Katie stared off into the distance as she sat on her front porch swing waiting for her son to arrive. Her faithful dog Parker lay silently beside her, never far from her side. His devotion to Katie was undeniable, since the day she rescued him from the shelter it had been love at first sight between the both of them. Parkers ears perked up when he heard the familiar sound of her sons truck coming down the road. He knew that they were going for a ride and he couldn't hide his excitement.
Her daughter-in-law Sally and her two sisters were throwing a huge surprise party for their father who had retired after working thirty five years for the city road commission, Katie was helping with the food preparations. Katie had spent all day making up forty pounds of meatballs that were now bagged and in the freezer. Her homemade sweet and tangy barbecue sauce was sitting in the fridge in two large five quart buckets along with all the various cut up vegetables she would need to make the Italian Rotini salad, and the seven layer salad she was making for the party as well.
Her son helped her load the car with all the food that they would transfer to the rented halls refrigerators for the party that night. She had also made up five quarts of cocktail sauce for the cold shrimp they were serving. The girls had already prepared the shrimp and all that was left to do was to plate it all for the party. Katie had made three of her pineapple wedding cakes , at her son's request for the party the day before at the hall while they had been cleaning and decorating for the party. That cake was the one both of her son's always requested on their birthdays and had become a family favorite in Sally's family as well.
Some of Sally's friends were meeting at the hall this afternoon to put the finishing touches on all the decorations. The men were going to hang all the lights while the women finished preparing the food and setting up the tables.
As soon as they arrived Katie went about making sure that the girls had all the food ready to be set up. Katie placed the meatballs in the roasters and covered them with the homemade sauce and put the heat on low. They set out the two punch bowls on each end of the drinks table. Sally had found two molds that fit perfect with her fathers retirement. One was of a large road plow, the other of a pickup truck. They had taken some of each of the flavored punches the day before and froze them for the party, that way they would keep the punch cold without watering them down with regular ice.
"Mom, I would like you to meet a very old and good friend of our family," her daughter-in-law was saying.
Katie turned around to meet the friend and was taken back by his startling eyes and good looks. He was tall, a little over six foot Katie guessed, his hair was coal black with little specks of gray appearing here and there. It was his eyes that held her attention, slate gray, they made you feel like they were staring deep into your soul. Katie felt a little shiver run down her spine. Those eyes of his could probably put fear into most men if he was angered, but she could see that they could also make a woman melt if directed at her, especially if in passion.
Katie put out her hand as Sally introduced them. " Mom this is Dean Summers."
When he reached for her hand to shake it, Katie got a little electric shock as he touched her hand. She laughed as she jerked her hand back from his, " to much static electricity from the carpet I'm afraid."
"I've heard so much about you from Sally that it's nice to finally get to meet you," he said. "Can't wait to eat a piece of that cake that she has been going on about as well," his eyes twinkled with laughter as he looked at her.
Katie had heard Sally and her folks talk about Dean Summers before, she had assumed that he was about the age of Sally's father. Well, he sure did hide his age well was what she was thinking. He looked like he might be in his late forties or early fifties, not in his late seventies. She also knew that he was a widower, his wife having died three years ago if Katie remembered correctly. Sally had told her when they were leaving for the funeral that day that she had died one week after their fiftieth wedding anniversary.
"Well it is a darn good tasting cake if I don't say so myself," she told him with laughter in her voice.
"Hey Dean, could you give us a hand," she heard her son hollering from the main room.
" Well, guess it's back to work for me," he said as he was leaving the kitchen.
Katie put her coat on so she could take Parker outside to do his business, she was surprised at how much snow had fallen in the two hours time she had been inside. She hoped that all this snow wouldn't put a damper on the party, the girls had worked so hard at arranging it and keeping it secret from their father. When she went back inside Dean was standing by the door and offered to help her off with her coat.
"You sure look like a little snowman coming in from the cold," he told her smiling at her, while shaking the snow from her coat.
"I just hate winter, always have, even as a little girl you would have to force me to got outside. We lived on a lake until I was twelve years old and my father used to drag me out with him to go ice fishing until my brother was born and old enough to go with him. I didn't mind going out when the weather was nice and even enjoyed ice skating on nice days. If we could just skip winter all together it wouldn't hurt my feelings at all," she told him with dead seriousness.
Katie thanked him then went back to the kitchen to help the girls finish setting up. She had her clothes hanging in one of the closets just off the kitchen, that she was going to change into before the party. She would change as soon as they finished setting up the food and then she could relax.
