Be warned, the sex is much slower to build than in my previous stories, but as always, it should be well worth it when you get there. The early stages are a good opportunity to understand the four characters and there is substantial dialogue to set the scene before the full-on activity.
*
It would be the start of a new year in just a few hours, but Darren Carter felt like he needed more than a New Years Eve party to rid himself of the year just gone. In fact, it was more than just one year. There had been several years of hell that his once loving wife had put him through. Four years ago, the affairs started, Julie had taken up with one of the guys in the office where she worked. That lasted about a year, then she moved on to one of her clients. Basically, she was shameless, even flaunting her brazen infidelity to Darren at every opportunity.
He endured it for as long as he could, hoping that she would return to being the sweet, loveable woman that he had married when they were both so young, just 20-year-old childhood sweethearts. But when her second affair ended and she took up with yet another guy, Darren decided enough was enough and kicked her cheating arse out of the house, filing for divorce.
Their 21-year-old son, Josh stayed with Darren, but their 18-year-old daughter elected to go with her mum, splitting the siblings in parental loyalty.
Darren involved himself in his work in an attempt to recover from the hurt he had suffered from his wife's affairs, and as a pastime, he took up golf to give him something new to fill in the weekend hours. He was only 42 and he missed being in a warm, loving relationship, but the manner in which he had been burned put Darren off any consideration of taking up with another woman.
That is until ... the house next door was sold and Darren and Josh got new neighbours. Darren arrived home one afternoon to find a furniture removals van partially blocking his driveway. Initially, he was mildly annoyed, but he parked his car across the road and walked around the van heading for his own front door.
But he paused when he looked across toward the house next door and saw his son, Josh over in their front yard, talking to what Darren assumed must be his new neighbours. He diverted to say hello and as he got closer, he saw that his son was in the company of two women. At first glance, they both looked very appealing to Darren, good figures, very attractive, both dressed neatly in slacks. As he got closer and studied their faces just before introductions, Darren was struck by how similar they looked.
Were they sisters, or were they mother and daughter? If they were the latter, it was almost difficult to tell which was which. Did the daughter look older than her years or had the mother retained her youthful beauty longer than most?
His son turned around on seeing his father. "Hey dad, come and meet our new neighbours, they're just moving in ... err, as you can see obviously. Dad, this is Karen and Samantha." Josh wasn't specific, throwing both names at his dad and Darren looked at the two attractive women with a confused look.
Up close, Darren could see an age difference, but it didn't appear to be twenty years. The woman, who appeared to be slightly older, helped him out, although Darren really had to look twice and much more closely to work out that she indeed was the mother. She gave an infectious giggle, addressing him the way his son had, "Hi dad, I'm Karen," and she extended her hand for Darren to shake.
Realising that Josh had not given the women a name for his dad, Darren completed the introductions, "Hi Karen, pleased to meet you, and welcome to the neighbourhood ... oh, err, I'm Darren."
Darren shook Karen's hand quite vigorously and then let it go as a second hand shot forward, it was the daughter, "Hi Darren, I'm Samantha, but everybody calls me Sam." Her eyes glistened and sparkled and Darren was taken by how beautiful both women were. He shook the second hand as Sam added, "Darren and Karen, it rhymes, sounds like it should go together."
Darren unconsciously shrunk back a little, surprised by the suggestion. He was still hurting from the pain inflicted by his wife's philandering and the messy, name-calling divorce proceedings. As attractive as these two women were, he shied away from any suggestion that he should consider any involvement with another woman just yet.
Young Samantha was very observant and she saw the reaction her flippant comment had produced. "I am so sorry, Darren, I didn't mean anything by what I said."
"That's okay," Darren replied, surprised that this young woman could be so intuitive as to notice his negativity towards a silly throwaway line about Darren and Karen going together. "I'm just too sensitive these days," he added.
The mother seemed perplexed and she turned to her daughter for an answer, "I missed all that, Sam, what did you say?"
"Nothing mum, I just said something stupid."
Now Darren felt awful, fearing he had offended the beautiful young woman, "No, don't say that, it was me honey, I have just become a bit over sensitive. Please don't take offence."
"None taken," Samantha responded cheerily, oozing an extreme self confidence and giving Darren a warm smile, "Josh was telling us that you had been through a painful time."
Darren turned to look at his son, miffed that Josh would be revealing all their family stuff to the new neighbours on first meeting.
Josh picked up on the look, "Sorry dad."
"I missed most of that, must be weary from the big move," said Karen, still a bit bewildered that something deep and meaningful had been going on between the other three. "Listen, nice as this is to stand out here and chat, we better get back inside and take control or these moving men will end up putting the beds in the kitchen." She turned to Darren once more, "Guess we will be seeing a bit of you guys from now on, being so close and all, nice to meet you both."
