Chapter 1
So, this is the story about the weekend I spent in the mountains with my wife's best friend and our kids that turned into a whole lot more.
How do these things happen? Just a crazy turn of fate, one random coincidence paired with another random coincidence, I suppose. For me, I wasn't expecting anything out of the ordinary that weekend. Our families had planned a Friday - Monday trip up to my wife's family's cabin in North Carolina.
The cabin is two bedroom, two bathroom in a small but cozy way. It sits next to a babbling brook and is close to some nice mountains and rivers; great for hiking and just getting away from work/life. The closest neighbors sit about a half mile away with a good bit of trees and hills between. There's about an hour and a half drive through some crazy mountains to get there, but its totally worth it. My wife's parents have stockpiled a pretty good amount of Disney VHS and DVDs and we also have brought the cabin into the twenty-first century with a Roku, so there were options if the kids were stuck inside and bored. Myself, my wife, and two kids have been going to this cabin for years and for this specific trip had invited her best friend, Diana and family to accompany us this time.
My wife had known Diana since college, where they played volleyball together and had kept their friendship going for the 15 or so years since. Diana was a very classy well dressed woman, and also very pretty. Personality wise, Diana was one of the sweetest women you would ever want to meet, we had even gone so far as to nickname her "Snow White" as she was genuinely just a super nice, sweet woman who also liked nice things and being taken care of.
Physically, I would compare her to a young Ann Wilson, the lead singer of Heart; that same slim figure, sexy mouth, and killer eyes. Diana was taller than my wife, at about 6'1, but both had long brown hair, similar skin tones, and the lean bodies of former college athletes. After two kids, Diana had put on some 'mom weight', but I found her actually more attractive as her breasts and butt had filled out.
However, if I'm being completely honest, beyond the physical stuff I also had another reason to be interested in Diana: way back when we were all in college and I had just met my wife and her group of college friends, Young Diana and I had gone home from a bar together one night. I know, I know, how could you hook up with your wife's friend and proceed to go on with a relationship, marriage, etc.?
From what I remember (this was over fifteen years ago at this point), I had driven a group of friends to a bar where we met up with someone's girlfriend and her friends. I wasn't drinking because I was designated driver, so I was mostly hanging back watching the other people. The group of girls; who included Diana, my wife, the friend's girlfriend, and one other girl, were all drinking and dancing. They were flirting with our group and we were flirting back.
I remember thinking Diana was very pretty but a little tall for me. She was wearing one of those low-cut sparkly shirts that were popular at the time and tight hip-hugger jeans that showcased her tight ass. She kept coming up to me to talk so I got several good looks at her.
Since I was sober, I was sort of quiet, which was why I think Diana had fixated on me. I remember a few times she asked me why I wasn't dancing and when that didn't get me going, she stole the baseball cap I was wearing (yes I was that guy) and ran off.
At the end of the night, I went to get my hat back and mentioned we would be hanging out at our apartment later if she wanted to come. Diana said sure and asked for a ride. We loaded up the car, me driving and Diana in the passenger seat, whoever else was with us in the back. (I think my wife left earlier in the night with the girlfriend's other friend). Before we got to the first stop light, Diana was kissing my neck and licking my ear.
'Perfect,' I thought, 'This girl is ready to fuck. Just hang out for awhile, drink a few beers and I'm gonna be getting this pussy.'
It mostly went down like that, back at the apartment we had put some music on and while everyone hung out I powered through a few beers to 'catch up' with the others. Before long Diana and I ended up in my bedroom under some pretense and started making out in my bed.
I remember she was a good kisser and let me touch her tits through her shirt. I didn't try to remove the shirt, with a young man's lack of patience I had moved for bigger prizes immediately and tried to slide my hand into her pants. She stopped me, so we continued kissing for awhile, then I went to unbutton her jeans. Now, this tactic had worked with other girls, if they said no at first, I would just keep making out with them until they were more turned on, then go for it again. Most of the time they would let me, but Young Diana wasn't having it. I remember just passing out as it was late, I was tired, and the situation didn't seem to be heading where I wanted it to go. That was it. Realistically, beyond a little bit of touching through clothes, all Diana and I did that night was kiss.
