groaning each time we looked at a price tag. With another store down, we made our way out and were again handed a business card. When we got outside and I slipped the card into my pocket, Amber said, "What, this one doesn't get balled up and thrown away?"

I just nudged her and said, "Ehh, I think she can have our commission if we come back."

Amber just laughed as we got back in the car. When we had both sat back inside, Amber turned to me and said, "I think I've seen all the furniture I can handle for one day."

I agreed and we decided to go get lunch. Settling on a barbecue spot that we both liked, we headed off in that direction. Arriving just a few minutes later, we made our way inside. After being shown to our table and ordering our drinks, we sat back and just chuckled, trying to process the whirlwind morning. When our drinks arrived a moment later, we placed our order and spent the entirety of our wait talking excitedly about our meeting with Hank. Amber and I were both amazed that one of his floorplans so closely matched what we each had in mind.

When our food arrived, Amber and I discussed the financial side of things while we ate. We would touch base with Steve; but, it sounded like the closing for Amber's old house would be coming in the next few weeks. We agreed that a portion of that money should be set aside to cover costs like furniture and moving expenses. We would hold some more in savings but apply the rest to the house to bring down the principal on the loan that we would need to take out for the construction costs. It sounded like a simple plan but we were both nervous about the lending process. I assured Amber that I would work on that starting on Monday and she thanked me for taking that stress from her.

We soon finished our meal and then just sat, talking about random other things until the waitress came up and cleared the table. I paid the check and we got up to leave. On the way out of the restaurant, I wrapped my arm around Amber and told her just how excited I was for everything. She gave me a quick kiss and said she was looking forward to it too.

It was already early afternoon when we got back to the car. Looking to the west, we saw that heavy, black clouds were already starting to roll in. Not wanting to get trapped out in the storm, we decided to head back to the apartment to spend the rest of the afternoon in. On the drive back, Amber held my hand and we both continued to talk about how much we were looking forward to the whole upcoming process.

Pulling back into my parking spot, we got out of the car and were surprised at how the wind had already picked up. It was eerily quiet, the proverbial 'calm before the storm.' As a gust of wind blew some fallen leaves across the parking lot, thunder could be heard not too far off as we hurried inside. No sooner had we set our things down than we heard the first drops of rain against the windows. Looking outside and then down at the radar app on her phone, Amber said, "Yeah, definitely a good thing we didn't try going camping today. Looks like this is going to last the rest of the evening."

Walking up behind her I wrapped my arms around her and said, "Oh I don't know. I think you and I could've found plenty to do trapped by a storm in a tent."

Amber sighed as she relaxed into my arms. Then looking back at me with a little smile, she said, "How about we slip into more comfortable clothes and find something to watch on TV?"

I gave her a kiss on the neck and said, "Yeah, I think I've got a pair of sweatpants around here somewhere."

Turning to me with a grin, remembring our time stuck in the cabin, Amber said, "I'm going to go to the bathroom real quick. I'll meet you back out here."

I followed her back down the hall into our bedroom. When Amber disappeared off into the bathroom, I quickly stripped down and threw my clothes into the hamper. Then going to the dresser and selected a pair of grey sweatpants and a sweatshirt, I pulled them on before going back out to the kitchen, where I got a couple beers and took them to the couch to wait for Amber.

A few minutes later, Amber emerged from the bedroom. She had put on a pair of loose athletic shorts and a sweatshirt and she was carrying a blanket. Seeing that I already had a beer for her, she smiled and came to sit with me on the couch. Taking her bottle and then sitting down next to me, she gave me a kiss before wrapping the blanket around both of us. The room was already darkening with the storm building outside. I placed my arm around Amber as the rain beat on our windows, interrupted only by occasional flashes of lightning and the rumble of thunder.

As we sat there, I turned on the TV. Being March, the only sport we could find was college basketball. There were women's games on and I let Amber decide which one she was most interested in. As basketball really wasn't my thing, I just enjoyed sitting there, cuddled up with my new wife under a blanket while it stormed outside. Amber knew the sacrifice I was making so with a little kiss she said, "Thanks, babe."

Despite not being into the sport, I did get amusement watching Amber so into it. I then thought to myself that I couldn't remember ever watching a women's basketball game. I decided that if I wasn't going to be into the sport, I could at least enjoy watching college girls in short shorts and tank tops running up and down the court.

When we had each finished our beers, I offered to get us a second round. When I got up from the couch, Amber gave me a playful slap on my backside and winked. From the kitchen, I looked out and smiled, seeing Amber enthralled by the game on TV. I got each of us another beer as well as some chips.

Returning to the couch, I handed Amber her beer before setting the snacks on the coffee table and sitting back down next to her. As I wrapped the blanket back around us, she rubbed my thigh and gave me a kiss as her way of saying thank you. Halfway through her second beer, Amber nudged me and quietly said, "Number twenty really fills out those shorts huh?"

I chuckled as I took a sip of my beer. Oddly enough, that's the girl I had been watching the most. She had a backside like Amber's and I had definitely been enjoying watching it bounce as she ran up and down the court. Before I could respond though, the camera focused on her as she stepped to the free throw line. She was definitely pretty. With her blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail and her sweat glistening skin I muttered, "Wow, yeah..."

Amber chuckled at my reaction and said, "Yeah, she's pretty hot." Seeing the surprised look on my face, she winked and said, "I know what you like."

I rubbed my hand on her thigh and said, "Oh really?" Then I teasingly asked, "You sure it isn't what you like too?"

Amber just shrugged her shoulders and gave me a dismissive grin. We finished our second beer and sat there snacking on the chips. But as I enjoyed watching a couple of the pretty players, I couldn't help but wonder what was going through Amber's mind. A while later, she got up and brought each of us another drink. Handing it to me, she looked out at the storm outside and with a shrug said, "It's not like we're going anywhere."