The Currency Of Life Ch 03

Chapter 3

Autumn had always been my favourite time of year. The trees were draped in golds and reds, and the world was slowly settling down for the winter. Unfortunately, it also meant that I was fighting a never-ending battle against the carpet of leaves that piled up in pesky corners of the manor. It was a fight that I would never win but I battled relentlessly. I wanted Chuck's home to be perfect for him.

My circuits of the property on the quad bikes gave me a chance to view autumn in all its glory. The forest sighed with contentment as I drove through it, as if it was ready for winter's slumber. The fields sparkled with morning dew like scattered crystals and the fresh air was rich with thick earthy scents.

I was happy, and not just because of the changing season. My weird friendship with Aida had turned into something far deeper. Like two cautious animals meeting for the first time, we were hesitant at first. Slowly, our confidence had built until we'd reached something unexplainable and exciting. Everything we did was new and powerful. Simply holding hands made our hearts change pace, and cuddling on Sunday mornings while watching the lake felt the perfect mixture of exciting and yet relaxing.

Our moments of intense intimacy were kept to times when we were alone, like Sunday mornings or at night when everyone was asleep. We'd sometimes sit on a bench in the garden and watch the stars, always holding each other's hand as we did so.

Aida had changed as well. She no longer spoke down to me. She was respectful and listened to what I had to say. That's not to say she didn't retain her bite or fiery temperament. They were still there, always ready to erupt at a moment's notice. But the manner of their release was vastly different. She no longer got angry for me being me.

As hard as we tried to keep things a friendly distance when we were around family, I suspected that Chuck saw through our mild deceptions. I often felt him watching us, and when I looked, he had a small satisfied smile on his face. It frightened me. I didn't want him to think that I was making moves on his daughter after he'd invited me into his house. Regardless, he wasn't the type to sit back without saying anything if he didn't agree with something, so I took a little comfort in that.

The other person who saw through was the little terror that was Billie. Her innocent and direct observations of my and Aida's relationship followed me around the grounds just as she did. She was incredibly excited at the prospect of me and mummy becoming best friends. I just laughed it off and distracted her by pointing out interesting bugs. If that failed, I'd chase her around the garden until she squealed with merriment.

Another thing I noticed was that Heath's appearances at the house dwindled over the weeks until he barely visited. I never asked Aida about it and I didn't feel like I had a right to. We were only friends and she'd done her part by not rubbing her romantic life - if it existed - in my face.

As I spent more time with her, I began to notice how much she doted and cared about Billie. I'd taken her as something of a distant mother initially, not particularly interested in playing with Billie or spending time with her. What I didn't see were the times when it was just them. Then, she came out of her shell and the intensity of her love for Billie became obvious. As Aida relaxed around me, that side of her came out in abundance.

A good example happened one Saturday evening when we were playing in the living room. Chuck had left for bed, leaving the three of us to play for a while. Billie was pretending to be a princess, I was the evil wizard and Aida was a fairy. We ran around the huge room, making fools out of ourselves. Billie screamed as I tried to grab her and Aida threw herself in between us, hitting me on the head a little harder than was necessary with her magical wand.

"I'll get you for that," I whispered before falling to my knees and pretending to wither away.

Aida winked at me and picked up Billie. "We win! We win!" she chanted with her. She planted a big kiss on her cheek and then we collapsed on the sofa. "Right, my beautiful princess, it's time for bed."

Billie pouted. "Please could we watch a film? Please?" she begged.

Aida thought about it. "Hmm, I don't know. Jack, what do you think?"

Billie turned her big pleading eyes on me. I sighed dramatically. "I think that it is impossible to say no to those eyes. I'm up for a film."

"Well, looks like we're watching a film together," Aida said happily. She dimmed the lights while Billie helped me pick out a film. There were several heavy throws on the sofas. Aida picked one up and pulled it over the three of us. I expected Billie to sit beside Aida, but she climbed between us and snuggled herself excitedly beneath the blanket.

I looked across at Aida and raised an eyebrow.

"Well," she said with a wobble in her voice. "I think this will be a lovely film." She coughed and turned away, confusing me a great deal.

Billie fell asleep about ten minutes into the film. Aida turned the volume down to background noise and stroked Billie's hair in the loving way a mother does to her child.

