MOVE CLOSER
"Edwina!"
Stephen called out to her, waving as he did so, and as his car slowed to a stop on the gravelled driveway that snaked through the trees and up to the house.
The slender woman with her blonde hair cut short, was riding a small tractor-mower. He had never seen her dressed as she now was, in a red, captivating, sleeveless top and white shorts, her skin tanned and glistening from sunblock, the movement of the tractor over the rough grass making it clear that she was not wearing a bra. The sight of her, now, only sharpened his attraction and suppressed lust for Edwina; how she always made him think and feel whenever they were together.
"Let me do this last run then I'll be with you!" she called out, beaming a smile at him as she did so, and the mower cut a path through the grass until she reached a small stand of trees, where she turned before the machine was topped close to where he was parked. She wondered what reason he could have to be with her again after meeting him last night.
"Phew, this is warm work!" She had stopped and the engine soon cut out.
She was keeping herself busy with her house and garden, with her charity work, and dealing with the management issues of the estate that she was now responsible for, with Stephen's unflappable assistance as her Land Agent, when he was not occupied with his duties as a partner for a local firm. But none of that eased the gnawing sense of loneliness that she so often felt.
Now, she was nervous as she met his unflinching and admiring gaze upon her. She had not been seen so scantily dressed before him, but the heat of the late morning and what she had decided to wear for what were to be her tasks for the day or as much of it as was needed, not given a second's thought.
"I'm pleased you've called by, although we said all we had to say to each other last night, Stephen..."
"That's true, but it went so well, the whole evening, that I wanted to thank you again by being here...by calling in on you."
His voice trailed off as he saw her lean forward and reach for the ignition key. Edwina's halter-necked top, cropped just above the tumble of her tanned breasts with their dusting of freckles, had captured his attention. What a captivating sight he found her to be, and she seemed unaware of how deep his feelings, and attraction to her, had become. The boundaries between a client and him as her advisor had never been crossed.
Edwina sensed his confusion, and she was disconcerted to feel that too. His undoubtedly lustful gaze seemed to be devouring her for the first time that she could remember.
Her heart seemed to race as she saw that look upon her. What he had done and was doing in paying such overt attention to her, went beyond all that had gone before between them. Could she dare to believe that a man some thirty-four years old was taken by the sight of a woman in her early sixties, a widow, and who had been left to deal with her tangled emotions and her late husband's business interests?
"I'm almost through with the grass cutting," she said, again, somewhat flustered. "Go and park in front of the house and go through the gate in the yew hedge. "I'll meet you on the terrace and we can have a drink...and talk about whatever's on your mind."
"I'm sorry if I've caught you off guard..."
"It's too late now, Stephen. You're here and I'm more than happy to stop this tedious chore."
Feelings that she thought had long been buried over recent, difficult, and lonely years, had suddenly resurfaced. He was not a young man who was, seemingly, infatuated with her and attracted to the woman he had seen clothed in quite different ways from usual when they met in his office to talk estate matters. Seemingly, she was an attractive woman who lived alone in her home and was now the center of attention of an undoubtedly attractive younger man.
Along with that feeling, was the sense of how unconventional their meeting had suddenly become. Richard always rang to arrange a meeting, usually on her iPhone which she always carried with her, even now. But it had not trembled in her short's pocket and now here he was, showing up at her door, on a Saturday, and unannounced.
What could possibly be at work in him to provoke his sudden attendance upon her? She could not dismiss his opportunism, nor the feelings that he had aroused in her by doing so.
"I can't just turn him away after a few moments of small talk," she muttered as the engine burst into life.
The tractor lurched into motion, and she crossed the expanse of field grass that she had just mown. She was oblivious to the slap of the thin tree branches as she took the shortest route to the timber outbuildings where she stored the tractor and where redundant loose boxes were to be found. She had sold her horse, and Richard's, when he had gone.
"Thoughts of her have got their hooks into me," he muttered as the door of his car was closed and he did as Edwina had directed.
Stephen knew that he had acted on impulse, their bond the previous evening at a charity event that he had attended, no credible reason for showing up now, and when he saw her busy, riding a small tractor and trailing twin grass cutters behind it. The woman in her clingy, sleeveless sun top and white shorts, had beguiled him with their easy chatter and her attentive ways of listening to what he had to say and not interrupting him. He had listened to her, and they had fallen into easier ways that went beyond what had, hitherto, been a proper and professional relationship.
Now, his presence with a scantily clad woman would stretch the relationship still further, but her cheery ways as she walked across the terrace to be with him, suggested that she too was gradually coming to terms with all that his presence had aroused.
It was strange how closer connections could form so unexpectedly from what had been, or seemed to be, an only too-ordered life. There was a tension between them, an unspoken engagement that she sensed had to be brought to a conclusion. It was so sudden but did not seem wrongful to feel this way. She'd had enough, borne too many setbacks to want to continue living in what had become to feel that she was living in the same rut and had, until today, no end in sight.
"There's a connection between us, Edwina, how we think about the situation that we're in and that I can't ignore any longer." She had seen a look of curiosity and kindness that was more than the usual look of concern for her.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Last night, at that charity do...we talked, moved, and talked to others but we always came together to talk again. I wondered why that was and the reasons you came back to me. You didn't have to."
"No, I didn't have to do that." Her heart raced as she confessed to it and any thought of getting them a drink was quite forgotten. Her heart seemed to skip a few beats as she took in what he had said, a few words holding so much meaning. He had picked up on her wish to be with him, no overt sign given to those milling around them in the crowded venue, but he had noticed.
