Dan looked up at the big rental van as it pulled in at the house on the next street over. His back yard faced that home's back yard, there was a five foot tall board fence between the two lots.
He spent a lot of time out in his own overly large back yard, keeping the grass and decorative plants in close to perfect condition. The other home had been vacant for several months. The sweet old lady that had lived there had passed away, so things there were getting to be on the unkempt side.
He had helped the old woman with her yard for many years, but with no idea who now owned the place, he didn't feel right about just going though the back gate he had installed and taking care of things.
Dan was missing the cookies and milk she always came up with, and the breezy afternoons they had spent. The old woman had been a wealth of wisdom, he had always looked forward to those days.
He watched as a large woman about 40 or so got out of the driver's seat. A younger version of her got out the other side, they went around back and started unloading boxes. The younger woman was also on the heavy side, although it was hard to really tell much about her from the dumpy clothing she wore.
Her hair was a dirty blond color, cut square across her forehead like she had taken scissors to it. Her cheeks were pudgy, her eyebrows darker and on the bushy side.
"New neighbors, looks like." Dan thought, and went back to his Rose bushes. He had nearly finished the Roses when he looked up again. The large woman had one end of a huge couch hanging halfway out the rear of the van, the younger girl was inside trying to push.
Nothing was moving it looked like, and the woman on the ground was beginning to struggle.
Dan walked over and tripped the gate, stepped up and grabbed the end of the couch to steady it. Once he had the weight under control, he slid it out the rest of the way.
"Thank you, sir!" The woman said.
"I never would have made it."
"No problem, welcome to the neighborhood. Can I help with anything else?" He asked, eyeballing a rather monstrous hope chest and some rather big looking chairs.
"Oh, that would be wonderful, thank you!"
That pretty much shot the rest of his afternoon, it was another couple of hours before everything was safely inside.
The older woman introduced herself as Melanie, she told him her daughter's name was Kathleen. Dan introduced himself, noticing that Kathleen never said a single word, in fact, she never met his eye.
"I would ask you to let me fix you a nice dinner but we don't have anything here yet. Can we take you out for a bite?" Melanie asked.
It didn't take much encouragement to get Dan to go out for dinner, he lived alone and out of cans most of the time, and he hated going out to eat by himself.
The evening was one of those pleasant times, just people getting to know each other. Dan found himself talking about his late wife, and how with her gone he had taken early retirement. His pension from the years of teaching high school was enough, Social Security from an earlier job he had held was looming which would help. So he kept himself busy tending his yard, and taking his frequent trips down to the docks to try and catch a fish.
Melanie mentioned that she was divorced, and they had bought the house after selling the other home she had before. They were downsizing to try and stay ahead of things. Now she was hoping to get a job with the local school district herself. Dan was mildly surprised when she mentioned her field was physical education.
She caught his expression, and laughed.
"I might be on the big side but I am also pretty solid." She told him with a grin.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean...."
"That's OK. You haven't seen me naked!" She said, laughing.
Dan first blushed, but then he found that funny and he laughed too.
Just a nice evening, he found he enjoyed her company and chit chat. Kathleen barely said a single word, though. She seemed to be very shy.
When they got back to their homes, Dan asked Melanie in for a glass of wine, she accepted. Her daughter excused herself and went home.
The next day he was back out in his yard, using his new riding mower to trim the grass. Melanie came out, her hair was shiny clean and she looked scrubbed, he spotted the hint of makeup on her face. That seemed odd to him since it was barely 9 AM but he thought little of it.
She asked if she could borrow his mower, Dan responded that he would be glad to cut it for her, it gave him something to do.
She asked him to pop in for some coffee and rolls after he was done. He also noticed Kathleen looking out at him from upstairs, when she saw him glance up at her, she quickly moved away from the window.
"She sure is bashful." He thought to himself as he made short work of the yard. Then he went inside, Melanie served him some sweet coffee and homemade pastry like he hadn't had in a very long time.
Over the next few weeks, Dan found himself almost daily visiting with them. Kathleen finally warmed up a little bit, but she still seldom had anything to really add.
One afternoon a few weeks later they were sitting on the back porch talking and sipping some beers. Kathleen had gone to one of her night classes, Dan had learned from Melanie that she was studying baking with plans to open her own pastry shop one day.
That explained the wonderful different sweet rolls that seemed to be ever present around Melanie's kitchen. It was another delightful evening, the light breeze felt good, they were relaxing and talking about everything one could imagine.
"Danny, I was wondering...?" Melanie said, changing the subject.
He turned to look at her, she suddenly looked to be at a loss for words.
"I have been wanting to ask you...." She stopped again, blushed.
"You can ask me anything." Dan told her.
"It's been a long time, since my husband and I broke up? I don't know quite how to say it, so I guess I will come straight out...would you like to make love with me?"
Dan looked at her in complete surprise.
Melanie blushed furiously, that wasn't an easy thing for her to ask, and Dan was floored. He simply had not even thought of her that way.
"I mean...I don't get very many opportunities, because I am so big...heavy...so if you don't want to...I will understand." Her eyes went downcast, that had to be tough for her to say.
Dan had never in his entire life been asked straight out for sex by any woman, and he hadn't been with anyone since his wife had died. He had actually given up any thought that he ever would again, it already had been years. Now Melanie had asked, that was stimulating, and he felt the glimmerings of a response at the situation.
Of course he had earlier had to deal with everyone he knew introducing him to a long string of white haired ladies in various stages of oversize. But Dan had no interest, his own wife had been over a dozen years younger and women his own age didn't interest him. Most of them just looked to be little old ladies to him even though in most cases they actually were younger than he was.
His own wife had been on the chunky side, so Dan didn't mind that one bit, in fact, he liked that part. What he didn't care for was a female that made him aware of his own advancing age.
With his own hair rapidly receding and developing streaks of silver, the women that he did notice all thought of him as grandpa. The closest he had come to getting anywhere was one gal he had met at a party, she looked to be in her early forties and was interesting.