Karen turned and Samantha gushed excitedly, "Yeah, look forward to seeing more of you two." Darren thought that she gave Josh more than a cursory glance as she said that ... or was that what he hoped he saw. He was eager for his son to develop some kind of relationship with a young woman. Josh had not yet had anything beyond a few dates with girls his age.
"Nice girl, Josh," said Darren to his son as they walked back across the front lawn to their own house, "Smart too," he added.
"Yeah," concurred Josh, "I wasn't sure who was the mum and who was the daughter when I first saw them."
"Hey, me too, Josh. I was looking to you to give me a clue, but I got nothing from you. How long had you been out there talking to them?"
"Oh, I don't know, maybe twenty minutes." Josh thought he saw where his dad was heading with this. "Listen, sorry dad, I didn't mean to tell them about mum and all, it just sort of came out. After our initial discussion about the weather and how hard it was to move, I guess I needed something to say so I went on and told them why there was no woman in our house."
Darren put his arm around his son's shoulders as they reached the front porch, "That's okay, they would have found out sometime or other. So son, any man in their life?"
"No dad, no there's not. Karen lost her husband to cancer just six months ago, that's why they moved, too many memories in their old house." Josh looked into his dad's eyes, "Don't tell me you're interested, dad?"
"I don't expect I will be, I've told myself over and over not to get involved with any woman again. But I have to say they did look good, both of them, Josh ... and man, they smelt nice too. Their perfume must have endured the sweat of moving day."
"I don't think there was too much sweat on their part, dad, I think they left all the heavy stuff to the removalists.
Darren cooked a large meal for dinner, that is, large in quantity. He covered two extra serves in foil and when he and Josh had finished eating, he suggested his son take the two serves over to the new neighbours, having seen through the kitchen window that the removals truck had just left.
Josh seemed eager to do that and urged his dad to come too, but Darren said he needed to clean up the dishes, adding "I am really not ready for female company yet, Josh. You go ahead and wow that young girl."
His son said he understood and away he went quite happily to deliver the two meals. Darren cleaned up the dishes, poured himself a scotch and sat down to watch some TV. He found that he wasn't really concentrating on whatever was on, so he didn't find it a disturbance when the doorbell rang.
He opened the door to find the mother Karen standing there holding two empty plates. "I just wanted to thank you so much for such a wonderful meal, we did so appreciate it. We couldn't have possibly cooked tonight. Sam and I were just talking about going out for pizzas and, out of the blue, there was the welcome wagon, Josh standing there with our dinner. You are a very good cook, Darren."
He took the plates from her hand, "Oh, I don't know about that, Karen, I'm pretty basic, just do enough to keep Josh and I fed."
Karen stood there on the doorstep, unwilling to go away, but too polite to just barge on in. "Don't you share it, doesn't Josh cook too?"
"No, he doesn't much. I know he's 21 and old enough to fend for himself, but after the way my wife treated us in the past few years, I feel responsible for him still." Darren at last noticed that Karen was looking like she expected to be invited in, "Oh sorry, where's my manners, come in Karen."
Darren didn't really feel like female company, he had become content in his own quiet solitude, sitting with a scotch or two most nights and contemplating over and over again what had gone wrong with his marriage. He was beginning to suspect that he would never come up with the answer.
Karen eagerly accepted his belated invitation and stepped inside, following him while he dumped the two plates in the kitchen and then adjourned to his favourite chair and his glass of scotch. "Can I get you a drink, Karen?"
"A vodka would be good, if you've got it."
"Yes, I think I can rustle up some vodka, Josh occasionally drinks some." He gave her the drink and she sat down in the 3-seater opposite his single chair.
"You probably think I was a bit duh outside earlier tonight. Sam explained to me how you reacted when she tossed in that line about the two names going together. Don't think we're a pair of man-eaters, nothing could be further from the truth. I am still struggling to deal with my husband's death and Sam just hasn't been into boys, she's only been on a handful of dates. I guess she will find someone nice in time, but she doesn't seem to be in a hurry. That's why I came over here, I hope you don't mind. Thought I'd leave the two kids on their own to get to know each other."
"That's all okay, Karen, it's just that I'm hurting too ... obviously in a different way to you. It must be terrible losing someone you loved so much and who loved you back in that way ... and you can never see them again. For me, I lost someone I loved, but she had moved on from that love. I am in a position where I at least could still see her if I wanted to ... but if I did, it would only be to tell her what a fucking bitch she is."