"You act differently around her now," I whispered.

"No, I act differently around

you

now," Aida said gently, the light from the TV flickering against her face. She carefully stroked a stray lock of curly blonde hair from Billie's face. "She's so comfortable with you... don't hurt her, Jack. She loves you."

"I won't," I promised. Never before had I been so certain of any promise. I would die before anything happened to that little angel. "Shall we put her to bed?"

"Can we stay here for a while? Like this?" Aida asked. She took my arm and pulled it over her shoulder so that the three of us were cuddled together. "I've never had this before."

"Had what?"

"A family."

*

Things only got better over the following weeks. Aida, Billie, and I slipped into a small, deliriously happy family. Times with them were like treasured little diamonds that sparkled in my mind. Chuck was part of it as well. He joined us on walks through the leafy forest and ate with us in the evenings.

We were finishing a delicious lasagne one evening, when he said, "Aida, I should let you know that Heath has been calling and emailing me. He's wondering why you haven't returned any of his messages or calls?"

I knocked my fork off the table and it clattered on the floor. Cringing, I picked it up, much to Billie's amusement. "You're silly, Mister Jack!"

Across the table, Aida blushed and said, "I-uh-I have no interest in speaking to him anymore."

Chuck smiled knowingly. "Oh? Maybe you should let him know. Then he might stop clogging my inbox."

Aida dropped her eyes. "Yeah, I will."

The following day we had the first argument of our... whatever it was. I was raking leaves from the back of the garden when Aida came strolling down, her face bright and hair bouncing. She was wearing jeans and a thick red jacket.

"Stop what you're doing," she said happily. "We're going to the zoo today!"

I held up my rake and pointed to the leaves. "Sorry, I've got leaves to rake, but I'll see you both tonight so you can tell me all about it."

Aida frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I'm working, I can't just take off."

She laughed and shook her head. "Yes, you can! You don't have to do that today, and you're going to be with me! Aren't you forgetting whose property this is?"

I started to get annoyed. "Yeah, your father's. He's employed me to do a job and I can't go prancing off whenever I feel like it. If you want to go to the zoo with me, we can do it on the weekend when I don't have to work."

Aida crossed her arms. "Don't be stubborn, Jack. You know Dad won't say anything. You're taking his daughter and granddaughter to the zoo, for goodness sake!"

"I'm not being stubborn. I made a commitment to your father and I intend to honour it. If you had told me last week, I might have been able to arrange time off to go. I appreciate the invite, but you can't come to me and demand I drop what I'm doing and expect me to go to the zoo with you."

I could see the anger building in Aida. "You are literally just raking leaves! They'll be here when you get back if they're so important to you!"

"It's not about the leaves, it's about my word and the job."

Her voice rose. "Fuck! It's only groundskeeping! I can't believe you're picking that over me and Billie."

"I'm not picking anything over you," I snapped. "If you took your head out of your ass, you might realise that I'm keeping my word to the most important man in your life! We can go to the zoo on the weekend."

"Fine!" Aida snarled, stomping her foot for emphasis. The she bitch had made a return. I briefly wondered if it had anything to do with the full moon that was due that night. "If you won't take me, I'll phone Heath. I'm sure he'd taken time off work to come with us."

Her words stung more than I was proud to admit. "Fine, make sure he gets a photo of you with the wolves. It'll be nice to see a pack of she bitches together."

Aida growled and stormed back into the house. I took my frustration out on the leaves. Things had been going so well.

Chuck appeared at lunchtime. One look at him and I knew what he was coming to talk about. I sighed and said, "I suppose you've spoken to Aida."

He chuckled and nodded to a nearby bench. "Will you sit with an old man for a while?"

We took a seat and he said, "You and Aida have grown quite close." It was a statement, not a question, yet I felt obliged to explain.

"Yes, sir. I won't deny we've grown close despite our... rough start, but we've maintained a respectful boundary. I don't want to disrespect you or risk my new life here. Aida wanted to go to the zoo today but I refused, what you probably saw or heard was the aftermath."

