Chapter 1
I smiled as I set down the last box in my new house. My mom and dad had ridden down to Florida with me for my move, and helped me unpack. They'd be helping me get set up, and be flying home tomorrow morning.
"It's gonna be hard, having you so far away." My mom lamented, looking around my new home.
I chuckled, "Mom, I'm not a child. I'm twenty-five. I'm an adult. I can take care of myself."
"Well, son, just don't let these crazy Floridians push you around." My father insisted. "You gotta show them you have a spine. They'll try and break you down, but once you show them you aren't one to be pushed around, they'll have to respect you."
I rolled my eyes, "Dad, I'm not here to start any fights, I know you and mom broke up the HOA back home, but this place isn't even in one."
My dad nodded, "Just watch out they'll try to get ya."
As if on queue, there was a knock on the door. Opening it, there was a lady, early thirties, in a sundress with a wide-brimmed shade hat on and wearing strappy high heels. The hair showing under her umbrella of a hat was that crazy bleach blonde that young mothers seemed to love. Her razor thin lips had way too dark lipstick coating them as she tried to smile. I'd say she had C-cup breasts and just a little more ass than I liked, but I liked my girls on the skinny side. She had a clipboard in her hands.
"Hello!" She greeted me with the darkest smile I'd ever seen. "You must be the new neighbor! Saw the U-haul and had to come say 'hi', I'm Sally I live down on the end of the block, one street over.."
"Hi, I'm Marshall. Moving in from Colorado. Nice to meet you." I politely replied.
"Wonderful! Well, I just need your signature right here, I'm the president of the Homeowner's Association and the previous owner never joined the HOA, no matter how hard we tried. I just know you don't want to be the problem house in the neighborhood." She laughed, extending the clipboard to me.
Now, a few of the comments the seller had slipped to us through their realtor made sense. Something about being so glad he never joined the crazy bitch association, and how he was fighting the crazies off with a baseball bat.
"Well, I hate to disappoint you, but I have no interest in joining a homeowner's association. It's actually one of the reasons I bought this house and just joining would be a significant hit to the value of my property in my opinion, and aren't HOAs supposed to support keeping property values up? So I'm sure you understand." I countered.
I could feel my dad's pride. He had HATED the HOA that had been set up when our neighborhood got built. It never did anything of value and seemed to exist to hand out fines for the most nit-picky of things. It had taken him two years once he finally had enough, but he'd rallied the neighborhood, done a hostile takeover and disbanded the HOA. As seemed to happen surprisingly frequently, they'd found the original treasurer and president had been embezzling, and almost landed them in jail, but by selling both of their homes to pay back what they'd stolen, they'd avoided jail time.
Sally's face couldn't hide her anger behind her smile, "I really must insist, we have a pool and a clubhouse, and it would be a shame for you to miss out on these wonderful neighborhood assets."
I laughed, "Well, I think I prefer the beaches to a local pool and my work has a gym and racquetball court in our new offices down here, so I really don't have need of either of those. It was nice meeting you. Goodbye."
And with that I closed the door in her face as she tried to object something about noise or something. I could hear her rage in frustration at having been shut down, and went to a side window to watch her stomp down the walk and round the concrete wall that circled my new property.
"Does your work really have a gym and a racquetball court?" My mom asked.
I laughed, "They have something. I mean, I'm work from home most of the year, so it doesn't really matter. There are just enough face-to-face meetings with clients that they were willing to pay to move me down here."
My mom shook her head, "You computer people and your tech. I'm gonna miss having my own personal tech support down the road."
I laughed, "Well, I have the guest room for when you visit. You saw the beds. Speaking of which, we should get those set up before dinner or we'll end up sleeping on the floor, and you two are too old for that."
"Marsh!" My mom gasped as my dad started laughing his ass off.
"Oh boy. I'm gonna miss you pushing your mother's buttons. Now the King goes in the guest room for us, right?" My dad laughed and winked at me.
"Nah, can't make it too comfortable. I want you to visit, not become squatters. Besides, how am I gonna give you grandkids without a bed to impress the ladies." I chortled.
"Well, I hope to get a wedding invite before an invitation to a baby shower." My mom huffed.
"That's the plan, mom." I told her, "But women don't wait until the wedding night to take the mattress for a joyride. If I tried to wait, you'd never get either invitation."
A little old fashioned, but I hoped to do just that. Find me a hot Florida beach babe, convince her to tie the knot and start making babies. Unlike many people my age, I loved kids. I'd bought a house big enough for plenty. It'd made the mortgage payments a bitch, especially because the seller knew a place like this without an HOA hanging over your head was worth twice its weight in gold.
Luckily for me, I'd made smart education and career choices and three years out from college I was well on my way past making 6 digits a year. The taxes were a bitch, but I could afford the place, and my car, which had been towed behind the U-haul, was paid off. I was feeling like one eligible bachelor.
My last girlfriend hasn't worked out because she had decided her career had been more important and she'd moved to New York for some hot job. She'd offered to bring me with her to the big apple, but I'd said New York was one of the last places in the USA I'd choose to live. My life plans were far safer and I offered to do a long distance relationship, while she tried to make it there, so if it didn't work out we could get back together. She'd told me exactly what I could do with my life plans, and made it clear that if I wasn't worshiping her career the way I worshiped her pussy when we made love, she was already over me.