Chapter 1
Accidental Encounter
Nancy and Paul met by coincidence and at the time, neither would have imagined how they would have developed into close friends and then lovers. Nancy was 55 years old, and her body showed the signs of childbirth and a fairly sedentary life. She became pregnant and married Ben, her high school boyfriend, shortly after they graduated from high school together. She quickly found herself in a supporting role to his life. Since they couldn't afford for both of them to go to college, he ended up going to State while she stayed home and worked at whatever jobs she could land and took care of their baby. Two more babies came in quick succession and she found herself taking care of three very young children before she turned 23.
Ben was able to find a good job working for an insurance company, starting in sales and eventually getting into the claims side of the business. Nancy first thought that was a blessing, since he wouldn't be traveling as much and could help around the house more. It never seemed to work out that way though and they slowly grew apart as their children grew up and one by one, moved out on their own. When the last child started school, Nancy found herself a job in a graphics company working in the office. At night she took courses at the community college to learn about computer graphics design. By the time her youngest was starting high school, Nancy had managed to earn a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Graphics and move from an office manager to a graphics artist at work. Ben was still working with the insurance company, but apparently pretty much stuck where he was and not showing any signs of trying to change that.
After 28 years of marriage, Nancy took stock of her life and decided that she didn't want to spend the rest of her life sitting in a house and having little more interaction with her husband than fixing his meals and watching him come home every evening to plop his butt in his recliner to watch TV until he fell asleep. Over the years, she's tried to get him more involved with her and to recapture some of the passion they shared as young newlyweds. He seemed to have lost all interest in her and sex in general, so she filed for divorce and struck out on her own.
At first, it was scary. She'd never actually lived by herself. By nature, Nancy was a very outgoing person and always seemed to have a smile on her face. She developed some new friends at work and two of them convinced her to take up long distance running for recreation. In typical fashion, she threw herself into this new challenge with all her energy and attention and was able to work herself up to a regimen of running 30 miles a week. After two years, she ran in her first half-marathon and a year after that, participated in her first marathon event. Her speed was certainly nothing to write home about, but the intensity of the activity and the increasing circle of fellow runners she became friends with kept her involved.
Here she was, five years after her divorce, still single and not really looking for anyone. She had good job, plenty of acquaintances to hang out with, no one to account to but herself, and was feeling pretty self-sufficient. When her parents passed away, she moved into their old home where she had grown up as a little girl and began the task of cleaning it out, fixing it up, and then trying to decide whether to keep it or sell it. Her younger brother and sister helped when they could, but both of them lived a couple hours away and were still heavily engaged in their own families.
As it was, she was leaving the home improvement and hardware store after picking up a load of bagged cement mix and several fence posts that she needed to repair the fence in the back of her parent's home. Pushing the heavy cart behind her SUV, she struggled with lifting the heavy eighty pound bags of cement and loading them in the car. Paul was walking by and saw her trying to lift the first bag and stopped by to help out. He had just turned 50 and was to all his friends, the stereotypical confirmed bachelor. He had been active in sports ever since he was young and still worked out to keep himself in shape. His hair was starting to show signs of gray at the temples, but his face still had a youthful look. He easily loaded Nancy's car for her, earning her effusive praise for being such a Good Samaritan. As they chatted, he asked if she had someone helping her plant the new fence posts and put up the new fence sections. She laughed and just said no and explained that she was doing it all herself.
Seeing that she was probably way over her head in the project she was undertaking, Paul offered to help out, since he'd done plenty of similar work while growing up and also around his own house. She politely declined the offer, but he soon convinced her that it was much more complicated that she thought not to mention she was still going to have to move the cement bags around the yard.
Recognizing the logic of his statements and the sincerity of his offer, Nancy gave in and he followed her to her parent's home. Paul spent most of that afternoon measuring the post holes positions, digging the new holes, setting the posts, and bracing them to keep them perfectly upright while the concrete set around the bases. Nancy helped throughout the process and he quickly grew to admire her energy, spirit and determination.
During one break, he took the chance to appraise her more carefully. She certainly wasn't attractive in the conventional sense and didn't look like any of the younger girls he was used to dating. Her breasts were on the small side perhaps a B-cup, her bottom was somewhat flat, and her tummy had the definite bulge that most middle-aged women developed, especially after childbirth. She kept her hair cut short and somewhat severe to make it easier to maintain with her running schedule. Despite all that, her bubbly personality, fun spirit, and easy-going nature generated an attraction he couldn't really understand.