Chuck laughed. "Aftermath, yes. It'll be some time before she settles down from that particular outburst." He took a deep breath. "As for your relationship, you are the best thing to happen to her since Billie was born. I'd be lying if I didn't say that I'd hoped that you'd develop a friendship. From the moment she came raging back to me about the homeless man who called her a she bitch, I knew the potential - particularly when I heard Billie's glowing account of you. Please don't give up on her, she's got a good heart but a misguided mind."

I rubbed my chin as I thought about what he'd said. "Can I speak openly, sir?"

Chuck dipped his head. "Of course."

"I like Aida. There's something between us more than friendship, I think. But I don't think I'm going to carry on down that road."

Chuck's smile disappeared. He wasn't angry, he looked almost frightened. "Why?"

"Because it's a dangerous road. Let's be honest here, if things went badly between us, Aida would be fine. She'd carry on with life and probably meet another Heath at some point. Me? I'd lose my job, I'd lose Billie, I'd lose the small life I'd built for myself here, and I'd lose her. My dream would go up in smoke and I'd not only be homeless again, but I'd have experienced happiness only to have it torn away from me. It's too great a risk for me to take."

Chuck's eyebrows lowered and he seemed to be doing some quick thinking.

I continued. "Take today, for example. Aida didn't get her way about one thing and she threatened to ring Heath. I don't know whether she did, but her temper's too volatile to risk everything on. I'm sorry, sir. I get the feeling you wanted things to work out between us."

Chuck sighed and said wearily, "Come with me. I haven't been completely honest with you."

We left the bench and he took me through the forest to the cabin. I thought he was going to go inside but he continued past to the jetty, where the lonely boat was moored. "I still get this old girl serviced in case I ever decide to take her out again," he said, affectionately patting the smooth white hull.

I wondered what he hadn't been completely honest about, but let him talk himself to the point. "Aida told me about its past. You and your wife used to take her out on the lake?"

He smiled. "Yes, since she was a little girl. I'd love to take Billie out but I don't think my poor old heart could take it... too many memories of Yvonne." He let his eyes roam over the boat before turning to me. "I'm an old man, Jack," he said tiredly. "The moment Yvonne left this world, I became an old man. She took my heart with her and the weight of my years grows heavier every day. Until she left, I'd never given a thought to the future, it felt like we'd live forever. But her death opened my eyes to my own mortality. It may be tomorrow, it may be in twenty years, but eventually, I will pass, as will we all."

He drew himself up to his full height and looked me in the eyes with a piercing gaze. "I am not afraid of death, nor what will or will not come after. There is only one thing that steals sleep from my lonely nights... the thought of leaving Aida and Billie in this world unprotected."

"Sir, with the money they're going to inherit, I'm sure they'll be fine?"

He shook his head. "You of all people should know I'm not talking about money. I'm talking about being protected from snakes like Heath. I'm talking about the type of protection that comes from a good heart. The type of protection that comes from love."

Pieces of our conversations over the months started to slot together. Chuck waited patiently as the realisation slowly dawned on me. "Y-you brought me here to fall in love with Aida?"

Chuck laughed and shook his head, breaking the tension. "No one can plan or force love on anyone. I brought you here to give you the opportunity of a better future and also with the hope that you would teach Aida a few lessons about life that I never could."

"That... seems awfully risky. So much could have gone wrong, you didn't even know who I was."

"I disagree," Chuck said. "If there's one thing I'm good at, it's reading people and seeing the truth behind their words. I've met great people and I've met terrible people. You, Jack, are among the best of them. I saw it the moment I met you and every conversation since has only confirmed it. You and Aida... that was an old man's desperate hope. Things couldn't have worked out better."

"So, why tell me now?"

"Because I want you to know that no matter what happens with Aida, you will never be homeless again. Have you checked your bank account since you started working here?"

"No, I haven't felt the need to, why?"

"I've put a significant sum of money in there. Enough that, should things come to a premature end here, you will be able to buy a house and live comfortably, as long as you are careful, which I know you are."

My mind reeled in shock. "Chuck, that's far too much, you can't do that!"

"One of the few times that you're wrong, Jack. I can and have done precisely that. I know that money has no value to you, it's one of your many great qualities. But what you've done for Aida and Billie cannot be measured or paid for, so I wish to give you something you've never had: a secure future. It does not matter if you leave tomorrow or in fifty years, you never have to worry about being homeless again."