She'd had Sally buy four of those plastic under the bed storage boxes that they were now filling with ice on the food table. She nestled the salads in one of the center boxes, then placed two shrimp platters in both end boxes along with the various meats for the sandwiches. In the other center box she placed the vegetable platters and dips. Serving dishes, napkins and cutlery were placed on both ends of the serving table. The punches, one lemonade and one a cherry ginger ale were sitting on the drinks table along with the coffee and tea. The ice molds of the snow plow and pickup were floating nicely in the punch bowls.
They had put candles on all of the tables and with all the strings of lights the guys had put up there would be no need to have the halls lights on. Her son and a friend of his had set up a cd player that was already playing the country music Sally's father loved so much.
The girls had already changed their clothes and some of the guests had begun to arrive. Sally's mother had told her husband that they were going to a surprise party for her sister, who's birthday was a week away. The guests had been asked to arrive by six thirty and Sally's mom would have her father there by seven.
Katie made sure everything was set before she went to change her clothes. She had decided to wear one of her more dressier slack outfits for the party. The pants were black and made of a silk like material as was the long jacket that went with them. The blouse was red and long, the neckline of the blouse was scalloped lace that dipped low enough to just show the arch of her more then ample breasts. The whole outfit had a slimming effect which Katie liked due to fact that she had always been a large woman.
The fat jokes had hurt her deeply when she was a small child, then as she got older she ignored them and those who made those remarks. She choose her friends by those who didn't look at her size but by those who liked and saw the real person she was, both inside and out. Her ex husband had been one of those men who enjoyed the more fuller figured woman. She never saw the divorce coming, she had no idea that anything was wrong with their marriage until he asked her for a divorce.
To say she had been shocked was an understatement. She remembered asking him why when he told her he was leaving and wanted a divorce. He didn't even try to lie about it when he told her he had met someone else who he wanted to be with. Katie asked herself over and over the first few weeks after he had moved out where he had found the time to meet someone else when he was always at work then came straight home every night. Except during the warmer months when he golfed with his buddies four or five times a week after work. She had later found out that it was on the golf course where he had met the woman he was now married to.
She understood why he left after her son told her about his fathers new wife shortly after they had gotten married. She was a widow who's husband had left her a nice insurance policy after his death. Her husband had always been selfish when it came to money and things he wanted. It was the only thing they ever had cross words about during their twenty years of marriage. According to her son whatever dad wanted she made sure he got.
They had been divorced for almost then years before she ran into him by accident one day while having coffee with her girlfriend at a small café. He was with his wife and her friend made the comment that she was positive he had married her for money because, as she said, " she is dog fucking ugly!" Katie had to agree that the woman was hardly what you could even remotely call attractive but she no longer cared, she had gotten over her failed marriage many years ago and didn't look back on it.
Katie took one last look at her reflection in the mirror and decided she looked as good as she ever was going to and left to join the party.
Five minutes later Sally's father and mother arrived to shouts of "Happy Retirement" from all his family and friends. The hall was full of people, the girls had invited around a hundred people and it looked like they were all there. Sally invited everyone to help themselves to the food and drinks as the party got underway.
Katie was putting out more salads when Sally's father stopped to introduce her to his long time friend Dean Summers. She was going to tell him she had already met Dean when she turned around and saw a much older man standing at his side with his hand out to shake.
" I hear you have already met Dean Jr. so I wanted you to meet the Sr. of the family as well," he told her.
So that was the son she said to herself as she shook his hand. Now she understood how come he looked so young. "'It's a pleasure to meet you, I've heard all about you from Tom and his wife."
"Well I hope they were good things and not those should be forgotten things we might have done or been a party to in our youth," he told her with a wink and a smile.
"Well I have been told some stories of your misspent youth and knowing Tom as I do I must say that I believed him totally," she told him winking back at him.
"Hey you two, mind if I borrow Katie for a minute? I feel like dancing," he asked as he gently took her arm in his, leading her to the makeshift dance floor they had set up earlier that day.
Katie tried to tell him that she didn't dance, as he pulled her into his arms.
"Nonsense. I don't believe that for a moment. I saw you moving to the music earlier while you were playing with the food tables. Your body language says that you enjoy music and moving to it," he said as he pulled her closer into his arms.
It had been years since Katie had felt a mans arms around her for any reason and she involuntarily shivered.
"Are you cold Katie? I can feel you shaking," he whispered in her ear.