The next day when soberness prevailed she went home and that was that. Soon after that incident I started getting to know my wife and we got serious, and the thing with Diana was looked at as sort of a fluke. She was pretty boy-crazy when we were younger and neither of us had any real feelings toward the other, so beyond me being her "make-out-of-the-week" guy, that's about where it ended.
Now that we were all older with families of our own it never came up, but I still kept a small amount of attraction, like I think most men would, playing the "what if" game from time to time in the back of my mind. Besides friendly hugs and my giving a couple of looks at her when no one was watching, that was the extent of our contact.
---
This story is about the weekend and the events that happened in the mountains though. The plan was for Diana's family to drive up in a separate vehicle from Orlando and I would drive my kids up from Pensacola. My wife was on a work trip in Colorado, but would fly in Friday night and I would pick her up from the closest airport.
The morning of the trip, I did the proper Dad things and packed up myself and my two boys (both about ten at this time), gassed up the car, and got on the road. It was about a eight hour drive, so we left early in the morning. We were making very good time on our end, ETA about three pm local, when my wife called.
It seemed there was a hiccup in Diana's family's schedule. Evidentially a water pipe had burst at her mother in law's house and her husband had to go check it out. His mom had managed to slip in a huge puddle which was created and needed medical attention. As it was explained to me, Diana's husband (who I had hung out with on a few occasions, he's more of a Fantasy Football/golfing kind of guy and I'm more of a comic books and video games guy so I wouldn't really call us buddies) had been complaining about the trip prior to this incident, as he would be missing various football games that weekend. At first it seemed like they were experiencing the stressful bickering that most couples with young kids go through due to the stress of a road trip, but when he mentioned cancelling the trip, it escalated.
His view was he had to take care of his mother, her view was he was using it as an excuse to not go on the trip. I wasn't there but they had some strong words and in the end it was decided she would drive their girls up by herself so he could stay behind and see to his mother and her house. Once everything was squared away, he would drive up on his own.
At the time, none of this really registered as anything for me to be concerned about, my wife would be there so I figured I'd be mostly left to my own devices all weekend, which suited me just fine.
My kids and I made it to the cabin around 2:30 PM, which is when the next random occurrence happened: the keys to unlock the cabin weren't where they were supposed to be.
I called my wife's mother (the homeowner) and asked about the keys and was told she had forgotten to leave the extra key ring and was in fact, holding the key ring in her hand, all the way back in Pensacola.
Never to fear, she told me there was one window in the back they usually left open. It was high up so I'd have to use a ladder, but I should be able to let myself in. I left my kids by the front door and after emancipating a ladder from the shed in the back, I precariously shimmied the window open. I attempted to climb into the window very cautiously, but my hands slipped off the frame and I dropped face-first into the living room. Luckily, the worst thing that happened was me knocking the window frame askew as my feet followed my torso through, because the drop to the floor was about six feet. I barely missed the coffee table with my face. The fall knocked the wind out of me and I'm sure it looked pretty comical, but no one was there to see so I regained my wind and let my kids into the cabin.
After we had brought in all of the luggage the boys went off to check out the brook down the rock path in the back yard and I sat down with some ice on my shoulder on the porch.
As I was starting to relax, my phone rang again with the next random occurrence: It was my wife, her flight had been cancelled. All of the passengers had boarded the plane and waited for takeoff, eventually being asked to leave the plane due to mechanical issues. The airline was able to re-route most of the passengers but for one reason or another, my wife had lost her seat and the next options were either waiting to fly at eleven pm that night, or coming back and leaving around noon the next day. We spoke about it and as the late flight would also mean a trip to and from the airport through the steep mountains late at night, we decided it would be better all around for her to wait. She was going to head back to her hotel in Denver to get some work done. We ended our conversation and I went back to relaxing on the porch.