I couldn't believe it, that he could be so generous and do so much for me, a complete stranger until a matter of months ago. "I-I don't know what to say, sir. Thank you doesn't seem to cover what you've done for me."

Chuck placed his hand on my shoulder. "No, my dear boy. Thank

you

. That money comes without strings, by the way. You are your own man. If you choose to make things up and see where things lead with Aida, you have my blessing. If you don't, I will understand. Although, we both know which of the two I hope will happen."

*

I didn't go to the manor that evening to give myself some time to process the day. I phoned Chuck to let him know and he told me he understood. Despite his ulterior motive for bringing me to the estate, I couldn't be angry at him. He'd handed me a future on a silver platter and asked nothing in return, only the hope that I could do some good for his daughter and granddaughter. If anything, it showed the lengths he would go in order to improve Aida and Billie's lives.

To me, the idea of simply gifting a person I'd only known several months so much money was incomprehensible. But, Chuck had made clear his changed opinions on the value of money and life. I guessed that in his old age, money didn't matter as much as other qualities. In fact, that is what he had preached to Aida for a long time.

I took one of the thick throws from the sofa and went onto my front porch. The night air was cool and the full moon turned the lake silver. I wrapped it around my body and sank onto one of the wicker chairs.

The crunch of leaves announced her arrival. Aida appeared in jogging bottoms and a hoody, much too cold for an autumn evening. "Room for a little one under there?" she asked meekly. I lifted the throw and she climbed under, snuggling into my side. "I'm sorry about this morning." She sounded small and worried.

I placed my arm around her and pulled her closer. I kissed the top of her head, enjoying her smell. "I'm sorry too. I was too short with you, I shouldn't have snapped. I really wanted to go, honestly, but I couldn't let your father down."

Aida lifted her head to look at me. Her face was inches from mine. The allure of her sensuous lips and wide eyes was overpowering. She smiled. "I understand. I shouldn't have been a she bitch about it... I was lying about Heath. I only said it to make you angry and I shouldn't have. I'm sorry."

I smirked. "You didn't fancy a day at the zoo with him?"

She snorted. "Only if I got to push him in the lion enclosure. I-uh-I booked us tickets for Saturday, if you'd like to go with us?" She held her breath hopefully and looked up at me.

She was so perfect. Her skin was touched silver, hair spun gold. Even in the twilight, her emerald eyes sparkled. I stroked the side of her cheek and her breathing caught. Her lips parted.

I leaned down and kissed her. Her soft lips brushed against mine and her tongue darted into my mouth. I licked gently along her lips and then our tongues danced, connecting us. I felt her hand stroke the back of my head tenderly, lovingly. My hands moved of their own accord, looping around her body and pulling her onto my lap so she was straddling me.

Her breathing quickened as we kissed deeply. We broke apart and her eyes were aflame with lust. She reached for the zip of her hoody and slowly pulled it down, revealing she wasn't wearing anything underneath.

I raised an eyebrow and she said shyly, "When you didn't come to dinner, I was really worried. I came down here as soon as Billie was in bed and I sort of forgot to dress." She pulled the zip the rest of the way and her magnificent breasts came free, bouncing slightly as she removed her top.

I was rendered speechless. Her nipples hardened in the night air, inches from my face. They were round and full, standing proudly on her chest with little sag. She gasped as I lifted her heavy breasts with my hands and alternated sucking each nipple, taking them into my mouth before circling them with my tongue.

"Ohhhh," Aida said breathlessly. My cock was rigid, pulsing with lust. Aida ground herself against it while I sucked her nipples, taking encouragement from her moans.

Her nipple left my mouth with a 'pop' and we were kissing again, our bodies pressing against each other. She tried to pull my top up and my whole body tensed up. "I-uh-can I leave it on?" I asked.

Aida frowned. "Why? You've got nothing to be ashamed of... please trust me."

My heart was hammering against my ribs. She looked like an angel in the silver moonlight, a picture of perfection. I listened to my heart and leaned forward, allowing her to tug my t-shirt over my head. I'd bulked up significantly because of the long days of manual work and good eating, but my build wasn't what I was scared about.